Instagram, the photo sharing service owned by Facebook, is now allowing users to upload 15 second videos after a new update to the iOS and Android app. After recording your video you can add one of the thirteen video filters, pick a thumbnail image and share it on various social networks. This update comes less than half a year after the successful launch of Vine (a 6 second video sharing app owned by Twitter.)
The new update is okay however it takes ages to complete all of the steps to upload your video and it also takes awhile for them to load on your Instagram feed.
Overall, Instagram wasn't under any pressure to come up with anything new and unique because they were doing fine with just photo uploads however this update may have made them slightly more popular. I for one will not be using Instagram's micro-video sharing feature because Vine is more simple and faster.
Google Reader Alternatives
With the popular Google Reader service being retired early next month many other tech companies have launched a competition RSS reader to cater for your RSS feed needs.
Feedly
Feedly is the main company whose business has been booming since Google announced that it was shutting down Google Reader. Apparently thousands of accounts got transferred from Google Reader to Feedly in the matter of days after Google announced the retirement. Feedly offers a clean website and app with basically everything you would want in an RSS reader. Everything is simple and basic which isn't a bad thing.
Flipboard is a popular app for reading the news from both official sources and your social feeds. It sent an email to all of it's users earlier this week showing them how they could easily import their Google Reader accounts into the Flipboard app. Flipboard offers a service which looks stunning however there is no web version and Flipboard only excels when using it on an iPad.
DiggDigg launched an RSS reader beta earlier this week. It is even more basic than Feedly however it is likely to be more popular since Digg already has hundreds of thousands of customers. The beta version is only on the web so far and it is extremely black and white. Although it is easy to use it looks really boring and too flat. The team at Digg said that they made this in half the time they would have liked to and they will continue updating and improving it even after it's official launch. Digg Reader is coming out of beta next Wednesday.
AOL
AOL has also launched a beta RSS reader this week. We don't know what it is going to look like or if it is going to bring any unique features to the table as it is still in private beta however it launches in two days time so we will find out then.
All these services are extremely similar however I think I will be using the Digg RSS reader to replace Google Reader. It looks promising and comes from a trustworthy team of geeks.
DSMS Sports Day
On Tuesday 18th June 2013 it was Sports Day at DSMS where pupils from all years went out on to the school field to race against each other. More information here: The Wyvern