The Balloon Blog

We’re so excited to announce the winner of our Familiar Faces contest – Kelly!

We love getting to know members of our growing community, so we asked Kelly to tell us a little bit about herself. Kelly, a resident of Walden, Massachusetts, and her husband, Chris, started using Familiar last year. As you can see from the story behind her prize-winning photo, it’s already become an important way for her to share photos of her adorable 15-month-old, Charlie, with her global family:

We went to France in November to celebrate the 90th birthday of Chris's grandmother Christiane (we call her Mamie). It was a family reunion of sorts, with all of her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. We all met at a place called Center Parcs in Picardy, northern France for a long weekend celebration. It was the first time she met Charlie. (Well, the first time any of the French family had!) We spent some of the weekend walking around the area and on one of the walks I shot this photo.

Kelly took this photo using a Nikon D90 Digital SLR. (She also uses her Droid Bionic for quick shots.) She loves taking photos of people, and gets her inspiration from a variety of places:

I get my photo inspiration from my son, mainly. I love taking unusual angles, using shadows, and playing with light. A lot of times, I will want to keep a photo that my husband wants me to delete because it isn't "perfect", but I see something in it that I like. I also get inspired through others photos or ideas I see on Pinterest or other sites. I tend to take a lot of candid shots and love trying different settings on my camera. Since I am a novice, I am always trying to learn and read up on ways to use my camera! I also love editing pictures to add different filters or effects.

Thank you so much for talking with us, Kelly. We're so glad you're enjoying using Familiar — congratulations!

On Christmas Eve, Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies are off-limits in favor of family moments, and rightly so. But don’t put your smartphone away just yet! These fun Christmas Eve apps won’t distract from your holiday memories: they’re here to help create more.

1. Santa Tracking App

Download a Santa-tracking app as soon as you can to join in on the fun…and track Santa’s approach as Christmas grows closer! Before bed, double-check to make sure Santa’s on schedule for the morning.

Santa Tracker (iPhone)

Google Santa Tracker (Android)

2. Yule Log App

Traditionally, in some parts of the U.S., local televisions broadcast several hours of, well, looped video of a burning yule log set to Christmas music. If you grew up watching the Yule Log program on Christmas Eve, now you can move the holiday cheer right to your smartphone or tablet, without monopolizing the TV. (If this is your first exposure to this tradition, it’s worth experiencing at least once!)

iFireplace (iPhone)

Christmas Yule Log (Android)

3. Christmas Caroling App

Singing Christmas carols is a fun family activity…until you realize no one really knows all the words to Sleigh Ride. To head off that problem, these Christmas caroling apps provide you with the lyrics — and even a backing track, if Christmas karaoke is more your style. 

Christmas Carols (Android)

Christmas Karaoke (iPhone)

 

4. Gift Wrapping App

Once the kids are in bed with their visions of sugarplums, it’s time for a frenzy of last-minute gift-wrapping. Make this the year everything gets wrapped before 2 AM: grab one of these gift-wrapping apps for help maximizing your gift wrap and making things pretty.

WrapItApp (iPhone)

Learn Gift Wrapping Now! (Android)

 

5. Share your Christmas memories with Familiar!

Familiar is the perfect way to share your Christmas photos — privately — with the people you love best. And now, with Familiar’s new Send Wallpaper feature, you can surprise Grandma with a photo of the Christmas Eve fun…right to her desktop or Android device wallpaper!

Familiar was just featured as an Editor’s Pick on the Google Play store!

Download it there…or click here to get Familiar for your iOs device or desktop computer.

Happy Holidays from Familiar!

 

Photos courtesy of jimmiehomeschoolmom, Mr.Thomas, Hvnly and prayitno on Flickr.

