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HackerOne’s 2018 Hacker-Powered Security Report showed that the average award for critical vulnerabilities has increased. View the full article

Of all the text editors available, Atom is a favourite amongst designers and developers. Atom is developed by GitHub and was open sourced in early 2014. Since then, this web design tool has grown to have more than 500,000 monthly users. Out of the box Atom is Git-aware, includes Markdown previews, auto-complete and more. It is designed to be hackable to the core. In addition to being open source, Atom is built using web technology: JavaScript, HTML and CSS. This makes Atom's core and extensibility options accessible to a wide range of developers. In this article I'll share ways in which you can extend and customise Atom, from managing packages to adding custom behaviours. Atom is built with JavaScript, HTML and CSS Package ecosystem At the time of writing, over 7,000 packages and more than 2,000 themes had been published for Atom. Atom itself is created by bundling the core app with dozens of packages for each default feature. These packages do things like add Markdown preview support, display your directory's Git status, and control Find and Replace. They can be managed through the Settings view. Atom's Settings view sets it apart because it includes a package manager by default, giving you access to the packages you have installed, as well as the thousands created by the community. You can browse and install these from within Atom. You can open the Settings view by clicking Packages > Settings View > Open in your menu bar or by using the cmd+, keyboard shortcut. Packages Use packages to extend and customise Atom With the Settings view open, you'll find the Packages tab on the left. This will display all the packages you have installed, and their type: Community packages: Packages written by people outside of GitHub's Atom team Core packages: Developed by the Atom team and bundled with Atom Development packages: Packages you have on your machine and use in Atom from local source From the Packages view, you can manage your installed packages by selecting to install/uninstall or disable/enable them. Clicking on a package in this view takes you to the package's available settings (if any) as well as the README that describes the package. If you want to know more, you can click on the link and be taken to the package's repository or issue tracker. Install packages The Install tab in the Settings view connects you to the thousands of packages available for Atom. At the top you'll find featured packages, but you can also use the search bar to find the one you're looking for. Packages are published to Atom using Atom Package Manager (APM), which is included with Atom. You'll find published Atom packages in the Install view, and they can also be found on Atom's website. Just like in the Packages view, clicking on a single package displays the README, so you can see what it does before you install it. It also links to the package's code repository. You can install new packages from the community in this view by clicking the Install button on a listed package. You can then manage packages from the Packages view. Development packages In order to use a package you're developing locally in Atom before you publish it with APM, you can link it to Atom using the APM CLI. For instance, from within the package's directory in Terminal or Bash, use the following command: Linked packages will show up in the Development Packages section in the Packages view. You can see linked packages with this command: Themes in Atom In the Install view, toggle the search bar to Themes to search the available Atom themes. Once you have themes installed, you can manage and set them as the current theme in the Themes view. UI and syntax themes Atom has themes for both the UI and the code syntax. The syntax themes style how the code looks in the editor itself, and the UI themes style how the rest of Atom looks (e.g. the tabs and file tree).You can even make small changes to Atom without creating a complete theme or package. Alternative customisation in Atom The Settings tab in the Settings view provides your options for customising Atom, but you can go beyond the default options by adding JavaScript or CSS within your config. Every instance of Atom has a .atom directory that contains its configuration settings, where you can create custom behaviour or styles. To open your .atom configuration directory, click the ‘Open config folder' button on the left side of the Settings view. Init.coffee file The init.coffee file allows you to add custom behaviour to Atom every time a new window is launched. It's executed after packages are loaded and any previous editor state has been restored. You can use CoffeeScript in this default file or create a new file, init.js, to use JavaScript. In init you can make use of the full Node.js API. For example, if each time you opened a window you wanted Atom to greet you with the version of Node.js it is using, you could add this to your init file: To interact more with Atom, you can use the Atom API. Documentation on the API is available on the Atom site. Styles.css Just like the init.coffee file, styles.css is a file that is loaded after Atom starts up. The styles you add here will override or add onto Atom's existing styles, and they will take effect immediately upon saving. For example, you could change the editor's background colour by adding this CSS: A quick way to find the property names in Atom is to make use of the fact that underneath Atom is Chromium, so you have access to DevTools. You can toggle DevTools on and off by pressing alt+cmd+I. With DevTools open, you can use the magnifying glass to select elements in Atom and reveal their class or element names. Target them in your styles.css file to change their properties. With Atom's package manager and configuration files you can customise your Atom environment right from within Atom. This introduction should get you well on your way, and if you have any questions, open an issue on the project. This article originally appeared in issue 277 of net, the world's leading web design magazine. Subscribe here. To improve your web design skills further, head to our conference Generate and experience a packed schedule of industry-leading speakers, workshops and valuable networking opportunities. Don't miss it! Get your Generate ticket now. Related articles: What to learn to upgrade your web design skills Beware the cutting edge of web design 13 best pieces of user testing software View the full article

One of the simplest ways to bring some extra life to any piece of 3D art is to add colour and texture to it. There are a variety of names given to this process, adding shaders or materials or even textures. A rule of thumb is that a 'texture' is an image that is used to drive a property of a 'material', which defines the basic properties of the surface of the object. This itself is the child of a 'shader', which is effectively a holding group for all the various elements – some software can blend materials together to give the appearance of rusting metal, for example. Rendering reflective and diffuse surfaces: 3 top tips A material is defined by a range of different parameters and again this is software dependant. While 'physically based rendering' or PBR is becoming a standard for contemporary material systems, it is not consistently applied across all software, so therefore we will try and take a look at 'legacy' uses as well. The first material property that is consistent across nearly all material types is its Diffuse properties. Diffuse or 'Albedo' properties control the underlying colour of a material on an object. The Diffuse properties are usually divided into two distinct elements, one is the Diffuse colour and the other is the Diffuse weight or value, which effectively determines the brightness of the colour underneath. Both of these properties can, if the artist chooses, be driven by textures, with Diffuse weight being driven by a black-and-white patterned image. Using the Diffuse as a base for any new material/shader system is a good way to learn the basics of creating successful and convincing materials. Even though Diffuse properties may not be used very much in metallic materials, knowing why is one of the keys to making any application's shader system work for you. 01. Diffuse colour The Diffuse colour will often – but not always – affect the rendered colour The simplest element of any shading or material preset is its Diffuse colour, which is the underlying colour. For many materials this will have a direct correlation to its rendered appearance – for example a yellow ball will have a yellow Diffuse colour – which also usually appears in the Digital Content Creations software preview window. Metallic materials do not normally have a Diffuse colour, resulting in a default Diffuse colour of black; it is the reflective qualities of a metallic material that usually give it colour. 02. Diffuse weight Set the Diffuse weight to control the brightness of the Diffuse colour The Diffuse weight of a material defines how bright the Diffuse colour is. Having these two elements separated gives artists a greater degree of control over the colour of a material. Diffuse weight is usually controlled through either a numeric value or an input – which can be a texture map or another factor such as a Fresnel value that determines the brightness of the Diffuse colour. Diffuse weight does not make a material emit light – this is another property value, normally called Emission. 03. Use textures for Diffuse properties Add a texture map to give your model extra detail Using a texture map for a Diffuse weight is a great way of helping to add some extra detail into a texture, in order to age it. This can also work in conjunction with a Diffuse colour textured bitmap that just has the colour properties, for example a logo. Bitmap textures for Diffuse weights should be black and white images, with most content creation applications using the white of a Diffuse image as the brighter areas, while using black for the darker areas. 04. Utilise presets Presets make it much easier to build your own library of materials Nearly all 3D applications come with a library of materials that can be modified to become bespoke materials for the artist. For example, by using a yellow plastic preset and changing the Diffuse colour value to red, a yellow bucket can become a red bucket. Duplicating presets is a great way of creating bespoke materials that are both realistic and suitable for the scene, without having to learn all the attributes of a material in real life and transpose them to a 3D application. This article was originally published in issue 235 of 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists. Buy issue 235 here or subscribe to 3D World here. Read more: 6 expert tips for better 3D renders Create stunning tileable textures in Blender 40 top free textures to download today View the full article

You're reading Postcards 2 Coming Soon, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! View the full article

Twitter is an incredible place for creators. You can share work, air opinions or gather feedback. But are you one of the users keeping Twitter alive with fresh tweets, or do you see yourself in a more curatorial role, watching discussions unfold and then throwing out the occasional Like or Retweet? Now you can find out for sure, with new web tool Tweeter or Retweeter? Simply pop in your Twitter handle and the tool will calculate your balance of new tweets to retweets, to tell you once and for all if you're a creator or curator. It's an open source project too – you can take the original source code and 'remix' it to create something new. Tweeter or Retweeter is the work of creative developer Omayeli Arenyeka. "I kept seeing people talk about being 'Twitter originals' and being super creative and clever with their tweets," she explains. "I wanted a way to actually quantify that, something that people could show as proof." Find out what your Twitter profile really looks like Arenyeka notes that a lot of what we do on social media can be unconscious, so many people's Twitter profile will look totally different to how they might expect. "I wanted to make something fun that would reveal a bit of who we are online so we can interrogate that and share with others," she adds. The tool was built on a platform called glitch, and uses Node.js to gather the required information from the Twitter API, plus JavaScript, a bit of jQuery and HTML Canvas for the downloadable graphic. The cool illustrations you see here are the work of Jinjin Sun. Curious if you're the Twitter original you thought you were? Pop your Twitter handle in at Tweeter or Retweeter? to find out for sure. Web design event Generate London returns on 19-21 September 2018, offering a packed schedule of industry-leading speakers, a full day of workshops and valuable networking opportunities – don’t miss it. Get your Generate ticket now. Read more: 10 social media tricks you didn't know about 15 Twitter accounts every web designer should follow How to make social media work for you View the full article

We know two things about blockchain: it's changing the world and a lot of people don't know what it is. Put simply, blockchain is a type of digital ledger that monitors the ebb and flow of assets among a network of users. And in the infographic below, you get to see how blockchain is revolutionising the world of art. Created by CoinCentral, this infographic leads you through the basics of blockchain before going on to explore its artistic applications. Art and blockchain may sound like unlikely bedfellows, but when you consider the ever-increasing prevalence and exchange of digital art, their links start to become apparent. So whether you're an artist trading online, a collector hoping to legitimise your collection, or simply a tech fan eager to see innovative applications of blockchain, this infographic is right up your street. And if you're still baffled by blockchain, we've got a jargon-free guide to tell you exactly what the hell it is. Click the image to see the full size infographic Related articles: Will blockchain change image libraries forever? 13 incredible tools for creating infographics Which blockchain should you use? View the full article

