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    Holy Kaw!

  • Why the right fertilizer can cut greenhouse gases

    20 Nov 2009 | 4:32 pm
    In a stinky Science development, researchers have discovered that using alternative types of fertilizers can cut back on greenhouse gas emissions, at least in one part of the US. Nitrogen fetilizers are often necessary to yielding sufficient crops, but their use leads to the release of nitrous oxide, a major atmosphere enemy. Fertilizer use is one reason an estimated seventy-eight percent of America’s nitrous oxide emissions come from agriculture. But scientists have compared those emissions with newly developed fertilizers formulated with “controlled release” polymer-coated…

  • Capturing water in sloooow mooootion

    20 Nov 2009 | 3:12 pm
    Some things just look cooler in slow motion. Jell-O? Totally better. A punch to the face? Way more awesome. Photographer Martin Waugh spends his day watching single droplets of water, capturing the tiny and beautiful splashes with super slo-mo video. Check out the video from Discovery and you’ll definitely never look at a leaky sink the same way again. Science geekiness galore. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

  • Netherlands to charge drivers by the kilometer

    20 Nov 2009 | 2:31 pm
    The Netherlands is proposing charging drivers by the kilometer. Other taxes would be eliminated. Vehicles would be tracked by GPS. Doesn’t this make sense? Get rid of all the other taxes and tolls and simply pay-as-you-go. Or is it even simpler to use only the fuel tax to pay for roads? Think any of this could ever happen in the U.S.? Netherlanders are very practical people. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

  • Rosetta Project stores 13,000 pages and 1,500 languages on 2.8" analog disk

    20 Nov 2009 | 1:50 pm
    There’s little doubt that 100’s of languages will disappear in the next hundred years. The loss of these languages is a loss of human history and cultural diversity. That’s where the Rosetta Project comes in. As part of the Long Now Foundation, the Rosetta Project plans to archive thousand’s of languages for millennia. A first step is the creation of a durable storage medium that can easily be deciphered in the future—just like the Rosetta Stone. The prototype Rosetta Disk is a 2.8” (7.1cm) disk made of nickel. The disk is housed in a stainless steel…

  • Tech nerds take it all off

    20 Nov 2009 | 12:28 pm
    A techie strip club would probably feature plenty of outlets, free wi-fi and dancers flinging off Geekologie-brand undies to a song of remixed iPhone ringtones. Calm down, pervs, there’s no plans in the works for nekkid techie discotheque (that I know of), but, in the meantime, get your dweeb kicks with the Nude Tech Calendar 2010. London’s top new media entrepreneurs stepped out from behind their computers and stripped down for the 24 picture, limited edition calendar. Proceeds go to Take Heart India, a charity that raises funds for IT education programs for blind and disabled…
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    Mashable!

  • Droid Does: A Price Drop

    Adam Ostrow
    20 Nov 2009 | 4:04 pm
    When it was released earlier this month, the retail price for the Motorola Droid was $200 for new activations on Verizon. Although Verizon is staying firm with that price point for now, it appears that some of its retailers are not. Specifically, Amazon and Dell have both cut prices on the smartphone to $150 and $120, respectively. The news comes just one day after news broke of price cuts by online retailers on other devices not named iPhone: the Palm Pre and Pixi. Of course, the device cost shouldn’t really play a huge role in consumer’s decision given the total costs of ownership for…

  • Top 10 News Readers Judged by Mashable Readers

    Barb Dybwad
    20 Nov 2009 | 3:47 pm
    Each Friday we choose a Lunchtime Poll topic to get a sense of how Mashable readers feel about the chosen topic of the week. Below are the results from last Friday’s poll, where we asked for your favorite news reader. Is your favorite app or service not represented in the list? Let us know in the comments! And to make sure your vote counts next time, be sure to vote in this week’s Lunchtime Poll, where we want to know your favorite video-sharing service. A surprising number of readers in the top 10 were Mac apps, and enough of you said you’d switched to using Twitter as your…

  • HOW TO: Use Social Media to Find Black Friday Deals

    Susan Payton
    20 Nov 2009 | 1:33 pm
    Susan Payton is the Managing Partner of Egg Marketing & Public Relations, an internet marketing firm. She blogs at The Marketing Eggspert Blog, and teaches marketing courses at Marketing EggSchool. Follow her on Twitter @eggmarketing. We’re a week away from Black Friday and just a few years ago, if you wanted to find the best deals, you had to wait for the sales flyers to hit your newspaper or mailbox. You’d make a list of what you wanted and get your game plan together. But that’s all changed because of social media. Tools like iPhone apps, blogs, Twitter, and Facebook…

  • LUNCHTIME POLL: What’s Your Favorite Video Sharing Service?

    Barb Dybwad
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:58 pm
    It’s Friday, people, which means that not only is it Follow Friday, it’s also time for the Lunchtime Poll! Last week we wanted to know about your favorite news reader (or whether you use RSS at all). We’ll have the results for you later today, but let’s get a head start on the new poll: what’s your favorite video sharing service? We’ll start off with some responses from the staff here at Mashable, and let you fine folks have at it in the comments. Be sure to let us know along with your vote why you chose it as your favorite. We’ll post the results…

  • Thanks to Mashable’s Socially Savvy Supporters

    Tamar Weinberg
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:57 pm
    Thanks to this week’s advertisers and partners for enabling us to bring you the latest social media news and resources. Mashable’s sponsors are as social media savvy as our readers! Advertise with us and get noticed. Help us to help you. Mashable is seeking out site sponsors for our large, diverse audience — social media users, venture capitalists, early adopters, developers, bloggers, and many more. You’ll receive hundreds of thousands of views a day in addition to weekly recognition to thank you as our premium sponsors. Are you interested? Contact us for more information…
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    Fast Company

  • The 12 Best and Worst Digital Characters

    20 Nov 2009 | 4:15 pm

  • What Do Presidential Libraries Say About Their Namesakes' Legacies?

    Alissa Walker
    20 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm
    Part of the point of a presidential library is that it's a monument to a leader's legacy--his style, his enduring affect on the world, even his reading habits...or lack thereof. Speaking of which, Laura Bush unveiled the design for her husband's book joint this week, and the ultra-traditional structure that nods to Washington but bows to the rest of Southern Methodist University's campus isn't winning any points with architecture critics. But how does W's design stack up against his predecessors? We checked out the libraries of fellow recent commanders-in-chief completed in the last three…

  • Drive a Mercedes with Your iPhone and Nine Other Mind-Blowing Stories This Week on Fast Company

    Kate Rockwood
    20 Nov 2009 | 3:45 pm
    Mind-blowing phrase of the week: "interferometric modulation," which can be loosely translated as "Oh my God! Qualcomm’s Mirasol e-reader has color video!" Mercedes Benz unveiled an app that lets you control your car with the iPhone. But Intel one-ups the luxe car maker with an implantable chip that lets you control your computer using only your thoughts.Round two of the juice-packaging cage match started late last year with Pepsi’s Tropicana fiasco, and this week Coke’s Minute Maid unveiled a juicy new look (courtesy of Master of Design cover boy David Butler). Los Angeles took home…

  • ComScore's New Study Finds Dope on "Movie Junkies"

    Alissa Walker
    20 Nov 2009 | 3:30 pm
    Research group comScore released its study on "movie junkies" yesterday that surveyed the behavior of 500,000 moviegoers who bought tickets online in September 2009. Some of the highlights: Fandango rules the market. Over $31 million is spent each month buying online movie tickets, with 81% of those tickets purchased at Fandago.com. Females 25-54 are heavy online ticket buyers. Women are actually more likely to make decisions about movie night than men: movie ticket purchasers are 39% more likely to be female. Maybe men would rather watch at home? DVD sales were an equal split between the…

  • Can Chegg Beat the Kindle at the Textbook Game?

