Aviary Blog

Aviary & NoScript Firefox Addon users: Here's a quick bug fix

Thu, 9 Jul 2009 19:27:34 EST

We've had a few bug reports from people with both Aviary's Firefox Addon and the Noscript addon installed.

Namely, the two extensions seem to cancel each other out when they are both installed. Big problem. :)

Well, here's a quick experimental fix that we'd love your help testing if you do have both addons installed and experienced this problem:

http://web1.aviary.com/apps/webv2/aviary-0.8.7/aviary-0.8.7.xpi

Please note this is experimental. It doesn't need to be installed yet unless you have Noscript installed and couldn't get the Aviary Firefox Addon to work. If version 0.8.6 otherwise worked for you, then there's no need to update to this new version until we have fully tested it out and released it on Mozilla's addons site.

Here is a list of the changes in this particular version:

(1) Fixed conflict with NoScript add-on.

(2) Always show the "Host it at Aviary.com" button (prompt to login
if necessary).

(3) Fixed a problem in Firefox 3.5 that prevented images from being
saved correctly to Aviary.com when the "Allow Third Party Cookies"
Firefox option is not checked.

Please let us know if this works for you. Thanks in advance!

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iDrive spammed my Gmail contacts

Wed, 8 Jul 2009 11:11:17 EST

This is really embarrassing and frustrating.

Last night I woke up to see a few dozen spam emails from a company called idrive addressed to different catchall emails that I use @aviary.com..

Everyone else who works at Aviary was reporting the same thing as well. And what's worse, some Aviary users whom I had corresponded with in the past got spam from idrive too and notified me about it. Even people who had deleted their Aviary accounts.

What apparently happened was solely my fault - not Aviary's - or rather the fault of an iphone contact synchronization service I use called iDrive.

Let me explain:

We use Gmail to manage our personal email. Gmail automatically adds people as Gmail contacts when we email them or get an email from them. So whenever we got an email from anyone it added us as a personal contact within my gmail account and iphone behind the scenes.

At Aviary we try to be very careful and respectful about people's privacy. We delete any personal data in the aviary system when we got an account deletion request.

The one oversight would be personal gmail contacts. I never realized that prior emails with someone would mean they became listed as a contact in my personal gmail account. That oversight is my fault and one that should have been completely inconsequential.

But, here's where things get really bad:

A couple of days ago I bought an iphone 3GS and was transferring all my data to it from my old iphone. As part of that process I bought an app called iDrive Lite in the app store that allowed you to backup your phone contacts to their servers and then resync them so nothing would be lost during the transition between phones.

Apparently this morning they used that data to spam EVERY single one of my contacts that had also synced from Gmail.

There's egg on my face as a result of this and I don't know what to do about it.

I apologize to everyone this affected. I'm deleting my idrive account, am blogging about this awful and illegal practice here, and will notify Apple about this, but since they resorted to something really shady here... I'm not sure what I can do to ensure that they really deleted all my contacts and wont spam ever again. :(

I am really, really sorry to anyone this effected.

I called iDrive's parent company Pro Softnet Corp and their operator kept pushing me to voicemail when I asked to be transferred to a supervisor. I have a feeling I'm not the first to call in and complain.

iDrive, shame on you. I hope this gets picked up by more people as a warning that nobody should ever, ever use them.

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Capture any webpage: Just add Aviary.com/ in front of the URL!

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:01:02 EST

Aviary has just launched it's easiest feature yet!

You can capture any webpage at all, from any browser, by simply putting Aviary.com/ in front of the URL!

For example, say you want to capture Google's homepage:
Just change http://www.google.com to Aviary.com/http://google.com.

Dead. Simple.

After capturing the page, you can edit it, add simple markup to it and save it to your desktop (or host it online with a single click). It should work on almost any public page on the Internet, with any browser. It can even capture Flash!

If you want additional options, for example to capture a page at different resolutions or to only capture a portion of the page click Screen Capture on Aviary's homepage or just visit:

http://aviary.com/launch/talon

Capture Options Available:

* Choose different screen resolutions
* Region to capture
* Quality / Speed settings.
* Multiple Browsers / Operating Systems (coming soon)

And of course, for even more powerful screen capture options (including capturing private pages and instant capture), please install our Firefox addon.