Every year, D&AD New Blood Festival is inspiring and exhausting in almost equal measure. The vast Old Truman Brewery in London's Shoreditch plays host to top graduate talent from design courses from across the UK, creating a sensory overload of young creatives competing for the attention of the creative press, and agencies looking for that spark of potential in their next junior hire. There's a lot to take in, and for the colleges themselves there's the difficult decision between giving a small, carefully curated selection of design portfolios room to breathe, and giving the whole course intake a shot at the limelight. Others put so much effort into an overarching 'concept' for the show, that the students themselves end up playing second fiddle and struggle even more to stand out. Fortunately, we've spent a few hours at the show to do some of the hard work for you – read on for the eight talented grads that caught our eye in 2018... 01. Christina Andrade Christina Andrade used old Victorian wood-cut illustrations as the basis for her Bitter & Twisted branding First up is Christina Dias Andrade, a Graphic Design graduate from Middlesex University who had two very different, but equally strong projects on display. The first, Bitter & Twisted, is an illustration-led branding scheme for a fictional brewery, inspired by the weird notion of 'beer cocktails'. "I used old Victorian wood cuts found in books, and stitched together unlikely things to form the brand," explains Andrade. Ingredients are showcased within the quirky illustrations, which are applied across bottles, cans, packing boxes and more. Selection of album sleeves and promo material for Nothing But Thieves, using Kinegram animation techniques Andrade's second project is for self-titled album Nothing But Thieves, and incorporates a 10” vinyl cover, a 7” limited-edition box, a CD cover, and a promotional item. Inspired by a recurrent theme of the music of feeling lost, she used Kinegram animation techniques to create eye-catching illusions created by the listener's movement – whether walking past the promotional frame, or pulling the vinyl sleeve out of its box. 02. Elena Kidman Elena Kidman generated abstract patterns based on the frequencies that Sound author Bella Bathurst could hear One of two Norwich University of the Arts graduates on this list, Elena Kidman studied Design for Publishing – and the brief for her final project was to design the layout for a new non-fiction book. She chose Sound, by Bella Bathurst – which gives a first-hand account of the deterioration of the author's hearing. Throughout the book, Bathurst makes specific references to the frequencies she is able to hear as her condition worsens. This inspired Kidman to translate the frequencies into graphic patterns, created by recording the shapes made in sand as sound is played at that frequency through a metal plate. The patterns are printed in white ink over the book text, to represent the distortion of Bathurst's hearing "I experimented with many different mediums, including watercolours, type distortions, photography and even page manipulations, such as tearing," she explains. "Then I re-read a chapter that goes into depth about the science behind hearing, and how we rely on other senses. I decided to manipulate how the reader responds to the content, to help them empathise with Bathurst." These patterns are printed in translucent white ink to interact with and distort the text of the book – a graphical representation of the sounds that Bathurst can hear. The book concludes with Bathurst having an operation to restore her hearing, illustrated with the only full-colour spread in the book. 03. Frank Coxon Frank Coxon's dark, brooding book cover for Orwell classic Animal Farm draws on Constructivism and Futurism A Graphic Communication & Illustration graduate from Loughborough University, Frank Coxon created this striking book cover for entry in the Penguin Random House Student Design Awards. “The brief was to reflect the book’s status as one of the great modern political allegories of our time,” he explains. Coxon drew on various Constructivist and Futurist influences to depict a “dark and crude impression” of the Communist regime that the novel satirises. “I set the animals on stages to give it a theatrical appearance, creating movement with repetitive motifs to demonstrate mechanical lifelessness,” he adds. 04. Hannah McInally Hannah McInally sets herself "geometric constrictions" in her work, which requires trial and error to nail the composition Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design had a strong illustration showing this year, and Hannah McInally is the first of two inclusions on this list. She had three pieces on display, two of which are shown above. On the left is her attempt to capture the essence of the Roald Dahl classic Matilda, and on the right is a "boozy dog" illustration for use on a craft beer label. "My work is playful and explorative, never taking itself too seriously," she explains. McInally places "geometric constrictions" on her pieces, with a view to creating "accidental but engaging outcomes" – a process that often requires a certain degree of trial and error, and redrawing the composition, to reach the desired outcome. 05. Libby Bond Inspired by the hot topic of 'fake news', Libby Bond rearranged various tabloid headlines into even more misleading ones Our second Norwich University of the Arts graduate is Libby Bond, who used admirable graphic restraint to explore the topic of 'fake news', and misleading headlines in particular, in a series of bold typographic posters. "People have been conditioned to trust the press, but the line between honest journalism and fake news is blurring," she says. "The Sun, The Star and The Daily Mail are renowned for their over-exaggerated headlines. Although these headlines can be humorous, they can also be dangerous, leaving people misinformed." Bond scanned headlines from those three newspapers, and then rearranged key words and phrases into new, 'fake' headlines – preserving the original typefaces. The results, which included 'Trump hired to work in Manchester nightclub' and 'May to quit after becoming Page 3 girl', were then screen-printed. 06. Louis Murphy-Hancock Louis Murphy-Hancock's identity for Slapstick Comedy Festival incorporates an icon of the genre: the bowler hat Sometimes at graduate shows, an interesting kernel of an idea shows through in a piece of work, more so than the wow factor of its presentation. This was definitely the case with University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) graduate Louis Murphy-Hancock, who had two projects in display. The first was a rebrand of the Slapstick Comedy Festival, which at its heart has a simple but versatile graphic device: a bowler hat, reminiscent of slapstick icons such as Laurel and Hardy and Charlie Chaplin, transformed into an exclamation mark. The project also features various animated versions of the full logotype, with the characters jostling and interacting in a typically slapstick fashion. Murphy-Hancock's commemorative Frankenstein stamps stitch together images from different film portrayals of the monster The second was a series of stamps to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Frankenstein: eight component parts of the monster's face to assemble together, using photographs from different movie depictions over the decades – with the perforations neatly representing the stitches that hold the flesh together. 07. Lauren Morsley Lauren Morsley's Music Practice represents genres of music as characters, using colour to express key characteristics Our second Duncan of Jordanstone graduate is Lauren Morsley, whose character-led project Music Practice includes a large silkscreen print, a digitally printed book, and a collection of ceramic figures made from earthenware clay. The distinctive characters at the core of the project were also turned into a range of ceramic figures Morsley used the characters to represent genres of music, exploring how colour can be used to express aspects, such as genre, rhythm and volume. "The characters from different genres are illustrated practicing within the book, and then come together to collaborate and create music within the large print," she explains. 08. Rebecca Watt Rebecca Watt explored how Type 1 Diabetics must keep track of their food intake with this range of papercraft treats Edinburgh Napier graduate Rebecca Watt chose to explore Type 1 Diabetes in her final-year project. "My younger brother was diagnosed when he was four years old, and has now lived with it for 11 years," she explains. "I wanted to use the knowledge from his day-to-day life to communicate how Type 1 Diabetics have no option but to live with this autoimmune disease 24/7, 365 days a year." Aware that her close personal experiences of the condition might lead her to make references that the general public wouldn't understand, Watt was careful to test her ideas on as wide a range of people as possible. "This also allowed me to see where any confusion was in the understanding, and helped me pinpoint what areas really needed focus," she adds. At the core of the project was a collection of 'paper foods', covered with nutritional information – including grams of fat, sugar, protein and carbohydrate – to show the constant need to keep track of your body's intake as a Type 1 Diabetic. Read more: Top tips for design students How to transform a design internship into a job 17 free resume templates View the full article

Whether you're an aspiring professional photographer or a casual photo-taking hobbyist, you should know how to use Adobe Lightroom. This powerful tool lets you transform your photos into truly professional-looking masterpieces. With Adobe Lightroom CC: Photo Editing Masterclass, learn how to navigate the app, import photos, fix common photo problems, and edit in the field with the mobile app. Best of all, the course instructor is Phil Ebiner, who has taught thousands of students about photography and now travels the world as a photographer. It doesn't matter if you're a total beginner – Adobe Lightroom CC: Photo Editing Masterclass is made with you in mind. Get it now for only $41. Related articles: Lightroom CC 2018 review Discover the latest updates to Adobe Creative Cloud Project Rush: Adobe announces all-new video editing app View the full article

Find a fresh perspective on creating concept art and breathe new life into your character designs with the latest issue of ImagineFX magazine – on sale today. Inside the pages of issue 164 you'll learn how the experts create polished character designs, plus we hear how they get their work out there and make a good first impression with studios. Buy issue 164 of ImagineFX here Elsewhere in issue 164 we pick up portrait tips from Simon Goinard, who reveals how he uses light to depict volume and shapes. We also catch up with Mark White to hear how you can use Photoshop to blend and mix colours to take your work to the next level. And of course, we also fill you in with the latest digital art news, review the latest software you need to check out, and showcase the amazing artwork sent in by you, our readers. You won't want to miss it! Never miss an issue: Subscribe to ImagineFX here Explore what's on offer by taking a peek at the lead features, below. Find your career path Take your next career step with the help of this expert insight It's a dilemma faced by many designers: do you stick with the stability of studio life or take a risk and go freelance, and possibly lead a happier career in the process? To help you see both sides of the debate, we spoke to artists from various walks of life to discover the pros and cons of each option. Rob Bliss keeps it real Be "ballsy, but polite", says Bliss With a career including credits such as 2000AD and the Harry Potter films, it's fair to say that Rob Bliss has found a way past the industry gatekeepers. It wasn't always the way though. For many years he was beating his head against the wall, trying to find a way in. In this interview, Rob reveals his road to success. Create a world with concept art World building is an all-encompassing design process When it comes to designing a fictional world with your art, there is no end of things to keep in mind. In this tutorial, artist Anthony Macbain shares over a decade of video game industry experience to help you create believable worlds with the power of illustration. Paint with metallic leaf Create dazzling paintings with this tutorial Trying new techniques is the secret to growing as an artist. With that in mind, artist Sophie Klesen shares how she enhances her watercolour paintings with the application of gold and sterling silver leaf. And with the help of this tutorial, you'll be able to give it a go, too. Tricks of the trade Keep your skills sharp with these techniques When it comes to the establishing a creative workflow, artist Eddie Del Rio reveals that there isn't just one process. Instead, he relies on a toolbox of techniques that help to save time and create a steady flow of ideas. In this workshop, Eddie shares 15 processes that could help spark your creativity. Related articles: How to break into movie concept art Improve your concept art skills in Photoshop Concept design tips for artists View the full article