    Ariel Schwartz
    20 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm
    The Kindle may be the king of e-readers, but it has a long way to go before being accepted as an acceptable replacement for textbooks. When Amazon's device was introduced at Princeton for classroom assignments recently, it received mostly negative reviews. Now the Kindle's budding classroom legacy is being challenged by Chegg, an online textbook rental service that just raised a whopping $112 million in a round led by Insight Venture Partners. Chegg deals in good old-fashioned print books, but saves paper by letting students rent textbooks in a Netflix-like model. The company, founded in…
 
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    Guy Kawasaki

  • The 19 bloggers Inc. thinks you should read

    GuyKawasaki
    6 Nov 2009 | 6:20 pm
    Inc. named 19 bloggers that you should read. We’ve aggregated them all in one place: Inc19.alltop.

  • How to Get Found

    GuyKawasaki
    4 Nov 2009 | 3:29 pm
    The reality is that people and technology is getting better and better a blocking out unwanted interruptions—aka, “marketing.” Brian Halligan is the CEO of HubSpot, and he explains in my post on the American Express Open Forum “how to get found.” It’s all about creating great stuff and letting Google et al do what they do: find great stuff.

  • How I tweet

    GuyKawasaki
    2 Nov 2009 | 8:47 am
    By popular demand (and some complaints), I’ve done a FAQ with myself about how I tweet. Hope this helps you use Twitter for your business too. I explain how I use ghostwriters and why I repeat my tweets among other “unusual” practices.

  • Current Twitter Demo Script

    GuyKawasaki
    28 Oct 2009 | 2:26 am
    This is the set of links that I used to demo Twitter by going down through this list to show why Twitter is such a valuable marketing tool. Introduction Home page Profile page Monitor Search Guy Kawasaki or Alltop Starbucks VIA introduction Search for “Prius” or “Civic” Sell Dell Outlet Kogi BBQ Support Comcast Cares Engage JetBlue Virgin America Fandango Prospect Camaro Camaro near Palo Alto Advanced searches Surfing or skateboarding (shows how to eliminate extraneous results such as “surfing the web” How I Tweet - Find Alltop MyAlltop helped me find this.

  • How to Avoid Twitter Cluelessness

    GuyKawasaki
    26 Oct 2009 | 4:24 pm
    Over at the American Express Open Forum blog, I explain how to not look clueless on Twitter. The first five ways are: Don’t tell other people how to tweet. Don’t tell the world that you unfollowed someone. Don’t ask people why they unfollowed you. Don’t constantly tweet mundane updates and babble. Don’t use a small picture for an avatar. To read all ten and why they impugn your intelligence, click here.
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    TechCrunch

  • RealTime CrunchUp: The Rise Of Geo Streams

    Jason Kincaid
    20 Nov 2009 | 4:36 pm
    Today at the RealTime CrunchUp, representatives from some of the top companies involved in location based services came together to talk about the current state and future of geo-based services. I’ll be taking some notes about the top themes to come up during the panel, and we’ll have a full transcript available a few minutes after the panel concludes. Participating in the panel were: Matt Galligan, co-Founder of SimpleGeo Ryan Sarver, Director of Platform at Twitter Tristan Walker, VP of Business Development at Foursquare Steve Lee, Group Product Manager Google Maps for Mobile…

  • Rippol’s Video Discovery Engine Launches To The Public

    Jason Kincaid
    20 Nov 2009 | 3:22 pm
    Rippol, the video discovery site that combines both complex algorithms with user suggestions to surface interesting content, has launched to the public at today’s RealTime CrunchUp. We recently took an in-depth look at the service, but for those who haven’t seen it yet, here’s a recap: Rippol looks at your video watching activity on the site, as well as that of your friends and people in your demographic. It then looks at meta data from video content ingested from sites like YouTube and Hulu, and uses machine learning to identify videos it thinks you’ll like. From…

  • RealTime CrunchUp: Media Streams As The Ultimate Marketing Vehicle

    Leena Rao
    20 Nov 2009 | 3:13 pm
    At our Real-Time CrunchUp today in San Francisco, we are hosting a panel titles “Media Streams: Are These The Utlimate Marketing Vehicle?” Panelists include Sean Rad, CEO of Ad.ly; Ryan Amos, co-founder of DailyBooth; Jesse Engle, CEO of CoTweet; Robin Bechtel, a celebrity agent and Philip Nelson, SVP of strategic development for NewTek. Below find my live notes (paraphrased): ES: What are celebrities doing to leverage the social streams? RB: I oversee Britney Spears’ digital properties and we are using Twitter to build up buzz around her concerts. Using Twitter, we were…

  • VideoLobby Wants To Help You Create Your Own Custom-Branded Live Webcasts

    Jason Kincaid
    20 Nov 2009 | 3:03 pm
    Today at the RealTime CrunchUp we saw the launch of VideoLobby, a new service founded by Peter Urban that’s looking to make it easier to create professional-looking webcasts, complete with custom branding. The service is an extension of Urban’s “sales software for real people” service Smibs. Urban says that while some other services offer embeds, you’re generally responsible for building your own branded site to insert those in. That’s where VideoLobby comes in: the site helps you build your own custom video portal, and then allows you to include streams…

  • FlixUp Is Rotten Tomatoes For Twitter Movie Talk

    MG Siegler
    20 Nov 2009 | 2:56 pm
    Rotten Tomatoes is a great site because it takes all the movie reviews from around the web and condenses them into an easy-to-understand aggregate score. But let’s be honest: Most movie reviewers suck. Why not instead rely on people in your social circle to recommend movies to you? That’s the idea behind FlixUp. This new iPhone app unveiled at our Realtime CrunchUp event in San Francisco today essentially scans Twitter for what people are saying about a movie and shows you a rating based on that. It can return a general score from across Twitter, or the tweets about the movie from…
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    Seth Godin

  • The amateur scientist (that's us)

    Seth Godin
    20 Nov 2009 | 2:41 am
    Many people buy a car (probably their single biggest discretionary purchase) based on slamming a door, kicking a tire and judging the handshake of a salesperson.We choose a surgeon based on the carpeting in his office and a politician by his hair cut.During the first week of swine flu vaccines in New York, most parents (more than half!) chose to keep their kids out of the program.Interviewed parents said things like, "I'm not sure it's safe," and "I wanted to see if it affected other kids..."No mention of longitudinal studies or long-term side effects. No science at all, really, just rumors…

  • Embracing lifetime value

    Seth Godin
    19 Nov 2009 | 2:46 am
    If you walk into a company-owned cell phone store to sign up for a contract, what are you worth?Given the huge gross margins at AT&T and Verizon and the standard two-year contract, I think it's easy to figure on more than $2000 in lifetime value.If you ran a business where a customer represented an additional $2,000 in profit, how would you staff? How long would you make someone wait? If staff costs $25 an hour, how long would that extra person take to pay off?Few businesses understand (really understand) just how much a customer is worth. Add to this the additional profit you get from a…

  • Some books for November

    Seth Godin
    18 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm
    Random thoughts from all over for those of us hungry for new ways to think. This month's list is here. The previous list was blogged in September.

  • The reason they want you to fit in...

    Seth Godin
    18 Nov 2009 | 2:03 am
    is that once you do, then they can ignore you.

