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Adobe Photoshop CS4 – Some of my favourite features

Adobe have now shipped their new CS4 suites, I installed my copy of Web Premium CS4 suite which includes Dreamweaver CS4, Flash CS4, Illustrator CS4, Photoshop CS4 and Fireworks CS4. There’s some excellent new features amongst all of these apps and I’m really enjoying using Photoshop, there are a lot of new features but there’s three in particular that I really like and will be useful in my every day use of Photoshop CS4:

Pixel Grid

Photoshop CS4’s pixel grid makes working at the pixel level of detail much easier by putting a white grid outline around each pixel once beyond a certain zoom level. It can be switched off if you don’t like it but it’s a handy feature when doing user interface work where you need to make pixel accurate selections.

Smooth panning

Photoshop CS4’s smooth panning makes moving around when zoomed in much simpler. If you’re used to using an iPhone or iPod Touch then this sort of flicking movement will be familiar.

Content Aware Scaling

Photoshop CS4’s Content Aware scaling is pretty impressive stuff! You can basically resize an image and it detects the areas in between main features such as face or figures and only scales the areas in between. Great for landscape shots or even resizing user interface elements like capsule buttons etc.

There are a lot more features to Photoshop CS4 that make it worthwhile, you can see a quick overview on the CS4 Top Features page.

There are also trial versions for a lot of the apps available on the Adobe downloads page.

Also, if you want to show some love for my blog you can also purchase the CS4 apps by clicking on the CS4 ads featured on this site or by clicking this link to the Adobe Store! ;)

~Rick

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Dropbox drops out of private beta: Linux client, iPhone web interface, pricing plans

I wrote an overview of Dropbox back in April when I first managed to get an invite to the private beta. Ever since then it’s been a permanent install on my laptop and my desktop machines due to it’s simple yet powerful functionality.

Dropbox launches to the public!

The good news is that it’s finally out of private beta and anyone can sign up to try it out, you can download it and / or watch the demo video at www.getdropbox.com. It’s still in beta but at least now you can register to try it without needing to be invited first.

Linux geeks get some love

As promised Linux users now have a version of the dropbox client too. This makes Dropbox a truly cross-platform backup system, so regardless of whether you are Mac, PC or Linux then you can make use of Dropbox. As ever with Linux you’ll need to check out whether it will work with your preferred Linux distro but Ubuntu and Fedora 9 are supported with users of Gentoo, OpenSUSE and Debian managing to get it running. Full info is available from the Linux Dropbox download page.

iPhone optimised web interface

There’s also an iPhone optimised web interface available if you access it via your iPhone or iPod Touch. It’s a nice little addition that makes taking a look at your file storage whilst out and about even easier.

Dropbox pricing announced

The Dropbox blog gives some indication of how much they will charge once they finally go live with a paid-for service. As you’d expect from the people who’ve made backup via Amazon’s S3 storage infrastructure incredibly easy to use there’s going to be very simple but attractive pricing. A 50GB Dropbox will cost $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year. Sounds like a great deal to me!

Update:

Randsinrepose has a great post that sums up why Dropbox is awesome, "Dumbing down the cloud".

Show Suburbia some Dropbox love by following this link to sign up at www.getdropbox.com – I’ll get a bit of extra storage space and so will you!

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Top ten useful Quick Look plugins for Mac OSX 10.5

One of the best new features that OSX 10.5 Leopard introduced was Quick Look. As the name suggests it lets you take a ‘quick look’ at the contents of a file without having to open up the actual software application.

Quick Look supports plugins so third-party developers can create Quick Look plugins of their own to give access to many other file formats. I’ve found Quick Look to be such an intuitive tool to use as well as incredibly time saving due to not having to wait for Microsoft Word open up just to check the contents of a Word document. A great boost for productivity!

Here, in no particular order, are 10 of the most useful Quick Look plugins that I’ve found. Please note, some of these require payment for full use:

BetterZip

Allows you to preview ZIP, TAR, GZip, BZip2, ARJ, LZH, ISO, CHM, CAB, CPIO, RAR, 7-Zip, DEB, RPM, StuffIt’s SIT, DiskDoubler, BinHex, and MacBinary files.

→ http://macitbetter.com/BetterZipQL-1.0

HD Quick Look

HD Quick Look lets you view the first frame of your AVCHD files. You can also view multiple files as a slide show, as an index sheet or full screen.

This is a really handy plugin for those working with AVCHD video and a perfect companion to Shedworx excellent VoltaicHD application for converting AVCHD footage!

→ http://www.shedworx.com/

Suspicious Package

It allows you to preview the contents of a standard Apple installer package without launching the Installer. Great for checking for any unwanted additional bits of software that sometimes companies like to add!

