On Thursday, Facebook disclosed that a network of hackers with ties to Iran tried to use its platform to target US military personnel. At the center of the campaign was a group known as Tortiseshell. Facebook says the collective went after individuals and companies in the defense and aerospace industries. Its primary targets were in the US, but they also sought out people in the UK and parts of Europe.
“This activity had the hallmarks of a well-resourced and persistent operation, while relying on relatively strong operational security measures to hide who’s behind it,” Facebook said. "Our platform was one of the elements of the much broader cross-platform cyber-espionage operation, and its activity on Facebook manifested primarily in social engineering and driving people off-platform (e.g., email, messaging and collaboration services and websites), rather than directly sharing of the malware itself."
What went down appears to be unprecedented for Tortoiseshell. In the past, the group has primarily targeted IT companies throughout the Middle East. The methods it employed were similar to those that China’s Evil Eye used to target the Uyghur community earlier in the year.
Facebook says the group created “sophisticated online personas” to contact its targets and build trust with them before trying to convince them to click on malicious links. They had accounts across multiple social media platforms to make their ruse appear more credible. The group built fake recruiting websites and even went so far as to spoof a legitimate US Department of Labor job search tool. Facebook believes at least some of the malware the group deployed was developed by Mahak Rayan Afraz, a company with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Iran has been accused of a variety of malicious online activities over the past year. Most notably, Microsoft said last September it was one of the countries that tried to meddle in the 2020 US presidential election.
The rumors about Valve making a version of the Nintendo Switch for handheld Steam gaming are true. The company has revealed the Steam Deck, which will arrive in December in the US, Canada, the European Union and the UK, with availability expanding to more regions later. The system starts at $399.
Although the hardware isn’t final, according to IGN, the device currently looks like a mashup of a Switch, a Sega Game Gear and the Steam Controller. It has a seven-inch touchscreen, with a resolution of 1,280 x 800 at a 16:10 aspect ratio, 400 nits of brightness and a 60Hz refresh rate.
Valve
There are dual thumbsticks, two 32.5mm square trackpads, an analog directional pad, four main face buttons, triggers and a quartet of grip buttons, as well as gyro controls. The Steam Deck also has a headphone jack, stereo speakers, dual microphones and haptic feedback. It weighs around 669 grams and it's just under a foot wide.
Valve teamed up with AMD on the hardware. The Steam Deck's custom chipset features a 2.4-3.5GHz processor and a 1.0 to 1.6GHz GPU with eight RDNA 2 compute units. Valve claims it's a "Zen 2 + RDNA 2 powerhouse" that's capable of running the latest major games "in a very efficient power envelope."
The handheld PC comes with 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and up to 512GB of NVMe internal storage, which you can expand with a microSD card. Valve says the 40-watt-hour battery will power the device for between two and eight hours on a single charge. The battery life will depend on how resource intensive the games you play are. The Switch, meanwhile, runs for up to nine hours.
Valve
Steam Deck runs on a new version of SteamOS that's designed for handheld use. Valve says it uses Proton, a compatibility layer that lets games run without developers having do any porting work. You'll have access to your full library of games. You can expect to have access to many Steam features, including chat, remote play (so you can play games from your PC just about anywhere), cloud saves and, of course, the Steam storefront.
The device has a built-in quick suspend and resume feature. Pressing the power button will suspend your game and send the Steam Deck into sleep mode. You'll be able to continue where you left off when you hit the power button again.
Steam Deck will support a variety of Bluetooth and USB-C peripherals. You can plug in a powered USB-C hub and use multiple devices at once. You can connect the system to an external display and play games at up to 8K at 60Hz or 4K at 120Hz.
Introducing Steam Deck: powerful, portable PC gaming starting at $399. Designed by Valve, powered by Steam. Shipping December 2021.
Valve is also making an official dock with DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0 and Ethernet ports, as well as one USB 3.1 connection and two USB 2.0 sockets. You'll be able to use the Steam Deck as an actual PC, if you like. In fact, you'll even be able to install some other game stores.
The Steam Deck could be compelling for those who've been yearning to play all kinds of PC titles while they're on the move or even relaxing on a couch. However, the name is very similar to Elgato's Stream Deck, so it remains to be seen whether that part of the system will stick. Notably, the device costs just $50 more than the upcoming OLED version of the Switch and the same as an all-digital PlayStation 5.
The base $399 Steam Deck comes with 64GB of eMMC internal storage and a carrying case. For $529, you can upgrade the storage to a 256GB NVMe SSD. The 512GB model costs $649 and comes with "premium anti-glare etched glass." The dock will be sold separately.
Reservations for the Steam Deck open on July 16th at 1PM ET on the Steam store. You'll need to pay a deposit, but that goes toward the price of the system.
On May 5, 1961, Commander Alan Shepard piloted his Mercury Freedom 7 spacecraft to a soaring height of 116 miles above the planet's surface to become the first American to reach Earth's orbit. This past Sunday, Sir Richard Branson was escorted to an altitude of 50 miles aboard Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Unity. Somehow, these men are now both considered astronauts.
