Photo Hack Day 3: West Coast Edition

Bay Area developers: Aviary is absolutely thrilled to announce that Photo Hack Day is headed west this summer! On July 14-15, 2012, join our awesome headline sponsor, Facebook, and our kind hosts at Dropbox for a third weekend of hacking, cool giveaways, and $10,000 in prize money. Our friends at Sincerely, Walgreens, and Tumblr are also onboard to throw some food, drink, and a few surprises into the mix. (We're tempted to cue up some Phantom Planet, for those of you who watched the OC, but we'll spare you.)

PhotoHackDay3

The original Photo Hack Day was the first image-centric hackathon in New York City, bringing together the brightest minds in photography, photo-editing, web design, computer science, and more. In 24 hours, over 200 developers put together an impressive 43 hacks with APIs contributed from 25 companies -- a full day display of burgeoning talent in the New York City tech community. NASDAQ, our first headline sponsor, gave away the opportunity to showcase the winners on their screen in Times Square!

After garnering a wonderfully enthusiastic response from the community, we organized Photo Hack Day II, which brought over 250 developers, 30 APIs, the founders of reddit, Tumblr, and Cheezburger Inc., and $10,000 in prizes to General Assembly -- plus a livestream of our sister Photo Hack Day taking place simultaneously in Berlin.

Award-winning hacks in the past have included:

• PhotoBot, a robotic photo analysis tool that provides suggestions for taking better pictures
• Synviary, a collaborative image editing platform
• HoneyBadger, a motion detector security system that enables your computer to know who's looking at your screen

Plus many more exciting, creative projects!

At Photo Hack Day 2, we had 496 RSVPs and a full house at General Assembly (demo tickets sold out a full week before the event!), so we're looking forward to doing the same on the west coast. Have questions? Check out the event website, or get in touch.

Can't wait to see you there!

Introducing Aviary for Windows Phone 7

Ever since we announced development plans of the Aviary SDK for Windows Phone, we've been fielding emails from very eager developers. Good news! The wait is over, and we have a few juicy details that we're sure you're equally excited to hear about:

• Redesigned SDK from the ground-up to take advantage of the Metro design principles of Windows Phone
• The same, easy integration process: add our editor to your project in as little as 15 minutes, with just a few lines of code
• Customizable color theme
• Controllable output size based upon developer preferences -- you decide what makes the most sense for your app or service
• ... Not to mention that Aviary for Windows Phone has all the standard features as the rest of our mobile SDKs

For developers looking to expand their repertoire beyond the iTunes App Store and Android Marketplace, our new SDK is a perfect tool to add to your Windows Phone 7 apps. Our friends at Nokia think so, too:

“With the new Aviary SDK for Windows Phone 7, developers can create ground breaking applications that take advantage of the unique features of Nokia Lumia devices, like the Lumia’s Carl Zeiss lens, as well as to bring their existing imaging apps to Windows Phones consumers around the world.” - Bryan Biniak, VP of Global Partner and App Development

Want to see some of the first integrations? Check out our early bird partners:

• Rowi
• 4th & Mayor (available soon)
• Rekap
• Postcard on the Run (available soon)

"Behind every great photo is a better editor! The Aviary toolset is a great addition to our Postcard on the Run product. We're excited to release our new Windows Phone product with Aviary's software and we know our users will be thrilled with the high resolution output. Aviary will make our postcards more memorable and fun to send!" -Josh Brooks, Founder of Postcard on the Run

Windows Phone devs, we're looking forward to building beautiful products with you. To get started, download the SDK at aviary.com/wp7. Let's take the Windows Marketplace by storm, together.

Aviary's editing tools: now in Google Drive!

Google Drive is a brand spankin' new product from Google that brings a wide range of functionality to the ever-growing realm of cloud storage. To add to the awesomeness, any photo that you upload to Google Drive can be edited with Aviary's simple photo editor. Here's a super simple way to get started.

You'll need to install Aviary first (get it from the Chrome Webstore!) Once it's installed, just right click on any photo in your Google Drive and select "Open With > Aviary for Google Drive."

Screen shot 2012-04-24 at 12.32.39 PM

Our editor will pop up, and the same easy experience you know and love awaits! When you're done, the updated image will be saved to your Google Drive account.

