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Facebook creates Camera app for photo sharing and viewing on iOS

May 24, 2012 at 17:21:21 GMT

SOFTWARE NEWS APP FACEBOOK IOS

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Facebook has announced a free app called Camera that focuses on viewing and sharing photos. Instead of showing what your friends are doing and thinking, it just dives straight to their photo galleries. The app also allows you to share multiple photos at a time, including descriptions and tagging. There are also tools for cropping and applying filters to your images. The app allows Facebook to be used in a much more Instagram-like manner (and it seems too soon for this to be a product of the Facebook buyout).

Click here for more information about Facebook Camera, including a link to download the app

First impressions:

The interface of the Facebook Camera app is clean and simple, and does precisely what it promises: lets you easily browser your 'Friends' photos. As you scroll down through people's posts, you can simply swipe sideways to view any other images in the same set. Uploading groups of photos is also very simple (and a great improvement over the existing Facebook App).

However, the problem we hit is not down to the app - it's down to the fact that Facebook isn't primarily a photo site, regardless of how many images are uploaded to it. The App doesn't allow you to see only contributions from your photographically-inclined friends so, unlike Instagram or even Flickr, the ratio of 'snaps' to photos is off-putting.


The app makes it easy to view and explore photos	It also has editing tools and filters

It makes it easy to upload multiple images...	...and decide who should get to see them.

Comments

Total comments: 35

All that Facebook touches these days are turning into gold.

0 upvotes

Whether you're pro or against Facebook, at least they manage to keep their fans interested and active by releasing apps like this one. Where is the alledged FB killer Google + in all this?

0 upvotes

This is actually a response to G+. G+, out the gate, had excellent integration with Picasa and Android for photo sharing. I'd still say, even with this new Facebook photo app, that G+ is a better experience as a photo-centric social site.

0 upvotes

I actually agree, even though I am an Apple fan, I do have an android device due to my commitment to T-mo (kill me now...), and I have to say that is the only thing that I love about my device and it's OS...btw I think G+ is way to go for photographers compared to facebook - way better exposure.

0 upvotes

Anyone using FB or planning to use FB for their photography should read this:
http://blog.exposedplanet.com/why-sharing-photos-on-facebook-is-bad-for-you/

0 upvotes

Carino... Facebook (and every other photo sharing site) needs you to grant them permission to a "non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook" so they can show other people your photos... Like your friends and family and anyone else that is your "friend". If you did not grant them this permission then you would be the only person that would be allowed to see your photos on their site. It's just like a gallery would need your permission to display your works... right?

As for Facebook being bad for me as a photographer... Well I am still just an amateur but Facebook helped make me over $6000 in 2011... Just by people seeing my photos on Facebook and hiring me for a shoot. I don't see how Facebook is bad for me as a photographer.

Comment edited 3 times, last edit 1 minute after posting

3 upvotes

the screens shots bring back dark memories since I was using an iPhoney

0 upvotes

lol people still use facebook? come on..its soooo 2 years ago...

3 upvotes

No interest to me. I don't spend time on people's photos unless there is one I am particularly interested in.

0 upvotes

No Android app...typical!

0 upvotes

Actually, Android had it first and people complained about the extra icons in the app drawer, that FB removed them. I didn't like the extra icons in the app drawer, but would have liked to see them as an option in the preferences.

1 upvote

Yeah, it sucked.

1 upvote

"The App doesn't allow you to see only contributions from your photographically-inclined friends"

Obvious solution: take your non-photographically-inclined friends to one side and tell them that they're not your friends any more, then dump 'em. It's cruel, but sometimes you have to be cruel, and sometimes it's just more entertaining that way.

1 upvote

I enjoy Instagram, very much so. I 'm not on "Face-Crack". I hope that Instagram does not go away now.

0 upvotes

I hate to break it to you, but facebook recently bought instagram.

4 upvotes

FFS you moaners, no one is actually forcing you to use it!

2 upvotes

i dont understand. they buy instagram for a billion dollars and then they release this.

anyone care to share their insights?

1 upvote

Seems like it's the same thing they added to the Android version, then pulled it out, because people didn't want multiple facebook icons in there app drawer.

1 upvote

.. which is a shame, cause it's the first new feature in the Android app I thought was any good. That and not having to have a separate Messenger install (which is maybe why they pulled it?)

1 upvote

Yeah it's a shame they've pulled it.

0 upvotes

It would have been ok if they let you hide the icon from the app drawer and make it a widget for the screen.

0 upvotes

I don't add valuable photos to FB... only a few snaps and delete pix I deem valuable every month or so. Facebook is fun.

2 upvotes

I saw this post today. This afternoon the app was already on my phone. I guess Facebook can install an app without me knowing? Creepy...

3 upvotes

Facebook is a wet dream for government snoopers. Who would have thought we would all have divulged so much personal information about ourselves without even being asked? If there were laws saying you had to tell the FBI everybody you were remotely connected to we'd be screaming about loss of freedoms. Sorry to be off topic, but I hate FB. I would like nothing better than to see FB crash and burn.

Comment edited 41 seconds after posting

11 upvotes

Is anybody forcing you to use it?

2 upvotes

Couldn't agree more. Can't believe that they managed to get so much money from their IPO... which is of course slowly going downhill. I hope that people soon realize that having your life on facebook isn't that cool after all. But then again, maybe I'm not cool cause my life isn't on there... LOL

0 upvotes

"Instead of showing what your friends are doing and thinking, it just dives straight to their photo galleries."

Now I'm aggravated. My FB apps don't show what my 5,217 friends are thinking. I must not have the telepathy app. Probably needs a Bluetooth brain implant. I didn't get that implant so I can't learn from their implants. I'm just so ..... disconnected.

PS: Facebook IPO = schadenfreude. $33. Probably a dead cat bounce.

0 upvotes

apps are just fun ways for companies to take you information and those of your contacts.. you did read the tos right?

7 upvotes

Thanks for the heads-up. Looks like it will be quite useful.

0 upvotes

I don't like Facebook. The last time I went to look at a picture on a friend's page, they demanded my cellphone number. I think it's just a big hustle to get marketing information.

7 upvotes

any news on an android version?

0 upvotes

FINALLY, though I'm sure in true facebook style, they are sniffing your contacts and everything else on your smart phone at the same time.

Is it wrong that I'm enjoying the train wreck that is the FB IPO?

3 upvotes

Does any body think that might be intrusive.

2 upvotes

A free app! Worth an IPO of its own! Shares offered at $1 would be an infinite multiple of earnings, sure, but think of the potential. The sky is the limit. Risks? Nah.

2 upvotes

Will this work on my Newton 2000?

6 upvotes

Total comments: 35


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