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What's hot on Alltop

• 
  Holy Kaw!

• 25 wackiest NYC Marathon costumes

  6 Nov 2009 | 11:01 pm

  Running 26.2 miles while sucking down polluted urban air wasn’t quite difficult enough for some jogging fools competing in the New York City Marathon last week, so a handful of creative folks decided to extend Halloween an extra day and run the race while donning costumes. Photogs spotted clowns, super heroes, Uncle Sam, nuns and even an apparently alive Michael Jackson. Lucky for you, you didn’t have to travel all the way to the Big Apple to check out all the shenanigans because Buzz Feed has collected images of the 25 best costumes at the 2009 NYC marathon. Enjoy (and feel lazy…

• Tech that refuses to die

  6 Nov 2009 | 10:26 pm

  Call them the Jason Vorhees of technology -- gadgets that just won’t die, no matter how many times you kill ‘em with a chain saw. Tech moves fast, -- remember, like 10 years ago you probably had a pager in your pocket -- but why is it that some technology seems completely resistant to kicking the bucket? From cables that remain tangled under your desk to the hipsters’ audio format of choice, vinyl, CNet highlights eight tech items that refuse to meet the Grim Reaper. Even Twitter makes a surprise entry on the list. Check out the full list, including why the sans business…

• How to change

  6 Nov 2009 | 10:09 pm

  Want to change? Then, according to Peter Bregman, just change one thing. In his case he stopped consuming large amounts of sugar. For me, it would be carbohydrates. But the article isn’t really about dieting—it’s about how to become a better business person, so read it and reap. More Lifehacks. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• Guess who is a Glamour woman of the year?

  6 Nov 2009 | 9:56 pm

  It’s going to be a long time before I post about anything in Glamour, but this is a special occasion. The magazine named Google’s Marissa Mayer as one of the women of the year for 2009. Joining her is “refuse to use Bluetooth” Maria Shriver and others. The only reason Matt Cutts didn’t win is that he’s a man—despite the concerted efforts of SEO consultants around the world to game the voting.. More, albeit less glamourous, news about Google. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• Generation Y flocking to Twitter

  6 Nov 2009 | 9:37 pm

  In 18 short months, Facebook has aged seven years. No, Zucks and crew didn’t spend too much time crisping at the tanning salon; new data from Pew says the median age for Facebook users has gone from 26 in May 2008 to 33 today. So, where have the late 20-somethings started hanging out online? Look around and you’ll find them tweeting away. In December 2008, only 20 percent of people in the 25-34 age bracket used Twitter, but now 31 percent can be found DMing and @ replying. Twitter now claims the second youngest users with a median age of 31. Only MySpace has a younger fan base at…

• 
  Mashable!

• POLL: TweetDeck Trounces Seesmic Desktop in Reader Vote

  Barb Dybwad

  6 Nov 2009 | 8:41 pm

  We’ve had a number of close calls here during our Web Faceoff series, but this wasn’t one of them. This week we pitted TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop against each other in a bar room brawl for favorite Twitter client. Now, the results are in. Whereas last week’s Windows 7 versus OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard battle was a close one, with Windows 7 going the distance to outlast the current Mac OS, this week’s showdown had a big winner. …and TweetDeck was it, with a full 71% of the vote (3294 votes) as compared to Seesmic Desktop’s 23% (1055 votes). Six percent or 260…

• iPhone Coming to Verizon in 2010 [RUMOR]

  Adam Ostrow

  6 Nov 2009 | 5:21 pm

  Many signs point to the Apple and AT&T agreement that makes the latter the exclusive carrier of the iPhone within the US coming to an end within the next year. For starters, non-exclusivity has been profitable for Apple in other parts of the world. Moreover, even AT&T’s CEO acknowledges the deal won’t last forever. And while Verizon might be all about showing off what Droid does right now, a new report suggests it could become the first carrier other than AT&T to offer iPhone on American soil, starting in the second half of 2010. According to a report obtained by Apple…

• DocVerse Puts Google Docs-Like Collaboration Inside Microsoft Office

  Ben Parr

  6 Nov 2009 | 5:20 pm

  This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. Name: DocVerse Quick Pitch: DocVerse brings the collaboration functionality of products like Google Docs to the 600 million users of Word, PowerPoint and Excel. Genius Idea: Collaboration is a key to success in any business, especially when you have a scattered team that needs to work on documents constantly. There are already a lot of options,…

• FishVille Launches on Facebook; It’s Like Underwater FarmVille

  Barb Dybwad

  6 Nov 2009 | 3:56 pm

  We were sort of surprised to discover how many of you proclaim your love for FarmVille, the social farming sim game from Zynga. We reported that the company had trademarked the name FishVille last month, and speculated that an aquatic derivative of the wildly popular social game might be in the works. And indeed it was, with FishVille launching in beta today. It’s a bit of a late contender to the aquarium games space, with Happy Aquarium, Fish World and My Fishbowl all getting a head start. Nevertheless, Zynga has enough clout in the social games space to make FishVille a quick winner…

• 5 Must-Have iPhone Apps for Wine Lovers

  Megan Berry

  6 Nov 2009 | 3:23 pm

  Megan Berry is an evangelist for Mobclix, the industry’s largest mobile ad exchange, working on social media and marketing. She also blogs at The Huffington Post and the Mobclix blog. You can follow her on Twitter as @meganberry, or through the @Mobclix handle. Unsure about mixing your iPhone with wine? Well, if you’re a true vinophile, the iPhone is an amazing device to keep you more connected to your wine. The following list of top wine apps on the iPhone will convince you that mixing the two is worth the risk of spilling some pinot noir on your phone. Like wine itself, these…

• 
  Fast Company

• BlueBeat’s Hank Risan: That’s Not the Beatles, It’s a ‘Virtual Cover Band’

  Tyler Gray

  6 Nov 2009 | 9:30 pm

  If you thought that was AC/DC, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and The Beatles you streamed for free or downloaded this week for $.25 from BlueBeat.com, it’s an understandable error. The site’s owner Hank Risan tells FastCompany his catalog of music doesn’t include tracks by the original artists, who, of course, own the publishing rights to their music (many have long resisted posting their music for sale online). His tunes aren’t technically Beatles tracks at all but, rather, "psycho-acoustic simulations" of Beatles songs performed and broadcast on BlueBeat and made available for download.

• Mon Dieu! Apple Store Coming the Louvre

  Cliff Kuang

  6 Nov 2009 | 3:30 pm

  There's a price for everything, even in the Louvre: Tomorrow, Apple will be opening up their very first Parisian Apple Store, and it'll sit in the concourse right below I.M. Pei's glass pyramid. According to Bloomberg, this'll be Apple's 277th store, worldwide. It's set to be slightly smaller than the one on Oxford Circus in London. But it's not tiny: The bilevel store will employ 150 people. You can expect the place to be mobbed. The Louvre concourse is one of the most heavily trafficked places in Paris. It links all of the wings of the Louvre, and visitors to the museum have to pass by…

• Winners Announced in the 2009 World Architecture Festival

  Cliff Kuang

  6 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm

• Streaming Video? Forget Myka or Roku and Get Windows 7

  Chris Dannen

  6 Nov 2009 | 2:45 pm

  We already know Netflix users are begging for easier ways to get streaming video to their TVs--Xbox, PS3, Roku, and Blu-ray players apparently aren't simple enough solutions. Instead, more and more people watch TV and film on their computers while fuming because they can't easily get all that content--Hulu, Netflix, Amazon--in one place. The Myka ION aims to bridge that gap as the first gizmo to stream both Hulu and Boxee to big screens (in addition to running full-fledged PC apps, which let you add other streaming services). But it's not cheap. At $379 (more if you add on a wireless card and…

• Lamp Powered by Phone Lines Is a Sneaky Way to Get Around Energy Costs

  Ariel Schwartz

  6 Nov 2009 | 2:30 pm

  Is hooking up electronics to a phone jack unethical? Maybe, but the RJ11 lamp can at least save some cash. The lamp, which features 8 LED bulbs, gets power from your phone socket instead of the grid or a USB port. It's a sneaky way to skirt around power meters, but it does siphon cash from the local telco. Still, the RJ11 does bring a new use to increasingly-abandoned landline jacks. And while the lamp may be incredibly ugly, the $4.69 product is a worthwhile science experiment at the very least. Before trying to hook up all your electronics to the phone line, think twice: the voltage that…

• 
  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.