Pastel art is a great way to produce vibrant colours with the ease and control of your best pencils. In use by artists for centuries, pastels are an especially portable medium, enabling you to create colourful pastel art or pastel drawings with no need for water, brushes or palettes. But first, what exactly is a pastel? The definition isn't completely clear, and there's been some debate within art societies as to what exactly qualifies as a pastel. The Pastel Society within the UK, however, states the following media are acceptable for its exhibitions: "Pastels, including Oil pastel, Charcoal, Pencil, Conté, Sanguine, or any dry media". The pastels themselves come in the form of a stick, consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are the same as those used to produce all coloured art media, including oil paints; the binder is of a neutral hue and low saturation. Pastel tips Soft pastel sticks do become dusty or dirty when transporting, so carry a cloth to wipe them off before drawing. It's generally easier to work on a toned surface rather than pure white. You can buy toned paper, or tone it yourself using an acrylic or watercolour wash. To prevent over blending and smudging when using pastels you can use a mist of fixative on that area. Beware: if the fixative is sprayed too heavily, it dramatically dulls and darkens the vibrancy. There's a huge variety of pastels to choose from to create your pastel art. Here award-winning illustrator Terese Nielsen explains how to choose the right ones... 01. All pastels are not equal Soft pastels have a rich, buttery feel and are easy to blend Soft pastels have a rich, buttery feel and are easy to blend. Hard pastels, including pastel pencils, are great for adding detail. Oil pastels have an oil binder, are less opaque than soft pastels and don’t smudge as easily. The newest water-soluble pastels create semi-transparent washes when water is brushed over them. 02. Layering and smudging A variety of colours can be achieved through layering and smudging Pastels are blended on the art surface, rather than on a palette. A variety of colours can be achieved through layering and smudging. Start with darker colours in your pastel art, working up to light. Blending is done by layering the pastels with various strokes such as crosshatching, dots/pointillism or smudging with different tools, from cotton swabs or #9 brushes, to fingers. 03. Choose your surface The key to selecting paper for pastels is to choose something that has texture or tooth The key to selecting paper for pastels is to choose something that has texture or tooth. If it's too smooth, the pastels won't adhere. Check that the paper is pH-neutral. If it's not acid-free, it can shift the colour and cause brittleness. Good choices are canvas, watercolour paper, pastel paper and sand board. 04. Soft and hard pastels Hard pastels are a little less vibrant in colour, but more stable than soft pastels Soft pastels are rich and luminous in colour, provide a loose grainy texture and are easy to blend with varied surface effect, but are a little fragile. Hard pastels are a little less vibrant in colour, but more stable than soft pastels. They're great for adding detail to your pastel art. 05. Pastel pencils and oil pastels Oil pastels (right) contain an oil binder and have a thick, intense colour Pastel pencils come in a pencil 'lead' form and are easy to control. Pastel pencils are ideal for fine detail and rendering, and are a harder lead than soft pastels. Oil pastels contain an oil binder. They have a thick intense colour, but don't smudge and blend like soft/hard pastels. 06. Water soluble pastels Water soluble pastels can be used just like a regular soft pastel Water soluble pastels can be used just like a regular soft pastel, except that you can also create watercolour-like washes with a brush and water, providing great variety in the artistic effects you can achieve. This article originally appeared in the ImagineFX bookazine How to Paint & Draw; subscribe to ImagineFX here. Read more: How to draw: 100 tutorials 10 expert tips for charcoal drawing How to draw a big cat with pastels View the full article

The thief also had a second dataset, including the M1 Abrams maintenance manual, a tank platoon training course, a crew survival course and documentation on improvised explosive device (IED) mitigation tactics. View the full article

Cisco also patched three medium-security flaws in its network security offerings; and, it issued a fix for a high-severity bug in its platform for mobile operator routers, StarOS. View the full article

