Home       Tutorials       Quick-Tips       Reviews       About       Contact       Podcast       Register

» Friday News Goodies

Some news goodies from today to get us in the weekend spirit as always

• Over at his blog, John Nack has posted about coming Photoshop UI updates that will mainly affect us Mac users, giving us a choice to use an application frame, meaning all panels etc. will be covered in one window instead of being stuck to the sides of the screen. Luckily they are going to make it an option to use it or not which is definitely good.
   
• If you are thinking about purchasing a Mac Pro from Apple you should watch out so you don’t happen to order a lot of video cards thinking that you are ordering a higher speed. Terry White had a post on his blog about this and you should give it a read to be aware of what you are ordering.
   
• Coming up this coming week, starting on Monday is the Apple WWDC (World Wide Developer Conference) 2008! What we are all expecting is of course a 3G iPhone and a new .Mac service as well as the hidden goodies that they usually manage to come out with. I’m for one looking forward to see what they come up with. It’s a bummer though that I can’t be following the keynote through live posts, I have a end of the year ball to attend that evening, so I’ll recap all afterwards.
   
• Some weekend fun as well and it’s time to get Simpsonized again. Visit the SimpsonizeMe website to get all yellow according to your wish and then you can go and compile your family in Photoshop

» Swedish National Day

Just need to make a national shoutout to all other sweeds because it’s out national day today, June 6th. If anyone is interested on why we celebrate it, go search on Wikipedia :D 

» My top 5 list of WordPress Plugins

There are quite a few plugins that this site couldn’t live without and that I’m really glad exist. I’m going to share my top list of WordPress plugins, big or small doesn’t matter here so even if they do just one little thing, it might be a thing that I really like and makes running the site much easier.

cformsII
This is really one of these big and glorious plugins that does make your life easier as well. cforms is the plugin powering the contact form on the site and it is really a truly amazing free plugin. It lets you manage the forms you need (how many you need) and with ease style them and insert more complex features.

All in One SEO Pack
This plugin is the reciept for google sucess. I’m really serious. If you have a WordPress blog and you want more control over description and keywords on your post, this one is for you.

StatPress
The master of statistics on your blog I really say this is. StatPress collects visitor information including all the detailed fun stuff you’d want to see as well as the simple visitor and referrer stats. Just choose the way you want to view it, StatPress collects it all for you in any case!

Plugin Central
This is a really different but cool plugin. It lets you quickly and easily install plugins from your dashboard without needing to download files to your computer and upload through FTP. It’s a really fast way to install new plugins. I just wish it had the ability to remove them also if needed.

Dean’s FCKEditor for WordPress
This plugin replaces the default WordPress editor with the lot more advanced FCK Editor! It works like a charm and makes posting a lot more feature rich.

 

» My Favorite Software and Gadgets

Like everyone else I have a lot of software and gadgets that I use daily and really like as well and I get a lot of questions about what I use for different things. Here is a list over my favorite software and gadgets for their specific purposes.

 

Software Graphics: Adobe Creative Suite Design Premium Screen Recording: ScreenFlow Word Processing: Microsoft Word Mail: Apple Mail Music: iTunes Calendar: iCal Project Time Management: Billings Passwords: 1Password Alarm Clock: Awaken Presentations: Apple Keynote FTP: Flow Chatting: MSN & iChat Business Phone: Skype with SkypeIn Web Browser: Safari & Firefox Backup: Time Machine

Gadgets Cellphone: (Soon) iPhone MP3 Player: iPod Video 30gb Gaming Console: X-Box (I’m no gamer) Home Phones: Siemens Gigaset Excerise: Nike + Webcam: iSight (built-in) Presentation Remote: Apple Remote   Services Podcast: Libsyn Web Hosting: XLD Studios Music Download: iTunes VoIP: Skype Stock: iStockPhoto

