Instagram for Android review
Now,
let's begin the actual review by talking what we always talk about
first which is the menu layout. The way this application is set out
is probably one of the reasons it is so successful, this menu is easy
as crap to learn, simple and beautiful all at the same time. Along
the bottom row, you have your Home, Popular, Picture, News and
Profile tabs which all do as their pictures suggest. In the Home
section, this is basically your time line of everybody you follow on
Instagram and it allows you to see all their pictures they’ve
uploaded and like and comment on them, simple but beautiful. The
Popular section is probably similar to “trending” on Twitter with
the most liked and commented-on pictures appearing in this section.
You have the camera tab next which allows you to either take a
picture directly from your camera or choose one from your gallery. On
this note, you d have the option to choose the Instagram in-built
camera app which basically lets you shoot images in the
square-shaped size that Instagram allows you with a nice interface.
Next, you have the News tab which lets you see recent activity such
as if anyone's recently followed you, your friends like a picture or
a friend comments on a picture. It's just kind of the more News-side
of things! The final tab is your profile tab in which you can see
your followers, who you're following, how many pictures you've
uploaded, he pictures you've uploaded and all these things you'd
expect from a profile page. It's so simple and yet works so well and
that is what makes Twitter popular and that is the reason, I believe
Instagram has been a huge success on the iOS platform and is has now
been transferred over to Android.
The
general presentation of the application is beautiful as well, it runs
so smoothly and quickly which is a nice change to a lot of ported
apps from iOS. The scrolling is nearly flawless and I'm sure it is
flawless on ICS devices, the pages load quickly and because
everything is so simple everything just gels so well. The physical
look of Instagram is a beaut; as I mentioned before the layout is so
simple and yet the blues and grey accent one another really well. We
all know I prefer things to be simple yet have an elegance about
them!
When
I downloaded this application I was genuinely excited about what
everyone was raving about on iOS, however I had a feeling deep down I
would be let down as I am with most ports from iOS. Yet I was
pleasantly surprised, there's nothing about the app that screams out
to me, but that's what makes it so addictive and is the reason I keep
coming back to it. It's like Facebook and Twitter, you don't really
understand why you're so
addicted to them, but you are. That is exact;y the element that
Instagram has in it, you want to randomly look at other people's
photos, you want to upload crap photos that end up looking
professional and you want to know who's recently started following
you. Instagram was a massive hit on the iOS platorm due to
it's ease of use and massive social aspects; I can guaren-damn-tee
you this is going to be a hit on the Android platform also. If you
haven't yet downloaded the application and really want to now I've
told you all about it, check out the link after the break.
Thanks to James Richardson for the screenshots used in this review!
Seeing
as Instagram for Android hit just yesterday, I thought I'd give it a
review so those of you who are yet to download it can see what all
the hype is about. Now before we start let me tell you a little about
what Instagram really is. Instagram is a photo-taking application
with a twist; the twist is that yes it takes beautiful pictures and
gives them cool effects, but what makes it better than other camera
applications is the social side of things. You have the ability to
share your photos straight to Twitter, FourSquare Facebook or Tumblr
which you may be saying “well most camera applications can do
that.” But what takes this application to the next level is that
Instagram is kind of it's ow social networking site in that you can
sign up by simply entering your email, password and a username (and
phone number if you wish) you choose a display picture and you have
set up your account. Then you can find your other friends who use
Instagram by searching your Twitter followers or friends on Facebook
or through your contacts. Then you have the stream that allows you to
see everyone's of whom you're following. I think this is the feature
that has made Instagram so popular (plus the fact the effects make it
look like your pictures are professional.)
Now,
let's go a bit more in-depth with the actual picture taking part of
the application as this is the main reason for Instagram, it is a
picture sharing application after all. Now what made Instagram so
popular was that it was one of the first applications to do filters
on the iPhone and to do them so well. You have eighteen different
filters to play with on Instagram and I'm sure somewhere down the
line, they'll bring in some new ones. These effects all have their
own little personality that they bring to the picture, whether you
want the picture to look gloomy, old fashioned, fun, weird or just
plain professional, you can do that. What amazes me about this
application's effects is that you can take a picture of a pen for
example and with the right layer on it, you could give that picture a
meaning. It's truly something you have to download the application
and start playing with the effects to really experience. On this
note, what I think a lot of people like about this application is
that because the layers look so professional, it makes their normally
quite dull pictures look professional.
Usability - 8.9
Options - 7.9
Presentation - 8.6
Dependability - 9.0
OVERALL - 8.6
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| Instagram Download |
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