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This is a first look at the Apple Pro Display XDR to give you the chance to see what the new monitor is all about as soon as possible. We'll be expanding and upgrading this review shortly with more information and a score. Apple’s just made a monitor that costs $4,999 – and you can spend a further $999 to attach a fancy stand to it. However, the brand is claiming that it’s going to save the creative industry reams of time and money, offering some key features that are only available on reference monitors many times its price. So how good is the fancy Pro Display XDR in real life? Pro Display XDR: key features Let’s explain something off the bat: XDR stands for Extreme Dynamic Range, as it ‘goes beyond’ the traditional world of HDR. That’s made possible by two key elements: a backlight array of custom-tuned blue LED lights that will locally dim on the screen to offer real contrast between dark and light scenes. They’re so bright that they’re capable of running at 1000 nits indefinitely, and can boost up to 1600 nits. That’s a pretty impressive number – and to keep the display pumping out such high brightness, allowing video content to be assessed frame by frame without a drop in performance, Apple has designed an innovative heat sink on the rear. The small, round ‘bubbles’ on the back are made in such a way that they disperse the heat more efficiently than ever (although, visually, they appear to be more like a cheese grater). The brightness and HDR capabilities of this 32-inch monitor are, indeed, impressive in real life – the 6016 x 3384 resolution is so pin sharp that even practically pressing your nose to the display yields little in the way of pixelation. The brightness and HDR capabilities of this 32-inch monitor are incredibly impressive. Image credit: Techradar We looked at the monitor next to a ‘normal’ one and the difference in brightness and colour reproduction was stark. Of course, Apple was using imagery that it knows will show off the performance of the Pro Display XDR well (we viewed the live video of the traditional Mac wallpaper mountains), but the HDR quality was truly impressive. So were the contrast ratios here – looking at a recently-snapped photo from a studio showed incredible clarity for a high-resolution photograph, with the image appearing very close to the glass on the screen. Even viewed off angle, the picture quality remained and was easy to see – Apple said it had worked hard on the anti-reflective coating and the sideways viewability of the monitor, and it really showed. The colour reproduction here is 10-bit and P3 wide gamut, and a couple of creative artists we spoke to were gushing about the sheer depth of colour available on the new Pro Display. The image we saw was purposely oversaturated, but for those grading colour this is going to be a monitor that can really stun. We doubt it will be as good as a ‘true’ reference display, given it’s around eight times cheaper, but we can’t help but feel it will get awfully close in a number of key areas. If you want a quality monitor for photo editing, this is looking to be a very worthy contender. Pro Display XDR: Design and build The Pro Display XDR is a little boxy and angular in design – it’s brutal in its angles, but the thinner bezel does really help enhance the look. You can chain up to six of these monitors together from the new Mac Pro, and that thinner bezel will help make it easier to use multiple options at once. The $999 stand was something we didn’t get to check out, although did get to see an exploded diagram of what was inside – and it’s another feat of engineering in there. Whether that’s going to be worth nearly a thousand dollars to anyone outside of a high-end design studio, remains to be seen. Even though it’s supposed to have incredible counterbalance and be lightweight to use (Apple wouldn’t let us touch the display) it still will need to be hugely useful to justify that price tag. The new (almost) thousand dollar monitor stand. Image credit: Techradar Pro Display XDR: Early thoughts It’s pretty likely most creative professionals will want the Pro Display XDR, simply because it looks slick, has a clean sharpness to the screen and is brilliant at colour reproduction. The HDR modes really add something to the mix in terms of performance, with the peak brightness combining will with dark blacks washing all around. The price will, obviously, stop many in their path to buying this machine as it’s more expensive than most high-end PCs out there. But the large 32-inch visage, combined with the enhanced sharpness 6K brings, means you’ve got a lot of real estate to play with for your latest project – we just need to stack it up next to a true reference model to see how it measures up. Head over to our sister site techradar for a first look at the Mac Pro and all the latest news from WWDC. View the full article

Good design is priceless, right? That's certainly the angle we reckon Apple is spinning with its latest product release. Unveiled at the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference yesterday, the long-awaited Mac Pro, Apple's first update to its standalone machine since 2013. And we weren't disappointed. It is, in our humble opinion, a thing of beauty, a total powerhouse and the price, while eye-watering, wasn't a complete surprise (although we weren't quite expecting it to be that much). However, what we're sure Apple wasn't expecting is news of the new Mac Pro stand completely overshadowing its release. Yes, you read that right - the stand. Apple's new Mac Pro, which let's just remind ourselves starts at a whopping $4,999, doesn't come with an actual stand to hold it up. At least, not included in the price, that is. The Pro Stand, sold separately, will set you back a further $999. One thousand dollars for a computer stand. What the...? We are, unsurprisingly, not the only ones a little dumbfounded. Here are some of our favourite reactions to the news on Twitter : But it's okay because the fact that it's a fully counterbalanced stand that apparently makes the Pro Display XDR feel weightless and easy to adjust totally justifies the cost, right? Okay, okay so it obviously does more fancy stuff than that, but there's nothing that we can see that genuinely justifies such an extortionate amount of money. The high cost of Apple's new standalone display will sadly have already made it unobtainable to many an artist and designer. And to add an extra jaw-dropping cost to simply be able to stand the thing up just adds further insult to injury. Right now we're really struggling to understand what on earth Apple was thinking, or which creative professionals its targeting with this new product range. Extremely wealthy ones, presumably. If you're looking for something more affordable, we've got an excellent round up of the best computers for graphic design. That said, if you've got a spare $6000 lying around, grab one and let us know what you think. We'll stick to the built-in supported screen of a MacBook Pro in the meantime, thanks. View the full article

0patch has released an interim micropatch for the dangerous LPE bug from SandboxEscaper, while we wait for Microsoft's official patch. View the full article

During Infosecurity Europe in London this week, cybersecurity experts sounded off on worries about artificial intelligence being used for nation state cyber weapons. View the full article

It's been a busy day if you're a fan of all things Apple. At its WWDC 2019 conference, not only did the tech giant introduce iOS 13 and launch a beautiful new Mac Pro with a price tag that would bankrupt most of us, it also unveiled a new system font. Stylish serif typeface New York is now available to download for free (if you need more complementary typefaces, check out our roundup of the best free fonts). Available in six weights and four optical sizes, New York is a counterpart to sans-serif typeface San Francisco. The font takes its name from a transitional serif typeface created by graphic designer Susan Kare in 1983. However, eagle-eyed Apple fans have spotted that New York isn't quite as new as the announcement suggests, as it has featured on Apple's Book app since late last year. Does the typeface in Books look familiar? [Image: Apple] There's also a pretty big caveat in how New York can be used, tucked away in the terms you'll be asked to agree to when you download it. The terms state: "THE APPLE NEW YORK FONT IS TO BE USED SOLELY FOR CREATING MOCK-UPS OF USER INTERFACES TO BE USED IN SOFTWARE PRODUCTS RUNNING ON APPLE’S iOS, macOS, tvOS OR watchOS OPERATING SYSTEMS, AS APPLICABLE." You have been warned. This isn't the only exciting piece of typography news to come out of WWDC 2019. Apple also revealed that custom fonts are among the new features for the iPadOS. These will be added to the App Store so users can start adding custom fonts into apps. "Fonts from boutique and major vendors such as Adobe, DynaComware, Monotype, Morisawa and Founder will be available on the App Store," a statement int the Apple newsroom explains. Download the not-that-new New York typeface here. Related articles: Is an Apple Paintbrush on its way? The best Amazon Prime Day deals heading your way in 2019 The 10 most beautiful Apple products (and the 5 ugliest) View the full article

