hongkiat.com

40 Stunning Photos of Beautiful Clouds

2010-09-08T14:54:36Z

Clouds are the noble contributor for awesome photos. Have a look at these following photos: #1, #2, #3, and #4. They are some of the really great examples of natural portraits taken by professional photographers and as you can see, in each of every photo, the clouds defines or deliver the dramatic effect. Moving on, clouds comes in various forms and some can only be seen in certain weather and places. Taking a decent photo of beautiful cloud is no easy task.

Here, with great attempts we collected various stunning photographs of clouds. We’ve split the entire collection into several categories: the beautiful, the rare and some extremely rare clouds you don’t often see. Enjoy and lets see if you get clouded or lighten.

Beautiful Clouds

Below are the first part of the showcase where we sorted beautiful clouds. When we said clouds are beautiful, it usually means when we look at it, we feel tranquility and sublime. These clouds are cumulus clouds that are usually formed in lower altitude.

Purple smoke (by fallen-angel-24)

Loch Tree Clouds Reflections (by idg)

The other side of the clouds (by kees straver)

Sky (by Nadia Noguera)

Bohol Beach Club (by Lost in The RP)

Black Clouds And Dreams (by Rein)

Above the clouds (by kyokosphotos)

Just morning (by Antakistas)

Winter dream on christmas eve (by Gregor Halbwedl)

Before The Storm (by Philipp Klinger )

Breadth (by Nicholas_T)

Giant cloud (by rexguo)

Storm In Whistler, Bc, Canada (by hailey-lane)

Long Jetty Cloud Reflection (via maureen_g)

n/a

I See Light (via Ben Heine)

Voices of Solitude (via Ben Heine)

Show at 35,000 ft-Summer (via ming)

Rare Clouds

By rare we meant they are probably not ordinary clouds you get to witness everyday. Also what may makes these clouds be complimented as rare is because they formed in unique locations which lures the beauty of these clouds.

n/a

Nature’s Art (via Schristia)

Mammatus Cloud (via extremeinstability.com)

Mammatus Clouds Over Courtland (via rhythmandcode)

Fury (via rawheadrex)

A little bit of everything on a hot summer day (via Connie)

Omarama Fallstreak (via wikipedia)

Fallstreak hole (via Flying Jenny)

Fallstreak Cloud 2 (via arbyreed)

n/a

Every cloud has a silver lining (via s0ulsurfing)

Von Kármán Vortex Street (via wired.com)

(Extremely) Rare

These extremely rare clouds can be seen when the weather are messed up which caused abnormality to the clouds. The formations are very unique and is usually be regarded as a disastrous event. Take “eye wall” and storm cloud as example.

Heart From Cloud (via FlickCollection)

n/a

Clouds of Purple (via Nashmetro)

Mountain (via prelovac)

n/a

Anvil Cloud (via wired.com)

Hole in the Sky (via Aditya Kolli)

Kelvin Helmholz waves cloud (via wired.com)

Lenticular clouds (via wired.com)

(bellefoong)

40 Useful iPad Apps for Web Designers

2010-09-06T13:57:24Z

The amount and diversity of technology available today is unbelievable. Apple per se have made remarkable achievements over the years and today we are featuring iPad. To a certain extent, an iPad changes the tide of web designer’s routine. iPad enables the potential for designers to accomplish their task and project on time because it is a portable workstation that allows designers to work on the dot. With a touch of a your finger, the magazines apps springs into life and whats more, the pictures are vivid and it satisfy the sophisticated taste for every designer. Now reading articles can be fun, immersive and inspiring.

Given that an ipad delivers the joy of convenience, the designers now can anytime kick their creative juices into high gear. In order to accompany a designer’s muse factory, an ipad is packed with thousands of creative apps that can enhance and assist web designers on their project. Here’s a collection of iPad Apps for your designing needs.

You may also be interested in these following iPad related articles:

Sketch & Illustration

SketchBook Pro

Free your creativity. Sketch and communicate your ideas digitally. SketchBook Pro combines high-quality digital pencils, pens, markers, and airbrushes with a Multi-Touch gesture-based user interface.

SketchPad HD

SketchPad HD is like having a new plain white sheet of paper ready to take note and share your thoughts via email.

TypeDrawing

If you love typography, this poetic visual art app is absolutely yours. Start by typing a sentence you want to say, and then just draw with your finger.

Freeform

Drawing tool for creating vector-based illustrations, sketches and doodles.

Adobe Ideas 1.0

A free app featuring vector-based drawing tools, zoom control, sizable brushes, layers, and the ability to email PDF documents for editing in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.

Draft

A simple way to get ideas out of your head and into a quick sketch.

iMockups

Quickly create wireframes and layouts of interfaces for Web, iPhone and iPad applications. iMockups has taken the process of ìmockupsî to the next level.

Productivity

iThoughtsHD (Mindmapping)

Start with a blank slate. Keep the creative process flowing by moving your ideas around the map and relink them through this application. Capture topics in a free form and then record your ideas and thought in the form of topic bubbles.

OmniGraffle

Magically organize diagrams so your ideas come to life. With OmniGraffle, quickly create superior documents and a perfect diagram layout.

FontShuffle

A great source of typographic inspiration. Hundreds of font families are sorted by visual similarity.

Penultimate

A note taking app where you write with your finger right on screen. The app gives you a pen type interface to write with and options for paper type.

Evernote

An ultimate cross-platform note taker that makes you remember just about everything. It’s an extension of your brain.

Font Book

If you’re thinking of a font to use for your next project, this app will let you preview fonts for your inspiration.

FTP On The Go PRO

You can change your website from anywhere and transfer files via FTP daily. Just browse, upload, and download from your FTP server with this intuitive FTP program.

Dropbox

If you’re always on the go and needed to edit some of your design projects, a Dropbox account will help you access your uploaded files and share it online.

Markup for iPad

With this app, you can connect to your website’s FTP, edit text files wthin them, and organize with greater speed.

Keynote

Keynote allows you to create, edit, and share multimedia presentations with graphics, animations, and charts.

Photo and Imaging

Photogene

Tons of photo editing features in a very easy to use app providing you access to all your photos in your library.

FlickStackr

FlickrStackr lets you mark photos from you or any other people and save on your iPad to review photos later.

Masque

Edit your image with this amazing app and apply creative effects to your photos. Use your creativity to make your pictures even better.

Adobe Photoshop Express

This app is free and has some of the features of its expensive big brother. You can redesign online, edit, and upload your work instantly. You can also work on multiple photos in sequence from within a single workflow and upload it to Facebook.com simultaneously.

Reading Tools & Magazines

iPDF Reader

The worldís slimmest eBook and PDF reader.

GoodReader for iPad

A PDF file viewer that offers wonderful reading experience with horizontal page turning for PDF files and support for VGA monitor.

Flipboard

This app is your personal magazine. You can check out your status updates, links, videos, photos and what your friends have shared via Facebook and Twitter. It has a huge amount of news content that is shared through social media networks.

Wikipanion

A simple way of navigating through Wikipedia’s website.