  • Breakthroughs and drips

    Seth Godin
    17 Nov 2009 | 2:25 am
    There are only two ways to win in the market.You can create a breakthrough. A promotion so powerful that people can't help but engage. An innovation so remarkable, people can't help but talk about it. A pricing strategy or ad campaign that breaks the mold and is worthy of attention. This takes huge guts and substantial investment.Or you can win with consistent benefits, delivered over time. You win by incrementally earning share, attention and trust. This might take years.Almost all marketing attempts to do neither of these, and of course, fail. Painless and quick are rarely associated with…
 
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    New York Times

  • Obama Raised Issue of American Held in China

    By KEITH BRADSHER
    20 Nov 2009 | 3:57 pm
    The Chinese government has held an American oil geologist on suspicion of stealing state secrets for nearly two years, prompting President Obama to raise the issue during his visit to Beijing.

  • Hacked E-Mails Fuel Climate Change Skeptics

    By ANDREW C. REVKIN
    20 Nov 2009 | 3:55 pm
    The e-mails and documents hacked from a computer server at a British university will undoubtedly raise questions about the actions of some scientists.

  • Hershey Considers a Counterbid for Cadbury

    By MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED and ANDREW ROSS SORKIN
    20 Nov 2009 | 3:48 pm
    Hershey is considering bidding for Cadbury, a proposal that would top the $16.7 billion hostile bid from Kraft, people briefed on the matter told DealBook on Friday.

  • Students Continue to Protest California Tuition Increases

    By MALIA WOLLAN and TAMAR LEWIN
    20 Nov 2009 | 3:40 pm
    Students occupied campus buildings at Berkeley and Santa Cruz on Friday, the day after a 32-percent increase in tuition was approved by the University of California Board of Regents.

  • Arrests in Europe Over Soccer Fixing Investigation

    By ROB HUGHES and ERIC PFANNER
    20 Nov 2009 | 2:45 pm
    German law enforcement officials arrested 17 on Friday in connection with what was described as the biggest match-fixing scandal yet uncovered in European soccer.
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    Wired Top Stories

  • Delete Browser Cookies, Clean Up Your Trail of Crumbs

    How-To Wiki
    20 Nov 2009 | 3:30 pm
    The web is watching you, and it’s doing it using browser cookies — small snippets of tracking code. Do away with them to be free of watchers, and annoy the heck out of Big Brother too.

  • Prosecutors Drop Plans to Appeal Lori Drew Cyberbullying Case

    Kim Zetter
    20 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm
    Prosecutors have dropped any plans to appeal the Lori Drew cyberbullying case, thus ending the controversial and lengthy criminal case.

  • MPAA Says Copyright-Treaty Critics Hate Hollywood

    David Kravets
    20 Nov 2009 | 2:45 pm
    Dan Glickman, the chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, is complaining to Congress that those who don't support a proposed international intellectual-property treaty are "hostile toward efforts to improve copyright enforcement worldwide."

  • World's Largest Earthquake-Safe Building

    Alexis Madrigal
    20 Nov 2009 | 2:45 pm
    A new 2-million-square-foot terminal at an Istanbul airport is the largest building in the world to sit on high-tech seismic isolators designed to help the building survive earthquakes intact.

  • Review: Angst-and-Fangs Formula Lacks Bite in 'New Moon'

    Scott Pierce
    20 Nov 2009 | 1:50 pm
    Action takes a back seat to moping in this Twilight sequel, a throwaway teen flick that gives vampire movies a bad name. Aside from the brooding bloodsuckers, New Moon also delivers a lousy message to fangirls swooning over the supernatural love story.
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    ProBlogger Blog Tips

  • Speech Recognition for Bloggers – The Ultimate Guide

    Darren Rowse
    20 Nov 2009 | 5:45 am
    Speech recognition technology has come a long way in the last few years – in this in depth, informative and inspiring video which Jon Morrow (Associate Editor of Copyblogger and Co-founder of Partnering Profits) shares his first hand insights into speech recognition for bloggers. Jon does all of his blogging via speech recognition so he seemed like the logical guy to ask to cover the topic – in the video (I’m glad he agreed). In the video Jon makes recommendations of software, hardware (the hardware is key) and even demonstrates how he uses them in his everyday blogging. The…

  • Review This Blog – Man vs Debt

    Darren Rowse
    19 Nov 2009 | 5:46 am
    Last month here on ProBlogger we ran a community review on a reader’s blog. I posted a link to a blog with some comments from the blogger and then opened it up for readers of ProBlogger to review it. The response from the post was great. 120+ comments were left including some great advice. I also had a lot of emails from readers saying that they learned a lot by reading the suggestions of others – many wanted to see these reviews done regularly. As a result I’m going to try to do these reviews on a monthly basis – today we have another one. As a little bonus to…

  • Warning: Watching This Video May Lead to Work! [But It'll Also Improve Your Blog]

    Darren Rowse
    18 Nov 2009 | 5:55 am
    What’s your blogging Vice? Most bloggers that I know have at least one – whether it be compulsively checking blog stats, constantly tweaking template designs, obsessing over plugins and widgets, spending hour after hour ‘networking’ on Twitter, becoming preoccupied with SEO and… even allowing ourselves to become consumed by learning about blogging…. and not doing much of it. The reality is that as bloggers there are many tasks that compete for our attention. Many of them are important and can bring a lot of life to our blogs but most of them can also become…

  • 13 Ways I Get Back into Blogging after a Vacation

    Darren Rowse
    17 Nov 2009 | 5:49 am
    Yesterday was my first day back at blogging after a 10 day vacation with my family and on Twitter I commented that I was finding it a little hard to get my brain back into blogging mode. @Mikeachim responded by suggesting I write a post on the daily rituals that I use to get my mind into gear. I thought I’d take his suggestion and jot down a few notes – both as a way of getting my head back into blogging but also because looking at the tweets I received this morning it’s a problem many bloggers face. As my head is a little scattered today (as I readjust) I’m going to…

  • Email Marketing is Not Dead

    Darren Rowse
    16 Nov 2009 | 10:07 am
    While at Blog World Expo recently I recorded this video interview with Abby Johnson from Web Pro News. We covered a variety of topics including why email marketing is not dead – internet marketing for smart people – the new FTC regulations and touched on a new project I’m working on with Brian Clark and Chris Brogan. Read other recent email marketing posts on ProBlogger: 6 Reasons Why You Need to Consider Email as a Communication Strategy on Your Blog How I Use Email Newsletters to Drive Traffic and Make Money Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger. Email Marketing is Not Dead…
 
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    Chris Brogan

  • The Serendipity Engine – Web 2 Expo Speech

    chrisbrogan
    20 Nov 2009 | 1:33 pm
    This is my favorite keynote speech yet. It’s just 10 minutes long, and I feel pretty good about it. You’ll recognize bits of my storytelling from the last several conferences tucked into here in a new way, I hope. Enjoy this video. (Can’t see it? Click here)

  • How Much Time Should I Spend On Social Media

    chrisbrogan
    20 Nov 2009 | 5:33 am
    How much time should you spend on social media? In some ways, the answer is: “how long is a piece of string?” And yet, you can set up some simple guidelines. They might be a bit different than you think. By the way, I’m writing these from a business perspective, but remember that I think of religion and nonprofits and all kinds of other applications as business-related, too. Here’s how I look at it: Social Media Time Management The way I’d do it is to break it up into 4 chunks, and then you decide the amount of hours to devote (2 hours a day is a minimum for MOST…

  • Start a Moving Business – Overnight Success

    chrisbrogan
    18 Nov 2009 | 7:30 pm
    In this episode of the Overnight Success series, I’ve got an idea about what makes one successful: moving. But it’s not what you think. If you can’t see the video, click here. What do you think?

