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Problems with Picasa Web Albumes
Posted by: Thomas | 15 Jun 2008 16:07
Please re-authorize Phixr at Picasa Web Albumes. Sorry for the inconvenience.
New interface; Hello, Facebook.
Posted by: Thomas | 14 Nov 2007 12:52
Now, let's see. Been a while... Anyway, despite or efforts currently being focussed on a different project, we can happily announce that we fulfilled some of your wishes. One of those was adding support for Facebook. Voila, there you go. (Did anyone actually ever use Costco? We kicked it out, if anyone wonders.)

The most prominent change happened on the interface side though. Hope you folks like it... Cu!
Speeeeeedup
Posted by: Ben | 25 Oct 2007 18:59
Happy to announce that we did some hardware and software tuning, resulting in a serious speed-up of Phixr. Enjoy, folks!
Service interruptions
Posted by: Thomas | 09 Sep 2007 18:59
We have had some connectivity problems the last few days which we hope to have solved now. Our deepest apologies.
April has come
Posted by: Thomas | 18 Apr 2007 17:37
Wow, it's been a while since I posted something here... Anyway, let's get to business: News include "signed" requests to Picasa Web Albums (for the user this is nothing visible, however, security-wise Phixr and Picasa Web Albums now are working better together). In other news, we added a new effect (equalize) which is supposed to .. well.. equalize your photo's colors. I'd say try it out...

I am sure I forgot something here... hm...
April has come
Posted by: Thomas | 18 Apr 2007 17:37
Wow, it's been a while since I posted something here... Anyway, let's get to business: News include "signed" requests to Picasa Web Albums (for the user this is nothing visible, however, security-wise Phixr and Picasa Web Albums now are working better together). In other news, we added a new effect (equalize) which is supposed to .. well.. equalize your photo's colors. I'd say try it out...

I am sure I forgot something here... hm...
Espablog
Posted by: Elsa | 30 Mar 2007 22:17
Estamos super orgullosísimos de finalmente poder presentar nuestra versión alla spañola :-). Nos faltan un par de cosillas todavía, pero estamos trabajando en ello. A divertirse pues!

Ben says: Well, that was a head-start. We will be launching the spanish site (http://www.phixr.es) in the very near future (like this weekend or, at least, on Monday).

Thomas says: Correction. It has been launched. http://www.phixr.es.
Webshots
Posted by: Thomas | 30 Mar 2007 21:48
Webshots upload finally works. Took a while, so we are sorry for all inconvenience.
Welcome Picasa
Posted by: Thomas | 29 Mar 2007 22:17
Let's welcome another major photo sharing site to phixr: Google's Picasa Web Albums are as of today fully supported (for down- and uploading).

Meanwhile, we have been working hard on the spanish version of phixr, soon to appear at phixr.es. We estimate its launch sometime next week.

Have a nice weekend! - and sorry for the service interruptions on Friday.
Speedup
Posted by: Benjamin+Thomas | 16 Mar 2007 15:48
Did some tunings in order to reduce browser load. Phixr now runs much faster in your web browser.
Friday, finally
Posted by: Ben/Thomas | 9 Mar 2007 18:39
Hm, what's up this time. Oh yes, the crop tool now allow saving the cropped part as a separate photo. Handy if you, for instance, want to cover a part of a scanned piece of paper.. clip out a completly white part, and "paste" it over the part to be covered. How to "paste"? That's where the updated mix tool comes into play: You can now use the marked area for specifying the exact position of the other photo to be mixed into the first one. If you set the mixing opacity so that the mixed-in photo completly covers the current photo, you're finished!
Some fixes
Posted by: Thomas | 8 Mar 2007 19:47
Today we fixed a few minor bugs, so please excuse a few service interruptions. Many thanks to the folks at East Lothian Glow and Musselburgh Grammar School.
New despeckle algorithm
Posted by: Thomas | 6 Mar 2007 11:55
Phixr now has a new despeckle algorithm (to be exact, it uses algorithms described in "Fast Anisotropic Smoothing of Multi-Valued Images using Curvature-Preserving PDE's." by D. Tschumperle (published in the International Journal of Computer Vision, IJCV(68), No. 1, June 2006, pp. 65-82).