Screen shot 2012-04-24 at 12.45.08 PM

We're especially fond of the fact that Google saves versions of your image at various stages in the editing process, so if you change your mind and want to do the process over -- without necessarily starting from square one -- access to some of your previous edits is as simple as right-clicking the file name and selecting "Manage Revisions."

To check out the other tools on Google Drive, check out their app offerings here!

As always, if you have any questions, we'd love to help. Reach us any time at contact [at] aviary [dot] com.

Aviary Announces Partnership With Flickr, Brings Editing Capabilities to 75 Million Users

It's a big day at Aviary! We're excited to announce our partnership with Flickr, which brings our photo editing platform to a vibrant and bustling photo community. With 3.5 million photos uploaded to Flickr per day, our editor will help enrich the experience of sharing memories for photographers and viewers alike, providing new, visual ways to engage with images hosted on the site.

To access Aviary's editing tools in Flickr:

(1) Click on the Actions tab, then select Edit photo with Aviary.

Screen shot 2012-04-03 at 3.04.18 PM

(2) Our editor will pop up, giving you access to fourteen simple tools.

Screen shot 2012-04-03 at 2.49.58 PM

(3) A few clicks are all it takes to tweak your photo to your liking.

Screen shot 2012-04-04 at 11.50.08 AM

Like what you see? Perfect, you're all done. Carry on!

We're absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to share our passion for photos with the millions of users, with myriad interests. From diehard travel photographers to amateur hobbyists shooting candids of their loved ones, Aviary's creative tools will provide a sleek, simple way to quickly fix pictures; after all, a faster, easier editing experience means that users have more time to spend exploring everything Flickr has to offer. Plus, since Aviary is 100% mobile friendly, you can edit your Flickr photos on your tablet too!

As we spend the next few weeks unrolling editing capabilities to the entirety of Flickr's community, we're paying extra attention to your thoughts and feedback. Please let us know what you think - your opinions will help shape the future of the Aviary editor.

In the meantime, don't forget to check out what our friends at Flickr have to say about the partnership.

Have fun and stay awesome!

Love,

Team Aviary

Photo Hack Day 2

32 hours, 250 bagels, 300+ tacos, 300+ burritos, 12 buckets of BBQ chicken, 20 quarts of pulled pork, 12 pans of cornbread, 20 quarts of mashed potatoes, 150 cookies, 80 boxes of pizza (640 slices total), 27 cases of water (432 bottles total), 384 beers, and 28 cases of soda (448 cans total) later...

On February 25-26, Aviary had the pleasure of throwing Photo Hack Day 2, the first -- and biggest -- photo hackathon to take place in New York City (...and, as far as we know, the world).

With 496 RSVPs and 250 developers in attendance, 30 participating companies, headline sponsorship from Nokia Developer, and $10,000 in prize money, PHD2 trumped its summer predecessor in terms of scale. An astounding 58 hacks were registered to demo by the time Sunday rolled around. General Assembly was at maximum capacity for hackers and attendees alike; the spin on this winter's hackathon -- additional emphasis on mobile development -- opened the floodgates for hackers waiting to test their iOS, Android, and Windows Phone chops.

hackingdemos

Saturday evening consisted of Google hangouts with hackers simultaneously building their own projects at Photo Hack Day Berlin, ample BBQ, and beer from the good folks at Sixpoint and Lost Tribes.

Alexis Ohanian, Ben Huh, and David Karp, founders of reddit, Cheezburger Inc., and Tumblr, respectively, joined Aviary CEO Avi Muchnick and the developers in attendance to share their thoughts on engineering creative systems, the strength of image-based communities, advice on community governance, and the intersection of public policy and internet. Their answers ranged from insightful (as expected) to surprising: for instance, Ben Huh, mastermind behind LOLcats and the ensuing barrage of feline-relevant memes, revealed that he does not -- or more importantly, cannot -- own a cat... due to allergies. (WHO KNEW?!)

