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Are you ready to take your photos to the next level? You've come to the right place. This Photomatix Pro Plus Bundle is packed with tools and plugins to help you transform your photos quickly and easily – and right now it's available for a bargain price. Read on to learn more about the features in this complete photo transformation bundle. For more options, check out our guide to the best photo apps and photo editing software. Photomatix Pro If you use Lightroom regularly, you know that its high dynamic range (HDR) merge feature offers just one HDR style, limiting your desired photography results. Photomatrix Pro features six HDR styles, and over 40 built-in presets, bringing you endless options so you can find the perfect effect for each image. A free plugin for Lightroom is included, making it a seamless complementary pairing to your usual photo processing process. Other features include batch processing, advanced options for removing ghosts, the ability to blend a source exposure into your final image using a Brush Tool, and so much more. Photomatix Essentials Designed to simplify and expedite the process of creating HDR imagery, Photomatix Essentials helps to composite multiple exposures into a single image to gain greater detail than a single exposure can record. With four HDR styles and 30 preset effects, the program utilises an intuitive interface with the ability to fine-tune the final appearance of your imagery. Lifetime access to the user-customised presets come complete with automatic ghost removal and so much more. Tone Mapping Plugin for Photoshop If you're looking for a transformation tool to integrate with Photoshop, this software is for you. Bring your photos to life in Photoshop with the easy to use Tone Mapping Plugin. Features include contrast optimiser and tone balance rendering, advanced options for blending, flawless finishing (sharpening and contrast), and so much more. You'll be able to enhance images easily and edit your photos with impact. The Photomatix Pro Plus Bundle is valued at over $250, it's currently price-dropped to only $39 (that's 84% off). Kick-off 2020 with a bang and turn your images into stunning pieces of art. View the full article

The Super Bowl is a big deal for lots of reasons, so you'd be forgiven for thinking that there'd be a huge budget to create an incredible brand identity. Not so, it seems. The latest logo for next year's Super Bowl LV in Tampa, Florida has just been leaked, and as logos go, it's pretty underwhelming (and that's us being nice). The new Super Bowl 2021 logo (above) looks almost exactly like the logo for this year (below). Neither is very exciting. And as Brits who haven't grown up watching the games, we have to admit that it took us a while to figure out that the new logo isn't supposed to say LIV, but just LV. (If you're not in the US and do want to get involved, see our guide to how to live stream the Super Bowl for free.) As we detailed in our logo design guide, a good logo should be legible and understandable for those who don't know much about the brand. It doesn't look like this new logo will be making it into our list of best logos anytime soon. The current logo for Super Bowl LIV (not LIIV, apparently) What's different between this logo and the current one? Well... there's no extra 'I', so it doesn't read LIIV, just LIV (to the untrained eye). And the colour of the banner below the letters is now orange, instead of green. Wonderful. We can only assume this is supposed to represent something about the location of the event, but it's not immediately obvious what. Is it supposed to represent Florida's oranges, perhaps? Anyway, the logo follows the template for other Super Bowl logos, as you can see by looking at them in all their marvellous glory below. And while you could argue that this is similar to the PS5 logo debate, in which designers complained that Sony had just used the same logo as always but added a different number, at least the PlayStation logo is actually good in the first place. (Too harsh?) A history of Super Bowl logos in all their glory People on social media were quick to point out their disappointment. Others are still hung up on the 'LIV' thing from this year's logo. On the sort of bright side, there is also this host committee logo, which at least looks like it makes some sort of nod to the setting. There's a ship... and a ball, so that's something Overall, we've got our fingers crossed for 2022. But we won't be holding our breath. Via SportLogos.net Read more: The best Super Bowl commercials ever: and what creatives can learn from them Mock Cleveland Indians logos highlight racist double standards iPhone 11: Surprising design decision revealed View the full article

Apple's next range of iPhones has been the subject of much speculation and rumour, and news of an unexpected change to the handset design is the latest thing to cause a stir. Recent reports suggest there is going to be a significant update to the colour range available for Apple's next smartphones, predicted to be released in late 2020. Apple will be scrapping its Midnight Green shade, and replacing it with a new Navy Blue finish across the pricier iPhone 12 Pro range. Granted the placeholder name is a little underwhelming, but the shade is bang on trend right now: Classic Blue is Pantone's Color of the Year 2020. The new colour options would then be Space Grey, Silver, Gold or Navy Blue (name to be confirmed – we're hoping Apple goes for something a little more imaginative in its official release). This is pretty big news for Apple fans. If you're already an iPhone user, see our guide to the best free iPhone apps for designers. Alternatively, explore Apple's biggest competitors in our guide to the best camera phones 2020. The story comes from industry insider Max Weinbach and has broken on the popular YouTube channel EverythingApplePro, run by Filip Koroy. Check out his renders of how the new shade might look below. A new Navy Blue shade could be joining the iPhone 12 Pro lineup The decision is particularly surprising because it was the Midnight Green that sold out first when the iPhone 11 launched, suggesting this was the most popular shade. However, if Koroy's renders prove accurate, we think this replacement finish is going to look pretty sweet. Perhaps Navy Blue will be the colour to go for in 2020? There's also more speculation surrounding the housing design on the 2020 iPhones. Previous predictions stated the iPhone 12 would adopt a more angular design that harks back to the iPhone 4, but recent reports suggest the iPhone 11's current, curvier casing will be sticking around a little longer – perhaps because a squared design is chunkier and more awkward to hold. There's also more news on the expected sizing for the iPhone 12 range, which looks set to get a fairly major shakeup. Watch the video below for more details. Check out TechRadar's iPhone 12 predictions page for everything else we know so far. Read more: 2021 iPhones could be completely portless – what?! Apple Pencil vs Apple Pencil 2: which should you buy? The best cheap Apple laptop deals in 2020 View the full article