Today we got word (thanks Twitter) that Serif is offering an incredible deal on Affinity Publisher. This powerful desktop publishing app has been available in beta since the end of last year and is due to launch in full 20 June, and Serif is offering a whopping 30 percent discount to all Publisher beta users by way of saying thank you. This means beta testers can walk away with the pro tool for a one-off payment of just £33.99. That's a £15 saving on an already very reasonable price tag (£48.99 usual RRP). If you're not a beta tester but still want awesome deals on creative gear, make sure you bookmark our best Amazon Prime Day deals page. We've also heard rumours there might be more discounts heading our way on Affinity Publisher. If our translation is correct, the tweet below suggests Serif will be offering a 20 per cent discount to all users on the day of launch. Fingers crossed! The end of InDesign? Just like other publishing tools, Affinity Publisher can be used to create single and multi-page documents, as well as laying out assets and media for print documents such as books, magazines and brochures. It also caters to the design of web and ePublishing and is available for both Mac and Windows. The offer is a clever move from Serif. It shows confidence in the product and gratitude towards its loyal user base. For those creatives currently using Publisher's main competitor, Adobe InDesign, Publisher's pro tools and highly affordable price tag may well be enough to sway a switch, especially if Adobe users are paying for the whole suite just to access InDesign. Affinity Photo is already listed as our best alternative to Photoshop, and with this recent release, we wonder if Serif will soon be topping the desktop publishing app charts too. Affinity Publisher has been available as a free beta release since mid 2018. In that time, users have helped the app's creators by flagging up bugs and suggesting features they would like to see in the imminent full release. Functioning in a similar way to InDesign, Affinity Publisher has been praised by beta users for its speed and power. Innovative features, such as the ability to set a document to start on the left-hand side of the page, also give some insight to the flexibility Affinity Publisher could offer. Integration with other popular Affinity tools, namely Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo, only adds to its overall value. Speaking at the beta launch of Affinity Publisher, Serif Managing Director Ashley Hewson said that it will be "an all-new app which we believe will revolutionise desktop publishing in the same way Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer have shaken up professional photo editing and vector graphic design." Related articles: Get started with Assets in Affinity Designer Affinity Designer video tutorial: Use Symbols The 9 best alternatives to Photoshop View the full article

A new Mac announcement from Apple is always going to generate interest, but a new Mac Pro is something else entirely. They don't come along very often; the last one was the beautiful but divisive 2013 model, shaped like a trash can and ultimately a bit of a bad idea as its lovely compact build made it a nightmare to maintain and upgrade. Now, though, Apple has revealed the latest Mac Pro at WWDC 2019, and it's an absolute beauty at a price that's going to horrify you. And there's no sign of any great Amazon Prime Day deals to make it easier to swallow either. But coming on like a revamped version of the now-classic G5 Mac that, combined with OSX, really started to turn things around for Apple in the pro desktop business, it's a joy to look at. And if the specs are anything to go by, we expect it'll make the cut on our best computers for graphic design in the very near future. The new Mac Pro reminds us of the old G5 Mac. [Image: Apple] The focal point of the new Mac Pro is its aluminium housing that lifts off for easy access to the internals (more on those in a bit), and features a chunky latticed grille that's all about providing maximum airflow to keep things cool and silent, and which also looks fantastic. Beneath the housing is a stainless steel chassis with feet that can be replaced with wheels if you like. The return to a traditional tower build means that there's plenty of room inside for expansion, with a whole eight PCI Express slots plus 12 DIMM slots providing the option of plugging in up to 1.5TB of memory. And if that sounds insane, we're only just getting started. The base spec of the new Mac Pro is ludicrously powerful: it comes with an 8-core 3.5GHz Intel Xeon W CPU, 32GB RAM and an AMD Radeon Pro 580X GPU with 8GB GDDR5 memory capable of driving up to six 4K displays. Let's be honest, it's a lot more power than the average creative needs; it's for people editing 3D movies in 8K rather than running Photoshop CC, and it'll cost you $5,999 (there's no word on the UK pricing yet but we somehow doubt you'd get much change from £6,000). The aluminium housing lifts off for easy upgrading. [Image: Apple] The really exciting, thing, is just how much more power you can plug into this thing. As well as the potential for that 1.5TB of memory, you can also have up to a 28-core, 2.5GHz version of that Xeon W processor, and using Apple's new MPX Module system to double up GPUs, you can also have four AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duos on board, cable of running 16 4K displays, eight 5K displays or eight of Apple's new Pro Display XDR displays, which we'll get to in a bit. In short, when it comes to power and price tag, the sky seems to be the limit. This is heavyweight hardware aimed at professionals working in 3D, film and video, and there's one last feature included to make life even easier for them. The Apple Afterburner is an additional hardware accelerator that supports playback of up to 3 streams of 8K ProRes RAW or up to 12 streams of 4K ProRes RAW video, enabling you to edit natively in both resolutions. The Pro Display XDR is the world's first 32-inch 6K display. [Image: Apple] To make the most of all this serious graphics hardware, Apple has also introduced a top end display to go with it. The Pro Display XDR is touted as the world's first 32-inch 6K display, and it looks like a must-have for anyone who has to have the best visual fidelity. It has a 1,000,00:1 contrast ratio and 1,000 nits sustained brightness, peaking at 1,600, with 10-bit colour depth and P3 wide colour gamut. It features a superwide viewing angle and minimal glare thanks to nano-textured glass, and its back has the same machined lattice as the Mac Pro, again for airflow reasons. The Pro Display XDR (it stands for Extreme Dynamic Range) will set you back an eye-watering $4,999, and that's before you've factored in the matching Pro Stand. It's a fully counterbalanced stand that, says Apple, makes the Pro Display XDR feel weightless and makes it easy to adjust the the height, tilt and even rotation of the display, enabling you to switch from landscape to portrait in an instant. It sounds impressive, and it really ought to be at an additional $999. Find out how your desk would look with a new Mac Pro on it Both the new Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR are scheduled to launch in the autumn, but if you want to know how they'd look on your desk if you could scrape together the just under 12 grand you'd need to own the complete kit, there's a special treat waiting for you on the Apple site. Grab your iPhone or iPad and head to Apple's Mac Pro or Pro Display XDR pages, and you can find an AR option that enables you to put a plonk down a virtual version of each and have a good close look at them. Ooh, shiny. Related articles: The best cheap Apple laptop deals of 2019 iMac Pro review Why designers shouldn’t hack their Mac Pro View the full article

