<p><em>The updated versions of these popular apps are even better than before<br><br><strong>by Mala Bhargava</strong></em><br><br><strong><img alt="" src="http://bw-image.s3.amazonaws.com/Google-Street-View-mdm.jpg" style="width: 100px; height: 100px; float: right; margin: 5px;">360-DEGREE STREET VIEW</strong><br>Google has released a standalone app that takes you to places all around the world. Google Street View is, in a sense, part of Google Maps and it lets you choose a place and head there to see 360-degree photographs put up by others. You can see different parts of the photograph, zooming in to see details. Most photographs are beautiful, but sometimes users don’t get the “stitching” right and parts of a picture don’t fit or are cut off, sometimes resulting in headless people as well. You can try your hand at creating your own 360-degree photos.<br><br>Google has its own collection of photographs and these, of course, are of excellent quality. You swipe from down to up or sideways to move to the next photo from the place you selected.<br><br><strong><img alt="" src="http://bw-image.s3.amazonaws.com/Pocket-mdm.jpg" style="width: 100px; height: 100px; margin: 5px; float: right;">PUT THAT IN YOUR POCKET</strong><br>It's time to reintroduce a long-existing app, Pocket, earlier called Read It Later. It’s an ultra useful app, available on iOS, Android and even the web. People think of it as the Save button for the Internet, because all you have to do, from a browser or a content aggregator app, you just send an article off to Pocket, where it’s saved for later reading. Pocket also saves audio and video, in case you have a YouTube video you want to keep aside to see later or a podcast to listen to. You can also listen to the articles you save because there’s a Listen button for just that purpose.<br><br>A new recently added feature to Pocket is recommendations from the Pocket app based on what you like to read — a way of helping users discover more content. Pocket is a highly recommended app for anyone who consumes content.<br><br><strong><img alt="" src="http://bw-image.s3.amazonaws.com/Instagram-app-mdm.jpg" style="width: 100px; height: 100px; float: right; margin: 5px;">REDISCOVERING INSTAGRAM</strong><br>Instagram, the app that became a photo sharing network, needs no introduction but if you’ve been ignoring it, now’s a good time to get reacquainted. Not only does Instagram have more users than Twitter, it’s now available on just about any platform including the web. Recently, Instagram was updated to allow more than just square photos. More importantly, it’s about to finally allow for short ads, so brands need to sit up and take notice.<br><br>Many brands are already leveraging Instagram very well to create visual experiences that help branding and also point to specific products. But Indian brands need to use Instagram more. As an app, Instagram now has better search and explore facilities and additional filters and photo editing settings that give visuals that special Instagram look.<br><br>(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 19-10-2015)</p>
