A while ago we have started offering 70% for our VirtueMart plugin based on Image Uploader in exchange for a back link to our product page. This special offer became pretty popular and we decided to extend this offer for another product - Image Uploader Express.

In short, now you can put a sort of "powered by Aurigma" link on the same page with Image Uploader and in exchange we strongly reduce the price - from $199 to only $59. If you are interested to get a discounted price, learn more here:

http://www.aurigma.com/Products/ImageUploader/Buy/LinkForDiscount.aspx

Note, this offer is valid only for the Express version. 

Got any questions? Don't hesitate to email us at sales@aurigma.com. 

New version of Photo Kiosk is available now - v7.0. In addition to the release, we have reworked our website, so you are welcome to learn more about new version here:

http://photokiosk.aurigma.com/

Note, now we brand it under the name of Pixlpark rather than Aurigma. Pixlpark is used for our products created for photo print business, while Aurigma is used for our file upload SDKs.

Let's see what Pixlpark Photo Kiosk offers comparing to the previous versions.

Payment workflow support

The common issue is how to organize payment process on the kiosk. Now Photo Kiosk offers the following approach:

1. When the user places the order, Photo Kiosk displays the Order ID.
2. To proceed with the order, the user prints a receipt with the Order ID or writes it down.
3. Then the user goes to the cashier and gives him/her this Order ID.
4. To confirm the payment, the cashier uses special Payment Confirmation Tool (supplied with Photo Kiosk) to get a Confirmation Code.
5. The user enters the Confirmation Code to the Photo Kiosk to confirm that the order is paid.

This workflow can be used for instant print or CD/DVD burning features. 

Flexible price configuration

Now you can configure prices more flexible. In particular:

• You can set the minimum accepted price (the order won't be accepted unless the user orders items for this price or higher). 
• You can configure a sales tax.
• You can set different prices for instant and minilab print.
• You can set different prices for different quanitities (volume discounts).
• You can configure additional services, e.g. additional image processing, etc. 

Improved Photo Order Process

We have improved the photo order process:

• If the photo is too small to be printed with a specific size, Photo Kiosk will warn the user.
• If an image is not JPEG, Photo Kiosk can automatically convert it to JPEG.
• If a photo aspect ratio does not match to a print size, the user can select a print area.

Advanced Order Management for Minilabs

In addition to old Order Manager feature which allowed renaming photos in the order to contain the order details (file and folder names), now Photo Kiosk has additional options:

• Generate human-readable HTML document with the order details.
• Generate DPOF file for each order to print photos in minilabs automatically (for those minilabs which support DPOF).

* * *

Feel free to download the new version and check out new features yourself: 

http://photokiosk.aurigma.com/Try.aspx

If you are interested to upgrade or have any other questions, feel free to email at info@pixlpark.com. 

We got a good news from Apple guys - they have approved our latest updated of Aurigma Up. This version contains several very important improvements: 

• iOS5 is completely supported now. 
• Now you can upload not just photos, but also videos. 
• You can configure HTTP connection timeout.

On this week we are running the Aurigma Blogging Contest. It is designed to encourage developers to share their experiences using Aurigma software. The person who submits the best blog post, as determined by our judges, will be awarded the grand prize of one free uploader of their choice. The winner may choose between:

• Image Uploader 7 Professional ($599 value)
• Image Uploader 7 Flash Professional ($499 value)

To apply:

• You must have a blog, related to software development, where you post on a regular basis.
• Your entry post must link to Aurigma website.
• Best entries will describe how you have integrated Aurigma software into your website (e.g. using code examples, linking to a tutorial, or more - be creative!

To enter shoot us an email at info@aurigma.com, make sure it includes a link to your post, domain name of the website where you are going to use the product, and of course which uploader you will receive if you win.

Learn more about Aurigma blogging contest

Those of you who is subscribed for Aurigma's emails probably noticed that the last newsletter looked a bit unusual. Instead of common email announcement which earlier were sent out before a new version release, we decided to launch a full-fledged regular newsletter consisting of several sections. We plan to release it twice a week and the issue #2 is coming nearest days!

Feel free to share your ideas about newsletter subjects. Send an email at info@aurigma.com or tweet me @aurigma.

Hi there,

Multilingual version of Aurigma Up has just been approved in iTunes. So now iPhone users who use the following languages in their iPhones will see the user interface in their native language:

• Chinese (simplified), 
• Chinese (traditional), 
• Czech, 
• Dutch, 
• French, 
• German, 
• Italian, 
• Japanese, 
• Korean, 
• Norwegian, 
• Swedish, 
• Turkish, 
• Spanish, 
• Hebrew, 
• Russian.

Hi guys!

Some time ago I have announced an upload solution for iOS platform. Today this product becomes available at last! We called it Aurigma Up.

What is Aurigma Up?

Let me refresh your mind and explain what is this product for.

