Instagram Users Share 10 Hurricane Sandy Photos Per Second

Could Hurricane Sandy be the event that propels Instagram‘s reputation beyond brunch photos and arts-fartsy attempts at whimsy? The photo-sharing network has certainly become a central landing destination for shots of the storm — users are uploading 10 images per second with the hashtag #Sandy alone.

“I think this demonstrates how Instagram is quickly becoming a useful tool to see the world as it happens –- especially for important world events like this,” CEO Kevin Systrom told Mashable through a spokesperson.

While other social tools such as Twitter and Storify have long been accepted as having become serious social platforms for hard news, Hurricane’s Sandy appears to mark Instagram’s largest presence in a major news story to date. Not all the photos are real, but the sheer number of shots sporting related hashtags is pretty staggering.

At time of writing, there were 285,000 photos tagged #sandy, 172,000 photos tagged #hurricanesandy and 26,000 photos tagged #frankenstorm. (You can get updated numbers for yourself by searching each hashtag in the app’s “Discover” tab.)

In the haste to share, however, a number of fake photos gained brief flashes of viral fame on Monday morning. A moving photo of three infantrymen in full-dress uniforms standing guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in a driving storm, for example, was actually shot last month.

While the scale of Instagram users sharing photos during Hurricane Sandy is massive, it’s not the first time the social network has played a large role in a breaking news story. When a controversially captioned photo of a bleeding gunshot victim outside the Empire State Building went viral in August, it raised a number of questions about the emerging role of Instagram and other crowd-sourced photos in news coverage.

What are the most striking images you’ve seen online from Hurricane Sandy? Share them with us in the comments.

Skype 6.0 Unveils Microsoft, Facebook Integration in Update

Skype has released a new version of its desktop VoIP client, Skype 6.0, for Mac and Windows.
The latest version includes integration with Facebook and Microsoft accounts, which means users can now log onto Skype using their Facebook or Microsoft credentials.

Users can now also instant message their Windows Live Messenger, Hotmail and Outlook.com contacts using Skype. Audio and video calls to Windows Live Messenger contacts via Skype is not yet available, but Skype promises that it’s coming “soon.”

Skype for Windows adds six more languages to its repertoire: Thai, Croatian, Slovenian, Serbian, Catalan and Slovak. It also introduces a refreshed UI and improved telemetry.
The Mac version gives users the ability to open chats in multiple windows, and also provides them with Retina display support.

Skype 6.0 for Windows is available here, and the Mac version can be downloaded here.

Different Instagram and Twitter Usernames? Your Life Just Got Easier

Instagram rolled out an update Thursday that will make life a little more seamless for those of you with different Twitter and Instagram handles. 

 Now, when someone @mention you on Instagram and shares it to Twitter, Instagram will automatically translate your username in the tweet it sends to match your Twitter handle. It will do this so long as your Instagram and Twitter accounts are linked.

For example, if I mention my colleague Chris Taylor (@futurechris on Instagram and @futureboy on Twitter) in a photo caption and share it to Twitter, it will appear as @futurechris on Instagram and @futureboy on Twitter.



It’s a much-welcome update from the mobile photo-sharing app, which was acquired by Facebook earlier this year.
Users frequently share photos not only on Instagram’s built-in social network, but also on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, Foursquare and through e-mail. All are options in Instagram’s apps for iOS and Android.