App Review: How to create magnet souvenirs of your Instagram photos

Have you ever bought souvenirs for your family and friends while traveling? Of course you have, who hasn't. If you're like me, I don't just like to pick the cheapest souvenir, when choosing I like to pick things everyone will like which can sometimes take time. Well, NineMags has found a solution for that and made it very simple.

App Review: how do I repost a photo on Instagram?

Well late last night I was asked "how do I repost something on Instagram?". My answer was you can't. As some of you may have noticed already you can't really repost by just tapping a button like on other social networks. The only way to repost from the app itself is to screen capture the photo, crop it and then upload it. The only problem with this is that you take the chance to offend the original poster since it looks like you're taking the credit for their photo. That's not the reputation you want to have online, remember hashtags and comments go alonnnnggggg way online.

So is there a better way to repost on Instagram? I'll answer that with a common phrase that surfaced after the app store made it's appearance "there's an app for that". Actually there are several apps for this, but I'll just mention one in this post as I think it's the one with the most free options. 

It's called Repost for Instagram. The free version has very similar features as Instagram with the exception of liking or following users. For those two features you'll have to purchase the Pro version for $0.99... Still not bad. 

With the free version you can:

• Repost any photo
• Search by user or hashtag
• View your feed
• View your following/followers list
• View the photos you've liked

The app is very intuitive and very similar to Instagram so if you're a user you shouldn't have any problems figuring it out. But just in case, here is a short recap to help you out. 

First of all as any app that integrates with a social network you'll be able to sign in using your existing credentials and you'll need to authorize the app in order for it to repost on your behalf. After that it's very simple. 

1. Use either the Home tab or search to find photos then tap on Repost. 

This will take you into Instagram where you can use any of the filters or features to enhance the photo. 

2. Tap on Next when you're ready to continue. 

3. Enter your photo caption and tap Share. Just remember at this point you're in Instagram so you can use the other features of the app as you usually do.

Notice the app adds a hashtag, the original poster's Instagram name and the app name for credit.

Instagram will then add the photo on your profile. As you see, the photo will show the Repost symbol at the bottom of the photo with the original poster's Instagram name. You'll only see this on the version of the photo on your profile. 

Not bad for a free app, it's pretty simple and works very well. 

Remember also that for $0.99 you can also like photos and start following users from within Repost for Instagram. 

So yes, you can repost photos posted on Instagram just not within the Instagram app. Hopefully Instagram will add this feature later on, but in the meantime I think this is a pretty good option. 

What else would you like to know about any app or social channel? Let me know in the comment section, who knows your question may generate my next post. 

Thanks to @PaleoJo (paleojo.com) for asking this question and helping generate this post. 

Repost away!

How to create screen captures with highlighted areas on the iPhone

I've been asked the following question by my readers several times "How do you get screen captures from the iPhone and highlight some areas? So instead of just answering my readers individually I decided to write a post with the steps I take to accomplish it. This way everyone wins.

First of all, I have the Photogene app which is a really good photo editor. This app has a lot of really great editing tools, it's like having a mini version of PhotoShop on your iPhone. You can download it here.

After you download the app you need to get all the photos you want to use as screen captures. If you're writing about the iPhone and you need some screen captures, you can press the Home and sleep/wake button at the same time (see image to right). This takes a photo of your current screen and the photos are saved automatically in your Camera Roll.

OK, so now you have all the photos you need so let's get down to business.

1. Access the Photogene app.

2. Tap Edit new photo and then select the photo from your Camera Roll.

3. Tap the crop tool (scissors) and resize the box to cover the portion of the photo you want to keep and tap Crop. This will trim the photo to your liking.

4. Tap the symbols icon (star) and swipe the bottom toolbar to the left.

5. Drag the square figure onto the photo.

6. Double-tap the square figure to remove text and click Done.

7. Tap the outline tool and select yellow and tap the fill tool and select transparent. (Choose the outline color that will be more visible with the background color of your photo.)

8. Put your finger in the middle of the highlighted square figure and drag it to the area of the photo you want to highlight.

9. Use the circled corners to resize the square to fit the area you want to highlight.

10. Tap the Done icon (check mark) and tap Save.

All your photos will be stored in your Camera Roll. Now follow the same steps with all the photos you want to use as screen captures. At first this might seem to long of a process but it's not. Each step takes a second to do and after you do a couple of screen captures you'll be able to do this in your sleep :O)

By the way, all these screen caps with the exception of first full iPhone photo were taken following these steps. To me this is one of the most productive apps that I have. I recommend you play with it because this is just one of the ways you can use it but it does so much much more.

If you want to be more productive you can paste those photos into an e-mail and use them to write an article in your inbox, send it to Posterous, and your article will be live in no time in all your social media sites.

What other cool things do you do with Photogene or any other photo app?