As many of you are aware, Starcraft II has made its debut. We here over at The Armory have an extra ticket to Blizzcon in Anaheim, CA (August 3-4). We are giving this ticket away through a contest, the contest is simple.

All you have to do is create a unit, with a short story or biography, with game-related stats, must accompany artwork (mandatory), describing the character and it's life in the StarCraft world.

You can find more information about the contest at the ArtCraft Contest #1: Unit Design thread.

Steve Jobs and Bill gates had a historical talk yesterday in an interview at All Things Digital. As well as an interview with Steve Jobs and the future of Apple.

Also in the Apple world, iTunes Plus (iTunes link) has been recently launched which is basically EMI's library of music DRM-free which means it can play on any AAC supported MP3 player and on an unlimited amount of computers. Finally. Apple TV is now playing YouTube videos which was announced yesterday at All Things Digital. Steve Jobs called Apple TV "a hobby" which to me means he is trying to build a new market as they did with personal media players (iPod). Which means even more good things to come.

Interesting new items with Google lately. Google Gears is an application that allows offline use of their web apps. They have also added facial recognition to their image search recently. Google Maps Street View and Mapplets is a detailed entry by Google Blogoscoped about the new features of Google maps: 360 degree street level views and and easier way to make "Google Maps mashups". And according to Gizmodo, Google Maps street view found E.T.

Tutorial & Article Resources:
• Where Our Standards Went Wrong - A List Apart.
• 9-5 Thing of the Past - excellent.
• 34 Places to Get Design Inspiration - well done.

Tidbits & Lifehacks:
• How to send email to a phone - nice reference.
• Top 15 Google Street View Sightings - fun times.
• FF Shortcut - retrieve closed tabs.

I know everyone has heard of the new Starcraft II that Blizzard so happily announced after its 9 years of absence. Everyone is excited and amazed so far at this game, and what better way to talk about Sc2 then with its own community? The Armory is a new website dedicated to finding the best and latest information on Sc2. With a new community, much can happen. So why not help the Armory out by joining in on the fun! Starcraft II Armory

Today, 3 years ago, Mozilla Firebird had been recently renamed to Firefox. And I posted my first contribution to the grapevine. Time has flown and web design, technology, and the world we work in has changed tremendously.

Thanks guys for an awesome 3 years!

And I look forward to many more to come.

Google Apps has matured recently and now is split into two categories. Google Apps, as it was, and now Google Apps Partner Edition The difference is it " lets ISPs, portals, and other service providers offer their subscribers powerful Google applications. "

Risk is for Losers is a good look at Google's new Universal Search, why they did it, how it will benefit, and why Microsoft buying Yahoo will be even better for Google. Google has also expanded even more with their Google Book Search. Now it indexes millions of books and divides it up into Full Text, Limited Text, and then if does not have content can show you where to buy or the local library of where you can check it out. Picasa has also recently updated allowing you to create nice little Flash slideshows to place on your blog or web site.

Tutorial & Article Resources:
• Pattern/silhouette - PS Tutorial

Tidbits and Lifehacks:
• 15 Coolest Firefox Tricks Ever - optimize baby!
• MacBook Mini 2008 - Ultra portable.
• Better Gmail - Firefox extension.
• gSpell ( Mac ) - Spell check with Google
• Remove - Your Phone Number from Google
• Wordpress theme generator
• The Geekster Moleskine - Portable HD

"Google 2.0" has launched aka Google Universal Search. search engine land has written an excellent, detailed article explaining the new changes and what is to come. Expect a blending of listings from news, video, images, local and book search engines, and more. The new version works for those using the English version of Google and then they will expand from there. For more search items to come head on over to Google Labs and check out Experimental search. The best keeps getting better.

Upon browsing the net this morning, I stumbled upon, Fonthead Design which looked vaguely familiar. Then I browsed to their Freeware Fonts section and realized, "Wow! I remember this. I used 'GoodDog Cool' back in 1999." Good times! So enjoy the free fonts from the early years of my web design career.

