Over on Dribble.com, Mackey Saturday posted the redesigned Instagram logo late last week, along with a more detailed look at it in long-JPEG format and with a couple paragraph write up. Says the designer, who hails from Denver, he worked alongside Instagram’s team to make the redesign, which anyone who has used the app more than a few times will recognize instantly as being both very similar and uniquely different.

The goal, says Mackey Saturday, was to create a new logo that kept all the things familiar to the mega-popular photo app, but changing it in such a way that it becomes more refined and “durable,” and that likewise took the service’s brand to the next level, making expansion in the future possible. The original logo, according to the designer, was used to heavily inspire the new logo.

Not leaving it at just a few paragraphs, he also attached an image to the post that included several images connected together, including close-ups of the new Instagram logo in various states of creation, as well as a sketchbook with pencil sketches of the letters, and someone – the designer we presume – in front of a wall plastered with logo printouts.

[via Digital Trends]

When you upload a photo to Instagram, you’re now able to tag the people that are in the photo, and Instagram says its as easy as adding hashtags. Plus, only you can add people to your photos, which we’re guessing means that other people won’t even be able to request permission to add themselves in a photo like Facebook does.

However, you can only tag people that also have an Instagram account, so it’s definitely a bit limited on who you can tag, especially since you can’t tag Facebook friends, but the service gives you the ability to tag previously-uploaded images to give your collection a bit of uniformity at least.

As for the “Photos of You” section, this is where you can view all photos on Instagram that you’re tagged in, and it appears as a dedicated section on your Instagram profile. For privacy’s sake, Instagram allows you to approve each photo you’re tagged in so that you have control over what shows up in that section. The update is available now on both iOS and Android.

[via Android Community]

The clause in question is called the Orphan Works and Extended Collective Licensing Clause 79, which says that an orphaned work can be licensed under the law for use by organizations, something that is beneficial under certain conditions for some companies. The sticking point is what qualifies as an orphaned work – content who’s copyright holder cannot be located or identified “after a diligent search made in accordance with the regulations.”

The obvious issue to this is the glut of images posted online that have nothing on them announcing the copyright holder. For example, the images you post on Facebook are under your account, and so your Facebook friends may understand that they are your images. If one of them is saved and later posted elsewhere, say on a forum, and it spreads across the Internet, its original association with your account is lost.

Thus, your image can now qualify as an orphan – a piece of content that cannot be traced back to its copyright holder. If a company in the UK finds the image and likes it, it can easily gain a license to use it because of its orphaned nature. Although this is a UK bill, it will affect images taken by anyone located anywhere in the world – after all, if they can’t find the image’s copyright holder, they have no way of knowing if the image is from the UK or elsewhere, just that it is an orphan, thusly requiring neither credit nor compensation.

[via Digital Trends]

However, we have to Nokia Sweden’s message with a grain of salt because this message isn’t coming directly from Instagram itself. It would make sense that Instagram would be bringing its app to Windows Phone 8, considering how the platform is gaining traction in the mobile market. While Windows Phone 8 is still miles and miles behind in popularity compared to Android or iOS, it’s still the 3rd most popular mobile platform.

Nokia deleted its Facebook comment shortly afterwards, likely because it spilled the beans on something that was supposed to remain a secret. This, however, isn’t the first time that Nokia accidentally let out details regarding Instagram for Windows Phone. Back in March, Nokia Sweden responded to one of its followers on Twitter saying that Instagram is currently in development for the Windows Phone platform.

Hopefully, Nokia Sweden is correct and Instagram is really on its way to Windows Phone users. Being not as popular as Android or iOS, Windows Phone always gets the short end of the stick when it comes to major apps. Earlier this month, Windows Phone 8 users were finally given the option to view their Netflix movies in 720p resolution. As Windows Phone 8 grows in popularity, developers will be more quick about bringing their apps to the platform. If you’re a fan of the Nokia Lumia line-up, check out our review of its latest smartphone, the Nokia Lumia 720.

[via WP Central]

This follows the great news that Snapchat received back in February, when it raised $13.5 million in funding. Snapchat became insanely popular, extremely fast, most likely due to the fun, and playful aspect of its service. Users are able to send each other photos, or videos of up to 10 seconds, which the recipient is only allowed to view for a short period of time before it gets deleted. If someone screenshots the picture, the sender receives a notification.

Spiegel says that the deletion aspect of Snapchat is a major reason why the app is so successful. He said, “In this world, deletion as the default works pretty well. We believe the default should be ephemerality.” While photo-sharing services like Instagram lets people take artsy pictures of their food or their travels, and customize them with filters, he says that Snapchat touches on another aspect of mobile photography; it focuses on “communication rather than artwork.”

Spiegel also says that he’s open to the idea of ads. So far, the team at Snapchat have been “playing around with a few prototypes” and have hired someone who will focus completely on monetizing the app. He says, “I like ads, personally. I think ads can work really well on mobile.” However, how he, and the Snapchat team, will implement ads into Snapchat is the real question.

[via All Things D]

During the first day of Instagram’s launch on Android, over 1 million users downloaded the app. By the end of the week, the app was downloaded over 5 million times. Instagram says that its expansion onto the Android platform has made the service more “global” than ever. It listed several events worldwide that were covered by Android users, including Brazil’s Cirio de Nazare festival, the 85th birthday of Thailand’s King Bhumibol, and the severe thunderstorms throughout Malaysia.

The high number of Android users isn’t too surprising, since the OS has such a huge marketshare, and there is a huge selection of low-end to high-end Android smartphones available everywhere. It looks like Android and iOS will only be competing with each other for the higher user base, seeing as Instagram doesn’t have any official plans to release its app on Blackberry 10 or Windows Phone 8.

If it only took Android 1 year to attract around 50 million Instagram users, it’ll be very interesting to see how far its user base will increase on its second anniversary. Instagram plans on bringing many more updates and filters to both iOS and Android devices in the near future, so that you’re able to choose from more options to customize and modify your images. Philip McAllister, an engineer at Instagram, states “We’re working hard to make the app fast and easy to use, and we’re dedicated to always bringing you the best Instagram experience as possible.”

[via Android Community]

Open Graph actions range from a variety of things, including follows, likes, songs listened to (on a variety of services like Spotify or Pandora), articles read on various news portals, videos watched on YouTube, LiveLeak, etc, images pinned on Pinterest, photos liked or shared on Instagram, and more. Users enabled many of these services to automatically share their information through their Facebook Newsfeed.

So far, Facebook users have shared a total of 110 million songs, albums, and radio stations over 40 billion times, and have shared around 1.47 million books. Facebook makes it easy for users to share their data to their timeline through integrated apps, or social buttons placed throughout a majority of websites and blogs out there. It hopes to make sharing on its network more personable and enjoyable with acquisitions like Storylane.

These kind of numbers should have developers and companies promoting their next projects or campaigns through the social media behemoth. The user engagement looks promising for those that develop on the platform, or those who are looking to get more exposure to the world. Marketers should also be pleased that Facebook is offering new features that will make finding the right, targeted audience easier.

