Knowzine

5 Appealing CSS Techniques

noreply@blogger.com (Torsam) — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 06:00:00 +0000

CSS3 has been out for a while, but too bad, most of the browsers haven't really supported it yet. So, let's go back to CSS2 this time. Well, at least CSS2 supported by most browsers even the old school IE6 and 7. These 5 interesting CSS techniques are something that you might not seen before.

Triangle in CSS

Creating a triangle using pure CSS with border property. It's something pretty cool and read the following for what you can do with this technique:

Triangle Breadcrumb
CSS Powered Ribbons
Infobox with CSS 3D Ribbon
Scalable Star

Wrapping long line url and text content

By using white-space properties we can wrap long line with it, but you will need to apply different value for different browsers. Click on the link to read more about it

  Blurry background effect

This trick uses two images to simulate the blur background effect.

Styling up a list

A good article from smashing magazine sharing about styling up list with special characters and as well as using the clip property to replace tradisional CSS sprite.

CSS Parallax Effect

So, you have seen parallax effect with Javascript before right? How about Parallax effect with pure CSS? But there is a catch, it doesn't interact with your mouse, you need to resize your browser to see it. Check out the links:

Sitepoint Stretchy Test
Dromaeo
A Parallax illusion with CSS

10 Impressive jQuery Plugins - Display Images

noreply@blogger.com (Torsam) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 12:36:00 +0000

We all know and love jQuery for its flexibility and many uses. But some of the most impressive jQuery applications are those that involve images. It really can allow you to do some useful stuff and even add a “wow” factor to your project. So here we’ve rounded up 10 jQuery plugins to help you display images in your next project.

Slides

Slides is a crazy simple slideshow plugin for jQuery. With features like looping, auto play, fade or slide transition effects, crossfading, image preloading, and auto generated pagination.

Pikachoose

Pikachoose is a lightweight Jquery plugin that allows easy presentation of photos with options for slideshows, navigation buttons, and auto play.

Face Detection

Face Detection is an impressive plugin that does just what its name suggests. It detects faces in photos.

Fullscreenr

So you want to have a background image on your website, which always fills the screen and maintains its aspect ratio? And it has to be centered, instead of focussing at the top left corner of the image? This plugin does that.

Slidy

jQuery Slidy is a plugin that generates a customizable transitions automatically.

MobilyNotes

MobilyNotes is lightweight (2KB) jQuery plugin that shows your images or other html content in a stacked format.

Easy Slides

Easy Slides is an extremely easy to use plugin for making slideshows. It also has the advantage of being fairly light weight, with both Javascript and CSS weighing in at just under 2.1kb.

Booklet

Booklet is a jQuery plugin for displaying images and more in a book format with a turning page effect.

MobilySelect

MobilySelect is jQuery plugin (2kB) that replaces one collection of items with another.

AviaSlider

AviaSlider is a jQuery slideshow plugin with unique transition effects.

8 Superfine Premium WordPress Themes

noreply@blogger.com (Torsam) — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 18:54:00 +0000

The old saying “you get what you pay for” is debatable when it comes to WordPress themes; there are a slew of beautiful, versatile free themes available on the web. After all, releasing a gorgeous, professional-grade theme gratis makes sense when you’ve built the theme on top of an open-source platform.

Still, there’s a wide world of premium themes to choose from. Once upon a time, Thesis was the king (more or less) of premium WordPress themes; however, a recent squabble over licensing issues has left a tarnish on designer Chris Pearson’s otherwise lovely work, and has sent former Thesis users running to find alternatives.

Now that the dust has settled from that recent unpleasantness, we thought we should revisit the subject of premium themes. Here are a handful of gorgeous WordPress themes you and your clients can buy right now. They’re great for developers, professional bloggers, SMBs, web dev shops and anyone who can afford to shell out a few bucks for a professional-looking and robust WordPress theme. And since they’re paid products, most come with decent support, as well.

Give them a look, and let us know your thoughts in the comments.

1. Genesis

Based on user feedback and adoption trends, we’re ready to call StudioPress’ Genesis the successor to Thesis. This WordPress 3.0-ready theme starts simple and SEO-focused, but it’s incredibly extensible in terms of design and development through hooks and child themes. Widgets can go in a lot of places with Genesis; they’re not relegated to the sidebar. This theme also integrates with BuddyPress, if you or your client need open-source social networking capabilities along with your WordPress site.