Web Design & Development Resources:
• Google Webmaster Central - Site status, sitemaps, blog + more.
• Google Code Search - public source code.
• Stockvault - Free stock photos.
• FlashVillage - Free flash templates.
• Urbanfonts - Free fonts.

Tidbits & Lifehacks:
• Google Extensions - For Firefox.
• Google Music Trends - GTalk User Music.
• GOOG411 - Free 411 from Google.
• Google Product Search - Goes Mobile.
• Google Trends - Popular searches.
• I Chat, Therefore I Am - Almost creepy.

T-Mobile is offering free messaging today as a way of helping everyone "stick together" on Mother's Day. Also, remember to say hi via Skype as well.

10 Totally Digital Mother's Day Gifts is a great article written by a friend of mine about last minute Mother's Day gift ideas. And when I mean last minute, I mean last minute. Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Tidbits and Lifehacks:
• menuism - find something to eat. web2.0 said so.
• MailTemplate ( Mac ) - Handy and productive.
• Delivery Status - Great widget for OSX.

Some things just make you laugh, like when I read in Merlin Mann's post on 43 Folders. He was speaking of Microsoft will eventually offer DRM free tracks from EMI once Apple's exclusive deal is up... " Way to innovate, Redmond. Once the period of EMI's exclusive deal with Apple has ended, this should make both Zune owners very happy. "

Don't be a hero: Giving up is good. Had a project that you thought would only take a few hours and weeks later you finally finished it? That is the theme of this excellent piece by 37signals: Signal vs. Noise blog. It explains the balance between being a hero and being realistic. And most times the latter is needed to truly succeed in the long run.

Dell's IdeaStorm online suggestion box helped bring Windows XP back to New PCs. Wired's Compiler's explains in Dell Relents--XP Still Available on New PCs. Windows XP will be available on four Inspiron laptop models and two Dimension desktops. Looks like folks aren't too cozy with Vista yet. I can understand why.

Lifehacker had another great Top 10: Top 10 body Hacks. My favorites were: #5 Power use your ears , #6 Free your mind under a high ceiling, and #9 Whistle with two fingers had me drooling on myself as well. Good times.

Tutorial & Article Resources:
• CSS hover effect - Well done by Veerle.
• The Freelancer's Toolset - 100 Web Apps, Sweet.

Tidbits and Lifehacks:
• Productivity with IM - Who would have thought?
• Web based Yahoo IM - Google Talk did it. Kind of.
• iPod Shuffle case with bottle opener!

More stuff to come... I just didn't want to get long winded. :)

As one of the Spoono community's very own Latinos, I just wanted to stop in and wish everyone a happy Cinco de Mayo!

For those of you who do not already know, today is observed in the United States and other locations around the world as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride. But in actuality, today is a commemoration of the initial victory of Mexican forces over French in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.

¡Nos vemos amigos!

We are pleased to promote the efforts of our friends at Spreadshirt. The site provides a way to setup a free online shop to distribute your mind-blowing art in pretty much any wearable form imaginable. Spreashirt manages all of the inventory and payment services. With a bit of effort, you could very well create the next T-shirt phenomenon.

The 11th Annual Webby Award winners have been announced. Among the multitudes of winners is the recepient of this year's Weirdest Site Award, Cute Overload. (I would have to admit that I have seen much weirder sites, but in terms of cuteness, it ranks up there with the best of them).

This year's May 1st Reboot is looking to be better than ever. Visit now to vote on the best new layout launches.

Over that past few months, Adobe launched a new version of its ever-expanding suite of multimedia design applications called Creative Suite 3. At the core of this package, is the newest version of Photoshop, the bread and butter of any digital artist. I have experienced quite a few Photoshop upgrades over the years, but sadly I'd have to say the improvements offered by CS3 are among the least attractive to date.

