Unexpectedly, photo storage and sharing service PicPlz is closing. The permanent shutdown is expected July 3. All photos and user data will be deleted during the closure, with users encouraged to log in and download all photos prior to shutdown. No specific reasons for the shutdown have been given.
Instagram ended one of the more conspicuous gaps in Android's app library with its first Android version (Google Play). The new version brings most of the feature set of the most recent iOS version, including the same art filters, Lux image boosting, and support for both cameras when they exist. It can share to Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter, but it lacks the iOS version's Flickr support, which is due "very soon."
Instagram's co-creator Kevin Systrom used a presentation at South by Southwest's technology conference to show the Android version of the company's app. Currently in a closed beta, it will support multiple screen resolutions and should run very quickly. Although shy on what it meant, he hinted that there would be some features that the iOS edition was so far lacking, if not permanently going without.
Instagram took on many of its biggest requests at once with a new 2.0 version of its app for the iPhone (App Store). The new version has a much more powerful imaging engine and at last captures higher resolution shots, which jump from the original 612x612 to either 1536x1536 on an iPhone 3GS or 1936x1936 on the iPhone 4, ten times larger than before. A new camera interface also now allows for live filters to get a preview of the effect before the shot goes through.
Google's team from the Slide acquisition has been quietly developing an app that would be an official Android rival to normally iOS-only apps like Instagram. Currently in an invite-only beta, Pool Party (Android Market) will show friends' latest photos in a timeline like other photo sharing apps, making it a direct competitor to existing Android apps like Picplz. The Google-made variant would stand out mostly by grouping photos into events where others could contribute their shots.
