Retro gaming symphony

Love this. Only really works for gaming geeks though!

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Is WAP making a return?

Facebook is launching a zero version of its site. It intends to be data light and charge free!

What this immediately reminded me of were the olden days of WAP - text after text after text.

Indeed, although this version allows you to update your status and communicate with friends, as soon as you click on a link to view a photograph the free status stops.

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I can see a benefit with providing the most stripped down version of the site - accessible to more people on more phones. However, this contrasts with what I have been pursuing in my testing - promoting design on touch phones.

Whether WAPs legacy is to face a resurgence, as this 0 version could help set itself as another form of communication, like text, or email remains to be seen. It really does open up that possibility. But I thought that Facebook worked because people could nosey and comment on everybody's photos?! A desktop/laptop priviledge, or is it in fact contextually unsuitable for photos on mobile devices? - Not quite what my results said for art #3, 5, 6.

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Flash to Javascript/JQuery to CSS3

Found this article and think it proves really promising for interface design.

http://webdesignledger.com/tutorials/13-pure-css-techniques-for-creating-javascript-like-interactions

CSS is a really simple coding language and so with the main forward-thinking browsers having adopted CSS3 (albeit with certain ones holding mass-consumer-progression back) I think in the very near future you shan't need plug-in libraries and sites should be lighter and leaner (code wise) - just what Google wants.

Exciting times ahead... oh how geeky.

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Still waiting for 70% of the internet to catch up...

This image above shows HTML5 comparability by the end of 2010. It almost encourages you to think that people still using IE6/7/(perhaps 8) deserve to be served less styled, less standards compliant content.

Still, I'm hopeful for IE9. HTML5 and CSS3 are welcome additions there, only problem remains is that people don't update their browsers!! Microsoft should perhaps send out ballot boxes more regularly.

Original article at: http://gizmodo.com/5542661/html5-going-to-be-on-most-modern-browsers-by-end-of-2010

Proof the web has been and is being spammed?

Read this - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10105978.stm

To behold what is being said here, in the 70s, billions of web site domains were enough. Billions. 10,000,000,000 at least.

We now have only 300,000,000 left and its set to run out in April 2012.

Makes me think about all that is actually taking up all the space. Blogs, forums, feed sites, redirecting portals, torrent seeds, mySpaces, Facebooks. Surely we're spamming the internet?

Worry not though, trillions, (1,000,000,000,000s) more web domains will be available once more companies start adopting IPv6. Wonder what else we can fill the web with then?

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Effective TV ad - and fast

When this gets aired I think a lot of people will be willing to give it a go. IE can bid a bit more of its market share goodbye.

Shame that it isn't always quite so fast as demonstrated. Nonetheless, still the fastest out there and hence, my favourite.

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Some useful jQuery plugins...

Want a sliding photo gallery? Growing and shrinking icons? Tabbed divs? Image-free buttons?



http://webdesignledger.com/tools/14-fresh-and-useful-jquery-plugins

More and more I'm starting to think its goodbye time for Flash. Apple certainly think so.

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Puny PNG

Found this little tool after watching BBC Click.

Similar to a compression tool I blogged about previously, Puny PNG shrinks image size and accepts a few of the common web image formats, JPG, PNG, GIF.

The claim is it swallows up to 40% of the memory size without hindering the quality. Useful as Photoshop sometimes only goes so far.

PUNYPNG

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Photoshop CS5 - yes please, it does magic

The desert road scene and panaramic cloud in the second half of the video in particular caught my attention.

How does the computer know how to do that? And so well?

Any dodgy crops now can be a thing of the past. This thing can make content from more or less nothing!!

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Time to geek out - Nintendo 3DS

Nintendo have announced that their next iteration of the DS will feature glasses-free 3D gaming. And that doesn't mean merely 3D graphics.

This following youtube video demonstrates what is already capable on the DSi, using the camera lens to measure depth and perspective.

If the new one turns out anything like this then I think Nintendo have got another winner on their hands. Damn new technology!! Depletes bank accounts!!

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Share button widget

The SHARE button is commonplace across the web nowadays, however here is a great customisable widget that encorporates all of the popular ones such as share by email, Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live, Delicious, Google Booksmarks, Digg, Stumbleupon to name but a few.

Whereas Facebook and Twitter offer their own independent APIs I like this for providing it in one package. Furthermore, the options to tweak it on the site, alongside the ease of implementation make it a great option.

Want to share on your site? Get it here.

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How the web has changed (for the better)

This article, found on gizmodo offers quite an interesting trip down memory lane - see Google, Apple, Toyota, Lego circa 199X using the Way Back website.

Type in a URL and it'll take you back as far as 1996!

What's scary is that some sites out there still look like this!! Cue us, the web designers 2.0, to modernise their image.

Proof that Apple hasn't always been the magical device making, design trend setters?

Read the article here.

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PRP - looks like this app business is big money

Despite only really knowing programming for Action Script, with the help of JQTouch I am getting along well with the styling of the pseudo-App.

It looks promising too if this report is anything to go by:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8571210.stm

Mobile platforms

Courtesy of Gizmodo.

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Astronomical time-lapse

The White Mountain from charles on Vimeo.

mobile browser usage across the globe

I'm surprised at how Nokia isn't top of all the lists. Their user base/sales are still massive. Then again, will the mass users of Nokia phones be net savvy surfers? Somehow I don't think so.

That thing called the internet... its caught on

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo.

The amount of photos on Facebook is alarming. What happens when the cloud gets too full? Oh thats right, Facebook will add some more servers!!

Design wise, the motion graphics flow on and off the screen fluidly, staving off any threat of dullness. The big type makes the content interesting and dominant on the page.

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Goodbye IE6,7,8?

Todays the day that Windows users, XP through to 7 will get a popup asking them to choose a browser.

It's an encouraging move but ultimately I don't think it will be as effective as hoped. If you picture the typical mindset of a non-techy web surfer, they will know that the existing blue 'e' on their desktop means internet. It even says internet in its name. Furthermore, they will know the user interface and have their favourite sites stored.

Enter a window asking them what browser they want to use and most will cross it off. Hopefully the pop-up will continue to appear and make people choose. Alternatively, the user will see the familiar blue 'e' and they'll get IE8 which is a marked improvement over its predecessors. This is the least we can hope for.

Encouraging news goes to show that the quick adoption rate of Windows 7 which comes prepacked with IE8 has meant that IE6 is now the underdog Internet Explorer. Good riddance if you ask me.

Fingers crossed for this.

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Brr it's cold, but looks cool

This satellite image is cool. Literally. It looks like something out of Planet Earth except its us in UK.

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Sweet Tweet

How cool are these? Very current and sure to send you hyper with the blue coloured E-numbers.

Another example of geek-chic entering mainstream life.

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