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If you haven't yet heard of Google Easter Eggs, you've probably led an extremely productive life up until this point. Well, all of that is about to change, and we promise you won't be sorry about it. Once upon a time, you may have relied on the word on the street and a secret handshake to feel like an insider, but now you can be the one sharing secret tricks, as we've chosen the best of the Google Easter Eggs and listed them right here. If you'd like to insert some Easter Eggs in your site, check out our guide to the best web design tools out there right now. Or if you want some advice on user testing, we've got a guide for that too. What is a Google Easter Egg? The term 'Easter Egg' has two meanings. Both eggs are hidden, but one is likely to be found in a garden during a frantic hunt whilst the other is buried inside a design – a secret feature that only those 'in the know' will be able to enjoy. These Easter eggs are often videos or games built into the code of a program or website that can only be unlocked by performing a certain action. So you have to know what to do to be able to take part. To find Google Easter Eggs, all you need to do is type the search term into the Google search bar then follow our instructions for some Easter Egg fun. Some work slightly differently, but we will keep you updated as we go. But we should warn you, now you know the extent of the content of this deliciously addictive feature, your workflow may suffer as a result. 01. Sonic the Hedgehog Do you miss the original manifestation of everyone's favourite hedgehog? We certainly do. Here's your chance to enjoy the 1991 version of our spiky friend, complete with those evocative jumping noises. Type 'Sonic the Hedgehog video game' into the Google search bar and you'll find Sonic waiting for you to the right of the screen. After a little while, he starts the foot tapping that used to give us all palpitations, letting you know you're taking too long. Click on Sonic to see him jump, and hear the 'boing' that was the soundtrack to hours on end of hoping the Mega Drive didn't overheat. Keep clicking, and after 25 times, he will transform. 02. Google in 1998 For a trip back in time, try searching 'Google in 1998'. Although it's less feature-packed than other Easter Eggs, it's certainly interesting to check out how Google used to look. You can't actually search on this page, but we enjoy the retro aesthetic and pondering how Google has evolved since then. Check out the links at the bottom of the page that suggest the user try searching through some of the other big search engines of the time. That's certainly a feature that's unlikely to return. 03. Minesweeper Sometimes we long for the simplicity of the days when playing PC games was limited to those found in the Windows start menu. Solitaire, Hearts and... that other one with the King's head that turned from side to side. And of course, Minesweeper. Here's your chance to immerse yourself in the numbered battle against the computer. Type 'Minesweeper' into the search bar to partake. 04. Friends Google released this super-fun series of Friends Easter Eggs this year, in celebration of the 25th anniversary (yes, really) of our favourite group of chums. And it's really our favourite. We won't go into all of them, we don't want to ruin the surprise, but try typing in the full names (we know you know them) of the characters and watch what pops up. We've demoed 'Joey Tribbiani', because everyone loves the Joey Special. 05. Wizard of Oz There will be no place like your Google homepage after you type 'Wizard of Oz' into the search bar. Click on Dorothy's sparkling Ruby slippers and watch the world turn upside down as the eponymous tornado comes to town. This one was created earlier this year, for the 80-year anniversary of the film's release in 1939. 06. T-Rex Runner This is a Chrome-specific Easter Egg that the dinosaur-mad among us will get a kick out of. If you've ever tried to browse offline on your Chrome browser, you might recall the Lonely Dinosaur illustration that appears before you. But have you ever taken much notice of it? To start the action, Android/iOS users need to tap on the dinosaur, while desktop users press the space-bar or the up arrow key. This launches the T-Rex Runner game, in which users control the running dinosaur by tapping the screen or pressing the space-bar or up arrow to avoid obstacles. The features of this game are updated periodically, and reaching different point totals changes the entire screen. It's seriously hard to believe that such an abundance of fun has been right in front of our eyes this whole time and we never knew. What a great reason to get offline. 07. Colour Picker This one is not a novelty piece of fun but a useful tool that we bet you'll be using regularly from now on. Type in 'colour picker' and a colour picker tool will be displayed on the screen. You click and drag your cursor inside the picker area to highlight a colour on the right. Add Hex, HSL, RGB or CMYK values to find a certain colour, then click and add to your palette to save it. And you can enter 'rgb to hex' to be provided with a colour picker that is also an instant colour value converter. 08. Pac-Man Remember that Google Doodle from 2010? It is still around and waiting for you to get involved. Type in 'Pac-Man', 'play Pac-Man' or 'google Pac-Man' and an ear-splitting (honestly, do turn the sound down a bit before you start, we had a cat in the room that almost jumped out of the the window) version of the game will appear on the screen. Use your arrow keys to move him around the screen. 09. Breathing exercise If you've ever found yourself stressed or angry whilst sitting at the screen, you might enjoy this one. We didn't realise Google had our backs here, but if you type in 'Breathing exercise' to the search bar, a (sort-of) calming blue screen appears along with some helpful instructions to complete a breathing exercise. Perhaps not as effective as leaving your computer and going outside for a walk, but certainly enough to tide you over in a non-emergency. Thanks, Google. 10. Harry Potter: Fantastic Beasts It's not just the Google search engine that has delights in store for Easter Egg hunters. Google Maps has loads to explore, too. So hold on to your wizard hats Harry Potter fans, as your minds are about to be blown. Diagon Alley, the cobblestone alley from the Harry Potter films, has been added to Google Maps. Peek into the windows of Slug & Jigg Apothecary, and Flourish and Blotts bookshop. You will have to put up with other tourists, though, as the images are taken from the Warner Bros Studio Tour location in London. You can also type in 'Fantastic Beasts, New York City' and drop Pegman onto the map and you'll be transported to MACUSA the Headquarters of the Magical Congress of the USA, the governing body of wizarding in America. You can have a good look around the magical building that features in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, visit The Blind Pig and more. 12. Doctor Who There's a bunch more Google Maps action, such as the option to travel by dragon (from Snowdon to Breacon Beacons) or the Loch Ness Monster (from Urquhart Castle to Fort Augustus). But we are obsessed with this Doctor Who-themed Easter Egg. Type in 'Earls Court Road Police Box' into Google Maps and drag Pegman to the location that appears. Suddenly you're inside the TARDIS – prepare to be captivated by the 360 degree internal view you're treated to. It's, fittingly, actually trickier than it sounds to gain access. You have to aim for slightly to the left of the Police box drop pin, and make sure Pegman's feet are floating to the left too otherwise you'll be rudely dropped onto the boring old road. (NB: Apparently this Easter Egg doesn't work every time on the new Google Maps interface. If you're having trouble, put yourself into incognito mode and things should improve.) 12. Pegman Talking of Pegman (the little guy you drop into Google Maps to see the streets up close), he loves to be involved in Google Easter Egg surprises. Turns out, he isn't always always dressed in yellow. Some places, and special days, will bring him to life and give him a bit of personality. Drop him onto Buckingham Palace to see him turn into Peg Ma'am, or try Groom Lake, Nevada or Area 51 to transform him into a UFO, or near to the ocean in Hawaii to see him shape-shift into a mermaid. 11. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy There is a whole host of number-based Google Easter Eggs that are calculator-related. And this one, based on the Douglas Adams series, is said to be the very first Easter Egg ever embedded into the system, predating the calculator on which the answer is now revealed. Type in 'the answer to the ultimate question of life the universe and everything' to see the famous digits appear. 12. Do a barrel roll Enter 'do a barrel roll' into the search bar and enjoy the somewhat geeky (but awesome) reference to Nintendo's Star Fox as the screen rotates 360 degrees. 13. Snake The retro game that kept us awake all night on our Nokia 3310s, is still with us. We can't believe we didn't know. Type 'Snake' into Google and fill your boots. Use the arrow keys to control the little guy, this is possibly slightly easier on the thumbs than the little keyboard of those old Nokias. It is in technicolour, which was a slight disappointment, but it still provides (almost) the same levels of fun. You can also play Tic Tac Toe, just FYI. Read more: The best new UX books right now Brilliant UX tips you need to know The best Google Doodle designs View the full article

