Flash – The Graphic Mac

Completely remove Flash from Mac OS X

James — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 13:00:18 +0000

If you’re having issues with Adobe Flash player in Mac OS X, simply removing the control panel from the System Preferences (by right-clicking on the icon) or doing a manual search through the Applications folder in the Finder isn’t going to work. But there is a relatively painless way to do it.

You can completely remove Flash in Mac OS X by following the instructions Adobe has provided on their website, including running the uninstaller.

How to disable Flash in Google Chrome browser for Mac

James — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 16:00:03 +0000

If you’re like me and find Flash to be an annoyance with its constant crashing, slowing down your browsing, security risks, and ramping-up of your Mac’s cooling fans when in use, you’ll no doubt want to turn off/remove Flash from your Mac. If you use Firefox or Safari, you simply have to remove the System Preference Pane item by right-clicking the icon and choosing to remove it.

If you’re using Google’s Chrome browser, it’s a bit more difficult. That’s because Google includes Flash as part of the browser itself. Thankfully, they’ve included it as a plug-in which can be turned off.

Type about:plugins in the URL bar and hit Return/Enter. A list of the plug-ins you have installed is displayed. Note that these are plug-ins, not extensions you install from the Chrome Store. Find the Adobe Flash Player plugin in the list and tick the Disable checkbox. After restarting Chrome, Flash will be off.

The downside is that Flash will be re-enabled the next time Google updates Chrome, which is quite often. You can download Flash blocker extensions, but I prefer to completely remove it and save myself the overhead of having yet another extension installed.

Adobe’s complicated CS6 pricing – and a few discounts

James — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:31:34 +0000

Adobe is offering some nice Creative Suite CS6 upgrade and Creative Cloud subscription discounts. If you’re debating about upgrading, perhaps one of these discounts will make the decision for you. That is, if you can figure out which upgrades you’re eligible for, and for how long.

Creative Cloud

Creative Suite 3 and higher owners can purchase a Creative Cloud subscription by August 31, 2012 and receive your first year for only $30 per month (regularly $50 per month). Creative Cloud subscriptions include the entire Adobe Master Collection set of apps, all Adobe’s Touch apps, and a host of cloud services.

Free upgrade to CS6

If you’re still running Creative Suite 3, 4 or 5, you can order CS 5.5 now and get CS6 for free when it ships.

Lightroom 4

Purchase Adobe Lightroom 4 for $99 when you buy it with Photoshop CS 6 or any CS 6 Suite Edition.

It’s complicated

Maybe I’m just not remembering things as well, but I don’t ever recall Adobe’s upgrade options being so complicated. I was looking to upgrade my CS Design Premium Suite to CS6, when I clicked the upgrade option drop-down menu, it damn near scrolled off my screen. There are three different prices for the 23 possible upgrade paths.

The important thing to note, that has not been widely publicized or obvious on the upgrade pages, is the fact that upgrade pricing to CS6 from ANY VERSION lower than CS 5.5 ends on December 31, 2012. So basically, if you want to maintain upgrade pricing in the future, you WILL be upgrading this year.

What is somewhat unclear is what qualifies as an upgrade. Unless I’m mistaken, in the past you couldn’t cross-path upgrade. In other words, you couldn’t upgrade a Standard Edition Suite to a Master Collection Suite, or a Premium Edition Suite to a Standard Edition Suite. With CS6, it appears you can cross-upgrade Suites in any way. Again, I’m not clear, but it would be nice if that is indeed correct.

And finally, starting with the release of Creative Suite 6, individual upgrades — both CS suite editions and point products like Adobe Photoshop CS6 and Illustrator CS6 — are available for purchase only through Adobe.com.

What version should you upgrade to? Should you go the Creative Cloud route? Hell, I don’t know. The simple answer is if you currently use the Master Collection (all of Adobe’s apps), and like to stay current, you should definitely get Creative Cloud. Beyond that, it’s more complicated. If you’ve remained current (you’re running CS 5.5), your upgrade options are clear and fairly affordable. If you’re running a Suite or individual app older than CS 5.5, the options aren’t as clear, and are nowhere near as affordable. As for me, I think I’ll be sticking with the boxed version of the Design Premium Suite.

Elmedia Player Pro: View, download & manage video files (15% off)

James — Mon, 02 May 2011 13:00:16 +0000

If you’re looking for a simple, one app solution to viewing, downloading and managing video files on your Mac, Eltima Software has the solution for you.

Let me start out by saying that Eltima offers a free version of Elmedia Player, but I don’t recommend it because there are already several plugins and apps that integrate with the Mac OS and your browser to simply view videos not natively supported on the Mac. While Elmedia Player (free) does this well, it adds an extra step vs. browser plugins, etc. For a truly full-featured solution, you really need Elmedia Player Pro ($19.95).

Elmedia Player Pro allows you to easily download web video from most popular sites

Elmedia Player Pro is an iTunes-like application which allows you to view and download FLV, SWF, XAP (Silverlight), RM and RV (Real), AVI, MOV, MP4, WMV, and DIVX formatted videos from popular sites like YouTube, Vimeo, etc. – then view and manage them just as you would your music in iTunes.

It would be repetitive to review all the features already listed on the Elmedia Player Pro page, you can view them for yourself on the Elmedia Player feature page. In my testing, all the features worked as advertised.

What I liked most about the application was the fact that Eltima didn’t try to reinvent the wheel. The app borrows heavily from the iTunes look and feel, which means I was comfortable to jump right in. There was little configuration necessary to start using the app, just drop a URL into the URL bar and you can start viewing and downloading videos immediately.

Elmedia Player Pro downloads videos to your hard drive, making them easily accessible

Better yet, your downloaded videos are stored on your hard drive just as any other file instead of using some obscure application database method. This allows you to use the files easily in any other application you choose.

If you’re looking for a simple way to view, download and manage your video files, categorizing them in playlists, then give Elmedia Player Pro a try.

The Graphic Mac readers can get 15% off the purchase price of $19.95 by using the following coupon code at checkout time: GRAPH-MAC-15.

Cool Web Site: Buffalo Wild Wings

James — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:32:03 +0000

If you’ve followed this site for a long time, you’ll know my utter hatred for Flash Web sites. I find them clunky, slow and generally not worth the time it takes to load when all is said-and-done. In most cases, it appears that the designer built the site simply to show off the fact that they know every nifty Flash trick in the book. But there are always exceptions, and Buffalo Wild Wings is one of them.

Buffalo Wild Wings has one of the few really cool Flash sites

The site is uber-cool. Moving your mouse over virtually everything results in something happening. Sometimes it’s as simple as a sound-effect, other times a menu pops-up, or a list of locations, etc. Buffalo Wild Wings is a fun sports bar – so it doesn’t have to present valuable information in an overly-simplified matter. The site simply exists to promote itself, tell you a bit about the business, where they’re located, and notify you of any promotions they may have going on. I love the fact that it’s a single-page site, and I’m not forced to sit through worthless intro-videos on every page. Check it out!

The coolest Web site on the Internet?

James — Wed, 06 May 2009 13:50:09 +0000

I haven’t yet seen EVERY site on the Web, but Bio-Bak is definitely one of the coolest sites I’ve seen in as long as I can remember. Upon entering the site, you navigate around simply by “dragging” the page around your screen. I recommend going with the full screen mode. You must find the toolbox, then the metal detector. Once you do that, the metal detector will help you find the missing tools. Once you’ve collected all the tools, you can “zoom out” on the site to see the much larger picture. And trust me, it’s worth seeing!

Is this the coolest site on the Web?

There’s a lot of animated illustration work on this site – quite frankly the whole thing is just stunning. Needless to say, if your client is looking for something out of this world for their Web site, this guy can probably help you out.

How to avoid flash blow out in your digital photos

James — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 15:30:55 +0000

You’ve been in the situation. You’re up close to your subject in a low-light situation, you take the picture and the flash goes off. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime shot – but when you check the photo, it’s completely washed out and white from the flash. Digital Photography School has 7 Strategies for Avoiding Flash Blow Out in your digital photos. One of the techniques I really love using is #4 on their list, commonly referred to on digital cameras is “night mode.” This mode uses a technique called slow sync flash, where the camera shutter stays open a little longer to allow more light in, and then the flash goes off at the beginning or end of the shot. This method allows you to allow more ambient light from the background, while still freezing the action when the flash goes off. The technique can produce stunning results.