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Brain.js is a fantastic way to build a neural network. Simply put, a neural network is a method of machine learning that works in a similar way to a human brain. Given the correct answer to a question (like ‘which option will this user choose?’), it slowly learns the pattern and relationship between the inputs and answers. One example of a neural network is Facebook’s facial recognition system, DeepFace. But due to the complex domain language of neural networks and seemingly steep learning curve, it can be hard to get started. In this tutorial, we will distil the theory down to need-to-knows and, importantly, get stuck in with actually using brain.js to create a neural network. By the end, you will have a web app that asks multiple-choice questions about a user’s optimism. When they submit, these answers will train a neural network to the probability of our user selecting each option for a brand new question. Download the files you'll need for this tutorial. 01. Set up the project Firstly, download and install the necessary dependencies. This tutorial presumes you have a working knowledge of React, or the equivalent mapping to a preferred alternative. Create a React app using your desired method. You can try Facebook’s create-react-app tool, installed using the following: 02. Start your app Now we can build, install brain.js, and start our app: We are going to perform the neural network computation on the browser. Neural networks are resource intensive and should be offloaded to a server. However, this way is quick to set up and fine for our basic needs. Now let’s add brain.js to our entry point (in my case, App.js). 03. Define your training questions A visualisation of our neural network. The inputs come from the optimism value of each option for a question. These are then manipulated by the hidden layer to give us the outputs we want – the likelihood of each option being selected We need to define our training questions next. In a separate questions.js file, we’ll need a trainingQuestions and validationQuestions array. You can find my list on the Git repo or create your own. The more training questions you have, the more accurate your results. Remember to import these into your entry point. For both arrays, we need a question, an array of four options that contain a label and an optimism value. This value will be the input for our neural network. Ensure you vary the order and balance of values, or the neural network may focus too much on the index of the options in the array! Our neural network takes four inputs and gives four outputs. Our training data needs to match this, so in our constructor we need some state for the quiz and the user’s options: 04. Initialise the neural network The initialisation of trainingAnswers creates an array for each question containing [0, 0, 0, 0] – our default state with no selection. We’re also going to need to initialise our neural network – just a single line with brain.js: Each item in our training set must consist of two arrays; one input with the optimism value of each option and one output containing the selection our user made 05. Build the quiz framework To build the framework for our quiz, we need to loop over our training questions and options. This is quite verbose and not very interesting, so I’ll give an example output for you to aim for instead: If you’re new to React, see the documentation for building forms. We can write our isOptionChecked and onOptionChange functions next: 06. Train the neural network Our UI so far, showing one of my training questions and its options. I’ve used CSS in order to hide the actual radio buttons and give them a toggle button appearance Now, when our user clicks an option, we update the relevant trainingAnswers array to feature a 1 in the selected index and change the state of the radio button to show it as checked. Time to add our onSubmit function, where we build the training data and train the neural network: Looping over trainingQuestions, we create the input and output arrays we need. We get the input data by taking the optimism value of each option and we get the output data from looking in the trainingAnswers array at the same index as the question. After that, we update the state with training: true to inform the user that the neural network is learning. Depending on the processing power of the client device and how many questions you have, the process can take seconds, minutes or longer! Finally, we pass the training data over to our neural network and tell it to train asynchronously. This returns a promise that is fulfilled when the network has found the pattern or given up. Keep an eye on the error rate we log in trainAsync. Ideally it should be between 0 - 0.05. If it’s higher, check your training data. From there, we can get our predictions: Using net.run, we ask our newly trained neural network to give us its predictions for each of the validation questions we defined earlier. For the grand finale, we add our conditional loading logic and present a finding to the user. 07. Extend the network Here’s our final results view, with my validation question and options. I’ve passed the probability through to another div to display it as a bar Now you have the basic framework for the quiz, try extending it with the following: Find the real error rate of your neural network by letting your user answer your validation questions. See how many times they chose your best guess. Train the neural network with these additional answers and see if you can improve the accuracy. Move the neural network calculations over onto a Node server with the brain.js toFunction() and toJSON() methods. This article originally appeared in issue 321 in net magazine, the world's leading web design magazine. Buy issue 321 or subscribe to net. Read more: The best JavaScript libraries 9 of the best JavaScript frameworks to try 22 brilliant jQuery plugins View the full article

Built by artists, for artists, Corel Painter 2020 is designed to not only enhance but make sure nothing stands in the way of your creativity. Renowned for its traditional media emulation, Painter 2020 digitally replicates real-world brushes and paint effects with incredible results. Accessible for beginners, but also packed with advanced features for professionals artists and photographers, Painter 2020 is armed with all the tools you need to bring your creations to life, and backed up by powerful technology to help you do it in record time. Custom built for digital artists, let’s take a closer look at the innovative features Painter 2020 has to offer... Brush Accelerator The Brush Accelerator is pretty special. Analysing your system’s individual specifications, it configures the software to provide peak performance on your machine. Multiple GPU and CPU options and enhancements means Painter moves at lightning speed – perfect for photographers doing complex image edits and artists creating complex digital paintings. The functionality, highlighted in the above video, is hugely impressive, there’s even the option to disable GPU acceleration for specific brushes. Impressive interface Painter 2020’s interface is super-easy to navigate and controls are now even easier to access. This is due in part to a revamped Property Bar, which enables easy and quick access to some of Painter’s most popular tools (previously only available via the menu bar). The brush selector highlights new brush previews, making choosing the right brush for your project a cinch, and consolidated Library Panels make way for more precious painting space. These enhanced features not only help display artwork in all its glory, but put everyday tools right at your fingertips. Complementary colours Picking the right colour for a project can be tricky, especially for beginners. Until now, that is. The universal colour selection advancements in Painter 2020 make selecting the right hue for your project a breeze. Need more than one? Six new colour harmonies, highlighted in the video above, offer complementary colours based on your selection and can be saved as colour sets for future use. A highly accomplished piece of software, Painter 2020 is a powerful creative tool that offers a truly authentic painting experience. You’d be forgiven for thinking that this premium product comes with a price tag to match, but in an environment where subscription models reign supreme, Painter comes out on top, offering its entire toolset for a one-time, affordable fee. Want to try before you buy? Sign up for a free trial today! View the full article