Welcome to Creative Bloq's guide to the best cloud storage solutions in 2019. Cloud storage services are extremely useful for creative professionals. They provide somewhere for you to store all your files safely, no matter how many there are or how large they are. They also mean your files can be accessed easily wherever you might be, as well as making it simple to send large files to clients. Finally, having your critical files backed up on a cloud storage solution means that if you suffer a serious tech failure or are the victim of a catastrophic human error (happens to the best of us), your work can easily be retrieved. Whether you're a freelancer or in charge of your own design business, it's increasingly essential to have some kind of cloud storage in place. Finding the best cloud storage solution can be a challenge, though, especially now there are so many different services to choose from. To help you make your decision we've picked out six of the best cloud storage solutions on the market right now. Our selections cover a range of options, from no-frills online backup right through to much more heavyweight offerings, with all the options your company will ever need. Read on for our guide to the best cloud storage solutions in 2019. Save 80% on CB's best cloud storage option: 2TB for $13.90 for 1 year We think IDrive is the best cloud storage solution overall right now. If your main priority when it comes to cloud storage is having a reliable online backup system in place, then this is a strong contender. It'll continuously sync all your files, even the ones on network drives, and if you're on its Personal or Business plans it provides a potentially life-saving free backup service called IDrive Express: if for whatever reason you lose all your local files, it'll send you an actual hard drive containing everything that's been backed up. You'll also be pleased to note that if you accidentally delete an important file, it won't be automatically deleted from the IDrive server, and it'll retain up to 30 previous versions of all backed-up files. Another cool feature is a facial recognition system that makes it easy to organise photos, and of course there's the option to share your files by email, Facebook or Twitter. pCloud's lifetime premium subscriptions give you either 500GB or 2TB of online storage for a pretty reasonable one-off payment. Anyone who's been online for any length of time should naturally be suspicious of any service that offers a lifetime subscription – after all, how many web companies from just 20 years ago are still around today? However, this looks like a good deal to us. With no apparent limit to the file sizes you can upload, pCloud is a great option for sharing large media files, and it features a built-in video player and streaming, plus an audio player complete with playlists. For peace of mind, this cloud storage solution hosts five copies of all your files across different servers, using 256-bit AES encryption. For a small extra monthly payment you can also add pCloud Crypto to your service, enabling you to password-protect your files. pCloud subscription options: 500GB: $3.99/£3.59 per month or $175/£160 lifetime 2TB: $7.99/£7.09 per month or $350/£320 lifetime If you're a Windows 10 user, Microsoft's OneDrive offers an easy way to get cloud storage. It comes built into File Explorer, so you can get started straight away with 5GB of online storage for free, or bump up to 50GB for a low monthly fee. However, if you want to share files you'll need either need to use one of Microsoft's Office 365 plans, starting at $69.99 per year with 1TB storage and including a full suite of Office apps, or look at OneDrive business plans. Note, with this service you're not limited to Windows any more: there are now apps for both iOS and Android. There's also an app available on the Mac App Store, although in typical Microsoft style it doesn't seem to work as well as the Windows version. OneDrive subscription options: 50GB: $3/£1.99 a month 1TB: $8/£5.99 a month Unlimited: $11/£7.99 a month (as part of Onedrive for Business) Like its Microsoft rival, Apple's iCloud gives you 5GB of free online storage – not nearly enough to back up your iPhone, but plenty of space for stashing your photos. However, its paid plans come at a very reasonable price. As you'd expect from Apple, iCloud integrates well with the MacOS and iOS ecosystems, making it easy to store files through Finder, and documents from the iWork suite are saved to iCloud so that you can access them from all your devices. There's also a Windows client, which seems to perform better than the Mac version of OneDrive. The downside, though, is this is strictly a storage solution – there's no option to share files outside of Apple's Family Sharing. If you want a cloud storage service that you can also use to send files to friends or clients, you'll need to look elsewhere. Subscribe to iCloud: Paid plans from $0.99/£0.79 a month For Android or Chromebook users, Google Drive is the best cloud storage choice as it's built into both systems. However, assuming you have a Google account – and it's hard not to these days, even if you don't use Gmail – then it's well worth looking into. You get 15GB of storage completely free, as well as access to Google's G Suite range of online office apps. There are desktop apps for both Windows and Mac, enabling you to sync and share files with a few clicks, and there's also a web interface that can be a bit of a pain to use, but gets the job done. If you need more than the free 15GB (it fills up quickly once you start using it) there are paid plans starting at $1.99 a month for 100GB and going all the way up to a whopping 30TB for $299.99 a month. Subscribe to Google Drive: 100GB: $1.99/£1.59 a month 200GB: $2.99/£2.35 a month 2TB: $9.99/£8 a month 10TB: $99.99/£74 a month 20TB: $199.99/£148 a month 30TB: $299.99/£236 a month Want loads of free storage? Mega's the place to go; its free service gives you a whole 50GB to play with. This cloud storage service's paid plans are similarly generous: they start at $6 per month for 200GB, and go up to a whole 8TB for $35 a month. With both mobile and desktop apps enabling you sync and upload files, Mega is easy to use wherever you are and whatever you're doing, and the service also boasts impressive security credentials. It maintains historic versions of your uploaded files, and claims that everything you store is encrypted on your device before it's uploaded to its servers. Mega also publishes all its source code and cryptographic architecture, so you can be sure that if there were any vulnerabilities in its systems, they'd quickly be spotted. Subscribe to Mega from $6/£4.50 a month Related articles: The best free tools for sending large files What's the difference between cloud hosting and shared hosting? The best VPN for creatives View the full article

