One of my jobs as a book editor is to advocate for the reader, making sure the information is accessible independently of whatever inside knowledge I might already possess. So when Derrick sent out an announcement to O'Reilly team that the new Digital Media Newsletter was ready for viewing, rather than just have him send me a copy, I thought...

Photoshop World is one of my favorite conferences of the year in terms of actually sitting down in sessions and learning something. In fact, there's learning to be had all over the Hynes Center next week, much of it brought to you by O'Reilly authors: Deke McClelland will be giving his orientation to Photoshop CS3 live and in color. This...

So CS3 is official, and the first thing anyone familiar with Photoshop is going to notice is that the interface has changed with this version. Our own Deke McClelland, of Photoshop One-on-One fame, has graciously stopped by with some interface wisdom to help you get your bearings. For the full Deke experience, be sure to pick up your copy of...

Stephen Johnson checked in to say he was back from Antarctica, I went looking online to see if any photos were posted yet. (I'm partial to penguins.) But I ended up engaged by this report from the trip's organizer Michael Reichmann about how various pieces of equipment fared under the extreme circumstances. I have a similar fascination with Derrick's anecdotes...

This week's podcast episode (#22) of the iLifeZone features a live taping from Macworld earlier this month, wherein Scott Bourne, Derrick Story, Chris Breen and the "token girl" discussed the fact that January came early this year and none of the cool stuff was ready to be taken home. Here are a few of my observations: With a recently deceased...

Last night, four of our photographer-authors met at bay area bookstore Book Passage to discuss the joys and pains of the digital photographic experience. (Can't say enough what a cool bookstore that is!) A lively, engaged, and intelligent audience of close to 100 people (many more than the store expected, they kept adding chairs, but many were still standing wherever...

Despite all the cool features we're discovering in the Photoshop CS3 public beta, one of the most talked about items seems to be the replacement of the "feather" icon with a simple 2-letter "Ps" on a blue block. Because the public beta also gives us a glimpse of the "Br" icon that comes with Bridge CS3, we can extrapolate that...

If you do nothing else this weekend besides shopping and downloading the Photoshop CS3 public beta, I highly recommend watching at least the second entry ("The new interface") in Deke McClelland's video Photoshop CS3 Beta One-on-One Preview, which is available for free viewing for the time being from lynda.com (you'll see a link to Deke's video at the top of...

By now you've heard, Adobe has announced that a public beta version of Photoshop CS3, will be made available starting tomorrow to anyone with a valid CS2 serial number. This unprecedented release gives users (especially Intel-Mac users who will get to benefit from the Universal Binary-ness of CS3) a chance to see what's in store for Photoshop before the official...

"Tis the season for gift guides to be sure. (Yes, we have one here if you're looking for an O'Reilly book.) But I'm guessing many people are going to follow Scott Bourne's advice from the end of the great gift-giver's guide edition of the iLifeZone podcast (episode 16) and just go for the iPod. Why not? Scott's right, this gift...