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» Thursday News

• First off today I want to get the attention of everyone who is thinking about mailing in a Canon rebate check! Canon USA has some important news about sending them in as the company they and many others hire to do the processing of the rebate, mail-in checks apparently has gone bankrupt.
   
• I get a lot of questions on where to start when building your own WordPress theme so today I’m turning everyone who are asking that and linking you to a great guide made by Nick La over at Web Designer Wall where he goes through from the ground up how a WordPress theme works and how to get started on the coding.
   
• Apple in the days released an update to fix the trackpad in the MacBook that many have had major problems with. You can download the new fix from Software Update.
   
• On the lines of Apple and their latest laptops, tech guru, Terry White has posted his review of the new MacBook Pro. Go and read it right here.

Check back here tomorrow for some more goodies and until then, have a great day!
 

 

» Adobe releases Configurator 1.0!

 

Adobe has just released the first prerelease version of the Adobe Configurator 1.0 that will allow you to customize your panels in Photoshop CS4 as you want! It’s all a simple drag and drop interface and it’s well worth a check. It’s a download from the Adobe Labs which does meant that it is a prerelease version, nonetheless it is very stable as it is released.

To learn the deal about Configurator, view this introduction video made by John Nack, then go to download it.

» Pixel Bender in Photoshop CS4

 

Yesterday Adobe released the new Pixel Bender plugin for Photoshop CS4 is now available (for free) at the Adobe Labs for download. The main thing about Pixel Bender is that it uses the GPU to make rendering of special filter effects, really fast as well as opens up the world of filter development to practically everyone. Furthermore, Pixel Bender is available for Flash 10 as well as After Effects CS4 and the cool things is that the filters people write for Flash, will be compatible with Photoshop CS4 directly.

Once people have started writing filters, you will be able to download a lot of cool filters at the Adobe Exchange. To install extra bundles, just drop the downloaded file into the Pixel Bender Files folder (any PBK or PBG Pixel Bender will will work) you will create upon installation and you’re done. Then just go to Filters > Pixel Bender > Pixel Bender Gallery, chose the filter and start working!

Pixel Bender has a lot of cool things in it for Photoshop filters and could partly be a reason why we haven’t been seeing a lot of new filter related things now in CS4 at all. Enter this new, free, product that allows you to do it all!

» It’s the Monday News Update!

• Apple has released Safari 3.2, available now through Software Update. News in 3.2 is better protection from phishing websites and includes the latest security updates.
   
• One guy over at the Macrumours forums has apparently got the new four finger gestures working on the old MacBook Air by applying just some .kext edits. If you try it out, make sure you have backed your computer safely.
   
• Over at Gomedia Zine there was an article today with tips on how to avoid getting designer’s block. Any designer will know how miserable and frustrating it is and a lot of good advice in there that I definitely will try myself!
   
• Antonio Lupetti posted an article on his blog yesterday about the sematic approaches in naming classes and code when coding CSS. Semantical coding is, while it may not be the most important, a very important subject.

» End of the week 46 updates

What has been.

Last week had perhaps a little lack in the blogging and I really hope to be able to catch up a bit again this week. Last week had some pretty large things in it for me, including a flute concert yesterday that did go really well. As we are approaching the holiday seasons it means extra work in all places for me. More and more design work to do, more tutorials I want to get out there and there are certainly a lot more news being released that I want to blog about. As if that weren’t enough, teachers don’t give you a break with tests either.

What’s coming up!

For the coming week, I have a few goodies lined up, including not just one but two product reviews. The first being of Scott Kelby’s Digital Photography Book Volume 2 that I finally decided to check out. My second review will be coming later this week and will be of a laptop bag that I got delivered late last week. It’s called the Brenthaven ProLite III bag and so far, I’m liking it a lot but I do really need a bit more time with it to give a good review.

I’m planning to write up a tutorial or two during this week as well as things are smoothing out in my planning and I’m trying to make room for all that I need to do and create a good, better and new planning scheme for myself!

To end today.

On that note, I believe that was recapping what happened over last week and if anything, this weekend has allowed me some relaxing but some good working hours to get some projects moving and some finished. Look forward to a great coming week as we are approaching the holiday season really quickly.

Speaking of the holiday season, check out my Holiday Gadget Gift Guide that I released last week for some major hints on what you could wish for or get for others in a lot of price classes. The great thing with the guide, and the sole purpose why I am doing it, is to recommend the stuff that I actually use and like and not just things I think "looks good". I get asked this quite a lot so for the third year in a row, I’m doing my gift guide and if I may say so myself, it’s looking very cool this year.