REVIEWED: FACEBOOK'S SOCIALLY-SAUVE CAMERA APP / THE
INSTAGRAM RIVAL?
GEARBURN ONLINE, MAY
26, 2012 (PHNO) By Steven Norris: Gearburn Editor - It screams
Instagram, but not really.
It's the Facebook Camera app and it's available now for download. But do you
want it? I say "yes".
Let's look at the facts: this is Instagram for Facebook in all but name.
The great blue social network is buying Instagram. It's extending its claws
into everything. If you want to take an artsy, hipster shot, use Instagram.
If you want to share photos of duckfaces, use the Facebook Camera app. Either
way Facebook wins. Onto the review.
Less is more
The Facebook Camera app can upload multiple photos at once which is
pure win.
It shows friends photos in one scrolling window, let's you crop, tag friends
and add "cool" filters.
It's an exceptionally minimal interface, with a decidedly Yahoo! Axis like
approach.
Slide down to reveal photos on the iPhone, slide up to show the Facebook
photo stream.
Taking an image is simplicity itself. Simply tap the camera icon in the top
left corner and you're good to go.
Grease is the word
The app is super-slick. I'm talking about
dipped-in-Vaseline-and-rolled-in-motor-oil slick.
On the iphone 4 especially, the app is crisp and well-defined. The learning
curve is roughly 10 seconds and bang, you're posting images to Facebook.
So the picture is taken and added to the internal image gallery. Click on the
image itself, or the little green tick box to select multiple images. There
doesn't seem to be a limit to how many images you can upload at once.
There's scant few options to play around with preceding an image upload.
You're limited to cropping the image, which is the exact same as the iPhone's
standard cropping tool and works well enough, or adding filters which are so
"Instagram" it hurts.
Except the filters can't touch the glossy goodness of uncle Instagram.
There are options like Cream, Boost, Neon and Black and White.
When you're happy with how the photo looks, click on the blue submit
button, add in the usual Facebook status shit and post. Couldn't be simpler.
Much love
So why do I like it more than Instagram?
Facebook is the center of my social life. Instagram isn't.
By combining the best of both Facebook and Instagram, you get a slick, usable
app with loads to offer.
Highly recommended.
ABOUT GEARBURN
FROM THE SACRAMENTO BEE sacbee.com
Facebook launches iPhone camera app By BARBARA ORTUTAY AP Technology Writer Published:
Thursday, May. 24, 2012 - 10:12 am Last Modified: Thursday, May. 24, 2012 - 2:44
pm
NEW YORK -- Facebook's rocky initial public offering hasn't stopped
life at the world's biggest online social network. On Thursday, the company
unveiled a camera app for the iPhone.
The app can be downloaded from Apple's App Store and works like most other
camera applications for smart phones. To take a photo, you tap a camera icon in
the upper left corner of your screen, aim and shoot. You can then add filters,
crop or tilt your photo, and share it on Facebook.
The new app is similar to Instagram, the photo-sharing app Facebook is in the
process of buying for $1 billion. The acquisition, however, has not yet been
completed, and Instagram's employees did not work on the photo app.
Facebook has said it expects the Instagram acquisition to close sometime this
year.
Facebook didn't give details on when it might release a version of the app
for phones that run on Google's Android operating system.
In a statement, Facebook said it is "carefully looking at what might make
for a good Facebook photos experience across Android devices."
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/24/4514277/facebook-launches-iphone-camera.html#storylink=cpy
[PHOTO- BARBARA ORTUTAY AP Technology Writer
Technology writer
for the Associated Press.]
THE FACEBOOK INSTAGRAM
Facebook launches 'Instagram rival' camera app By
Emma Barnett, Digital Media Editor 10:05AM BST 25 May
2012
Facebook has launched a camera app for the iPhone which offers
similar functionality to Instagram, only six weeks after purchasing the company
for $1bn.
The app, which is called Camera, is available on the iPhone for free and has
been created in a bid to enhance the Facebook photos mobile experience.
However, it has been compared to Instagram, the photo app Facebook paid $1bn
for at the start of April.
Camera lets people share multiple photos all at once, add captions, tag
friends and layer on different filters to change the look of the photos – in a
similar fashion to Instagram.
Despite having made the large offering for the photo-sharing app (which has
yet to generate any revenues) last month, it could take Facebook up to 12 months
to actually own Instagram because of an obligatory competition probe into the
deal.