The discrepancy here lies in the fact that since the Space Era began, the world's exo-planetary powers have never really gotten around to formalizing where the Earth's atmosphere ends and where "space" — loosely defined as it is — begins. Even within the US federal bureaucracy, different agencies use different standards. What NASA mission control considers the edge of space is actually 26 miles farther out than where the NOAA and US Air Force demark the atmospheric boundary. So the next time you find yourself hurtling through the Mesosphere, keep a close eye on your altimeter if you want to earn the coveted Astronaut Badge.
This post contains major spoilers for episode six of 'Loki.'
In case you didn’t hear earlier, Lokiwill return for season two, and thank goodness: The finale didn’t resolve a whole lot, if it resolved anything. Well, we did find out who was pulling the strings behind the Time Variance Authority and why, but it really served as an introduction to a villain who’s scheduled to make his next appearance in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
However, Loki never felt like an extended prequel to, well, anything. It’s been a show that’s stood largely on its own, one which forged a unique identity apart from everything else in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including the Thor movies. After all, this isn’t the Loki we spent eight years watching on screen. This one was created in 2019 in the middle of Avengers: Endgame, a variant that so far is walking a path free of Asgard and all that pesky Avengers business.
Chuck Zlotnick / Marvel Studios
And so Loki the show paved its own road as well, not really relying too much on knowledge of the films past the first and last Avengers movies. You could walk into the series knowing as much about Loki’s fate as the variant Loki and walk away after the first season knowing just as little. The finale was interesting because for the first time, I have no idea how a Marvel show fits into the greater scheme of things. And like He Who Remains, I find that a bit exciting.
One thing that has been true of all the Marvel shows has that we’ve always generally known where they’re supposed to slot into the bigger universe. Agents of SHIELD was originally intended to be a way for the side stories of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to thrive but for a while it was treated as a place to dump movie leftovers. Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist were originally aimed toward setting up The Defenders limited series. WandaVision was a prequel for Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, while The Falcon and the Winter Soldier did character work for the next Captain America film.
Marvel Studios
But Loki, aside from wrapping up a loose thread from Endgame, doesn’t actually tie into anything, especially any upcoming projects. They don’t even name the man behind the curtain, he’s just “He Who Remains.” And he’s killed by the end of the episode, which means any time we see him from this point forward, it’s technically a different person; another cosmic iteration of the same jerk. Fans of the comics know that he’s meant to be Kang the Conqueror, but that big reveal is yet to come — because the man we met is not a conqueror. He was a cosmic bureaucrat.
The conqueror, though hinted at in the Loki finale, will make his first full appearance in early 2023. He won’t remember the events shown in the Disney+ show since he wasn’t actually there, which means either the film will completely ignore all we learned here, or explain it to the audience anew. Prior knowledge of Loki shouldn’t and most likely won’t be necessary.
Chuck Zlotnick / Marvel Studios
Which leaves season two of Loki free to do almost anything it wants. The man who seems to now be in charge of the TVA is unlikely to be even close to the same man that Scott Lang and Hope Pym will have to tangle with, since we are dealing with a multiverse of possibilities. It does throw the next Doctor Strange movie into a bit of uncertainty, since in our original non-COVID timeline that was supposed to have premiered back in May. Were we supposed to see the debut of the multiverse before we saw its origin? Or will there be some other cosmic wrench to mess things up further for the MCU? A lot of things that seemed inevitable when all these projects were originally announced have now been thrown into uncertainty.
But for now, the key takeaway from the Loki finale is that the series is not beholden to anything else in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It didn’t have to load up a ton of character development or make sure everything is back in place plot wise before the next film. It’s free to take its small cast of characters and fully explore their possibilities, with no worries about how it will affect the other Marvel properties. What will happen to Loki, Sylvie, Mobius, Ravonna and the rest? We can focus on their individual stories instead of fussing over what can and can’t happen.
We can no longer make predictions based on future projects in the pipeline, or contractual obligations of actors. Theories can proliferate and almost nothing is off-limits. Every step Loki and the rest take just means another multiverse to explore in shows like What If?. The Sacred Timeline is dead, and so are the shackles of movie continuity.
When visually impaired music producer Jason Dasent decided to buy a collection of instrument plugins from Arturia about four years ago, he did so despite his suspicion that the company’s tools wouldn’t be accessible. He was right. “At that point I couldn’t browse and use the software,” he said. “I pretty much couldn’t do anything.” He had spent some $500 on Arturia’s V Collection 5, a set of virtual instruments that included recreations of some vintage synths he wanted to use. It was cheaper than spending hundreds of thousands on actual synths, he told himself.
But because Arturia’s preset manager Analog Lab wasn’t built to accommodate the visually impaired at the time, Dasent had to drop even more cash. “I would have to hire someone to come in for maybe three days to save these presets,” he said. For between $500 and $1,000, this person would export the presets to a format that would work in Avid’s Pro Tools, which had the accessibility features Dasent needed. It was a tedious and expensive process, he said, but even after that he could only choose presets. He couldn’t tweak cutoffs, envelopes, parameters or adjust the brightness. “I had no choice but to just stick with the presets,” he added.