Price: $59.99 for the theme, $249.95 for the StudioPress Pro All Theme Plus package.

2. Coda

WooThemes has long been one of the better sources of premium WordPress themes, and this shop’s latest creation, Coda, leaves little to be desired. This digital mag template features a nifty jQuery-based scroller for showcasing specific posts and a completely widget-based design for the home page. Coda’s “Timeline” archive page is also an elegant solution to one of the ugliest sections of any content-focused website.

Price: $70 for standard license (two bonus themes included), $150 for developer license (three bonus themes and the Coda PSD file).

3. Iridium

RocketTheme’s Iridium was designed for WordPress 3.0 and comes with six style variations and a slew of widgets out of the box. It’s a graphics-intensive package from the start and works well for sites that need to go beyond subtle. That being said, the smaller details (such as RocketTheme’s Fusion Menu, a rhapsody in JavaScript) inherent in this theme are well-executed, too.

Price: Subscription pricing starting at $50 for a 90-day plan with two installations of a theme and ranging to $250 annually for unlimited access.

4. Emporium

While many of Templatic’s themes appeal to the news bloggers in us (Hello and NewsTime look perfect for a content site, for example), this theme shop really shines in the e-commerce category. The gallery of themes has a killer iPhone app site based on WordPress and quite a few offerings for those whose websites are also commercial portals.
One that particularly struck us was Emporium, a shiny storefont with an administrative backend for real and virtual goods. This theme even has customization for a “catalog mode” if your online shop is inquiry-based rather than online sale-focused.

Price: $65 for a single license, $99 for a single theme with unlimited licenses, $299 for all Templatic themes.

5. iTeam

iThemes’ premium WordPress theme iTeam was conceived as the ideal framework for building a sports team website, but we can see this format going over well for a ton of different applications. With support for video, photo galleries, up-to-the-minute updates and who’s-who rosters, we could imagine getting a lot of mileage out of this community-focused theme for recurring event websites, clubs and organizations, churches and others.

Price: $79.95 for a single theme with multiple licenses, $297 for all themes.

6. Standard Theme

Don’t be fooled by the name. The Standard Theme isn’t “standard” as in “ordinary.” Rather, it aims to set an industry standard for content-centric sites and blogs by being the (allegedly) best-coded WordPress theme ever. Standard is SEO- and load time-optimized, and with ample ad placement opportunities and Google Analytics integration, it’s ideal for professional and commercial applications.

Price: $49 for standard license, $99 for a support license, both of which work for multiple applications.

7. Photon

Multimedia and photography portfolio themes abound, but this one fits the bill perfectly, and for a pretty sweet price, too. Images are gorgeously showcased in an almost-fullscreen layout with few distractions. Text and filmstrips recede gracefully and appear only when needed and wanted by the user. For a working photog, designer, model or other professional who relies on an image-based website, this theme is simple and strong enough to let the work stand out. And for an amateur shutterbug, the price is right for getting started with a portfolio.

Price: $17.

8. Cinch

If you love the look of Tumblr but need the power of WordPress, Cinch is the theme for you. Another WooThemes creation, Cinch harnesses the seemingly endless popularity of the tumblog for use on a WordPress site. Just like Tumblr, Cinch brings super-simple multimedia capabilities, adding speedy posting options with advanced QuickPress support. The theme also includes 11 alternative styles and slick jQuery-powered navigation.

Price: $70 for standard license (two bonus themes included), $150 for developer license (three bonus themes and the Cinch PSD file).

Top 10 Android Applications For Your Smartphone

noreply@blogger.com (Torsam) — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 16:45:00 +0000

"Android is a mobile operating system initially developed by Android Inc. Today, Android is a leading competitor for mobile applications. Nowadays, many interesting and powerful mobile applications are developed for android operating system. Android is a platform for applications regarding gaming, entertainment, communication, finance, multimedia etc."

In this article we brings the most secure, interesting and the strongest Android Applications. To download Android Applications into your mobile phone you just need to launch the Android Market in the application menu, search for “desired application”, and easily install them.

1. Call & SMS Filter

Call & SMS Filter gives you a easy way to block noisy SMS & unwanted incoming calls.

