Thursday, February 28, 2013

Keychain Access: Keeping Mac Passwords Safe

Keychain Access: Keeping Mac Passwords Safe

KeychainAccess_logoWith many individuals recommending that you have a different password for separate websites and services, it becomes more crucial than ever to have a safe place to keep your passwords. In Mac, the Keychain Access is the safe place that Apple created for you.

What is Keychain Access?

Keychain Access is the password manager that comes with all OS X Macs. You will most likely run into the program when entering a password on a website or in Utilities. Keychain Access stores passwords, notes, and security certifications from not only Safari, but other applications as well.

In Safari

KeychainAccess_HowC   anIAccess

To get to Keychain Access from Safari, click the Safari name in the menu bar, followed by “Preferences” and “Passwords”. You will see a list of the websites and services Keychain Access has saved passwords for. The upper right hand corner of the window allows you to search for a particular website you have saved the password for.

In the bottom left, you can choose to remove all passwords. Lastly, you can show passwords by clicking the checkbox at the lower center of the page.

In Utilities

KeychainAccess_main_interface

You can also find Keychain Access in the Utilities of Mac. When you open Keychain Access from there, you will be able to acce ss passwords, notes, and certificates by clicking any of those options in the upper left part of the screen. Below that, you can go a bit further and choose categories.

At the bottom of the screen, you can add more passwords by clicking the “+” button. The “i” information button reveals more info about the specific certificate or password key. Lastly, you can also copy the password with the “copy” button.

Keychain Access: Outside of Safari

Keychain Access - Outside of Safari

Keychain Access is also useful outside of Safari. Other web browsers can also make use of it to access your passwords. You can also make notes to yourself to create a place to save other pins, such as your banking pin or even your iPhone password.

  1. Click the “+” button at the bottom of the page.
  2. Under “Keychain Item Name” â€" name the password or pin you’d like to save. For example,” iPhone Pin”.
  3. Under “Account Name” â€" name the individual who will make use of this password or pin.
  4. Finally, enter the password or pin under “Password”. Pay attention to the password strength. It lets you know if this is a good password or one that can easily be cracked.
  5. Click “Add”.

Keychain Access - New Secure Note Item

For a safe note-to-self, click “File -> New Secure Note Item…” to add a safe note.

Safety and Security Tips

You may be wondering if you can access your passwords and notes so easily, what’s there to stop others from doing it as well? The key to this protection is by locking Keychain Access.

Keychain Access - Change Settings

There are two ways of doing this. You can lock just the Specific Key that you currently selected from the Keychains section of Keychain Access. To do this, simply click “File -> Lock Keychain Specific Key” or “Command + L”. To lock all of Keychain Access, including certificates and notes, click “Lock All Keychains”. To have this done automatically, go to “Edit -> Change Settings for…”. This will change depending on which Keychain you are accessing. Once clicked, you can set Keychain to initiate after a set amount of inactivity.

One pitfall of Keychain Access is that visitors to your Mac can have access to your passwords even when you lock Keychain Access through the app. For example, if you have your Facebook account in Keychain Access, it will automatically fill in the password and you just have to press “Enter” to login to your Facebook account. This also means anyone accessing Facebook on your computer has access to your account.

If you feel that Keychain Access is lacking in features, there are a couple of alternatives password managers that you can try out.

Is password security a concern for you? How do you manage your Mac passwords? Let us know in the comments section below.

Keychain Access: Keeping Mac Passwords Safe

Keychain Access: Keeping Mac Passwords Safe

KeychainAccess_logoWith many individuals recommending that you have a different password for separate websites and services, it becomes more crucial than ever to have a safe place to keep your passwords. In Mac, the Keychain Access is the safe place that Apple created for you.

What is Keychain Access?

Keychain Access is the password manager that comes with all OS X Macs. You will most likely run into the program when entering a password on a website or in Utilities. Keychain Access stores passwords, notes, and security certifications from not only Safari, but other applications as well.

In Safari

KeychainAccess_HowC   anIAccess

To get to Keychain Access from Safari, click the Safari name in the menu bar, followed by “Preferences” and “Passwords”. You will see a list of the websites and services Keychain Access has saved passwords for. The upper right hand corner of the window allows you to search for a particular website you have saved the password for.

In the bottom left, you can choose to remove all passwords. Lastly, you can show passwords by clicking the checkbox at the lower center of the page.

In Utilities

KeychainAccess_main_interface

You can also find Keychain Access in the Utilities of Mac. When you open Keychain Access from there, you will be able to acce ss passwords, notes, and certificates by clicking any of those options in the upper left part of the screen. Below that, you can go a bit further and choose categories.

At the bottom of the screen, you can add more passwords by clicking the “+” button. The “i” information button reveals more info about the specific certificate or password key. Lastly, you can also copy the password with the “copy” button.