  • Stop Humping My Leg

    chrisbrogan
    18 Nov 2009 | 9:13 am
    Dear people trying to sell me on something new: stop humping my leg. You know what I mean. You’ve seen dogs do this, right? That’s what it feels like when you jump on me breathlessly to share your new product or service when you don’t really much know whether I’m the right guy for your services. I was recently leg-humped at Web 2.0 Expo, by someone I like, and who I think is smart and has a lot of good potential. The thing is, I politely declined a demo, and he persisted. Immediately, I shifted to my back foot. I felt defensive. I rolled up my interest and tucked it…

  • Prioritize Your Social Media Efforts

    chrisbrogan
    17 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm
    There aren’t enough hours in the day for all the chores that social media puts in front of us. The best writing I’ve found on how to manage your time in social media is via Amber Naslund’s social media time management series. Her efforts in crafting this should become a little ebook that you hand around to everyone. If you skipped over that link, go back, click it to open a new tab/window, and then read it when you’re done with this (or skip mine and read Amber’s- it’s that good). If you’re still with me, here’s what I want to say on the matter.
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    Macworld

  • Gameloft to cut back on Android development

    20 Nov 2009 | 1:21 pm
    Mobile games developer Gameloft has announced it's cutting back on development for the Android, citing a lack of revenue.

  • Review: Geared for iPhone

    20 Nov 2009 | 12:19 pm
    In spite of some flaws -- it can be hard to position pieces and the game is a little picky about when you're allowed to move things -- Geared is a perfectly fine puzzler that satisfies after its too-easy early stages.

  • Bugs & Fixes: Screensavers in Snow Leopard

    20 Nov 2009 | 12:09 pm
    After a little wait, many third-party screensavers are now compatible with Snow Leopard. But there are glitches. Ted Landau has details.

  • Google adds captions to YouTube search

    20 Nov 2009 | 11:53 am
    In a step to make YouTube videos more accessible to deaf people as well as to anyone else searching for videos online, Google has launched an automatic video captioning service.

  • iPhone owners demand to see Apple source code

    20 Nov 2009 | 11:32 am
    iPhone owners charging Apple and AT&T with breaking antitrust laws asked a federal judge this week to force Apple to hand over the iPhone source code.
 
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    Lifehacker

  • This Week's Most Popular Posts [Highlights]

    Adam Pash
    20 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm
    This week we rounded up the best online backup tools and explained how you're backing up wrong, detailed how to build an excellent Boxee-based media center, and cured your various aches and pains with some simple home remedies. Five Best Online Backup Tools Local backup is a useful and necessary part of securing your data against catastrophe, but with the advent of broadband and inexpensive online storage, you've got little reason to not back up critical files to the cloud as well. You're Backing Up Your Data the Wrong Way Time and time again, people tell me that they've bought an external…

  • PTS Desktop Live Makes Performance Benchmarking Simple [Downloads]

    Jason Fitzpatrick
    20 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm
    Linux Live: If you want to put your computer through the paces and get some feedback and benchmarks, you'll be hard pressed to find a tool more packed with tests than the Phoronix Test Suite Live CD. PTS Desktop Live is an Ubuntu Live CD with the Phoronix benchmarking suite preconfigured and installed. Reboot your machine with the CD in your drive—or on a USB drive—and you'll boot into the test suite with access to 52 tests and 10 profiles. The profiles are set up to help you stress test and benchmark based on what you'll be using the machine for. The desktop interface and suite…

  • Twitter/Facebook Client Brizzly Open for Sign-Ups [Social Networks]

    Kevin Purdy
    20 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pm
    Brizzly, the web-based social media manager that ranked as one of our readers' favorite Twitter clients, has dropped the invite code requirement and is available for anyone to log into. It's still technically in "beta," but mostly to keep up the fairly rapid pace of feature development. [via TechCrunch]

  • Windows Surface Scanner Finds Bad Hard Drive Sectors [Downloads]

    Lisa Hoover
    20 Nov 2009 | 1:30 pm
    Windows: When your computer starts acting hinky and spitting out error messages, it's hard to know exactly where to begin to diagnose the problem. Windows Surface Scanner gives you a place to start. This free utility takes a look at your hard drives and ferrets out any physical errors it finds, so you know what might be causing random crashes or system flakiness. Windows Surface Scanner won't fix damaged sector problems—it simply diagnoses them. Once you've figured out the issue, you can use the native Windows check disk tool to make repairs. One important thing to note about this tool:…

  • MinimizeToTray Revived Puts Firefox in Your System Tray [Downloads]

    The How-To Geek
    20 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm
    Windows only: Firefox extension MinimizeToTray Revived is a replacement for the popular MinimizeToTray extension (which has since been abandoned and doesn't support Firefox 3 or later). The simple extension puts Firefox in your system tray with a click of your mouse or a keystroke. Once you've installed the extension, Firefox will start minimizing directly to the system tray, though there are lots of choices in the options panel for how you would like to minimize the window—you can choose to minimize automatically, replace the close button with minimize, or even use a toolbar button…
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    Copyblogger

  • The Art of the Paragraph

    Jonathan Morrow
    20 Nov 2009 | 6:11 am
    Anyone can write a paragraph, but not everyone knows how to write one that other people want to read. You’ve seen it: You open a book, and the whole page is one long block of text. Each sentence in the paragraph makes exactly the same point, said in a slightly different way, and you wonder why they didn’t just say it once and be done with it. Every paragraph is the same length (five lines, maybe?), whether it makes sense or not, and it gives the piece a monotonous rhythm. The paragraph makes a point without telling you why that point is important, and you can’t help…

  • How to Persuade People to Accept an “Unfair” Offer

    Dean Rieck
    19 Nov 2009 | 6:36 am
    Ever heard of Charley Hill? He seemed like an average, ordinary guy. He lived in a mid-sized town with his wife, two children, and a dog. He went to church on Sunday, coached Little League, and drove a pickup truck. He was friendly but quiet, the sort of guy you could walk by on the street without noticing. But appearances can be deceiving. Charley Hill was one of the most successful farm equipment salesmen in the Midwest. People would travel hundreds of miles to see Charley, even when there were plenty of dealers much closer to home. What did Charley have that other salesmen didn’t? Not a…

  • Free Report: How to Become a Creative Entrepreneur

    Brian Clark
    18 Nov 2009 | 8:58 am
    I’ve written another piece of extended content, this time for Lateral Action. Rather than sending you over there, I’ll just tell you about it here. It’s a free 31-page PDF report (don’t worry, it reads fast) called The Lateral Action Guide to Becoming a Creative Entrepreneur. It’s probably the most personal I’ve gotten about my history, but it’s still heavy on actionable, real-life examples. Here’s what you’ll discover: Why I quit my cushy law firm job and turned to online publishing. How I failed miserably. How I then succeeded miserably. How I…

  • Landing Page Makeover Clinic #20: TantricSexforBusyCouples.com

    Roberta Rosenberg
    17 Nov 2009 | 6:14 am
    This is another addition to our ongoing series of tutorials and case studies on landing pages that work. Is it hot in here or just me? Diana Daffner and her husband want to help people find a renewed sense of joy and connection in their intimate relationships through tantra. Their business, IntimacyRetreats.com, offers couples retreats throughout the year, but realizing not everyone can attend a retreat, they also want to promote their books and media products. The URL referenced above is actually the “/shop page” off their main site. Diana would like to use the page as an…

