Rss Bot

You’re just about to capture the perfect picture when, out of nowhere, someone walks into the shot. Or you’ve nailed the perfect landscape scene, only to notice an ugly road sign in the way. We’ve all experienced the annoyance and frustration of an otherwise perfect picture being spoilt by unwanted objects in the background. Good news is there’s now a quick and even simpler way to remove them. Introducing Luminar 4’s Clone & Stamp and Erase tools. The Clone & Stamp tool works in the same way as a regular clone tool, and is particularly effective on repeating patterns, fine details and man-made objects. Getting the tones and colours to match when using a clone tool is a well-known challenge, but this is where Luminar 4’s secret weapon – the Erase tool – excels. The Erase tool removes objects intelligently, taking textures, patterns and tones from the surrounding image to cover up the object you want to remove automatically. The majority of the time, results are immediate and spot-on. However, a trickier subject will often require some fine tweaking. Let’s take a look at exactly how both of these tools work... 5 simple steps to remove objects from a photo 01. Prep your image Luminar’s Erase tool creates a composite layer from all the already existing image layers, so it’s important to make any exposure adjustments beforehand. Any tweaks or changes made after the Erase tool has been applied won’t show up. 02. Select the Erase tool In the main Luminar interface, select the Canvas workspace via the button towards the top-right corner. Here you’ll find all manner of useful tools, including Clone & Stamp and Crop & Rotate and, the one you’re looking for, the Erase tool. Select it, and a new layer will be created. 03. Erase an object Once selected, you will see the Erase tool consists of a circular brush, with an adjustable slider to choose its size. Using the brush, simply paint over the object you want to remove. Don’t worry too much about being exact, but try to avoid the background as much as possible. 04. Remove multiple objects The Erase tool allows you to remove many objects at the same time. Simply release the brush, alter the size to suit and paint over anything you want to get rid of. 05. Clean up When you have finished painting with the Erase tool and are happy with your selection, click ‘Done’. Use the visibility toggle in the layers panel to see the difference. If the results aren’t right the first time, you can try again on any problem areas, or alternatively use Luminar’s Clone & Stamp tool to make manual repairs… How to use the Clone & Stamp tool Click top right corner of image to enlarge While Luminar’s Erase tool does a fantastic job of removing unwanted objects, more trickier, busy shots might need a bit of fine tuning. This is where the Clone & Stamp tool comes in really handy. Here’s how to make the most of this powerful feature. 01. Create a Clone & Stamp layer Just like with the Erase tool, selecting the Clone & Stamp feature will create a new composite layer to work on. 02. Clone target area To start, select the clone source and then paint over the area in need of repair. Press Alt (Option)-click to select a new clone source. 03. Brush size The clone brush sizes can be changed to suit using the menu on the top toolbar, or right-click on the image to reveal the brush properties panel. 04. Brush sensitivity You can also adjust a brush's soft and hardness options here. A hard brush tends to work well on hard edges, whereas a soft brush is better for blending in areas of softer, shaded areas. 05. Reduce the opacity For really complex areas, which are proving troublesome, try reducing the opacity and using a larger soft brush to help disguise obvious repairs. 06. Review Once finished, click ‘Done’ to generate the Clone & Stamp layer, which you can review or make more repairs on at a later date. Get your copy of Skylum Luminar 4 today Want to give Luminar 4 a go? Right now you can download a free seven-day trial via the Skylum website. Available on both macOS and Windows, should you decide to buy, be sure to use our exclusive discount code CB to save $10/£10 on the regular retail price. View the full article

Creatives everywhere have been waiting for Photoshop on their phones for a long time, and Adobe has finally released Photoshop Camera on Android and iOS devices. Although it may not be exactly what professionals have been yearning for in terms of bringing Photoshop's capabilities to the small screen, it's a fun app that will have its uses – especially for social media users. Photoshop Camera (now out of beta) is powered by Adobe’s Sensei AI, and gives users "real-time Photoshop-grade magic right from the viewfinder" with its powerful effects and filters. Essentially, it uses the AI technology to add flashy lens effects (you'll definitely want the best camera phone to fully enjoy this), and though you can do some basic photo-editing, it's limited to exposure, contrast, saturation and so on. Want the real thing? Here's how to download Photoshop, and some top-class Photoshop tutorials to get you started. Get Adobe Creative Cloud Photoshop Camera's effects are created by influencers and artists, with more added frequently, and Adobe has targeted younger users right off the bat with its inclusion of effects created by pop singer, Billie Eilish. The latest AI technology gives the camera some nifty auto-recognition tricks, which enables it to automatically recommend filters and effects that will best complement the photograph you're about to take. In truth, there may not yet be much here that isn't already found elsewhere (check out more options in our pick of the best photo-editing apps). However, the powerful technology has the capability for further innovation down the line, and the Adobe name means it'll be a platform for some standout creative work. The integrated features, which include the ability to publish to social media straight from the app, make this the perfect companion for a social media user, especially on visual platforms like Instagram. If you're still not using social media to its full extent, here's our guide packed full of social media tips for professional artists and designers. Read more: The best social media schedulers in 2020 5 tips for presenting your work on social media 8 top social media platforms for artists and designers View the full article

