There was a report released this week by a couple of democrats about the threat to critical infrastructure including US electric power utilities. I don’t think that this is a partisan concern, though. Their report is called “Electric Grid Vulnerability: Industry Responses Reveal Security Gaps,” and describes the results of 160 utilities that were [...]
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From the Reassuring Files: Power utilities under near-constant cyberthreats
Holy Kaw!23 May 2013 | 8:03 am -
Space Pics of Alaskan Volcano Eruption Are Amazing
Mashable23 May 2013 | 7:24 amAn erupting Alaskan volcano shot ash plumes so high into the air that astronauts on board the International Space Station were able to capture the activity in crisp, detailed photographs Pavlof Volcano — located in the Aleutian Arc about 625 miles southwest of Anchorage — erupted on May 13, spewing lava and generating an ash cloud that reached 22,000 feet high. Pavlof is one of the most active volcanos in the United States, with nearly 40 known eruptions While the majority of the plumes were released over the weekend, U.S. Geological Survey scientists told the Associated Press… -
Your Healthy Greek Yogurt Harbors A Deadly Secret
Fast Company23 May 2013 | 7:00 amGreek yogurt is healthy and good, but the process of making it creates something called acid whey. Acid whey is very bad: accidental spills of it have killed thousands of fish. But Greek yogurt is booming, so what to do with its dangerous byproduct? For every container of Greek yogurt you see on a supermarket shelf, picture another container (or two or three) of deadly poison. It’s called acid whey, and it’s a toxic byproduct from the yogurt-making process that’s becoming a big problem for manufacturers as their product continues its assault on the hearts and minds of… -
JustFab Goes Up A Size In Europe, Acquires Fab Shoes To Take Its Fashion Subscription Service To France And Spain
TechCrunch23 May 2013 | 7:46 amJustFab, the subscription-based fashion commerce site, is putting the $109 million that it has raised so far to use: today it is announcing the acquisition of The Fab Shoes, a European e-commerce shoe club in France and Spain, to build out its global operations. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The deal will give JustFab a stronger foothold in the European market: it already has operations in Germany, where it has a European HQ in Berlin, as well as in the UK; now it will be adding France and Spain, with the integrated site coming in July 2013. Growth in Europe has been coming at a fast… -
Thoughts on education and the burgeoning trophy shortage
Seth's Blog23 May 2013 | 2:00 amIt's graduation season, so a few relevant links about school, students and our future: Here's the audio of an interview I did with PlayBuffet My TEDx talk about education And a reminder about Stop Stealing Dreams, a free manifesto that asks, "what is school for?" I hope we can ask this question more and more often... Feel free to share with your favorite graduate. Or her parents. Bonus: 20 video minutes at Creative Mornings.
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Holy Kaw!
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From the Reassuring Files: Power utilities under near-constant cyberthreats
23 May 2013 | 8:03 amThere was a report released this week by a couple of democrats about the threat to critical infrastructure including US electric power utilities. I don’t think that this is a partisan concern, though. Their report is called “Electric Grid Vulnerability: Industry Responses Reveal Security Gaps,” and describes the results of 160 utilities that were [...] -
Which 8 stores price-match online prices?
23 May 2013 | 7:45 amThere’s a shopping site called Cheapism.com and there, they recently took a look at a bunch of retailers and compiled a list of those who’ll price-match their online prices – not all will, I guess not surprisingly, presumably because the costs of running the online side of their business is less. Here’s Cheapism.com’s methodology [...] -
California dogs are the luckiest
23 May 2013 | 7:29 am“Dog beaches account for a tiny fraction of the thousands of miles of U.S. shoreline, but they are treasured by pet owners and their pooches. “Off-leash dog beaches are a canine’s dream come true,” said Lisa Porter, owner of Pet Hotels of America, a travel website that lists thousands of beaches and parks where dogs [...] -
8 ways baby boomers are changing up retirement
23 May 2013 | 7:27 amThis is me for sure – life didn’t pan out as I’d thought and some changes have been in order. Glad to see I’m not the only one! Sandra Block, writing at Kiplinger, begins her article with these facts: Every day, about 8,000 baby-boomers celebrate their 65th birthday. That’s the traditional age for retirement, but [...] -
Blast from the past: Remember 1986? [video]
23 May 2013 | 6:41 amGet ready to tight-roll those jeans and wield the AquaNet with a vengeance! YouTube user thepeterson created this incredible pop-culture compilation from 1986 and we dare anyone who lived during the eighties not to sing along. Full story at YouTube via Neatorama. Pop culture history lesson.
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Mashable
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Space Pics of Alaskan Volcano Eruption Are Amazing
23 May 2013 | 7:24 amAn erupting Alaskan volcano shot ash plumes so high into the air that astronauts on board the International Space Station were able to capture the activity in crisp, detailed photographs Pavlof Volcano — located in the Aleutian Arc about 625 miles southwest of Anchorage — erupted on May 13, spewing lava and generating an ash cloud that reached 22,000 feet high. Pavlof is one of the most active volcanos in the United States, with nearly 40 known eruptions While the majority of the plumes were released over the weekend, U.S. Geological Survey scientists told the Associated Press… -
Microsoft Turns Siri Against Apple in New Ad
23 May 2013 | 7:24 amThe Microsoft-Apple rivalry is heating up again In a new 30-second ad for Windows 8, Microsoft manages to skewer the iPad, Siri and Apple's promotional strategy The ad shows the iPad and a Windows 8 tablet side-by-side with Siri repeatedly apologizing for not being able to do what Microsoft's tablet can. "I'm sorry, I can only do one thing at a time," Siri says, before adding, "I guess PowerPoint isn't one of those things. Should we just play 'Chopsticks?'" Sure enough, the person in the video starts playing a flawed version of the song "Chopsticks," poking fun at Apple's iPad Mini… -
Wisconsin Girl's Touching Artwork Wins Google Doodle
23 May 2013 | 7:03 amThe directions were simple: Illustrate your "best day ever." Sabrina Brady of Wisconsin's Sparta High School combined Google's logo with a memorable and moving six-frame story. This is Google's fourth year running the Doodle 4 Google competition. K-12 students from across the United States submitted artwork between January 14 and March 22. Google selected finalists from each state and asked Google users to vote for a winner from those finalists. You can view all the state finalists here. Along with each doodle, the young artists submitted brief descriptions of their best days. Brady captioned… -
Twitter Launches Two-Step Authentication and Other News You Need to Know
23 May 2013 | 6:58 amWelcome to this morning's edition of "First To Know," a series in which we keep you in the know on what's happening in the digital world. Today, we're looking at three ways that tech giants are expanding their reach. Google's Chrome browser added conversational search. In its single biggest market expansion in the tablet space, Amazon increased the availability of Kindle Fire. And Twitter finally announced two-factor authentication to help keep accounts secure. Check out the video above for more on these stories. Image: Mashable compsite, image via iStockphoto, Dragonian Read more...More… -
HP Envy TouchSmart 14 Laptop Has a 3,200 x 1,800 Screen
23 May 2013 | 6:30 amThink Apple's retina-display MacBooks are pretty cool? Then you might like the HP Envy TouchSmart 14, Hewlett-Packard's new ultra-high-resolution laptop. Boasting a crazy-high pixel count of 3,200 x 1,800, it's 14-inch screen has even more pixels than one on the 15-inch retina MacBook Pro (2,880 x 1,800). The TouchSmart 14 Ultrabook isn't available yet though since it's waiting on Intel's fourth-generation Core processors, codenamed "Haswell," which should arrive sometime in the next month. HP expects to start selling the ultra-sharp Windows 8 laptop on June 26. It's unknown what the price…
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Fast Company
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Your Healthy Greek Yogurt Harbors A Deadly Secret
23 May 2013 | 7:00 amGreek yogurt is healthy and good, but the process of making it creates something called acid whey. Acid whey is very bad: accidental spills of it have killed thousands of fish. But Greek yogurt is booming, so what to do with its dangerous byproduct? For every container of Greek yogurt you see on a supermarket shelf, picture another container (or two or three) of deadly poison. It’s called acid whey, and it’s a toxic byproduct from the yogurt-making process that’s becoming a big problem for manufacturers as their product continues its assault on the hearts and minds of… -
This Is Your Body On A Can Of Soda
23 May 2013 | 6:30 amIt feels so good when it hits your lips, but the rest of your body isn’t so happy. At this point, you’d have to be quite daft to drink soda on a regular basis. Because the evidence of its ill-effects is vast, and mounting. Just recently, research found that consuming a 12-ounce can daily increases the risk of type 2 diabetes by 22%. And, not long ago, we wrote up a study that linked soda, and other heavily sugared drinks, with 184,000 deaths annually (132,000 of those from diabetes). And so on. This infographic, from Term Life Insurance, is a little trip round the body, from your… -