Hailing from Abcoude, a small town near Amsterdam, Nadieh Bremer’s data-visualisation projects are quite simply a joy to behold. Combining a keen understanding of statistics and the stories they can tell, her work pushes both the aesthetic and the communicative possibilities of this ever-evolving medium to reach new and exciting places. Illustrating everything from the differences between dogs and cats for Google to the absurd number of digital trackers that you gather when you browse the web for the New York Times, her projects have won numerous awards and stand as an inspiration for anyone wishing to pursue data visualisation. Ahead of her appearance at GenerateJS, the conference helping you build better JavaScript, on 2 April in London, Bremer explains how she made the journey from astronomy to data viz (learn more about data visualisation here), her go-to tools and how she sees the discipline developing in the future. This data viz Bremer worked on for Google News Lab explores the most popular questions that people have asked on Google to better understand their cats and dogs Could you briefly introduce yourself to anyone who doesn’t know you? I focus on the ‘creative’ side of data visualisation. I custom-make each visual to fit the data, goal and topic and love to spend time experimenting with the design side of things to make the eventual visualisation look both visually pleasing while still being effective. I like to take on the bigger datasets to visualise – those that have a lot of diversity, so I can show context and other stories besides the main insight. I’ve been freelancing under the name of Visual Cinnamon for almost three years. I work mostly on pieces that are used for marketing – either internally or externally – used for articles (in print or online), press releases or maybe even some data art for in the office. How was it that you originally got into data visualisation? My story starts with astronomy. I’ve always loved the topic and studied it full-time for five years at university. But I also knew the next academic step wouldn’t make me happy. So after I graduated in 2011, I decided to join the new analytics department of Deloitte Consulting. The word ‘data scientist’ hadn’t even reached the Netherlands then, so I was a ‘consultant advanced analytics’. I was doing analyses on people and companies instead of stars. Different but still fun and a lot more diverse actually. Yet after about three years, I started to lose my passion for data analysis. I didn’t enjoy spending that extra hour making my predictive model just a tiny bit better. During a data-science conference in 2014, I saw the speaker Mike Freeman calling himself a ‘data-visualisation specialist’ on the first slide. And then it hit me like lightning: ‘You can do data viz as a separate thing?!’ So what was it about data viz that struck such a chord? It combined the maths/data/exact side that I enjoyed with the creative side that I’d also always had. So from that conference onwards, I started to dedicate all of my spare time to learning more about data viz: reading books to learn about the best practices as well as doing personal projects to get better with d3.js. Created for the Data Sketches collaboration Bremer did with Shirley Wu, Olympic Feathers visualises all gold medal winners of the summer Olympics since the first games in 1896 You went freelance in 2017. How has your career developed since then? Going into freelancing is one of the best professional steps that I’ve ever taken; I’ve not regretted it for a single day. I’ve had the opportunity to work with clients I thought I could only dream about, such as Google, UNESCO and the New York Times. I’m also enjoying the wide breadth of clients and datasets I now get to work with, from small startups to big names and from magazines or non-profits to corporates. I generally try to have three to four clients at the same time, so that I can switch between them throughout the week. I might be working on some science-related research, cultural heritage and what people search online for about cats and dogs, all in the same week. I’m still keeping my fingers crossed that maybe the WWF, Disney or NASA/ESA will come knocking on my door at some point. What are your go-to tools? I use R to do my data preparation and analysis at the start of a project. This helps me build a mental model of what the data is about, where the interesting aspects to visualise are and how to restructure the data in a way that I need for the visual. I design using either plain pen and paper or with the Tayasui Sketches app on my iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, so the designs really stay rough. From there, I then go to Visual Studio Code to program my data visualisation with d3.js and JavaScript. Depending on the amount of data to show or the complexity of interactions, I’ll create it with SVG for simpler things or HTML5 Canvas for larger visuals. On some rare occasions I might also create the visual with three.js if the data is really big. Finally, if the finished piece is going to be a static image, I’ll export the visual I’ve made in JavaScript to Adobe Illustrator to add some final touches that are easier to do there than through code, such as a legend or annotations. That said, I’ve recently started to work with and enjoy Affinity Designer and might completely migrate to that for my vector work in future. Get Adobe Creative Cloud What are the biggest mistakes people tend to make when they are creating data visualisations? Not taking the time to think about the visual form they’ll put their data into. I see a lot of people who think that any chart form will work just as well – bar chart, line chart – as long as the data is made visual. They just go straight from the data in a sheet to the ‘available chart list’. However, getting the basic chart form right is actually the most important factor in determining whether the visual will be effective. So take some time to think about your goal. What does this visual need to teach people and what is the best way to convey this? Even sketching out some very rough possibilities and trying different chart forms can make all the difference. Created for the Graphic Science page of Scientific American, this visual reveals the different seasonal patterns that appear when babies are born in the US What do you love most about your work and which parts are the least fun? What I love most is the designing of the visual and creating the static part through code. To build up the idea with the actual data, start to experiment with design ideas and see it slowly come to life. The least fun part – aside from reading and creating contracts – is making the visual work on both mobile and desktop: there’s such a giant difference in space available to work with! It puts a no-fun constraint on my creativity. I’m also quite bummed out when I need to compromise on a design idea I have because the browser can’t keep up in terms of performance. And don’t get me started on browser bugs… What’s been your proudest career moment so far? Winning Best Individual at the Information is Beautiful Awards in 2017. Getting that kind of recognition when there were so many amazing people to choose from just blew me away. I didn’t see it coming and went on stage at the ceremony totally unprepared, overwhelmed and exceptionally honoured. It really boosted my self-confidence, especially since starting out as a freelancer that year had been such a scary step. How will data visualisation change over the next 10 years? I truly have no idea but it’s certainly getting bigger. Companies seem to understand more and more that data visualisation is a good investment and that if you want it done well, you need to hire an expert. The number of people wanting to work in data viz is also growing exceptionally fast, perhaps even faster than demand. So what would you like to see happen? Maybe in 10 years someone will have figured out how to do good data viz through AR/VR. I also hope that the general audience will have gained better graphical literacy through regular exposure to data visualisation in the news, at work and at school. A longer version of this article was originally published in issue 328 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 328 or subscribe to net. Learn how to build better JavaScript at GenerateJS Join us in April with our lineup of JavaScript superstars including Nadieh Bremer at GenerateJS – the conference helping you build better JavaScript! Book before 5pm on 31 January to save £110 with Early Bird Tickets at generateconf.com Read more: Explore data visualisation with p5.js 35 incredible dataviz tools The top 20 data visualisation tools View the full article

Looking to streamline your creative workflow? Meet the editing tool designed to enhance how you work during every part of the editing process. Loupedeck Creative Tool (Loupedeck CT) brings the tools you use into one powerful, precise and perfectly designed console. Loupedeck CT is a powerful, adaptable and custom console – designed to save you time without sacrificing creative integrity. Create and switch between as many customised workspaces as you need, and go from pen to brush, design to video, or jump between software – all with a quick tap or turn of the finger. Intuitive user experience Loupedeck CT is designed to facilitate a seamless workflow Loupedeck CT is a 'no-fuss' tool that meets the demands of the most complex and versatile creative workflows from photo, design, video, animation and even audio. The team at Loupedeck understand how essential it is to have a console that works in sync with the tools and software you normally use, without any interruption to your workflow. Loupedeck CT provides a seamless experience with your software and will display the tools you use across each working environment, meaning you can switch between Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop, and have instant access to the tools required in each environment. With Loupedeck CT, you can truly enhance the way you work with unlimited customisation possibilities and the ability to organise all tools and functions into workspaces. You can match your editing style by creating as many custom workspaces as you want, which can then be assigned to Loupedeck CT’s colour-coordinated buttons and touchscreens. Ease of use Getting started with the Loupedeck Creative Tool is quick and easy. Simply download the Loupedeck software, plug in your Loupedeck CT using its detachable USB, and select the software you wish to use. By default, Loupedeck CT comes with a set of predefined tools and default workspaces, so you can get started editing in a matter of minutes. To make the integration into your workflow even faster and minimise any learning curve, Loupedeck CT comes with a variety of default workspaces, arranged by project type and editing style. Switching between tools and functions is easy Out of the box, Loupedeck CT provides native support for: Adobe Lightroom Classic Adobe Photoshop Adobe Illustrator Adobe Premiere Pro Adobe After Effects Adobe Audition Final Cut Pro X Ableton Live Who is Loupedeck CT for? Get precise control with this pro editing tool The Loupedeck Creative Tool is a pro-grade editing tool that meets the demands of those who work rigorously within a variety of creative environments and software. Loupedeck CT’s premium build gives you precise control over your work. Easily make incremental edits and fine adjustments with the turn of one of CT’s tactile dials, or dive deeper than ever into colour grading with intuitive access and control over colour panels. This is a console for someone looking for complete customisation and deeper control of their software. It's equipped with high-quality aluminium cover and dials, touchscreens and LED backlighting, while machine-quality ball bearings provide a premium haptic feel. If you’re a pro editor and find yourself doing repetitive tasks within Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, or find yourself wanting to dive deeper into video editing with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects, then Loupedeck CT is for you. Sound interesting? Loupedeck CT is available for purchase in the Loupedeck Online Store, Wex Photo Video in the UK, and other specialty photography stores across Europe and US for $549/£469/€499. View the full article

If you missed all the early January sales, never fear. Today Adobe has launched an amazing deal, shaving an impressive 20% off some of its top creative apps for users living in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The price reduction applies to image editing favourite Photoshop, vector graphics editor Illustrator, web development tool Dreamweaver, desktop publishing app InDesign, motion graphics software After Effects and video editing powerhouse Premiere Pro. Usually £19.97 / €23.99, this mega deal means you can now get hold of them for just £16.18 / €19.19 each, per month. But you'll need to be quick, this is a four-day-only offer, ending on Monday 27 January (11pm GMT). If you're not in EMEA regions, be sure to check out our dedicated Adobe Creative Cloud discount page for the best deals in your area. All of Adobe's apps are fully integrated, so you can switch between them (and jump from one device to another) seamlessly – whether you’re out and about or in the studio. Built-in templates help you jump-start your designs, while step-by-step tutorials will help you sharpen your skills and get up to speed quickly. Need the whole suite of Adobe apps? Here are the best Creative Cloud deals in your area: Related articles: Top-class Photoshop tutorials to hone your skills The 13 best alternatives to Photoshop The best web hosting services for designers View the full article