Dictionary and Thesaurus

Reference for words, synonyms, and antonyms for your creative process.

Phaidon Design Classics

Phaidon Design Classics is a design encyclopedia with access to an endless illustrated history of design concept with precise information and historical context.

Cool Hunting

Cool Hunting is a daily buzz on ideas and products in the crossroads of art, design, culture and technology, plus inside looks at the people who produce them.

Web Designer Magazine

Get updated with what’s new with Web Designer, an online magazine defining the internet through beutiful design.

Computer Arts

Browse through Computer Arts Magazine straight from your iPad and learn what’s new in digital design and computer graphics.

Social Networking

StumbleUpon

Discover great websites and share it. Boost your creativity and be inspired with millions of ideas just by browsing your iPad thru StumbleUpon.

Twitterrific

An excellent social networking app for web designers to stay in touch with your blog followers in twitter and post your tweets with ease quickly.

IM+

Be notified of new email in Hotmail, Yahoo, or GMail accounts, as well as sending push notifications of new IMs on all supported networks to keep in touch with your fellow designers and your clients.

More Tools

WordPress

Connect to your wordpress blog using this application. Take advantage of the huge widescreen and large on-screen keyboard while skimming through and moderating your comments.

Analytics HD

A very powerful iPad app that offers almost everything a blogger needs to keep track of traffic, referring URLs, exit points, and all that jazz.

Gusto

Combines code editing and FTP access that lets you produce various projects for all your website.

World Atlas HD

Tons of country information and geography for your creative work.

Craigslist

Great for scouting for design projects and gigs.

Graphics Designer ToolBox

For calculations and print sizes, this app will help out designers who are always on the go.

PCalc Lite Calculator

Get exact measurements with your designs.

(bellefoong)

18 Website Speed and Performance Checking Tools

2010-09-03T14:21:40Z

Google is taking site’s loading speed into consideration in determining its ranking. Even though this will not land a big impact, it is still something we (webmasters) should really look into. The reason is pretty simple – majority of visitors are usually in rush and no one is fond of waiting half a century before the website finally load its content or failed to load.

In another words, if your site is slow, you are subjected to lose a lot of visitors. Visitors are traffic, traffic affects reputation and they can potentially generate revenue. It can be a domino effect if one ignore the consequences of a slow-loading site.

It is essential to identify what builds up your website before you jump into the codes trying to speed things up because it cannot be done without knowing the culprits that are slowing down your website. This article compile a collection of useful web service and tools that will help you to diagnose and analyze you site, allowing you to understand your site better.

Web Services

Pingdom

Test the load time of all Website objects (html, images, Javascript, css, iframes and others). You can also check how fast every element of your Website load and improve the slow-loading items. At the summary of test results, you see the report of the site loading time, loading time of each element, element sizes and the total number of elements.

GTmetrix

Combines two of the most popular Firefox performance add-ons – Yslow and Google Page Speed. Gtmetrix gives you suggestions what you need to improve your website. Although Yslow and Google page speed are recommended for Firefox, it can also be applicable to other browser.

Light Speed Now

Test your website speed performance, and get the report sent to your inbox.

Load Impact

Loadimpact is a very important tool for large Website visited by tens of thousands visitors each day. A free account allows you to check the loading impact with 50 simulated users, anything more you’ll have to upgrade to a premium account.

Site-Perf

Site-Perf fully emulates natural browser behavior downloading your page with all the images, CSS, JS and other files – just like a regular visitor and on the report you can see Website page loading what files start loading at first and how fast. It as very useful performance report to find elements that you need to improve your Website loading time.

WebWait

Benchmark your website or test the speed of your web connection.

Gomez Networks

Conduct a real-time Instant Test for an individual Web page to test its performance from an external node location.

OctaGate

Allows you to monitor how long it takes for a user to download one or more of your web site pages.

Webslug

Allows you to compare your website’s speed against your competitors.

WebToolHub

Gives you the option to understand how your page is loading with different visitor’s Internet connection speeds. With Webtoolhub you will get information about page size, loading time with different Internet connection speeds and will get information about all Css, Javascript and Images that are used on page. Nothing more nothing less: all that you need for basic page speed test.

IWebTool

Iwebtool gives you the option to compare up to ten pages in same time. You also can check homepage, categories or posts loading time with just one click.

Searchmetrics

Shows the duration of a given website. This value can be used for showing how long a website take to load and if it is better to optimize the website or change a (slow) ISP.

BrowserMob

Get performance data on any website on the fly without having to create a test script.

Applications

Pylot

Open source tool for testing performance and scalability of web services. It runs HTTP load tests, which are useful for capacity planning, benchmarking, analysis, and system tuning.

Google Page Speed

Page Speed is an open-source Firefox/Firebug Add-on. Webmasters and web developers can use Page Speed to evaluate the performance of their web pages and to get suggestions on how to improve them.

YSlow

YSlow analyzes web pages and suggests ways to improve their performance based on a set of rules for high performance web pages.

PageTest

Internet Explorer plugin that visually displays the underlying requests made by the browser for content. It also provides suggestions on how to improve the performance of the measured page.

Multi-Mechanize

Multi-Mechanize is an open source framework for web performance and load testing. It allows you to run simultaneous python scripts to generate load (synthetic transactions) against a web site or web service.

(bellefoong)

Winners of: Custom-Printed Plastic Card Gift Cards

2010-09-03T10:28:43Z

Here it is, our winners for ShortrunCard custom-printed plastic cards contest. Sorry for the slight delay!

A little recap of what the winners will be getting before we announce the list. 3 winners, each getting a $200 gift card, $100 gift card and $50 gift card, courtesy of ShortRunCard. These gift cards can be used to order customized plastic cards.

Some of you raised the concern whether this includes the shipping fees – the answer is yes/no. Assume you won the $200 gift card, and your total bill plus shipping is $210; after redeeming with your gift card you will only pay $10 extra.

Without further ado, here are our winners!

Ebta ($200 gift card)
Swat Chap ($100 gift card)
Shawn ($50 gift card)

(ref)

More giveaways coming up!

We’ve got more contest and giveaway coming right up. Stay tuned – subscribe to the RSS feed, become a fan in Facebook or follow @hongkiat on Twitter to be amongst the first to know.

Vintage Advertisement of Modern Technology

2010-09-02T09:42:03Z

Vintage design is always described as outdated, old looking design with most updated products like Facebook or Nintendo Wii featured… what?

Yeah it’s not a typo, I mean it, and you’re gonna witness 24 modern products adapted into vintage style advertisement. Some of them are created by modern designer, yet others are modified directly from genuine vintage ads originated from your parent’s era.

So get amused, get inspired, who knows vintage might be the design direction for your next viral ad campaign!

Social Media

Facebook

“Striking, miraculous social team-up!” Designed by advertising agency Moma.

Skype

“The fabulous voice system able to put your family together.” Designed by advertising agency Moma.

Twitter

“The sublime, mighty community with just 140 letters!” Designed by advertising agency Moma.

Youtube

“Send and watch splendid and captivating films, 24/7.” Designed by advertising agency Moma.

