Written by Kevin Purdy

Google’s Apps suite for domain owners and businesses has finally received some star treatment with the launch of the Apps Marketplace. Which Google-friendly apps are free, worth the cost, and entirely useful? These 10 are definitely worth a look.

10. Box.net

Box.net is one of many online file storage sites, but from its launch, it’s been focused on adding features that business and enterprise customers can use. Attached to your own web storage, Box.net’s features shine through. The service has many webapp partners that can fax, print, secure, edit, and otherwise handle all kinds of documents, and Box.net itself can integrate into many enterprise software packages, set up conference calls and web conferences centered around documents, and otherwise link together the files you’ve stashed away and the people who work on them. [Apps Marketplace link] Price: free for Box.net business users, $15 per user per month for new users.

9. SurveyMonkey

It’s an established tool that a lot of organizations are using to collect data on all kinds of topics. Better still, crafting a poll or questionnaire in SurveyMonkey will save you a good deal of time over crafting a spreadsheet and form in Google Docs and manipulating the results. If you needed more incentive, the “Basic” plan is free for groups looking to just do a little smart polling, and “Basic” covers a whole lot of data-swapping goodness. [Apps Marketplace link] Price: Free for basic version, $16.67 and up for advanced features.

8. SlideRocket

Google’s own Presentation app is one of those “Hey, it works” tools, and if you needed to write something up in a pinch, it’s there. SlideRocket, on the other hand, is a surprisingly full-featured presentation editor that doesn’t require a Microsoft license and can be pulled up wherever you or your team have web access. Like the Aviary photo editor (below), installing SlideRocket in your Apps space puts everyone on the same page and centralizes where those presentations get stored. Alas, SlideRocket doesn’t sing in every browser—it doesn’t play well with Firefox in Snow Leopard, for instance—but when it works, it’s pretty wow-inducing. [Apps Marketplace link] Price: 30-day free trial, $12 per user per month after that; Education and “lite” versions available.

7. Google Short Links

Why would you use Google’s own link shortening service for your Apps account over popular, free options like bit.ly or is.gd? Primarily because the links you can provide clients and partners—like GlobexIndustries.com/B2B—are more stately, feel safer, and haven’t already been snapped up on the major shortening servers. It also helps that you can make them far easier to remember than a random assortment of letters and numbers. It’s free, too, and that’s a pretty good selling point. [Apps Marketplace link] Price: Free.

6. Shared Contacts

It’s unfortunate that Google’s contacts manager doesn’t make it easy for people and businesses to create and update common sets of contacts—perhaps they consider that the stuff of big enterprise packages. Their loss is Shared Contacts’ gain. With the package installed, Apps domains can create new groups of contacts, set their read/write permissions, and have them show up for everybody in that group. It’s not a one-click process, it would appear, but once Shared Contacts is installed, you’ll likely never have to see or send email with “Phone #?” in the subject line. Apps Marketplace link] Price: free trial available, $50 per year after that.

5. Gbridge

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a great thing to have. Having it free, and connected through your Google Apps’ chat service to your other computers and project partners, is way better. By hooking up Gbridge, on-the-go Apps users have access to shared files, backup through their own computers or those of others in their group, screen sharing and control for tech support or demonstration, and the kind of basic VPN access that can be oh so helpful. [Apps Marketplace link] Price: Free.

4. TripIt

Traveling is taxing enough on its own. Frantic text messages asking “When do u land?” and the like should be unnecessary. Implementing TripIt for your site or group will win you fans, because it’s like having an employee whose only job is to organize trips and keep everybody in the loop. As an individual app, TripIt does a great job turning travel confirmation emails into organized, mapped, linked-up itineraries. Installed on Apps, it enables Ted to see when Lisa is leaving and arriving, tells Bob when to pick her up at the airport and provides directions, and lets everyone know if the flight is delayed. [Apps Marketplace link] Price: free.

3. ManyMoon or Zoho Projects

For very small businesses, personal sites, and less goal-oriented groups, the free, socially adept ManyMoon may fit the bill for your project management needs. Group task management, tagging, micro-blogging for teams, and time tracking come with the free price tag. For larger organizations and those with a real need for deadlines, nested goals and tasks, and constant contact, Zoho Projects is a more robust and agile solution, one that integrates well into Google’s own app offerings—project deadlines and events, for instance, can be automatically added to team member’s calendars. Zoho can also serve as a kind of “project intranet,” providing wikis, shared file spaces, and even public web pages. [Apps Marketplace link: ManyMoon, Zoho Projects] Price: ManyMoon free; Zoho Projects free for one project, $12/month and up for unlimited users.

2. Aviary

At its own web site, Aviary hosts a very capable image editing suite that runs entirely inside a browser. Hooked into the files you’re already hosting and using on your site or in your group, it gives everybody a kind of Photoshop lite to work with, and avoids the worries of losing that one version of a graphic your client liked better. [Apps Marketplace link] Price: free.

1. OffiSync

It’s not for lack of trying, but Google’s web-based Docs app can’t do everything that Microsoft’s desktop Office suite can pull. Whether it’s revision tracking, macro recording, or database integration, you can skip the back-and-forth file swapping with the Apps version of OffiSync, a utility that does just what you might think. Save a file in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, and with OffiSync set up, it will save simultaneously to your Google Apps space. You get the feature-rich editing services of Office and the easy sharing and peace-of-mind storage of Google, all at once. [Apps Marketplace link] Price: free.

If you’re a Google Apps user who’s found something great in the Marketplace, or you’re looking for something that’s not there yet, we want to hear about it in the comments.

So many useful things around my house arrived via the personal recommendations posted by Cool Tools. But the "staff" of Cool Tools is not limited to the staff listed on the About page. That's where you come in. We'd like your recommendations.

Here are a few things we are currently looking for:

The ultimate walker for an elderly person?
A decent vacuum-cooking cookbook for amateurs?
The best digital wildlife trail monitor camera?
Is there a product available that uses WI-FI to connect a desktop hard drive to a stereo? The previously reviewed Roku Soundbridge did, but is no longer available.

Best inflatable kayak?
Cheap hair analysis for heavy metals?
Affordable, high-functioning walkie talkies?
Racquet stringing machine?
Best time accounting software/website?
Best (cheapest/most efficient) dimmable CFL replacement for a 60-watt tungsten bulb
What's the best guide to internet radio? A site, blog or forum where various internet radio stations are reviewed, compared, and recommended. Not just listings of links.
Best intro to beekeeping book?
Best fiction podcast?