Before and After: How MTV Gave One Nonprofit A Makeover And Got Schooled In Social Storytelling
23 May 2013 | 6:00 amMTV teamed with volunteer platform Catchafire to put creative and social firepower behind a worthwhile, "tough sell" cause--the Center for Employment Opportunities, which offers comprehensive job services to people leaving prison. “We have a very tough product to sell.” That’s Mindy Tarlow, the CEO of Center for Employment Opportunities. You can’t tell by the name of the organization, but that “tough product” is people --men and women recently released from prison. The New York-based non-profit specializes in helping them transition into the work force and… -
From Blue Man To Everyman: Marketing “Arrested Development” For Fans And Newbies
23 May 2013 | 6:00 amSpanning easy-to-miss easter eggs on Netflix to banana stands on every street corner, the slow burning, appropriately weird marketing effort for Arrested Development made both hardcore fans and those who missed the show the first time itch for May 26. It would be hard not to know that on May 26th, Netflix will stream a new season of the cultishly beloved TV series Arrested Development. After all, for the past several months Netflix has been building up to the event with a culturally ubiquitous, clever advertising campaign that’s got super fans, the Bluth-curious, and the media buzzing. -
Startup America and Startup Weekend Merge to Create UP Global
23 May 2013 | 5:41 amThe partnership combines Startup America’s visibility (and money) with Startup Weekend’s on-the-ground, grassroots movement. Startup America Partnership, the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit created by AOL cofounder Steve Case to boost entrepreneurship, is merging with Startup Weekend, the 54-hour networking and pitching marathon, to create a new organization to connect and support entrepreneurs around the world. “Our hope is that we can create a global startup ecosystem,” says Scott Case, CEO of Startup America Partnership. The new entity, which will be known as UP…
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TechCrunch
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JustFab Goes Up A Size In Europe, Acquires Fab Shoes To Take Its Fashion Subscription Service To France And Spain
23 May 2013 | 7:46 amJustFab, the subscription-based fashion commerce site, is putting the $109 million that it has raised so far to use: today it is announcing the acquisition of The Fab Shoes, a European e-commerce shoe club in France and Spain, to build out its global operations. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The deal will give JustFab a stronger foothold in the European market: it already has operations in Germany, where it has a European HQ in Berlin, as well as in the UK; now it will be adding France and Spain, with the integrated site coming in July 2013. Growth in Europe has been coming at a fast… -
Twitter Launches Twitter Amplify For Real-Time Videos In Stream, Partnering With BBC, Fox, Fuse And Weather Channel
23 May 2013 | 7:37 amTwitter today made the latest push in its bid to cozy up to Madison Avenue and the world of big-budget advertising, by tapping more into the kind of mainstream mediums where advertisers like to spend their money. In New York, during Internet Week, the company announced Twitter Amplify, a way of bringing real-time video into the site, with initial partners including the broadcasters BBC America, FOX, Fuse and The Weather Channel. It is part of the company’s bigger push that its calling Twitter4Brands, which first kicked off almost year ago exactly, also at an event in the Big Apple. The… -
Yahoo Acquires Gaming Infrastructure Startup PlayerScale
23 May 2013 | 7:30 amAnother day, another acquisition by Yahoo. Yahoo said this morning it’s acquired PlayerScale, a California-based startup that makes software infrastructure for cross-platform gaming. Financial details haven’t been disclosed. PlayerScale, which was self-funded and cash-flow positive as of this past January, was founded in 2011. According to a VentureBeat article also from January, the company had a staff of 14. It’s not clear yet how many staff are involved and will be joining Yahoo — we’ve reached out for details and will update this with any information we… -
Fedora Project Announces Pidora Remix for Raspberry Pi
23 May 2013 | 7:26 amThe Fedora Project has been supporting Raspberry Pi, the diminutive $35 computer, for some time. Today they’re making the Pidora “remix” of the core Fedora distribution available. Like the Raspbian distribution of Debian, Pidora is compiled specifically to take advantage of the hardware already built into the Raspberry Pi. Pidora offers a couple of interesting little additions to your standard Fedora desktop experience. The reduced oomph of the RPi means that the full-blown GNOME desktop is replaced with the lighter-weight XFCE. Pidora also offers an easy-to-use headless… -
Paper Creators FiftyThree Mulling More Products, And A Tablet Stylus Might Be Next
23 May 2013 | 7:17 amPaper by FiftyThree is one of the most beautiful digital products on the market today. The immersive drawing app for tablets has won Apple’s Design Award, a Crunchie, and was most recently honored at Time Inc.’s 10 NYC Startups To Watch party. So how do you build on that kind of success? Well, according to the founders, Paper is but the first product in a series of creative tools. The team is thinking pretty seriously about what comes next, and it seems as though a stylus is where things are headed. “The human hand has evolved to use tools,” said co-founder Georg…
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Seth's Blog
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Thoughts on education and the burgeoning trophy shortage
23 May 2013 | 2:00 amIt's graduation season, so a few relevant links about school, students and our future: Here's the audio of an interview I did with PlayBuffet My TEDx talk about education And a reminder about Stop Stealing Dreams, a free manifesto that asks, "what is school for?" I hope we can ask this question more and more often... Feel free to share with your favorite graduate. Or her parents. Bonus: 20 video minutes at Creative Mornings. -
Let's start with "sorry"
22 May 2013 | 2:43 amBy the time the phone rings, there's already trouble. When that manager is called or this department is reached, it's because someone is disappointed, angry or stuck. Illness, broken promises or a real urgency have led to this new conversation even taking place. So don't start with, "[Name of company] mumble mumble" as if there's a blank slate just waiting to be written on. There's already a lot of writing on that slate. Don't demand to know the record number or begin with doubt and an edge of dismissal. Be on our team. "It sounds like we've got a situation on our hands..." is a fine way to… -
Levels of marketing magic, the placebo effects of desire
21 May 2013 | 2:45 amANTICIPATION: Before the product is released, the true fans are buzzing and speculating and waiting in line. The anticipation is self-reinforcing, a placebo effect of desire. UTILITY: The album is good, the software is useful, the book changes things. It works better than we hoped. Exceeding expectations pays significant dividends. REMARK: It's purple. Remarkable. Worth talking about. The word spreads. Ten people tell ten people and suddenly, it's abuzz. Not because of PR or hype, but because the remarkability is built right into the product or service itself. And more people enjoy things… -
You should buy the book
20 May 2013 | 8:33 amMitch Joel is a generous and perceptive blogger. Well worth the daily read. He has a new book. You should buy it. David Meerman Scott writes an essential blog, daily. His book is a classic. You should buy it. Tom Asacker writes a very thoughtful blog about marketing. Worth the read. He has a new book. You should buy it, too. Every day, Mark Frauenfelder and Corey Doctorow blog tons of goodness at Boingboing. They each have books. You should buy them and share them. Bernadette Jiwa's blog keeps getting better and better and you are probably already reading it. She has a new book on the way. -
No Signal
20 May 2013 | 2:00 amAt a party the other day, I saw a dead TV monitor. On the screen it said something like, "No signal... check power, cable and source selection..." It doesn't matter at all how hard the DVD player was trying to put on a show. It is irrelevant how good the show on cable was. If it's not getting through, no one sees it. All of us own our own media companies now. We each have the ability to speak up, to tell our stories, and if we're good and if we're lucky, to be heard. Too often, though, there's no signal. You may be pumping noise through your social media outlets, but noise isn't signal. It's…
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NYT > Home Page
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Wall St. Opens Lower After Worldwide Slump
23 May 2013 | 6:49 amStocks dropped in New York after investors were rattled by signs of a slowdown in Chinese manufacturing and a potential easing of central bank support for the economy. -
Global Stocks Slip on Signs of Economic Stress in China and Japan
23 May 2013 | 6:01 amA stock retreat spread around the world, with European markets down around 2 percent. Wall Street was also down in early trading. -
Cameron Burrell Is Following in Very Fast Footsteps
23 May 2013 | 6:00 amCameron Burrell will run the 100 meters at the New York Grand Prix on Saturday on Randalls Island, where his father and now coach, Leroy Burrell, set a world record in the race. -
British Security Chiefs Meet After Killing
23 May 2013 | 4:34 amPrime Minister David Cameron called a session of cabinet ministers and security officials after an attack in south London that raised new fears of terrorism. -
When Hollywood Wants Good, Clean Fun, It Goes to Mormon Country
23 May 2013 | 4:01 amB.Y.U.’s animation program is not your typical film school. And that’s why its graduates actually get jobs.
