The world of social networking is crowded and when we say crowded we do not mean the millions of people using social networking sites, we refer to the websites. As you can see in this list, it’s not just Facebook, Google+ and Twitter, but many more. One that is becoming popular lately is Pheed, which was launched late last year and last month topped the App Store’s social networking category.

Pheed allows its users to post text updates, photos, video and audio clips, and you can even create a live broadcast. So it’s Facebook + Twitter + Instagram + YouTube + UStream.

According to the company, 81% of Pheed users are between the age 14 and 25. This popularity among teens is most probably because Pheed got a lot of publicity on Twitter via many influential teenagers including Acacia Brinley, Pia Mia, and Garrett Backstorm.

One other attractive feature on Pheed is that it allows users to charge $1.99 to $34.99 for accessing their ‘channels’, one can choose either pay-per-view or a monthly subscription. Many celebrities including Miley Cyrus and Paris Hilton are currently on Pheed with thousands of subscribers. But the question is whether users will subscribe to a celeb if they have to pay, since they can follow him/her on Twitter for free.

Pheed is both a website and an app. It’s available via the App Store and online. So, are you already using it or not?

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This week Instagram has released a new iOS application update to version 3.2.0, and Android update to version 3.3.  This update adds an awesome new filter and a plethora of other enhancements that are a must have for all those shutterbugs.

Instagram’s new filter is the Willow, which provides a long asked for monochrome effect.  Also included is a new faster camera, improved shifting and tilting and an infinite scroll feature on profiles with the Instragram app.  Instagram also notes:

“We added a Foursquare button on location pages that opens the Foursquare app (or Foursquare mobile website) with details about the venue. Filtered photos are now saved to a separate album called “Instagram” in the camera roll.”

Head on over to the Apple store or Google Play store to get the latest version of Instagram.

Have you updated yet?  What do you think?

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While the Instagram API uses both non-secure HTTP and secure HTTPs connections, the weird thing is that it uses the non-secure path for your account’s authentication. All it does is store a standard cookie on your device, sent without encryption. What this means is that if you’re using an unsecure connection, like public Wi-Fi at Starbucks, someone could potentially intercept that cookie and use it to authenticate themselves into your account.

The hacker can then utilize a variety of API calls to do all sorts of nasty things with your Instagram account, deleting your #foodporn pics with ease. The sad thing is that the person who discovered this security hole contacted Instagram about it, but hasn’t heard anything back. The solution is actually pretty simple on Instagram’s part: start using secure, encrypted cookies instead.

In the meantime, the actual threat level is pretty low, since it’s unlikely the guy at Starbucks is going to try and hack into your Instagram account, but you should be aware that the threat is there.

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Even though you may question why you would want a photo editing device when Instagram offers basic filters, if you enjoy playing around with your images and making them perfect, Vintique is the app for you.

Editing Features

There are quite a few editing features on Vintique – more than enough for the average Instagram user that is satisfied with one-touch filter.

There are about thirty different filters you can use to make your image different, from the really subtle to the eccentric.

After filter changes, there are many different editing tools to make your image look different – you can also take your pick out of what you want from the filter, for example, if it was blue tint, you can choose to take the tint off.

There are high amounts of blur, fade and different ways to change your image.

The one problem we found with most filters were they weren’t very nice, they made the image look worse than the original.

Usability 

Getting your way around the app is quite simple, Vintique has done a great job at keeping the app in one area, instead of branching out to many different pages.

There aren’t really any degrading tools that make your app run slower.

The experience on the app was one of freedom to do whatever you want and simplicity, two things you want in photo editing.

Sharing

Sharing means a great deal to some people and having a good deal of social networks linked is always a plus.

Vintique has Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to share, the free main ones. It would be nice if they added to this list a bit. Hipstamatic and other photo sharing apps would be good options.

Sharing is an easy experience, as we expected from Vintique.