Key Features:
- Choose block mode
- Add numbers/contacts to black list
- Block SMS & incoming calls
- Blocked SMS and call records

Package: com.easyfilter.android

2. Wheres My Phone

Wheres My Phone lets you find your phone when you forgot where was your phone, you can send a SMS "easy finder" from another phone to make it vibrate or "sing" a song loudly, util you find it (even if it was set to vibrate mode).

Key Features:
* Send SMS by any phones;
* Send SMS by "Easy Filter"

Package: com.easyfinder.android

3. AndroPaint Lite

AndroPaint Lite is Paint application for the android platform.

Key Features:
-Brush styles,types
-Draw Shapes
-Fill action
-Add text
-Set as wallpaper
-Share image
-Undo/Redo
-Effects
-Resize
-Import, Edit images from storage
-Select image portion, drag to move or resize. Cut, copy, or paste.
-Save image as PNG/JPEG
-Fixed crash on large pics

Package: com.tecxten.andropaint.free

4. Risk Detector – MobileSecurity

Risk Detector is a mobile security tool that is able to identify Virus/Spyware/Malware on current market. Protect your phone with Antivirus, AntiSpyware, AntiMalware & more.

Key Features:
- Block viruses, spyware, malware, theft aware
- Scan apps installed on your phone

Package: com.riskdetector.android

5. App Installer

Install apps saved on your SD Card fast and easy. Search files.

Key Featrures:
*Create New Directory
*Search Files
*Delete Files
*(Un)Zip Files
*Filter Files
*Preview Media Files
*Install Saved Apps

Package: com.cdroid.appinstaller

6. Security Guarder

Security Guarder is a mobile firewall to help you filter unwanted text messages and unsolicited call based on your own scenario rules.

Key Features:
It provides 7 scenario rules and you can customize the default rule according to your own business.

Package: com.morbe.guarder

7. Scribtor Notes

Scribtor Notes is Powerful notepad,text editor app.

Key Features:
-In built file browser
-Edit files
-Import contents of files from memory into the notepad
-Add short cuts for notes
-Exp notes to storage
-Customize the interface look
-Share data with other apps
-Encrypt and decrypt notes. Export, import the same
-Ln-de,es,fr,it,ja,zh
-much more

Package: com.tecxten.scribtor.free

8. ES Task Manager

ES Task Manager is an important app to ignore list to avoid to be killed. Also used for Saving Battery, Free Memory, Kill task, close everything, Uninstall app, Speed up phone.

Key Features:
*App2sd(NOT all phone can WIDGET on SD)
*Layout change
*Fix minor bug
*ignore list

Package: com.estrongs.android.taskmanager

9. Quick Task Killer Pro

Quick Task Killer is a tool to kill running tasks for speeding up your phone, saving your battery life.

Key Features:
-Kill All
-Auto Kill
-Widget

Package: com.quickkiller.android

10. Application Safer

Application Safer helps to keep your apps and private data safely.

Key Features:
-Prevent other people from intruding in your phone;
-Install/uninstall some apps or malware;
-See your private info you don't want to share;
-Save your life if your phone was lost;

Package: com.easyprotector.android

15 Creative Company & Business Logo Designs

noreply@blogger.com (Torsam) — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 05:59:00 +0000

Clean, graphic, simple and powerful. In a sea of logos, the ones that stand out say the most with the least amount of fuss. Clever designers pack memorable corporate branding into professional custom designs by finding symbols in letters and identifying graphics with multiple relevant meanings – all in a clear and concise package. These 15 stellar examples show just how creative logo makers can be with barely more than a sans-serif font and some basic shapes.

Horror Films

How can a single white circle with a few holes in it say so much? It’s a film reel. It’s a face with its mouth rounded into an ‘o’ in terror. It’s ‘Horror Films’ all the way, without any unnecessary bulk or fluff.

(image via: logofaves)

CFO Cycling Team

When the letters of a company or organization’s name just happen to form an associated image, it’s like magic in the hands of the right logo designer. For the CFO cycling team, a person riding a bicycle serendipitously emerged to form this super-simple and memorable graphic.

(image via: logo faves)

Families

Once again, the letter ‘i’ stands in as a graphical representation of the human body, and it works effortlessly here in the word families (albeit with a dot added over the ‘L’).