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Wired Top Stories
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How an Entirely New, Autistic Way of Thinking Powers Silicon Valley
23 May 2013 | 6:30 amI propose a new category of thinker in addition to the traditional visual and verbal: pattern thinkers. In society, three kinds of minds ? visual, verbal, pattern ? naturally complement one another. Yet society puts them together without anybody thinking about it. The notorious antenna problem on the iPhone 4? Too much art, not enough engineering. Contrast this philosophy with Google?s; the minds behind Google, I guarantee you, were pattern thinkers. And to this day, Google products favor engineering over art. -
Driving Volkswagen's 261-MPG Diesel-Electric Supercar Spacepod
23 May 2013 | 6:30 amIt's time to redefine the supercar, and the 261 MPG Volkswagen XL1 is the first draft in a new history of uber-capable machines. -
Meet the Man Who Sold a Month-Old App to Dropbox for $100M
23 May 2013 | 5:00 amGentry Underwood answers our questions on the success of his app Mailbox and Mailbox's future now that it has been acquired by Dropbox. -
Hardcore Console Gamers Don't Want Much, Just the Impossible
23 May 2013 | 3:30 amTo the dedicated gamers that wish Microsoft would stop pushing the all-in-one entertainment angle -- do you really know what you're asking for? -
Amazon's Urban Biospheres Give New Meaning to 'Tech Bubble'
23 May 2013 | 3:30 amIn case you doubted that the 21st century as envisioned by past generations' pulp futurists had arrived, check out the biospheres Amazon has proposed to anchor its new downtown Seattle headquarters.
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@ProBlogger
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7 Questions to Ask Yourself to Bring Clarity to Your Blogging
22 May 2013 | 8:28 amDo you feel like you’ve lost clarity around what it is that you’re trying to do with your blog? I’ve recently bumped into a few bloggers grappling with this idea. Some were new, even ‘Pre’ Bloggers, while a couple had been blogging for a while but had lost some direction. Out of these conversations, I put together a set of questions to help them think it through. The questions revolve around asking: What are YOU About? While I won’t guarantee you instant clarity on answering these questions I hope that putting a little time aside to work through them… -
7 Steps to Proofreading Like a Pro
21 May 2013 | 9:37 amThis is a guest contribution by Charles Cuninghame, website copywriter and owner of Text-Centric. I’m sure we can all agree that proofreading is the least fun part of blogging. But while it may be tedious, it’s well worth the effort. Typos are not only embarrassing, they can also cost you money. In a widely reported study in 2011, British entrepreneur Charles Duncombe found a single spelling mistake can cut online sales in half! If you don’t have a product, then you could be missing out a blog subscriber or repeat visitor! Here’s a tried and tested proofreading process that I’ve… -
Are You Balancing Emerging Technology with Effective Strategy?
20 May 2013 | 8:21 amLast week I was asked at a conference to reflect upon the future of digital and among other things I made a reflection that seemed to resonate with those gathered. It was: Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. As online publishers we see a steady stream of articles being written about new and future technologies, companies and trends in the online publishing space. It is certainly an exciting time to be doing what we’re doing with such amazing development happening all around us and some amazing projections being made about what is ahead of us – however in the midst… -
How to Blog Like a Pro: Workshop on the Gold Coast Australia – Next Week
19 May 2013 | 7:56 pmNext week (29th May) I’m running a special workshop at the Internet Conference on the Gold Coast here in Australia. The workshop is titled – How to Blog Like a Pro – and you’ll get 4 solid hours of teaching in it – all delivered by me in a workshop limited to 40 people only. The workshop has only previously been available to those signing up to the full 3 day conferences as an add-on but there are a few tickets still available and so I asked the organisers if we could sell them as a stand-alone ticket (i.e. you don’t have to come to the full 3 day event). -
How To Use Auto Responder Emails to Boost Your Blogging Efforts
17 May 2013 | 8:22 amThis is a guest contribution by Asher Elran of Dynamic Search. I thought emails were a waste of time and that they are ignored, but then I learned how to do it right and watched the numbers flip. After you published a great post and pushed it through your social network, the third step is to leverage your email list too. This is where the auto-responders can help you gain new subscribers while you’re busy writing your next blog post. The majority of email marketing services are the same. I prefer Constant Contact or Mobilizemail’s new email feature. Following the steps below…
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Entrepreneur
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4 Essential Ingredients to a Successful Mobile App
23 May 2013 | 7:00 amThe mobile app market is growing by the minute. But with more than a million apps available to consumers, how can you ensure your idea is successful? Here are four key factors to keep in mind. -
Downtown Las Vegas Reimagined as a Startup (Photos)
23 May 2013 | 5:00 amIn the last of a four-part series on Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh's Downtown Project, we look at the city in the process of reinvention. -
Health Insurance Reform: Steps to Take Now to Prepare
23 May 2013 | 4:00 amPlan ahead for Obamacare to control costs and limit confusion. -
The Pros and Cons of Google Glass for Business Travel
23 May 2013 | 3:00 amDespite some drawbacks, Google's futuristic eyewear can be an indispensable travel device. -
After Hacks, Twitter Updates Sign-In Security
22 May 2013 | 1:45 pmThe microblogging service has updated its safeguards to include two passwords when logging in.
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Lifehacker
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Give Better Criticism with These Four Rules
23 May 2013 | 7:30 amGiving someone thoughtful, productive criticism is a lot harder than it seems. To keep things productive, cognitive scientist, author, and philosopher Daniel Dennett shares four simple rules to help guide you to successful critical commentary. Read more... -
Evernote Adds Easy-to-Use Reminders to Its Notes Apps
23 May 2013 | 7:00 amMac/iOS/Web: Evernote is incredibly popular, but it has been missing one key feature: reminders. Today, Evernote has updated its apps to include easy-to-use reminders. Read more... -
Focus on Consequences, Not Intentions, If You've Made Someone Angry
23 May 2013 | 6:30 amWhen you've unintentionally angered someone, your first instinct may be to explain that making them mad wasn't your goal, and try to elaborate on what you really meant. If you've noticed that it never really seems to calm them down, here's why: your intentions matter less than the consequences of your actions.Read more... -
What to Expect From This Year's Memorial Day Sales
23 May 2013 | 6:00 amAs the unofficial start of the summer, Memorial Day is typically associated with a sunny afternoon BBQ. But for in-the-know shoppers, this holiday is also an excellent time to flex your shopping muscle. Historically, Memorial Day weekend offers the best sales since the start of the year, frequently with stacking coupons that slash prices on already-discounted goods. So what can you expect from Memorial Day sales this year, and when should you start looking?Read more... -
Mailbox, One of the Best Gmail Apps We've Seen, Is Now on the iPad
23 May 2013 | 5:30 amiPad: Mailbox, the Gmail app that's made to help you get to inbox zero, is now available for the iPad. Like its iPhone counter-part, it sports a clean design and gesture-based interface that makes flicking through email easy. Read more...