Everyone wants to know how to generate ideas. That's because strong ideas are the bedrock of the creative industries. They keep the work fresh, but also help engage audiences who are overwhelmed and fatigued by the relentless noise coming from brands. Strip away the craft, and if there isn’t a compelling thought beneath there’s a risk that even the most beautiful piece of design risks becoming little more than decoration. If you're not sure what constitutes a good idea (it's usually a lot easier to tell with other people's work than your own), then check out our examples of experimental design. “Ideas are what engage and delight an audience,” confirms Jim Sutherland, multi-award-winning founder of Studio Sutherl&. “Being able to sum up an idea in a few words is a good way to know you have a strong and simple solution,” he adds. “You should be able to tell someone your idea over the phone.” “Ideas come first, always,” agrees Matt Baxter, co-founder of Brighton-based design studio Baxter & Bailey. Design is about thinking, solving problems and innovating, asserts Baxter. And in order to have maximum impact, you need people to understand your ideas as easily as possible in order to get excited by them. “Ideas resonate," Baxter explains. “They can make people change the way they think, behave, act. Great ideas change culture, influence politics, shape the world. What that thinking looks like is secondary, but also vitally important – the craft or execution of those ideas can increase that resonance massively.” Studio Sutherl& used two types of bracket, together forming a 'P' as a device to contain the diverse collections at Pallant House Gallery “Ideas have the power to change the way people think,” believes the veteran creative director, Rosie Arnold, who after more than three decades at BBH, followed by a stint at AMV BBDO, is now an independent consultant. A firm believer in design’s social impact potential, Arnold was instrumental in introducing the White Pencil Award while D&AD president from 2011-12. “Whether you’re creating a brand, changing opinion or changing the world, without that great idea you can’t do anything,” she says. "I think if you don’t have a great idea to start with, then it’ll never be great," adds Susan Hoffman, chief creative officer at Wieden+Kennedy. "The only argument is: ‘Does it emotionally get you?’ Entertainment can do that, long copy can do that, a song can do that. Many things can," she continues. For this quirky KFC campaign, W+K put Colonel Sanders at the heart of all manner of stunts and branded merchandise As a fiercely independent agency that beats its own drum away from the big networks, Wieden+Kennedy prides itself on being wonderfully off-kilter both in its culture and its work – and the agency has made weirdness work for brands as diverse as Old Spice, KFC and its founding client, Nike. “But it’s getting harder for us to be weird,” admits Hoffman. “You need a balance of right and left: if you don’t you’re in trouble. We use phrases like ‘the right kind of crazies’ and ‘ship of fools’ to describe the agency, to remind ourselves not to be too serious, have fun, and be human.” For Hoffman, it all boils down to finding a relevant ‘truth’ about the brand in question to build from. Fabricate something just to fit a brief and you’re building a campaign on quicksand in an age where consumers are demanding substance and authenticity. “We really shouldn’t get out of the starting gates until we know that truth. I’m not saying it’s easy to find, or to execute, but if you bank on truth you stand a better chance of pulling it off, and you know that it’s right,” says Hoffman. “It’s always there, you just have to dig hard to find it.” Where to find a great idea Finding a killer idea is certainly no mean feat, and it often takes an open mind to spot potential and bring it to the surface. Sutherland’s creative process involves hundreds of scribbled ideas: “It’s about experimenting and testing out all sorts of approaches,” he explains. “I constantly add new thoughts and ideas in notebooks, on scraps of paper and so on.” In order to whittle all these rough starting points down into ideas that have legs, the next step is to talk them all through and determine which have the most potential to “grow and flex”, as Sutherland puts it. “Best-seller ideas tend to stand out under scrutiny,” he explains. “Keep looking, talking and reflecting. You should work hard, but it shouldn’t be hard work – it should be good fun. It’s like a pig snuffling for truffles, if you enjoy the process and you unearth the reward.” “Brilliant ideas are tenacious. They hang around and refuse to be squished down,” agrees Baxter. “When you spot a great idea lurking amongst the doodles in a notebook or sketchpad, you generally feel that initial lurch of excitement. You may well move on to other ideas through your design process, but you return to the good ones – or they return to you.” For P&G's Olympics sponsorship campaign, W+K made the atheletes' mums the stars Hoffman gives the example of W+K’s long-running Olympics campaign for P&G, not on the face of it an easy brand to link with sporting achievement. The solution was beautifully simple: behind every world-class athlete is a mum who believes in them, and has brought them up for greatness. “It was the most relevant, authentic angle,” she says. With the tagline ‘For teaching us that falling only makes us stronger’, the initial campaign for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics tracked several athletes’ journeys from early childhood to Olympic glory, their mums always there to pick them up whenever they fall. P&G, in turn, was the ‘Proud sponsor of mums’. All of a sudden FMCG products such as nappies, detergent and shampoo – the everyday ingredients of growing up – were seamlessly woven into a genuinely uplifting narrative concerning sport. Subsequent campaigns adapted the concept to explore mental strength in the face of adversity and fear (‘It takes someone strong to make someone strong’, Rio 2016) and acceptance in the face of prejudice and persecutive (‘Imagine if the world could see what a mum sees’, PyeongChang, 2018). Inspiration outside the office Inspiration can strike at any time and according to Arnold, more often than not this will happen when you’re more relaxed, rather than straining to find a breakthrough sat at your desk. “Making a cup of tea is good. Your brain is like a computer: when you stop programming it, it carries on working,” she believes. “And don’t go to the internet for ideas,” urges Arnold. “You’ll get sucked down a rabbit hole, and because you’re specifically looking for stuff, you’ll end up with tunnel vision.” She reveals that her best ideas often come following a trip out of the office – bookshops in particular. It’s vital to spend time away from work to inspire and refresh your brain Jim Sutherland “I love the photography section, and especially the illustrations in kids’ books. They’re fabulous, very simple. Flicking through stuff that might have absolutely no relevance to what you were doing helps you think outside the box. It’s a randomisation idea process, rather than selecting to see something just because you’ve gone into a search engine.” “It’s vital to spend time away from work to inspire and refresh your brain,” agrees Sutherland. “The more amazing visual, verbal and aural things you feed in, the more interesting work comes out the other end. It’s a very poor approach to think you need to sit in your studio at a computer to generate ideas. Most ideas come thorough conversation, inspiration and when you’re not expecting them.” How to nurture a great idea Great ideas need to be nurtured and protected if they are ever to reach their full potential – particularly in the face of pressure from the client to mould them in ways that compromise their integrity, or keep tagging on extras that dilute or distort them. "It’s easy to put too much irrelevant stuff in," admits Arnold, who compares the situation to the kids’ game Buckaroo. "If there’s a lot of stuff in the brief, don’t try to misshape it to answer everything. Strip it back and think: how is this idea the best it possibly can be? Sometimes you need to persuade the client that there are a few things they wanted that can drop off, if it solves one thing really well." That’s the key, for Arnold: when you’ve found an idea that’s still compelling in its very simplest form, you must stay faithful to that essence throughout the process. "Think, what are the pieces that we do not want to lose? Would we rather walk away from the idea than make it like that? Therein often lies the problem," she admits. “Time gets in the way,” she adds. “You’ve been to-ing and fro-ing about an idea for weeks, and suddenly the deadline is coming up and the idea looks nowhere like it did at first because everyone’s had their input. It’s shifted. And yet you have to make it, even though it’s nothing like what you intended. Sometimes you don’t have the luxury of saying, ‘No, I don’t want to make it like that,’ although you should.” Collaborating on ideas W+K Sao Paulo’s vibrant Drink Right F*** Right campaign for Skol turned the anti-drink-driving brief on its head Collaboration is an integral part of the creative process, but Arnold believes the best ideas need ownership and singular creative vision, whether from an individual or a small creative team. “Collaboration can make it wonderful – working with the right director, or illustrator for instance – but ideas need ownership,” she insists. “You need a benign dictator to inspire people. The minute you fragment it, even sometimes with two creatives, it makes it harder to realise,” Arnold continues. “The ownership of the idea needs to rest with one person. Otherwise there are too many cooks. Sorry, but that’s the way it is. Everybody wants to be creative: you’re not.” Hoffman disagrees. “I don’t think it works that way any more,” she counters. “In the olden days the idea sat with the copywriter and art director. Now it sits with a lot more people. Although you have to make sure it’s not too many, and you have to make sure it’s the right people.” Sometimes, Hoffman continues, the right idea comes from a totally different place from the original challenge. She gives the example of a brief for Skol beer that came into W+K Sao Paulo, which on the face of it was about raising awareness of drink-drinking – but the team decided to take a different tack. “They realised that when you get drunk you make bad decisions, and maybe go home with the wrong people,” she explains. The result was a striking, psychedelic animation that turns the original concept on its head, shifting the focus from driving to sex, with the tagline: ‘Drink Right, F*** Right’. The role of an idea within a project, and the impact it has on the outcome, can vary significantly based on the discipline in question. For Arnold, advertising is the heartland for verbal ideas – communicating a particular concept by telling a story in the best way possible. Branding, on the other hand, is where simple visual ideas cut through the noise. Cossette’s Follow The Arches campaign for McDonalds demonstrates the power of iconic brand assets To illustrate this, she gives the example of McDonalds’ 2018 D&AD Wood Pencil-winning campaign ‘Follow The Arches’ by Canadian agency Cossette, which used tightly cropped elements of the iconic Golden Arches logo to represent roads – a beautifully simple way to give directions to the nearest restaurant. “That’s an example of fantastic branding: you know exactly what that brand is and what it’s saying to you, just using parts of the logo,” she enthuses. “To me, that’s what you’re trying to do as a brand: create an iconic image. Advertising is more fluid, and the message is often more complicated, so it needs to be about the idea.” How to pitch an idea Baxter & Bailey's award-winning identity for Bog Eyed Books came from an idea scrawled on a scrap of paper while in a pub Once you’ve found a suitably infectious, flexible, durable and simple idea – no mean feat – then pitching it to the client should, theoretically at least, be the easy bit. “Great ideas sell themselves,” insists Sutherland. “I don’t ever feel that I’m ’selling’ an idea, I simply try and explain why we feel it’s the right approach. You take clients on the journey of the thought process and rationale.” At an early concept stage, Baxter & Bailey will always follow the process of discussing ideas internally using rough sketches – but it’s rare that those rough sketches will ever find their way in front of a client. “At the sketch stage, ideas feel embryonic and open to change. By looking at a sketch, we’re scrutinising the idea, rather than the execution,” reasons Baxter. “But clients generally – and quite rightly – want to see that the ideas we present have the flexibility and strength to work for them,” he continues. “If it’s a brand identity, we’re keen to present the idea as broadly and comprehensively as possible. Can it stretch from a tiny animated GIF to a massive billboard? If it can, it’s likely to have legs.” Nevertheless, even the strongest ideas can buckle under the strain of ‘design by committee’, and Sutherland believes resolve and determination are essential to keep the standard of output high. “Good ideas need to adapt and flex, but it’s so important to keep single-minded and strong to keep the integrity of an idea,” he says. “And it’s the responsibility of everyone involved to keep that fundamental idea alive.” On rare occasions, adds Arnold, it becomes an uphill struggle not to sell an idea to the client, but to the rest of the agency internally. She gives the example of 2010’s ‘rapping farmers’ spot for Yeo Valley that she headed up while at BBH – which spawned a hit single for fictional ‘farmer boyband’ The Churned the following year. “The client said, ‘I run a real farm, and I want to make organic produce available to the masses, not middle-class Waitrose mums’,” she explains. “He was actually prepared to lower prices to make it more affordable.” Tired of people saying the brand name incorrectly, he added that ‘Yo’ is the right pronunciation – which soon set the cogs whirring. “It may have been the corniest idea in the world, but rapping farmers seemed suitably fun, populist and mainstream,” explains Arnold. “We won the business on it, but had to push it hard within the agency as people thought it was too cheesy.” It went on the win a D&AD Pencil for Music in Advertising. You know when you’ve landed on a great idea, Arnold continues, and those are the ones where you have to fight. “Some of my best work is where I’ve seen an opportunity I hadn’t been briefed on, and tried to do that,” she adds. “If it’s something you haven’t been challenged with, you’re freer.” When to fight for an idea, and when to flee Packed with crazy scenes and witty dialogue, Nike’s Nothing Beats a Londoner applies W+K’s penchant for weirdness Ultimately, of course, the client needs to share your vision to get great work made. Sometimes the will isn’t there and it’s a waste of everyone’s energy to force a square peg into a round hole. “Sometimes there’s a point where you have to go, ‘Yeah, the client actually doesn’t want it’,” Arnolds admits. “You have to fight a lot,” urges Hoffman, who admits W+K has had projects where a concept has been pulled around so much in meetings that the soul has been sucked out of it. “In those situations, you need to talk about what’s happening,” she says. “Limit the idea to what absolutely needs to be heard, and make that the most important thing.” Arnold adds that it takes guts to tell a client that suggested changes are going to undermine, rather than improve, an idea. “Everyone likes to feel they’re getting somewhere,” she reflects. “You know, ‘This bit doesn’t work, change this.’ It’s like chopping up a Mozart symphony. Then you play it, and it doesn’t make any sense. ‘But we’ve got somewhere?’ No you haven’t, you’ve just wrecked a really good composition.” It’s so much easier for clients to look intelligent and clever if they say ‘no’ Rosie Arnold Part of the problem, according to Arnold, is that clients are concerned that a simple thumbs-up to a great idea makes them look like they don’t have anything constructive to add. “It’s so much easier for clients to look intelligent and clever if they say ‘no’,” she remarks. “Sitting round a table, everyone feels they have to have an opinion. This is their opportunity to shine in front of their boss, you know: ‘It’s really good, but I’m worried about this.’ By the time this poor little idea has had 14 people try to look clever and brilliant, it’s dead.” As a rule, she continues, the more senior and self-assured the stakeholder, the more likely they are to simply say ‘yes’ to a strong idea. “There’s a reason certain people are at top of the tree – they’re actually really good around creative work. But they’re not around it enough,” she laments. If you are forced to compromise on elements of your idea, Arnold advocates focusing on the best possible execution instead. “It may be bread and butter, but you can still make it as brilliant as you can,” she insists. “Use a photographer you’ve always wanted to work with. Make the music the best. Get the best illustrator. That’s where I shelter: let’s make something beautiful. Don’t ever do something totally joyless.” Client frustrations aside, it takes a great creative mind to conceive a great idea, and steer it faithfully to completion. Baxter lists the characteristics he believes all the best designers share: “Energy, tenacity, perseverance, resilience, an open and curious mind, a broad thirst for knowledge and an ability to collaborate,” he reels off. “The biggest internal obstacles occur when we run out of those things,” Baxter continues. “Of course we have to balance principles and creative ambition with practical requirements like deadlines and budget, but great ideas don’t require huge budgets and generous timelines. They need clarity of thinking.” This article originally appeared in Computer Arts 296. Buy issue 296 or subscribe to Computer Arts. Read more: Has branding become boring? How to use photography in design 5 winning personality traits all design studios are looking for View the full article

