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» Wednesday Newsflash Goodies

Here’s some goodies for today, Wednesday.

• As y’all know, the big photo convention Photokina is going on in Cologne (Köln), Germany. WIth my hectic schedule right now, I can’t possibly follow up on all (I will on some stuff) new releases from home here so I’m going to link you to a sum-up of the news so far, from 1001 Noisy Cameras.
   
• It can be really hard to find good quality free fonts sometimes especially as the font databases like DaFont is getting so large. Thus, I really like the releases Smashing Magazine are doing a little now and then. They’ve gone ahead and posted some free fonts of the month over at their site. They’re really good and really useful. I’ve played around with some and I do find them super.
   
• I’ve been digging the LumniQuest Softbox III for a while on and off and been pondering if I should get one. I was really happy to see a review of it by David Hobby at the Strobist. David really knows what he is talking about so it’s really good to be able to hear what he thinks!
   
• Finally, with the CS4 announcement yesterday there were a bunch of learning centers published (I wish I would have the software to be able to create one myself, but I’m just not an adobe partnert there). If you wish to learn the new Photoshop CS4, there is no better place than from the Photoshop Guys over at NAPP, at their learning center. If you wish to learn about all the new suite, Layers Magazine has put together a great learning center online as well. Both are free!

» Monday News Quickies

So, I’ve regained my internet connection again sadly just a little too late to be posting the podcast episode (it’s late here). It’ll come online tomorrow at noonish GMT time.

• Sometimes resorting to themes when developing your websites is a good way when you have little time but need something nice and functional. The people over at Smashing Magazine are bringing us yet another quality free WordPress theme called Agregado. It’s a slick, clean and modern theme design which works best for more personal websites. Nonetheless, it’s a great asset.
   
• Since posting my list of my 10 Favorite iPhone Apps I’ve gotten some response from some of the App Developers asking about the few problems I mentioned with some of the apps. To me, that shows real caring in the app development and I’ll be doing a rundown post tomorrow about what’s happened!
   
• Tomorrow is the day of an Apple Special Event titled "Let’s Rock". The event will if we trust all rumors, unveil the new iPod generation as well as iTunes 8. The latest rumors even mention the release of iPhone software updates. In any case we will see tomorrow and you can follow a liveblog from the event over at MacWorld. It’s all starting tomorrow, September 9 at 11a.m Pacific time.

That’s the news for today. I’m still a bit jealous of everyone that could go to Photoshop World last week after seeing all cool photos and info about this years edition.

» First September News

 

Today is the beginning of the autumn with September 1st arriving. For all of you US readers, have a great extended weekend with Labor Day today, for all others like me who are in countries where this is a normal Monday, have a great Monday! Here are the news:

• Since we are coming into a new month you might want a new wallpaper calendar. You can find them at a lot of places and in the bonus podcast episode for today, I show you how to create one of your own in Photoshop! I like the ones that David duChemin releases when it comes to photography and for design — there are none better than the ones that Smashing Magazine is putting up.
   
• It’s Photoshop World week this week which is going to mean that there’ll be cool things! For those of you fortunate people that will be able to go there. Unfortunately I’m not going to be there this year either but I’ll be blogging about the goodness that is coming from there of course.
   
• There’s a cool Adobe AIR app being written right now which will when finished with testing be undoubtedly great! It’s an app that allows you to moderate your WordPress comments from your dashboard. The app is currently in closed beta stages but here’s a sneak peak.
   
• The day wouldn’t be complete without a Photography tip from the Strobist. It’s on how to use a flash creatively to light up a forest shoot.Check it out, it’ll not only show you a good technique, but also show you some great works of art.

» Normal Wednesday Newsflash

For some reason the Wednesday posts are most important to me and above everything, I try to get something in at Wednesdays, so here are the news:

• An important topic raised today by Chris Coyer over at CSS-Tricks is that you not only backup your computer but also your website. Don’t let it be enough that your host takes backups (and they should really do that or consider switching). Be sure to do backups yourself as well occasionally to protect your website the most! Go ahead and vote in the poll over at Chris’s site how you do it.
   
• I want to sincerely thank Smashing Magazine for including my Creative Suite Tips & Tricks podcast in their post today about screencasting and how to start, the tools and well how to do it. The podcast was listed among some of the greatest software podcasts out there and I’m really happy about that! It’s a great article so if you are interested, go and read it today.
   
• A new update of the RSS feed reader of the Mac, NetNewsWire has been released which fixes among other items a startup crash. Download the update for free through software update.

» Tuesday News Updates

Here’s what’s up for today:

• iPhone 2.0.2 has been released tonight and is what Apple calls a bugfix, which is pretty undescriptive. Most users seem to find it faster than before but nothing is yet said above the 3G coverage.
   
• Speaking about Apple. They’ve decided to give out another free two months of MobileMe to subscribers "for their patience during the time". In their support document you can read more about the free extension.
   
• Smashing Magazine is an amazing resource really and today they are holding that strong as well with their newest article called "7 Principles of Clean and Optimized CSS Code". Many codes fail to realize the importance of writing clean and optimized code which hopefully this article helps with.
   