If you're looking to buy a WD My Passport, you're in the right place. WD (or Western Digital) creates quality portable drives, which can store countless image, video and audio files. In this guide, you'll find a selection of Western Digital's best external hard drives – from the smaller, lower-priced WD My Passport SSD, to the larger WD My Passport 4TB hard drive. One thing that all of the external hard drives below have in common is that they all have super-fast data transfer speeds and are easy to use. And the best bit? Our clever price comparison tool has found the best deals on each model. WD My Passport: Which model should you buy? When choosing the right one for you, foremost on your mind should be its storage capability. Even though many come in massive multi-terabyte iterations, 500GB is plenty to get you started. But if you want to store lots of large video and/or RAW files, or you want to use your external hard drive for housing games, investing in few more terabytes is a good idea. Other important information to consider before making a purchase is the hard drive's connectivity. The rectangular USB-A ports are slowly being replaced by the newer, smaller reversible USB-C ports, found in all newer generation Macs and PCs. Luckily, we've included all this information, and much more (such the difference between HDD and SSD hard drives) below to help you decide which WD My Passport product is right for you. If you can't find what you're looking for here, don't miss our guide to the best external hard drives available right now. See WD's weekly sales here! The best WD My Passport deals in 2020 The 4TB iteration of the Western Digital My Passport is a top choice. In fact, we rate it so highly, it takes the top spot in our round up of the best external hard drives (mentioned above). You can also get it in 1TB, 2TB and 5TB iterations, but for value for money, this is our choice. It's got a huge capacity to store all your favourite media – perfect for creatives that deal in massive digital files. With the 4TB version, you'll get cloud storage and 256-AES encryption, plus Western Digital's own backup software. Best of all is its great data transfer speeds and, though this HDD hard drive doesn't offer the speed of a solid state drive (SSD) device (see WD My Passport SSD below), the Western Digital My Passport offers a great balance of quick transfer speeds and massive storage without a huge price tag. As detailed below on this page, there are some key differences between a solid state drive (SSD) like this one, and a hard disc drive (HHD). In short, the SSD version of WD's My Passport is far faster at transferring data, and it comes in a smaller shell. You'll have to pay a little more to get the storage up to 1TB or 2TBs, but if you value speed and portability over all else, it'll be worth it. Built for both PC and Mac, the My Passport SSD is compatible with a range of ports – both the USB Type-A and Type-C ports, with the latter able to reach speeds of up to 540MB a second. It's also a sturdy model, made to stand a drop of up to two metres. And it's as compact and portable as they come, proving that great things really can come in small packages. The WD My Passport Ultra 4TB stands out from the My Passport crowd by offering a three-year warranty – a nice addition if you aim to get a lot of use out of it and want peace of mind – and also having a Mac-specific version of the hard drive available (all the models on this page can be reformatted to work with Macs, but this version is ready out of the box). Ever so slightly wider than the WD My Passport 4TB, but a little shallower, the Ultra comes with a metal cover and WD Discovery software for WD Backup, WD Security and WD Drive Utilities. It is USB-C ready, and USB 3.0 compatible with an adapter provided, and there are a range of storage sizes, including the huge 5TB option. Can't find a portable storage device to suit above? Here are some more great WD My Passport deals available now. The difference between HDD and SSD hard drives There are two types of external hard drive: hard disk drives (HDD, also known as mechanical or traditional hard drives) or solid state drives (SSD). An SSD is faster, lighter and less power-hungry, whereas an HDD drive will be cheaper and slower than an SSD. HDDs are also good for storing lots of data as they often have a high capacity. So, if you want to store huge amounts of data while keeping prices low, a HDD is the way to go. But if speed is your top priority – for example, if you move a lot of large files, or want to run programs off the drive – then choose an SSD. Or, you can always use a smaller SSD for files that you need to access or move around often, and then store the other data that you use less often on a higher capacity HDD. Related articles: Best graphics cards Best usb-c monitors Best 4K monitors View the full article

There are few things more satisfying than a well-made logo, and especially when that logo contains a clever surprise that conveys a brand's story. Coming to our attention most recently is the Tostitos logo, which contains a brilliant piece of chip-themed imagery. Tostitos may be more well known in the US, while across the pond in UK the brand's sibling Doritos (which comes with its own clever logo) is more familiar. But we wonder how many chip-consumers in either country have noticed the hidden-in-plain-sight image in the Tostitos logo. It's a neat piece of design we can't believe we haven't yet noticed, and a contender for our pick of the best logos. Take a second to have a good look (below) before we dive in. What can you see? The two capital Ts and the i nestled between tell the story – can you see it now? We clocked the chip and then the dip being used to dot the i almost immediately, but it took another few seconds to realise the Ts also double as people. It's not only that the design plays with the wordmark to create a visually-witty image, but the brand message being delivered is smart too. The image conveys Tostitos as a party brand – sociable and warm in its two pals' chip-sharing nature. The design sure brings the party Tostitos is certainly in good company with its use of hidden imagery, symbolism and meaning in its logo, as this bumper infographic displaying a whopping 50 examples backs up. It's a smart tactic that enables a brand to use its logo to its full effect, and we love spotting them. Read more: This logo contains a delightful hidden surprise 6 magnificently minimal logos Where to find logo design inspiration View the full article

Researchers find six bugs in consumer D-Link DIR-865L Wireless AC 1750 Dual Band Cloud Router. View the full article

Graphic design is quickly becoming an in-demand skill for various industries and job positions, and learning how to become a designer doesn't have to be expensive or impossible. With the right tools and guidance, you can train to be the creative you've always dreamed of right from the comfort of your home. Start achieving your goals with the Graphic Design Bootcamp, now only $15. Starting with the essentials, you'll begin the crash course training bundle by getting familiar with the industry-leading programs included in Adobe's Creative Cloud. With an intro into each program application, you'll get an understanding of each app and acquire valuable tips from the pros for getting your programs started with ease. For more Adobe lessons, try our pick of the best Photoshop tutorials and top Illustrator tutorials. Get Creative Cloud Dive into hands-on projects Once you are organised and comfortable with your desktop setup, you'll dive deep into hands-on projects that allow you to put what you learn into real-world practice. Led by creative director and designer Derrick Mitchell, each project will guide you through essential design principles and step-by-step introductions to Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign software interfaces. You'll learn the ins and outs of design techniques on each platform, and cover essential tools used by graphic designers of all levels. With 65 lectures included, you'll be exposed to projects with downloadable project files for both digital and print mediums, plus learn best practices and techniques for each along the way. Projects on logo design, compositing, business card creation, editorial design, and more will get you started producing work that will help launch your career or merely help brush up your skills. Not only will you have work to show from the course, but you'll learn how to get started creating a portfolio to display your design work. Access to an exclusive private Facebook group will allow you to connect with other students for sharing and critiquing projects. This opportunity will enable you to start getting comfortable with showcasing your work and getting feedback – a variable that every graphic designer must face. Certification of completion is also included upon finishing your projects, adding valuable credentials to your résumé, and future job interviews. While usually priced at over $100, this crash course brings you everything you need to jumpstart your graphic design career for only $15 – that's 88 per cent off! Add valuable skills and credibility to your ongoing creative portfolio and continue learning today with a little help from the pros. *Prices subject to change. Software not included. Read more: The best laptops for graphic design in 2020 Graphic design history: 25 landmark design events 33 must-read graphic design books View the full article

An Apple-made CPU is the tastiest rumour we've heard for sometime, and it seems it's about to come to fruition. It's been suggested by reliable Apple leaker that the company may be about to ditch Intel in favour of its own ARM processor, and that the announcement could be coming as soon this year's online WWDC conference, scheduled to take place on June 22. If the rumours are to be believed, the 12-inch MacBook will be the first model to contain the ARM processor, which could be released in 2021 – giving outside developers enough time to catch up with the technology shift. Want to get the most out of your Apple devices? Try the best monitors for the MacBook Pro, and our pick of the iPad apps for designers you have to try. Browse MacBooks at Apple.com Will the 12-inch MacBook be the recipient of the much-anticipated ARM chip? According to leaker Fudge (@chocobit on Twitter), who shared detailed predictions on Reddit, the move comes as the next stage in Apple's multi-phase plan to have all its devices kitted out with an Apple-designed chip. Plans for this first began back in 2015, with Fudge suggesting Apple is now at the stage which sees the 'release of at least one lower end model Arm Macbook', with the final rollout scheduled for 2023-2025. As Fudge also points out, the move will free Apple from Intel's release schedule, as well as put its market-leading technological know-how into full force. Preliminary testing has, according to Bloomberg, confirmed the superiority of Apple's chips over those of Intel when it comes to graphics, AI and battery life. The A14 chip, found in the upcoming iPhone 12 The prospective Mac processor will be based on the Apple-designed chips currently found in iPad and iPhones (including the A14 chip found in the iPhone 12, above). It should also be noted that the MacBook system will continue to run macOS rather than the mobile device's iOS. We're excited to reap the benefits of the ARM chip, which look to be plentiful, including lightning-fast performance and improved battery life. Crucially, it could also mean that Apple is able to start producing even thinner devices due to fewer internal components – a potential bonus for the overall design aesthetic. But it's not all good news. These rumours also suggest the butterfly keyboard could make a comeback. Apparently, Apple hasn't given up on the system, which was replaced to thundering applause, and is working internally to correct the loud, clunky, prone to jamming setup in order to bring it back on future MacBook models. Here's hoping we hear more news on this next Monday at the annual Apple WWDC. Want a different model MacBook? Here are the best prices in your area: Read more: Is this Apple’s most ludicrous move yet? The best Apple Pencil alternatives in 2020 Apple's 2020 iMac could look like a giant iPad Pro View the full article