[via The Next Web]

The activation of its 3G network followed a law that was passed allowing visitors to bring their own smartphones into the country, new freedoms not bestowed onto the nation’s residents. The network is provided by carrier Koryolink, and while it provides visitors with a much-needed way to connect with the outside world, it doesn’t come without a hefty price tag.

The data network can be accessed by purchasing a SIM card that is available at the airport and at Koryolink retail stores for $70 USD. The card needs to be used with the visitor’s own smartphone, and is reported by the Associated Press as having a rate of 5 Euros per minutes for calls placed to the United States. Calls cannot be made using the SIM to South Korea.

For those more interested in the data connection aspect of the network rather than the voice capabilities, the service can also be used with a monthly-billed mobile broadband plan, which supports USB modems. For more Instagram pictures from within North Korea, check out the hashtag “#pyongyang”.

[via Digital Photography Review]

Adam Ludwin, developer of a social photo album app entitled Albumatic, interviewed a group of people under the age of 25 about his app, and a majority of the people he asked stated that they disliked the apps reliance on Facebook. Ludwin stated, “They gave me the typical teenage response. We’re bored with Facebook.”

It also seems that Facebook is very aware of this problem. In Facebook’s annual 10-K report, it stated, “We believe that some of our users, particular our younger users, are aware of and are actively engaging with other products and services similar to, or as a substitute for, Facebook.” The statement continues on by saying that its business could be harmed due to its users lack of interest in its service.

It’s normal for teens to quickly move onto the next “it” thing. It’s very impressive that Facebook became so popular with teens for as long as it did. Perhaps Facebook will find a new way to bring back teens to its service. Otherwise, it’ll join the masses of other left-behind services, like AOL Instant Messenger, Xanga, and MySpace. While those services are still alive and still have a user-base, they just aren’t the way they used to be “back in the day”.

[via Business Insider]

Official details, such as its design and specifications, haven’t been finalized, but word has it the camera will be launched in 2014. Along with the device will be a line of accessories specific to it, such as filters, lenses, and camera bags. This indicates the company expects the device to be popular, a reasonable expectation given the enthusiasm that spread across the Internet when the concept was produced.

If the camera follows closely to the concept, users can expect a generously-sized 4.3-inch touchscreen display on the back, as well as 16GB of internal storage. The device will print instant photographs from an integrated printer. Connectivity could then be comprised of both Bluetooth and standard Wi-Fi. It is reasonable to assume the on-board operating system could be Android, although everything is speculation at this point.

Socialmatic’s CEO Antonio De Rosa said: “We are so proud to work together with C & A and Polaroid, giants of digital photography. It has been a long and difficult negotiation but we were strongly motivated to reach an agreement to create a small revolution in digital photography. This mix of Hardware and Software, together with our brand new photo social network will fill the gap between virtuality and reality.”

[via Engadget]

Last month, we reported that Instagram was at the 90-million mark for monthly active users, which means that the service saw a 10% growth in users in a little over a month — quite impressive if you ask us. In a blog post published today, Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom shared some of his thoughts about the service and how far it has come in two and a half years.

Systrom recounts some moments after the service launched back in 2010, and says that the insulation in the company’s first offices wasn’t that great, and he remembers hearing the fans at AT&T Park cheering nearby as the San Francisco Giants took on the Philadelphia Phillies in a race for the NLCS. It was both cold in the offices and noises from the outside seeped in a lot.

However, the employees were able to tune into the game by viewing Instagram photos being taken during the ball game, and Systrom says that was the first time that he knew that Instagram was “going to be different” than any other photography app. With over 40 million photos being posted per day, and counting, Instagram has certainly come a long way.

This information was given to the folks over at AllThingsD by sources who are said to be close to Instagram. While one source said there was a possibility – “There will be no Instagram for BB10 for now.” – they also said they weren’t sure there would ever be a native app. Fortunately, however, Instagram lovers who want to embrace the BB10 platform won’t be entirely out of luck.

It has been reported for awhile now that Instagram for Android is being actively ported for Blackberry 10, meaning that those desperate enough for it will have an option. As we have seen with many ported apps, however, it’ll likely be an inferior product when compared to the native versions running on other mobile OSs. The app won’t be optimized for BB10.

Instagram hasn’t said why it won’t be making a native app for Blackberry 10, though one can speculate that it’s due to the effort/reward ratio in doing so. BB10′s userbase is substantially smaller than Android and iOS, and Instagram’s team isn’t the largest out there. When asked about it, Blackberry stated that it is “actively engaged around Instagram support for BB10.” What do you say? Is lack of a native Instagram app something that would prevent you from adopting the BB10 platform? Let us know in the comments.

[via AllThingsD]

Simply Measured’s CEO, Adam Schoenfield, says that with 90 million users actively using Instagram, Instagram is “proving to be a powerful channel for top brands to engage consumers through photo-sharing”. Top Brands have added 1.6 million followers to their accounts in the past 3 months alone, increasing its number of followers by 41%, and increasing brand engagement by up to 35%.

Adidas and Ralph Lauren has now joined the ranks of brands who have over 100,000 followers. Alongside them, there is also MTV, Starbucks, and Nike. Their brand engagement grew over 19%. Gucci and Tiffany & Co’s number of followers grew 65% to 75% in the last quarter, and their brand’s engagement has nearly doubled. 26% of brands now have over 10,000 followers, which is a 20% increase quarter over quarter.

41% of brands now post at least one photo per week to increase its followers’ engagement. That’s 34% more brands compared to last quarter. 98% of the photos that brands post on Instagram are now also linked to their Facebook pages. This results in at least 274 engagements per photo posted, or a 30% increase quarter-over-quarter. However, despite all of these brands adopting Instagram, brands still only stick to one filter, and that’s the ‘Lo-Fi’ filter. If you want to analyze any Instagram profile to see the statistics yourself, you can use the Simply Measured Instagram tool.

[via Business Wire]

This big event is almost certainly set to be the home for the many-times-teased HTC One – aka HTC M7 device we’ve been drooling about for the past week or two. After that it’s all up to HTC to surprise the heck out of us from top to bottom. This photo shows what very well may be a timeline of smartphones the HTC crew has released since their inception as well, mind you, with the HTC tablets – large and small – amongst them.

Then again, there are some rather wild rumors that HTC will be releasing a tablet of some kind or another – a brand new one running something other than Android. Though such a rumor would be incredibly hard to substantiate – especially given HTC’s recent talk of creating less expensive Android smartphones as their next strategy, giving no word of tablets – the possibility always lingers. It may be time for HTC to pump up their efforts in the Sense for tablets arena, too!

It could also simply be an accessory – maybe a wireless charging pad? Quite likely is the idea that this unit is something less than central to the HTC strategy – but you never know!