Gaming Console

GameBoy Advance SP

“Gonna be an exciting night… ;)” Adapted by photality.

Guitar Hero

Have a rockin’ Christmas! Adapted by Partyshot.

Nintendo Wii

“Meet the amazing Nintendo Wii.” Adapted by gugacurado.

Nintendo Wii & Guitar Hero

“Amaze your friends with heroic guitar music!” Adapted by steveRS.

Playstation 3

“The simple rule ‘Homework first – Playstation second’ has solved the problem in thousands of homes.” Adapted by larzuc.

XBox

“Back in the Fifties, I always wanted one of these.” Adapted by WhoElse.

Computer

IBM ThinkPad T22

“Women know what they want. ;)” Adapted by cccvrcak.

iMac

“Beauty. Brains. And now more brawn.” Adapted by ShayLaVie.

Macbook Pro

“Pure beauty. Pure power.” Adapted by chrisulloa.

Power Mac G5

“All computers are not created equal.” Adapted by fxchick.

Music Device

iPod

The extraordinary iPod that brought back Apple empire. Adapted by tahias.

Mobile Phone

Handphone

Perhaps it’s a Sony Erricson phone, but the ads is quite fabulous and amusing. Adapted by RebelD0g.

Nokia

It’s Nokia! Adapted by brypro63.

Nokia Cellphone

Surely cellphone is better. Adapted by kawabunga2002.

Samsung Smartphone

“Think mobile. Think Samsung smartphone.” Adapted by nicootje.

Automobile

Chevrolet Silverado

By far the best blending work I have witnessed from this series of ads. Adapted by Gavh.

Ford Mustang

“Because it’s a better car.” Adapted by abbott567.

Hummer

“There’s nothing like a new car for gayety.” Adapted by mayfae.

Scion

“So if you’ve wanted to buy a car that sticks out a little, you know just what to do.” Adapted by unrealcity.

Segway

This can surely change the history of automobiles. Adapted by DocMinor.

Household Appliance

Roomba

Just because your wife deserves the best. Adapted by MeanMrMustard.

Washing Machine

“My grandmother would of loved one of these back then.” Adapted by mehere.

More Vintage

Looking for more vintage design or create your own? Well you came to the right site!

45 (Fresh) High Quality Photoshop PSD Files

2010-08-30T17:20:29Z

What’s great about .PSD files? For one, we can observe and learn how experts create awesome designs by exploring the different layers and techniques they use. Beginners can appreciate how different functions in Photoshop can affect their images, and hence gain an understanding of how to bring out their desired effects. What’s more, .PSD files allow us to experiment with several layers within the file itself, providing maximum customization for any curious user.

If you can recall, we had previously showcased 60 High Quality Photoshop PSD Files For Designers some time ago. Thankfully, designers are often willing to share their works to the public, so we now have yet another 45 Splendid High Quality PSD Files for downloads. We all hope designers will continue to showcase their creations to inspire others to pick up their exceptional knowledge and skills.

Full list after jump.

Curved Bill Baseball Template

Miri’s grunge freebie

Vector Glases and Jug

Freebie Release: Web Template in Photoshop PSD – Polo360

2010-08-26T13:08:02Z

Once in a while, we collaborate with creative designers to giveaway free stuff to readers through hongkiat.com. We figured it benefits all parties – creators get the credit and some exposures, readers get to download them for free with no strings attached. Today, we are going to do the same thing again.

Viv Singh of vivrocks.com has designed a high quality web template for us. It is available in Photoshop PSD format. All layers are open so you can do any chances you want. Named Polo360, this template is suitable for portfolio site, WordPress home page or corporate site. It’s free to download and use in any personal or commercial projects, but please do not re-distribute or re-sell. Here’s a preview of the template.

If you like it, feel free to leave a comment below to thank Viv, or share this page with your friends.

Download

Polo360 web template comes in Photoshop PSD format. You can use it for both personal and commercial projects.

Download Polo360 web template.

About The Creator

Viv Singh is a Freelance Logo, Graphics and Website Designer, and a WordPress Expert. He blogs at VIVROCKS.com, an inspirational blog for creative community offering regular Graphics Design Freebies, you can follow him @ZoneofWizards on Twitter.

Surreal Photo Manipulation: 40 Amazing Artwork

2010-09-01T10:20:21Z

Surreal photo is basically displays of a designer’s rich imagination of subjects which then injected into real pictures. Most of these surreal pictures are captivating be it pleasant or not because it is not what we experience in our daily life hence it is out of norm. Given it is not an event we could not possibly experience, it leaves a huge dimension for viewers to interpret what does the designer was trying to convey through their work. This is what makes surreal photos a challenge for the designers and in the same time, an awesome adventure for the viewers. Yes, all of that in a picture.

Today we have 40 manipulated surreal photos to share in this post. Hope it will manage pull you out of the box and have your head tilted figuring out these pictures.

(bellefoong)

Giveaway: Gift Cards (worth $350) for Custom-Printed Plastic Cards

2010-09-01T15:18:35Z

Here’s another giveaway of great stuff. This week, we are giving away 3 gift cards, worth $350 in total to our readers, courtesy of ShortRun Card.

So if you are thinking of printing your own business card, this might be a chance you can get it done for free, or at a very discounted price. Before we start, let’s take a look at who’s giving you guys this free stuff, and what you are about to get.

About Shortrun Card

This South Florida, US based company do more than just ordinary business card, these folks produce plastic cards at amazing turnaround time. What are these cards good for? You can use it as business card, membership card or even cards for a private club. At 30 mil of thickness, these plastic cards are very similar to the shape and size of credit cards.

Shortrun Card produce different types (colors) of plastic cards, from silver to black, white and gold. Click here to find out more.

So What Are The Prizes?

3 winners will walk away with gift cards, each at a different value. Respectively a

$200 gift card,
$100 gift card, and
$50 gift card.

How to Win

If you are interested in winning some free plastic cards for business, membership or other purposes, leave a comment below.

Contest starts today, ends on the 31th of August, Tuesday. Good luck!

Winners of: Pixmac Stock Photo Accounts Contest

2010-08-24T07:49:41Z

Last week we ran a Pixmac contest. So here’s the post 175 of you participants are waiting for – the announcement of the winners.

Here’s a recap of the contest. 3 winners, each will walk away with a Pixmac stock photo account loaded with $199 worth of credit. These credits allow you to purchase images in Pixmac for your individual project or commercial usage.

Here are our lucky winners!

Christ4404
Federico Sintucci, and
Carol

How winners are drawn?

I’m glad you asked. In fact some readers also sent me emails asking how winners were actually picked. It’s easy – I ran a simple SQL code to randomly choose (and list) X commentators from post-ID Y.

(ref)

More giveaways coming up!

We’ve got more contest and giveaway coming right up. Stay tuned – subscribe to the RSS feed, become a fan in Facebook or follow @hongkiat on Twitter to be amongst the first to know.

Free Social Media Icon Sets – Best Of

2010-08-30T09:19:38Z

With innovations of web-based technologies, social media is now everywhere, changing the way human interacts. Thus, demands for social media icons are raised within web community especially web designer who creates commercial site or theme.

