So Long, Reader

The countdown has begun.  Google is set to drop its RSS aggregator, Google Reader, on July 1, 2013.  According to the Google Reader blog, the usage of the site has declined and the company wishes to put its energy into other products.  Google offers Google Takeout for those needing to download a copy of their data stored from Reader.

For those married to RSS, there is life beyond Reader. Leading the pack in RSS, a favorite news aggregator here at Go Media, is feedly.com. First released in 2008, feedly is gaining momentum and popularity due to Google Reader’s recent announcement, building from 4 million pre-Reader retirement to 12 million users through the end of May.  Making it easy for those in transition and available on a variety of platforms, those wanting to crossover to feedly may simply log in to Reader and have all of their subscription information magically sync over.  Just how easy will it be?

Introducing Feedly Cloud

More good news from the feedly community as of yesterday.

The transition, through feedly cloud, announced yesterday, will be seamless.  Per our conversations with Tim Smith, representing feedly, this new platform will provide one-click migration path from Google Reader, as a “fast and scalable infrastructure to serve as the backbone to feedly.”  Fast and built to scale, feedly cloud will also power a standalone Web version of feedly, making feedly available from any browser, including Opera and Internet Explorer.  Having an open API, feedly has also been working with third party developers to “enhance the feedly experience,” and has announced the first of the feedly cloud following applications including:

• IFTTT is a service that lets you create powerful connections with one simple statement — if this then that. With the IFTTT Feedly channel, you can connect your feedly account to 63 other services
• Sprout Social is a social media management platform that offers engagement, publishing and analytics tools for businesses.
• Nextgen Reader for Windows 8 and Windows Phone, is a fast, clean and beautiful reader app inspired from Metro UI and packed with powerful features.
• gNewsReader for BlackBerry 10 and for Symbian/MeeGo are two elegant and versatile readers providing full feedly support for BlackBerry and Symbian devices.
• Press is a wonderful reader for Android that is all about the reading experience. It’s designed with the purpose of making your news easier to read. Also providing full offline support.
• gReader is a simple, fast and intuitive reader for Android, featuring beautiful themes, podcast support and full offline support.
• Newsify is an awesome reader for iPhone or iPad, with an amazing newspaper-like layout. It supports offline reading including image caching, and the use of multiple feedly accounts.
• Pure News Widget is a scrollable and actionable reader widget for Android, with multiples skins.
• Meneré is a Windows Desktop client to Feedly showing all items, filter them by read state, feed label and content and brings Snarl notifications

Log into feedly at 8 p.m. tonight, Wednesday, July 19th, to experience feedly cloud!

The future of Feedly

Feedly‘s outlook on the future is bright, reports feedly co-founder Cyril Moutran to Go Media. “We’re very excited to see third-party innovation happening on top of the feedly API. This will help drive RSS feed adoption to many more users.  We have developers looking at integrating feedly in their business applications, others looking at content consumption in cars, even some developers looking at news consumption with Google Glass.”

RSS, Moutran and the feedly team, feel, will not only survive but also thrive come July 1. Says Moutran, “Google dropping reader does not mean RSS is dead.  On the contrary, Google’s announcement has invigorated innovation in the space. Since we announced the feedly API in mid-March, we had over 150 requests from companies who wanted to build innovative RSS reading experience on top of our API.  We are seeing renewed interest from publishers that are looking for alternative ways to deliver content to their most faithful readers.  When user’s subscribe to their content on Twitter or Facebook, their content get lost in the noise of the user’s single feed.”

Their focus now?  Per feedly.com, adding newer, faster hardware, releasing weekly incremental updates to make the transition to Google Reader seamless and to continue to draw users to its site.  But most of all, Moutran stresses, “At the moment, all the focus is on making sure the ex-Google Reader users are having a good experience with feedly.”

5 Ways to Befriend Feedly

Joining the feedly.com revolution?  Here are some simple ways to make the site work for you.

 1. Stick to the Basics

Feedly offers the viewer four different viewing experiences: title, magazine, card and full-article. If you want a quick and dirty view of all the blogs you’ve subscribed to, stick with the basic title view by clicking on the first icon on the top right hand corner of your screen and clicking on “Title Only View,” or by going into your preferences  and choosing the default “Titles Only” view, which assures that you’ll stick to the format closest to what you might have used over at Google Reader.

2. Bookmark It

Say goodbye to stars and hello to bookmarks. Hover over an article that you’d like to read later and click on the bookmark icon, turning it green, to save it for later.

3. Get Speedy

Gain super-speed by getting familiar with the shortcuts in feedly. You can find them but simply typing a ?.

4. Choose A Theme

Choose a theme that you like to look at. Feedly recommends white if you want to keep close to Google Reader’s color theme.