My grandparents kept their photo albums in the credenza that sat beneath the windows in their living room.  The wooden doors opened to two treasures—the collected photos of our family history and the crayons and coloring books purchased for our youthful amusement. It was a brilliant juxtaposition. We’d start out each visit creating our own colorful pictures, but invariably our focus would shift over to the bound volumes of photographs in color and black and white. My grandmother treated these albums like toys or utensils. They were there for our use. Their pages needed constant mending as we tore through them with popsicle-sticky fingers, eager to find that classic shot of our mom as a baby or our uncle in junior high.

This is the paradox of digital photography. While technology has turned us all into amateur photogs free to capture each and every moment of our lives, those pictures become files tucked into folders hidden away on our hard drives where few brave souls are likely to venture without our expressed permission. Although we are certainly taking more pictures, our experiences with those taken photos is inversely decreasing. How many of us never go through those pictures again or forget to share them with the friends and family that may even be the subject of those pictures? With my grandma, because her albums were so readily available, we were encouraged to leaf through the plastic pages, to learn the names and stories of the people that looked back at us, to become familiar with our family history. 

Familiar reminds us that our photos are tucked away in an equally utile place, attached to screens that sit in all of our homes. That is the goal, then—to bring those pictures out of the recesses of our computers and onto our screens, into our living rooms, and back into our lives. Familiar morphs our linked screens into social picture frames, using automatic screensavers and slideshows to make sure we are living with our best pictures and sharing those pictures with our families. Private and simple, Familiar helps us to remember why we took those pictures in the first place.

What stories do your digital photos tell?

Get Familiar today!

Photos courtesy of Matteo Bagnoli, Fort Meade, and playingwithbrushes on Flickr.

As families come together for the season, photos become an imperative
part of gatherings and reunions. We’re thrilled that Familiar is helping loved
ones capture and share these special moments. It’s with pride and excitement that we’re announcing two
company developments during this season.

First, starting today, Familiar allows users to send photos
directly from a smartphone to the desktop or android wallpaper of a loved one.

Picture a scenario on Christmas morning: The kids are tearing
open presents from Nana. Though Nana can’t be with the family during the
holidays, she’s able to see on her wallpaper – in real time – a photo of the
kids’ excitement over their presents – all before the wrapping paper is cleaned
up. 

Photos display immediately upon accepting an invitation, and
subsequent photos are displayed instantly. You can even send to the wallpaper
of multiple family members at once, and they’ll all be set simultaneously.*

That means you can update the wallpaper on Grandma’s desktop
or Uncle Ron’s tablet just by uploading an image.

Of course, Familiar still lets you share photos as
screensavers and in the photo wallet. But sharing on wallpapers just gives
families one more way to experience memories together. This new feature continues
to deliver on our promise to turn any device into a social picture frame.

Second, thanks to our users, Familiar has hit a major
milestone.

As of November 2012, we’ve displayed more than 200 million
photos since our launch in November 2011.

In September, we posted a graph
showing our monthly photos displayed so far this year. The August number, the
biggest of the year, was more than 20 million.

In November, it was 47 million.

As our numbers continue to grow, we’re reminded of how many
families Familiar is helping stay connected.

In
fact, the size of an average family on Familiar is 6.2 people.  That means
about 6 people make up an average Familiar family.

These are strongly connected
family-tree relationships:  parents,
kids, in-laws, grandparents.  No doubt about it, it’s a big number.

As we put a wrap on our first
full year, we thank you for your support, and we ask you to help us reach our
goal of displaying over a billion photos next year. Your photos. Of family,
friends, special moments.

Thank you for making Familiar
part of your holidays. We wish you many shareable, happy memories.

Marcus

CEO & Co-founder, Familiar

*Non-iOS devices only.

Before you take another holiday snapshot, check out these creative bloggers! From formal portraits to casual snapshots, these blogs have got you covered. Never settle for a blurry, backlit Christmas tree picture again.

This sweet photo session featured on Darling Collections (photographed by Ampersand Studios) offers tons of great holiday photo ideas. Showcase the cutest baby in the world — yours.

 

There's still time to get your holiday cards out — particularly in time for a New Year's update. This cool, Brady-Bunch-like photo card idea from Holiday Helpings is a clever way to showcase a big family.