But hey, I know how it feels: you stumbled upon a nice social media icon set and click on the ‘Download‘ button and bingo! This stuff is not for commercial. Worse, you have to attribute back to the post wherever you use those icons, which sounds bad for commercial products.

Fear not, for there are still many free high quality social media icon sets available for your projects with no attribution required (but highly appreciated!), and 63 of them are listed inside this post. So browse through them, go get what you want and enjoy!

63 High Quality Social Media Icon Sets

Hongkiat Exclusive: Social Truck Icon Set

“Social Truck Icon set consists of 10 social network icons; delivered as PNGs at the super-size of 512 pixels.” Designed by Andrea Austoni exclusively for Hongkiat.com readers only.

Hongkiat Exclusive: Social Network Icon Set

“These Iconshock icon set comes in 6 different sizes: 12×12, 16×16, 24×24, 128×128, 256×256 and 512×512, covering various social network logos like Blogger, Delicious, Facebook, Flickr, Linked-in, Reddit, RSS feed, Stumble Upon, Technorati and Twitter.” Created by Iconshock exclusively for Hongkiat.

‘+’ Icon Set

“This icon set has the ability to grow into the complete social bookmarking set, but only with your help.” Originated by Nouveller.

Circular Social Media Icons

The zip file includes 3 sizes for 27 icons: 128×128, 64×64 and 32×32. There is an icon for the following: Blogger, Delicious, DesignFloat, Digg, Facebook, Flickr, Google, a heart icon that will work for anything (such as bookmark), MySpace, Reddit, an RSS icon, StumbleUpon, Technorati, Twitter, WordPress, Yahoo!, YouTube, AIM, Bebo, eBay, Hi5, Last.fm, LinkedIn, Windows Live, Ning, Orkut and Yahoo Messenger.

3D Icon Set

“Inside this Icon Pack are twenty 3D social media icons, created exclusively for the viewers of Tutorial9 by Dawghouse Design Studio.”

3D Statuette Icon Set

“This is a set of 3D social bookmarking icons that are placed over a platform like statuettes. They come in a pretty big size (435*424px) which can be scaled to a preferred custom size and the format is transparent PNG.” Released on Web Resources Depot.

A Life in Pixel Icon Set

“The set includes 16 32px x 32px PNG files. They are monochromatic and can work with many other colors, which is perfect if you are looking for icons that are subtle and muted so that they do not dominate your design.” Designed by Daniele Selvitella for release on Six Revisions.

Bevel Dark Icon Set

“The set includes 10 icons featuring the logos of popular social bookmarking sites. Bevel Dark includes 512×512, 256×256, 128×128, and 64×64 icons in .png format.” Published by Tutorial9.

Black Ink Grunge Stamp Icon Set

Black Paint Splatter Icon Set

Bookmarking Icon Set

Released by Elmastudio.

Bubblicons Icon Set

“Each icon has dimensions of 48×48px and is in PNG format. It’s perfect for blogs and content-centric websites.” Authored by Supratim Nayak for Design Instruct.

Burnt Wood Icon Set

“Each icon is a 420×420px PNG file that can be scaled down to any size needed.” Burnt by Chris Thurman of Visual Swirl for Six Revisions.

Character Icon Set

“Downloading this package you get PNGs + AI file with fully editable source for all characters.” Released on Bevel and Emboss.

Cheers Icon Set

Circular Icon Set

“The download includes .png files in grunge & clean versions and three sizes (128×128, 64×64 & 32×32).” Presented by Arbenting.

Crumpled Paper Icon Set

Dark Denim Social Media Icons

Dellifeed Icon Set

“A set with 8 tasty and appealing social icons in the format .png.” Baked by Dellustrations for Smashing Magazine.

Elegant Themes Icon Set

“The package includes 42 64×64 icons in both PNG and PSD form.” Created by Elegant Themes.

Function Icon Set

Presented by Function.

Furry Cushions Icon Set

“A set with 6 transparent furry social icons in .png.” Designed by Andrea Austoni especially for Noupe.

Glossy Waxed Wood Icon Set

Grass Textured Icon Set

“The icons are packaged with 3 different sizes to suit your needs: 256px, 128px and 64px.” Texturized by Richie Thimmaiah from RichWorks for Speckyboy Design Magazine.

Green Thumb Icon Set

“All icons are available in four sizes: 256×256, 128×128, 64×64 and 32×32 pixels.” Planted and released by Visual Swirl.

Grunge Peeling Stickers Icon Set

“Each icon is in .png format sized at 128x128px with transparent backgrounds. The pack comes with a .PSD source file so that you can customize your own icons.” Created for Tutorial9 by Dawghouse Design Studio.

Grunge Warning Stripes Icon Set

Hand Drawn Icon Set

Drawn by rafiki270.

Heart Icon Set

“A set of 22 social icons in .png and in resolutions 16×16, 32×32, 64×64.” Designed by Aravind Ajith from The Design Superhero for Smashing Magazine.

inFocus Icon Set

“A huge free set of 1,540 social networking icons, our standard 154 icons in 10 colors. We’ve included layered PSDs of their implementation as well as a matching About the Author Box.” Created by WebTreats ETC.

Kadom Icon Set

“Each icon is in .png format on transparent background.” Released by Kadom.

Lighter Grey Icon Set

“Icons are 16 by 16 pixels and in transparent PNG format. The set also includes one extra blank icon base for making additional matching icons.” Presented by Nymphont.

Little Sketchy Monster Icon Set

“In the download file you will get a preview image and seven transparent .PNG images (these can be scaled down easily if you require them to be smaller).” Spawned by Circlebox.

Matte White Icon Set

Nurture Icon Set

“The set includes 10 icons featuring the logos of popular social bookmarking sites with 512×512, 256×256, 128×128, and 64×64 icons in .png format.” Designed by David Leggett for Smashing Magazine.

Old Bottle Crowns Icon Set

“This set contains 20 200px x 200px PNG files that you can easily resize and edit for your website design.” Created by Dawghouse Design Studio for Six Revisions.

Orange Grunge Stickers Icon Set

Pagepeel Icon Set 1

“The set contains 16 social icons in (transparent)PNG format.” Published on Productivedreams.

Pagepeel Icon Set 2

“Icons are transparent PNGs and the available dimensions are 128 x 128 and 64×64″. Published on Productivedreams.

PinkStrip Icon Set

Created and shared by Webstuffshare.com.

Pixel Perfect Icon Set

“Each icon is hand crafted and available as a large share button, 32 pixel and 16 pixel icon.” Brought to you by PSDTuts and Benjamin Reid.

Rivet Social Icon Set

“You’ll find 14 different 64px x 64px icons in this set in .jpg format.” Designed by John Campbell from DesignBump, released on Six Revisions.

Robotic Icon Set

“The set consists of various popular social media icons and is available in three different resolutions – 64 x 64px, 96 x 96px, and 128 x 128px.” Invented by Spencer Sy for release on Onextrapixel.

