Gizmodo is giving away an iPhone for free (sort of)
Gizmodo.com is giving away an iPhone for free (sort of). Eureka, the show on Sci-Fi, is helping them deliver Apple’s newest toy to one Gizmodo reader.
Here’s what you have to do to win: Create or design an original invention (emphasis on original – no recycled projects please) and send in a sketch, render, mockup, blueprint or some kind of image plus a description detailing your invention to contests@gizmodo.com with “Made in Eureka” as the subject. The better it is, the better your chances are of winning.
Contest ends July 10, so get moving!
Cleveland, OH June 1, 2007 – The Web Marketing Association is pleased to announce that Punchkick Interactive co-founder Ryan Unger has been selected as a judge of the 11th annual international WebAward competition for Web site development.
The WebAwards is the standards-defining internet awards competition that sets industry benchmarks based on the seven criteria of a successful Web site. It recognizes the individual and team achievements of Web professionals who create and maintain outstanding Web sites.
“Unlike other awards, the WebAwards is not a beauty pageant where only the design and name recognition is important,” said William Rice, president of the Web Marketing Association. “For the past decade, the WebAwards has used a quantitative judging formula based on seven criteria to evaluate, benchmark and set industry standards for Web site development. Unger will play a critical role in setting the standard for Internet excellence by applying his expertise to each site he adjudicates.”
“I am privileged to have been selected as a respected member of the WebAwards panel of judges,” said Punchkick Interactive’s Unger. “It is an honor to judge domestic and international sites that meet the Web Marketing Association’s standards of high quality and excellence.”
Ryan Unger is the co-founder and creative director for Punchkick Interactive. He has over five years of experience with Flash software and is an Adobe Certified Flash Lite 1.1 developer, Adobe Certified Flash 8 designer, and Qualcomm BREW authorized developer. Ryan has authored articles on Adobe.com and has received a number of design and marketing awards from organizations including the American Advertising Federation, the Public Relations Society of America, the Web Marketing Association, and the West Virginia Flash Animation Festival. Additionally, he will serve as a judge for the 2007 Web Marketing Association’s WebAward competition. Ryan is heavily involved in the Flash Lite community, both in Flash Lite-focused Web forums and his company’s mobile marketing blog (http://www.punchkickinteractive.com/blog/).
The 2007 WebAward judges consist of a select group of Internet professionals who have direct experience designing and managing Web sites – including members of the media, interactive creative directors, corporate marketing managers, site designers, content providers and webmasters – with an in-depth understanding of the current state-of-the-art in Web site development and technology. Judging for this year’s website awards will take place in July and August, with winners announced in September.
About Punchkick Interactive
Punchkick Interactive ™ is a full service mobile marketing firm that develops Flash Lite enabled games and screensavers, custom mobile applications, text-message campaigns, mobile media distribution systems, branded mobile software and mobile Web sites. For more information visit http://www.punchkickinteractive.com or call (800) 549-4104.
About the WebAwards
The 11th annual international WebAwards competition sets the standard of excellence in 96 industry categories by evaluating Web sites and defining benchmarks based on the seven essential criteria of successful Web site development. The goal of the Web Marketing Association, sponsor of the WebAwards, is to provide a forum to recognize the people and organizations responsible for developing some of the most effective Web sites on the Internet today. Entrants benefit from a Web site assessment by a professional judging panel and the marketing opportunities presented to an award-winning Web site. For more information or to enter, visit www.07webaward.org.
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If you are at all interested in interface design, this is a MUST see product.
Via crave.cnet.com, After 5+ years of development, Microsoft shows off a top-secret multi touch screen kiosk device. Apple really has to be hoping that this technology does not get introduced into Windows mobile devices, because Microsoft could possibly blow away the iPhone (p.s. I never thought that I would say that).
The kiosk implications are endless—let’s just hope that it can use Flash.
Read the full article and see the video
A similar device
Adobe MAX 2007 now accepting award submissions
Via Biskero: Adobe MAX 2007 has now opened the floodgates to designers and developers who want to submit content.
Once again, mobility and devices is an available category. Submit content here by August 3rd, 2007.
Adobe began shipping the much anticipated CS3 design and Web software bundles. Additionally, Adobe has added several software titles to Labs.
Amongst the new Beta software in Labs is:
- Adobe After Effects CS3 Pro
- Adobe Premiere CS3 Pro
- Adobe Soundbooth CS3 beta 3
- Flash Lite for BREW Publisher for Flash CS3 Professional prerelease
- knowhow (preview)
After Effects and Premiere have been long overdue. I am very excited to play with both titles. Soundbooth is great and new beta versions are always fun.
The Flash Lite for BREW Publisher is obviously needed. I am very happy that Adobe released this tool. The only thing they neglected to include was a Mac bundle (sigh). I am sure that there are other developers that will only use one licenced copy of Flash CS3 (in my case on my Mac), and will need to create Mod/Mif files from it.
I am also very happy to see the knowhow demo. It seems like a great panel to add to the CS3 suite.
knowhow is a technology preview that delivers single-click, contextual access to relevant help information from a panel in Adobe® Creative Suite® 3 software. knowhow gives users access to a wide variety of information—basic tool descriptions and short cuts, Adobe Help content, as well as community-generated tutorials, tips, and techniques on the web.
First let me preface this by saying that this trick currently is only support by Flash Player. Flash Lite does not support PNG-8 files with alpha made with Fireworks (Note that it may be a handset issue and not a Flash Lite issue). If you want to petition for this feature, feel free to comment and I will pass the “signatures” along.