Once regarded as just a blogging tool, WordPress has quickly become a fully fledged content management system (CMS) for professional web designers and agencies, used on millions of sites across the world. Yet many still think of it as a tool for amateurs and hobbyists. To set the record straight, we've picked some of the best WordPress websites around to show you just what this incredible content management system is capable of... And if all these inspired you to make your own site, then don't miss our Wordpress tutorials or round-up of the best Wordpress themes. 01. We Virtually Are We Virtually Are's site makes great use of 360-degree video to sell its services When your business is all about enthralling people using virtual reality to tell emotive stories, you need a site that draws people into your work. And that's what boutique VR studio We Virtually Are has; its site, built by Herdl, is built on WordPress but uses plenty of cutting-edge techniques including WebGL and 360-degree video to give you an irresistible taste of its immersive services. Check out its VR test drives for Audi, complete with unexpected celebrity guests. 02. Design Museum Denmark Smart use of parallax scrolling and responsive images make the Danish Design Museum's site a must-see Built by Copenhagen-based design and branding agency Stupid Studios, the new site for Denmark's Design Museum not only showcases the museum's archives, collections and research, but also presents it in a bang up-to-date style. From its opening SVG animation of the museum's logo, through to eye-catching parallax scrolling and mood-enhancing palette swaps as you scroll through the content, it's the perfect online presence for an essential design destination. 03. The Walt Disney Company If Disney can use Wordpress to create a flawless, professional level site, there really is nothing you can't achieve on the website building tool Who hasn't heard of Disney? Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past century, you will have no doubt heard of Mickey Mouse and co. The global giant used none other than Wordpress to create its slick site that's a world away from the brightly coloured, cartoonish Disney we know and love. The mission of The Walt Disney Company is to be one of the world’s leading producers and providers of entertainment and information. Via its professional and simple website, it can showcase its portfolio of brands to help differentiate its content, services and consumer products. 04. Chicago Sun Times Sometimes simplicity trumps all when it comes to getting info fast The Chicago Sun Times is an eight times Pulitzer Prize winner and the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city of Chicago. It takes a solid site framework to cope with the daily influx of hard-hitting investigative features, in-depth political reports, sports analysis, entertainment reviews and cultural commentary the paper has to offer. Although a very simple, basic template, the site offers everything you want from a newspaper – it's easy to navigate, clear, concise and not bogged down by animation and effects, meaning you can quickly and seamlessly get your news updates. 05. Katy Perry Even major celebrities are utilising the tools provided by Wordpress Pop princess Katy Perry uses none other than Wordpress to host her official website. Focusing, understandably, on visuals and social media cues, the site utilises high spec portfolio shots of the artist to make a bold statement. Scroll down to see tour dates, merch and more, seamlessly, or use the icons to discover more. It's a clean cut, yet edgy site that manages to blend the artist's distinctive bubblegum pop personal image with a user-friendly, glossy mag style functionality. Gone are the days of busy band sites packed with too much animation and music you can't stop. Perry's website proves you can pack in plenty of personality using just a simple white background and easily navigable links, giving fans the option to listen, watch and learn easily and at their convenience. 06. Da Ink Da Ink is a perfect example of a portfolio where the art speaks for itself Surprisingly few tattoo artists do themselves justice online, relying on Facebook and basic templates to sell their work. But Australian tattooist, Drew Apicture, has utilised his creative talents to create a spectacular site that not only puts his work at the forefront, but mimics it. It's not always all about white backgrounds sometimes going dark can be bold way of standing out. On his site, Da Ink, Apicture goes for a drastic and edgy backdrop of black to showcase his work, mix in some red and orange tones, a smart and minimal logo and you have a truly beautiful portfolio website. Based at one of the Gold Coast's longest standing tattoo shops, Apicture has a passion for high contrast black and grey artwork, despite being told his illustrations were too dark. The same could be said of his website, but we think it's a beautifully slick piece of design work, making practical and effective use of endless scrolling, animated menus and high-res galleries. 07. The Ink Tank Kao Collins' site is designed to make you think about ink Starting out in 1989 as a Collins Inkjet, a one-man operation supplying ink for Kodak continuous inkjet printer, today Kao Collins is one of the world's leading suppliers. And if you've never really thought about ink beyond cursing when your printer runs out, Kao Collins new site, The Ink Tank, is designed to inspire you. Built by DBS Interactive, The Ink Tank is an eye-catching WordPress site that pulls out all the stops to bring you cutting-edge news from the ink industry and to showcase some of the creative ways businesses and artists are currently using ink. The highlight as far as we're concerned is its History of Printing, a gorgeous parallax single-pager packed with animation and effects, taking you all the way from clay tablets to today's high-speed single pass printing, and looking ahead at some of the future possibilities of printing. 08. Greenwich Library Greenwich Library bucks the trend of boring public service sites Public service websites don't have a great record of being beautiful or easy to use. Luckily, that trend is beginning to fade away, and Greenwich Library's website has adopted a modern new look. When creating the site, the visual design came secondary, however – as a public service, usability comes first and anything else is icing on the cake. The redesign is the result of two years' worth of research, user testing and design. In a statement, library director Barbara Ormerod-Glynn explained that the site update was vital because it meant the library could provide its services 24/7. It also addressed issues people were having when trying to find what they needed in a sea of content. 25 WordPress tutorial themes Our favourite part is the illusion of drawing elements while the user scrolls. This is a trick many developers create explicitly with SVG, but the simple combination of CSS transformations and layering elements here creates just as interesting an effect as a more complex SVG line drawing. The colour-coded navigational elements also add personality without having to splash colour over every element. 09. Harvard University Graduate School of Design Harvard GSD's new design is striking, playful and aggressive The stereotypical university website tends to be a pretty sterile and dated affair. However, with the Harvard Graduate School of Design site's redesign this summer, Upstatement has set the bar seriously high. "The GSD is a fantastic place where all kinds of amazing ideas are being generated, and we wanted to really bring out the stories and topics inside the school and surface them in a way that showcases the ideas and energy of the community," says Mike Swartz, partner at Upstatement. GSD's design is striking, playful and aggressive, though it stands back and enables content to show through when it needs to. Thoughtful animations are intertwined at the right moments, without being overwhelming. Every hover state invokes an animation, helping users to interact with the content. The use of images is purposeful – none are used as a backdrop or a texture. All have a function and most are presented with a comment. On top of all of the visual complexities, the development team behind the site took this project to another level. "Mike Burns, Upstatement's engineering lead on this project, worked with the school to collect and modernise their infrastructure, combining it all into an API powered by WordPress," says Swartz. The Upstatement team knew this design was a success when leadership and faculty at Harvard summed up the redesign with: "It's weird, but I like it." 10. This Is Your Kingdom "This is Your Kingdom is probably one of my proudest WordPress builds," comments developer Kim Lawler This is Your Kingdom is a site that brings together style and substance to help visitors find activities in their local area. Simple in its concept, the site is much more complex when we start to consider all of its inner workings and potential. Designed by This is Your Kingdom and robustly developed by Kim Lawler, the site is built to handle growing levels of content. Lawler used WordPress to allow site editors and guest bloggers to update easily and regularly, giving visitors plenty of reasons to return regularly. The delicate, playful design hints at a wide range of activities shared on the site, and does a great job of being appealing and eye-catching, without being stereotypically girly or niche. Illustration plays a big part in the appeal of the site, paving the way for imagination and exploration. 11. Travel Portland The beautifully responsive Travel Portland site is built on WordPress Travel Portland aims to inspire people to visit Portland in Oregon, US, and to help them plan their trip with tools and content highlighting the unique opportunities in the city. Clean design is on every page of its site with images telling of the Portland experience, from waterfalls to food trucks. The beautifully responsive site is built on WordPress and uses a customised responsive theme based on Zurb's Foundation framework. Third-party APIs are also utilised throughout the site, including: Storify, MapBox, Weather Underground and ChooseCulture. The team also used MaxMind's geolocation API to give them the capability to customise content on the homepage based on the location of the visitor. This lets them serve different information for in-town visitors versus those in the planning phases. 12. Captain Creative Designer and art director Brad James set up his own online identity using WordPress A true superhero of the web world has finally revealed himself. And he has a website! Brad James is a self-described "mild mannered designer and art director" based over in New South Wales, Australia. Although he works for agency, iQmultimedia, James has set up as his own online identity named Captain Creative. To manage James's online identity and leave enough time to save the world (wide web) he chose WordPress, "mainly because I knew I wanted a portfolio and blog combined into the one site". He adds, "I don't write code so it also helps that it's widely used in case I run into any technical problems. I'd also used it previously as a CMS for other website clients, so I was familiar with the interface." However, James warns, "It does have its downsides. I had a security issue recently where someone was able to modify the appearance of the site and even change my WP login credentials. Fortunately, I was able to sort it out without too much trouble. Lesson learnt: make sure you keep your version of WP updated!" 13. Jess Marks Photography Jess and Steve say that moving to WordPress was a "smart idea" Brisbane-based wedding photographers, Jess Marks and Steve Bliesne's online home is a fun, whimsical website bristling with personality. When it came to revamping the site, Bliesner says that they, "actually moved from ExpressionEngine to WordPress. We searched for a long time to find the right design house to do this project. We settled on Simple as Milk, and WordPress is what they worked with, so we transitioned. "Since we outsource most web and marketing related things these days, more people and companies are proficient in WordPress over ExpressionEngine, so it became little clear that moving to WP was a smart idea." "Coming from ExpressionEngine, some things are much the same - the way you create posts, enter data and so on," recalls Bliesner of the transition between CMSes. "But WordPress is miles ahead when it comes to the availability of plug-ins – and overall ease of use." 14. Work by Simon This online portfolio and blog takes full advantage of modern CSS3 techniques Work by Simon is the design studio site of Simon Carr and Elijah Wasserman. The website serves as their online portfolio and blog. The studio focuses on design and development for HTML5, CSS3, mobile websites and WordPress – which has been their preferred CMS over the last four years. "We love WordPress because it has the ability to easily translate designs to custom templates," explains Simon. "Another reason it was our top choice is flexibility for blogs and portfolio content. The portfolio section is easily controlled by using custom WordPress post types. Each thumbnail is uploaded with the featured image field, and tags are also applied to indicate the services provided." The guys have taken full advantage of modern CSS3 techniques. "Creation of CSS3 animations for the Labs, Chemical Reactions and Observatory pushed my limits of animation using CSS only," Simon jokes. But as you can see their efforts have been worth it. 15. Iron to Iron Iron to Iron also use the Pods CMS plug-in to give them additional functionality and control of their content Iron to Iron is a two-person company founded by designer Kevin Richardson and developer Jonathan Christopher. Of their site, Kevin says: "We needed to effectively display our brand as well as our philosophy." They use WordPress for all of their client work, he adds. "It makes building any website easier, ours included. Automating things, from the portfolio content population to collecting contact form submissions, is one of the many benefits." They're also using the Pods CMS plug-in to give them additional functionality and control of their content. Christopher is also a member of the development team for the plug-in: "We devote a consistent amount of time to that project in order to better utilise it," he says. 16. Yoke The design and build of the site was a team effort by co-founders Jay Bigford and Alister Wynn Yoke is a studio based in Bristol. The design and build of the site was a team effort by co-founders Jay Bigford and Alister Wynn. "The key to the success of our website as a marketing tool for our business is to have valuable expertise-based content on there," explains Bigford. "We're constantly adding blog posts researching into topics that relate to our target clients." The guys selected WordPress as their CMS. "We can add posts seamlessly and easily, then set up good interrelated articles between these posts, offering the user a less linear journey through our content," says Bigford, who goes on to discuss workflow. "Using WordPress enables us to speed up the build by narrowing the number of templates we use. We know we're designing for a CMS, so we're strict with our output and always stick to a maximum of three templates. This allows us to make sure we get fewer, tighter and more polished templates, rather than many, loose pages." 17. Girl With a Camera Ashley knew WordPress was hugely customisable and would give her a lot of flexibility Girl With a Camera is the photo blog of Ashley Baxter where she shares photography of her life and her commissioned work. The site was designed by Matt Brett, who migrated Baxter from Tumblr to WordPress. "I was using Tumblr for a good while, but became fed up with the constant downtime," she explained. "I knew WordPress was hugely customisable and would give me a lot of flexibility over how I could display my photos." Meanwhile, Brett says the feature he's most proud of is the way that each post's layout and background colour can be changed to best suit the content. "One of my absolute favourite things about WordPress is how fast I can go from an HTML template to a working theme." 18. Tinkering Monkey Everything on the site is made in the garage-turned-woodworking-studio of Mike Cheung Tinkering Monkey is an online shop that sells simple wooden goods for everyday living. Everything is made in the garage-turned-woodworking-studio of Mike Cheung, product designer and creator, and Paula Chang, who manages the business and developed the site. "We used two CMSes," explains Chang, "The store is run through an open-source shopping cart system called OpenCart, and the other pages are managed through WordPress." There are many e-commerce tools to choose from, but Chang wanted to avoid the fees and functionality limitations of other solutions. "It had all the features that we wanted built-in already," she says, "and a back-end that was easy for us to jump in and make changes. It basically gave us full control while keeping our costs to a minimum." 19. Jenny Bristow It's refreshing to see HTML5 being used for client work Love food? Love HTML5? Then look no further than the home of Ireland's Good Food Ambassador, Jenny Bristow. Created in WordPress by the team at Web Design Northern Ireland, this site is a breath of fresh air – it's refreshing to see HTML5 being used for client work. Developer Derek Johnson explains the decision to go with HTML5: "The nature of WordPress makes it easier to distinguish between <article>, <section> and <div> content," he says. "When I was planning this project, it just seemed more logical and straightforward to use new HTML5 elements than to have a lot of nested divs. The site uses a host of new elements, a couple of new input types ('search' and 'email'), ARIA roles and block level links. I also love the way sectioning content works to create a document outline and give semantic structure to web pages," adds Johnson. 20. Derren Brown The site was built using Photoshop CS6 and Illustrator CS6 "Derren Brown is a witch!" According to some, this is all we need to know about England's foremost head fudger. But millions of people want to learn more about this leading illusionist, mentalist, hypnotist, painter, writer, and sceptic, and with his site often pushing past two million monthly page views, it's clearly the web that people turn to to find more info. Pixel Dandy's Marc Hagan-Guirey, the man behind the redesign says, "The project took about six months. The team comprised of Duncan Godwin, who built the site, Abeo the project manager and myself with the design and concept. "The site was built using Photoshop CS6 and Illustrator CS6. Duncan, the developer, built the site using WordPress with a sprinkling of jQuery plug-ins, lots of emails, and cups of tea." 21. Entyce Independently-owned design and digital marketing agency Entyce chose WordPress for its website The independently-owned design and digital marketing agency Entyce, based in Chester, has shown its worth its salt even on its own portfolio site. Creative director Jane Entwistle reveals that, for the site, they used the world's most popular CMS, WordPress. "WordPress is an established system, and we like the concept of open source – it's very versatile and can easily be modified and styled as required," she adds. "As with any software, there are a few flaws, but in our opinion these are outweighed by the pros". In advocacy of WordPress, Entwistle adds: "It's a great software to work with and it's free! It's easy to use, well documented and has a great community with lots of articles if you get stuck or need help". 22. Ghosthorses WordPress drove the redesign of Ghosthorses, the portfolio site of Stephen Fairbanks Ghosthorses is the portfolio site of Stephen Fairbanks. This lovingly crafted site, laden with visual treats appealing to both the casual observer and the web-savvy, serves to delight as well as showcasing his works. When choosing the CMS to drive his major redesign, Fairbanks knew it had to be WordPress. "I've been using WordPress for as long as I've been building sites because I like how malleable it is, and the fact that it's so popular means there's a really good community of support behind it. Also the Featured Image function does all the legwork of cropping, resizing and embedding my images." He's also felt the blight of WP's limited media handling capabilities, but has found a suitable solution. "I've moved the Multiple Post Thumbnails plug-in into my functions.php file by default now for all my sites to easily add scrollable galleries." 23. Design the Planet Marketing agency Design the Planet are big fans of WordPress Marketing agency Design the Planet is a group of self-described 'planetary engineers'. Based in New Orleans, they claim to be able to break your brand free from 'generic mediocrity'. Looking at the DtP portfolio site, they're definitely the folks to do just that. To make it, Design the Planet chose WordPress. "WordPress is our go-to CMS," vice president and COO Perryn Olson explains. "We find it easier to work with and much easier for our clients to quickly pick up on without having a steep learning curve like Joomla or Drupal." Olson is a big fan of established CMSes, it turns out. "We've seen a backlash against proprietary CMSes from prospective clients, because of poor experiences with previous companies," she says. "Some companies feel trapped if they use a proprietary CMS – because they can never leave and their website becomes a hostage – while WordPress is universal and fairly portable from one company to another." Read more: 10 inspiring ecommerce website designs 15 really useful responsive web design tutorials The 10 best HTML5 template designs View the full article

Old banking malware called Dorkbot has reemerged in 2018 to become a serious threat. View the full article

A new feature called site isolation is being tapped to protect Chrome users against Spectre. View the full article