Simple White Icon Set

“Another huge set of 1,540 social networking icons, our standard 154 icons in 10 colors corresponding to each of inFocus‘ color variations.” Released by Web Treats ETC.

SleekSocial Icon Set

Authored by Andrew S. Roberts for publish on Design Instruct.

Social Buzz Icon Set

Crafted by IconShock, released on Tutorial9.

Social Cat Icon Set

“There are three cat colors, with 15 social media icons.” Created by animal lover, Petshopbox.

SocialClean Icon Set

“A set of 12 icons delivered as PNGs in 4 different sizes: 16×16, 32×32, 48×48 and 128×128 covering various social networks.” Designed by Iconshock exclusively for InstantShift.

Social Sketches Icon Set

“In the package, you’ll find 16 different icons for Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Facebook, and more. Each icon comes with 6 standard sizes (32px, 48px, 64px, 128px, 256px, and 512px) in PNG format.” Published on Six Revisions.

Social Media Icon Set

“16×16 and 32×32 icons included, in both transparent PNG and GIF.” Created by sm07.

Social Media Stars Icon Set

“Since you are all stars to us, we made this icon set available for you in two different sizes (128×128 & 64×64) for your convenience.” Presented by Arbenting.

Splatter Icon Set

“These icons are conveniently designed at 8 different sizes ranging from 12px to 512px in png format.” Brought to you by MyInkBlog and Iconshock.

Sticker Style Icon Set

Created by claycauleyinc.

Stitch Styled Icon Set

“All of these are in PNG format with a size of 512 x 512 px.” Created by Creative Repository.

Subtle Grey Icon Set

“Icons are 16 by 16 pixels and in transparent PNG format. The set also includes one extra blank icon base for making additional matching icons.” Designed by Nymphont.

The Leaves Fall Icon Set

“Icons are available in the .png format in various resolutions.” Made by Templates.com for Smashing Magazine.

Typography Icon Set

Typographed by Mulletized.

Vintage Stamp Icon Set

Crafted by Dawghouse Design Studio exclusively for Tutorial9

Web 2.0 Gift Icon Set

“This icon pack contains 14 icons, including popular social bookmarking services and our favourite browser, Firefox. Icons are available in PNG, ICO and ICNS format.” Presented by IconsPedia.

Wooden Badges Icon Set

Crafted for Tutorial9 by Dawghouse Design Studio.

Worn Cloth Icon Set

Woven Fabric Icon Set

Hand crafted by Jan Cavan from Dawghouse Design Studio for Web Designer Depot.

Yammy Icon Set

“The set consists of various popular social media icons and is available in two different sizes – 64 x 64px and 128 x 128px.” Beautifully designed and baked for Onextrapixel by Helen Gizi.

Reflection

We want to take this chance to thank all designers and publishers who made these icon sets available for everyone to use without any restriction. Your contribution created a real open web for more possibilities and innovations, which by other mean is, you guy rocks!

Please let us know which icon set you would use for your project, or simply leave a comment to suggest what kind of social media icon set you wish to have, which would be a really nice reference for icon designer.

15 (Really) Beautiful & Creative Book Covers

2010-08-24T02:55:20Z

Written by: Stanley Poh

Before the early nineteenth century, books were hand-bound using heavy materials such as wood, leather, gold, silver and jewels. Over the centuries, book binding had always serve as a protection to expensively printed or hand-made pages, and as embellishments tribute to the cultural authorities.

Other than the two most common covers; hardcovers and paperbacks, there are many other alternatives and additions, such as dust jackets, ring-binding and out-dated forms such as the nineteenth-century "paper-boards" and the even more antiquated hand-binding.

It is often said; don’t judge a book by its cover, but in this case, the opposite appears to be more true. It is not often that we would see book covers made of wood or imprinted with real life objects appearing to be part of the book itself, but many have decided to showcase their talent through these beautiful artworks we have below today.

Clarendon Books 2. Two Clarendon type specimen books; one with cocobolo cover & the other with bloodwood covers. (by andymangold)

Adidas Def Jam Collaboration Book. A prelook book done in collaboration with adidas and Roundhouse Media. (by Dan Kinto)

Rodrigo Munoz Avia. A book cover design of a newly bought button-up shirt printed as its cover. (by Tomato Kosir)

Capas Prateadas. A simple envelope-like design. (by Zoopress studio)

What To Read Now, July 13, 2009. The first image is subscribers’ edition cover. The second is the original composition. The third is the newsstand edition. (by Newsweek)

Magic 105.4. The packaging and book design combined Magic FM branding with the look and feel of a luxury travel guide. (by Jason McReynolds)

i am. I am is an image and text combination and compilation of self-descriptions from the profile pages of people online. (by palindromenoise)

MDF. A 25 cm x 17.5 cm cardboard cover design. (by Zoopress studio)

Mini album. (by Zoopress studio)

Model Book. A book on the photography of the fashion french photographer, Gerard Uferas. (by artdude85)

Quantum of Solace. An enveloped style design against a grey background – evoking a top secret feel to it. (by Jason Kottke)

Solex Typeface Specimen Book. A type specimen book on Emigre Foundry’s "Solex" typeface family designed with the professional looking concept of espionage. (by aphoticdesigner)

The Oil. An interesting yet simple design. (by Alexey Maslov)

Últimas encomendas antes da licença maternidade. (by Zoopress Studio)

Wooden Celtic Book. A hard cover 1/8 letter size book, wood-burned with celtic designs. (by yagarasu)

Guide to Purchasing Your First Digital Camera

2010-08-18T06:50:03Z

Digital camera is a must have accessory for each and every person out there. Not because it’s a camera, but because it’s the only device that helps you keep and cherish the captured beautiful moments forever. There are a zillion types of digital cameras out there in the market to choose from.

Photo credit.

I often see people getting confused about which one to buy and what to look for in a camera while purchasing. So I decided to write a guide on what should one be expecting and taking note when purchasing his/her first digital camera.

Camera Sensor

Sensor is one of main organ that keeps a camera functioning and to put it metaphorically, its like a heart to our bodies. That’s correct; a digital camera is a camera because it has got a light sensitive sensor. Remove that sensor, and you can no longer call that a “camera”.

Photo credits.

In older times, when technology wasn’t this advanced and the idea of digital camera haven’t been introduced, light sensitive films were used in cameras. These films were exposed to light and the image was formed. However, the drawback of that technique was that it was permanent and once a piece of film is exposed to light, you can no longer re-use it for taking other sets of photographs. However, in this era of digital cameras, the rules have changed. Now those permanent, photo sensitive film has been completely replaced by sensors. Sensors also act exactly like the photo sensitive films (and they are light sensitive too) but with the advantage of giving us re-usable form of light sensitive films.

So that leaves us with a conclusion that while purchasing your first digital camera, do a research about the sensor being used by different camera companies in manufacturing the type of camera you’re going to purchase.