The June edition of the New Yorker has been released, with a cover devoted to the history of violence inflicted on black people in the United States. Entitled 'Say Their Names', the powerful illustration features George Floyd, the US citizen recently killed by a police officer in Minneapolis. It shows his body imprinted with images of individual victims, placards, scenes from history and pertinent symbolism. Kadir Nelson's cover art is interactive and can be explored on the New Yorker's website, which describes the feature as a "closeup examination of the artist’s latest cover, in which the murder of George Floyd embodies the history of violence inflicted upon black people in America". As you click through the page, you find out the individual stories of the 18 black Americans featured. The New Yorker cover is a powerful tribute to George Floyd and other victims of police brutality Prominent activists such as Martin Luther King JR and Malcom X – who were both assassinated in the 1960s – are included in the piece, and there are also victims like seven-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones and twenty-two-year-old Stephon Clark, who were both killed in their own homes in the last decade. The final annotation included in the interactive feature is an escaped slave – known as Gordon – whose image was circulated as a key part of the abolitionist movement because of the shocking lacerations on his back. Nelson has depicted moments of historical significance too, including the March from Selma, and the Tulsa Race Massacre, while the 'I Am A Man' placard reflects the protest signs carried by sanitation workers during the Memphis strikes. The mostly monochrome piece is interlaced with blue Periwinkle, which represents the millions of black people who died as slaves in the USA. Periwinkle was often used as a burial flower, and was often the only sign of a burial plot in the case of the resting place of many slaves. Nelson is well-known for his work depicting African-American history and culture. His work is often featured on the cover of the New Yorker, and he has also created cover art for National Geographic (see it above), Ebony and Marvel, amongst other publications. Nelson is one of the many creatives standing up in the fight against racism, in response to the killing of George Floyd and support of the protests currently taking place globally. Read more: Designers create public document listing black-owned studios Banksy reveals brilliant plan for Bristol’s toppled Colston Statue Brands show support for Black Lives Matter View the full article

Designed from the ground up for large scale creative projects, the AMD Radeon Pro VII is the graphics card you need if you’re used to processing large amounts 4K or 8K video – it’ll give you top-level performance in spades. Available at the end of this month, the Radeon Pro VII GPU is an absolute workstation powerhouse built for demanding 24/7 environments and made with the latest stress-tested components. Whether you’re a film maker, editor or VFX specialist, you’ll appreciate the boost it gives your craft. Of course, AMD graphics is behind many world class workstations. The Radeon Pro VII GPU itself uses the latest-generation 7nm manufacturing process and is based around AMD’s market-leading “Vega” architecture, used in some of the world’s fastest supercomputers. With up to 13.1 teraflops (FP32) of high-class graphics performance, it’ll power your Windows 10 or Linux machine through everything you can throw at it – especially as part of a balanced system with a blazing fast CPU like AMD’s Ryzen™ Threadripper™ offering multi-core workstation-level performance. Supercharged If you love working with multiple displays on demanding broadcast or time-sensitive projects, this is the card for you. It boasts six separate mini DisplayPort 1.4 outputs enabling you to drive six individual 4K displays, three 5K displays or a single 8K display. The dual-slot card also boasts support for PCIe 4.0, the latest generation of the hardware interface that offers double the throughput of the previous version of the standard. And with 16GB of state-of-the-art HBM2 memory (second-generation High Bandwidth Memory) on board the card, you won’t run out of headroom for large projects. Memory bandwidth of over a terabyte per second means your pro-level software will absolutely fly, working wonders for heavyweight apps like Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve, Avid Media Composer and Foundry Nuke in 4K or 8K. The Radeon Pro VII GPU has undergone an extensive certification process to help ensure reliability in the high-end software you use every day. Foundry Nuke, for example, may have modest entry level hardware requirements, but it can support multiple GPU processing while advanced features are GPU accelerated. Crucially, the Radeon Pro VII bats away I/O bottlenecks when working on 4K or 8K projects thanks to the stellar amount of memory bandwidth and PCIe 4.0 support. And in DaVinci Resolve, all image processing takes place on the GPU. The AMD Radeon Pro VII offers twice the recommended graphics memory for UHD projects and can easily cope with the challenges from complex 8K projects. “Radeon Pro VII will be a great addition for creative professionals who need a revolutionary PCIe Gen 4 GPU to process both 8K and Blackmagic RAW 6K content in DaVinci Resolve in real time” says Dan May, president of Blackmagic Design Inc. “The support from 16GB HBM2 memory will be great for DaVinci Resolve users who can use the PCIe Gen4 for faster transfers of content and media on projects up to 8K content.” Double up For particularly demanding scenarios you can run two Radeon Pro VII GPUs side-by-side with AMD Infinity Fabric™ Link using a two or three-slot bridge connector available separately. Your premium workstation can then use the combined graphics memory of both cards together, so there’s the potential of 32GB of superfast HBM2 memory at your disposal. AMD is working to make more third-party software apps compatible with this standard. The Radeon Pro VII graphics driver gives you enterprise-grade stability, and performance as well as additional features such as high-resolution screen capture, recording and video streaming. The Radeon Pro VII also supports the GPU-accelerated experience of AMD Remote Workstation so you’re able to access your physical workstation from anywhere, meaning you can get project work done remotely should you need to. The remote workstation capability is built into the AMD Radeon Pro Software for Enterprise driver. The AMD Radeon Pro VII workstation graphics card is purpose-built to deliver high-class performance to media professionals within a reasonable price. Follow @AMD and @RadeonPro on Twitter for all the latest information around the launch of the Radeon Pro VII GPU later this month. View the full article