• 
  TechCrunch

• YouTube Is Falling Apart Again

  Erick Schonfeld

  6 Nov 2009 | 9:37 pm

  The ads are destroying YouTube. At least this one is. It is a video ad for sustainable energy company from Spain called Acciona. Yeah, I had never heard of them either. The video starts with this Euro-dude in a suit starting to blow up and crack apart like he’s made from plaster. Halfway through, the actual video player crack in half, and all of the surrounding parts of the site shake and fall away, while an annoying voiceover is saying something about rebirth. I don’t know, maybe it makes more sense in Spanish. The visual effect is interesting, but feels like a gimmick since…

• Marissa Mayer Chosen As A Glamour Magazine Woman Of The Year

  Leena Rao

  6 Nov 2009 | 8:30 pm

  Google’s Vice President of Search Product and User Experience Marissa Mayer was recently profiled in a Vogue Magazine article that offered a in-depth glimpse into the exec’s lifestyle, loves, career and fashion preferences. Now, Mayer has been named as one of Glamour Magazine’s 2009 Women of the Year. Joining Mayer on the list are a variety of female powerhouses and icons including Maya Angelou, First Lady Michelle Obama, Susan Rice, Euna Lee and Laura Ling. Mayer has been frequently profiled in business and technology publications over the years, but it’s also nice to…

• The Just Because We Love You TwitterPeek Giveaway #Crunch

  Michael Arrington

  6 Nov 2009 | 6:53 pm

  If you’re a Twitter freak and think that a dedicated Twitter device is just the thing for you, read on. This week we saw the launch of the TwitterPeek, a cute little device built by Peek that will do just about anything you want it to do, as long as all you want it to do is access Twitter. It won’t surf the web. It won’t make phone calls. It won’t support third party apps. But it most certainly does run Twitter. You can get it in black. Or, if you want to show a little flair, you can get in in cyan. For some crazy reason I wanted one. A friend bought me one that I will…

• Gowalla Hops Onto Android Via The Mobile Web

  MG Siegler

  6 Nov 2009 | 6:09 pm

  Up until now, if you wanted to use the location-based service Gowalla on the go, you had to have an iPhone. Today, that expands to Android. But rather than building an app, Gowalla has extended support to Android using the mobile web. This works because Android’s browser is closely tied to the device and is able to access location information, which is vital for Gowalla. The goal is to extend this mobile web support to BlackBerry and a few other location-aware devices in the next week or so, co-founder Josh Williams tells us. As a small team, Gowalla, like its rival Foursquare,…

• textPlus 2.0 Hits The App Store For Free Texting

  Daniel Brusilovsky

  6 Nov 2009 | 5:26 pm

  textPlus, a text messaging app that’s powered by GOGII, has just hit the App Store. textPlus lets any iPhone or iPod Touch send free text messages to any cell number by using in-app advertising to cover its costs. There is no limit on how many text messages you can send per month, it’s just a matter of getting WiFi, 3G or an Edge connection. GOGII was one of the first companies that was funded by iFund, the partnership between venture capital firm KPCB and Apple, which was announced at the Apple SDK roadmap event. With version 2.0 of textPlus, GOGII is announcing the availability…

• 
  Seth Godin

• Everyone is clueless

  Seth Godin

  6 Nov 2009 | 2:29 am

  The problem with "everyone" is that in order to reach everyone or teach everyone or sell to everyone, you need to so water down what you've got you end up with almost nothing.Everyone doesn't go to the chiropractor, everyone doesn't give to charity, everyone has never been to Starbucks. Everyone, in fact, lives a decade behind the times and needs hundreds of impressions and lots of direct experience before they realize something is going on.You don't want everyone. You want the right someone.Someone who cares about what you do. Someone who will make a contribution that matters. Someone who…

• The unclicking 84%

  Seth Godin

  5 Nov 2009 | 2:36 am

  Mark points us to this great set of stats.Basically, all of the clicks for all the ads online come from only 16% of the surfers, and most of them come from just 4% of all internet users.So, if you optimize your ads for clicks, it means you're ignoring a huge population.If your business is built around the kind of person who clicks, you win. If it isn't, you either need to not buy ads online or buy ads optimized for attention and familiarity, not clicks.Imagine that only left-handed people clicked on ads (it's about the same percent). What are you going to do if you make a product for the…

• When data and decisions collide

  Seth Godin

  4 Nov 2009 | 2:54 am

  Until recently, most of the decisions we were called on to make were based on hunches, insight and a little bit of data. Occasionally, a field like direct marketing would develop into something quite data-driven ("I don't care if you like mailer one, Smythe, mailer #2 did three times, better! Number 2 it is.") but not often.It took Ignaz Semmelweis more than twenty years (he died before it happened, actually) to persuade doctors that washing their hands could save the lives of mothers giving birth. He had the data, he had the proof, but that wasn't enough to change minds.Data mining and the…

• Limited edition boxed set available today SOLD OUT!

  Seth Godin

  3 Nov 2009 | 7:41 am

  [We ended up selling more than three a minute. You guys are so cool. We had a few counter problems, but it didn't effect the number we sold...they're all gone, 800 in total, and I won't be able to sell any more. Thank you for the energy and support!]It seems as though the Apple tablet is unlikely to be ready in time for the holidays... what to get? How about a boxed (a wooden box) set of five of my books? Very limited (only 800 will be sold, ever). Sold at a discount from retail, with cool packaging, assembled by elves, delivered by Martians, blessed by enlightened goats. My goal was to make…

• Ms. In-between

  Seth Godin

  3 Nov 2009 | 2:50 am

  The either-or world continues to decay, confronted by a shifting economy and the tools of the net.It used to be easy to tell if someone was a journalist. Either you were or your weren't. So giving special privileges to journalists was easy. Parking permits, press badges, first amendment protections... no problem, you're a journalist. Everyone else? No way.It used to be easy to tell if someone was an entrepreneur. Either you had a full-time job or you ran a business. So we could treat employees the same (health insurance, no moonlighting) and assume that the few that didn't have jobs were…

• 
  New York Times

• Reporter’s Notebook: In a Child’s Company, Champions Become Gods

  By TYLER KEPNER

  6 Nov 2009 | 11:18 pm

  In the Canyon of Heroes, teenage revelers stomped and hollered, horns blared and paper fluttered everywhere in the wind at the Yankees celebratory parade.

• Dedicated, Caring, and Suddenly Lost at Home

  By LIZ ROBBINS

  6 Nov 2009 | 11:16 pm

  From towns large and small came reminiscences about some of the people gunned down at Fort Hood.