Roughly how much time do you think you've spent taking screenshots to sample colours in After Effects? Wouldn't it be great if you could just use the eyedropper tool outside of the software? Big news, everyone, you can! To sample a colour outside of the After Effects user interface, press the Return or Enter key on your keyboard instead of clicking the mouse button and voila! Pressing the Return or Enter key works on both Windows and macOS, whether you’re sampling a colour inside or outside of After Effects. By not using a mouse click, the operating system in use won't switch to the application you sampled the colour from and you therefore never leave After Effects. Clever, huh? How to get a HUGE discount on Adobe Creative Cloud A recent tweet from creative lead Chris Zachary included a simple After Effects tutorial on the feature, accompanied by him commenting the "discovery changed my life". And hundreds of artists and designers, who also had no idea it existed, have responded similarly. Question is, does it work in other Adobe apps? Twitter user @raffonmars replied suggested the functionality also extends to Photoshop and Illustrator. Having tested it, just to make sure, in Photoshop and Illustrator CS6, we can confirm it does. The handy feature might not come as news to some, as, believe it or not, this small but mighty eyedropper trick has been around since 2014 (in After Effects at least). However, for those Adobe CC users not in the know, this is one small tool set to make a big difference. If this brilliant little feature is the push you needed to sign up to Creative Cloud, be sure to check out our best Adobe deals post, which has details of all the latest offers. Read more: The 13 best alternatives to Photoshop How to remove wrinkles in Photoshop 12 amazing Adobe After Effects plugins View the full article

Who wants a free Nintendo Switch games console or Toshiba 4K HDR TV, as well as a new phone? Yes, you really can get all of this with EE's stunning deal, which just goes to show that the best Black Friday deals are already appearing. The phones you can get are the Samsung Galaxy A80, A70 or A40 or a Huawei P30 Lite, Huawei P30 Pro or Huawei P smart. Sign up for one of these right now through EE and you could be enjoying a nice new shiny games console or a super-sharp pixel perfect screen in your living room very soon. These deals offer some of the best phones around, some of them even made it our best camera phones post. With prices starting from as little as £28 a month these deals are not to be missed. They all include 10GB of data and there's no upfront cost on selected phones. To help you make the right choice quickly and easily we have broken down these must-see Samsung and Huawei deals. Find the one for you below. Huawei phone deals + free Nintendo Switch or 4K TV Samsung phone deals + free Nintendo Switch or 4K TV Not quite what you're after? Check out some more smartphone deals below. Read more: Amazon Black Friday: when to get the best deals The best laptop deals in 2019 How do you use your mobile phone at work? View the full article