Photography Gear Cameras Nikon D50 Olympus C-5060 Nikon Coolpix 4600 Lenses Sigma 10-20mm ƒ/4-5.6 DC HSM Nikkor 18-55mm ƒ/3,5-5,6G ED Sigma 70-300mm ƒ/4-5,6 APO DG Flash Nikon Speedlight SB-600 Filters Cokin P121 GND Cokin P154 ND8 Hoya Polarizer Hoya UV’s Bags Lowepro MiniTrekker II AW Lowepro Slingshot 200 AW Lowepro Nova 1 AW Tripod Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod Manfrotto 486RC2 Ballhead Accessories Omnibounce Cokin P Holder Cokin 52mm Adapter Ring Cokin 77mm Adapter Ring

Hardware Computer: MacBook 2Ghz, 2gb RAM, 250gb HDD External Screen: Eizo FlexScan S2201W & Samsung SyncMaster 913N Printer: HP Laserjet 1320 & Epson Stylus Photo R265 Headset: Plantronics .Audio 400 DSP Tablet: Wacom Bamboo Mouse: Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer for Bluetooth Keyboard: Apple Keyboard (old version) Scanner: Epson Perfection 1670 External Hardrives: 250gb External LaCie Porsche HDD USB 2.0 & 80gb External USB (from old internal)

 

» I’m a ScreenFlow convert!

I got turned on to this new screen recording software called ScreenFlow a week ago or so by Terry White and I must really say I already love it! At first glimpse it sounded like a little more than what I wanted but it’s really cut the production work in half. Sure what I too loved with iShowU was that I didn’t need to export the recordings and that they were created on the fly, but I still always exported them for either my podcast or for the web so it didn’t really make a difference. What’s more, every time I needed to record a podcast, I would record it, import the media files into iMovie and then export it all. That takes some time and that itself is worth the money that ScreenFlow costs.

The cool effects like the ability to add callouts, video actions and more to the video as well as record yourself through a webcam, while you are recording is very sleek and I just love those features. The main interface is pretty easy to use and it takes much less time now to produce my podcast episodes, time I can spend on other things.

^{(Click to Enlarge)}

As seen above, the ScreenFlow interface also features multiple tracks and effects so you can create pretty elaborate videos, without really knowing a lot about video editing. At the end it is just to export it which doesn’t take all too long, and then just post it up on the web!

You can probably already tell that I like ScreenFlow and think it is a wonderful application and I’m typing up a review of it to go online today in the reviews section, which will be a little more in-depth than this post here is.

Before I leave you to have a nice Sunday, I really do recommend this application if you are doing any screen recording that needs you to either export or do a little editing or both in the same time. I have a little wishlist for the app, mainly for the audio effects (things like an EQ and other audio editing controls would be nice) but I’ll take that in the review!

• ScreenFlow Website

 

» Hot Friday News

I really must call today "Hot Friday" because here, that’s exactly what it is with warm temperatures here. The news and goodies for today are pretty hot for themselves as well so there is no sparing on the hotness

• if you are in the Philadelphia area in the US and you are interested in Photoshop and the Creative Suite  don’t miss out that Matt Kloskowski is coming to the Philadelphia Downtown Marriot on June 3rd with some other cool presenters in a free seminar about the Creative Suite 3. You can view the seminar page for more details and to sign up!
   
• Recent rumours suggest that Apple might be renaming and revamping its .Mac service. If they did it would really be a welcome upgrade since honestly the service isn’t that much to be excited about, at the moment.
   
• If you are looking at starting a photography portfolio website now at the start of the summer and want a unique website with unique design check out the portfolio package from XLD Studios. We have also a special discount code that’ll grant you 15% off the package, just enter the code "BM0806" when you are signing up. The offer is valid through June 30th! (If you are not looking at that level of uniqueness, just wait a couple of days for an exciting package from them )
   
• Some users of Adobe products are reporting file corruption when working on network stored files and blames it on the latest 10.5.3 update to Leopard on the Mac. (PC users are not having the problems). Adobe blames the corruption solely on Apple and the updates they did in 10.4.6.

