Beginner

If you enjoy the sharing capabilities of Google Docs, but want to have a local copy of all the files try the newly released free service Insync.

Insync requires an application to be downloaded to your Mac just like in the case of Dropbox and once it's launched you will need to give it permission to access your Gmail account. After that it immediately downloads all your Google Documents to the ~/Insync folder. If you now edit, delete or add files on Google Docs or locally in this folder the changes will be reflected immediately in the other locations as well. But that's not all that this service does.

You can add more Google accounts, you can sync several computers at the same time and sync any files not just documents. Insync is very much like Dropbox. The only difference is that this service uses the Google disk space, which is significantly cheaper than Dropbox's current offering.

The setup and configuration is very simple. Once you launched the application it creates a menubar icon that provides all the options in a dropdown menu. Enjoy!

Adapted from Photoshop Compositing Secrets (Peachpit Press)

By Matt Kloskowski

1: Which Comes First, the Background or the Subject?
I get asked this one all the time. Unfortunately, it’s not a definite answer one way or the other. For me, I’d say that 75% of the time the subject usually comes first. Give me someone interesting to photograph, and I’ll find a fitting background for them. Most of the time, I don’t even know what that background is before I photograph the person. The other 25% of the time, I’ll have a background specifically in mind before the photo shoot. I’ll photograph the person in a way that I know will work for the background. Some times, I’ll even try a quick composite in Photoshop while they’re still in the studio.

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In OS X Lion you can press and hold the Option key to resize the window from all sides at once. And use the Shift key to resize while preserving the aspect ratio of the window.

In OS X Lion Finder you can rename a file with just one click by holding down the Option (Alt) key.

This trick only works in List and Columns views.

In my book this method beats the carefully timed double click that is otherwise required to rename a file.

In Lion there are two options for scroll direction: Natural is where content tracks finger movement. Unnatural is where the direction is opposite to finger movement.

Traditionally most of us are used to the unnatural scrolling, but looking at the video the natural makes more sense.

What's your preference?

Adapted from Introduction to Mobile Web Design (SitePoint)

By Earle Castledine, Myles Eftos and Max Wheeler

First of all, let us make sure we are on the same page. You may well ask, “What do you mean by mobile?” The answer is: many things. On the surface, building for the mobile web may appear to be not all that different from building for any other web application or site; we’re simply optimizing for viewing on mobile devices. Dig a little deeper, though, and there’s a lot more we need to think about.

Discussions about the mobile web tend to focus on the devices and their capabilities—things like the latest iPhone, the newest Android phone or this week in webOS. It’s a rapidly changing landscape and thus an exciting time for web development, so it’s easy to get caught up in discussions of the technical requirements and solutions for targeting mobile devices. But this misses the great opportunity we have with mobile design, because, ultimately, it’s about people, not devices.

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Looks like Google are trying another UI iteration at the moment. While lazily searching for dribble rather than putting the full domain into the address bar I was sent to the page shown above. It looks to have a much cleaner monotone set of icons and a nicer treatment of the search results typographically.

I have only been served this version once today, despite repeated attempts, so it is obviously something they are just testing for now. For me it is a much more pleasant design, the focus is on the results rather than on the coloured icons to the left that the current design uses. I’m not so sure about the change of colour in the top nav but maybe because I had only just got used to the light blue version that I like a lot now.

If you're on Behance you may be interested to learn about Prosite. It's a payed service from Behance that allows you to easily create a portfolio site under your own domain. Prosite lets you pick projects from your Behance account or add completely new ones. Check out the intro film below.

Adapted from Get Your Photography on the Web (Peachpit Press)

By Rafael Concepcion

I can’t tell you how many people would rather place an annoying graphic watermark on their image and deface it instead of investing a little bit in industrial strength protection. Digimarc is absolutely great for adding barely noticeable watermarks to your images. Combine that with the ability to comb the Internet to find who’s using your images, and you have a rock solid strategy to go after the bad guys!

Step One
Start by going to the Digimarc website to take a look at what option suits you best. At the time of this writing, the Basic edition of Digimarc for Images is priced at $49.00 and the Professional edition is $99.00. I’m a fan of the Professional edition because of their search service

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