Designed from the ground up for large scale creative projects, the AMD Radeon Pro VII is the graphics card you need if you’re used to processing large amounts 4K or 8K video – it’ll give you top-level performance in spades. Available at the end of this month, the Radeon Pro VII GPU is an absolute workstation powerhouse built for demanding 24/7 environments and made with the latest stress-tested components. Whether you’re a film maker, editor or VFX specialist, you’ll appreciate the boost it gives your craft. Of course, AMD graphics is behind many world class workstations. The Radeon Pro VII GPU itself uses the latest-generation 7nm manufacturing process and is based around AMD’s market-leading “Vega” architecture, used in some of the world’s fastest supercomputers. With up to 13.1 teraflops (FP32) of high-class graphics performance, it’ll power your Windows 10 or Linux machine through everything you can throw at it – especially as part of a balanced system with a blazing fast CPU like AMD’s Ryzen™ Threadripper™ offering multi-core workstation-level performance. Supercharged If you love working with multiple displays on demanding broadcast or time-sensitive projects, this is the card for you. It boasts six separate mini DisplayPort 1.4 outputs enabling you to drive six individual 4K displays, three 5K displays or a single 8K display. The dual-slot card also boasts support for PCIe 4.0, the latest generation of the hardware interface that offers double the throughput of the previous version of the standard. And with 16GB of state-of-the-art HBM2 memory (second-generation High Bandwidth Memory) on board the card, you won’t run out of headroom for large projects. Memory bandwidth of over a terabyte per second means your pro-level software will absolutely fly, working wonders for heavyweight apps like Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve, Avid Media Composer and Foundry Nuke in 4K or 8K. The Radeon Pro VII GPU has undergone an extensive certification process to help ensure reliability in the high-end software you use every day. Foundry Nuke, for example, may have modest entry level hardware requirements, but it can support multiple GPU processing while advanced features are GPU accelerated. Crucially, the Radeon Pro VII bats away I/O bottlenecks when working on 4K or 8K projects thanks to the stellar amount of memory bandwidth and PCIe 4.0 support. And in DaVinci Resolve, all image processing takes place on the GPU. The AMD Radeon Pro VII offers twice the recommended graphics memory for UHD projects and can easily cope with the challenges from complex 8K projects. “Radeon Pro VII will be a great addition for creative professionals who need a revolutionary PCIe Gen 4 GPU to process both 8K and Blackmagic RAW 6K content in DaVinci Resolve in real time” says Dan May, president of Blackmagic Design Inc. “The support from 16GB HBM2 memory will be great for DaVinci Resolve users who can use the PCIe Gen4 for faster transfers of content and media on projects up to 8K content.” Double up For particularly demanding scenarios you can run two Radeon Pro VII GPUs side-by-side with AMD Infinity Fabric™ Link using a two or three-slot bridge connector available separately. Your premium workstation can then use the combined graphics memory of both cards together, so there’s the potential of 32GB of superfast HBM2 memory at your disposal. AMD is working to make more third-party software apps compatible with this standard. The Radeon Pro VII graphics driver gives you enterprise-grade stability, and performance as well as additional features such as high-resolution screen capture, recording and video streaming. The Radeon Pro VII also supports the GPU-accelerated experience of AMD Remote Workstation so you’re able to access your physical workstation from anywhere, meaning you can get project work done remotely should you need to. The remote workstation capability is built into the AMD Radeon Pro Software for Enterprise driver. The AMD Radeon Pro VII workstation graphics card is purpose-built to deliver high-class performance to media professionals within a reasonable price. Follow @AMD and @RadeonPro on Twitter for all the latest information around the launch of the Radeon Pro VII GPU later this month. View the full article

Researchers warn that the Earth Empusa threat group is distributing the spyware by injecting code into fake and watering-hole pages. View the full article

When the highly mysterious (cough...confusing) trailer for Christopher Nolan's latest film arrived in December, it was accompanied by a simple yet effective logo, with the final two letters of the palindromic title flipped upside-down. While this has led to various fan theories about a symmetrical structure for the film itself, the real mystery is how the studio managed not to spot that its logo already existed. Ensuring that your logo isn't easily mistaken for another is one of the fundamental rules of our logo design guide (which it seems Warner Bros would do well to read). After the trailer was released, a bicycle company named Tenet Components posted to Instagram, complaining about the "apparent negligence" of the logo's similarity to its own: This is where it gets interesting. Rather than faceless legal correspondence from the studio, Tenet Components' owner Tyler Deschaine received a letter (below) from Christopher Nolan himself. The letter assured him that the similarity was coincidental, and noted that Nolan designed the logo himself "over the last six years" (perhaps one of our Photoshop tutorials could have sped things up a little). Tenet Components' email from Christopher Nolan (as posted to its website) Deschaine shared the email in a blog post on Tenet Components' website, along with his reply, asking that Nolan's logo "use a different font or stylisation" to make it more distinct from his own. Lo and behold, the latest Tenet trailer features an updated logo (below) with the same font as before, but the final two letters no longer upside-down. The movie's new logo It's refreshing to see a situation like this resolved so amicably, with no apparent bitterness on either side – Nolan's personal offer to stop using the logo seems particularly gracious in a world of lawsuits and cease-and-desists. But it also feels like an admission that, yep, his logo is literally the same as Tenet Components – and the bike company got there first. Perhaps Nolan can take some solace from the fact that he isn't the first to lose a logo race – the US government recently had the Space Force logo swiped by Netflix. Next time it comes to designing a logo, we'd recommend Nolan checks out our logo design inspiration guide. it's full of tips for kickstarting the creative process and coming up with an original design that you won't have to back-pedal on. Read more: Punisher creator campaigns to reclaim controversial skull logo for Black Lives Matter Banksy reveals brilliant plan for Bristol’s toppled Colston Statue Fan ‘fixes’ video game logo – but is it better than the original? View the full article

It's no secret that making a good first impression is crucial in the professional world. That's especially important when pitching ideas for the first time or trying to win over new clients. A rock-solid, visually pleasing pitch deck is a necessity for displaying the credibility you need. If you're in a creative industry that continually needs presentations, the Slides Pro Plus Plan may be for you. Read on to learn more about this lifetime subscription, now only $49. This innovative slide editor solution is intended to assist in curating decks that help pitch ideas, raise business capital, drum up late-stage funding, or present the latest metrics on a campaign. Creating a presentation? The best infographics will keep your audience interested. Create presentations with zero stress Available straight from your Google Chrome browser, this presentation maker is a stress-free fix to creating decks that can many times take hours to create. Working with co-workers or collaborators to create stunning presentations, especially during tight deadlines, has never been easier. You'll get started by choosing from hundreds of customisable templates that reflect various themes, and use or take away elements. The easy to use interface will allow you to change the style of your deck by picking a preset or create your design combinations and add your company brand colours, logos, assets, and content. You can even add custom animations with a new Auto-Animate feature. Add all your information with just a few clicks, and voilà – you've got yourself a brand new presentation deck. Once you've accomplished your desired visual look and feel and your content is set, you'll be able to send your deck to anyone with ease. Control your slides from your phone during a presentation with Live Present Mode and even use your phone as a remote with your presentation notes attached. With innovative tracking, you'll be able to review who has viewed your deck and follow up with the right people that are genuinely invested in your ideas. The tracked metrics will allow you to optimise your pitch based on real-life results, and further customise your next round of decks based on your findings, streamlining your process efficiently. While a lifetime subscription to Slides Pro Plus Plan is usually priced at over $500, you can start creating stunning presentations today for only $49 – that's 90 per cent off! Dominate your presentation skills and easily create decks that make a lasting impression with just a few clicks. *Prices subject to change. Read more: 5 tips for presenting your work on social media How to be a better speaker: presenting and pitching tips View the full article

