I’ve been giving this app a test drive for the past month — as a full replacement to Photoshop — and it’s holding up surprisingly well.

Transmit 4. It’s easy to use, but there’s a whole lot under the surface. And while we try to design apps for the majority, sometimes we throw in some power user features for the pros. As the Finnish always say, “always add a few extra blood dumplings when cooking mykyrokka for a tonttu-ukko!”

So here are 15 “secrets” of Transmit 4. Hopefully you’ll learn at least one new thing!

Awesome.

jQTouch is a jQuery plugin with native animations, automatic navigation, and themes for mobile WebKit browsers like iPhone, G1, and Pre.

You can preview right on your iPhone or watch a demo.

(thx, Scott)

Below is a list of applications and their compatibility status with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, the most recent operating system from Apple.

Update: Apple now has their own incompatibility list.

SSL was initially positioned as an upgrade driver to higher plans. And while we don’t know what percentage of people considered SSL a key reason for upgrading, we believe everyone is entitled the best security we can offer. There shouldn’t be first class or second class customers when it comes to security. It doesn’t matter if Customer A is paying us $149 and Customer B is not paying us at all — they are all customers and their data is equally important.

This is the first step in our renewed focus on being a better corporate citizen. We plan on rolling out similar SSL upgrades across our entire product line (Highrise, Backpack, and Campfire). We’re also examining additional good citizen initiatives beyond security. Profit will be considered (we are a business, after all), but it won’t always come first.

His claim that crappy code is inevitable is based on the notion that crappy code is cheaper than clean code, and that therefore businesses will demand the crap every time. But it has generally not been business that has demanded crappy code. Rather it has been developers who mistakenly thought that the business’ need for speed meant that they had to produce crappy code. Once we, as professional developers, realize that the only way to go fast is to create clean and well designed code, then we will see the business’ need for speed as a demand for high quality code.

I’m in the business of web-based software and website development where clean code is paramount but deadlines always seem to win. There just aren’t enough hours in the day and days in the month to get through all the requirements. The process usually works like this: business development sells the job, design chews through the schedule, development is a rush, and quality assurance is an after thought. And, as Bob and Ed clearly point out, this is certainly not the best way to develop software or websites.

(Thx, Tim)

 -webkit-border-image

Launchpad HQ:

So for example, the image to the right is an original image from the iPhone. Its width is 29px. That breaks down to there being 14px on the left and right, defining the rounded corners and a 1px sliver which is the body of the button. So, in theory, if you were able to keep the left and right sides of the button stationary while expanding the 1px center piece, this would create a horizontally-scalable button with only one image.

But alas, how would we do this using only CSS? Well, I started digging around Safari’s ‘-webkit’ innards, and was able to to use the -webkit-border-image to accomplish exactly what I wanted.

This goes very nicely with the iPhone GUI PSD.

Here at The Times, we often hear a common story of usage from our customers: Reading the Sunday Times, spreading out the paper on a table while eating brunch. For many of our customers, this ritual is fundamental to their enjoyment of the weekend, and its absence would be jolting.

With this in mind, we present an as-yet-unnamed article skimmer. Think of it as an attempt to provide the Sunday Times experience anytime. Of course, there are parts we can’t replicate: the satisfying crinkle of the paper; the circular stain of your coffee; the smell of newsprint.

…

Please note: Sunday Browsing is not compatible with Internet Explorer 6, but is compatible with Internet Explorer 7 and 8.

(via)

For each and every PNG, GIF or JPG I sliced out of this beautiful design, Photoshop seemingly stripped the brightness and sharpness from the images. My template’s images looked perfect in Safari, Opera, and IE—even IE6!—but not in Firefox. Firefox, in which I do my initial development, is apparently the only browser in the market which acts this way: (I eventually learned) it cannot read color profiling embedded in images. Let me say that differently: Firefox 3 can read profiles, but they’re turned off and only available with an add-on or some configuration changes. I changed every possible setting in the Photoshop “Save for Web…” dialog with no success.