  • What I Learned From Writing 42 Guest Posts in 7 Weeks

    Josh Hanagarne
    16 Nov 2009 | 7:12 am
    Before you get too impressed, hear this: I did it all in self-defense. Let me give you some quick background. I have extreme Tourette’s Syndrome, as Sonia noticed recently. Tourette’s makes people move or vocalize involuntarily and occasionally results in unspeakable awesomeness. My motor tics range from eye blinking to punching myself in the face to even stranger things. My phonic tics range from clearing my throat to hooting and yowling and snarling and slobbering and screaming like the Tasmanian Devil. Did I mention that I work in a quiet library? There are only a couple of things that…
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    Photoshop Insider Blog By Scott Kelby

  • Special “This Weekend Only” Deal on OnOne Software’s Photoshop Plug-in Suite 5

    Scott
    19 Nov 2009 | 10:38 pm
    Hey gang—the huge success of last week’s MPIX.com deal really paid off, and we’ve been in contact with a number of companies who are willing to give you guys a “This Weekend Only” special discount. This week, the fine folks over at OnOne Software are offering readers of my blog $200 off their new “Plug-In Suite 5″ which includes the most recent versions of their award-winning Photoshop Plug-ins: Genuine Fractals for resizing Mask Pro for removing unwanted backgrounds PhotoTune for color correction FocalPoint for selective focus PhotoTools and…

  • Thursday News Stuff

    Scott
    18 Nov 2009 | 10:41 pm
    Howdy folks. First a quick thanks to photographer Bruce DeBoer for his inspiring Guest Blog post yesterday here on the blog. Very cool stuff! Now, onto the news! Nikon releases FREE “Learn & Explore” iPhone App This one slipped by me, but luckily John “The Snake” Barrett dropped me a line to let me know that Nikon has released a FREE iPhone App called “Learn & Explore,” which not only has tips for using your Nikon camera, but it also has access to back issues of “Nikon World Magazine” (John let me know that the issue I’m in is…

  • Breaking News: My New Photoshop Elements 8 Book is in Bookstores!

    Scott
    18 Nov 2009 | 10:32 pm
    Just a quick heads up; My Photoshop Elements 8 book for Digital Photographers (which I co-authored with Matt Kloskowski), is now in bookstores (just in time for the holidays). Anyway, you can pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, Borders, or wherever really great books that come out just in time to make a perfect Holiday gift are sold.

  • It’s “Guest Blog Wednesday” featuring Bruce DeBoer!

    Brad
    18 Nov 2009 | 4:51 am
    Looking at photography is one of my favorite pass-times. It’s awesome how the great photographers can make me actually feel the moment of capture. I enjoy the greatness of their talent. What a trap. As if photography wasn’t full time enough, lately I’ve been charging head down in an ancillary effort to learn what drives people to create. Research, writing, listening and conducting interviews across all disciplines while dissecting my own work. Most photographers I know can recall nearly every click of the shutter, and those book-worthy gems capture more than just a replica of the…

  • Catch our “Adobe Creative Suite Unleashed” Tour This Friday in San Diego

    Scott
    17 Nov 2009 | 6:18 pm
    If you’re in the San Diego area, Dave Cross and RC Concepcion, are coming to San Diego this Friday with our Adobe CS4 Creative Suite Unleashed Tour, and then onto Boston on December 1st. If you haven’t had a chance to catch this special Adobe-sponsored tour, you don’t want to miss it, as they cover everything from Illustrator to InDesign, from Photoshop to Flash, and how it all works together. This special tour is only $49 (or just $39 for NAPP members), and you can get all the details, or sign up, right here. Hope we’ll see you San Diego on Friday, or in Boston in…
 
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    ReadWriteWeb

  • An iPhone Visualization App That Syncs with the Cloud

    20 Nov 2009 | 3:50 pm
    Roambi announced a pro version of its iPhone application this week that syncs with Salesforce.com and other cloud-based services or on-premsie sales environments. It's a visualization application, providing mobile workers with a pretty cool way to see sales information. Integration is by far one of the most significant trends we are seeing in the enterprise space. It's a wave, really, marked this week by Salesforce.com and its move to turn the Force.com development platform into a service that makes all of its applications social. Sponsor A good example of this trend are small companies like…

  • Three Great Light Blogging Tools Compared

    20 Nov 2009 | 3:35 pm
    Once the service for those serious enough to pay for the privilege to post, TypePad recently released a free "Micro" service. The company made the decision to offer a free product realizing the demand for a platform more formal than Twitter and less formal than Wordpress or Typepad's original product. ReadWriteWeb compared TypePad's Micro against 2 other leading light blogging tools. Below are our thoughts: Sponsor TypePad Micro: In addition to being able to blog via email, iPhone app, "Blog It" bookmarklet and the general WYSIWYG dashboard, this tool also allows users to cross post to…

  • 8tracks to Launch Playback API and Developer Program

    20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm
    It appears that the time for freemium music services in the US has passed. Earlier this week streaming music site Imeem sold to MySpace for under $10 million dollars while laying off a large number of staff. For a company with all four major record labels signed, more than 15 million uniques a month and well over 5 million tracks in its catalogue, it came as a sobering blow to the industry. While many companies move to a subscription model, 8tracks continues to forge along in what some describe as a convenient loophole. As of this weekend the company is publicly launching its API for Boston's…

  • Memento: Protocol-Based Time Travel for the Web

    20 Nov 2009 | 11:45 am
    The Web constantly changes and evolves. That, of course, is what makes the Internet so exciting, but it also means that finding older versions of a website is hard. The current push towards the real-time web is making this problem even more apparent. Memento, a project based at Old Dominion University, wants to make it easier to access older versions of a web page without having to go to the Internet Archive. To do this, the project is using a relatively obscure feature of the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). Sponsor The Memento project wants to give browsers a 'time-travel' mode.

  • The Future Is All About Context: The Pragmatic Web

    20 Nov 2009 | 11:14 am
    The semantic Web has long been heralded as the future of the Web. Proponents have said that Web experiences will some day become more meaningful and relevant based on the AI-esque computational power of natural-language processing (NLP) and structured data that is understandable by machines for interpretation. However, with the rise of the social Web, we see that what truly makes our online experiences meaningful is not necessarily the Web's ability to approximate human language or to return search results with syntactical exactness. The value of the semantic Web will take time because the…
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    Strobist

  • Living the High Life in San Miguel

    18 Nov 2009 | 10:41 pm
    Last week I was in San Miguel de Allende, which sits at over 6,000 feet of elevation in the central Mexican highlands. (Town motto: Meh, oxygen is overrated…)There for a Santa Fe Workshops lighting gig with Rosi, Beth, Françoise, Sara and two Peters, we threw ourselves into a week-long intensive on small flashes, eating well and (me) mostly being out of breath. They worked their butts off, and went from lighting each other very tentatively in the beginning to working completely on their own by the end of the week. Start the week strong, and finish it soaking up rays in the courtyard while…

  • Choosing Big Lights: Elinchrom

    15 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    UPDATE: As I suspected would happen, there is some really good info already developing in the comments from Elinchrom owners. If you are reading email or RSS versions, be sure to check it out. And FWIW, I expect this ongoing comment discussion will be the best part of the post.__________One of my main considerations when shopping for more watt-seconds was to be able to work independent of AC power. In this respect, Elinchrom gets strong consideration in the form of their two battery powered platforms, the Ranger RX and the new Ranger Quadra. A look at a very powerful battery flash, and it's…