This method achieves wonderful results with noisy images, but is really slow compared to phixr's previous (yet still available) method. So please, don't beat your browser, it actually takes that long.

Still nothing new regarding webshots. Upload still fails. We appologize.
Photobucket support extended
Posted by: Ben | 1 Mar 2007 8:34
Photobucket support is now extended as Phixr lets you download photos from photobucket to Phixr as well now. However, since this works differently than the upload (which requires you to enter username and mobile upload PIN), here are a few words: For downloading images from photobucket, you need to log into photobucket from inside the phixr website. After that you can browse your photobucket album(s). In order to grab a photo and drag it to Phixr, please use the "Transfer this photo to Phixr"-button in the bottom.

Note: There is also an "upload" button (and a file selector field immediately above) which allow uploading photos to photobucket. With these, you can only upload files from your computer, not photos that are currently stored in your phixr account. Last but not least, the "Logout"-Link in the top right of the photobucket "window" logs you out from photobucket, not phixr.

No news on the Webshots front, unfortunately. Uploading still fails.
Status of Webshots support
Posted by: Thomas | 25 Feb 2007 19:29
Today we activated the Webshots support code... which works perfectly for transferring photos from Webshots to Phixr. However, the other way round yet only results in "internal error" from Webshots.

We are working with CNET/Webshots to fix this as soon as possible and appologize for eventual inconveniences.
Further enhancements
Posted by: Thomas | 22 Feb 2007 21:42
The last few days we resorted the tool box a little bit. We also added another effect to create simple speech bubbles. The tool is located near the "Fill"-tool. Together with the text tool (which got a new preview technique), creating speech bubbles is really simple.

Another new feature is the "Revert"-tool. It's part of the "Undo"-tool and allows reverting to the original photo (ie the one you initially uploaded).
Grow canvas effect
Posted by: Ben | 20 Feb 2007 16:41
Phixr now lets you grow the canvas. This means that you can "resize" your photo, without scaling it, to a size of your choice. The new area is filled with a color of your choice. You can use this, for instance, for placing text below the image.

The Webshots people are really slow. We still haven't got our "partner key".
Welcome ImageShack, WebShots, Nakama and Costco
Posted by: Thomas | 15 Feb 2007 14:44
Added upload support for ImageShack, Costco Photocenter, Nakama and prepared this for WebShots. The latter is not active yet as CNET (the operator of WebShots) has not provided us with a "partner key" yet. This is said to happen later this week, so please be patient.

Also, phixr now can make your photo look like an instant photo (remember those things of the late 70s? ;))
Minor changes
Posted by: Thomas | 11 Feb 2007 14:41
Did some minor updates. In case of hick-ups, please do a complete page reload.
SmugMug
Posted by: Thomas | 8 Feb 2007 18:57
Added support for the SmugMug platform. Phixr can now read and write to your account at SmugMug. Well, nothing more to say about this...

Your turn, SmugMug!
Some enhancements
Posted by: Thomas | 22 Dec 2006 12:31
The marked area (sometimes called "selection" in other applications) is not more flexible than before, and it is persistent as long as the image isn't resized. Also, if you change the marked area after opening a tool that refers to it, you can now update the coordinates. If you press shift during marking, the marked area will be a square. If you press ctrl, the marking will not "snap" to the image edges.

The text annotation tool is now more powerful... the rest is up to you to discover!

Merry christmas!
Bigger and more photos
Posted by: Thomas | 6 Nov 2006 18:14
Phixr now works a maximum photo size of 1440x1080. Larger images will be scaled down to that resolution (previously 1280x1024). Also, phixr now allows uploading and storing three images concurrently. Have fun, folks!
UK: Fotopic.net employee allegedly fed to lion!
Posted by: Thomas | 6 Oct 2006 09:03
West Yorkshire, United Kingdom -- The preacher stood over the casket that held the scant remains of a young fotopic.net employee, and read a - slightly modified - biblical passage from Isaiah about a future heavenly capital: "Many lions shall be there, and many ravenous beasts."