Mo.js is a unique motion graphics JavaScript library that not only facilitates full-screen page animation loaders, but also click-to-animate micro-interactions, and tons of shape manipulations. If you have been following the web design scene for a while now, chances are that you will have come across – or perhaps interacted with – a wide array of animation techniques and libraries. Core technologies such as CSS, HTML5 and JavaScript are becoming even more powerful, and browser support is improving with time. The implication is that more sophisticated web animations can be supported across devices. Need some animation inspiration? Here are some awesome examples of top CSS animation to recreate. How can mo.js help? Web animation, as it appears, is here to stay. However, a shortcoming with most popular animation techniques is that they are gravitated towards animating conventional UI/UX elements such as slideshows, tabbed buttons and drop-down menus. As a result, using them can eventually make your site too familiar and non-exciting. Mo.js can help with this. Using the library helps to animate the not-so-ordinary site elements by utilizing its built-in components such as html, shape, swirl, burst and stagger. The library is very easy to use, fast, retina ready, modular and open source. In this tutorial, the basics of working with mo.js are introduced and two techniques demonstrated; blast and bubble. 01. Get started Begin by creating a folder, mo.js, on your desktop to store the tutorial files. Create three additional folders within it: css to store the styling files, img for images and js for the JavaScript files. HTML files will be stored in the root folder. 02. Create page structure Open your code editor and create an index.html document to contain mark up for the main web page. Begin by creating the basic structure and give a suitable title to the page. 03. Structure the page The tutorial is divided into two parts; the first demonstrates the blast technique, whereas the second illustrates the bubble concept. As a result, we prepare two HTML files, one for each technique. To kick-start the blast technique, create a div section to contain the page title. Render the page in your browser where you should observe un-styled text at the top-left corner. 04. Link the CSS Open your code editor and create styles.css file inside the css folder. Create a link to this file in your html document by adding this code in the head section, <link rel=”stylesheet” href =”css/styles.css” >. Since no styles have been added, the page renders as illustrated in step 3. Alternatively, since the styling is minimal, you can opt to use inline styling by combining the HTML and CSS. 05. Style the background Next, we style the background by adding a background image. We have used the free scenic landscape background by Nikolai Ultang from Pexels. You can download it here. Save this (or your own image) inside the img folder. Render the page to show changes to the background. 06. Style the text The text is then styled to render at the centre of the page, as it currently appears at the top left corner. Note that to centralise the text, we select an absolute position and set its exact positioning using the top, left and right margins. The text is also transformed using the text-transform property. The text-align property is also set to centre. 07. Install mo.js As with other libraries, mo.js is installed through multiple options. The simplest approach, which we employ, is accessing it directly from a CDN server. Add the following code in the body section. In case you are developing offline, the library can be downloaded directly from GitHub and installed by using the Bower or NPM packages by using the appropriate commands. Once downloaded, it can be referenced directly. Finally, create a new script.js file and save it in the js folder. We will add JavaScript functionality to this file. Link it in the body section as follows. Place it below the text title as shown below. 08. Create the first blast Before proceeding to develop the code, it wise to highlight what we are creating. To blast something simply means to break it apart into smaller bits in an explosive manner. We will create a simple object (circle) and set it up search that when a user clicks it, it breaks apart in an explosive manner. 09. Create the circle object First, the object to be blasted is created (circle). However, mo.js supports other shapes, including rectangle (rect), cross, equal, zigzag and polygon. Where you fail to specify the shape type, it will default to a circle.To create a simple circle, declare it using the var or const and assign its attributes by calling the shape function. The code creates the default circle object with the given radius. The isShowStart variable is assigned a Boolean value to specify whether you need to show the object or not. Render the code to display a small magenta-coloured circle at the centre of the page. 10. Animate the circle The code snippet specifies that the scale and opacity will change from 1 to 0, indicating that the object disappears. Aduration and delay of the animation are also set. Note that the animation does not play since we are yet to initialise it. To do so, add the function below. 11. Make exploding polygons Now that the circle is animating, we create a blast animation that renders at the same time. The first blast uses the polygon shapes to draw out the explosion. To create a blast, use the mo.js function Burst as shown in the code snippet below. The code assigns seven polygon shapes to the explosion and specifies two radii. The first refers to the overall animation, while the second focuses on the specific polygon objects within the animation. Ensure to add the burst to the event listener function so that it responds to mouse clicks. Note that two new parameters have been added; the tune and generate. Tune makes the blast to render anywhere in the page, whereas generate initialises the burst animation. Render the page. Observe the exploding elements that appear at the same time as the circle. 12. Create the second blast Next, we create the second blast by using different shape options. The code follows the structure of the previous blast and only changes a few parameters. Add the burst to the event listener function. 13. Add circle explosions In order to enhance the animation further, we add circular explosions. Examining the code in steps 11 and 12 reveals a lot of similarities existing between the two type of bursts. In creating the third blast, we avoid rewriting too much code by using the spread operator which is written as three dots (...). However, first, we declare a variable that contains the similar features that we want to reuse. Thereafter, the other two circles can be created by simply using the spread operator. The code specifies the fill type, scale, opacity and whether to display them at the end of the animation. The two circle animations are created as follows. Add the circular shapes. 14. Render a basic bubble Unlike the blast animation, which breaks the object into smaller pieces, the bubble animation, on the other hand, translates the clicked object into a bigger space. The concept adopts the analogy of blowing up a balloon where the object continually expands in size. To do this, we simply create a new variable openBackground and assign attributes that will make the entire background achieve a similar colour to the object. As a result, this creates the nuance of bubbling. Ensure to add the background variable to the event listener function. 15. Add multiple shapes Following the concept in step 14, we now advance the example to include multiple coloured circular objects, which upon clicking expand in a similar manner and display some text. Edit the existing html file and copy the code within the body. It creates the basic structure of the page. 16. Add helper libraries Next, some additional libraries are added in the body section in order to facilitate scrolling and produce sounds when the objects are clicked. 17. Advance the animation Next, we add styles for the individual classes highlighted in the html files. The mo.js functionality is then added. The full code (css and js) is shared with the tutorial files for review. 18. Learn more about mo.js While the tutorial demonstrates the bubble and blast techniques, there are further resources available online that can help you fast-track your learning process. Some of these include mo.js tutorials on Github and demos also on Github. This article was originally published in issue 291 of creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 291. Read more: CSS art gets brilliantly ruined by old browsers Best pieces of user testing software Great UI designs View the full article

Slack dark mode is here. The new theme was added on a recent update, and brings a less jarring black background to your chats. To find out how to activate Slack dark mode, read on. Dark modes are having a moment right now. Twitter kicked off the trend earlier in the year, and the new Instagram dark mode is proving very popular. It seems like a simple thing, but there are a number of benefits to activating dark mode. It'll help save battery on your phone or tablet, and is less distracting for others if you're working in an area with dimmed lights, such as a design conference. It also seems to be easier on the eyes when compared to a bright white background – if you suffer from migranes, for example, dark mode can help. No matter what type of design you do, chances are if you work with others you have Slack installed on your machine (for more handy apps and software, explore our guides to the best tools for graphic designers and the top web design tools around). Could this be the design move that redeems the tool for designers after the fiasco that surrounded the new Slack logo? How to activate Slack dark mode on desktop To activate Slack dark mode, you just need to follow a couple of very simple steps. On desktop, open the app and go to Slack > Preferences > Themes and then simply select Light or Dark. Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image How to activate Slack dark mode on mobile On mobile, open the app and tap the three dots in the top right of your screen. From the drop-down that appears, select Settings. Scroll down, and under General you'll see an option to select Dark Mode. The process should be the same for iPhone, iPad and Android. If your device is running iOS 13, you'll need to turn on dark mode in Slack from your OS settings. Click the icon in the top right to enlarge the image Still having trouble? Check out Slack's instruction page. You can go further and change the sidebar shade and accent colour within your dark mode. Choose from a range of excitingly titled options, from Dagobah (blue) to Noctune (also blue) to Monument (orange). Slack also offers a couple of accessible themes catering to different types of colour blindness: there's one for users suffering from protanopia (reduced sensitivity to red light) or deuteranopia (reduced sensitivity to green light) and one for those with tritanopia (where the user cannot distinguish between blue and yellow). Bored of Slack's official options? Try this After something more expressive? Pokéslack is a generator that will create a light and dark theme based on your favourite Pokémon. Read more: How to implement light or dark modes in CSS Slack sparks further outrage with tweak to new logo 18 controversial moments in logo design and branding View the full article