It is understood that Facebook had been working on an 'Instagram rival' for
some time and 'Camera' is the result of that work.
Crucially Facebook's dedicated photo app is all about creating images for
sharing on Facebook and seeing fellow Facebook users' images.
While Instagram is about creating photos and sharing them across the
different social networks such as Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder and chief, stated at the time of the deal
last month that he would not shut down Instagram once it came under Facebook's
control.
The ways in which the social network will look to integrate Instagram into
its offering are not yet known.
Facebook is struggling to monetise its mobile offering – something it
disclosed ahead of its recent IPO - which has been blighted with problems since
floating last week.
Some of the social network's new shareholders are now suing Zuckerberg after
the share price tumbled in the first week.
[PHOTO- Emma Barnett
is The Telegraph's award-winning Digital Media Editor, writing news, features
and profiles about all forms of digital media, including digital start ups,
social networks, growing trends, and new initiatives from both traditional media
companies and digital firms. She also writes a monthly column in The Sunday
Telegraph's 'ThinkTank' section in which she analyses what the latest technology
and digital media trends mean for businesses worldwide. Follow her on Twitter:
@emmabarnett. ]
FROM THE UK TELEGRAPH
Who's getting rich from Facebook's $1bn Instagram deal?
By Katherine Rushton, Media, telecoms and
technology editor 12:30PM BST 10 Apr 2012
[PHOTO -Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom, chief executive (right),
and Mike Krieger at the company offices in San Francisco. Photo: New York Times / Redux / eyevine]
Mark Zuckerberg first tried to recruit Instagram's founder and chief
executive, Kevin Systrom, to Facebook in 2004, before the social networking had
charted its extraordinary growth trajectory and while Mr Systrom was still an
undergraduate at Stanford University.
He turned the offer down, insisting he wanted first to complete his degree in
Management Science and Engineering - a gamble which would many would have lived
to regret but which, for Mr Systrom, has paid off handsomely.
According to leaked figures, the outgoing 28-year-old photography enthusiast
owns a 40pc stake in the photo app business, handing him a windfall of $400m
(£250m) for the company he started less than two years ago.
Although he turned down Facebook, Mr Systrom cut his teeth at some of the
companies which have become the technology industry's biggest names – interning
at Odeo, which later became Twitter, and spending two years at Google working on
early products like Gmail and Google Reader.
He continues to indulge his love of photography, as well as a passion for
food and wine – chronicling long cooking sessions and recently dining with the
chef Jamie Oliver. Announcing the deal on his Facebook page, he said his sudden
riches would allow him to buy a few more bottles of one of his favourite things
– champagne.
Mike Krieger is Instagram's leading developer and the next biggest
beneficiary of the Facebook deal after Mr Systrom. Although the pair never met
at university, he is also a Stanford graduate, writing his thesis on the way
computer interfaces can be used to get people to collaborate on a large scale.
That technical knowledge has helped Instagram to attract the 30m users that
so impressed Facebook, and netted Mr Krieger around $100m for his reported 10pc
stake in the company. Before joining the business with Mr Systrom, he was a
software developer at Microsoft, working in its PowerPoint team, and then with
the instant messaging network, Meebo.
The two men will be sharing their windfall with a few key investors with
their own ties to Facebook, including the private equity firms Andreessen
Horowitz and Benchmark Capital. Benchmark's partner Matt Cohler led a $7m
fundraising for Instagram last year, reportedly taking a stake of around 25pc
and valuing the business at $25m. Cohler, who has a seat on Instagram's board,
was an early employee of Facebook and still serves as a "special advisor" to the
social network.
[PHOTO -Katherine Rushton joined the Telegraph in June 2011 and has
been Media, Telecoms and Technology Editor since August. Before that she worked
on trade magazines including Broadcast, The Bookseller and Drapers where she was
deputy editor.]
Chief News Editor: Sol
Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE
NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS
ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/phnotweet
This is the PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE (PHNO) Mailing List.
To stop receiving our news items, please send a blank e-mail addressed to: phno-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Please visit our homepage at: http://www.newsflash.org/
(c) Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phno/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phno/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
phno-digest@yahoogroups.com
phno-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
phno-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
PH Headline News Online. Copyright 2011 All Rights Reserved