May 2013
2 posts
5 tags
Google Glass & Photography
Photographers sacrifice the present to remember the past in the future.
This weekend I attended a wedding where smartphones being used as cameras were everywhere. It really highlighted for me how people don’t live in the moment anymore. The idea of removing the barrier between you and the moment you are enjoying has always been a dream of mine. I resent spending time at my kids’ birthday...
New design pattern: Livatars
“Livatars,” a Portmanteau for “live avatars,” is a pretty simple concept: Take a traditional headshot and make it subtly animated so the person in it appears alive. It’s an homage to the living newspapers in Harry Potter and player popup profiles that appear on tv during sportscasts. We tried this on Aviary’s company page and have gotten great feedback on it...
December 2012
4 posts
“[We] calibrated details ranging from color shifts, saturation, and contrast, to...”
– Twitter Engineering: How our photo filters came into focus
Read about how @twitter worked with @aviary to build out their new photo filters. Mad props to both teams! (via afuchs)
Birds of a feather flock together
I’m excited to announce that Tobias Peggs has joined the Aviary flock as our new CEO!
Aviary is taking off in ways I never dreamed possible when we adjusted our strategy and launched our photo-editing SDK 15 months ago. We now have more than 25 million monthly active users of Aviary’s products, making their photos look amazing across our distribution network of 2,500 partners. We have an...
The answers you didn't want to hear
Chanukah fell out in late December 2008. My parents took my children to a Chanukah party that was open to the community in a local storefront. It was a community festival and there were inflatable rides and food and games for the little ones. Everyone was having a great time. It was a party put on by a charitable organization called the Chabad, that hosts Jewish themed events around the...
June 2012
2 posts
April 2012
1 post
53's Paper →
parislemon:
My god is this app gorgeous. One of the best-looking iPad apps ever created, and a perfect example of creativity/creation on the device.
This is the first pure creativity app that has ever made it onto my dock. I use it EVERY. SPARE. SECOND. I find that it’s a form of creative meditation for me. This is the drawing app I have been waiting 15 years for, ever since I first...
March 2012
1 post
January 2012
1 post
6 tags
On painting lessons
She paused.
“Um, what are you doing?”
My wife stepped carefully over a paint can and one of my legs. She peered quizzically at my lower half, sticking out from under my 8-year-old’s newly painted desk as if I was tuning up a car.
“I’m teaching Kayla a lesson.”
“By painting under her desk?”
“Exactly.”
“Wait, what?...
December 2011
3 posts
6 tags
On startup transparency
When I first started @Aviary, I planned to be completely transparent about the company’s progress with everyone: employees, users and total strangers.
I understood that traditionally, early startups were in complete stealth mode and closed about their plans and progress.
That seemed silly to me.
It didn’t make those startups seem mysterious. It made their ideas seem indefensible if...
"Reverse sexism" in tech isn't sexism
TechCrunch ran an article on a new startup accelerator geared towards women-founded mobile companies. Of course this immediately attracted trolls. I saw the following comment by a TechCrunch reader named Chad Moran:
If men did this it would be considered sexist… just sayin’
It had 6 likes, which bothered me more than the comment itself. I replied:
I hear this argument all the...
Hey LinkedIn, you have a serious user experience...
A couple of days ago I decided to update my LinkedIn contacts and see who I might have missed. I used their handy import contacts form and without realizing it, inadvertently spammed 1500 of my contacts (I’m lucky that LinkedIn sets a max import of 1500, or this would have been much, much worse).
The problem seems to be that with the update to OS X Lion, scrollbars no longer appear… so it’s not...
September 2011
1 post
You can't compete if you're not solving a new...
From this TechCrunch piece on how Microsoft is losing badly with Bing:
Bing is not a bad search engine. I repeat: Bing isnot a bad search engine. But when you’re wondering directions to a place, shopping for something new, or just curious about what this or that means, you’re likely not thinking to yourself: “Oh, I’ll Bing that.” No, no, no. You Google that sucker. Because Google is a verb. And...
June 2011
1 post
Watch out J.K. Rowlings
Did I know that I had authored and published a book called “Eye Candy” in Japan? No. No I did not.
If anyone buys it, please let me know how it is and if it’s good amazing I’ll add it to my portfolio. I’m particularly curious how good my Japanese is.
天気の良い日!
May 2011
2 posts
Replying to spam
Earlier today I got this polite, but spammy note… which represents the umpteenth time I have been cold emailed by various individuals from this company.
Avi,
My name is Tom H———— from COMPANY and this is an unexpected note. Thanks in advance for the time and consideration.
COMPANY understands that there are 3 undeniable trends online businesses like yours are...
April 2011
1 post
Shark Tag: You're it
NOTE: This post is an entry to qualify for the Summit Series Shark Tag qualifications.
The biggest problem facing the oceans today is actually not pollution, over-fishing or off-shore drilling:
It’s apathy.
Most people are unaware that the ocean is the most critical component to supporting life on this planet. They certainly don’t realize that there is a 100-million ton garbage island...
April 2010
2 posts
Open Source Idea #1: Catalike
Well, here goes my first Open Sourced idea. Gulp.
Catalike: Find like-minded strangers near you
“Many of us have experienced the feeling of being in a lonely crowd: Walking through a crowded city or being in between sessions at a conference and *knowing* that dozens of the people you pass by might be likeminded and fun to hang out with, but there’s no easy way to meet just them...
Open Sourcing Ideas
I realized I have too many business ideas and simply can’t iterate on all of them (especially since my first priority is Aviary). After speaking with MSG, he suggested I post my ideas publicly whenever I have them.
What.
My first instinct was to protect my idea, as is the first instinct for almost all entrepreneurs. After all, they are my ideas, right? If I post them, can’t anyone...
