ZoomIn has always offered a wide variety of payment options. You can pay for your orders with Credit Cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express), Debit Cards and even PayPal.  But we do realize that not everyone has access to a credit card and many of you have asked for a Cash on Delivery or a  check payment option

Starting today, we are thrilled to offer the fastest and easiest way to pay in cash – Pay@Store!

You can now pay for your ZoomIn orders at over 1300 neighborhood The MobileStore locations in India.

Here is how it works.  When shopping from India, you will see a new tab in our payment options – Pay By Cash.

Use the Store Locator and search for a Pay@Store location near you.  This includes every The MobileStore location in India.

Once you have found a store near you, you should confirm your mobile number and click on Submit Order.

After your order has been placed, you will receive an SMS with your order number.  Take this order number to any The MobileStore location right away and make your payment.  You will receive instant confirmation by SMS (in most cases while you are still at the store) and your order will now be processed and shipped to your home.

Just ensure that you leave the store either with a SMS confirmation of payment or a printed receipt acknowledging payment.

We think this is the fastest and most convenient cash payment option for our customers.  Do try it for your next ZoomIn order and let us know what you think!

December is Calendar Month on ZoomIn. It’s the perfect time to pick a set of calendars for yourself and as a gift for friends and family. We have introduced a completely new set of calendars that we’re sure you will be delighted with. Our new calendar maker is easy to use, has a ton of new themes and clipart with new personalization features.  We have introduced a new paper as well; it is a heavier stock, with a special coating that is applied after printing for a brilliant sheen and durability. Your new ZoomIn calendar will look new all year!

At just Rs. 125 ($2.50), our brand new Poster Calendar is a 12×18″ calendar that  can be created in several styles. Use one photo or 5 – these smart calendars are truly stunning. They are great for the kid’s room, the kitchen door or your college dorm. Have Blue-Tack or double sided tape (available at your neighborhood stationary store) ready to put up your calendar on a wall as soon as you get it.

Our new Desktop Calendar is perfectly sized for your desk in the office,  home office or that table by the phone. Pick a theme that goes with your room’s color scheme or pick a neutral one like Blue. The Desktop Calendar takes one photo a month and shows holidays. Because of the size of the calendar grid on the Desktop version, you cannot personalize it yet.

The new ZoomIn Wall Mount Calendar is a full featured calendar with hundreds of customization possibilities. It is larger than our previous version and just like the other two varieties, has the new paper finish. After picking your theme, get into Customize mode and add or remove photos, set them as backgrounds, add borders, clipart or text. In addition to customizing each date with text, you can even add a small photo.

The Offer!

Now through December 15, order a Wall Mount or Desktop Calendar and get a Poster Calendar completely free.  Full details of the offer can be found here.

Please do write in and let us know what you think of our new calendar family.  Remember to watch the video before you start – it will show you some of the great possibilities.

Introducing the ZoomIn Desktop Uploader – no web browser required.  The Uploader is our take on the very impressive, open source, Flickr Uploadr.  (We left the “e” in the name of our version.)

Available both for the Mac and PC, the Uploader lets you add a bunch of photos by simply dragging and dropping your photos into a window like the one above.

In Windows, an ‘Upload to ZoomIn’ option also gets added to the Auto Play menu and you will see it when you insert a memory card from your camera or a CD containing photos into your computer.

The Uploader has many features designed to make getting photos into your albums at ZoomIn a breeze.  You can also work completely offline until you are ready to transfer the photos.  It supports organizing photos into different albums within the same batch, adding photo tags, place tags and setting privacy options.

Most importantly, it can resize your photos before they get uploaded, so they get transferred really fast.  If you do this, remember to keep a backup of your photos somewhere on your computer.   Also, if you plan on buying photo gifts like calendars, you should select the largest size or skip resizing completely.

	Version: 1.0.8 Size: 7.4 Mb System requirements: Windows XP, Vista
	Version: 1.0.8 Size: 18.5 Mb System requirements: Mac OSX 10.4,10.5

If you are an iPhoto user on the Mac, you will be thrilled to hear this news.  We are pleased to announce the launch of our iPhoto plug-in.  You can download it here.

To use it, within iPhoto simply select a bunch of photos and then File – Export.  Select the ZoomIn tab and you will see a window like the one above.  Sign In to your account and set your export preferences from the various options.  The plug-in is loaded with features.  You can resize the images for a faster upload on slow connections.  You can also specify regular tags, place tags and the privacy settings for the photos.    Click on Export and your photos will get uploaded one at a time to your ZoomIn account.  You can work on other things – like sharing this great news with your fellow Mac enthusiasts – while the upload is in progress.  A nifty popup will tell you when it is done.  Thanks for your patience while we built this, I know many of you have been waiting for this.  As always, do let us know if you love this feature or if you have any questions about it.