There was a time when a product launch was about announcing the sale of a physical thing, like a car. Nowadays, a "product" can equally be a virtual, digital entity like a new app or website. But either way, the importance of a successful product launch cannot be overstated. When you think about product launches, Steve Jobs waving around the original iPhone comes to mind. But if your company isn't yet as famous as Apple, how do you get anyone's attention in today's ultra-competitive landscape? Here we look at five recent examples of successful product launches, and pull out the lessons learned, which can be applied to products across the board. 01. Dollar Shave Club The story of Dollar Shave Club is one every entrepreneur should learn. In the simplest terms, two guys met at a party and chatted about how expensive razor blades were. They set up a website that sold them more cheaply, and five years later it was bought by Unilever for an astonishing $1billion. Yes, that's right. One billion. The genius of the brand lay largely the simplicity of the idea. And so when it came to the product launch, writer Michael Dubin and director Lucia Aniello created an explainer video (above) that got right to the point, with just the perfect level of cynical humour and straight to cut right through to the target market. Note that the clip isn't entertaining in itself: it would be of little interest, for example, to someone who doesn't use razor blades. But for those who do, it's compelling viewing and a perfect example, seven years on, on how to launch a product via online video. Lesson learned: Your product launch doesn't have to be a big-budget production. A straight-talking video that makes the right connection with its audience needn't cost much, but can be worth its weight in gold. 02. KPOP Foods K-Pop Foods officially launched on Kickstarter, but its creators put in the groundwork well before then The Dollar Shave Club was developed with venture capital. But you don't necessarily need a big investment to bring a product to market. Using a crowdfunding mechanism like Kickstarter, you can raise the funds in advance to develop and produce it, directly from its intended consumers. While that sounds great in theory, though, it can be devilishly difficult in practice. Because if the first anybody hears about your product is when it appears on Kickstarter, it can be a leap of faith to expect them to part with money immediately. One popular tactic, then, is to do a "soft launch" in advance of the full launch on Kickstarter, to raise awareness and build excitement. That's exactly what two MBA students did when they launched KPOP Foods, a brand intended to popularise Korean food in the USA. Their first product was KPOP Sauce, a Korean chili sauce based on a recipe from Theo Hanmi's grandmother. To build awareness, he and co-founder Mike Kim designed a cute container in the shape of a piglet, and began handing them out to everyone they could. Word quickly spread around campus, and beyond, and a community started to build around KPOP Sauce. When the Kickstarter went live, the two "dialled for dollars"; drawing on the pre-existing community of fans, as well as family, friends and classmates, to boost the number of pre-commitments, share the project on social media, and grow buzz around the product. This helped them become a top trending Kickstarter project, and they reached their goal of $10,000 in under eight hours. Lesson learned: If you're going down the crowdfunding route, don’t wait for the launch to start selling or promoting. The majority of your effort to build awareness and take pre-orders needs to happen well in advance. 03. Nike’s House of Go Nike are the giants of product promotion. But the sports shoe company truly surpassed themselves with their 'House of Go' campaign, to launch the Epic React Flyknit running shoe. For a whole month, the Nike on Michigan Avenue in Chicago opened a multi-floor pop-up called the “House of Go", which included a high-tech treadmill surrounded by three giant screens filled with animated avatars that actually react with your movements. Everyone who visited got to test-drive the new Epic React Flyknit running shoe while using the treadmill. The experience was free, as long as you signed up to the Nike+ program via their app. The brilliance of this campaign was that it pulled in countless people who would never have considered buying a high-end sneaker. As Sonia Thompson wrote for Inc.com, "I've never considered myself a runner, and the likelihood of me going into a store and lacing up a pair of running shoes to 'see how they feel' was pretty close to zero." But the fun, child-like nature of Nike's pop-up store changed all that. "Not only did the euphoria of the experience get me to try the shoes on," she writes, "but the convincing staff somehow persuaded me to run around the block with the shoes, while wearing a skirt." Lesson learned: We can't all afford a big budget immersive experience for our customers. But what we can take away from Nike's "House of Go" is that a launch needn't just target the core market. Think creatively, and seek out ways to pull in an whole new audience for your brand through your product launch. 04. Under Armour The Under Armour campaign celebrated an unexpectedly diverse range of sportswomen There was once a time when advertising and branding professionals were rigid and conservative about featuring the "right" kind of models in their promotions. That's all quickly changing now, though. And wisely New York agency Droga5 went precisely in the opposite direction to debut sportswear brand Under Armour's FW2017 collection. For the launch, Droga5 created a series of social media videos, titled “Unlike Any”, that purposely portray atypical female athletes, capturing exactly what's different about them. Featuring action from the likes of ballerina Ms Copeland, stuntwoman Jessie Graff, and Zoe Zhang, an actress and Taekwondo Black Belt, the sequences were accompanied not by the pop music you might expect, but poetry by Saul Williams, Aja Monet, Kojey Radical, Dominique Christina and Aristophanes. Under Armour's Adrienne Lofton said at the time: "Our brand aims to inspire women everywhere to continue making history in their own lives, and this campaign is a reminder that we stand for and with her.” As a result, the #UnlikeAny hashtag went crazy on Instagram, and the campaign proved to be one of the most successful product launches of recent years. Lesson learned: You needn't just talk about qualities of the product itself. Infuse your brand a purpose and ethos from the launch onwards, and you’ll be able to engage hearts as well as heads. 05. Stranger Things Season 2 With streaming video exploding all the old certainties, how do you promote a new TV series these days? If the launch of Stranger Things season 2 is anything to go by, the answer is: by getting as nerdy as some of its most hardcore fans. In a cheeky campaign by mysterious billboards appeared around LA and New York advertising 'Hawkins Power & Light'. To anyone unfamiliar with the show, that wouldn't mean a thing, but to fans, it's a shadowy corporation that plays an intimate role in the plot. The ads featured a 1-800 number, and if you called it you heard a recording (shown in the video above) that gave you clues to what was going to happen in season 2. Why advertise to people who were already going to watch Stranger Things anyway? Because sometimes, by focusing on a small minority of loyal and passionate people, you get them so excited that it causes a ripple effect, drawing in casual viewers and even those unfamiliar with the show altogether. That was clearly the case here, as fans gradually discovered the campaign and speculated feverishly about what it all meant across networks such as Twitter and Reddit. Combined with more mainstream advertising such a Super Bowl ad, this proved a winning strategy that made Season 2 a huge hit. Lesson learned: Sometimes with a bit of creativity, you can pull in a broad audience by focusing on in a narrow one. So whether you're launching a new season of a TV show or the latest iteraton of a tech device, think about what makes fans passionate about your product, and ways you can stoke that passion. If you get it right, you'll turn them your most successful brand ambassadors. View the full article