In 2019, Dasent presented at the Audio Developers Conference (ADC) in London, where he was approached by Arturia’s then director of software development, Kevin Molcard. Moldcard wanted to make Analog Lab accessible, and asked for Dasent’s help. After the company set him up with the V Collection 7 and one of its Keylab controllers, Dasent started playing around. Eventually, Dasent was introduced to Arturia product manager Pierre Pfister, who wanted to learn more about what Analog Lab was missing.
Two months later, Dasent said, he got a call from Pfister. “I have something to show you.” What Pfister then shared with Dasent was an early version of a new accessibility toolset in Analog Lab V. “It’s as if my eyes are now open,” Dasent gushed. That kicked off a months-long back-and-forth between Dasent, Pfister and the Arturia team as they worked on the prototype, culminating in the launch of a new update today. The company is announcing a new accessibility mode to Analog Lab V, which will enable all users to turn on auditory feedback and screen reading. It also brings various “ergonomic improvements and bug fixes.”
With this new accessibility mode, the company's Keylab controllers now communicate with the Analog Lab software and a computer's text-to-speech engine. "Basically, as I press a button on Keylab, or I turn a dial or change a value, it sends notifications out to the system voice, allowing me to know exactly what's on the keyboard," Dasent said in a video describing the update. Now, when he tweaks faders and encoders on the keyboard, "I can know exactly what the values are as I tweak the parameters." As he turns a knob on the controller to scroll through a list of instruments, a voice reads out the name of each item he lands on.
Since Dasent is familiar with Arturia's devices, he has the layout of buttons and dials memorized. But he added that "the layout of the keyboard is very well thought out, so it makes learning where everything is very easy."
The most challenging part of getting the software accessible for visually impaired users, according to Pfister, wasn’t necessarily implementation or programming — it was figuring out how best to communicate with the system’s text-to-speech. Since a lot of music software (and many creative products in general) aren’t designed with accessibility in mind, there aren’t many best practices to pull from. Arturia almost had to start from scratch. “The hardest part was knowing what we should do and how we should make a product accessible,” Pfister said.
Once they figured it out and showed Dasent the first prototype though, the results were gratifying. “His reaction made everything worth it.”
Arturia
Pfister and his team know there’s more work that needs to be done. He acknowledged that Arturia is a small company and there’s “a lot of things we don’t know.” The plan for now is to continue listening to and soliciting feedback to “identify what most of our users would like to be able to do.” Whether that means getting all of the Analog Lab program fully accessible or to make all its individual instruments accessible, Pfister said the goal is to continue improving what it’s done with Analog Lab.
Like most of the tech industry, music software developers have, until now, largely overlooked the needs of people with disabilities. In a 2019 blog post for competing music company Native Instruments, UK technologist Chris Ankin said: “Historically, music software offered poor accessibility with existing screen readers.”
Even the leading digital audio workstation (DAW) Pro Tools struggled with keeping its software accessible through years of updates in the 2000s. At the time, in an effort to keep up with the latest versions of Apple’s desktop software, Avid offered newer plug-ins and features in its OS X version that those using older editions of Pro Tools did not get. The problem is, while the pre-existing Pro Tools HD (which launched in 2002) was “almost entirely accessible,” according to audio engineer Slau Hatlyn in an article on Avid’s website, the software for OS X wasn’t usable even after Apple introduced its VoiceOver screen reader in 10.4 Tiger in 2005. The only thing Hatlyn could access was the menu bar. “No other windows were readable.”
It took until Pro Tools version 8’s launch in 2008 for the software to regain accessibility, a long time considering “the previous accessible version was 5.3,” according to Hatlyn. Even so, the conversation continued, with Hatlyn calling out changes that broke accessibility between versions 10 and 11.
Arturia
And this is one of the industry’s most widely used DAWs. While Apple’s Logic is lauded as accessible, other music software companies that build assistive technology into their products are a rarity. Brands like Ableton and Image Line don’t appear to have comprehensive tools for the visually impaired in their products Ableton Live and FL Studios, at least based on the comments ontheir forums. A spokesperson for Ableton highlighted a Zoom Display feature, as well as recent updates to improve contrast, reduce automatic colors and adjust grid intensity as tools in Live for visually impaired users. The spokesperson added “We’re aware that there is much more to be done here.” Image Line has yet to respond to our request for comment.
Will Butler, the vice president of company whose app, Be My Eyes, connects blind and low-vision people with sighted volunteers, wrote a LinkedIn post about the accessibility of music software. In it, Butler asked blind music producer Byron Harden to anecdotally rank the accessibility of popular music software. While Harden placed GarageBand, Pro Tools, Audacity and Logic in the top four, awarding them passing scores out of ten, Ableton Live and FL Studio came in near the bottom with one point each.
Butler also highlighted Native Instruments for its efforts. In 2019, the company expanded support for Mac’s VoiceOver, as well as Narrator and the Speech API in Windows. Prior to that, Native Instruments had made keyboards with touch-sensitive rotary encoders and buttons with auditory feedback. With those, its software “can detect when the user’s fingers are resting on them, then give auditory feedback – synthesized speech – of the current value, and do so continuously as it’s adjusted.”
