Who doesn’t like Instagram? What’s not to like? It’s a free and very easy way to upload photos and movie clips to share with friends and family.
Until recently the only real problems with Instagram was the 15-second video cap, and it only worked from the iPhone (but you can download the Instagram app on an iPad and it works great; but looks funky on the screen). If you took photos with a DSLR and managed photos on your Mac you would have to transfer the photos to your iPhone to upload to Instagram.
No more. Up does Instagram photo uploads from your Mac. Up looks and feels a bit like the iOS app except that it’s drag and drop and does not have all the bells and whistles of the Instagram app on iOS. It’s just a photo uploader.
Setting up and configuring Up is child’s play. All you need is your Instagram account info. Enter it and you’re good to go. Drag and drop a photo onto Up, add a caption that fits, and upload. That’s it. There’s also a setting in the app to use the Mac’s built-in camera for a photo, and an option to upload a 3×3 matrix photo.
Up also uploads PSD files or any image format that works natively on the Mac. Up doesn’t care how large the photo file is or the dimensions. It handles size in the background, automatically.
What’s missing?
Considering the price tag, plenty. Up doesn’t give you access to filters or account settings. It’s just an uploader. How does it work? Instagram seems to prefer their own apps for uploading photos, so I suspect that Up is spoofing it’s way onto Instagram, but for now it just works, albeit just a bit pricey.