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MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors
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Apple's Smart Watch May Not Launch Until Late 2014, Use Biometrics and iPod Nano Technology
22 May 2013 | 3:24 pmKGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has on a number of occasions offered accurate information about Apple's product plans, issued a new research report this week outlining his expectations for Apple's rumored smart watch device, informally dubbed "iWatch". Despite some expectations that the device could launch later this year, Kuo believes that both hardware and software issues will result in the iWatch making its debut in the second half of 2014.Apple may not have adequate resources to develop an iWatch version of iOS because it may require big changes to iPhone and iPad iOS this year. -
Corning Pits Gorilla Glass 3 Against Sapphire, Plans Reflection Reduction and Antimicrobial Technology
22 May 2013 | 1:59 pmFollowing Apple's adoption of sapphire crystal as a strong and durable covering for the rear cameras on the iPhone 5 and fifth-generation iPod touch late last year, rumors of expanded uses for the material have gained some traction. Back in March, we covered a report suggesting that sapphire could see wider adoption as coverings for displays on mobile devices, and just last week a sketchy rumor claimed that Apple is planning to use a sapphire-covered capacitive home button with integrated fingerprint sensor for the iPhone 5S. Amid these discussions of the potential of sapphire, Corning has… -
Apple Details Five Patents Violated by Samsung Galaxy S4 and Google Now
22 May 2013 | 10:29 amLast week Apple told the U.S. District Court in California that it planned to add the Samsung Galaxy S4 to its patent lawsuit already underway against Samsung. As promised, Apple today filed a motion (via Foss Patents) that details five different patents that the S4 allegedly infringes on. The filing includes two Siri-related patents violated by Google Now, Google's robust voice activated search assistant. Patents '604 and '959 cover a "universal interface for retrieval of information in a computer system." The other three patents in the filing cover a "graphical user interface using… -
Apple Updates Look of Online Store With More Feature Images, Fewer Text Links
22 May 2013 | 6:24 amApple today rolled out some updates to its online store, not only posting new features advertising Father's Day gift purchases but also introducing a new, cleaner look for the store. While the main page of the online store had previously consisted of a main center column with product promotions flanked by sidebars with additional links, the new look brings an all-feature design focusing more on product images. Previously, the left sidebar had offered quick access to accessory categories for Apple's various product lines, as well as links to the company's refurbished and clearance stores. -
Excerpts of Apple Executives' Senate Committee Testimony on Tax Policy
21 May 2013 | 12:29 pmThree Apple executives, CEO Tim Cook, CFO Peter Oppenheimer, and head of tax operations Phillip A. Bullock, appeared in front of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation earlier today, testifying about Apple's tax policies. MacRumors has a rough transcript of the hearing, while the full event is viewable on C-SPAN. The full hearing was quite long, but here are some selected excerpts from our transcript. At the beginning of the hearing, Senators are allowed to make whatever opening statements they wish. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) gave a spirited defense of Apple, saying he was…
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chrisbrogan.com
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Be Open to Inspiration
10 May 2013 | 8:41 amI’ve been in a bit of a fog the last week or so. Nothing worth talking about, really. Depression stuff. But then it lifted. What’s interesting to me is how I found my footing and how I got back on track, and so there are two items I want to share with you from this: the actual learning, and more importantly, the realization of what got me there. Be Open to Inspiration Humans have this way they deal with too much information. They discard tons of inputs and keep what they feel is important. This is necessary, by the way. Can you imagine how busy your brain would be if you thought… -
Do Local Businesses Deserve Your Money?
7 May 2013 | 1:38 pmI sat at the counter at my local restaurant the other day and waited for over 7 minutes without anyone bothering to acknowledge that I was there. And then I walked out. And so did my money. For good. In fact, I drove to McDonalds, got some scrambled eggs and an iced coffee, and was in and out of the system within the same 7 minutes. (You can save your comments with disdain for McDonalds. If you’re a parent, you go there, unless you don’t. Either way. It’s not the point.) Now, before you try to defend this other place, no, it wasn’t busy. Yes, at least two employees had seen me, and… -
Why Use These Outlier Social Media Tools?
30 Apr 2013 | 4:21 pmWhy should you bother using tools like Vine and Instagram, and the like? That question was asked to me by Pam Vitaz, and she asked it somewhat in this context (my words not hers): Vine’s interesting, but you basically just shot a funny video. Why do that? Here’s the video she meant: Can’t see the video? Click Here. Can’t hear sound? Hover over it and click the little sound thingy. On the surface, it’s the kind of question you can answer with “why not?” But that’s not good enough. Why Use These Outlier Social Media Tools? First, it’s your… -
Can You Work at Being Fearless?
29 Apr 2013 | 7:03 amFear is at the heart of most of our worst choices. I read this facebook post by James Altucher and it really punched me in the stomach. But that’s just one punch in a series, because every time I question how I ended up somewhere, the real answer (underneath all the bull answers) is fear. It’s why most stupid things happen, why all bad things happen (when humans are involved), and is even worse than you think. I’m afraid of a weird collection of things. I’m afraid of sharks (ever since seeing Jaws at a very young age – because I pestered my parents tirelessly til… -
Sponsored Post – Mobile Productivity and the Future
24 Apr 2013 | 4:53 amCan you be productive while on the road? I say yes. In fact, I’m writing this from a hotel room before heading off to a meeting with a client. The following is sponsored by Cloud Powered Work, which is a project with IDG, LinkedIn, and Microsoft’s Office365. Everything in this post is mine, and my opinions are my own. I just produced an episode of my radio show from my hotel room, because I realized that an episode was due and I hadn’t done the work before I took off for the day. Last night, while I waited for my slightly delayed airplane, I cracked open SkyDrive pulled down…
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Copyblogger
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30 Quick Editing Tips Every Content Creator Needs to Know
23 May 2013 | 4:00 amInbox 0: in a bad way. Has your brilliant content still not scored you that dream writing position, lucrative business partnership, or sweet recognition among your peers and target audience? If you think your articles are top-notch, but there’s a lonely tumbleweed blowing through your barren website, it may be because you’re just a writer. You heard me, Gloria. If everybody wants you, why isn’t anybody calling? Once you create a blog or email newsletter, you need to also actively take part in its evolution. While keeping diligent focus on your content production, you must also review… -
How to Nail the Opening of Your Blog Post
22 May 2013 | 5:00 amThe opening four notes to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony are the most popular notes in Western music. Dun dun dun dum … They are stormy. Heroic. Disorienting. Short enough to be remembered. Portentous enough to be memorable. Today you’ll find those notes everywhere. In movies, commercials, and songs when the dramatic and foreboding are needed … And we hardly bat an eye. We recognize them, we know them, and we love those first four notes. Not so for Beethoven’s opening night at Vienna’s Theater an der Wien in 1808. One contemporary composer of Beethoven —… -
5 Things Every Copywriter Needs to Know About Their Prospects
21 May 2013 | 4:00 amWhat do you really know about your prospect? Their age range perhaps? Where they live? What they do for a living? Useful definitely, but not enough to create copy that rouses emotion and compels action. For that we need to take a journey much deeper into the dark recesses of our customers’ minds … Want to join me? Today’s article is inspired by someone who understood that in writing, how well you knew your ‘characters’ made the difference between captivating an audience, or boring them. In 1946 The Art of Dramatic Writing, (now regarded as one of the best works… -
14 Free Ebooks and an Updated 20-Part Internet Marketing Course
20 May 2013 | 5:00 amCan’t see the video? Click here. Free Registration About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and CEO of Copyblogger Media. Get more from Brian on Google+. Related StoriesWhy We Still Need to Write, Even When We’re Scared5 Ways to Bond with Your Blog’s Audience11 Compound Word Errors that Might Make You Look like a Numbskull -
5 Writing and Productivity Links You Can Use
18 May 2013 | 5:00 amThis week on The Lede … How A Copywriter Evaluates A Great Website The Unexpected Antidote to Procrastination The Daily Rituals of the World’s Most Creative People 4 Things That Lead to Success (or Failure) with Email Signup Forms How to Do More By Planning Less: The Power of the Anti-Plan Want to grab even more useful links (beyond those that make The Lede)? Follow @copyblogger on Twitter. // The Unexpected Antidote to Procrastination Procrastination: that merciless thief of our time, creative output, and potential reward. Mr. Bergman delivers a unique — but convincing…
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Macworld
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Review: iPhome 2 case and stand keeps your iPad safe and sound
23 May 2013 | 7:00 amIt’s fairly large. It’s kind of klutzy. It’s not pretty. Yet I’ve had my iPad parked in iPhome Products’s $40 iPhome 2 for months, despite the fact that I’ve had my choice of over a dozen other, more elegant-looking, iPad stands at my disposal. Why? Because for home use, the iPhome 2 keeps my tablet safe and secure. I can set it on the table propped up while I eat, or on my lap on the couch or in bed, and it sits securely. Its design holds the iPad tightly as I transport it from room to room—instead of my usual hyper-vigilance while toting around this marvel of glass and… -
