Social Icons

Icon Shock reports: [edited]

The most complete social icon set, 150+ social networking sites and icons, 9 sizes, vector icon versions, pixel perfect PSD for smaller sizes, 4 different colour versions, and all free.
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Media Converter for OSX

Kiwi Fruitware reports: [edited]

Convert almost every input file. Convert avi, wmv, mkv, rm, mov and more to other formats. Some files aren't supported by ffmpeg, but can be decoded with QuickTime®. Media Converter uses movtowav and movtoy4m to decode them.

Media Converter comes with presets to convert to popular video and audio formats. These presets can be fine-tuned in the Preferences. You also can create your own presets.

Media Converter is free and open source.
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Panasonic DMC-GH2

Digital Photography Review has published an in-depth review of Panasonic's latest update to their flagship Micro Four Thirds camera.

Excerpt from the conclusion:

"...we're confident in saying that it is the best mirrorless system camera that we've ever tested, bar none. Although the GH2's Micro Four Thirds sensor is smaller than those found in cameras like the Canon EOS 60D and Nikon D7000, it runs them both pretty close. Up to ISO 3200 in fact, we'd say that the GH2 can hold its own against any of the current crop of APS-C format cameras on the market, which is high praise indeed."

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Brett's 2p'orth: I've been using the DMC-G1 since June 2009, and it is the best compromise between image quality and portability that I have ever owned. Anyone want to buy a G1 body?
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'Flipback' Books

guardian.co.uk reports: [edited]

It is all the rage in Holland, where it was introduced in 2009, and has since sold a million copies. A version has just been launched in Spain, France is next, and the flipback reaches UK shores in June, when Hodder & Stoughton will treat us to a selection of 12 books. They cost £9.99, and will include David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and Stephen King's Misery.

I am keen to see what the hype is about so I take a pre-released copy on my travels: Chris Cleave's 'The Other Hand'. Nearly 370 pages long in its original format, the flipback version has more than 550 – but still fits easily in my pocket. It's so small that I can perch it in one fist, and keep my other hand free for shopping. How? The paper is wafer-thin.

Unlike an ordinary paperback, the book lies open without intervention on my part, due to its special spine. It's handy on a rush-hour tube, too. Page-turning with paperbacks will see you elbowing your neighbour in the pancreas in no time. But the minuteness of this little beauty, with its pages that flip rather than turn, help me keep my elbows to myself and pancreases everywhere safe.

Is it the new Kindle? Obviously not. It can't hold 1,500 books. But if you want something that doesn't need recharging, and slips into your pocket as easily as a phone, the flipback is worth a try.
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Resizelt

ResizeIt is OSX donationware that allows you to change the size of multiple images simultaneously. It can also convert file formats at the same time. It supports multi-core processors.

For a review, click here.

Available from the App Store, or from the developer's website.
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Free Font - Rock Salt

Rock Salt has a flowing, rough-edged, hand-drawn feel and, unlike many free fonts, most of the extra characters you need when using it for body text.

Available to download from Font Squirrel
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The 892 unique ways to partition a 3 x 4 grid

dubberly.com reports: [edited]

For many years, designers have used grids to unify diverse sets of content in books, magazines, screens, and other environments. The 3 × 4 grid is a common example. Yet even in this simple case, generating all the options has — until now — been almost impossible.

Patch Kessler designed algorithms to generate all the possible variations, identify unique ones, and sort them—not only for 3 × 4 grids but also for any n × m grid. He instantiated the algorithms in a MATLAB program, which output PDFs, which Thomas Gaskin imported into Adobe Illustrator to design the poster.
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Beautiful chalk lettering

danatanamachi.com reports: [edited]

Dana Tanamachi is a graphic designer and custom chalk letterer living in Brooklyn, New York.
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Fonts In Use reports: [edited]

Fonts In Use will catalog and examine real-world typography. Our effort begins with this blog, a prologue of things to come.
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