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Ownership Rights: Instagram users own their content and Instagram does not claim any ownership rights over your photos. Nothing about this has changed. We respect that there are creative artists and hobbyists alike that pour their heart into creating beautiful photos, and we respect that your photos are your photos. Period.

To be clear: it is not our intention to sell your photos.

”

http://blog.instagram.com/post/38252135408/thank-you-and-were-listening

Instagram & Hipstamatic sitting on a tree…

If you are unfamiliar with Hipstamatic, it is an iOS only photography app that gloriously won Apple’s App of the year in 2010 and very rightly so.

I truly love the Hipstamatic photography app and have used it for a couple of years now, it has always been one of the ‘main’ cameras I reach out to on my iPhone. The beautiful vintage retro-style/analog effects on films and lenses allows for breath-taking photos unlike any other. I love the outcome of photos using Hipstamatic so much so that I created a dedicated Tumblr site called Bibstamatic, to share and archive some of my HipstaShots.

Besides Bibstamatic, I also share a selected few on Instagram, in fact, half of my photos on Instagram are Hipstamatic photos, but sharing my HipstaShots on Instagram has never been an easy task compared to sharing photos directly to Bibstamatic from within the Hipstamatic app. With the plethora of photo based social networks on iOS and sharing increasingly becoming a fundamental part of iPhoneography, it would be foolish for any photography app to not take advantage of such API’s provided to give it’s user base the means to share photos across networks with ease.

Hipstamatic version 250, includes with improvements to the overall sharing experience from within the app (Full list of what’s new in this update below). Although users were able to share multiple photos, the ability to share said photos on multiple networks at once was not possible. Hipstamatic 250 solves this problem with a completely redesigned share system dubbed ‘HipstaShare’ which enables users to share photos on multiple networks all at once in a completely new interface.

The most important of all in Hipstamatics’ ability to share to multiple networks is sharing to Instagram, which unlike many other iOS apps, allows for direct photo uploads to your Instagram account without the need for Hipstamatic to quit and launch Instagram, thanks to the partnership between the two platforms representing the first time Instagram has opened up its API platform to third parties. This experimental partnership, if fruitful could lead the way for other third-party apps to use the API and I, for one, wouldn’t be surprised IF Apple integrates the Instagram service in iOS the same way they did with sharing to Twitter from within the iOS system.

Given that Instagram now boasts a staggering 27 million users and has firmly established itself as the dominant photo sharing social networking platform on iOS, and Apple continually touting the camera on the iPhone as the only camera you need, it makes sense to allow users to easily upload and share their iPhone shots from Camera or Photos.app directly on to the most popular and widely used photo sharing network on iOS, Instagram.

This partnership is a winner, not only for both companies but also for users who favour both platforms, like myself.

Fast company has more details on this partnership and how it benefits both.

Here’s what else is new in Hipstamatic 250:

  • Share to Instagram! Exclusive to Hipstamatic, easily share your HipstaPrints directly to Instagram
  • Brand-new HipstaShare system
  • Easily swipe and zoom through all your HipstaPrints
  • Share to multiple photo networks at once
  • Tag your friends in Facebook
  • View history of where your photo was taken and where it was shared to
  • Hipstamatic is now localized in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Indonesian, Russian, Dutch, Malay, and Swedish BUG FIXES/PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS
  • Performance improvements in HipstaProcessing
  • Fixes a bug that could cause a prompt to restore purchases to occur on startup even if there aren’t purchases to restore
  • Other bug fixes and stability improvements


Hipstamatic is a truly wonderful photography app available for £1.49 / $1.99 in the App Store. Instagram is FREE to download.

Instagram 2.1

Instagram v2.1 hit the App store not so long ago with some fantastic new additions.

First, lets talk about Lux - which Instagram describes as a new way to enhance your photos. For those of you who are familiar with Camera+, you’ll know just how handy the Clarity feature in Camera+ is when editing your photos, Lux is Instagram’s Clarity feature. If all you use is the basic editing features found on Photos.app, Lux performs basically the same function as the ‘magic wand’ found under the editing options. Lux, will help bring to life a lot of bland and boring pictures. Great addition.

The newly added Filter ‘Sierra’ is also quite nice.

The navigation bar was also completely redesigned. Instagram set the trend when they introduced a navigation bar consisting of a huge centrally placed action button, which later became the norm in many iOS apps. To be frank, it was becoming quite the eye sore. The new navigation bar is a lot more simplified now, smoother, and looks great. There are also a few other UI refinements across the app.

Prior to v2.1 I had Instagram push notifications completely turned off, as it served me no purpose whatsoever. Many iOS apps take you direct to the corresponding action from the push notification center, this wasn’t the case with Instagram.

Thankfully, this has been rectified in v2.1. Now when a user likes your photo and you get notified in notification center, tapping the notification takes you straight to the said photo, likewise for comments.

Instagram v2.1 is a solid update with just the right amount of improvements to an already brilliant platform. Instagram for iPhone

PicYou, an Instagram alternative

The internet is buzzing with news of Facebook agreeing to acquire the popular mobile photo sharing platform Instagram for $1 Billion. The general consensus following this announcement is that Instagram will now be ruined, integrated deeply into the Facebook platform resulting in Instagram losing its independence. Of course, if you are one of the many millions who enjoys using Instagram but hate Facebook, you’ll have reasons for concern. Fear not, there is an alternative.

Say Hello to PicYou.

Though it is not hugely popular with 30 million members like Instagram, it does offer the same basic services you know and love about Instagram. PicYou is a direct clone of Instagram, no other mobile photo sharing platform resembles Instagram than PicYou does, which makes it the perfect alternative to those preparing to boycott Instagram. From layout design to double tapping on photos to like them, from shooting, uploading, applying filters to sharing your photos on other social platforms, PicYou will deliver the same Instagram experience.

Many Instagram users cried out in vain for a dedicated website where they can perform the same functions but to no avail. PicYou on the other hand has a dedicated website for its users, found at PicYou.com, where you can perform the same basic functions found on the mobile versions.

I mentioned PicYou exclusively for reasons mentioned above, but it is not the only alternative. Streamzoo (Also has a dedicated website) and Stampzz offer similar services to Instagram.

If you know of other similar alternatives please do get in touch, tweet me at @Borromnet or drop me an email; borromnet [at] gmail [dot] com.