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At this point, it’s already clear that the iPhone has become the camera many people use on a daily basis. The iPhone 4 is now by far the most popular camera on Flickr (and that’s true even though it’s being undercounted — likely drastically). And apps like Instagram, Hipstamatic, and Camera+ are exploding in usage, despite being iPhone-only. But some upcoming changes in iOS 5 point to an even brighter future for the iPhone as a camera. We’re likely to see an explosion of photo apps as a result.

Specifically, iOS 5 will include Core Image. This was previously announced at WWDC, but the current beta builds going around now point in the direction of what this should mean. With the latest beta (version 5), a ton of effects have been added. Last week, BGR posted the iOS 5 beta 5 changelog. Among the bullet points:

A new display technology called i2R e-paper is making the rounds today. It’s developed by ITRI, a Taiwanese research company that has produced flexible AMOLED and LCD displays in the past. i2R is essentially a plastic substrate with a heat-activated liquid crystal coating: you pass it through a thermal printer and a 300dpi monochrome image is impressed on its surface — until you want to rewrite it, which you can do up to 260 times by their calculations.

Putting aside the obvious comparisons to, say, using a pencil, I’m not sure this technology is the paper-killer ITRI and some sites think it is.

Less than two weeks ago, red-hot startup Airbnb got rocked by a wave of negative press after one of its guests blogged about the traumatizing experience of coming home to her apartment to find it utterly wrecked by a guest.

Airbnb’s initial response was lackluster at best. But after a couple of false starts, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky wrote an unconditional apology that reaffirmed that the company understood the concerns and was going to do everything it could to make things right. He promised a $50,000 insurance guarantee for hosts, as well as additional safety features that were on the way. And a week after that apology, we’re seeing the fruits of their efforts.

With companies chomping at the bit to enter the growing mobile space and take advantage of the opportunities therein, it’s almost more intriguing to explore why some companies don’t throw their hats in the ring. Case in point: AMD — the second largest x86 processor manufacturer in the world has yet to make their play. Why haven’t they made their push into mobile, just like everyone else?

Launching in beta today in California is the YC-funded Leaky. Like a Hipmunk for car insurance, Leaky’s premise is simple enough; visit the site and you’ll be prompted to fill out an online questionnaire covering all sorts of vehicle-related questions like make, model and mileage of your car as well as demographic information like education level and employer. When you complete the quiz, Leaky immediately serves up a selection of car insurance quotes from five of the top insurance carriers as well as others, including Geico, Esurance and Allstate.

By now, we’ve all seen behind-the-scenes footage of motion capture in action — an actor clad in a monochrome jumpsuit and the occasional handful of colored balls, spouting off dialogue and gesticulating wildly. It used to be that such work could only be done within the confines of a studio, a closed space where a camera would have as little trouble as possible picking up those little points of articulation, in hopes of translating them into lifelike movement for a CGI bobcat or something. Now, according to Disney Research Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, a recent breakthrough will allow mocap to take place just about anywhere.

The big idea? Instead of actors being filmed by cameras, the actors wear the cameras.

As an intelligent TechCrunch reader with the gift of foresight, you’ve probably backed up your hard drive — and all of the precious photos locked inside — to at least one cloud service, just in case the unthinkable happens and you lose both your computer and your local backup.

But you’re unusual. Many of your friends probably haven’t backed up their photos at all, which means they’re one crashed drive away from losing those memories forever. And even if that drive doesn’t crash, their photos are likely buried in several layers of folders where they’re gathering a thick coat of digital dust.

Snapjoy, a Y Combinator-funded startup that’s launching today, wants to fix that: they’re offering to keep your photos backed up and organized automatically. And they’re taking on the likes of Flickr, iPhoto, and Picasa as they hope to become your go-to app for photo management.

Twitter’s redesigned and feature-rich web interface (a.k.a. #newTwitter), which was announced last fall, has been completely rolled out, according to a company Tweet. That means that Twitter users can no longer use the old version of the site, which has been the case for nearly a year.

You can access more information about #NewTwitter here. Of course, this means that all Twitter.com users will be using the same application, which is sure to make things a bit easier for Twitter when it comes to feature and design rollouts.

Google today announced an update to its Google Search app for Android, bringing a few new features that should improve your overall search experience. For one, suggestions will now be grouped by type, with the web suggestions appearing up top. Travelers, nomads, and peeps outside of the States will also get to see country-specific suggestions and search results as long as they’re in a country with a Google domain.

Google today announced an update to its Google Search app for Android, bringing a few new features that should improve your overall search experience. For one, suggestions will now be grouped by type, with the web suggestions appearing up top. Travelers, nomads, and peeps outside of the States will also get to see country-specific suggestions and search results as long as they’re in a country with a Google domain.