→ http://www.mothersruin.com/software/SuspiciousPackage/download.html

AppleScript

Gives a preview of AppleScript files.

→ http://www.kainjow.com/?p=77

FLV

Allows you to view Flash video files, please note that it requires installation of the Perian Quicktime plugin to make it work.

→ http://homepage.mac.com/xdd/software/flv/

EPS

Allows you to view EPS files.

→ http://www.eternalstorms.at/utilities/epsqlplg/index.html

Folder View

Allows you to see the contents of a folder.

→ http://homepage.mac.com/xdd/software/folder/

ColorXML

Enables display of XML files with indentation and XML syntax coloring.

→ http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/26194/colorxml-quicklook

SneakPeek Pro

Allows you to preview Illustrator, InDesign and EPS documents in the Finder, dialog boxes and other applications. SneakPeek Pro also allows you to see fonts, images and colors used in many CS3 documents.

It works with Illustrator files even if not saved with PDF compatibility. $19.95 but worth every cent if you’re a frequent Illustrator or InDesign user!

→ http://www.code-line.com/software/sneakpeekpro.html

GLColorCode

Adds enhanced source code colouring for various programming languages such as PHP, Actionscript, Objective-C etc.

→ http://code.google.com/p/qlcolorcode/

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Adobe unveil Creative Suite 4 on 23/09, AIR for Linux, Flash Player 10 Release candidate

Adobe will be unveiling the next version of their Creative Suite software on the 23rd of September. This will be done via a special web broadcast, you can sign up for email notification via the following webpage – http://adobe.istreamplanet.com.

Details of any new features have not been revealed but Adobe did release public beta versions of Dreamweaver CS4, Fireworks CS4 and Soundbooth on the Adobe Labs website a few months ago.

Adobe AIR for Linux beta released on Adobe Labs

Support for the Linux operating system has been increasing from Adobe with continual improvements to the Linux version of the Flash Player plugin. Now Adobe have fulfilled their promise of full cross-platform support for their AIR runtime with the release of Adobe AIR for Linux beta.

Flash Player 10 release candidate on Adobe Labs

A new release candidate of Flash Player 10 was released on Adobe Labs. If you haven’t already checked it out then there’s quite a few new features such as 3D Effects, a new text engine, enhanced drawing API, GPU support and enhanced sound APIs to name a few.

Once you’ve downloaded it then go an check out the Feature demonstrations page to get a taste of these new features.

One thing to keep in mind though, if you a frequently upload images and video to sites such as Flickr, Vimeo and even Adobe’s own Photoshop Express web apps then you’ll want to avoid this version of the Flash Player just now as there’s still a ‘bug’ which affects the uploaders for these sites. It seems to be a hotly debated issue just now but it appears that Flash Player 10 stops these kinds of image uploaders from working due to a new security restriction. You can catch some of the discussion on this Flash Player thread.

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Singularity Conference gets ‘head’ed off at the pass

If you’re a web developer / designer or into the web in anyway then you’re going to want to check out the <head> web conference that takes place October 24-26, 2008. <head> is a bit different than your regular conference, The conference website describes it like so:

The premise for <head> is simple: instead of making you come to the web conference, let’s make the web conference come to you.

<head> is a web conference with all of the traditional elements. We have live speakers, presentations, question and answer sections, and networking opportunities. The twist is that the conference takes place everywhere – all over the world – and at real-world gatherings called local conference hubs.

And we use the Internet to tie it all together.

Now, you might be thinking “That sounds cool, but wasn’t someone already running a conference like that?”. If you were thinking that then don’t worry, you’re not going daft! <head> is actually the new name for the conference. The conference was formerly known as Singularity but due to an objection from a company that holds a trademark for the word Singularity relating to conferences the lead organiser, Aral Balkan, had no choice but to change the name!

Anyway, go over and check out the website to find out more about the conference. There’s an early bird ticket price of just $99 if you book soon!

Update 22 Aug 2017: The above is an old post and the conference is past now.

http://www.headconf.org

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A List Apart Web Design Survey 2008

I took the “A List Apart Web Design Survey” last year and it was well worth doing as it was the first effort to try and establish a picture of the working conditions of people who are involved in building or maintaining websites.

You can read the results of last years survey at www.alistapart.com/articles/2007surveyresults, you can download the findings of the survey as a PDF document.

Last year over 33,000 people took part in the survey and the organiser intend to improve on the results of last year’s survey:

This year?s survey corrects many of last year?s mistakes, with more detailed and numerous questions for freelance contractors and owners of (or partners in) small web businesses. There are also better international categories, and many other improvements recommended by those who took the survey last year.