DSC_0622

Sunday's demos ran the gamut from funny and lighthearted to the incredibly practical. Some of our favorites:

• David Hu's "Linstagram" and "Linterest"
• Vivek Bhagwat and Hans Hyttinen's "Here, Have a Kitty!"
• Max Stoller, Spencer Fry, and Andrew Mercando's "Player Status")
• Mason Du's "Sweet Potato", which generates unique photo montages made of other photos
• Arcadius Kazimierski's "Face Value", which used Face.com's facial recognition API to recognize dollar bills for the blind

The judging panel was equally diverse, with Jason Black (Nokia), Jason Morrow (betaworks), Jim Estrin (The New York Times), and Jamal Fanaian (Flickr) holding court on hacks and demos. In the end, Yufei Liu and his collaborative image editing platform, Synviary, emerged as the big winner of the weekend, sweeping up first place, people's choice, and the Aviary company prize for a grand total of $7,500 in prize money.

Here are the final results from the weekend:

• First place: Yufei Liu, "Synviary"
• Second place: Matt Grasser, Nick Ihm, Christopher Guess, and Emily Duong, "What Is Up"
• Third place: Mike Kelberman, Liangjie Xia, and Chris Bell, "Rotobooth"
• People's Choice: Yufei Liu, "Synviary"

We'll publish a full list with the winners of company prizes once we get confirmation. For now, refer to our HackerLeague page to see what was created over the weekend!

For more photos from #PHD2, check out the Photo Hack Day Flickr group or sneak a peek at The Bosco's photo booth mug shots! You can also read the event writeup from the perspective of Mr. Estrin in Beta620, a New York Times blog.

Big thanks to all of the hackers, companies, and attendees who made Photo Hack Day 2 a success! Looking forward to seeing you all at the next hackathon.

Cheers,

The Aviary team

DSC_0636

Partner Spotlight: MailChimp

Aviary provides a simple editor for web and mobile that developers can embed in their apps with just a few lines of code! Read on to see what MailChimp did with our tools, or check out our featured partners to see how they’re putting our editor to use.

Mailchimp

MailChimp makes it easy to design, share, and track email newsletters that connect businesses and services with their users. Their range of templates, fonts, and features translate to a highly customizable campaign, and we're happy to announce that Aviary has been added to their extensive list of tools.

Now that you can edit your photos in MailChimp, there's no element of email that you can't tweak or perfect -- what better way to reach your audience than sending them a newsletter that is exactly as you like it?

Check out MailChimp's email newsletter service now!

Best of all, you can access Aviary's editing tools within MailChimp in three clicks. Observe!

Step 1. From the template page, drag and drop an image into MailChimp's upload functionality.

1

Step 2. A preview of the image that you upload will appear in the right hand side of the floating box. Beneath the image, you'll see an Edit button. Click it to open Aviary's editor.

2

Step 3. Perfect your image with Aviary's range of editing tools. Tweak colors with our brightness, saturation, and contrast feature, apply filters to change the feel of a photo, or opt for one-click fixes with our enhance tools. Hit apply when you're finished, save your changes, and your image is ready to go!

3

More good news: We've added resize -- back by popular demand -- to our already-extensive list!

We're particularly fond of MailChimp's integration: it's sleek, intuitive, and feels wonderfully natural in their existing workflow. To learn more, check out their website or visit Aviary to see how our editing tools can help you!

Why hello, Windows Phone!

Last week some big news broke on Geekwire and The Verge: we're bringing the Aviary SDK to Windows Phone! Our goal at Aviary is to democratize creativity so that it's available for everyone. After creating SDKs for iPhone and Android, the next natural step was to follow with the Windows Phone platform. We're especially smitten with the new Nokia Lumia phones, which are aesthetically gorgeous and have great hardware (...did anyone say Carl Zeiss lenses?).

Given these latest devices and overall developer interest, we feel that the Windows Phone platform will be an increasingly appealing -- and popular -- choice for all you app developers looking to expand beyond the App Store and Android Marketplace, and Aviary for Windows Phone means you'll be able to easily add photo editing to any apps you build for that platform, too!

A full release of the SDK should be ready by Q2 of this year. Can't wait that long? You can get a sneak peek of the Aviary SDK for Windows Phone at Photo Hack Day 2, which is being held at General Assembly. The hackathon offers developers an opportunity to preview our SDK for Windows Phone, as well as the chance to build on the platform for cash and crazy prizes!

