First launched in 2007, A List Apart is once again calling for designers, developers, information architects, project managers, writers, editors, marketers, and everyone else who makes websites, to take part in this years People who make websites survey.
This is in aid of enabling A List Apart to begin figuring out what kinds of job titles, salaries, and work situations are common in our field.
This year’s survey is more detailed than the last with numerous questions for freelance contractors and owners of, or partners in, small web businesses. There are better international categories and many other improvements recommended by previous participants.
A List Apart will be providing an “anonymized” version of the raw data, so that the highly motivated among you can do your own number crunching.
To take the survey visit http://aneventapart.com/survey2008, and visit http://alistapart.com/articles/survey2008 for more information.

SXC.hu have recently made changes to our privacy policy. If you’re a frequent user of their royalty free stock then check the link below for exact details.

www.sxc.hu/help/7_1

From crazy toys to creative apparel and exotic, entertaining branding moytoy ltd has it all and is a great example of contemporary design, done just for the pleasure of it all!
Check it out to brighten your day.

http://shop.moytoy.eu/

This is a challenge worth consideration providing unbelievable riches. Heading a specially created School of Design in Paris, internationally renowned designer Philippe Starck is teaming up with BBC Two to offer aspiring designers with the talent, drive and vision to create the next ‘must have’ products of the 21st Century a chance to work alongside himself and his team for a several month period.
Short listed applicant will be invited to and interviewed inn Paris by Starck, ten of which will be offered a place. For specific terms and conditions of entries visit www.bbc.co.uk/schoolofdesign/index.shtml and apply now. Expected deadline for entries is August 31st 2008.

Adobe Lightroom 2 is now available to buy from the Adobe website. It is priced at £175 excluding VAT for the full version (£69 excluding VAT if you are upgrading). However, if you want to get the latest version of Photoshop at the same time, then you can save up to £85 when purchasing both products as a bundle.

There is a whole host of new features in this version of the software, including multiple monitor support, local adjustment brushes and better CS3 integration.

You can find out more about this release by taking a visit to the Adobe website.

PRESS RELEASE

Adobe Systems Incorporated today announced the immediate availability of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 software, the photographer’s essential toolbox for managing, adjusting and presenting large volumes of digital photographs. With new enhancements such as dual-monitor support, radical advances in non-destructive localised image correction, and streamlined search capabilities, Lightroom 2 is a compelling upgrade that simplifies photography from shoot to finish. As Adobe’s first application to support 64-bit for Mac OS X 10.5 Macintosh computers with Intel processors and Microsoft Windows Vista 64-bit operating systems, Lightroom 2 also provides improved memory performance for dealing with large scale images.

“A worldwide community of photographers provided valuable insight and feedback, as part of the Lightroom 2 public beta program, ultimately helping us deliver a better product,” said Tom Hogarty, senior product manager for Lightroom and Camera Raw at Adobe. “We’ve considered their requests which helped us develop useful features that make it easier than ever for our customers to quickly refine, enhance and present brilliant photographs.”

Photoshop Lightroom 2: Smarter, Faster and More Accurate
The enhanced Library module in Lightroom 2 helps streamline and accelerate photographers’ workflows. With the ability to visually organise images across multiple hard drives, Lightroom 2 and its powerful Library Filter Bar makes it easy for users to quickly find the images they need. The Suggested Keywords feature helps photographers keyword their images by making intelligent suggestions based on their own previous efforts. New dual-monitor support allows users to expand their workspace, giving them flexibility to edit and organise images in a way that maximises an additional display.
In the Develop module, the new Local Adjustment Brush lets photographers fine-tune specific areas of an image to precisely adjust colour, exposure and tonal range without affecting other areas of the image. The new Graduated Filter expands the toolbox in Lightroom, allowing for edits to larger areas by applying gradually diminishing or increasing adjustment effects such as exposure, clarity, and saturation, alone, or in any combination. Lightroom 2 also helps photographers print more efficiently by quickly arranging photos of multiple sizes on one or many pages with flexible and customisable templates to maximise paper and ink. Intelligent algorithms automatically determine optimal sharpening for screen or print, producing crisper images faster. Developers can further extend the Lightroom workflow with Web, Export and Metadata Software Development Kits available at the Adobe Developer Connection, http://www.adobe.com/devnet/.