The wait is over – Photoshop for iPad is finally here – at least – in name. Even by Adobe’s own admission, this app has been released with limited capabilities, with the intention of adding more features as users get up to speed with the new way of working. Where are we with iPad apps in general? Developers are forever striving to close the power gap between tablets and desktops, but it’s only with the latest iPad (supported by Apple’s Sidecar) that we’re really beginning to see the potential of portable devices as viable working machines. Advances in technology have made it possible to perform increasingly complex photo edits on the go, with the advent of such apps as Affinity Photo and Pixelmator, but few can boast the same influence and heritage as Adobe Photoshop. Does Photoshop for iPad come anywhere close to its desktop counterpart? Has Adobe shot itself in the foot with unrealistic aspirations and a self-imposed deadline? Read on for our full Photoshop for iPad review. Photoshop for iPad review: Welcome and interface The New Document window looks familiar, but has some notable omissions, such as CMYK and Artboards The opening screen of Photoshop for iPad is encouragingly similar to the desktop app, but there are some notable omissions in the New Document window – no CMYK option, no link to Adobe Stock, no Artboards, no saved presets and no Advanced options – that’s a lot to be missing before even opening a document. Despite the tab for ‘Film and Video’ documents, there is no actual video or GIF capability at this time. Photos can be imported from Camera Roll or directly from the Camera, while PSD projects can be continued directly from the computer, thanks to cloud-based saving. Working offline is no problem and files are re-synced over CC when back online. Cloud Documents is a practical solution for cross-platform sharing and one of this app’s most attractive features. Currently your only options for export are PNG, JPEG, PSD and TIFF. There is no CMYK option After opening a document you are presented with a reimagined Photoshop. This app is a champion of minimalism ahead of functionality – presenting a stark, pared-back interface, with tools hidden behind a veil of icons and menus. Some icons are immediately obvious in their functions, while others require some experimenting to discover their use. Adobe have attempted to design a UI for smaller screens, maximising canvas size without compromising on usability, while optimising for touch and pencil. For any native to iOS, this may come as intuitively as using a mouse, but for a seasoned desktop user it takes some time to reverse years of muscle memory and adapt to new processes. Luckily there is a practical ‘help’ section in the top-right corner, which contains plenty of tips, tutorials and a list of shortcuts. In the same area is the export button, which allows you to save your document as a PNG, JPEG, PSD or TIFF. There is minimal customisation of the workspace and no way to save any personal presets. Photoshop for iPad review: Layers The Layers tab has all the same options you might expect from the standard app – Opacity, Masks and Adjustments The layers tab has two configurations – a panel of smaller squares that take up very little space and a more extensive window that resembles the Layers panel from the standard app. Both offer the same basic layer options like Opacity, Blend Modes, Masks and Groups, but not necessarily where you would expect to find them. It is frustratingly difficult to achieve basic operations, like grouping layers or moving them up or down in the tab. Add an adjustment layer by holding down the New Layer icon, select ‘adjustment layer’ and choosing the one you want Adding an Adjustment layer requires you to hold down the New Layer icon, select ‘adjustment layer’ and choose the one you want. Although a matter of seconds, it feels like an annoyingly slow and cumbersome experience, especially if you want to add multiple adjustments quickly. It does however have all the vital adjustments needed for photo correction – Brightness/Contrast, Levels, Colour Balance, Black and white, Exposure and Hue/Satuation. If you are an advocate of Photoshop filters then you will be disappointed to learn that there are currently only two currently available – Gaussian Blur and Invert. It seems you could spend just as much time talking about what this app is missing as you could one what it currently has. Adobe has previously demonstrated huge file sizes on the iPad, containing up to 500 layers, without displaying any lag. This appears to be a fair reflection of the power of the app, which is fast and responsive – seeming to perform some tasks even better than on a computer. Photoshop for iPad review: Tools Selection is fairly accurate, but cannot replace the precision of the Pen Tool. The standard Photoshop toolbar is located on the left of the screen, with a modest array of tools available, bearing recognizable icons. The image enhancement options are fairly comprehensive, certainly among the best for iPad, achieving great results for general edits. The Clone stamp, Brushes and Healing brush in particular are well suited to Apple Pencil, while Transform lets you resize and distort layers easily. But it is lacking those tools that make it recognisable as a true Photoshop app – Pen Tool, Shapes, Burn, Dodge, Blur and History Brush. The Selection and Marquee tools are fine for rough work, but without a Pen tool or a Refine Edge there is a distinct lack of precision in these selections. There is also a basic text option with the Type tool, but it suffers from the Character and Paragraph windows being combined into one diluted tab. The Clone and Healing tools work just as on the standard app If you own an iPad-friendly keyboard then standard Photoshop shortcuts are possible, as well as some useful additions like the double-finger tap for Undo. The most novel of these is the Touch shortcut, which is displayed as a translucent circle on the canvas, similar to the 'toggle button' used in mobile gaming. It works in the same way as the Shift or Command key, letting you switch between different tools without having to go back to the toolbar. It takes a bit of getting used to and can be awkward to reach for, but could prove to be a big time-saver in the long run. There are some instances where a shortcut would feel natural and logical, such as double-tapping the screen to confirm a transform, but doesn’t work the way you want it to. Perhaps this is indicative of Adobe’s long-term commitment to an evolving system that responds to the feedback of its users. Photoshop for iPad review: Conclusion "Not yet supported on this device" really says it all. Even inside the app there are signs of unfinished development At Adobe Max 2018, Adobe described this app as "not a watered down version of Photoshop, this is real Photoshop". Unfortunately this is not true, it isn’t real Photoshop, but more like a pick-and-mix of some of Photoshop’s most popular features, with the focus on retouching and compositing – Photoshop with stabilisers on. As a basic portable photo editor it certainly ranks among the best, but there are plenty of apps already available on iPad that do a similar job at a cheaper price. If you’re already a CC subscriber then it is well worth the free download, if only to experiment with as an extension of the full desktop app, allowing a smooth transition to pick up projects on the go. The technology on show is impressive and raises the expectations for the possible additions that will come down the line. However in its current state it cannot be considered a replacement for the real thing – and suffers from that inevitable comparison, like a child who can’t live up to their parent’s glory. Ultimately this comes down to your own opinion – you can either view this as a premature release that fails to fulfil on its promise or a brave first step on an undeniably exciting journey. It’s certainly a statement of intent by Adobe and it’s now up to them to follow through on that potential. Read more: Lightroom vs Photoshop: What's the difference? View the full article

If you want to capture an entire screen, a window, or just a selected portion of your desktop, macOS has some quick, easy to remember shortcuts. Here we are going to kick off with the keyboard timesavers that work across all versions of macOS, before looking at the screenshot app that comes with macOS Mojave (v10.14) or later. If you don't have the latest version of the macOS or are simply looking to upgrade to take advantage of its tasty new features then check how to get a great MacBook Black Friday deal. Or, if you just want to tart up your MacBook check our mac decals post to help add a personal touch. 01. How to screenshot on all macOS versions Drag the cursor to capture a selected screen area Capture entire screen - To screenshot the desktop 'as seen' press Shift + Cmd +3. This will add the capture to your desktop. Click once to rename and then move to your chosen folder. Capture a window - To screenshot a specific window press Shift + Cmd + 4 followed by the Space bar. This will turn the cursor into a camera icon. Now click the window that you want to screenshot. A top tip to remove the window's shadow is to hold down the Option key when you click. Capture a selected part of the screen - To screenshot any part of the desktop first press Shift + Cmd + 4 and a cursor will appear. Now hold down the mouse button and drag to select the area of the screen to capture. Capture a menu - The first thing to do is open the menu you want to capture. Now press Shift + Cmd + 4 and drag the cursor over the menu and release the mouse button to capture. Alternatively, press the Space bar to change the cursor to a camera icon and click the menu to capture. 02. How to screenshot on macOS Mojave or later If your Mac has the Mojave OS (or later) installed you can take advantage of the Screenshot app to capture your desktop. You can open Screenshot by pressing Shift + Cmd + 5, or use Spotlight to find the app. Here you will see a collection of icons for capturing. The Screenshot app in the Mojave OS (or later) Capture entire screen - To screenshot everything click the Capture Entire Screen icon (first on the left) and the pointer will change to a camera. Click anywhere to capture. Capture a window - Select the Capture Selected Window icon (second from the left) and the pointer will change to a camera. Click the chosen window to capture. Capture a selected part of the screen - First select the Capture Selected Portion icon (third from the left). Now drag the cursor to select an area of the screen to capture. Capture a menu - The first thing to do is open the menu you want to capture. Now use either of the Capture a window or Capture a selected part of the screen options to capture the menu. 03. How to capture the Touch Bar Capture the Touch Bar with a simple shortcut If you own a MacBook with a Touch Bar, and have macOS Sierra (v10.12.2) or later installed, you can capture the Touch Bar by simply selecting Shift + Cmd + 6. This will add the capture to your desktop. The best mouse for Mac in 2019 Apple Pencil vs Apple Pencil 2: which should you buy? The 100 greatest Apple creations View the full article

