I don't even know where to begin about this

Click here.

COD: Instagr.am and the keepsake cellphone photo

A picture is worth a whole heckuvalot of tweets and texts, so I was intrigued when I heard the concept behind Instragr.am, an iPhone app that lets you make and share attractive photos of what you are seeing and doing.

While cellphone photos have certainly come a long way, they tend to look pretty flat and poorly lit. What Instragra.am does is offer filters that let you give your blah blah pics a stylized appearance that makes them less "throw away," more something you might want to have around.

Have a look of this example pic from their blog, which shows the nice results you get from one of the app's 11 built in filters.



I keep asking myself, "could that really be a celly pic?" I am impressed.

That's not all this service offers. They have also figured out ways to speed the processes of uploading and downloading photos. Which is quite a nice thing indeed.

You can share your photos with friends, or on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr.

I am very happy that their effort focuses on making photos less throwaway. While digital cameras have made it easier to take pictures, I think they have led us all to devalue homemade images. So I want to send them a personal thank you for their concept. Photos are very important to me, and clearly to them.

Completely utterly absolutely free at this point. This SF start-up plans to explore a variety of financial models after they get some critical mass going on.

Get the app on itunes. And if they are in the business of answering prayers, soon in the Android shoppe. Pretty please...

COD: Fabricly - A virtual boutique for budding designers and unique fashionistas

Last month I posted a COD on Paris-based Garmz.com, and a helpful reader pointed me to Fabricly, a US site designed to help budding designers sell their wares. Here's the proverbial "equal time" for Fabricly and their unique business model.

Fabricly is a virtual boutique that carries the lines of budding designers who haven't yet "made it big" but definitely have what it takes. Designers submit their ideas to the site, and if selected for production, these clothes are manufactured and sold in Fabricly's online store.

Fabricly chooses the fashions they believe in, versus Garmz.com that uses community voting to make the choices.

Fabricly takes care of sourcing, sampling, photography, production, fulfillment and shares a chunk of net sales with the designer and her/his label.

What's great about this for you the online shopper is that you needn't settle for mass produced versions of the same looks anymore. Instead, you can get hot distinctive looks you won't see on everyone else.

Here's how they describe themselves:

We're Fabricly, and we're a boutique in an internet full of malls. We scour the earth to bring you the best of the as-yet undiscovered: foreign lines with limited US exposure, talented designers without the means to get to the next level, back-street secrets and next season's stunners.

Not surprisingly, the site is gorgeous, simple, and did I mention gorgeous. While the designers may not have the resources for beautiful presentation themselves, Fabricly makes up for this resource gap in spades.



Based in Manhattan, Fabricly offers both premade goods and fashions made to order, so shipping times can vary a little. But as a means of getting a look as unique as you, it'd be hard to beat!

And for my less fashion centric readers, I promise to cover something other than fashion tomorow!

COD: Tinypay.me - sell it right now

Since the advent of eBay, tens of millions of people have used the web to buy and sell items. At first people were content to wait the several days it took for an auction to commence and run its course. Then more and more people wanted to Buy it Now!

Today, the people of TinyPay.me are out to get people buying and selling at warp speed.



Say you have a vintage Steiff teddy bear that no longer fits into your world. You join TinyPay -- which takes less than 60 seconds, and upload the photos, videos, etc. that will help showcase Bearington C Bear to best advantage. He and every other item get their own customizable page and url.



The site provides a robust and secure backend, and even enables you to build a personal profile and store.

Instead of waiting for people to search for items, the site takes a proactive approach, pushing out "news" of new items through an extensive distribution network including Google and social media. They even deliver news of Bearington's availability to dedicated collector communities who may be even more likely to be interested in his fuzzy charms.

Someone snaps him up, the transaction takes place on the purpose-built platform, and you ship him off to his new digs. The site takes a percentage of the sales price, just like eBay.

I mentioned special interest communities above. You can create your own community and even get a cut of the sales made through it. There's no cost to create a community -- naturally the site is very interested in attracting the avid as users.

And apparently they will soon be alowing websites that carry the content to curate offerings made on their sites!

From where I sit, it's the proactive promotion of items and the distribution network that set this site apart from their eBearing rivals. This Netherlands-based outfit has definitely developed an interesting concept. After all, few have failed to make fortunes when they deliver instant gratification to passionate people!

Viral Vid: The Scrollwheel

COD is on hiatus in observance of Martin Luther King Day in the United States

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent.