Mandar Apte

UI/UX Designer from Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.

Articles

  • Windows 8 & OSX 10.8, The Design Similarities & Differences

    Some of My Observations About Design of Modern PC Operating Systems:
    After watching OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion Preview & Windows 8 consumer preview, Here are few of my observations about their design…

    Windows 8 Preview Video

    OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion Preview

     
    Similarities

    Gestures
    Now All Mobile or PC (Desktop & Laptop) Apps & OS has built in Gestures support.

    Apps Centered
    With popularization of concept of ‘App Store’ & it’s success they switch to App Centered OS i.e. Replicating iOS (iPad, iPhone & iPod Touch) experience on Desktop & Laptop

    Touch
    With introduction ‘Magic Trackpad’ for Desktop ‘Touch’ OS & Apps are hot favorites of all consumers

    Intel based
    Now Macintosh & Windows are intel based architecture with Multithreading & Multicore technologies.

    Mobile Operating System
    As Apple calls OSX a Mobile operating system as they sale more laptop macintoshes than Desktops like iMac & Mac Pro

    Multitouch
    Multitouch, A Touch & Gestures with more than one finger is hot property on OS market now a days

    Differences

    it’s Windows
    After all Windows 8 OS is after all ‘Windows’

    Tablet Or PC
    W8 Works on Tablet & Desktop & Laptop but OSX 10.8 only on Laptop & Desktop

    Finally I have to admitt that I am writing this on my iMac, So for me Mac OSX is right choice Operating System & Personal Computer. Like Apple nobody designs hardware & software & integrates it as fluently than Apple itself.

    So I choose OSX as my present & future Operating System…!!! What About You? Do let me know with comments….!!!

    Thanks & Regards
    Mandar Apte

  • What is Adobe Photoshop & How to use it?

    Introduction

    adobephotoshopcs5-620x402

    Adobe Photoshop is a Modern Image Editing & Manipulation Program.

    This programs dominate the Market by large margin that any other software is finding it difficult to be competent to stay in market & compete against it.

    With Photoshop CS5, It now supports 3D. It has plugin supports. So Versatility of Photoshop has evolved around by big radius. Now photoshop is utilized by Photographers, Digital Painters, 3D Artists, Web Designers, Video Editors.

    Photoshop Story
    Photoshop Story is interesting that all it started with concept of GUI – Graphical User Interface with Macintosh & it was revolutionary. As Wikipedia States – In 1987, Thomas Knoll, a PhD student at the University of Michigan began writing a program on his Macintosh Plus to display grayscale images on a monochrome display. This program, called Display, caught the attention of his brother John Knoll, an Industrial Light & Magic employee, who recommended Thomas turn it into a fully-fledged image editing program. Thomas took a six month break from his studies in 1988 to collaborate with his brother on the program, which had been renamed ImagePro. Later that year, Thomas renamed his program Photoshop and worked out a short-term deal with scanner manufacturer Barneyscan to distribute copies of the program with a slide scanner; a “total of about 200 copies of Photoshop were shipped” this way.
    During this time, John traveled to Silicon Valley and gave a demonstration of the program to engineers at Apple and Russell Brown, art director at Adobe. Both showings were successful, and Adobe decided to purchase the license to distribute in September 1988. While John worked on plug-ins in California, Thomas remained in Ann Arbor writing program code. Photoshop 1.0 was released in 1990 for Macintosh exclusively.

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  • You are Invited to State Art Exhibition (Maharashtra State, India) 2012

    Hi All Art Lovers,

    I am happy to announce that my ‘Artwork’ got selected for exhibit in ‘State Art’ Exhibition 2012.

    I submitted my entry (Artwork or Poster Design in that case) in ‘Applied Art’ category.

    Subject of Poster Design Entry was based on social work done by ‘Mother Teresa’ in India.

    Concept of Poster was evolved through ‘No Copy Ad’. Only Visual of Poster is so impact full that you wont need copy to read & explain.

    Open Invitation:
    I am happy to invite you to that exhibition on 05th March 2012 to 11th March 2012.
    Exhibition will be inaugurated on 05th March 2012 at 05:00 PM
    Place: Jahangir Art Gallery
    Address: Jahangir Art Gallery, B-161, Mahatama Gandhi Road, Kalaghoda, Mumbai- 400001, Maharashtra
    Landmark: Near Prince of Wales Museum
    Timings: Exhibition will be open from 11:00 AM to 07:00 PM

    Note:
    I will be standing near my exhibit in at Jahangir Art Gallery in Applied Art Section of Exhibition. Do come to say hello & share few words. Your critics will add value to exhibits.

    If you want more Information about State Art Exhibition & Competition then navigate to this link for more detailed information about State Art Competition organised by Sate Government of Maharashtra, India.

    Thanks & Regards
    Mandar Apte

  • Essential Plugins to have in your every new WordPress installation

    Here are a few essential WordPress plugins that every new website running WordPress should have in their arsenal…

    WordPress Plugin 1
    Akismet
    Akismet comes installed with every new WordPress installation, ‘Akismet filters out your comment and track back spam for you so that you can focus on more important things.’