You might not realise it, but font licensing is a vital part of typography. And beautiful typography can make or break a project. Whether you’re designing a logo, website, T-shirt or app, your creation will have unique appeal if you choose the right fonts. Their curves, proportions and nuances can give your design its own subtle aesthetic, capturing the imagination of all who see it and paving the way to success. Don't believe us? Think about how the right font pairings can create something special. Or, your project could crash and burn. Imagine how bad it would be if two weeks after launch your client was calling you up to pull the campaign, demanding to know why legal letters had arrived from a type foundry? This is why it’s always best to check your fonts are fully licensed for their intended use. If not, you could get sued, your client could get sued, and your professional reputation will land in the dust quicker than you can say ‘sans serif’. We should also say it's really important to check every type of license you'll come across – even with free fonts, you should check the terms carefully. Read on for our complete guide to font licensing (or licencing if you're in the UK, we'll use the American spelling here as it seems to be pretty ubiquitous across the web). What is a font license? Fonts are installed on our computers and as such they are considered to be software. Like other software, when you buy a font, you are actually buying a license to use it and agreeing to conditions set out by the seller. The license is a document that outlines those conditions. In the same way that copyright protects your work as a designer, enabling you to earn a living without people stealing your designs, a font license protects the typographer’s right to charge for the use of their creations. While copyright law is different in the US, UK and in other countries around the world, font licenses are written in a way that gives you the right to use the software regardless of territory. Font or typeface? Although these two terms are often used interchangeably, they have distinct meanings. A typeface is a family of fonts that share aesthetic characteristics, while a font is a subset of characters in a specific size, weight and style. For example, VAG Rounded is a typeface, while VAG Rounded Pro Bold and VAG Rounded Standard Light are separate fonts sold by Linotype. You can license VAG Rounded in its entirety, or just the specific fonts you need. Read our article font vs typeface to find out more. Font licenses and usage One of the trickiest things about font licenses is that each foundry and online font shop has slightly different terms and pricing structures. Generally, though, it all boils down to how you intend to use the font. The license you buy and its cost can differ greatly between using the font on 100 T-shirts and using it on a website with 20 million monthly page views. Below are the main types of font licenses you’ll come across. Desktop font licenses The typeface Bressay can be licensed to produce logos, documents, websites and apps from Dalton Maag According to Aideen Greenlee, head of account management at Dalton Maag, the most common question foundries receive is ‘Can I use this font to create a logo?’ With a desktop license the answer is usually ‘yes’. Sometimes called an end-user license, a desktop license enables you to install a font on your computer and use it for a whole range of offline purposes. As well as logos, you can use it for other graphics, print collateral, signage, merchandise… pretty much anything in print. What you need to watch out for is how many users can install the font under the license you’ve purchased, and whether or not you can use it for commercial projects. Sellers generally offer scalable desktop licenses. When you add desks, you buy more licenses and when your project goes from pitch to live status you upgrade to a commercial license. One thing you can’t do is give the font to your client – they’d need to buy their own license to use it, even if that’s just for editing text within a layout. Commercial font licenses These days, most desktop licenses enable you to create client work using the font. However, it is always worth checking. Some do not and in these circumstances, you’ll need to buy a commercial license – and possibly one for your client as well. Webfont font licenses Figue is an elegant and insistent serif typeface by Oslo-based Good Type Foundry, and can be licensed for desktop and webfont uses When a font is used for website text, it typically needs to be embedded into the site’s code so that it will display properly on the end user’s screen. Consequently, the font will sit on a server and will be given away, in a sense, with each page view. This isn’t really a problem, but it does mean that when you use a font for website design a different license is required. In some cases, web font licenses work on a per view basis. For example, Good Type Foundry charges €450 for its flagship Good Sans if page views are below 15,000 per month. The license scales up, reaching €2,600 if the site receives up to one million page views. When using a web font you may be asked to embed some code in a site so that the foundry can count the traffic. Other web font licenses have no traffic restrictions. Instead they have time and/or domain limits. If your client has .co.uk, .com and .net, and intends to run their site in perpetuity, then the costs will ramp up so make sure they’re covered. See our free web fonts roundup to see web fonts that don't cost anything (of course, be sure to double check the terms). Adobe Fonts licenses If you’re a Creative Cloud user, don’t forget you have access to 1,800 fonts as part of the package, but do read the license info – particularly that regarding web use Your Creative Cloud package comes with an excellent source of fonts with fairly straightforward licencing arrangements already in place. Adobe Fonts (formerly TypeKit) includes over 1,800 fonts and gives you desktop licenses to use all of them. When you start a new project you can simply log-in, browse and begin trying out new font combinations. Easy peasy, right? Get Adobe Creative Cloud Well, there are a few things to watch out for. While you do also get a web font license to use any of the fonts in sites created for clients, at the time of writing this license will expire on 31 December 2019. At that point, your client will have to buy Creative Cloud to gain licenses to carry on using the fonts on their site. Furthermore, Adobe Fonts can’t be used in server applications, nor in mobile apps, without you buying further licenses for these uses. Server font licenses This is an unusual category, but it’s worth mentioning. Server font licenses are typically used in print on demand applications. For example, if you’re designing a site that enables users to choose the fonts used on a card, T-shirt or mug that will be printed and shipped, the licensing conditions will be different. The license may have a time limit on it, and you may need to buy a license for each CPU in your server package. App and ePub font licenses If your client has briefed you to create their new website and the accompanying app, the app won’t be covered by a web font license. If the font needs to be embedded in an app, you’ll need an app font license to do so. Usually, these are on a per-app basis and costs may ramp up with the user base. The same is true for ePub formats such as digital books and magazines. One thing to look out for here is new editions. You may need to re-license a font if you update and release a new version of an ebook, and you may need a fresh license for each issue of a digital magazine you put out. There may be stipulations on readership numbers and timescale, so check the license carefully when buying. Unlimited font licenses If your client is a large organisation, it might be worth negotiating an unlimited license with the foundry. This would give them the right to use the font on as many computers as they wish and for any offline purpose they wish. From advertising campaigns to apps, they’d be covered and so would you as their design agency. Unlimited licenses usually cost over £10,000 but will keep your client out of typographic hot water in perpetuity. Exclusive font licenses This handwritten-style typeface was created by Dalton Maag exclusively for the UK cosmetics chain Lush You may even wish to contract a typo foundry to create a bespoke typeface for your client and their projects. Under the license, your client would be the only organisation able to use the fonts. The cost here would be £30,000 and up. Free font licenses Over 950 open source fonts are available at Google Fonts – worth checking before you shell out These are the best, right? Well, sometimes you get what you pay for… Many of the free fonts out there lack the quality finishing you get with bona fide fonts designed by reputable foundries. Furthermore, just because a font is free that doesn’t mean it isn’t covered by a license. Some free font licenses allow you to use them in your own design work, and even for pitches, but if they appear in published client work, commercial license conditions kick in requiring payment. However, many excellent fonts are available on a completely open source basis. Visit Google Fonts, where nearly 1,000 fonts can be downloaded, installed and used in print, web and app projects under Google’s free Apache License. You can also see our roundup of the best free fonts. Font licensing: How to avoid problems While foundries and online font shops do try to make it as easy as possible to buy font licenses and apply them correctly in your work, there are always anomalies. Furthermore, when problems occur, most of the time they are easily resolved through the purchase of the correct license. The best way to avoid a bad situation is to make license checking part of your production process – particularly for client work. Just before you show them your initial designs is a good point at which to check the fonts you’ve used have been licensed. If not, you know what you need to do… Thank you to Good Type Foundry and Dalton Maag for their help with this article. Read more: The best monospace fonts for coding Font types: a designer's guide Kinetic typography: 42 must-see examples View the full article

You're reading Scrapestack is a Free Web Scraping API, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! Pull data and scrape information and rankings from platforms such as Google, Reddit, or Instagram and parse it right into your website with Scrapestack. The tool, which is a web scraping REST API, can make this task quick and easy … View the full article

Flaw impacts 18 Android models including Google’s flagship Pixel handset as well as phones made by Samsung, Huawei and Xiaomi. View the full article

For many graphic designers, getting the chance to create a brand identity for a big company would be a dream come true. And while these gigs can be tough to land in real life, 10 designers have done away with convention and decided to reimagine some famous logos just for the fun of it. The results are a mixed bunch. Some are simple and effective, and deploy a lot of the pointers we highlighted in our logo design guide. In fact they're so good we could easily imagine them rolling out for real. Others, however, leave a lot to be desired, and underline just how difficult creating an effective logo can be. The hypothetical logos were compiled by Dribbble, one of the most popular platforms for design related self-promotion. In the roundup we see some recognisable identities given everything from a subtle polish to a complete overhaul. 10 of the best logos ever Take this reimagining of the Amazon logo by designer Sam Bunny. Plenty of the familiar Amazon logo elements are present and correct. Lower case sans serif lettering? Check. Orange visual connecting the letter 'a' and 'z'? Check. But all of these parts have been streamlined to create a distinctly new identity. It's all the more impressive when you learn that it only took Bunny an hour to make it. When the new logo is placed next to the existing Amazon version, complete with its arrow image and bendy 'z', we can't help but think that the real logo could benefit from a few elements of Bunny's design. Which do you prefer? Not all logos can be so easily reimagined though. The Target logo, for example, is about as minimalist as they come, yet it does a brilliant job of representing the brand. If you were to add anything to this, it detracts from its effectiveness. Designer Irvan Pratama had a shot at taking the Target logo in a new direction by incorporating a blue arrow image. We can see what they were going for. The faded and contrasting colours work well together, but it's just not as striking as the version that Target currently has plastered all over its shops. Pratama even added sneaky shadow beneath the arrow to give the design extra oomph. The trouble is, these additional bits and pieces overcomplicate what is already a straightforward and striking design. If this version were presented to the Target bosses, we could see them removing them straight away. Sorry, Pratama. Is Pratama's version (right) off target? To see some more hypothetical logo alternatives, including different versions of the PlayStation, Red Bull, and NASA logos, take a look in the gallery below by clicking left or right. And for the full collection, head on over to Dribbble, where you'll also find links to the profile's of each creator involved. Related articles: Logo swap is surprisingly disturbing Is this the most blatant logo theft ever? 10 iconic logos with hidden meanings View the full article