That auditory feedback is one of the features Arturia is bringing to Analog Lab V that Dasent is most grateful for. “One thing they got right: quality of feedback,” he said. Say for example you load a preset. When you hit the load button in Analog Lab V, it will say “Loaded” and read out the name of the pack. Dasent said that software can sometimes offer too much feedback or use overly lengthy sentences and phrases to communicate. It would be like a sighted person having to read 20 lines of text to get one little piece of information that a single sentence could have conveyed.
As Pfister recalled his first call with Dasent, he was amazed and shocked by the amount of effort Dasent was willing to expend to use Arturia’s instruments. “If they are willing to put in that much effort, why don’t we do a little bit to make their life so much easier?”
Indeed, while there are frontrunners in making music software more accessible for people with disabilities, the industry as a whole could benefit from a published set of best practices. This way, they could be disseminated to smaller companies entering the space and make it easier for them to build accessible products. Ultimately, as with the development of most assistive technologies, that would benefit all users regardless of able-bodiedness.
The newest Switch comes with a larger, 7-inch OLED display, as well as 64GB of internal storage, a redesigned kickstand, “enhanced audio” and a new dock that adds a wired LAN port. Nintendo will offer the $350 console in two colorways at launch: classic neon red and blue, and black and white.
What you won’t find on this version of the Switch is a new chipset. Ahead of the OLED model’s announcement at the start of the month, there were reports Nintendo planned to include an updated SoC with NVIDIA’s DLSS tech to enable the console to output games at 4K. That didn’t happen, but that’s not to say a Switch “Pro” is off the table.
Whether or not the OLED Switch represents a missed opportunity, we expect demand for the console will easily outstrip supply. In May, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa told investors the company was still contending with production issues, and the global semiconductor shortage isn’t expected to end anytime soon.
Just ahead of World Emoji Day, Facebook has announced a new feature for Messenger: emoji with sound. With Soundmojis, you can annoy everyone else in your chats with short audio clips that are linked to a visual emoji.
The initial Soundmoji library includes sound cues for standard emoji including applause and a drumroll as well as evil laughter. There are also audio clips from artists such as Rebecca Black (it's hard to imagine which day of the week would be most appropriate for that Soundmoji) and movies and TV shows including F9, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Bridgerton. Facebook will add more sound effects and clips over time.
If you really want to risk the wrath of your friends and family by bugging them with Soundmojis, open a Messenger chat, then tap the smiley face followed by the loudspeaker icon. You'll be able to preview Soundmojis from the library before sending them. I wonder what an eyeroll sounds like.
Blue Origin's auction winner can't make the company's first commercial spaceflight, but there will be a historic substitute. Jeff Bezos' firm has revealed that the first paying passenger for a New Shepard rocket is Oliver Daemen, who at 18 years old will be the youngest person to visit space. That's more than a little appropriate when one of his fellow passengers is 82-year-old Wally Funk, who'll be the oldest person to make the trip.
The flight is still scheduled for July 20th. The auction winner still wants to remain anonymous, but will take a later Blue Origin trip due to "scheduling conflicts."
It's not clear how much Daemen paid for the trip, but it's likely no small amount. Oliver's father is Joes Daemen, the CEO of hedge fund Somerset Capital Partners. While he probably didn't have to pay the $28 million from the auction, the final price was likely enough to keep other wealthy customers at bay.
This launch won't have as much impact as intended given Virgin Galactic's fully crewed spaceflight. Nonetheless, it's still historic beyond the ages of some of its passengers. This trip will include an honest-to-goodness paying customer. It might also be the first flight of its kind to technically enter space. While Virgin's altitude was short of the Kármán line (62 miles) that officially delineates space, Blue Origin is keen to point out that it should cross that symbolic barrier. Think of the July 20th flight as escalating a private space race that's unlikely to end any time soon.
In the following tutorial, you will learn how to design a music lesson flyer design in Affinity Publisher. Using basic tools and techniques along with some fonts and photos from Envato Elements, you’ll learn how to create this music lesson flyer template.
If you don’t have the time to learn how to make a flyer for music lessons, you can always try Envato Elements. You will find a massive collection of music lesson flyer examples to choose from. This summer music lesson flyer is just one of the many examples.
Alternatively, you can use the music flyer maker from Placeit. Using the music flyer maker, you can build a flyer design directly in your browser. All you have to do is select a template that fits your needs, and then adjust the photos, the graphics, the text, or the colors with a few clicks.
What You Will Learn in This Affinity Publisher Tutorial
How to set up a print-ready document in Affinity Publisher
How to import and blend photos in Affinity Publisher
How to work with text in Affinity Publisher
How to create banners and badges in Affinity Publisher
What You Will Need
You will need the following resources in order to complete this pamphlet for music classes:
Hit Control-N to open the New Document window. Select the A4 template, which will automatically set the Width to 210 millimeters and the Height to 297 millimeters.
Make sure that the DPI is set to 300 and, since you’re creating this for print, select CMYK for the Colour Format.
