photo sharing

10 'photo sharing' stories July 2011 - August 2015

Skype for Android updated with personalized ringtones and easier photo sharing

Ben Lovejoy Aug 19 2015 - 7:15 am PT

Skype has updated its Android app to version 5.10, allowing you to create personalized ringtones for specific contacts, and making it easier to share photos.

Customize incoming call sounds for a contact by selecting a ringtone from your device. In a conversation, tap the lower right and select “Ringtone options” then “Set custom ringtone”.

Share photos from chats with other Skype friends and family who may not be in the conversation. Just tap and hold on the photo you want to share and select “Forward photo”.

Avatar colors for group chats have also been changed, to make it easier to tell your different conversations apart.

The last significant update was the visual refresh and performance boost last month. A week ago, the company made available to enterprise customers a preview of its updated Skype for Business Android app.

The new app is a free download from Google Play.

Photo: TNW

Google uses 86 million photos from popular sites to create stunning time-lapse videos

Ben Lovejoy May 18 2015 - 4:48 am PT

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time-lapse-2015-05-18-01

Google may have grown increasingly corporate over the years, but I love the fact that it still sets out to do cool things just because it can. Working with the University of Washington, the team found a way to create fully automated timelapse photos of both landscapes and cityscapes using photos pulled in from popular photo-sharing sites like Yahoo’s Flickr and its own Picasa.

First, we cluster 86 million photos into landmarks and popular viewpoints. Then, we sort the photos by date and warp each photo onto a common viewpoint. Finally, we stabilize the appearance of the sequence to compensate for lighting effects and minimize flicker.

The team says that the results are not just fun to watch, but also serve a useful purpose …
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Flickr for Android can now auto-upload your photos, apply non-destructive edits

Mike Beasley May 7 2015 - 10:09 am PT

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Flickr for Android was updated today with a new auto-upload feature that can privately upload every photo taken on your device to your account for safe keeping. Because Flickr gives users 1,000 GB of free photo storage, you won’t have to worry about running out of room any time soon. Even so, duplicate photos are automatically detected and removed to help save space.

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Instagram revamps Explore tab, adds caption & location editing

Zac Hall Nov 10 2014 - 1:06 pm PT

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Instagram is out with a feature update today with some welcome features. Users will likely appreciate the ability to edit photo captions and locations attached to photos in post now. That means if you make a typo on your caption, you no longer have to choose between correcting yourself in the comments, deleting and re-posting the photo with the correction caption, or just ignoring it altogether.
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Facebook launches new Slingshot app to compete with Snapchat

Chance Miller Jun 17 2014 - 10:57 am PT

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As we reported last night, Facebook’s new Slingshot app is now available for iPhone. The app briefly appeared on the App Store last week but was quickly removed. Slingshot is Facebook’s attempt at competing with the popular Snapchat messaging service.

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Google’s new Photowall app turns your Chromecast-connected TV into a live digital photo frame

Zac Hall Mar 24 2014 - 6:57 am PT

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Adding to the capabilities of the Chromecast HDMI streaming stick, Google is out with a new app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users called Photowall that lets you turn your Chromecast-connected TV into a live, interactive photo frame.

Google’s Photowall app allows you alone or a group of Photowall users to beam not just one photo, but an entire collage of images to your TV through your Chromecast. The app includes the ability to doodle or annotate images before beaming to your big display as well.

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PSA: Snapchat users can now opt out of phone number/username linking following API abuse

Zac Hall Jan 9 2014 - 9:02 am PT

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Following recent API abuse that lead to phone numbers and usernames being exposed, Snapchat, the social photo sharing app, has updated its Android app with the option to opt out of linking your phone number with your username. The feature was intended to increase social discoverability among mutual contacts, but was recently abused leading to the following update and apology:

Find Friends Improvements

This morning we released a Snapchat update for Android and iOS that improves Find Friends functionality and allows Snapchatters to opt-out of linking their phone number with their username. This option is available in Settings > Mobile #.

This update also requires new Snapchatters to verify their phone number before using the Find Friends service.

Our team continues to make improvements to the Snapchat service to prevent future attempts to abuse our API. We are sorry for any problems this issue may have caused you and we really appreciate your patience and support.

Love,

Team Snapchat

The update is available now on for Android users on the Google Play Store.

‘Instagram’ for Android gets 10M users in 10 days, launching service to 40M users total

Élyse Betters Apr 13 2012 - 10:32 am PT

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The trendy photo-sharing app “Instagram” for Android debuted in the Google Play Store nearly two weeks ago and has since increased the service’s user base by 25 percent.

It took Instagram 19 months to reach 30 million iOS users, but it quickly garnered 10 million Android users in less than 10 days.

Gramfeed, a third-party user tracking website, dug into Instagram’s API to determine Mr. Valentino Elbuti (valentinoelbuti) as the 40 millionth user. He recently signed-up and already has four filtered-images posted to his account.

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Facebook acquires photo sharing app ‘Instagram’ for $1 billion

Jordan Kahn Apr 9 2012 - 10:45 am PT

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Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg just announced that the social network has acquired photo-sharing app “Instagram” for $1 billion. Instagram’s CEO Kevin Systrom also made a statement through the company’s blog and confirmed it will “be working with Facebook to evolve Instagram and build the network.” Instagram’s Android app just launched last week to nearly 2,000 signups a minute and a million downloads in 24 hours.

Zuckerberg’s full announcement is below, and Facebook’s official press release is here:

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Google teases Photovine iPhone app

9to5 Staff Jul 14 2011 - 8:51 am PT

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MPIZKPhfDY]

[UPDATE July 14, 2011 10:08 Eastern]: The official, invite-only Photovine for iOS app has just landed in the App Store. We are expecting Android app shortly]

In anticipation of a smartphone app for the Photovine service which was announced Tuesday, Google posted this little teaser on the official Photovine page. Beginning today, people can also request an invite. You’re advised to hurry up because invitations for Google’s recently launched products have been in high demand (Google+, anyone?). By the way, don’t you find it weird they would feature an iPhone 4 app on both the website and in the video clip rather than a Nexus S?

For those uninitiated, Photovine is Google’s attempt at social photo sharing that takes clues from Flickr, Facebook photos, Picasa and other services. “Photovine is a fun way to learn more about your friends, meet new people and share your world like never before”, says the official blurb. You begin creating a vine by taking a photo and creating a new caption. Other people will see your vine and join in by adding their own photo, showing their own take on the caption. Google explains:

A vine is like a constantly growing family of photos connected through a common caption created by you, your friends, and people all over the world. Some examples of vines could be: “What Weekends Are Made Of”, “Secret Stuffed Animal”, “Party People”, or, “Love of My Life”. As people add photos to vines, they tell their own stories about the moments, images, and ideas that define our lives in a way that’s social, creative, and fun.

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