Not everyone has the talent to be a professional in the arts, but that doesn’t make that itch not worth scratching every once in awhile. While serious types often spend lots of cash on the latest design software, more casual types try our hand at creating without the serious loot. Aviary is a cheaper way to give into your artistic whims. The site that comes off like an online Photoshop, complete with visual laboratory, image editor and color palettes. It allows aspiring artists of all genres — whether they long to be an audio editor or graphic designer — to indulge their imaginative sweet tooth. Go ahead, poke around and see what inspiration comes out.

I first remember playing The Oregon Trail back in first grade. Our screens may have only been green and black and our discs floppy, but we thought it was the coolest thing ever. In fact, it may have been one of my first experiences ever using a computer. I could ford the mightiest rivers and shoot the most squirrely squirrels–as well as the most seasoned frontiersman. Sure, I might have lost my wife and a few kids along the way, but they were dead weight anyways. You can imagine my surprise when I heard that a new version of The Oregon Trail is being released for the iPhone on February 28th. Now I’ll be able to die of dysentery and use Wikipedia to see what dysentery is, all while I’m on the go. This new version features updated graphics and game play, but I really hope they maintain the original integrity of the old-school game.

Where would you be without Adobe? Since they launched Photoshop in 1989, the technologically ubiquitous software company has been vital in transferring your imagination onto your computer screen. By creating programs like Dreamweaver, Illustrator, and After Effects (among others) you may think they’ve already seen a lifetime of inspiration through to its logical conclusion. But they already have. While Adobe may not be boasting about a program that can help you conjure graphic brilliance from thin air, INSPIRE, a new bi-monthly web publication from Adobe’s Experience Design team (a seriously bad ass group) is a welcome supplement to the company’s cluster of creativity. The online periodical seeks to connect the developer/designer community and put an accent on the importance of experience when it comes to dealing with a wide variety of applications. The new web mag will feature a new theme every two months and include videos, posts, and presentations from different conferences around the world. The theme for the inaugural issue is “New Experiences” and we’re confident after this new experience you’ll keep coming back for more. Even the UI of the site is inspiring, congratulations guys.

Also, be sure to watch the video of Chris Heimbuch, XD Practice Lead, and Ty Lettau, XD Design Manager, discuss the whys and wherefores of Inspire.

Attention webmasters! Does clicking on your site’s thumbnails to load a larger image often slow surfing to a snail’s pace? Perhaps you should get a hold of FancyZoom 1.1, a new Javascript code developed by Panic.com’s Cabel Maxfield Sasser. It allows visitors to magnify the photos on your site without the pain of a separate page load. The new program brings the smoothest zooming animation possible with only two additional lines of HTML code. See it for yourself by downloading the .zip file at Cabel’s site.

Obsessive compulsives unite! If the thought of unmatched cover art and track naming in your iTunes keeps you up at night (”N.E.R.D… Nerd…. NERD. Stop the madness!”) then help is on the way.

TuneUp is a new iTunes plugin that digs into your library, references it against the more than 90 million tracks in the heaven-sent Gracenote Database, and then fills in correct song titles, album names, artist names, and more. Even better, it also accesses Amazon and Google to pick up the matching album art — an absolute must for anyone addicted to Coverflow. Once your iTunes is running like a well-organized machine, TuneUp goes one step further and scans the web for info about your fave musicians: tour dates, new YouTube videos, and collectibles and other die hard fan-swag on eBay and other retail sites.

The only drawback is that right now only a Windows version is available (maybe a little odd considering the plugin is designed for a program and device created by Apple), but a Mac-compatible version is scheduled for release this fall. So until then, for all the Macaholics it's more long nights searching Google Images for that perfect high-res image of “Licensed to Ill”. Damn.

One of the most usable and underrated apps we have in our Mac OS’ is Stickies. I find myself using them all the time– for taking notes, jotting to-do lists, scribing passwords, editing text, etc. SketchBox is a donationware app for OS X that expands the functionality of our default Stickies by adding drawing functionality, timers to remind your forgetful self, and a sexier interface that helps you organize your notes. It’s admittedly cliché to to say “we all know we could use a little more organization in our lives”– but it’s so true, dammit!

Via Lifehacker

Anyone working in the creative industry has experienced the annoyance of being sent information in the wrong format– and nothing zaps time and creative inspiration like the ensuing conversion process. You can buy software to help you deal with it, but, well… that sucks, almost as much as the accompanying email chain with your clueless clients. So, it’s with no small amount of pride that I present to you Zamzar, a (free!) online file conversion service that is equipped to handle a veritable boatload of file types that might just make your job significantly easier. Zamzar’s easy to use; all it requires of you is the bunk file, your email address, and the format which you would like your file to be converted to and bam. Magic. I don’t think Zamzar is entirely spankin’ new; I get the feeling people have been clued into this for much longer than I have, but just in case any of you readers could benefit from something like this, here you go. Because sharing is caring, etc.