Adding details to your scene is always the way to go when you want to achieve more realism in your 3D art, and thankfully there are many plugins available to help you achieve exactly what you want. In this case, imagine you have a home surrounded by a large forest. Get started with V-Ray Many tools may come to mind for building this scene, including using free textures, but the one we are going to use is 'free' as part of render engine V-Ray. This time you can add the forest using VRayInstancer, which is a tool that not many use. It has its limitations but it hasn't ever failed me. So let's learn how to use it to scatter trees for a forest scene. 01. Get the models ready to use Whatever models you use, make sure you have pivots in their bases The first thing you need to do is source the models you plan to use. In this case I've selected two models from the CGAxis library. It's always so important to keep in mind that you can make them proxy in order to have fewer polygons in your scene. Another important thing is to always have pivots in the base of your models; in this case you have two trees and you need the pivot in their bases, because once you scatter them on a surface the scatter will take that base. When the pivot is not located in the base, you can get strange results, such as half trees scattered all over the scene. So let's make the models proxy and set the pivot on their bases. 02. PF Source and VRayInstancer Don't forget to name your PC source and instancer Once you have your models ready, it's time to add all the necessary tools to create the forest in the back of your scene. First of all you are going to create a PF source: to do so go to the Create tab and in Geometry use the roll-out menu and select Particle Systems. From there, select PF Source. Once placed, name it – in this case mine is called 'PF 001 Front Trees'. Naming is important because that way you can have a lot more control when you need to turn off your particle generators. The next step is to add your VRayInstancer; again head to the Create tab, then select Geometry and in the roll-out menu choose V-Ray. This is where you are going to find your VRayInstancer. Place it in the scene and name it 'VRayInstancer Front Trees', which is again named for organisational purposes. 03. Connect all the elements You can add more source objects for extra variety Now it's time to connect all your tools to make it work properly. First select your VRayInstancer, go to the Modify tab and in Particles add 'PF 001 Front Trees' (the one you created). After this, in Source Objects add both of your tree models. In this case you can add one, but in order to get more variation I decided to add two (you can add as many as you like). Now it's time to tweak the parameters from your PF Source (PF 001 Front Trees). Select it and in Modify you will find Particle View, open it and you will find more options. First of all, erase Position Icon and Speed as you are not going to need them, and instead add Position Object and Scale. In Position Object add the base of the forest mesh. This will use that base as the plane where it will be scattered. In Birth set Emit Stop to 0 and Amount to 70, and in Scale set the Scale Variation to 8%. Now hit render and you will have your first result. 04. Final details Slight changes in your settings can make all the difference to your finished scene In your initial result you should have a spread of trees, that aren't quite right, and you'll also see some weird elements such as big white boxes. Let's fix all that and set your final settings. First of all, inside the particle view in your PF Source, select Render 004 and in Type set None. This will make the weird boxes you can see in your render go away. Now let's go to the Position Object settings. In Uniqueness set the Seed value to 12,858. And finally in Rotation in Orientation Matrix, set it to Random Horizontal. With these modifications you are going to get the result as in the final image (at the top). What you've done was the process for the frontal trees, but you can do the same for the background ones. Try it in your scenes, and not only with trees – this method can have as many uses as you like. This article was originally published in issue 235 of 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists. Buy issue 235 here or subscribe to 3D World here. Related articles: Is this the best 3D foliage plug-in? How to achieve better lighting with V-Ray Learn to grow foliage with X-Particles View the full article

This month’s roundup of the best web design tools roundup includes a CSS preprocessor that scopes styles to components, and a jobs board that puts applicants first. You'll also find some great learning resources and lots of other interesting things that make life as a web designer or developer much easier. Let's get started! 01. Honest Work On this jobs site, salary and hiring info are mandatory Whether you’re on the hiring or applying end of things, the recruitment process is typically frustrating and arduous. In a bid to make things easier, two tech hiring consultants have created Honest Work, a jobs board that does everything a bit better than the rest. Their rationale makes sense: currently jobs boards are built with employer-focused features, because they’re the ones paying to advertise. But if you build a site focused on the needs of applicants, you’ll attract more people, which of course is what employers actually want most of all. Honest Work requires that employers include information about salary and interview process, which makes things more transparent for applicants. It also has more focused, accurate job search filters as well as a bunch of other features that makes things simpler for everyone. 02. The Experimental Layout Lab of Jen Simmons Learn cool layout effects and techniques with Jen Simmons Flexbox and CSS Grid give us the power to break away from boring frameworks and make our own exciting layouts, which will hopefully usher in a new era of creativity on the web. If you want to get inspired and find out what’s possible, this is a great place to start. Jen Simmons has been busting web layout myths for some time now, and her Experimental Layout Lab shows off some of her most impressive work. With the newer web technologies we can run text vertically or at an angle, and have it fit around images; we can use proper art direction and tailor our layouts to our content. In short, we are much more able to use graphic design the way we do in print publications. It’s time to get excited about the web again. 03. VS Code can do that?! Handy tips and tricks for Visual Code Studio If you’re a Visual Code Studio user this site is for you. Someone noticed that this code editor has many little-known but very powerful features that don’t get much attention, so they’ve rounded up a collection of great tips that will transform your working relationship with this software. Did you know that you can easily see which npm packages are out of date with the Version Lense plugin? Or that VS Code can refactor your JavaScript to ES6? Have a quick skim of the homepage to pick up some gems. 04. Vue Native Build native mobile apps with JavaScript Vue Native is a framework for building cross-platform native mobile apps using JavaScript. It compiles to React Native and gives you all the advantages of the Vue ecosystem. Its creators say they wanted to bring the support for templating, styling and state-management of Vue to the app-building process. Take a look at this blog post to find out more. 05. Wired Elements Create sketchy mockups, wireframes or final interfaces with this tool These sketchy UI elements with a hand-drawn look are fun; you can use them for wireframes, mockups, or even a final site if that’s the look you’re going for. You might expect that each one is a static file, but not so; they are implemented as web components and redrawn especially for you. That means no two implementations will be exactly the same – just like the real thing. Try out the example on the homepage; that’s not an image, it works! 06. The Service Worker Cookbook Browse the list of recipes to find out how to do useful things with service workers Service Workers provide an elegant means of getting all kinds of useful functionality, and this site from Mozilla is a collection of practical examples of Service Workers as used on modern websites. There’s a list of 'recipes' that demonstrate how to accomplish various tasks with Service Workers, and if you have something to add they welcome contributions from any developer. All code is available on GitHub. 07. Stylable Heal the problems that come with global CSS styles Stylable is an open source CSS preprocessor that that extends CSS so that styles are scoped to components to prevent them leaking or clashing with other styles in your app. At build time, the Stylable CSS is converted into normal CSS that works in any browser, making it a neat solution to the problems that come with global styles. If you’re unsure whether it’s for you, Bruce Lawson has created a helpful song to explain the benefits. 08. Interneting is hard An enormous collection of good web development tutorials Whether you want to teach yourself web development from scratch, hone your responsive web design skills or boost your skillset by learning some of the newer technologies, this huge, free repository of tutorials will help you. The earlier chapters assume that you’re a complete beginner but you can jump in at a later stage if you want to learn about things like Flexbox. It’s written in a concise style with lots of clear diagrams and code examples to aid understanding. 09. React App Manager Jump straight into React without any terminal or npm tinkering RAM enables you to create and run React applications without doing a lot of setup or dealing with the command line. The idea behind it is that npm and the terminal are barriers to entry for beginners, so this offers a way to dive straight into React without those intimidating elements. It’s currently in beta and hasn’t been tested on Linux or Windows, but if the concept appeals we’d say give it a whirl. 10. Conversational Design Learn how to build great conversational interfaces Erika Hall is one half of Mule Design, and has decades of experience as a designer and technologist. Her latest book looks at using conversational interfaces to create human-centred systems that will engage your audience. Hall explains how to create a personality that will appeal to your users, how to choose the right kind of language for them and how to become a more competent writer. Read more: 20 cutting-edge web tools to try now How to multitask like a pro Create a dashboard app with React View the full article

Amazon Prime day 2018 is nearly upon us (official kick-off is midday on Monday 16 July), and to reap the benefits of all the sweet deals we have coming your way, you're going to need an Amazon Prime account. It's quick and easy to sign up, and you can try it for a month completely free, so it's a win-win. Jump to Amazon Prime Day homepages: US | UK| India | Australia Once you're signed up you'll be able to take advantage of all the Prime Day bargains and much more besides, including the Prime Video library of movies and TV shows that you can enjoy any time at no extra cost. It's a great additional benefit for Amazon Prime subscribers (there are actually quite a few hidden gems that come with membership); your only problem might be that there's almost too much to choose from. That's why we've had a look around and picked out five of our favourite TV series available to watch right now on Prime Video. There are some lauded classics, unexpected hits, and one that just about defies explanation. Enjoy! 01. Preacher You can't move for comic adaptations these days, but if you're finding it hard to choose between them then for our money you'll find it hard to do better than AMC's adaptation of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's Preacher. It's the everyday tale of a disillusioned preacher who acquires a supernatural power and sets out to find God along with his ex-girlfriend and a degenerate vampire, and is a magnificent mix of pitch-black humour, over-the-top violence and good old Southern charm. 02. Parks and Recreation It's hard to be unaware of Parks and Recreation – it's probably the best US sitcom in recent years, after all, and without it we'd have been a lot less likely to have ever heard of Chris Pratt. But if you're in the UK, it was easy to miss its late-night broadcast on BBC4, so here's a perfect opportunity to catch up with it without having to splash out on boxsets. Pro tip: season one isn't that great, so if you're not feeling it then by all means skip right on to season two. 03. The Americans Undercover Russians infiltrating the USA and pretending to be wholesome American citizens? What a crazy idea! Set during the Reagan era, when Cold War paranoia was at its most bonkers, The Americans focuses on a pair of long-settled Soviet sleeper agents and has it all: old-school tradecraft, pitch-perfect 1980s pop culture references and the ever-present worry that our two anti-heroes might get caught out by their neighbour, who just happens to be an FBI agent. 04. Catastrophe We've had one of the best US sitcoms, so here's one of the best from the other side of the pond. Created and written by its two lead actors, Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney, Catastrophe's about as far as you can get from Parks and Rec's heartwarming larks. It starts with a one-night stand in a hotel between Sharon and Rob that kicks off a chain of life-disrupting consequences, unexpected pregnancy being just the first of them. Savagely funny and quite unexpectedly tender at times, it's a brilliant exploration of how real life has no respect for whatever plans you might have had. It also features Carrie Fisher's last acting role, as Rob's mother. 05. Massage Detective Joe Have we saved the best until last? We don't know! But we happened upon this Japanese series about an introverted massage therapist who keeps getting sucked into murder cases, which he solves though the powers of massage. Yes, massage. We don't know about you, but we're totally binge-watching Massage Detective Joe at the next possible opportunity. Apparently his catchphrase is, "That's this case's pressure point!", and he ends each episode by doing a special dance. We've never needed to see a foreign language TV show quite so badly. Read more: The ultimate guide to Amazon devices Are movie posters in a design crisis? Our pick of the best graphics tablets in 2018 View the full article