Set the Bleed to 3 mm and then click that Create button to create your new document. Now that your document is set up, let’s learn how to make a flyer for music lessons.
2. How to Create the Music Lessons Flyer Background
Step 1
Before you start work on the design, focus on the toolbar and make sure that Snapping is enabled.
Pick the Rectangle Tool (M) from your Tools and simply click and drag to create a shape that covers your entire canvas (216 x 303 mm). Set the fill color of this rectangle to C=100 M=60 Y=100 K=60.
Keep it selected and scale it to cover the entire canvas, as shown in the following image. You can do it manually or you can go to the Transform panel (View > Studio > Transform), check the Lock Aspect Ratio button, and set the Width to 216 mm.
Once you’ve placed the image as shown below, keep it selected and go to the Layers panel. Change the Blend Mode to Average and lower the Opacity to 80%.
Step 3
Reselect the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 200 x 287 mm shape, and fill it with C=2 M=3 Y=13 K=0.
With this rectangle selected, go to the toolbar, click the Alignment button, and then click the Align Center and Align Middle buttons to easily move your shape to the center of the canvas.
Step 4
Make sure that the rectangle made in the previous step is still selected, and press Shift-X to instantly swap the fill and stroke color settings.
Move to the context toolbar and open the Stroke attributes panel. Set the Width to 4 pt and don’t forget to check the Align Stroke to Inside button.
Step 5
Reselect the Rectangle Tool (M) and this time create a 192 x 279 mm shape.
Center this new shape and then return to the context toolbar to lower the stroke weight to 2 pt.
3. How to Add Text to Your Music Lesson Flyer
Step 1
Select the Artistic Text Tool (T) from your Tools and focus on the Character panel (Window > Studio > Character) where you can set the settings for the text that you’re about to add.
Select the Trouble font, set the size to 60 pt and change the text color to C=2 M=3 Y=13 K=0, and then click on your canvas to type in “PROFESSIONAL MUSIC CLASSES”.
Step 2
Keep focusing on your text and double-click the “MUSIC” word to select it. Return to the Character panel, increase the size to 100 pt, and from the Positioning and Transform section, increase the Tracking to 200%.
Double-click the “CLASSES” word to select it, and get back to the Character panel. This time, just increase the size to 100 pt.
Step 3
Reselect your entire text, focus on the Positioning and Transform section from the Character panel, and set the Leading to 90 pt.
Step 4
For the following steps, you will need a grid. Go to View > Grid and Axis Manager, check the Show Grid box, and set the Spacing to 1 mm. Get back to that magnet icon from your toolbar, click the tiny arrow button to open the fly-out panel, and make sure that the Snap to Grid box is checked.
Using the Rectangle Tool (M), create a 92 x 2 px shape, fill it with C=2 M=3 Y=13 K=0, and place it 10 mm below your text, as shown in the first image.
Switch to the Move Tool (V), hold down the Alt key, and drag a copy of this shape. Place it 10 mm above the text, as shown in the second image.
Step 5
Reselect the Artistic Text Tool (T) and focus on the Character panel. Keep the Trouble font, setting the size to 35 pt and the tracking to 5%.
Click on your canvas, type in “SHEFFIELD MUSIC SCHOOL”, and place the text 10 mm above the top bar, as shown in the following image.
Step 6
Return to the Character panel, select the Auro font and select the Bold style, setting the Size to 20 pt and the Tracking to 400%.
Click on your canvas to type “INSTRUMENTS”, and place the text 10 mm below the bottom bar, as shown in the first image.
Get back to the Character panel to lower the tracking to 300% and set the leading to 20 pt. Using these settings, add the “PIANO . GUITAR . VIOLIN . FLUTE . CELLO . UKULELE“ text and place it 5 mm below that “INSTRUMENTS” text.
Step 7
Select all your text along with the two horizontal bars and focus on the context toolbar. Click that Alignment button and just click the Align Centre button to perfectly align your selected objects.
Press Control-G, which will Group your selected objects, and return to the context toolbar. Click the Alignment button again, and this time check the Align Centre and Align Middle buttons to easily move your group to the center of the canvas, as shown in the following image.
4. How to Add a Round Badge to Your Music Lesson Flyer Template
Step 1
Click and hold on the Rectangle Tool from your Tools, and switch to the Ellipse Tool.
Hold down the Shift key to easily create a perfect circle, and just click and drag to create a 40 mm circle. Fill it with C=25 M=100 Y=100 K=30 and then press Control-C > Control-V to add a copy of this circle in the same place.
Hold down the Shift and Control keys to proportionally scale this copy from the center point and make it a 42 mm circle.
Press Shift-X to swap the fill and stroke color settings of this second circle and open the Stroke fly-out panel. Set the Width to 2 pt and make sure that you check the Align Stroke to Outside button.
Step 2
Reselect the Artistic Text Tool (T), add the “$30 PER HOUR” text to your badge, and use the font settings shown in the following image.
Step 3
Select the text along with the two circles, press Control-G to Group these elements, and place the group roughly as shown in the following image.