Creating the perfect logo design is never an easy task. To do the job properly requires a full understanding of the client company's mission, its brand identity and the message it wants to convey, and then the skills to distil all that information into an instantly recognisable visual mark. A professional logo design needs a lot of research, plenty of iterations and of course the right tools – almost always Adobe Illustrator CC – but if you're in a rush or simply don't have the budget, there are lots of ways to do a decent enough job online. Here are eight of the best online tools that can help you create a full-blown logo, or at least build some concept that can later be worked up into a finished design. All of them are free to use and most will let you download a low-resolution version of your logo for free, however if you need a scalable vector version of your logo then you'll usually have to pay, but thankfully the prices are all pretty reasonable. 01. Hatchful Hatchful instantly generates plenty of potential logos to customise Shopify's Hatchful is one of the easiest free logo makers we've seen; simply feed it a few useful facts about the business you need a logo for, decide on the style of logo you need and how you'll want to use it, and it'll generate a stack of potential logos for you to browse through. Once you've found one that hits the spot, you can adjust the font, palette, icon and layout until everything's just right, and then download your logo in all the forms you're likely to need. 02. Ucraft Logo Maker For a more hands-on approach, Ucraft's Logo Maker gives you just enough tools to create your own logo from scratch in short order. It's basically a bare-bones vector editor that gives you a big selection of icons to play with and supplement with text, shapes and colour until you achieve the look you're after. You can download your finished logo as a PNG for free; if you'd prefer a scalable SVG you can have it for just $12. 03. LogoMakr LogoMakr has a friendly front end and lots of options A slightly more sophisticated option comes in the form of LogoMakr. It offers the same basic tools as Ucraft, but with a friendlier front end and a few more options and fonts to play with; the only thing we'd like to see is the option to use gradients as well as flat fills. Again it's a matter of finding a suitable icon and bringing in all the text and shape elements you need to build your logo design; once you're done you can download a free PNG version, or for $19 you can get it in SVG and PDF flavours. 04. Designhill Logo Maker Designhill's generated logos look great, but they'll cost you Designhill's Logo Maker is another easy way to quickly come up with a fantastic-looking logo for practically any company. It starts you off by getting you provide all the basic information it needs – company name and the nature of the business, plus preferred symbols and colour schemes – and then it uses this to generate a collection of professional-looking logos that you can then customise. This part's completely free; once you've hit the right look you'll have to pay to download your logo, with prices starting at £15 for a basic low-resolution file. 05. DesignEvo Free Logo Maker With over 6,000 templates, DesignEvo gives you almost too much choice Whether you want to build a logo from scratch or work from a ready-made template, DesignEvo's Free Logo Maker can help you out. It has a searchable selection of over 6,000 templates to choose from, enabling you to quickly find a good starting point for your logo, but if you prefer to do it yourself you can start with a blank layout and build a logo using symbols, shapes and fonts. When you're done you download a free low-resolution logo; for scalable vector versions prices start at $24.99. 06. Tailor Brands Logo Maker TailorBrands gets a handle on your tastes then generates a logo to match Using an AI-powered system to generate a suitable logo for your brand, Tailor Brands' Logo Maker is the perfect tool for anyone who can't face scrolling through hundreds of templates to find the perfect logo design. Instead it asks for the name of your business and a description of what it does, as well as getting you to choose between an icon, text or initial-based logo, then it uses a 'This or That' tool to get a handle on the design style you're after. With all that information to hand it goes to work on creating a logo that you can then customise if you want; when you're happy with it you can download a low-resolution for free, or pay for high resolution files. 07. Canva Logo Maker Canva's Logo Maker is just part of its online design suite Canva's online design tools cover a whole lot more than logos, but if a logo's all you're after then it's ready and waiting to help you out with its Logo Maker. Like many online logo creators it'll ask you about your company and get you to select a handful of templates you like the look of before it comes up with a design that you can customise using its intuitive tools. There are plenty of free elements to play with; if you need more choice you can pay to use a larger selection of premium elements. Once you're done, you can download your finished logo as a PNG or print-ready PDF for free. 08. MarkMaker Keep on scrolling and clicking until you hit the perfect logo layout MarkMaker uses a simple, clever approach to creating the right logo: type in a company name and it'll start generating suggestions, and by clicking on the ones you like it'll create ever more designs informed by your preferences. You can further influence the process by adding information about what your company does. Keep on scrolling and clicking until something crops up that you love, then hit the edit button to fine-tune it; there are loads of options and sliders to play with until you hit that sweet spot, then you can download your logo as a PNG or SVG; both are free, but you can throw in a little donation if you like. Related articles: 5 logo design terms you should know Where to find logo design inspiration 5 logo design apps for beginners View the full article

Better known by her professional name Loish, Dutch artist Lois Van Baarle barely needs an introduction. But if you've managed to stay in the dark about this superstar illustrator's talents, here's a bit of background. Loish has been drawing her whole life, but currently creates concept art and character designs for clients such as LEGO, Guerrilla Games and Amazon. Both of her books – the recent The Sketchbook of Loish, and 2016’s The Art of Loish, have been hugely successful, following incredibly well-supported Kickstarter campaigns. Here, we take a peek inside Loish's sketchbooks. Read on for a sneak look at her works in progress, and the stories behind them. If this inspires you to get your own sketchbook out, take a look at our tips for getting started with ink drawing, or our roundup of helpful pencil drawing techniques. Click the icon in the top left of each image to enlarge it Image: Loish One of the common features found in Loish's work is her stylised depiction of hair. "One of my favourite things to draw is hair," she says. "It enables me to create flowing shapes and lines that lead the eye around the drawing." In this ink drawing, the flowing locks are mimicked in the ripples of water. Image: Loish "My drawings usually don’t convey complex stories or worlds, but instead focus on capturing a certain mood or emotional state,” says the artist. She was inspired to create the sketch on the right at the beginning of autumn, when the cold weather started to set in and people were getting their scarves and coats out. Image: Loish This piece was created during Inktober, and is based on the prompt 'precious'. "I thought about magpies and the myth that they like to steal shiny objects," Loish explains. Image: Loish Loish drew these sketches using references. “I’m not only practising faces and expressions here, but also how I can translate the reference material into my own art style,” she says. Image: Loish Above is another drawing from an Inktober challenge. “Inking is a challenge for me, but one thing I really enjoy about it is using negative space to give more definition to the shapes and forms,” says Loish. Image: Loish "Sometimes when I finish drawing one face, I want to draw another, and then another until a cluster of characters takes shape," says Loish. Sharpen your own skills with our guide to how to draw a face. Image: Loish Loish's figures are instantly recognisable as her work. "I love to stylise the shapes in my drawing and see if I can exaggerate or push it beyond what I would normally draw," she says. She also likes to contrast different drawing styles. "I like to experiment with ways to balance more highly detailed areas with rougher, more simple areas.” In the drawing on the left, the figure's messy bun is detailed, whereas the jumper has been sketched a lot more loosely. Image: Loish “When I do anatomy studies, I usually try to focus on the overall shape and gesture, rather than getting all of the details right,” says Loish. Hands are notoriously tricky to get right – for some tips, take a look at our guide to how to draw hands. Image: Loish While Loish is known for her dreamy depictions of women, her sketchbook is packed with all kinds of creatures – including these studies of dogs and cats. "I love using a sketchbook to practise and bring new things into my visual memory," she says. Image: Loish This particular pencil and ink drawing was inspired by a trip to Canada. “Ever since I saw a burnt forest on vacation in Canada, I’ve been drawn to the imagery of a forest that’s damaged but regenerating.” The piece blends the figure's hair into the trees, and uses a stark colour palette to create impact. Image: Loish These rugged figures were created for the Inktober prompt 'angular'. "The first thing that came to mind was bearded men, so that’s what I went with," she smiles. Image: Loish Like many artists, Loish uses her sketchbook to explore new themes and let her creative mind wander. "I usually doodle whatever comes to mind, and as a result the sketchbook pages can sometimes become a random mix of styles and ideas," she explains. An edited version of this article was originally published in ImagineFX, the world's best-selling magazine for digital artists. Subscribe here. Read more: All the best new art jobs What is #PortfolioDay and should you get involved? Our guide to the best painting apps for iPad View the full article