This is a hands on review of the Surface Pro X to give you the chance to see what the new 2-in-1 laptop is all about as soon as possible. We'll be expanding and upgrading this review in the future with more information and a score. The Surface Pro X was just one of six new devices revealed at Microsoft's Event on Wednesday. And while we've all been distracted by the excitement of the new dual-screen tablet, the Surface Neo, and Microsoft's upcoming foldable phone, the Surface Duo, that doesn't mean that we aren't impressed by the Surface Pro X (as well as the new Surface Pro 7). But what does the Surface Pro X actually offer? Could it become one of our favourite drawing tablets, or best laptops for graphic design? Read on for a first look at Microsoft's new 2-in-1 laptop/tablet. You can also watch Microsoft's introductory video below. Microsoft Surface Pro X: Design, display and Surface Pen The Surface Pro X is a logical progression of the Surface Pro series. This version is thinner and lighter than previous models. It measures 11.3 x 8.2 x 0.28 inches, and weights 1.7 pounds (774g). The device feels super-light and is slim enough to fit in most bags without a problem. This version of the Surface Pro also has slightly rounder edges than the other iterations, making it look just that bit sleeker. The display is a 13-inch PixelSense touchscreen with a 2,880 x 1,920 resolution (267 ppi) with a 3:2 aspect ratio. Colour looks great on it, the overall look and feel is good, and it's also pretty bright (450 nits). Typing feels slightly bouncier than before, but is overall an enjoyable experience. Plus, it's got a stylus, the Surface Pen – now called a Slim Pen as it's a bit flatter, which you can store easily within the device, where it automatically charges. When you pull out the Pen, the Surface automatically brings up the whiteboard app. The new Pen is just as good as before, and has the pressure sensitivity and palm rejection we've come to expect from the Surface Pen. You can turn the Pen around and use the end of it like an eraser, which is pretty cool. You can also use the Pen on its side, giving you nice soft blended effects when creating artwork. We also saw at the event that the Creative Cloud works really well on this machine, with Adobe Fresco having been optimised for the Surface Pro. Fresco will soon arrive on the Surface platform. The Surface Pro X comes in one colour: matte black aluminium, with the black Alcantara fabric Type Cover for the keyboard cover. So on the design and display front, so far, so good. Overall, this feels like a tablet that creatives could actually use. Microsoft Surface Pro X: Key specs and performance The starting price of the Microsoft Surface Pro X is $999, and for that, you'll get 8GB of RAM (memory) and a 128GB SSD, which is removable. These specs are similar for what the MacBook Air (read our MacBook Air review here) offers at its starting price. The Surface Pro X is also the first to have its own custom-built processor – an ARM-based Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU that Microsoft is calling the Microsoft SQ1. Microsoft claims that this setup provides "best in class" graphics performance. It also said that it has three times more performance than the Surface Pro 6. This all sounds great on paper, but seeing as ARM-based Windows 10 devices don't historically do so well when compared to AMD or Intel machines, we will reserve judgement until we've had time to properly test it out. The machine is also the "first Windows PC to have an integrated AI engine", creepily demonstrated during the Microsoft Event as enabling you to change the look of someone's eyes when on a video call to make it look like they're continually looking at you. Bit weird. But perhaps there are other, more useful applications. Microsoft says the Surface Pro X will last up to 13 hours after one charge, which seems kind of okay, although you may find you want more. It also has fast charging, so after one hour you'll have around 80 per cent battery, which helps. Microsoft Surface Pro X: Price and availability The Surface Pro X will be available from 5 November in stores and online, while pre-orders have already started. The starting price is $999 / AU$1,699 (about £810). Order the Microsoft Surface Pro X now. Microsoft Surface Pro X: Early verdict The Surface Pro X looks great, and if we're honest, we like the sound of the specs too, and we can imagine using it as a proper tablet. However, we'll reserve judgment on whether its performance will be enough to deal with heavy creative use until after we've tested it out properly. Thanks to our sister site TechRadar for their help with this review. Read TechRadar's full hands on review here. View the full article

Building a website for yourself or your company can often feel like a daunting task. Stop making excuses and create a beautiful site with Wix, the leading intuitive drag-and-drop website builder on the market. Take advantage and save 45% off a Premium Unlimited Plan when you get it for $82.49 today. Whether you're promoting your new business, showcasing your work, or starting a blog, Wix makes it incredibly easy to create and manage your website. The easy to use interface allows you to keep your content up to date whenever you need to. Build a custom website design yourself or choose from over 500 tailor-made templates with features including video backgrounds, scroll effects, animation, and more. Advanced editing options allow you to customise the site to your needs and choose your primary colour, palette, theme, and upload your graphics and logos. Voted "Best website builder in 2019" by Techradar, the Wix Unlimited Plan also includes industry best practices, guiding you every step of the way. Fast and reliable web hosting allows for unlimited bandwidth, while mobile optimisation ensures your website looks amazing on any mobile device. Your own personalised built-in SEO plan is also included, helping to get your website to the top of Google. Not to mention, you also can track, analyse, and optimise your website's traffic to make sure you get the right audience to your site. Usually priced at $150, one-year of access to the Wix Premium Unlimited Plan is now just $82.49. Conquer your fear of building a website and take your online presence to the next level with this easy to use plan. With one of the world’s most innovative drag and drop website builder, you can design any website you want. Related articles: 19 really useful responsive web design tutorials Who are the unsung heroes of web design? The 7 best old-school web design tools View the full article

Realistic 3D makeovers of beloved character designs seem to be all the rage at the minute. They also seem to be causing a lot of rage, too. Just take Disney's recent Lion King remake which prompted fans to create their own interpretation, or this new ad campaign from UK car insurance company, Churchill. In the advert, above, we watch an adorably flabby and incredibly lifelike 3D bulldog skateboarding his way down the street. It's a relaxing image, and that's the point. Churchill wants to destress the process of arranging car insurance, and even goes as far as to emphasise the 'chill' in its brand name. How to draw a dog This realistic 3D mascot replaces a cute version modelled on a nodding dog toy that has been used by Churchill since 1996. Complete with his easily-imitated catchphrase ,"oh yes!", this stylised bulldog endeared UK audiences over the course of two decades. Watch him in action below. And even though nobody's really talked about the Churchill nodding dog that much recently, it seems that he has plenty of silent admirers. That's if the reaction to the new realistic CGI Churchill trailer on Twitter is anything to by. Social media user Emma Rose was taken aback, saying: "But he was always a nodding dog in the back of a car? This is like when they got rid of the Dolmio family!" Meanwhile Marc Winsland asked: "Is nothing in this country sacred anymore?" Of course, this public outcry over a car insurance company's decision to change its mascot has itself been met with criticism. It's a familiar sequence of events over on that there Twitter. It's up to you whether you think the internet needs to take a (Church)chill pill or if you think this realistic mascot is a 3D fail. Either way, there's no denying that he's an incredibly well-realised CGI dog riding a skateboard, and for that we salute it. We'll miss comedian Bob Mortimer providing the voice of the nodding dog mascot though, as it looks like he's been replaced by a soothing voiceover. But rest assured, the "oh yes!" catchphrase is still there. Related articles: 30 greatest CGI movie moments of all time The best 3D modelling software 2019 Is this dog treat branding as horrific as it seems? View the full article

