Online Tools review: Brushlovers.com

Graphic designers, artists, web developpers and many other computer professionals make use of a variety of drawing tools in their craft. Of course, as you may already be aware, one of the most popular choices when it comes to this type of tool is Adobe Photoshop. One of the great skills demonstrated by expert PS users is the creation of custom brushes. But not everyone is skilled in the "art" of creating new brushes to use for specific projects.

To the rescue is Brushlovers, a fantastic site highlighting numerous free and paid brush packs. With an excellent layout, a great selection of free brushes and truly reasonable prices for the paid sets of brushes, Brushlovers is a great addition to your online tools. Head on over and take a peek at what's available; I think you'll be pleasantly pleased.

Pick of the week: Goodsie.com

Of all the questions that I regularly receive concerning using the Internet for business, the most common one by far is: how do I set up an online store? Of course, this is not necessarily the simplest of questions to answer. Until now, that is, thanks to our pick of the week, Goodsie.com. Currently in Beta testing, Goodsie is a web-based, online store builder. Now, before you decide to turn your nose up, serious web designers, head over and take a good look. In my opinion, Goodsie has better features and functionality in their Beta state than many competitors who have been around for years.

A beautiful interface, enough options to create the custom online store of your dreams and a truly functional output, one would be hard pressed to find a better tool to help you build a great commerce site. Of course, there are other factors involved in the creation of an online business, but this is a great start! Head over to Goodsie.com right now and sign up. Well worth seeing and I think you'll agree.

iPad Accessories: Twelve South's Compass Mobile Stand

There is a secret amongst iPad users; Apple hasn't made a big deal of this secret and the legion of iPad users don't really want to talk about it. But here it is: iPad users are notorious accessory hounds! My wife is no exception (the Apple iPad case, the iPad dock, the wireless keyboard and even a stylus!), but that's just not enough for the diehard.
Well, after browsing some accessories myself, hoping to find some inspiration for a gift for my lovely, I decided to purchase the Twelvesouth Compass stand. 

A lot of manufacturers have discovered that the iPad, although a fantastic device, can be a little heavy in the hand. And furthermore, typing on the device without some kind of stand to place it at a more appropriate angle, can be a little frustrating. All manner of stands exist for it, but few are as elegant as the Compass. A sleek, steel and silicone item, the Compass has two possible positions: vertical as can be seen in the image above and horizontal (a perfect typing angle), seen below:

Being made of steel (and with the potential to damage the iPad, were it stored unprotected with the tablet), Twelvesouth was kind enough to include a fitted case to carry the stand during travel. It is unusually heavy, although it is my belief that without this weight, the stand would not function adequately. A beautiful, well made item, this is an accessory that iPad owners need to look at closely. Head over to Twelvesouth's website and see the Compass and several other great products for Apple hardware.

Pick of the week: Dashkards.com/

While looking for an nice "cheat sheet" for Apple's Magic Trackpad, I ran across a fantastic image, that eventually led me back to the site that originated it, Dashkards.com. What I found there was a collection of dashboard "cards" that contain keyboard shortcuts to some of the most popular Mac applications. And all of them, free of charge, a download away.

If you have been looking for unified "cheat sheets" for your most regularly used applications, head over to Dashkards right now and see what they have available for you.

Update on Apple's latest interface device

After writing about Apple's Magic Trackpad, I decided that it might make a pretty decent Christmas gift for my wife and so, I headed over to our local Apple store to purchase one.

Sadly, on Christmas day, we discovered that the multitouch functionality of the Magic Trackpad is only enabled on Apple computers running OS 10.6.4 and above, which meant that my wife's iMac would need an OS update additionally.

Never one to refuse a trip to the Apple store, I purchased a copy of Snow Leopard and returned home. A quick, painless installation later, we plugged in the Magic Trackpad and as the name implies, it "magically" worked! The first thing we both noticed is how absolutely quiet computer use can become using this device instead of a mouse. No more dragging sounds, no more scrolling sounds, no more clicking sound. Period.

The multitouch functionality is a great addition, allowing the user to perform a number of common actions easily. The various possibilities include:

It's a neat addition to the way that you use a computer, although I have to admit that it does take a little getting used to, but I think that really is a question of how ingrained your computer interface habits are in you. But I find that the gestures tend to be natural motions to perform and shouldn't really pose a problem to anyone. Worth checking out the next time you're near an Apple store.

Online Tools review: HTMLForm.com

Building HTML forms is not that complicated; the only real issue is access to a decent editor to code the form, but that's not necessarily the easiest way to visualize the actual layout of your form. In essence, it's approaching a design problem from the wrong direction. In come HTMLForm.com to the rescue! In essence, this tool allows you to visually create your form, add the features and elements that you want, then generate the code for that form, to be incorporated into any project you might be working on at this moment.

A great tool and a handy one to add to your quiver if you are a mobile designer. Go take a look and try it out, I'm convinced you'll be quite impressed.

More storage space...

I've been a data "hound" for the last 20 years and that data takes storage space. I've gone through a series of external hard drives, which succeded each other as capacities rose and prices came down. But when I purchased my Macbook Pro, I realised that I would need an external drive that did not require an external power adapter (well, to be precise, I did not NEED, but did think it would be more convenient to be able to carry just a drive and adapter cable, rather than a drive, adapter cable, AC adapter and power cable). I had shopped around a little bit and settled on the Western Digital Passport Studio 500GB drive. The clincher for me was the USB2.0/Firewire 400/800 connection options.