A detailed explanation of camera sensors would be way beyond this article, but if you want to have a detailed look about camera sensors, their types and qualities, following are the further reading resources:

Optical Zoom is King, Digital is Crap

Very often I notice people getting confused between optical and digital zooms. Let me clarify what they are exactly and what makes them different. Optical zoom is the *real* zoom that digital cameras are having. They are a property of camera lens rather than being the property of camera body. With optical zoom, the motors inside the camera lens actually move in and out to provide you the required magnification.

Digital zoom on the other hand is a function that are not necessary to any camera user. Digital zoom is a property of camera rather than being the property of a camera lens. What digital zoom does is, it simply expands the pixels of the photograph you are viewing through your camera LCD panel. It does not actually do any zoom. But it just makes you feel that you are closer to the subject. But you get a pixelated and low quality photograph if you use digital zoom while taking them.

Having said, while purchasing your first digital camera, always check how much Optical Zoom it is offering. Forget about the digital zoom. That doesn’t even matter. As I have mentioned, Optical Zoom actually requires addition of precise motors in the lens, the camera giving higher optical zoom is bound to be more expensive. Take your pick according to your needs here.

The Megapixel myth

Photo credits

“I’ve got more megapixels than you, I’m more powerful” right? Wrong. The megapixel myth (unfortunately) has been prevailing for ages in the digital camera market. And indeed, the camera manufacturers have exploited this myth among people in selling and marketing their cameras. People fall in the high megapixel means better camera myth very easily due to lack of awareness on what exactly the megapixel count do to the quality of photographs you take does. Here’s the painful truth:

First of all, higher megapixels does not mean that your camera is better. If I have an EOS SLR camera of 8 megapixels, it is capable of taking far superior photographs than your 12 megapixels point and shoot camera. Why? Because it all depends on the sensor that’s inside the camera and not the megapixel count.
Megapixel count matters only when you are planning to take prints of your photographs. If you are a casual photographer who uses a camera just for taking the photographs and viewing/uploading them on a computer, a 4 megapixel is more than enough for you. Megapixels in no way define the quality of photographs. The megapixel count can only determine how big you can print your pictures.

If you want to dive deep into megapixel details, here are some great further reading resources:

http://shutterskills.com/how-important-are-megapixels-in-your-digital-camera.html

The Camera Build Quality

Photo credits

The next and important thing to have in your checklist while selecting your first digital camera is the camera builds quality. Since there are zillions of digital camera manufacturers out there with each one introducing their cameras, one should really look upon the camera build quality before making the final decision. After all, you don’t want your camera to break into pieces if it accidentally falls from your pocket. There are no set rules in this regard but you should definitely compare the camera build quality between different available models before purchasing.

Camera Accessories

While purchasing your camera, do not forget about the camera accessories that you’ll definitely need to exploit your camera. Camera accessories include memory card, camera cleaning kit, camera carry bag, tri-pods etc. Many times, these accessories come with the camera box as a promotional offer or something. So make sure you keep yourself updated about the possibilities of any camera accessories you can get with your camera purchase.

Conclusion

So, in this article we do not only discuss the important things that you should keep in your mind while hunting for you first digital camera but we also busted some very common digital camera myths and misunderstandings. We would like to see what you think about our efforts and on the same front, if you have anything to add which we might have forgotten to list. Drop in your valuable comments below and let us know.

(bellefoong)

Giveaway: Pixmac Stock Photo Accounts (Loaded with Credits)

2010-08-24T07:51:28Z

Here comes another giveaway, and I got a feeling you are going to like it – a lot, especially if your job depends a lot on stock photos.

Today’s contest prizes come from Pixmac.com. And from the name, you can probably guess these folks have got something to do with stock images and photos. That’s right, Pixmac sell photos and today they are giving hongkiat readers something cool. Continue reading to find out more.

About Pixmac

Pixmac is one of the most usable and reliable microstock agency out there. If you’re looking for the best picture or just trying to sell your best shot, you might want to give Pixmac a try. You can buy an image in less than 3 minutes without registration. Other features such as similarity search or the free section are also worth checking out.

So What are the prizes?

We are awarding 3 lucky readers, each with a subscription pack worth $199. In other words, you are getting an account loaded with $199 worth of credits that you can spend on purchasing stock photos.

How to Win?

Leave a comment – tell us what kind of images you will buy with your free credits if you win.

Contest starts today, ends on 24th August, Tuesday. Good luck!

Winners of: SlideshowBox Photo Gallery Templates Contest

2010-08-17T09:14:26Z

If you’ve participated in the Slideshowbox Photo Gallery Templates contest (courtesy of JumpeyeComponents) we ran last week then this is the moment you’ve been waiting for. The contest has now ended and I’m happy to announce you the winners.

Five winners, each will walk away with a copy of Slideshowbox Premium HTML. Alright, our winners are:

Atessier08
Brian Jacobson
Sandra D
Steveffg
benoblog

More giveaways coming up!

Yeap, we’ve got more contest and freebies coming up. Stay tuned, subscribe to the RSS feed or keep an eye on @hongkiat in Twitter to be the first to know!

How to Display WordPress Sidebar on Other (Non WP) Sites

2010-08-17T05:10:05Z

While working on my latest project, DevGrow Discussions, I came across the need to embed my entire WordPress sidebar on a non-WordPress site – specifically a bbPress forum. Since I make use of various widgets to display popular posts and other dynamic content, simply copying and pasting the HTML would not suffice. In the end, there are really only two ways of going about this:

Include your wp-load.php file in your application and in effect load the entirety of WordPress to get access to the plugin functions
Use simple caching to store the sidebar in HTML format and include it in any other application, then rebuild it as necessary when new content is published

If it’s not obvious enough, the first option is very costly in terms of database queries and can significantly slow your site down. The second option requires a little effort in implementation but performance wise there is no competition.

Caching Your WordPress Sidebar

Before we can write our function, we need to understand exactly what we’re trying to do. Our goal is to cache our sidebar to a text file and update that cache whenever we publish a post, change our theme or make changes to the sidebar widgets. Since we’re planning on using our cache to display the sidebar on a different application, we need to be able to easily delete the cache without any ill-effects (we don’t want our sidebar broken at any time).

To accomplish this efficiently, we’ll also create a log of our cached files and use that to determine whether the cache should be cleared. If so, the actual cache file will be overwritten the next time someone visits the WordPress site, ensuring a proper sidebar is always rendered on both applications.

