It is rather difficult to find official applications for popular services in Windows 8 Store. This is also the case for Instagram, a popular application for managing your smartphone-taken photos. While there has been a couple of Instragram's equivalents for Windows 8, only recently InstaPic was released. This fully-featured application allows you, apart from browsing pictures, to also edit them and upload new images.
InstaPic is the first application for Instagram designed for Windows 8 users that allows its users to fully use all the features of their accounts, such as adding and editing photos, with all the applicable effects included. The program encompasses all the features you might have expected from an official Instagram release. Additonally the interface of the program is very pleasant to an eye and the application is very easy to navigate and intuitive.
Once you have launched the application you will be welcomed by the logging screen, where you have to log into your Instagram account. If you have no account already you can create one - just click on the "New user? Register" button.
Managing the program and browsing your pictures
Once you have logged in you are presented with the main screen with one big promoted photo displayed. That photo changes every time you re-launch the application. By moving to the left you can see a grid of tiles that display photos from your Timeline, as well as the most popular photos in Instagram community. By moving to the right you can load and browse more photos.
At any moment you can bring up the Menu bar with links to other sections of the application. To bring it up you have to right click in any place on the screen. On the Menu bar you can find a link to your proile, a search engine, a Friend search (Facebook included) and a button for refreshing the Timeline.
The most important think on Instagram are, of course, pictures. When you click on any picture on your Timeline you will be presented with a new panel that allows you to see the photo in a bigger resolution, download it to your hard drive, like, share via Facebook or Twitter, or write a comment. All things considered, you are presented with all the features that should be present in a real Instagram's application.
Uploading photos via InstaPic
To upload new photos you have to click on the camera icon in the upper right corner of the application. You will be presented with a new window where you have to choose whether you want to upload a photo from your hard drive (then you can pick any picture from your partitions) or if you want to take a new picture using the webcam.
Once you have chosen a photo you can edit it. This is where InstaPic shows its real superiority over unofficial Instagram apps. The program allows you to crop your images, apply colour filters, fiddle with brightness and contrast, remove red eye effect, change saturation and hue, add some text fields or add frames and funny clip arts.
In the last step you can choose if you want to send your picture to Instagram's servers or maybe better to save it on your local hard drive.
InstaPic is a great client for this popular service and definitely ranks among the best Windows 8 Store applications. It works efficiently, doesn't freeze and provides you with all the features you might have expected from an official Instagram's program. You can download InstaPic for free from Windows Store.