Web design is an industry that's constantly evolving and innovating. This means that there are a bunch of new web design tools being released every month. And while these cutting edge tools can cater to the latest demands of web design professionals, there are some older tools that still prove to be surprisingly useful. To help unearth the best web design applications of years gone by, we talked to seven web design experts to find out which old-fashioned tools they simply can't live without. And while these tools might seem a bit basic or long in the tooth, they've stuck around for a reason: they're just really good. So if you're looking to shake up your workflow, be sure to check them out for yourself. 01. Sketch sheets Get your ideas down on paper If you're a UX or UI designer who needs to turn their ideas into sketches, Sketchize could be the answer. This site is packed with sketch sheets to help web designers create apps for mobile, tablet and desktop devices. Simply print off the relevant sheet, and you've got a wireframe foundation that you can start sketching on. For GIS application systems analyst Carolyn Novak, Sketchize is her go-to tool for creating wireframes for a new website. She also uses Post-It notes stuck on her office wall to organise content before she mocks it up in HTML. "A very archaic process, especially since I have access to modern tools," she admits. 02. Notepad++ Perfect for beginners Free source code editor Notepad++ was first developed back in 2003, but it's still going strong. That's because it's still a great tool to educate junior web designers on the fundamentals of markup. According to Andrew Minton, the head of design at Orchard, it's also a useful way to scare juniors into a false sense of security, with the likes of Dreamweaver confusing matters from the off. He adds: "my advice is to learn the basics, start with a blank page and weave digital dreams from scratch!" 03. Sublime Text Speaking of code editors, Sublime Text still proves to be useful. Originally developed 11 years ago, Sublime Text is a proprietary cross-platform source code editor that boasts a Python application programming interface. As well as natively supporting multiple programming and markup languages, Sublime Text's functions can be enhanced with community built plugins. But for Steph Boudreau, the secret to Sublime Text's success is its simplicity. "Sometimes the newer tools add complexity or extra steps that seem to only complicate things," he says. "Keeping my toolset simple and streamlined (albeit old school) lets me learn new techniques without having to continuously learn new software." 04. Save For web (legacy) As its name suggests, Photoshop's Save For Web (Legacy) is an older way to save web graphics. But that doesn't mean that it isn't useful anymore. Despite having been succeeded in 2015 by the Export As tool, Save For Web (Legacy) is still used by many, including Alec East, the design director at Narrative industries. Part of the key to Save For Web's continued popularity is that it's ideal for finding the sweet spot between a small file size and a hideously compressed image. "But it's the support for animated GIFs in Save For Web that I would really miss," says East. "The ability to tweak the bit depth in cinemagraphs and graphic banners so they’re small enough to load quickly: I’m not willing to give that up any time soon!" 05. WebPageTest An oldie but a goodie An oldie but a goodie, WebPageTest is a handy way to check the performance speed of your website. It might not be perfect for everyone, especially with plenty of shiny new alternatives available, but what's not to love about a tool that helps people to make sense of their situation? For Sally Lait, the engineering manager at Monzo, WebPageTest is an invaluable tool that she often teams up with other classics such as WAVE and even the W3C HTML/CSS validators. "I really love that the web's evolution and standards mean these are still relevant and useful," says Lait. "As a guilty pleasure, I also still have Beyond Compare installed, despite not being able to remember the last time I FTPd!" 06. File Transfer Protocol One person who can remember the last time they FTPd is freelance designer and developer Sush Kelly. For the uninitiated, FTP, or file transfer protocol, is a standard network protocol that's used for the transfer of computer files between a client and a server on a computer network. But with websites becoming increasingly complicated, the old-school approach of dragging files into servers simply doesn't cut it anymore. This doesn't mean that Kelly completely avoids doing it though. "Build tools allow us to push our changes to a server knowing that all the files will be going to the right directory and definitely the right server but there is still the odd occasion I will manually upload a few files through an FTP client." 07. Pencil and paper Tools don't come much more old fashioned than a pencil and paper. But that's just what freelance web designer and developer Robert Fenech uses at the start of every project. "It just helps me to flesh out how the pages should look and feel, without wasting time in Sketch or Adobe XD," he reveals. The fluid nature of a pencil means that web designers can quickly get a structure together, and it's the perfect tool to use with Sketchize at the top of this list. This article was originally published in net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 321 or subscribe. Related articles: 5 pro Sass tips for better CSS Explore data visualisation with p5.js 10 free design resources to bookmark today View the full article

There are dozens of known groups, hundreds of C2 servers and millions of victim websites. View the full article

We all love getting to the nitty-gritty details of a design, whether it's the VW logo specifications, which were later thrown out the window, or in this case, the components of a very famous shoe: the Nike Air Force 1. So this week, when Reddit user Shields Matt posted an image showing the anatomy of the Air Force 1, it caused quite a stir. And they weren't all just talking about that famous swoosh, or that Nike has one of the best logos ever made. We'll be honest, many of the comments didn't exactly focus on the design. They were more concerned with whether the elements look like bones if you scroll past them, or with taking a swipe at Nike's manufacturing methods. But as DaxDiMario said: "People who talk trash about shoe designs need to see this. Love the shoe or hate it there’s so much that goes into all of them." And we're inclined to agree. Now put it back together please... This design is worth taking a second to ponder, if only to marvel at how these small elements come together to create the iconic sneaker. It also shows that the elements that make up a beautiful or functional product (or a beautiful, functional product) are often in themselves not really that sexy. Take that Nike swoosh, for example. Does it look like a much-coveted item or logo that you need on your clothes in this picture? Not really. Yet when you add it as the final touch to a gorgeously created trainer, it becomes something else, and adds an extra element. So if you take anything from this sneaker breakdown, it's that if you're despairing over something that looks a bit rubbish in its component parts, then do not panic. Add the right swoosh, stitch it all together, and it might just become legendary. You can see the original post on Reddit here. Read more: Nike brings back old Swoosh logos Why Nike's latest rebrand oozes flexibility Nike pulls 'Betsy Ross flag' sneaker line after complaints about associations View the full article

Dubbed Reductor, this malware can manipulate HTTPS traffic by tweaking a browser’s random numbers generator. View the full article

