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It's time for our best news of this week. We have a lot of graphic and web design, a bit of architecture, ads, tech news, awesome reads and other crazy stuff! So take a look at the links we've selected for your inspiration and to keep you updated about what's going on out there!

We want to give a big thanks to our sponsors: Taste of Ink Studios, Shutterstock, Might Deaks, DepositPhotos, W3-Markup, inkd, Site24x7, and MediaLab, P2H, Photos. A special mention to Media Temple for the excellent service and support with Abduzeedo!

You can keep sending me your suggestions via Twitter twitter.com/FabianoMe or twitter.com/abduzeedo, and include #abdz_best in the message.

Friday 12/23

Square Inc’s New Office Expansion

Square is on a hiring spree and wants to impress you with its new recruiting video

Over 90,000 people have requested an invite to use banking alternative Simple.com

40 Beautiful Street Photography

6 last-minute gifts you can buy right now, no shipping required

Um guia geek para conquistar garotas

Dear Drupal: Season’s Greetings. Love, Smashing WordPress.

Android Jones

Want to blow stuff up? There’s an app for that – by JJ Abrams

Stop Your Business From Ruining Your Health

Seductive Fashion Costumes

Thursday 12/22

Red Bull Cape Town Offices

Decision Architecture: Designing for Decision-Making

Housing Hatert by 24H architecture

BBC moves towards HTML5 for websites, tells Flash it'll still be friends

Futurico – All components for web design in the one PSD file

How Startup Farm is breeding startups across Brazil in 4 weeks

Start-ups to Watch in 2012

Child and Youth Center Helene P. / Kauffmann Theilig & Partner

Illustration by Nikolai Nowolodski

Preview the New Dropbox App for Android with Bulk Uploads, Quick Access to Files Offline, and More [Dropbox]

Wednesday 12/21

National Geographic gives a sneak peek into the technology used by its photographers

Illustrations by Olivier Lutaud

One of Brazil’s most innovative tech firms is finally expanding to Silicon Valley, here’s why

Silicon Valley’s favorite startups of 2011 and who will win social in 2012

"Happiness Is the Best Revenge" [Quotables]

Tuesday 12/20

Funny Tech Tips from a Grandmother!

After A Trillion-View Year, What's Next For YouTube?

BAU.

A Look at Depthcore’s Latest Chapter: Time

Dream scapes

Monday 12/19

Computer Programmer Makes Stephen Hawking and other Famous Faces from Lego Blocks

Why Free Consulting Is a Bad Idea

Charlie Owens Art

Facebook Has More Android Than iOS Mobile Users

Instagram on Track to Oust Foursquare as Biggest Mobile Social Network

Last week, we noted that Apple is unlikely to update its Mac Pro line until early next year at the soonest, as Intel's Sandy Bridge E processors intended as the successors to the current Mac Pro chips have been delayed until the first quarter of 2012. Newly-released pricing information from CPU World now offers a bit more data to help analyze which of the new E5-2600 and E5-1600 series Xeon processors Apple is likely to use in the next-generation Mac Pro models. Apple's current dual-processor Mac Pro lineup utilizes Intel's "Westmere" processor family, with the E5620, X5650, and X5670 as options. Intel launched those processors last year priced at $387, $996, and $1440 respectively. With pricing for the upcoming E5-2600 series having been revealed, it certainly does appear that Apple will be able to use the $406 6-core 2.0 GHz E5-2620 in its low-end dual-processor configuration at or near the current $3499 pricing. At the mid range, which is currently priced at $4999, the 8-core 2.0 GHz E5-2650 comes in $110 higher than the current E5650, a $220 difference when both processors are accounted for. Apple's options may be limited on this model, however, as stepping down in price would force Apple all the way down to the E5-2640 at $884, a 6-core chip running at 2.5 GHz. The high end of Apple's dual-processor Mac Pro is also a bit murky, with each 8-core 2.6 GHz E5-2670 processor coming in at $1552, over $110 higher than the processors used in the current $5999 Mac Pro. Consequently, Apple could elect to instead use the 8-core 2.4 GHz E5-2665 processor, which is scheduled to carry a $1440 price tag at launch, sacrificing 200 MHz of clock speed to maintain pricing. As for the lower-end single-processor Mac Pro configurations, Apple is likely to utilize Intel's E5-1600 series processor line, also scheduled for launch in the first quarter of 2012. Pricing on those chips was revealed last month, with the forthcoming quad-core 3.6 GHz E5-1620 ($294) and 6-core 3.2 GHz E5-1650 ($583) slotting nicely into the existing low- and mid-range pricing. At the high end of the single-processor line, however, Apple may have to bump up to the E5-1660 at $1080. The E5-1660 carries the same 6-core, 3.3 GHz specs as on the current high-end single-processor model, but offers higher turbo multipliers and L3 cache. Recent Mac and iOS Blog Stories • Apple Themed Pumpkin Carvings Spice Up Halloween • Apple Releases Aperture 3.2.1 • Apple Offering Jetpack Joyride Free via the App Store Facebook Page • Steve Jobs' Lack of License Plate Explained • Apple Releases iPhoto 9.2.1 to Address Crashing Issue

