You’ve probably already seen these if you follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Flickr, but here are some random photos I’ve taken over the last couple of days with [Instagram](http://instagr.am/index/) – a fun new iPhone app that focuses on taking quick photos, applying some filters, and sharing them with your friends.
When the otaku geek “influencers” I follow got all excited about Instagram, and I read what it was, I couldn’t quite grasp why they cared. Yet another app where I have to find and follow my friends? Why not just use the existing networks? And I already have [Hipstamatic](http://hipstamaticapp.com/) and a ton of similar photography apps on my iPhone for when I want to make hipster pictures.
But with Instagram, the whole is more than the sum of its parts. It does have great integration with Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and even Foursquare. It is super quick to take a picture, apply a filter, and share it. And there are lots of really nice design touches (especially in the News tab) that make it a joy to use. And it’s free.
That’s not to say that it’s perfect. I quickly discovered that the images it uploads (and saves to your local Camera Roll) are only 612×612 pixels. That’s tiny.
After I [complained about this on Twitter](https://twitter.com/jabancroft/status/26575739137), the Instagram folks invited me to [submit a full resolution picture option as an improvement on their GetSatisfaction page](http://getsatisfaction.com/instagram/topics/give_the_option_to_save_share_pics_larger_than_612x612), where lots of other people chimed in, and the developers agreed it would be a great feature. Hopefully it will come soon.
So, if you have an iPhone, and like pictures, grab Instagram, and follow me (I’m jabancroft there, same as everywhere else), and get ready for lots of hipster-ized random photos that make no sense, but look real nice. 