• Muslims at Fort Voice Outrage and Ask Questions

  By MICHAEL MOSS

  6 Nov 2009 | 11:14 pm

  Members of the local mosque in Killeen, Tex., say they hope good relations will prevail in the wake of the Fort Hood shootings.

• Broader Measure of Unemployment Stands at 17.5%

  By DAVID LEONHARDT

  6 Nov 2009 | 11:13 pm

  The official jobless rate excludes millions of people who have given up looking for work and part-time workers who want to be working full time.

• Chinese Agencies Struggle Over Video Game

  By MICHAEL WINES

  6 Nov 2009 | 11:11 pm

  Two government agencies are facing off over the right to regulate the popular online game World of Warcraft.

• 
  MACRUMORS

• Apple to Manufacture Verizon-Compatible iPhone in Q3 2010?

  6 Nov 2009 | 4:15 pm

  A new report from OTR Global relayed by AppleInsider indicates that Apple is planning on manufacturing new hybrid iPhones that will support both Verizon's CDMA2000 network as well as the UMTS 3G network. Only the UMTS network is supported by the cu...

• RadioShack To Sell iPhone

  6 Nov 2009 | 2:49 pm

  In a brief press release today, RadioShack announced that it will begin selling the iPhone starting with the Dallas-Fort Worth and New York City markets later this month. RadioShack plans to sell the iPhone across the U.S. in 2010."...

• Apple Retail Stores Roll Out 'Reserve and Pick Up' Purchasing for Holiday Season

  6 Nov 2009 | 11:57 am

  Apple has rolled out a new Reserve and Pick Up purchasing program for its retail stores, allowing customers to select and reserve products for later in-store purchase and pick up ahead of the holidays.With Reserve and Pick Up...

• Apple Preps Broadway Store for Opening

  6 Nov 2009 | 9:47 am

  Fortune reports that Apple has issued media invitations for a preview of the company's fourth Manhattan store scheduled to officially open in New York City's Upper West Side at Broadway and 67th Street on Saturday, November 14th.

• Updated iTunes LPs for Apple TV 3.0 Now Available

  6 Nov 2009 | 7:49 am

  Apple today began notifying purchasers of its iTunes LP offerings that updated versions compatible with the new Apple TV 3.0 software are now available for download. Apple delivered the Apple TV 3.0 software update to users last week, bringing a num...

• 
  ProBlogger Blog Tips

• Six Ways To Make More Money As An Affiliate

  Darren Rowse

  6 Nov 2009 | 5:15 am

  By Johnny B. Truant I’m going to go out on a limb and say that affiliate marketing is the easiest way to make money online. You don’t have to create a product or develop a service, you don’t need huge amounts of focused traffic the way you do with AdSense, (I started using AdSense a year ago and just recently passed the $100 minimum payout), and you don’t need to do a ton of advertising or SEO to make it work. All you really need is an audience to whom you can refer products and services. Of course, the above statement is true in the same way it’s true that you…

• The Paint By Numbers Guide To Artful Blogging

  Darren Rowse

  6 Nov 2009 | 5:15 am

  A Guest Post by Greg Hayes from Live Fit Blog. Do you subscribe to the idea that blogging is an art form? I do. Britannica Online defines art as “The use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others.” If you’re a blogger, then by definition, you most certainly engage in the following activities during the creation of content: Creative Writing Web Page Design (Aesthetics) Idea Development (Novelty) Social Media (Shared Experiences) When we start our blog, we read the A-list bloggers, and they repeat the…

• 14 Types of Stories You Can Tell On Your Blog

  Darren Rowse

  4 Nov 2009 | 6:18 am

  Yesterday we explored WHY stories can be such a powerful communication tool on your blog. Today we’ll look at 14 types of stories that you might like to try on your blog. 14 Types of stories can you tell on your blog Personal Discovery Stories – tell how you discovered a lesson. These stories show your readers how similar you are to them and also might give some practical advice on how they might learn from your experience. Stories as Analogies and Illustrations – tell a story that on the surface has nothing to do with your topic but which illustrates a principle that is relevant.

• Why Stories are an Effective Communication Tool for Your Blog

  Darren Rowse

  3 Nov 2009 | 6:18 am

  As I write this it is the first Tuesday morning of a new month and I’m sitting in a local coffee shop going through my ‘start of the month routine‘. It involves a large lattè (everything else hinges on this) and some delving into my blogs metrics to see how they’ve been performing. While I do keep track of the traffic stats of my blogs each day I like to set aside an hour or two at the start of each month to go a little deeper and do some more analysis of trends on my blogs – I find that when I do this I notice things that I can build on to continue momentum on…

• Thesis Theme for WordPress Upgrades to Version 1.6

  Darren Rowse

  2 Nov 2009 | 6:16 am

  One of my favorite WordPress themes – Thesis – has in the last week released an update with some pretty cool features. My strategy with blog design is like this. I generally aim towards a completely customized blog design that will give my blog a distinct look and brand – but before I work towards that I almost always start with a more affordable option because I like to test to see whether the blog is going to work or not. As a result I’ve always been on the look out for great themes and when Chris Pearson and Brian Clark started DIYthemes and released the Thesis…

• 
  Wired Top Stories

• The Answer Factory: Demand Media and the Fast, Disposable, and Profitable as Hell Media Model

  Daniel Roth

  6 Nov 2009 | 5:00 pm

  A fiendishly clever startup knows what we are Googling &mdash! then churns out thousands of cheap videos and articles to meet our every whim and wish.

• 2010 Superfly Will Make You Say 'My Oh My'

  Mark McClusky

  6 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

  Conventional wisdom says a mountain bike with 29-inch tires is an ungainly ride. Conventional wisdom can suck it. Meet the 2010 Superfly.

• After 5 Years on Web, Firefox Preps for Next Round

  Michael Calore

  6 Nov 2009 | 3:30 pm

  The Firefox web browser celebrates the fifth anniversary of its debut Monday. With IE humbled and Chrome on the rise, the next five years are going to look totally different than the first five.

• Replace Your MacBook's Hard Drive Yourself

  How-To Wiki

  6 Nov 2009 | 2:30 pm

  It may not seem like it, but your MacBook hard drive is no different than that of any other laptop. Replacing it without Apple's help might void your warranty, but it sure is a lot cheaper if you do it yourself.

• National Data Breach Laws Move Through Senate

  Kim Zetter

  6 Nov 2009 | 2:30 pm

  The nation is closer to a national data-breach notification law and setting security standards for handling sensitive data. After legislation aimed at the problem languishes on Capitol Hill for four years, two bills make it out of Senate committee.

• 
  Chris Brogan

• Interview with Mike Myatt

  chrisbrogan

  5 Nov 2009 | 8:46 pm

  Mike Myatt is Chief Strategy Officer of N2Growth, a business that deals with branding, coaching, leadership management and more. Mike was also kind enough to buy many copies of Trust Agents, which made me wonder: what kind of a guy buys a ton of books to help a guy out, without wanting me to go and speak at some event or something? Mike just wanted to see things go well with our launch, and for that, I’m grateful. I asked Mike some questions about his business and where he sees all this going. Here’s our interview: You help coach CEOs on leadership and related issues, and…

• How to Think Of Blog Posts

  chrisbrogan

  5 Nov 2009 | 4:26 am

  The secret to blogging every day is a blend of three things: discipline, practice, and ideas. That last part is usually what I find people asking me for help with, so let’s talk about that today. Ideas don’t just grow on trees. But, you do have to harvest ideas the way you’d pick apples. Why? Because they’re everywhere. Here are some of the ways I find ideas. How to Think of Blog Posts Answer questions. You get emails with people asking you for your thoughts on X. Write the post instead of just replying to the email. Take pictures. I see strange things out and about.

