As it says on the label, Gmelius is "a cross-browser extension that proposes a better and cleaner Gmail™ inbox." Basically, it's a bunch of easy to select options to clean up your gmail - i.e. removing ads, expanding the header, removing widgets, etc. While I'm sure a bunch of this could be accomplished with a combination of other extensions but this makes it super easy. Handy, for sure.

via Chad.

I've been super busy this week but thanks to VHX (and Paul's relentless goodness), we've got a quality round of videos this week. Enjoy the playlist and the videos above.

• Car Ride Blows Cat's Mind - I am almost 100% sure I've seen this before but every time I view it, I laugh hysterically. So it's okay. Sometimes revisiting classics is a good thing.
• Say No to Drugs, Say Yes to Roller Skating - another enjoyable intentionally low budget commercial from Rhett and Link. As usual, they nailed it.
• Crown Crust Burger from Pizza Hut - Pizza Hut's new "Royal Masterpiece." This is one of those horrible concoctions that gets us one step closer to Idiocracy's version of Fuddruckers.
• 2 Days of Automatic Cat Feeder - why this cat is going bonkers against the auto cat feeder is beyond me but I was crying laughing while watching him do so. I totally lost it during the cat fight at the end.
• Gaz Coombes - Hot Fruit - from the forthcoming new Gaz solo record. The video is pretty crazy but the song is something I think everyone will enjoy.
• The Avengers 1978 Movie Promo - remember when The Avengers came out in 1978? Yea, it was just like this. Complete with KISS, Paul Lynde and the most hysterical looking Iron Man. Seriously.
• Go Right - classical music set to a load of videogame characters doing what they do best; running right. via Mikesell.
• Pbtfbthbpbpthbp - the video description reads "We had access to a slow motion camera for an hour, wanted to put it to good use." Well done guys.
• Kung Fu Farting - easily the most infantile thing I've ever posted on a Friday Video compilation and, possibly, the entirety of yewknee's history.

Have a great weekend!

May 1st, the official release date for Uncle Skeleton's All Too Human, is fast approaching. Here's another diddy for your weekend enjoyment - taken from Side B.. the Pop & Bossa Nova inspired set of goods. Please enjoy "Sweethearts."

The folks over at Visual Supply are really killing it lately. They've got their Film Treatment Software, a forthcoming Portfolio Platform and now they've official launched their iPhone Camera App. It's hard to rationalize getting another camera app but there are a lot of things going on with the VSCO variation that make it worth your while. For starters, the overall design is incredibly pleasant and intuitive right out of the gate. Secondly, it takes and saves photos incredibly fast. In fact, faster than any other app I've used previously. I'm not sure if this is because it's not sharing it with the global Photostream until you tell it to. The photo filters are subtle and respectable and they come augmented with color settings (Fill, Saturation, etc) to, thankfully, tweak things on your own. The only thing that's missing is a "Straighten" tool but I can certainly see that being outside the scope of what they're doing.

Watch this intro video to get the general idea and then head over to the App Store to snag it.

Jeremy gave me the heads up on the works of Jules de Balincourt and I must thank him for it. I love the silhouette works and any of the pieces with near surreal environments. The color palettes are outta this world. Lovely stuff.

Caspar Newbolt, of Version Industries, is back with another essay. This time around he tackles the longevity of design with an article aptly named Aesthetically Speaking. It covers a lot of ground and, ultimately, serves as a good primer to be excited about your work if you're involved in design at all. And David Carson left an agreeable comment - so there's really no better vetting than that.

I wasn't kidding when I said I was going to continuously post about the new Uncle Skeleton record, All Too Human, until you're sick of it! (Hopefully you're not already sick of it).

The album is, conceptually, broken down into four styles - one per side across the two LPs. The third movement - Side C - is an exploration in lo-fi sound through the Uncle Skeleton lens (vintage synths, orchestral sounds, etc). The above track, Beeshie, is one such offering from that side of the record.

Tracks like Montmartre 15-40, Creature Set or Sophisticuffs should quell your urge for danceable pop songs but Beeshie should satiate your need for some proper zoning out.

I can't claim to fully understand the process of what's happening in this Digitale Experimente from Christina Michelitsch - some sort of beat conversion mixed with ink droppings - but the journey may not be as important as the end results. The trio of prints representing various songs (from The XX, Phantogram and Metronomy) is like a more artsy Spin Art, embracing the minimalistic vibe. Be sure to watch the Making Of video while you're over there.

