Instagram hits 50 million downloads, with 10 million coming from Android users

Instagram just hit 50 million total downloads.  The photo-sharing app’s popularity is still buzzing since being bought by Facebook for $1 billion.

After being available exclusively for the iPhone for two years, Instagram satisfied pent-up demand among Android users and released the app for them in April.  Ten million downloads are attributed to those using Android phones.  Due to the fact that Instagram started the year off with 15 million users, we think it’s safe to say that Facebook is very pleased with its big investment.

http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2012/04/25/instagram-for-android-hits-10m-downloads-in-22-days-as-the-service-nears-50m-total-users/

Hit the “Like” button! Facebook “Friends” NYC.

Facebook is coming to NYC in early 2012. The move will extend it’s engineering presence beyond the west coast for the first time.  According to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, “Facebook is capitalizing on what more and more tech companies are realizing: that New York City is the best place in the world to recruit and retain a talented workforce.” Facebook is accepting applications for it’s NYC location.  
 

 

 
 
 

Flash flames out, Amazon is Yap-ing, and Scrolling merrily along.

This week Adobe announced the beginning of the end for Flash on mobile devices. Acknowledging growing support for HTML5, Adobe will focus on Adobe Air for mobile App Stores and cease development of Flash for mobile browsers.

Apple’s Siri voice technology has shifted our attention from touching screens to voice commands. This week we learned Amazon quietly moved into voice technology by acquiring Yap in September. Yap’s technology transcribes voice commands and voices messages into text. Yap shut down services on October 20.

Are we losing the scrollbar? According to Slate, scrollbars may disappearing. It seems Apple, Goggle, Facebook, and Microsoft are either removing, fading, or altering the scrollbar. It begs the question, if the scrollbar goes away what’s next, the cursor?

Mary Meeker’s Amazing Internet Trends.

Mary Meeker has released another look at the Internet and what’s heading our way. What’s in store? Well, over the last three years China added more Internet users than the USA has citizens. 81% of unique monthly visits to USA websites originates in other countries. There are 835 million smartphones and 5.6 billion mobile phone subscribers world-wide. Finally, 85% of the world’s population is covered by wireless signals which has a greater reach than electricity.

The new and improved Facebook Page Insights.

Facebook has launched a new version of Facebook Page Insights. Some new metrics were also introduced to help you understand who’s engaged with your page, the number of friends your fans have, who’s seen your content, and who’s talked about your content.

Now’s the time to consider the impact “Timeline” will have on your career over time.

Facebook’s Timeline will undoubtedly have an impact on the perception of your workpersona. As Facebook’s privacy wall becomes more porous, the professional and personal personas merge into the “propersonal“. The Harvard Business Review tackles the emergence of the “propersonal” and other topics in the article “Facebook’s Timeline Will Impact Your Career“.

The Privacy Debate: Facebook’s Timeline, Open Graph, and 800 million of you.

The f8 conference this year touched off another Facebook privacy debate. Timelines, Open Graph, and fictionless sharing are part of the discussion. Some love the changes, others are concerned, and a few are looking for ways to opt out.

What do you think?

Facebook’s sweeping changes and what it means for you.

Facebook announced major changes at the f8 conference in San Francisco. Some of the changes you’ll see are:

1) Your profile will become a Timeline with a more visual representation.
2) Likes will appear in a real-time Ticker.
3) The Open Graph platform will open the world by a) making it easier to view what’s popular among your friends, b) increasing access to music, movies, TV shows, and news while c) making gaming even more social.

f8 2011

Could HTML5 become the next iOS?

Facebook, Google, and Carbyn are racing to make HTML5 the next major Operating System.