The Avengers’ Inception

Published by Marvel Comics in September 1963, The Avengers was created by iconic Jack Kirby and Stan Lee – two of the main forces in the comic books domain. Initially the team consisted of Iron Man, Ant-Man, Wasp, Thor and Hulk, and along the way other characters were added. It was some kind of response to DC Comics’ Justice League of America. But easily The Avengers turns into a big success and with the help of superheroes successes on the big screen, funds start to appear for Marvel.

In 2008, Iron Man – which was considered a middle-weight character compared to Spider-Man or Superman, gains a fortune in theaters and starts to pave the way for new flicks. Directed by Jon Favreau, the movie ends up with $585 millions in the charts and a new generation of fans ready to support Marvel’s heroes. I wasn’t a fan at that time and I still believe that Michael Bay’s Transformer (2007) is a far better movie, but I have to agree that Robert Downey jr did a terrific job as Tony Starks.

One month later, The Incredible Hulk erupts in the cinemas but with minor achievements, confirming its lack of charisma. Although I think the movie was quite nice, the gains were modest and the movie wasn’t proposed for a sequel. Two years later, Iron Man 2 appears in theaters gaining $620 millions followed by Thor (2011). Both movies were well received with Thor being appraised both for technical achievements and a nice story.

Back to 2012

Instead of adding any more historical facts, I will share my experience. To be frank, I was expecting a lot of action, some mean lines from Tony Stark and nice environments. But other than that, I was aiming for a decent superhero movie.

Before the movie, my feeling was that Thor and Iron Man will be the hot shots assisted by the rest of the gang. I was happily surprised to see that the share of action was equally divided between heroes and even secondary roles were vital to team’s cause. In the beginning of the movie, each character tackles the rest of team and by end of first half you get tensions and a loose formation. But once the things start to heat up The Avengers kick some serious butt.

Being a second-tier superhero, Hulk delivers the goods in this movie. Not only the awesome special effects and his ability to pretty much crush everything, but also the funny moments together with Mark Ruffalo‘s performance, make Hulk my favorite avenger. Also, I enjoyed the evil character, Loki, as much as I did with the positive ones. In this movie, compared with Thor, he has some extra help and a lot of tricks up his sleeve. And together with his alien friends, they pretty much manage to wreck New York.

The last half hour is non-stop action: Hawkeye fires his bow almost like Legolas (you even get a reference in the movie to Lord of the Rings’ elf), Black Widow manages some nice moves against the bad guys while Iron Man, Thor and Captain America take care of the guests.

Regarding actors’ performances everything was according to my expectations and I was happy to see Stan Lee appear once again in Marvels movies.

4th – 6th May – Box Office Records

Already with $300 millions grossed worldwide, The Avengers was poised to have a good start. Based on previous superhero movies, it was expected to have a solid first weekend. But no one thought that the movie will surpass Harry Potter (2011) score – $169 million.

Well, according to Box Office Mojo, the estimated gross for these 3 days together with early previews on Thursday is $200 millions. That can be translated like this:

- Fastest Movie to $200 mil
- All Time Opening Weekend
- Top Grossing Day of the Week
- Widest Theater Release – 4349

I encourage you to go an see the movie because it delivers. It has the recipe to get you a happy person at the end of the movie.
Cheers!

iPhone 4S

iPhone 4S is the latest version of the popular iPhone series and it has a lot to offer business professionals. With the iPhone 4S, you can use the Siri voice assistant. With this feature, you can basically talk to your phone like it's a real person and it will make appointments, send texts, and look up information for you. This is very handy for remembering meetings using your calendar, and using the apps on your phone. The iPhone is known for having a simple user interface and a very user-friendly operating system as well.

BlackBerry Bold

The Research in Motion Blackberry Bold 9930 is another great cell phone to consider for business purposes. BlackBerry business cell phones have long been known as some of the best in the industry and have set the standard with the business services they offer. Each BlackBerry has a full keyboard that you can use to easily enter data into your phone and works well with the business enterprise software that BlackBerry offers.

