If You\'re Tired of Instagram, Here Are Some Alternatives

Instagram has backpedaled furiously from its apparent effort to own all the photographs posted on its site.  But if you are looking for an alternative anyway, there are some.

First you need to understand what Instagram does. It adds artistic filters to your phone camera photos, which do things like enhance colors, make the background blurry or add a frame. Then it lets you share your shots with other Instagram users and popular social sites like Twitter. Or it used to. Since Facebook bought Instagram, you can no longer post your photos directly on Twitter. Instead it posts a link. There are workarounds though.

Which brings us to the first alternative. Twitter. The social site has added its own sets of photo effects so you don't need Instagram. Using the Twitter app on an Android or iPhone, tap on the new post icon, then the camera icon. Take your photo, then use the controls that appear at the bottom of the screen. It's pretty intuitive, and you will benefit b y experimenting.

Snapseed, a free photo editing app owned by Google, offers a great deal more flexibility in editing images than most free filter programs. It not only has a range of filters, but also has control that let you customize each effect. Although it has one button for sharing to Google's social site Google+, you need a workaround to share to Facebook and Twitter. All you have to do is save your completed photo, then you can go find it in your gallery. Share it from there as you would any photo. It is available for Androids and iPhones.

Finally there is Hipstamatic. I never saw the point in it since it charged $2 and did basically the same things that Instagram did for free. But one point in its favor would be that it has never tried to make a rights grab for your photos. It differs from most filter apps because you choose your filter (by picking a virtual film and lens) before you take the shot. It comes with three styles of film and lenses that can be combined for different looks. Additional effects are for sale. Perhaps spotting an opportunity, Hipstamatic is currently on sale for 99 cents. Hipstamatic also features one button sharing with Twitter and Facebook.

There are dozens more. If you have a favorite, feel free to share in a comment.

Our Favorite Holiday Gifts

As you can imagine, the technology reporters and editors of the New York Times love tech, so many of the gifts they gave and received during the holidays were tech-related.

Some picked their favorites (and took a guess at the prices):

Portable Charging Station. (AviiQ; $60) I travel a lot and I travel with at least four electronic devices that need frequent rechargings. This charging station is a zippered vinyl case, much like a shaving kit or toiletries kit looked like before the TSA forced us all into plastic bags. Neatly arranged inside are USB ports to plug in the wires and a capstan to wind up the wires out of the way. The USB port is attached to an electrical plug. So I no longer will have to deal with a tangle of wires in my bag or - and this is so important - leave rechargers behind in hotel rooms. DAMON DARLIN

Hadley Pro Camera Bag (Billingham; $280). When I'm not writing on a keyboard, I'm often out documenting the underbelly of a city with my L eica camera. It has been difficult finding the right bag that is inconspicuous enough to hold an expensive camera, laptop and iPad while I'm shooting. A new camera bag made by Billingham seems to be the perfect accessory for my equipment. It is designed to fit a DSLR or rangefinder camera and an extra lens, an 11-inch Macbook Air, and an iPad, Mini or biggie. There are also a few pouches in the front for wires, cables and additional SD cards. The bag comes in a few colors, including black, beige and an army green. NICK BILTON

Pizza stone and iPhone case. My family tends to dabble in low-tech gift giving tendencies. Books, artwork and chunky scarves are a bit more in their comfort zone. So this year for Christmas, I bought myself two techie accessories intended to make my life a bit more interesting. The first was a pizza stone, to make all of my pizza party dreams for 2013 a reality. Ceramic is supposed to be more porous than other materials, absorbing moisture and le aving behind a crispy, crunchy crust, the perfect vehicle for roasted tomatoes, cheese and anything else you throw on there.

I also bought a new case for my iPhone 5. It's white, to match the finish of my phone, and the back is covered with gold metal spikes. It's infinitely less practical than my previous case, a Speck SmartFlex Card, which is outfitted with a pocket that doubles as a wallet, but much more interesting and a guaranteed conversation starter. Despite its pointy exterior, the case is soft and fits snugly in a back pocket or even wedged between cheek and chin for taking the rare mobile phone call. Plus, I kept the Speck case around for afternoon jogs or evenings out when I don't feel like carrying a separate wallet or purse.

I found my latest case on Etsy, which is full of inventive and creative smartphone covers and cases.

The best techie gift I gave: A StickyGram gift certificate to my older sister, an Instagram fanatic. StickyGram is a servi ce that lets you turn your Instagram photos into cute refrigerator magnets. It costs $15 per set of 9 magnets, including shipping. JENNA WORTHAM

Streaming music system. Sonos Play:3; ($300) There are a lot of ways to cobble together a wireless system for streaming music to multiple rooms in your house at the same time, but none work as well as the products made by Sonos. The Play:3 is a speaker with a built-in wireless receiver that plays songs stored on my computer and from Pandora, Spotify and an array of other online music services. I've resisted buying Sonos products for years because of their price. I finally gave in after realizing the reliability and elegance of Sonos is worth it. NICK WINGFIELD

A Little Extra Power When You Need It

The Peak 6000 rechargeable power bank from MyCharge.

