Adobe is one of the top companies for design software. For a price of US$1,799 you get Creativity Suite 4 which comes bundled with Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, DreamWeaver, Acrobat 9 Pro, etc. Even though buying a bundle of of the software will save about 55% versus buying each of the software separately, US$1,799 for a package software is still a lot to ask for especially for a casual user versus a professional designer.
You can download Photoshop free at Adobe website. However, AdobePhotoshop free download trial version allows you yo try for only 30 days. Subsequently, you will need to pay up after 30 days and it costs about $1000 for Adobe Photoshop CS4 extended.
Another alternative is to look for open source software. GIMP is a great alternative to Adobe Photoshop and is free to useand is used by many designers for quite a long time. There is even a GIMP download version that has the user interface very close to Adobe Photoshop. Although there may be features and user interface that needs getting used to, for the most part, it is still worthwhile trying GIMP out before paying $1000 for Adobe Photoshop.
I learned this from a friend Joan over the weekend on how to preserve and send the original high resolution photos from the iPhone. On the iPhone 3Gs, if you choose "Email Photo", the photos are actually downscaled before being sent out and usually results in about 100kb file size and a lower quality picture.
If you want to preserve the photo's resolution and quality, there is a better way to do it. Instead of clicking "Email this photo", go to "Camera Roll" and select what looks like the forward button on the bottom left corner. Then select multiple pictures that you wanted to email (see sending multiple attachments pictures on the iPhone). However, instead of clicking "Share" on the bottom, click on "Copy". This copies the images you have selected into a clipboard. Now, go to your default mail program on the iPhone and start writing a message. When you are ready to copy the photos to the body of the email, just hold your finger on the body section of the email and release after 1-2 seconds. You should see a bubble box with "Paste". Click on the "Paste" bubble box and you should start seeing the photos you have copied appear in the body of the email. When you send this email, you will find that the attached images are the original high resolution photos and are usually about 1 MB in size.
I don't know why Apple or AT&T would allow someone to do this as it consumes bandwidth during photo sharing which may be something you want to avoid. This may be why they restrict the size and number of photos you can share via the "Share" button on Camera Roll.
However, they may have forgotten to restrict that via the Copy & Paste functionality. Some caveats with this method are:
1) If the files are too large, some mail programs on the iPhone may have trouble sending it. I find that Yahoo Mail has a problem sending large files versus Gmail. You should watch the send progress bar to see if the transmission completes.
2) The orientation of the photos may sometimes come out weird. Depending on your mail client and photo viewer, the orientation may come out differently.
Thanks Joan.
If you want to preserve the photo's resolution and quality, there is a better way to do it. Instead of clicking "Email this photo", go to "Camera Roll" and select what looks like the forward button on the bottom left corner. Then select multiple pictures that you wanted to email (see sending multiple attachments pictures on the iPhone). However, instead of clicking "Share" on the bottom, click on "Copy". This copies the images you have selected into a clipboard. Now, go to your default mail program on the iPhone and start writing a message. When you are ready to copy the photos to the body of the email, just hold your finger on the body section of the email and release after 1-2 seconds. You should see a bubble box with "Paste". Click on the "Paste" bubble box and you should start seeing the photos you have copied appear in the body of the email. When you send this email, you will find that the attached images are the original high resolution photos and are usually about 1 MB in size.
I don't know why Apple or AT&T would allow someone to do this as it consumes bandwidth during photo sharing which may be something you want to avoid. This may be why they restrict the size and number of photos you can share via the "Share" button on Camera Roll.
However, they may have forgotten to restrict that via the Copy & Paste functionality. Some caveats with this method are:
1) If the files are too large, some mail programs on the iPhone may have trouble sending it. I find that Yahoo Mail has a problem sending large files versus Gmail. You should watch the send progress bar to see if the transmission completes.
2) The orientation of the photos may sometimes come out weird. Depending on your mail client and photo viewer, the orientation may come out differently.
Thanks Joan.
Mafia War is one of the hottest game in town that can be played on Facebook, MySpace, Tagged, Yahoo and iPhone. iPhone is the platform I played on mainly because it is a great time killer when I am waiting for something or someone. All I need to do is flip up the iPhone and buy a few properties, get into some brawls, pay a visit to the doctor, kowtow to the Godfather and buy some weapons. After a couple of minutes of playing, I would have exhausted my stamina and energy and would just wait for it to recharge and basically kill my time with it later again.