Evernote can now remind you to update your notes
23 May 2013 | 7:00 amEvernote on Thursday unveiled a new update for the Web, iOS, and Mac versions of its note-taking service: a new reminders function, which prompts users to make updates and add new notes. Evernote now lets users prompt themselves to record information. Macworld was able to take a gander at the Mac version of the new features ahead of launch. Regardless of how you’re used to viewing your notes—card view, expanded cards, snippets, or list view—the Reminders section always shows up in the top of the app’s note list, with a different reminder section available for each of your notebooks. -
All about About This Mac
23 May 2013 | 3:30 amIn this week’s tip, I’ll discuss a cool feature that you may be wholly unaware of—even if you're a long-time Mac user. In Lion and Mountain Lion, click the Apple menu and choose About This Mac. Yeah, yeah, you’ve seen this before. But now click More Info. In the old days, you'd be taken to System Profiler, and you’d see a fairly drab list of specs about your Mac—which you can still see in Mountain Lion by choosing Show System Report from the File menu. But now More Info offers a slicker view that puts your Mac’s most important information front and center. For example, if you… -
Doing more with Messages
23 May 2013 | 3:00 amLast week we wandered about Mountain Lion’s Messages application to get a feel for the territory. In today’s lesson we’ll dig into some of Messages’ less obvious features, including screen sharing, initiating remote slideshows and presentations, and viewing past chats. Messages and screen sharing When exploring the Mac’s sharing features I explained how to share the screen of another Mac on your local network. Through Messages it’s possible to do the same thing, but over the Internet. To do this, each participant must use an AIM, Bonjour, Google Talk, or Jabber account. Screen… -
Remains of the Day: Holey wholesale holograms!
22 May 2013 | 4:30 pmA longtime industry watcher moves to Cupertino, Steve Jobs’s email to James Murdoch is marked as read, and Tim Cook dodges an inane “rumor.” The remainders for Wednesday, May 22, 2013 are live, in the flesh. Longtime Tech Industry Analyst Michael Gartenberg Joins Apple (Forbes) Occasional Macworld contributor Michael Gartenberg—who has served as an analyst at Gartner, Jupiter Research, Altimeter Group, and Interpret, in addition to a brief stint at Microsoft—has joined Apple in a role that reports to Apple senior vice president of marketing Phil Schiller. Let the iBagel rumors…
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ReadWrite
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Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Saves Companies Money - But Could Cost Users Big
23 May 2013 | 7:06 amBring Your Own Device (BYOD) polices are increasingly popular as a way for companies to let workers use the hardware they like best and are most productive with. But according to a new study from Cisco, that not be the best way to think about BYOD. Implement a strong BYOD policy, Cisco says, and your organization could save $1,300 per year per mobile user. Users meanwhile, report that they are happier and more productive - even though they may end up paying more out of their own pockets! (See also Worried Workers: BYOD Or You're SOL [Infographic]) Happier, More Productive, But Poorer? The… -
Android Dramatically Extends Lead With Open Source Developers
23 May 2013 | 6:03 amDespite Google Android's long market-share rise against Apple iOS, developers continued to stick with iOS as their first deployment target. While Android offered superior volume, that volume was fragmented between different versions of the OS and disparate hardware. Meanwhile, Apple offered better development tools plus clearer, more profitable revenue options. Even open-source developers tended to congregate on highly proprietary iOS. Something changed in 2012, however, and Android-related open-source development exploded. According to new research from Black Duck Software, new… -
Square Storms Japan
23 May 2013 | 5:55 amSquare, the mobile payment service that has been making strong inroads within the North American retail sector, has announced the availability of its service in Japan. The company is already processing $15 billion in annualized payments, and this move into Asia is expected to greatly increase the popularity and profitability of the service. -
Hadoop: What It Is And How It Works
23 May 2013 | 5:05 amYou can't have a conversation about Big Data for very long without running into the elephant in the room: Hadoop. This open source software platform managed by the Apache Software Foundation has proven to be very helpful in storing and managing vast amounts of data cheaply and efficiently. But what exactly is Hadoop, and what makes it so special? Basically, it's a way of storing enormous data sets across distributed clusters of servers and then running "distributed" analysis applications in each cluster. It's designed to be robust, in that your Big Data applications will continue to run… -
Mailbox Takes Its Email App To iPad, With Android Waiting In The Wings
23 May 2013 | 5:00 amWhat has Mailbox founder Gentry Underwood and his team been up to since selling the email-app maker to Dropbox for a reported $100 million in March? Mostly working on new versions of the product - like an iPad version of the app, which is coming out Thursday morning on Apple's App Store. Like the original iPhone version, which attracted a million users at breakneck speed, Mailbox for iPad lets you swipe messages off to the right or left to handle them. A short swipe to the right archives them, while a long swipe deletes them; a short swipe to the left "snoozes" messages for later reading,…
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Smashing Magazine Feed
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Building The New Financial Times Web App: A Case Study
23 May 2013 | 2:52 amWhen the mockups for the new Financial Times application hit our desks in mid-2012, we knew we had a real challenge on our hands. Many of us on the team (including me) swore that parts of interface would not be possible in HTML5. Given the product team’s passion for the new UI, we rolled up our sleeves and gave it our best shot. We were tasked with implementing a far more challenging product, without compromising the reliable, performant experience that made the first app so successful. We didn’t just want to build a product that fulfilled its current requirements; we… -
Designing CSS Layouts With Flexbox Is As Easy As Pie
22 May 2013 | 5:31 amFlexible box layout (or flexbox) is a new box model optimized for UI layout. As one of the first CSS modules designed for actual layout (floats were really meant mostly for things such as wrapping text around images), it makes a lot of tasks much easier, or even possible at all. Flexbox’s repertoire includes the simple centering of elements (both horizontally and vertically), the expansion and contraction of elements to fill available space, and source-code independent layout, among others abilities. Flexbox has lived a storied existence. It started as a feature of Mozilla’s… -
Mobile UX Research: Exploring Ten Fundamental Aspects Of M-Commerce Usability
21 May 2013 | 6:30 amEveryone is talking about mobile. Some e-commerce websites are venturing into it. Mobile commerce (also known as “m-commerce”) has immense potential, exhibiting a 86% growth rate and hitting $25 billion in 2012 (set to reach $86 billion by 2016, according to eMarketer). It’s also a whole new platform, with new interaction methods and usage contexts that introduce a host of limitations and pitfalls to watch out for when designing and running an m-commerce website. With few best practices yet established, m-commerce is, to a large degree, unchartered territory when it… -
Case Study: Typographic Design Patterns And Current Practices (2013 Edition)
16 May 2013 | 7:25 pmGood typography has always been a defining aspect of effective Web design, and this holds true especially for websites in which the emphasis is on presenting a large amount of content — specifically, articles, news and stories. Whether for a magazine or international newspaper, the designer of any website that distributes a lot of content has always had to consider typographic details as seriously and thoroughly as a print designer would. In 2009, we conducted a survey of then current typographic practices. Since then, responsive design techniques have clearly gained… -
A Beginner's Guide: Migrating A Website To WordPress Is Easier Than You Think
15 May 2013 | 1:33 amNow powering over 17% of the Web, WordPress is increasingly becoming the content management system (CMS) of choice for the average user. But what about websites built with an outdated CMS or without a CMS at all? Does moving to WordPress mean starting over and losing all the time, energy and money put into the current website? Nope! Migrating a website (including the design) over to WordPress is actually easier than you might think. In this guide, we’ll outline the migration process and work through the steps with a sample project. We’ll also cover some of the challenges you…
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CNN.com - Top Stories
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Cameron vows Britain will track down all involved
23 May 2013 | 7:17 amA gruesome cleaver attack killed a British soldier on a London street and set off a frantic hunt to find those behind the attack. FULL STORY -
Summer in the Smokies
23 May 2013 | 7:00 amThe boundary between Tennessee and North Carolina might be one of the loveliest border crossings ever: It's the crest of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Hikers on the Appalachian Trail walk the line between the two states for most of the trail's path through the park. -
Latest developments on the attack
23 May 2013 | 6:49 amThe brutal killing of a British soldier Wednesday near a military barracks in the Woolwich neighborhood of southeast London has shocked the United Kingdom, with Prime Minister David Cameron saying the act appears to be a terrorist attack. -
Boy Scouts
23 May 2013 | 6:45 amThe eyes of the country will be upon Texas on Thursday. -
Drones, Guantanamo
23 May 2013 | 6:44 amFrom the targeted killing of Americans overseas to the future of the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, President Barack Obama will lay out the framework and legal rationale for his administration's counterterrorism policy in a widely anticipated speech Thursday.