My friend Angela put it best last week when she said, “I’ve reached maximum social networking saturation.” As a one-time rabid Dodgeball member (whose future seems uncertain now, having been abandoned by Dens & Alex under unfortunate circumstances), as well as a light-to-moderate Facebook/IILWY/Twitter user, dispassionate Myspace-er and obsessed Blackberry owner, I think she’s right. I’m connected 101% of the time, and although this isn’t exactly news to me, I still have those moments where I realize that disengaging myself every now and then may be beneficial to not only me, but the people around me.

But then, I find new things like B-List, and I convince myself that because it’s technically “research”, signing up is okay. B-List allows Blackberry Pearl, 7130 and 8700 owners to create lists of their favorite venues to share with other B-List users, with the database having already been populated by over 100 “celebrities” lists from all over the world. I’m really digging the community feel of it (as opposed to a friends-only invite system), and because it’s not primarily city-centric, it could prove an invaluable resource when traveling and looking for the newest, hottest venues.

Creator of Flight 404, the music visualization god that created those intense, dramatic and jaw dropping videos we saw back in March is at it again. Magnetosphere is his iTunes plugin version that combines magnetism, gravity and pure awesomeness to deliver an insanely bad-ass iTunes music visualizer. It’s like a cross between Star Wars hyper speed and Jackson Pollack for your own personal viewing pleasure. Coincidentally he’s also the co-founder of the Barbarian Group– the pixel pushing mega-men who have been behind some of the most successful (and creative) projects in a long time (they partnered with Crispin Porter + Bogusky on Subservient Chicken). Downloads of the plugin are available for both Mac’s and PC’s– what are you waiting for?

Like they said– The last iTunes visualizer you will ever want for.

As “green” becomes the new “red, white and blue,” we’ve been seeing a lot of innovative ideas that work conservation ideals into our daily lives. Greenprint is another such idea– it’s a software program that scans documents queued to print for wasted pages based on set of “waste criteria.” Pages the program believes to be empty or too unimportant to print are highlighted in red so you can go through the document and double check, adding back to the print queue pages you indeed want to print that got flagged as waste. The program incorporates a helpful pdf reader and an easy to use print preview feature as well. As you can imagine, In a huge pdf print job, this will save a lot of paper. A demo can be found here for those interested. Greenprint is a member of 1% for the Planet and also ran a promotion in March where they planted a tree for each copy sold, and if they reached a half million units in sales, they promised to match it, making it a “million tree March”– no word on how many units they did sell though. The software is free to try for 14 days, $35 for individual use, and $70 for a business copy.

Easily the best iTunes plugin to come out of the developer wood work since Coverflow (which Apple quickly acquired) is iConcertCal– It’s a completely free plugin that monitors your music library and generates personalized calendars of upcoming concerts in your city. It’s available for both Windows and Mac, and is completely genius. You can click on the show and it takes you to the venue website. My question is how soon until I can just purchase tickets to the event through iTunes with my Apple ID? Via HipMojo

Despite being a little spooky, Packet Garden is insanely intriguing. The downloadable application captures information about how you use the internet and translates all this data into a ‘private world’ you can explore. The application takes note of all the servers you visit, their geographical location and the kinds of data you access. For example, uploads make hills, downloads valleys– the size of each hill or valley is based on how much data is sent or received. Plants are grown for each protocol detected– so if you visit a website, an HTTP plant is grown, if you share files, a P2P plant is grow, etc. All of this information is kept private (we hope) on your own machine to grow your own personal landscape– and naturally, everyday you can rediscover a new world based on that days network activity.

Believe it or not, one of, if not the best software companies in the world has a consulting agency– Adobe Consulting. I received a note from some friends who work there telling me that they’re in search of absolutely world-class talent in London, Tokyo, New York and San Francisco. They don’t design websites, they create beautiful, sophisticated web applications. They’re seeking Interactive Art Directors and Information Architects with experience designing rich Internet applications. Are you a top-of-class web application designer? Want to work alongside some of the most talented designers in the world? Full-time and freelance opportunities are available.

Got major talent? Click here for more info.

I don’t miss much about owning CD’s, I’m pretty glad to move away from broken jewel cases and scratched CD’s– except I miss one thing: The cover artwork. iTunes, iPods and the like have pretty much taken over my music world for good. I’m not entirely digital though, I still have a pretty solid collection of vinyl records because like many, I love album artwork! (And, I swear they sound better too). Finally released, CoverFlow is a new application that allows OS X users to browse their entire iTunes collection by album cover. If you’re missing an album’s artwork it can easily be downloaded and added. Smooth UI and great all around application, check it out.

Via Cool Hunting

iAlertU is definitely the first ever remote controlled and motion sensitive alarm system for a laptop computer that I’ve ever seen, and an excellent execution to boot. A video floated around the blogosphere this past week of it in action, but until now there was nowhere to download it. It takes advantage of all the features on the MacBook Pro– allowing you to ‘arm and lock’ your computer like it was an exotic sports car with the Front Row controller as the key-fob. The current beta only allows 5 minutes of usage but it gives you a nice idea of what’s to come. Future versions will include camera integration, user selectable sensitivity and more. Have a MacBook Pro? Check it out, it’s a lot of fun.