We can't have been the only ones who couldn't believe the amount of new tech revealed at yesterday's Microsoft Event. If you missed it, highlights include a new Surface Pro 7 and Surface Pro X, plus a very exciting dual-screen tablet – the Surface Neo – and then the Surface Duo, Microsoft's latest foldable phone. And of course, this is all great news for those looking for a Microsoft Black Friday deal, as hopefully it means the older stock will be discounted. But let's go back to the new Surface Earbuds. We'll admit we had an initial 'what were they thinking?' moment when we saw them for the first time (see the introductory video below). Seriously, the design takes some getting used to. The Surface Earbuds looks like a cross between milk bottle tops, tiddlywinks and some huge clip-on earrings that have accidentally ended up inside your ear. But then again, we were all confused by Apple's AirPods design when it came out, and no one really looks twice at people wearing them these days. So perhaps we'll all get used to the milk bottle top look. Looks aside, the Surface Earbuds actually seem pretty cool. Honestly. Here's why. 01. They're gesture and voice enabled The Surface Earbuds come in three sizes, and none of them are exactly discreet. However, that means they have a large enough surface area for the controls to really work. You can control the volume by sliding up and down, double-tap to play/pause music and if you want to skip a track, you can swipe forward (or back, to go backwards). You can also make phone calls, and pair the earbuds with just one click. So far, so intuitive. If you've got an Android device, there's also Spotify integration so you can bring up Spotify with three taps. That's pretty cool, and also useful if you are used to having to open your phone to bring up your favourite Spotify playlist. You can also activate voice assistant by pressing down on the earbuds, you'll either get Cortana or Google Assistant, depending on what you're connected to (and you should be able to link up to Siri, too, with the right app). There are two mics built-in to the headphones to aid this feature. It all seems like you'll be able to control your headphones pretty well from just the buds, without having to get your phone or other device out all the time. 02. There's 24-hours of battery life Microsoft is boasting that the Surface Earbuds have 24 hours of battery life. That's sort of true, but only if you remember your carry case. The earbuds actually have eight hours of battery life – enough for most long journeys. You then use the charging case, which looks like a rather deep glasses case, to charge the headphones two more times (hence the 24 hour battery life claim). It all sounds relatively simple, and there are no bulky wires or plugs to carry around, which is a bonus. 04. They can create real-time captions Okay, so we know that Office 365 isn't exactly the coolest thing around, but the Office 365 integration features that Microsoft highlighted at the event did sound pretty useful. If you're presenting a Powerpoint, for example, what you are saying could be transcribed directly on to the bottom of the screen. This is potentially life-changing for those who rely on reading captions. As long as it works, that is. We'll assume it does for now and remain excited. As well as captions, you can also dictate to your headphones, which will then translate that text into Office apps like Word or Outlook. This is great news for anyone who loves voice recordings, you'll be able to send your voice notes like Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks. Or Alan Partridge. 05. They can translate for you As well as captions, the Earbuds can also translate into over 60 languages. That means that you could be talking through a Powerpoint and your earbuds will translate into text on your screen. Again, this a potentially huge game-changer for many, especially those working in organisations where several languages are spoken. 06. The sound seems pretty good, too We may have left it till last, but the sound quality of a pair of headphones is of course vital to their success. Microsoft says that the earbuds feature "custom-designed drivers that are precisely-tuned to deliver an exceptional acoustic experience." They also boast omnisonic sound, and those two in-built microphones should aid call quality and voice recognition. Again, if it works like they say it will, it'll be great. Surface Earbuds price and release date The Surface Earbuds will be available "later this year" at a cost of $249. Note that we haven't said we love the price, but if you think you could really benefit from the above features, and you don't mind having milk bottle tops in your ears, then the Surface Earbuds could be for you. You can sign up to be notified when they're available on the Microsoft website. And if you know you're more of an AirPods person, see our best deals on those below. Read more: The fake AirPods are utterly ludicrous Amazon takes on AirPods with its own Echo buds The 10 most beautiful Apple products (and the 5 ugliest) View the full article

Learning how to calibrate your monitor correctly is a must, as having a monitor that displays colour and contrast accurately ensures your work can be viewed by others as you intend. It's also useful when you need to match the colours in a digital design to a printed version. However, it’s all too easy to become accustomed to an uncalibrated monitor that displays everything with a slight colour cast, effectively tricking you with an inaccurate view of your digital creations. In some cases, once a monitor is calibrated, the before/after colour difference can be shocking. You’d be forgiven for thinking any monitor should be pre-calibrated to display at its best, but this is only the case for monitors that boast ‘factory colour calibration’. This is a feature built into high-end, premium-priced panels like the stunning Eizo ColorEdge CG319X, which we reckon is the best monitor you can buy right now. But what exactly is monitor calibration? What is monitor calibration? Calibration ensures the colour output from your monitor matches a predefined standard, such as the sRGB or Adobe RGB colour space, rather than whatever colour balance the screen happens to display after it rolls off the production line. The calibration process doesn’t actually alter anything about the monitor itself, apart from settings like brightness or contrast. Rather, a hardware monitor calibrator detects the colours emitted by your screen and creates a bespoke software profile – or look-up table – that tells your computer’s graphics card to distort its colour output to compensate for the inaccuracies of your monitor. If you don’t fancy splashing out on a hardware calibrator, there are also apps built into your computer’s operating system, as well as free online tools, that will help assist you to manually adjust your monitor’s colour output by eye. They’re useful for rectify glaring colour and contrast issues, but the human eye is simply too subjective for precise colour calibration. We strongly recommend investing in even an entry-level hardware calibrator if you’re at all serious about accurate colour – it’s the only way to get the job done properly. Here are all your options for calibrating your monitor correctly. How to calibrate your monitor (Windows) How to calibrate your monitor (Mac) The Display Calibrator Assistant built into OS X is accessed via the Displays icon in the System Preferences menu. From there, click the ‘Color’ tab, then hold down the Option key and click the ‘Calibrate…’ button. On the Introduction screen of the Display Calibrator Assistant wizard, make sure you check the Expert Mode tickbox to ensure you get all available calibration options. Online calibration tools 01. Calibrize Calibrize is a simple downloadable app that contains similar calibration tools to the built-in Windows and Mac OS X calibration utilities. Black & white boxes help you set brightness and contrast using your monitor's controls, and there are RGB gamma sliders for tuning colour. Save your new profile and you're good to go. 02. Photo Friday The Photo Friday Monitor Calibration Tool is nothing more than a webpage that displays a greyscale image. You then adjust your monitor's brightness and contrast so the black and white shapes display as instructed by the walkthrough guide. 03. The Lagom LCD Monitor Test Pages This selection of calibration web pages is very comprehensive and includes various images and charts to help you calibrate everything from black level to sharpness, along with the usual brightness, contrast and gamma options. It's one of the best online calibration tools out there, though some of the available options aren't of much use for creatives. Buying a monitor calibrator: Things to consider No matter how closely you follow an online or operating system calibration process, there’s always going to be a weak link in the process: the human eye. Even if you have perfect vision, the eye just isn’t an objective judge of colour balance or consistency. There are plenty of optical illusions that highlight the eye’s fallibility, so to get around the problem and calibrate your screen properly, there really is no alternative but to splash out on an electronic eye: a dedicated monitor calibrator, also known as a colorimeter. See our guide to the best monitor calibrators around or read on for our top two picks. These nifty gadgets are usually about the size of a computer mouse and only require a USB connection. Simply hang it over the top of the screen so it rests in the middle, then corresponding software flashes various different colours over a period of several minutes for the all-seeing eye to detect. The calibrator then feeds the colour data back to the software so it can create a custom colour profile to apply to Windows or OS X. Colorimeters aren’t the only hardware you can use for monitor calibration. Spectrophotometers look identical and do the same job, but will also calibrate your printer, as they’re capable of analysing both emitted light from monitors and also light reflected off printed colour swatches. The only downside is price, as spectrophotometers usually cost considerably more than a monitor-only calibrator. Once the calibration is done, you’re still not quite home and dry. The brightness and colour reproduction of any monitor will fluctuate over time, so to keep everything consistent you should repeat the calibration process once every few months. Top monitor calibrators X-Rite’s ColorMunki Display is an entry-level device that can really help you calibrate your monitor correctly When it comes to choosing a monitor calibrator, two brands dominate: X-Rite Pantone, and Datacolor. Both produce excellent products to suit a variety of price points and feature requirements. And the best bit is you don’t need to drop big bucks on a range-topping calibrator to get accurate calibration. Even an entry-level tool like X-Rite’s ColorMunki Display will calibrate your monitor super-accurately. Spending more money will get you extra features like multi-monitor calibration, as well as ambient light monitoring that’ll tell you the optimal screen brightness to suit your studio environment Datacolor's SpyderX Pro is a speedy option for monitor calibration Higher-end calibrators also tend to be quicker, as a calibrator like Datacolor’s SpyderX Pro is able to calibrate a monitor in well under two minutes. That’s useful when you need to calibrate regularly to ensure your monitor is consistently displaying colour-critical designs. Read more: How to master colour theory The best monitors for video editing The best monitors for programming right now View the full article