The Feds have warned on six vulnerabilities in GE medical equipment that could affect patient monitor alarms and more. View the full article

Back in 2010, Isaiah Mustafa became a sensation when he took on the role of Old Spice guy, in a range of commercials for the range of male grooming products of the same name. Now 10 years on, Old Spice guy is back, with a clever and hilarious new take on the already clever an hilarious TV spots of old. Not familiar with Old Spice guy? Allow us to introduce you. He's the manliest man you've ever met. He's the man you dream your man could be. He's 'the man your man could smell like' (with a little help from Old Spice). The range of viral TV ads showed Mustafa engaging in a range of swoon-worthy activities: strolling topless across the deck of a boat and producing an oyster that opens to reveal two tickets to 'that thing you love', before the tickets turn into diamonds, for example. Get reacquainted in the ad below. (For more clever marketing efforts, see our roundups of the best print ads and the best billboard ads around.) While the ads haven't aged badly, and it's all as tongue-in-cheek as it is possible to be, the 'anything is possible when your man smells like Old Spice and not a lady' probably isn't the most engaging messaging for today's gender-stereotype-shunning new generation. The decade-on range of adverts plays smartly on this, introducing Old Spice Guy's effortlessly cool son, who cringes as his dad carries on with his overtly manly ways. There's a new tagline too: Smell like your own man, man. There's the log-balancing, there's the slick waist-towel removal, and most importantly, Old Spice guy is still on that horse. We can't get enough. Read more: Pepsi reveals baffling new tagline Hilarious campaign tries to rebrand Meat Loaf Real-life renders of animated bedrooms are strangely disappointing View the full article

The critical flaw exists in Cisco's administrative management tool, used with network security solutions like firewalls. View the full article

Most brands feel by now that they need to have a presence on Instagram, but the extent to which they establish a clear visual identity on the social media platform can be patchy. Still only a small minority of businesses hire designers to create a feed with a consistent visual message. As a result many of the most creative Instagram feeds are those of designers and agencies. But some brands are showing how it can be done, using designed feeds to create a brand look. Whether it's through careful use of colour, intervention in the images, or something else, they create an impact and draw eyeballs to the account. On top of that, they also allow the brand to be identified from the visual style without us even needing to see a logo. Here, we look at seven accounts that use unique design to create a brand personality. For more on curating your Insta feed, see our post on how to change the font in your Instagram bio. 01. Halo Top Creamery Colour and superb food styling make Halo Top’s feed stand out The personality of “healthy” Ice cream brand Halo Top’s Instagram feed has been part of its success, helping it expand rapidly despite little advertising. The product is the star of the feed, but it’s presented in an exuberant way that’s immediately identifiable thanks to clean images and airborne packaging on minimalist block colour backgrounds. Art direction from Peck Design Associates and some superb food styling have given the feed the power to stop thumbs and ultimately pinch market share from better-known competitors. 02. Owl and The Pussycat Hotel Consistent design interventions highlight OTP Hotel's quirky personality For the service industry, it’s more difficult to measure the impact that Instagram has on conversions, and so hotels are yet to fully exploit the possibilities to create consistent visual personalities on Instagram. Many opt for a loosely curated patchwork of user-generated content and their own imagery. They might occasionally throw in shots from an influencer trip but there’s often little guiding aesthetic. Owl and the Pussycat, a boutique hotel in Sri Lanka, really stands out from the crowd with a fun feed that runs with the spirit of the Edward Lear nonsense poetry that inspired its name. Designed by Hermana Creatives, the feed features collages of images, videos and stop-motion pieces overlaid with vintage illustrations, often including magical, almost anthropomorphised animals. The interventions mean that a post from the hotel can be immediately recognised without needing to see the name or logo. 03. Versace The Versace Holiday Sage is very, very Versace Fashion is logically one of the areas to take most advantage of the visual possibilities of Instagram. Most fashion brands opt for a capsule approach rocking the look of different seasons for a couple of months before switching to a different style, passing through different tones and colours. Versace largely follows this format, but the brand’s #VersaceHolidaySaga saw the feed dovetail with a holiday campaign developed by Sarah Baker for something distinct and utterly Versace. Themed like a retro Latin soap opera, the feed playfully sends up the brand's own brash glamour with hazy soft-focus shots of big haired soap stars in storylines that involve treacherous relationships. With captions like “When Jacob proposed, Cairo didn’t hesitate to accept. Little did she know his real motives,” how can you but follow? 04. Tiffany & Co Tiffany & Co shows that one colour can be enough to identify a brand feed The jewellers Tiffany & Co also designs its feed around capsules, but it always comes back to the immediately recognisable visual content of gleaming product close-ups with tell-tale accents in trademark Tiffany Blue. It’s a great example of how a legendary heritage brand can use Instagram to modernise its appearance and reach a new customer base. The egg blue colour instantly identifies the feed as Tiffany, while a modern edge and storytelling takes the audience deeper into the brand's contemporary world. 05. Lush cosmetics Lush mixes cosmetics porn with causes they believe in Lush makes great use of often very varied user-generated content intermixed with images of soaps and mud masks, while also heavily promoting causes that the business believes in. It's a varied mix, but strong design in its own posts and close curation bring it all together to create a consistent and credible personality. Cause marketing continues to grow as we enter 2020 and Lush makes it feel genuine through the way it's integrated as a regular feature in the brand's usual posts. 06. Femme and Fierce Femme and Fierce shows a little detail can go a long way This account from women’s clothing line Femme and Fierce shows how even the most simplistic effect can create a consistent and recognisable visual identity. Using little more than background colour and interventions around the figures of models and the clothes they’re wearing, it creates something that can be recognised as a brand style. It’s a nice plus that the style of the interventions in the images nicely follows the line of the micro-interactions on the brand’s website, creating consistency across the two platforms. 07. Juniper Oats Studio Unique patchwork puzzles make Juniper Oats' feed immediately recognisable Juniper Oats Studio sells art prints, but its Instagram feed itself merits framing. Its style can be immediately recognised from its jigsaw of asymmetrical cross-grid patchwork puzzles. Every image blends in not only to the frames next to it, but also the images above and below, creating an infinite grid that’s attractive and ingenious. Accompanied by a consistent colour palette, the device becomes the signature of this brand and its main calling card. Read more: How to turn on Instagram's Dark Mode How to download Instagram photos: A complete guide 6 questions you need to ask your new client View the full article