Have you used/read and can you recommend the following, or something comparable that's superior?

Drill Doctor
Cobrahead gardening tool
Backyard Ballistics by William Gurstelle
Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth?

Or anything else you can heartily recommend from your own personal experience. If you love something you'd love others to know about as well, write me. (If you are feeling extremely helpful you might want to check the Cool Tools archive to make sure we haven't already featured it.)

If you're not already a subscriber receiving our weekly e-mail with five new tool recommendations every week, sign up and submit your recommendation. For a broader perspective of this site's tool philosophy, I recommend this essay. Tell us what you use to open up possibilities, save money, make stuff, live better.

-- es (elon {at} schoenholz dot com)

Collected by John Hudson

visulogik/Flickr under a CC license For those who have misguidedly failed to develop an Armageddon plan, it’s not too late. Eschuk, a user on the social media site Reddit, has created a detailed, eight-phase, 1600-word survival plan in response to the question, “If you became the last person on Earth, what would you do? Realistically.” Eschuk’s vision is nothing if not realistic. We owe Web sites like Kottke for salvaging this nugget from the dustbin of Internet history. Here’s an abridged look at what this inventive, earnest dreamer would do. For the full version, see here.
“Pre-Phase Phase: Before Anything: Eat Exotic Fresh Fruits while they are around. They come from so far away that, odds are depending where you live, you will never ever get to have Banana, Pomegranite, Starfruit or Mango again in your life. Savor every bite. Make Fruit Leathers and Freeze what you cannot stomach to consume.You will also need to bone up on Vitamin C while you’re doing the most work.

[...]

Phase 2 – Secure your Food: There’s a ton of food still around in the world that’ll be good for the next decade. Rice and Beans, Canned Fruits and Veggies. The Average Domesticated Human relies on these foods and cannot subsist “off of the land.” …

• Sysco Trucks are refrigerated and can probably stay cool a week or two, and are likely chock full of the meals you’d otherwise be served after they’ve been microwaved at Olive Garden, Johnny Carino’s, Applebees, TGIFridays, McDonalds, etcetc. If they haven’t been looted already, they’re a great solution to a “freezer farm.” Now that you have all the time in the world, figure out how to use RV Propane Freezers to keep these trucks cool. Move them to your home, reinforce them in concrete and keep them free of bugs and animals.

Phase 3 – Home Compound: Insects and animals will grow plentifully without humans now. Wild Dogs, Bears, Coyotes, Mountain Lions, Feral Cats are all now the enemy. Malaria, Lymes Disease, Bebesia can be carried by insects and with Rabies, will likely grow out of control without human intervention.

• Secure an area, preferably within a high-walled region to keep bears and other predators away. Chain Link Fences need to be painted to prevent rusting. Paint them with motor oil a couple of times in the summer (if you don’t give a rat’s ass about the environment now)
• Drive Vehicles over to your Compound while they still work. Mobile Homes, School Buses, Fire Engine Tankers & Ladders, Electrical Contractor Cherry Pickers (for Hunting Blinds), Flatbeds, Box Trucks.

[...]

Phase 5 – Recreation

• Find the closest highway and burn all the gasoline you can syphon out of all the cars around in a Maserati, Ferrari or Ford Focus by risking your fucking life. This insane maneuver might help you keep some sanity… but in 2-years-time gasoline will have gone stale and most cars will sit where they were.
• There are some propane based cars and Go-Karts. Offhand, I don’t know where I’d find one around here so I’m in a bad position… the internet will be down and “propane go-karts” won’t be found in phone books.

[...]

Final Phase – Seal your fate.

You are the last of your kind. Evolution may replace humans with another Sentient Creature capable of interpreting the past, but for now, this is it. As representative for humanity, you do not want to suffer. No sense in bleeding to death over the course of several days pinned underneath a mountain of rubble.

• Always have the ability to kill yourself nearby. Holster a classy 6-shooter in your shoulder, at your ankle or your hip at all times.

The Debate

• Last Person on Earth Eschuk, Reddit

Last week, I attended a webinar from WOMMA where WOMMA General Counsel Tony DiResta discussed the importance of disclosure across social media. This conversation normally focuses on brand-blogger relationships but the same best practices and government guidelines may also affect your Facebook Page.

Here are five things to keep in mind about your brand and disclosure on Facebook.

1. Employment is “Consideration”: The FTC requires that any consideration from an endorser be disclosed; “consideration” includes anything that might sway endorsers’ words and this includes employment. Make it clear to employees that posting an endorsement or review on your Facebook Page without disclosing that they are employees is unacceptable, this also includes commenting on other Facebook Pages or Facebook content just as it does commenting on blogs.
2. Video Contests: If you are soliciting Facebook videos about how much fans love your product to be in the running for a million dollar prize treat this the same as you would if you were requiring a blog post about your product as a contest entry. Help fans by requiring that they include a link to your contest rules or a including the contest name in the video description- this disclosure will protect your fans and will raise awareness of the contest.
3. Disclosure in Celebrity Status Updates: Status for Sale is forbidden by the Facebook User Guidelines but do make sure that any celebrity spokes people disclose their relationship with you should they be posting about your products a lot. There is no standard format for this disclosure, the status update might include (sponsor) in the text or the celebrity might list the sponsorship or spokesperson relationship prominently on their Page information.
4. Disclosure of Celebrity Photos: If celebrities and influencers are seen using your products in paid advertisements or at your events it’s understood that these are paid endorsements and no disclosure is needed but a photo of a celebrity using your product lacking any description or context is more ambiguous. To be safe, if you are posting photos of paid celebrities or event attendees using your products make sure to add a note to the album description or under each photo as to where the photo came from.
5. Disclosure in Foursquare: One great question from the webinar was around Foursquare and whether free products or gifts given to a Mayor needed to be disclosed- Tony confirmed that they do. Since many people are now using Facebook and Foursquare together I thought this was worth including.

Remember to use common sense with social media campaigns just as you do traditional advertising campaigns and keep your customers’ best interest in mind. And no matter how much you study this stuff don’t forget the gut check: if you think you might need to be disclosing something you probably do.

A special thanks to Tony DiResta for his input on this- for continued discussion and updates about best practices and guidelines check out Tony DiResta’s blog on the WOMMA website see the full disclosure webinar here.

Google typically releases a city or two with each 3D buildings update, but this week they dropped five on us! The new 3D cities are:

• Barcelona, Spain
• Bloemfontein, South Africa
• Port Elizabeth, South Africa
• Pretoria, South Africa
• Mulhouse, France

Not only is this a larger number of cities, but the quality of some of the buildings is remarkable. For example, look at this building in Mulhouse; the quality of the imagery used on the building is amazing.

At first I thought maybe it was a separate model that was created by hand in SketchUp. However, those buildings are clickable so you can see the details about it, and this one isn't. In fact, much of the city is in this same sharp quality. I then assumed they used StreetView imagery to model the facades, like they did in some California cities late last year. The imagery doesn't quite match up (the StreetView images of the building shows flowers in many of the windows), but that could still be the case. Perhaps they used older StreetView imagery to help create the models? Regardless, they did a superb job and they look great.

The other city you need to take a close look at is Barcelona. The coverage there is quite remarkable as well. You can read about it on the Google Lat Long Blog, or watch this view tour that Google created to help show it off. Enjoy the cities!

Google has posted the story of Fredericton, Canada, and how they became a 3D city in Google Earth.

By using the Cities in 3D program, the City of Fredericton was able to get more than 100 3D buildings added to Google Earth back in January. The building are very well-done and quite detailed, and you can see a fly-through of the city here:

For more information, you can read the full blog entry, visit Google's Cities in 3D page, or fly to Fredericton yourself by using this KML file.

When SXSW, one of the largest gatherings of minds and enthusiasts in the digital world, didn’t feature more than a handful of panels on the intersection between health and social media - an “unconference” event called SXSH sprung up to fill the void. Yesterday that event came together in Austin and included speakers and pioneers in using social media to communicate for health issues in regional hospitals, government agencies, health insurers, nonprofits, epatients and pharma companies. Just about every part of the healthcare world had some sort of voice in the discussion as everyone gathered to share ideas on how the industry as a whole might use social media more effectively by building greater trust.

The day long discussion featured many highlights, starting with a talk from Doug Ulman, CEO of Livestrong about the power of health based communities online and how important real time information is to improving healthcare and the patient experience. Greg Matthews from Humana shared how a health insurer can innovate internally and use that to improve patient relationships and Jenn Texada from MD Anderson shared how she and her communications team use social media tools to interact directly with patients for customer service. David Hale from the National Library of Medicine presented an innovative new database to help identify unknown pills called Pillbox and Fabio Gratton shared how to build a movement through a case study of the success of the #FDASM movement in November of last year around the FDA hearings. In the “unconference” part of the day, companies such as ReachMD and WEGO Health talked about their communities and content and how they help bridge the gaps between patients, doctors and healthcare providers.

In the final session of the day, I tackled the question of trust. A central issue in healthcare communications, the session posed the question: why don’t people trust us? Or more specifically, what creates the culture of distrust online that so often causes negativity towards some companies in healthcare and what could we as an industry do to combat this? Our aim in the session was to brainstorm ways that healthcare organizations could overcome these barriers and build more trust and credibility. The entire room then selected what they felt the strongest ideas were and I promised to compile the results into a single blog post - which you’ll find below. In the spirit of the unconference, all of us who managed to be part of the great discussion would love to hear your thoughts on any other ideas that we could add to this list too …

1. Listen to and implement ideas from the community. Being part of a community or interacting with individuals is a great first step, but the real trust that can be built from this comes when people see some sort of action come as a result of the participation in a community. It is not the act of listening, but the impact of that listening which makes it real.
2. Have shared values on good health. Often the distrust in healthcare organizations stems from a belief that priorities are mismatched. Our priority as a patient is to get healthy, and their priority seems to be offering more medication or delivering care in a more “efficient” way. In order to build trust, it is crucial that people feel our ultimate goals are aligned toward making them healthier. We need to focus on prevention instead of promotion.
3. Answer your patient’s or customer’s concerns directly. With social media tools, people have the ability to broadcast their thoughts and desires. Often they are doing so because they are seeking a response. Having a smart listening program that can help you find these queries and a strategy for responding goes a long way towards demonstrating that you care and truly want to help.
4. Aggregate or curate useful information. Sometimes the problem isn’t a lack of information online, but a dearth of it. When information is scattered all over, it can become very confusing about what is credibile and which things to trust. One of the simplest roles for any healthcare organization to take is that of a curator of great content. By doing this, you can create resources for people that will be useful and demonstrate your commitment to their needs.
5. Serve as a resource or guide for the community. One of the things that many organizations neglect is actively using the experts that you may have internally. When it comes to marketing and communications, part of the role should be to unlock the best voices from within an organization (many of whom may not necessarily be in the marketing or PR departments). By bringing these voices out and encouraging them to share information, you can connect patients and customers to the individuals who can truly bring insight and deliver thoughtful and useful information.
6. Set expectations on what you do and why. Lack of trust can be based on a misunderstanding of motivations. There are times when people may assume that a policy or practice is done simply for financial reasons or because of legal motives when actually there are other concerns they don’t know. Being as transparent as possible about your decision process and thinking can go a long way to remove this misunderstanding.
7. Focus on setting a clear mission for employees. The most trustworthy organizations often are the ones that have a very specific and defined vision that everyone is working to implement. When the message coming from employees is consistent, it goes a long way towards establishing a belief in the organization from outsiders because they know what the group stands for.
8. Communicate results and outcomes. Large organizations in particular are often good about communicating outcomes or results in financial terms on a quarterly basis or some kind of cost related metric, but not as good about communicating impact of their efforts in human terms. To inspire belief, it is often the results in human terms that people respond to far more than the financial ones - so refocusing on how that story is told becomes vital.
9. Recognize both sides of the issue or data. Many people inherently believe that data and reports presented by many healthcare groups (and pharma in particular) is delivered with a strong bias towards whatever is most self serving for the group. When information is not presented in a more balanced way, the likelihood that people will not believe it is entirely credible goes up.
10. Build trusted long term relationships. Beyond all the other suggestions, the one thing that establishes a foundation for everything you do are the trusted relationships with influencers and individuals that you build online. You need a group of people who know enough about what you do and the real philosophy and thinking behind your actions that they can serve as vocal advocates for your brand if needed.

Here are the two best vegan (no meat or dairy) cookbooks as suggested by many Cool Tool readers. Thanks to readers Charlotte, Scott Carlson, Chris, Jared, Terri Alice, Ryan Freebern and Ian Hall.

Veganomicon is the best vegan cookbook out there. It's reputation is based on the quantity and variety of its recipes, and the complexity and deliciousness of the resulting dishes. There are more than 250 recipes, presented with wit and lighthearted punk-rock irreverence, as well unpretentious and helpful instructions. These vegan dishes don't only try to mimic meat-based meals; they are just good food. Our household doesn't adhere to a vegan diet, yet we've found some of these recipes great eye-openers as to how tasty and accessible homemade vegan food can be.

-- Elon Schoenholz

Simply Vegan is perfect for beginning vegans because it has specific sections on how to be a healthy vegan, as opposed to a "Fritos and Sprite" vegan.

It goes into sources for proteins, minerals, has ready-to-go weekly shopping lists, and daily meal lists, so if you're getting into veganism you can do it safely and intelligently with a minimal amount of work (just buy the stuff on the shopping list and cook it). I went vegan at 14 (and have been vegan 14 years so far) and my parents made me sell them on the idea of being healthy sans animal products. At first the task seemed incredibly daunting, but once I found Simply Vegan I had all the answers. And these days my folks are mostly vegan as well.

I won't say the recipes in this book are the best ever - they certainly can't hold a candle to much of Veganomicon -- but if you know your way around some spices there's no better book that I've found which covers the nutritive bases and really can set a new vegan on the right path to whole health.

-- Ian Hall

Veganomicon
Isa Chandra Moskowitz, Terry Hope Romero
2007, 336 pages
$18
Available from Amazon

Simply Vegan: Quick Vegetarian Meals
Debra Wasserman, Reed Mangels
2006 (4th edition), 224 pages
$11
Available from Amazon

Sample Excerpts:

from Veganomicon:

Chickpea Cutlets
We try not to play favorites, but this is one of our babies and a recipe that we are sure will take over food blogs worldwide. A combination of chickpeas and vital wheat gluten formed into savory cutlets, it’s perfect for when you want something “meaty” buy don’t want to go to the trouble of making seitan. We serve these cutlets in myriad ways, packed into sandwiches or smothered in mustard sauce, with a side of mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus. It’s vegan food that you can eat with a steak knife and, best of all, it is fast and easy. You’ll probably want to double the recipe if you’re serving it to guests.

1 cup cooked chickpeas
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup vital wheat gluten
½ cup plain bread crumbs
¼ cup vegetable broth or water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, pressed or grated with a microplane grater
½ teaspoon lemon zest
½ teaspoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon Hungarian paprika
¼ teaspoon dried rubbed sage
Olive oil for pan frying

*

Beanball Sub
This is a conglomeration of a few recipes from the cookbook that also would make great use of leftover Beanballs (page 189). We throw in a handful of spinach just for posterity; you need not be so healthy if you don’t feel like it. Also, if you don’t want to make the Pine Nut Cream (page 164) and just want to use some soy cheese, we won’t judge you. These would be perfect for a Super Bowl party, or since you are a vegan and hate football, a Nobel Prize party. Ooh, we can’t wait to see who wins for physics this year!

1 recipe Beanballs (page 189)
1 recipe (4 cups) Marinara Sauce, or any of the variations (page 205)
1 recipe Pine Nut cream (page 164)
4 hoagie rolls, split open
2 cups fresh spinach leaves, well washed

*

Tip
To toast sesame seeds: Preheat a small pan over medium-low heat. Pour in the sesame seeds and toast them, stirring often, for about 3 minutes. Once they are browned, immediately remove them from the pan to prevent burning.

*

Tip
This is our favorite way to prep collards: To get rid of the tough stem without having to sit there cutting it, you can actually easily tear the leaves from the stem with your hands. Fill the sink with water, pull off the leaves, rip them into large pieces (collards are tough, they can take it) and put the leaves into the water to rinse them. No need to drain, just give them a shake before adding to the pan.

from Simply Vegan:

Summary: It is very easy for a vegan diet to meet the recommendations for protein, as long as calorie intake is adequate. Strict protein combining is not necessary; it is more important to eat a varied diet throughout the day…. This concern about protein is misplaced. Although protein is certainly an essential nutrient which plays many key roles in the way our bodies function, we do not need huge quantities of it. In reality, we need small amounts of protein. Only one calorie out of every ten we take in needs to come from protein (1).

(1) Food and Nutrition Board, institute of Medicine. Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2002.

*

Generally, vegan diets can be low in fat if they emphasize grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables. Some foods vegans eat such as oils, margarine, nuts, nut butters, tofu, tahini, avocado, and coconut are high in fat. These foods should not be the center of one’s diet but should be used sparingly. For example, tofu is high in fat. If you ate a pound of tofu, you would eat about 22 grams of fat. Eating a smaller amount of tofu (4 ounces) and serving it over rice with vegetables could provide the same number of calories and less fat.

*

Calcium, needed for strong bones, is found in dark green leafy vegetables, tofu made with calcium sulfate, calcium-fortified soy milk and orange juice, and many other foods commonly eaten by vegans. Although lower animal protein intake may reduce calcium losses, there is currently not enough evidence to suggest that vegans have lower calcium needs. Vegans should eat foods that are high in calcium and/or use a calcium supplement.

I caught up with our own Thomas Crampton last week in Istanbul. Thomas runs our teams across Asia and one of the big events coming up this year is the Shanghai World Expo.  To help inform our work and our clients who will participate in some way or another, Thomas developed some great research on the current buzz throughout Chinese social media on the Expo. I had a chance to ask him about what he found:

Q: Can you tell us briefly what the Shanghai World Expo is and what it may mean to China, its government, business leaders and even the people there?
A: Shanghai Expo has been billed as one of the largest events of its kind in China. While people outside of China may not have heard of the event, the organizers expect a extremely large domestic audience.

Q: You did a unique survey of what the Chinese people were saying online via social media about the Expo, what surprised you most?
A: One of the biggest surprises about the discussions online was the intensity of discussion taking place more than three months before the event began. While you might expect sponsor and the government to speak about the event, it was interesting to see the level of discussion going on among China’s netizens.

Q: Can you tell two of the insights in the survey?
A: The report gives insights into how individual citizens and companies are already gearing up for the Expo. In terms of Chinese citizens, the report shows that they are concerned about ticket prices and taking action. Among the initiatives are group purchasing of tickets and rural citizens asking for advice on how to buy tickets.

Q: How could brands engaging in the Expo use this survey to their advantage?
A: By understanding the concerns of consumers looking at the Expo, companies can find ways of offering value to those who may visit the Expo. One interesting example in relation to the ticket prices is one company, , that is offering tickets to Expo at the original price. The promotion costs them very little - the difference in ticket price is very small - but the publicity and discussion about it has been fairly extensive. As we follow the Expo with these publicly available reports, companies will be able to see possible hooks for their own Social Media strategy.

Shanghai Expo Chinese-language Social Media Buzz

View more documents from 360 Digital Influence, Ogilvy PR Worldwide.

Am I the only person who feels ill every time I hear the word “passion” at work?

This doesn’t mean I am not committed or do sloppy work. I am a classic Type A overachiever. But to me, passion is personal. It’s what I feel for my husband, for the old schoolhouse we’re restoring, for the sweet peas I’m sprouting, for world peace, and – okay, just a little – for Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama. It is NOT what I feel about work.

I feel a lot of things about work – interested, challenged, even excited – but the best word is probably committed. I am fortunate that I have been paid fairly and given opportunities to do interesting, creative things in my career. I have very high standards for anything that goes through my shop – so much so that veterans on my team warn newbies who join up. I am super dedicated and I really enjoy my job. But I am not passionate about it. To me, that’s a word for a different time and place. 

I think small business owners are different. Most of those I have met ARE passionate about the businesses they’ve started. But for those of us who work for someone else, it doesn’t feel like the right word. At work, I don’t want passion – I want intelligence, creativity, dedication, stamina, and, yes, PLEASE, the ability to proofread. In fact if someone told me in a job interview that their job was their passion, I would question their truthfulness, not to mention their sanity. 

Am I crazy? Am I merely splitting semantic hairs? Or is passion at work overrated?

Google has just released what appears to be another substantial batch of StreetView imagery. Thanks to a few tips (thanks 'Duncan' and 'Munden'), we know about a lot of areas already.

Updated areas include: [UPDATED 8:51am EST, 11-March]

• Hong Kong and Macau: Details
• Northern Ireland
• Japan
• Netherlands
• UK: Leicester and Leicestershire, among others.

You can browse StreetView using the normal Google Maps interface, but don't forget that you can also use StreetView inside of Google Earth.

If you know of any more updated areas, please leave a comment and let us know!

There may be slightly better sounding or feature-rich PA systems in this price range, but nothing comes close to the outstanding portability of Fender’s Passport. It’s barely 30 pounds, and when it’s packed up and put together in its slick integral case no moving or delicate parts are exposed to scraping or damage. And since the case tapers at each end, it’s easy to carry without it bumping against my side with every step.

I use it primarily as a sort of keyboard amp for a laptop, also for playing music from an iPod. I play in a band with some friends and plan to use this Fender PA system for small or outdoor shows. There are three of us in the band, and we needed vocal and laptop amplification. The PD-150 has three mic/instrument inputs, so we're all set.

It’s most cool as PA—the mixer is perfunctory but useful and welcome. It is a trade-off in terms of price, portability and integration—like a boom box versus a component system. The advantage of buying the speakers, amplifier and mixer separately is that you can customize the amount of power, mixer features, and speaker quality that you'd like, but it will be more expensive and harder to transport. The portable PA is just so cool in that it does the basics decently and packs itself into a supercompact little suitcase.

I purchased a PD-150 that I found on Craigslist for $150, but the current model is the PD-150 Pro, which supposedly has better sound quality, and adds a second stereo input. It’s also 3 pounds lighter.

-- Mark Groner

Fender Passport 150 Pro Portable Sound System
$315

Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Fender

Written by Matthew Amster-Burton

Got credit card debt? If so, good news: the card issuer can no longer hike your interest rate without warning or raise rates on an existing balance. They have to send your bill at least 21 days before it’s due (up from 14 days). And each bill has to show how long it will take to pay off the balance if you make the minimum payment–and how much you’ll pay in interest if you do that. Call it the credit card equivalent of the Surgeon General’s warning.

These reforms–and many others–are due to a single new law, the Credit CARD Act, which came into effect last month. Great! Who hasn’t been surprised by one or more of these practices?

“This new law is good, and it does stop a lot of bad things,” says Kathleen Day of the Center for Responsible Lending, a consumer watchdog group which published a handy guide to the new law. “But it doesn’t stop everything, and you know they’re going to find new ways around it.”

Why do the card issuers play these games? It’s not because they’re jerks and like watching you suffer. (That’s a side benefit.) They do it to make money. Take away these revenue streams, and the card companies aren’t going to roll over. Right now they’re rubbing their hands together and coming up with new schemes.

Let’s be like the writers on 24 who sit around coming up with hypothetical terrorist attacks, and figure out what the credit card issuers are going do next.

A crackdown on deadbeats

A deadbeat dad is one who never pays his child support on time. But to a credit card issuer, a deadbeat is just the opposite: a customer who always pays on time and therefore never pays any interest.

Interest is the single biggest chunk of credit card profits. The card issuers have always done their best to turn deadbeats into debtors. Got a pesky customer who always pays on time? Make sure their bill arrives a few days before it’s due, then, when they pay late, slap a 30 percent penalty APR on their entire balance.

The CARD Act makes it harder to pull this maneuver off: they have to send you the bill earlier, and you have to be 60 days late before they can jack your APR. But you can still blow it the old-fashioned way: occasionally pay less than the balance due.

“The house is making a bet that you will not live up to your intentions,” says Chris Farrell, author of The New Frugality and economics editor at American Public Media’s weekly radio show Marketplace Money. “If you will pay it off at the end of the month, and you can pay it off at the end of the month, and you actually have that discipline, it’s a really good deal. The strategy doesn’t work if it turns out you do it every other month.”

If you do show steely discipline and pay in full consistently, the card issuer is now likely to reward you by lowering your credit limit or canceling your account. Happy trails.

Here, have some rewards

That’s not to say that reward cards are going away. In order to explain why credit card issuers love reward cards, I have to use a term that will make many of you close your browser in disgust. It’s not dirty, it’s boring: interchange fees. Although, when you think about it, it does sound kind of dirty.

When you swipe your card for a $100 purchase at Urban Outfitters, the store doesn’t receive the full amount. A few pennies go to Visa (or MasterCard or Amex). A much larger chunk, 1 to 3 percent, goes to the bank that issued the credit card. This is the interchange fee.

The interchange fee isn’t the same on all transactions. It depends on a lot of factors, one of which is whether you’re using a reward card: reward cards carry higher interchange fees.

So, thanks to the CARD Act, you’ll be receiving more junk mail advertising reward cards (especially if you have a high FICO score). They’re a great deal for the banks: higher interchange fees; reward cardholders charge more than the average person, to maximize the reward; and a significant percent of the rewards go unredeemed. Got some useless air miles sitting around? Join the zero-mile-high club.

Oh, they’ll surely be hiking interchange fees, too. And since merchants aren’t allowed to charge customers extra for using a credit card, everyone will pay more–even cash customers.

Fees, fees, fees

“People are going to see many more fees,” says Kathleen Day. Here are a few favorites:

• Annual fees. The classic, and more popular than ever–especially for cardholders with low FICO scores.
• Inactivity fees. Some banks charge you an annual fee for not using your card or not using it enough. Damned if you do, et cetera.
• International exchange fees. As the New York Times reports, card companies charge up to 3 percent every time you make an international purchase–even if the purchase is in US dollars.

Payday…for the banks

Subprime mortgages are over. Credit card profits are down, thanks to debt-wary consumers and new laws. Even overdraft fees, a bank’s bread and butter, will be curtailed later this year. What’s a poor bank to do?

How about payday lending? As BusinessWeek reports:

Banks including Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bancorp, San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co., the fourth-largest U.S. bank, and U.S. Bancorp, based in Minneapolis, are already making such loans, usually from $100 to $500, at annual rates of 120 percent if repaid in 30 days. They’re known as “checking advance products.” That puts them in competition with so-called payday loan stores.

Lovely.

Opt out

In short, the CARD Act is good news, but credit card issuers still want to stick their hands far enough into your pockets to untie your shoes. What to do?

“Reward companies that provide a good service at a good price, and don’t do business with the ones who don’t,” says Farrell. “I hope credit unions and community development banks, which offer credit card products that are pretty simple and straightforward, take market share away” from the big banks. My credit union offers a simple, no-fee credit card at a competitive rate, but I don’t actually carry it. I did, however, sign up for their overdraft line of credit. If I ever were to need emergency cash–up to $1000–I can dip into the line of credit at a fixed 8.9 percent APR using my debit card. There’s no additional overdraft charge. (I’ve never used it.) The watchword with credit cards is the same as it ever was: check your statement for surprises and your back for knives.

For a long time now, my biggest complaint about the points of interest (restaurants, car dealers, etc) in Google Earth and Google Maps was that they weren't accurate enough. They were close, but not precise. Google has already provided tools to help place markers more accurately, but now you can use StreetView to put them right on the buildings!

The process is quite simple. First, click on a marker, then click "more", then click "Move marker", as seen below:

After you do that, you'll be presented with a split screen. Move the marker on the map or in the StreetView window to place it as accurately as possible.

Be sure to save you changes and you're done! Over time, this will help to make the layers in Google Earth considerably more accurate.

In a sad twist of fate, we've also learned that Google may stop updating their StreetView imagery in Europe. Google and the European Union continue to disagree on the length of time that Google should hold the unblurred imagery in storage, which has lead Google's Michael Jones to say:
"I think we would consider whether we want to drive through Europe again, because it would make the expense so draining," Michael Jones, Google's chief technology advocate and founder of Google Earth, said in an interview at the Cebit Technology Fair in Hanover.

At this point it seems unlikely that Google would stop capturing StreetView imagery over there, but the possibility now exists that they might.

These are very sturdy, inexpensive self-laminating folders to make luggage tags, or actually any gear. I wanted to make my own tags from my business cards and these were far and away the best option I found. I’ve now used them for two years of heavy business travel, and they’ve held up really well. We are buying another set, so the kids can make tags for their backpacks and sports bags.

-- Jon Margolis

Self-Sealing Glossy Laminating Pouches with Loops for Luggage Tags
$6 (5 Pack)

Available from Amazon

Manufactured by 3M

Written by John DeVore

We’re well aware of the old canard “the book is better than the movie.” But, every once in a while, the movie wins.

Hollywood doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to transforming bestselling novels and works of literature into popcorn movies. But on some rare occasions a movie comes along that improves on its source material. A clever screenwriter, an inspired director, and a pitch-perfect actor can interpret a book masterfully: streamlining stories, fleshing out characters, and cutting the fat.

10. Blade Runner (Director’s Cut)

Based on Philip K. Dick’s masterpiece “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” Ridley Scott’s atmospheric, cyberpunk noir takes a cerebral sci-fi landmark and turns it into a violent, visceral dirge about what it means to be human.

9. Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas

Director Terry Gilliam gave Hunter S. Thompson’s surreal, drug-fueled stumble through Las Vegas what it needed: a little bit more of a narrative. The book reads like you’re in a haze, which is how it was written. Gilliam contextualizes the movie, placing it firmly during the death spasm of the hippie promise. His lead, Johnny Depp, becomes Hunter in an eerily satisfying performance that never feels like caricature.

8. The Shining

Stephen King famously trashed this Stanley Kubrick adaptation, but he shouldn’t have. Kubrick took a perfectly spooky ghost story and created a horror movie game changer. It’s an oft-copied, sinister, and hypnotic tale of one man’s descent into madness.

7. Last of the Mohicans

James Fenimore Cooper’s 19th Century prose can be a slog for contemporary readers, but it didn’t stop Michael Mann from dusting it off and finding its pounding frontier heart. With the help of a superb cast, including a plausibly badass Daniel Day Lewis, this historical saga is the rare highbrow action film.

6. The Bridges of Madison County

This best-selling novel by Robert James Waller is a disciplined, if slim, tearjerker about an affair long dead. It seemed counterintuitive that Hollywood man’s man Clint Eastwood would take the Oprah’s Book of the Month Club Winner and with fellow icon Meryl Streep, transform it into a sweeping, bittersweet love letter to doomed romance.

5. The Godfather/The Godfather Part II

Mario Puzo wrote one of the great pulp gangster books of all time. Francis Ford Coppola made it into two movies as bleak, complex, and cathartic as a Shakespearean tragedy. It’s not just a saga about the mafia, like the book. Instead, the movie is about the dark side of the American dream.

4. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendary sword-and-sorcery tome has moments of brilliance punctuated by hundreds of pages of songs, Elvish genealogy, and exhaustive geographical Middle Earth detail. In making his modern cinematic classic, Peter Jackson ignored such passages and focused on the story – a particularly human story about good, evil, and the power of friendship.

3. The Maltese Falcon

Sam Spade is one of crime fiction’s greatest gumshoes: a tough-talking private dick with a moral code, stuck in an amoral world. A great read, but when a legend like Humphrey Bogart shows up in the movie all bets are off. Not even the most sublime imagination could dream up such a righteous, world-weary hangdog.

2. Fight Club

Chuck Palahniuk sly mediation on modern identity was transformed by director David Fincher into a testosterone fueled loony punk rock opera starring a brilliant Brad Pitt as an unhinged id and a slack-jawed Ed Norton as an everyman on the edge.

1. American Psycho

Bret Easton Ellis’s tongue-in-cheek thriller about a serial killer became instantly infamous for its shocking violence and gratuitous sex. Critics vilified the novel for depictions of unspeakable depravity. But the book’s main flaw was it’s sloppy ambiguity—is Patrick Bateman an actual madman or some feverish delusion? Director Mary Harron offered a solution in her smart, stylish, and chilling movie adaptation—she directly tells us who Patrick Bateman is, crafting an alternately terrifying and hilarious satire of machismo and impotence.

Bonus: Where can I buy these balloons?

Since Google Earth was first released, a variety of people (including myself) have looked for ways to use it for gaming. While it will never be a true gaming platform, there are still some fun choices out there to play with. Here are a few of the best:

• The Flight Simulator: This was first unveiled with Google Earth 4.2, and it's a built-in feature of Google Earth. You can fly as either an F16 or an SR22, and start from a variety of airports around the world. Press CTRL-ALT-A (or Command+Option+A on Mac) to get started. This video gives a nice overview of the controls:

• GEWAR: One of the first games people thought of when Google Earth came out was "Risk". Playing that kind of game on the Google Earth platform would be pretty cool. It was something I chewed on for a while, but couldn't figure out how to make it work. Eventually I discovered a way to create dynamic network links and I created "GE War" in mid-2005. It was mostly a proof-of-concept game, but it became quite popular. I eventually handed the game off to some of the more active players, and they've been improving it ever since. You can check it out at GEWar.net, where they have nearly 80,000 registered players.

• Ships: Last year, PlanetInAction.com released a neat game simply titled "Ships". It gave you the ability to take the helm on 3D ships, and was very well done. Here's a video tour of the game:

• Apollo 11 Moon Lander: The same guys that brought you "Ships" also released the "Apollo 11 Moon Lander" game. It's a very simple game, but it's very well executed with 3D models, responsive controls, and audio taken directly from the Apollo missions.

Beyond those, there are a wide variety of other games you can play. A few more:

• GEMMO: A DND-style game.
• Mars Sucks: Blast aliens from your space ship.
• Milktruck Madness: Drive a milktruck around the earth. No scoring or lives (and really, no point to it), but it's quite fun.
• Football: An American-style football game.

Do you know of any others we've missed? Let us know in the comments.

These double-sided clips from Calumet are perfect for controlling light within small-scale or tabletop photography setups. The sprung clips rotate on the steel U that connects them, so they’re easily manipulated to stand on their own, with one clip acting as a foot while the other clasps the reflector. They're sized to hold small homemade reflectors (Mylar glued to cardboard is one of my favorites, see below) in order to bounce light precisely where you need it on your miniature set. They can be used with something like a small piece of black foamcore to block light (flag), as well.

These little clips are among my most valuable tools for food photography; my ideal setup is a single large light source (often a window) and a bunch of 3"x3" reflectors on these clips to redirect the light within the scene (see below).

They’re superb for shooting jewelry, Lego constructions, anything small, putting highlights exactly where you want them or just bouncing bits of light to illuminate your subject.

-- Elon Schoenholz

Calumet Multiclip
$10
$9 (3 or more)

Available from Calumet Photo

Written by noupe

Photo manipulation is an art that requires lots of patience along with the expertise in Photoshop and other photo editing tools. With your creativity and imagination, you can manipulate any photograph the way you want! Now it’s all about your imagination and using Photoshop’s effects and other tools cleverly.

You simply have to experiment with different effects to see what feeling they give you as having expertise in Photoshop can help you greatly in producing amazing results. Here we’ve compiled a list of 40 great photo manipulation tutorials that would astonish you!

Photo Manipulation Tutorials

How to Create Glass Transparency in a Cute Photo Manipulation

In this tutorial you’ll learn how to incorporate glass into your work. We’ll learn a good technique for incorporating glass transparency into photo manipulations, while placing a cute, pirate hamster on the high seas. Let’s start!

Design a Surreal Desert Scene in Photoshop

In this tutorial artist is going to show you how to create a surreal time-themed photomanipulation using Photoshop. The name of this photomanipulation is “Time Guardian” and it was originally created by Mariusz Karasiewicz

How to Make a Melting Camera Scene

In this tutorial, we’ll use the Layer Mask Tool and Liquify filter to “melt” the camera. Artist recommends you work with a tablet for this one (it makes your work easier), but if you don’t have one it is also possible to go through this tutorial. Let’s start!

Blend a Planet Transparently into a Photo Manipulation

In this tutorial Artist will show you how to use different blending modes to blend flying hairs easily and to make semi-transparent planet. He will also show you different techniques of adjustment to get the most realistic results in your photo manipulations!

Making of the Imaginary Paint Dancers

Artist came across the amazing set of Paint Tossing freebies from Media Militia the other day and thought that he must create some artwork with them. So he visited my favorite Mjranum’s stock gallery again and done up this tutorial. Hope you will like it.

Robot Woman Photo Manipulation

If you want to take your photo manipulation skills to the next level, then we have an awesome tutorial for you. Learn more at the jump!

Alien Invasion

A step by step and detailed tutorial, you will find it very useful and interesting.

How to Create a Steampunk Style Illustration in Photoshop

Go simultaneously backward and forward in time with this Steampunk tutorial. The main focus, aside from the style of course, is fusing elements from different sources together to create a cohesive whole. There are many tricks to this end and we shall be looking at light sources, shadows, and image grading.

Create a Cyborg With Photoshop

In this tutorial you’ll discover how to incorporate mundane, everyday objects into a photoshop cyborg manipulation. Combining household objects with 3D renders is a technique that can and does have interesting results.

How to Create a Mythical Creature Photo Manipulation

If you want to take your photo manipulation skills to the next level, then we have an awesome tutorial for you. Learn more at the jump!

How to Create a Chilling Photo Manipulation in Photoshop

In this tutorial artist will show you how he created a fantasy photo manipulation called “You Can Not Frost The Time” with using several Photoshop tools such as Color Range, different blending modes, and more. Let’s get started!