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Scott Kelby's Photoshop Insider
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It’s Free Stuff Thursday!
22 May 2013 | 10:13 pmThe Digital Photography Book Part 1 – Second Edition Okay, Scott already announced the release of the new version of his best-selling book, The Digital Photography Book Part 1 – Second Edition. But since today is Free Stuff Thursday, I figured we would give away FIVE FREE copies to some lucky commenters! Whether you already have the first edition and just want the latest version, or if you want to give a copy to a friend, or if you just don’t have any version of this book and want it, leave a comment for your chance to win! Or, you can head over to KelbyTraining.com, Amazon,… -
It’s Guest Blog Wednesday featuring Vincent Versace!
21 May 2013 | 9:01 pmPhoto by Douglas DublerA Tale of Two PhotosOnce a year, on the anniversary of Guest Blog Wednesday, Scott affords me the opportunity to share some thoughts. All I can say is that it is a good thing that he gives me a year between these guest blog posts. Once again, thank you, Scott, for your gracious generosity.Tale 1Of all of the images I have or will take in my life, I suspect “Paris in Snow” will be by far my most iconic. It is the cover of my book From Oz to Kansas, and Epson uses it as the image on their worldwide packaging of Cold Press Natural paper. So the image has received some… -
Motorcycle Shoot (behind-the-scenes)
21 May 2013 | 4:22 am(Above) Here’s a behind-the-scene shot from Friday’s shoot. This is a three-light shoot: Two 4-foot strip banks above (with Elinchrom strobes), and there’s one additional softbox in front (you can see the light-stand right behind my laptop) that’s putting some extra light on the engine — it was a little dark in there with just the two strobe directly above the bike.I asked my Creative Director Felix Nelson if I could shoot his Harley, but he was doing some serious tinkering with it at home and it wouldn’t be ready for days, so he suggested calling our… -
The 2nd Edition “Refresh” of my “Digital Photography Book, Part One” is here
19 May 2013 | 9:01 pmOK, if you already have the first edition of the book, DON’T BUY THIS ONE!!!! That’s because it’s a “refresh” and not a “rewrite.”The original book was published back in 2006, so I brought the book up-to-date with a pretty significant refresh using today’s latest cameras, updates and changes in gear; plus I added a short chapter with some advice I’ve learned since then; I went through and updated all the photos (man, it’s excruciating to look back at the images you were taking seven years ago), and techniques where needed… -
Please join me in welcoming our new Photoshop User TV co-host, the awesome Jessica Maldonado (AKA “Photoshop Girl”)
16 May 2013 | 9:01 pmThis week we kicked off the new season of Photoshop User TV (the weekly Photoshop show) and I got the honor of introducing our viewers to our new co-host of Photoshop User TV, and the latest addition to “The Photoshop Guys”, it’s Jessica Maldonado, our own “Photoshop Girl.” (wild cheers ensue!).I know what you’re thinking. About #$&% time! (I totally agree) I also know what some of you are thinking, and just so you know, Jessica chose the nickname “Photoshop Girl” herself (though some suggested “Photoshop Gal” cause they…
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Digital Photography School
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Learn How to Use the Sharpening Tools in Lightroom
22 May 2013 | 12:23 pmThere’s no question that Lightroom is a powerful piece of photo processing software, but due to that power sometimes it’s not as easy to wrap our heads around everything it has to offer, that’s in part why I started my Let’s Edit YouTube series a weekly segment in which I share my own editing workflow for viewers to learn from. After starting this series one of the most commonly asked questions was to go into more detail on how the sharpening tools in Lightroom work. Sharpening in Lightroom is broken down into four different sliders – Amount, Radius, Detail and… -
Discover the Secrets to These 11 Special Effects Images: New eBook
22 May 2013 | 9:33 amToday we’re launching a new dPS eBook that I suspect is going to give a lot of our readers hours of fun while playing with their digital cameras. It’s called Photo Magic: Special Effects Photography Made Easy – an eBook by Neil Creek. As an Early Bird special you can grab it today at 25% off (just $15 USD). Over the years we’ve published thousands of tutorials here on dPS – many of which are on topics like Portraiture, Landscapes, Macro and Street Photography. However some of our most popular tutorials over the last few years have been when our authors have… -
Canadian Travelogue – Newfoundland – Cape St. Mary’s
21 May 2013 | 12:57 pmCape St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve is about a one hour drive south on Highway 100 from the Marine Atlantic ferry terminus of Argentia. The drive to the reserve itself is fascinating and provides many opportunities for images of the rugged maritime coastline, particularly around Ship Cove and Gooseberry Cove. Should your departure point be the international airport at St. John’s, the drive will take about three hours as you travel inland via Salmonier Line, and south across the Avalon Peninsula to St. Bride’s. Should you want the most scenic drive from St. John’s, take the 350Km… -
How to Create a Reflection in Photoshop in 6 Easy Steps
21 May 2013 | 9:13 amCreating a reflection using Photoshop is one of those things that at first glance looks really hard, but really isn’t, once you break down the steps (just light Light Painting which I covered in another two part series). In this article I’m going to demystify creating a reflection, a technique that works particularly well on images with open pavement, and HDR processed images which tend to make the pavement look wet already. We’re going to learn how to go from this . . . To this! In less than 10 minutes! I recently showed one my HDR classes how to do this, and they all… -
DISCUSS: When you Photograph People in Black and White, you Photograph their Souls
20 May 2013 | 9:06 amCanadian photojournalist – Ted Grant – is quoted as saying: “When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in Black and white, you photograph their souls!” This quote often comes to mind when talking about portraiture and I thought it might make an interesting discussion starter. Do Ted’s words resonate with you? Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips. Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips. DISCUSS: When you Photograph People…
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TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog
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Shazam app goes universal, adds mapping features, more
23 May 2013 | 8:00 amThe uber popular live music recognition app Shazam has received a major update today. The most noticeable change is a new mapping feature. Now users can explore a map and see what songs are being tagged in what areas of the world. Another major change is that Shazam is now a universal app. Previously there was Shazam for iPhone and Shazam for iPad, but now both apps have been rolled into one. The iPad side of the new Shazam app has seen significant upgrades as well. Users are now greeted with a beautiful new home screen that allows them to flip through recently tagged songs. Another new… -
Mailbox for iPad now available
23 May 2013 | 7:00 amPopular email client Mailbox is now available for iPad. Previously Mailbox was iPhone-only, but today's version 1.3 update makes it a universal app that runs on all iOS devices. The iPad version of Mailbox comes less than a month after the developers announced plans that they were working on it and other (yet to be seen) desktop versions of the app. Mailbox has received rave reviews for its sleek design and unique approach to email management by supporting features that are usually only found in separate task management apps. Mailbox is a free download.Mailbox for iPad now available… -