 

The Christmas tree is one of the most popular — and challenging — holiday photo ops. It's gorgeous, it's seasonal…and it makes taking photographs very difficult. Photo by Emilie offers a quick tutorial for taking Christmas tree pics that are neither backlit nor blurry.

 

Once you've mastered the Christmas tree photo, you're ready to play with cool effects. Kevin & Amanda pulled together a creative tutorial for creating your own light effects (called bokeh) without buying a special lens.

 

These ideas and more are featured on our Pinterest boards. Come pin with us, and happy holidays!

Once you've taken your lovely holiday photos, share them easily — and privately — with Familiar.

Next time you go to the movies, pay attention to how often the main character stares back at you from the very center of the screen. (Hint: the answer is never!)

You may work hard to center a subject in your viewfinder—but professional photographers rarely do, for two reasons. First, it’s actually very hard to get an image perfectly centered. Second, even if you manage it, that centered subject tends to look…off. The background around it feels odd and blocked, as if you were taking a picture of something else and your subject got in the way.

Luckily, there’s an easy way to solve this problem: the Rule of Thirds.

Photographers recommend dividing your viewfinder into thirds, drawing four imaginary lines—two horizontal and two vertical—that cut through the image and split it evenly into a nine-square grid, like a tic-tac-toe board. (Check your camera’s features—you may be able to add this grid to your viewfinder.)

This process produces four intersections that should be the focal point (or points, if you decide to get fancy) of any good picture. Our eyes are instinctively drawn to these intersections, not the center of the picture, so applying the Rule provides the picture with a better sense of balance.

Best of all, moving the main subject slightly off-center allows you to incorporate the background more purposefully into the picture.

So you can snap great portraits of your kids with toys or trees or tourist traps filling the other side of the photograph. This adds a sense of story to your photo, and creates a picture you’re proud to display. No centering required!

Get Familiar today!

Images courtesy of Flickr users Miss Wetzel’s Art Class, unleashingmephotography and spaceabstract.

In this post we explain how to enable a Screen Saver in Windows 8. Microsoft made a bold step with it’s release of Windows 8. The new style and layout simplified a lot of things, though it’s a transition that takes some adjustment. As with all software releases there are new features and changes to how your old favorite features work. The screensaver is near and dear to us here at Familiar so we wanted to take a minute to share with you how it works in Windows 8. The screensaver was initially designed to prevent burn-in on CRT and plasma monitors by making the screen blank or displaying images or patterns when not in use. Today, screensavers are used mainly for entertainment, privacy, and to display status or general information.

In Windows 8, the latest version of Windows, Microsoft has disabled the screensaver. If you’re missing your screensaver we can help you bring it back.  In a few easy steps you can reenable it on your Windows 8 desktop, laptop or ultrabook. The screensaver isn’t available on the WindowsRT version of Windows 8.

Follow these steps to re-enable your screensaver. If you would like to skip the steps below, you can simply install Familiar to reenable your screensaver and turn it into a digital picture frame connected to your family or friends. Familiar is a simple, private, and instant way to share photos with your family. It makes your screensaver a connected picture frame, turning your screen into a social picture frame connected to family and friends.

Steps to enable or disable the Screensaver in Windows 8

Step 1: Move your mouse to the bottom right to bring up the Windows 8 Navigation

Step 2: Click on search and type in “desktop”.  Click the option to open the legacy Windows “desktop” view.

Step 3: On the desktop, right-click the background and choose “Personalize” from the list.

Step 4: Launch the “Screen Saver Settings” by clicking on Screen Saver in bottom right of the window

Step 5: Choose your favorite screensaver

It’s as simple as that. Enjoy!

Get Familiar today

When we first came up with the idea of my co-founders and I wanted to offer groups of friends and family members a simple, seamless way to view photos.

We’ve worked hard since Familiar’s launch in November 2011 to make that vision a reality.

Today, I’m excited to let you know that we’ve hit a major company milestone.

