Did you know you can select text from any image on your iOS or MacOS device? It’s as easy as double-clicking or touching the word and selecting copy. Check out the example below.
I remember in the 90s when OCR started to become a big trend, costing hundreds of dollars and taking several minutes to convert the scan to text.
RealityScan, a free 3D scanning app, developed in collaboration with Quixel, that turns your smartphone photos into high-fidelity 3D models—in the most accessible way possible.
Capturing real-world assets for digital experiences has traditionally been complicated, technical, and labor-intensive. Now in limited beta, RealityScan takes what people love about RealityCapture—fast and easy 3D scanning—and puts it into the hands of anyone with a smartphone, turning their cameras into an endless source of creativity.
Example of 3D Chair created from a smartphone camera
Learn More: https://www.capturingreality.com/introducing-realityscan
Presentify is a Mac App I discovered last month and I’m loving it. Presentify allows you to quickly annotate, highlight or spotlight your cursor. Whether you are creating a screencast, presenting in Teams, or just chatting over slack, Presentify provides a way to quickly highlight and communicate an idea without having to switch or juggle tools, apps, or settings.
Why is this important? Unlike Zoom which has the ability for everyone to annotate on a shared screen, Teams, Webex, and Slack Huddles do not have the ability. When walking thru a concept, sharing a story, or reviewing prototypes, Presentify allows you to quickly annotate in the context of the conversation and save time, making it easier to share an idea or communicate feedback.
After activating the app, you have a simple tool bar where you can quickly select 1 of 3 colors, which you can customize, select freehand tool, arrow, shapes, text or erase what’s on screen.
Hitting the / key allows you to display Shortcuts and see the current keyboard setting or you can customize the keys within your preferences.
Cost $5.99 – 1 time fee
Learn more: https://presentify.compzets.com
Using a Mac with the M1 chips is allow Apple to create and expand its features to make it easier for everyone to do more. A simple example, you can now right-click on any image, in the Finder, select Quick Actions and Remove Background. After a couple of seconds, the image will appear in its silhouetted format.
Growing up with Photoshop and learning how to create an alpha key, this just makes me smile because anyone can now isolate an object in seconds.
Excited to be attending and presenting at this unique event in July. There are over a dozen speakers and with topics on Instructional Design, Training Delivery and Facilitation, Evaluating Impact and Learning Technologies. I’ll be speaking on the 19th on Amazing Apps to Create, Imagine, and Collaborate.
Learn more: https://core4.td.org
If you are looking to brush up and upgrade your ID skills with an online conference, check out next week’s Deeping Your ID Skills Online Conference taking place on Feb 9 and 10th. I’ll be kicking off Day 1 with 5 Fundamentals to Level Up Your Design Skills
In this session, you’ll learn how to level up our design skills and learn how using design fundamentals such as grids, typography, and font selection can spark your content design, ways to select imagery, media in preparation for a visual layout, the importance of color choice, and how an emphasis on accessibility and interactivity can improve our learning experiences. We’ll explore the use of everyday tools and see how collaborative technologies not only help to share, analyze, review but also spark creativity!
The COOLors site provides an easy way to explore, discover or pull palettes from a photo or image. It has a fun interface and allows you to test for certain types of accessibility. Watch the quick demo of how it works.
While creating a palette, you can also select View Shades which allows you to quickly view shades of a color and select or copy for use in your palette.
Need some inspiration and looking for a color palette, select Explore Trending Color Palettes.
Currently you can view from:
It’s free but a Pro license available which removes add and provides a easy way to save and access palettes for $36 per year.
Test drive: coolors.co
If you haven’t checked out the #IDIODC podcast, Brent and Chris interview and dive into topics around learning and technology. Great way to keep up and connect with peers.
You can listen to my chat about technology and expanding your toolbox.
Check out the weekly episodes, every Wednesday and you can listen to the library at: https://www.dominknow.com/idiodc.
Apple’s latest beta’s for MacOS 12.3 and iOS 15.4 allow developers to test drive the new features and provide feedback. This new OS feature allows you to use one keyboard and mouse/trackpad to move to the edge of your screen and instantly jump to control, input, or even drag and drop content back and forth between devices. This would allow you to have an iMac, MacBook, and iPad and move your cursor between all three.
This will allow for greater productivity since you can use multiple devices for an expanded desktop to browse, test, or be creative just by moving edge to edge to work with each device.
Watch Apple’s introduction during the Apple Developers Conference.
Great, free mac app allows you to quickly configure your menu bar, moving apps/icons you don’t need, and reduce the clutter on your menu bar. You can quickly access elements by clicking the icon. It just works and is optimized for M1 macs as well as intel.
Before:
After:
Join us on Thursday, August 26 for a special collaborative edition of Learning Trends: Where Should I Focus? This fun session will be an interactive dive into trends in learning + creativity.
Attendees will drive the conversation and you’ll get to create your own Focus Sheet using Miro so that you can quickly apply, plus resources, tools, and knowledge to help apply to your upcoming projects.
Register at: https://sealworks.team/atd21HoustonEvent
Whether you are new to design or looking to develop a strong foundation or just want to refresh your design skills check out this new website which provides a great experience to learn. https://start.uxdesign.cc
Using the new ClipDrop.co you are able to quickly grab any object that is around you. This blows my mind every time I use it because I think about in the old days, yesterday, having to either reposition everything perfectly or opening a photo in Photoshop and spending an hour or more editing.
ClipDrop.co can be installed on your iOS or Android device and there is a complimentary Mac or Windows app which will sync the photos to your computer to use instantly in whatever program you want.
After a handful of tests, you will need to subscribe to a monthly or yearly subscription but the cost is worth it, $40 per year, if you use it in one comp or product.
Learn more and links to download at ClipDrop.co
We discovered the new Pokémon Smile app for my 9yo and he loves it. It’s transformed the “discussions” around brushing to a fun interactive time where he’s learning good habits. It’s funny, but he actively looks forward to brushing to see if we can catch a Pokémon. I didn’t mention, it uses augmented reality to interact and show and place elements on your head and face during the process to making it more fun.
For homework, I recommend downloading, trying it out and think about:
Two things I took note of for the younger audience:
A quick look at the app:
The main menu allows you to Get Brushing, check out the Pokémon book to learn about what you can catch after brushing as rewards – this creates a little Mystery. The yellow icon lets you play or see elements you can place on your head and as you use it more and more it unlocks additional elements.
During the brushing, you can turn on the ability to capture photos, review after brushing, decorate with additional Pokémon, and save to your photos library. This can also be disabled if you prefer not to take photos.
Check out the Official Site and you can link to download on Apple App Store or Google Play. For fun you can watch the trailer:
The Hook Model uses 4 key elements: trigger, action, reward, and investment. If you want to dive deeper. watch this 13-minute video overview to understand the this practice by the author of Hooked by Nir Eyal