Ground-Breaking Innovation in Raw Technology
New raw technology gives photographers access to flexible camera profiles. Camera profiles are the visual starting point for the raw processing workflow, but image preferences vary for every photographer. To minimise surprises, Adobe is supplying default camera profiles that closely emulate the visual looks that photographers are used to seeing from their favourite camera, while also providing the ability to create highly customised profiles to suit different tastes. Camera profiles are available for immediate download on Adobe Labs (http://labs.adobe.com) for use with Lightroom 2 and Camera Raw 4.5, along with the DNG Profile Editor for the community to test and create their own profiles.
The Adobe Camera Raw 4.5 plug-in and DNG Converter 4.5 are also now available on Adobe.com and support over 190 camera models including the Olympus E 420 and E 520 models.
“One of the big reasons why Lightroom has become such a phenomenon among serious photographers is that Adobe built it with the input of a very vocal user community,” said Scott Kelby, president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP).  “Adobe really listens to the issues and challenges today’s photographers face and they’ve built a complete solution that not only meets the needs of photographers; it really feels like it was made just for us. The enhancements to Lightroom 2, combined with the power of Photoshop, give photographers the ultimate freedom to produce professional images quickly.”

Pricing and Availability
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 is available now through the Adobe Store at www.adobe.com/store in English, French and German with the Japanese language version planned to be released at a future date. The estimated street price is £175 for new users with an upgrade price of £69 for registered users of qualifying Lightroom customers. Recommended system requirements are Macintosh OSX 10.4, 10.5 1 GHz PowerPC G4 or G5 or Intel based processor, or Microsoft Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise, Intel Pentium 4 processor, 1 GB RAM and a 1024×768 resolution screen. Additional information on product features, upgrade policies, pricing, and language versions is available on www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/.

Want to find out how good your Photoshop skills are? Then check out the Highlander site, register for free and you can take its 30-minute Photoshop CS3 test. The questions are multiple choice based, and will give your knowledge a thorough testing. For more information, see the press release below or visit the website.

Free Skills Tests
Highlander, the specialist provider of creative and technical training, has released a range of Free online skills tests which people can use either to prepare for professional certification exams or to just generally measure their skills.  These tests are made up of 36 multiple choice questions randomly chosen from a larger pool of hundreds of questions that have been written by Highlander’s team of Adobe Certified Instructors. Candidates get 30 minutes to complete the test, and at the end they will see the results of their test, any recommendations made for additional development, and also have the opportunity to review the questions and see which answers they got wrong.

Tests currently available include Photoshop CS3, InDesign CS3, Illustrator CS3, DreamWeaver CS3, ActionScript 3, Flash CS3, PHP/MySQL and ColdFusion/SQL. Candidates can take each test up to 3 times, but have to leave at least 24 hours between each attempt, and this is a great resource for developing skills, preparing for exams or even measuring the ability of candidates.

To take the free skills tests just visit http://www.highlander.co.uk/free-skills-tests and select the relevant test.  Once you have selected the relevant test you will need to sign up for a free account if this is your first time in the Highlander learning management system, but with only 8 fields to complete this doesn’t even take a minute.  You can then login and take the test.  Good luck!

We’ve heard of a flurry of new product announcements from Toshiba today from laptops to camcorders. The product to catch our eye is the Camileo H10 camcorder, which is a fantastically compact little product ideal for taking on your hols. It takes SD cards which is really handy, especially if you own a digital camera which shares this memory format. The camcorder enables you to shoot high definition videos, which you can play back on your HD TV - so your videos will really make an impact. Check out the press release for more details: 