Keychain Access: Outside of Safari

Keychain Access - Outside of Safari

Keychain Access is also useful outside of Safari. Other web browsers can also make use of it to access your passwords. You can also make notes to yourself to create a place to save other pins, such as your banking pin or even your iPhone password.

  1. Click the “+” button at the bottom of the page.
  2. Under “Keychain Item Name” â€" name the password or pin you’d like to save. For example,” iPhone Pin”.
  3. Under “Account Name” â€" name the individual who will make use of this password or pin.
  4. Finally, enter the password or pin under “Password”. Pay attention to the password strength. It lets you know if this is a good password or one that can easily be cracked.
  5. Click “Add”.

Keychain Access - New Secure Note Item

For a safe note-to-self, click “File -> New Secure Note Item…” to add a safe note.

Safety and Security Tips

You may be wondering if you can access your passwords and notes so easily, what’s there to stop others from doing it as well? The key to this protection is by locking Keychain Access.

Keychain Access - Change Settings

There are two ways of doing this. You can lock just the Specific Key that you currently selected from the Keychains section of Keychain Access. To do this, simply click “File -> Lock Keychain Specific Key” or “Command + L”. To lock all of Keychain Access, including certificates and notes, click “Lock All Keychains”. To have this done automatically, go to “Edit -> Change Settings for…”. This will change depending on which Keychain you are accessing. Once clicked, you can set Keychain to initiate after a set amount of inactivity.

One pitfall of Keychain Access is that visitors to your Mac can have access to your passwords even when you lock Keychain Access through the app. For example, if you have your Facebook account in Keychain Access, it will automatically fill in the password and you just have to press “Enter” to login to your Facebook account. This also means anyone accessing Facebook on your computer has access to your account.

If you feel that Keychain Access is lacking in features, there are a couple of alternatives password managers that you can try out.

Is password security a concern for you? How do you manage your Mac passwords? Let us know in the comments section below.

Use Hushed To Create Disposable Phone Numbers In 40 Countries [Android/iOS]

Use Hushed To Create Disposable Phone Numbers In 40 Countries [Android/iOS]

disposable phone numberThere are many situations in life where you need someone to be able to contact you reliably, but do not want them to permanently have your phone number. Consider these situations: dating or selling goods online. Both of these circumstances are great examples of why a throw-away phone number might be a good idea.

However, it can often be difficult to obtain a reliable disposable phone number outside of the US. But things are changing with the use of smartphones. Hushed is an application that will allow you to set up a throw-away phone number and delete it whenever you like. You can also manage multiple disposable numbers at once using the Hushed app.

Why Use A Disposable Phone Number?

As well as the obvious safety reasons with giving a disposable phone number to people you are dating and online contacts for buying or selling goods, there are a number of other good reasons to use a disposable number. Namely, a disposable number can be used as a redirect, giving cheaper calls to the person calling.

disposable phone number

If you are an expat or traveling around the world, you can easily set up a phone number for folks back home or for the locals you meet while traveling. When they call the number it will be a local call for them, but will be received by your phone. You could also use a number such as this to stay in contact with people who live in the same country, but far enough away to incur long-distance phone charges. Why not keep the costs down for everyone?

Disposable phone numbers may also be useful for children and teenagers as you can terminate the number if need be. Great for your peace of mind as a parent!

Using a disposable number via an application also opens up the possibility of using your Android tablet as a phone. This could be very useful for you or a family member â€" especially kids.

Get The Hushed App

The Hushed application for managing disposable numbers is available for free from the Google Play store (or the iOS App Store). However, it will cost you to obtain a number and to make calls using that number.

disposable phone number free

Hushed Phone Number Features

All Hushed numbers come with a voicemail box, so you can separate your voicemail from your regular calls. This is a fantastic tool if you have sold an item online, yet continue to get calls about it. Simply change your listing to say the item is sold and that you won’t be replying to messages any more. Then delete the number or just ignore the voicemail messages.

disposable phone number free

When you are finished with a phone number, you can delete it whenever you like. So, you can set up a number just for dating purposes and keep it working until the day you wish you’d never given out the number to a certain person. Then you can simply delete it and create a new phone number.

Hushed phone numbers work in 40 countries worldwide, so it’s very handy for traveling. This also opens up the possibility of disposable numbers to people in countries who may have previously found it difficult to obtain one.

Using Hushed Phone Numbers

To get a Hushed phone number, you need to pay a minimum of US $ 1.99 to set it up. You choose your number, a price and an expiry date, with a choice of 7, 30 or 90 days maximum. As mentioned previously, you can delete your number at any time you like in advance of your expiry date. You can also choose to automatically extend a number when it reaches its expiry date.

disposable phone number

Hushed phone numbers can also be used to make outbound phone calls and to send/receive text messages. To facilitate this, Hushed works similarly to a prepaid phone card. You can add money to Hushed and keep track of your call costs as you make them. This keeps your costs as transparent as possible.

