
Aviary - 18 different web-based graphics tools - nickb
http://a.viary.com/tools
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fiaz
I call vaporware. Another example of a concept site with impressive demos is
streamy.com. I wouldn't be surprised if these were "honey pots" of sorts to
collect email addresses of specific demographics (in this case it seems to be
different levels of web developers, whereas Streamy was aimed at the
Digg/reddit news crowd).

The thing that sets me off is the statement: "As soon as your invitation code
hatches we will send it to your inbox." Cute way of saying, "We'll send you
and invitation whenever we feel like it; but in the meantime we will do
whatever we like with your email address." I did notice the guarantee "We
promise not to spam!", but honestly that promise is as strong as the typeface
used to display it.

Another factor that tips me off is that they seem to be violating one of the
basics of good web application design: HAVE A FOCUS!!! Like Streamy, there are
too many things going on here that promise a lot of possibilities but seem too
much to deliver realistically. I would believe them more if they took perhaps
ONE or at most TWO of the things they claim to be releasing and said that this
product should be available soon...

Given the technology they are developing, I would hope to see a blog article
with some substance talking about some of the cutting edge technology that is
at least tangentially related to what they are claiming to be able to deliver.
Instead, there are some pics with text of little substance that seem to foster
an image of "coolness" and design savvy but no indication that they have any
real technical ability to deliver what they are advertising.

But of course, I could be wrong.... hopefully somebody here can disprove my
cynicism (see the reply button below this comment Aviary
people/developers/employees?!??!?!).

~~~
codebrulee
For what it's worth, I have received an invite from them. I played around a
little with the one application that is available - Phoenix. It seemed to be
pretty good software (but definitely still beta quality) for the 15 minutes I
played around with it.

~~~
fiaz
Interesting....I've been waiting for my invitation to "hatch" for sometime
now. By all means, I hope somebody proves me wrong and I really do hope there
is something to Aviary. But for some reason, their promiscuity in showing all
of their "goodies" seems that they are quite desperate for some attention.

I will issue a public apology here to Avi and company if my invite does happen
to "hatch", but as it stands, it looks like vaporware to me.

~~~
Avi
fiaz - please email me at avi (-a-) worth1000.com and I'll send you an invite
now to Phoenix and Peacock.

No apology will be needed either, I'm just sorry you had to wait so long.

~~~
fiaz
I have received your invite and I have logged in, and I DO owe you and your
entire team a great big apology.

It shows a great deal of integrity on your behalf that you took the time to
register here and respond publicly. I really look forward to what you guys
will be releasing in the coming months.

I'll tone down my skepticism in the future....in the meantime, all the best!!

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nickb
Check out demos on their blog: <http://a.viary.com/blog> Pretty impressive.
I'm pretty sure you could do those operations with Splashup as well.

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fiaz
Damn, I wish I wasn't so skeptical in my earlier postings on this thread. The
"tools" page link above seemed too good to be true; but it turned out to be
true, so does this mean it is that good? I hope so...

I have been playing with Peacock for the last hour and I must say that the
last time I had this much fun messing around with any sort of graphics
application was way back when I discovered KPT v2.0 back in 1996.

Good job to the team at Aviary and worth1000.com! You definitely have
something here.

