With 150,000 downloads of Foap’s iPhone app, and more than 1.6 million images uploaded today, the process was lagging. And that sort of defeated the point of a simple iOS app that turned anyone into a paid photographer. The standards for approval were too opaque to some Foap users. And though 910,000 images have been approved for sale, founders David Los and Alexandra Bylund are now turning the approval job over to its community.

Now all Foap users will be able to review any photo submitted. Once an image gets at least five ratings it will be approved or rejected by the community if the average score is at least 2.5 out of 5 points.

The originally cumbersome approval process wasn’t the only revelation, however. Once proving that their model was working, they wanted to expand the people selling images into Foap beyond their 55,000 active users. The amateur iPhoneographer demographic is huge —  there are far more iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 and iPhone 5 users in the world than had already joined Foap. But the founders also wanted to keep it iPhone only. So the founding pair decided to create a greater incentive for Foap’s army of iPhoneographers to get their friends to join the community too: by offering commission.

Every photo license on Foap costs $10. For every one sold, the photographer gets $5, while Foap keeps $5. But now, if you invite a friend, you get 10 percent of each of their photos that are sold. Your newly invited friend the photographer still gets their $5, though — your 10 percent “commission” comes out of Foap’s take.

But the idea is not to just add anyone who can wield an iPhone camera. It’s to invite people who are actually good photographers. And that in turn is yet another way to improve the quality of images available on Foap — images that are purchased by media and travel companies typically for stock use.

In addition to these feature improvements, on Tuesday Foap will announce it has closed a $500,000 round of funding from Jade Global Investments, based in Seoul. That’s on top of the $250,000 in total funding the startup has from angel investors and a grant from the Swedish government.

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Irrive is the latest startup from New York entrepreneur Steven Cohn, who started BuyYourFriendaDrink.com and sold it to Living Social in 2009. This next venture is still in the social space, but it’s aimed at helping users seamlessly and easily share big life events, especially trips, instead of a beer. The idea, he says, is that we have all these great memories that we want to share, but the record of them is usually all over the place, out of sync, and easily lost. (There is something like this already for gathering info about your friend’s trips, using Tripl, but Irrive is focused on scrapbooking your own trip.)

“The current sharing platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram, etc. are basicaly all feed-based products. You share in the moment and it kind of goes to the bottom of the feed and the moment is lost,” Cohn said in a phone call last month. “You miss your friends’ updates sometimes because it goes to the bottom of the feed and it comes in bits and pieces and it loses context.”

And that’s not really how we tell life stories, he argues. We tell them in a streamlined manner. That’s the aim of Irrive. “If you think about it,” he added, “when you get back from a trip, you go to lunch with a friend and they say, ‘How was your trip?’ You tell them in a story format.”

I love travel and I get to write about travel tools and services quite a bit. But Irrive is one of my new favorites. Here’s why:

It’s stupidly easy to use. I tested it out with my April trip to Greece. All I had to do once signed up was connect Irrive to any of the following accounts: Facebook, Instagram, Foursquare, Flickr and Twitter. To create a new scrapbook, simply give Irrive the dates of your trip. From there it will automatically suck in any update, status, photo or check-in uploaded during those dates. If you want to delete any of the ones Irrive finds from your scrapbook, you can. You can add itinerary details too — just forward any airline, hotel or restaurant reservations or ticket email to a special Irrive address and the information will be filled into your scrapbook.

It gives needed context to a singular event or experience. I don’t put everything on Instagram because I have random followers who I don’t think need that level of detail about my travels or life. But I also don’t put everything on Facebook for fear of spamming close friends with a stream of my trip photos in their News Feed. Irrive fills in those blanks and captures everything that happened in one place and gives it the context of a single event. This is sorely missing today, and it’s why I liked the idea of Kullect — adding context — but Irrive is so much more effortless on the part of the user, which is key.

It lets you share beyond the confines of each social service. Not all of the people who care about my travels and important life events, like family and close friends, are following me on all these services I use — my dad is on Facebook, but my mom isn’t. My husband doesn’t use Instagram. None of my family is on Foursquare or Twitter. But in approximately 10 minutes I can collect everything that happened on a trip or over a period of time and show real-life important people what I experienced through an emailed link — which everyone can easily access.

It makes a scrapbook and trip slideshow super simple. You actually end up with a tangible product once each time you compile a trip. You don’t have to do anything to make the slideshow — Irrive builds it for you automatically. If you want, you can decide to add or subtract images, and add music. But it’s optional. And it literally takes like 10 minutes max to do all of this. iPhoto for iOS has a great Journal feature that will automatically turn your photos into scrapbooks, with maps, dates, memories, weather, etc. But it’s based mainly on photos, and it’s not naturally social.

Irrive is not an app yet — it’s built for the web using HTML5. It was a conscious decision by Cohn and his team to go to the web first, so anyone you’re friends with on Irrive can see and comment regardless of the device they’re using (if you mark it as public). Any user you invite can comment on your scrapbook memories too, even if they’re marked private.

This is cool as is, but the seven-person team behind Irrive is just getting started. Though it’s a sharing and organizing tool for your digital memories now, Cohen says there’s more to come and eventually it’s going to move into more of a planning tool too.

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Live filters

Filters can be applied before you take a photo in Instagram 2.0.