Twitter for Mac finally gains Notification Center support
23 May 2013 | 6:00 amWell, here's something I thought we would never see -- a minor update for Twitter for Mac, which finally brings Notification Center support to the client. You know, it only took just shy of 10 months after the release of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion for that to happen. The 2.2.1 update also fixes Growl notifications in Lion and Mountain Lion and squashes several other bugs. But reviews are already coming in saying that the Growl fix doesn't work. Yes, Twitter for Mac was updated in April, but it languished for a couple years (Twitter for Mac 2.1 was released in May 2011 with a minor update shortly… -
Engadget takes Unikey's iPhone assisted keyless entry for a spin
22 May 2013 | 6:00 pmWe're still a few years away from the self-opening home front door of the Jetsons. But that's okay -- we're making progress. A few weeks ago we told you about Unikey and Kwikset's Kevo, a keyless entry system for your own front door. Now the fine folks at Engadget have had a chance to work with the system hands on, and they seem to be impressed. The system uses the iPhone's Bluetooth LE to connect with the smartlock. Simply walk up to your front door with your phone in your pocket, tap the lock, and turn the knob. Users and security are handled via iPhone and desktop apps that allow you to… -
Zite update is aimed at Google Reader orphans
22 May 2013 | 5:00 pmWith Google Reader fading into the sunset in July, more and more users are looking to replace its functionality. Zite for iOS (free) has some solutions that should please many news hounds. The app was originally born out of a desire to replace Google Reader with something that learned your interests and had a more compelling display. In a new release, available today, Zite is trying to go further to embrace what's good in Google Reader and add some bells and whistles. First, Zite has increased the prominence of sources. Those sources now appear in a topic drawer after you mark an article that…
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Strobist
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Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters is Now Available on DVD, and Netflix Streaming
22 May 2013 | 9:00 pm©Gregory Crewdson Netflix have acquired the rights to stream Ben Shapiro's excellent 77-minute documentary, Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters. You can also buy it outright on DVD for $24. Sadly, the Netflix access this is US-only (maybe Canada? nope!) and only for Netflix streaming subscribers. But this is still far and away the biggest audience to have had access to the film. There's no telling how long it will be up to stream. Netflix is notorious for having, then not having, the rights to a movie. So just in case, don't wait too long. You can stream it here. (Many thanks to reader Tim… -
On Assignment: Back to the Well
21 May 2013 | 9:00 pmTian Lu (left) and Yuri Shadrin are both accomplished pianists in their own right. But when they play as a duet (on the same piano) they produce an intuitive mix of music and banter that could only come from the married couple that they are. He is Russian, she is Chinese. Which made them the perfect choice to perform in China later this month in commemoration of an upcoming regional trade partnership between China and Russia. So I shot their publicity portraits in one of my favorite little environmental portrait nooks in Howard County—under the fountain downtown at the lakefront. I have… -
Q&A: Photek Softlighter II or Paul Buff PLM?
17 May 2013 | 3:00 amSydney, Australia-based photo assistant Diego asks: You seem to use the Photek Softlighter a lot. How would this compare to the Paul Buff PML Soft-Silver with the White Diffuser? While they are similar (both sub-$100 Octa killers) they are pretty different under the skin, So which model you'll prefer depends on how you'll use it… Read more » -
Readers Shoot Back: Vivian Chung
13 May 2013 | 8:11 amDontcha hate it when your bride-and-groom portrait gets photo-bombed? Okay, maybe not if it's by a Beluga whale. And for Vancouver wedding photographer (and Strobist reader) Vivian Chung, this well-planned cameo was no accident. Complicating things, she only had a little time—and a key technical restriction—to make this shot. Read more » -
Lighting In Layers on Lynda.com
13 May 2013 | 8:00 amI am happy to announce that Strobist's video series, Lighting in Layers, has by special arrangement been adapted for the video tutorial site Lynda.com. Those of you who are Lynda subscribers can now view the videos there. (This includes Lynda's many corporate subs, so check with your company.) Last week saw the launch of the first segments, which are primarily aimed at beginners. Additional sessions will be released each week. So even if you are not a newb, stick around. It'll get more complex soon enough… -30-
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News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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Fujifilm updates X-Pro1 and X-E1 to improve AF with 55-200mm lens
22 May 2013 | 10:00 pmFujifilm has updated the firmware for its X-Pro1 and X-E1 mirrorless cameras, to improve the autofocus speed with the recently-launched XF 55-200mm F3.5-4.8 R LM OIS telephoto zoom lens. Versions 1.05 for the X-E1 and 2.04 for the X-Pro1 are available to download from the Fujifilm website. Click through for the links. -
DxOMark Mobile Report: Samsung Galaxy S4
22 May 2013 | 3:19 pmWe just published the DxOMark Mobile Report for Samsung's new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S4 on connect.dpreview.com. DxO's imaging experts have analyzed 14 aspects of mobile imaging including detailed image quality assessment, flash performance, autofocus reliability and more to calculate a final score. This report will be integrated into our full review once it is finished but for now click through to find out how the Samsung Galaxy S4's camera performed in the DxOMark lab tests. -
Studio scene comparison pages added to Pentax MX-1 preview
22 May 2013 | 3:14 pmWe've just added three studio comparison pages to our previously-published preview of the Pentax MX-1. The MX-1 is Pentax's flagship compact camera, and something of a departure for the manufacturer, offering a fast F1.8-2.5 zoom lens, full manual control and a high-class, metal body, to compete with more established peers like Panasonic's LX7. Click through to go to the new pages in our preview, and see for yourself how the MX-1 compares to its rivals. -
Flickr: Yahoo CEO sorry for 'no such thing as pro photographers' comment, Pro accounts live on
22 May 2013 | 12:46 pmMuch of the fallout surrounding Flickr's massive updates this Monday continues to center around the legacy 'Pro' accounts and a contentious statement from Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer: 'There’s no such thing as Flickr Pro today because [...] there’s really no such thing as professional photographers anymore.' She apologized today for her 'misstatement', and it appears that existing Flickr Pro account holders will still be able to take advantage of unlimited storage. Read all about it at connect.dpreview.com. -
Gifty concept camera produces instant flipbooks
22 May 2013 | 11:41 amAnimated flipbooks have been around for nearly 145 years. With just a little thumb action, these books allowed you to view a few seconds worth of animation. Now, a new concept camera known as the Gifty allows you to record video and print a flipbook instantly. The only problem: you can't buy one yet.
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Lightroom Killer Tips
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Should You Create Multiple Catalogs In Lightroom?
