According to the Gmail blog, the "Call phone" feature will be rolled out to US-based Gmail users first, but it should be available in Canada and other countries soon.

• The UIE Book Club Episode 1: Kristina Halvorson’s Content Strategy
  Jared Spool discusses Content Strategy for the Web with the book’s author, Kristina Halvorson. (via Jared Spool)
• 10 Essential Free E-Books for Web Designers
  Just what the title suggests. Ten books on web design, all online, all free. (via Grace Smith)
• Voting is live for the 2010 .net Awards
  Vote on the best web app, best blog, best podcast, design agency, web personality, mobile site, and more. (via .net)
• CSS3 Generator
  A very handy tool that generates CSS3 code so you don’t have to. Choose from a range of CSS3 properties including border-radius, text-shadow, multiple columns, and more. (via The Dev Show Episode 19)
• Build Your Own Wicked WordPress Themes
  This is a brand new book from Sitepoint. I actually heard about it last week, but wanted to mention it anyway since it’s a topic I’m keenly interested in. The title is pretty self-explanatory. (via Sitepoint)

To do this, you’ll need Photoshop and a picture, preferably one that is significant to your project (like a banner). If you’re project doesn’t use any pictures, find one with a few general colours that you think could work.

Open your picture in Photoshop. For this demonstration I’m using the banner from my personal site. I’m planning to revise that site soon anyhow, so this might give me a head start.

Select Filter > Pixelate > Mosaic from the main menu.

Change the cell size to increase the pixels of each colour square. The larger the pixels, the fewer colours you’ll get. Play around with it until you get a range you like. Keep in mind what each colour will be used for (backgrounds, headings, link states, etc.). This will help you decide how many colours you need in the palette.

Click OK, and presto! You have a colour scheme.

Now all you need to do is use the eyedropper tool to get the hex codes for each colour.

Schweet.

A few years ago, it was surprisingly difficult to find any podcasts related to web design. I remember discovering Boagworld by accident when the show turned up in a Google search. I was immediately hooked, but it seemed to be the only show of its kind out there. I’m sure it wasn’t, but searching the web or iTunes found nothing of quality. Today the situation is much different. My iTunes library now includes at least a dozen or so shows that I listen to on a regular basis.

In this post, I’ve compiled six of my favourite podcasts. If you’re a web developer or designer and you don’t already know about these shows, you should.

What they all share in common, besides the subject area, is a solid mix of information, entertainment, and production quality. Of course, the information is the meat of each show, and I almost always come away having learned something new. But if I’m going to listen to people talking for an hour then the show also has to make me laugh, or at least smile sometimes. And it also needs to sound good. These shows do all of that.

Boagworld

What the show is about: "A podcast for those who design, develop and run websites."

Hosted by: Paul Boag & Marcus Lillington

Format: Audio

Notable episodes:

• Episode 184: HTML5 with Jeremy Keith
• Episode 179: Affordance with Dan Rubin
• Episode 157: Live panel discussion at SXSW09 with Andy Budd, Daniel Burka, Jeremy Keith & Joe Stump

CreativeXpert

What the show is about: "…a podcast series featuring interviews with web designers and other creative experts about their careers, techniques, inspiration and upcoming projects."

Hosted by: Alan Houser & Eric Anderson

Format: Audio

Notable episodes:

• Episode 43: Kristina Halvorson on content strategy
• Episode 41: Jeffrey Zeldman & Ethan Marcotte on Designing with Web Standards 3rd Edition
• Episode 37: Dan Rubin on partnerships & collectives

CSS-Tricks

What the show is about: "Tutorials on web design."

Hosted by: Chris Coyier

Format: Video

Notable episodes: The Building a Website series:

• Episode 71: Photoshop mockup
• Episode 72: HTML & CSS conversion
• Episode 73: WordPress conversion

The Big Web Show

What the show is about: "…special guests and topics like the future of publishing, art direction online, content strategy, web fonts and typography, CMS shootouts, HTML5 and CSS3, building an audience, and more."

Hosted by: Dan Benjamin & Jeffrey Zeldman

Format: Audio & Video

Notable episodes:

• Episode 6: Luke Wroblewski on designing for mobile devices
• Episode 4: Kristina Halvorson & Erin Kissane on content strategy
• Episode 2: Jeremy Keith on HTML5.

The Dev Show

What the show is about: "…news and discussion about the latest topics in the software development community, with a focus on Ruby, PHP, Java, JavaScript, and more, with commentary from your hosts."

Hosted by: Dan Benjamin & Jason Seifer

Format: Audio & Video

Notable episodes:

• Episode 9: Security
• Episode 3: HTML5
• Episode 1: Awesome.new

Sitepoint Podcast

What the show is about: "News, opinion, and fresh thinking for web developers and designers. The official podcast of sitepoint.com."

Hosted by: Kevin Yank, Patrick O’Keefe & Brad Williams

Format: Audio

Notable episodes:

• Episode 64: Russ Weakley on learning the web
• Episode 63: There are two webs
• Episode 58: Mat Patterson on HTML email

What podcasts would you recommend?

Let’s hear your favourite shows in the comments!

My friends at Idea Rebel have just launched their 2010 Vancouver weather app for the iPhone and iPod Touch, just in time for the Winter Olympics. It’s called 2010 Vancouver Weather & Venues and it provides Olympic goers with real-time weather updates for all venues and events during the Games. I saw a brief demo last week, and it’s pretty slick. It’s also free in iTunes.

Idea Rebel is a digital agency located in Vancouver’s Gas Town. They do great work – check out idearebel.com.

February 18 update: you can see the 2010 weather app in action on the Gas Town blog.

When you’re done, you can also view the survey findings for 2008 and 2007.