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Create iGoogle Themes with Aviary

Wed, 1 Jul 2009 17:15:53 EST

In our never ending quest to personalize the internet, today we bring forth to you another way of using Aviary that you may not have thought of.

You can personalize your iGoogle homepage with Aviary

Here are some examples:

For a tutorial on creating custom themes, visit the creating iGoogle themes in the Aviary forums.

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Aviary launches Falcon, image markup app!

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:45:18 EST

Aviary is proud to release Falcon, our image markup editor. Falcon is a blazing fast visual markup tool that was designed to work with Aviary's new Firefox Extension (Talon) for screen capture, as well as for stand-alone image preparation.

Launch URL:
http://aviary.com/launch/falcon

FEATURES

Screen Capture
Using the latest version of Aviary's new Firefox Extension (Talon), users can quickly perform screen capture on select regions or even entire web pages (including content hidden below the fold). Users can capture data to their desktops, clipboards, or even markup and edit the content directly in Aviary's applications. Download the latest version here! It's not up on Mozilla's Addons site yet.

Blazing Fast / Instant On
Falcon is under 90k in size, resulting in an instantaneous load time. Anyone that has Aviary's Firefox extension Talon installed can access and edit screen captured data without any server interaction (it all takes place right within the browser).

Easy Color Extraction
Use the built-in color picker tool to extract web color values from images and screenshots. This is awesome and simple for web designers!

Simple Editable Markup
Draw arrows, edit text, make shapes. Everything is selectable. Move, rotate and resize anything added to the screen. You can even recolor, add outlines and shadows.

Built-in Sharing
Host your file online for easy sharing or download it right to your desktop. You can even easily post it to Twitter and other social sharing services.

Image Preparation Features
Crop, Rotate and Resize your image quickly and easily to prepare it for the web.

Aviary Application Integration
Need more design power? Port your image into 4 different Aviary tools (color editor, advanced image editor, effects editor and vector editor).

Intuitive Interface
Designed for bloggers, the interface is intuitive, quick to use and responsive.

Ideal for Netbook Use
The app resizes perfectly for use in netbooks with small screen resolutions.

FAQ

Q: Why did you codename it Falcon?
A: Peregrine Falcons are recorded as the world's fastest birds. We thought that was an apt code name for our fastest app.

Q: What requirements do I need to run Falcon?
A: Any browser with Adobe Flash 9+ installed. Flash 10 is strongly recommended. Future versions of Falcon will be developed specifically for Flash 10.

Q: Can the Firefox extension capture Flash data as well?
A: Yes, in Firefox 3.5 it can. We highly recommend you upgrade.

Q: How much does Falcon cost to use?
A: Totally free to use. Aviary Pro members also gain additional storage options like privacy and watermark control for only $24.99 yearly.

Q: Is Falcon available to access through Aviary's API?
A: Yes. Any website can integrate with it directly. More information at http://aviary.com/apidocs or email us at support@aviary.com to access it.

If you don't want the entire API, but just want a simple way to launch Falcon with an image preloaded inside of it, just append the URL of the image you want to launch to the end of the querystring using the url= parameter. It will look like this: http://aviary.com/launch/falcon?url=http://www.google.com/logos/logo.gif

Q: Can I use a different Aviary app after performing screen capture in Talon?
A: Yes, just edit the Add-on Settings to choose a different app as your default choice instead of Falcon.

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Directions to Translate Aviary

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:55:23 EST

Thanks for all the volunteers who offered to translate Aviary into different languages! Translating languages for different Aviary tools is easy. Just follow these steps:

DIRECTIONS

Step 1. Download a free application called Poedit and install it.

Step 2. Download the Aviary translation files (.po).

Step 3. Just unzip and open any .po file in Poedit, click on a row to translate the English terms and enter your translation at the bottom. You can translate as many rows as you like.

Step 4. When you are done, Save the .po file and simply email it back to support@aviary.com and we'll approve it and add it to the Aviary tool you translated (and send you a nice thank you gift).

Please include the following in your email to support@aviary.com:

* The name of the tool you translated
* The name of the language you translated
* Your Aviary username
* Your name and shipping address (we will not publish this anywhere).
* The saved .po file. :)

Thanks!