Samsung Epic Touch 4G

The Samsung Epic Touch 4G is another good phone if you need something that can handle all of your business tasks. Since it's a 4G phone, it is currently one of the fastest phones that you can get when it comes to using data. It also has a nice screen that you can use for browsing the web and sending emails to clients and works well with multimedia content which can be useful for previewing presentations.

Motorola Droid Bionic

The Motorola Droid Bionic is one of the most popular smartphones that uses the Android operating system. It comes with a nice app called Zumocast that makes it possible for you to sync files from your desktop computer with your phone wirelessly. This makes it possible to handle your business files easily.

Motorola XPRT

Another offering by Motorola is the XPRT model. This is perfect for business professionals with its large keyboard and slick design. It also offers enhanced data encryption which is perfect for businesses with sensitive information.

Layer Manipulation: Filtering, Searching and much more

OMG! This feature will boost my productivity like no other feature. Being able to search through my hundreds layers and also to filter them by a number of criteria will help me easily identify a particular layer and manipulate my files.

Stroke Styles

This one is huge. Being able to create custom strokes similar to Illustrator is an impressive new feature. I remember all the work I had to put into strokes without this feature. Fill patterns and a lot of actions were needed in order to achieve something similar to Photoshop CS6 Stroke feature.

Mini Bridge

I can honestly say that I quite hated Bridge. It was that one application that for little functionality was making my PC running like a lawn-more. Now, it seems that Adobe has added a mini version within Photoshop that has some nice features and helps you rapidly find your graphic resources.

Iris Blur

Together with a couple of new options, Iris Blur will be one of the main important new features for photographers. With several clips you can obtain awesome results. An example is the main image for this article.

New, Sexy, Dark Interface

Probably the most important change in the entire Photoshop life is this layout upgrade, towards a darker theme. Apart from the fact that now you can focus on your work without distractions, the new interface features a new set of crispy icons and a better interaction with the panels.

Automatically Save Recovery Information

It seems like Adobe heard me, so no more wasted time on work only to have a crash ruin your day. Now you can easily set a default time frame to backup automatically your work in progress.

Content Aware Patch

You know those pictures from holidays and trips, when in the background you have a person that somehow ruins the shot? Well, you can forget about the person, with Content Aware Patch you can easily move elements in a composition and the background filling is done by Photoshop. No more cloning.

3D & Improved Timeline

It is obvious that Photoshop is now considered not only the best solution for photo editing and web design, but also a good destination for 3D enthusiasts and animators. Now, the 3D and Timeline features are no longer entry components in Photoshop, but solid components that help finalize some of the most diverse tasks. And yes, by improved timeline I want to say working with video files.

… and Speed

The feeling with this new release is that Photoshop is snappy now. I know I’m talking about Photoshop, the only application that uses more RAM than Firefox. But the fact is that even though this is a beta release, it feels good working with it. And you can grab it for test from here: Adobe Photoshop CS6

Make sure to visit authors’ profiles on Flickr. You will find many impressive shots there. Cheers!

Why do we redesign?

While this is a legitimate question, we may trigger a philosophical answer rather than a simple one. It has to do with people’s desire to improve, to make current designs sexier, to constantly have something new. These are all human needs relative to a website, though we should try to improve a design based on real metrics and not just personal preferences.

I must say that most of my previous redesigns were based on some nice visual concept, maybe an interesting website, or even a general trend in the industry. With this redesign, I’ve made an initial analysis by gathering Google Analytics metrics, performance statistics and also aligning my new website to current technologies.

Initial Analysis

First thing you will have to do, before starting to put your ideas in Photoshop, is to open your analytics software and start digging for information. Depending on your website, your metrics can be different from mine. But make sure to analyze a big period of time and identify potential trends in visitors’ behavior.

Visitors Behavior

Regarding visitors, I’ve started by defining my reference timeline as the past year. In this period of time I’ve analyzed the following metrics: Mobile Behavior, Browsers Vendors/Resolutions, Loyalty, Page Views, Time on Site and Bounce Rate.