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Review: Apple Composite AV cable for iPod Touch, iPhone, Nano etc

Picture of Apple's Composite AV cable for iPod Touch / iPhoneI just bought myself the Apple composite AV cable for my iPod Touch so that I could hook it up to my TV to watch BBC iPlayer programmes. At first I thought the £35 price tag was pretty steep, but seeing as I was at the Apple Store in Glasgow I thought I’d treat myself to something!

On closer inspection though I saw that it isn’t just an AV cable but it also has a USB cable which plugs into a dinky little power supply which comes with both UK and North American power supply connectors, so basically it can be used to charge your iPod and also means that you don’t run out of power whilst watching programmes on it.

Basically the AV cable enables you to watch or listen to any video, audio or images that are on your iPod directly on your TV, this also includes the YouTube application too. Image slideshows can also be viewed via the AV cable.

Those standard features are pretty awesome in themselves but the killer app combo for me is this:

  1. The BBC offer a version of their iPlayer specifically for the iPod Touch and iPhone
  2. The AV cable for the iPod Touch / iPhone can play the iPlayer content on your TV

Screenshot of BBC iPlayer for iPod Touch / iPhoneIt’s a pretty simple combo but it’s awesome being able to play all the iPlayer content on your TV instead of on your computer. The great thing too is that the iPlayer content via the iPod is actually better quality than the streaming Flash version that you would view on your computer due to it being delivered as H.264 encoded video rather than the Flash ON2 codec that the regular iPlayer uses.

Well, I can’t recommend it enough, the price tag might seem a bit high at first but it’s a high quality cable that provides a power supply and AV connections as well as the ability to use it as a regular USB iPod cable too. If you happen to live in the Uk and have access to the BBC iPlayer then it makes that accessible right in your living room.

The AV Cable is also available for Component video connections too, you can pick one up from the Apple Store online:

→ Composite AV Cable

→ Component AV Cable

~Rick

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Dropbox: Putting a human face on Amazon’s S3 storage system

Picture of Dropbox logoI’ve recently been checking out Dropbox, I’d come across the website for it before and checked out the screencast showing it’s features and it looked pretty good, a few people on Twitter mentioned getting invites to the invite only beta program so I eventually managed to get hold of an invite to try it out for myself.

I’ve been on the look out for an off-site backup system that makes use of some kind of distributed ‘cloud’ based storage system such as Amazon’s S3. I’ve tried Mozy and also JungleDisk and they both worked well enough but I didn’t really take to them. Both of those options do have the main feature I was looking for in that they offer a cost-effective way to backup lots of data online, additionally Mozy’s Mac client in particular has a great strength in that you can tell it which files and settings you want it to backup such as iCal data etc.

Dropbox is a bit different than either Mozy or JungleDisk, it doesn’t just offer a way to backup files but allows a great way to synchronise data between multiple computers and share files with other dropbox users such as friends, family etc.

You simply install the Dropbox software on your computer, currently there’s support for both Mac OSX and Windows XP / Vista, Linux support is planned but isn’t available at the time of writing. Once it’s installed on OSX you get a new icon in your menu bar at the top of the screen and you’ll also find a new folder called ‘dropbox’ has appeared in your sidebar (the actual folder is found in the root of your Home directory).

Dropbox menubar iconDropbox folder in the sidebar

Any files that you copy into the Dropbox folder instantly start to get backed up into the online storage space, all this is done in the background. All very easy, simple to setup and simple to use.

Dropbox’s file versioning

However, that’s not all that Dropbox offers. Every file that you have synced with Dropbox gets updated automatically when you make changes to the files as you’d expect, however Dropbox provides access to all of the previous versions of files. You can access the files via the web based admin system and can roll back files to previous versions:

Screenshot of Dropbox's file revision process

It’s perfect if you happen to have made a change to a file which you didn’t mean to make, or if you’ve deleted a file you now need. You can simply view the file as it was at that time and restore the file to that version. It’s not a replacement for a proper version control system like Subversion but for the average user it’s a brilliantly easy system.

Dropbox let’s you share

By default Dropbox comes with two folders already setup, ‘Photos’ and ‘Public’. The Photos folder allows an easy way to create a web gallery of photos simply by adding images to it, this is accessible via a direct URL so you can share this with other people:

Screenshot of Dropbox's photo gallery

The other way that you can share with Dropbox is the ability to create folders which you can make accessible to other Dropbox users.

Screenshot of Dropbox's sharing processThis provides an easy way to make files available to others, perfect as a way of collaborating on documents etc.