Launched in November last year, Disney Plus has become a huge hit over the past few months. Already one of the biggest streaming services of the new year, Disney Plus is now available in the US, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand. And there's much anticipation building about the launch of Disney Plus UK and Europe on 24 March 2020 – a week earlier than expected! Looking at what's on offer, it's not hard to see why Disney Plus subscriptions have become so popular. The on-demand services hosts over 500 movies and 7,500 TV episodes produced by Walt Disney Studios. This includes all the classic Disney films, as well as content from Disney's Marvel, National Geographic, Pixar and Star Wars brands. And there's plans for even more hit films and original content yet to come... Disney Plus shows: what's included? It feels like it would be easier to list here what Disney Plus doesn't include. When it comes to content, this streaming service is seriously impressive. First and foremost, users can access all the classic Disney movies and shows, which in itself offers hundreds of hours of entertainment. But the Disney team hasn't stopped there, instead offering blockbuster movies and TV shows from the Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, Pixar and The Simpsons (every single season, just saying) brands too. And there's no signs of content slowing down, with more hit shows looking set to hit Disney Plus throughout 2020. We have to say, the amount and quality of content available here is a pretty mind-boggling. And it's, frankly, unbelievably low cost makes it really excellent value for money. If, by some miracle, you do manage to find a hit film or TV show that isn't listed on Disney Plus, you can bet it won't be long until it is. Be sure to keep an eye on the official Disney Plus Twitter feed for details of any new releases. Is Disney Plus worth it? We're sure all the information so far has answered this question already. But just to be clear, the answer is, unequivocally, yes. Disney Plus and all it's delights will set you back a measly $6.99 / £5.99 per month. That's the same price you pay for the lowest monthly Netflix fee in the UK. And, let's be honest, the non-HD stream to a single device service is nothing to shout about. A bumper Disney Plus pack also available in the US for $12.99 gives users access to Hulu and ESPN Plus streaming services too. How to get a Disney Plus free trial If you're not sure whether a Disney Plus subscription is the right service for you, a seven-day Disney Plus free trial is available via the website. Available with standard membership, this completely unrestricted Disney Plus free trial is a great way to see if the service and content is what you expected. Seven days might not seem like long, but it should plenty of time to help you get a feel for how Disney Plus works and whether you like what you see. If you decide Disney Plus isn't right for you, you can avoid a month's bill by simply cancelling your Disney Plus free trial like so: Log into Disney Plus Click on your user profile Select 'Account' and 'Billing details' Click 'Cancel Subscription' Click 'Complete Cancellation' Et voila! You're done. Disney Plus UK: when will it be available? As mentioned above, the launch of Disney Plus UK takes place on 24 March 2020. You can register your interest in the meantime via the Disney Plus website, which will ask for your email address to notify you when the service becomes available. For those of you lucky enough to download the service now, follow the links below to get signed up. View the full article

Leading publisher DK – formerly known as Dorling Kindersley – has had a modern rebrand courtesy of Angus Hyland at Pentagram. The update encompasses a new tagline ('For the curious'), refreshed brand narrative, and a clean, confident new visual identity. The striking new DK logo is a particularly welcome update. The previous brand marque (below) – also designed by Pentagram – was starting to look a little overthought and old-fashioned. The detailed, multicolour design was also not well suited to use in digital contexts. While you're here, you might also want to check out our roundups of essential books for graphic designers, and the best branding books of 2020. The previous DK logo was starting to look dated This cleaner version keeps the same format – an open book motif housing the ‘DK’ monogram – but makes it simpler and bolder, with bespoke new letterforms. This redesigned logo (below) is more flexible for use in both print and digital contexts, to fit changing demands. The new DK logo is clean, clear and suitable for digital contexts Taking an iterative approach rather than opting for something completely new is a smart move, capitalising on the brand's existing reputation (the original logo is recognised around the world). We're also pleased to see the monogram's serifs have endured in this era of bland sans-serif rebrands. The pared-back DK logo is designed to scale well and work effectively on multiple platforms and applications. The single-colour approach also means it's much more flexible, and can be featured in a variety of colours and finishes to suit different contexts, and fit more seamlessly into the company's different book cover designs. The single-colour logo can be integrated more effectively into different book cover designs DK is an award-winning British multinational publishing house and an imprint of Penguin Random House. It specialises in illustrated reference books and non-fiction for adults and children, on subjects including travel, lifestyle and science. The new tagline – 'For the curious' – captures the DK's mission to encourage exploration and discovery. Find out more on the Pentagram case study page. Read more: New Gucci logo is the most bizarre thing we've ever seen The PS5 logo we all wanted is here New GoDaddy logo is a massive improvement View the full article

WebAR is on the rise, thanks to the biggest obstacle facing app-based AR. You see, since augmented reality became a big thing, the best experiences have been app-based. Think Pokémon GO, or any of those handy AR features that have been added to brand apps, from ASOS to IKEA. But while this type of AR offers advanced technical capabilities, trying to get people to download an app can be tricky. That's why people have started looking seriously into WebAR; it may not have the power of full AR but it still has plenty of potential for experimental design that can enthral your users. Here's what you need to know about it. The changing landscape of augmented reality What is WebAR? WebAR refers to augmented reality experiences that are accessed through a web browser rather than an app. This means all you need is your smartphone or tablet and an internet connection, without having to download an app directly onto your phone. At the moment WebAR offers a limited selection of the main features possible using app AR, including simple animations, video and a certain degree of interactivity. WebAR can also support image target detection to trigger experiences. How do you build it? Because this is a web application, there are platforms that support the creation of WebAR that are similar to normal web development platforms. We've been using A-Frame, which enables the creation of 3D assets and environments using a web framework that looks similar to HTML. A-Frame and other applications are supported by 8th Wall, which is currently the leading SLAM tracking SDK for WebAR on the market. What are the benefits? WebAR projects such as this Google Easter egg are much more accessible than AR apps (click the image to find out more) As already mentioned, the overwhelming benefit to WebAR is the fact you don't have to download an app directly to your device. With an app, the size, data allowance for download and device type etc can all prove a bar to getting people to use AR, but WebAR makes it more immediately accessible and doesn't eat up people's data through chunky downloads – in turn helping AR campaigns and experiences to be more relevant and useful. What's more, WebAR can run to a certain extent on most browsers – so you don't necessarily have to have a certain specification of device in order to support AR, again increasing the reach of a particular experience. What are the limitations? It's still early days for WebAR, so there are limits. Performance is simply better on an app, where there's capacity for more memory and therefore better visuals, better animations and better interactivity. One of WebAR's challenges is the limit of your operating system's web browser – there's only so much memory a web page can have, which has a knock-on effect on the visual and performance quality. What's more, a web page can only have access to certain parts of the device you're using, whereas a native app can access all of a device's capabilities. Because of these things, an AR experience through a web browser will be more basic than that through an app – meaning if you want the convenience of WebAR, you need to be thinking of simple but effective experiences instead. What will WebAR be like in the future? At the moment, it's hard to say. As mentioned, WebAR is currently limited mostly by the browser – so how much the technology will develop rather depends on what the big players like Google and Apple develop. What seems certain is that Apple is very much betting on AR, so it would be both beneficial and make sense for them to build their own AR capabilities straight into their operating system – and a web browser is the simplest option. In any case, Web AR is proving the case for quick and convenient AR experiences that, although simple, can have a real impact – so it's likely we'll only be seeing more of this capability in the future. Vertex is the place to be this February Join us in London for our unmissable event for 2D and 3D artists, featuring workshops from over 20 professional artists from film, video games, VFX and illustration. Book now: vertexconf.com This article was originally published in issue 253 of 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists. Buy issue 253 here or subscribe to 3D World here. Related articles: AR.js is bringing augmented reality to the web How to code an augmented reality marker 7 apps that made us go 'wow' in 2019 View the full article

The cool thing about animation is that while the elements of a story may feel familiar – perhaps the characters are human, and live in the sort of houses we recognise – the animated format allows us to suspend our disbelief. Things happen in cartoons that wouldn't happen in real life. And largely, as an audience, we'll happily accept that. And when designers are creating sets for their character designs (see our character design tips for advice on crafting your own), they can also forget the practicalities of interior design. On an animated set, it doesn't matter if the bed frame looks like it cost big bucks, or whether a shelf would in reality be able to hold that many books, or whether it's really practical to live in a tree. As long as it looks good and works in the animation, it's all gravy. With this in mind, Budget Direct and NeoMam Studios have come up with realistic renders of what six well-known animated TV bedrooms would look like in real life. And the results are a bit of a mixed bag. Most are oddly disappointing: real life sure is dull. Let's take a look – click the arrows to compare the 3D render with the original animated bedroom. And if you're after more on TV houses, then see this artist's illustrations of TV home floor plans. First up, Finn the Human from Adventure Time has had his bedroom made into a lifelike render, and it really doesn't look very nice. It probably would be a bit dingy living in a tree, now that we think about it. Morty's bedroom in Rick and Morty was never the most inviting of spaces. The walls are a bit cracked, the posters are hung wonky, but somehow in the cartoon, it works. In real life, it looks like any other teenage bedroom – although we do still like the rug. And how have we only just noticed that the carpet is green? In the manga series Sailor Moon, Serena Tsukino's bedroom is a fun pink haven. In real life, it looks kind of normal... dowdy even. Although from an interior design point of view, we do quite like those curtains. (See how to draw manga if you'd like to create your own manga world.) Perhaps our favourite is the reimagining of Glimmer's room in She-Ra and the Princess of Power. Here, some of the elements that make the room magical, such as the floating staircase, have been transformed over to the render. Perhaps in order for animated sets to feel impressive in real life, they need the more outlandish and unreal elements of cartoons. Or perhaps it really is just all about colours and lighting. See the whole series of animated TV bedrooms brought to life over at Budget Direct Home Insurance's site. Read more: Parody posters reveal the truth behind Oscar-nominated movies Graphic design in film: the ultimate guide Netflix wins rights to Studio Ghibli films View the full article