• Wiring Up Business- Two Channel Social

  chrisbrogan

  3 Nov 2009 | 10:14 pm

  Let’s imagine you’re a small or medium sized business and looking to use social software to improve communications on many fronts: support, service, marketing, etc. If you chose to use a service like Twitter, for instance, for some of this communicating, I can see the need to have a two-channel mindset: one public and customer-facing and the other private and business-facing. On the public channel, you’d talk with customers and prospects about the business, including everything from support help to promotional opportunities, to general good will. On the other channel,…

• Trust Agents- An Introduction

  chrisbrogan

  3 Nov 2009 | 7:39 am

  I can’t say thanks enough to John Spiropoulos for his great video project from my trip to Southern California to spend time with Brandtailers. These videos he made are amazing. Pay attention to the quality John put into them more than the content itself. I mean, I’m flattered and pleased, but also pay attention to how John did what he did. I think he’s top shelf. You? If you can’t see the video, click here.

• Thank You Amazon-Thank You Friends

  chrisbrogan

  3 Nov 2009 | 4:28 am

  Yesterday, Trust Agents was named a Top 10 Book by Amazon.com, thanks in great part to YOUR kindness by ordering it. In just over two months, the book has made the New York Times Bestseller’s list, the Wall Street Journal Bestseller’s list, the top 5 sellers on Audible.com, and now the Top 10 Business & Investing books of 2009, according to Amazon. I consider every one of those successes to be yours. You did all the hard work. Julien and I just typed. Thank you for what you’ve done to make the book successful, and for believing in us. For those of you who haven’t…

• 
  Photoshop Insider Blog By Scott Kelby

• Today We Celebrate: The Springs of Hope Kenya Orphanage has opened its doors!

  Scott

  6 Nov 2009 | 4:46 am

  I am absolutely thrilled to share that last night I got an email from my friend Molly Bail from Springs of Hope, Kenya, to let me know that today they’re welcoming the first children to the Orphanage that you, the readers of this blog, helped to build. Your contributions literally helped finish the roof on this orphanage earlier this year, and then later you helped buy the beds, furniture, and kitchen appliances, and now today there are homeless children that are homeless no more because of your gracious generosity. I am incredibly thrilled, and humbled at what you all have done in…

• I might have to order one of these

  Scott

  6 Nov 2009 | 4:36 am

  I ran across a site with this clever t-shirt this weekend, and thought you guys would get a kick out of it. You can order yours right here. Have a great weekend! -Scott

• Thursday News Stuffage

  Scott

  4 Nov 2009 | 10:15 pm

  Hi gang. First, I want to thank Tyler Stableford for a tremendously inspiring post yesterday. His post is really what it’s all about. When I met Tyler at Photo Plus Expo, I knew I had met a great photographer, but as he’s demonstrated through this actions, he’s much more than that, and I’m even more impressed. If you didn’t watch his video yesterday, please take a moment to watch it right now. It’s incredibly powerful, and you’ll be glad you did. Cool new iPhone App for Adobe Freaks (like me) My buddy Terry White has just released his own iPhone App (you knew it was only a…

• It’s “Guest Blog Wednesday” featuring Tyler Stableford!

  Brad

  3 Nov 2009 | 8:01 pm

  Hi all, It’s a real honor to be writing today, and I want to thank Scott and Brad for the bandwidth. I’d like to share a behind-the-scenes story about the most exciting project of my career. I’m an adventure photographer in Aspen, Colorado. When I first picked up a camera 15 years ago, I was tickled at the idea of being paid to rock climb, ski and travel. I certainly didn’t get into photography to “make a difference.” Indeed, from a cynical bent, you could say that I shoot leisure sports — images of rich white people overindulging in the outdoors. Last winter, however, I…

• Tuesday Catch-up

  Scott

  2 Nov 2009 | 9:23 pm

  Hi Folks, and greetings from 37,000 feet, somewhere over Pennsylvania (courtesy of Delta’s new in-flight ‘go-go” wi-fi Internet service). I’m totally beat, so I’m gonna keep this one short and sweet (that way, I can take a nap before I have to change planes for the 2nd leg back home). Philly rocked! First, thanks to everybody (nearly 600 of you), who came out to my Philadelphia seminar yesterday. What a great group to present to! It’s been years since I’ve been to Philly, but I’ll make sure it’s much shorter before my next visit! Adobe has…

• 
  Macworld

• Speedmark 6: Macworld Lab's new benchmark suite

  6 Nov 2009 | 2:01 pm

  The Macworld Lab has been hard at work tweaking Speedmark, our overall system performance testing tool, to better accommodate Snow Leopard and to test the Macs on which it runs.

• Bugs & Fixes: Magic Mouse loses its way

  6 Nov 2009 | 1:05 pm

  A pair of irritating symptoms have made Ted Landau's experience with Apple's latest mouse less than magical.

• xGestures updated for Snow Leopard

  6 Nov 2009 | 12:52 pm

  xGestures is a program that allows mouse movements to trigger menu items, keystrokes, and AppleScripts; it's recently been updated to work with Snow Leopard.

• Review: SketchBook Mobile for iPhone

  6 Nov 2009 | 12:31 pm

  Autodesk's app is one of the better painting and drawing apps on the iPhone. It's the rare app that appeals to both novices and professionals.

• AT&T profiles specific cities in bid for coverage

  6 Nov 2009 | 11:46 am

  AT&T's CTO said the carrier is improving coverage using specific calling models for each city, and moving toward IPv6.

• 
  Lifehacker

• From the Tips Box: Multiple Dropbox Accounts, Twitter Notes, and Cloud Billing [From The Tips Box]

  Whitson Gordon

  6 Nov 2009 | 5:00 pm

  Readers offer their best tips for running multiple instances of Dropbox at once, using Twitter to jot down notes and ideas for yourself, and using Google Docs to manage money between friends. Don't like the gallery layout? Click here to view everything on one page. About the Tips Box: Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips in our inbox, but for various reasons—maybe they're a bit too niche, maybe we couldn't find a good way to present it, or maybe we just couldn't fit it in—the tip didn't make the front page. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our…

• This Week's Most Popular Posts [Highlights]

  Adam Pash

  6 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

  This week we showed you how to really browse without leaving a trace, rounded up a handful of media-center-boosting apps, uncorked a bottle of wine with nothing but a shoe, and oh so much more. How to Really Browse Without Leaving a Trace Think that your browser's private mode keeps your browsing completely private? Not so! More often than not, you're still leaving traces of your browsing session behind, and today we'll tell you how to get rid of them for truly private browsing. Top 10 Apps that Boost Your Media Center Streaming video, digital DVD backups, DVR recording—it's all…

• Make a Hand Truck Out of a Shopping Cart [Weekend Project]

  Whitson Gordon

  6 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm

  So you need to move some large, heavy stuff, but you don't want to throw out your back? Instead of renting or paying two hundred dollars for your own moving dolly, DIY web site Instructables details how to make your own. The project requires an old shopping cart and some pretty heavy-duty tools (and the project does require some welding), but it shouldn't take you more than an hour or two, and you'll have saved quite a bundle on a dolly. The guide is pretty detailed and takes it step-by-step, so it shouldn't be remarkably difficult either—in fact, the hardest part is probably finding a…

• Keep Dishonest Landlords at Bay with Your Camera [Apartments]

