Written by 
Can Coca Cola give you a better tan? Nanda asks…Will Coca Cola give you a better sun tan? When I first head this I thought it was an obscure, ridiculous rumor. But I was wrong. it turns out it’s a very pervasive, ridiculous rumor. Yeah, if you Google “using coca cola to tan” you get […]
Does blotting oily sunscreen reduce SPF? Emma asks in Gmail…I don’t like the oily skin I get from using sunscreen so I blot off the excess with an oil absorbing sheet. Is this reducing the SPF of the sunscreen? Yes, blotting some of the sunscreen off your face will reduce the UV protection, to some […]
Is the NIOD brand really “ultra-scientific?” Saania says…I have a question about a skincare brand that’s gained a cult status amongst serious skin care junkies. The brand NIOD, under the umbrella brand Deciem, claims to be “skincare for the hyper-educated”. Their star product is called Copper Amino Isolate Serum. I wanted to know what you […]
Caching various files on disk has always been an integral part of many mobile apps. At Instagram, we use caching to store and recover images, videos, and text files. As a media-heavy application, the Instagram Android app requires a lightweight but stable disk cache system. When we first built the app, we started with the […]
At Instagram, our mission is to help people capture and share the world’s moments. We care deeply about the moments that people share on our platform, so enhancing how people view these moments is really important. Instagram recently launched a new design for Explore that includes “video channels”, which play in a new, full-screen, immersive […]
10 min read · Jun 21, 2016 The first version of Instagram for Android was built in four months by a team of two engineers. It’s been four years since that launch, and in that time we’ve added features such as video, direct messaging, photo maps, advertiser support, and new ways to discover and explore […]
Are boar bristle brushes better for your hair? Georgina asks…Are boar bristle brushes better for your hair? I’m looking at a Mason Pearson brush that’s about $100 and I want to know if it’s worth it. It’s tough to give a definitive answer because as you might imagine there aren’t many double blind, peer reviewed […]
Are super foods effective beauty ingredients? Jana asks…What are your thoughts on super foods in skin care? Ingredients like acacia, coconut, grapeseed oil, berries, green tea, avocado, turmeric and resveratrol. What the heck IS a super food? There is no scientific or medical definition. Typically you’ll see them described like this: “superfoods are nutrient powerhouses […]
WWDC is right around the corner! This post isn’t intended to be a prediction, as much as what I hope unfolds. As Betrand Serlet, a former Apple engineer discussed in this 90 second video clip, Apple often ships features iteratively. Projects start off private, only to be used internally, often times for a year or […]
Ignores commenting on another static vs. dynamic dispatch article because people won’t accept Swift is a hybrid not plain static. — Joe Fabisevich 🐶🐳™ (@mergesort) May 24, 2016 Guess that didn’t last long. There’s a conversation happening in the iOS community at the moment, static vs. dynamic programming. On one side we have many people […]