Apple is investigating an issue raised by a Mac specialist discovered to be storing emails that are supposed to be S/MIME-encrypted as readable files. View the full article

The American public broadcaster, PBS, has its first new logo in a decade. PBS has over 330 local member stations, and a massive audience of over 146 million people both online and through TV, making it a tricky brand to harness. PBS worked with global creative consultancy Lippincott for two years to create the new logo, which will roll out throughout 2020 to celebrate 50 years of broadcasting. How has the logo changed exactly? In crude terms, it has gone from having three faces on top of each other in a black circle, with the logotype next to it, to a tweaked version of the faces in a blue circle, with an enlarged logotype next to it. And the lettering has also been tweaked, with new custom typeface, PBS Sans. (See more examples of how to rebrand, with our guide to logo design). The old PBS logo, in use since 2009 "The new brand identity also features a new, vibrant signature colour, PBS Blue, designed to convey a sense of trust and integrity," says PBS in a press release. You'll also notice that the nose on the logotype is more rounded than before, which is basically the logo equivalent of a nose job. "We softened the sharp geometric features of the original symbol, with a subtle upward gaze that feels more engaging," explains Lippincott on its PBS project page. You can see how the PBS brand has developed below. "PBS Sans – the brand’s new proprietary typeface – is human, engaging, and highly legible across all platforms," says Lippincott. We can't help but feel that this is yet another example of an all-caps sans serif, the kind that we saw recently with Facebook's rebrand, and countless other rebrands of late. What do we make of the logo? It's quite hard to get excited about it either way. That might be because we're not American. Or it might be because it's just not that exciting. PBS says that over 70 per cent of local PBS member stations will be adopting the new branding next year. So while this new identity will definitely go some way to uniting the disparate brand, there's also a little way to go until it becomes entirely consistent. Read more: New Pandora logo includes some seriously subtle serifs The best free sans serif fonts of 2019 Font licensing: A designer's guide View the full article

There's a couple of weeks to wait until all the best Black Friday deals start appearing. But it looks like Adobe is kicking off the big savings early, now offering artists and designers in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region a whopping 42% discount on its entire collection of creative apps. That means, if you're in Australia, for example, instead of costing $76.99 per month, you'll pay just $43.99! The price reduction applies to the entire Adobe Creative Cloud suite, which encompasses Adobe's 20+ applications, including photo editing favourite Photoshop and digital artists' go-to Illustrator. You'll also find video editing software Premiere Pro, web prototyping tool Adobe XD and motion effects creator After Effects among the impressive toolset. Not in APAC regions? Take a look at our guide to the Adobe Black Friday deals, which we update with all the best offers when they go live. > Get Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps with 42% off As if that wasn't enough, when you buy Adobe's full package you're also getting 100GB of cloud storage (with the option to upgrade to 10TB) and premium features like Adobe Portfolio, Adobe Fonts, and Adobe Spark. And if you'd like to include Adobe Stock too, then you can get Adobe All Apps + Adobe Stock for just $83.58 – reduced from $116.58. The programmes 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. This deal will be available until 17 November 2019, so if you're in APAC regions and want to save big on Adobe's entire suite of creative software, grab it before it's gone. If you're in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, you can currently take advantage of this early Black Friday Photography Plan offer: Related articles: 60 top-class Photoshop tutorials The best 4K monitors for designers The best web hosting services for designers View the full article

Fallout from giants at the top is one of the largest drivers of cyber-impacts on everyday people and companies. View the full article

The latest edition of the bi-annual hacking contest saw creative exploits in new device categories. View the full article

The Google Pixel 4 is one of the best camera phones you can buy, whether you’re big on bright city lit photography or high-impact night shots. It’s a great point and shoot snapper that’s easy to use, after all, and the experience it delivers feels seriously considered, with its clean interface, smart controls and versatile range of shooting modes. That said, if you want to get everything you can out of the Pixel 4, you’ll need to know about its double taps, hidden Astrophotography feature and let’s not forget the Pokemon. We cover all these highlights and more in this ultimate Pixel 4 camera guide. What makes the Pixel camera so great? Google has processed billions of images – it’s a search company after all. That means if anyone knows what makes a good image, and what doesn’t, it’s the big G. Historically, its Pixel phones haven’t been anything special in terms of camera hardware, they’ve all had traditional 12MP sensors. It's the software and image processing where the Pixel 4 excels. That’s how these humbly specced camera phones have delivered better dynamic range, clarity and greater noise handling than pricier phones like the excellent Note 10 Plus and their in-excess of quadruple-camera setups. Google Pixel 4 camera: Boost shadows What specifically makes the Pixel 4 camera so good is its simplicity. Photography pros may balk at the fact it has no manual mode, but there are still some very smart overrides when it comes to fine tuning exposure. The Pixel is one of the only smartphone cameras that lets you boost shadows separately to highlights, for example, so if you’re photographing a black cat, you can pull out detail in its fur that other phones can’t. Adjust shadows via the two bars that appear at the top of the viewfinder To take advantage of this shadow boosting, tap a focus point, and if you’re holding the phone in landscape orientation, you’ll see two bars appear at the top of the viewfinder. The right-hand bar controls exposure, the other controls shadows – genius. Google Pixel 4 camera: Quick adjustments and settings You can make on-the-fly adjustments in quick settings; swipe in from the left of the Pixel to access them. Here, you can toggle motion capture, which takes a short video clip with every photo so you have a moving memento. This is also where you can set a timer, fire up the flash and change the image aspect ratio from 4:3 to 16:9. Swipe in from the left of the Pixel to access quick settings Tap the cog for advanced settings – overlay framing grids, turn off camera sounds, enable quick sharing options so you can fling your picture straight onto Twitter, toggle RAW shooting on or off, and so much more. Google Pixel 4 camera: Zoom The new Pixel 4 includes a 16MP telephoto camera with a roughly 1.6x zoom. That’s an optical zoom, so it holds onto more detail than digital zoom, and it’s one of the best we’ve used, outperforming the iPhone 11 Pro. How you access it, however, isn’t immediately obvious. Sure, you can pinch in and out to frame your shot, but that’s clumsy and will likely leave you overshooting the second camera’s focal range or fall short of it altogether. The solution? Just double-tap the screen to punch in, double-tap to punch out. Stick with taps over pinches and you’ll guarantee yourself the highest quality photos, whether you’re zoomed in or out. Google Pixel 4 camera: Nightsight When the lights go down, Google’s Nightsight mode comes to the rescue with its handheld long exposure and see-in-the-dark superpowers. To activate it, swipe to the Nightsight option near the shutter release button or just tap it, point your camera at your subject, hold very still and take your shot. Your Pixel 4 will capture multiple pictures for about three seconds, stitch them together and create an almighty, high dynamic range, low light marvel. The steadier your hand, the better your shot, but even if there’s a bit of wobble, the Pixel 4 will still impress. That said, Nightsight takes photos with a long exposure, so if you’re shooting someone else, they need to keep as still as possible too, otherwise, they might end up looking like a blurred spectre against a pin-sharp backdrop. Google Pixel 4 camera: Astrophotography The Pixel 4’s highlight feature, Astrophotography isn’t quite as easy to fire up as we’d have liked it to be, and out of the box, we didn’t get any instructions as to how to go about taking photos of stars and galaxies. That said, once you know what you’re doing, it’s a doddle. First, launch Night Sight. Next, access your phone’s quick settings and turn on the Pixel 4’s self-timer - an optional step, but it will give you time to position our Pixel. Next, steady the phone, either on a tripod or a surface, and when the Pixel detects it’s perfectly still, it will flip to Astrophotography mode. When engaged, Astrophotography can keep the shutter open for around four minutes. While we weren’t able to capture the stratospheric shots Google demoed at the launch of the phone due to light pollution and cloud cover in the city we were shooting in, the results still impress. Google Pixel 4 camera: Pokemon Google’s Pixels are always fun. In the past, the phones have seen augmented reality partnerships with the likes of the Avengers, Childish Gambino, Star Wars and Stranger Things; now, it’s Pikachu’s turn to steal the AR spotlight. Google’s incredibly smart object recognition overlays one of four Pokemon from the Detective Pikachu movie between you and your background if you’re taking a selfie. Alternatively, you can create a Pokemon party by positioning multiple Pokemon over your scene if you’re shooting from the main camera. To access it, tap More within your camera UI, then Playground. Pixel's Playground is lots of fun As you can see from the example above, its object recognition is great and the creatures engage with one another when multiple Pokemon are in position. It’s also a lot of fun for kids too as the Pixel can still grab pictures and shoot videos of the Pokemon in action when in Playground mode, making it a great way to engage their imagination and creativity while still giving them a screen-time treat. Google Pixel 4 camera: Anything else? While we’ve covered the main highlights exclusive to the Pixel 4, there are other features found on most phones that are so good, they’re still worth mentioning. Its portrait mode, for example, works across the main camera, zoom camera and the selfie camera too, blurring out the background brilliantly. The Pixel 4 also shoots Panorama photos, and even 360-degree Photosphere images, which can be used with VR headsets. Slow-motion mode freezes time by up to an eighth and Time Lapse fast forwards it up to 120x. Just like any flagship smartphone worth its salt today, the Pixel 4 also shoots 4K video too with impressive image stabilisation. Thinking about picking up a Pixel 4 if you don’t already have one? To find out everything else you need to know about Google’s impressive camera phone, read our full Pixel 4 review. Read more: The best smartphone in 2019: be more creative on the move Street photography: 11 expert tips 15 top tips to boost your photography skills View the full article

