Screenshot: Adobe Photoshop Express Site

I’ve been hearing this for quite sometime, that Adobe is coming out with an online photo editing tool. The day finally came, and if you haven’t seen, you can check out the beta release of Adobe Photoshop Express. It would be unfair to compare this with the full version of Photoshop, its a great utility for people who wish to store & brush up photos online.

Photoshop Express v/s Picnik

Now, the battle heat up. While PS Express lets you import & edit your Picasa, Facebook and Photobucket photos. It’s not surprising to note that the ever popular Flickr is missing. I guess, Picnik smelled whats Adobe’s cooking and teamed up with Flickr. Now you’ve Picnik in Flickr or Flickr in Picnik, beside Picasa, Photobucket etc. Beside that all premium features are now FREE.
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Probama, cool WordPress theme, sad it comes with a political tone.

This Mango is not a fruit. This Mango is not a clothing brand. This Mango immerses you in real, everyday conversations in 12 different language courses. You can access up to 50 lessons for FREE at Mango Languages.

Photo: Scott Robbin @ Flickr

From the people who bought you ENSO. Though not officially announced, another Humanized product, BLOXES. It’s more of a low-tech geek toy rather than any serious ‘building blocks’. But true to it’s name, from computer software to cardboard b(l)oxes, they sure live up to its name.

From their blog,

Bloxes are essentially 3D cardboard Legos that ship flat, and fold up in modular building blocks that are strong enough to stand on. While they aren’t tech per se, we use them for building tables, walls, cubicles, and desks at the Humanized office. Google and Mint.com have already ordered some, and Mozilla has expressed interest in using them in their offices too.

Catch some ways to use Bloxes in this Flickr group – Flickr: Bloxes!

In another context, looking at some of their works and their philosophy. I won’t be surprised if it goes the JotSpot way. Yep! get acquired by some bigwig firm like Google.

In their own words,

Natural interaction is defined in terms of experience: people naturally communicate through gestures, expressions, movements,and discover the world by looking around and manipulating physical stuff. The key assumption here is that people are meant to interact with technology as they are used to interact with the real world in everyday life, as evolution and education taught them to do.

Check out their amazing array of interaction work at Natural Interaction.

If you’re looking for extra online storage. Say the magic word Windows Live SkyDrive. Yep, Microsoft is give 5GB of password protected space.

Of some of the freebies music albums out recently. I quite like Radiohead Inrainbows. Yorke described the album as Radiohead’s attempt to “describe…as coherently and conclusively as possible, what moves us. In Rainbows is…our classic album – our Transformer, our Revolver, our Hunky Dory”

VERVE features Nimita Rathod as most promising faces of 2008

She acknowledges that her greatest influences have been Coco Chanel, Christian Dior and Sir John Rocha and it’s this receptiveness that has helped her succeed. “I have always been a good observer and a great listener. I follow my instincts and am very passionate about my work. I think it’s important to let my work speak for itself.”

Great site & amazing work. Ladies & gentlemen Nimita Rathod.

Sometime having to read through the comments makes sense. Smashing Magazine, one of my favorite site, had a post “Productivity Boost: Key Stroke Launchers“. I’m no great fan of utilities… alright, alright I admit, I’ve Yahoo! Widget & Google Desktop. Now, after I went through the post, the first comment was

I think you forgot to include “enso” it’s awesome and it recently moved to freeware

The I scrolled down and saw many visitors commenting about Enso Launcher. Now, more than month after installing Enso, my CAPS LOCK is my new Start button in my WinXP Laptop. Though, in term of frequency it still couldn’t beat the sweet old SPACE BAR I use in Photoshop :)

Thanks people for introducing me to Enso. Now I chant like the comment #57.

ENSO ENSO ENSO! Great.

About a week back, I came across this post at Gizmodo, 1960s Braun Products Hold the Secrets to Apple’s Future. Now, if you search the net, the comparison goes beyond Braun & Apple and it boils down to two designers.

• Dieter Rams, wiki calls him – one of the most influential industrial designers in the 20th century &
• Jonathan Ive, Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple Inc. BBC calls him Armani of Apple.

While INSPIRATION is a complex word, it would be wrong to draw parallel. Myself a self confessed dreamer, would like to believe that these two geniuses separated by time & technology are in some way communicating. Don’t blame for drawing parallel to the movie “The Lake House“. But I won’t blame Jon Ive for chrome lining in the latest iPhone/iPOD touch and giving that retro touch in today’s technology.

Talk about Dieter Rams and his 10 Commandments on Design, which equals to usability in all aspect; now that the world web world is waking up to.

Dieter Rams: 10 Commandments on Design

• Good design is innovative.
• Good design makes a product useful.
• Good design is aesthetic.
• Good design helps us to understand a product.
• Good design is unobtrusive.
• Good design is honest.
• Good design is durable.
• Good design is consequent to the last detail.
• Good design is concerned with the environment.
• Good design is as little design as possible.

Devoid of a celebrity designer, Samsung’s product design are a group to be reckon with. Their new range of power pack NV Series cameras with the cool retro touch are simple awesome. I won’t be surprise if someone draws similarity with some 60′s Leica. Well than, Hasselbland following its tradition of quality & design, I bet they’ll be a tough one to crack.

I’ve seen my uncle, an Industrial Designer from NID, work on projects and how he focus on just one purpose – How will it effects the end user. Once I’d interacted on phone with Jhumkee Iyengar, Head, Usability Engineering, Persistent Systems, Pune. Sad that I miss the opportunity to meet her in person when I was in Persistent Pune for a day. But I was pleasantly surprise when I found out after sometime that she use to design products for Phillips, USA.

Now going to person who I’d met & interacted personally was my good friend & ex-colleague Param from Onward Research, who came across as a intense & honest person in following the users need.

Now time to draw the parallel. Drawing attention to Dieter Rams’s commandment. I believe – GOOD DESIGN IS HONEST.