It's that exciting time of year again where designers around the globe get set for the annual Brand Impact Awards. Brought to you by Computer Arts and Creative Bloq, this international awards scheme celebrates the very best in branding design – and this year's shortlist features 47 incredible projects, painstakingly chosen from a record 194 entries by our world-class judging panel. Don't agree with their decisions? For the first time ever, we're giving you the chance to have your say. To mark the fifth year of the BIAs – and acknowledge the growing role that social media plays in the branding scene, for better or worse – we are delighted to announce a special new prize for 2018: the People's Choice Award. Uniquely, the shortlist for the People's Choice Award isn't decided by a judging panel, or by agency submission: quite simply, these are the projects that have generated the most interest and discussion over the past 12 months on Creative Bloq. And as the name implies, the winner is also decided by you – the design community. The 2018 BIAs sees the arrival of a very special new award: The People's Choice Nine nominees will go to head-to-head for the chance to collect this special award at this year's BIA ceremony – representing the acclaim of the design community at large. The project with the most votes is the winner, so cast your vote wisely! Below are details of the nine branding projects that received the most traffic – and social media discussion – on Creative Bloq this year. It's up to you to make your vote count, and decide the best project in your opinion. Once you've voted, share your decision via Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, and convince your peers to vote too. Voting is open now, and will close on 25 July. The winner of the People's Choice Award will be announced and presented at the Brand Impact Award 2018 ceremony on 6 September 2018, at the trendy Ham Yard Hotel in London's Soho. Below are the nominees, in no particular order. Now it's up to you to decide the winner... 2018 People's Choice Award nominees 01. Ogilvy Just a few weeks ago, renowned advertising agency Ogilvy launched a rebrand, created in partnership with Collins. The rebrand included a new visual system covering Ogilvy's website, font, and logo design. But the most notable difference was the drop of the word Mather to the more straightforward (though no easier to spell) Ogilvy. The rebrand took two years to complete, part of which was tweaking Ogilvy's wordmark's typeface to make it weightier and more in line with a previous handwritten logo based on founder David Ogilvy's signature. "Like our strategic work, the visual identity system has its roots in Ogilvy history," the Collins team explain. 02. IHOb The recent IHOp rebrand was a great lesson in how you don't need a big budget to successfully bring together a product and branding, and generate a whole lot of attention in the process. The breakfast food chain announced it was flipping the lettering in its logo design, going from IHOP to IHOb, which lead to lots of speculation as to what the mystery 'b' might stand for. As it happens, the 'b' stands for 'burgers', tying into a new line of Ultimate Steakburgers launched by the chain. Very simple, but very effective. 03. Battersea Pentagram partners Marina Willer and Naresh Ramchandani led the way on this charming rebrand for Battersea Pentagram partners Marina Willer and Naresh Ramchandani, wowed the design world earlier this year with this charming rebrand for Battersea, a much-loved British charity that cares for cats and dogs across the UK. The refresh also includes a new logo design, made up of a family of hand-drawn, abstract watercolour images by Japanese illustrator Hiromi Suzuki, designed to emphasise the charity's commitment to every animal in its care. 04. American Express This year AMEX's revealed its first identity refresh in 37 years Another entry from Pentagram, this time from partner Abbott Miller, who led AMEX's first identity refresh in 37 years. The refresh comes as part of the company's new global marketing campaign, called 'Powerful Backing: Don’t Do Business / Don’t Live Life Without It', which focuses on how deeply intertwined personal and work life can be, and the role that AMEX can play in supporting that. Most notably was the focus on the company's instantly recognisable little blue symbol, the aim being to preserve – but enhance – its design. 05. Formula 1 F1 unveiled its new sleek red logo late last year Fans and designers alike were amazed when Formula 1 unveiled its first rebrand for 23 years at the end of 2017. The new sleek red logo replaced the familiar Carter Wong studio negative space logo, which the infamous single seater auto racing event had used since 1994. The new identity was created by a team at Wieden + Kennedy London led by Richard Turley. Formula 1's director of marketing, Ellie Norman, says that the refresh “speaks to the core of why people loved the sport in the first place." 06. UK Parliament SomeOne's new brand identity includes a wordmark, typefaces and responsive templates The first visual identity for the Houses of Parliament was unveiled in March this year. Created in collaboration between the House of Commons and the House of Lords with brand and digital design studio SomeOne, the new identity aims to make UK Parliament (as it's now referred to as a brand) fit for purpose on digital platforms. As part of the identity, SomeOne created a wordmark, typefaces, website guidelines, icon suites, digital guidelines and responsive templates. 07. Kickstarter Kickstarter's rebrand consisted of a bloated, single colour logo and a pared-back website design. November last year saw crowdfunding site Kickstarter roll out a surprise rebrand that flies in the face of recent design overhauls. Whereas the likes of Dropbox and eBay have reinvented themselves with vibrant colour palettes in an attempt to grab attention, Kickstarter has done the opposite and launched a bloated, single colour logo, and a pared-back website design. Created in partnership between Kickstarter's in-house design team and New York-based design office Order, the new identity is centred around a puffed up wordmark that does away with the black and green colours from the old logo. 08. Science Museum London's Science Museum revealed its new look courtesy of top branding agency North Back in the summer of 2016, branding agency North was commissioned to develop a new visual language for the Science Museum, which was unveiled in October last year. The first visual shake-up for the London tourist attraction in seven years, it caused a bit of a stir initially, most notably from the agency behind the old branding scheme, Johnson Banks. However, like with many rebrands, the dust quickly settled, with many people taking to social media to applaud the new design, the main feature of which was new customised SMG Sans, which North worked closely with type foundry Fontseek to create. 09. Ebury Behold: The new Ebury logo in all its trendy glory Summer last year saw Penguin Random House's non-fiction imprint, Ebury, rebrand itself with a less corporate and more creative logo. Designed by London-based studio Form, the centrepiece of the new look is a capitalised letter 'E' wordmark. Replacing the lowercase, italic red logo previously used by Ebury, the new design opts for a new colour scheme that Form partner Paula Benson describes as "fresh and vibrant." Cast your vote for the People's Choice Award here You've seen all the entries, now it's time for you to be the judge... Read more: 10 logos we never want to see change The designer's guide to using colour in branding Top 10 fictional brands from film and TV View the full article

What makes a great website? One of the most important aspects is top-notch UI. To learn all about designing the best possible UI for your website, check out Pay What You Want: Complete UI/UX Design Lifetime Bundle. With this bundle, you'll learn some important tools of the trade. Find out how to use Photoshop and After Effects to create engaging websites that will make your visitors want to keep coming back. Learn all about typography and creating text that not only informs but also looks pretty. Find out more about the role UI plays in the context of the workflow of modern web design. Best of all, you can pay whatever price you want for all this knowledge. Related articles: Create slick UI animations The pro's guide to UI design Build a card-based UI with Foundation View the full article

This issue, along with our usual reviews, inspiration and regular Q and A sections, we celebrate Maxon's Cinema 4D, the 3D application that caters to an active and large community of passionate users, with 35 pages of Cinema 4D tutorials and insight. Buy 3D World 237 now Here's more detail on what you can expect in this issue... Feature: Ziva Physically based rigging with Ziva In this feature we take a good look at how developments are being made in character rigging, by investigating the physics-based Ziva system. Feature: Build a studio Set up an animation studio with this guide If you've ever considered setting up your own studio, then look no further. We talk to a group of people who have done just that, to discover why they did it, and more importantly, how. Training: Cinema 4D tips Tips to help you master Cinema 4D We gathered some of the best Cinema 4D artists in the world and asked them for their top tips for mastering this all encompassing software. Training: Motion Graphics Create stunning motion graphics In this tutorial, C4D expert EJ Hassenfratz, demonstrates how to use the voronoi fracture object to break up a mesh in unusual but beautiful ways. Training: C4D VR Learn how to use Cinema 4D for your VR projects VR artist and master, Martin Nebelong, shows you how to incorporate Cinema 4D into your VR pipeline in this tutorial, where he creates yet another beautiful interactive scene. Training: C4D sculpting Sculpt a stylised horse in Cinema 4D Sculpting master Glen Southern shows you how Cinema 4D is capable of some fantastic sculpting results, using its great subdivision system to refine the details. Read more: How to model concept art in Cinema 4D Free textures: 40 top textures to download today 6 expert tips for better 3D renders View the full article

