1. Carousel for Mac: A Quick Review

    I’m a keen user of iPhone social photography service Instagram, and recently reviewed iPad app Instagallery as part of the Weekly App Review series. Whilst iPhone and iPad are very much covered between Instagram’s own iPhone app and Instagallery, one thing that Instagram continues to lack is a way to keep up with the service on the desktop and via the web. I’ve spent a little time this evening playing with Mobelux’s brand-new little app Carousel which aims to fill the void, bringing Instagram’s activity streams to your Mac.

    Once you’re signed in with your Instragram username, you’re able to view your Friends’ Timeline, the Instagram Popular feed or your own photostream with popovers to view Likes and Comments on an image. There’s also QuickLook to view the image at full size. The app is well designed (and there’s four rather slick themes to choose from for the feel of the app), and each image effortlessly fades in as you scroll the timeline. There’s also some handy menu options and keyboard shortcuts for copying and opening the image’s URL on the Instagram website (something you can only do with your own photos in Instagram’s iOS).

    I’m mighty impressed with Carousel - it’s a joy to use, and offers a great way to peruse Instagram on your Mac1. It’s $4.99 from Mobelux with the price heading to $9.99 after the unspecified introductory pricing runs out.

    1. For those say “No Upload?!”, there’s no public API to do that with Instagram. ↩

    Posted on Tuesday May 10th, 2011