I found the most useful additions to be the nondestructive smart filters and new refine edge tool. Other than that, there isn't much to be of use when creating web graphics. The interface has changed a bit with a slimmer toolbar and toolboxes that can be easily collapsed into a button, but I really can't see much benefit coming from this. As is usual, the new version of Photoshop uses more resources and thus loads slower than previous versions, but the upgrade to CS3 seemed pretty extreme in my experience. My load time increased somewhere just short of 50% and various tasks are also noticeably slower as well.

But when you get down to it, there is one thing about the new Photoshop that is annoying beyond all others - the incredibly bland startup screen and product imagery. I find it pretty shocking that the experts creating Photoshop couldn't use their own program to come up with anything better than a plain blue screen with "PS" text as the new startup screen and image used for Photoshop icons. Oh how I miss the days of the beautiful female eyes imagery, as used to be the quintessential Photoshop icon until Adobe launched CS1. I was already decently annoyed with looking at the plain-colored feather startup screens and icons of CS1 and 2, but CS3 has completely gone over the edge. Now every time we open Photoshop, we get to see Adobe's version of the blue screen of death. Fantastic!

Anyway, that's probably more than enough venting for now. My recommendation would be to stick things out with CS2 until your next hardware upgrade. Then, it might be time to give into great blue, or (scary thought) the next version.

Tux Deluxe has a great article on what it's like to work at Google and what it's like to be a professional programmer.

Speaking of Google, they just announced a way for users to easily update and customize Google Maps. You can use it by clicking here and clicking on "My Maps".

In the spirit of things, Easter Eggs has a list of easter eggs, which they define as "a hidden feature or novelty that the programmers have put in their software."

And on a lighter note, some guy decided to make the Mona Lisa in MS Paint. The You Tube video of him drawing it is absolutely amazing.

Google announced today that they are offering FREE broadband internet through your toliet! Simply amazing. What will these creative geniouses come up with next?

A glance at the Spoono mailbox revealed that there were quite a few sites very deserving of some Grapevine love. The first of which is Crew 12, a collection of talented web/graphic design students who are available for internship and other work in the very near future. These designers have some top notch blogs that are well worth a visit.

Stockvault has released a new design, listing over 7000 free stock photos for non-commercial use. Users can sign up to share their own photos with the Stockvault community.

Next up, we have an art blog called Skeleton Hug. Some of the art and commentary are interesting, but it was really the Jello wrestling pics that sealed the deal giving this one a link.

There is an insightful article about logo design trends in 2007 on Logo Orange. And if that article happens to make you wonder about the history of logo design, they have an article for that as well. Documentary photographer, Nic Nichols has a nice portfolio site controlled almost in its entirety by image maps.

Design company, Studio Output, has some new projects available for your perusal on its simplistic, Flash-based site. Euardo Valdivieso has some fantastic graphic design work on his Flash portfolio, Trozo.

If you have a keen eye for a particular type of graffiti, you might be able to get your photos in an exciting new book. Bus Stop Knobs was presented to us as "a great idea!" Agreed.

That does it for this broadcast. Please tune in next time.

In recent weeks, we have been growing almost as fed up about the delay in the next version of Spoono as many of our visitors. The short story of the design process is that we started working on a pretty vibrant and graphic heavy new design about a year ago, however, it was scrapped because we ended up thinking it wasn't professional or capable of handling the content were hoping to have.

Next, about 9 months ago, we worked on another concept that contained similar elements from past versions of and was again intended to be rather complex with several graphic sets changing with the day of the week (similar to the current Spoono). We again decided that we didn't like where it was going, so the design process was halted.

After a break of many months from thinking about the Spoono design, I've come to the conclusion that despite our desire to create the greatest design ever for the next version, it isn't practically going to happen. So, rather than continuing to get annoyed at designs that aren't perfect, we should at least get something new around here. I am therefore going to go back to the second scrapped design and pull some of its graphics together with fairly minimalistic content elements to we get a new design that is up to snuff with the Web 2.0, easy content accessibility movement. If all goes well, we will hopefully have a new version of Spoono that is reasonably light on graphics and has a more blog-like feel to it in the near future. Thanks for the comments that have helped awaken Spoono from a prolonged hibernation.