In the month of August, we displayed over 20 million photos for the many families and friends using Familiar.  We’re extremely excited by this number. It tells us Familiar is delivering on its promise to help people everywhere experience photos with those they care about most.

To put this metric in perspective, here’s is a quick glimpse into our growth since our launch.

At this milestone moment, I also want to let you know for the first time about the investors who helped
fuel much of our development so far.

Earlier this year we closed $1.3 million in seed funding.

Greylock Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Index Ventures, Acequia Capital and Allen & Company were part of that round.

Brothers Hadi and Ali Partovi, early advisors and investors in Facebook, Dropbox, Zappos, are also investors. They’ve been close advisors to Familiar since day one, and we couldn’t be more grateful for their support.

Our investors also include Nat Brown, Dave Goldberg, Blake Krikorian, Emil Michael, Owen Van Natta and others.

We asked Chris Moore at Redpoint why he wanted to work with Familiar, and here’s what he said:

“Between mobile devices, tablets, laptops and desktop computers, families own billions of screens, most of which sit idle at any given time. Familiar’s exciting because it’s the only product that turns those idle screens into shareable digital picture frames. It’s simply the easiest way for spread-apart families to collectively experience the images that document their family members’ special moments.”

It’s an incredible endorsement of our company to have this awesome group behind us.  They see tremendous value and potential in what we’re doing. Familiar unites even the farthest-flung family and friends through what we believe are the easiest social photo albums to create and update.

I understand Familiar’s benefits from personal experience. I have two young kids. It’s important to me that it’s as effortless for Grandpa with an old desktop PC as it is for cousin Pam on her brand-new iPad to enjoy my digital photos, and those of the rest of my family.

My co-founders Mike Bohlander, Ray Fortna and Josh Hepfer share that commitment. We first started working together in 2006 at iLike, a social music service acquired by MySpace in 2009.  Then, in June 2011, we got together to start Familiar. Aakash Kambuj joined shortly thereafter and we have been building product ever since.

Our investors’ support and the dedication of our five-person team allow us to offer families a robust suite of products that make Familiar work on all kinds of devices.  We’ve created apps for iPhone, iPad, Android (phone and tablet), and Kindle Fire.  And we’ve completely redesigned our apps for Mac and PC from the ground up. This means that the photos families share can be seen in real time on screensavers, tablets, and smartphones.  We turn every screen into a social picture frame.

What’s next? Continue building on the foundation constructed so far.

We’ll grow our team so we can launch more features and services more quickly. We want to continue to delight our current customers and on-board more as fast as we can. We want families and friends everywhere to benefit from Familiar.

With 1 billion screens out there, Familiar’s goal is 1 trillion photos displayed.  We’re just barely scratching the surface.  We view all those screens as an opportunity to surprise and delight your loved ones with those cherished moments.

Thank you to all our investors, and to the moms, dads, sisters, brothers, grandmas, grandpas and their loved ones who have helped Familiar flourish so far. We’re excited to have you with us in the weeks, months and years to come.

Marcus

CEO & Co-founder, Familiar

When you’re working on a new product you end up with a stockpile of ideas for promising new features and directions – and can never be working hard enough or ship fast enough. Combine these two factors and it’s very easy to rush and build all the features you dream up, without making sure the ones you already have are working really well.

When we first started building Familiar we knew we wanted to avoid this, and kept sharply focused on making the best product for families to share and view photos. We wanted to make sure the core experience worked great, before building additional features.

Since Familiar’s inception, we suspected commenting was the next big feature that was outside of our core feature set. And you’ve done a fantastic job building our confidence in this fact by letting us know how much you want comments, but more importantly by consistently telling us you love the product.

So we built it, and now you can get the conversation going with your loved ones! Here’s how -

On Windows & Mac

On iPad

 

On iPhone

 

And Android

 

Thanks again to all of you. We couldn’t and wouldn’t have done it without you. Please keep the feedback coming!

- The Familiar Team

 

Download Familiar today!