London, 28th July 2008 -Toshiba today introduces the latest model in its Camileo range with the addition of the Camileo H10 - a portable and very affordable SD based HD camcorder.Sporting an attractive palm-shaped design, the H10 weighs a mere 340g - so users will hardly notice it in their pocket or bag. Despite its small stature and competitive price point, it still boasts the latest high-definition and optical technology to give home-movies and still images that professional feel.The Camileo H10 is a SD based high definition digital video camera with 5x optical and 4x digital zoom, which is able to shoot footage at a resolution of 1280 x 720p. All video is encoded in the H.264/MPEG4 format, providing optimum image quality while making as much use of the 64MB integrated storage as possible. To boost storage capacity the Camileo H10 also supports up to 8GB SDHC cards, offering the ability to capture up to 4 additional hours of broadcast quality film. The Camileo H10 offers approximately 30 minutes HD video per gigabyte of memory.As well as capturing high definition video, the Camileo H10 can operate as an extremely capable digital still camera and features a 10MP CCD image sensor. All images shot on the Toshiba Camileo H10 can be viewed back on its 2.7″ TFT LCD display. Those keen to view images or video on a bigger screen are also able to do so using the camera’s HDMI output, which allows images to be displayed on any HD ready TV with no loss of detail.The Camileo H10 also comes with a number of additional features to make filming and photography as easy as possible. The Night Mode enhances picture and movie image quality in low-light environments, allowing users to continue capturing all the action even after sunset. The Special Effects feature enables users to give their images and movies a unique look by selecting from four settings including a black & white, normal, classic and negative mode. Budding film makers will even be able to edit the footage they capture with the bundled ArcSoft software.Furthermore, the Camileo H10 can also be used as a mass storage device, with upgradeable SD memory providing a convenient means of increasing available storage capacity and also managing content. The camera can also be used for motion detection to monitor movement and activity.Key stand-out features include:1280 x 720p HD ResolutionDigital H.264 HD CamcorderDigital Still Camera10 Megapixel CCD Image Sensor5 x Optical / 4 x Digital Zoom64 MB internal memorySDHC Supports up to 82GB2.7″ TFT LCD Display (16:9)HDMI Digital AV OutputMotion DetectionNight ModeVideo StabilisationThe Camileo H10 is available from the end of July 2008, with a typical purchase price estimated at £179.99 (inc. VAT). For more information, consumers should visit www.toshiba.co.uk/computers

The 2008 Y Design Awards is calling for entries, which recognises the UK’s digital creative industries at a designer level. The press release below has more information, or you can visit the website at www.ydesignawards.com.

Press release:

Celebrating Digital Creativity the 2008 Y Design Awards Now Open for Entries

Expert Panel of Judges Cast Eye Over the UK’s Best in Digital Design

The Y Design Awards (YDA), part of London Design Festival 2008, is now open for entries. Covering nine distinct categories, the awards recognise excellence in the UK’s diverse digital creative industries at a designer level.

In 2007 112 of the UK’s leading online design agencies submitted more than 420 entries for the Y Design Awards, and this year the organisers are looking for the best in interactive and digital design. The judges include respected practitioners from the UK’s design community, including Airside’s Managing Director and Founder Nat Hunter and Chris Walker, Director of Technology at Agency.com.

Entrants are encouraged to submit their work via the YDA Website www.ydesignawards.com. Following feedback from last years entrants, the categories have been streamlined down to nine and extended to include designs made specifically for mobile and open source platforms.  The categories include YDA Ethical, Technology Innovation and Interactive Awards.

In the Best Mobile Campaign, judges will assess which designers are exceeding consumer expectations on the mobile internet, while the Open Source Award will recognise the achievements of designers and developers using Open Source software.

Carrenza CEO and YDA Judge since its inception, Dan Sutherland, said of the YDA “The ethical, not-for-profit and community categories illustrate the very real impact design can have on society. What is unique about the Y Design Awards is that it allows the UK’s emerging talent to showcase their work alongside the more established agencies. This year digital design will be a major focus of the London Design Festival with a dedicated day – D3 - of interactive events and exhibitions running alongside the Y Design Awards.”

Winners will be revealed and prizes presented at an invite-only Awards ceremony on 17 September 2008 - the culmination of Digital Design Day (D3) at the Royal Festival Hall. D3 is a new initiative of the London Design Festival in recognition of the growing impact that technology and digital design has on people’s lives on a day-to-day level. A day of workshops and exhibitors promises the exciting collision of art and technology.

Established in 2003 to celebrate and promote London as the creative capital of the world, The London Design Festival has grown rapidly to become one of the key constituents of the UK’s burgeoning creative festival season. The YDA puts the spotlight on the digital space - to recognise innovation in the industry and inspire students of design in the UK.

We love to dabble in photography and often moan that we wish we had time to develop our skills even further. So when news came in of the Flaghead Ringflash Adapter, we immediately put it on our ever-growing wish list of products.A ringflash is a circular light accessory that sits around the lens and provides a shadowless light on your subject, with a gorgeous soft shadow around the edges. This versatile flash unit is great for portraits, macro shots and even reportage photography, making it a solid investment in our eyes.Unlike traditional units, the Flaghead  Ringflash Adapter range are lightweight and considerably cheaper at just £159 plus VAT. They are compatible with most Nikon and Canon digital SLRs.For more information, head to www.flaghead.co.uk  .   

Photographytv.tv is a new online show that discusses, you guessed it, all things photography based. The latest episode talks with event photographer Keith Trainor, and portrait and wedding photographer Angelina Georgiou. It’s full of great tips and advice, and there’s a good community feel over on the website at www.photographytv.tv, so check it out.