  Sarah Rae Trover

  6 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pm

  Even if your landlord seems happy-go-lucky upon moving in, there's always a chance they won't be so nice when you move out. Keep all parties accountable and in check for a hassle-free lease with a little help from your camera. Photo by Lara604 As much as we'd like to say every landlord out there has a heart of gold, the truth is, economic times are tough. Even if you have left your last rental sparkling clean, there's rarely any proof as to what it looked like before you moved in unless you create your own. Landlords have been known to claim things are in need of repair, paint, or cleaning…

• Boxee to Launch Beta Early Next Month with Loads of New Features [Media Center]

  Adam Pash

  6 Nov 2009 | 1:30 pm

  Boxee has taken the media center world by storm in the last year, which is why it's always a surprise when we're reminded that it's still only an alpha release. Until December 7th, that is, when Boxee is rolling out an official beta release, in which you can expect a new interface, better navigation, search functionality for TV shows and movies, improved shortcuts, and more. Boxee has tackled online video like none other, and it's a great choice if you're looking to drop your cable bill for good, so we're excited to see what's coming around the corner. [Boxee Blog]

• 
  Copyblogger

• The Oscar the Grouch Guide to Building a More Remarkable Blog

  Sonia Simone

  6 Nov 2009 | 7:33 am

  This week marked the 40th anniversary of the breakthrough TV program Sesame Street. I’ve written before about some of the many lessons you can learn from this cultural icon, but today I’m going to zero in something new. You might have an Elmo blog, a Cookie Monster blog, or a Big Bird blog. (How you define those is up to you.) But some of the smartest and most successful bloggers out there bear more in common with the show’s least-likeable character: Oscar the Grouch. Oscar was an important character from the show’s beginning, and on the surface he doesn’t seem to quite fit in.

• Here’s Something to Think (and Talk) About

  Brian Clark

  5 Nov 2009 | 6:55 am

  I’m flying to New York City today for the Audience Conference, so I thought I’d share a quotation about the relationship between writers (or any content creator) and the people they hope to connect with. When talented people write badly it’s generally for one of two reasons: Either they’re blinded by an idea they feel compelled to prove or they’re driven by an emotion they must express. When talented people write well, it is generally for this reason: They’re moved by a desire to touch the audience. ~Robert McKee Let’s discuss. What do McKee’s words mean to you? About the…

• Get Off Your Computer and Become a Better Blogger

  James Chartrand

  4 Nov 2009 | 6:45 am

  Bloggers spend a lot of time on their computers. They’re posting, reading, commenting on other blogs, sending Tweets, checking half a dozen social networking sites, and generally being web-geeky. They find something interesting or random, and then clue in other people to that interesting or random thing. This is how blog posts gain steam on Digg or go viral. This is how we find out about new YouTube videos. This is how we communicate now. Except we don’t. We were people before we were bloggers Think about the blogs that you like the most. Like, to pick a totally random example,…

• The Quentin Tarantino Guide to Creating Killer Content

  Sean Platt

  3 Nov 2009 | 5:58 am

  In a recent Copyblogger post discussing how the king of content is being slowly usurped by the Crown Prince of Context, author Larry Brooks referenced the remarkable opening scene of Quentin Tarantino’s new movie Inglourious Basterds. There are few writers like Tarantino, and though his verbal carpet bombs and kinetic escalation of violence aren’t for everyone, there is no doubt that the dude follows his muse. Those who love him will eagerly wait in lines wrapped around the block to show their support. In short, Tarantino sells it every time. And by it, I mean an ironclad belief in…

• How to Get Lucky With Content Marketing

  Traci Feit Love

  2 Nov 2009 | 7:36 am

  Do you feel like you’re fighting for every page view your blog receives? Do you wonder why you’re struggling to find readers when other bloggers seem to just hit “publish” and the world comes running? It may be tempting to throw up your hands and say, “those other guys have all the luck,” but it won’t get you anywhere. The truth is, those “lucky” people are doing something you’re not doing. (Or they’re doing what you are doing, but better.) If you want to get lucky, you’re going to have to give up the “poor…

• 
  Entrepreneur.com

• Cash Shy? Try Bootstrapping

  4 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

  Try these tips for building a successful business with little capital.

• The Irony of the Safe Bet

  4 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

  Michael Kahan became a successful entrepreneur after walking away from a 10-year career on Wall Street.

• Offers in Compromise

  3 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

  If you're in dire straights, there may be help for you yet.

• Save Money by Renegotiating Your Lease

  2 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

  Carefully consider the economic benefits to reach a win-win agreement.

• 10 Reasons to Upgrade to Windows 7

  2 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

  A host of significant upgrades makes Microsoft's newest operating system well worth the wait for any small business.

• 
  ReadWriteWeb

• Straw Man Argument About Enterprise 2.0 Doesn't Fly

  6 Nov 2009 | 2:05 pm

  Dennis Howlett got the attention of the Enterprise 2.0 community today, with his continued skepticism about "social" technologies and their place in the business world. Here's a quote from his post entitled Enterprise 2.0 - the non-debate: "Why am I not surprised? I've argued for years that the notion of anything that has 'social' attached to its moniker is about as welcome as breaking wind in a spacesuit." Sponsor While Howlett makes a few good points in his post, we think that he's making a straw man argument - that the Enterprise 2.0 community is somehow involved in a big lie. The reality…

• Clicker: A One-Stop Shop For Online Video (1000 Invites)

  6 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm

  Finding specific online videos from TV networks and independent producers can often be a daunting challenge. Some TV shows are on Hulu, some can only be found as paid downloads on iTunes or Amazon and some are only available for streaming on the network's and producer's own sites. Clicker wants to change this by making it easier to find shows from TV networks, music videos, and web videos from across the Internet. Clicker is currently in private beta and only available in the US. The company gave us 1000 invites for our readers. Read on to find out how you can get yours. Sponsor Clicker…

• Layar Tells CNN: Augmented Reality Will Be Second Only to Voice On Phones

  6 Nov 2009 | 12:17 pm

  When you've got a global audience, maybe it's good to make sweeping, ambitious statements. Maarten Lens-Fitzgerald, co-founder of Augmented Reality browser company Layar, was interviewed by CNN today and took the opportunity to claim that AR on phones is going to be so big in the future that only voice will be more popular. Maybe. Many people in the Augmented Reality world are rolling their eyes at Layar's incredible media exposure. They worry that relatively simple implementations of this technology paradigm will create such a bubble of hype that software developed over decades will suffer…

• Remixing Via iPhone: 5 Tools for the Pocket DJ

  6 Nov 2009 | 11:00 am

  In 1906 John Philip Sousa criticized the gramophone saying, "These talking machines will ruin the artistic development of music in this country." Nevertheless, because Sousa did not forsee user-generated culture proliferating alongside "mechanical music" he could not have been further from the truth. Not only have machine technologies aided in musical development, but there are a variety of mediums to choose from. While audio engineers may scoff at the idea of making music on the iPhone, there's no denying that a number of options exist for the pocket DJ. Below are a few tools to get you…

• Seesmic Web Gets Lists and Geolocation

  6 Nov 2009 | 8:49 am

  Seesmic just announced the launch of Twitter lists in its browser-based Seesmic Web Twitter client. Earlier this week, Seesmic released the first desktop Twitter client with support for lists. Despite Seesmic's best efforts, Brizzly managed to become the first company to release a web client with support for lists earlier today. Seesmic Web offers another first for web-based Twitter clients, however: support for Twitter's geolocation API. Sponsor Lists With Auto-Updates In Seesmic's web interface, users can now simply hover their cursor over profile pictures and a menu will appear. This menu,…

• 
  Strobist

• Shedding Light on the Gender Gap

  4 Nov 2009 | 7:20 pm

  UPDATE: I figured there would be some comments on this one. But still, I had no idea. Kinda like turning on the comment firehose.Thanks much for all of the helpful feedback, and to those asking, I got the 94% number from multiple polls.__________I am getting ready to hop on a plane to Mexico, where I will be teaching for Santa Fe Workshops next week. So if emails go unanswered, or comments are a little slow to moderate, thanks for your patience.Interesting fact: My SFW class, whom I have already met via email, is 75% female. This is interesting only in that the readership of this site is…

• This Finn O'Hara Shoot Probably will not Fit in the Conference Room.

