Space Miner

There’s a new photo sharing tool for the iPhone, and it’s catching on quick.

Using Instagram is sort of like micro-flickring. You follow a feed of your friends’ iPhone photo answers to a silent “what are you doing?” question. It’s like Twitter for those who prefer to take information in through images. The fact that it can also record your location makes it a fun way to keep track of where you’ve been.

Pros: As the lowest barrier way to share photos with friends, it helps motivate you to take images again. In my opinion, it’s more fun to scan through images than tweets. The square format fits great in the phone, and the filters make everyone’s images look good (if inauthentic).

Cons: The ease and feedback loop of using Instagram may steer some away from taking “real” photos. (Think of tweeting vs. blogging.) The app saves images at 612x612. The number of processing options (fake lomo and polaroid type treatments) is daunting. The branding (logo, icon, etc.) feels too quirky for a product that could have a lot of mainstream appeal.

The social concept of the app is brilliant and probably has many of us thinking, “Why didn’t I think of that?” I’m excited to see where the team takes it from here — hopefully they’ll expand the focus on the sharing aspects and slim the focus on the kitschy faux polaroid processing.

Download it, and if we’re friends, follow me at LBM!