Already today, lions in the UK are living the life they deserve - the life of a king. Seems the British just love them more than the rest of the world. So it comes that they are even feed them more healthy food than anywhere else: On Thursday, a young programmer employed by fotopic.net was fed to a 7-years-old male lion for breaking fotopic.net's image download feature. This feature is essential for other websites like, for instance, phixr.com in order to import images.

In an interview with a local TV station, Roland Decemberus, the only living relative to the last Roman emperor Romulus Augustulus, commented that lions never had better living conditions, not even during the time of the Roman empire.

In the meantime, fotopic.net's download feature has been repaired, and a company spokesman said that even the upload feature might work in the near future. Update: Upload now works (despite the unparseable response from fotopic.net)!
Fotopic.net issues
Posted by: Thomas | 5 Oct 2006 10:32
Sadly found out that downloading from fotopic.net no longer works. I'll try to work out this problem with the folks from fotopic.net. (They also removed the thumbnail feature, so this is no bug.) Uploading is still broken.
Rund, runder, am rundesten
Posted by: Thomas | 18 May 2006 18:24
Added a tool to make round corners. No big deal.
OCR added / Another blog site supported
Posted by: Thomas | 17 May 2006 12:38
Today I enabled our experimental OCR (text recognition) support module. You will find a new button in the "Download/save" row below the photo that says "Text (OCR)". This will perform text recognition on the photo and offer to download a txt (text) file containing the result. Given the low resolution most photos are made of, please don't expect miracles. Results can be improved by converting the photo to black/white and adjusting contrast/brightness first.

And what I almost forgot, Phixr can now upload photos directly to dropshots.com.
Hands down
Posted by: Thomas | 16 May 2006 18:31
Phixr now supports fotopic.net. However, currently there is a problem with uploading to fotopic.net accounts; downloading works fine. We are working on this. (It might be a problem on fotopic.net's side as photos are reported being "too small for publishing" regardless of their real size.)

On a sidenote, we added support for more fonts in the text tool.
Opening up
Posted by: Thomas | 10 May 2006 13:35
Phixr now supports OpenID for logging in. Instead of username/password, just enter your OpenID URL in the Username fields, and click on Log-in. Note that the Windowx XP upload wizard does not support this yet (ie you need a "normal" phixr account if you want to upload photos using the WinXP wizard).

Furthermore, we added support for livejournal. Self-explaining, I guess.
Manic Monday?
Posted by: Thomas | 9 May 2006 09:35
Since there seems to be demand: Yes, we also grant licenses to use and run Phixr on your own server. Please contact us per e-mail for details and requirements.

Photobucket seemed to have some problems with their uploading service during the weekend. Hence, in case your photo didn't make it to your account there, please don't blame us.
Blue friday?
Posted by: Thomas | 27 Apr 2006 11:58/16:55
New feature: Phixr now supports uploading photos to fotolog.com and buzznet.com. In order to use this feature, you must supply an e-mail address in your settings. Otherwise, this feature is pretty self-explaining. Seems I keep repeating myself :)

Also, I temporarily increased the maximum photo size to 1280x1024, and also the quality for jpeg compression. This is an experiement for the performance capabilities of our servers. Until further notice.

There came some complaints about the quality of the photo during and after processing them. Folks, let me remind you: What you *see* is NOT what you get. Download and save the photo with the buttons below the photo, or e-mail or upload it to any of the supported sites and you get the REAL photo.
Boring thursday
Posted by: Thomas | 26 Apr 2006 14:48
New feature: Phixr now supports uploading photos by e-mail. For this purpose, you get a PIN code, which is displayed and can be changed in your settings. The e-mail address to mail your photos to is USERNAME.PIN@phixr.com - where USERNAME is your username and PIN is the said PIN code, consisting of 5 digits.

Furthermore, your Photobucket username and "mobile upload PIN" can be saved as well. However, you can still enter or change it when uploading photos to photobucket.com.