A designer has spotted a nerdy joke hidden in Twitter's UI, and the internet is loving it. Click on the the 'Show more replies' CTA below a Tweet, what do you get? Text saying 'More replies'. It's right up there with 'I'm hungry / Hi hungry, I'm Dad' as groan-worthy parent gags go, and surely the proudest part of one Twitter team member's design portfolio. (Sometimes, of course, you'll actually see more replies to the tweet. It looks like this response is saved for cases where the repliers' accounts have been locked, making their comments unavailable to outsiders.) The man we have to thank for discovering the quirk is Scott Jehl, a designer and developer at Filament Group. You can see the joke in action in his viral GIF below. Jehl calls it "Twitter's best dad joke". We think it's good but in our opinion, not a classic, like these: 'Did you know the first French fries weren't actually cooked in France? They were cooked in Greece.' Or this absolute rib-tickler, 'Why can't your nose be 12 inches long? Because then it would be a foot.' (We can only apologise.) Read more: How to change the font in your Instagram bio 28 awesome Tumblr blogs for designers to explore A complete guide to social media for creatives View the full article

If there's one thing that designers hate, it's inconsistency. Surely the minds behind the world's leading creative software wouldn't make such an error? Well it looks like they have: right now the mixture of rounded and square-edged app icons on Adobe's popular tools is driving designers crazy. The apparent error has been a bone of contention for some time, but the recent release of Photoshop 2020 has reignited the rage of designers everywhere. The matter is detracting somewhat from all the exciting updates from Adobe MAX 2019, including the news that Photoshop on the iPad is finally here, and Illustrator on the iPad is in the works too. Want a Creative Cloud discount? Explore our guide to the best Adobe Black Friday deals Wondering why the XD and Photoshop icons in your dock or have rounded corners, while Illustrator and InDesign remain stubbornly square? Stephen Nielson, who leads the Photoshop product management team at Adobe has taken to Twitter to explain that it's actually intentional. He tweeted that "Adobe apps get rounded corners when they become multi-device and cloud-aware". So now you know. While it makes a little more sense now you know the thinking behind the inconsistency, Design Twitter is having none of it. Neil A. Evans summed up the crux of the problem, tweeting: "An icon that has to be explained is rubbish. I don’t care if it’s multi platform, if I install it on my other platforms I’ll already know. Make the icons consistent." An icon should be the purest version of what it represents, with no prior knowledge required (see our roundup of the best iOS app icons for more tips). While the difference between multi-device, cloud-aware apps and standalone apps is a big deal for those working at Adobe, it doesn't make a big difference to the general user – and certainly not the extent of wanting a different type of icon to remind them. If you're really struggling with the non-uniform icons, there is a solution. Go into Finder, and in the app's info panel you can override its icon. Copy in the 2019 icon, and you'll have a beautifully consistent dock once again. Phew. Read more: Adobe MAX Sneaks 2019: The most mind-boggling tech heading your way The 23 best Photoshop plugins Lightroom vs Photoshop: What's the difference? View the full article

Attackers could access Wi-Fi credentials due to a problem in initial configuration of the smart doorbell device. View the full article

You're reading Examples of Great Fall Email Newsletters with Tips and Tricks, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! Fall is ideal for email marketing campaigns. It is that time of the year to enjoy quality time at home with a cup of warm tea and delicious biscuits while surfing the web. It is a perfect opportunity to catch … View the full article

Did you know IKEA has never released a Christmas advert until today? We found it hard to believe too. But later tonight TV screens will see the first-ever festive IKEA ad, and, well, we love it. The perfect antidote to the usual tear-jerkers offered up in the festive period, this hip-hop themed offering from IKEA and Mother London had us both laughing and cringing (at how relatable it is) at the same time. Encourage the nation to defy ‘home shame’ and open up their homes to guests this festive season, ‘Silence the Critics’ opens with a small flat that has seen better days. The beat drops and a, quite frankly, vulgar-looking cat teapot and various other household ornaments come to life with a brutal rap, voiced by legendary MC D Double E, that ridicules everything from the tired furnishings and cracked walls, to the lack of space. "This place ain't blessed, this place is a mess (disgusting)" – told you it was savage. We particularly like the part where the T-Rex gets chucked into the toy chest as he begins to rap more devastating blows. Not that you'd ever catch us tidying our house in such a fashion, you understand. The couple in the advert become overcome with ‘home shame' (we've been there) when faced with impending guests and the external manifestation of this is offbeat, and very funny. As Christmas adverts go, it's a brilliantly refreshing change from the usual heartwarming, sentimental offerings you see this time of year. And encompasses everything we love about IKEA as a brand, which is the ability to not take itself too seriously (something it demonstrates regularly in its brilliant print ads). Silence the Critics will first air on Friday 8 November, on Channel 4 in the Gogglebox break. But if you can't wait that long, you can watch it in full right here: Read more: 5 ad campaigns that changed the world Billboard advertising: Traffic-stopping examples The best print adverts ever View the full article

Flaws in Das U-Boot affect third-party hardware that uses the universal bootloader as an underlying component. View the full article