New website for Stereotype Design designed by yours truly.

I'm looking for someone to do a quick (less than 5 second) animation of a cowboy riding a horse onto the screen and cracking his whip at the end. the style will be black silhouette—no detail in the illustration at all. needs to be done with Flash. 200 bucks...check or paypal. email me if interested! thx. workday@gmail.com

As of today, the forums are back online. We still have some more mods to reinstall and cleaning to do, but that should follow shortly.

As many of you have noticed, I'm sure, the forums have been temporarily taken down. The previous version was overrun with spam and several other problems that couldn't be fixed without a major overhaul. We are working to repair the forums and hope to get them operational in the near future. Our sincerest apologies go out to all during this grave period of mourning.

Hello all of you crazy lovers out there! I hope you're enjoying your day so far, it is of course Valentines Day. And in honor of such a special day, I went through a compiled a quick list of very nice resources for you guys.

misprinted type offers very nice Photoshop brushes and fonts for assistance with your designs, I highly recommend their work.
design fruit also offers a wide variety of designing resource, I find the high resolution brushes a must have for merchandise printing.
tutorial blog has done the world a favor by compiling a list of very cool brushes and resources worth checking out.

Once again, Happy Valentines Day!

If you havent been reading much today, then you havent heard. Apple has just released its details for their new iPhone and Apple Tv. You can catch up on these two things here.

http://www.apple.com/iphone/
http://www.apple.com/appletv/

Looking for a webdesign job, or some freelance work? Well you should try out http://www.freshwebjobs.com/.

Freshwebjobs.com is a job board that brings together companies and professionals who love web standards, and are commited to make the Web a better place.

From all of us here at Spoono, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Have fun with your families, enjoy the time together, and dont drink too much egg nog!

The ever so famous CSS Play got a makeover on the site. I personally say its a great and clean looking css design. Stu delivers amazing css tricks and tips, that everyone should take a look at, so if you ever want something amazing out of css, check him out.

Also the famour Digg.com got a facelift aswell. Still has the same old digg feel, but alot more savvy.

http://www.digg.com/
http://www.cssplay.co.uk/index.html

Welcome, I am new to the Spoono Community. Some of you may know me as Miles (Tiki), I help out alot on the forums, and I would say im a css and xhtml guru. So dont feel shy to come visit us in the forums. You can find more about me at my portfolio.

Familiar with xml and javascript dom elements? Well php has a recently updated DOM php class system. Its very very useful and contains many functions for appending and creating nodes and more, so give it a look here and for xml dom here.

Recently, I ran into a very, very useful website which helped me along with some XHTML Strict problems: HTML Dog. They even have their own book for those readers out there.

Are you a skilled designer and you think you have what it takes to join a community of leading designers and developers? Then submit your application to join the Mint Pages community today!

And then, for you blog readers, check out these: Ordered List, Tiffany B. Brown, Snook.ca, and (*naughty me*) Spookyismy.name.

The following 3 design blogs have recently been redesigned:

Simple Bits
Avalon Star
ShaunInman

Adobe recently made Photoshop CS3 beta available for download. More information about its new features and how to sign up for the beta can be found here.

Humble Voice, a social community geared towards artists, launched their beta version a few weeks ago. They've been getting a bit of buzz because of their cool AJAX use and sleek design. The website is rather impressive to say the least.

Be sure to register and check out their profile editor. It seriously puts these other major social communities to shame.

This interesting project presented by Adobe Labs allows you to pick the colors for a project with all the sliders, grids, palettes and values you could ever want.

Built using Macromedia® Flash® and ActionScript 3.0, kuler is all about color.

Check out Kuler

A few days ago, Depthcore V6 - Vivid was released. As usual, it is loaded with stunning abstract imagery of all varieties.

Yes, the title is quirky (from Apple) however the great news is Apple Aperture is now available as a free 30 day trial. Until next time, keep shooting!