As the most popular programming language in the world, JavaScript is a must-learn for anyone who wants to become a web developer. And with JavaScript Master Class, you'll be able to pick up the foundations of this essential skill in a beginner-friendly way. That's because the JavaScript Master Class offers 70 hands-on exercises and 299 lectures that will introduce you to real-world problems and their solutions. The best web hosting services in 2019 You'll start off with the fundamentals and gradually move on to more advanced topics, until you're ready to become a front-end, back-end, or full-stack developer. Best of all, the JavaScript Master Class is a steal, at just $10.99 -- that's 89% off the regular price! Related articles: Animate SVG with JavaScript 14 of the best JavaScript APIs All you need to know about JavaScript code splitting View the full article

Our portfolio is one of the most personal projects we create. We can get so close to the project, obsessing over the typefaces or layouts, that we forget other important details that may be obvious to anyone else using our site. I see a lot of fantastic portfolios in my work with Semplice, a portfolio system for designers. I also see a lot of great portfolios that could be better with more thought and care. I’m all for starting simple and shipping early, but sometimes it’s these small details that can make or break your site. Whether you are working on your portfolio now or launched long ago, these optimizations will make a big difference. For more portfolio inspiration, check out our list of top portfolio examples and graphic design portfolios that will inspire you to get straight to work on yours. 01. Optimize image and video file sizes Your image sizes should be well under 1MB – the one on the right is only 91KB and still extremely sharp Sounds obvious, but you would be surprised how many times I’ve seen poorly optimized websites made by skilled designers. They want pixel-perfect images and upload files at insanely high sizes. This affects more than just your loading time. It can mess with the animations on your site, transitions, basically everything. But people won’t even get that far because they’ll exit a site that takes more than two seconds to load. Resize and save out your images for web. Plenty of plugins exist that allow you to do this in batches. You can still share perfectly crisp images while keeping the file size small. 02. Add social share images & SEO titles Online, you are a brand. You are a business with something to sell. Thinking of your portfolio this way helps you remember the important details you would recommend to your client, but would easily forget for yourself. SEO and social optimization are big ones. Customize the title and description of your pages. This is not only good for SEO, but ensures your portfolio doesn’t look like some unfinished template site. Imagine your dream company pasting the link to your portfolio and seeing some generic placeholder like “My First WordPress site!” Not ideal. It’s also a bit of a bummer to find a great portfolio and go to share it only to see a placeholder image or no share image at all. Almost every social platform revolves around imagery. Tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than tweets without images. If you want people to share your site and you want people to click it, add unique share images for each of your main pages. 03. Don't forget your favicon Yes, that tiny little image at the top of our browser when we visit your page. Add one. Make it unique. This speaks to your attention to detail and shows what kind of effort and thought you put into your work. And think of that recruiter with dozens of tabs open viewing portfolios from applicants. They probably want to click the one with the banana favicon first. 04. Consider your website user flow For some of us, UX is our expertise. Yet when it comes to our portfolio, we are so focused on making a masterpiece that we often forget our users. For example: Most of us know that we can find your contact information in the footer or on your About page. If you have an about page AND a contact page, you’re forcing me to stop and think to choose between the two. Or think about what keeps people engaged with your work. Should your case studies end with a standard footer, or can you tease your other projects to keep people clicking through? Michela Picchi’s case studies end with an engaging grid of more projects [Image: Michela Picchi] Consider how you would design a client’s website to convert. With your portfolio, the goal is simple: Get people to contact you. Make it as easy as possible for your viewer to navigate your portfolio and reach out to you. 05. Never neglect your mobile view Again: Sounds simple, often overlooked. We all know about designing for mobile, but it’s the easiest thing to skip when you’re working on desktop and just ready to launch the damn thing – especially when you’re working on your own site. I know. I’ve done it myself Your portfolio is what speaks for you when you're not in the room. You never know what opportunities you might be missing because someone got fed up with using it your site or couldn't load it in the first place. It’s these tiny little things that say a lot about your work ethic and attention to detail when a potential client is viewing your portfolio. Show that you care about doing excellent work for your clients by doing excellent work for yourself. All the portfolios you see on this page were built with Semplice. Read more: 9 brilliant portfolios from young designers 10 on-trend portfolio templates 25 top-quality WordPress portfolio themes View the full article

Choosing one of the best cameras for kids could help spark a lifelong passion for photography, and keep your little ones happy and learning for many years to come. But with so many around, how do you pick the right one? The first factor to consider is age. Very young children will struggle with small menus, complex settings and fiddly SD cards, but older kids will soon get to grips with even quite tricky settings, provided the results are worthwhile. It's also important to consider how many knocks and bumps the camera is likely to be subjected to. There are some superb cameras for kids that will shrug off drops from over a meter, and can be safely submersed in water for long periods. Finally, there's the question of cost. We've looked at cameras from a range of different prices, so there should be something here to match your budget. And if you're looking to treat yourself too, don't miss our round-up of the best compact cameras money can buy. But let's sort the tiny humans first, here's our pick of the very best cameras for kids. Image credit: Sony When your kids are ready for their first real camera, the Sony Cybershot W830 is our top recommendation. Its specs are impressive for the price, with a 20MP sensor that captures pin-sharp pictures, with image stabilization to help young photographers keep things steady without a tripod. There's 8x optical zoom, and editing software built in for adjusting portraits and applying fun color-pop effects. It's available in four colors, including this stylish metallic purple, and will grow with your kids as they get to grips with the fundamentals of photography. Image credit: Vtech The colorful Vtech Kidizoom Duo 5.0 is suitable for kids as young as three, and it's a fun introduction to photography that'll keep them happy for years to come. It has a chunky, shockproof design with non-slip grips, and a dual optical viewfinder so little ones won't struggle to look through using one eye, It records video and captures surprisingly sharp 5MP still photos, plus simple videos, which can be personalized with stickers and effects in-camera. The Kidizoom Duo 5.0 also comes with a handful of classic arcade games pre-loaded if youngsters lose interest, but the camera itself is the star here. Image credit: TomTom The neat little TomTom Bandit is primarily an action camera designed for extreme sports, but it works equally well for all kinds of video, and has a lot of unusual features that kids will enjoy. It can shoot 4K video, which is remarkable for the price, and is very simple to use. The highlight for us is the ability to put together mini-movies by simply shaking a phone with the Bandit app installed. If kids want to transfer videos, there are no cables to worry about; just pull off the outer housing to reveal a USB connector, ready to go. Ingenious. Image credit: Fujifilm The Finepix XP130 will take everything your kids can throw and it and keep on snapping. An ideal choice for exploring the great outdoors, it can survive depths of 20m, drops from 1.75m, and temperatures as low as -10C. It even comes with presets for different landscape and other scenes, making it easier for youngsters to get great shots outside, The Finepix XP130 is a superb camera for older children and teens, but if you're looking for a waterpoof snapper for younger kids then the Nikon Coolpix W150 may be a better choice (scroll down for details). Image credit: Polaroid The Polaroid OneStep 2 isn't as compact or brightly colored as some of the company's other instant cameras, but it's better built and less fiddly. As an analog camera, the OneStep 2 has several moving parts and isn't quite as tough as many of its digital counterparts, so it's better suited to teens than young children. The film is also pretty pricey, so kids will have to learn to conserve it, but having prints appear in a matter of seconds feels like magic in an age when many photos never leave the device they're shot on. Image credit: GoPro The GoPro Hero7 White is a tough little waterproof action camera that’s great for budding YouTube stars. It can capture full HD video, then send it to a phone via the GoPro app, ready for editing and uploading to the social media site of their choice. Slow-motion and timelapse functions add to the fun. It can also capture super sharp 10MP still photos, with a burst mode that can snap 15 pictures per second (ideal for action shots where timing is everything) and a timer for group shots and selfies. The perfect choice for kids with a passion for sports. Image credit: Nikon The Nikon Coolpix W150 is the company's latest waterproof compact, and it's a great choice for kids to take on family holidays. The camera is waterproof to 10m, shockproof to 1,8m, and dustproof so it won't be ruined by a trip to the beach. In fact, it's specifically designed to taking a dip, with an underwater portrait that automatically snaps four pictures when it detects a face and underwater clarity enhancement for crisper shots. Its menu system is simple to navigate, and it's available in five colours (including two fun prints). Read more: The 10 best point-and-shoot cameras in 2019 The best camera bags and cases in 2019 The best full-frame cameras in 2019 View the full article