Unfortunately, there were no long lines in India for the iPhone 3G launch. But for those who did venture out over the weekend, there is a bit of ZoomIn you can add to your prized phone.

 ZoomIn for iPhone is now available for download in the App Store. The application is the simplest way to upload photos from your phone to your ZoomIn account. Either use the Camera to take a new picture or go to Photo Albums to upload a photo from your camera roll or other albums.

Click on Meta to change the photo title (it’s set to the current date by default), add a description or tags. Also included in the application is geotagging support. This feature has not been exposed on ZoomIn yet – but will be shortly. More on that soon.

Clicking on Upload will send the photo to your “My Uploaded Photos” album. 

Remember this is V1 of the application. The focus was simplicity and easy uploads. Look for new features and additions to the application soon. Those who have installed the application will automatically get notified of updates via the App Store.  Let us know if there is something in particular you would really like to see added.

ZoomIn for iPhone was built by Martin Gordon using the ZoomIn API. The API is in closed beta right now and will be released for general use shortly. Stay tuned for an announcement on this right here. Can’t wait? Send an email to developer@zoomin.com describing your application and we will send you more information.

If you are a frequent shopper on ZoomIn we hope you’ve realized that we are very committed to the idea that your photos belong to you. While we try to do a lot online to support that ideal, we have also tried to carry that same value in every product that you create. You may have noticed, for example, that our t-shirts do not carry our logo anywhere. We wanted your t-shirt to be about your photo and your creativity.

However, soon after launch, we received several requests from our customers asking how they could buy a ZoomIn logo shirt. One of our engineers, Sundar, suggested, “Why not let our customers decide if they want a logo or not?”

One thing led to another and now you get to choose whether to include the ZoomIn logo on your shirt or not. After you have created your shirt and are ready to add it to your cart, a pop-up will ask you if you want our ZoomIn logo on the sleeve of your shirt. If you choose to include our logo, you get a 10% discount as our thanks for showing your support of ZoomIn.

We plan on doing the same in more of our new digital photo products so please let us know what you think of the idea. And, as always, thanks for your support of ZoomIn.
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Lots of our ZoomIn members have been taking advantage of the great deals on ZoomIn products and creating some terrific photo t-shirts, mugs, books, calendars, greeting cards – and prints too! The problem you found – and we heard you! – has been that once one family member got a hold of one everyone else was jealous and wanted their own.

That meant members had to go in and recreate each product all over again. As easy as it is to create ZoomIn photo products, it would be a lot easier if you could just reorder the same one.

Your wish is our command plus 10% off!

Starting this week, any new ZoomIn product orders you create can be reordered in just a few clicks. Not only did we make it easy to reorder, we made it so you can save money and share the savings with your friends and family. Everyone gets 10% off any reorder!

Here’s how to reorder your previous photo purchases:

Click on the my account tab

Scroll down to My Orders

You’ll see a notice on any of your previous orders: “Want to reorder this for a full 10% off? Click the reorder link below or share it with friends and family. Everyone ordering from this link will get the full discount.”

Click on the “Show Link” button and we’ll display a link you can email to your friends and family. We also display the code to embed a link on your blog or website so people can order directly from there! And everyone saves 10% on the reorder!

We hope this helps make ordering digital photo products from ZoomIn even easier than before. If you have other ideas about how we can help you we want to hear from you!

Lost somewhere in the buzz of our recent launch of the ZoomIn T-Shirt was the addition of “Metallic” as a finishing option when ordering prints of your digital photos. In addition to Glossy and Matte, you can now choose Metallic.

A Metallic print is just what it sounds like: shiny, slick and impressive. Using Kodak’s professional Endura Metallic Paper, ZoomIn will deliver top quality professional results that will give your photos that “wow!” factor.

Kodak explains it best:

This paper uses a proprietary combination of film laminate layers that produce striking, three-dimensional, lasting images on an ultra-bright background.

Many photographers have described this effect as “chrome on paper.”

Metallic prints are recommended for portraits, still-life, and any photo where color, depth and contrast play out. Try a Metallic print on your next order and see the difference. Once you do, you’ll want to make sure the photos you print for gifts and to frame are Metallic.

You already know us for our quality prints in Glossy and Matte — see what a little metal can do for your portraits. Order ZoomIn Metallic prints of your digital photos today.

I love wearing t-shirts and I’ve loved learning about the technology behind modern t-shirt printing.

When I was in school we made silk-screened t-shirts – without computers. That involved a process of creating, by hand, an image. We then prepared a silk screen by using noxious chemicals to adhere a layer of rubylith — a masking film. We then had to carefully cut away certain parts of the rubylith using an exact-o knife without cutting into the silk screen.

When we started working on how we were going to offer customized t-shirts to our members I was looking forward to understanding the technology behind modern t-shirt printing. But at the same time we didn’t want our members to have to worry about the nuts and bolts of making a t-shirt.