In 2020, we are blessed with a number of frameworks and libraries to help us with web development. But there wasn't always so much variety. Back in 2005, a new scripting language called Mocha was created by a guy named Brendan Eich. Months after being renamed to LiveScript, the name was changed again to JavaScript. Since then, JavaScript has come a long way. In 2010, we saw the introduction of Backbone and Angular as the first JavaScript frameworks and, by 2016, 92 per cent of all websites used JavaScript. In this article, we are going to have a look at three of the main JavaScript frameworks (Angular, React and Vue) and their status heading into the next decade. For some brilliant resources, check out our list of top web design tools, and this list of excellent user testing software, too. 01. Angular AngularJS was released in 2010 but by 2016 it was completely rewritten and released as Angular 2. Angular is a full- blown web framework developed by Google, which is used by Wix, Upwork, The Guardian, HBO and more. Pros: Exceptional support for TypeScript MVVM enables developers to separate work on the same app section using the same set of data Excellent documentation Cons: Has a bit of a learning curve Migrating from an old version can be difficult. Updates are introduced quite regularly meaning developers need to adapt to them What's next? In Angular 9, Ivy is the default compiler. It's been put in place to solve a lot of the issues around performance and file size. It should make applications smaller, faster and simpler. When you compare previous versions of Angular to React and Vue, the final bundle sizes were a lot a bigger when using Angular. Ivy also makes Progressive Hydration possible, which is something the Angular team showed off at I/O 2019. Progressive Hydration uses Ivy to load progressively on the server and the client. For example, once a user begins to interact with a page, components' code along with any runtime is fetched piece by piece. Ivy seems like the big focus going forward for Angular and the hope is to make it available for all apps. There will be an opt-out option in version 9, all the way through to Angular 10. 02. React React was initially released in 2013 by Facebook and is used for building interactive web interfaces. It is used by Netflix, Dropbox, PayPal and Uber to name a few. Pros: React uses the virtual DOM, which has a positive impact on performance JSX is easy to write Updates don't compromise stability Cons: One of the main setbacks is needing third-party libraries to create more complex apps Developers are left in the dark on the best way to develop What's next? At React Conf 2019, the React team touched on a number of things they have been working on. The first is Selective Hydration, which is where React will pause whatever it's working on in order to prioritise the components that the user is interacting with. As the user goes to interact with a particular section, that area will be hydrated. The team has also been working on Suspense, which is React's system for orchestrating the loading of code, data and images. This enables components to wait for something before they render. Both Selective Hydration and Suspense are made possible by Concurrent Mode, which enables apps to be more responsive by giving React the ability to enter large blocks of lower priority work in order to focus on something that's a higher priority, like responding to user input. The team also mentioned accessibility as another area they have been looking at, by focusing on two particular topics – managing focus and input interfaces. 03. Vue Vue was developed in 2014 by Evan You, an ex-Google employee. It is used by Xiaomi, Alibaba and GitLab. Vue managed to gain popularity and support from developers in a short space of time and without the backing of a major brand. Pros: Very light in size Beginner friendly – easy to learn Great community Cons: Not backed by a huge company, like React with Facebook and Angular with Google No real structure What's next? Vue has set itself the target of being faster, smaller, more maintainable and making it easier for developers to target native. The next release (3.0) is due in Q1 2020, which includes a virtual DOM rewrite for better performance along with improved TypeScript Support. There is also the addition of the Composition API, which provides developers with a new way to create components and organise them by feature instead of operation. Those developing Vue have also been busy working on Suspense, which suspends your component rendering and renders a fallback component until a condition is met. One of the great things with Vue's updates is they sustain backward compatibility. They don't want you to break your old Vue projects. We saw this in the migration from 1.0 to 2.0 where 90 per cent of the API was the same. How does the syntax of frameworks compare? All three frameworks have undergone changes since their releases but one thing that's critical to understand is the syntax and how it differs. Let's have a look at how the syntax compares when it comes to simple event binding: Vue: The v-on directive is used to attach event listeners that invoke methods on Vue instances. Directives are prefixed with v- in order to indicate that they are special attributes provided by Vue and apply special reactive behaviour to the rendered DOM. Event handlers can be provided either inline or as the name of the method. React: React puts mark up and logic in JS and JSX, a syntax extension to JavaScript. With JSX, the function is passed as the event handler. Handling events with React elements is very similar to handling events on DOM elements. But there are some syntactic differences; for instance, React events are named using camelCase rather than lowercase. Angular: Event binding syntax consists of a target event name within parentheses on the left of an equal sign and a quoted template statement on the right. Alternatively, you can use the on- prefix, known as the canonical form. Popularity and market Let's begin by looking at an overall picture of the three frameworks in regards to the rest of the web by examining stats from W3Techs. Angular is currently used by 0.4 per cent of all websites, with a JavaScript library market share of 0.5 per cent. React is used by 0.3 per cent of all websites and a 0.4 per cent JavaScript library market share and Vue has 0.3 per cent for both. This seems quite even and you would expect to see the numbers rise. Google trends: Over the past 12 months, React is the most popular in search terms, closely followed by Angular. Vue.js is quite a way behind; however, one thing to remember is that Vue is still young compared to the other two. Job searches: At the time of writing, React and Angular are quite closely matched in terms of job listings on Indeed with Vue a long way behind. On LinkedIn, however, there seems to be more demand for Vue developers. Stack Overflow: If you look at the Stack Overflow Developer Survey results for 2019, React and Vue.js are both the most loved and wanted web frameworks. Angular sits down in ninth position for most loved but third most wanted. GitHub: Vue has the most number of stars with 153k but it has the least number of contributors (283). React on the other hand has 140k stars and 1,341 contributors. Angular only has 59.6k stars but has the highest number of contributors out of the three with 1,579. NPM Trends: The image above shows stats for the past 12 months, where you can see React has a higher number of downloads per month compared to Angular and Vue. Mobile app development One main focus for the big three is mobile deployment. React has React Native, which has become a popular choice for building iOS and Android apps not just for React users but also for the wider app development community. Angular developers can use NativeScript for native apps or Ionic for hybrid mobile apps, whereas Vue developers have a choice of NativeScript or Vue Native. Because of the popularity of mobile applications, this remains a key area of investment. Other frameworks to look out for in 2020 If you want to try something new in 2020, check out these JavaScript frameworks. Ember: An open-source framework for building web applications that works based on the MVVM pattern. It is used by several big companies like Microsoft, Netflix and LinkedIn. Meteor: A full-stack JavaScript platform for developing modern web and mobile applications. It's easy to learn and has a very supportive community. Conclusion All three frameworks are continually improving, which is an encouraging sign. Everyone has their own perspective and preferred solution about which one they should use but it really comes down to the size of the project and which makes you feel more comfortable. The most important aspect is the continued support of their communities, so if you are planning to start a new project and have never used any of the three before, then I believe you are in safe hands with all of them. If you haven't had a chance to learn any of the three frameworks yet, then I suggest making it your New Year's resolution to start learning. The future will revolve around these three. This content originally appeared in net magazine. Read more: The next big thing in web design: 7 trends you need to know The best JavaScript libraries The best laptops for programming in 2020 View the full article