Pros

• Tons of editing features
• Basic design for novice users
• Fast sharing with Instagram

Cons

• Many filters look awful
• Could have more sharing links

Vintique – Overall

The app is good if you are ever looking to add more than just one filter or one feature to your Instagram image. If you are into photo editing or want to start, this is a good app to test your skills too.

Pick it up on iOS today.

The post App Review: Vintique – iOS appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Instragram has recently updated to version 3.0, arguably one of the most epic versions of the app so far. What makes version 3.0 so compelling? A new feature called “Photo Maps” allows geotagged photos on a map to appear to various friends that a user is open to sharing them with.

When loading up the new version of the app, Instragram asks what previously geotagged photos you want to load into your new personal map and from then on will ask which photos to add each time you upload new ones. While the new Photo Maps system is probably the biggest new feature in 3.0, it’s not the only change. A new multi-line caption editing system, a new streamlined photo uplading system, and speed improvements also are baked into this welcome update. The bad news is that Twitter has shut off its API to the company with the acquistion of Instragram by Facebook, and that means “Find Friends” for Twitter is no longer a feature in the app.

You can get your hands on the newest version of Instagram through both Google Play and the App Store.

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Instead of waiting for the package to be complete, it looks like Facebook is going about this by releasing bits and pieces at a time. You probably noticed the launch of the Facebook Camera app, for example, and this could simply be ported over as the native camera app on a Facebook phone. It just tacks on the Instagram filters and social sharing that everyone wants anyway.

There’s also a Facebook Messages app that is separate from the core Facebook app and this could bode well as the core messaging app on a smartphone, branching out to include SMS and possibly working as a powerful alternative to BBM or WhatsApp. And there’s already a Facebook app store too, so they’re fully prepared to tackle the iTunes App Store, Google Play, or Windows Marketplace.

The way things are shaping up, the Facebook phone will not be utilizing Android. Instead, it’ll be running its own dedicated OS, complete with its own app store, own messaging app, and so on. In fact, it’s rumored that Facebook wants to buy Opera, possibly to acquire the mobile browser for its new smartphone OS. The new OS will easily tap into existing Facebook frameworks for contacts, calendars, and other similar functions.

It’s hard to say when and if a “true” Facebook smartphone will hit the market, but it sure looks like they’re inching in that direction, one acquisition and release at a time.

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A new Facebook application has hit the scene that will allow you to take Instagram-styled pictures and share them with iPhones. This app syncs to the social network and makes sharing and using Facebook photos much easier than ever before. The program also has the ability to share many pictures at the same time, instead of individually posting them. In April, Facebook bought Instagram in a multi-billion dollar purchase, so it isn’t really surprising to see an app like this surfacing. Since the release of Instagram in 2010, the app has been downloaded for iOS devices about 30 million times- which is fairly impressive to say the least.

While creations like the Facebook Camera app are a step in the right direction for pulling the company out of a small slump, there are other setbacks that stand in their way, namely dozens of law suits from investor complaints. These suits say that Facebook distributed the shares while with-holding crucial forecasts that pointed to weaker growth for Facebook, instead only sharing this information with bigger clients.

While Facebook is still a giant in the social networking world, MySpace has proven to us that even the biggest social giant is vulnerable to failure in this very competitive market.

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While Google Play “Android market” has certainly become more accurate in weeding out malware apps, the Android platform as a whole is still quite plagued by these attacks.  The newest malware nuisance comes to us as a fake version of “Instagram”. Recently the real version hit the market, to much anticipation, and shortly after this fake version showed up to seize the opportunity.

At first glance, it looks like the real version for Android, but in all reality it just reads your SMS messages and has the potential to collect personal data and install additional malware onto your phone.

Many reports say that it doesn’t really work as well as Instagram should, so if you find that your copy is acting weird, might not be a bad idea to uninstall it and make sure you get it from Google Play. Basically, the best protection here is to avoid using 3^rd party app marketplaces that serve you the apk files directly, unless you highly trust them or are willing to take the risk of malware issues.
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