On a sidenote, the Russion version of the Wallstreet Journal and the Financial Times wrote about Phixr yesterday. Nice....
Hello again
Posted by: Thomas | 25 Apr 2006 19:55
New feature: Phixr now supports uploading photos to photobucket.com! In order to use this feature, you must supply an e-mail address in your settings. Otherwise, this feature is pretty self-explaining. You get your mobile upload PIN in your photobucket account information. It is a 5-digit number.
Apologies
Posted by: Thomas | 25 Apr 2006 11:21
Did some server-side updates today, which caused some short service interrupts. My apologies.
New features
Posted by: Thomas | 20 Apr 2006 16:13
Many new features this time:

Upload per Windows XP Web Publishing Wizard: Please go to the "Settings" page to learn more about this and to install the required file.

Upload per "Phixr Instant Upload Tool": Another new way to upload photos into your Phixr account. Quite handy, actually: Say, you surf the web and want to upload a photo you just found on some site. Simply activate a bookmark (or, as Internet Explorer users would call it: a favorite), and be presented a selection of images of this site. Then you just need to click on the photo or image of your choice, and voila, it will be uploaded to your phixr account.

Otherwise, just page design changes.

On the non-technical side: Strange stuff happens these days. Last week I was contacted by a company producing television programs for the U.S. public TV. Yes, that really exists. Anyway, the guy wanted phixr.com (the company, not the site) to take part in some business show as an example for a startup... "Wow", I thought. "Nice fellows!". But everything comes for a price, of course. Nearly US$ 17,000.-- in that case. Bah. If we had that sort of money around, we wouldn't put these darn ads all over the place.

Have fun, folks.
Whazzup
Posted by: Thomas | 19 Apr 2006 07:41
Added the forums yesterday. Now let's see if we manage to create a community here!

The forum is operated by phpBB which I modified slightly for use with phixr: Not only is your account for the forum automatically created when you create a phixr account (temporary and demo accounts excluded), you are also logged in automatically when logging into phixr. Clicking on the "Support" link at the bottom of the phixr page(s) takes you to the forum.

Got much mail about the ads and that they are annoying. Folks, please understand that this site is free for you. Free as in beer. I tried to reduce the amount and size of the ads to a minimum and also played with the location. Hope this makes the whole thing a little less annoying. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Also, I got mail asking for support of other photo sites like photobucket.com or imageshack.us. First off, photobucket doesn't seem to have an API suitable for phixr. As regards imageshack, I contacted them but got no reply yet. So please be patient.

Again: People, if you like this site, spread the word and the link!
Calming down
Posted by: Thomas | 11 Apr 2006 19:34
Added the text tool today. Hope this satisfies your wishes, Steve.

Editor now scrolls down to photo after editing operations; color picker is a bit bigger. HDL, I.!

As regards the PR front, page hits have gone down, as did the ad click rate. Right now, the revenue from the ads covers about 0.2% of the costs of this site (one day's revenue projected on a month).

People, if you like this site, spread the word and the link!
First post
Posted by: Thomas | 10 Apr 2006 14:21
Welcome to phixr, folks!

First off, who and what "is" phixr? Answer: Phixr is a two-man show. I (Thomas) had the idea when I was abroad, passing by an internet cafe and lacking a photo processor at hand (read: on the computer I got at this cafe). I hope you find phixr as useful as I do.

And before I forget, there are two more issues I would like to mention at this point:

If the application behaves strangely in the first weeks this might be my fault as I constantly update it. This may cause some delays in operation, which I will try to keep to a minimum.

Also, I intend to set up a forum within the next few days where you can post your comments, report bugs and chat about your experiences with phixr. In the meantime, if you feel the urge, please e-mail me. The address is frontdesk AT phixr DOT com.

PS: Please don't complain about the google ads. The site is funded out of my very own pocket and bills have to be paid. If you are interested in funding this site or advertizing on this site, please contact me. The more revenue is made from the ads, the higher the chances that this site will survive.
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