A group of designers and architects have come together to create a public Google file compiled of design, architecture, engineering or planning studios founded by black, indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC). Entitled BIPOC Studios, the list was created following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, and aims to promote opportunities at these design studios, and those owned by women or non-binary people. Set to public, anyone can view the spreadsheet, which also includes whether the studios are hiring and any specific opportunities available. Architect Dong-Ping Wong, one of the brains behind the spreadsheet, announced the project on June 4, the same day the list was made live. His most recent post (above) shares the success of the project up to that point, along with a request to "keep it going", and details of how to add a studio to the list. If you want to be included on the database, Wong asks for a DM or email to bipocstudios@gmail.com with details of your studio. On the BIPOC Studio sheet is the list of studio names, whether they are black or indigenous owned and if the owner is female or non-binary. Though job vacancies are included, Wong is quick to point out that designers shouldn't be put off if it appears a studio isn't hiring. "Send them your portfolios anyway," he says. "It doesn't mean they aren't hiring and trust me you never know where an office is at week by week, including mine." The other creatives involved in the BIPOC Studio spreadsheet are Louis Vuitton menswear artistic director/founder of Off-White Virgil Abloh, designer Mahfuz Sultan, artist Hassan Rahim, architects Dominic Leong, Joey Swerdlin, Naïla Opiangah, Oana Stănescu, Preeti Sriritana, and critic Esther Choi. This group is just one of the many examples of the way creatives are standing with the black community in the fight against racism. Read more: Brands show support for Black Lives Matter Punisher creator campaigns to reclaim controversial skull logo for Black Lives Matter Banksy reveals brilliant plan for Bristol’s toppled Colston Statue View the full article

Whether you use it for work, entertainment or to shout about things from inside the White House, there's no denying that Twitter can be a quite a fiery place. The social media platform has recently been doubling down on the spread of misinformation and now, in an attempt to promote informed discussion, Twitter is testing a new prompt asking if users really want to share an article they haven't actually read yet. It's easy for articles to go viral on Twitter based on their headline alone, and while you'd hope most users actually read what they share, time is of the essence when there's an argument to be won (especially in 280 characters). If this tweak does help curb misinformation, perhaps it could finally nudge Twitter into our list of the best social media platforms for artists and designers. There are some limitations to the feature. Not only is it currently being tested exclusively on Android, but it can also only detect when an article has been opened within Twitter itself. This has already proved a point of contention for some users carrying multiple devices, or those (we assume there are still a few) who don't find all of their news on Twitter: One parody news website has found an amusing way to prove Twitter's point. The Science Post published an article with the headline: 70% of Facebook users only read the headline of science stories before commenting. It has currently been shared almost 130,000 times – despite the article itself being made up entirely of filler 'lorem ipsum' text. As you might expect (this is Twitter after all), the response to the feature has been heated. Those who disapprove have accused the social media platform of "playing God" and treating its users "like toddlers". Others have welcomed the proposal, calling it a "great initiative" and a "superb concept". Twitter's product lead Kayvon Beykpour expanded on the rationale behind the idea: Time will tell whether the feature will make it beyond Android testing. In the meantime, now that you've reached the end of this article, feel free to share it on Twitter. You could even use one of our favourite social media schedulers, if you're busy. Read more: Netflix swipes Space Force logo from the actual Space Force Punisher creator campaigns to reclaim controversial skull logo for Black Lives Matter Banksy reveals brilliant plan for Bristol’s toppled Colston Statue View the full article

Tonight, after much anticipation, Sony finally revealed its next generation Playstation 5 video game console (above). Hailed by CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment Jim Ryan as "the most striking design console yet", the PS5 consists of a brilliant white outer case wrapped around a black core system, complete with blue LEDs. When you compare the PS5 design to the ever-so-drab PS4, its fair to say Ryan has a point. However not everyone, including us, is totally sold on this 'striking design'. As one might expect, Twitter was quick to react to the new console, with many users quick to point out – and mock – the PS5, saying it bares a striking resemblance to that of a wifi router: However there are some loving the PS5's 'sexy' new look: So what do we think? Honestly? We're not quite sure yet. There's no denying the PS5's design makes an impact, but we've got various questions about its build and functionality. For example, we've yet to see how the console looks laying down, or, indeed, if it even can (especially the one with the built-in disc drive – how does that work?). We do, however, admire the bold, brilliant white colour change after countless years of all-black designs, although how long it will stay shiny white out of the box remains to be seen. There's also something to be said for the PS5 being the polar opposite of the Xbox Series X. It would have been easy to follow the signature black console design, but Sony's brave move to stand out means there's certainly no confusing them. It's interesting how the Xbox also had its fair share of ridicule when it was released, with the likening of it to a fridge so relentless, Microsoft crafted a special tweet to clarify the situation (below). Right now the PS5 design feels very much like a marmite situation, people either love it or hate it, with very few in between. Except us, maybe. We can totally appreciate the amount of brave decision-making, time and effort that has gone into the design, we're just not 100% sold on the end product. We'll certainly never look at our wifi router the same again, that's for sure. When will Playstation 5 be released? The official PS5 reveal did not include or share any definitive launch dates or price for the console, however Ryan did confirm that the system is still on track to be released later this year. If you can't wait that long, or aren't bothered about getting your hands on the shiny new futuristic device, here are the best PS4 prices in your area: View the full article

