Archive for March, 2010

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YouTube rolls out new look!

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

Today YouTube will be unveiling it’s new look to users all over the world. The transition should be complete by 7pm this evening. What are the differences, you may ask?

Leaner and less cluttered: the “subscribe” button is displayed more prominently, video info has been relocated from the right sidebar to underneath the video and the ratings starts have been replaced by a thumbs up or thumbs down rating.

Navigation has been simplified: the YouTube masthead has been significantly pared down and the search bar has been made a larger part of the page. Additionally, the search results will act more like a playlist and videos will play continuously one after another. This was done, no doubt, to keep users on the page, especially considering YouTube is the most popular search engine second only to Google.

Mobile interfaces will also change in the upcoming days and weeks. To read more on this topic, click here.

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Personal Patterns off the Runway

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
Designing Patterns

Project Runway pattern design

Spoiler Alert.

I hope everyone already caught last week’s episode of Project Runway, and if not, you should run and watch it now. On the latest show, the designers were put to the challenge of creating their own signature fabric prints to incorporate into a finished look, representative of their personal aesthetic. The designers had one whole hour (I’d like to see what they could have come up with in more time) to draw out their prints on a HP All-in-One desktop PC. Some were hideous (Check out Mila’s rainbow mess), and others were a success with the judges (check out Emilo Sosa’s graffiti styled brand pattern). After creating the patterns on the computer, they were then printed digitally onto fabric. The idea of printing my own fabric made me green with envy. I’m a nut for interior design, so getting to further personalize my home using my own graphic design prowess excites the banana’s out of me. Unfortunately, the task seemed way out of reach.

As luck would have it, I wondered across this gem of a web site that let’s you upload your artwork and purchase your very own fabric masterpiece. Best part is, that it won’t break the bank and there is no minimum! I think it’s time to start getting creative. Need help creating your own patterns? Check out this post on creating seamless patterns in illustrator.

FYI, (for those in the know) I hope I never have to hear “T.G.” used as a nickname ever again. You’re killing me Mila.

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Paper Art

Monday, March 29th, 2010

When I was young I loved origami. My favorite thing to do was make a cube. I was really into making paper airplanes, too. I still like using paper as a medium and have used it to create simple dioramas for my Pinewood Derby cars.  >ahem-nerd alert-ahem<

Anyway, while looking for some inspiration today I ran across this site showing off people taking paper art to the next level. Prepare to be inspired…not only by these few images but the artists’ websites as well. Each image is a link.

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Accessing the Chumby Accelerometer

Friday, March 26th, 2010

Chumby Accelerometer
Let’s take a look at the Chumby accelerometer. It’s the thing inside Chumby that tells it if it’s looking up or down, sideways, or up-side-down. It also detects sudden changes in acceleration. It’s basically an electronic inner ear. So if you shake Chumby, knock him on the side of the head, or drop him on the floor, the accelerometer will detect this and report how hard and in what direction the jolt happened. Disclaimer: I do not recommend or endorse violent behavior to Chumby, including hitting, shaking, throwing, or dropping.

If you’re familiar with Actionscript, you know that it’s pretty easy to find the position of the mouse cursor on the stage. Well, it’s also easy to get data from the accelerometer. The trick, however, is making use of it. Let’s take a look.
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Like magic!

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

Adobe just announced it will launch Creative Suite 5 on April 12, 2010. I’ve been checking out some of the new features for Photoshop that Adobe has released via sneak peek videos. I’m definitely excited to check out the new content aware fills, the videos posted by Adobe make the tool look like magic. I’ll be interested to see how it works in the real world. The new improved warp tool and the changes to the selection tool for better edge detection are really exciting as well. I also noticed what seems like a minor change to the preferences in one of the Just Do It Days videos that I’m really looking forward to. It allows you to check a box that will set the “save as” default location as the location where the file is currently saved. I have always wondered why this wasn’t an option.

Here are some videos to check out the new features:

Content-Aware Fill Sneak Peek

Content-Aware Spot Healing Sneak Peek

Selections and Masking Sneak Peek

Painting Sneak Peek

Painting and Warp Tool Sneak Peek

Just Do It Sneak Peek 1

Just Do It Sneak Peek 2

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Latest and greatest iPhone apps…

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

In my “research” over the last week, I’ve found a couple new iPhone apps that really caught my eye. Go forth and download!