Website Performance

The next thing was to analyze my site from performance perspective. Here, I wanted to minimize the number of HTTP Requests, reduce the size of Home Page as well as improve rankings in performance benchmark tools like Page Speed and YSlow!.

Content/SEO

On the content side, I wanted to emphasize the type of content that is important for my visitors so, I’ve analyzed Google Analytics and found interesting stats about categories, most visited articles and topics. This analysis gave me a pretty clear picture about the content on my site. So make sure you analyze your site from this perspective as well.

Analysis Results

The analysis result returned me some interesting values. These values were related both to my posting frequency and also to my website’s state at that time.

On the content side it would be too much to explain my findings. The main idea is to see which categories, article and content is visited, and then try emphasize its placement.

Next Step

Now that we have all the inputs about our website’s current state, we should first think which can be easily fixed. For instance, my Home Page Size was big because of the main image. Now, as a guideline, every main image will not exceed 85 KB.

After identifying the easy fixes, you will need to define goals for the future redesign. Of course you won’t be able to set goals on things you can’t change – like visitor screen resolution or browser, but you can define some targets for Bounce Rate, Time on Site and even Loyalty.

The redesign process is different from project to project. Maybe this will work for you or maybe not. For sure I will make a second post and let you know what were the results. Cheers!

HTC

HTC, as one of the major players in the mobile industry, has a very nice website targeted to a variety of users. As soon as you get to the site, you are sent to a local version where the latest devices were displayed. Detecting the location of your visitor and then serving the content in native language helps companies in getting a high conversion rate.

The language indicator is positioned in the top right side. This enables the user to easily see the current language and provides him with a quick and intuitive way to change the language of the site. After clicking the language selector, we are sent to a whole page dedicated to all available languages. This is an easy task to complete and quite elegantly crafted.

Samsung

Compared to HTC, Samsung has a different position for the language selector. This is situated in the bottom left side and it also provides the user with a new visual indicator – country flag. In this case we are sent as well to an entire page where all available languages together with countries’ flags are listed.

Blackberry

To keep the tradition going, even in the case of Blackberry we are redirected to a local translated page. Now to break the tradition, the landing page is far from usable when it comes to language selector.

So, in order to get rid of that landing page you have to click on the logo that will send you to a full size language selector page. This kind of workflow is far from usable. Users with less technical background will never click on the logo even if it is a common practice when designing websites.

On much important sub-sites (UK, US …), Blackberry provides a language selector in the lower left side. Usable, but hardly visible.

HP

The biggest PC maker in the world, HP has one of the most visited websites. With that kind of responsibility on its shoulders, HP did a good job providing the user with a language option on the first page. The component is situated in the bottom left side and apart from the country flag we have also a tiny globe icon.

This is one of the most emphasized controls on corporate websites. Too bad that on secondary pages you have nothing like that, the language selector being vanished.

Lenovo

Logos are by far some of the most exposed elements in a website. Apparently Lenovo knows this, otherwise I can’t explain placing a languages drop-down list in the right side of the logo. The strange thing is that it looks good, is highly usable and it’s not visually obstructive. Another nice thing is that Lenovo has invested time and resources in order to have all local sites based on the same layout and design.

Acer

The second largest PC maker, Acer proves to be one important player when it comes to multilingual yet usable site. From the first time, you are asked to select your country and then you are redirected to your selected local site. What I like about Acer, is that although not all the content is translated, most of the local versions have the same design.

While on the your selected site, you are able to change the language by selecting the indicator situated in the bottom left side.

Microsoft

Even though this is one hated company, I can’t create this list of corporate sites without Microsoft. Microsoft provides its millions of users with a wide variety of languages. In this case we have a language selector placed in the top right side of the site, being part of the main menu. Once clicked, a drop-down menu appears covering countries with their languages. A pretty simple solution yet quite practical.

Oracle

Oracle provides a similar solution for multilingual site as Microsoft. A link positioned in the top side of the web page, though not emphasized, helps the user pick a different language. I would’ve liked to see maybe a simple flag there or a globe, in order to make up for the low font size.