Two tiny triangular houses in Norway have sparked fierce debate on Reddit. The 'Pan Treetop Cabins' are named after the Greek god of forests and meadows and draw inspiration from the Moomins' magical homes in the work of Tove Jansson. The homes themselves are fitted compactly into A-frame cabins, clad in black oxidised zinc and steel. These are perched, seemingly precariously, on spindly stilts. Visitors access the cabins via free-standing spiral staircases and elevated walkways. The lofty abodes were designed by architect Espen Surnevik and are located in Gjesåssjøen, Norway. Take a video tour below. These charming, long-legged structures are a passion project driven by journalist Kristian Rostad and actress Christine Mowinckel, who recruited some specialists to help bring their vision to life. The houses have actually been nominated for several design awards. However, that hasn't put off grumpy commenters on Reddit, who have plenty to say about just how impractical they think the design is. Let's take a closer look at some of main lines of argument and try and answer the question: is this the most magical home design in existence, or is it wholly impractical? For more architectural triumphs, both practical and impractical, explore our guide to the world's most famous buildings. 01. Woah, that's too many stairs You can always take a break halfway to enjoy the view Many commenters seem extremely worried about the spiral staircase that provides access to the cabin. "I'm thinking about coming home with multiple bags of groceries after working OT. It's a nope," says one. Have these people never lived in a flat? Or even a two-storey house? Look at the scale here – it's two floors' worth of steps maximum. Able-bodied visitors, you can probably manage it. Even while holding your bags of kjøttboller and aquavit. On the same theme is the issue of decorating the flat. "Getting the furniture in there must have been fun," jokes one Reddit user. They may have a sort-of point here. But then again, it's a very small cabin, and it's already been furnished. How those first interior designers got the sofa in will remain a mystery, but until it comes time to redecorate, it's not an issue. 02. That doesn't look very stable "Better hope it’s not windy," writes one concerned commenter. Obviously, this has been addressed. Those legs may look spindly, but they are powerful. In fact, a scientist – Finn-Erick Nilsen – was enlisted to make the calculations that would ensure the structure was nice and stable. The designs can apparently "withstand the force of a double hurricane". There's an added bonus in that you'd never have to worry about flooding, either. And we're betting any heavy snowfall would slide off that steep roof no trouble. 03. Is this a zombie apocalypse house? Also great for avoiding bears We'd have to do some more research to properly assess how this Moomin-style house would fare against a zombie army, but on first impressions we think it looks pretty good. "Zombies would take those skinny legs out in no time," says one commenter – but we've already debunked that theory (see discussion point #2 above). In fact, while a zombie invasion remains distant, there are practical benefits you can enjoy today. These huts are two hours from Oslo, in a huge ecological reserve – which means there are plenty of elk, venison, wolves, bears and lynxes roaming around. So perhaps it is better to be a little elevated. 04. You forgot to build the other half! Those views, though "I think they forgot to build lower floors" says one commenter. "The scene hasn't finished loading yet," quips another. Neither are really valid points. One major selling point here is the views. And the whole aesthetic plays on the idea of a charming little treehouse from a storybook. You want a massive triangular base on that? No. It'd ruin it. Size isn't everything. 05. What about wheelchair users? Entirely valid. Can't argue here, this is no good at all for anyone with mobility problems. Perhaps the next version could find a way to integrate an equally magical lift? It's also going to be a bit of a nightmare for tall people, but they can probably just stay right in the centre. Read the full Reddit thread here, or check out more photos on the Boutique Homes rental site. Read more: What is biophilic design and how can it increase creative productivity? Mid-century modernism: 15 iconic examples Boutique hotels: 10 of the world’s best design hotels View the full article

We know loads of you are impatient to add WhatsApp to your collection of apps with an eyeball-friendly dark mode, so here's some great news: it's kind of available right now for some of you. Clearly that's the sort of announcement that's leading up to a big 'but', and if that's what you're thinking then you'd be right. If you went to update your WhatsApp right now then you'd probably come away disappointed. However, if you're using Android and you don't object to having a beta Android apps on your phone then your luck's in, as WhatsApp has released a new version, complete with dark mode, for beta testing. Instagram and WhatsApp get a rebrand As discovered by WABetaInfo, the new beta replaces the usual WhatsApp looks with shades of dark grey rather than the battery-saving black used in most dark modes. So while it's less likely to make a great deal of difference to the amount of time you'll need between recharges, we reckon it's a little easier on the eye than other dark modes. To be honest, it could be a little darker We've no idea how long it's going to be until this version comes out of beta and is available for everyone; WhatsApp is being typically tight-lipped on the matter. If you can't wait to give your app a deliciously umbral makeover, though, it's pretty easy to get in on the beta programme and download the update. To get the WhatsApp dark mode you'll need to be signed up for its beta programme; the bad news is that, as with the iOS beta, the massive demand for new WhatsApp features means it's full, so if you haven't signed up already then you're out of luck. Though fingers crossed they'll be another round soon. If you're in the special beta club then you should be able to update the app to the beta version right now. If you want to check that you have the right version, simply long-press on the app icon and select 'App Info', then select 'Advanced' and scroll down until you see the version number. As long as it's 2.20.13 or higher then you're good to go. If for some reason that hasn't worked, it's still possible to install the update, but this method is perhaps not for the faint-hearted. You'll need to download the APK for 2.20.13 and install it manually; if that feels a little hardcore then maybe you should just wait for the official release. Once you're all updated you can open the app, tap 'Settings' and select 'Chats', where you'll find a new 'Theme' option with three settings: 'Light', 'Dark' and 'System default'. There's also an option for users of Android 9 or lower to put the app into dark mode whenever your battery's getting low; choose 'Set by battery saver' to enable it. Of course, none of this is any use if you're on iPhone. However as soon as we hear that dark mode is properly available for iOS, we'll let you know. Related articles: How to turn on Instagram's Dark Mode Slack dark mode is live! Here's how to activate it How to implement light or dark modes in CSS View the full article

Valentine’s Day is one of the biggest holidays for couples and people who want to express gratitude to those who they love. Although it is the national day of chocolate, flowers, and restaurants, it does not mean that other businesses …View the full article

We love a good creative challenge on social media, and right now there's one going on that presses all the right buttons. We're not entirely sure where or when the #ToonMe challenge originated. We were alerted to it by a tweet from our old friend Ben the Illustrator, and since then we've fallen down an online rabbit hole of people all over the world partly overpainting selfies with cartoon versions of themselves. 17 imaginative web comics to inspire you The rules seem to be nice and simple: just snap a selfie (try to make it an exciting and expressive one), take it into your favourite art app and paint over part of your portrait in your own particular cartoon style. (If you're stuck you can always follow our guide on how to draw manga, and check out our best iPad drawing apps for art app ideas.) Then post it on Twitter and Instagram with the #ToonMe and maybe #toonmechallenge hashtags attached. Sit back and watch the online adulation flood in. Many people are putting some kind of dividing line down the centre of their faces to enhance the look, and extending the toon-ified area to take in some of the background, but from our adventures scrolling through hundreds of #ToonMe posts today we can safely say that the best approach is to go with whatever looks right to you. If you need inspiration then there's an awful lot of it about; it's hard to keep up with the flood of #ToonMe posts right now, especially if you're viewing them on Twitter where it tends to crop the images and you have to click through for a better look. For a more relaxed viewing experience we'd recommend searching for the #ToonMe hashtag on Instagram, preferably on desktop. As with any online creative challenge, the end results can be a bit mixed. There's plenty of great work on show, but you'll also have to scroll through your fair share of examples where, well, they probably tried their best and that's what matters, right? To save you a bit of time, we've picked out some of our favourites from our online explorations: That all adds up to the teeniest #ToonMe amuse-bouche. For the full experience, hit up the hashtag on Twitter or Instagram. Join us in London for our unmissable event for 2D and 3D artists, featuring workshops from 20+ professional artists from film, video games, VFX and illustration. Book now: How to create a comic page 12 best free comic fonts of 2019 How to colour comics View the full article