Hey all! Well here's the deal. Recently a potential client came to me asking if I could do a layout of a construction project they were hoping to do and me being the big awesome guy that I am, said yes! Well the problem was I didn't have AutoCAD or any other drafting program. (Doh!) So I hit the net and wouldn't ya know it I came up with Google SketchUp!

SketchUp was released sometime in 2006 so Im not sure if anyone's posted about it yet, but I just wanted to say that it is small and powerful, but even better than that its free!! I got the project done within a few hours and even had the option to "walk" through my design when finished. So if you're into drafting and what not this is a must. At least give it a look over, I fell in love!

The founders of Ripperhunting have recently launched a new web inspiration portal called Kreativika. The site has a great bunch of interviews from digital artists. I'm sure we can look forward to big things to come from Kreativika.

Design Spotter is a promising new e-zine which looks to publicize creative design work. Realising dreams is the fitting subtitle for Stanley Studio's new portfolio site. As a new flash design concept, Staeheli.de has created its flash portfolio without using a single motion tween. Pixelkink has a clever name and a mixed bag of interesting design interviews and articles. For a dose of creative Argentinean design, filled with great animated characters, feast your eyes on Azul de Corso.

Go Media has designed some very slick t-shirts for clients such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Their site is well worth a look for those needing inspiration. Isa Kelmendi has updated his spectacular portfolio, ISA4D, with luscious 3D imagery and motion work. Cortes Media is as disco-funky-fabulous as ever, with numerous wallpapers to boot. For a refreshing look at Indonesian design, take a look at Nol Graphic. There is some great minimalist and professional design for your viewing pleasure at LogoOrange - especially their extensive catalog of logos.

Polish designer, Kamil Grajda has updated his online portfolio, Ciama.net. Contrary to what you might expect by its name, It Is Blank has some intriguing work. Art community, Blue Sfrear has started offering $100 monthly prizes for its art battles. So, if you're a budding artist, it may be time to get involved. That'll do for this post.

Long standing rumor has come to pass and we have had a sign to confirm it as well. The new red iPod nano has been revealed. This is to help support the Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa.

G4 ( Formally TechTV and if your memory goes far back as mine ZDtv ) has been consolidated and now will be managed by the E! Networks group. Layoffs are likely but it hasn't happened yet. Is this the end of G4?

43Folders happens to be my favorite blog on productivity, life hacks, and etc. ( Merlin Mann who runs the site is also on the Macbreak Weekly podcast. ) Be sure to check out his recent podcasts on 43Folders as he has been releasing a series of conversations between he and David Allen, author of Getting Things Done. Great stuff.

Tutorial & Article Resources:
• Ribbon Tutorial - Create a ribbon in Illustrator.
• 12 Lessons for Those Afraid of CSS and Standards
• The minimalist backlash - How to avoid a simple design.
Tidbits and Lifehacks:
• iSightLove - Fall in love with it again.
• GoogleDocs - "New suite" of office apps.
• Linus went Mac - See everybody is doing it.
• Ma.gnolia Roots - Social bookmarking fun.

Lets kick things off with a much needed update to Adobe Lightroom released just about a week ago, which can be downloaded here. (Adobe login required)

Google was in the news a couple of times this past week. First for being hacked (well Blogger was), but that was quickly fixed. The hackers posted fake cotent on their official blog which really was a problem due to the nature of the topics. One of which was the "cancellation" of a new Adsense program.

Then Google was back in the news after recently buying You Tube in an all stock trade. You Tube founders will still run the company and the staff will still have a job throughout all of this. Personally I think this could be good and bad, good for them, bad for the users since there is no longer competition.

That is about it for now. Other than I guess I could quickly plug my new blog.

Could Apple Become Games Console King? That is the question BusinessWeek Online asks, as they dive into the topics of the status of Nintendo Wii, XBOX 360, and Playstation 3. And the thought that with iTV Apple may be "innocently" sneaking into a new market using music and movies as the launch pad.

iTV has really gotten me and apparently a lot of other people thinking. Its Interesting how Apple gives us glimpses to let us speculate and then build desire. And for marketing purposes - it works. Yesterday, I was reading i, cringely writes, Beam Me Up and its a good thought flow on what iTV is going to be about. ( Video Conferencing, HD Videos on iTunes, etc... ) Cult of Mac seems to think so as well.