Says Bryan Biniak, Nokia's VP of Global Partner and App Development:

"With the new Aviary SDK for Windows Phone 7, developers can create ground  breaking applications that take advantage of the unique features of Nokia Lumia devices, like the Lumia’s Carl Zeiss lens, as well as to port their existing imaging apps to millions of Nokia Windows Phones around the world.  We’re proud to support Aviary as the headline sponsor of the Aviary Photo Hack Day event and look forward to promoting the winning apps created by talented Windows Phone developers attending the Photo Hack Day event in New York City."

Hope to see you February 25!

Meet the Office Dogs

One of the best parts of working at Aviary is the fact that we boast a dog-friendly office. (Jealous?) That's right, our CEO has given us the green light to bring our four-legged friends to hang out with us at Aviary HQ. It just so happens that every single member of the biz dev team is the proud owner of an awesome dog, and we've been featured in Betabeat's "The Real Startup Dogs of Silicon Alley" for it. In the spirit of celebrating man's best friend (also known as our four office dogs), we're dedicating today's blog post to Pubby, Harry, Scout, and Kiki. Better yet, we're using their handsome selves as canvases for Aviary's editing tools! (What better excuse to play with our filters and stickers than puppies?!)

Looks like we're not the only people interested in having editing functionality to make our dogs look awesome: our friends at Dogsly have integrated Aviary's tools, and The Next Web called the iOS app "an absolute must have" for dog owners.

Without further ado, meet our office dogs!

facebookwebwidget.aviary

Pubby

Owner: Nam

Breed: Shih-Tzu

Age: 5 1/2

Claim to fame: YouTube stardom. Pubby's like a furry Macaulay Culkin, but age has been kinder to him.

Favorite Aviary memory: Being treated like a king during his many visits to the office (all Aviary employees are his serfs, and pay taxes in the form of adoration, praise, and being on-call for belly rubs.) Want to know more? Check out Pubby.info to see what he's up to these days.

william chillin

Harry

Owner: Paul

Breed: Cavalier King Charles Spaniel

Age: 1 1/2

Claim to fame: Paul's other dog is named William. Just like the royal princes (get it?) -- but even cuter. (To the skeptics, yes, it is quite possible.)

Favorite Aviary memory: Lying in Nam's lap and sleeping, all day long. Being photographed next to Aviary's Startup Bball trophy. Being fawned over by everyone for doing irresistible things like blinking and looking cute.

facebookwebwidget.aviary-1

Scout

Owner: Erin

Breed: Miniature Schnauzer

Age: 10 months

Claim to fame: Being the bounciest, happiest Schnauzer puppy that anyone has seen. Also, being the dog who took the longest to understand that the office glass walls were glass.

Favorite Aviary memory: It's a toss-up between eating the whiteboard eraser or scavenging for food in the Aviary "lawn" (read: big green carpet) -- but hey, it's free vacuuming for the office!

facebookwebwidget.aviary-2

Kiki

Owner: Alex

Breed: Cockapoo

Age: 10

Claim to fame: For being the most fashionable dog in the office; Kiki sported a fantastic silver jacket at the NYC Startup and Dog Enthusiasts Meetup. Clearly, this chic lady is light years ahead of her compatriots when it comes to accoutrements.

Favorite Aviary memory: Being the first office dog to claim the Aviary "lawn" (read: green carpet) as her own... and yes, you know what we mean.

Since we can't agree on who's cutest, what do you guys think? Be forewarned: your answers will likely spark some lively crap-talking among the Aviary biz dev team!

New Feature Alert: One-click Enhance!

It may be a new year, and we may all have a laundry list of things we'd like to do differently (resolutions: to keep or not to keep, that is the question!), but simplicity and ease of use is something that Aviary is steadfastly sticking to.

One of the features we're most excited about is our collection of Enhance tools, which are one-click fixes to the most common problems ailing photographers. Our algorithms detect a range of elements that cause your images to be visually awry. We have four tools in total, and while they can't retroactively create perfect conditions, the improvements are pretty darn significant.

AUTO: Our auto feature is a simple but incredibly effective edit that works with all photos -- think of it as a "one-tool-fixes-all" approach to editing. Depending upon the quality of the photo, the results can range from subtle to drastic, but there's a clear difference between the "before" and "after".