» Wednesday News Stuff

One would think it would be very hard to exceed the happy news from yesterday with the cool CS4 betas and the news that the iPhone is coming here to Sweden. There are however some pretty cool stuff running today as well!

• Backing up is really important to do and yesterday Scott Kelby posted his backup stratergy on his blog which is really a good one. Last Friday he had another post about backing up and the importance of doing do (sharing a nightmare story) and I call today another backup Wednesday because it is really important!
   
• About a week ago the talented artist James Quantz Jr. redesigned his site to make it much cleaner and simpler (and more stylish) to us viewers. I really think it turned out rather nicely and I think you should all go and look at his new site if not just to sit a while in awe to look at his work!
   
• If you’ve been paying attention to this site a bit recently you’ll have noticed a little change in the sidebar and overall width of the site. I’ve expended the width so I could fit a larger sidebar with two columns instead of extending the old one to be even longer. With it I also added some new sidebar content such as a twitter summary of my twitter page and a brand new poll and countdown. Some minor new cool things
   
• If you are trying to download trials from Adobe’s website you’ll be greeted with a not so nice statement that they are unavailable. Over at InDesignSecrets you can read what you can do and why this is happening.

» Busy busy Friday!

 I’m extremely busy today. I’m helping at my organ teacher’s exam-concert tomorrow by hand-pedaling the organ along with another one. It’s really fun but it causes me to have limited time over so I’ll post more on Sunday again when all is over, however I hope all will be a success!

I just want to mention in passing also though that I received an order with business cards, post-it’s and a stamp from VistaPrint and for XLD Studios. I’m really happy with the turnout considering the price paid. A full review will come soon.

» Wednesday Stuff

 

Third time a go this time then? I’ve been trying to post this post three times now and all times I’ve accidentally quit the window in one way or another, causing this one to close and loose all writing.So lets try one more time now then.

• Scott Kelby has turned his recent "No-Blog Wednesday" into "Guest-Blog Wednesday" and about time as well, we were definitely missing something on Wednesdays (nah, just kidding Scott, you deserve your break). Anyway, this first week it is Vincent Versace who is doing the blogging with an article about "how to take better photos".
   
• The Orphan Works Act are coming closer to a vote all the time now and I’m getting an article written on its basics and possibly getting that up this week so keep your eyes on the site.
   
• I came across a cool flash component called 3D Wall. It basically lets you create a 3D Wall with photos as a slideshow in flash. All in all it is a pretty cool thing I must say and very simple to do. It’s available for $99 from their website.

» It is Tuesday-day!

Well today is indeed Tuesday and adding some corny titles to it, we end up with Tuesday-day, the day which really is Tuesday. Just arrived home after being at the doctors taking a blood test to find out if I’m allergic or not, unfortunately I bleed easily so the nurse had to try twice, once in each arm because the first vain broke. Anyway I’m all good and now I just need to wait for the results and just take the pills when I get symptoms. Anyway, that’s enough about me and onto the news!

• Firstly, I’m taking a minute to wish one of my best friends a very happy birthday!! You know who you are and have the best birthday possible!
   
• Yesterday I released a brand new starting episode of the Creative Suite Tips and Tricks Podcast. It’s great to be back and you can view the InDesign tutorial on the podcast site. Also released are two new tutorials here on the site, Create HDR Photos Part 1 & Part 2.
   
• If you are a user of iWorks and specifically Pages you probably want to check out the list of templates for Pages from Jumsoft. They are available from there for only $29 and are of great quality. They also have other templates for other applications.
   
• Trying to get a job? Just got a job and want to make sure you handle it? Over at A List Apart today they’ve posted an article today called Why Did you Hire me?. It gives you some tips on what you do when you just get a job with negotiations etc. Give it a read!