Interesting idea. Mylo, new from Sony this $350 device stands for " My Life Online ". It looks as if its targeted to college aged folks. ( And teens ). The site that they are marketing with it would most likely be Rush Mylo. Its like a frat house for thumbs - interesting indeed. What amazes me, is that for what this device can do: Yahoo IM, Gmail, Skype, Real Web Browsing, WiFi, Music, Photos, Videos, Full Keypad and share your content with a friend - they picked a very lame way to market. Thumbs? That lives in a frat house. Come on.

For awhile now, I have been using IconFactory to download icons for my OS and for inspiration. Recently and not sure how far back they redesigned. I like it. And put a new section for Freeware Icons and you can download them in iContainer, OSX, and Windows formats.

Facebook apparently has an offer from Yahoo for $1 billion. Wow. Thanks Vitamin

Tidbits & Lifehacks:
• 18 Tricks ( Lifehacks ) - To Teach Your Body.
• Steve Jobs - Goes BOOM! lol. ( Youtube )
• Dog swallows RFID - and then car starts.
• Baby Toupee - Is this funny or scary?
• Floppy Disk Bag - Make me one. lol.

My apologies for the long delay in getting some of these links into the Grapevine. Here we go: Heavy Backpack is a smartly-designed portal that features articles about various graphic designers. For a taste of French design at its finest, take a look at Modedemploi.

Taking a cue from the rapid success of the Digg model, Design Snack has created a very slick user-driven showcase they lovingly call "the web design cookie jar." The following three promising tutorial sites have surfaced in recent months: TutorialGeek , Tutorial-Index, and .Tutorial Outpost. For anyone who has had the unpleasant experience of converting images from raster to vector, MagicTracer has come up with an eloquent solution.

Some worth portfolio sites worth a visit include: Atmosphere, the work of Alexander Radsby; Acidbird, the work of Johnny Cheuk; and Just Mike Bailey (self-explanatory). There is a good assortment of completely free stock photos available at Studio 25. Anyone interested in t-shirt and badge design should check out the on-going contests at Taloucci.

The Spoono mailbox is nowhere near emptied, but I will continue later this week.

"The mission of OneWebDay is to create, maintain, advance, and promote a global day to celebrate online life..." I really enjoyed reading this story as it reminded me of my own 10+ years ago. You can read more about this holiday at OneWebDay.org.

Google Adsense adds new format. Google has just added the 200x200 Ad Unit to their available sizes now. It has been said that this was due to user requests. Also, in more Google news, they have updated Google Spreadsheets to include, export to PDF, Open Document Format support, and more.

YouTube has a lot of potential buyers right now according to Monkey Bites. The asking price? $1.5 billion. Wow. Most are saying the value is in the brand not in the technology that makes all this possible. I think I agree.

As you may know I am an avid 37signals user. One of their newer products, Campfire allows you to have group chat for your business. Now this is great if you keep your browser on one page, all the time, but for us power users there has been Pyro (OSX) which is a dedicated app that checks to see if you have new messages, drag and drop file upload, etc... Well now, Windows users rejoice because Flare has been released. It does most of what Pyro does and has a nifty tray icon notification.

I love pixelart - creating it and looking at other's works. These Pixel Commercials are awesome! ( And funny too. ) HD-TV People was classic.

Random moment: A few of my friends say I look like a hobbit. Is that a good thing? Anyway, I think I am going to move to The Shire. Looks sweet to me.

Tidbits & Lifehacks:
• Margaret Thatcher Illusion - This scares me. lol.
• sizeasy - enter an item's size ( i.e. digital camera ) and compare it to everyday items.
• The O'Reilly Code - Search 2.6 million lines of code.
• Aqua4iTunes - (OSX) Restore iTunes 7 back to its former aqua look. Thanks Jordan.
• DiggTV? - Kevin and Alex are up to something.