Smartphones are convenient, until they run out of power. To help provide an extra jolt of juice, MyCharge has introduced a line of rechargeable power banks that are compatible with a variety of devices.

The power banks come with names like Sojourn, Voyage and Trek, suggesting that life is an adventure, so you better be prepared. The top-of-the-line model is the $100 Peak 6000, which can charge devices three ways: through an Apple dock connector, a micro USB connector or a USB port. The multiple connectors are tucked away like the ever-ready blades of a Swiss Army knife.

MyCharge claims that the Peak 6000 can provide an extra 27 hours of talk or 20 hours of browsing, and it comes fully charged, so you can technically use it right out of the box. However, the test unit that was supplied to me was dead on arrival. Fortunately, the Peak 6000 comes with fold-out prongs designed to charge the unit at a wall outlet.

After a full charge, which took about four hours, the Peak 6000 was able to charge my depleted iPad to only 72 percent, which took another couple of hours. Connecting the iPad directly to a wall outlet would have charged it fully in half the time. I found myself more concerned about getting the power bank charged than I did charging my own devices.

But the Peak 6000 was helpful on a recent train ride, when I became obsessed with the “LostWinds” iPad app. I didn't have immediate access to an outlet, and the app's graphics were draining the tablet's battery. Fortunately, the Peak 6000 gave me enough power to play the game for the entire four-hou r ride.

The Peak 6000 could charge a little faster, but when you really need an extra boost of power, it comes in handy.

Nine Ski Apps to Make the Most of the Mountain

Headed to the mountains for the holidays? Here are nine ski-friendly apps that will help you make the most of your trip.

1. Liftopia (Free, iOS)

Liftopia helps you ski cheaply. The app offers discounts of up to 80 percent off ski lift tickets and rentals at more than 150 ski resorts from Squaw Valley, Calif., to Park City, Utah, and at resorts as far away as South America, Alaska and the Alps.

A screengrab of the main menu on Waze in Android.

2. Waze (Free, iOS, Android, Windows, BlackBerry)

Waze helps get you to the mountain stress-free. This crowdsourced mapping app alerts users to traffic and accidents in real time. Once your ski buddies downlo ad the app, they can alert you to traffic jams, skid-offs, black ice, accidents and traffic jams. The app then gives the best driving directions based on that data. The more people use the app, the more precise the directions become. Waze got a big boost after Apple replaced Google with its own criticized map feature, then apologized and named Waze as a plausible alternative. Waze downloads jumped to 100,000 from 70,000 that day.

3. EpicMix (Free, iOS and Android)

Vail Resorts - which now owns the Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone resorts in Colorado, and Heavenly, Kirkwood and Northstar in California - has done an impressive job of modernizing the mountain. Vail's EpicMix app integrates with the radio-frequency identification, or RFID, technology in its lift tickets. Every time you hop on a lift and scan your pass, the app charts how many trails and vertical feet you've covered. Users win “pins” if they cover enough distance or ski enough resorts . They get an “Over the Moon” pin if they ski more than 350,000 vertical feet, for instance, or a “Connoisseur” pin if they ride more than 75 lifts. They can compete with other users and share stats on Facebook and Twitter. Vail recently added an EpicMix Racing app that lets users track their times and race other users down the mountain.

4. Ski and Snow Report (Free, iOS and Android)

Besides Vail, other ski resorts - like Squaw Valley in California and Telluride in Colorado - offer apps that give skiers and snowboarders a comprehensive peek at trail maps and snow and road conditions. Ski and Snow Report does the same for over 2,000 ski resorts around the world. You can customize the app to send you alerts if three or more inches fall at your favorite mountains. It integrates with Facebook and Twitter if you want to recruit ski buddies or just rub your freshies in their faces.

The EpicMix app.

5. Find My Friends (Free, iOS and Android)

Finally, an app that tells you exactly where your buddies are on the mountain. Once you and your friends successfully download the app and agree to share your location, Apple's Find My Friends app tells you precisely which chairlift your friends are on, or where they're hunkering down over some hot toddies.

6. Ski Tracks (99 cents, iOS and Android)

This app not only tracks your distance, but also your speed, altitude and slope angle, as well as the runs and vertical feet you've covered. But the best part is that it doesn't require a cellphone signal to work, which is ideal on the mountain, where reception is often spotty. Users can share their tracks - and any photos they took along the way - on Fa cebook or Google Earth.