I understand that you can create a PNG-8 image file with alpha transparency using Adobe Photoshop. However, those files are far more inferior than a PNG-8 image that is created using Fireworks. I will demonstrate why a Photoshop PNG-8 lags behind a Fireworks PNG-8 in the follow paragraphs.
First off, PNG-24 looks better than anything else, but the filesizes are much larger than any other format. The ideal goal would be to create a PNG-8 with alpha that looks like a PNG-24—Fireworks comes close. Both Adobe Photoshop and Fireworks allow you to save a PNG-8 file with alpha, however, a Fireworks PNG-8 lets you combine color data with alpha much like a PNG-24.
To get a clearer understanding of what I mean, create a file with Adobe Photoshop and set the background to transparent. Next, create a new layer—fill it with content—then blur it to death. You will have created pixel data that has both color and alpha transparency. Use the “Save For Web” dialog and notice the differences between the PNG-24 and the PNG-8. The PNG-8 will be much smaller, but look much worse than the PNG-24. Click the image to see a larger version—it shows what I mean.
Next, take that PNG-24 and import it into Fireworks. In the “Optimize” panel, match the settings that I used and select File >> Export. You will be exporting a 256 color, PNG-8 with alpha transparency (you may not even need all 256 colors).
Finally, review the different options for image files that use transparency. As you can see, the PNG-8 created with Fireworks looks almost exactly the same as the Photoshop PNG-24, however, it is less than 1/3 the file size. This method of creating PNG-8 files with alpha will benifit any Web designer that creates Flash Web sites or banners.
Adobe CS3: CliffsNotes of New Features
It’s very exciting that the (INTEL NATIVE!) CS3 has been released. This is meant to highlight the major new features. Mainly, integration, integration, integration. I will be updating this as the presentation from Adobe goes on.
Photoshop Extended
Dreamweaver
Illustrator
Flash
Video Production
Device Central
NOW FOR THE PACKAGES:
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium
Design content for today — and tomorrow — with Adobe® Creative Suite® 3 Design Premium software. Design Premium combines all-new versions of essential tools for professional page layout, image editing, illustration, and Adobe PDF workflows with new tools for creating engaging websites, interactive experiences, and mobile content.
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium
Adobe® Creative Suite® 3 Web Premium software offers a complete solution for creating interactive websites, applications, user interfaces, presentations, mobile device content, and other digital experiences. Get everything you need to prototype your project, design assets, build web experiences, and efficiently maintain and update content. Work on your choice of Mac or Windows®.
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection
Express your ideas in print, on the web, in film and video, and on mobile devices with Adobe® Creative Suite® 3 Master Collection software. Combines Adobe InDesign® CS3, Photoshop® CS3 Extended, Illustrator® CS3, Acrobat® 8 Professional, Flash® CS3 Professional, Dreamweaver® CS3, Fireworks® CS3, Contribute® CS3, After Effects® CS3 Professional, Adobe Premiere® Pro CS3, Soundbooth™ CS3, and Encore® CS3, and also includes Adobe Bridge CS3, Version Cue® CS3, Device Central CS3, Dynamic Link, Adobe OnLocation™ CS3 (Windows® only), and Ultra® CS3 (Windows only).
Links
http://www.adobe.com/creativelicense/
http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/launchevent/webcast/
http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/design/
http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/web/
http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/production/
http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/mastercollection/
Punchkick Interactive blog aggregated by MXNA
After several months of posts, we finally decided to have www.punchkickinteractive.com/blog/ aggregated by MXNA. The Punchkick Interactive blog discusses all things mobile marketing including: Flash Lite enabled software, BREW, sms campaigns, and mobile Web sites. The blog is maintained by Ryan Unger and Zak Dabbas—co-owners of Punchkick Interactive mobile marketing and design firm.
Turn your fingers into a mobile phone
Via Tech Digest:
Another winning entry to this year’s iF Concept Product Awards (albeit in a different category to the baby car seat featured earlier today) is ‘Finger Touching’, which is a wearable mobile device that turns your hand into a phone. No, really.
Designed by Sunman Kwon at Hong-ik University in South Korea, it slips onto your hand, and then projects a 3×4 mobile-style keypad onto your fingers, with each joint making up a button. You can see how it works from the picture.
Who knows if it’ll be turned into an actual product. But imagine the looks you’d get if you whipped one out on the train and began texting by rapping your knuckles. Marvellous.
Samsung takes a stab at the iPhone with new F700
Via In an effort to keep up with the touchscreen buzz generated by Apple’s iPhone, Samsung as created the F700. The F700 is part of Samsung’s new Ultrasmart line of phones and sports 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, a 5 megapixel shooter, your typical media functionality, Bluetooth, 2.78 inch touchscreen display, and a slick looking interface designed by Adobe.
and
Via Electronista:
Samsung on Thursday unveiled what it says is one of the world’s most advanced smartphones. Closely resembling the minimalist design of the iPhone, the Ultra Smart F700 is conspicuously targeted at “the recent trend” in touchscreens, according to the Korean company. A 2.8-inch, 440×240 screen is used to control calling, Internet, and music functions. It further includes VibeTonz, a vibration system introduced in the recent W559 that simulates tactile feedback to touchscreen presses. A further resemblance to its American counterpart is a singular navigation button. In contrast to Apple’s device, however, the F700 also contains a slide-out physical keyboard for messaging and heavy-duty browsing.
Better photos can be found here.
