Hi, I’m Matt Balara.I solve design problems with my head.

Instagram snagged over 100,000 users in its first week in the iTunes App Store, so there are plenty of you out there who’d be happy to leave the “almost” off of the headline above. When I first installed it a few weeks ago, my first thought was “I already share photos on Flickr. What do I need this for?” My mate Lachlan Hardy and I had a long chat about it and agreed throughout, but I’ve got to say my attitude’s changed after a recent 42 day trip through 14 cities in Europe.

If you’ve never heard of Instagram (you can skip this paragraph if you have) it’s an iPhone app that allows you to make a photo, crop it to a square format - which makes sense considering the screen you view the photos on - apply one of eleven filters to it - to give it the look of a 70’s Polaroid for example - and post it to the ‘net with a location and a comment. You can find and follow other Instagram users, and what they post, you see, and your followers see your posts. You can also choose to simultaneously post your photos to Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, Tumblr and send your location to Foursquare to check in.

At first I snapped a little and looked through my feed occasionally, but on my recent trip I really started to get into Instagram. Taking me back to my Polaroidiary days, I started shooting whatever I was experiencing wherever I was and sharing it with friends. In the spirit of “the best camera is the one that’s with you” (can anyone give me the original source of that quote?) through Instagram I learned to appreciate my iPhone’s camera and really enjoy making photos with it, and found it especially suited, due to it’s inconspicuousness, to making candid shots of the people around me. Instagram is shoot from the hip and share, and contrary to my first opinion, I found it a great way to easily share snapshots, with the option of posting the best of them to Flickr as desired. Instagram’s interface makes it quick and easy to do what it’s there for and I’ve really had fun with it.

There’s just one grain of sand in the Instagram ointment.

The small irritant is that Instagram pays at best lip service to the web as we usually see it, i.e. in a browser (but hopefully not IE). If you choose to post a photo to Twitter, it creates a short link, like this: http://instagr.am/p/e7NZ/. The page shown completely omits the location and comment of the photo, and there’s nothing else - no way to see any other photos, the photographer’s profile or followers - nothing but the photo. And, if you neglect to post your photos to Twitter, there’s no way at all to get a link to your photo after the fact - it can only be viewed in the Instagram app itself. My web sharing & grazing take place on at least 3 platforms depending on context, and I like to have a link for every bit of data I’m putting out there, to use when and as I see fit. This post is a perfect example: I can only share photos here that I either posted to Flickr or Twitter. I can’t link to all photos from a certain day or place, for example, nor can I send you to my Instagram page to see all of my photos.

Going on the principle of focussing on the essence, I can understand Instagram’s decision - it’s a mobile app, and the shooting, sharing & viewing are intended to happen on a mobile device, and that all works fine. I can understand it, but I’m a little irritated all the same. To be fair, it could also be a “core first” decision, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they beefed up the web view in the future. Any Instagrammies out there got any inside goss on this?

Side note: when I was made aware of the Instagram Terms of Service, which gave Instagram and other users the right to use your photos as they see fit, I was ready to drop the app completely. To their credit Instagram reacted quickly and corrected what was apparently a bit of a copy & paste error. Kudos to the Instagram team. You can see the updated ToS here.

Update: the Instagram guys let me know that you can grab the link to a photo by tapping the … button on the right under any photo you’re looking at.

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No lengthy witticisms, no in depth analysis, no lovely designs. Just my first test post from the new WordPress app for the iPhone.

So far only one little problem: when I’m writing a new post and tap into categories, once I’m done, the “done” & “save” buttons have disappeared from the top bar, and all the buttons from the bottom, as you can see in the screenshot. This makes it impossible to set categories and save them as the only option is to tap “Posts” and discard changes. This process also seemed to have killed the image I’d already added. Surely just growing pains…

Otherwise it rocks! Looking forward to the next version.

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Next month I’ll be in New York for the Future of Web Design, and what does a geek who’s on the wrong side of the pond (when it comes to gadgets) think when he thinks “New York”? Well, I’m a photo geek first and foremost, so I think D300 of course, but not far behind that I think “iPhone”.

The lovely little toy is going for $399 in the states. Although amazon.de somewhat hastily posted it back in January for €999, it will apparently cost €399 when it comes out over here on November 9th. This side of the pond does have it’s advantages, namely $399 = €285 and makes New York + iPhone purchase a very good deal, right? Well, an American iPhone is locked into the AT&T network. Think about that. Imagine a car that only runs if you fill it up at a Shell station. Now imagine that Shell doesn’t exist in Europe.

Which led me down the dark and narrow alley of iPhone unlocking research…

Any wall a geek can build, an army of geeks can tear apart within a day. I could buy an iPhone, unlock it, and use it over here. However I’d never be able to update the software (Apple updates “brick” unlocked iPhones, turning them into pretty junk) and you’ll violate your warranty, but you can use any provider you want. The legality of “bricking” is pretty questionable, but I’m in no position to sue Apple. It’s also not quite clear if Apple intended to brick unlocked phones, but that’s beside the point.

Not being a true über-geek, and not stupid, I probably won’t buy an iPhone (at least not in the U.S.) and unlock it, even if it’d save me more than €100. I like software updates and warranties. But it does piss me the hell off to think that Apple — a company I generally love to the point of irrationality — will blackmail a loyal fan into buying out of his exisiting mobile contract (not cheap), force me into a contract with T-Mobile although I don’t want one, and will render a device I’d pay $399 for useless if I enable it over here and update its software, which is my right if the damn thing’s mine, isn’t it?

Is anyone out there in a position to sue Apple? I reckon they’ve got it coming this time.

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