Creating the Functions

To get started, open up your theme’s functions.php file and add the following functions to it:

function cache($task, $cacheFile, $cacheTime = 21600){
    global $cache;

    // Configure files and directories:
    $cacheDir = TEMPLATEPATH."/cache";
    $cacheFileName = $cacheDir."/cache-$cacheFile.txt";
    $cacheLogFile = $cacheDir."/cache-log.txt";

    // Make cache directory if it doesn't exist
    if(!is_dir($cacheDir)) mkdir($cacheDir, 0755);

    // Make a log of the cache files with their current status
    if(file_exists($cacheLogFile))
    $cacheLog = unserialize(file_get_contents($cacheLogFile));
    else
    $cacheLog = array();

    if($task == 'start'){
        // If cache exists, is less than 6 hours old and is not in deletion queue, keep it - otherwise rebuild cache
        if(file_exists($cacheFileName) && (time() - filemtime($cacheFileName)) < $cacheTime && $cacheLog[$cacheFile] == 1){
            $cache = false;
            } else {
            $cache = true;
            ob_start();
        }
        }elseif($task == 'end' && $cache){
        // If caching, save file contents and update log
        file_put_contents($cacheFileName,ob_get_contents());
        ob_end_flush();
        $cacheLog[$cacheFile] = 1;
        file_put_contents($cacheLogFile,serialize($cacheLog));
        }elseif($task == 'purge'){
        // Set cache to delete and update log
        $cacheLog[$cacheFile] = 0;
        file_put_contents($cacheLogFile,serialize($cacheLog));
    }

}
function cache_purge(){
    $cacheDir = TEMPLATEPATH."/cache";
    $cacheLogFile = $cacheDir."/cache-log.txt";
    if(file_exists($cacheLogFile))
    $cacheLog = unserialize(file_get_contents($cacheLogFile));
    else
    $cacheLog = array();
    foreach($cacheLog as $key=>$value)
    $cacheLog[$key] = 0;
    file_put_contents($cacheLogFile,serialize($cacheLog));
}

These first function, cache, is the key to getting our cache to work. Depending on where in your file you call it, the function will set up the correct files and directories, verify a cache needs to be built and if so, will save the output and update the cache log. The function uses PHP’s output buffering to save any HTML generated into a text file.

The second function is used to purge all cache files and is useful for adding to existing WordPress hooks. With it, we can make it so our cache is cleared every time our theme is updated, a post is saved or our sidebar widgets are updated by adding the following at the end of functions.php:

add_action('switch_theme','cache_purge', 10);
add_action('publish_post','cache_purge', 10);
add_filter('widget_update_callback','cache_purge', 10);

For a full list of hooks, check out the WordPress Plugin API Reference.

Configuring Your Sidebar

Now that you have the functions ready, you can begin caching your sidebar. Open up your sidebar.php and add this line to the beginning of the file:

<?php cache('start', 'sidebar'); ?>

This function will start caching the sidebar it needs to, otherwise it will do nothing. Because of the way the PHP output buffering function works, we also need to close off the buffer at the end of the file as well. Add this line to the very bottom of the same file:

<?php cache('end', 'sidebar'); ?>

After you’ve added those two lines, refresh your blog. You won’t see anything in your browser but check the /cache directory in your theme folder and you should see two files starting with cache-.

Using Your Cache

Now that you’ve created your cache file, you can use it in any application that has access to it. You can easily do this using the include_once function but I also like making sure the file exists, just to be safe:

<?php
    $myCachedFile = "/path/to/cache-sidebar.txt";
    if(file_exists($myCachedFile))
    include_once($myCachedFile);
    else
    echo "Cache doesn't exist.";
?>

Just be sure to double-check your file path is correct. If you want to set your cache to delete from an external application, you’ll have to include the cache_purge function in your script somewhere and simply call that whenever necessary. After that it’s simply a matter of calling the function:

<?php purge_cache(); ?>

Conclusion

This technique is really useful for any PHP application, especially when you want to display dynamic content without having to sacrifice performance. Use it to speed up your WordPress install or be able to use useful bits (like the sidebar) on any other website or application.

iPhone 4 Tips: 10 Things New Users Should Know

2010-08-24T03:45:29Z

The following article is a mixture of a few things – mainly tips, tricks and some guides for those of you who just bought an iPhone 4. If you are skeptical about the reception and other potential problems the iPhone 4 might have – don’t worry – you are not alone. We are also going to share some hands-on experience regarding few potential iPhone 4 problems, so read on.

Please do take note that we are not going to discuss what’s new in iOS4 (operating system) as it has been pretty much covered elsewhere. This article is basically- what you can expect with the new iPhone 4.

1. Update all your applications

First things first, check for application updates. If you have lot of applications installed in your previous iPhone 3G or 3GS, chances are they will need to be updated again so that they can take advantages of the new iOS4 features and iPhone 4 capabilities. So before you start trying out your existing applications on iPhone 4, take a moment to check if they need to be updated.

2. Where’s Facetime?

This is probably one of the first thing you’d like to explore on new iPhone 4, but where’s the Facetime app? Facetime is actually not an application, in fact, it’s an option available (for now) only when you make a call via WiFi to another iPhone 4 user.

Facetime is turn off by default. To turn it on, go to Settings → Phone and turn Facetime on. Carrier activation might be required. Learn more about Facetime.

3. You’ll need a new wallpaper

With retina display, everything on iPhone 4 looks amazingly vibrant and high quality. The screen supports up to 960×640 pixels at 326ppi, approximately 4 times higher than the resolution in a iPhone 3Gs. In another words, it makes your current wallpaper looks weak and you’ll need to look for a higher resolution wallpapers :-)

4. Try iMovie for iPhone 4

iMovie for iPhone4 is a light version of iMovie for Mac and it’s awesome. It allows you to edit and share your recorded videos on the fly. And did we mention all videos recording with iPhone 4 are in high definition (HD)?

iMovie for iPhone 4 cost $4.99.

5. Tap to Focus Object – Video

Even the smartest gadget can use a some human touch. While video recording, you can tap on different objects on the screen to have iPhone focus on them.

6. View widescreen while Recording

If you swap from camera mode to video mode, you’ll notice that the objects are actually getting closer. That is because video recording is done in wide screen mode. To display in wide screen while recording – double tab the screen.

7. Search Web, Wikipedia on the fly

By swiping right on the home screen, you’ll activate Spotlight. Type in something and scroll all the way to the bottom and you’ll noticed two additional search options have been added, respectively the "Search web" and "Search wikipedia". Both search uses Safari browser.

8. Mirror, Self-Shot

iPhone 4 comes with an additional front camera. By clicking on the camera icon on the top right, the front camera is activated instead of the back. We thought this could be useful for those who want to use their iPhone as a mirror, or perhaps, it makes taking self-shots easier too!

9. The iPhone 4 reception problem

This is the question most people are most concerned about. To be fair, yes signal bars do dropped when gripped – they call it the Death Grip.

However, signal drop only happens in areas where receptions are weak, so it very much depends a lot on your service provider. The problem is mild, don’t get too worried about it.

10. Yellow Splotches on the screen

Some users are reporting that they have been noticing yellow patches on the iPhone 4 screen. According to macintouch, this is just a small temporarily problem as these yellow splotches are nothing but some bonding agents for the glass that will evaporate as the device is exposed to the air. You can relax now.

(bellefoong)

60 Beautiful Minimalist Desktop Wallpapers

2010-08-11T14:46:04Z

Minimal art is known for its simplicity in both form and content, where individual expression is isolated in order to achieve effective minimal art. Minimal Art emerged as a movement in the 1950s and continued all throughout the 1960′s and 1970′s. And now we see it flourishing all over the art industries, especially the graphic design industry.

The purpose of Minimalism is basically to allow the viewers or the audience to experience the artwork more intensely without all the distractions of the composition, the theme, the organization and so on.