5. Be Seen

Build up your own network by checking out feedly’s Publisher tools, where you can create your own feedly button, request your own hashtag, get featured on feedly and optimize your feeds, to name a few.

Don’t forget to sign up for our RSS feed!

______________________________________

If you haven’t found that feedly is for you, here are some other options to consider:

Flipboard	Pulse	Old Reader
Newsvine	NewsBlur	Twitter

The post Introducing Feedly Cloud + 5 Tips and Tricks appeared first on GoMediaZine.

It’s all about presentation. Ideas and concepts are great, but mean nothing if they cannot be properly communicated. To help others understand them, we may create prototypes or sketch out an idea to get to a meeting of the minds. Fortunately, in graphic design, we do that by creating mock-ups.

Most times when we create designs, it’s tempting to send a flat graphic, as is, to our client or out to our intended audience. It can work, but it’s much more effective when we have a way for people to actually visualize a design in its intended environment. It’s easier to understand a mobile app when it’s being presented on an actual mobile phone, rather than just a standard graphic in a simple size.

It’s best to have some photo-realistic mock-ups, but if you have vectors, that will work as well. Today, we’ve put together a bunch of PSD’s and actions for great, professional mock-ups. It includes anything from corporate branding to shirts and more. We hope you find something useful and great to use for your next project.

Interactive design

MacBook Air 

Perhaps you want to show off a web design, application design or even just a desktop background. Whatever it may be, this is a great mock-up that’s fully scalable and can fit any project.

 

Blackberry z10 PSD mock-up

You’ll find a ton of iPhone mock-ups all over the Internet. However, this new Blackberry Z10 doesn’t get nearly as much love as the iPhone. Fortunately, we’ve found this mock-up to help you show off your app designs and such.

 

White smartphones mock-ups

What I really like about this set of mock-ups is the flat color design they’ve used. It gives off an illustrated/vector that’s not only great for mock-ups but for design elements throughout a design.

 

Safari browser PSD

I’m not a huge fan of Safari as a browser, but below, you’re able to download a PSD that you can use with your web designs. It will help your viewers and clients see and understand what your web designs look like in their rightful environment. 

 

iPod Touch PSD mock-up

The new general iPod Touch is now available for presentations with this mock-up. Great for featuring new music apps and how they’ll work in their new environment.

 

iPhone 5 PSD landscape mock-up

 This iPhone 5 PSD is made using smart layers and is fully scalable. Also, the iPhone comes in black or white. This is great for when you want to show how different mobile apps work or how responsive sites are seen on an iPhone.

 

HTC 8x PSD mock-up

Again, iPhones are all the rage. This Windows phone is great for those of us who work on different interfaces and need to present our work in such an environment. 

 

Samsung Galaxy SIII PSD mock-up

Considered the second most popular phone in the world, it’s probably a great idea to get this PSD in your stash. This white Galaxy PSD is all vector work, so it can be scaled for high resolution work.

 

MacBook Pro retina PSD mock-up

Sometimes, it’s not just enough to put our web design in side of a browser window. It’s very common for designers to create mock-ups using the actual device, whether it be a laptop or desktop. This time we have the new MacBook Pro.

 

iPad PSD perspective mock-up

It’s not evident what exact version of the iPad this is, but it shows it can be extremely versatile. Again, this is a vectored image that is fully scalable to fit in any of your designs. It’s great to give another, interesting angle for your responsive designs and apps.

 

Responsive design mock-up pack

Of major importance in responsive design, is to make sure you know and understand how your design is going to look in all browser sizes. This mock-up pack is great for putting all that together and helping visualize it.

 

Chrome browser PSD mock-up

As my favorite browser, this is a go-to of mine for when I want to present web designs to clients. It’s fully editable, scalable and all around wonderful for web designs. 

 

Identity and print

Magazine/Book Front Cover PSD

We’ll get started with a pretty simple magazine or book front cover. It’s high-quality and great for print and easily editable with smart objects. This is great for presenting covers with a fun bit of perspective, rather than just straight on. 

 

Fold Photoshop Action

This is a fairly simple action that transforms your one-dimension graphic into a tri-fold brochure. This is great for adding that depth to letters or brochures.

 

Flyer/Poster Mock-Up

If your flyers an posters are A4 or A5 sized, this may be the mock-up for you. You’ll be able to present your flyers with a bit of pizzazz to your clients.

 

Die cut business card mock-up

Create any shape business card with this Photoshop action. Not only do you get a neat car shape, you get a great angle and presentation as well.

 

Photoshop action for book cover

This is one of the most sought out mock-ups ever. Lots of people like to use these for e-books and physical books, rather than just looking at a one-dimensional presentation of a cover. 