The best Apple Watch apps help Apple's Watch become an essential companion in your everyday life. Tim Cook likes to position the Apple Watch as the world’s best wrist-worn fitness tracker, and it’s certainly very good when it comes to monitoring your health. But with the right Apple Watch apps, it’s also much more than that. That’s why we’ve rounded up the best Apple Watch apps available right now. Whether you want to track your day’s tasks, schedule a meeting with a client or enjoy your downtime, these are the apps that can help you do it all from your wrist. And while there are some fantastic Apple Watch apps that come with your Watch, here, we've listed the best third-party options, for those who are looking to explore something a bit different. If you're after a new Apple Watch, don't miss our Apple Watch deals roundup, and if it's apps you're after, you also might enjoy our lists of the best calendar apps and the best language learning apps. 01. Citymapper Citymapper’s UI packs in all your vital travel info in an easy-to-absorb way Price: Free Requires: iOS 10.3 and watchOS 3.0 or later Citymapper is the best free Apple Watch app, in our opinion. As designers, we all have plenty of meetings with clients, and it’s essential to avoid arriving late – or not at all. That’s why Citymapper’s Watch app is so good, as it is perfectly made to ensure you make it to your destination. The focus is on giving you information exactly when you need it – how many stops until you need to leave the bus, or how far to walk to your destination, for example. You’ll get buzzes on your wrist telling you when to leave and which train to catch, plus complications on the Apple Watch face. Right now, it works in 39 cities, all totally for free. 02. Fantastical 2 Organise your entire day from your wrist with the Fantastical 2 Apple Watch app Price: £4.99 Requires: iOS 11.0 and watchOS 4.0 or later Fantastical is already one of the best calendar and reminder apps on Mac and iPhone, so it’s no surprise that its Apple Watch app is our best Apple Watch app for organisation and productivity. It’s everything you need to keep your day organised when you’re on the go, combining powerful features with an easy-to-use interface. A good example is its set of complications. You can choose between various details to show on your Apple Watch face, in both large and small sizes. That way you see only what you need to without distractions. It understands natural language voice commands (in six different tongues), and uses helpful colour coding as a visual aid. 03. Spark Want to ensure you don’t miss a vital email? Spark’s smart sorting system does the trick Price: Free (offers in-app purchases) Requires: iOS 11.0 and watchOS 2.0 or later We all use email, but often it’s a painful experience. Not so with Spark, our best Apple Watch app for email, which uses smart inbox sorting to make sure your most important mail isn’t lost in the scrum. The app’s home screen features big buttons for each of these categories so you can easily bypass everything you don’t need to see. There are Messages-style quick replies, and you can ‘snooze’ a message so you get reminded of it when you’re back at your desk. It’s clear from these features and more that every element of Spark is designed for how people actually use the Apple Watch. 04. Streaks Streaks can help you not only get fit but give up smoking, read a book, make your appointments and more Price: £4.99 Requires: iOS 9.0 and watchOS 3.0 or later Streaks is the best Apple Watch app for health and fitness for a reason. It's all about forming lasting, positive habits that can improve your life. It’ll help you track anything from eating healthier food to cutting down on smoking, and is particularly useful if you want to improve your fitness. It’s so effective that it’s been recognised with an Apple Design Award – high praise indeed. With simple iconography and handy progress bars, the Streaks Apple Watch app clearly displays your progress so you know how far along your routine you are. You can mark your progress as you go, and everything syncs up with Apple’s Health app on your iPhone. 05. AutoSleep Make sure you get enough rest for that important client meeting using AutoSleep Price: £2.99 Requires: iOS 11.0 and watchOS 4.0 or later If you suspect you’re not sleeping properly after a hard day’s work, the best Apple Watch app for sleep, AutoSleep, could help. Wear your Watch to bed and the app can analyse your sleep quality, including the amount of time you slept, your restlessness, your heart rate and your time awake during the day. It’s designed to look like an Apple app, and if you’re used to tracking your fitness with Apple’s ring system then AutoSleep will feel instantly familiar. Pair it with your iPhone and you get a Today view to display all your metrics in one place, with sections dedicated to calculating your daily readiness, latest bedtime, whether you’re under- or oversleeping, plus much more. 06. Overcast We love Overcast’s intuitive design and unique features; there’s no better podcast app Price: Free (offers in-app purchases) Requires: iOS 13.0 and watchOS 5.2 or later The Apple Watch is at its best when it lets you perform quick tasks that don’t interrupt your workflow. Overcast is a great example of that. It's our best Apple Watch app for podcasts as it’s a well-thought-out app with a focus on unobtrusive design. You can adjust podcast volume using the Digital Crown (genius!), and swipe to quickly start a new podcast episode. The app features clever features to equalise volume levels and cut out dead air, and it’s beautifully designed both on your wrist and your phone. 07. Carrot Weather With Carrot Weather, getting drenched on the way to the office can actually be pretty funny Price: £4.99 Requires: iOS 12.0 and watchOS 4.0 or later Checking the weather on the way to the office isn’t often an hilarious experience, but that’s exactly what you get with the best Apple Watch app for the weather, Carrot Weather. It’s infused with a snarky, witty AI that revels in your misfortune as a blizzard bears down on your humble abode. It’s not just funny, though. Carrot Weather uses Dark Sky’s accurate data, and employs some clever design and colour coding to give you important info at a glance. There are numerous complications, notifications, weather maps and even a Siri watch face integration. 08. Hole19 Enjoy your downtime and improve your golf game from your wrist with Hole19 Price: Free (offers in-app purchases) Requires: iOS 11.0 and watchOS 3.0 or later Did you know that there was a best Apple Watch app for golf? Apple Watch is jam-packed with sensors, making it the perfect companion to analyse your golfing game on your days off. Add in Hole19 and you get all the data you need to improve your play and increase your handicap. The free version lets you track your score, see how far it is to the hole, and understand your game with stats on your accuracy, putting and more. Opt for the premium membership and you get club recommendations, shot distance tracking and much more, all without taking your phone out of your pocket. Read more: The 100 greatest Apple creations Is Apple ditching its 'i'? The best mindfulness apps in 2020 View the full article

The PS5 logo (above) has been one of this year's most controversial logos, even though on the face of it, it doesn't look particularly offensive. It's essentially the same as the PS4 logo, but with a different number. Since the marque for the PlayStation 5 was revealed at CES 2020, countless designers, gamers and logo-lovers have called out Sony for being lazy, with many suggesting that the electronics giant simply couldn't be bothered to come up with a new logo. And of course, where there is logo anger, there are also countless creatives who try and improve the logo with their own creations (if you want to give it a go, read our logo design guide first). We've seen various new takes on the PlayStation 5 logo, as well as a neat video speculating about how it came to be, but probably our favourite concept is the one by Bosslogic (below). Get a load of that shadowy '5' Bosslogic's concept takes the 'PlayStation' part of the logo, the intertwined 'P' and 'S' and riffs on it, adding a '5' as a sort of shadow, which echoes the shape of the 's' above. The beauty of this concept logo is that it gives people what they are looking for: a new PlayStation 5 logo that differentiates the console from previous iterations. It probably wouldn't be so effective for the PS4, for example, and that is no bad thing. The use of the red rather than sticking with stark black and white also adds a certain something. Bosslogic's concept logo got a lot of love on Instagram, with many suggesting that it is actually better than the original logo. Others praised it for its original and simple form, and then there were the usual arguments about whether or not the original logo was any good, and whether it needed to be changed at all. Overall, we don't think people should get too hung up on whether the original logo 'needs' changing or not. Concept logos are a great way for creatives to really consider what works and what doesn't about a logo, and then come up with their own take. It's all good practice for creative briefs. If, like us, you love a good concept design, check out these radical redesigns of famous logos or this minimalist concept for card game UNO. You can also see more concepts and art from Bosslogic on his Instagram page. Read more: The 10 best logos of all time 8 of the biggest logo redesigns of 2019 Disney Plus UK is launching sooner than we thought View the full article