5. How to Add Banners to Your Music Lesson Flyer Template
Step 1
Reselect the Rectangle Tool from your Tools, and use it to create a 94 x 15 mm shape. Fill this new rectangle with C=2 M=3 Y=13 K=0 and place it as shown in the first image.
Keep this shape selected and move to the context toolbar. Select Concave from the Corner dropdown menu, and set the Corner Radius to 20%.
Step 2
Using the Artistic Text Tool (T), add the “MUSICCLASSES.COM” text, place it as shown below, and use the font settings shown in the following image.
Step 3
Reselect the Rectangle Tool to create a 116 x 15 px shape and place it as shown in the first image. Again, make the corners Concave and set the Corner Radius to 20%, and then add the text shown in the second image.
6. How to Add Some Music Design Elements
You will need some music elements from these 16 Music Notation Icons. Simply drag the elements inside your document and spread them roughly as shown in the following image. With this final touch, your summer music lesson flyer is complete.
Congratulations! Your Private Music Lesson Flyer Is Complete!
Now that you know how to make a flyer for music lessons, you can easily adjust it as shown in the following image. All you have to do is replace the photo and play with the colors as you wish.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial and can apply these techniques in your future music school flyer designs.
Feel free to adjust the final music lesson flyer design and make it your own. You can find some great sources of inspiration at Envato Elements, with interesting music lesson flyer ideas.
Popular Music School Flyer Designs From Envato Elements
Envato Elements is an excellent resource for music lesson flyer ideas. Here are some of the most popular music lesson flyer examples that you can find.
Check out this modern pamphlet for music classes and make yourself stand out. This customizable private lesson flyer template allows you to change the titles, the paragraphs, or the image to suit any preferences.
This acoustic music flyer is perfect to display your information in a well-put-together flyer. Easily edit the text or adjust the design so it fits your needs.
Looking for more of a classic “private music lessons” flyer? You can try this private lesson flyer template. Just a few clicks and your flyer should be ready.
McLaren isn't the only British supercar maker that can build a searingly fast hybrid. Aston Martin has introduced a Valhalla supercar that mates a 740HP, AMG-made 4.0-liter V8 with a 201HP dual electric motor system to produce top-tier performance while cutting emissions. The two-door can reach 62MPH in just 2.5 seconds and hit a top speed of 217MPH, but you can also drive a modest 9 miles in pure EV mode if you can live with an 80MPH top speed.
The electric technology also helps save weight. The Valhalla includes an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission that uses the hybrid system for reversing, eliminating the need for a conventional reverse gear. Toss in electric-assisted torque vectoring for the all-wheel drive system and the car should be agile, not just quick off the line. Aston predicts a 6:30 lap time for the Nürburgring Nordschleife, although the brand has yet to make an attempt.
Aston Martin
You can also expect a relatively light (3,417lbs) carbon fiber body and an adjustable ride height to keep the car usable on less-than-perfect streets.
Aston will start deliveries near the end of 2023 at prices between £600,000 to £700,000 ($830,000 to $968,000) in the UK, and it will be rare — the company only plans to produce units for about 2.5 years. Even so, it's an important machine. It gives Aston a foil to McLaren hybrids like the Artura and Speedtail. More importantly, the company sees it as a way to "drive the transition" from combustion engines to pure EVs. Don't be surprised if production electric sports cars arrive in the next few years, at least once the company is reasonably stable.
At this point, it's almost a surprise when a notable game slated for 2021 isn't delayed. The latest title to slip to 2022 is Resident Evil Re:Verse, the upcoming multiplayer take on the horror franchise. What stands out with this delay, however, is that Capcom is putting the release date on ice only a week or two before the game was supposed to drop.
"The previously announced July 2021 launch of Resident Evil Re:Verse is being moved to 2022 so that the team can continue working to deliver a smooth gameplay experience," the Resident Evil crew wrote in a tweet. "We will share updated launch details at a later time. Thank you for your patience and understanding."
Re:Verse was announced as a freebie for those who own Resident Evil Village. Capcom suggested those who have a physical copy of Village keep their Re:Verse download code in a safe place or add it to their account so they're ready to roll when the game finally drops.
For players who purchased a physical version of Resident Evil Village, we recommend that you keep track of the included Resident Evil Re:Verse download code or add it to your account now so that you are ready to play when the game launches next year.
Re:Verse is effectively a separate deathmatch mode in which between four and six players pick a Resident Evil character and duke it out in short battles. When you die, you return as a zombie. The player with the most points after five minutes wins.
Game development is a complex process where all manner of things can go wrong. We've seen time and time again that delays are often necessary, especially amid the impact of COVID-19. Pushing back Re:Verse by at least six months at the last minute is a curious case, though. A lengthy delay indicates the game isn't close to being ready despite the July release window.
Although it's an add on for a main-series Resident Evil game, the delay will be disappointing to those who were looking forward to Re:Verse. Still, it's better to have a game that arrives late and works properly from the jump rather than one that needs months of post-launch hotfixes and larger patches to squish bugs.
Lyft unsurprisingly axed shared rides as COVID-19 took hold, but it's rethinking them as the pandemic (hopefully) subsides and demand resumes. The company is relaunching shared rides on July 19th with a few tweaks to both streamline your trips and acknowledge the safety issues of a not-quite-normal US.
