2008 May

BrowserPlus Offers Drag and Drop Uploads and More

Yahoo unveils a sneak preview of a new product that aims to bridge the gap between your web browser and desktop—BrowserPlus, a desktop utility that enables richer browser interaction, like drag and drop file uploads. The BrowserPlus utility is available for Windows and Mac at the moment and works with Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer 7. There are only three demo applications that use BrowserPlus: a Flickr drap-and-drop image uploader, an IRC chat client, and for the web monkeys, a JSON inspector. With Google ramping up Gears, Firefox 3 building in offline webapp support, and Yahoo busting out BrowserPlus, looks like your web browser and your desktop are going to be more than just friends in the coming months. The BrowserPlus sneak preview is a free download for Mac and Windows.

(Via Lifehacker.)

Sharpen Your Digital Photos with the Unsharp Mask [Photography Tip]

Photography web site Photojojo details how to get crisp, beautiful prints from your digital photos with Photoshop’s Unsharp Mask. What’s the point of sharpening, you ask?

Digital cameras have a fixed grid of pixels, each of which can only capture one color or shade at a time. Say you take a picture that has a sharp edge between black and white… The single pixel that records that hairline edge can only record one color, so it renders it as gray. What we think of as sharpness is actually the contrast we see between different colors. A quick transition from black to white looks sharp. A gradual transition from black to gray to white looks blurry.

A little time with the Unsharp Mask, though, and you can lose the blur along the edge of color transitions and bring more sharpness and fidelity to your photos, and Photojojo’s guide is an excellent starting point. If you’re an expert Unsharp Mask-er, let’s hear your tips for making the most of the tool in the comments.

(Via Lifehacker.)