Earlier today,  Sitepoint announced the giveaway of a well-written book by Corrie Haffly, titled “The Photoshop Anthology.”  All that’s needed is an e-mail address.  After about 10 minutes I was e-mailed a download link which is accessible for up to 30 days.  The book is in PDF format, and available in two resolutions.  Sizes are 64MB for the high-res and 23MB for the low-res, in case bandwidth is an issue (does that even matter these days?)

The download is sponsored by Sitepoint’s affiliate, 99designs.

If you’d like to take advantage of the offer, click on the image below to pay a visit.  It wouldn’t help to browse the site for a few Photoshop tips, either.

Most of you iPhone users who also happen to participate in Brightkite (review here) likely heard the news that the iPhone version of Brightkite is now available.

Currently, the app is in it’s alpha stages, missing a few features such as friendship management, but for the most part all other features attached to Brightkite main page are available via the mobile version.  So when you get a chance, pick up that iPhone and surf over to http://i.brightkite.com and check it out.  Once you’ve done that, make sure to post your thoughts and any bugs on their support page.

Source from: Brightkite’s Blog

There once was a time when you had to wait a good 20 minutes to watch a good video on the net. Well times have changed and online viral videos have become huge! I have been collecting great viral videos from all over the net for a few weeks now. Here are some of my favorites. I know some of these are trying to be real but they are actually fake, please don’t whine about it in the comments section.

Some of these videos are for mature audiences. While they are all clean visually, some of them are based on sexual explicit topics and use foul language. I have identified which ones are mature with the letters NSFW (Not Suitable For Work)

The Babysitter: (NSFW)

Flagpole Sitta Lip Sink:

Facebook Reality:

There are more after the jump. I hope you are enjoying them so far!

Move over Twitter and Pownce, Brightkite is now on the scene.

Brightkite is the latest in social networking websites which have sprouted all over the Internet. This one offers a bit of a twist. Not only can you post messages and pictures via SMS, e-mail, or even its own web interface, but it also allows broadcasting your exact location to those around you. This could include friends, or the entire Brightkite universe.

With location-based networking, this allows for easier access to others who live, work, or play around the area. With the help of its “check-in” feature, you can be notified when someone is around however you would like via e-mail, or SMS. With this comes a few safety features. The privacy option allows you to limit to how much of your location is posted to certain people. You can decide to broadcast your exact address to the universe (although we’d never recommend it), versus broadcasting to your friends only. For those of us who have locations we visit often, there’s the “placemark” setting which you can use in place of retyping the same location over and over again. This is especially useful when checking in via SMS.

In terms of sending pictures, currently e-mail is the only option available. You are given a unique e-mail address, bound to your account, which allows for pictures to be posted on the timeline. Just like when sending SMS it correlates with the last place you checked in, and you can even attach a short note or caption via the subject line.

Brightkite also includes integration with Twitter. Currently, it’s the only option to search for those on your follow list to see if they too are on Brightkite. Also, each time you check in to a new location, Brightkite sends a message using your Twitter account announcing that location. Of course, this is all optional, but worth it if you’d like to keep those following you in the know.

Currently Brightkite is in beta, but invites have been passed around all over the community. Upcoming features in Brightkite include extended access in Twitter, as well as a Brightkite iPhone application.  In addition there’s the ability to enter your e-mail address on the site itself and pray for an invite. Most people have been successful with receiving one, but there’s always an odd man out.

You can check out Brightkite over at www.brightkite.com.  They also have a blog located at http://blog.brightkite.com

See you there.

Adobe® AIR™ is slowly becoming the next big thing for developers. It is a platform that uses already developed web techniques like Ajax, Flex, and Flash to create desktop applications that work across all operating systems. Many sites like AOL, Finetune, eBay, Nasdaq, Pownce, and Nickelodeon have already taken advantage of this new technology.

I am currently using the Pownce application which allows you to share content and see what others have shared with you without the use of a browser. On top of it being covenant, Adobe® AIR™ allows you to design outside the standard Windows window design. As you can see in my screenshot of the Pownce program to the left.

There are a ton of programs that are being developed for the Adobe® AIR™ platform. Check out the application showcase to see if there are any programs that might interested you. Some popular websites like Twitter, Digg, Google, and Flickr have some great third party designed applications. The main applications I use currently are Pownce, Twitter, and Digg.

I am currently looking for someone to help me develop a ToBeAGeek.com RSS reader. If you have experience working with Adobe® AIR™ and are interested please contact me.

Related Links

-Get the free AIR SDK
-Download Adobe AIR now
-Get Adobe AIR applications

I am a big fan of all the goodness that is Web 2.0 and New Media. Here is a list of my favorite web celebrities and a little bit about each of them. Enjoy, let me know if you think I missed someone.

Leo Laporte

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Laporte
Twitter: Leo Laporte Twitter

How You Might Know Them: I like to refer to Leo as the Godfather of Podcasting. This guy spends more time creating podcast then anyone in the business. Leo is the lead host of many of the shows found on the TWiT Network. Some of his podcast include TWiT, The Tech Guy, Macbreak Weekly, and Net @ Night just to name a few.