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TUAW's Daily Mac App: InstaDesk
Have you ever wished you could get the Instagram experience on your desktop? Well, that's what the guys behind InstaDesk thought when they set out to use the recently released Instagram API. InstaDesk is a cool US$1.99 app from the Mac App Store that lets you view your feed, what's popular, or your own pictures. It also lets you view your followers and who you follow, and you can search for new users, all from within a familiar, Mac-like interface. The app sits in your menu bar, showing you the number of new photos available at a glance and opening up to the full size app you see above. You can view the images full size, view and post comments on your fellow Instagrammers' creations, and "Like" some choice ones directly from the app. You can download images to your Mac, share them via email, Facebook or Twitter, or open them in a browser. You can even create your own albums of photos and view them in a slideshow with some really great transition effects. About the only thing that InstaDesk doesn't do is allow you to post from your Mac to Instagram. Unfortunately, that's something that's simply not allowed by Instagram API, and therefore there's not much the folks behind InstaDesk can do about it. Does that make the app less useful? Perhaps. But if you're more a consumer of photos rather than a poster, InstaDesk provides a slick, simple, desktop way to view and appreciate the photos of others.
Postagram creates postcards from Instagram photos
We've been fans of Instagram for a while, so we were keen to see what would happen when its developers opened Instagram's API to others. While there have been a few toe-in-the-water experiments, the first really interesting idea we've seen is Postagram. The service allows you to turn any Instagram image into a 300 dpi postcard for just US$0.99, posted to anywhere in the world. It'll be delivered within 2-5 days in the USA and will take a bit longer to get elsewhere. Sounds like a bargain. Download the app now and give it a try if you already have Instagram installed. Postagram has a special launch offer that gives you your first postcard for free. Perfect for sending real postcards to your parents and anyone who isn't quite up there with you on the cutting edge of e-postcard delivery this summer.
Print real Instagram photos with Instaprint
Some of us here at TUAW are real fans of Instagram, which is a fun and easy to use free app that takes photos with your iPhone camera, then gives you the option to add various effects, frames, and filters to those photos before sending them out to your favorite social network. Others deride Instagram for being the "auto-tune of iPhone photography," but I've found it to be a fast and fun way to send out quick snapshots of daily life. Back in the dinosaur days of the 60's and 70's, Polaroid instant cameras were the way to get quick, easily viewable snapshots. Now advertising renegades Breakfast have come up with a way to mash Polaroid snapshots with Instagram -- Instaprint! That box you see up above is a modified Zink photo printer that prints Instagram photos that are marked with a specific hashtag. Breakfast will set up Instaprint at parties (they're busy during SXSW), meetings, you name it. During testing, any photo sent from Instagram to #Instaprint is being printed live on the air. An explanatory video is on the next page. [via MacStories]
Instaprint service is the Polaroid of the Instagram generation, no shaking required (video)
Sure Polaroid brought its headline product into 2011 by teaming up with Lady Gaga, but most of us are just fine with using our phones to quickly capture memorable moments. Well, Instaprint aims to recreate the photo craze of yesteryear by tying it in to Instagram -- the wildly popular (and currently iOS-only) app that lets you apply various filters to your photos for quick sharing among friends. The Instaprinter (our term, not the company's) is essentially a modified Zink photo printer with internet connectivity and tie-ins to the Instagram API, that automatically prints items tagged with any hashtag you choose. As of now, the company is planning to rent Instaprint boxes and demo the service at SXSWi, targeting it as a novel way to capture all angles of whatever event you may be hosting -- which to us seems like a fun idea. That is, until someone starts abusing the system and tags a photo of their derriere with #GrandmasBirthday. You can try it out now by tagging your shots with #Instaprint, and see it printed live in the stream embedded after the break.
Instagram photo sharing service reaches 2 million users
Picture-sharing service Instagram (driven only by the popularity of its free iOS app) has hit a whopping 2 million users already. As TechCrunch notes, the service hit its first million users in just three months, and six weeks after that, it has doubled that number. That's pretty astounding growth -- even other popular sharing services usually don't hit those milestones until a year or more after they start operation. But Instagram certainly seems like it's hitting at the right place and time -- it's a super simple sharing service that offers a lot of features that tie in very well with all of its users walking around with connected HD cameras in their pockets. Instagram doesn't even have an Android app yet (though presumably we'll see one very soon), and also noted by TechCrunch, you can't even sign up for the service on the website -- it's all driven through Apple's iOS platform. That hints at quite a future for Instagram and its service.
Camera+ coming back to the App Store
Do you remember Camera+? It was the amazing US$1.99 photography app from development house tap tap tap that ended up getting yanked from the App Store after the developers used the iPhone volume button as a camera shutter button. In a postscript to a blog entry today, tap tap tap let it slip that Camera+ is on the way back to the App Store. The teaser comment says that it's currently in review, and that this will be the "biggest update yet." Let's hope that they stay within the sometimes ridiculous guidelines for App Store approval, and that the app is as successful in its second incarnation as it was in the first. Camera+ might face an uphill battle for renewed market share, however. One of the cool features of the app was its ability to share apps to Twitter, Facebook and Flickr with one tap. Since Camera+ went missing, the relatively new and free Instagram app has become very popular, and it also features easy sharing and fun filters. However, Instagram doesn't have the zoom or exposure controls that made Camera+ so useful, and a recent update deleted a popular filter (Poprocket) that was enjoyed by many users. However, competition is good for those of us on the receiving end of the app wars, so it's good to see that Camera+ is going to be back soon. TUAW will let you know when the new version is available on the App Store and what those exciting new features might be.
TUAW's Daily App: Instagram
There is a plethora of various photo apps around, both for taking pictures and for sharing them on social networks. But Instagram is an excellent solution for both, and it's elegant enough to make you reconsider your current workflow. Personally, I've just been taking pictures with the standard camera app and uploading them with the official Twitter app. But Instagram adds the ability to make your photos artistic with a wide number of filters, add location and social network data to them in the app itself, then share them with any number of social networks, from simple stuff like Twitter and Facebook to more complicated connections like Flickr and even Tumblr. The app is completely free, too, and they're planning to keep it that way. There may be add-ons for filters in the future (or, I presume, some advertising on the actual Web pages created by the pictures), but how awesome that a great app and service like this appreciates the value of free. Like I said, you probably already have a workflow for taking and sharing pictures from your iPhone, but Instagram is good enough to make you give it a shot anyway. It's a free download and is available on the App Store right now.