• I’m cooking up on an article I’ve been meaning to write last wee. Let’s see if I can get it done this week instead *hint*. Meanwhile, have a good Tuesday and go ad check out the Creative Suite Tips and Tricks Podcast where you can learn how to create a PDF Portfolio this week.

» Wednesday Design News

There will be an interview coming today as well but here are the news:

• Antonio Lupetti has posted a blog post about ten handwritten fonts that he really likes and uses a lot. The post is complete with a little idea how you can use it, a preview of each font and where to get it. Give it a read!
   
• Microsoft is putting out a new bug fix for Office for Mac. The two updates are supposed to increase stability and performance when using the applications in the office suite. As usual it’s the safest to get the updates from the Microsoft Office site.
   
• WordPress.com has launched a brand new, cleaner design. It really does look nice and kinda combines their old look with their new in a much nicer laid out way. Kudos to the designers!
   
• The great folks over at Smashing Magazine are always releasing cool free stuff. This time around they have a great looking set of 74 grunge photoshop brushes that are available for a free download. 

» Tuesday News Things

Okay, so I totally missed out on posting the news yesterday because of much work so I thought today might be a good catching up day

• Smashing Magazine posted a good article containing the (by the author) top ten usability highs of Mac OS X. It’s well written and well backed up and I must say I agree a lot with the article and author.
   
• Don’t forget to check out Scott Kelby’s blog the Photoshop Insider tomorrow! He is going to have the guest blogger Corey Barker doing a post! Corey is a pure creative genius when it comes to drawing and doing artwork so it’s gonna be really cool to see what’s he’s writing about! Mark your calendars for tomorrow.
   
• I saw this post over at PDNPulse yesterday where they followed on reporting that the amazing footprint fireworks at the Olympics this Friday were in fact a computer animation. It’s pretty shocking for especially one reason; How should we believe all we see from the Olympics now?
   
• Today is another day to start doing some backups on your photos/media files to make sure you’re covered if something goes wrong. Do it….now!

 

» Friday Newsreel

The beauty of weekdays is that there is always so much going on that is always as fun to share!

• Earlier in the week we saw the release of Lightroom 2 and I then also told you about some great resources to learn all the new features and also posted a review of the missing FAQ book. Now the presets are rolling in. First out here are some really cool ones from the great guy Sean McCormack over at the Lightroom Blog. He’s released a collection of more than 70 graduated filters. The collection is available for only €5.00 from his site with samples there as well!
   
• More Lightroom 2 things. I’ve just finished the recording of my walkthrough and just editing it up to post it to the Creative Suite Tips & Tricks Podcast later. I’ll also be making it available here on the blog but then you have to wait until tomorrow. Podcast subscribers get the scoop first
   
• Are you blogging? Do you want to do it from a desktop application? If so you might be interested in this article from Smashing Magazine where they review 15 Desktop Blogging Tools.
   
• If you’re coming along for the Worldwide Photo Walk on August 23rd you might want to know that there have been a lot more cities added over the days, making it a 113 total at the moment! That’s some really cool numbers. I’m going to be leading the walk in Gothenburg, Sweden (the city where I live) along with my buddy Rickard Niklasson. Our walk details have been set and posted on the site now so check it out!

I think that wraps it up for today. I’ve got the video coming up later and I’ve got cool things planned for the entire next week as well (and the weekend) so see you then!

» Late Night Thursday Update

It’s long weekend here in Sweden because we are celebrating the midsummer time. It’s always fun even though it seems like we are getting the sucky and pretty common, rain! I’m not taking any days off work and blogging because I’m behind, but I will be going away for the weekend, from Saturday through Sunday, with net and computer

• Apple has announced today that the iTunes Music Store has sold a total of five billion songs over the years, which is a pretty big achievement. Many congrats to Apple on their milestone.
   
• If you are editing a lot of CSS code you might be interested in a CSS Code Editor. The guys over at Smashing Magazine have tested a few of the available ones and come up with a nice test on their website.
   
• Who doesn’t like the Adobe Exchange? You can get a lot of cool stuff for most of the Adobe CS apps on there. However, a new addition is that there is a new category available, all for Lightroom. So if you like presets etc. visit the Lightroom Exchange.

» Tuesday Web Update

 

Things are calming down a fraction today so here without much further adieu here are the Tuesday Web News!

• A little humour first coming from the NAPP Forums. A fellow users has apparently as the first in the history reached a limit of deactivations allowed on the creative suite. Apparently and according to Adobe the limit is at 21 deactivations (a pretty odd limit). So congrats on the limit reach and being the first to test that for the rest of us
   
• Although I myself use the lazy code view in Dreamweaver a lot and I recommend it to people all the time Smashing Magazine has got today a good article with 25 WYSIWYG html creators for your sites on your computer.
   
• I intended to blog about this a while ago but forgotten and didn’t have time to run a test before but I’m going to bring it up nevertheless. It’s a pretty cool photoshop plugin which allows you to export your psd file to a css ready document. Go and visit PSD2CSS.
   
• I know I keep saying this but seeing as I have some time over tomorrow I’m going to be posting up new podcast episodes, new tutorials and work on a bunch of reviews and articles as well! I’m also starting an e-book project that I intend to release sometime in the summer.

I think that is it for today though and now some good hours of sleep are awaiting me before tomorrow comes fully, Preset Day!