SAP

SAP approach to a multilingual solution is nothing out of the ordinary. First you are prompted to select your region, then your country and after that you are redirected to your local site. Here, the language indicator is placed in the top side, being embedded into the main menu.

IBM

When you say corporate, IBM is one of the first three names that pop in your mind. So here we are, judging the “Big Blue” about its choices regarding languages. IBM may not be one of the first names that screams usability but you might reconsider that once you analyze how usable the languages approach is. The language indicator is placed in the top right side of the site, having a nice world map icon as a visual indicator. Once you click on it, you are taken to a dedicated page where you select your country from a drop-down list.

Analysis Conclusion

Apart from these listed companies, I’ve analyzed others as well ( Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Amazon … ), just that it doesn’t make sense to list all their details. Instead I will list some final numbers regarding languages selector in corporate websites.

Hope it helps in your future projects. Cheers!

So who are the major players in this evolving frontier, and what innovations do they bring to the market? Android, Apple, and Windows Phone 7 comprise roughly two-thirds of the mobile OS market.

Android’s operating system, now a fully-owned subsidiary of Google, features multi-touch technology, hardware connectivity, 3D graphics, and application multitasking. Since the acquisition in 2005, Android has successfully asserted Google as an authority in mobile technology, comprising 33% of global smartphone profits.

Apple has extended its iOS to incorporate a number of platforms, from the iPad to the iPod touch. While heavily proprietary, Apple’s pinch/zoom and swipe capabilities, seamless interface, and scores of immensely popular applications have earned them their 16% chunk of the mobile market.

Using their long established command of desktop operating systems as leverage, Microsoft entered the mobile OS arena with their Windows Mobile operating system. The OS has since evolved into the Windows 7 Phone system, integrating live tiles into the interface. The tiles, which constantly update themselves, represent e-mail, applications, and other running features so that the user doesn’t need to navigate a series of menus to check them. In addition to the interface, Windows 7 Phone features Internet Explorer 9, the Microsoft Office suite, and application multitasking.

Collectively, the competing carriers mentioned above have hastened the development of entirely new platforms, such as the tablet and the PDA.

Tablets have appeared to fill a niche market for those seeking a hybrid solution to their laptop/handset dilemma. Tablets feature touch screens, virtual keyboards, full web capabilities, and live streaming media, while maintaining a size and portability precisely between that of their brethren. The initial contenders were the Windows Tablet PC, a flop, and then the iPad. There are now dozens more such as the Toshiba Thrive, Samsung Galaxy, and HP TouchPad. Innovations in PDA technology include Wi-Fi hotspot capabilities, touch screens, and wireless synchronization.

Finally, no mobile OS succeeds without effective application development. Every prominent name in mobile technology creates and hosts thousands of applications per month. In conjunction with some devices supporting hardware, the latest applications can analyze blood alcohol content, recognize a melody, or even save shoppers money with instant price comparisons.

The real “WOW”

The first thing bouncing into my head when I saw the new Windows 8 User Interface was the similarity to Windows Phone 7 UI which is an awesome thing. With Windows Phone 7, Microsoft created a new user interface with its design language named Metro. Now it seems like MS borrowed the interface to Windows, making the OS feel more like 2015 rather than 2005. The only thing I can say is that Microsoft missed the WOW Vista campaign by 6 years.

Can’t wait for BETA

Microsoft really made me want to test this new thing, same way as it did with Windows 7. The only difference is that the new OS steps into the new era of personal computing – mobile, productive and … more personal. With this user interface and experience, Microsoft shows that Windows can be fun too.

Enjoy

Here is the link with the first official Windows 8 showcase: Windows 8
Here is a first glimpse on how the UI will look in the next installment of the most popular operating system for PC’s – Window 8. Enjoy!