Dan Zarrella, chief scientist at HubSpot, has written a new book and we’re honored to publish it.

This week only, the Kindle edition (also readable on the iPad, Mac, PC, etc.) is free in some of the many countries around the world. (UK)

Thanks to our sponsors, MailChimp and HubSpot. If you do online marketing of any kind, you really need to check out both companies. Tell them Dan sent you.

And, a special bonus, today, Tuesday, pub day, Dan is hosting a free webinar about the book. You can get all the details and sign up for it right now. I guess this is a great example of a virus worth spreading… if you have colleagues who do anything related to online marketing, they’ll probably appreciate an invite to the webinar. Tweet away. #dominoZ

How cool would it be to end up in the Guinness records book for this?

PS the hardcover is available too, now with extra bunnies.

If you are using the version 4.0.31 CUDA driver from Nvidia on Mac OSX v10.7, you may notice that the Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration setting is unavailable. This version of the driver disables the CUDA processing features of Premiere Pro if the operating system is running the 32-bit kernel; the reason for this is that there is a conflict between the driver and the Mac OSX v10.7 operating system. For drivers earlier than 4.0.31, a crash happens when a 64-bit application runs on the 32-bit OS kernel. With the updated 4.0.31 driver, Premiere Pro will continue to run, but the Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration settings will be disabled.

This is a temporary situation which is currently being worked on by both Nvidia and Apple, and updates to both the Mac OSX v10.7 operating system and the Nvidia CUDA drivers are expected soon to address this issue.

In the meantime, you can do one of two things:

• Run the 32-bit operating system kernel, which for now disables CUDA processing.
• Run the 64-bit operating system kernel, which allows CUDA processing.

For details regarding choosing between the 32-bit and 64-bit OS kernels, see this page on the Apple website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3773

This issue does not exist for Mac OSX v10.6.8 (Snow Leopard).

Hey folks – We know you’ve been wondering what’s taking so long to update some of our plug-ins for OS X Lion. We’ve actually been hammering at it, and we wanted to give you an update:

First off, All Trapcode Products work perfectly in OSX Lion. We’ve seen no problems, nor have any users reported problems to us.

Unfortunately, On the Magic Bullet Front (specifically with Looks and Colorista II) we can’t say the same. And we’re as frustrated as you. The short explanation is this: There is a critical bug in Lion that causes Final Cut Pro to ignore custom data – data that is essential for getting Looks and Colorista II to work properly.

We’ve tried everything under the sun, but at this point, we have to give it back to Apple, and wait for them to make this fix. There is nothing more that we can do other than to strongly advise you that if you want to work with Looks or Colorista II, avoid Lion for now.

To our knowledge, all outstanding issues being cause by Lion are for FCP only. Magic Bullet products in other host applications (like After Effects) work fine.

Here’s a more technical explanation from our head of engineering:

The release of OSX 10.7 (Lion) introduced a bug into FCP7 that we have been unable to find a way to work around. We have contacted Apple and are waiting to hear when they will have a fix (either in the Operating System or with Final Cut Pro). This bug affects any plugins for FCP that make use of custom data. Essentially, Apple provides two methods for storing data related to a plugin – general sliders, for example, are a built-in method that Final Cut Pro provides for storing data related to an effect with your project. For more complex information, however, a plugin can define its own set of custom data that it will save within the project. This second method of storing data about an effect with your project is currently broken in the FCP7 / OSX 10.7 combination. It works fine when you run FCP7 on OSX 10.6 (Snow Leopard).

Unfortunately for Red Giant plug-in users, we make use of custom data in both the Looks 2.0 and Colorista II plugins. The end result of this is that, while you can use the plugins with FCP on Lion, part of the data associated with the effects once they are applied will not be saved.

We are truly sorry for the inconvenience, but we’re at Apple’s mercy, at this point. Rest assured that the moment Apple has a fix, we will implement it.

Adobe rolls out its new subscription pricing plan. Does $348 a year to lease Photoshop sound more attractive than $700 to own?