(image via: logo faves)

Fish

Leave it to a graphic designer to see images in words. There’s no denying that the letters F-I-S-H flawlessly form the head, eye, gills and tail of a fish without a need for reaching on the part of the viewer.

(image via: brand stack)

Doghouse Brewing Company

A little house and a beer mug: what else does that say but ‘Doghouse Brewing’? And all it took was the addition of a handle in the cutout of the door.

(image via: creattica)

The Thirsty Peacock

Arrange an enticing array of rainbow-colored wine bottles into a fan shape with a wine glass front and center, and what do you have? A peacock made out of wine bottles? Well, yes, but also a ‘thirsty peacock’, the name of a wine store business.

(image via: logo pond)

Infinity Crime

It didn’t take much tweaking to turn the infinity symbol into the mask of an evil villain, but it did take some creative vision. Alex Chmura came up with this idea for ‘Infinity Crime Studio’, a fictitious company that some unnamed businessperson out there should snap up right away.

(image via: logo faves)

Playground

Ahh, another refreshing case of imagery and typography combined into one cohesive, readable, memorable logo. Don’t you love it when that happens?

(image via: logo moose)

Elephant Talk

Bold and graphic, this combination of an elephant’s body and the quotation marks that form the head are a great illustration of ‘Elephant Talk’. Taking the idea a bit further, commenters at LogoPond have suggested a few changes that would be equally strong: flipping the quotation mark horizontally or taking away the body and facing the quotation marks toward each other like two elephant heads facing off.

(image via: logopond)

Egg

Egg + egg + egg + egg + ‘E’ = Egg. You can’t argue with that math when it comes out looking like this.

(image via: creattica)

Wine Searcher

Asked how he got the inspiration for this ingenious logo, designer Gareth hardy told Logo Gala, “Whilst in a bar, bored, staring at two empty bottles. I am always looking at contours of objects. Lines are all around us and make the world we live in. I noticed that the contour of the bottles could be adjusted to reveal a pair of glasses.”

(image via: logo gala)

Burnett Electrical

You don’t need an artistic masterpiece on your letterhead when the solution is as brilliantly clear and memorable as this. The ‘B’ and ‘E’ of ‘Burnett Electrical’, combined just the right way, reveal an image of an electrical plug.

(image via: logo pond)

Play

If you didn’t know that these hearts were supposed to say ‘PLAY’, would you see it anyway? Perhaps it depends on whether you’re visually inclined. To some, the word jumps out, yet others don’t see it right away, but it’s certainly a clever use of heart shapes.

(image via: logo faves)

Mister Cutts

What do you think of when you hear the words “Mister Cutts”? A pair of scissors made to look like eyeglasses and a mustache may not be the first thing, but maybe that’s because you’re not as clever as Tabitha Ayers, the designer who came up with this logo.

(image via: creattica)

Killed

Sometimes, super-effective logos can be so simple. This one, designed by Sean Heisler for an entertainment company, simply shoots down the suggestively head-and-body-shaped letter “i” in “Killed” for a refreshingly unfussy visual representation of the company name.

(image via: creattica)

5 iPhone Applications - Business Networking Enhancement

noreply@blogger.com (Torsam) — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 12:27:00 +0000

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 70% of all jobs are found through networking. It’s no surprise, then, that so many businesspeople are on the lookout for tools to improve their networking skills. With the growing collection of business apps in the App Store, the iPhone is becoming a portable toolkit for business professionals everywhere.This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum.

However, with thousands of business apps out there, sorting through the options can be a bit of a task. Below is a list of five useful iPhone apps that will help you become a better business networker.

1. Exchange Information using LinkedIn

These days, there are so many ways to exchange contact information. Some people prefer traditional business cards, while others enjoy the geek chicness of bumping, handing out QR codes, or tweeting their business cards. In the world of fragmented information exchange, there is one business standard that we may be able to rely on: LinkedIn.

The free iPhone app gives you the power to connect with over 60 million professionals worldwide. My favorite feature is the ability to connect instantly with nearby users by enabling Bluetooth within the “In Person” feature. You can also set your status, invite contacts, accept invitations, read and respond to messages and keep up with your contacts’ updates.