An attacker could gain remote access by chaining together an exploit for home routers with the TV flaw. View the full article

We can’t take this analogy too far, but do you remember the historic 1980 “no mas” fight between Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Durán? If you haven’t watched it, you can see it on YouTube. In this particular clip, watch what Sugar Ray does at the 1:04 mark. He winds up his right hand in gigantic, dramatic circles. Durán is momentarily mesmerized, then Leonard sneaks and connects with a powerful left-hand jab. There are days that this historic punch reminds me of cyber security. Each year, we are inundated with dramatic messages. If you look at tech media mentions of zero-day exploits in tech media search tool TechNews.io, you’ll see 16,000 mentions of “zero-day exploits” in 2017 and 2018. (We’re already at 6,000 for 2019 as of mid-May). Yet the number of zero day exploits is much smaller than the number of mentions. According to Flexera’s Secunia Research, zero days aren’t so common out there. A little more than one dozen exploits a year drive these tens of thousands of media articles. Our research shows 13 zero days exploits in 2019, 16 in 2018 and 14 in 2017. Zero days are important to keep an eye on because exploitation is already happening. In reality, most exploitations of vulnerabilities happen right after a vulnerability is published by the vendors. We tend to react to zero days for obvious reasons but also need to keep in mind that many exploits in other, less popular software receive less attention. What you’re watching is important. Do you have the visibility of the affected assets? Do you confidently know where they are and which ones need a patch? Start with solving the problem of visibility, then do a risk assessment that can see deep and wide before you panic and react to newsmakers with fire drills. How to avoid getting punched Surely there are some days when being a security professional feels like Roberto Durán fighting Sugar Ray Leonard. How do we honor the danger of a massive wind-up of the right hand and also the sneaky left-hand jab coming from where you least expect it? Gain visibility: Do you have complete visibility into your enterprise? Do you have EOL software? How much? What’s your plan if there are exploits? We were reminded again of the reality of zero-day exploits recently with the SandboxEscaper exploits published on GitHub on Windows 10. Leverage resources across your organization: For example, your software asset managers have information that can help you. Ask them to review usage analysis on all apps and determine if they’re still critical to the user, project and organization. By having a criticality level in place and a taxonomy that identifies whether it is an infrastructure, enterprise or project-based app, SAM and security teams can create a process to patch or remove unnecessary and unused apps/code that pose a risk. If the app hasn’t been used, there’s an opportunity to assess its future in the org or identify whether there are SaaS-based alternatives. The same can be said for enterprise architects who always appreciate reduction in complexity. Prioritize: While zero-days in Microsoft products are important to patch, we recommend keeping an eye on vulnerabilities that are being exploited in the 92% of global software not published by Microsoft. Patch backwards: Given that most actual exploitation happens right after a vulnerability is published, reacting fast to new vulnerabilities is crucial. But please don’t lose sight of older vulnerabilities; many are still playing a catch-up game, and we know that the oldies are always the bad guys’ favorites. Athletes know that there’s a difference between offense and defense. In boxing, as in security, you have to be good at both. Source View the full article

Back in the day Coca-Cola wanted to buy the world a bottle of its famous soft drink, but now it wants to encourage people to recycle. And to help them do that, a recently launched print ad campaign sees Coca-Cola's ribbon design point them in the direction of the nearest recycling bin. This innovative example shows how billboard advertising can interact cleverly with its environs, and be used for more than just selling people something. This campaign, created in partnership with Publicis Italy, has the environment at its heart. Boldly named The Sign, this campaign plays with the familiar white ribbon on a red background usually seen on Coca-Cola bottles and cans. In the posters and billboards, this ribbon warps into a hand that literally points people to recycling stations where they can dispose of their litter with peace of mind. Appearing in central and eastern Europe, The Sign ties into Coca-Cola's eco promise of making 100% of its packaging recyclable by 2025. By 2030, Coca-Cola also wants to be able to return every single bottle and can it puts out. Follow the ribbon, find the bin [Image: Publicis Italy] And it looks like the posters are already working. Having made their debut at Bulgarian music festival the Happy Energy Tour, the posters contributed to a recycling rate of 85% for Coca-Cola cans. Strategically positioned near pre-existing or new recycling bins, The Sign also builds on research by Publicis Italy that suggests that shoppers are much more likely to recycle if the means to do so are more obvious. "This makes us understand that people care about recycling," adds the studio, "they just need a little encouragement to implement responsible behavior." Related articles: Coca-Cola launches print ads you can actually hear Aldi trolls Coca-Cola with copycat Christmas van Coca-Cola celebrates heritage with bespoke typeface View the full article

Apple 0-Day allows hackers to mimic mouse-clicks to allow malicious behavior on macOS Majove, despite mitigations. View the full article

You're reading Save $1,014 on UI Kits, Illustrations and Mockups, Exclusive Bundle 🔥, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! View the full article