Remember ROYGBIV? I do. The mnemonic is how I learned the seven colors of a rainbow—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Nowadays I use the acronym to represent the colors of food I should be eating.

Early this morning, a couple of sites posted specs from the upcoming low end 13" MacBook Pro and revealed that Apple will be incorporating Light Peak into the new machines under the name "Thunderbolt". We've confirmed that these spec...

… and it’s a jaw-dropper.

Last week, Apple invited a few folks, including me, to a short meeting in Cupertino where they previewed the up-coming version of Final Cut Pro.

While I am under NDA and can’t talk about what I saw, I CAN tell you the meeting happened and that it showcased the new Final Cut Pro.

While the invited crowd was small, it was a Who’s Who of leaders in the post-production community. I felt like I was standing on the red carpet at an awards show, watching all the stars walk past.

There will be LOTS to talk about as this project gets closer. For now, I recommend you subscribe to my monthly Final Cut Studio newsletter – because I’ll share all the news that I’m allowed to share in there first.

Tell your friends … its gonna be a great year.

Larry

P.S. If you feel the urge to email me for more information, keep in mind that Apple’s lawyers are bigger than your lawyers. So, until Apple lifts the NDA, I’m telling you all I can … for now.

MacGeneration (French) claims that a trusted source has leaked the specs of the new MacBook Pros. As summary of the new specs are provided:

- no more white MacBook (Apple goes back to two lines of 13" inchers) - 16 ...

Post written by Leo Babauta.

When I decided to change my life a little over 5 years ago, I had a very common problem: I didn’t have the time.

I wanted to exercise and find time for my family and eat healthier (instead of the fast-food junk I’d been eating) and read more and write and be more productive and increase my income.

Unfortunately there are only 24 hours in a day, and we sleep for about 8 of them. Subtract the hours we spend eating (3), showering and dressing and fixing up (1), cleaning and running errands (1), driving (2), working (8) … and you’re left with an hour or two at most. Often less.

Eventually I figured out how to do all the things I wanted to do. I’ve achieved all of that and more, and in fact I have more leisure time now than ever. But first I had to figure out the fundamental problem: how could I find the time to change my life?

I know many of you face the same problem — you’ve told me as much. So I thought I’d share some of what I did in the beginning, in hopes that it’ll help.

The First Step

You must make a commitment. You have to decide that you really want to make a change, and that it’s more important than almost anything else.

For me, only my family was more important — and in fact I was making these change for my family as well as for myself. So these changes I was making were really my top priority in life.

It has to be that urgent for you. Think of this not as “improving your life” but saving it. The changes I made saved my life — I am so much healthier, my marriage is better, my relationships with my kids have improved, I am happier rather than depressed.

If you don’t feel you’re saving your life then you won’t make the tough changes needed.

Next Steps

Once I made the mental commitment, I took small steps to give myself a little wiggle room to breathe and move:

• Cut out TV. I watched less TV than ever before (eventually I watched none, though now I watch a few shows a week over the Internet). For many people this one change will free up a couple hours or more.
• Read less junk. I used to read a lot of things on the Internet that were just entertainment. Same with magazines. I cut that stuff out early so I could focus on what was more important.
• Go out less. I used to go to a lot of movies and to dinner and drinking. I cut that out (mostly) for awhile, to make time.
• Wake earlier. Not everyone is going to do this but it was a good step for me. I found that I had more time exercising and working in the morning before anyone woke up — the world was quiet and at peace and without interruptions. (Read more.)

In general, find the things that eat up your time that are less important than the changes you want to make. That’s almost everything except the things you need to live — work and eating and stuff like that. Cut back on them where you can.

Simplify Commitments

I had a lot of commitments in my life — I coached soccer, was on the PTA board, served on a lot of committees at work, had social commitments as well, worked on a number of projects.

Slowly I cut them out. They seemed important but in truth none of them were as important as the life I wanted to create, the changes I wanted to make. Lots of things are important — but which are the absolute most important? Make a decision.

If you are having trouble making a decision, try an experiment. Cut out a commitment just for a little while. See whether you suffer from cutting it out, or whether you like the extra time.

If you’re worried about offending people, don’t. Send an email or make a phone call and explain that you’d love to keep doing the commitment but you just don’t have the time and don’t want to half-ass it. The person might try to talk you into staying but be firm — respect yourself and your time and the changes you’re trying to make.

Here’s a secret: the people and organizations you’ve been helping or working with will live. They will go on doing what they were doing without you, and (omg!) they will survive without you. Your departure will not cause the world to collapse. Let go of the guilt.