A brand new series of Looney Tunes has begun airing on HBO MAX, with new episodes designed to capture the look and feel of the well-loved originals. But while classic characters such as Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd have returned, one detail hasn't survived the transition to streaming in 2020 – Elmer Fudd's gun. In fact, there are no guns whatsoever in the new series. "We're not doing guns," executive producer Peter Browngardt told the New York Times. That means along with Elmer Fudd's famous shotgun, Yosemite Sam's pistols won't make the cut either. Whether these weapons are part of the characters themselves is up to you (although our character design guide does prove that it's possible to design an iconic character sans guns). While guns might be disappearing, less realistic forms of violence will remain. "We can do cartoony violence," Browngardt told the Times. "TNT, the Acme stuff." (Acme is the cartoons' fictional corporation whose products often catastrophically backfire). With the show pretty much entirely based on animated characters fighting one another, we're unsurprised to hear that there'll still be some, you know, fighting. Still, it seems explosive TNT isn't enough for some people. Many fans were outraged to hear of Elmer Fudd's farewell to arms. "Sam and Elmer Fudd are nothing without their trademark weapons" one Twitter user argued, while another (above) claimed the missing gun was like Yosemite Sam losing his moustache. So, what has Elmer's gun been replaced with? A giant scythe. In some ways, you could argue that a huge, sharp scythe is just as terrifying as a gun – but it's probably worth remembering that, while gun culture is an actual thing, as far as we're aware, scythe crime isn't rife. One Looney Tunes artist recently clapped back (above) at those outraged, claiming that the potential for gun jokes is limited, and "the old guys" already had them covered. Michael Ruocco also took the opportunity to explain the decision: "Our show started production in late 2017, early 2018. Right on the heels of a record number of mass shootings." Whatever your views on the removal of the guns, it's refreshing to hear that the team are using it as an opportunity to get creative. If the lack of guns hasn't put you off (and to be honest, we hope it hasn't), you can catch Looney Tunes on HBO Max – but only if you're in the US. If you're not, you could do a lot worse than snapping up a free trial for that other brilliant, brand new streaming service, Disney Plus. Read more: Netflix swipes Space Force logo from the actual Space Force Punisher creator campaigns to reclaim controversial skull logo for Black Lives Matter Banksy reveals brilliant plan for Bristol’s toppled Colston Statue View the full article

In a twist that feels straight out of a sitcom, the US government has reportedly had global trademark rights for its new 'Space Force' swiped from right under its nose – by none other than the Netflix comedy of the same name. In case you've been living under an asteroid, the real Space Force is a new branch of the Armed Forces dedicated to, er, space. According to Popular Mechanics, Netflix began submitting applications for 'Space Force' in January 2019, long before the US Department of Defence. As a result, Netflix, whose parody series premiered on 29 May, now own rights to the official Space Force logo (below) in Europe, Australia, and Mexico and more. Conversely, the US government merely owns a pending application for rights to the logo in the US itself. Just goes to show it's not just the quality of your logo that matters (even if its one of the best logos of all time) – rights are equally important. The US Space Force logo In practice, this might not be a huge issue for the American government – US copyright law allows duplicate trademarks to coexist, as long as they're in "completely unrelated" fields. Nobody is likely to confuse a comedy show about a Space Force with an actual Space Force. Things could get more complicated, though, when it comes to merchandise. As The Hollywood Reporter says, if the logo ends up on an item of clothing, "who’s selling? The U.S. military or Netflix?". Basically, if the real Space Force decides to branch out into T-shirts, things could start to get messy. Branding-wise, the US Space Force has had a rather turbulent time. When the logo was first revealed this January, its similarity to Star Trek's Starfleet logo caused a furore online. Its Netflix namesake has had an equally rough ride, with some abysmal reviews (The Verge called it "an astonishingly bad show") – the show may have been aiming for the stars, but reviewers haven't been quick to hand them out. If you're looking for logo inspiration, our logo design guide will teach you everything you need to know before embarking on a brand identity project. Just make sure you get it trademarked. Read more: Punisher creator campaigns to reclaim controversial skull logo for Black Lives Matter Banksy reveals brilliant plan for Bristol’s toppled Colston Statue Fan ‘fixes’ video game logo – but is it better than the original? View the full article

Seventy percent of the U.S. population uses email daily. It comes as no surprise that every entrepreneur tries to involve email marketing in his or her business. Don’t make the same mistake as the majority of newcomers: Choosing Outlook or …View the full article

Because remote workers' devices are all connected to a home network, they don’t even need to be attacked directly. Instead, attackers have multiple avenues of attack that can be exploited. View the full article

Two critical flaws in Intel AMT, which could enable privilege escalation, were patched along with 20 other bugs in its June security update. View the full article

For digital creative, our workstation setups are incredibly important. They help us create our art, and offer the tools and performance we need to work comfortably. But, over the years, these workstations have evolved from big and bulky desktop computers, to thin, light and mobile laptops, like the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo, which give you all the features you need to unleash your creativity without being chained to a desk. So, let’s look back at the kind of workstations we used to use for our creative work, and how we’ve ended up with a powerful, mobile and feature-packed modern workstation that is the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo. Power and performance Throughout their history, workstations – especially ones designed for digital creatives – have represented the pinnacle of power. This means they’ve always been packed with some of the most cutting-edge components around – especially when it comes to processor, graphics and RAM. After all, the more powerful the workstation, the quicker it’s able to complete complex tasks, such as rendering 3D scenes and editing high-definition video. In the early days of workstations, these powerful PCs were large, power-hungry, devices. They needed large cases to fit in all the hardware, as well as allowing plenty of airflow to keep those powerful components cool. They were also fitted with loads of fans to help with the airflow. While these kept the hardware cool, it also meant they could be pretty noisy with all the fans kicking in at once. These PCs also needed plenty of electricity to keep everything going, which meant large and heavy PSUs (Power Supply Units), which again added to the size and weight of those older workstations. For anyone who had to move desks or change studios, you’ll remember how difficult these workstation PCs were to shift! A big workstation revolution happened with the creation of all-in-one PCs. These had their components built into their screens, which meant they are much more convenient. Their designs save you space on your desk, they are easier to move, and there are no ugly wires lying all over your desk. Over the years, all-in-one workstations have become ever more powerful, while also getting slimmer, though they have struggled to match the performance of traditional desktop PCs. Meanwhile, workstation laptops have also been growing in power, and many of them now can compete with desktop PCs when it comes to power, thanks to the continued evolution of mobile components. They also offer the portability that desktop and all-in-one workstations can only dream of. The ultimate mobile workstation, the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo, is a perfect example of this. It features a high-end 8-core 9th Generation Intel® Core™ i9 and can come with up to 32GB of RAM, which means it can give even the most powerful of desktop PCs a run for its money. It also comes with Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics cards, which allows the ZenBook Pro Duo to handle graphically-intensive tasks with ease. Digital artists can also use advanced ray-tracing lighting effects thanks to the GPU. Intel and Nvidia have both been working hard on getting their mobile components as small as possible, while offering performance that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago. Along with the advanced cooling technology Asus has included in the ZenBook Pro Duo, this is an impressively thin, light and powerful device that means it doesn’t just feel like an evolution of those big and bulky desktop workstations of yesteryear, but an entirely new species altogether. Sight and sound For most creatives, the workstations they used were only as good as the peripherals they plugged into them. Years ago, this meant having an expensive, professionally-calibrated, monitor for photographers and video editors who needed top-notch image quality and accurate colours. Meanwhile, if your main creative outlet is music, or working with sounds, then you’d need to plug in professional-grade speakers, so that you can hear your work the way it’s supposed to sound. These extra peripherals were essential, but they also meant spending more money – and they were yet more devices to cram on top of our increasingly-crowded desks. Fast-forward to today, and the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo does away with the need for expensive extra monitors and speakers, proving that it’s the ultimate all-in-one workstation. It features a gorgeous 15.6-inch 4K OLED display that supports 100% DCI-P3 colour space, as well as sRGB. It can handle HDR (High Dynamic Range) content for mind-blowingly vibrant images, and it’s Pantone validated as well. In short, it’s the ultimate screen for creative professionals, and it’s built right into the laptop. The Asus ZenBook Pro Duo’s no slouch when it comes to audio, either, with Harmon Kardon-certified speakers. The Asus audio team worked with Harmon Kardon to ensure the speakers in the ZenBook Pro Duo sound perfect, with smart amplifier technology that lets you whack up the volume without the sounds distorting, making this the laptop a formidable workstation for musicians and producers. Extra screen space It’s hard to believe, but not too long ago, we had to make do with cramped 3:2 aspect ratio monitors with our workstations. These boxy screens didn’t give us much room to work with, especially if you wanted multiple apps open at once. Thankfully, widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio monitors became more popular throughout the 2000’s, and this extra screen real estate was a blessing for creatives. However, what if you wanted even more space? Back then, the answer was clear: get another monitor. Hooking up two (or more) screens to your workstation is a revelation when it comes to productivity, as you’re able to have multiple windows open with ease, allowing you to quickly switch between the apps and tools you need. Extra screens come at a price, though, and we’re not just talking financially. The more screens you have plugged into a workstation, the more crowded your desk becomes. The Asus ZenBook Pro Duo is a unique workstation laptop because it actually comes with two screens built-in. Not only does it have that gorgeous 15.6-inch 4K screen up top, but there’s a second 14-inch 4K touch display, known as the Screenpad Plus, above the keyboard. By dragging apps and windows down to the second screen, you instantly free up the main screen so you have even more space to work with. The Screenpad Plus can also hold tools and menus from your creative apps, giving you quick and easy access to the features you use the most. Drawing tablets and digital canvases For digital artists, a workstation wasn’t complete without a drawing tablet hooked up to it. These devices allow you to draw with a stylus, and your pen-and-brush strokes will appear onscreen in the creative app of your choice. They are the ideal tool for anyone who wants to make the move from traditional drawing and painting to digital art. Drawing tablets aren’t just for drawing on, either; they let you write and annotate digitally as well, making them perfect for note taking. They’re great devices but – you’ve guessed it – they are also an additional gadget that can take up room on your desk. Modern workstations have evolved to include touchscreens that allow you to draw or write directly into your favourite apps, either using your finger or a stylus. Meanwhile, the ZenBook Pro Duo takes this even further. Not only is its main 15.6-inch screen a touchscreen, but so too is the Screenpad Plus. With the Screenpad Plus located on the bottom of the laptop, above the keyboard, it can be used like a drawing tablet, and it’s incredibly comfortable – and convenient – to use. Once again, the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo proves it’s the ultimate creative workstation by learning from the past and looking to the future. View the full article