2. Meet in the Middle using MeetMe

There’s nothing more annoying than emailing back and forth with a colleague to try to figure out where to meet up for coffee, lunch or drinks. For these situations, there’s MeetMe ($0.99), an app designed to help people meet in the middle. You input two locations (or use your current location and input your colleague’s address) and it locates suitable venues in the middle. The search can be narrowed down by type of venue, and you can store contacts and venues in your favorites for future use. From there, you can email directions to yourself and your colleague. The only thing left to do is meet up and have a good time.

3. Organize Business Cards with WorldCard Mobile

One of the difficulties with staying in touch with business acquaintances is keeping track of their business cards and transferring their information into digital form for easier use. There are a number of products out there to help keep business cards organized on your computer or online, but now these services are going mobile.

WorldCard Mobile ($5.99) is just one of the options out there for mobile business card scanning and storage. After a card is scanned in, the app identifies as much information from the card as possible and stores it in your contacts, where you can edit any scanning errors that may have occurred. If you’re a light-weight user or would like to try out the app before buying it, there is a free Lite version available that has limited exporting capabilities.
Other business card scanner options include Business Card Reader ($5.99) and ScanBizCards ($5.99). The steep pricing on these apps may just be worth it if you’re on the search for a solution to losing or maiming business cards. The only catch is that all of these scanners only work with the iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4, as the iPhone 3G camera isn’t capable of handling such detailed images.

4. Meet People with Happening

The first step in networking is making connections. So, get out there and meet people!

Happening ($1.99) allows you to find nearby events and RSVP from the comfort of your iPhone. You can also browse your friends’ events and view your own upcoming events. The app relies on Yahoo! Upcoming, a social events calendar system, to supply nearby event data.

5. Manage Relationships with Contacts Journal

To make sure you stay in touch with your networks, try a tool like Contacts Journal ($1.99), a contacts relationship management system that helps you keep track of interactions with individuals. Over time, the details of a relationship can start to fade. Contacts Journal allows you to keep detailed notes on all of your interactions (meetings, phone calls, emails, etc.) with each contact and to plan for the future by using the to-do list to add upcoming events to each contact’s log. You can even call, email or SMS from within the app.

These five iPhone apps are only a glance at the offerings available to help businesspeople perfect their networking skills. Which apps do you prefer for business networking?

20 Latest Elegant Fonts for Superb Design

noreply@blogger.com (Torsam) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 19:38:00 +0000

Whether it’s textures, Photoshop brushes, or icons, we love finding top notch free files and sharing them with our readers. We try to post at least one collection of freebies every week. We do the searching so you don’t have to. This saves you time and helps you focus on what’s important.

This week, we are bringing you elegant fonts for superb design. There are 20 in all and they’re all free. A few require a quick registration, but they’re well worth it.

Raleway

Balham

Sertig

Edelsans

Candella

Acid

Cicle

Tertre

Merge

Nautik

15 Cool websites to try when you are bored

noreply@blogger.com (Torsam) — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 17:57:00 +0000

Internet is full of websites of every category. A-Z you name it and there will be a website. The choice of people varies. So does the category of the website that people prefer. Its really hard to find out the choice of website from the million of the list. Even though the search engine like Google, Yahoo, Bing make it possible to search your desired things. Even though its really hard to find the website that helps to kill your boredom.

Ya there are few choice like Facebook , Youtube But sometimes when we are really bored we will not be having anything to do over the internet. As my personnel experience some times even facebook,youtube seems unable to kill my boredom. So for people like me I have made a list of few website that is really going to kill the boredom and help you out to pass your time.Below are the list:

1. Whathappenedinmybirthyear

Do you know how the world was when you are in this earth? might wondering Whathappenedinmybirthyear is the website that described about the scenario when you were born. There is nothing expect homepage in the site and when you enter your birthday the website start reversing from current day to your birthday. The color of screen will gradually decrease and fade in When it comes to your birthday it start showing the information how the world was when you were born

2 .Howsecureismypassword

This website is for those who are scare about the hacking of their password. There are several reason for it. so what do you think how strong is your password and how long will it take for a computer to crack your password. give a try. When you enter your password it will show the amount of time that a person or any software need to crack your password.

try even passwordmeter

3. Spypig

If you are worried about your email being read by someone or not . This might be one of the great website to know. Now you don’t have to worry whether your email is read by someone or not. You might wonder how it works. When you provide the detail information on spypig it will send your notification email when someone reads your email.

