I have been waiting for an app that really makes the camera on my iPhone fun and it has finally arrived. Instagram (Get it on iTunes) is a fun app that really makes sharing on social networks a breeze. You just shoot, add a title and select which sites you want to upload to, all in a very polished and simple interface. On top of it's ease of use, it also has several really cool vintage camera filters.
I am a little dissapointed there isn't a WordPress connector, but no reality wordpress isn't really designed to be used for small photo uploads. It does however connect directly to:
- Flickr
- Tumbler
- Foursquare
I am not really a huge fan of all of these social networks and one of the big reason is time. I don't have time to upload my information to twitter, facebook, flicker, etc. With Instagram I just shoot, and upload directly to all three, just one, or a combination of them instantly.
As an added bonus, Instagram is itself a social network that links all the Instagram users. You can set it up to follow who you want and get a feed of your friends' photos when you load it up. If you do end up getting it, feel free to add me, jwallom, to your friends list. And the beautiful thing about this app is that it is free!
Light Painting with an iPad
Making Future Magic: iPad light painting from Dentsu London on Vimeo.
Absolutely amazing. Human creativity blows me away every day.
iOS 4.1
HDR of Super H-Mart
Towards the middle of last week Apple released iOS 4.1 which brought a lot of updates and new features. Some of the highlighted new features are Game Center, HDR Photos, AirPlay and Ping. Ping really was released a week earlier with iTunes 10^43 or whatever huge number we are on now. Well, Thursday morning I updated my phone to the new version and I have to say I am both excited for the future of iOS and underwhelmed with what this release brought.
First off lets talk about Ping. I have been dying for a good social site that is geared towards music. So many of my friends listen to great music that I just would never stumble across, so hopefully this would allow me to find it sooner. Everything about it on the surface seemed perfectly suited for this. It wasn't very long, about 5 minutes into using it, before I broke that surface and realized why it just won't work. It only works with music in the iTunes store. I think this is a huge mistake. I cannot "like" a song, album or artist I have in my collection unless I go into the iTunes store and find that album or what ever. Some of my favorite music just isn't in the iTunes store. The other issue I have is that there is no linking between it an other social networks like twitter or facebook. That means I have to create a whole new network of friends for Ping. They really needed to work out a deal with those companies.
I think the biggest draw for me with iOS 4 is Game Center. It was touted to be an XBox Live like gaming platform, and just like Ping, falls just far enough short to be annoying. The main reason I was looking forward to GC was the ability to play games with friends everywhere. Invite them into my game, and they will get a notification and can jump into the action. Of all of my friends I have by far the most games. Not one of them allows me to invite friends into the game unless they are on the same wifi or on bluetooth. In which case what is the point of GC, as they are close enough for me to just ask them in person. Another really huge annoyance is the achievement system. Why do achievements have points if all it shows is how many achievements you have completed? This seems like a poor design flaw.
Wedding Photography
I finally got the go ahead to post some pictures from two weekends ago I shot. Here are a few of my shots.
Stealing From the Templemans
I know that Chris and Kellie don't hold a copyright on weekend updates, so I guess it really isn't stealing, but I had a great weekend. Friday I met Brian for an early showing of Inception at the Mall of Georgia. This was a way to hopefully calm our nerves because that evening we started working on shooting a wedding. It was a surprisingly awesome movie. I was really dissapointed with DeCaprio in Shutter Island and went into this movie with that mindset. I know Chris Nolan did an amazing job with the batman series, but could he bring the magic that has been so hit or miss for DeCaprio? Absolutely. I don't think I have ever seen a movie that really had me engaged as much as this one did. After the movie we met Brian's wife Katrina for some lunch and walking for a couple minutes around the mall because Brian needed a UGA shirt for the rehearsal that night.
After getting a shirt Brian and I made a quick run down to Fry's for some batteries and an extra memory card. It was my first trip to Fry's and unlike the movie, it kinda disappointed me. It was massive and had tons of electronic stuff, but it really seemed like it was trying to be way too much. It was like a Best Buy, Cosco, Think Geek, and Amazon all mashed together keeping most of the worst parts and squeezing out the good stuff. I think maybe if I still built computers or needed some specialty things it would be better or if I was looking for some specialty items I needed right now it might be awesome. It just seemed to be a dirty and unorganized warehouse of lower end items.