You get all the benefits of the file versioning so you can easily undo any changes that anyone who has access to those files has made.

All in all it’s a pretty impressive set of features, so far I haven’t had any problems using it and it’s worked exactly as expected.

There’s a great screencast available from the Dropbox website that gives a great overview of the system in practice, so even if you can’t get a beta invite you can still get a taste of what it’s like.

Costs for using Dropbox

Pricing for Dropbox is $99 per year for 50GB storage with free accounts at 2GB. Pricing has yet to be announced but there will be a free account of about 1Gb apparently with tiered pricing plans above that. If you can manage to get an invite from somebody while it’s still in beta then go for it, it’s a great cross-platform solution making great use of the huge potential of Amazon’s S3 storage infrastructure.

Dropbox are now offering 50GB and 100GB accounts, why not show Suburbia some love by following this link to sign up at www.getdropbox.com – We’ll both get an extra 250mb storage for free!

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Evidence of the hidden “features” of Vista and Windows Media Centre?

Way back in February 2007 I wrote a blog post called "Windows Vista: Beneath Aero’s transparency hides some future ‘surprises’" where I pondered some of the features of Vista designed to appease Hollywood’s desire to control how people use media on their computers.

More evidence of these features were revealed recently when users of Windows Media Centre in the US who intended to record an episode of Gladiators found that the recording was blocked because of a broadcast flag known as CGMS-A in the TV signal which WMC understood to indicate it should not be recorded. NBC, who aired the show, said it was mistakenly added and that it wouldn’t happen again. Microsoft have claimed they will work to make sure this doesn’t happen again. However, many people are skeptical about this, in an article on Ars Technica Eric Bangeman wrote:

There is technically no reason why Microsoft should support CGMS-A in Windows Vista and Windows XP MCE, and the screwup is evidence the software giant has decided to align itself with the interests of broadcasters and movie studios rather than those of its customers. Yes, this was a mistake by NBC, but the technology is there for such mistakes to be turned into policy.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation also have a few interesting things to say about why Microsoft have support for broadcast flags that were rejected by the courts:

To be perfectly clear: Microsoft is under no legal obligation to look for and respond in any particular way when it sees the broadcast flag being sent by NBC’s digital stations. Any DTV-receiving software technology or device – like MythTV – is free to take the same stream from HDHomeRun and ignore a broadcast flag transmitted with it. In other words Microsoft did not have to build its PC to look for and refuse to record a program which has its flag turned on.

Had consumers not stood up against the FCC’S mandatory flag rule three years ago, alternatives like MythTV would no longer be available. Back then, the FCC tried to force tech companies (and open source developers) to obey the entertainment industry’s remote TV control. A coalition of librarians, public interest organizations, and consumer groups successfully challenged the FCC’s jurisdiction to impose such a broad regulation in Federal court. After the rightsholders lost in court, they spent millions lobbying Congress to pass a law forcing receivers to obey their command. Your letters and calls stopped that bill.

Interesting.

~Rick

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Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Soundbooth CS4 Betas now on Adobe Labs

Following on from last years move of offering a public beta of Photoshop CS3 Adobe have announced three new public betas of their CS4 applications.

You can download betas of Dreamweaver CS4, Fireworks CS4 and Soundbooth CS4 from labs.adobe.com. You’ll find all the details of the new features in development on each application’s page, here’s a few notable feature headings for each application:

Dreamweaver CS4

  • Related Files – included files such as CSS, JS, PHP etc show in a bar at the top of the document making it easy to see what’s linked into your page.
  • Code hinting for Ajax and JavaScript frameworks – improved support for JavaScript core objects and primitive data types. Work with popular JavaScript frameworks including jQuery, Prototype, and Spry.
  • Subversion integration – Use Subversion repositories directly within Dreamweaver.
  • New user interface – Updated user interface in common with the rest of the CS4 apps

Check out Dreamweaver CS4 on Adobe Labs →

Fireworks CS4

  • New user interface – Updated user interface in common with the rest of the CS4 apps
  • CSS and Images Export – Design web pages in Fireworks then export web standards-compliant CSS layouts, complete with external style sheets in one step.
  • Live Style improvements – When you update a style all elements the style has been applied to are instantly updated.

Check out Fireworks CS4 on Adobe Labs →

Soundbooth CS4

  • Arranging audio files on multiple tracks
  • Adjusting tempo and pitch
  • Recording and polishing voice-overs
  • Previewing MP3 compression quality

Check out Soundbooth CS4 on Adobe Labs →

Head over to http://labs.adobe.com now to check them out. Please note that these betas are only available to anyone with a valid CS3 suite or application, you will need to provide your serial number in order to download the beta versions.