  3 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

  [UPDATE]: Just talked to Finn on the phone, and the original video -- with the final images included -- had to be pulled as per the client's request. Turns out they have backed up the run date a little. Oh, and Finn was not expecting 10k views when he put it up on Vimeo, either. But he swapped it for the one below, which does not include final images. So, those of you who saw the finals, please forget you ever did. Just puuuurge it from your minds...Also, Finn answered a couple of Q's from the comments. First, no Zamboni because of all of the wires. It just was not practical. Nor were other…

• Ray Flash vs. Orbis vs. AlienBees ABR800 Review, Pt. 2

  1 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

  Last week, we looked at the Orbis and Ray Flash, which pretty much compete head-to-head in the ring flash adapter arena.This week, we take a closer look at the AlienBees ABR800. Although it is a ringlight with a self-contained studio monobloc flash, it is priced in the neighbor of the other two units -- especially when you consider a standalone flash is not needed to make it work.__________The AlienBees ABR-800For the sake of (relative) brevity, I am going to assume you have already read both last week's post and seen the comparison video at SportsShooter. (Again, they talk about the "Zeus"…

• Brain Food: Three New Offerings

  28 Oct 2009 | 9:25 pm

  Over the last two weeks, three new educational items of interest have popped up on the radar. There are new video tutorials from Dave Honl and JoeyL, and John Harrington has evolved his Best Business Practices book into a magnum opus, 500+ page second edition. More on all three, and which ones may or may not be for you, inside.__________Best Biz 2.0Harrington's new edition of his book is far more than your typical update. He basically recast the book to reflect the changing landscape of the business of photography. Also included is a first-person walk-thru of a full I.R.S. audit.That's right,…

• A Filthy Language Primer, Courtesy Chase Jarvis

  27 Oct 2009 | 8:48 am

  At first glance, this appears merely to be a very cool behind-the-scenes look at the high-speed flash shooting Chase did last month in New Zealand. Lotsa high-tech flash talk, impossible sequences, killer pics -- yadda, yadda, yadda.But the real takeaway here is of the etymological variety.To wit, the adjective "sick." Which, of course, means "good." (Back in my day we went with the much less confusing "bad" when we meant "good.")But what if something is really sick. As in, sicker than sick? That calls for the word, "filthy." And if it is filthier than filthy, then of course you'll want to go…

• 
  dpreview.com

• Just posted: Our Canon EOS 7D review

  6 Nov 2009 | 8:59 am

• Adobe releases Photoshop.com app for Android

  6 Nov 2009 | 8:39 am

• Rebates and Discounts round-up for the holiday season

  6 Nov 2009 | 2:26 am

• Sony updates firmware for A380, A330 and A230 DSLRs

  5 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

• Olympus announces two Micro Four Thirds lenses

  5 Nov 2009 | 7:48 am

• 
  The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

• The week in TUAW

  Victor Agreda, Jr.

  6 Nov 2009 | 9:33 pm

  Filed under: Video, TUAW Business Need a Mac or iPhone developer? TUAW job boards are here! Notice anything new at TUAW? We've had our job boards up for a week now, making sure all the tape would stick when new jobs were posted, and I'm proud to say that the doors are wide open for job... TUAW Video: a tour of Freeverse Welcome to the first of what we hope will be many, many TUAW Videos to come. We've done lots of video on TUAW, from Macworld Expo coverage to WWDC interviews to fart apps and more. This time we're... Hands-on with the Magic Mouse Well, I got my Magic Mouse a few days ago, and…

• Rumor: Smaller iPhone on tap for Verizon in Q3 2010?

  Steven Sande

  6 Nov 2009 | 9:30 pm

  Filed under: Rumors, Wireless, Apple, iPhone If you're tired of dropped calls and dead zones, and pondering the merits of turning in your iPhone for a DROID... hold on there, champ. AppleInsider says it's received a copy of a report by OTR Global, claiming that Apple has signed contracts to produce a UMTS / CDMA hybrid iPhone to be released in the third quarter of 2010. The hybrid handset, built around a dual-system chip from Qualcomm, would allow the iPhone to run on virtually any GSM/UTMS cellular network worldwide -- and also on the CDMA2000 networks of US carriers like Verizon and Sprint.

• Squarespace hosting/CMS service launches iPhone app

  Dave Caolo

  6 Nov 2009 | 5:00 pm

  Filed under: Software, Blogging, Internet Tools, iPhone, App StoreAfter a long wait, Squarespace customers finally have an iPhone app of their own. Squarespace is a hosted blogging/CMS service that competes with the likes of WordPress.com and Typepad. Having used all three, I can say that interacting with Squarespace (posting, changing your site's look and feel, etc.) is unlike the others. Instead of a separate control panel/dashboard, Squarespace previews changes in real time on the same screen. It's really nice. The iPhone app [iTunes link] seems to be an extension of its browser-based…

• CoPilot Live for iPhone updates features and maps

  Mel Martin

  6 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

  Filed under: Software, iPhoneWe're seeing a lot of updates to navigation applications, and the latest is for the CoPilot Live app [iTunes link] for the iPhone. As promised, the company has updated the map data to fix mistakes or omissions that were reported by users. The latest update also adds iPod controls within the app, which many users were requesting. The update fixes a reported address search issue, improves GPS reception and makes some improvements to the user interface. The previous version of the U.S. $34.99 app added text to speech and a better method of text entry. As we've…

• Tons of software on sale thanks to One Finger Discount

  Victor Agreda, Jr.

  6 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm

  Filed under: Software, Deals How does a 20% discount sound? How about 20% off software from over 30 developers? This list has been growing since One Finger Discount started this week and continues to grow as developers jump on board with a pretty darn good deal if you're in the market for any one of these awesome applications. They run the gamut from productivity to games to blogging software. Kudos to Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater Software for putting these deals together on one page, somewhat cheekily as a response to MacHeist, it would seem. The One Finger? Well, that comes from 1/5, 20%…

• 
  Smashing Magazine

• The Beauty of London in Design

  Dan Redding

  6 Nov 2009 | 10:03 am

    “There is no specific London style.” At least that’s what the ‘Super Contemporary’ show at London’s Design Museum proclaims. During an exploration of London’s art and design scene in September 2009, what did emerge was a city with a unique sense of its own personality and history, a fertile hub of international thinkers, and a community working towards a future that is designed to be interactive, environmentally responsible, and prosperous.Here is a look at the visual personality of London, based on visits to the city’s major art museums, attendance at…

