SF News – The popular social network giant ‘Facebook’ is now launching a new photo service allowing users to receive and share pictures on their iPhones. This is in spite of the company’s April acquisition of a similar service provided by Instagram for a billion Dollars.
The service is called the “Facebook Camera” and is initially available only on iPhone, says the company. The applications will allow users to take, edit and manage pictures and then publish them on the Facebook social network.
The application is downloadable from App Store for free. It will allow the users to take new pictures or use the ones already on their iPhones to share and engage with friends. The application will allow a user to rotate, crop and use filters to alter pictures. It will also allow for location tagging.
Normal Facebook “like” and “comment” functions are also available inside the program.
Online photo and video sharing application usage have grown 89 percent since October last year, says the analytics company Flurry according to Christian Science Monitor, knocking down the all time games categories to the second spot.
Facebook is not promising to build the App for other mobile devices as of yet but it says it is thinking about it.
“Once photos are uploaded they automatically go into the mobile uploads folder on your profile, just as they would if uploaded through the Facebook app. People and locations can also be tagged in the app before they are uploaded.”
Many tech observers are wondering what the relationship between the two Apps, Instagram’s that was purchased by Facebook and “Facebook Camera” will be. Some sources accuse the company of making the purchase to kill competition.
“While our acquisition of Instagram has not yet closed, Mark has stated publically that we’re committed to building and growing Instagram independently,” said a spokesperson for the company to news media.
In a blog post Instagram announced that it “will continue to add new features to the product and find new ways to create a better mobile photo experience.”
Facebook went public for the first time since it was launched in February 2004. It has over 900 million online users who use the social media to connect with friends and family. Company says that more than half of its users connect to the medium using mobile phones and devices. Access to the network is not open and users must register before using it.
The Facebook Company was formed around the online service by Mark Zuckerberg and his college friends as an application to be used by college students at the Harvard University. Users of the application gradually expanded to students from other universities.
The social network has become a major role player in world political processes specifically the movement known as the “Arab Spring” in the Middle East.