Have a peek at the timeline below to check out all of the most recent HTC One news to see what we’re expecting tomorrow in the AM. Also follow along with HTC to see all the news up close and personal as we see it all in New York City as well as London! You can follow us right here in the main news feed or through our HTC tag portal!

[via HTCGlobal]

With this new user interface for Instagram you’ll be able to see all of your own uploaded photos alongside the photos taken by the people you’re connected with through the service. At the moment this means you’re seeing the same feed that you’d otherwise only be able to see on your mobile device inside the Instagram app. With this interface you’re able to “like” photos with the little heart icon below each photo, connect to “photo pages”, and leave comments.

Each user name inside this iteration of Instagram connects to that user’s profile page on the web. Each profile is exactly the same sort of page we saw with the release of web-based profile pages several months ago, and each “photo page” is also essentially the same as it was back when Instagram arrived on the scene, these pages otherwise able to be linked to via Twitter. If you decide you’d like to connect to someone’s Twitter profile, you’re in for a treat: the “@” symbol doesn’t connect to Twitter profiles, it connects to Instagram profiles instead.

Of course your Tweets via Instagram will still be connecting to “@” profiles if you include said text, so you’re once again getting an ever-so-slightly different experience with hot-linking depending on where your content is published. The fun never ends! From your Instagram feed in the web browser you’re also able to delete photos and comments – but that’s it!

For the real total full Instagram experience you’re still going to have to head to the Instagram app on your respective iOS or Android machine – or Windows Phone machine or BlackBerry machine if you’re reading this post in the future. Have at it!

AllThingsD notes that the service’s monthly active user base is actually up 10% from last month, so it seems that the privacy policy debacle wasn’t a huge deal for its users after all. Instagram’s Kevin System says that the company “continues to see very strong growth around the world.”

Along with those 40 million photos being posted every day, Instagram says that its users are liking photos at a rate of 8,500 per second and are posting 1,000 comments per second as well. This actually marks the first time that Instagram has posted statistics on its user base, but detailed numbers are still scarce.

According to AppData, Instagram use on iOS and Android actually rose quite a bit late last month, but with use on Facebook falling by 25%. Furthermore, according to AppStats, Instagram apparently saw their active user numbers cut in half to 40 million, but according to Instagram’s own numbers, that’s clearly not true.

[via AllThingsD]

Along with simple pull-in abilities for Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, Tumblr, and YouTube, this version of Pulse adds a whole new video and photo viewing interface. You’ll be able to push back basically everything but the essentials – including a simple one-shot interface with the creator of each bit of content. This interface is ever-so-slightly different depending on if you’re working with iOS or Android, it keeping a clean face either way.

You’ll be able to add your favorite feeds from the new social network affiliations listed by heading to the blue Add Content button at the bottom left of your navigation bar. You’ll swipe over to Social or “What’s New” and you’ll tap the + button to add your favorite feed to a page. When you head back to the page you’ve added it to, there it’ll be!

Pulse will be highlighting key channels from each of the big additions over the next week – and they’ll be sure to keep up the fun into the future as well! You’ll find SlashGear’s YouTube page particularly enticing, and don’t forget to Like SlashGear on Facebook so we show up through your newly integrated Facebook feed as well! Pulse is available for Android and iOS right this minute for free – grab it!

The Instagram numbers we’re talking about here have its 40 million active users near the middle of December, 2012, cut down now here in the middle of January to somewhere closer to 17 million. You’ll see the holiday claim we spoke about just a couple of weeks ago in the same chart from AppStats here, but even after the rapid resurgence after the Privacy Policy incidence, the app is being shown to have a rather clear slide downward.

This slide could also very well have to do with the Twitter de-integration that happened over the past couple of weeks, this cutting off a massive tie with one of the most popular social networking systems on the planet. It’s not clear at the moment whether or not Instagram will recover from this downturn. Meanwhile Facebook is battling against the Guardian’s post with Socialbakers analytics information on a 600,000 user decline in the UK.

This decline represents part of a 1.86% slide for Facebook overall, the time period being the month of December and not seeming all that odd to the analytics group due to the holiday season. Though Facebook has more than 33 million unique users according to the same firm through the month of December, Facebook has made it clear in an emailed statement that they don’t trust the methods used by Socialbakers:

“From time to time, we see stories about Facebook losing users in some regions. Some of these reports use data extracted from our advertising tool, which provides broad estimates on the reach of Facebook ads and isn’t designed to be a source for tracking the overall growth of Facebook. We are very pleased with our growth and with the way people are engaged with Facebook – more than 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day.” – Facebook Representative

The folks at Socialbakers have also responded to the whole situation, CEO Jan Rezab making it clear that several factors should be considered when thinking about the power of Facebook in the UK.

“• Over 50% of UK’s entire population is on Facebook – which is amazing!
• About 15% of people in UK are under 13 years old therefore “not allowed” on Facebook
• 16.5% of people in UK are older than 65 and typically not on Facebook (only 4% of 65+ year olds out of the 33M are on Facebook in UK)”
- Socialbakers

Rezab also mentions that the ad interface for Facebook, the interface they’ve been working with to find the numbers they’ve presented this week, has a slight delay – slight as in typically by several weeks. Because of this, the changes in Monthly Active Users they’ve found cannot be accounted for by any of Facebook or Instagram’s Privacy Policy changes, and such conclusions should not be drawn from the numbers they’ve posted.

What you really should be asking at this point is where these “active users” are coming from? In fact what you’re seeing on AppData in the reports shown earlier this morning on sites such as the New York Post is not the active users on all platforms, but on Facebook specifically. This means that the amounts you’re seeing are specific to the Facebook app Instagram, not the app on iOS or Android. If you have a peek at Instagram on iOS on the leaderboards on AppData, you’ll notice that it’s currently number 9 overall (that’s today, the 28th of December) while back on the 17th of December is was number 22 – it’s actually gained quite a bit of popularity during this series of epic events for iOS!

The same is true of Android – if you look at how popular Instagram is today – number 3 on the top Free Apps list – and compare to back on the 17th of this month, you’ll find that it’s gone up a spot from number 4. That’s important on its own, but given the idea that we’re being told Instagram is losing popularity when it’s actually staying the same or gaining – that’s a rather significant difference!

So think about this, readers: when you see a site telling you an app has lost users but they only source one single platform, you might want to think twice! Instagram hasn’t lost popularity over this situation, it’s gained it! If users are leaving the Facebook version of Instagram in droves while masses of users are joining the mobile versions of the app, there can be only one reason why: they don’t like Instagram on Facebook. Simple as that!

We heard that Windows Blue may still use the controversial Metro UI design, while Mark Cuban spilled the beans on his gadget collection in an AMA on Reddit. Samsung is seeking a ban on Ericsson products here in the US, and the Panasonic P-02E 1080p Android smartphone showed up at the FCC. The expensive yacht that was built for Steve Jobs has been released from the impound lot, and we learned that Netflix will be introducing new social features next year.

