Social Media Roundup: Rethink PowerPoint Presentations With Sway

Tired of years and years of PowerPoint presentations? Microsoft’s latest app takes a new, mobile-friendly approach to digital presentations, and you can get a first look at it in today’s Social Media Roundup.

Introducing Microsoft’s Sway

“Now anyone can take a crack at creating a Sway” #Neowin  (opens in a new tab) http://t.co/HpgOoH2nsP  (opens in a new tab) pic.twitter.com/tBNwIZ0Egz  (opens in a new tab)

— Office Sway (@sway) December 17, 2014  (opens in a new tab)

We all deal with PowerPoint, and let’s face it, Microsoft’s presentation-building standby feels a little dusty these days.

Sure, there are plenty of alternatives to the ubiquitous program, and we’ve even speculated about whether meetings would be better without PowerPoint altogether. But the program and the presentations that come out of it remain relatively unchanged, despite the changing tech landscape.

But now, Microsoft has introduced Sway, a new app to revamp what PowerPoint does with a particular focus on mobile devices.

“Docs and PowerPoint were originally designed with an eye toward emulating an analog form of content: A piece of paper for a document. A flip chart for a presentation,” David Alexander, Sway’s senior product manager, told Time  (opens in a new tab). “We wanted to create a new, digital-oriented output that doesn’t try to emulate a paper-based environment.”

Sway is now available to the general public in a preview form, which can be downloaded right here  (opens in a new tab). And for some examples of Sway presentations in action, explore the universe  (opens in a new tab) or animal migrations  (opens in a new tab). Check out the debut video for the app below. (ht @sway  (opens in a new tab))

Fresh Filters for Instagram

https://twitter.com/hunterschwarz/status/545225256479518722

Instagram faithful, rejoice! There are five new filters  (opens in a new tab) for the wildly popular photo-sharing site, which means brand-new ways to make your personal or branded moments look way more artistic. Take a look at each of them below:

Credit: Instagram

Instagram has rolled out the new filters and a new filters interface for both iOS and Android users. And for those who may be rolling their eyes at the social network, consider its sheer number of users (300 million and counting  (opens in a new tab)) and new metrics that show just how huge its engagement potential  (opens in a new tab) is for organizations. (ht @hunterschwarz  (opens in a new tab))