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The new version of Adobe Photoshop was cracked and available for illegal download only a day after Adobe's Creative Cloud launch on June 18.

Photoshop is already one of the world's most pirated programs. Alongside improved services like better social media integration and cloud-based storage and updates, Adobe's move to a subscription-based cloud model was hoped to help curb piracy of the program.

The subscription model of Creative Cloud installs desktop apps that attempt to validate your software licenses every 30 days.

While we obviously don't condone piracy, there's clearly a workaround for the validation process as the program had been cracked and uploaded within 24 hours of launch by a user named Ching Liu, according to photography site PetaPixel – and it seems to be all in working order, according to user comments on Pirate Bay.

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Video on Instagram: first impressions

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Instagram today unveiled a chic cure to capturing and sharing videos through its iOS and Android mobile apps, one that will no doubt give Twitter pause as to what it wants to do next with Vine.

Called Video on Instagram, the feature is more nuanced than its GIF-y counterpart. The Twitter-owned, 6-second video taking Vine has its merits, but Instagram's take on video comes packing a few more features and lacking loops.

In videos lasting up to 15 seconds and no less than three, users can apply one of 13 filters, pick a cover photo and erase the last clip they take. Those extra nine seconds touch on what CEO and Co-Founder Kevin Systrom referred to as the Goldilocks moment: Not too short, not too long.

In a way, he's right, but at the end of the day there's only so much you can do with 15 seconds. On the flip side, there's also too much you can do, so whether Instagram has really hit on the social cinema sweet spot will be subject to the test of time and users' patience.

How it works

Available in version 4.0.0, Video on Instagram only captures video on devices running Jelly Bean 4.1 and up, though any device can view the videos. iOS 5 and higher is required to take videos with an Apple product. Videos are also viewable on desktop.

Recording jumps off from the same block as taking a picture. Users hit the Instagram icon on the bottom of their screen, heading into the camera. However, now to the right of the blue camera button is a video camera icon. Clicking on this will take you to video mode, and a red button replaces the sapphire of simple image capture.

From here, users need just hold down the red dot to start recording, lifting their finger off when they want to stop. You can do this as many times as you like to create a video made up of as many clips, of any length, that you want. Lines demarcate where one clip ends and another begins, something Vine doesn't do.

Also unlike Vine, Instagram will let you erase the last clip you took. There's an "X" icon to the left of the record button that, when pressed, will turn red. A trashcan replaces the "X" and a press deletes the part you want to chuck.

After recording, users click the green Next button to get to another Insta-only feature: filters.

You can switch between filters as your video plays, or view the entire roll through one lens. The filters range from Stinson to Moon to Maven, and while you may struggle to explain what is actually different between each and every one, some do add a heightened cinematic quality to what could be a very mundane video of you talking to your dog (not that we recorded such a thing).

Some photo-specific manipulations like flipping are gone, but we didn't miss them as we recorded today. We have no doubt Instagram has more filters and effects planned as time goes on, but 13 filters is plenty to start.

After hitting another Next button, users can choose a cover frame, or a shot from the video they want posted as its public face. The process involves literally flipbooking through each shot until finding the best/most interesting/whatever image you want your followers to see. Put another way, you're not stuck with a disorienting, out-of-context first frame plastered on your profile, news feed and social networks.

One final Next button will take you to the Share area, where you can add a caption choose a Photo Map, and pick to post on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or send via email. There's also a Foursquare button, but it wasn't functioning for us. We'll look into it and provide an update when we know what its deal is.

Once in the Instagram news feed, videos are marked with a video camera icon to show they're not static images. You can press them to play, but if you linger over a video long enough (a matter of a second or two) the video will automatically start playing, just like in Vine. Scrolling away causes the video to stop.

As we mentioned earlier, Instagram videos don't loop like Vines but instead stop completely until you press play again. It actually felt like going from a tea party to a playground whenever we switched from Instagram to Vine.

Cinema

One feature unique to iOS but that we were told "the team" is working to bring to Android is called Cinema, an image stabilization feature that's supposed to eliminate excess movement in your videos.

From the way Systrom told it, Cinema is a highly involved piece of technology that video scientists helped develop, yet while we noticed less instability in our videos, it's not the all-in-one fix it Instagram talked it up to be. Shakiness is noticeably reduced when it's on, to be sure, but not so much that we would completely miss it if it were off.

Cinema is automatically on, however, so you may never take an un-Cinematic iOS photo again. Oddly enough, the Cinema icon (basically a camera with lines to express movement) didn't come up when we tested Video on Instagram at home.

