Most mobile photo-editing apps are the kind you'll use occasionally, like when you need to crop an image before uploading to Flickr. Instagram, however, gives you a reason to keep coming back - it doubles as a social networking hub.
Want to jazz up your pictures? With over a dozen Lomo-like filters on tap, it lets you fashion your image captures in a slew of creative ways, making regular smartphone photos look like fancy, artsy shots.
Instagram's strength, however, lies in its "life-sharing" feature. Think of it as a Twitter-like service, except all your updates are made up of photographs. They have their own social service where you can add contacts, post photo updates and browse through your friends' photo streams. Even better, they've tightly integrated other popular social networks, allowing you to share your pictures on Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, Tumblr and Foursquare. For the last one, it will even geotag your image, so that Foursquare can use it to add a place-name.
You will need to sign up for an account right from the app, of course. Once you get that done, though, you can immediately begin using all the features. Layout is very intuitive, so you should have no problem figuring out what to do.
Overall, Instagram is just the kind of service you expect to hit it big - fun, socially-connected and feature-packed. There aren’t likely a lot of folks in your contact list using it now, but expect that to change over the next few months. You can download it free from the App Store.
[Instagram]
The new Acer beTouch smart phone is a slim, sleek and slim-line device that is targeting those users looking for a shiny smartphone device that combines user-friendliness along with decent connectivity to mobile Internet and social networking. In fact, Acer's stated aim for the beTouch E400 is to 'open our users' world to the endless possibilities of real mobile Internet', and the device aims to please as it packs both Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity allowing for rapid wireless online access and web browsing for fast and easy updating of information and user status on a range of social networking sites.
As for its speed, it certainly helps that the operating system fueling the E400 is Google's latest OS the Android 2.1 Eclair. This is usefully coupled with the Qualcomm 7227 processor running at 600 mega hertz allowing for instant access to web pages with fast loading and also rapid access to media streaming as well as a wide range of web-based applications. The power of the device's processing gives it an excellent battery life as it enhances energy efficiency with its fast running and easy access to information.
The image conscious individual should be more than satisfied with the dimensions of the E400 as well with its slender girth of just 12 millimeters. There is also a full-size 3.2 inch HD HGVA resistive touch screen, displaying color brightly and vividly.
The integral camera isn't of the highest specs at 3.2 megapixels, but it is decent enough and does pack some useful additional features such as integral flash, a digital zoom, white balance and geotagging. This gives you the option of immediately tagging your images with information such as the exact location of where they were snapped, which is great when you link to your social sites and post your pics to keep your friends and family updated. The camera will also record video and you have the ability to instantly post your recordings onto YouTube thanks to the E400's pre-installed YouTube app by touching its icon.
The E400 is also well suited to the business user, coming pre-installed with Native Microsoft Exchange Server Support giving the user immediate navigation to work and business e-mails from any location. The device also comes with the excellent Documents to Go function, another excellent feature for mobile business customers as it allows the easy creating and editing of a range of different file formats including Excel, Word and PowerPoint. In addition, there is a built-in PDF Reader on the E400, making it simple to read any PDF file from wherever the user happens to be.
Other useful functions of the E400 include the GPS-enabled Google Maps, which will help you find your way around cities and/or towns and includes both Street View and Latitude. The excellent media player will play a full range of file formats and there is a built-in 3-millimeter audio input jack allowing you to plug in your choice of headphones. There is even the very useful Acer Synch feature, allowing the user to wirelessly synchronize with their desktop or notebook so they can easily maintain and keep files and contacts up to date, which is great for when you are ultra-busy and need to save time. The E400 goes on sale in April, though prices have yet to be announced.
If you're still not suffering from social networking overload and are looking for a few more to add your profile into, you might want to try BrightKite, a location-based online service with one of the best iPhone apps around.
The app itself is so compelling because it lets you do a lot of what you can do directly on the website. As such, it's perfectly possible to use it as your primary interface for using the service, instead of a secondary platform when a full-fledged browser isn't available. The amount of work that went into this app, compared to those of larger, more populated networks, is very noteworthy. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised that the company is using the app as a possible leverage into attracting users their way.
Like other social networking sites, it allows you to microblog, letting you update the world at large (with text and photos) about anything on your mind. In Brightkite, you can do this publicly (with messages open to anyone who cares to look) or privately (to selected users), with a nifty facility that makes choosing privileged users a very easy task (e.g. you can select a group of friends, users within a certain radius, individuals, etc). The built-in friend-finder, account editing and friend management are largely effortless and straightforward. Notifications and other settings are also very easy to do, requiring just a few quick taps to get the job done. For those who can't get enough of Twitter, it also allows you to send status updates, all while taking advantage of BrightKite's location-based facilities and image hosting features.
Overall, this is a very refined app whose only possible drawback is the smaller user base it currently has. Since it's free, though, it's definitely worth the try. You might actually end up loving it (like we did).