Contemporary jewellery company Pandora has revealed a new logo (above) that pushes the definition of sans serif to the absolute limit. The logo sees the trusty Optima typeface ditched in favour of a new design that contains some of the subtlest serifs we've ever seen. The rebrand, which first started rolling out back in August, also sees Pandora adopt a bubblegum pink as its brand colour. But it's the logo's lettering that has attracted the attention of the design community, thanks to is almost imperceptible serifs. Our guide to logo design highlights the importance of typography when creating a brand identity, so has Pandora got it right? In some ways, yes, in some ways, no. The old typeface Optima might have been a safe choice when it comes to logo lettering, having previously been used by the likes of Yahoo and Jaguar, but more and more companies are choosing to leave it behind. So at least Pandora doesn't look like it's lumbered with a font that's fallen out of favour. The previous logo used Optima, and had a clearer crown image And in Optima's place is a font that Brand New has described as "99% sans serif". It's a good way of summing up the typeface, which has flicks so subtle we'd forgive you for not noticing them. And while this new lettering is certainly understated, we think it's a step up from the previous iteration. It's not all good news though. One of the signature elements of the Pandora logo, the crown that sits above the letter 'o', has had its bottom line removed. This threatens to make the imagery unclear, and means the letter looks more like a ring than anything else. Which may not be such a bad thing for a jewellery company. In a press release from Pandora, the company said that the rebrand aims to deliver a "fresh, modern tone". This can be seen in the pink that now dominates Pandora's identity, a colour which it describes as the "new main marker and recognisable statement across all consumer touchpoints." The new Pandora icon, and pink colour, as it will appear on social media Speaking of recognisable statements across all consumer touchpoints, the crowned letter 'o' will be used as Pandora's social media avatar. On the face of it this might seem like a strange choice. After all, wouldn't the letter 'p' be more appropriate? But when you consider that Pandora's jewellery is based on charms that slide onto a bracelet, the decorated 'o' is a convenient shorthand for the products it offers. Related articles: Logo swap is surprisingly disturbing Is this the most blatant logo theft ever? World Cup 2022 logo revealed View the full article

3D isn't an easy creative discipline to learn. Just the basics of creating good-looking 3D models can take a while to get to grips with, and that's before you get to the technical challenges such as lighting, rigging and rendering. Anyone with an eye on 3D is likely to be horrified by the price tags attached to some of the best 3D modelling software. However if you're looking to learn but don't have the budget to match, there are plenty of free options available. Here are nine of the best, starting with basic stuff for beginners and moving on to more advanced packages suitable for experienced 3D professionals. 3D art: 28 amazing examples to inspire you 01. SculptGL Teach yourself 3D sculpting in the browser For beginners wanting to get a feel for sculpting in 3D, it's hard to go far wrong with Stéphane Ginier's SculptGL. It's a free digital sculpting app that runs in the browser – you can also get it as a Chrome app and standalone version – and it comes with plenty of features to get you started with 3D sculpting with a mouse or tablet. There are assorted brushes and manipulation tools to try, plus PBR vertex painting and alpha texture support, as well as multi-resolution sculpting, voxel remeshing and dynamic topology, and it'll export your work as an OBJ, PLY or STL. 02. Wings 3D Wings 3D is an ideal first taste of 3D modelling If 3D modelling's something you want to try, Wings 3D is a great way to dip a toe in the water. It's a pure modelling app that lets you build a basic 3D model out of polygons and then smooth it out by subdividing the mesh. It's a fairly basic experience with a slightly unusual customisable interface, but it's designed to be easy to use and supports lights and materials as well as having a built-in AutoUV mapping facility. 03. Tinkercad Autodesk's Tinkercad helps you explore the basics of 3D Designed as an introduction to Autodesk's more heavyweight CAD tools, Tinkercad is a set of free online tools to get you started not only with 3D, but also with electronics and designing with code. Built with teachers, kids, hobbyists and designers in mind, it's all about placing, adjusting and combining objects to create designs, and comes with a whole stack of tutorials to get you started, and when you're done you can export your work for 3D printing or export a slice as an SVG file for laser cutting. 04. Daz Studio With Daz Studio you can create in 3D without all the modelling 3D modelling isn't for everyone, but even if you can't get your head around it, there are still some great options for creating 3D art without having to deal with polygons and subdivisions. Daz Studio doesn't have any modelling tools, but with it you can build complex 3D scenes and animation using a vast library of ready-made people, animals, props, vehicles, accessories and environments. For beginners there are plenty of in-app interactive tutorials to help you get to grips with its features, so you can start learning about things like lighting, texturing and rigging, and once you've completed your 3D masterpiece, you can render it at photo-realistic quality to use however you want. 05. Clara.io Clara.io's cloud-based system is easy to get started with A cloud-based 3D tool that runs in your web browser, Clara.io gives you all the 3D modelling, animation and rendering tools you need to create and share 3D models and photo-realistic renders. It features a load of powerful modelling tools enabling you to do everything from tweaking an existing model through to building your own creation, and it uses VRay cloud rendering with an enormous material library and flexible lighting setups. And while it's web-based, Clara.io's front end is modelled on traditional desktop tools, so it's easy to get started with and should leave you ready to adapt if you decide to move onto a more heavyweight app. 06. Sculptris Sculptris works as a fantastic free introduction to ZBrush's tools Based on Pixologic's ZBrush, Sculptris is the ideal free 3D modelling app to move on to once you've exhausted the possibilities of SculptGL. Designed as an accessible, easy-to-use app for any type of artist, it uses dynamic tessellation with automatic subdivision to enable you get sculpting immediately, and features an intuitive, immersive interface with navigational controls similar to those in ZBrush. If you want to take your work further, it's easy to export to ZBrush for additional refinement. Sculptris is no longer in development, but it's still available as a free download. 07. Blender Blender might be free, but it's still one of the best 3D packages available The undisputed king of free 3D software, Blender is an immensely powerful tool for 3D creation that can handle just about everything much more expensive packages can do, from modelling and texturing through to rendering and compositing. There are also plenty of helpful Blender tutorials out there to help you learn the ropes. It's available for all major operating systems, and while it's traditionally had a bit of a reputation for being just a little too open-source in its look and feel, the most recent update has seen it adopt more industry-standard interface. So now it has a right-click context menu, as well as keyboard shortcuts that do exactly what you'd expect if you're used to other packages. 08. Bforartists Bforartists is basically Blender with a friendlier interface With Blender adopting a more standardised look, there's possibly less of a need for Bforartists, but it's definitely worth checking out if you're still not keen on Blender's user interface. It's a fork of Blender that's aimed primarily at artists, and which has been created to be much easier to use, with a much improved and intuitive graphical UI. This shouldn't come at the expense of functionality, though; the development team promises that every feature that works in Blender should also work in Bforartists. 09. Terragen You can't get much better than Terragen for creating incredible landscapes When you're thinking big on a 3D project, you need something that can create a suitably impressive world, and Terragen fits the bill in every respect. It's a powerful took for building amd rendering realistic natural environments; if you can imagine a landscape, Terragen can make it. The free version is for personal use only (although you can use it commercially on a 30-day trial basis) and comes with a few limitations over the full version, but it's an ideal way to explore Terragen's stunning world-creation tools. Related articles: Why 2D artists need to learn 3D 10 ways to build better 3D world environments How to land your dream job in 3D View the full article

Zendesk says access occurred in 2016 and that only a small percentage of customers were impacted. View the full article