• Invoice Like A Pro: Examples and Best Practices

  Kat Neville

  5 Nov 2009 | 12:25 pm

    Your invoice should be prim and proper, so that you can get paid by your clients efficiently. While invoicing is not a fun task, it’s a necessary one: by keeping clients informed of your expectations, you will get paid punctually and reinforce your professionalism. After going over some best practices for creating invoices, we’ll review some great (and not so great) online invoicing tools, so that you can spend less time creating invoices and more time doing the things you love!So here are some general guidelines, best practices and examples that will help you make…

• Website Maintenance Tips for Front-End Developers

  Louis Lazaris

  4 Nov 2009 | 12:23 pm

    One of the biggest advantages of online media over print is the ability to change, update, and enhance online media at virtually anytime, with virtually no negative side effects. In fact, if a website or web application does not continually offer its users an ever-evolving and growing experience, that site or application would soon become insecure, unusable, and out of date.Have you beautified your code, validated your markup, and made your XHTML more semantic? Have you implemented basic SEO best practices, spell-checked content, and removed legacy code? Have you ensured…

• 50 Beautiful and Creative Blog Designs

  Julia May

  3 Nov 2009 | 1:23 pm

     The most recent collection of creative blog designs was featured here on Smashing Magazine back in July. Only three months have passed and we’ve got a new dose of inspiration for you. Beautiful and sophisticated designs are constantly appearing on the Web; creative activity is in non-stop mode, despite global economic shocks and unfortunate events; and this is surely a positive sign.Today, we showcase 50 fresh, beautiful, inventive and, hopefully, inspiring blog designs. The variety of styles represented in this collection is considerable, so everyone will be able to find a…

• The Ails Of Typographic Anti-Aliasing

  Thomas Giannattasio

  2 Nov 2009 | 3:12 pm

    As printed typography enjoys the fruits of high-DPI glory, proudly displaying its beautiful curves and subtleties, its on-screen counterpart remains stifled by bulky pixels, living in a world of jagged edges, distorted letterforms and trimmed serifs. Until display manufacturers produce affordable 200 or 300 PPI monitors, we’ll have to rely on software advances to fix these problems.Enter anti-aliasing: the next best thing to a world of higher-resolution monitors. The concept of anti-aliasing is fairly simple: add semi-transparent pixels along the edges of letterforms to…

• 
  Joe McNally's Blog

• 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…

• Kelby Tours, DC Stop

  Joe McNally

  27 Oct 2009 | 4:53 am

  As I always say, what could go wrong? 5 hours of live lighting in front of 950 people. Thankfully they were very gracious, easy going people, who were an enormous source of support and good will all day long. Very cool. Day started with Drew, Will and I on the loading docks at 6am getting a boatload of gear up into the Wash. DC Convention Center. Ah, the glamorous life of a shooter. At that point, it’s just a matter of racing the clock to get ready for the doors opening at 9. Both Drew and Will worked incredibly hard, going full blast with only 3 hours sleep. We started simple. Basic…

• Flash Seance Held in Remote Part of Michigan

  Joe McNally

  22 Oct 2009 | 9:10 pm

  DLWS Michigan. It was raining. Hard. So we didn’t get to go to a lighthouse, one of my favorite things. Stayed indoors, and pooled our flashes. Group A, B, and C. Total, 25. I personally think it had nothing to do with technology, it had to do with this charismatic group of photo folks levitating the light out of their SB units. Great DLWS, even though it was held in the middle of nowhere. Though someone corrected me today, quite defintively, telling me that it was not the middle of nowhere, but that Traverse City was the biggest city in the lower portion of the Upper Peninsula of…

• 
  Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips

• Tip – Rotating Identity Plates in Slideshow

  jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)

  6 Nov 2009 | 7:56 am

  Your tip for today falls victim to one of those little things that I never knew about before and found out about the hard way. It has to do with the Slideshow module. You know how you can put an Identity Plate on your slideshow right? You can also put other various text overlays that show some metadata about your photo (which is exactly what people really want to see when they're watching a beautiful slideshow by the way) :-) Anyway, I ran into some one who showed me their computer and the fact that their ID Plate was rotated 90°. Naturally, I'm used to working with the ID Plate in the Print…

• A Few More Dates for David Ziser’s Tour

  jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)

  6 Nov 2009 | 7:56 am

  Hey folks. I've mentioned David Ziser's Digital Wakeup Call tour before and I just wanted to let you know there's a few more dates left. Of course you'll learn lots of stuff about shooting weddings but David is also a master at Lightroom and he's got some great things to share when it comes to the production end of things. Here's his website and here's a write-up I did a while back after attending his seminar. If you have the chance to go, its definitely worth it. Bookmark It

• What’s a Lightroom “Snapshot”

  jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)

  5 Nov 2009 | 6:41 am

  During a recent workshop I had some one ask what a Snapshot was (its a panel on the left side in the Develop module). Then everyone else kinda chimed in with a "yeah what the heck is that?". They don't get used a lot, but I think they definitely do come in useful at times. Basically, a snapshot is a freeze-frame of your photo at that moment in time. It's a way to save all of your develop settings at a certain point in case you ever wanted to revert back to them. So let's say you're working on a photo. You're pretty happy with the way the photo looks but you want to try a couple of other…

• Presets – Lightroom 3 Grain

  jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)

  2 Nov 2009 | 6:44 am

  A couple of weeks ago, Adobe released a beta version of Lightroom 3. Among the new features is a grain effect that people have been asking for to simulate film grain. So I figured what better candidate for a new preset then some grain effects. They're pretty straightforward and there's 3 versions of the effect from Light, to Medium to Heavy. I purposely left off any black and white, lomo, or cross-process settings (which is the type of photo we see this effect being added to) because I figure you'll apply those settings to your photo first and then add some grain at the end. Also, before you…

• Tip – An Unexpected Lightroom 3 Sharpening Tip

  jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)

  29 Oct 2009 | 10:01 pm

  Over the last couple of months, I've had the opportunity to test drive the Lightroom 3 Beta before it came out. I spent a pretty decent amount of time kicking the tires but there's one little feature/tip that I didn't find out until this week. Before the Lightroom 3 Beta, when sharpening you had to be zoomed into 100% to see the effects of the sharpening. If you weren't you wouldn't see any change. But now in the Lightroom 3 Beta you can see your sharpening even at the lowest zoom level. Cool huh? Have a great weekend! Bookmark It

• 
  MacRumors iPhone Blog

• MacRumors: Apple to Manufacture Verizon-Compatible iPhone in Q3 2010?

  6 Nov 2009 | 4:15 pm

  A new report from OTR Global relayed by AppleInsider indicates that Apple is planning on manufacturing new hybrid iPhones that will support both Verizon's CDMA2000 network as well as the UMTS 3G network. Only the UMTS network is supported by the cu...

• MacRumors: RadioShack To Sell iPhone

  6 Nov 2009 | 2:49 pm

  In a brief press release today, RadioShack announced that it will begin selling the iPhone starting with the Dallas-Fort Worth and New York City markets later this month. RadioShack plans to sell the iPhone across the U.S. in 2010."...

• Why an RFID-enabled iPhone?

  5 Nov 2009 | 4:11 pm

  Multiple reports have come in that Apple is researching RFID integration into the iPhone, but some may still be wondering what such functionality would bring to the table for consumers. Firstly, we should note that RFID is a catch-all ...

• MacRumors: Apple Experimenting With RFID-Enabled iPhone Prototypes?

  5 Nov 2009 | 12:54 pm

  Near Field Communications World reports (via 9 to 5 Mac) that Apple is rumored to be testing a prototype of its next-generation iPhone equipped with a radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip. The rumor comes from a "highly reliable source" who pr...

• Page 2: Apple Considering Launching 8 GB iPhone 3GS Before Christmas?