In this article, we will take a closer look at minimal graphic design that has been implemented on desktop wallpapers. And because we all like to customize our personal computers, below are 60 awesome minimalistic wallpapers just for you to download and perhaps even get a little inspiration to create your own!

One Thing Minimal Wallpaper. Includes 1024×640 resolution. (by RMNMD)

Wooden Noir Wallpaper Pack. Includes 17 resolutions from 640×480 to 2560×1600, including iPhone wallpapers. (by Shod4n)

Cloud Minimal. Includes 1920×1200 resolution. (by Jan Krogh)

Dust. (by Deus Nova)

Attaaack. Includes 1680×1050 resolution. (by McLetDown)

My Favorite Book. Includes 6576×4192 resolution. (by Matt Lowden)

IANE. Includes 3 resolutions: 1280×800, 1680×1050, and 1920×1200. (by Imrik)

Pure Wall. Includes 11 different resolutions with iPad and iPhone versions. (by Heskin Radiophonic)

Type Veteran. Includes 1920×1358 resolution. (by Radu Ceuca)

Calmness. Includes 6 different resolutions from 1920×1200 to 1280×800. (by Akmal Ibn Marmoh)

InDaClub. Includes 2 resolutions 1900×1200 and 1680×1050, as well as a free 150×150 .PSD pattern. (by Fred Perry)

Flower Creature. Includes 1680×1050 resolution. (by SilkyLauper)

Plus. Includes 1920×1080 resolution. (by Adam Leung)

Elegance. Includes 8 resolutions from 1280×800 to 1920×1200 with iPad and iPhone versions. (by Adrian)

Soccer Field. Includes 2560×1600 resolution. (by Sondre Stensbol)

Also Calm. Includes 3 resolutions with widescreen, HTC Desire and iPhone versions. (by Mattias)

Helvetica Wallpaper. Includes 1900×1200 resolution. (by Jeremy Paillotin)

Bluri. Includes 14 resolutions with iPhone versions. (by Kris)

Snacks. Includes 2560×1600 resolution. (by Jess Neil)

Peace of Mind Minimal Wallpaper. Includes 1024×640 resolution. (by RMNMD)

AMustacheMen. Includes 2560×1600 resolution. (by Jonathan Amoroso)

The Egg Chair. Includes 1920×1200 resolution. (by David Vineis)

Way Far Out. Includes 2560×1600 resolution. (by Nikos Giannakopoulos)

Spark. Includes 1920×1200 resolution. (by Nabhan Abdullatif)

Gumy Bokeh. Includes 8 different resolutions with iPhone versions. (by Philip Illgen)

Pacmate. Includes 2560×1600 resolution. (by Yegor)

Coco. Includes 1920×1200 resolution. (by Michelle Jinx)

Charlies Shirt. Includes 2560×1600 resolution. (by Rodrigo Muniz)

Precise. Includes 2 resolutions 1920×1200 and 1920×1080. (by Manav Bahl)

Ace Spades. Includes 2560×1600 resolution. (by Michael Burrows)

My Screen is Clean. Includes 2560×1600 and 1920×1200 resolutions with 6 colors. (by Matan B)

Follow The Leader. Includes 2048×1536 resolution. (by Jorge de la Mata)

You Cannot Pass. Includes 1024×768 resolution. (by Sebastian)

Be A Rebel. Includes 1024×768 resolution. (by Sam)

The Best Ideas. Includes 3 resolutions 1920×1080, 1680×1050, and 1440×900. (by Shahrukh)

Wallpaper Focus White. Includes 1680×1050 resolution. (by Kasukedo Gonpori)

Grapefruit. Includes 2560×1600 resolution. (by Jeremy Sallee)

Web 2.0. Includes 2 resolutions 1920×1200 with the iPhone version. (by David B.)

Design Is…. Includes 1920×1200 resolution. (by Goergen)

He’s A Pixel. Includes 1280×1024 resolution. (by Vladislav Perge)

I Love Minimalism Wallpaper. Includes 1680×1050 resolution. (by Chris)

Minimal Joker. Includes 1600×1200 resolution. (by Andre Garrido)

Hot Vs. Cold. Includes 4 different resolutions with an iPhone version. (by Umar Irshad)

Vivid 2. Includes 9 different resolutions. (by Alex L.)

Naer Wallpaper. Includes 5 different resolutions. (by Gravideo Interactive)

Plastic Exploding Circle 01. Includes 1440×900 resolution. (by Graphic Nothing)

Big Idea. Includes 11 different resolutions with iPhone version. (by Big-SB)

iGalax. Includes 3 different resolutions. (by JackieTran)

Helvetica Grunge. Includes 1920×1200 resolution. (by Oliver Wilke)

Loading Wallpaper. Includes many resolutions with 7 different colors. (by Umar Irshad)

On A Clean Slate. Includes 4 different resolution. (by Krisha)

Link It Up. Includes 2560×1600 resolution. (by Justin Page)

My Desktop Is Simple. Includes 1600×1200 resolution. (by CajeFM)

Lightbox Love. Includes 2560×1600 resolutions. (by Rohan Nanavati)

Bear Wallpaper. Includes 8 different resolutions with iPhone version. (by Michelle Jinx)

Once You Pop. Includes 2560×1600 resolutions. (by TruminHaus)

1972. Includes many different resolutions with iPhone version. (by Nikola Lazarevic)

Lemonade Was Popular. Includes 2560×1600 resolution. (by Scott Tolinski)

Hatch. Includes 2560×1600 resolution. (by Daniel Pessoa DamnOmatic)

Sleepy Jean. Includes 2560×1600 resolution. (by Somalia Jamall)

References and More Wallpapers

Giveaway: 5 Copies of SlideshowBox Photo Gallery Templates

2010-08-17T08:48:40Z

SlideshowBox is a collection of 24 high quality and stylish photo slideshow templates. It allows you to create photo gallery showcase with coding needed. So even if you are HTML or Javascript illiterate, you are still able to publish a cool looking photo gallery on the web.

SlideshowBox is created by Jumpeye Components, and today we are giving away 5 copies of Slidshowbox Premium HTML (worth $99) to hongkiat readers.

Here are few samples of SlideshowBox templates.

Thumbnail wall

Grid Scale

Frame Slide

There are all together 24 cool looking ways to present your photos with SlideshowBox. Our personal favorites are Polariod Paper, Frame Slide, Thumbnail Slide and Thumbnail Wall, but you should really see them all. No coding is required and the gallery can be further customized via an admin panel.

Click here to learn more about SlideshowBox.

How to Win

SlideshowBox is worth $99 a copy and we’ve got 5 copies for our readers. If you are interested in winning a copy of SlideshowBox, please drop a comment below.

Contest will start today, ends next Tuesday, 17th August 2010.

Winners of: ClassiPress Premium WordPress Themes Contest

2010-08-17T09:18:25Z

Sorry for the delay, here are our five winners for the ClassiPress premium WordPress theme contest.

Winners of ClassiPress

3 personal editions

Calin
James Dee
Phankimi

1 Professional edition

Paul Tan

1 Ultimate license

Monie

Congratulation to the winners!