You can now request these rides up to 30 minutes in advance, saving you money and increasing the chances that you'll get an optimized route. There also won't be any surprise route changes or delays if you choose the "no surprise pickups" options — you won't be late for work because someone hailed a ride at the 'wrong' moment.
Lyft
And yes, you'll still have to abide by some pandemic safety restrictions. Everyone in the car will still have to wear masks, and there will be no more than two passengers (both in the back seats). You can't eat or drink, either. If anyone violates the rules, both the driver and passengers can cancel a ride without penalty.
Shared rides will initially be available in Chicago, Denver and Philadelphia, with more cities hopping aboardi in the months ahead.
In some ways, this is as much about coping with Lyft's practical realities as anything. With ridership picking back up, Lyft is facing a shortage of drivers. The shared option could help Lyft keep up while it recruits more drivers, especially among cost-conscious travellers who don't mind some socially distanced company.
If autonomous rides ever free us from driving, more focus will need to be paid to car interiors. A new concept crammed with a mind-boggling amount of tech offers a vision of what that future may look like. If the vehicle ever becomes a reality, that is. Meet the Teorema, a virtual blueprint for the zenith of road transport. Or, a pipe dream, depending on your point of view. The breadvan-style car ditches doors for a rear entrance, made possible by a roof that extends upwards and forwards, and packs a holographic augmented reality (AR) display.
Pininfarina
Passengers are guided to the five seats (laid out in a 1-2-2 formation) by a "foot-triggering" floor. Inside, there's a spacious cabin where you can sit facing others or turn the chairs into desks or even beds. It's all about creating a "social space" accentuated by the three driving modes, two of which (Autonomy and Rest) don't require you to drive at all. If you do decide to take the wheel, you can watch the world through that jacked-up AR display — though that could prove distracting. Of course, the concept is electric.
Pininfarina
It helps to know that the Teorema is the brainchild of Pininfarina, an Italian design house associated with one-off car bodies along with numerous prototypes, some of which actually became production models. So, don't rule it out altogether. Maybe, it could become a luxury commercial vehicle with some modifications. Either that, or a limited edition toy for tech billionaires like Elon Musk. Worse still, an NFT.
Alas, it could also wind up on the scrap heap of concepts that never saw the light of day. You could accuse the Teorema of being too futuristic. But, that's all the rage, right?
Let’s face it, sometimes our needs extend way beyond our budget. If that’s exactly where you are and you’re looking for a free folded shirt or hoodie mockup, we can help.
Let’s say you want to make a logo for your local volleyball team. Follow these five steps to create a logo in seconds using the Placeit sports logo generator.
1. Go to Placeit and Type “Free Folded T-shirt Mockup” or “Free Folded Hoodie Mockup” in the Search Bar
When you find a mockup you like, click it and it will open the Mockup Generator.
2. Customise Your Free Folded T-Shirt Mockup
Now upload your design using the Insert Image button. You can also use the Add Text button above to add text to your mockup or the Upload Logo button to add a logo to your mockup if you like.
Now move to the controls on the right and change the colour of your folded shirt mockup.
3. Download Your Free Folded T-Shirt Mockup
And that’s it! You have a terrific mockup ready to use however you care to.
10 Best Free Folded Shirt & Hoodie Mockups
Now let’s take a look at the best free folded shirt and hoodie mockups currently available at Placeit. Just remember, free items are changed from time to time, so if you don’t find the exact item you want when you visit, there are sure to be other equally stunning ones available.
Fly me to the moon… or at least the clouds! And while you’re at it, check out this terrific free folded T-shirt mockup and have some fun trying out your cool designs.
So we have to say goodbye to the summer eventually, but autumn will be nice and cozy with this folded hoodie mockup, free for you to test out your designs and free to download.
When Halloween calls, you’ve got to be prepared. So get working on your design, upload it to this terrific free folded T-shirt mockup now, and be ready to show off your talent when the day arrives.
Maybe you want to add your design to a hoodie instead of a T-shirt. Well, Placeit has read your mind. Here’s a folded hoodie mockup free for you to download today.
Yup! You know where I’m going with this. Couldn’t miss the opportunity to show you that the terrific free folded T-shirt mockup above has an equally stunning folded hoodie mockup free for you.
Ring in the New Year with a stunning design when you use this fabulous free folded T-shirt mockup. Just use the mockup generator to upload your design, change the colour of the T-shirt if necessary, and hit that download button.
Since we’re in the celebrating mood, let’s finish up this super list of the best free folded shirt and hoodie mockups with this free folded fabric mockup, which is terrific for birthday-related designs or to celebrate good times. Come on!
21 Best Premium Folded Shirt & Hoodie Mockups
Now that you know how to find some pretty cool mockups at Placeit, we’re going to share some even cool premium folded shirt and hoodie mockups for those times when you have a bit of cash to spare.
The great thing about Placeit is that it’s designed to suit a range of budgets. If you regularly need mockups, logos, and various designs, you can sign up for a low monthly or yearly plan. This gives you access to unlimited downloads of any and all the digital assets available at Placeit.