7. Realski (Free, iOS)

This neat augmented reality app pulls in data from your phone's camera, compass and GPS. All you have to do is aim your phone like a camera and the names of chairlifts, restaurants, lodges and restrooms pop up in the view. It will even show you how difficult - on a scale of green, blue or black - a ski run is. The app works at over 100 ski resorts in North America from Alpine Meadows to Telluride to Whistler. As a bonus, Realski lets you geotag where you parked your car so you don't have to haul your skis and poles in circles around the parking lot at the end of a long day.

8. Pano ($1.99, iOS; $3.06, Android)

Cellphone cameras never quite do the mountain justice. Pano, a photo app, lets you aim your camera and move it along the view you want to capture, then merges the images together into surprisingly stunning panoramic shots.

9. SnoWhere ($9.99, iOS)

Back country enthusiasts would do well t o augment their avalanche beacon with the SnoWhere app, which converts a phone's GPS into a beacon. SnoWhere can help other users find you in the event you are lost, injured or - worst case situation - taken out by an avalanche.

In Speaker Dock, a Minimalist Home for the iPhone 5

The JBL OnBeat Micro speaker dock from Harman.

Capitalizing on the sudden need for iPhone 5 docking stations, Harman has released the JBL OnBeat Micro speaker dock that features the must-have Apple Lightning connector.

The $100 JBL OnBeat Micro is a redesigned version of its predecessor, the On Stage Micro. It still comes with an AC power adapter, which charges devices while they are docked, but the remote control was dropped.

The speaker dock is intended to be portable as well. It weighs less than a pound and is compact enough to fit in a purse or backpack. But its battery life offers only five hours of playback, which isn't much. It's probably better j ust to leave it plugged in.

The test unit that was sent to me for review did not include instructions, not that any were needed. It has only two buttons: power and volume. Pretty simple, right? You don't have to synch, download or fiddle with anything.

I was able to dock my iPhone 5 without removing its case, but thicker cases might not fit, because the Lightning connector is nestled flush in the bottom of the recessed dock. The dock is too small to house the iPad, full or Mini, but a USB port and a 3.5mm audio input in the back can accommodate most devices.

For a small speaker, the JBL OnBeat Micro produces surprisingly good sound, which filled my living room, tiny as it is. Even at high volumes, I didn't notice any distortion.

The JBL OnBeat Micro doesn't have all the bells and whistles of its rivals. There is no Bluetooth capability, rechargeable battery, alarm clock, AM/FM radio or speakerphone. But it is one of the few on the market with a Lightn ing connector, which raises its profile considerably.

Tip of the Week: Start Menu Alternatives for Windows 8

The new interface of Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system may be disorienting at first for those who have spent years automatically heading toward the Start menu. While the new Windows 8 Start screen is a colorful alternative for displaying frequently used programs, widgets and apps, it may not appeal as much to people who favor things in lists, or who are not using a touch-screen computer.

For quicker access to the system's popular places - like the desktop, Windows Explorer or the Control Panel - press the Windows key and the X key on the keyboard to see a menu pop up from the bottom left corner of the screen. To see a list of all the computer's installed apps, press the Windows and Q keys, or right-click the screen and click the All Apps button in the bottom right corner.

But if keyboard shortcuts will not cut it, a third-party utility that mimics the old Start screen may make Windows 8 more comfortable. Classic Shell and StartW8 are just two of the many S tart menu replacement programs available around the Web.

From a Tiny Projector, a Big Picture

The HDMI Pocket Projector from Brookstone.

As consumers switch from laptops to tablets and smartphones, the makers of projectors are adapting.

Brookstone has come out with an HDMI Pocket Projector, which connects to multiple devices through an HDMI cable for a variety of uses, including presentations, videos, slide shows and games.

Measuring 3.8 inches by 3.9 inches, the compact projector is about the size of a thick piece of French toast. But Brookstone found room for a powerful Digital Light Processing chip from Texas Instruments, which it claims can project high-definition images up to 1080p at 60 inches diagonal on a flat surface.

The pro jector, which costs $300, comes with a three-inch HDMI cable, and micro and mini adapters. It has a rechargeable battery, which offers up to two hours of playback on a charge.

I tested the projector with my iPhone, which, like all Apple products, needed a special adapter. The connection was pretty simple, and within seconds, the screen of my iPhone was projected on the wall of my living room. The projector does not replicate the screen of all devices, however.

I tried the projector on a variety of applications, including playing with apps and watching YouTube clips and episodes of “The Simpsons” and “Planet Earth.” In each instance, the picture was remarkably clear and the colors bright from about three feet away, but even at eight feet the picture maintained most of its clarity. The device was surprisingly quiet when running and cool to the touch.

The only downside was the sound, which was weak and tinny coming from the projector's speakers. The pr ojector has an auxiliary jack that would enable the use of external speakers, but that defeats the purpose of having a pocket projector. You want it to work as a single unit; if you need to carry attachments, you might as well go back to using a laptop.