  • Beers With: Vermeer

    11 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    With apologies to every art student and teacher, ever, today marks the second in an occasional series of chats with Old Masters.These guys were the original connoisseurs of light, and that is the framework under which we interview them -- as photographers. Turns out, they've been ripped off by photographers so many times at this point that they are actually cool with it. Which, by the way, is why the Old Masters merit your study. At least to the point of trying to stay awake during that early morning humanities class.They are, of course, very difficult to pin down for a chat -- what with…

  • Hey, Your Flash is Hawt …

    10 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    No, not as in the vapid, Paris Hilton sense. But rather the laws-of-thermodynamics sense.Made-for-photography gels are meant to be used near theatrical light sources. So they can handle the heat. But even still, the front lens of your flash can get very hot with repeated cycling -- especially at higher power settings.Don't believe me? Try this little trick: Hold a piece of printer paper right next to the front of your flash and set off just one, full-power pop. Now smell the paper. That would be a burning smell. From just one pop.Be CoolWhen you gel, leave a little space between the flash and…

  • Mono Monday: Choosing the Right Big Lights

    8 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    Normally, I try to balance lighting technique, trends, gear and a smattering of general silliness on this site. Apologies for fact that that Strobist is in somewhat of a gear-oriented spate of posts. There is a reason for that -- namely that I have gotten a little ahead of myself.A few On Assignment posts are in a holding circle because they were shot with larger light sources. And before getting to those, I wanted to take a look at the process of how to go about choosing a big light system in the first place.Recently, I revamped my kit after spending 20 years using the same set of well-worn…
 
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    Smashing Magazine

  • The Big Showcase Of Online T-Shirt Stores

    Callum Chapman
    20 Nov 2009 | 5:22 am
      T-shirts, as you’ll surely agree, play a big part in the design world. Sometimes, we designers don’t get the kinds of projects we want, and so we are left to apply our creativity in some other way, many of us opting to submit graphics in t-shirt competitions or printing them ourselves and selling them through shopping cart systems such as BigCartel. In this post, we bring you a showcase of online t-shirt store Web designs, all of which serves as a great source of inspiration for Web designers, graphic designers and even illustrators.You may be interested in the…

  • The Death of The Boring Blog Post?

    Paddy Donnelly
    19 Nov 2009 | 6:34 am
      Let’s face it: the classic blog post is boring. Barring the text and images, each one generally has the exact same layout. We see little originality from one post to the next. Of course, consistency and branding are extremely important to consider when designing a website or blog, but what about individuality? Does a blog post about kittens deserve the same layout as one about CSS hacks?Too Easy?Because installing a WordPress theme is so easy, anyone can have a blog up and running in minutes. While this is great, and we now have a wealth of blogs on countless topics, perhaps…

  • Designing CSS Buttons: Techniques and Resources

    Janko Jovanovic
    18 Nov 2009 | 7:23 am
       Buttons, whatever their purpose, are important design elements. They could be the end point of a Web form or a call to action. Designers have many reasons to style buttons, including to make them more attractive and to enhance usability. One of the most important reasons, though, is that standard buttons can easily be missed by users because they often look similar to elements in their operating system. Here, we present you several techniques and tutorials to help you learn how to style buttons using CSS. We’ll also address usability.Links vs. buttonsBefore we explain how…

  • Designing Social Interfaces: Overview and Practical Techniques

    Dmitry Fadeyev
    17 Nov 2009 | 8:20 am
      The standard approach to interface design is to craft a channel that allows you to easily and efficiently control hardware or software; it’s all about the interaction between people and computers. But today, the two entities on each side of the user interface are changing: it’s no longer about people interacting with computers, but rather about people interacting with people through computers.This is the nature of the social Web. Social news websites, message boards, social networks, online stores and blogs all have some sort of user interaction going on, whether…

  • Brushing Up On Photoshop’s Brush Tool

    Thomas Giannattasio
    16 Nov 2009 | 9:54 am
       When laid by a learned hand, brush strokes can convey a sense of energy, tactility and humanness. These qualities speak to your audience’s subconscious, whispering ideas that words alone can’t convey. In the digital realm, a website with beautiful brushwork is a welcome break from the stark precision of most corporate websites.Mastering the digital brush is by no means easy. It carries the same difficulties as the sable brush hidden at the bottom of your art bin. In fact, the difficulty is multiplied by the disconnect between the hand and monitor. Developing Photoshop…
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    The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

  • TUAW's Steve Sande provides gift ideas on the latest MacJury podcast

    Steven Sande
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm
    Filed under: Odds and ends, Podcasts, HolidaysHere it is, T-7 days until Black Friday, and you don't have any gift ideas? I joined MacJury podcaster Chuck Joiner earlier this week to provide my ideas for gifting. This was part two of a holiday gift ideas episode on the popular podcast. Joining me on the podcast were MacMouseCalls support genius (and grandmother) Pat Fauquet, Julio Ojeda-Zapata from the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and The Mac Observer's Jeff Gamet. Storage seemed to be a popular gift idea from the panelists, along with iPhone / Mac jewelry, video tools, and even some freebies. I…

  • MacUpdate Desktop version 5.0.2 released, win a membership from TUAW

    Casey Johnston
    20 Nov 2009 | 11:15 am
    Filed under: Software, Cool toolsMacUpdate announced today the release of version 5.0.2 of the MacUpdate Desktop utility, which allows users to manage application and widget software updates on their Mac OS X machines. The new version of the application adds some features and bug fixes as well as support for more languages. MacUpdate Desktop can track software updates for 30,000 Mac applications, and it also provides update support for applications on the iPhone, although iTunes handles that pretty well. Updates can be triggered manually and individually, or set to install automatically when…

  • Geotagged tweets now alive in Stone Design's Twittelator Pro 3.3.1

    Steven Sande
    20 Nov 2009 | 10:30 am
    Filed under: iPhone, App Store Twitter has flipped the switch on some new features, including geotagging of tweets and automatic retweeting. As a happy user of Stone Design's Twittelator Pro 3.3.1 [iTunes link], I was even more giddy when I found out that my favorite Twitter app already supports both of these features. The geotagging feature lets you optionally attach a latitude and longitude to your tweets. If you receive the tweet in Twittelator, you can tap on the sender's avatar icon to see the geotag and pull up a Google map of the location near where the tweet was sent. The app lets you…

  • Navigon briefly cutting price on its popular Nav app

    Mel Martin
    20 Nov 2009 | 9:30 am
    Filed under: Odds and ends, iPhoneGee, we were just saying how competitive it is getting in the iPhone nav department, and Navigon has gone and cut prices for holiday travelers. For 10 days only, beginning today (November 20-30) Navigon's iPhone app, Mobile Navigator [iTunes link]will be on sale for U.S. $69.99 instead of $89.99 providing a $20.00 savings. In addition, Navigon's Traffic Live feature is also on sale for $14.99 instead of $24.99. Traffic Live is a one time charge, not a continuing cost. That's a significant saving for this very popular app, and puts it under similar featured…

  • CrossOver Games releases version 8.1.0

    Mike Schramm
    20 Nov 2009 | 8:30 am
    Filed under: Gaming, Software, Odds and ends, Developer, Snow Leopard The folks behind CrossOver Games sent us a note that version 8.1.0 of their software has come out, and it's got some nice upgrades for Mac and Linux folks who prefer to run their games in Windows almost-emulators (it's based on Wine, and as we all know, Wine Is Not an Emulator) rather than Boot Camping over to the real thing. We tried out CrossOver Games a while back, and found it lacking in almost everything but Steam games, but actually that's OK, because lately Steam has a lot of games going on. Accordingly, this new…
 
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    Joe McNally's Blog

  • Heading East

    Joe McNally
    16 Nov 2009 | 2:03 am
    Yep, heading for Malaysia, courtesy of the efforts of Louis Pang, one of the premier wedding shooters in that country, and for that matter, all of Asia. Louis and I got to know each other when he took my lighting class at Santa Fe this past year, and the irrepressible Louis had ideas. When he gets ideas, actions follow. He went home, put together a plan, launched a website, and off we go. Or are going. First week in February, Drew and I will be in Kuala Lumpur, working with photogs from all over Malaysia and points east. Here’s the link. We’ll do a series of one day intensives,…

  • Letter to a Young Photographer….