After further snooping and a little detective work in our design department, I learned my version of Photoshop was embedding a color profile—without my knowing—and this profile wasn’t “generic.” The generic profile means Photoshop won’t “color manage” your file and save it out to whichever format specified in true color. Interestingly enough, CS2 was making matters worse for me. I hadn’t yet upgraded to CS3 at work, so after doing just that, I followed these instructions—which should be set by default in Photoshop—and am feeling happy again.

(via SimpleBits)

In a QuickTime screencast, Adobe’s Russell Brown demonstrates content-aware scaling, a feature of Photoshop CS4, due to be released this month. 

A lower-resolution YouTube demo from Lynda.com is available here, if you don’t want to download a huge QuickTime movie. The content is different, but you’ll get the idea.

Adobe licensed an algorithm that senses “dead” areas in photos, and resizes the image to avoid squashing or stretching every object.

In the video, Brown demonstrates resizing an image of four golfers, interactively removing space between and around the golfers, but leaving the golfers’ proportions correct. He also demonstrates resizing a Volkswagen bus, making it a more “economical” size, but automatically keeping the wheels round.

(via TUAW)

Ignore the fact the D700 isn’t in the list of newly-supported cameras. Adobe lies.

Did I get enough exercise today? How many calories did I burn? Am I getting good quality sleep? How many steps and miles did I walk today? The Fitbit Tracker helps you answer these questions.

Hi Mark,

This should be fixed in the next update. (Not 1.5.1, which was made available today, but the next update after that.)

Thanks!

If you were wondering, it’s a JScript syntax highlighting error in ASP-HTML mode that turns everything purple after a greater than symbol (>) and everything green after a single quote (‘string’).

In July we announced that we would be phasing out support for Internet Explorer 6 on August 15, 2008. To make the transition easier, we’ve extended that deadline to October 1, 2008. From now until October 1st, anyone using IE 6 to access Basecamp (or our other products) will receive a notice every 3 days letting them know they’ll need to upgrade their browser before October 1, 2008 in order to continue to use Basecamp. The notice will be displayed in the web browser and will include links to download a modern browser (IE 7, Firefox, or Safari). This notice will also be shown to your clients who use Basecamp. You may want to re-read the announcement so you are prepared for any questions they may have. If you have any questions please contact support. Thanks for your patience during the transition.

They’re leading the way — along with MobileMe — and I couldn’t be happier.

Coda 1.5 adds a number of major new features, including:

• Fully integrated source control with Subversion
• Find and replace across multiple local files
• Easier-than-ever text clips with groups
• A user-customizable bookshelf
• Improved AppleScript

Best of all: it’s a free update.

Today, I’m going to give it another shot. I’m hopeful with the new redesign and a bus load of new features, they’ve ironed out the kinks.

At Bat’s best feature, and the only one that makes it worth $5, is access to video highlights of both completed and in-progress games. Within 15 minutes of an eventful moment in a game, the highlight appears in a menu that appears when you tap on the small video camera icon next to the game’s score.

This app rewards me every day, and is well worth the $5.

Computerworld is reporting that our friends in the UK have been frustrated by the iPhone 3G launch. It would seem that while the iPhone 3G is for sale in Apple Stores, the activation process isn’t working smoothly (sound familiar?). Why is that, you ask? Because O2, that’s the UK wireless company that has the iPhone, uses an activation system that only works with IE. Apple had to install Fusion on the Macs in the UK Apple Stores in order to activate iPhones on the spot, and it seems that the system isn’t working as smoothly as many would like.

via TUAW.

I am in the middle of a site redesign, and this is one less thing standing in my way. I like 37signals’ take on MobileMe and IE6: I, too, am hoping this is the beginning of a trend. 

I’ve been looking for something like this to replace Leopard’s default calendar widget on the Dashboard. The newly-released widget is from Ben Kazez and a free download.

Via DF.

Who was it that said “just because it’s possible doesn’t mean it should be done?”

Coda 1.0.5

This is the second web app in as many days that’s wowed me. Indeed, a good week!