4.Funnylogo

Thinking about creating or copying the logo of popular website like google yahoo. This might be the great site for you. Funnylogo helps you to create the logo of popular website like google, yahoo and helps to create own search engine with the logo that you have created. Funnylogo supports 10 cool logo.

5. Filestube

I would simply describe it as search anything download anything. You may have heard of rapidshare, megaupload, mediafire, hotfile, netload ets. you just have to enter the keyword and select the format of file( or you can jsut select All ) and hit the search button. Filetube will search in all the sharing and uploading files and display the ressult to you.

6. Scroll-text

You may have seen red letters moving around the building,bus and movie theatre. This website allows you to create your own scrolling letters. You can either download your sign or host in image sack.

7.Copyspace

You write any article ,get published over the internet but what if your content or your is copied by some one else. All what you have to do is copy and paste the link of the sites you wish to check if nay one has copied.This might be userful stuff for blogger as well as webmaster who are worried about the content copy of their website.

8. Filehippo

File hippo is a internet download website where you can download variety of freeware and shareware sotware. File hippo doesnt not accept used uploaded file. It also offer update checker whcih scan through your pc and offers different software from its own catalog.In file hippo you can choose where to display beta version and shareware or not

see also:-ninite, pack.google ,allmyapps

9. Tempalias

Worried about privacy,worried about the spam. There are situation when you really dont want to disclose your email address. If your situation is similar then i would suggest you tempalias. It simply create temporary email address which will forward all your email to your desired inbox.The best part is you can literally decide the life time of the temporary email address in terms of number of message or day. Also try:-mailinator

10. Trasir

When you log in to internet do you know how much of your personal information is shared. It shows you your current IP Address,Host Name,City & Region,Country,Coordinates,Remote Time,Local Browser,Local OS,Display ,Language and even location in google map. Dont believe me? Give a try.s

11. Seethestats

You may know about Google Analytics. This sites help you to make your google statics visible to everone. Did i sound absurd? But if you are thing of selling advertising space in your sites or blog showing your statics and your customer may be helpful or better say a professional way to answer your desperate customer.And the best part is its FREE.

12. Fmylife

A blog where you can read the unfortunate things that happened to people and can vote as “you totally deserved it” or” i agree your life suck”. User submit short stories which is really make you laugh your ass off.

13. Flixster

A perfect sites for movie maniac. Discover new movies,share movies rating and meet people from around the world who shares similar interest.Founded in 2007 today by its is a parent of Rotten Tomatoes even try: moviemi stakes

14. File-swap

With a slogan of “Give one get one free”,its really a fun website to be where you upload a file from your computer and swap and get another file in return. All you have to do is swap and wait for your return. good luck.

15. Ascii poster

Ever wanted to have a poster that look different unusual from near and look like a sensible image from a distance. Asciiposter.com is the best destination for you. All you have to do is upload a picture, select the size of the poster and click on make a poster button. And with the three easy steps you will the link to download the pdf file with ascii code.

www.sitepal.com/ttswidgetdem

15 Best Beauty & Cosmetics Websites

noreply@blogger.com (Torsam) — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 20:40:00 +0000

The funny thing about Beauty and Cosmetics web sites is that many of them are, well, …not that good looking. It was actually difficult to find good candidates for this roundup. The reason why that is remains unclear and we will certainly investigate and follow up, but on idea we have is that cosmetics is sort of a “face to face” business, and that many of these companies operate on razor thin margins, but these are only assertions.

Here is a roundup of sites that do meet the mark on looks and functionality.

Touring Panoramio - Map of where toursists flock

noreply@blogger.com (Torsam) — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 12:04:00 +0000

Bluemoon Interactive, a small codeshop, maps touristiness, based on uploads to Panoramio, a site where people share photos of their favorite places. Yellow indicates high touristiness, red is medium touristiness, and blue is low touristiness.

Europe is much brighter than the rest of the world. The coasts of the US has got some brightness, along with Japan and some of the coasts of South America.

The question is are we really seeing levels of tourism, or are we looking at who uses Panoramio? I'm inclined to say the latter, simply because all of Europe is so crazy bright.
[via Information is Beautiful]

Infographics Collection - Hollywood Movies

noreply@blogger.com (Torsam) — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 20:58:00 +0000

Illustrators have been doing a great job with infographics, and these are getting cooler these days. There are tons of awesome pieces all over the internet, but the ones we like the best are the movies ones.