Mafia wars is simple and yet strangely addictive. There is really not a whole lot of thinking except perhaps trying to optimize your assets to earn experience points and money. In some ways, playing Mafia has an element of points farming because you are just basically fighting and doing jobs to earn money and then level up. It also makes you feel like a winner most of the time since if you pick the right fights, you can win most of the time and you almost get to recharge everytime. I don't know if you can actually die playing Mafia wars. If you are tired of just going down the standard route, you can also look for Mafia Wars Cheats. I have not got addicted to the point of trying to grow my Mafia family through inviting friends though I have many a times seen my friends requesting for help to join their gang to defeat some other family. So, why is Mafia War addictive? Here are the following reasons I can come up with:
1) It is simple. No complex maneuvers or hand-eye coordination needed. Anyone can play. No complex 3D graphics either.
2) You win MOST OF THE TIME. No one likes to feel like a loser. A game that allows you to win most of the time makes you feel like you are in control.
3) It is ego boosting. Imagine leveling up to be a mogul and eventually a Godfather. Is attaining a God Father even possible?
4) Maybe, there is a little of a Soprano in everyone of us and Mafia Wars is an outlet for it.
5) It is social. You can invite friends and form a Mafia gang.
So, if anyone read this far, what has this got to do with SmugBox? For a while, I have been noticing that there is a high barrier to entry when it comes to writing a mini-blog. People will sign up and do nothing. The majority of us are content consumers versus producers. Writing a mini-blog much less a blog is way too hard. This is why Twitter and Facebook status updates rule the world because they only require a snippet of our time and thinking.
So, what if writing can actually be entertaining? What if there was some virtual economy that people can participate in when they write and update through Smugbox to the various services? In a way, there is much to learn from the Mafia War Strategy. Today, we lay the initial foundation for a virtual economy by launching a simple point and leveling system that actually rewards people with points as they participate in activities that they have been doing anyway in the various social networks and photo/video sharing site. As we progress, we will continue to think about how to encourage people to go beyond 140 characters when it comes to really important stories they would like to share with friends.
Mafia wars is simple and yet strangely addictive. There is really not a whole lot of thinking except perhaps trying to optimize your assets to earn experience points and money. In some ways, playing Mafia has an element of points farming because you are just basically fighting and doing jobs to earn money and then level up. It also makes you feel like a winner most of the time since if you pick the right fights, you can win most of the time and you almost get to recharge everytime. I don't know if you can actually die playing Mafia wars. If you are tired of just going down the standard route, you can also look for Mafia Wars Cheats. I have not got addicted to the point of trying to grow my Mafia family through inviting friends though I have many a times seen my friends requesting for help to join their gang to defeat some other family. So, why is Mafia War addictive? Here are the following reasons I can come up with:
1) It is simple. No complex maneuvers or hand-eye coordination needed. Anyone can play. No complex 3D graphics either.
2) You win MOST OF THE TIME. No one likes to feel like a loser. A game that allows you to win most of the time makes you feel like you are in control.
3) It is ego boosting. Imagine leveling up to be a mogul and eventually a Godfather. Is attaining a God Father even possible?
4) Maybe, there is a little of a Soprano in everyone of us and Mafia Wars is an outlet for it.
5) It is social. You can invite friends and form a Mafia gang.
So, if anyone read this far, what has this got to do with SmugBox? For a while, I have been noticing that there is a high barrier to entry when it comes to writing a mini-blog. People will sign up and do nothing. The majority of us are content consumers versus producers. Writing a mini-blog much less a blog is way too hard. This is why Twitter and Facebook status updates rule the world because they only require a snippet of our time and thinking.
So, what if writing can actually be entertaining? What if there was some virtual economy that people can participate in when they write and update through Smugbox to the various services? In a way, there is much to learn from the Mafia War Strategy. Today, we lay the initial foundation for a virtual economy by launching a simple point and leveling system that actually rewards people with points as they participate in activities that they have been doing anyway in the various social networks and photo/video sharing site. As we progress, we will continue to think about how to encourage people to go beyond 140 characters when it comes to really important stories they would like to share with friends.