Line2: In an effort to compete with and improve upon Google Voice, Line2 adds a second line to your phone, making it easier to separate personal and business call. Google Voice allows calls to be routed to multiple phones, but leaves the deciding of whether it’s business or personal up to the receiver. This particular app is also compatible with Android phones but is fairly pricey ($0.99 for a 30 day trial, then $14.95 per month after that). Click here to read more and watch the video tutorial.

Digg: The much anticipated app for Digg (social news website that allows users to submit, or “Digg”, any piece of content on the Web and then the most “Dugg” pieces appear on the front page of the site) was unveiled yesterday in the UK. Until now, there has been no native app for Digg, but only an iPhone optimized mobile site. The exact US release date is not known yet, but here is an inside peek at what the interface will look like:

Fisher Price Apps: Fisher Price has released three new apps aimed specifically at 2-4 year olds. They are “Chatter Telephone”, “See n’ Say”, and “Little People Farm”. Personally, I’m not sold on the idea of toddlers toting iPhones, but I suppose there are some instances that would require a child to be occupied by an app for 10 minutes or so (see: doctor’s office waiting room).

So, there you have it: the latest, greatest iPhone apps (for this week, at least). Enjoy!

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Haiku 4 U

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

Small green shoots come forth
fully aroused by warming
promises fulfilled
-=June=-

Spring Poppies by - Susan Hazard

Oh, those clever Japanese! Breaking down a complex subject into just 17 moras (syllables in English) – Perhaps an early marketing technique we can credit them for. Similar to, but perhaps more prosaic than:

Strong enough for a Man,
but made for a woman. – Dial Soap

We make money the old fashioned way,
we earrrrrrn it. – Smith Barney

Plop, plop; fizz, fizz;
oh, what a relief it is. – Alka Seltzer

When it absolutely, positively
has to be there overnight. – Federal Express

We’re number two,
we try harder. – Avis Rental Cars

Advertising Slogans,
the Haiku of the Marketing World. – JK

The first three responders with a structurally correct Haiku will receive something lovely from my kitchen.

Happy Spring!
Mrs. Knightly

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More Fun With Flash

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

The Flash plugin is required to view this object.

Here’s a little thing that I wrote a while ago while learning the Flash particle system.  It just makes little light blurbs generate from your mouse pointer.  It’s pretty neat, and if you don’t know how to generate particle effects in Action Script 3, the code might help you out.  Check it out if you want to.

If you find it helpful or fun, let me know in the comments.  Thanks for reading!  Code when you click through…



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Boxes, paint and a clean slate

Friday, March 19th, 2010

I just moved last weekend, so I’ve been unpacking, setting up, getting organized and all that good stuff. But more importantly I’ve been obsessing about what rooms to paint, what colors I’ll choose, how I’ll decorate, what art I’ll create for the walls, whether I’ll do a wall paper wall, what color to refinish the chairs I found at a thrift store…. the list goes on. I can’t think of anything more exciting than a clean slate! So, I thought I’d share my tentative color palette and some inspiration. I’ve already covered the living room and dining room with Equestrian Gray and am loving it. Yellow Hibiscus is an accent color for those rooms and I’m thinking the chairs will be refinished in this lovely, bright, bordering-on-green yellow. The blue and green are contenders for the kitchen and bathroom. I’m still in the concepting phase but this is a design project I’m excited to see come together. I’ll share some actual photos once I move into the implementation phase.

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Google TV?

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

Google, Intel and Sony are collaborating on a new platform currently called “Google TV”. This would likely lead to the development of set-top boxes and integrated hardware in future consumer screens to utilize the platform. Content focus would be to merge social applications, digital television, and local digital files. Additionally, the current plan is to base the platform on the Android operating system, allowing developers to quickly produce another set of open source applications for users of Google TV.

How does this measure up? A win for Sony, being a leader in entertainment technology. Intel is getting involved because the technology will be run on their Atom chips. And Google? They want to be able to leverage their advertising to take over consumer eyes sitting on their couch at home.

Personally, I believe they should drop the “TV” moniker to use a more relevant current name, like “Google Screen”. Some people might get the idea that it is specific to television, and wouldn’t provide a complete media service.

This may be another set-top box, similar to Boxee’s beautiful set-top they recently released. Apple TV? Assume this will be far superior. Time to start developing Android apps which will run on your home theater system? Yes, please.

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