There are more than one category of movie infographic. There are trilogy meters, random facts, size charts and timelines (if I'm messing any, please, tell us). Here's our section on each of those categories... these are some amazing examples! If you know any more cool infographics, drop us a link. We hope you all enjoy these. Cheers!

Click the images for a larger view.

Trilogy Meter #1

Trilogy Meter #2

Kill Bill Facts

Mega Shark vs. Giant octopus Facts

Pixar characters size chart

Monsters size chart

Futuristic movies timeline

Pulp Fiction timeline

LOTR, Star Wars and other timelines

Inception timeline

Star Wars Influence Map # 1

Star Wars Influence Map # 2

Infographics: Time Travel in Movies & TV (Good)

Inspirational Ads - FIFA World Cup 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Torsam) — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 06:13:00 +0000

The world cup in South Africa was one of the hottest events of the summer and the fascination for this event continues strong as we approached up the finals.

In this post, we’re featuring some great ads made for this worldwide event that you can use for fun and inspiration.

Please feel free to drop us a comment and let us know which ads you like best, and if you know of any other awesome ads that we may have missed.

Dutch Football Federation T-Shirt

EA Sports – Make the World Wear your Colors

Hyundai Ad Campaign

World Cup on IMAX

Lua de Papel, Mundo das Copas: Brazil

Lynx / Axe

Mongoose

Nike Football 2010 – Do you see what we see?

Nike – Write The Future, Ronaldo

Optus Posters

Virgin Atlantic

South African Airways

Most Dangerous Toy Ever - 1950s Radioactive Science Kit

noreply@blogger.com (Torsam) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 07:45:00 +0000

Science kits these days don’t contain many items that you couldn’t already find around the house: salt, balloons, magnets and a few odds and ends. But kids who were lucky enough to have wealthy parents in the early 1950s had the unprecedented chance to play with uranium ore in this very cool science kit. The Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab was only sold from 1951 to 1952, and at the time its $50 price tag was too steep for many families.

The kit came with four different types of uranium ore, a geiger counter, a miniature cloud chamber, an electroscope, a spinthariscope and an educational comic book called “Learn How Dagwood Splits the Atom!” Kids could perform their own experiments at home to discover the secrets of radioactive materials and learn how they made “clean, safe” atomic energy. The kit even included a government manual called “Prospecting for Uranium,” which claimed to be able to help kids discover new sources of uranium and be rewarded with $10,000 from the US government.

Because the radioactive sources only have a finite life, the instruction manual came with a handy re-order form on the back cover. Unfortunately, the product wasn’t on the market long enough for those ores to degrade, much less be re-ordered. There’s no way parents today would let their kids play with radioactive materials, but this science kit has become a much-sought-after collector’s item. Complete sets can sell for more than 100 times the kit’s initial cost.

3D Flash - 24 Most Inspiring Websites

noreply@blogger.com (Torsam) — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 19:01:00 +0000

For those of you with keen eyes and passion for flash, you will notice that 3D flash websites are penetrating into our flash world today. Thanks to the open source 3D engines that do wonders to help create these 3D flash websites, we flash lovers have the luxury of seeing, admiring and getting new perspectives out of these sites. Here are the 24 picked 3D flash websites that we think will inspire you.

100 Best Films

Florian Bernard’s Portfolio

The Profiler

Glass and a Half Full Productions

Cristof Echard

The Economist: Thinking Space

Tag Galaxy

I am uniQue

Audi VDT

thetoke

Sony Bravia

Toyota iQ

the951

Me InTru 3D

Morgan Stanley Matrix

Honda Accord 2008

Lech

Hatica 2009

Pritt Knutselwereld

Zeebee

Coke Live Music Festival

Shinkansen and Love

SoInteractive

Darcmatter Labs

Vuvuzela - The Magical Trumpet

noreply@blogger.com (Torsam) — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 22:48:00 +0000

Shortly after the kickoff of the FIFA World Cup 2010, an instrument known as the Vuvuzela began capturing the imagination of the Internet. And the Internet hasn’t looked back.

Now, along with an ever-growing list of parodies and apps, we have an infographic that has more than most of us would ever want to know about the Vuvuzela, including data on its prevalence on Twitter, the sales spike on Amazon the instrument has received, and how sentiment towards the trumpet-like device has shifted (hint: it’s not positive).