Streamline Your Life

Eventually I made many other changes, including:

• Making bills and savings and debt payments automatic. I set everything up online so that I wouldn’t have to run errands or spend time making payments. This put my debt reduction on automatic, and I got out of debt. (Read more.)
• Streamlining errands. I tried to cut as many errands out of my life as possible. Often that meant changing my life in some way but I adjusted and things became simpler. I cleaned as I went so I didn’t have a lot of cleaning to do on weekends. I did the few errands I had all at once to save running around.
• Work less. I would set limits to how much I could work, forcing myself to pick the important tasks and to get those tasks done on time. I learned which tasks needed to be done and which could be dropped. I became much more effective and worked less.
• Say no. When people asked me to do stuff that was important to them but not to me, I learned to politely decline. Instead I focused on what was important to me.

Slowly I learned to simplify. I simplified my daily routines, my work, my social life, my possessions, my chores, my wardrobe. It took time but it has been more than worth the effort: life is so much better now that I’ve created the time to do what I want to do.

— der Tweet — Read more about focus and getting great things done in Leo’s book, focus.

Apple could add an optical signal path to future MagSafe connectors on Macs, allowing the magnetic port to send and receive data, as well as power the device.

  click here to view larger click here for PDF version (& print as poster)

 

On Wednesday Feb 16 we hosted a lively discussion about Empathetic Brands in today’s Web 3.0 w...

Oh look, what's this? The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the iPad 2 has entered production -- which exactly lines up previously rumored manufacturing schedules. According to the WSJ, the new edition of Apple's tablet will have a faster processor with a better GPU and more memory in a thinner, lighter package. There's also said to be a front-facing camera for video conferencing, but the much-discussed display resolution will remain "similar" to the current iPad -- which actually goes along with the most recent information we've gotten from our sources, who say that the next iPad will indeed stay at the current resolution, and that the higher-res display we'd heard about earlier may have actually been for a future model. As for availability, the WSJ says the new iPad will be on Verizon and AT&T, which certainly makes sense -- although it'll be interesting to see how Verizon handles positioning it against the upcoming Xoom, which Motorola is marketing in an aggressively anti-iPad manner. In any event, between the iPad 2, the Xoom, and whatever Palm has to offer tomorrow, this spring is about to get very, very interesting.

WSJ: iPad 2 in production, features FaceTime camera, faster processor originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Feb 2011 17:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Wall Street Journal  | Email this | Comments

Screenshots of a Best Buy inventory list obtained by 9to5Mac point to signs that an update to Apple's MacBook Pro lineup may be in the works.

If Georgia state senator Tommie Williams has his way, all those middle school backpacks stuffed full of physics textbooks, English lit novels, notepads, and pens could soon be slimmed down to svelte shoulderbags containing the barest necessaries--and an Apple iPad.

The move isn't really all about back pain (though it actually may help with that--student back injuries associated with long term hauling of heavy books are well documented), it's about money and relevance. As Williams noted recently, Georgia State spends about $40 million a year on textbooks "and they last about seven years. We have books that don't even mention 9/11." Digital editions of textbooks can be quickly updated as new prints are released, which is much simpler than recalling millions of physical paper textbooks. And there's no shipping fees associated with digital textbooks--everything can be handled over a school's wireless Net system, securely. There'll be fewer problems with theft or lost books, and when a student leaves the school, they'll simply pass their iPad back to the staff and it'll be ready for a new student, with the latest books already installed.

Plus the digital learning experience can be more feature-rich on a tablet computer, because textbooks can include video, games, pop-quizzes, and social media features that help kids learn the facts in a more memorable way. Williams notes "This is the way kids are learning, and we need to be willing to move in that direction." He's already met with Apple, which has an iPad schools system that includes e-text access, the necessary Wi-Fi and teacher training included in the package, and Georgia is trying to fund pilot programs as soon as possible.

We wonder how the schools will tackle one or two technical flaws with the plan: Sure, textbook losses, theft, and accidental damage due to chemistry experiments gone awry will decrease with the plan, and the real-time relevance of the texts will go up. But iPad theft, losses, and damage are much more expensive to deal with--and schools may see their insurance bills hike upward. Then there's Facebook to deal with--specifically, many kids' desire to hook up to it constantly, which may necessitate filtering on the school's network. And when you enable Net-based learning, you also enable kids to freely Google "evolution" in biology classes, which, given Georgia's history on this matter, will likely cause much political and cultural hand-wringing.

Related Story: Somewhere Apple Execs Are Smiling: iPads Are Now Mandatory at This Private School

Image via Flickr user mortsan.

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