The Graphic Mac

Apple enters the energy business

General / Links
17 Jun, 2016

Apple’s Singapore solar project

Last week, Apple quietly dropped a bombshell in the energy industry, launching an entirely new subsidiary called Apple Energy that will manage the complexities of its renewable energy efforts.

What started out as simply “the right thing to do,” Apple is now seeking the ability to sell energy to end users and other companies. I don’t see Apple making a windfall from selling renewable energy, but the fact that they could essentially make a profit off their own energy use is, well… it’s typical Apple.

I think it’s awesome that Apple is doing this—no matter what the true reason—and I hope other companies follow.

Tutorial: Securely erasing a Mac SSD drive

Mac & OS X
7 Jun, 2016

Tutorial: Securely erasing a Mac SSD drive

With an SSD drive, Secure Erase and Erasing Free Space are not available in Disk Utility. These options are not needed for an SSD drive because a standard erase makes it difficult to recover data from an SSD.

Even though Apple states that you really don’t need to perform a Secure Erase on an SSD Drive, Peter Cohen put together a great tutorial on how to do just that over at the BackBlaze Blog. For those who take security seriously, Peter’s “Better safe than sorry” article is worth the read.

What’s new in Suitcase Fusion 7 [Video]

Mac & OS X
6 Jun, 2016

What's new in Suitcase Fusion 7 [Video]

A quick video overview of Extensis Suitcase Fusion 7. You can read my review here.

Test your Internet connection speed with Netflix

General
2 Jun, 2016

Test your Internet connection speed with Netflix

Netflix Speed Test
Tech-savvy users have tested their Internet connection speed at least once. And if you have, you’ve no doubt used a site that offers a horrible, ad-infested service. Netflix has fixed that with their new speed-testing tool at Fast.com. It’s simple, as in you don’t even have to click anything. Simply go to the site and your speed is displayed in seconds.

Suitcase Fusion 7: It’s kind of a big deal

General / Mac & OS X
1 Jun, 2016

As a graphic designer, I have a small set of tools that I depend on and trust. Since fonts are the lifeblood of most designers, a great font manager is vital to our workflow. I’ve been using Suitcase for decades because I’ve found it to be the best all-around tool for the job. It’s compatible with all my design apps, it’s fast and stable, and it offers just the right amount of nice new features to keep me upgrading. I fear that my reviews of each new release are beginning to sound like a broken record. (more…)

Photoshop CC to add Content Aware Crop

Photoshop
31 May, 2016

By now you may have heard that Adobe plans to add a Content Aware Crop tool feature to Photoshop CC with the next update. You may be thinking that they already have that feature available, and you would be somewhat correct. You can already do what the video above shows manually, but the new tool will simplify the process.

Let’s talk color

General / Links
20 May, 2016

Let's talk color

Brands are built over time. In the beginning it’s important to simply target a color that will do three things:
• Resonate with your target audience
• Capture the emotion and tone of your brand
• Separate yourself from your competition

Hourly rate calculator

General / Links
18 May, 2016

Hourly rate calculator

What should I charge for my design services? There’s no easy answer to this often asked question. Check out this rate calculator.

Print is still here, but it won’t save journalism

Internet / Links
12 May, 2016

The cost of a full-page weekday ad in the print edition of the LA Times, reaching 500,000 people is about $50,000.

The cost of a ad on LATimes.com to reach the same 500,000 people is about $7,000.

The cost of an ad reaching 500,000 people that’s served up by Google and appears on LATimes.com can be as little as $20.

Looking at those figures, it’s easy to see why companies have all but moved completely to web-based advertising.

The problem is two-fold: First, when you pay for a subscription to a print product, you almost certainly read it… cover-to-cover. When you view web pages for news, you almost certainly either block the ads, or have grown so used to them that you don’t even see them. So while it’s cheaper to advertise on the web, it is my opinion that most companies are throwing their money away. They fall in love with social media shares/likes, click-through rates, page views, and a host of other analytics—but they fail to accept the only number that counts: sales!

The second problem is that due to the first, journalism has devolved into click-bait producing bloggers being paid $25 per post to “report the news.” They do this because they can’t afford to pay real journalists to investigate stories and spend time crafting something worth paying for. And because of that, I’m not willing to pay for it.

It’s a vicious circle.

Free vector art: Camera icons

Resources
11 May, 2016

Download this set of 36 camera vector icons (2.2MB), perfect for your website, logo or print designs. The set has been made available exclusively to Graphic Mac readers by Vandaley Design.

The camera icons come in AI, EPS, SVG, PNG and PSD format.

Be sure to check out the thousands of Vandaley Design’s PSDs, vector art, textures, templates and other resources—all affordably priced starting at just $10 per month.

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