Without further ado, the Vuvuzela infographic, created by the folks at Socialradar:

Top 5 Android Apps - FIFA World Cup 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Torsam) — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 19:28:00 +0000

Top 5 Android Apps - FIFA World Cup 2010

While the iPhone packs a great number of excellent apps for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Android holds its own and offers a plethora of choices for users who want to follow the competition. The hype is only continuing to grow as now we are less than 24 hours away from what many call the most exciting tournament on earth.

These five apps all bring something slightly different to the table, and diehard fans may consider downloading all five of them to stay informed. Even if you are just a casual follower of the World Cup, there is an Android app out there suited for you.

1. World DroidCup

This app is currently the highest downloaded for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and that comes as no surprise considering the number of features that it includes. A user can see the group listings, a competition tree and a fixtures (matches) table. In addition, there is a category within the app that allows a user to track real-time scores which obviously aren’t updated yet, but will be utilized when the games start.

The competition tree lays every qualified team out in an easy-to-read format, similar to a March Madness bracket. Next to each matchup is a blue “i,” which provides information on the venue, time, and round of the fixture.

One of the best features is the stadium map. The app uses Google Maps to pinpoint the locations where the games will be played. By selecting one of the map points, a user can learn the name of the stadium, the city, the capacity, and the number of matches that will be played at that location.

2. 2010 World Cup

While the name of the app isn’t anything spiffy, the 2010 World Cup app is one of the most detailed currently available on the Android market. Upon opening the app, a user can see a countdown with the number of days, hours, minutes and seconds until the first match.

The calendar is very detailed, and features flags under each date, allowing the user to know exactly who is playing without scrolling from day-to-day. From the calendar, a user can click on any day to get a detailed overview of its fixtures, including the time and location.

One caveat for the casual fans, though — the app uses three letter abbreviations for the countries, so if a user is unable to identify a country, he/she must click through to the scoring page for that fixture to identify it.

This app has an easy to digest news panel as well, allowing for the user to keep up with the latest updates throughout the tournament.

3. World Cup 2010

WC 2010 is yet another solid app that any football fan should consider downloading. The top navigation bar allows users to access the fixtures, the group standings, live updates and more options. There is also plenty of news available under the navigation.

The fixtures are set up differently than the other apps. A user can browse through each of the dates and see how many matchups are set to be played on that day. A user can expand and collapse the game days as he/she sees fit.

While it may not pack as many features as the previous two apps, it is worth downloading for the sheer amount of news content available.

4. World Cup Essentials

Any diehard World Cup fan will appreciate that World Cup Essentials packs not one, not two, but three separate countdowns for three major events in the competition: The opening concert, the kick off, and the finals. Timing aside, this app includes a plethora of information on each of the individual teams, including interesting historical information, such as a country’s biggest win(s), defeat(s) and a general background that reads like a biography.

The matches panel is also set up differently than the other apps, showing all of the fixtures by group. If you are a fan of a team in Group G or Group H, be prepared to scroll down a bit to find the fixtures list.

The one downside to this app is the awkward navigation at the top. To switch to different parts, a user must click on the tab name and then select from a list. If navigation isn’t something that bothers the Android user, this is a great download for any World Cup enthusiast.

5. Goal.com Mobile

Goal.com introduces another viable app choice for World Cup fans to consider. Upon opening the app, the user is presented with a news feed and can easily scroll across the secondary navigation bar to access live scores, teams, fixture lists, and stage standings/results. News junkies will want to check out the “Breaking” tab in the main navigation, which lists the latest stories and how long ago they were published.

Aside from World Cup content, club news is posted for the U.S. National Team, England, Mexico, Italy and Spain. Live scores are provided for each of the major football leagues around the world, and the user can access league standings under the “More” tab. While the app provides a great deal of World Cup information and updates, it is a recommended download for users who want to continue tracking world football well after the competition has ended.

Top 5 BlackBerry Applications - FIFA World Cup 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Torsam) — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 19:12:00 +0000

Top 5 BlackBerry Applications - FIFA World Cup 2010

BlackBerry fans aren’t quite as spoiled for choice as iPhone or Android owners when it comes to apps or the World Cup, but there some football-themed widgets worth a look.

Here we offer four great World Cup apps (and one bonus), available direct from the BlackBerry App World store. