Twitter planning to add photo filters, says report

Instagram, apart from its photo-centric aesthetic qualities, also features an astute photo filtering service. This makes the photo-sharing platform very very enticing. In fact, it was so enticing that Twitter once considered acquiring the company behind it. But after losing to Facebook, it was rumored that Twitter was planning to buy an Instagram-like company to even it out. So when we heard today that Twitter is planning to launch a range photo filters that its users can add to pictures, we weren’t at all surprised.

That seems to suggest that Twitter is taking on the “if you can’t buy it, then build it” approach. According to the New York Times, Twitter is planning to update its mobile platform by introducing filters for photos that will allow people to share images on Twitter while bypassing Instagram. “The filters on Instagram make photos look like they were shot with 1960s Kodachrome or with 1890s sepia tone film,” reports the NYT. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Instagram will translate Instagram mentions to Twitter mentions automatically, makes life a little easier, Instagram drops ‘Find Twitter Friends’ feature,

Twitter to compete with Instagram by adding photo filters, says sources

In this age of digital photography, a picture can be transformed a thousand ways, made to look like a Polaroid snapshot or an antique image, given a moody or artistic or saturated look. Instagram, the social photography app, allows smartphone users to take a picture, apply a filter, and then send it off into the social networking sphere. Now, according to sources, Twitter is poised to take on the popular photography service by adding photo filters to its own mobile app.

The changes to Twitter’s mobile app are supposed to happen “in the coming months,” and will allow users to apply effects to photos directly without needing Instagram as a middle man. In addition, the sources claim that Twitter is also looking into adding other features to its app, including the ability to directly edit and upload videos. Presently, users must go through YouTube, Vimeo, or other video sharing websites.

According to the New York Times, the sources are Twitter employees who do not want to be named because they’re supposed to be staying mum on the project. Says one employee, Twitter’s “Very Important Tweeters,” namely big name celebs, would be “especially happy” for the addition of photo filters to Twitter’s mobile app due to their frequent use of Instagram to send pictures to their Twitter accounts. A Twitter spokesperson declined commenting on the claim.

This claim comes shortly after Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram for $715 million. The acquisition prompted Twitter to consider the purchase of its own photo service, with sources saying that both Twitter’s co-founder Jack Dorsey and executive chairman Dick Costolo were involved in the process. Ultimately, the company elected to build its own filters instead.

[via The New York Times]


Twitter to compete with Instagram by adding photo filters, says sources is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


The Worst Damage from Hurricane Sandy (Updating Live)

Hurricane Sandy is well on its way to Class Five Killstorm status. Expected to cause upwards of $20 Billion in damages, this super-storm is already wrecking shop along the Eastern seaboard. Here is some of the worst damage sustained so far in the Mid-Atlantic states. More »

Giant Working Instagram Camera Is This Year’s Costume To Beat

Last year a working Nikon DSLR costume wowed us, but with the continued rise of smartphone photography, who wants to wear a clunky dedicated camera this Halloween? Not Eric Micotto, who totally one-ups last year’s effort with a working Instagram camera getup. More »

You’re Being a Dick on Instagram

I’m sure you’re a good person, but you’re making everyone feel awful with the pictures you share. Why? Because your Instagram images have become an enormous swinging middle finger to all of your friends. We need to fix this. You need to stop. More »

Turn Your Instagram Stream Into a Calendar and Relive a Year’s Worth Of Meals

Remember that amazing lemon shrimp scampi pasta you had eight months ago? No? Well if you’re like most people and use Instagram to document your daily dining, you can order a 365 day calendar from Prinstagram and relive every meal you had over the past year. More »

Zuckerberg: People Spend More Time on Instagram Than Twitter

During today’s Facebook earnings call, head honcho Mark Zuckerberg told investors that, overall, people spend “more mobile time on Instagram than Twitter,” pointing to comScore numbers to back up the claim. Not a bad justification for that huge billion dollar investment. More »

Instagram will translate Instagram mentions to Twitter mentions automatically, makes life a little easier

Given that Instagram has a community of its own and that people do subscribe to other Instagram accounts, naturally @mentions do pop up ever so often. However those @mentions could get confusing especially when you have friends on Twitter and Instagram who have different handles. This might be because their username was already taken on Twitter/Instagram which means that had to come up with an alternative. Granted it’s not a huge inconvenience but it could get confusing once in a while. Well the good news is that if you’re an avid user of both Twitter and Instagram along with your friends, Instagram has updated itself and will now “magically” translate @mentions for users whose Twitter and Instagram handles differ. Like we said, it’s not a huge inconvenience before but we guess now it’s just one less thing to think about. If you’d like to learn more about this update, head on over to Instagram’s blog for the details.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Instagram drops ‘Find Twitter Friends’ feature, Twitter has no interest in buying an Instagram of their own,

Skifta app adds Instagram and Dropbox for home network streaming

The app known as Skifta is one that allows you to instantly take command of the contents of every wi-fi connected device in your home with your Android device – and soon it’ll be working with Dropbox and Instagram too. This app is one which we’ve had a brief look at in the past, and with the undeniable ease and quickness with which we were able to get up and running, there should be no doubt in the amount of greatness that’s about to be unleashed with integration with the cloud-based archives at Dropbox and Instagram. This update will take place on the 23rd of October and will join an ever-growing set of channels that also work with the system.

This update adds Dropbox and Instagram to Revision 3, Rdio, Facebook Photos, Flickr, TED Talks, SoundCloud, and a handful of other hot cloud-based apps. You can start the app up, drop in a couple passwords, connect to your networks, and you’re off and running. Connect to a source, connect to a destination, and your Android smart device does all the commanding.

Photo galleries and movies work best, but you’re always welcome to open up a lovely set of music files and sounds too. This update will continue the expansion of the 3rd party groups that Skifta will be working with in the future, too – so stay tuned for more of your favorites soon. This app is able to connect with not just these cloud services and your computers and TVs, but data centers and game consoles as well – not to mention stereos.

You can download Skifta for your PC or Android device right this minute, with streaming to DLNA and UPnP devices working right out of the box. Never before has there been such a simple setup, that you can bet. Have a peek at some hands-on screenshots below to see if this simplicity clicks for you, too.

skifta
Screenshot_2012-10-19-13-12-59
Screenshot_2012-10-19-13-13-07
Screenshot_2012-10-19-13-13-15
Screenshot_2012-10-19-13-13-23
Screenshot_2012-10-19-13-13-31
logoa


Skifta app adds Instagram and Dropbox for home network streaming is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


No plans for Instagram for Blackberry 10 according to Facebook

Instagram is no doubt a popular app used to take photos on both iOS and Android, and we can still remember the day when it finally arrived on Android and the big deal that everyone made about it. Well it seems that the fuss people made about the Android version might not happen for Blackberry 10 as Facebook has announced (via VentureBeat) that they have no plans to release Instagram for Blackberry 10. As some of you guys are aware, Facebook bought Instagram awhile back and while Facebook is working on a native app for Blackberry 10, it seems that’s the extent of Facebook’s involvement with Blackberry 10.

Of course this does not mean that there won’t be Instagram for Blackberry 10 forever – there is a chance that Facebook could be feeling out the Blackberry 10 ecosystem first before deciding if it might be worth their while to port Instagram onto Blackberry 10. In any case Blackberry 10 is expected to launch in Q1 of 2013, so there’s still a few months for Facebook to change their minds. In the meantime it looks like would-be Blackberry 10 users will need to find an alternative way to capture and upload hipster-like photos.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Images of Facebook app for BlackBerry 10 leaked, Blackberry 10 expected to launch with more apps than any other first-generation mobile operating system,