  5 Nov 2009 | 9:57 am

  Boy Genius Report posts a brief tidbit noting that it has heard from two separate sources that AT&T (and thus Apple) is considering launching a $99 iPhone 3GS in time for Christmas.We've heard now from two sources that AT&T, and we g...

• 
  Digital Photography School

• Zoo Photography

  Darren Rowse

  6 Nov 2009 | 12:01 pm

  Photo michah I recently took a trip to my cities zoo to do a test on a camera that I was reviewing and thought I’d share a few tips that I put into practice along the way. Zoos are great locations to practice photography as they present us both with a great variety of subjects (both animals and the people watching them) but also with some real challenges. Some of the things you’ll need to overcome in getting great shots at a zoo include: Distance – the space between photographer and animal Moving Subjects – animals rarely stay in the one place for long Tricky Lighting…

• PETS: Weekend Photography Challenge

  Darren Rowse

  6 Nov 2009 | 6:36 am

  Image by Buntekuh As a follow up to our Dogs Image Collection earlier in the week I thought it might be fun to run a weekend photography challenge that revolves around our pets. This might exclude a few people that don’t have a pet (although perhaps you can be a little creative and photograph your pet rock, a sock puppet…. or a neighbour’s pet) but I’m sure enough DPS readers have a pet to make it a fun project. So grab your camera over the weekend and take a few pet shots. If you’re looking for some tips on the topic check out our how to photograph pets…

• Do You Print Your Digital Images? POLL

  Darren Rowse

  5 Nov 2009 | 12:41 pm

  Time for another poll – do you print your digital images? If so, approximately how many of them? Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. In comments below it might also be interesting to hear HOW you print them – ie do you get them done at a lab, do you print them at home on a printer etc? Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips. Do You Print Your Digital Images? POLL

• How to Create Your Own Textures

  Guest Contributor

  5 Nov 2009 | 6:05 am

  Here at DPS, we’ve already covered how to use textures in your photos to give them a completely different look and feel, but now it’s time to get inspired and create your own textures – all around your house. Finding Textures I typically shoot landscape photography.  And when I’m shooting a landscape, I’m looking at the big picture – where the horizon is, where the sun is at, the reflection on the water – everything.  However, textures aren’t about the big picture, though, they’re about the detail.  And we’re not always used to…

• The Type of Photography Our Readers Do…. [POLL RESULTS]

  Darren Rowse

  4 Nov 2009 | 12:51 pm

  Last month we asked DPS readers about the types of photography that they do. We chose 9 categories based upon a previous survey (we could have added a lot more but had to draw the line somewhere) and gave readers the opportunity to choose multiple categories for each type of photography that they do. There have been 23,345 people respond so far and here are the results. The white number is the number of responses for each category and the %’s are the total percentage of people who’ve chosen the category. Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips. The Type of…

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  The Luminous Landscape - What's New

• 6 November, 2009 - xrite ColorChecker Passport Review

  6 Nov 2009 | 3:29 am

  Adobe's raw processing programs; Camera Raw in Photoshop, and Lightroom 2 as well as Lightroom 3 Beta, all now allow users to create their own camera profiles using the free DNG Profile Editor. This program came out in the summer of 2008 and was reviewed here at the time. Now xrite has introduced the ColorChecker Passport, a simple and inexpensive device and accompanying software, that allows us to create custom camera profiles quickly and easily in the field for any light conditions. My review is now online. ____________________ There are still two seats available for An Introduction to…

• 3 November, 2009 - Mac / Photoshop / Epson Profiling Problems Solved

  2 Nov 2009 | 12:45 pm

  If you have a Mac running Snow Leopard, run Photoshop CS4, and use the latest Epson printer drivers, you may have a problem creating proper printer profiles. In fact, it may be impossible to do so. This problem has been driving people nuts for many weeks, and the Net is full of complaints, finger pointing, and half-baked solutions. Last week Mark Dubovoy encountered the problem, and being a very fussy fine art printer as well as a scientist by profession, he set out to find the source of the problem and also a solution if possible. He polled a wide number of the industry's top printing and…

• 2 November, 2009 - Canon S90 Field Report

  1 Nov 2009 | 11:58 am

  Panasonic knocked one out of the park last year with the Lumix LX3. This camera combined small size, raw capability, a fast high-quality zoom lens, and fine image quality, all in a shirt pocket sized package. Now Canon has issued its challenger in the form of the Powershot S90. This is the smallest and lightest pocket camera yet with a zoom lens and that shoots raw, and it's a worthy competitor. The S90 uses the same sensor and processing engine as the new G11, all in a much smaller and more convenient size. What's not to like? Find out in my just published S90 Field Report. UPDATE: It…

• 31 October, 2009 - LL Holiday Gift Store Now Open - 25% Off All Products

  31 Oct 2009 | 9:05 am

  25% OFF The holiday season is about to begin and that brings the question of – what gift to buy for photographer friends, wherever in the world they may live? We have the answer – a multi-hour download video from The Luminous Landscape. These range in price from $15 to $50 at our regular prices, and most are available in SD as well as HD formats. We have four major tutorials available – From Camera to Print, Raw Processing in Photoshop, Guide to Lightroom 2, and Guide to Digital Asset Management. There are also Issues 17 & 18 HD editions of The Luminous Landscape Video…

• 30 October, 2009 - Backup and Data Integrity for Photographers

  30 Oct 2009 | 4:02 am

  Our worst nightmare as photographers has got to be losing our image files. The question is not if a hard drive will fail – only when. But, what's the best backup strategy? In an exclusive article, Geoff Baehr, previously the CTO of Networking for Sun Microsystems, offers some suggestions. ____________________ UPDATE RED has finally made a new announcement, with both good news and bad news. The Epic-X will appear slowly over the next few months, with priority going to existing RED One owners. The Scarlet seems to have been further delayed, with more information apparently coming a month…

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  Planet Photoshop

• More Fun with 3D

  Corey Barker

  6 Nov 2009 | 1:32 pm

  Continue exploring the possibilities with Photoshop's new 3D tools.

• Adding Keywords to Multiple files

  Web Editor

  6 Nov 2009 | 6:15 am

  In Bridge, you can add keywords to images to make searching for pictures a little less cumbersome. You don’t, however, want the process to become tedious as well. By either Command-clicking (PC: Ctrl-clicking) or Shift-clicking on images, you can select multiple files inside Bridge. Once you have the files selected, you can go to the [...]

• Workspaces for Bridge? Sure!

  Web Editor

  5 Nov 2009 | 6:15 am

  This may seem like a “Duh!” tip, but it’s often overlooked. Remember that the appearance of Bridge CS3 can be customized in a variety of different ways. You can keep the layout of your favorite panels by saving them as a workspace. To do so, choose Window>Workspace>Save Workspace.

• Creating Favorites in Bridge

  Web Editor

  4 Nov 2009 | 6:15 am

  Sometimes navigating to whatever folder you have specific images in can be cumbersome. Save yourself some time and create favorites out of your most-used folders. To do that, Control-click (PC: Right-click) on the folder and select Add to Favorites from the contextual menu. The next time that you need to find that image, you can [...]

• Grouping and Stacking in Bridge

  Web Editor

  3 Nov 2009 | 6:15 am

  If you have multiple shots of the same subject and would like to be able to group them, image stacks are a good idea. Either Shift-click or Command-click (PC: Ctrl-click) on the images that you would like to group and press Command-G (PC: Ctrl-G). This will create a stack of the images. You can expand [...]