One big change introduced in Instagram 2.0 is that you can now add filters in real time as you take photos. Live filters can be enabled by tapping the eye icon from the picture-taking interface, and are instantly applied to the live preview of the image visible through your iPhone’s camera lens. It’s a nice addition, made more so because it’s optional: You can still take a normal picture and add filters after, like in the previous version, or switch to a different filter after the fact, too.

Once you’ve actually snapped your shot, there are a few seconds of processing time, and then you can again cycle through the available filters to make sure you’re happy with your choice. Cycling through the available effects was lightning fast in this new version. It literally feels like I’m using a next-gen device when compared with the previous iteration of Instagram.

Live tilt-shift and borders

You can modify the tilt-shift effect to be applied to photos using multi-touch gestures.

Filters aren’t the only things you can now apply in advance. You can also add and modify tilt-shift effects before you snap a picture. Just tap the tear drop icon at the top of the new camera interface, choose either a line or single-spot based effect, and then tap, drag or rotate the live image preview to modify where the in-focus area will appear and in what orientation. It makes it much easier to frame your shots in advance, and again, you can remove or change the effect even after the image is taken in the same way you can modify filters.

You also have the option to turn the border on or off for any effect you’re using while in camera mode before you take a picture. It’s another simple change that makes it easier to frame shots. Borders can also be removed or added after the fact once a picture is taken, which is a nice improvement over the inflexible border mechanism in earlier versions.

New filters

Instagram has added four new filters in this update, too: Amaro, Rise, Hudson, and Valencia. These are a little more subtle in effect than many of the other Instagram filters, but they look good and definitely add to the app’s existing repertoire in useful ways. I especially like the Hudson style, with its subtle vignetting and slightly cooled colors.

Overall

Instagram’s changes to the core in-app camera are the biggest highlights of this update, and really do a great job of improving the aspect of the app that makes it so much fun to begin with. But developer Burbn also added some great tweaks that aren’t necessarily as apparent, like higher resolution photos (up to 1936×1936 on the iPhone 4 and 1536×1536 on the iPhone 3GS) and easy one-click photo rotation that all add up to a more pleasant experience overall.

New users should find Instagram 2.0 more accessible than its predecessor, and existing fans will love the app’s added flexibility and performance improvements. For an app with no shortage of biters trying to steal its thunder, this is a great update and a solid reminder of why it leads the pack. It’s still iPhone-only, though, so Android users will have to continue watching from the sidelines as Apple fans have all the fun.

Instagram’s CEO Kevin Systrom will be speaking at GigaOM’s Mobilize conference, September 26 and 27, in San Francisco.

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The aluminum case itself features a tripod mount and hooks for a pro camera strap, so you can wear it around your neck and take night shots like a true pro. Just think of how jealous your Instagram followers will be when you snap some quality wildlife pics with your $3,000 telephoto lens. You might doubt the ability of the iPhone 4′s 5-megapixel camera to deliver the goods, even with your expensive SLR lens collection attached, but the Photojojo demo pics are actually pretty impressive.

As with previous prototypes, this solution runs up against the fact that you can’t replicate an internal mirror system with the iPhone’s built-in camera. However, it should be better than just your iPhone 4 acting on its own, especially when you’re trying to use digital zoom to capture a far-away subject. You could probably also shoot some pretty cool HD video with this lens adapter.

As of this writing, the check-out process is down but a fix is in the works, according to a Photojojo.com service rep. Maybe it couldn’t keep up with overwhelming demand for the iPhone 4 SLR mount. Anyone thinking about a purchase? I have a bag full of seldom used Canon-mount lenses that suggest it might be worth considering.

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The app, which combines a Twitter-styled social network with image filters and photo sharing, has focused exclusively on the iPhone and has seen its growth explode. It now has more than 3.2 million users, co-founder and CEO Kevin Systrom told me last week when he stopped by our office to record a GigaOM Startup Session.

I’m an Instagram addict, and have spent countless hours on the network, sifting through beautiful moments from the lives of absolute strangers. The app has taken to me to breathtaking places–Paris, Rio, Tokyo, Seoul and New York — all within a matter of minutes. Beautiful vistas from the American South to snowy Toronto are all there. Instagram is my very own Discovery channel. This addictive quality is why I wrote about the company in my post, Why some Apps Work and Some Don’t.

This hasn’t gone unnoticed by the venture capitalists. Benchmark Capital’s Matt Cohler (formerly of LinkedIn and Facebook) knows a thing or two about social networks, and has invested $7 million in the company along with well-known entrepreneurs including former Facebook CTO Adam D’Angelo and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey.

Systrom, in this must-see-TV for all app developers, shares the story of Instagram, how it made product related decisions, the filters and why photos on mobiles rock. My only regret when doing this interview: I never got to spend time with Mike Krieger, Instagram’s other co-founder. Here are some highlights from the interview:

• Filters transform dull, everyday moments. They bring a mood to the moment.
• The hottest filters, how Instagram names them and if filters really get voted off the app.
• Instagram has 3.2 million users and over a third of them are overseas. Systrom explains how that happened and why Instagram is growing so fast in places like Japan, Korea, China and Brazil.
• Instagram’s early days and where it is going.
• Will there be Instagram for Android?
• The switch from Burbn to Instagram, and why that happened.

Later in the interview, Systrom shares lessons from his entrepreneurial journey:

• Entrepreneurship is a process of conviction building.
• We don’t do too many things; we do a few things and we do them really well.
• We scratched our own itch and built products for us.

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