Samsung will apparently be showing off a Smart TV UI refresh at CES 2013, and Google has extended free domestic Gmail calls in the US and Canada for another year. Rockstar released a collection of new Grand Theft Auto V screenshots, and we heard that the Samsung Galaxy S III might soon be heading to T-Mobile with LTE functionality. NVIDIA TegraZone landed on Windows RT today, and we heard how loud it is on the International Space Station thanks a new audio clip containing the station’s ambient noise.

Apple has a patent on file for a new kind of curved glass, while Microsoft announced that it will soon be opening six new store locations. The POP charger has been given approval by Apple, which means the project is a go once again, and Google said that it plans to take 90% of Microsoft Office’s audience for itself. Toyota will be paying out $1.1 billion in settlements for cases relating to the floor mat issues with the 2010 Lexus RX, and iPad mini yield problems are starting to look better. Netflix’s Christmas Eve outage was blamed on problems with Amazon’s Web Services, and finally tonight we have a review of the Adorama Flashpoint 500C LED camera light for you to have a look at. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of your night folks!

The posting of the rule changes came well before the actual change-over which will be occurring in January for the whole entire universe. The rule changes contained some questionable language regarding the ability of Instagram to sell photos posted with their service without the consent of the creator of said media – but the backlash on the web because of the posting has had more than one massively important result. The first was Instagram founder and CEO Kevin Systrom’s retreat, this mixed with the big exodus that appeared to be occurring throughout the week.

This update has Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes noting the following in an emailed statement:

“We believe this complaint is without merit and we will fight it vigorously.” – Noyes for Facebook

The rule changes announced earlier this month include a mandatory arbitration clause makes users have to waive their rights to participate in a class action lawsuit in most cases – except in extreme circumstances. Since these rules go into effect on January 19th, 2013, the current rules’ allowance of a class-action lawsuit are being taken full advantage of. The lawsuit reads, in part:

“Instagram is taking its customers property rights while insulating itself from all liability. … The purported concessions by Instagram in its press release and final version of the new terms were nothing more than a public relations campaign to address public discontent.”

The full complaint can be found in a Scribd posting which mentions ClassActionLawsuit.com as a source and notes Instagram user Lucy Funes as the person the entire suit is filed on behalf of. The complaint also includes the following:

“If customers do not agree with Defendant’s scheme, they can cancel their profile with Instagram. However, upon canceling, customers forfeit all right to retrieve the Property that was previously entrusted to Instagram, which retains rights thereto in perpetuity. In short, Instagram declares that ‘possession is nine-tenths of the law and if you don’t like it, you can’t stop us.’”

It’s of course important to note that Instagram’s new rules have not yet gone into effect and that you, the Instagram user, may leave any time you like. It’s because of these facts that Seattle lawyer Venkat Balasubramani has described the case as “an example of lawsuits against social networks gone completely amok”, as posted on Eric Goldman’s Technology and Marketing Law Blog – a publication of some note! Good luck, folks!

Steve Jobs’ massive yacht was impounded after the designer didn’t get his fee, and there’s apparently a new hardware issue that’s bricking Galaxy S III handsets. Apple has reached its highest-ever smartphone share coming in at 53.3%, while we took a quick look back at NASA’s lunar landers. A US Senator has introduced a new bill that will regulate data caps, and Hulu was busy today asking investors for $200 million in additional funding.

The Senate has passed a bill that will allow Netflix users to share what they’re watching on Facebook, and Apple said it will soon allow for 30-pin and Lightning dock connector combos. We found out today that Ubisoft may be looking to buy up some of THQ’s assets, while Electronic Arts dropped some new details on End Game, the next piece of Battlefield 3 DLC. Instagram has been updated on iOS and Android, and Facebook has released a new Poke app to take on Snapchat. The Archos 97 Titanium HD was revealed today with a impressive 2048×1536 resolution, while Google is said to be teaming up with Motorola to make a new X Phone.

Neilsen’s 2012 recap ranks the year’s top performers, and Google has launched a new search trial that uses receipts and hotel reservations from your Gmail account. Finally tonight, Chris Burns tells us why BlackBerry is jumping the shark with tiered service plans, Don Reisinger explains why the dual-screen TV experience doesn’t do anything for him, we go hands-on with EyeEm, and Chris Davies calls out Instagram for taking the lazy, sneaky way out. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the weekend folks!

The languages getting support with today’s update are Afrikaans, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, and Turkish. That’s certainly a long list, so a lot of Instagram users should have translation support for their language moving forward.

To make the deal even sweeter, Instagram has added a new “Mayfair” filter, which adds a “warm pink tone, subtle vignetting that brightens the center of the photograph, and a thin black border,” to your pictures. Instagram says this is best used when you’re taking photographs in well-lit areas, and that it works particularly well with the Lux feature. With the iOS update, Instagram will now automatically detect Facebook integration with iOS 6, which means that creating a new account or linking your existing one to Facebook will be much quicker.

On the other hand, the Android app will now allow Facebook page moderators to connect and share directly to a brand page. It sounds like a nifty little update for both Android and iOS users, and you can grab version 3.4.1 from the App Store now [download link] or version 3.4 from the Google Play Store [download link]. That is, you can grab them if you haven’t already decided to ditch your Instagram account.

[via Android Community]

The EyeEm app is easily the best Windows Phone 8 alternative to Instagram for more reason than one. The first reason – and the most important – is that Instagram does not exist on Windows Phone 8 in the first place. There’s been talk of a possible app in the future, but Instagram has made it clear on more than one occasion that they’re not investing their own resources into making an app for Windows Phone 8 (not yet, at least). The second reason is that this app’s features fit perfectly inside the Windows Phone 8 (and Windows Phone 7.5, mind you), aesthetic – images flying all over the place and screens and screens full of filtered photos look great on the platform.

After using the Windows Phone 8 version of the app for a few minutes, it became clear that we had to see how the app worked on the rest of the mobile universe. As it turns out, there’s more features for this app on iPhone and Android than there are on Windows Phone. While the Windows Phone 8 version is perfectly legitimate and worth the free download without a doubt, it’s even more exciting to see the app developing on Android and iOS.

The newest update to EyeEm occurred on the 19th of October, 2012 – that’s just earlier this week. This update brings the app up to version 3.0 and adds items such as Favorite Albums for photos you love the best, Invitations for friends to hook in to your friends via email as well as Facebook, and a collection of bug fixes (of course). In the end though, this is the same app as the Windows Phone 8 version – filters, sharing, tagging and all.

EyeEm has a burgeoning community both within the app and on the web – you can log in with your EyeEm account (with or without Facebook, mind you) and comment on photos in any web browser, connect to tags and locations, and edit your profile as well. You’ve got your own profile, mind you, and your connections to other EyeEm users exist both in the app and on the web.

In other words – this ecosystem is much more developed than Instagram ever has been – and if Facebook continues down the path it’s on now, EyeEm will continue to be be more of a fully-immersive ecosystem and social network unto itself than Instagram ever will be.

