• 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 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.

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!

• 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.

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.

There’s been a lot going on for me the past days with dentist appointments and some other school related things. Now however it’s clearing up a bit and I’m soon gonig to get a good weekends rest, after a very tiresome week. Here are some late Thursday news!

• Pixelmator has updated their application to version 1.3, codenamed Tempo. New in this release are a lot of backend upgrades making it all a lot smoother as well as some tool upgrades. Read it all in their blog.
   
• The first article and tutorial about WordPress and theme developing on Web Designer Wall has been posted. Go and check out the article for some great tips to start.
   
• Panic has updated Coda to version 1.6. Major news in this version is a new plug-in system that makes it simple to extend Coda quite a bit. The upgrade is free to current license holders.

I’m just about to call it a day here but wanted to get this in before. See you all tomorrow!

Adobe has today released all of the CS4 trial versions and they are all available on the Adobe downloads site. For all of you who have been waiting for this, it’s a finally thing with them here. It’s worth to note that the trials available for download also include localized versions for download so it’s not only the English trials available.

• Download Adobe trials

• I came across a really brilliant artwork the other day titled "What Photoshop would look like in real life" that I just had to share. They’ve basically built up a Photoshop interface using cardboard, paint, boxes etc. It’s super cool!
   
• Sigma has announced that they are buying the sensor company Foveon. This will basically mean that they have a tighter grip over the sensors they use in their cameras. Foveon will physically remain where they are in Silicon Valley which will also give Sigma some really high-tech real estate.
   
• A new version of Parallels Desktop has been released. The release is a big fix, fixing some bugs with guest user accounts and more and brings the version number to 3.0.5626. You can download it from the site for free if you are a current license holder. For new users the application costs $79.99.
   
• The popular media player, VLC has also gotten a bit of an upgrade to version 0.9.6. The specifics in the release are also security fixes that has been around for a few versions. They are also taking out the support for versions 0.8.6 or earlier. Use at your own risk, or upgrade.

It’s time once again for my annual Holiday Gadget Gift Guide. This year like the two before I’ve included some top gadgets that I really like into a gift guide that you could use either as an inspiration for what you wish for or as an inspiration of what to give someone.

The guide is divided into different sections themed by a special group of people in mind, like Photographers and Gadget Geeks for example.

You can download it as usual for free right here on the site.

Download Holiday Gadget Gift Guide

Interactive Preview

Drag a corner to flip the page.

It’s raining heavily outside, it’s cold and it is dark. I definitely do not want to get up and go outside today but I have to nonetheless. Here are some news for today:

• Photodex, makers of the ProShow Gold slideshow program, has announced a plugin for Lightroom that will let you quickly export photos into ProShow Gold or Producer to make slideshows. With ProShow Gold being a PC only program so is the plugin.
   
• A report from SquareTrade says that it’s two times more common that a Blackberry breaks during the first year than an iPhone. Despite all the reports of unhappy iPhone customers (don’t you always hear the unhappy more?) the iPhone, according to the report, is the smartphone with the lowest malfunction rate.
   
• Terry White has posted the new CS4 wallpaper and screensaver (both Mac and PC available) on his blog. Sadly not as nice as the CS3 ones they still are worth to check out!
   
• Finally, Nick La over at the Web Designer Wall posted today and let us know that he’s beginning a complete wordpress theme guide. He is going to update the post with links to each tutorial as he is publishing them.

Finally, check out my own annual Holiday Gadget Gift guide coming in an hour or two, or click the sidebar banner on the site to download it beforehand!