Keepsy Calendars: Doing something fun with all those Instagram photos
Every once in a while a product shows up unexpectedly at the TUAW Labs that makes me really, really happy. A flat white box arrived at my door a few days ago, and when I opened it I saw a calendar and something about Instagram. I didn't bother to actually look at the calendar until a few days later, and what I saw absolutely delighted me: a calendar of my personal Instagram pictures from a company called Keepsy.
Starting today, Menlo Park, CA-based Keepsy opens the door on a new service that will take photos not only from Instagram, but other services like Facebook, Flickr, and Picasa as well, and turn them into attractive 12-month 11" x 8.5" wall calendars for US$19.95 (or an 18-month calendar for $25.95).
The calendars are a new product for Keepsy -- previously they sold books made from Instagram photos. What I was impressed with was the layout and quality of the calendar. My wife makes a 12-month calendar every year from our trip photos in iPhoto, and the print quality of the Keepsy calendar was equal to what we've received from Apple.
The layout was beautiful. Every page featured anything from two to 24 photos from my Instagram feed, and whoever at Keepsy did the layout used a great deal of thought in creating clever collections of travel, holiday, food, architecture, and other genres of photos.
Keepsy allows customers to gift their friends with the Instagram calendars or books. To keep people from making calendars from Instagram photos belonging to celebrities and other people they don't personally know, Keepsy makes sure that an Instagram user follows the album or calendar creator.
For more details, be sure to read the PR blast below, or check the Keepsy website. These calendars look like they'll make perfect holiday gifts for your friends or family.
Show full PR text
Keepsy launches Instagram Calendars
November 1st, 2011 - Menlo Park CA
If you're an iPhone user, you've undoubtably heard of Instagram by now. The hot photo-sharing application that has taken the world by storm now has over 10 million users and hundreds of millions of photos uploaded. While some experts are scratching their heads over how the free application will eventually make money, some intrepid companies are diving in head first.
One such Silicon Valley startup is riding this wave with printed books and -- starting today -- with printed calendars.
"We've been really amazed by the customer feedback on our Instagram books," said Keepsy CEO Peter Weck. "The print quality has been so high that introducing new products with Instagram photos was an easy next step for us."
The award-winning site now offers 11" x 8.5" wall calendars starting at $19.95. Keepsy's integration with Instagram, Facebook, Flickr and Picasa allows seamless import of photos from these online services.
"With nothing to upload or download, making a book or calendar takes only a few minutes," said VP of Product, Blake Williams.
The first website to allow users to create Instagram books -- Keepsy is fast becoming a leading innovator in mobile-to-print technologies. This is the second announcement in as many weeks from the company, as they gear up for the holidays. Last week, Keepsy announced a new "Gift Book" feature that allows friends and family to make printed Instagram books -- and now calendars -- using each others' photos. To ensure that albums are only printed as personal gifts, Keepsy requires that a given Instagram user follows the album or calendar creator in order to access the photos.*
"If you're part of the Instagram community, we can't think of a better holiday gift than getting your friend a surprise album or calendar of their best photos," said Williams. "And now that we're shipping to 22 countries, your friends can be just about anywhere."
About Keepsy
Keepsy uses the power of social networks to create custom, collaborative photo albums and calendars. People can create their own custom albums and invite friends to add their own photos and messages to the album. Keepsy was founded by Peter Weck, Blake Williams, and Kai Zhao. Keepsy's investors include James Hong, Tim Connors, and Dave McClure's 500Startups fund. To learn more about Keepsy, please visit http://www.keepsy.com
*Other restrictions apply. For more information, visit http://www.keepsy.com/faqs#503