There's a good deal of worthwhile photography to see from Robert D. Junior in his portfolio but I'd like to point out taking note of his forthcoming book You Will Live Forever. The description is such: "Junior's first book takes focus on desolation within the various metropolitan cities he has visited." Desolation in an urban setting captured in grainy black and white photography? Sold!

I was recently introduced to the musical offerings of The Gytters and I'm now fully endorsing them to you. They don't have a ton available to hear but I suggest starting with the likes of Chasing the Vapors or Divebombers to get your feet wet. They've managed to find that sweet spot in lo-fi production where it doesn't sound unpolished but it doesn't sound like total dirt either. It may just be four or five songs but they're perfect for a slow afternoon in the impending summer months.

Remember when Flash first came out and savvy developers would post showcases of their experiements to show what they'd accomplished in their dabblings? Well, the same thing is happening with HTML5 + JS + Canvas all over the web at this moment. Such a repository of new goods can be found at the Spielzeugz Lab. It's entirely possible that projects like Space Noodles or Liquid Particles are pretty straightforward undertakings but, for me, they're an impressive display of what is natively available in the browser.

Next week (May 1st, to be exact), the third full-length album from Uncle Skeleton, All Too Human, will be made available. I am sure you have heard me mention it a time or a two but I'm only going to get more persistent about it. If the three preview singles did nothing for you - how about you try on the likes of "Creature Set" - a track from the second side of the record more focused on pop songs mixed with some bossa nova stylings.

At some point I will temper my posts regarding these kinds of projects but leading up to the release I'd like to inundate you with opportunities to get excited for it, as I know you will enjoy the record. Go Listen.

Yesterday, Google launched Google Drive - a cloud based file storage solution extremely similar to Dropbox. So similar, in fact, that they're already running into the same Terms of Service snafu that Dropbox encountered months ago. Basically, there's language you must agree to before using the service that says:

Your Content in our Services: When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide licence to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes that we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content.

Sounds pretty scary, even though they've clarified that document owners retain all the intellectual property rights to anything put on the service.

All and all, I don't think this is a big deal and anyone curious to try out Google Drive should probably do so. I mean, when's the last time you even read the Terms of Service on anything anyway?

On a more positive note, my friend Mike Landry was Creative Director on the great promo video seen above. Check out the storyboards and such here. Everyone involved did a great job.

Copenhagers recently posted an excellent new entry in their Meeting Series on Retro Bobby - a hairstylist and vintage game, toy, comic collector. It's a pleasant interview and kind of uplifting to hear the man himself talk about how pleased it makes him to reconnect people their childhoods. But you already knew how great it was just based on the above screenshot, right?

via Landry.

I recall watching this trailer for the Australian TV show Danger 5 but forgot to follow up on watching the actual series. The series is a ludicrous mixture of pulp, action, absurdity, b-movie cliches and perfectly executed low-budget effects. There's a full webisode if you're interested in seeing such things in action... once you make it to the Colonel's first appearance I think you'll be pretty much hooked.

Take some time today to play with Millinaut - a new game from Shaun Inman, Neven Mrgan and Alex Ogle. They created the fun brain teaser of an adventure in 72 hours for the Ludum Dare challenge. Crazy that something that feels so fleshed out and intentional in all regards could be made so quickly. Go Play.

Yesterday I started playing around with the new Official.FM as a presentation layer for sharing music. They've created a rather slick, extremely intuitive, interface for uploading music and sharing it. If you're an artist looking for a super simple homepage with your music on it, this certainly isn't a bad way to go. At the moment there's no community "Follow" options or the ability to tie in a Paypal to actually sell your music but I can imagine that's on the roadmap. Read more about the new platform straight from the developers themselves and catch their amusing commercial.

In case all of this is super boring / of no interest to you - I have uploaded a new Uncle Skeleton track to his Official FM page in the hopes that will provide some proper entertainment.

Some phenomenal collections of work from Jordi Huisman over on his official site and photostream. This Irasshaimase! series was particularly compelling given the accompanying description and who in their right mind is going to try to deny this image?! So good.

HT Hey, PLOTWATCB.

Andrew Schmidt, aka Drudgeons, has a small portfolio of quality photography works up on his site but an absolute slew of goods over on his blog. His own stuff is mixed with a myriad of inspiring works and various amusements. What I'm saying here is, start following him if you haven't been already.

This Survey of Large Browser Uploads has some interesting information regarding the HTML5 upload spec and what modern browsers are able to handle in regards to tackling a file over a gigabyte. I've been spending a lot of time in the Plupload Forums trying to track down the best methods for each browser to be able to handle such large sizes (without using Java). Turns out, it's one those areas where browsers still need a decent amount of work but we're making progress.