Another interesting feature is the eLabel, which WD touts as a simple method to distinguish several similar drives in your collection, as well as providing the user with a quick way to determine the amount of space left for data on the drive. Although the drive came with a pretty nice suite of applications from WD to simplify back ups, I decided to format the drive and use it exclusively as an Apple Time Machine drive.

So far, I've found the drive both fast and quiet, which are obviously features that are desirable in a portable drive. I was also quite impressed that WD would include all three connection cables within the box (USB 2, Firewire 400 and Firewire 800). It has exceeded my expectations, except for one: total capacity. I would replace this drive in a second if it was available in a 1TB format, instead of the current maximum of 640GB.

My top ten iPod Touch apps

After much debate, I decided, a couple months ago to purchase an iPod Touch. Having used my wife's iPad for a little while, I knew that I wanted a better device than the iPod Nano I had been using. Of course, I didn't expect that one of the primary uses of the iPod Touch would be the use of some absolutely fantastic applications and games. And with friends regularly asking for my advice concerning apps, I thought I would compile a list of my ten favourite apps to date.

1. Evernote

If there was one single application that I could install on my iPod Touch or iPhone, this would be the one. With the ability to keep created content synched across your devices and computer(s), Evernote helps you to remember everything, but does so much more. If you haven't experienced it for yourself, give your memory a helping hand and try the free version today.

2. List Pro

Obsessive list builders, this is the app for you. Not only can List Pro create pretty much any list you could care for, it also provides several templates and a free online list exchange service that contains some real gems. A real favorite of mine in any case.

3. Facebook

Having used the web version of FB for many years, I had become a little jaded by all of the extra (some might say unrequired but likely profitable) features available beyond the basic elements that made FB famous. Well, the FB app is back to basics for this application, with all of the basic features that made FB great and nothing extra. If you haven't tried this app, do yourself the courtesy of trying it, you will love FB again.

4. Genius Scan

Since I have discovered Evernote, I keep wishing that Genius Scan's great functionality could be somehow integrated. When confronted with an image, a printed document, a posted bus schedule, a posted bill, I whip out this great app, snap a shot, correct the skewing with my finger and save the image as a document accessible when I want it! Fantastic!

5. VLC

Allows you to play pretty much any video file on your device. Do I need to say any more?

6. QuickVoice

Turn your iPod Touch or iPhone into a voice dictation machine. With a better interface than the included Voice Recorder and simpler file management, truly a great tool.

7. MyPDFs

If you have any PDF documents in your library, this is the application for you. With a number of nice features for viewing even the largest PDF files, this is the application that lets you take your library with you.

8. CIBC app

Being early adopters, CIBC was the first Canadian bank to offer an iPod app. Great app, every feature you could expect! A great way to access your banking services.

9. Skype

If you've never used Skype, give it a try right now. One of the easiest ways to communicate with people the world over. Make international calls for pennies a minute with great call quality. Set up easy video chat sessions and more. The app works fantastically well for making calls all over, although you need to purchase credits to make calls to landlines.

10. AppShopper

Want a great way to find new apps? Would you like to know when some paid applications become free? Well then AppShopper is for you then! A simple interface, great controls and updated every day if not several times a day, this is the app for your app needs.


I decided that I would post a similar list for games in the near future. Keep your eyes open for the next installment soon.

And finally, a new Macbook Pro

The moment I had been waiting for has finally arrived. Well, to be precise, the moment happened on the very last day of 2010 (way to stick it to the tax man!). I finally purchased a new computer: a new Macbook Pro 13.

For those that know me, I don't purchase new computers very often. I continued trudging on with a rapidly dying, older generation iMac, then a radically underpowered Asus netbook, as well as using my wife's fairly new iMac. And none of those solutions were truly adequate. My iMac is far too loud (due to a defective HDD temperature sensor) to be used for anything other than basic browsing as well as being a pretty decent, if decidedly noisy, file, web and media server. The netbook is simply far too slow (and running Windows doesn't really help it gain points with me) and my wife's iMac is... my wife's iMac.

I can easily say that my Macbook Pro is by far the best computer I have ever owned, bar none. It is decently fast (faster than anything else we have at home), well equipped (every feature that I could think of and Firewire 800 too) and absolutely beautifully designed and executed. The trackpad alone has completely changed my mind about the concept of trackpads, to the point that I have yet to plug a mouse into it. Multitouch, glass trackpads are simply the way to go, in my opinion.

If you are in the market for a new computer, take a better look at the Macbook Pro line; there might be one in the series that is exactly what you are looking for as your next computer.

Welcome back

For those who have been reading my blog for a while, I want to apologize for the lengthy hiatus I have taken from writing. Having started a new gig for Canadian Blood Services as an Instructional Designer a couple of months ago, I've been a little busy lately with the demands of this contract as well as the demands of my young family. But I wanted to let the faithful reader know that content is going to start appearing with regularity, starting this week.

Some of the regular series I had been doing will return, including the Pick of the Week, Online Tools review, Micro Homes and Book Review, albeit with a few changes. I've decided to incorporate ebooks reviews with the Book Review feature, as I've been using my Kobo for reading pretty much exclusively (although I have to admit that I've also read a couple books on my iPod Touch and although not as nice as the Kobo for this function, is nonetheless a pretty useful feature for everyday use.

Thank you again for your patience, and an enormous thank you to my wife, who was one of my most avid readers and took the time to point out that she had not read anything new in a long time and missed it. Thank you sweetness!