Alternatives to Hushed

Obviously, the best alternative to an application like Hushed is to use Google Voice (if you are in the US), a VoIP provider or any voice/video chat service such as Skype or Google Hangouts. If you are an iOS user, there is also a similar application called Burner. The chat services may not have quite the same level of anonymity, but you can block people and remove them from your friends list when you are finished requiring contact with the person. They also work extremely well for cutting your long-distance call costs.

What service do you use to create disposable phone numbers? Why?

40 Amazing Photoshop Light Effect Tutorials

40 Amazing Photoshop Light Effect Tutorials

photoshop-light-effect-tutorials

Photoshop light effect tutorials are great to turn to when you work on designs with fiery or glowing effects. If you need inspiration or tips, tricks and techniques they great time savers. There are many different way to use glowing or light effect in your designs and with some detailed tutorials; you will shortcut your way to use them yourself.

Many design and graphic projects involve colorful light and glow effects one way or the other and can be powerful for highlighting products, text and for creating dynamic effects in website navigation on mouse hover. From movie and concert posters, to event flyers and billboard ads, to backgrounds and wallpapers, you can find a certain degree of light effects in many artworks in nearly any category.  Of course creating such designs is easier if you have the right building blocks and this could very well involve Photoshop sparkle brushes and fire textures etc.

Creating realistic light effects in not simple at all. Light effects easily look odd and over done and if you are not careful, adding too much light effect is easy and it will certainly ruin your design. If you follow the tutorials in this post, you should have a good starting point and an idea of how to move on yourself with your own projects. I have collected more than 40 great Photoshop light effect tutorials to get you started right away. Please share this article with your friends and leave a friendly comment.

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How to Make Vibrant Cosmic Light Effects in Photoshop â€" MORE INFO

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This tutorial will take an awesome vector image created in Illustrator that was imported into Photoshop, and you will turn it into a fresh and modern design using layer styles, blend modes, and more. You will be exploring a few techniques for incorporating brilliant light effects into your artwork.

Create a glowing superhero by Kervin Brisseaux â€" MORE INFO

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Kervin Brisseaux shows how he turned a basic illustration into a retro-futuristic artwork in Photoshop.

Abstract lighting effects â€" MORE INFO

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Learn how to create a very colorful waves element with light effects in Adobe Photoshop CS4.

Create an Abstract Light Streaks poster in Photoshop CS5 â€" MORE INFO

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In this tutorial you will learn how to create an abstract light streaks poster from scratch using Lighting effects, Noise, and Wave Photoshop CS5 filters.

Biker with Light Effects in Photoshop â€" MORE INFO

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In this Photoshop tutorial you will learn how to create an awesome light effect on a photo featuring a biker.

Create Spectacular Concept Art in Photoshop â€" MORE INFO

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This tutorial, will show you how to combine stock photographs to create a stunning effect that can be easily reproduced to work with almost any combination of images.

The Making of “Constant Slip” â€" MORE INFO

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This tutorial will take you through the creative process of making intriguing light effects and applying them in your work.

The Cosmos: Create a Red Giant Star in Photoshop â€" MORE INFO

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In this tutorial you will learn how to make a dramatic fictional star in Photoshop.

Luminescent Lines â€" MORE INFO

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Here you will create some thin flowing lines that look as if they emit light. This technique is fairly simple and is a great way to create an abstract wallpaper or looks good integrated into another image.

Create Abstract Landscape Art From a Photograph â€" MORE INFO

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This tutorial will teach you how to make an abstract light effect artwork from an image n Photoshop.

Create a Vibrant Abstract Space Artwork â€" MORE INFO

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This tutorial, will show you how to create a vibrant and colorful abstract space artwork using Photoshop, Illustrator, and stock images.

Achieve Brilliant Lighting Effects in Photoshop â€" MORE INFO

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In this tutorial, you’ll learn the essential process of achieving brilliant lighting effects in Photoshop.

Create Cosmic Lighting Effects Using Photoshop CS6 â€" MORE INFO

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This tutorial will explain how to create cosmic light effect using several stock photos, custom brushes, masks, and a bit of digital painting.

Show me the light â€" Digital Art Tutorial â€" MORE INFO

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This photoshop tutorial will show you how to use stock images to make a beautiful digital artwork with nicely colored lights.

Space Explosion Photoshop Tutorial â€" MORE INFO

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Digital space art is one of the most inventive and beautiful art genres of this era. This tutorial shows you how to create your own space scene using three stock photos and Adobe Photoshop.

How to Make Your Photos Look Hipster with Photoshop â€" MORE INFO

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Turn your mainstream photos into retro coolness. This Photoshop tutorial will show you how to apply a retro/lomo photo effect using professional non-destructive editing techniques. You’ll need Photoshop CS3 or newer to follow this tutorial.