As we all know Apple has released the brand new iTunes 7, which to me is by far amazing and the best upgrade thus far to the iTunes Jukebox software. It features CoverFlow browsing now, for 3D viewing of your albums, full length movies, and upgraded video qualities. ( They bought this from the developers of CoverFlow. Sweet. As opposed to just copying it. ) I've also noticed the software is much more responsive now and CDs play without gaps - just like nature ( and Jobs ) intended. Not to mention, those very sweet new iPod Shuffles and iPod Nanos.

ABC is offering a Million Hit Lowdown of Season Finales for FREE. One million downloads will be free of the season finale of LOST, Grey's Anatomy, and Desperate Housewives.

YouTube signed a partnership with Warner Music. They will post music videos, special features, and allow users to make videos using their music. Big move in the right direction. Speaking of YouTube, check out Weird Al's new music video White & Nerdy. Check out Podtube or iTube to download it.

Tutorial Resources:
• Pixel Groovy - Tutorials for everything. ( AJAX, Illustrator, Photoshop, etc... )
• TutorialOutpost - Photoshop, Flash, 3D Studio Max, and Illustrator tutorials.
• Video-tutes - Free Video tutorials for Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, and the list goes on.

Tidbits & Lifehacks:
• ThisNext - Recommend, Share, and Discover Sweet Stuff
• Backup Music iTunes 7 - a How-To back it up
• Checkout - Very nice Point-Of-Sale for Mac.
• Disco - Real Toast Competition, right here, right now.
• iPod Games Credits - The people behind the games.
• usbcell - USB rechargeable AA batteries.
• iClip - Get iClip free from Macworld.

Hand it to Google to come up with a way to label all the web's images with a game.

Recently, Google relaunched, Writely - it is a very popular, web based word-processor that can output to PDF and RSS. Amazing, but, I don't know about you - would you really want to store your documents online only?

Speaking of Google, you can now apply to be in the beta period for Google Apps for Your Domain. It lets you use Google Mail, I signed up and got approved! I will definitely blog about this soon. And also in the world of Google, you can check the status of your site in the index and it will then ask you to sign up for Google Sitemaps. Good information though.

For those budding artistically inclined Illustrator users be sure to check out IllustrationClass.com. Its a great collection of practical, well composed Adobe Illustrator tutorials.

Its almost time for college ( or maybe its already college time ). Either way, this blog shows you some excellent Mac applications to take with you on your way to education.

Also, be sure to check out this very sweet Terminator 2 full color 3D hologram. Very nice! ( Hey, that's sort of tech related right? )

Applecrisps, Tidbits & Lifehacks:
• 3 New Apple Ads - recently released and funny.
• MacZOT - a very sweet Mac app a day. ( Archives are good too. )
• Basecamp Widget - Camp from your dash. This widget is amazing!
• Dashalytics - Google Analytics Widget for Your OSX Dashboard. This just updated. MUCH more information available now. Great stuff.
• Letterbox - Mail.app addon that allows you to make Mail have 3 panels ( like Outlook ). Much better for those of us with widescreen.
• Use Automator - to backup files to Backpack web service. Seems as if I am on a 37signals kick here but I do give kudos to the person that made this tip.
• Crazyegg - Superb stats for your site

Sorry for the Macentricty of this post. Yes, I made up a word. But rest assured, my next post is going to have a ton of graphic design tutorial links, video tutorial resources, excellent articles on the business of web design, and much much more! :D ( And be sure to watch out for my review on Google Apps for Your Domain. Original title, eh? =)

In case you haven't viewed it yet, Deviant Art has recently overhauled it's whole layout to incorporate a large dose of Web 2.0 goodness - excellent work, all-around.

I apologize for the dry spell the Grapevine has had in recent weeks. The Spoono mailbox is currently flooded, so we will be posting about a heavy load of links shortly.

Apple has just released the new Mighty Mouse Wireless. Sweet.

So Microsoft is coming out with Zune. What is Zune you may ask? Its the Pepsi of Coke. Its the Microsoft of Apple. Its the Zune of iPod. This sums up what I think of it.