How to Create a Fantasy Landscape Photo Manipulation

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a fantasy landscape using some simple and easy techniques. Everyone with basic Photoshop skills can succeed to recreate this simple image using the most important thing in this kind of photo manipulation – the right stock. So let’s go!

How to Create a Fallen Angel on Fire Photo Manipulation

If you want to take your photo manipulation work to the next level, then we have an exciting tutorial for you. We’ll work with fire and other images to create this fantasy scene. Learn more at the jump!

How to Create a Dark Emotional Photo Manipulation

This is a tutorial with a simple idea: to create an emotional photo manipulation. Following this tutorial, you will learn how to blend different images to make a dark atmospheric background, modify the dress of the model, apply makeup, paint hair, blend different objects in the background, and more – all to create a moody illustration. So, let’s start!

How to Create a Surreal Photo Manipulation with Twisting Water

In this tutorial, we’re going to create a fantasy photo manipulation mixing different images and learning to use and modify the stock images in a creative way. The idea is to get a compact image that looks absolutely real, and at the same time, absolutely impossible!

Photo Manipulate a Falling Angel

Learn how to combine several photos to create a dramatic ‘fallen angel’ scene.

Animal King Photo Manipulation

In this photoshop tutorial, you’ll learn how to mash up a series of photos in a highly creative poster based on a famous painting from the 1800’s. Let’s get started!

Design an Epic Fantasy Scene with Photoshop

In this tutorial we are going to create a photo manipulation inspired by Valhalla.

Create an Explosive Cover with Precise Photo Manipulation Techniques

In this tutorial, we’re going to make a creative illustration in a style meant for a video game cover or sci-fi book cover. We’ll create this with mostly photo manipulation techniques. With some cool Photoshop options you can turn all the photos you chose, into one stunning looking explosive cover.

Design a Dramatic and Surreal Rainy Scene with Photoshop

Learn all about how to manipulate images and combine them to create surreal scenes, in this case a rainy scene. Also, numerous details are covered in this tutorial such as adding highlights, shading, excellent photo-manipulation techniques, and more. Learn all about it at the jump!

The Making of Mystic

In this tutorial Nik Ainley walks us through the process of making a spectacular image. This tutorial focuses on the big picture steps taken to create this image. You’ll learn some incredible techniques in this tutorial, and get a view into how Nik creates beautiful photo-manipulation based images. Let’s check it out.

Fantastic Disintegration Effect inspired by Watchmen in Photoshop

In this tutorial artist will show you how to create the disintegration effect using brushes and the blur filter. It’s really simple and you will be able to create nice designs using this sort of trendy style of effect.

Making of the Magical Heroes

In this tutorial We will be creating a game poster with magical theme. This tutorial shows how to draw a sword from scratch and also introducing some of the latest high quality brushes on the internet.

Create amazing water-drenched photomontages

Nik Ainley shows you how to make a splash, blending two very different images to create this amazing underwater effect, complete with a dissolving figure of a man.

Torture a Man and Stitch himup

Transform a man into a torture victim with a couple tricks and some basic tools.

Creating a Glowing Sphere in An Inverted Image

Learn how you can create an interesting image by adding in some simple Photoshop effects and by inverting its colors! Inverting an image can sometimes produce unexpected results, and in this tutorial, you’ll learn and practice Filters – Liquify, Blur and Lens Flare tools to create additional effects and elements to make it more stunning.

How to Create a Mystery Photo Manipulation in Photoshop

In this tutorial artist will show you how to create a mystery photo manipulation using Photoshop brushes, different blend modes, and more. Let’s get started!

How To Create A Ripping And Tearing Poster Effect

In this tutorial we are going to turn a flat, artificial poster into something that looks as if it’s been hanging around on the wall for a long time.The initial poster was created using techniques that we have covered in previews tutorials. As you can see, it’s a brash image that looks nothing like a real poster.

Mysterious Hollow Dark landscape

A step by step and detailed tutorial, you will find it very useful and interesting.

How to Create a Photo Manipulation of a Flooded City Scene

In this tutorial, we will learn how to manipulate a simple photo into a flooding torrent of a scene. We’ll use some relatively simple techniques to give this image a semi-realistic, stylized feel. Let’s get started!

Scared Photomanipulation Tutorial

This tutorial will be a little different than all the other tutorials. Here artist will teach you some basic things about Photomanipulation.

How to Create a Slice of Nature Photo Manipulation

Today artist is going to show you how to put together a complex tree illustration. The idea for this tutorial is to show a workflow from concept to finish, not just so you can copy this illustration, but so that you can take the ideas behind it and use them for any design you have. It’s not just the finished design but the process we are after.

Self-initiated abstract art

In this tutorial artist will show you how – with a little time on your side – you can overcome the common myth of low budget work, creating an impressive piece of abstract work using Photoshop.

Dreamy photo effect

In this tutorial we will take a photo and use different color adjustments and something like pattern floral brushes to make it better or to make a different mood to our picture. So let’s go.

Dazzling Dance Photo Manipulation

In this detailed and lengthy Photoshop tutorial, you will learn how to combine photos and add special effects to turn a normal photograph into a stunning artwork. You will also learn several tricks to reduce your Photoshop document file size and number of layers and layer styles.

How to Create a Fantasy Scene with Death

In this detailed tutorial you will learn how to create a fantasy scene with death.

How To Create a Futuristic Sci-Fi Scene

In this tutorial, artist will guide you through the steps to create a futuristic sci-fi scene. We will transform original pictures using Photoshop tools that will help to give the image a more spectacular look.

Create a Colorful Woodpecker and Tree Scenery

This tutorial is intended for everyone who is beginning at digital drawing/painting, if you like drawing and Photoshop then you are the perfect candidate to follow this tutorial.

Create a Beautiful Lonely Fantasy Fairy

This tutorial will explain how to make a beautiful fairy from a single source image. We’ll go over each step on how to make the feathers, the hat, the background, the grass and the mountains.

How to Create a Severed Arm in Photoshop

In this tutorial we will be learning how to create a severed arm with fleshy stumps and strings of sinew. This will be created by using some basic Brushes and Layer Masks. Let’s get started!

Other Useful Resources

• Photo-manipulation Tutorials
• 30+ Most Wanted Photo Manipulation Tutorials in Photoshop
• 18 Fresh Photoshop Photo Manipulation Tutorials
• 60 Elegant Photo Manipulation Tutorials