    Joe McNally
    9 Nov 2009 | 5:43 am
    Lectured last week at the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism. In the photojournalism department, the students all had that traditional mix of energy, enthusiasm, angst, and doubt so typical of that time in your life when you have just picked up a camera and are looking at it, wondering where it will lead you. The usual mix of questions are ever present: Who do I work for? Can I make a living? Will I ever be any good at this? Will my pictures have impact? Nowadays, that traditional line of questioning is accompanied by another significant set of queries. What is the future of…

  • New York Frame of Mind…..

    Joe McNally
    6 Nov 2009 | 6:57 am
    Yankees won. Cool. I’ve been a Yankee fan before I even knew anything about NY. We lived in Cleveland when I was a kid, and my dad would only bring me to the ballpark when those damn Yankees were playing. He brought me down to the third base seats and Casey Stengel was standing in the coaches box. My dad yelled, “Hey Case!” Stengel was standing there, thumbs hooked in his belt, and gave me a wink and a quick wave. Been a Yankee fan ever since, though, like Yogi, I did have a hard time liking anybody in pinstripes back when The Boss was in full cry. Corny, right? But hey, it…

  • This Just In…..

    Joe McNally
    4 Nov 2009 | 6:44 am
    Hot Shoe Diaries was the number one reader’s pick for the arts and photography category on Amazon for 2009. Pretty cool. I’ve gotten some wonderful feedback from folks who really enjoyed the book and I thank everyone for the kind words that have been sent my way. Very appreciative of the support, and thanks for letting Amazon know about it! It’s been an interesting week.  There was the good news about the book, and then Lynn, my studio manager for 18 years, was going back and forth with a major multi-national who had a check for us, but had the wrong address listed. It…

  • Mongo Make Pano……

    Joe McNally
    29 Oct 2009 | 4:57 am
    In New York City leading a National Geographic Expeditions Workshop. Doing alright so far. Haven’t lost anybody yet. Nice group of folks. Hope they’re not disappointed that I’m not, you know, Nick Nichols, or somebody like that who’s got a lot of great Indiana Jones type photo stories. “I stood there in front of the enraged water buffalo, with the only thing between me and his massive horns was my Nikon DS4000XL Red Sonja series camera with the 12 to 3000mm over under combo zoom with the bore sighted grenade launcher. I had one round left…” I make up…
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    Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips

  • Worth-a-click

    jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)
    20 Nov 2009 | 6:20 am
    Here's a few things worth checking out as you surf around today or this weekend. • Adobe has released a beta of Lightroom 2.6 (and Camera Raw 5.6). The major thing I can see is that it now supports the Canon 7D, G11, and Nikon D3s. You can get it over at Adobe Labs if you're dying for support for those new cameras. • My brand new Photoshop Elements 8 Book for Digital Photographers (co-authored with Scott Kelby) is out in stores and online. Since Adobe released the Mac and PC version this time around we changed things to cover both. • If you're a photographer (of any level) and…

  • Lightroom Sharpening – Which Brush to use?

    jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)
    18 Nov 2009 | 9:17 pm
    Over the last few months, I've done a few of those Before/After videos that involve sharpening as one of the steps. Each time I've done it, I go into Photoshop and do the sharpening there. I've noticed a number of good comment/questions asking about why I don't use the Adjustment Brush in Lightroom to sharpen instead. So it got me thinking about why. I mean, I knew sharpening was there in Lightroom and that I could selectively do it with the Adjustment Brush but I never really find myself using it. So here's the answer(s) that I've come up with: 1) Old mentality of sharpening last I've had a…

  • Tip – Fading a Lightroom Preset

    jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)
    17 Nov 2009 | 6:19 am
    I've got a big article due for Photoshop User magazine this week so I'm gonna make this one short. In fact, I'm being so lazy today that I'm stealing a tip from some one else. See, for a while now I'd have to say the most common preset-related question I get is how to fade a preset. Say the effect is just too strong and you don't feel like going through each slider and lessening the amount it applies. Instead you basically want a volume control for the preset. Well the other day Piet (one of the blog readers) posted a comment pointing me to a video he's done on fading Lightroom presets. Now…

  • Tip – Graduated Filter Modifier Keys

    jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)
    13 Nov 2009 | 5:50 am
    First off, thanks for all the great feedback on the Before/After video the other day. For those of you who watched it (and commented on it), the grayish pumpkin that I darkened was brought up a few times. I thought about trying to do something more with it, but then I showed the photo to several people including the mom in the photo. I asked about the pumpkin and the resounding answer was "What pumpkin?" - mission accomplished in my book :-) But I'll probably try to tweak it as a personal mission to see if I can add just a little color back in without looking to fakey. Tip #1: Anyway, I…

  • Video – Before & After Family Photo

    jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)
    11 Nov 2009 | 8:38 am
    Please install flash player to view video. Here's another one of those before and after videos for you folks. I know these are popular because they really show the workflow and the link between the two programs we tend to use most - Lightroom and Photoshop. I thought this particular photo made a great candidate because I was able to do some very neat things in Lightroom (more than a lot of people think is possible) but I also needed to move into Photoshop for some quick retouching. Hope you enjoy it. I'm actually taking the day off to spend with the family since they're off from school, but…
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    Digital Photography School

  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 – Review

    Barrie Smith
    20 Nov 2009 | 12:07 pm
    I sometimes hear from people who’ve newly acquired a digital SLR, saying they find it a hassle to continually change lenses when shooting a wide variety of subjects. Frankly, it goes with ‘SLR-territory’ (digital and film) and is the price you pay to enjoy the improved image of an interchangeable lens, reflex camera. In reality, unless you’re very demanding and continually shoot magazine quality pictures, most times you’re better off with a fixed lens digicam with an extended zoom range … like this one. Panasonic has not indulged in a longish zoom camera before, unlike Canon,…

  • High Key Studio – What I Use and Why

    Elizabeth Halford
    20 Nov 2009 | 6:01 am
    If you follow my posts, you’ll know that I have a studio. At the moment, I mostly do high-key sessions with children. High-key is something that many photographers try to imitate and sometimes fail miserably simply because of a lack of understanding about light (and I only know this because I am one of those people!) Out of necessity, my photographic evolution has been a fast one and I laugh to think that only a few short months ago, I was in torrents of frustration and tears because I just couldn’t manage to take photos like the ones I was seeing from amazing studios such as…

  • 10 Rules for Editing Digital Images

    Guest Contributor
    19 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm
    During the week one of our readers – wedding photographer Martin Whitton – shot me a list of his ‘10 rules for editing digital images’. I thought I’d share them today as a discussion starter for readers. Martin comments that ‘these ideas may seem a little elementary, but sticking to the basics keeps our editing focused, maintains consistency from image to image and keeps our clients happy’. Tone of space (a room, for example) should be balanced and neutral, with no overall bias; Blacks (like tuxes) should be black; Whites (like wedding gowns) should…