NIGHT: Darkness is no match for our night enhance tool. We know some of your favorite memories come from evening get-togethers, concerts, and the like; while the dark threatens to hide features and detail, we also know how annoying it is when flash overexposes them into obscurity. Take a gander at how we can help!

BACKLIT: One of the most common (and most commonly neglected) rules in photography is to seek proper lighting. Backlighting is when the lighting of your photograph is behind your subject, rather than in front. While it's great for silhouettes (and when done properly, can result in awesome effects), it's not exactly ideal -- backlighting casts an inconvenient shadow that falls over facial features. That's where our backlight feature makes itself useful. Observe:

BALANCE: Our balance tool works wonders for color correction. For those of you who shoot indoors and are forced to deal with awful indoor lighting (too fluorescent? too yellow?), this will quickly become your favorite. I've corrected many a dinner table photo with it, and it's probably my most-used of the bunch.

We hope you find Aviary's suite of enhance tools equally useful. Don't forget, these features are only available in Version 2.0 of our new, improved editor!

We would love to see how you improve your photos -- send us an email with your "before" and "after" images to contact [at] aviary [dot] com, and we'll pick a few to feature on our blog.

How Team Aviary uses our editor

Dear readers and friends, First off: a much overdue Happy New Year to all of you!

In the spirit of starting anew, we're unrolling some changes at Aviary (and based upon our new editor, they're pretty darn nice); our approach to content and community is no different.

Over the course of the new few weeks, we'll start introducing you to the members of the team and giving you glimpses of the process behind the product. Plenty of users are familiar with Aviary's editor (in fact, you guys edited over ten million photos this past month), but we have a sneaky suspicion that you may not know much about the awesome people who built it. This year, we'd like to get to know you -- and we'd like you to get to know us.

Screen shot 2012-01-20 at 2.45.41 PM

It goes without saying that having a team enamored with the product they build is generally a good sign. A significant portion of the work that we do requires us to know our tool inside and out; naturally, we spend a lot of time using it.

DSC_0604

I've asked Maya and Nam, two awesome members of our equally awesome team and the infamous duo behind Aviary's own Namaya Party Plannin‘, to explain the process behind their recent edits (unsurprisingly, their iPhones are essentially a fifth appendage). Both of them have pets that we feature regularly on Aviary; Maya's cat, Ethan, has graced the pages of FastCompany, and Nam's dog, Pubby, was a YouTube sensation.

Maya's photos

"I really think Ethan looks like a handsome little cat model. I used our blemish tool to blur out the area around him and hide the shoe box on top of him. I also slapped his name on there - he's named after a character in one of my all-time favorite movies, Slackers - and added the Ventura effect so you can see his cute little ears.

Nam's (obviously) a photogenic guy, so I didn't need to do much. I added one of my favorite Aviary effects, Aqua, to give him a nice vintage feel and make the door look a little scarier. That door leads to the terrifying rusty chain that holds up our elevator, and since the 'Danger' sign on the door got blown out by the sun I added it back in so Nam remembers to be careful next time he's up there."

Blog post Jan 25 2012.egg_ef4a8

Nam's photos

"Pubby, an angel-like creature, is one of my most treasured investments. With a perfect coat, impeccable paws, and a delightful jaw, it's almost impossible to enhance any photo of him.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT, I DID. Using auto-enhance, I was able to level out the colors (my bedroom has poor lighting!) and brighten up his little face (OMG CUTE RIGHT?). Step 2. Effects! I chose our Strato effect because I love the subtle retro feel it gives, not to mention it pearls up Pubby's googly eyes! Also, the timestamp on the corner means I'll never forget this moment!

OH I DID THE SAME THING TO MAYA TOO, but with the Singe effect! Is she from the 70's now?? I don't know! I think so!"

Blog post Jan 25 2012 Nam.egg_90b90

We always welcome suggestions for topics you'd like to read about, so feel free to share your ideas. You can also ask us anything! (Some questions that have floated our way: What nail polish is Maya wearing? What does your office look like? Can we see more pictures of Pubby?)

Here's a common one: Where can I edit my own photos?

Answer: Aviary's brand spankin' new Facebook app!

'Til next time, stay awesome.