9rules has been redesigned. It looks very green. I am glad they categorized the network as they have done. It makes browsing much easier. Although it seems they have stepped back a bit on the design but that is just me.

Google Labs recently has begun testing a new search service that is for the blind and visually impaired. Its called Accessible Search. Monkey Bites has more.

I was waiting for this. Although a bit pricey for a mouse ( $60 ) the Mus2 computer mouse is beautiful. I love the idea. I wouldn't buy one for daily use but it would be great for display in the office. If only it came with the sweet mousepad as well.

Tidbits & Lifehacks:
• Bloxpress - AJAX Block Style Wordpress theme
• Feedback - Seth Godin knocks it out
• Got a girlfriend? - So true...lol
• Dell - Don't die...make us happy
• Chips-A-Hoy! - They got it right!
• N64 Joy - This made me smile

Wow - its all I can say. Salling Software, has a program called Clicker for Mac or PC. You can controll iTunes, Keynote, PowerPoint, check email, and use other programs wirelessly using Bluetooth. Works very well. I am impressed.

Digg Digging Diggs Digg is today's comic for bLaugh. I won't try to explain it - just look and laugh. My favorite quote... "Meanwhile, Netscape celebrated its 14th user registration." And for those of you that love gapingvoid, bLaugh has a paraody. ( Bonus: Friendster. )

I use Basecamp for managing all of my web projects and I tend to print out to-do lists and other random things associated with my projects. Basecamp now has a new feature - improved print layouts. You can read about it or check out what it looks like. Very nice.

Nike+iPod is Now in Stores Everywhere according to an article by Cult of Mac. The system allows your Nike shoes plus your iPod to track how far you run everyday, play your favorite workout jams, and provide motivation along the way. I like the idea.

Seth Godin has some interesting thoughts about doubling sales. My two favorite quotes from this, "20% of the people in Georgia drink Coca Cola for breakfast." and "And I'll finish my list with another baking-soda-related remedy that doesn't work either: Buying a box for your fridge."

Tidbits & Lifehacks:
• Hi-Fi mini - Build your own iPod Hi-Fi
• Newshutch - Simple, clean, online RSS reader.
• 10 GTD Apps - Mac tools for Getting Things Done
• Iconwerk - Very nice icon design.
• Podcast audience - Now up to nine million.
• YouTube Doubles - Traffic nearly doubled in May.

Let me start off by letting you know about the cool things Adobe are doing for the development community. They have recently released Flex and also released Flash 9 Public Alpha which gives us all a chance to experience Actionscript 3.

On the same subject of Flash, my Design Studio mkeefeDESIGN has developed an Interactive Flash demo for the new Pioneer Inno portable XM Satellite Radio. Check that out here. The product demo was developed to boost sales for MyRadioStore and allow the user to experience the product without leaving their computer.

Seth Godin is one of my favorite authors. He writes about Internet and New Media Marketing. Flipping the Funnel is a new 18 page ebook he has released for free. It explains how he believes some of the new Web 2.0 tools combine with ideaviruses and the Purple cow.

I don't know about you but I rely heavily on iCal to manage my appointments, tasks, and organize my workflow. 43 Folders has recently written an article entitled, "Getting more out of iCal". It covers a wide range of tips and techniques to help you maximize the program. Its a great read.

Apple is hosting several free seminars about "Mobile editing with Final Cut Studio and Sony's XDCAM HD system. Check it out to see if they are coming to an area near you.

Lala.com is a cool new site that I found recently. They let you trade CDs for $1. And if you register your billing information when you signup, you get a free limited edition tshirt - wow - you get to choose the size too! ( And boy don't we all all love those free tshirts. lol. )

Tidbits & Lifehacks:
• Megazoomer - Make any Cocoa app full-screen.
• 50% Off Cable TV Bill - Very clever indeed.
• 10 Free Plug-ins - Made just for Photoshop.
• USB Retro Lamp - Better than a single LED.