With Apple's WWDC event just around the corner (albeit in online-only form this year), rumours are rife about what products might appear during the presentation on 22 June. With the focus of WWDC normally on software, we can safely expect to see our first glimpses of iOS 14 and macOS 10.16. But new leaks suggest some exciting hardware updates could also be coming our way. According to Apple leaker Sonny Dickson (below), the company plans to reveal a brand new iMac, with an updated design inspired by the iPad Pro. This suggests an all-screen design with much thinner bezels. The 2019 iMac is already our best computer for graphic design, but with an even more immersive display, this new model sounds guaranteed to bump it from the top spot. As well as the edge-to-edge display, Dickson says the new iMac will feature AMD Navi graphics and an Apple T2 Security Chip. It will also do away with the mechanical fusion hard drive, in favour of entirely flash storage. Browse Mac computers at Apple.com Could the new iMac resemble the Pro Display XDR? While we don't know what display size to expect, smaller bezels should mean more screen real estate, which will no doubt make the new iMac an enticing proposition for digital artists. "Don't be wrong about this," one Twitter user replied to Dickson, while another adds, "If this is real, my wallet is about to get lighter". Apple's Pro Display XDR for the Mac Pro also features tiny bezels, so perhaps the new iMac will resemble the 2019 monitor (above). At $4,999 (plus $999 for a stand), though, that monitor costs almost four times the price of the basic iMac, so we can't see its high dynamic range making its way to the 2020 iMac – not without a significant price jump, at least. While new products are usually announced during Apple's keynote presentation on the first day of WWDC, the online-only event will be taking place from 22 - 26 June, via the Apple Developer app. But you don't have to wait until then to get hold of an incredibly powerful iMac – check out today's best deals below. Read more: Is this Apple’s most ludicrous move yet? Apple iPhone 12 design finally revealed (and it’s not what we expected) Move over iPad Pro – the new iPad Air could be incredible View the full article

Marvel fans know the Punisher as a vigilante who first appeared in a Spiderman comic back in 1974. Since then, his image has controversially been co-opted by several groups as a political symbol – including during the Iraq war as an unofficial symbol of the U.S military and, most recently, by police officers protesting against the Black Lives Matter movement. With the aim of reclaiming the skull as a symbol of justice, rather than "lawless oppression", Gerry Conway, co-creator of the Punisher, launched Skulls for Justice, a charity t-shirt campaign, with all proceeds going to BLM. Skulls for Justice began after Conway sent a tweet asking asking young artists to lend their talents to a fundraising project, the results of which Conway shared yesterday. The BLM – Skulls for Justice project is now live, consisting of a range of t-shirts displaying redesigns of Frank Castle's iconic skull emblem alongside a Black Lives matter tagline. And as Conway said in another tweet, the set is also numbered – for the collectors out there. Responses on Twitter show the campaign struck a chord from the outset, with lots of artists praising the project and asking how to get involved. Many fans are grateful to have the skull brought back into the comic book domain, after years of seeing it used elsewhere. Some voices on Twitter questioned whether the Punisher can even be seen as a symbol of justice at all, to which Conway responded: "I agree that's an open question. What it must *not* be is a symbol of oppression. I want to deny police the use of the symbol by claiming it for BLM. Call it irony." Conway is not the first to take issue with the use of the skull insignia by the police. Last year, the plot of Punisher issue 13 saw Frank Castle tackling the police over the matter, and asking them to stop supporting him as the 'anti-hero'. Members of the comic book community have also been quick to point out that the Punisher is a mass murderer, with no concern for the law – not the most obvious choice for a police symbol. And Marvel themselves have recently stated that they are "taking seriously" any unauthorised use of the insignia. This issue has provoked an outpouring of support among the comic book community, a response we are seeing across the board. For more, see our post on how creatives are standing with the black community in the fight against racism. Read more: Brands show support for Black Lives Matter New Banksy artwork supports Black Lives Matter Banksy reveals brilliant plan for Bristol’s toppled Colston Statue View the full article