Apple Magic Mouse

I have tried wireless mice before and they have never worked for me for design work, just too much lag or inconsistent performance when doing intricate Photoshop or other similar work. I have been waiting for Apple to design a new mouse that takes care of the Apple Mouse (previously Mighty Mouse) track ball gunking issue. I love the way the Mighty Mouse works when the track ball isn’t having issues but if it’s been a while I know the frustration is coming soon.

Well then Apple came out with the Magic Mouse and it is Magic! I bought one Friday at an Apple store after making sure I could return it if it doesn’t work for my design needs and was assured there is a 14 day return policy. As soon as I arrived home I set it up and downloaded the driver update. I then cranked up Photoshop and low and behold the Magic Mouse works great! Finally I’m completely happy with my mouse and it’s even wireless. I was beginning to wonder if anyone would ever come up with a wireless mouse that is useable for Graphic Design.

The purpose of this post is to inform others about a wireless mouse that in my opinion works for design work but I’m also liking the functionality of the touch sensitive surface and gestures.

Apple Magic Mouse gestures

Pleases take the poll below

Apple has quietly bought a online maps company.

http://tinyurl.com/y93kgxf

AT&T data detail filter options

This may be nothing but I don’t recall seeing all of these choices before on my AT&T iPhone account area? Does anyone else know if they have always been there? The view filter choices just seemed interesting to me.

Could it have to do with planned iPhone video calling, multimedia messaging, and video exchange? Maybe these are choices that have been there all along but I just don’t recall seeing them.

I cannot wait till this is released! If your a non-coding designer type check this out!!

Screenshot from Adobe Labs Flash Catalyst intro movie.

Adobe Flash Catalyst is a new application that Adobe has been working on for some time. It allows designers to make interfaces in their graphics apps such as Photoshop or Illustrator and then take them into Catalyst to add motion animations and interactivity WITHOUT CODING! For instance if you to make the buttons on your interface act as buttons and have different states you select that item and use dialogs to get what you want. You can also add sophisticated animations such as you might see in site’s such as this one, Sony Ericsson Mobile Phones. Select some of the phone options in the upper portion and watch the choices below adjust.

The designer can design the interface with animated user  interactions and then hand it off to the developer who can implement the database interaction.

Here’s a link to a tutorial .mov file video to download from Ryan Stewart’s blog (this link is to a tutorial for Catalyst that Ryan posted). He’s a Adobe Platform Evangelist. He also left a comment bellow which gives an idea of when a beta may be released!

Adobe Catalyst title screen capture.

Screenshot from Adobe Labs Flash Catalyst intro movie.

Current ( 2000-2008 ) design salary ranges in the United States. It’s very helpful to know what the salary range is for graphic design and to know where you are on the spectrum.

Adobe launches Acobat.com beta which could replace Office for some? You can access it through your browser or download and install the Acrobat.com AIR desktop application shown in the image above. Click the image to go to Acrobat.com.

Acrobat.com includes file storage, word proccessor, web conferencing, file sharing and a PDF converter. Below is a screen shot of the Acrobat.com AIR desktop application widget view.

Playing guitar

Originally uploaded by evilmutent

I Love guitar and Flickr has the Blog This feature so I might as well start using it?

It’s not one of my shots but I like it.

©

This is one of my first digital paintings with a Wacom tablet. I have a Wacom Intuos 6×11 right now but soon I want to get a Wacom Cintiq 12WX.