Very early verdict

We truly enjoyed using Video on Instagram. It was, simply put, fun.

All the tools are there to make what amounts to a mini movie, especially with the ability to end a clip and jump to another scene, throwing a little more creativity in with the addition of a filter. Vine has the first part, but there's a sense of more control in Instagram's version.

We experienced no lag times with Video on Instagram, by the way, whereas it took 30 seconds or more for Vine to render a video. It may be a case of the hardware we were using, but our buffer times were almost non-existent on Instagram.

As Systrom put it, the company didn't want to introduce a complex editing interface, and though it has more steps and more whistles than Vine, it really is as easy as photo editing tools come.

Vine is, at its root, elementary: record the video, caption the video, post the video. Though rudimentary, Vine has amassed 13 million users on iOS alone since launch, so it's certainly striking a cord for people.

People are making some remarkably creative and charming videos in six seconds, and Vine has promised to unveil new features very soon. Whether they'll rival what Instagram has brought forth, we'll wait and see, but Vine has some serious competition for amateur videographers out there.

Instagram head talks ads, owernship and Windows Phone following video reveal

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Instagram finally has a feature that it's long been missing: support for video.

According to CEO and Co-founder Kevin Systrom, it's a function Instagram wanted to add from the start, but since the company is all about simplicity, the time and technology weren't right until now.

Motion pictures of up to 15 seconds can now be captured via the Instagram app, version 4.0.0, and while Video on Instagram now turns its 130 million monthly users into time-constrained film makers, a few questions remain.

Systrom addressed a number in a post-press conference Q&A at Facebook's Menlo Park headquarters earlier today.

Vine time

The elephant in the room was how Video on Instagram stacks up to Vine and its six-second clips.

"I think it's an artistic choice, honestly," Systrom said of which video length is preferable. "I don't think that one is better than the other.

"Depending on the length of time you give the user, you're going to get different content.

"In our testing, we tried a bunch of different lengths, and we came out on 15 seconds as that Goldilocks moment of, it feels just right. Not too long in which case the video takes too long to download on the go. Not too short in that you're trying to record your kid and you don't get that special moment.

"That, plus the editing tools, gave us the right balance."

Ads, ownership and censorship

"I did not expect an advertising question," Systrom quipped when asked about businesses using video to make "bad Calvin Klein" videos, as one audience member put it.

"This is really driven by consumer demand and not by business," he then answered.

"Instagram – I've said multiple times – will always become a business over time. I think we have so many brands…all using Instagram to reach their fans. I think there's a natural business opportunity there.

"But on video, I don't think we designed it with any advertising in mind. We started with the user. I think over time, we'll figure how advertising in general…regardless of the medium, it ends up being OK on Instagram in a useful way for users and for businesses.

"But for right now, we're perfectly happy with how businesses are engaging with Instagram, which is organically."

Additionally, Systrom shot down the notion that Instagram would use or manipulate user-generated videos.

"No. No, no, no," Systrom said. "Something we've made really clear, especially after the Terms of Service update that we had the confusion around who owns the photos and what we're going to do with photos, photos and videos very clearly – and I want to say this very clearly – they're your own. Instagram does not own them.

"They are your photos and your videos. We have no plans to use photos or videos in any kind of advertisements."

With video naturally comes the chances we could see some NSFW content played out in 15-second clips. Systrom said there are systems in place right now to prevent inappropriate videos from circling on Instagram, though "community patrolling" is the first step in the process.

"We actually have a really, really well defined and mature process for reviewing photos and now video," he explained, noting that Instagram can advantageously leverage Facebook's own monitoring systems.

"We have a team that reviews videos that come in that are flagged, from Day One, by the way, starting right now."

Later, Systrom noted there are both human and technological methods in place to monitor flagged videos.

Other places

And while the Instagram app on iOS and Android is getting some cinematic attention, the public may be curious if the video (or Instagram itself) will ever end up on Windows Phone.

"Windows Phone is a really interesting technology," Systrom said to such a question. "It's an up and coming OS. They've been doing really well. We don't have anything to announce right now, but we've talked to them about their platform and we're learning."

One last plug: Systrom said he's never used Google Glass, so if anyone has a pair they're willing to lend, we're pretty sure you can track him down on Instagram.

Learn more about Video on Instragram by heading this way

Yahuui Blog

Friday, June 21, 2013

Software : BLIP: Adobe's subscription-based Photoshop pirated just a day after launch

Software : BLIP: Adobe's subscription-based Photoshop pirated just a day after launch

More blips!

How it works

Cinema

Very early verdict

Vine time

Ads, ownership and censorship

Other places

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