Then there’s the real kicker – Instagram’s privacy blunder here at the tail end of 2012 has opened the doors wide open for similar apps and ecosystems, with EyeEm right at the ready. They’ve got a message right up at the top of their Privacy Policy that says the following:

At EyeEm we respect & protect your image rights.

By using our service you’ll always remain the copyright holder of your images, your information is safe with us and we won’t do anything with your photos or data without asking for your permission.

Please read the following policy carefully, if you aren’t a lawyer we’ve included some notes to help you make sense of it.

The most important note they make is this – simple, plain, and clear: “We do not sell your information to anyone. However, please be aware that EyeEm is an open website and anyone can see what you’re posting.”

Have a peek at EyeEm today on the web, on the Windows Marketplace for your Windows Phone 8 device, on the Google Play app store, and on the iTunes App Store for your iPhone. Let us know how you like it!

As turnabouts go, it came as little surprise. Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom took to the company blog to thank his users for feeling “so strongly” that they gave “constructive feedback to help us build a better product.” Furious account deletion and a gush of people rediscovering their old Flickr accounts weren’t mentioned; instead, Systrom said, “there was confusion and real concern about what our possible advertising products could look like and how they would work.”

Philip Berne has already written about some reasonable assumptions Terms of Service authors should make when they’re putting together a policy. Common sense things like “the user’s stuff belongs to the user”; that, Instagram has been keen to point out at each step, is what the company’s own policy does say, but the florid language means it’s tough for regular users to take them at their word.

Are we inherently mistrustful of legalese? The irony is that we’re quick to hit “Accept” as soon as possible and get on with using software and services, generally without reading a single word of what’s put in front of us; we only get worked up when someone specifically points out the vague implications of that legalese, mustering a snowballing sense of outrage along the way.

Thing is, the track record of companies trying to streamline complex Terms of Service into something more user-friendly isn’t great. Google tried it earlier this year, hoping to pull the sixty-odd disparate policies its ever-spawning services required into a single agreement with more user-friendly phrasing, and the move earned it privacy advocate outcry and the threat of governmental censure in at least one European country.

Instagram had an opportunity to do its own legalese trimming. The company may have sold to Facebook for $1bn, but it’s still a lot more straightforward than Google’s portfolio of services, and it could have opted to express its expectations of users – and what expectations they can legitimately have of it – in a matter-of-fact way. Instead, Systrom simply hit the roll-back button, and basically said the company would just wait until the next round of changes to update the policy. It delayed the challenge, rather than facing it head on.

So that’s the lazy part; why sneaky? Clarity too often comes hand-in-hand with a change in user rights: companies use it as an umbrella to introduce other changes. In Google’s case, that was a loosening of the rules about what data used by one service could be shared with other services registered to the same account. For Instagram, it was a somewhat nebulous change in advertising policies that opened the door to unspecified money-making schemes down the line.

Instagram knows it screwed that part up – “rather than obtain permission from you to introduce possible advertising products we have not yet developed,” Systrom wrote, “we are going to take the time to complete our plans, and then come back to our users and explain how we would like for our advertising business to work” – and whether you see it as patronizing or simply blame-shifting depends on your comfort levels around entrusting elements of your digital life to a third-party.

Systrom and his team (and Facebook, of course) are returning to the drawing board to pin down exactly what these “possible advertising products” might be, but the core issue remains. Terms of Service are confusing and people don’t read them: they just react with outrage when someone tells them to be livid, while companies only seem to care about addressing that when there’s coincidentally something to be gained for them along the way. Instagram had an opportunity to take the lead in revolutionizing online contract confusion, but for all it talks of wanting to “communicate our intentions clearly” the only change has been a step backwards.

The updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy will go into effect on January 19. Those who have been using the service up until the terms of use announcement can rest easy, then, because the terms they agreed to previously will be back in place. The company also has made it clear how it avoid these kinds of issues in the future by spelling out the steps it will take.

Instead of dropping a variety of changes into the Internet wild and letting them be interpreted by users, Instagram will make changes and develop its plans first, then reveal the terms and plan once it knows what it is going to do. In addition, the company again stressed that it has no intentions of selling user photos, something it stated earlier this week to ease concerns.

Instagram’s co-found Kevin Systrom offered this statement. “Going forward, rather than obtain permission from you to introduce possible advertising products we have not yet developed, we are going to take the time to complete our plans, and then come back to our users and explain how we would like for our advertising business to work … I want to be really clear: Instagram has no intention of selling your photos, and we never did. We don’t own your photos – you do.”

I’ve seen a lot of strange reaction to this development. The basic reaction seems to be along the lines of “So what, they can use my blurry sunset/beer/self portrait/random building photo for all I care. It sucks anyway.” That’s great for all the narcissists out there who can only think of the photos they publish themselves, but there is real work going on with Instagram. There are professional photographers using the service. War photographers. People taking photos of their kids, their homes, their lives. People who actually care. Just because you take horrible photos and don’t think they are worth a penny doesn’t mean everyone feels the same. Nor does it mean everyone else should be obligated by your pathetic lack of empathy.

Of course, I’d have to be a moron to sign my name on the dotted line without reading the contract, right? Instagram did not force me to upload my photos, I chose to use their service. In the process of creating a username, password, and profile, I undoubtedly had to at least address the issue of the terms of service. Most likely, I checked a small box, because failure to check this small box resulted in a button that was grey and unclickable, and only checking the box would allow me to proceed.

In all the Web sites I’ve signed up for, the most stringent enforcement I’ve ever seen for reading the ToS is forcing the user to scroll all the way down to the bottom in order to find the magical check box. In these cases, I certainly did not read the terms of service, but I at least have some familiarity with their length. Longer equals more serious, so I assume these must be serious terms, written in serious language, and I will be in serious trouble if I ignore them. Whatever. Scroll, click, post.

If Terms of Service are so dire, why not a pop quiz at the end? When I was an English teacher, I knew that pop quizzes were a viable way to test whether the students had actually completed the reading assignment. They aren’t good for testing understanding, or learning, or interpretation. But if I wanted to make sure that my students read from page 35 to page 40, I gave a pop quiz.

Reading is important, and the difference between a student spending 20 minutes reading every night and a student who only reads for 5 minutes is quite a bit, in aggregate. A student who reads for 20 minutes every school night through middle school and High School will have read for an equivalent of 17.5 days by the time she graduates. A student who reads only 5 minutes a day will have read for just under 4 days.

Now let’s translate the same to Terms of Service agreements. According to a study published in “I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society” (download the .pdf here), if a user were to read all of the Privacy Policies he encounters in a year, it would consume about 250 hours of reading time.

Privacy Policies tend to be much longer than the Instagram Terms of Use, which weighs in at just over 1,000 words. But I know from writing numerous columns of 1,000 word length that most Internet users are not patient enough to read them in detail; and my columns are written in plain, if pretentious, English, without any legalese.