 

Corporate identity mock-up PSD

Creating a corporate identity pack is probably something you’re familiar with. This pack features many different elements, including a brochure, letterhead, business cards and more to help present your ideas for an identity package. 

 

Magazine mockup

I like this mock-up because it’s a standard magazine size to help you show off advertisements, editorial design and more to your clients. This is a must-have for print designers. 

 

Magic 3D Photoshop action

Sometimes, it can be really hard to present a logo. It can end up being really plain and boring. This Photoshop action has created a way to add a little bit of excitement to our otherwise mundane logo designs. 

 

Paper fold Photoshop generator

This is another simple Photoshop action that just ads a bit of style to what we be a normal graphic. Great for posters, flyers and any other type of print work. 

 

Poster mockup template (PSD)

This is one of my favorites, mainly because it adds a bit of something else to what would normal just be a flat design. This is a great example of how one could present something differently. This PSD is also very editable.

 

Bifold brochure mock-up PSD

It’s often hard to find a realistic, professional way to show our brochures. Most times you lose a side of the brochure, but with this mock-up, you do not. It shows you how to set up your files and where to place them on this wooden background.

 

PSD business card mock-up

If all you’d like to do is feature your business cards photo-realistically, this is a great PSD for you. It’s also print-ready for creating more professional mock-ups for clients.

 

Mockup 4 panel accordion

We’ve talked about tri-fold and even bi-fold. Here we have a 4-panel brochure, that’s created by using a Photoshop Action.

 

Stationary branding mock-up (volume 1)

I found a PSD like this more than helpful for when you want to showcase all of your work in a portfolio. Often times, we don’t design and print every piece of corporate identity first, so this is a great way to show it off all at once.

 

Apparel

Hoodie template PSD

With this hoodie PSD, you’re able to customize colors and designs while keeping the highlights and shadows in the original. This is a must have for anyone creating designs for hoodies.

 

Men’s vest PSD

Again, with this mock-up PSD we are able to customize our colors and keep our highlights and shadows to go with any design.

 

Shirt PSD V2 mock-up

This is an extremely easy PSD to use to show off your shirt designs. The instructions are simple and easy to understand. Colors are easy to change and highlights and shadows stay in tact easily.

 

V-Neck shirt template PSD

V-Necks are my absolute favorite shirt to recommend to clients. They’re trendy without being too fancy, so when I’m ready to mock it up, I use this wonderful template. The colors are easy to change and it’s even easier to add the design. 

 

Flat peak PSD

There aren’t a ton of mock-up templates for hats or caps. Fortunately, TheApparelGuy is hooking us up with this flat peak template for caps. You can change colors and even keep the cap sticker, if that’s your thing. 

 

T-Shirt mock-up

What I like about this mock-up is there isn’t a whole person and it’s also not just a shirt there by itself. It’s a nice in between for those of us who want to show our shirts but don’t necessarily want to feature a model. 

 

Food packaging

930g steel can mock-up action

Of course, you can see this template being used for any type of coffee can out there. I think there are many uses for this piece, and it’s even better as a scalable action. 

 

Paper chip bag mock-up

 You may developing the brand design for a new line of chips, popcorn, pretzels or etc. This is the mock-up action for you.

 

Paper cup PSD and action

Well, we all know what this is for and how to use it. This coffee cup mock-up is great if you want to try new designs or if you need a realistic version of a brand already well known. 

 

Photoshop PSD packaging

This page features an ice cream carton, two food bags, an two types of jars. This is great for your food packaging and can be scaled, as they’re vectors. 

 

Wine bottle mock-up PSD

Designers are becoming more and more creative when it comes to creating wine labels. They aren’t just regular rectangular stickers any more. In order to get a good visual on them, here’s a great scalable mock-up for wine bottles. 

 

Wine Bottle Photoshop Action

Perhaps you don’t want a black bottle for your wine. Or perhaps you find a PSD too hard to work with. This Photoshop action creates a vectored wine bottle for any of your uses. 

 

Miscellaneous

Wallet CD Mockup

CD and DVD packaging is an extremely important part of print designing for some clients. Though this is a specialized version of CD/DVD packaging, it’s definitely worth having to offer a professional presentation and a new idea.

 

Visa credit card mock-up

You never know what you’ll get into designing as your career progresses. Your next project may just be a credit card design! Now, with this mock-up you’ll be more than prepared for that. 

 

13 free professional mock-ups vol. 1

If you’d like a little more consistency between your mock-ups, this may be a great pack for you. It’s great for corporate/branding identifications and includes mock-ups for business cards, CD’s, clear cards, boxing and more. 

 

3D box generator

This Photoshop action can transform your designs into a 3D box in a matter of seconds. This is great for those of us creating a simple package for anything from food to software. 

 

What are some of your favorite mock-up templates? Do you have any to share? Let us know in the comments.

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