Today Samsung has announced the launch of two devices that aim to bring the performance of a PC to the laptop. With the Notebook 7 and Notebook 7 Force, Samsung promises that users will be able to run demanding graphic apps, view their work on a HD display, and enjoy a smoother content creation experience. The sleek Notebook 7 laptops come in both 13-inch and 15-inch sizes, while the Notebook 7 Force measures in at 17 inches. Both devices run Windows 10, and thanks to a high screen-to-body ratio, users are also able to view their work as clearly as possible. But does this mean they're good enough to rank alongside our best laptops for graphic design? Taking a look under the hood we can see that the smaller Notebook 7s both run 8th Gen Intel Core processors as standard. However the larger size has the capability to be customised to support NVIDIA's GeForce MX250 graphics card. Each laptop comes with 8GB RAM, 1080p screens, a pair of USB 3.0 ports, a USB-C port, HDMI, plus a microSD slot. Pricing for the Notebook 7 starts at $999.99. The Notebook 7 range comes in two sizes and styles [Image: Samsung] Meanwhile, the beefed up Notebook 7 Force packs NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card, and boasts 16GB of RAM. An Ethernet port completes the upgrade from the regular Notebook 7 models, along with an additional two slots for storage expansion. For these extra features, shoppers can expect to pay $1,499. "The new Notebook 7 and Notebook 7 Force blend elegant design with impressive power and top-notch speed to give consumers an unparalleled experience," said YoungGyoo Choi, Senior Vice President of the PC Business Team, Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics over on the Samsung news page. "These devices expand our portfolio in new directions, giving consumers the opportunity to pick the device that perfectly suits their lifestyle." The new devices go after content creation and gaming [Image: Samsung] In terms of features and design, the Notebook 7 range pitches itself into the same league as the MacBook Pro. And it's been observed by the Verge that the similarities range from small details such as the keyboard font, right the way through to construction of the display and the bezels that frame the screen. Meanwhile the Notebook 7 Force comes with a similar price tag to the MacBook Pro. Describing itself as a video editing and gaming specialist, the Notebook 7 Force finds itself going head to head with the contenders in our list of the best video editing laptops, including, you guessed it, the MacBook Pro 15". But with a battery life that lasts nearly half the time as the Apple device, the Notebook 7 Force has some way to go to become a serious rival to the MacBook Pro. The Notebook 7 and Notebook 7 Force are expected to start shipping in the US on 26 July. Related articles: The best laptop cooling pads in 2019 The best Walmart laptops in 2019 The 5 best laptops for Photoshop in 2019 View the full article

Boring, boring forms. Love them or hate them (and let's face it, you hate them), they're an inescapable part of almost every web build, and whether you're building full-blown online shops (like our inspiring examples of ecommerce websites) or straightforward corporate sites, sooner or later you'll have to make some forms. We can hardly blame designers for trying to come up with innovative ways to make them more interesting, but how many of these form trends actually hold up in terms of usability? Let's take a look at some common form UX patterns, starting with forms inside modals. 10 rules for making user-friendly web forms 01. Form modals Placing forms inside modals and having them appear dynamically seems like an obvious solution to an otherwise overly complex situation. After all, forms don't take up any significant amount of space, so why do they need their own dedicated URL? Actually, there are several reasons. Accessibility. The most important reason is that if we're making modals accessible (and obviously we should be), then they should be easily dismissed by hitting the ESC key or by clicking the modal's whitespace. Now with the modals being easily dismissed, it would be an inconvenience (not to mention counter-accessible) to accidentally dismiss the modal (and the unsubmitted form data) halfway through filling out the form. Customer support. Besides accessibility, combining forms with modals and essentially not hosting the form at a dedicated URL means customer service representatives can't link to these forms during communications, which makes things very difficult for both customers and customer service representatives. Password managers (either in-browser or as standalone apps) sometimes remember login details on a screen-by-screen basis, so if the user is able to log in from wherever they are in the app or website, it may be difficult to retrieve their login details if said details were saved when the user was at a different URL. Solution: don't render forms inside modals. Rendering forms inside modals comes with more issues than it solves and although some forms are so basic that it makes the screen look virtually empty, users filling out forms are unlikely to care. You're a user too, so you already know that the immediate response to a form is, 'I hope this doesn't take long,' not, 'this form doesn't look interesting enough'. Prioritise helping users move onto what they really came for. 02. Unsemantic markup Focused email fields on mobile will display a version of the keyboard where the @ symbol is immediately available and URL fields will display .com Elements aren't all created equal. Semantic markup ensures that there are different code markups for every occasion; for example, even though a standard input field may look the same as an email field, app and browser vendors know the difference and their behaviour is duly adapted depending on what the expected input is. Focused email fields on mobile will display a version of the keyboard where the @ symbol is immediately available, whereas standard input fields won't behave like this. Just to reinforce the concept, password fields will visibly replace user input with asterisks – for security reasons – and URL fields will display .com on the keyboard, for convenience. But because these differences are so subtle, semantics are often forgotten about, especially by designers who aren't aware of these differences due to not being involved in 'the code side'. Solution: implement semantic markup. Without the use of semantic markup, users are unable to reap these time-saving usability benefits, which is why I always recommend that designers communicate to developers how certain UI elements should behave, either during handoff or otherwise. Developers and designers should also beware of hiding input fields (i.e. <input type="hidden"> or equivalent), a concept used for progressive disclosure or collecting information that's accessible without the user specifically offering it (such as location, accessed server-side). Hidden input fields essentially have no type at the time autofill comes into effect, resulting in it being skipped over entirely. 03. Split forms Forcing users to flow through two steps when there's only one field in each step (email and password) is unnecessary Split forms are long forms broken down into sections; for example, one section for delivery address and another section for billing information. This concept actually makes total sense and has been used (successfully) for a really long time. Naturally, the main benefit of form splitting is the reduction in cognitive overload; however the misuse of form splitting can actually have an adverse effect. For instance, when implemented with login forms, forcing users to flow through two steps when there's only one field in each step (email and password) is unnecessary, not to mention the fact it breaks the autocomplete benefits. Autocomplete works in harmony with other input fields. For instance, when users type in their email address to log in, the password field will conveniently autocomplete with the correct combination saved for that email address but when dividing related fields into different steps, the browser cannot autocomplete what isn't there. Autofill may save the day but the outcome really depends on the browser making the correct assumptions (i.e. if the user has multiple logins for the same website or app, the browser may choose the wrong combination). Solution: Make forms boring! Forms are boring and they always will be. Rather than trying to make them interesting, the most user-centred design decision we can make about forms is to make them quicker and easier to use. When it comes to form splitting, the best implementation of the technique is to use it only when dividing up unrelated fields. 04. Magic links With magic links, after inputting an email address, the user is sent a link via email that will automatically log them in Staying on the topic of login forms, magic links are a new-ish trend where after inputting the email address, the user is emailed a link that will automatically log them in. If you've ever used Slack, you'll already be familiar with the concept, which, on mobile, saves you having to type in your password. Some may say the concept is a bit tiresome, as the user has to actually switch app to log in, although admittedly the UX flow is a little better than receiving temporary login details that the user needs to copy into said application in order to log in. In addition to breaking autofill and/or autocomplete, unfamiliar conventions can be confusing for users. Solution: Make magic links optional or secondary. There's not much wrong with magic links and they can certainly be useful to mobile users who would rather not type; however the convention makes too many assumptions about how the user has their email set up. To ensure the best results, make magic links optional. 05. Two-factor authentication Two-factor authentication (or 2FA) is something of a double-edged sword. On one hand, it increases security by asking users to approve login attempts via SMS, email or some kind of 2FA authentication app; on the other hand, it forces users to approve login attempts via SMS, email or some kind of 2FA authentication app – urgh! As human psychology dictates, we're more concerned with the problems we have right now, so it's difficult to care about the benefits of security until our account has actually been hacked. Most users don't want 2FA until they need it. Solution: Don't enforce 2FA or, at the very least, offer convenient ways to enforce it, such as via WiFi or email. If 2FA isn't required, at least make it optional (i.e. the user has to switch it on via the settings of said app or website). Let's say that the user is abroad. They won't have access to their day-to-day mobile data; however, they may have access to WiFi, so email or a 2FA auth app such as Google Authenticator would be much more convenient than SMS-based authentication. And if the user can turn it off temporarily, even better! 06. Dynamic placeholders Input labels have a really unfair reputation because they can make forms look clunky and we're taught to believe that less is more. But this isn't one of those times. A common UI design trend over the last few years is to have the placeholder text transition into the label when the input field is clicked. However placeholders and input labels actually serve two very different functions and one cannot replace the other, no matter how cool you might think the animation looks. Placeholders are used to show the user what is considered an acceptable value, whereas a label is simply a short description of what the input field is for. Here's an example combination: Label: "Name" Placeholder: "John Doe" If your short-term memory isn't fantastic, you have likely had a moment at some point where you've forgotten what you were supposed to type halfway through filling out a form field. It's a very common scenario. Solution: Keep at least the label visible at all times. By keeping the label visible, you can ensure form fields remain easy to fill out correctly, even for users with different accessibility needs or for individuals under an increased cognitive load in noisy, distracting or stressful environments. This article was originally published in issue 318 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 318 here or subscribe here. Related articles: How to create accessible web forms Create responsive forms and tables How to design responsive and device-agnostic forms View the full article

If you're like most people, you probably have many – and we mean do mean many –usernames across the internet, along with corresponding passwords. And you've no doubt forgotten and had to reset a few of them along the way. But RememBear Password Manager Subscriptions provides a pretty great solution. Created by VPN provider TunnelBear – voted by us as one of the best VPN providers in 2019 – RememBear helps you remember your passwords, securely log you into websites and autofill your payment information. And end-to-end encryption ensures you're the only one who ever sees this sensitive data. RememBear Password Manager Subscriptions is yours right now for just $39.99 – that's a whopping 33% off the regular price. Get RememBear today and make forgetting your password a thing of the past. View the full article

If you're a fan the hit Netflix series Stranger Things, you'll probably have heard the show is the latest object of Lego's affection. Announced earlier this month, the first lucky bunch of Lego lovers got their hands on the new set at a special event held at Lego's Leicester Square store in London. The newly released 'Upside Down' set was then made available to Lego VIP members, with the rest of the world having to wait a couple more weeks before being able to purchase it. But that wait is finally over. As of today, the Upside Down is available to everyone (while stocks last) via the Lego shop. If you're looking for set design inspiration or character design tips, you should take a closer look. One of the best Lego sets we've seen to date (we've seen a lot), here's some of its key features: The set is made up of a whopping 2287 pieces, which, when fully built, measures at over 12” (32cm) tall, 17” (44cm) wide and 8” (21cm) deep. The Byers' house features a front porch with furniture, living room, dining room and Will's bedroom. The living room features the amazing alphabet wall with a light up function - WHAAAT?! It also comes complete with other authentic features, including couch, coffee table, telephone, axe, ‘have you seen me?’ flyer stickered element and a bear trap to catch the Demogorgon. The Upside Down set captures the look and feel from the Netflix original series, including creepy vines, dark coloring and a dilapidated look. Chief Jim Hopper’s police truck includes a removable roof for easy access to the interior and a pumpkin element as a reminder of Season 2. Lego Stranger Things - available now There's so much about this design that excited us, we just had to get our hands on one. So being, ahem, Lego VIP members, we did just that. And can confirm it is every bit as spectacular as it looks. The set includes all the main characters – Eleven, Chief Hopper, Mike Wheeler, Will Byers, Dustin Henderson, Joyce Byers and Lucas Sinclair – as well as its very own Demogorgon, which is (in Lego form) actually kinda cute. . The Upside Down just positioned itself well and truly at the top of our wish list. Image: Lego The Upside Down set costs £179.99 in the UK, and is available now via the Lego website. Ok, so it's not exactly cheap, but we have no doubt people will literally be queueing up to part with their cash as, for fans of Lego and Stranger Things, it just doesn't get much better than this. Plus something tells us that this is one Lego set that will be well worth the investment. Read more: Lego art: 40 designs that will blow your mind 5 brilliant brand collaborations (and what you can learn from them) The illustrator hotlist 2019 View the full article

Google Project Zero researcher unearths a bug in Microsoft’s Notepad Windows application. View the full article

In an example of art imitating life, HP Sauce has rolled out a subtle and well-executed redesign of its famous bottle label. Taking its lead from the scaffolding that currently surrounds Elizabeth Tower, HP Sauce has decked out its signature illustration of the landmark in the construction framework. Significantly, the addition of the scaffolding is the first change to the sauce's label in 123 years. A move that's sure to make it a standout piece of packaging design for hungry shoppers looking for a condiment to liven up their bacon butties. The reveal of the new label is well-timed, too. The tower, often misnamed Big Ben, celebrates its 160th anniversary today. And the good timing doesn't end there, as HP reveal that the redesigned bottles will be available until the restoration work is complete and the scaffolding is removed. Stop the clocks, it's time for a new HP label [Image: HP] If you're unfamiliar with the sauce and don't know the connection it has with the Houses of Parliament, the clue is in its initials. HP Sauce also got its name because it was rumoured to be served in the Houses of Parliament to peckish politicians. The tangy brown sauce has become a symbol of British cuisine, in no small part do to its connection to the popular tourist destination. However, online detractors have pointed out that the sauce is no longer manufactured in Britain. If this clever redesign has got your mouth watering for a healthy dollop of the spicy sauce, you'll be able to pick up the special bottles from June. Related articles: Online packaging archive is a design delight 4 top tips for successful seasonal packaging 20 packaging concepts we wish were real View the full article

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