There are thousands of Photoshop brushes online to help you add beautiful artwork to your creative resumes or other projects. The things that can be done with your brushes inside Photoshop's Natural Brush Media window are almost endless! It's amazing how you can manipulate your brush to create patterns, textures, hair, skin, that painterly feel, happy accidents and so on. If my work assignment requires a realistic finish, I try to avoid using photo references. That way, I'm free to create and use suitable brushes on the fly. And of course, it's fun using new custom brushes! I've supplied 65 of my own with this workshop, for you to try out. Download your resources: Download assets Download video 01. Do some research Play around a bit before deciding what you want to paint Before I start painting I like to explore and sketch around my subject to get the ideas flowing. Sometimes I do this using pen on paper, sometimes directly in Photoshop CC using a basic hard round brush with both Opacity and Flow set to 80 per cent. I eventually develop a clearer idea of what I want to paint. 02. Create a black and white base The Spickel brush creates texture on the face Painting in black and white gives me better control over my values. It also enables me to concentrate on the shapes, light and shadows. For the skin I use my first custom brush: the mighty Spickel brush. I use it to create skin texture on areas such as the nose, cheeks and chin. I work on a separate layer and use effects such as Drop Shadow or Bevel and Emboss. 03. Introduce colours on different layers Build up colour in layers Once I'm happy with my values, I start applying colours on layers set to Overlay, Multiply, Color Dodge, Darken, and so on. I try to vary my colours and pick new ones several times in the Color window. Because my character has yellowish skin, I use greens, browns, oranges, yellows and even some cyan. Then I drop my layers and keep on painting normally. Finally I draw some tattoo-like shapes on one side of her face, before flipping them to the other side. I consider turning these tattoos into custom brushes for later use. 04. Paint with pattern brushes Add detail quickly using custom pattern brushes I introduce a few designs using some custom pattern brushes. I create one by taking a graphic, transforming it into a brush and then playing around with the settings within the natural Brush media window (Brush tip shape > Spacing and Shape dynamics > Angle Jitter set to Direction). Such brushes are ideal for creating clothing patterns, tattoos and scales, for example. 05. Apply the Hexagon brush Use brushes at different scales to create a variety of effects I use my simple custom Hexagon brush in three distinct areas for three different effects. First to create a chest plate, then to make some facial chains and finally to introduce some futuristic-looking texture on her chest and shoulder armour. Using the brush on different layers enables me to create a mask of my patterns, so I can paint inside them to depict dirt or worn edges. 06. Use what you've already got Select the forehead gem using the Lasso tool, then paste it onto a new layer Reusing elements that you've already painted will save you time. Here I take the stone from the figure's forehead to create a flying spy-bot collar (of course!). I select the stone using the Lasso tool and then copy-paste it on to its own layer using shift+ctrl+C and shift+ctrl+V. I repaint the highlights and shadows by hand to avoid the copy-pasted feel. 07. Build up the collars Turn repeated patterns into brushes I use several pattern brushes to create the illusion that my character is wearing a lot of collars around her neck. These brushes are so easy to create and will save you a lot of time. I used them when working on Assassin's Creed 3 and Unity to make most of the patterns on the many costumes, such as the yellow embroidery on Louis XVI's ornate outfit. 08. Try out a Rorschach Techno brush Custom bushes don't need to be geometric My happy accident Rorschach brushes can be tricky to create and calibrate, but they're just amazingly fun! Create a technical-looking shape and transform it into a brush. Then in the Natural Media brush window put it on Dual Brush with another graphic-shaped brush and play around with the different sliders to get random shapes popping out of your brush. Next page: More tips for making the best use of custom brushes 09. Put Rorschach to the test Get creative with random marks I create some random marks on the canvas. No matter what comes out, I try to see something interesting in the resulting shapes. Then I double them, flip them, rotate them, and manipulate them with the Transform and Warp tools to generate something that looks like either a helmet or a mask that my character would wear. Use the rectangular Lasso tool to create a readable shape This approach also works well when quickly concepting sci-fi vehicles, ships or robots. Once everything is in place, I often finish either painting my figure or using the rectangular Lasso tool to work my shape into something that's more readable. Finally, I make a mask out of my shapes and start painting inside and outside of them to incorporate them into my painting. 10. Refine the headdress Make your own textures I take a Rake brush with a rust texture inside it and paint lights and shadows so the headdress matches the rest of the painting. You can make your own textures to put inside your brushes by opening a texture photo and then selecting Edit > Define Pattern. It now appears inside your texture tab in the brush preset window. Reduce Flow to better integrate the texture. 11. Depict folded cloth The Rake brush has hidden depths when it comes to creating cloth For my character's kimono outfit I create a simple Rake brush. Then I set Angle Jitter to Pen Pressure and add a dirt texture in Color Dodge mode. I give it a dual-brush setup with a simple Hard round brush, select Other Dynamics and choose Pen Pressure. Now my Rake brush spins around itself in an irregular way – perfect for painting realistic folded cloth! 12. Paint, smudge and erase Custom brushes aren't just for painting with Custom brushes can be used for painting, but also for smudging, erasing, dodging, burning and so on. For example, you could paint a decoration on the clothes with a pattern brush and then erase inside your pattern using another pattern brush to achieve more cool effects and patterns. Dodging with a Dirt brush can also be a great way to obtain realistic metallic surfaces. 13. Add the final touches Moving the red, green and blue channels by one pixel can help create a 3D effect I drop all my layers and duplicate my background. Then I add a noise effect to the layer above (Noise set to 400 per cent). I repeat my noise effect a couple of times and then set the layer to Overlay with between 2 and 5 per cent Opacity. I also use Gaussian Blur and Filter > Other > High Pass to adjust focus throughout my image. Then I drop all my layers again and then go to Channels. I move the red, green and blue channel each one by one pixel. This creates a pseudo 3D effect. Finally I play around with Color Balance to do my final colour tweaks. Watch the full tutorial This article originally appeared in ImagineFX magazine, the world's leading digital art magazine. Subscribe here. Related articles: The best premium and free Illustrator brushes 60 Photoshop shortcuts to speed up your workflow How to colour comics View the full article

We catch up with interactive artist Marpi to find out what goes into his popular digital installations and hear a preview his forthcoming talk at Generate London. How did you become an interactive digital artist? It has been a really long journey through a variety of media, roles and countries. And what I’ve finally found with interactive art, installations and the whole event space is that it’s about forging a direct connection with people. It’s about seeing people interacting with something I made, their reactions, the way they discover it or how they find ways to use it to create something themselves. I like that art finally not only cares about the viewers but it responds to user testing. Who are your typical clients? I don’t have clients any more, not in the typical sense. That’s been the biggest shift and what’s really set me free. Nowadays, I create everything myself. I don’t get paid for it but I own it. That means I can exhibit, travel, keep changing and evolving forever and also that everything I do gets better over time. Since there’s virtually no barrier to entry for any of those experiences, I can show them at festivals, art galleries, museums, music shows, raves… anywhere really. What are the biggest challenges? There are multiple challenges, at both a technical and personal level. Obviously, most of my work relies heavily on expensive hardware: projectors, LED screens, touchscreens. The good thing is that all of it generally is provided by the venues and, as this type of art evolves, a whole new type of space is going to appear everywhere. Through this evolution, artists like me will easily be able to tour, either in person or just digitally. At a more human level, there’s a lot of empathy involved in the whole process. You’re building a new virtual language. You’re creating an environment that must be easy for people to understand and adapt to but which will also be interesting and varied enough to encourage them to stay. I spend endless hours watching people playing, getting confused, discovering and walking away changed. And the more I learn about what people actually want to do, where they actually want to be, the more my work changes. Why did you describe 2017 as a "crazy year"? Last year I did a show, on average, once every two weeks. And things haven’t calmed down in 2018 either: this year it looks like I’m going to be doing even more. The good thing, though, is that because of the digital nature of my work, I can run multiple events simultaneously. They also run on the same interaction systems, which means people in different locations can see each other. So instead of trying to limit my work with editions or custom prints, I’m able to use the benefits of web to make all of it infinitely scalable and adaptable to any hardware. What digital technologies are you excited about? All of them. It’s like a wonderful buffet I wouldn’t have dreamed of as a kid. There’s so much awesome software and hardware that I already know I won’t be able to try everything. That’s a great problem to have. What can we expect from your talk at Generate London? I’ll be sharing the story of how, especially nowadays, anyone from any background can become a fully independent digital artist, become visible globally and actually make a change in the direction the future is going. All the software is free, all the hardware can be shared. There are no real borders left: all the tools are already out there. And no one knows where any of those journeys end. This article was originally published in issue 308 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 308 or subscribe to net. Want to hear more from Marpi on creating generative worlds? Marpi is giving his talk Building Worlds at Generate London from 19-21 September 2018 If you're interested in learning more about creating interactive and generative art, make sure you've picked up your ticket for Generate London from 19-21 September 2018. Currently working with Obscura as director of web and experiential design, digital artist Marpi will be delivering his talk – Building Worlds – at Generate. In his talk, he will explore the creation of large scale art installations, new media events, touch screens, interactive LED walls connected to mobile devices, AR and VR, and how anyone can create their own generative worlds and interact with one another. Generate London takes place from 19-21 September 2018. Get your ticket now. Related articles: 6 ways to get into creative coding 17 mesmerising projection mapping demos Tips for graphic designers getting started with code View the full article

The newly-discovered Spectre variants can be exploited to uncover confidential data via microarchitectural side channels in CPUs. View the full article