20 May 2013 | 11:01 pmFor years, catalog questions tend to be the most popular questions I get at my Lightroom seminars. One of those questions is whether or not to create multiple catalogs in Lightroom. See, back in Lightroom 1, it became fairly common knowledge that when your catalog grew to a certain size in photos (say 20,000) that it would slow down and you should create a new catalog so Lightroom would keep running quickly. But that’s not the case anymore. Lightroom doesn’t have a photo limit that anyone has hit. Adobe doesn’t even recommend creating multiple catalogs anymore. So the first… -
Lightroom And WPPI Coming Your Way (Chicago, Atlantic City, Vegas and LA)
15 May 2013 | 9:00 amIf you live in Chicago, Atlantic City, LA or Las Vegas then you’ve got a WPPI “On the Road” stop coming your way. NAPP and WPPI are teaming up to provide you with some killer Photoshop and Lightroom training at each event. RC Concepcion, Pete Collins and I will be teaching along side plenty of other great instructors in each city. Here’s the link to WPPI’s website if you want to find out more and below is the list of cities and dates. Hope to see you there! • Chicago: May 21-22 • Atlantic City: June 3-4 • Los Angeles: July 15-16 • Las Vegas: August… -
A Super Quick Way To Convert Your Photo To Black And White
9 May 2013 | 11:01 pmHey everyone. Here’s a great little tip for you if you want to see quickly see what your photo looks like as a black and white, without going to a different panel and messing with sliders. Ready… just go to the Develop module and press the V key. Yup… that’s it. It does the default black and white conversion, and gives you a good idea of whether you’d want to process the photo any further as a B&W. If you like it, then head down to the B&W panel and make some more adjustments. If not, just press the V key again and it’ll take you back to the color… -
What Photoshop CC (Creative Cloud) Means For Lightroom Users?
6 May 2013 | 11:01 pmThere’s obviously lots of feedback, buzz, interest, and excitement, from Adobe’s announcement yesterday. If you missed it, in a nutshell, Photoshop as we know it is going totally subscription based. So basically, you can’t buy a stand alone boxed or download copy of it anymore. You have to subscribe to the Adobe Creative Cloud to get Photoshop CC (CC means Creative Cloud). However, for now you’ll still be able to buy Lightroom standalone without subscribing (even though it’s also included in the CC). By the way, if you hadn’t noticed Photoshop CS is no… -
Lightroom Tip: Hiding Panels
2 May 2013 | 11:01 pmDid you know that you can hide specific panels in Lightroom? You probably knew that you can collapse a panel just by clicking the tiny arrow next to the name of the panel. But you can also hide them so they simply don’t show up. For example, personally I don’t use the Split Toning panel, so why even have it show up there anymore? To hide it (or any other panel) right click under the Histogram in the dark gray empty area in the Develop module (just to the left of the word Basic in the Basic panel). The panels that are visible will be checked. To hide one or more just click on it.
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MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - iOS Blog
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Shazam for iPad Rebuilt as Universal App With Background Auto-Tagging and More
23 May 2013 | 6:35 amShazam was one of the early App Store success stories, offering users the ability to easily identify music by capturing a snippet of the song and matching it against a database to provide title and artist information. The service has since expanded to integrate with the iTunes Store, YouTube, lyrics, and more, with TV shows and ads even adopting Shazam to allow users to easily learn more about the show or product. Shazam has offered separate apps for the iPhone and iPad since 2010, but the company today unveiled a universal version of the iPhone app that includes a completely rebuilt… -
Gmail Management App 'Mailbox' Gains iPad Compatibility
23 May 2013 | 6:07 amPopular email app Mailbox, which launched for iPhone in early February with a reservation system that saw well over one million users sign up before the company eliminated reservations last month, has now gone universal with a native interface for the iPad. ReadWrite has more on the development, including a brief interview with Mailbox founder Gentry Underwood about how designing for the larger tablet screen was actually more difficult than for the iPhone."[Tablets] are these weird hybrid devices that sit in between," said Underwood. "They're part luxury mobile phone, and they're part… -
Microsoft Releases Windows 8 Tablet Ad Highlighting iPad's Flaws, High Price
22 May 2013 | 5:42 pmAs noted by The Verge, Microsoft has released a new Windows 8 tablet ad that uses Siri to highlight a few of the iPad's shortcomings, depicting the ASUS VivoTab Smart tablet as a robust productivity machine while implying that the iPad is more suited to entertainment. In the ad, which is entitled "Less Talking, More Doing," an iPad is depicted next to the aforementioned VivoTab Smart, showing off the system's multitasking capabilities and its built-in office apps. A Siri voiceover points out that the iPad does not support multiple windows at once and does not offer Microsoft Office apps. "I'm… -
Clear Updated with List Emailing Functionality, iPad Version Coming Soon
22 May 2013 | 3:21 pmRealmac's gesture-based list making iPhone app Clear has been updated to version 1.2.2, adding a feature that allows users to email their lists to other people. When viewing a list, Clear users can shake their phones to bring up the new emailing option. Emails sent from Clear contain the app's lists plus a link that provides the option to open the sent lists within the app. The Clear update also provides additional secret themes and comes with an announcement that an iPad version of the app is currently in the works.One of the biggest feature requests we've had has been the ability email… -
Casemaker OtterBox Acquiring LifeProof
22 May 2013 | 2:24 pmIn an event today at the CTIA conference, case maker OtterBox announced it was acquiring waterproof case maker LifeProof. OtterBox will keep LifeProof's San Diego location and employees will remain in their current locations. OtterBox global headquarters remain in Fort Collins, Colorado. The companies are not disclosing any terms for the transaction. Much like OtterBox, LifeProof is a rapidly growing, multi-million dollar business with a strong global brand, comprehensive product offering, impressive intellectual property and thriving company culture. Over the next 30 days, OtterBox will…
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Barcelona officials: 'Space hotel' a concept far, far away
23 May 2013 | 7:00 amWe’ll believe it when we see it, but we kind of want to see itGiant ray gun or futuristic hotel? In terms of new architecture, some cities embrace (willingly or not) the shiny, the bold, the outrageous. Dubai, for instance, or Shanghai, or even Seoul these days. There’s one city, however, that’s turning up its nose at an in-your-face extreme building. Plans for a massive man-made island off the coast of Barcelona featuring a 2,000-suite “space hotel,” a covered marina, a “zero-gravity” spa and a 24-hour mall have been met with less than enthusiasm from city officials. More on… -
Opinion: Why I hate the beverage cart
22 May 2013 | 7:51 pmResponsible for more crushed knees than MMA, it’s time to protect ourselves from the airline drinks trolley Unless they’ve signed up for a gym membership, people don’t typically pay for experiences that come with a high probability of physical trauma. That’s why it’s odd to me that when you book an aisle seat on an airplane, there’s no disclaimer mentioning there’s about a 30% chance that you’re going to get hit with a moving filing cabinet. Because, basically, that’s an accurate description of an airplane’s beverage cart (galley cart, drinks trolley, mobile foot smasher,… -
Beijing hotels: 9 fantastic new places to crash
22 May 2013 | 3:00 pmFive years after the 2008 Olympics construction boom, new Beijing hotels keep right on comingLeading up to the 2008 Olympics, Beijing went on a hotel building frenzy. Unlike in other Olympic cities, however, long after the medal winners moved on the tourists kept coming. The newest hotels to hit China's capital are seen as ambassadors of the new Beijing. The nine properties listed below have each launched in the last 18 months. Rates are based on a stay in August -- the fifth anniversary of the Olympics' opening ceremony -- and are the lowest offered by the each hotel, based on double… -
The man bringing cheese to Beijing
21 May 2013 | 7:00 pmProving you don't have to be in France for great artisanal cheese, Liu Yang is teaching the Chinese to appreciate dairyMany locals experience a shock the first time they visit Liu Yang’s shop: they’ve never seen something quite like this before. Some just pass by, merely peeking in the windows of his tiny, two room workshop. “I think some people before they come by prepare themselves psychologically,” says Yang. “Maybe they’ll come back, maybe they won’t. We won’t get disappointed because of this. Most Chinese people are not used to cheese culture.” "Most Chinese… -
Beijing shopping: The city's top 12 boutiques
20 May 2013 | 3:00 pmThe rise of China's homegrown design talent has spawned some of the coolest little shops in Asia Gone are the days when Beijing shopping meant traditional qipao garb and Louis Vuitton knockoffs. China's capital is now home to some of the most in-demand shops in the world, from European fast-fashion behemoths to Japanese couture houses. But the real draw is the sudden emergence of homegrown talents, whose designs reflect a burgeoning aesthetic unique to China. For the Beijing visitor operating with limited shopping time, here are the city’s must-see boutiques. iReport assignment: What…