It is silly to expect users to read the entire Terms of Service. I ran the Instagram Terms of Use through a reading sample analyzer, and it registered a grade level of 8.5 on the Flesch-Kincaid scale. Now, most of you have probably reached higher than a ninth grade reading level, but should a High School education really be a requirement to post pictures of your cheeseburger? That assumes you went to a good High School, your teachers taught you properly, and you have maintained your reading ability since you graduated. Most states require a reading level for Insurance documents that is only a few points lower on the Flesch Reading Ease scale.

People sign up for a Web site with a few set expectations. The Terms of Service should take these expectations for granted, and should only make special note of terms that specifically contradict these expectations.

1. My stuff is mine, and nobody else can use it unless I say so. This goes for everything I post. My words on Twitter. My photos on Instagram. My relationships on Facebook. It’s all mine. I own it, and only I can use it, unless I have granted specific permission. You can look at it. You can analyze it, then pitch me advertisements based on what I say, what I see, and who I know. But you cannot use it for advertisements, or promotions, or even for an internal slideshow demonstrating the adulterated beauty of sunsets in the North Texas area.

2. My stuff will stay where I put it, until I decide to delete it. Then, it goes away forever. It should be easy to delete my stuff. It should be easy to find my stuff, until I erase it, after which it should be impossible to find. Also, you can kick me off and delete all my stuff at any time, for any reason. It’s your service, I’m just visiting.

3. I take full responsibility for everything I post. If I rob a bank and then post incriminating photos, that’s my fault, and I’m going to jail. If I take a self portrait and I didn’t see the flasher exposing himself in the background, that’s totally my bad. If I post a photo of my Mom and she hates it so much that she disowns me and sues me for defamation of character, I’m the one who has to deal with her, not the service.

That’s it. That’s all I expect. If there’s anything more, spell it out in the most plain English you can manage, preferably at a fifth grade reading level.

Tim Cook and Marissa Mayer have been singled out as TIME Person of the Year finalists, and YouTube has released a new video that aims to mash up all of the biggest viral stars of the year. Thieves in Washington somehow managed to make off with 7,000 Nintendo Wiis, while a new Google-run library is bringing you the Dead Sea Scrolls digitally. Samsung has passed Nokia to become the top cellphone brand of 2012, and Apple is now offering free next-day shipping on everything it sells, just in time for that last-minute holiday rush.

Xbox Live received a bunch of different video apps today, while Samsung launched a new 3,000 mAh battery for the Galaxy S III. The iPad mini and the iPhone 5 received a Wi-Fi fix with iOS 6.0.2, Twitter for BlackBerry was given Discover and Connect tabs, and a Brazilian company has released a device called “iPhone” that’s running Android. ZTE revealed its new Grand Era LTE that comes equipped with dual-mode LTE, and we saw a few screenshots that are reportedly from BlackBerry 10. We learned that 84% of Kickstarter projects miss their launch dates, and we caught a glimpse of the Huawei Ascend D2 in a leaked press shot.

There’s a new expansion coming next year for Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Google Fiber service is expanding to more neighborhoods in Kansas City. Foursquare and Apple might be close to striking a Maps integration deal, and finally tonight, we have reviews of the Samsung ATIV Smart PC and the Sony HX850 BRAVIA Internet TV for you to check out. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of your night folks!

That doesn’t sound very good, and indeed a lot of Instagram users – some of whom are professional photographers – are taking issue with that little clause, threatening to delete their accounts and move to Instagram’s competitors in protest. That obviously wouldn’t be very good for Instagram, which is why co-founder Kevin Systrom has taken to the Instagram Blog in an attempt to settle everyone down. His blog post is split up into three parts: advertising, ownership rights, and privacy settings, with advertising being far and away the largest section.

“I’m writing this today to let you know we’re listening and to commit to you that we will be doing more to answer your questions, fix any mistakes, and eliminate the confusion,” Systrom said. “As we review your feedback and stories in the press, we’re going to modify specific parts of the terms to make it more clear what will happen with your photos.” He points out that Instagram is first a business, hence the need for advertising, and that the update to the Terms of Service was to let users know that the company was considering testing “innovative advertising” that’s appropriate for Instagram. He clarifies that there are no plans to sell users’ photos, and that Instagram is currently working on clarifying the language in the Terms of Service.

He also reiterates that users will retain rights over the photos they upload to Instagram, but that’s something we already knew, considering that it says so right in the updated Terms. According to him, the company doesn’t have any plans to use members’ photos in advertisements, and the language that suggested as much will be removed. Finally, it appears that nothing is changing as far as privacy goes – if you set your profile to private, only those who you approve as followers will be able to see them.

It’s been a rough day for Instagram, so it isn’t really surprising to see Systrom take to the blog to try to smooth things over. His full post is definitely worth reading if you’re a concerned Instagram user on the verge of deleting your account, so be sure to have a look at it. We’re not sure how much this is going to help in the long run, what with the controversy spreading across the Internet like wildfire, but hearing from Systrom is better than nothing at all. Are you back on board with Instagram, or are you still taking your photos and hitting the ol’ dusty trail?

Before we get too deep into this guide, I’ve got to apologize for the slightly uneven skewing toward the iPhone audience. At the moment it still seems to be a real iPhone world when it comes to creating apps with funny filters for your camera – who knew!?

Flickr for iPhone

Flickr has a lovely app whose update recently turned it into a lovely do-it-all machine that not only works with your extensive Flickr library of photos, but adds filters on the go as well. Flickr is one of the most well-known photo storing and sharing interfaces on the planet, and the app is totally free as well. With all the cameras in the world working with Flickr, the iPhone remains the top of the stack – due in no small part to the fact that this app continues a strong connection to iOS. Have a peek at Flickr for iPhone and grab it right this minute!

Twitter

Well would you look at that? Twitter made the effort to bring on their own photo filters right after Instagram broke ties with them just this past week. Had to be a coincidence! Now you won’t actually have to leave Twitter in order to take a fancy filtered photo that you’re going to tweet anyway. This alternative makes perfect sense if you’ve always been using both services in the past. Twitter 5.2 marked the change-over for iOS, but you can also work with these filters in Android now as well.

Facebook

It’s a double-coincidence, and what do you know? Facebook also has its own photo filters too – when Facebook added these filters, they were already in the process of purchasing Instagram. Turns out they didn’t want to merge the two systems together, they wanted to make sure they had Instagram on their team. It might not be the best idea to “switch” to Facebook if you’re worried about Instagram owning your photos, however, as the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service we’re talking about above are coming straight from Facebook.

In other words, you’d be jumping right out of the frying pan and into the fire – made of little teeny-tiny frying pans themselves! Have a peek at the official Facebook app anyway – you’ll never escape.

Olympus Image Share

Back in October of 2012, the folks at Olympus came out with an app that was destined to be forgotten in the wake that was Instagram. Now is the time to head back to this Olympus Image Share App and try your luck. It’s got fancy filters galore and is made to work directly with a collection of Olympus cameras with FlashAir – it’s hot stuff! Note: there’s an iOS version now and an Android version will be out imminently if not soon!

