ROUND-UP: Instagram week and photography competition #ShinyAutumn

So today should be the end of Instagram week but we’re having so much fun and we have a LOT of other things we want to cover, so we’re carrying our dedicated ‘Instagram Week’ into another week. Instagram Fortnight we’ll call it… Yeah, that’s just as catchy…

We’ve decided to give you a bit of a round-up of the top five Instagram stores from the week, as well as details about our big Instagram / mobile photography competition too. Be sure to snap away this weekend if you want to be in with a chance of winning a fancy Orbitsound T12v3 speaker bar, more details below.

1. How musicians are using Instagram: Deftones, Moby and The Vaccines

Although Instagram has so far been adopted by individuals, fashion retailers, publications and big brands more than anything and anyone else, there’s huge potential for those working in the music industry too. Instagram can give fans the backstage pass that they so desperately want and can act as a visual tour diary, bringing followers along with the acts through a series of candid images. We look at the way a few of our favourite music acts are using the app and what they’ve gone on to use their images for.

2. 10 Fashion brands to follow on Instagram: Burberry, Levi’s and Gucci

The highly visual nature of Instagram means it’s a favourite among fashion brands that are looking for new ways to showcase their products and give fans and followers a behind-the-scenes peek at the fast paced and highly aspirational industry. We take a look at the way popular brands like Oscar de la Renta, Gucci and Levi’s are using the app.

3. 5 Online Instagram alternatives: VintageJS, PicPlz and InstantRetro

Although Instagram is clearly a VERY popular photo editing app, there are those who can’t access it from their handsets and others who feel a little restricted by the fact you can’t tweak filters and borders to your heart’s content. So we’ve collected together five online alternatives that’ll let you edit photos, apply Instagram-like features and then share your images with your social networks afterwards too.

4. 5 Best iPad apps for Instagram viewing: Slidelight, Instagallery and Instamap

We have a look at how developers have been using the real-time API offered by Instagram to create a range of iPad applications that let you browse by location, swipe through your photos and put them in fancy frames.

5. Top 5 web apps for Instagram: Inkstagram, Webstagram and Insta-great

Over the past year a number of web apps have popped up which bring you some of the Instagram mobile app functionality to your web browser and we have a look at some of our favourites.

Photography competition

Yesterday we launched a mobile photography competition with our friends at Orbitsound to celebrate our Instagram week and give one reader the chance to win a fabulous T12v3 speaker bar as well as lots of runner-up prizes that we have dug out from our cupboard including iPhone cases, iPhone lenses, games and other iPhone accessories.

All you have to do is take a photo with an Autumnal theme and share it on Twitter along with the hash tag #ShinyAutumn. It can be of a leaf or a Halloween costume, we really don’t mind.

Visit the #ShinyAutumn competition post to find out more.