Apple did a good job selling their iPhone. Tens of millions of people have this handset and they take enormous amount of pictures using its built-in camera daily. If you build a website that have something to do with people's photos, you would probably love to give the iPhone users an ability to upload their shots directly to your website.

Before Aurigma Up appeared, there were two ways to transfer photos from iPhone to a website: (a) have the users to grab them to PC/Mac first, and then upload them from there, or (b) create a special iPhone application that can send photos to your website, submit it to App Store, and have the users to launch this app every time they need to upload files from iPhone.

Apparently, the first way is troublesome for the users and the second one - for you. Fortunately, Aurigma Up offers the third way that is convenient for both you and your users.

How it works?

The idea is simple: 

1. Users install a special app from AppStore called Aurigma Up. 
2. When they navigate your mobile website, they click a link/button labeled Upload Photos or something like this and Aurigma Up shows up.
3. They select photos in the Aurigma Up and tap Start Upload button.
4. As soon as the upload is completed, they are brought back to the browser. It can be either the same page or some other page displaying the uploaded files. It is up to you. 

For better understanding, I recommend to try out online demo. Just install Aurigma Up from AppStore on your iPhone, and then type in i.aurigma.com in Safari.

You can learn more on this page:

http://www.aurigma.com/iphone/

Price

We had a lot of internal discussions to decide how we will offer this product to you. Finally we came to a simple decision and I believe you will like it: using Aurigma Up to upload files to your website will be... free! Yes, that's right you pay no money for it. Just answer several questions to help us to define the direction of further development, and we will provide you with a license at no charge!

If you do not want to answer questions, but you are still interested to play with the product first, you can get an evaluation license key immediately. Learn more on the Getting Started page.

Any questions? 

As always, I will be happy to answer any questions about Aurigma Up at info@aurigma.com. Also, if you have any technical questions, you are welcome to post at Aurigma forums:

http://forums.aurigma.com/yaf_topics35_Aurigma-Up.aspx

Our engineers will be happy to explain you the best practices of Aurigma Up integration with your websites there. 

Cheers!

Hi there,

I thought that we have a lack of materials giving a quick glance on important Image Uploader features. So I decided to eliminate this gap. Here are a couple of articles explaining the benefits of Image Uploader for regular file upload and for photo upload.

Of course they do not cover 100% of features, however they give an idea how to use Image Uploader in different scenarios.

Do not hesitate to contact us for any questions.  

Good news, guys! Image Uploader 7 is officially released at last! Unfortunately it happened one week later than we scheduled, but better later than never. :-)

I have a foreword from Image Uploader development team. 

For us this release is more than a regular update. We have completely redesigned and rewrote the product to make it the best upload solution ever existed on the market. It is up to you to decide whether we succeeded with that or not, but anyway, we really worked hard and did our best to make Image Uploader 7 convenient, powerful, appealing and productive. We would like to thank all our customers - we would not be able to do it without your feedback we received all these years. And be sure that we will not stop improving Image Uploader. We know, you need a perfect product and we will not let you down!

So let's learn a bit more about v7. Here you can find an overview of the new version:

http://www.aurigma.com/Products/WhatsNewInImageUploader7.aspx

The evaluation package can be downloaded here:

http://www.aurigma.com/Products/ImageUploader/FreeTrial.aspx

If you prefer just to see it in action first, here is the online demo portal:

http://demo.aurigma.com/ImageUploader7/BasicDemo/Default.aspx

Note, besides of tech improvements, we have significantly simplified the licensing model. Now you just order licenses for one of four editions - Express, Professional, Print, or Premium, depending on the features you need. Also, you can order a maintenance subscripton to be able to receive free updates instead of purchasing upgrades every time we release a mjor update. 

So it is highly recommended to examine the license model overview: 

http://www.aurigma.com/Products/ImageUploader/Licensing.aspx 

To understand how each edition differ from each other, check out the comparison chart:

http://www.aurigma.com/Products/ChoosingAurigmaImageUploaderEdition.aspx

As usual, for existing customers we have a special upgrade offer.

http://www.aurigma.com/Products/ImageUploader/Upgrade.aspx

Note, this is a last time we offer upgrades, as all future updates will be received through the maintenance subscription. I recommend to switch to the new version and subscribe for maintenance even if you do not plan to update Image Uploader right now. Under subscription you will have access to free updates any time, so you will be able to launch new uploader as soon as it is convenient.

Got any questions regarding v7? Drop me an email at info@aurigma.com and I will be happy to answer!

We have defined the release date for Image Uploader 7. If no show-stopper encounter, it will happen in one week: on Nov 8, 2010. 

The good news: you can start pre-ordering this version right now! If you do it before the release date, you will get a special discount. Read more about it here:

http://www.aurigma.com/Products/ImageUploader/Buy/image-uploader-7-pre-order.aspx