Tuesday’s Tech of the Week: Instagram Edition
With Facebook's acquisition of Instagram, the tech world is all a-buzz over what this means for vintage-looking filters, square crops, and more. It only seems fitting that we turn this week's tech focus to good old Instagram, and all the websites, gadgets and apps that take it to the next level. Plus, how fun is it to turn pretty much any word into a play on Instagram?
First, the basics.
InstaFriends: This site is a super simple web interface for viewing your photo feed. It shows you your followers, your fans, and your friends in a simple, clean way.
Statigr.am: Looking for a Flickr-esque stats page? Head to Statigr.am. Here you can view your most popular photos, what filters you've used the most, and you can view your Instagram feed Pinterest-style.
Instaport: Switched iPhones one too many times? Or are super vigilant about keeping your iPhone library clear but have no idea where you saved all those photos? Instaport allows you to download all of your Instagram photos to your hard drive in high resolution.
: Yep. A photo feed of #cats is considered part of the basics when it comes to just about anything on the internet. Icanhazinstacat? If cats aren't your jam, check out sister site
.
Next, we've got sites that turn your Instagram photos into sweet objects.
Stitchtagram: Don't you want to lay your head down on your 25 favorite Instagram photos? Now you can! This is a cute idea for putting together photos from a road trip, a wedding, or simply your favorite neon signs. These puppies go for $53 a pop.
: Highlighted in
, ImageSnap's Teeny Tiles were made specifically with Instagram in mind. Create magnets or itty bitty modular wall art.
: Found an image on Instac.at that is so awesome you need to wear it? Boom. Instateez. At the moments, tees are just $16 and you can easily
with friends so anyone can buy it!
Hatchcraft: These gorgeous bamboo shadow box frames are offered in two sizes, and come with your uploaded photos mounted flat onto the wood. Though marketed to Instagram users, these frames work for any photo you can crop into a square.
There's a whole host of sites that track Instagram by time, place, tag, popularity, but here are a few that take your Instagram feed and transform it into a scrapbook, a game, a fashion mag, and a map.
Timehop: Pulling in data from foursquare, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, Timehop offers a daily glimpse at your life through social media one year ago today. What photos did you take? Where did you check in?
Cartagr.am: Basic cartography meets Instagram in this charming visualization of photos taken all over the world.
52 Grams: Part look book, part catalog, part fashion plate, 52 Grams is a cool little web tool for sharing your personal style with the world. Take any photo you've got and tag your clothes and accessories with brand, designer, price, and anything else you want to include.
Instamatch: Remember how fun it was to match the squirrel to the squirrel? Instamatch takes the classic memory card matching game and gives it an Instagram update. Rather than simply matching identical cards, match two that capture a sunset, two that are of a front door, or accidentally find yourself matching two doppelgängers!
: This project is currently awaiting funding on
and is just as awesome as it sounds. By setting Instaprint to look out for specific locations or hashtags (for ex: @ Brit HQ or #tahoesurprise), it enables everyone at your event to be the photographer. Plus, the printing process uses an inkless technology where all the color is pulled from the paper itself!