That’s right, one low monthly/yearly fee = unlimited access to the best mockups, logos, designs and videos available on the internet today. But that’s not all.
If you’re on a budget and can only afford to buy one digital resource at a time, you have another option. Rather than taking advantage of that low monthly/yearly fee, you can create the resource you want and pay a small fee to download just that resource. Just awesome, right?
Let’s take a look at some of the amazing premium folded shirt mockups you have at your fingertips at Placeit.
You just gotta love flat lays! And this one is totally fabulous with its cool accessories. A great folded shirt mockup for travel- and vacation-related designs.
Into raglan? How about this folded shirt mockup in raglan style? You can make the background any colour that suits your fancy or leave it transparent to fit your mockup easily into the background of your choosing.
What’s better than one folded shirt mockup? Why, several folded shirt mockups, of course. Sometimes you want to create that sense of stacked shirts, and for those times, there is this mockup. Like the example above, you can change the background to the colour of your choice or leave it transparent.
Why choose one background colour when you can choose two? Set your T-shirt folded mockup against a zippy two-toned background and pump up the excitement.
Not that we’re encouraging you to drink or anything, but what could be better than a cooling cocktail on a hot summer’s day? Oh, and as for the folded T-shirt mockup, think how amazing your design will look in this tableau.
So many possibilities with this design, but I think it’s a great way to show off two versions of the same design, or a hers and hers design, a his and his design, or a his and hers design. Don’t forget to change the background colour to your preferred hue.
How terrific is this folded shirt mockup? Not only does it offer the expected folded tee for your design, but it also offers the box cover, so you can add your brand or your gorgeous design for maximum exposure.
Get into the season with this stunning Christmas-inspired flat lay. Can’t you see your design lying on top of that soft tissue paper? If not, then use the mockup generator to see what it would look like. Remember, experimentation even with premium folded T-shirt mockups is free.
The wonderful soft colours of this folded shirt mockup would complement your whimsical design perfectly, or maybe you want to go with a more vivacious design to kick things up a notch. The possibilities are endless.
Are you looking for a logo to adorn just the right folded shirt mockup? Then here’s one for you. This polo mockup is just right for employee uniforms. So upload your logo, add your brand colours, and hit that download button.
Sometimes simple is all you need, and for those times, here is a simple straight shot of folded T-shirt mockup on a solid background. You can change the colour of the background to suit your needs.
Want to show three different versions of the same design, three different designs, or maybe just the same design three times? This folded shirt mockup is all you need.
That’s not the only option you have, though. The great thing about Placeit is that there are many versions of folded T-shirts to choose from, so if you prefer to display your three shirts layered out in a fan, you can do that too.
The great thing about this T-shirt folded mockup is that you can use it for a garden-themed design, a garden-related business or something like a summer-inspired design.
Let’s take a trip down “folded hoodie mockup” lane. This one is a simple design. You can change the background as well as those strange blocks to the right of the hoodie.
If your design is specifically for teenagers, you’ll love this folded hoodie mockup. Just upload your design, change the hoodie colour if needed, and your mockup is ready for prime time.
For those times when you need a simple folded hoodie mockup free of all the bells and whistles, there is this terrific mockup. Upload your design, change the hoodie colour and background colour if needed, and voila.
This raglan folded hoodie mockup can be used for just about any kind of design. The great thing about this mockup is that you can change both the raglan colour and the background colour as needed.
Get Your Premium Folded T-Shirt or Hoodie Mockup Today
Whether you’re looking for a free folded T-shirt mockup or a premium folded hoodie mockup, Placeit has you covered, so head on over today and choose your favourite mockup.
If you’re looking for more suggestions on terrific mockups and designs you can find at Placeit, check out these great articles below:
Almost two years down the line, Facebook is taking a big step to expand its payments platform. The company has announced plans to break out Facebook Pay from its own ecosystem to facilitate transactions across the web. Starting in August, US-based customers will be able to make purchases from Shopify-powered businesses using the payment method. When you visit a supported seller, you'll see a Facebook Pay button allowing you to complete a purchase with your saved card or PayPal details.
In that sense, Facebook will be jostling for attention at checkout with rival mobile and digital wallets including Apple Pay and Google Pay. Of course, each has a built-in audience based on preferred hardware, operating system or, in Facebook's case, social network.
Until now, Facebook Pay has been limited to the company's own platforms including Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. Facebook has pitched it as an expedient way to shop on those apps, split the bill with friends, send money abroad and donate to charities. Expanding Facebook Pay's reach across the web not only boosts its convenience, but also fits into the company's wider ecommerce strategy. In June, Facebook added support for QR codes to the payments platform, enabling users to send money to people outside of their friends group.
At the same time, it has integrated shopping features into its wider ecosystem of social apps to capitalize on the shift to ecommerce. In May, Facebook introduced Shops that turn business pages on its main platform and Instagram into online storefronts. Like Google and Snapchat before it, the company is also turning to visual search to help people discover more shoppable products on Instagram. Not to be left out, WhatsApp also received a shopping button that let users browse a retailer's product catalog.