Tonight, we launched the integration of Twitter sign up and sign in using OAuth authentication with SmugBox. Although, we had email to Twitter integration for a while, we did not allow users to create a new account via Twitter. It has always been on our list of to do and we definitely realize that there is friction in trying to get new users to sign up for new accounts. With many users having Facebook and Twitter accounts already, it would be very convenient to just sign up via Twitter or Facebook. Therefore, we move it up the priority list. For existing SmugBox users with Twitter integrated already, you can now sign in via Twitter as well.
Also picking up on a friend's @jheitzeb post on Social Traction-
If you have a 8% sign up rate for new users, that is considered very good. Besides offering value as a product or service, reducing sign up friction is one way to increase new users acquisition. Next up, Facebook sign up integration! The question is whether it now starts to confuse users with multiple sign up/sign in options. Less can sometimes be more...
Also picking up on a friend's @jheitzeb post on Social Traction-
Designing For Social Traction
View more documents from Joshua Porter.
If you have a 8% sign up rate for new users, that is considered very good. Besides offering value as a product or service, reducing sign up friction is one way to increase new users acquisition. Next up, Facebook sign up integration! The question is whether it now starts to confuse users with multiple sign up/sign in options. Less can sometimes be more...
For a while, I thought that the email feature on the iPhone 3Gs could not support multiple photo or video atttachments. Then, I discovered it by accident one day when I was just pressing around stuff.
To send multiple attachments, just go to the Photos Icon and select the album or Camera Roll on your iPhone. Then click on the bottom left icon that looks like a forwarded mail or share icon. You will see 3 options appear: Share, Copy & Delete. Don't click on any of them yet.Just click on a few pictures or videos and you will see each thumbnail grayed out with a red checkmark to it. Once you are done selecting multiple pictures and video, just click on the "Share" button on the bottom left corner. This will bring you to your integrated mail client with the pictures/videos you have selected. It works with any of the major email such as www.Hotmail.com, www.ymail.com and www.gmail.com
Pretty easy and was not sure why it took me a while to discover it. However, this is great for SmugBox since you can easily send multiple pictures and video in one single email post.
To send multiple attachments, just go to the Photos Icon and select the album or Camera Roll on your iPhone. Then click on the bottom left icon that looks like a forwarded mail or share icon. You will see 3 options appear: Share, Copy & Delete. Don't click on any of them yet.Just click on a few pictures or videos and you will see each thumbnail grayed out with a red checkmark to it. Once you are done selecting multiple pictures and video, just click on the "Share" button on the bottom left corner. This will bring you to your integrated mail client with the pictures/videos you have selected. It works with any of the major email such as www.Hotmail.com, www.ymail.com and www.gmail.com
Pretty easy and was not sure why it took me a while to discover it. However, this is great for SmugBox since you can easily send multiple pictures and video in one single email post.
Finally, we are putting out the first release. There are lots of features that we would like to put in for this release. However, we are experiening feature creeping as everything seems cool and should be included. We finally had to put it to a stop and release what we think are most critical.
There is certainly value in putting something out there early to get users to try out and give us the feedback we need before iterating and improving. Nevertheless, we are pleased to supports 6 essential services on the web: Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, Flickr, Picasa and YouTube. We plan to be adding more as we have created a framework that allows us to easily and quickly integrate with other services.
We are also pleased to release a group feature that allows for groups of different rights settings. To eat our own dog food, we are using a semi-public group to allow all users to read but only selected contributors to write. This type of group is great for newsletter publishing or group blogging where only selected contributors can write. Stay tune for more features to come!
There is certainly value in putting something out there early to get users to try out and give us the feedback we need before iterating and improving. Nevertheless, we are pleased to supports 6 essential services on the web: Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, Flickr, Picasa and YouTube. We plan to be adding more as we have created a framework that allows us to easily and quickly integrate with other services.
We are also pleased to release a group feature that allows for groups of different rights settings. To eat our own dog food, we are using a semi-public group to allow all users to read but only selected contributors to write. This type of group is great for newsletter publishing or group blogging where only selected contributors can write. Stay tune for more features to come!
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