Snapseed

Google owns the app known as Snapseed for both iOS and Android, and there’s currently no more perfect image-editing app on the market for this price. When you’re backed by Google and you offer up your app for free, that sort of thing happens. As it happens, this isn’t a direct competitor or equivalent to Instagram because it’s made not for instant-frying like the hipster-friendly shooter, instead it’s made to be an extremely effective photo editing app for photos that are meant to be displayed large – it’s big-time!

Instagram itself recommends one tool, Instaport, which allows users to download either all or a subset of their photos. Currently that’s as a ZIP file, though Instaport says RSS options and Flickr imports are in the pipeline too. It’s also possible to download based on tags (up to a maximum of 500 shots) and download those photos shared by friends that you’ve favorited.

OpenPhoto takes a slightly different approach, and is a far more flexible tool than Instaport. It allows users to extract their Instagram shots – as well as those from other sites – and upload them to a personal gallery on Amazon S3, in Dropbox, or on your own computer. Mac users wary of web services can turn to InstaBackup, a free app that runs on OS X and saves a local copy of all images onto your computer.

Finally, Copygram is more about getting real prints of Instagram shots, but also includes a back-up option that allows you to create a ZIP download of all your content on the service. It’s possible to save all the shots you’ve ever taken, or the most recent (from 10 to 10,000).

Once you’ve actually pulled your photos, you’ll then need to delete your account using Instagram’s tool. Head over to the account deletion page - log in, if you’re not logged in already – and follow the steps there to wipe your digital presence from their servers. Be warned, though, not only can Instagram not restore your data should you have a change of mind, you also won’t be able to re-activate your old username:

“When you delete your account, your photos, comments, likes, and friendships (everything) will be removed permanently and will not be recoverable. We cannot reactivate accounts. Additionally, you will not be able to sign up with the same username again” Instagram

Most of the Instagram data-extraction tools are getting hammered amidst the rush of people hoping to leave the service, so it’s worth noting that the new terms of service don’t actually come into effect until mid-January 2013. There’s still plenty of time to close down your account before then, so if you’re struggling to do it now, you could always add a reminder in your diary to check back when things should have quieted down in a few days time.

Of course, rather than ditching Instagram altogether, another approach is to recognize that a little flexibility is the price you pay for a free service. Instagram – and new owners Facebook – are arguably unlikely to make a fortune licensing out those heavily-filtered Starbucks mugs you’ve got into the habit of snapping; is the risk of having one of your shots used worth being able to take advantage of all Instagram’s other features without a monthly subscription?

There are several segments in the Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use posted this week that will take effect starting on the 16th of January, 2013. The first of these bits of text is right up at the start of the Privacy Policy with “User Content” attached to it. This is where Instagram/Facebook tells you what you must understand from the moment you log in to Instagram:

By using our Service you understand and agree that we are providing a platform for you to post content, including photos, comments and other materials (“User Content”), to the Service and to share User Content publicly. This means that other Users may search for, see, use, or share any of your User Content that you make publicly available through the Service, consistent with the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use (which can be found at http://instagram.com/legal/terms).

This means first that you, by signing into Instagram, agree that you’re posting your content publicly. The follow-up clause there simply states that users other than yourselves also have the right to access the content you share “consistent with the terms and conditions” of the Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use – this is vague enough to fit many, many different models as the rest of the Privacy Policy text as well as the Terms of Use say many different things about your content that, taken alone, could mean very different things. Next is a piece of the 1 INFORMATION WE COLLECT segment of the Privacy Policy, right under “Information you provide us directly:”

“User Content (e.g., photos, comments, and other materials) that you post to the Service.”

This means, basically, that Instagram acknowledges the fact that they host the photos you post. Also in the Privacy Policy is a rule about what Privacy actually means, hinging it on the ability of an app (whichever app you’re using) to make it “private” and leaving it at that – this alleviates Instagram from fault should the app you’re using make your photo public on accident – or if Instagram prefers, public because the app in question hasn’t agreed with them on what “private” really means.

“Any information or content that you voluntarily disclose for posting to the Service, such as User Content, becomes available to the public, as controlled by any applicable privacy settings that you set.”

Added in this privacy section is a note on how your photos will likely live on forever, no matter what you do:

“If you remove information that you posted to the Service, copies may remain viewable in cached and archived pages of the Service, or if other Users or third parties using the Instagram API have copied or saved that information.”

Then there’s the big doozy: in the Rights section in Instagram’s new Terms of Use, number one on the list essentially grants Instagram (and Facebook) rights over your photos from top to bottom. Note the vagueness of the limits and the pointing back toward the Privacy Policy which, again, is vague in and of itself enough to have you speaking in legal circles.

“Instagram does not claim ownership of any Content that you post on or through the Service. Instead, you hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use the Content that you post on or through the Service, except that you can control who can view certain of your Content and activities on the Service as described in the Service’s Privacy Policy, available here: http://instagram.com/legal/privacy/.”

Then there’s the lovely pointed length of text guaranteeing the Instagram and Facebook team the right to use not only your photos, but your own likeness, name, username, and metadata as well to sell to “a business or other entity” of any kind “to help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions.” That’s the part where Instagram and Facebook own (and can sell) all of your photos.

“Some or all of the Service may be supported by advertising revenue. To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you. If you are under the age of eighteen (18), or under any other applicable age of majority, you represent that at least one of your parents or legal guardians has also agreed to this provision (and the use of your name, likeness, username, and/or photos (along with any associated metadata)) on your behalf.”

And just for good measure, Instagram has made it clear that they don’t have to tell you when they’re working with paid services, sponsored content, or anything of the like:

“You acknowledge that we may not always identify paid services, sponsored content, or commercial communications as such.”

What do you think? Sound like a set of rules that might have you thinking twice about taking photos of your prized unique napkin drawing? Or do you just take photos of objects and people you don’t mind being sold without your consent and for profit with no monetary compensation given to you for the work?

“Our updated privacy policy helps Instagram function more easily as part of Facebook by being able to share info between the two groups. This means we can do things like fight spam more effectively, detect system and reliability problems more quickly, and build better features for everyone by understanding how Instagram is used” Instagram

According to the new Privacy Policy, Instagram will be able to share “information from cookies, log files, device identifiers, location data, and usage data” among other data between it, Facebook, and other companies under the same ownership. Device identifiers include “data stored in connection with the device hardware, data stored in connection with the device’s operating system or other software, or data sent to the device by Instagram.”

Although privacy policies and ToS of this sort are commonplace, the fact that Facebook faces ongoing mistrust for its own approach toward privacy is likely to leave many concerned about Instagram’s changes. Facebook changed its privacy systems this month, in an attempt to make the granular controls more user-friendly.