  • The Lenses We Would Have If We Could Have No Other Lenses [POLL RESULTS]

    Peter Carey
    19 Nov 2009 | 6:06 am
    A few weeks back I asked a loaded question: If You Could Only Have One Lens, What Would It Be? I knew from the start that it’d be tough question for most, as it was for me. Picking one lens when many of us shoot varied subject matter would present special problems. I was, however, encouraged by the responses, especially the explanations. It was evident that a lot of DSLR owners would keep their current lens, especially those with the Nikon 18-200mm VR. And while a zoom seemed like the obvious choice for all around use, nearly one third of those responding chose a fixed focal length lens…

  • How To Keep Your Batteries Charged While Traveling – City Edition

    Peter Carey
    18 Nov 2009 | 12:13 pm
    I’d like to take a moment to talk about power.  Electric power that is.  We all have a craving for it as it powers everything we do with digital photography.  If you’re completely digital gone are the days of being able to manually adjust your camera and still get shots without the need for a battery of some kind.  And that’s why it’s even more important to consider where you’ll get your power when traveling. In this article I’ll concentrate on just the what/how/where of keeping your camera shooting while in populated cities and towns.  I will write…
 
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    MacRumors iPhone Blog

  • MacRumors: Game Developers Scaling Back Android Efforts as iPhone Continues to Dominate

    20 Nov 2009 | 11:49 am
    Reuters reports that prominent iPhone game developer Gameloft is scaling back its efforts to produce content for the Android platform in the face of weaknesses of its application store. Gameloft also notes that it is not the only one making the move...

  • iPhone Coming to Virgin Mobile Canada

    20 Nov 2009 | 9:08 am
    Virgin Mobile Canada issued a brief announcement yesterday revealing that it will begin offering the iPhone there in the near future.Virgin Mobile Canada will launch iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS in Virgin Mobile Retail Stores and online ...

  • TomTom to Launch Car Kit for iPod Touch

    20 Nov 2009 | 8:42 am
    Earlier this week, an updated version of TomTom's GPS navigation application appeared in the App Store, and among the major changes included with the update was compatibility with the original iPhone and all generations of the iPod touch. The iPod t...

  • Google Rolls Out Mobile-Formatted Google News for iPhone

    19 Nov 2009 | 12:40 pm
    Google today announced that it has rolled out mobile-formatted Google News pages for iPhone, Android, and Palm Pre users. The feature complements similar existing pages for Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and S60 platforms.This...

  • MacRumors: AT&T Faces Initial Setback in Verizon Ad Spat, Rolls Out Response Ad

    19 Nov 2009 | 7:27 am
    The Associated Press reports that a judge has refused to grant AT&T's request for a temporary restraining order forcing Verizon to halt its commercials comparing the two companies' wireless network coverage.AT&T filed the lawsuit in ...
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    The Luminous Landscape - What's New

  • 19 November, 2009 - ALPA Field Report

    18 Nov 2009 | 3:51 pm
    UPDATE – 10:30am EST It was announced today that Christian Poulsen has decided to resign from his position as CEO of Hasselblad. Chairman of the Board, Dr. Larry Hansen will now also serve as Chief Executive Officer. This follows the recent replacement of Hasselblad USA's President Jack Showalter by Tom Olesen. I have no editorial stance on these announcements at the moment, but one has to wonder as to the nature of the changes taking place within Hasselblad and their underlaying motivations. ____________________ When it comes to technical cameras for use with digital backs few would…

  • 16 Nov, 2009 - Leaf Aptus II 10, The First Week

    15 Nov 2009 | 2:24 pm
    Buying a medium format back is a serious financial committment for a pro, and the thought process involved and a photographer's initial experience with it makes for an informative and interesting read. Today's new article by Robb Williamson is on the Leaf Aptus II 10. It details his purchase decision process and his first week's shooting experience. ____________________ I don't often hand out endorsements, however, when I see something unique, entertaining, educational and very reasonably priced I must say something. Your interviews with Jay Maisel and Jeff Schewe really helped me understand…

  • 15 November, 2009 - Leica X1 Update

    14 Nov 2009 | 3:07 pm
    I'm now back from my workshop / shoot in Death Valley. We had a great time. What a terrific group of participants, and Phase One did a fantastic job with the preparations and logistics. All of the members of this workshop were given the new Phase One 645DF camera to use, along with a P65+ or P40+ back. These were the first twenty five production 645DF cameras off the assembly line, and with the exception of a few little bugs, worked flawlessly. I am now preparing my Phase One 645DF camera review and expect it to publish here within the next 10 days. The new Home Page photograph was taken with…

  • 12 November, 2009 - Leica X1 Field Report

    11 Nov 2009 | 6:54 pm
    I have now been shooting with the upcoming Leica X1 for the past few weeks, including this week on a workshop / shoot in Death Valley. How is the image quality, and handling? Find out in my X1 Field Report, which is now online. You can also read Sean Reid's observations at Reid Reviews (a subscription site). ____________________ Give a Gift of The Luminous Landscape No Taxes – No Duties – No Delays Available World-Wide ...

  • 8 November, 2009 - On The Road With Phase One in Death Valley

    7 Nov 2009 | 4:57 pm
    Today begins a five-day workshop in Death Valley, CA, run by Phase One at the famous Furnace Creek Inn. I am among the group of teachers that includes Bill Atkinson, Claus Molgaard, Jeff Schewe, and Mark Dubovoy. Kevin Raber, Phase One's US Vice President, is blogging the workshop this week and you can follow his blog, which will be updated daily, here. The new Home Page photograph, taken with the Leica X1 (hey –  I'm ecumenical), was taken on Saturday evening on the way to the park. ____________________ ...
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  • Viewing and Basking in your Image

    Web Editor
    20 Nov 2009 | 6:15 am
    When I’m done working with an image, I like to sit and admire it (hey, I spent six hours working on it, I should). To do that, I hit the Tab key, then hit the F key three times. This hides all of the panels and toolbars and lets you see the image by itself [...]

  • OnOne Releases Plug-In Suite 5

    Corey Barker
    19 Nov 2009 | 10:57 pm
    Earlier this week OnOne Software, Inc. released the new Plug-in Suite 5 for Adobe Photoshop. Designed to solve the most common problems facing photographers in the areas of color correction, enlarging, masking and professional photographic effects, the Plug-in Suite 5 combines full versions of six essential software tools in one affordable package: FocalPoint 2, PhotoTune [...]

  • Rotating your images with Shortcuts

    Web Editor
    19 Nov 2009 | 6:15 am
    I spent some time playing around with the orientation of images. Instead of having to go to Image>Rotate Canvas>90° CW or 90° CCW, I set up actions for them. To do this, create a blank document. Once you have the document onscreen, create an action called 90 Degrees Clockwise and assign it a keyboard shortcut. [...]

  • Adobe Creative Suite Tour Coming to San Diego

    Corey Barker
    18 Nov 2009 | 7:13 am
    California is really in for quite a treat this Friday as Dave Cross and RC Concepcion will be bringing the all new Adobe Creative Suite Tour to San Diego this Friday, November 20. If you haven’t yet heard of the this new tour it’s a day long excursion into the Creative Suite. Join RC and [...]

  • Using the Button Mode in Actions

    Web Editor
    18 Nov 2009 | 6:15 am
    The best way to automate tasks in Photoshop is to create actions of common tasks. When you are working with multiple images, you don’t want to keep selecting an action and clicking on the Play Selection icon. Speed up your workflow by enabling Button mode. In the Actions panel flyout menu, you can select Button [...]
 
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