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Creating Twitter Backgrounds in Aviary

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 08:22:49 EST

Did you know you can create Twitter backgrounds in Aviary?
If not, I have something to tell you.
Hey guys, you can create Twitter backgrounds in Aviary!
AviaryTwitter.egg by meowza on Aviary.

There are a few points to keep in mind when creating your Twitter background image.

1. Real Estate -- The center of your image will be obscured by the actual content on Twitter, so putting elements of importance in the middle will not be optimal, as it'll be partially, if not completely, covered by all the juicy, can't-miss tweets.

2. Resolution -- Monitors of different resolutions will display background Twitter images differently. Creating images too small will cause abrupt cut-offs in your design or the need to use undesired tiling of your image on monitors of higher resolution. A good practice to remedy this problem is to create your image large enough so that it'll work on monitors of large resolution and by keeping elements of importance contained approximately in the upper leftmost area of the image. Note, that background images will be nearly unidentifiable on monitors of 800x600 resolution, as the twitter content covers most of the screen. And also, if you're still using a monitor at 800x600 resolution... duuude.

3. Alignment -- It's also worth noting that your background image will be aligned to the LEFT of a viewer's screen. If you create an image suitable for large resolution monitors, remember that any excess of your image will be cut off on the right and bottom on monitors of smaller resolution. Many people choose to create background images which fade to a solid color on the right to prevent undesired cropping of background images or unwanted tiling.

How big??

"I need space!"

As I mentioned, it's good to begin with a larger image to display on monitors of varying resolutions. I find starting with a canvas size of 1680x1200 pixels covers the majority of resolutions out there.

Remember to keep space available at the top of your design to incorporate the Twitter logo and navigation bar.

Also, a lot of people choose to include a sidebar on the left. This allows you to include additional information about yourself including links to personal sites, your email address, or pictures of your dog that nobody cares to see. Again, it's worth mentioning that you're probably going to want the sidebar to be viewable on monitors of varying resolution. A good way to ensure this is to try to keep your sidebar around 200pixels wide, so as not to be obscured by the content in the middle on smaller monitors.

Here are some examples of Twitter backgrounds that can be created in Aviary.
Feel free to open up any of the creations to see how they were made.

TwitterCoffee.egg by meowza on Aviary.

TwitterBackgroundSwirls.egg by meowza on Aviary using Mario's Seamless 3 pattern as the base.

Abstract Wire Twitter.egg by meowza on Aviary using mpeutz' Abstract Wire Wallpaper as the base.

FireShapeBackground.egg by meowza on Aviary using underwatercolor's fire shape as the base.

TwitterBGAviaryluvr.egg by meowza on Aviary.

Create your own twitter backgrounds and post 'em here! Let's see what you're doing!
Having troubles getting started? Check out this tutorial on creating Twitter backgrounds from start to finish!

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Aviary Wins Webware 100 Award

Thu, 21 May 2009 20:15:45 EST

YAY! We won the CNet Editor's Award for Technical Achievement in the 2009 Webware100 competition.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote for us. A special thanks to Rafe and Josh and the rest of the Webware crew for bestowing this awesome honor upon us.

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Awesome Aviary Review on G4 TV!

Wed, 20 May 2009 20:24:20 EST

This is probably one of the best video reviews, if not *the* best review, for Aviary.com I've ever seen. Thanks so much to Kevin and Olivia for this awesome in-depth review and welcome to the thousands of viewers joined our community (and pushed us to the #1 spot in Google Trends last night)!

From their blog:

"A new way to edit images online and for free? Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn explore the all new Aviary Image Editing Suite with four different applications to use--all through your web browser. Whether you want to juxtapose images together, or learn how to use a color pallette, Aviary lets you do it all."

Like what you saw? Create a free Aviary account now!

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Find Your Friends on Aviary

Tue, 19 May 2009 14:50:14 EST

Now its super easy to find your friends on Aviary!

When on your dashboard page you will see the option to find your friends.

Now just choose which email contact list you want to check.

Enter your email username and password. (We will not store your login or password (or any of your friends). Any data retrieved is solely to let you find your friends and will not be stored by us.)

Then like magic we will let you know which of your friends are on Aviary. Giving you the ability to keep up to date with their latest creations.

If for some reason they don't have an Aviary account yet, you have the option to invite them to join the fun.

If you have multiple contact lists just rinse and repeat the previous steps.

Now wasn't that easy?!

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