With the new iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max having what some might call an astronomical price tag, Apple’s latest flagship phone needs to be sensationally good. It doesn’t look particularly new or fancy from the front though. With its big screen and visible black border all the way around and a hefty notch, it’s got a virtually identical fascia to that of the iPhone X or iPhone Xs. Adding to that familiarity, all iPhones run the same operating system, iOS, so look identical on the inside. So why would you pick up an iPhone 11 Pro over an older model? The answer is simple – the camera. Apple has taken inspiration from Android phones and loaded up three cameras around the back of the iPhone 11 Pro models. It's also added a fantastic night mode to its imaging mix. In doing what Apple does best – refining tech introduced by other manufacturers, it has, in turn, created one of the best camera phones in the world today. But for the kind of money these phones cost, is that really enough? iPhone 11 Pro review: Design and screen The iPhone Pro 11's design alone isn't worth an upgrade If it’s design your after, these iPhones aren’t worth an upgrade. The iPhone 11 Pro-series delivers deja-vu in spades from the front. That said, around the back, Apple has shaken things up a bit by swapping out the iPhone Xs’s shiny rear panel for a frosted glass finish, and adding a squircle camera surround. Much like the Google Pixel 4, the new iPhones’ matte glass back repels fingerprints like a champ, and looks cleaner than high-gloss counterparts like the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus, which gets grubby after little more than a glance. The 11 Pro-series is also available in four colours, Space Grey, Silver, Midnight Green and Gold, and all of them look refined. Is this the best-looking phone money can buy? Probably not, but it is the best looking iPhone and for Apple fans, that’ll be enough Despite the fact the phones are water-resistant, so can handle a dunk and splash, Apple’s dropped the ball when it comes to the screen’s scratch-resistance, in our experience. Complaints about early iPhone displays scratching have been cropping up since the phone launched and we’ve experienced this first-hand. With this in mind, you might want to go for a screen protector even if you don’t decide to put your iPhone in a folio case. As for the screen quality, it’s beautiful. Punchy, vibrant, incredibly bright, deep, rich and with excellent viewing angles, the new Super Retina XDR panel ticks all the boxes. Talking specs, it delivers a 2,000,000,000:1 contrast ratio, so images, videos and illustrations look as good as they possibly can on a smartphone, and with support for HDR photos and HDR10 films, if you’re a content creator, the iPhone 11 Pro will showcase your creations to perfection. iPhone 11 Pro review: Camera The biggest reason to upgrade to the new iPhone 11 Pro-series is the camera experience. The primary camera is still 12MP resolution with an f/1.8 aperture and optical image stabilisation (OIS), but Apple’s opted for a new sensor. The second camera features a 2x zoom f/2.0 lens and also has OIS, while the third is an ultra-wide 0.5x zoom lens with a 120-degree field-of-view. To put it into context, that’s kind of like having a standard iPhone camera, a GoPro wide angle, and a 50mm portrait lens in your pocket. What’s special about Apple’s implementation of all three cameras is that they match colour balance, exposure and contrast levels well. This results in a seamless, intuitive photo-taking experience and images that look great almost every time. The iPhone 11 Pro is like having a standard iPhone camera, a GoPro wide angle, and a 50mm portrait lens in your pocket It isn’t just shots taken in good light that impress; dynamic range is excellent across lighting conditions, and Apple’s iPhone 11 Pro can shoot long-exposure night shots too. We were able to capture 30-second exposure times when we steadied our review sample on a surface, and while the results aren’t quite as mind-boggling as Google’s Astrophotography which can literally turn night into day, they weren’t far off. Handheld low-light photography also impresses, and in certain situations, outclasses the best of the rest, including the Pixel 4. The iPhone Pro 11's three cameras match colour balance, exposure and contrast levels to achieve the best looking photos The phones’ portrait mode is also one of the finest around, clearly and naturally separating background and foreground objects. This works across both the main and zoom cameras, and comes bundled with a host of portrait lighting effects. Speaking of portraits, the 8MP selfie camera also snaps blurry background, sharp foreground shots. That said, its photos are less impressive, especially when the lights drop. Alongside the Huawei P30 Pro, which has better zoom performance, the new iPhone is the best video cameras we’ve used too. Its image stabilisation can deal with hand shake, so footage has a premium stillness to it, and low light performance is seriously solid for a smartphone. With a maximum recording resolution of 4K combined with a super-smooth 60fps, it’s sharp and gives filmmakers scope to slow things down when editing. If you really want to stop time, they also capture 240fps slow motion video at 1080p resolution. iPhone 11 Pro review: Power and specs Flagship iPhones always have stacks of power, so it’s little wonder the new internals in the 11 Pros will keep everything from 4K video edits in iMovie (included on the phone), through to Adobe’s on-the-go applications ticking over like a dream. Storage capacities start at 64GB, just like the Pixel 4 and 4 XL, however, climb much higher, capping out at 512GB which is likely much more than most will ever need. Light users may be okay with 64GB, however, with that fantastic 4K video camera, we’d recommend creatives stump up the extra cash and go for the 256GB version. The new iPhones don’t just better the Pixels when it comes to storage options, they finally offer decent battery life too, especially the iPhone 11 Pro Max which should last in excess of a full day for most. Charging them up is convenient thanks to wired and wireless charging, though Apple has stuck with its Lightning port for wired charging, which is a shame. We would have loved a USB-C port instead, bringing the iPhone in line with the new MacBooks, the best drawing tablets and iPad Pros - one cable to rule them all, we can dream. On the plus, an 18W fast charger ships in the box with the phone, which wasn’t the case with older generation iPhones. Apple has stuck with its Lightning port for wired charging, which is a shame With Face ID, you can get into the iPhone 11 Pro in moments, though, we would have loved a fingerprint scanner in the screen too. Why? Because Face ID is still awkward when you want to get into your iPhone and it’s on a surface, or use Apple Pay when your phone doesn’t have line of sight with your face. Otherwise, the iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max are top-tier from a performance point of view; thanks to iOS 13, they deliver comprehensive app experiences and with stereo speakers tuned by Dolby, sound better than almost all other smartphone on the market. iPhone 11 Pro review: Verdict The new iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max are both fantastic smartphones, but they’re also incredibly expensive. If you can make do with two cameras around the back instead of three and a good, not world-class display, then the vanilla iPhone 11 offers much better value for money. We would have loved to have seen some creative elements added, like Apple Pencil support, for example – similar to that offered by the Samsung Galaxy Note 10, but maybe that’s one for the iPhone 11s? Having said that, if all you want is the best looking, fastest iPhone around with a jaw-droppingly vibrant display and an excellent camera array, then even with their high asking prices, the iPhone 11 Pro is for you. Or the Max f you want something a bit bigger. View the full article

