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The new papacy and new media

When the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church were sequestered in the conclave to choose a new pope, they were instructed to give up their cell phones. No texting! Revealing the secrets behind the election of the successor to Pope Benedict XVI, they and their attendants were told, would lead to excommunication.

Jammers were also installed in the Sistine Chapel to prevent electronic communication.

For an institution that has suffered its share of leaks, the Vatican maintained its storied traditions as it voted for a pope for the second time in the 21st century.

But while the announcement that a new pope had been chosen was made via a cloud of white smoke -- a tradition that has continued since the election of Pope Benedict XV in 1914, and a symbol of the cardinals' cloistered proceedings -- the introduction to the world of Argentinean Jorge Bergoglio as Pope Francis was made on live TV and Internet, via Twitter and Facebook, and by the countless smartphone and tablet photos snapped in St. Peter's Square. … Read more

DIY: Easy-to-make Instagram magnets

Editors' note: This guest post is the second in a five-week series of Photojojo's best photography tips. Check back next Tuesday for the latest guide to making the most of your shutter.

You're addicted to shooting photos with your favorite mobile companion, but there's just one problem: your photos seem to be stuck in your phone.

There are plenty of quality Instagram printing services, like PostalPix (check out our collab with them on this Instagram album), Printstagram and Stickygram, to name a few.

These services are great for printing Instagrams in a pinch, but it'… Read more

Facebook's bigger pics: It's about the ad revenue

When Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Facebook's redesign of its News Feed today, he billed it as less cluttered and more personalized with an emphasis on bigger images. What he didn't talk about during his presentation -- but clearly what was on the minds of Facebook's advertisers -- was that this redesign is also about bigger ads bringing in bigger dollars.

"Larger images will result in higher [click through rates], a higher level of engagement, and better performance," said Hussein Fazal, CEO of AdParlor, an agency that buys Facebook ads brands as American Express and L'Oreal. … Read more

The 404 1,219: Where it's all play and no work (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Just say no: Polaroid returns with an instant camera shaped like...the Instagram icon.

- "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" theme song prompts school lockdown.

- You should watch "Room 237," a fan theory documentary about "The Shining."

- 50 fan theories that will blow your mind, and the Subreddit that goes with it.… Read more

Why teens are tiring of Facebook

To understand where teens like to spend their virtual time nowadays, just watch them on their smartphones. Their world revolves around Instagram, the application adults mistook for an elevated photography service, and other apps decidedly less old-fashioned than Mark Zuckerberg's social network.

And therein lies one of Facebook's biggest challenges: With more than 1 billion users worldwide and an unstated mission to make more money, Facebook has become a social network that's often too complicated, too risky, and, above all, too overrun by parents to give teens the type of digital freedom or release they crave.

For … Read more

Post rectangles on Instagram with Squaready or InstaSize

NoCrop, no more. After writing about the iPhone app NoCrop last week that let you post rectangular photos on Instagram, I have uninstalled it in favor of Squaready and InstaSize. Like NoCrop, these two apps are free and let you post an entire rectangular photo to Instagram. Unlike NoCrop, these two apps don't repeatedly hit you over the head with obtrusive ads. Instead, Squaready and InstaSize satisfy themselves with simple banner ads at the bottom of the screen.

First up: Squaready. The app lays out a simple, three-step process, but first I would recommend muting the app's strange … Read more

Facebook CFO calls Instagram a 'formidable competitor'

Even as Facebook's property, Instagram, now with more than 100 million active users, could still pose a threat to the social network's business.

"One of the services that is, I think, a quite formidable competitor is Instagram," David Ebersman, Facebook chief financial officer, told a crowd of investors today at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, & Telecom Conference.

The striking statement, made in direct response to a question about whether competitors are siphoning attention away from the social network, speaks volumes about Instagram's status as a powerful photo social network all its own.

The comment, … Read more

Instagram tops 100M monthly active users

Instagram, the photo-sharing network owned by Facebook, today announced that it now reaches 100 million people each month.

"Now, more than ever, people are capturing the world in real-time using Instagram -- sharing images from the farthest corners of the globe," Kevin Systrom, co-founder of Instagram, wrote in a blog post in which he echoed new boss Mark Zuckerberg's favorite mantra. "What we see as a result is a world more connected and understood through photographs."

The new revelation comes just one month after the service announced for the first time that it had 90 million … Read more

Add text to your Instagrams with TitleFX

TitleFX is similar to another universal iOS app that I covered last month called Over HD. Both apps cost $1.99 at the moment and let you add cool-looking titles to your photos before sharing on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere. The apps are similar to one another, but if there can be only one, I'd go with TitleFX.

For starters, it's easier to use than Over HD and its menu wheel. For another,TitleFX also lets you angle text so that it's on an angle or vertical instead of always horizontal. On the other hand, TitleFX … Read more