Aviary: Online Photoshop is no simpler

For a last couple of weeks I’ve been playing with Aviary, a new online image editor, in the hopes of adding more realistic wings to my headless profile picture. Alas, after two weeks of intermittent experimentation I’ve met with next to no success. It appears that putting a complex image editing application online does not in fact make it any easier to use.

Created by the folks at Worth 1000 LLC, instigators of reality bending contest like Mate Angelina Jolie, Evil Twins, Semi-precious Moments and Gender Bending, I expected something a bit more fun to use. I will either have to relearn my old Photoshop skills (which were marginal) or pay someone in Poland to do the work for me, because Aviary does nothing to make image editing easier. I know thats not how its being billed but it is what I was hoping for.

Wi-fi Uses at the Edge (of Goood Taste)

Thanks to the Thrill List I came across a wonderful new product that makes innovative use of Wi-fi. Innovation people, innovation. Some enterprising adult products vendor has combined the expensive frilly things men buy for women with a Wi-fi enabled vibrator. The result is $100 dollar panties that can be made to hum and buzz, from a distance of 20 feet, theoretically bringing that special lady in your life a down-low, high-tech thrill.

Daisy: The DIY/Open Source MP3 Player

 

It’s clear to most folks who follow the media industry that users will not just consume media they will play an integral role in making and distributing it. While whole industries, like our friends in music, continue to be in denial about the profund shifts occuring under their feet, most people that deal with IP are clear that participatory culture is real and here to stay. There are however, a number of industries that will be just as profoundly effected as media and they arent even aware of it yet. Take the good folks in hardware development, while they are currently reaping the benefits of the explosion of consumer media, they are directly in the line of fire for participatory media. Exhibit#1: The Daisy MP3 player, which is currently on offer at MAKE is a DIY MP3 player kit that you can purchase for $114 bucks. Sure this wont put Sony out of business in the next 5 years but as this type of project expands the options of users to truly become a part of the process rather than just spectators to it.