Amazon isn’t just an online retailer. The company also makes a huge range of products that can streamline your daily tasks and make you more productive, both at home and at work. There are now dozens of Amazon devices, ranging from voice assistants and media tablets to security cameras, e-book readers and more. But each Amazon product comes with a number of different versions, and knowing which one you want (or even what it does) can sometimes be a little confusing. So just in time for Amazon Prime Day 2018 – when thousands of deals and offers will be available to Prime members around the world – we've put together this special guide to Amazon's own products. From Echo smart speakers to Kindle readers, Fire tablets to Deals Buttons, we'll help you decide which Amazon device is right for your needs – and show you the best deals on each to save you a wad of cash. Jump to Amazon's Prime Day homepages: US | UK | India | Australia Amazon Echo voice assistants Remember that future you were promised by sci-fi TV shows, in which you could chat to a disembodied computer voice and they would do everything for you? Well, it's here, sort of. While Amazon's voice assistant Alexa is not exactly Knight Rider's KITT, it does let you play music, search the web, create to-do lists, order online shopping, get the latest weather reports, and control popular smart-home products, all just by talking to one of Amazon's Echo speakers. There are many reasons why you might want one of these smart wireless speakers in your home. Most obviously, the more you can make your home life easier and more streamlined, the more time you have to get your work done and relax afterwards. It's also kind of fun to do things like turning on lights just by talking. Furthermore, if you work in web design, it's vital to start getting your head around these kinds of interfaces, because designing for voice is likely to be a big part of your work in the near-future, if it's not already. In this first section of our Amazon device guide, we run through the different versions of Amazon's Echo smart speakers, so you can decide which is the best for your needs. The original Echo is still a great entry point into smart speakers The standard way to getting started with the Amazon Echo ecosystem, the Echo is a very capable and good value smart speaker. If you’re looking for a voice-activated device that will perform a range of tasks, from adding things to your calendar to ordering a takeaway, then this is a very capable and reliable device. The sound is basic, but decent enough for such tasks, although if you want to play a lot of music, you might prefer to connect it to a better quality speaker via Bluetooth or the 3.5mm jack. You can even use it to control smart home devices, from lights to thermostats, although like all the products on this list except for the Echo plus, that will need to happen via each device’s own smart home hub. The Echo Dot is small and cheap, but with the same functionality as the Echo Not sure about whether this whole Alexa thing will work for you? Then the Echo Dot is the cheapest way to try it out. A nice-looking little device, that’s small enough to fit into your pocket, this comes in a much lower price than the Amazon Echo. But it retains almost all its voice recognition features, so it’s a great way to try out this tech and see what it can do for you. The sound is the weakest in the range though, and a little too tinny for listening to music, so you almost certainly will want to connect it up to another speaker for that. The Echo Show has a lovely 7-inch screen, it's handy for all sorts of info and video calls, too Frustrated by the idea of only using voice to communicate with your smart speaker? The Amazon Echo Show comes with a seven-inch touchscreen and a 5 megapixel camera, which means you have many more ways to interact with Alexa. You can also use it to make video calls to friends and family with Echo devices. The sound is better than that of the standard Amazon Echo, although there’s still room for improvement when compared with Bluetooth speakers designed mainly for playing music. But brilliantly, when you play tracks through its Prime Music service, the lyrics to many (if not all) of the songs appear on your screen. Keep your children safe with the Echo Dot Kids, and teach them some manners too This child-friendly version of the Echo Dot is essentially the same device, but with the features simplified for the younger audience. It comes in a colourful rubber case and is accompanied by a colourful comic-book guide. Plus the Echo Dot Kids version of Alexa behaves more like a parent, praising the child, for example, for saying please and thank you, and shielding them from inappropriate content. Not yet released in the UK at time of writing, the device comes with a year's free subscription to the FreeTime Unlimited kid-focused service in the US, which includes curated content from partners like Nickelodeon, National Geographic and Disney, including things like family friendly radio stations and tailored alarms from well-known characters. The Echo Spot has a small screen that's okay for limited tasks but you wouldn't want to do anything complicated on it The Amazon Echo Spot is a mini-version of the Show, but comes with a 2.5-inch circular screen instead of a 7-inch rectangular one. It's not really the right size or shape for watching video, then, but it’s fine for reading messages and clockfaces, or for making video calls. The smaller speaker means that sound isn’t quite as good either. But it functions well at what it does, and its size might be considered an advantage in terms of portability, meaning you can use it around the home, from kitchen to bedroom with the minimum of fuss. The Echo Plus offers smart home functionality in one box The Amazon Echo Plus looks pretty similar to the standard Amazon Echo, but unlike all the other Echo device on this list, it has the ZigBee wireless protocol built in, so can connect up to your smart home network directly. Note that ZigBee is one of many smart home standards, although it is supported by many of the best known smart devices, including Philips Hue lights, IKEA's smart lights, Samsung SmartThings, Osram Lightify and Honeywell's thermostat. The sound of the Plus is also by far the best in the range, although it’s still not quite up to the quality of a high-end audio speaker. Amazon Kindle e-readers Whether you're on the train to work, travelling to a design event, such as our own web design conference Generate, or just relaxing on a beach holiday, it's difficult to pick up your smartphone without getting sucked into social media or work emails. But it's not good for your mental health or overall productivity to never switch off from all that noise. So why not instead invest in an e-reader? The Amazon Kindle range has a number of different models to suit different people’s needs. Read on to find out which is best for you. The basic Kindle provides a good reading experience in most environments With the Amazon Kindle range, you very much get what you pay for, and the Kindle is the most basic, and consequently cheapest, e-reader of the bunch. With 4G of storage you can carry thousands of ebooks around with you wherever you go. And the touchscreen is perfectly usable, although there’s no backlight. So you might have difficulty reading it in dim lighting, as well as bright sunlight, and there’s no 3G functionality. That said, those are all compromises you may well be willing to make for the lower price. The Amazon Kindle Paperwhite is a big step up in quality from the basic model The Kindle Paperwhite is a clear step up from the basic Kindle. There isn’t just a blacklight, but a beautifully sharp HD display that looks striking close to the look of real paper. You’ll find it a lot easier to read ebook is in bright sunlight than with the Kindle. And in fact, over several hours the sharper text, using Amazon’s custom font Bookerly, will be less of a strain of your eyes, whatever the lighting conditions. The Amazon Voyage offers an premium screen reading experience with some nifty features The Kindle Voyage was originally a significant step up from the Paperwhite in terms of screen quality. But since the latter got an upgrade to 300ppi, the benefits of paying a higher price for the Voyage have lessened. That said, its Cara e-paper screen does offer a premium reading experience, it’s the lightest Kindle in the range, and it is also, in our view the most elegantly designed. There’s also a cool feature called PagePress, which lets you turn a page just by pressing a little harder on the screen. The Amazon Kindle Oasis is all you could ever want in an e-reader, and more The only all-metal Kindle (it’s made of aluminium), the Amazon Kindle Oasis is waterproof so it’s a safe choice for reading in the bath or swimming pool, or just if you get clumsy around drinks. There’s a massive amount of storage (either 8GB or 32GB), so you’re never likely to run out of space. You can listen to Audible audiobooks, although you’ll need a Bluetooth speaker or headphones, as there’s no headphone jack. And of course, the larger (7-inch screen) and excellent backlight offer a top-class reading experience, including the inclusion of physical buttons for page turning. Amazon Fire tablets If you want a tablet for illustration or design work then you'll probably want to spend serious money on something like a Wacom or iPad Pro. But if you just want something for doing a bit of light surfing, or to watch a movie on in bed? Then you can save some serious money by opting for one of Amazon’s low cost Fire tablets instead. Read on to find out which ones best for you. The Amazon Fire 7 is the basic starter model of the media tablet range The Fire 7 is the cheapest of Amazon’s Fire tablets, but there are reasons for that. Most notably, it doesn’t have an HD screen, and the camera is pretty low quality. Beyond that, though, it does what you need it to do, the battery life is good and the low price makes it very tempting buy for a basic entry-level media and entertainment tablet. The Amazon Fire Kids tablet will protect your little ones from harmful content If there’s one eternal truth in life it’s that children break things. A lot. And so the Amazon Fire Kids version comes in a durable case that should protect it being dropped, and if that doesn’t work you’re protected by a no-questions-asked two-year warranty. The Fire Kids also comes with a year’s free subscription to Amazon’s FreeTime Unlimited service, which provides access to 15,000 kid-friendly books, videos, educational apps and games. Plus the software is specially designed to prevent your little ones from accessing inappropriate content, and you can even set screen-time limits. With great storage and battery life, the Fire HD 8 offers superb value for a hi-def tablet If you want a tablet that’s signicantly cheaper than an iPad but still offers HD quality, the Amazon Fire HD 8 is a great choice. It also comes with Amazon’s voice assistant, Alexa. Okay, so it’s cheap and plastic looking, and the camera isn’t much good, but otherwise it’s fine for browsing the internet, watching streaming videos and other well, and you’re unlikely to find a better bargain anywhere else. The Fire HD 10 tablet offers the best picture quality, the biggest screen and the highest speed in the range If you’re looking for the top of the range Fire tablet, then the Amazon Fire HD 10 is the one for you. This tablet boasts a bigger screen (10.1in) and better quality picture (Full HD 1080p) than the HD 8, not to mention more RAM (2GB), which enables it to run faster. A shame, then, that it still looks cheap and has a poor quality camera. But with a price that’s still significantly lower than an iPad, that may not put you off buying what is essentially a very media tablet. The Fire HD 8 Kids is a good choice for older kids who'll appreciate hi-def content For most smaller children, the Fire Kids tablet (above) is all you need. Yet what about when your kids get to an age when they’re demanding hi-def video and gaming content, but you still want the rugged build, two-year warranty, and year’s supply of Amazon’s FreeTime Unlimited service? Then there’s the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids, which comes with a larger screen (8 inches), more storage (32GB) and a bigger battery life (12 hours) to keep up with all that HD content. All of which, in our eyes, justifies the higher price nicely. Amazon Fire TV streaming products In 2018 there's a huge range of ways to stream TV and video to our big screens. But our sets aren't always able to keep up with ever changing technologies and services. In which case, you may find these Amazon devices provide a useful bridge between your telly and your streaming platform. The Amazon Fire TV offers a handy way to get 4K onto your big screen Amazon Fire TV is a video streaming device that allows you to play 4K and HDR content on your 4K TV. There’s also support for Dolby Atmos. It comes with a remote plus a tiny cable that plugs into your TV’s HDMI port. Your TV doesn’t power it, though: you also need to connect a mains adapter for that. But the main question is why you would need it at all, since most 4K and HDR TVs come with their own apps to stream content. The most likely answer is that they either crash a lot in practice, or you don’t like the way they work, both of which seem to be surprisingly common complaints. The Fire TV stick looks like a USB and you can use it to stream video to your set The Amazon Fire TV Stick looks like a USB stick and plugs into your TV, enabling you to stream content to it. It’s powered by a micro USB port or, if your TV doesn’t have that functionality, a separate power adapter is provided. It has any easy to use interface, and you can even operate it using Alexa. It’s very much geared to promoting Amazon’s own video but also supports other services like Netflix and the BBC iPlayer, as well as music services like Prime Music and Spotify. However, it only goes up to 1080pHD and offers no 4K support. The new Fire TV Cube is an all-purpose Alexa assistant that also streams to your TV The Amazon Fire TV Cube is a speaker and streaming device in one, essentially combining best of the Echo Dot and the Fire TV. This means you can use it to do all the tasks associated with a voice assistant, and stream 4K HDR content at 60 frames per second to your 4K TV. As our homes start groaning under the weight and complexity of all our different devices, for Amazon to bring all these features together on one device just makes things easier for anyone seeking far-field voice control for both their 4K TV and general Alexa tasks. At time of writing it was on sale in the US but we were still waiting for a UK release date. Security cameras Want to keep an eye on your property while you're away from home, and keep video recordings of any suspicious behaviour? One of these two products, both from Amazon, might be able help... Amazon Cloud Cam is a security camera that can do some neat stuff over Wi-Fi Want a security camera that will record in 1080p HD and stream live to your mobile or tablet? Then the Amazon Cloud Cam is a good option that comes at a very affordable price. Motion sensors can be set to notify you via your smartphone, and you can always access the last 24 hours of recordings (longer periods of storage are available for a monthly payment). And as you’d expect from an Amazon device, you can access the system using Alexa via various Amazon devices. But the headline feature is the Amazon Key, which allows you to open your home to delivery people on a one-time basis. If you’ve had bad experiences with packages being left with neighbours, it’s an intriguing idea you might well want to experiment with, although it’s only available in certain US locations at the time of writing. The Blink XT Home Security Camera System is so easy to set up, although it's a little limited in use Amazon isn’t putting all its security eggs in one basket. As well as the Cloud Cam (above), late last year it acquired security camera company Blink to add to its portfolio, and they’ve since released the Blink XT range, which are unsurprisingly integrated with the Amazon Echo. What’s great about these cameras is they’re so easy to set up. They’re wireless and so all you have to do is pop in some batteries, choose where to place them (there’s an included mounting plate with a single screw), scan the QR code with your smartphone and you’re all set. The camera talks to a standard base unit which is powered by the mains. They’re waterproof and batteries last an impressive two years without needing replacing. That said, the main downside is that you only get two hours’ free cloud storage, with no option to extend this via a subscription. Amazon Dash Buttons Amazon Dash Buttons aim to take the fuss out of purchasing your favourite items The Amazon Dash Button is a small physical device that you can be use to reorder household products you use regularly. For example, you might place a Dash Button near your washing machine and set it up, using your smartphone, to reorder your favourite brand of washing powder. So if that’s Tide, then you want the Tide Dash Button. Whenever you run out, you just need to press the button and it will automatically order you more via your Wi-Fi. If you prefer to shop around and compare brands then Dash Buttons are not going to be for you. But if you just want to streamline all that and make more time for the finer things in life, you might find them quite handy. And anyway, at present, you get a $4.99 credit every time you buy a $4.99 button, making them essentially free, so there’s no harm in giving them a try. 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