CSS Houdini gets its name from the world-famous Harry Houdini. Why? A group of developers – from well-known organisations such as Apple and Google, and the CSS Working Group – wanted to demystify the magic of CSS and get better control of website rendering. So they formed the CSS Houdini Task Force. But what exactly is CSS Houdini? It is a set of low-level APIs that gives developers the power to extend CSS by taking control of the styling and layout processes inside a browser. It gives direct access to the CSS Object Model (a set of APIs allowing the manipulation of CSS from JavaScript) and allows users to read and modify CSS style dynamically, ie. with JavaScript. Houdini is only partially supported at present, so is at the very early stage of adoption. While you wait for more support, why not try this collection of CSS animation techniques that will definitely work. Why you need CSS Houdini Browsers are very good at abstracting complex styling tasks away from developers. It will split paragraphs of text on to separate lines without needing to be told. Elements can be sized and placed next to each other automatically by using a couple of properties and letting the rendering engine handle the rest. Each time the page updates, the browser will take the HTML, CSS and JavaScript and convert them into pixels on screen in a process known as the 'rendering pipeline'. Firstly, the browser reads through the content and builds a structure known as a render tree, which is then used to calculate where things should appear on the page in a layout step. From there, it turns those into pixels in a step called painting. With all the elements painted, it sticks them together into one page in a process called compositing. To improve the performance of a website, we should always focus on optimising the critical render path. If we want a visual effect on a site that the browser does not support natively we instead need to add JavaScript and HTML with polyfills. This makes repetitive changes near the start of the pipeline, which results in poor performance. The aim of Houdini is to open up CSS and allow developers to apply these polyfills further along the pipeline and speed things up. They also open up new opportunities to create effects not previously possible. While not every website will use these new APIs directly, they allow frameworks and libraries the opportunity to level out browser inconsistencies. Support for CSS Houdini The APIs have been worked on for the past few years, with each one being jointly developed by all members of the Houdini task force. All the APIs follow the strict W3C standardisation process. If enough of a consensus is reached, an initial draft specification known as a 'working draft' is created. From there, it gets refined further before reaching 'candidate recommendation' level. A specification marked as a candidate recommendation can start to gather feedback from implementors — in this case browser vendors. This is where we start to see wider browser support. From here, it goes to 'proposed recommendation' and then 'W3C recommendation', where it starts to achieve full browser support. Currently, the forerunner is the Paint API which is 
at candidate recommendation level. The Chromium-based browsers Chrome, Opera and Samsung Internet all support it, with Firefox and Safari working on their implementation. Typed OM is closely related and as a result these same browsers support this as well. Chrome is leading the way with the other APIs. To play around with the Layout API, animation worklets or the Properties and Values API, you need to use Chrome Canary with 'Experimental Web Platform features' flag enabled. These are still under active development and can change at any point. Check out the website to see the current state of Houdini. What is the Paint API? The penultimate step in the rendering pipeline is the painting phase. At this point, the browser knows exactly the content to show but not how it appears. The rendering engine will look at the styles applied to each element and adjust its instructions accordingly. While some styles are fairly straightforward, others allow functions to run that decide their appearance. For example background can take many functions, which include url() for images, rgb() for colours and linear-gradient() for a gradient effect. The Paint API allows us to define our own painting function, which works in much the same way. All functions create an image that the engine can make use of depending on the property it’s used against. The only requirement inside a paint worklet is a single paint method. Here we provide a set of instructions that a browser can follow whenever it needs to repaint the element. It is called with a few arguments that give the method some useful info. The first argument is a context, which provides a space we can draw upon. It works similar to the context used when drawing onto <canvas> elements, by using instructions such as moveTo and fillRect to start building up the image that CSS can make use of. There are some differences between this context and that used for <canvas> elements. For example, there are no image data or text methods available for security and performance reasons, but it is possible they will appear in later revisions to the specification. The second argument contains the dimensions of the paintable area it needs to create. Typically, this is the width and height of the target element including padding. We can use this information to make sure we are drawing onto the context in the right place. We can also ask for a set of other style properties. For example, we could want to change the colour of the background to complement the text colour. This is done through a getter within the worklet. The inputProperties value is an array of all properties the worklet is interested in. This can include custom properties that supply some further customisation. These values are passed in as the third argument to the paint method as style objects from the Properties and Values API. There is a fourth argument that can be used to access arguments supplied to the paint function in CSS. This allows for configuration at the point of definition, such as the colours to use in a gradient. This is working its way through the specification process and is not ready for use just yet. The worklet needs to be registered with the browser for it to be picked up in CSS. The registerPaint method takes the name we use to reference it and the worklet itself. 
 Finally, in order to link the JavaScript to the CSS, the browser needs to download the worklet. By supplying the path, the browser handles the rest of the process for us. What does Typed OM do? The CSS Object Model (CSSOM) has been part of JavaScript for a long time. It allows us to extract the computed style of an element reading its style property or by using getComputedStyle. The former returns styles applied directly to that element, while the latter includes all styles including inherited ones. The value they return is always a string regardless of what was supplied originally. This makes adjusting these values buggy and inefficient for us as well as the browser as it needs to constantly convert back and forth between a number and a string. The Typed OM works similar to the CSSOM but also provides types for the values. There are two new ways of accessing them — the attributeStyleMap works like the style property, with computedStyleMap like getComputedStyle. These both return a CSSUnitValue object, which contains the value and the unit as separate properties ready to be read and updated. These objects can also be created and used directly to calculate values, much like the CSS calc() function does. The Typed OM is capable of plenty more, such as type conversion and value clamping. Check out Google's 'Working with the new CSS Typed Object Model' and the official W3C spec for more information. Properties and Values API: Add types to custom properties CSS custom properties — also known as CSS Variables — allow us to define a value in one place and use it elsewhere. For example, we could create custom properties to hold theme colours that elements further down the page could make use of. The problem with custom properties becomes apparent when we try to animate between them. As the property could refer to anything, the browser falls back to treating it as a string. As there is no way it knows how to animate between strings, it ends up jumping from one to the other. The Properties and Values API helps by providing types to custom properties. We can use JavaScript to register a property with the browser, which then takes care of the rest. The registerProperty method is a new property on the CSS global object. Here we define a few characteristics about the property such as its name, an initial value if it is not specified and whether or not it inherits from elements higher up. The important attribute is syntax, which describes the type of the property. CSS already knows how to deal with different types of data including numbers, angles and URLs. By specifying the type, we can save the browser work and let it know what our values are. Improve performance with the Layout API All browsers have layout algorithms in place to help position content. By default, all elements will be in flow layout. In Latin scripts such as English, any elements set as inline will flow left to right in the inline direction and any elements set as block will flow top to bottom in the block direction. While they work well, they make most websites look the same. To make a site stand out, we would need to use properties such as position: absolute and calculate offsets manually. A site such as Pinterest uses this approach to make its masonry-style layout, but it can cause performance issues on larger pages. The Layout API aims to avoid this problem by handing this logic to a worklet. It knows the desired dimensions of the parent and its children and can instruct the renderer exactly where it wants them. Each worklet requires a layout method, which runs each time it needs to recalculate the layout. It also needs to be asynchronous as laying out the content inside can be paused or moved to a separate thread at any time. The first argument is an array of children with the styles that are applied to them. The second contains border, padding and scrollbar size known as the element’s edges. The third defines the rest of the usable space called the constraints. The final argument details the properties being requested from inputProperties similar to the Paint API. All this information is used to generate positioning instructions called fragments. The layoutNextFragment method takes information about the child, such as its desired inline and block size and the renderer takes care of the rest. The result is a set of fragments ready for the browser to paint. On the CSS side, the layout is defined like any other. The layout function takes the name supplied when registering the worklet. While the option is open to everyone, it’s unlikely most would need to create layout worklets for every site. Worklets can be shared and included on a site without knowing about the underlying algorithm. This API is more likely to be used as a way to polyfill future layout systems. Want to learn more about web design. The subscribe to net magazine today Join us in April at generateJS and discover the secrets of becoming a JavaScript ninja 8 HTML tags you need to be using (and 5 to avoid) 6 steps to writing better CSS 13 of the best JavaScript frameworks to try View the full article

Citrix has issued the first of several updates fixing a critical vulnerability in various versions of its Citrix Application Delivery Controller (ADC) and Citrix Gateway products. View the full article

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CVE-2020-0674 is a critical flaw for most Internet Explorer versions, allowing remote code execution and complete takeover. View the full article