Exactly how the shared data will be used by the Facebook and Instagram teams is unclear, though it’s one of the first signs of integration between the services that we’ve seen post-acquisition. Instagram’s exec team has been keen to point out that the app will be run as a separate enterprise for the time being, and indeed Facebook still offers its own-brand rival services, like the Camera app for iOS.

According to Reuters, twitter offered $525 million to purchase Instagram. According to the report, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom had verbally agreed to sell his company to twitter for $525 million in March. Systrom later canceled the deal according to sources familiar with negotiations.

Reuters reports that during negotiations with Instagram twitter executives had given Systrom a term sheets that outlines the details of the proposed deal. Systrom told California state regulators under oath after selling to Facebook that Instagram hadn’t received any “formal offers or term sheets” from buyers other than Facebook.

After Systrom backed out of the twitter deal, relations between the two companies soured. Relations between twitter and Instagram have soured to the point that earlier this month Instagram shut off twitter’s ability to display Instagram photos from users. Twitter also rolled out its own Instagram mimicking filters. Facebook’s $1 billion purchase included a cash and stock deal.

[via Reuters]

The new app also streamlines the sign-up process, making it more straightforward to set up a new Flickr account without having to visit the website. All of the usual privacy settings are supported – making photos public or locking them down – and there’s sorting by location, too, in case you only want to see photos that were taken in a specific location.

Overall, though, it’s the filter tools that stand out. Flickr has added sixteen different effects to choose from, in addition to correction tools and retouching functionality, in what seems to be a direct challenge to Instagram and other mobile photography apps.

That may well be an attempt by Yahoo to reclaim some lost ground in the segment; although Flickr has a well-recognized brand, Instagram and the new filters added to the Twitter apps have grabbed the attention of casual smartphone photographers.

Flickr for iPhone is a free download from the App Store [iTunes link], for iPhone and iPod touch. So far, there’s no sign of an iPad-specific version.

[via The Appside]

The release of the app could have been accelerated after Instagram opted to break support for integration of photos through Twitter’s “Cards” system. The breakup was finalized over the weekend, with Instagram hoping to drive traffic to its own freshly-revealed profile pages rather than leave viewers consuming content on Twitter.

Instagram then followed up with a new version of its app yesterday, complete with more filtering options and FourSquare support baked in. Available for both iOS and Android, it allows links to photos to be pushed to Twitter from within the app, but not previews of the photos themselves.

Meanwhile, Android users have been able to enjoy the new Twitter app since yesterday, with the updated software already available for free download from the Play store. We’re guessing Twitter has encountered a last-minute approval hiccup with Apple and that the iOS version will be winging its way into the store soon, but exactly when that will happen is unclear.

The new version comes with a redesigned camera that integrates with the iOS camera roll, which makes it cleaner and faster to add photos that you’ve already shot to Instagram. There’s also new optional grid guides that you can enable when shooting photos, as well as a permanent grid on the scaling and cropping screen.

Another major new addition is the integration of Foursquare data. For now on, location pages will have a Foursquare button that can open either the app or a mobile web version with details about the location. It’s definitely a welcomed featured, especially considering Instagram’s Photo Map made locations an important part of the experience.

Lastly, there’s improved tilt-shift functionality and also a new filter called “Willow” that’s making its way to Android as well. The update is rolling out now to the iTunes App Store, as well as the Google Play store for the Android version. We’re currently not seeing the updates, so if you’re experiencing the same, it looks like you’ll have to be patient for a little bit.

Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom confirmed the split from Twitter was intentional last week, describing it as partly prompted by user confusion about the Cards system. “Not many people know what Twitter cards are” he argued, before going on to suggest that guiding users to Instagram’s own site would lead to a better user experience.

Hopes that the vocal outcry on Twitter itself from users might change Systrom’s mind were dashed, however, with the preview functionality being disabled completely over the weekend.

“Instagram has disabled photo integration with Twitter. As a result, photos are no longer appearing in Tweets or user photo galleries” Twitter said in a statement. “While tweeting links to Instagram photos is still possible, you can no longer view the photos on Twitter, as was previously the case.”

The relatively low-key response from Twitter may be down to the fact that the company is working on its own Instagram-rivaling functionality. A set of photo-editing filters are believed to have been baked into the official Twitter mobile apps, with an imminent launch and a sneaky preview from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey in recent weeks.

However, those still committed to Instagram or simply wanting to see the photos of their Instagram-using friends could find salvation in an unofficial Chrome extension, USA Today reports. InstaTwit is a free add-on to Google’s browser that restores the previews, though it obviously only works in the browser view of Twitter, not the official apps.

If true, the new feature would follow Instagram’s moves to drive more traffic to its own user profiles. The company blocked Instagram images from showing up correctly in Twitter’s “cards” layout last week, a strategy which although initially suspected to be an error, was later confirmed to be a strategic decision on Facebook-owned Instagram’s part.

Talk of a set of official Twitter photo tools broke earlier in the year, with insiders suggesting the 140-character social service had already planned to encroach on Instagram’s turf. The appeal of the image sharing market – which saw, for instance, in excess of 200 Thanksgiving-themed shots shared through Instagram every second on the US public holiday – has not been lost on Facebook, either, though Zuckerberg & Co. have insisted that Instagram will remain a distinct entity for the time being.

Twitter has declined to comment on the filter whispers, though chairman Jack Dorsey may have been flaunting the new functionality in our faces already. Multiple filtered images shared through his own Twitter account show evidence of editing, including an image of a plane wing posted last week.

With Christmas and New Year festivities inevitably seeing plenty of photo-taking, an accelerated launch of Twitter’s own filter features is certainly understandable. However, given that Christmas is only two weeks away, the company has little time left to deliver the polish users will demand if seasonal sharing is to go smoothly.

Xbox Smartglass has been updated with support for the iPhone 5′s screen, and today Verizon is celebrating the two year anniversary of its 4G LTE launch. Instagram’s CEO sounded off on the split with Twitter today, saying that while it was intentional, it wasn’t an act of war, and we learned that Google Maps will soon be hitting the Wii U with augmented reality exploration. Verizon has filed a patent for a set top box with a camera built in, which sounds incredibly creepy, and Canalys says that 50% of all mobile app revenue went to just 25 developers last month.

The original Batmobile is going up for auction, and IDC is predicting that Apple will lose a significant amount of market share to Android and Windows in the coming years. AT&T is on track to have a record-breaking quarter, and astronomers have spotted a new solar system 450 light years away. Google Now has been updated with new features that frequent travelers are bound to like, we heard that Skype video messaging might be on the way shortly, and new fossil data is telling us that the first dinosaurs may have walked the planet 15 million years earlier than we originally thought.

Finally tonight, we have a number of original posts for you to have a look at. Don Reisinger asks if an unlocked iPhone 5 is really all that great, while Chris Burns tells us why the Nokia Lumia 620 might save Windows Phone 8. Chris Burns also gave us his review of the Sonos SUB, while Vincent Nguyen tells us what he thought of the all new 27-inch iMac. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of your night folks!