    WordPress Plugin 2
    FD Feedburner Plugin
    Free plugin to redirect all your comments & RSS feeds to FeedBurner, ‘Redirects the main feed and optionally the comments feed to Feedburner.com. It does this seamlessly without modifying templates, setting up new hidden feeds, modifying .htaccess files, or asking users to migrate to a new feed. Instead, all existing feeds become Feedburner feeds seamlessly and transparently for all users. Tell the plugin your Feedburner feed URL, and you’re done.’

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  • Mac OSX Lion 10.7 iChat asks for password again & again

    I use iChat for two accounts of mine, one for GMail & another with Yahoo!

    After some while using ichat I found that iChat annoys you with asking for your respective account password again & again… Even if you have stored the same password in keychain.

    But I have found work around for this problem…

    While holding the ‘Option’ button on keyboard go to Finder’s ‘Menu Bar’ click ‘Go’

    You will see your library folder,

    Delete Cache folder from that Library folder, then after rebooting clear Trash

    Now, Use Disk Utility to Verify & Repair your Macintosh HD’s Disk Permissions…!!!

    Your Problem with iChat will be solved…

    Thanks & Regards
    Mandar Apte

  • How to get Inspire to learn to do great animation

    Here are few ideas that I use to get inspire to learn more about animation & do lot more animation in my work time…

    Idea No. 01: Read Blogs & Subscribe to RSS feeds

    1. “How to Learn Animation?” – While Browsing a web & while doing Social Networking
    2. My List of Animation Books an Animator should buy
    3. Animation Film Making Notes
    4. Indian Animator Chetan Sharma’s Blog
    5. Animation Mentor Blog, Animation Tips & Tricks

    Idea No. 02: Watch Movies

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  • Applications takes long time to open on Mac OSX 10.5, 10.6, 10.7 As HDD takes long time to wake up from sleep

    Applications takes long time to open on Mac OSX 10.5, 10.6, 10.7 As HDD takes long time to wake up from sleep.

    I have iMac & 2 External Hard Drives, one for Time Machine Backup which is powered by USB only but my 2nd External Hard drive takes lot of time to wake from sleep as it is powered by external electrical outlet & connected to mac by FireWire 800.

    I found that opening any daily routine applications like iCal, Pages, Keynote or even saving file in Photoshop takes lot of time to finished the job…

    So the solution is in Preferences’ Energy Saver Panel, Just unchecking the ‘Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible’ will prevent any hard drive attached to your mac going to sleep.

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  • Typography & Steve Jobs

    You can get Inspiration from anything, even leaf coming out of broken wood.

    Here is a speech by Steve Jobs at Stanford’s 2005 Commencement.

    Every time I listen same speech again & again I realize it’s nothing but Verbal Typography by Steve Jobs Himself, You get to see & hear verbal full stop, comma, exclamatory mark in his speech. Words chosen for speech is like a brilliant job of copyrighting to inspire & motivate people about their work or Karma, which is brilliant.

    ‘Even Type laughs & whispers in his speech.’

    Steve Jobs’ Speech is just a play in it self, He give speech as somebody with many many years of stage experience will perform in his favorite theater.

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  • Design Inspirations: Getting Inspired…!!! to do design & finally learning from it…!!!

    Today with broadband connection on my iMac & connected to the World Wide Web fearlessly with my own website & design blog… Switching from one website to another, reading blogs, going through Twitts, reading Facebook updates… Sometimes I feel It’s really easy to get inspirations through web if you do it right…

    Not like olden days when you only have to visit art gallery exhibition to see art & get inspired with…

    Here are few links that I find as inspiration to learn & do design…

    Apple Developer
    A website dedicated to Apple Mac, iOS & safari developers. Registration is free & site is loaded with deleopment learning videos & ebook learning resources… So happy Learning…!!!

    Adobe Developer Connection
    Adobe’s website do feature developer resources to develop for their adobe products or just learn to design using thei products like Photoshop, Illustrator etc.
    Adobe Developer connect is do present on iTunes Podcast Directory… You can find it here.

    Adobe TV
    Adobe TV is like adobe’s version of YouTube but all gathered to learn & get inspired about designing & learningthrough their products.

    Animation Mentor Blog
    You may know ‘Animation Mentor’ as an Online Animation Training school for learning Character Animation. But they do featured their own blog which is worth reading & bookmarking. Here is link for ‘Animation Mentor Webinar’. Here is link for ‘Animation Mentor Podcasts’

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  • Mac OSX 10.7 Lion now give full featured Yahoo! Mail in IMAP version

    As with iPhone & iPad… Apple & Yahoo! now give Yahoo! Mail with IMAP on Mac OSX Lion Desktop with Apple’s desktop mail client ‘Apple Mail 5.0’ & up…

    Really It’s finally there where we don’t have to login to yahoo web mail through safari or firefox… Now Yahoo Mail is delivered to your desktop…

    YoooooHooooooo…..!!!! Or Just Yahoo!

    Here is the screenshot: