Facebook buys iOS photo, video app maker Digital Staircase
updated 07:45 pm EST, Mon November 7, 2011
Facebook buys creator of StereoCam, SmartSplice
Digital Staircase quietly mentioned Monday that it had been bought out by Facebook. The three-year-old startup is responsible for the iOS photo editing apps SmartSplice and StereoCam as well as MovieCam, a more advanced video recorder. All of its apps will leave the App Store on or around December 5, although they will keep working for owners who leave them installed.
The company wouldn't say definitively what Facebook's plans would be. It was bringing the company's visual editing tools "to a broader audience," Digital Staircase said. "New innovations" would come to Facebook.
An emphasis on mobile image editing could see Facebook make media capture a more important part of its mobile apps, including not just iOS but Android and others that allow for camera uploads. Facebook may let users edit their shots before uploading, which is more common in built-in camera apps but is less common in apps where photos and videos aren't already the main focuses.
Web users could get a similar feature given that Google has been introducing basic YouTube web editing. [via TechCrunch]




Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jun 2007
great
now everyone will be able to shoot photos like a hipster.