Create abstract colorful background with bokeh effect â€" MORE INFO

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This tutorial, will teach you how to create an abstract colorful background with bokeh effect using Photoshop’s drawing tools, blending modes, and lighting techniques.

Create a Dynamic Portrait with Flashy Light Effects â€" MORE INFO

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Learn how to create your own futuristic portraits with swirling ribbons of light. This Photoshop tutorial will show you how to create light streaks and other high-tech elements that you can incorporate into your own photos.

Design a Vibrant Blackberry Inspired Ad in Photoshop â€" MORE INFO

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This tutorial will teach you how to create an awesome, bright and vibrant lighting effects in Photoshop.

How to Digitally Illustrate a Camera with Light Streaks â€" MORE INFO

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This tutorial will teach you how to create light streaks in Photoshop.

Create a Powerful Mental Wave Explosion Effect â€" MORE INFO

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Add Brilliant Light Effects to Your Work with Photoshop â€" MORE INFO

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This tutorial, will show you several super easy techniques for incorporating remarkable light effects to your work using Photoshop.

Sexy Model with Glowing Bubbles Effect  â€" MORE INFO

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This tutorial will teach you how to put a streaks of light to make a techno inspired image in Photoshop.

Create a Glowing Light Painting Effect â€" MORE INFO

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This tutorial will show you an easy, and very fast way, to create a light painting in Photoshop.

Create a Simple Vibrant Light Effect in Photoshop â€" MORE INFO

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Follow this Adobe Photoshop tutorial to manipulate the images with various tools and techiques to produce a vibrant design made up of intense light streams effect.

Fantasy Art Photopshop Tutorial â€" Plasma in the Lake â€" MORE INFO

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You learn how to put magical lights in this Photoshop tutorial.

Super Fast â€" Speed Lighting Effect â€" MORE INFO

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Take an image of a fireworks display and turn it into an intense sensation of speed. Manipulate natural lighting to fill a motion filled scene. Use masks to blend the effect over a car image to make the car appear to be in motion. This tutorial shows you exactly what to do.

Create Dynamic Lighting Effect in Photoshop CS5 â€" MORE INFO

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This tutorial will show you how to create dynamic lighting effect using a stock photo, custom brushes, simple shapes and masks in Adobe Photoshop CS5.

Create a Cosmic XBOX using Custom Brushes â€" MORE INFO

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In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create some custom line brushes, and then apply them to a subject to create a cosmic design.

Electrifying Energy Beams in Photoshop â€" MORE INFO

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Here’s a great effect that will bring some energy to your subject. You will be wrapping this singer’s arm with a glowing beam of light, adding sparkles, and adjusting the colors to make it all seem magical.

End of the World Photo Manipulation â€" MORE INFO

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This tutorial will teach you how to apply light effects to create an end of the world photo manipulation.

Fairy Glow Lightning â€" MORE INFO

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This tutorial will show you how to add glow and lightning effects to a photography.

Sparkling Hot Girl in Photoshop â€" MORE INFO

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This tutorial will show you how to create an image using this technique. It basically mixes some techniques from tutorials like Magic Lighting Effect, Amazing Photoshop light effect in 10 Steps, and the latest Create the MSNBC header effect.

Make a Meteoric Composition with Stellar Light Effects â€" MORE INFO

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In this tutorial, you will create an out-of-this-world composition of a computer mouse that is streaking down like a meteor.

Add another dimension â€" MORE INFO

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This tutorial will teach you to create stunning effects using glows, loads of Colour Dodge, and lots and lots of neon â€" hot pinks and lemon yellows are prominent here. You’ll also learn how to utilise white in all the right places, so that white areas look less like negative space and more like the result of added energy and light.

Create A Gorgeous Light Effect Using Photoshop â€" MORE INFO

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In this tutorial you will learn how with the professional techniques you can create an amazing light effect using Photoshop.

Create an amazing Ad in Photoshop â€" MORE INFO

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Learn how to make a fiery Nike logo in this tutorial.

Create an Electrifying Light Guitar â€" MORE INFO

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In this tutorial, Pawel Kiec will take you though the steps of extracting an image, creating a background, and then making an electrifying glowing guitar that resembles pure neon light.

Stunning Product Shot Using Lighting Effects â€" MORE INFO

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This tutorial will teach you how to create a stunning light effect for a shoe ad using Photoshop.

Fire Lines Photoshop Tutorial â€" MORE INFO

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In this tutorial, you will learn how to apply an awesome line effect in an image in Photoshop.

Author : Harvey J. Aniasco

Harvey is a graphic designer who used to work in print and billboard advertising. While a big devotee of digital media, he is also fond of acrylic and watercolor. During his free time you can see him playing online games and learning web development.

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