1. ExpressionEngine

ExpressionEngine is a commercial product built on an Open Source foundation, giving you the best of both worlds. As a commercial product, ExpressionEngine is supported by a team of committed developers and technical support specialists. – ExpressionEngine

2. Textpattern

Textpattern is an elegant content management system that is free, open source software. Web designers, developers, publishers and bloggers love its flexibility and extensibility. It has a powerful, sophisticated engine that can be infinitely tuned to suit whatever type of web site you can imagine. Textpattern

3. Symphony CMS

Symphony is a web-based content management system (CMS) that enables users to create and manage websites and web applications of all shapes and sizes – from the simplest of blogs to bustling news sites and feature-packed social networks. – Symphony Cms

4. CMS Made Simple

CMS Made Simple™ is an open source ( GPL) package first released in July 2004. Its built using PHP that provides website developers with a simple, easy to use utility to allow building small-ish (dozens to hundreds of pages), semi-static websites. – CMSMadeSimple

5. Concrete5

Anyone can start making their own website in seconds, and the editing experience is easy; just click on what you want to change. Developers still get a flexible and robust framework for building sophisticated web applications. With concrete5, however, site owners will be able to make changes and additions on their own, for years to come. – Concrete5

6. Website Baker

Create new templates within minutes – powered by (X)HTML, CSS and jQuery. With WebsiteBaker it’s quite natural your site is W3C-valid, SEO-friendly and accessible – there are no limitations at all. Use droplets – the new and revolutionary way of inserting PHP code – everywhere you want. – WebsiteBaker

7. Umbraco

Umbraco is a free, open-source web cms built on the Microsoft .NET Framework. It is easy to use, simple to understand, and is highly extensible using industry-standard languages and patterns such as HTML, CSS, jQuery, and C#. Umbraco is powerful and flexible whether you’re a cutting-edge designer or a hard-core code junkie. – Umbraco

8. Contao

Contao has an intuitive user interface that uses Ajax and Web 2.0 technologies for optimal usability. Multiple back end languages and themes, a powerful permission system, versioning and undo management, advanced search and sorting options or the Live Update Service are just a few of many features that make Contao stand out from other CMS. The Contao front end is 100% template based and generates accessible XHTML strict output that meets the W3C/WAI requirements. – Contao

9. Plone CMS

Plone is excellent for application oriented jobs and Your Average PHP/Java CMS™ is good for page oriented jobs. If users of the system need to add, modify, and delete content, or if the content is not always table oriented, but requires a process, a workflow, and complex content types with business logic, Plone may be a better choice. – Plone

10. XOOPS

XOOPS is a web application platform written in PHP for the MySQL database. Its object orientation makes it an ideal tool for developing small or large community websites, intra company and corporate portals, weblogs and much more. – XOOPS

11. MODX

MODx provides a powerful framework on which to deploy and secure your website and web applications. For example, it gives you a true system for registered web users and groups that is separate from administration users. For content management, you can easily duplicate documents, folders (and all their children!), chunks and snippets. Most significant, though, is MODx’s ability to empower you to quickly and easily create and maintain a rich and dynamic website like never before. – MODx

12. Silverstripe

SilverStripe CMS is an open source web content management system used by governments, businesses, and non-profit organisations around the world. It is a power tool for professional web development teams, and web content authors rave about how easy it is to use. – SilverStripe

13. PyroCMS

PyroCMS is easy to use, looks great and uses some smart caching to keep everything running smoothly. It can be easily extended with Modules, Widgets, and Plugins which are easy to make thanks to CodeIgniter; and it can be customized with Themes, which are basic HTML with a few tags in place. – PyroCMS

14. GetSimple CMS

GetSimple is an XML based lite Content Management System. To go along with it’s best-in-class user interface, we have loaded it with features that every website needs, but with nothing it doesn’t. GetSimple is truly the simplest way to manage a small-business website. – GetSimple CMS

15. FuelCMS

FUEL CMS was built for developers that like to work in the CodeIgniter framework and need a lightweight, highly customizable CMS for their clients that integrates nicely with their code. If you are looking for a CMS first and are not familiar with CodeIgniter or comfortable writing code, then FUEL may not be a right fit. – FuelCMS

Other Alternatives

Do you have other CMS’ that you work with? Please comment and share with us your preferred content management system. Cheers!