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are now just a matter of weeks away, meaning soon we'll be practically swimming in top Black Friday deals. And the first pre-Black Friday deals are already starting to appear. So what exactly can we expect from Black Friday 2019, which these days also extends throughout the weekend, all the way until Cyber Monday 2019? And how can you get the best Black Friday deals? Let's find out. When is Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2019? Before we dive head-first into the Black Friday deals we expect to see, let's first make sure you've got the dates marked in your diaries. Black Friday traditionally takes place on the Friday immediately after Thanksgiving, meaning this year it falls on 29 November. That means Cyber Monday is 2 December this year, three days after Black Friday. While Black Friday is a frenzied cacophony of high street and online deals, Cyber Monday was originally conceived by savvy marketers as a way to sell more of their wares online, back when online shopping wasn’t as prevalent as it is today. These days, Cyber Monday usually sees a wider range of deals across individual retailers. It's less about one-off discounts, and more about lower prices generally. Saying that, if stores need to shift stock they’ll follow up Black Friday discounts with further reductions on Cyber Monday – so expect one-off deals too. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday happening a little later than normal this year, it may well be a good opportunity to get your Christmas shopping sorted. The best pre-Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals for creatives Where will we see the best Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals? While we can't say for sure where and what the best Black Friday deals will be, we can make educated guesses based on previous years. It's wise to keep an eye on any sought-after items throughout the whole of November, because Black Friday deals surface earlier and earlier each year. However, the best deals have historically happened later in the month, with retailers offering bigger discounts on the most expensive items, as well as accessories that might go with them. And typically, the best bargains are still reserved for Black Friday and Cyber Monday themselves. So what kind of items are we talking about? Below are our top predictions on the creative items you might have on your Christmas list this year. But first, here's the early Black Friday deals we're already seeing, and guess what? They're on the items we predicted. 01. Microsoft Surface range The Microsoft Surface range has become hugely popular among artists and designers in recent years. The Surface Pro and Surface Go lend themselves well to the needs of a creative, so it was no surprise to see them fly off the shelves in some of the best Black Friday deals we saw last year. Microsoft has been busy this year, recently announcing six new devices to its Surface range, all of which are aimed at a creative audience. With the release of these devices so close to Black Friday 2019, it's highly unlikely we'll see any discounts on these newer models. However, with the introduction of the new Surface Pro 7 and Surface Pro X, we will almost certainly see some great savings on the Surface Pro 6. A fantastic device in its own right, the Surface Pro 6 is currently one of the best tablets with a stylus around, so if you're not bothered about having the shiniest new Microsoft model, this will be a product to watch out for this Black Friday. Bookmark our dedicated Surface Pro Black Friday deals page for all the latest deals and updates on these popular devices. 02. Adobe Creative Cloud subscription Adobe has offered big Black Friday deals in the past Last year, creative software giant Adobe got stuck in all the Black Friday deals action, offering up to a whopping 40 per cent off a subscription to its Creative Suite of apps. That meant new subscribers could snap up Adobe’s entire collection of 20-plus creative desktop and mobile apps, and more, for just £30.34/€36.29/$22.99 a month, instead of £49.94/€60.49/$52.99 a month. And let's be honest, it doesn't get much cheaper than that (unless you're a student, where we have occasionally seen around 70 per cent off). That said, Adobe offers other discounts throughout the year, so it's worth keeping an eye on our Adobe Black Friday deals post. We expect that Adobe will get involved with Black Friday 2019, and the deals usually last a few days, so should be around on Cyber Monday 2019 too. 03. Apple iPad and iPhone We expect to some great savings on various iPad models this Black Friday and Cyber Monday Apple has been busy this year, launching its new iPad Mini and iPad Air, plus the iPad 10.2-inch. With all these models offering Apple Pencil support, they are a great choice for busy creatives on the go. As shiny new additions to Apple's portfolio, we don't expect to see huge savings on these, but if there are any discounts to be had, we'll keep you posted. And if you're after an Apple Pencil, then see our Apple Pencil Black Friday deals. But the best deals will almost certainly be on older – but still very sought-after – iPad models. For example, last year saw the iPad (2018) reduced to the bargain price of just $249 at Walmart, and it, unsurprisingly, flew off the shelves. If you're after a bit more power, the iPad Pro (2017) was reduced to $524.99 (from $649) at Walmart last year too. Whatever iPad model you're after, we have details of all the best iPad Black Friday deals right now and will update as the best Black Friday deals drop. If it's an iPhone XR you're in the market for, the latest iPhone has just dropped, meaning the ever popular 2018 model will likely see some pretty impressive savings. It's worth noting that these discounts will come from retailers, rather than directly from Apple, which tends to only extend its Black Friday involvement to that of extra Apple gift cards when you make a purchase. Which is fine if you're a super-Apple fan, but not so great if you're only likely to buy one or two Apple products per year. 04. Apple MacBook Pro Oh MacBook Pro, how we wish you were cheaper It's a firm favourite among creatives, but the MacBook Pro doesn't come cheap. So it's no surprise that a load of them got snapped up last year when B&H dropped the 2017 15.4-inch model to $2,149 (from $2,799). It may not be the newest version, but the MacBook Pro 2017 is still a highly capable and powerful machine. It's rare to see big savings like this on the latest Apple products, but if you're not worried about having the most up-to-date specs, you can save an absolute packet, and grab a great bit of kit while you're at it. And the place to do so? On our dedicated best Black Friday Macbook deals post, which has all the biggest savings as and when they arrive. 05. Apple Watch We don't know about you but keeping up with what version the Apple Watch is currently on is exhausting. That said, now there are a number of models (at time of writing the most recent model is Series 5), there's quite a high chance we're going to see some good savings on older (but still highly capable) devices. If you really want to find a bargain, Series 1 and Series 2 are almost certainly going to be where it's at. But if you want the option to have GPS and Cellular connections, go for the Series 3. Keep up to date with all the biggest offers over on our best Apple Watch deals post, which will include all Black Friday savings too. See an early Black Friday Apple Watch offer on the Series 3 Watch below. 06. Apple AirPods Hold tight! You could save a packet on Apple AirPods later this year Rounding up our Apple products Black Friday review is the company's controversial AirPods. Some people love them, others think they look weird/want the headphone jack back. And the release of the AirPods Pro has been even more controversial – here's why we were pleasantly surprised by their release. Last year, the biggest discount we saw was around £20/$30, which isn't much to shout about. However, with the new improved Apple AirPods (2019) out now, plus the AirPods Pro, we're hopeful we'll see much better Black Friday AirPod deals in November (although we're not holding our breath for deals on the AirPods Pro). We'll keep you updated with any great offers that land via our dedicated best Apple AirPods deals post, so make sure to bookmark that page and check back regularly. 07. Wacom drawing tablets Will there be any Black Friday deals to be had on the new Wacom Cintiq 16? Here's hoping. It's tricky to find discounted Wacom products, which is why Black Friday 2018 was such a pleasant surprise for designers in the market for one. Various retailers dropped the price of Wacom's sought-after products, with the best Black Friday deals seeing a whopping $200-$500 knocked off the popular Cintiq Pro range. Wacom has recently released its budget Wacom Cintiq 16. It'll be interesting to see if any Black Friday deals crop up on this already affordable creative pen display. In a similar vein to Apple, it's rare for Wacom to offer discounts directly – if you want to make a saving, you're best looking at major retailers such as Amazon or Walmart. Alternatively, if you're on the hunt for a graphics tablet, but don't mind if it's not a Wacom, last year there were some great bargains on XP-Pens, so that could be one to watch out for. Better still, save yourself the hassle, bookmark our Wacom Black Friday deals page and let us do the work for you. 08. External hard drives Black Friday 2019 could help you make big savings on quality external hard drives Okay, so it's not exactly the sexiest of items, but an external hard drive can form a vital part of a designer's toolset. And, as anyone who's bought one will attest, they don't come cheap. Last year, leading manufacturer Western Digital offered some decent savings on its 'My Passport' range, which starts at around £90 for its 4TB option. We'll be keeping you up to date with any offers over on our best Black Friday external hard drives post, where you'll find all the lowest prices now and over the Black Friday period. Look out for more Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2019 information and deals coming soon! View the full article

Lego is one of the best creative tools around. Not only can you use it for problem solving and prototyping, you can also free up your mind from the stresses of daily life and get stuck into a themed set of your choice (the Lego Knight Bus is a cracker for any Harry Potter fans out there). The seemingly never-ending styles and shapes that the little brick now comes means you can now build virtually anything your mind can think of, including Christmas decorations. And Lego's latest campaign is asking the world to do just that. The Build to Give initiative encourages people all over the globe to use spare Lego, either at home or in select Lego stores, to build festive ornaments and upload their creations on social media with #BuildtoGive. For every decoration shared, Lego will donate an entire set to a child in need of play. You could create a Christmas tree, a reindeer, cake, ornaments for the tree or Santa, even. Alternatively, you could think a little more outside the box and recreate the town of Bethlehem, maybe? If you're stuck for inspiration, the Build to Give web page has a number of ideas, as well as some downloadable instructions on how to build a MySweetHeart pendant (see below). Download the instructions and start building If you want to get involved, Build to Give events are taking place around the world during November and December 2019, which is free for all to join. Simply check the Lego store locator to see what's happening in your area. Read more: Introducing Lego, as you've never seen it before The Knight Bus Lego review 9 top tips for drawing in black and white View the full article

Vulnerabilities in several PC gaming products offered by Nvidia can lead to escalation of privilege, denial of service and other malicious attacks. View the full article

You're reading React and CI/CD – From 0 to Released, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! CI/CD has become the beating heart of any software team. A well-refined CI/CD process results in a frictionless path to live. In turn, this results in smaller, simpler releases that enable teams to test out experiments, react to bugs and … View the full article

Mission-critical systems can't just be switched off to apply security updates -- so patching can take weeks if not years. View the full article