Even with today’s technology there’s more than one way to print a t-shirt. After reviewing various modern methods we chose the “ink sublimation process” for several reasons:
• permanence
• clarity
• vibrancy of colors
With ink sublimation the ink that makes up your image is dyed into the fabric to provide achieve the results. Your photo or image will become part of the fabric. It does not sit on top of the fabric where it would eventually fade or crack and disintegrate. With ZoomIn t-shirts, your image will hold up as long as the shirt does.

Having Fun Doing It

Over the past couple of months we worked out the kinks and the details in building a t-shirt printing process end to end. One of the biggest pieces was making sure that our members had a fun and easy way to get from point A (a design idea) to point B (a finished, quality-printed, comfortable t-shirt).

So while our print technologists toiled on the printing process, our software developers toiled away on the t-shirt designing process. They’ve come up with a fun and easy-to-use way to build the customized t-shirt you want.

Start with choosing a great photo to celebrate a friend, family member or special occasion.

To turn up the customization a notch, we’ve given you the ability to add really cool graphics. You can add hooladanders (a cool name for flourishes and curly graphics), flames, hearts, heraldry, half-tones, lightning bolts, and a whole lot more. When you add a graphic you can change its size and color so that it lays the way you want over your photo.

Add text in various font styles, sizes and colors. And then if you want to tie it all together, we provided you with some cool borders to outline the finished work.

The best thing about all these options is that they are options! In the end, it’s your t-shirt. Customize your t-shirt the way you want it to be. Use only the options you want. Just a photo. Just some text. Just a graphic. However you want your t-shirt to look, you can make it happen.

We’re proud of what we’re building at ZoomIn and the choices we’re providing our members — and we’re having fun doing it. We want you to have fun too. Go have fun now, designing your custom ZoomIn t-shirt.

We really love getting feedback from our members. Your feedback is a major part of the discussion when we are planning future features for ZoomIn. We heard loud and clear from you that you wanted more control over how ZoomIn handles your prints:

We are excited to introduce several new features today that we think will enhance your experience ordering prints of your digital photos on ZoomIn.

Crop In Cart

You asked for more control in how your prints are cropped – and we listened. Very often the size of the prints selected does not match the aspect ratio of the digital photograph you have uploaded. In order to make the photo “fit” on the paper size selected we have to “crop” or “trim” your photo.

Unfortunately, sometimes our automated cropping removed important parts of your photo. Starting today you decide how we crop your photos. In the shopping cart you will be able to see how our default cropping [Auto] will affect your photos.

If you don’t like what you see, you can click the “Auto” box to open up a cropping window. There you can choose to crop the photo “Manually”. Just drag the blue dotted line around your photo to tell us how you want your photo cropped.

Finally if you’d rather not have your photo touched and prefer black bands along the sides of the photo – we can do that as well. Simply select the “None” method.

Add Borders

Also in the shopping cart, you can now add simple borders to your photos. We offer either black or white borders that can give a professional framed look to your photos. Black and white photos look great with a white border.

Borders can be added when you are in cropping mode as described above or can be done by selecting the “Border” tab as seen below. Simply select the photos on the left that you would like to add a border too and choose which type of border and click “Submit”. Instant style!

Cropping Photos & Adding Borders in Bulk

Both cropping and adding borders can be done in bulk on all the photos in your shopping cart. Use the new Select All button to select all photos in your cart. You can then control how your photos are cropped and the kinds of borders applied to them by using the Border and Crop tabs.

Color Correction Control

By default, ZoomIn applies Color Correction to all your photos in the printing process. ZoomIn Color Correction (ZCC) is one of the ways we work to deliver the highest possible quality to your photos.  Using a combination of manual and automated methods we enhance the color rendering of your photos.  ZCC may include adjusting the brightness, exposure and color saturation of your photos.

If you have already applied your own color correction either before uploading your photos to ZoomIn or made adjustments using ZoomIn’s tools you may wish to disable ZCC.  In addition, professionals and amateurs who do not want to modify their photos in any way may also wish to disable ZCC.

New Print Size: Introducing 4×5.3

Finally, the last announcement for the day!

We are pleased to introduce a new size: 4×5.3. This new print size allows photos coming from most compact digital cameras to be printed without cropping.

On a 4×6 print – most compact cameras (pixel size 480×680, 768×1024 or 1200×1600, for example) will generate photos that will need to be cropped – sometimes losing as much as 10%. The new 4×5.3 size will allow your compact camera photos to print without cropping.

Try the new size if you do not want your photos cropped, and you do not want white bands on either side of your photo. Just select it from the size drop-down in your cart.

We’re really excited about delivering features that our members ask for. Don’t stop asking. We’ve said this before: we want to be your favorite destination for sharing and printing your digital photos. Tell us what you need us to do to make that happen. Give us your feedback on these new features or features you think we still need to add here.