The Microsoft 2019 event came to a close just a few hours ago, and it's fair to say the company has been pretty busy recently. During the almost two-hour event, Microsoft revealed six new and updated products, which was super-exciting (and the arrival of which means we're no doubt looking at some cracking Black Friday Microsoft deals this year). Speculation about a dual-screen device being revealed at the event has been rife over the past few months, and we were fully expecting to see a dual-screen laptop surface (no pun intended). But Microsoft had other ideas, and very impressive they were too, we have to admit. First up, it announced not just one, but two dual-screen devices. The first being the Surface Neo, an exceedingly cool-looking dual-screen tablet. But what came next was what looks like Microsoft's niftiest device to date, the Surface Duo. On this new foldable phone – sorry, "communications device" – Microsoft partnered with Google to bring to market what Panos Panay, chief product officer of Microsoft Corporation’s Microsoft Devices group, referred to as "the best of Android in one product". The handheld device boasts two 5.6-inch displays, which are joined by a centre hinge, and fully unfolded lie flat as a 8.3-inch (diagonal) surface. The design is clearly the selling point here, Microsoft was much more reserved on other details (such as price, for example). We do know that it's powered by a Qualcomm processor, the Snapdragon 855, and of course, runs on Android. But we can't ignore the design, which is unlike anything we've ever seen, and the appeal of which we're sure Microsoft is counting on to keep consumers' interest. The Duo adds to a feeling of growing functionality crossover between devices, so we're interested to see exactly who Microsoft is aiming the Duo at and how and when it would be more beneficial than say a Surface Pro or an iPad (aside from the obvious portability and phone capabilities). But we've got high hopes, and who knows, maybe we'll see it top our list of the best camera phones one day? Microsoft commented on the new device in its blog post: "With Surface Duo we are building upon Android to marry cutting edge hardware with familiar software and services. We’re excited to work with developers and the industry to create the next wave of dual-screen computing and unlock a new era of mobile creativity." And of the overall Surface range, Panay said: "These new products are about empowering you to be your most productive, and your most creative." So far there are very little details around when the Surface Duo will be available to buy, with Microsoft simply saying 'Holiday 2020'. If you can't wait that long for the new Surface range to hit the shelves, here are the all the top current models at the very best prices in your area: Read more: The best laptops for graphic design Surface Pro 6 review The best Microsoft Surface deals in 2019 View the full article

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Microsoft has certainly upped its game in recent years, and the Microsoft Surface range has become a firm favourite among artists and designers. So much so, the Surface Book tops the list in our roundup of the best laptops for graphic design and the Surface Pro 6 maintains a firm position in our pick of the best tablets with a stylus. However, the company has just taken things to the next level, as it announced a whole slew of new products at its Microsoft Event in New York. We'll be breaking down all the new devices and what they offer over the next few days, but for now we're going to concentrate on one of the really cool bits: Microsoft's new FOLDABLE tablet, the Surface Neo. The Surface Neo is essentially a dual-screen foldable tablet, which houses the Surface Pen in the back. It includes a magnetic foldable keyboard, and there's even a trackpad. In short, it's got all the accessories you'll ever want in a tablet, but they all fold away nicely into one nifty little device. The Surface Neo also looks good (seriously, watch out, Apple). It is 5.6mm thin, and includes the thinnest LCD ever created. It weighs just 655 grams and has a 360 degree hinge, which we severely hope will be strong enough to withstand being flipped around all day (let's hope it won't be a repeat of Samsung's foldable phones). The Surface Neo is powered by Microsoft’s new OS, Windows 10X, which has been designed especially for dual-screen devices such as the Surface Neo (and the new foldable phone, the Surface Duo). It also boasts a new Intel Lakefield processor, which includes an 11th Generation Intel graphics solution. The Surface Neo consists of two 9-inch screens and the neat part is that apps adapt across the two screens, meaning that they display content in a sensible and logical way across both screens (or so we saw at the demonstration). Why would you want a two screen tablet? Well, you might want to open the link in an email on a second screen to look at later. You might be watching something on Netflix, only to receive a phonecall or remember you need to do something on your email. That's when you can easily move your Netflix screen to the other screen, and you can even choose what portion of the screen it takes up. You can choose, for example, to have your content in the 'Wonder Bar' – like a Touch Bar on the Mac but much bigger, and with emojis – while you deal with something else. Basically, what we're saying is, you could be watching Netflix while you answer your emails or create in a drawing app, for example. Or you could be doing two things at the same time, on the go, in lots of different configurations. Microsoft talked a lot about being in the "flow" at the event, and we can see how a device like this will help seamlessly switching between tasks. The speakers also talked a lot about symphonies, and although we'll probably wait and see before we invest in the entire "orchestra" of products, we're pretty convinced that the Surface Neo will be worth checking out. The Microsoft Surface Neo (right) compared to the Microsoft Surface Duo (left) The Surface Neo is coming in "holidays 2020". We'll assume that means it'll be available around this time next year. But rest assured we'll be keeping a close eye on it and will report back with any new details as and when they arrive. We'll also be getting a hands-on review as soon as we can. If you can't wait that long to get your hands on a Surface device, or one screen is more than enough, here are the best prices on other models in your area. And with Microsoft Black Friday just around the corner, we're sure to see even more top deals in the weeks to come. Read more: Surface Pro 6 review The best laptops for students in 2019 The best laptops for graphic design View the full article

Elusive street art legend Banksy has set up his own homeware shop in response to a greeting card company that tried to obtain legal rights to the name 'Banksy'. To accompany the launch of the online store, named Gross Domestic Product, Banksy has also set up a mock showroom installation in Croydon, South London. Appearing out of the blue on Tuesday on the site of a former carpet shop, the Gross Domestic Product installation contains the clever mix of warped pop culture icons and charged social commentary we've come to expect from the artist. And that includes the Union Jack vest worn by Stormzy at this year's Glastonbury festival. The Gross Domestic Product installation will be in Croydon for the next two weeks. And on Instagram, Banksy added that it's for display purposes only. "I’m opening a shop today (although the doors don't actually open)," he said. "It’s in Croydon. Probably best viewed at night." A flyer from the installation reveals why Banksy felt the need to set up a shop where "art irritates life". "This shop has come about as a result of legal action," the flyer reads. "A greetings cards company are trying to sieze [sic] legal custody of the name Banksy from the artist, who has been advised the best way to prevent this is to sell his own range of branded merchandise." The products in question will retail from £10 upwards, and are said to be "handmade in the UK using existing or recycled materials wherever possible. Including the ideas." Items in the shop include sofa cushions emblazoned with the message "Life's too short to take advice from a cushion" and a gravestone that reads "You have now reached your destination". According to The Guardian, proceeds from the sales will go towards buying a new migrant recuse boat to replace one that was confiscated by Italian authorities. If you want to pick up a Gross Domestic Product original and help raise funds for a worthy cause, bookmark the store's homepage, which currently displays a flooded shop floor with the message: "The homewares store from Banksy. Opening soon." Related articles: How to change the font in your Instagram bio Instagram designers: Who to follow for creative inspiration How to hack the Instagram algorithm View the full article

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Adobe MAX 2019 is almost here, and Adobe is generating hype by announcing updates to its popular tools. We've already heard that a "magical" new Content-Aware Fill tool is on its way, not to mention a game-changing update to Adobe XD. But now Adobe has announced that Keyframes will be coming soon to its Character Animator tool, which it promises will open up countless creative possibilities for animators. If you're not familiar with Adobe Character Animator, it allows users to bring to life artwork that they've imported from Photoshop or Illustrator. It does this with the help of real-time motion capture recorded by a microphone and a webcam. Get Adobe Creative Cloud here The app is geared towards creating animated videos quickly, and its limited features mean that up until now it's only been capable of making characters talk or move on the spot. All that is set to change with Keyframes though. Character Animator users will soon be able to control parameters such as position, scale and rotation. Not only that, but behaviour properties such as head tilts or eyebrow movements can be keyframed at specific points. As well as being able to create precision animations more easily, users will be able to make edits on-the-fly to give their live performances added impact. An inline graph also gives users more control over the timing of their animations. Take a sneak peek at everything Adobe Character Animator Keyframes have to offer with the video below. Other Adobe platforms such as After Effects and Premiere Pro already use the Keyframes feature to great effect, so its transition to Character Animator is sure to go down a storm. And with live animation performances growing in popularity, it makes sense for Adobe to tap into the demand of its users. Related articles: How to move from animation to illustration Understand Disney's 12 principles of animation 10 ways to create better character animations View the full article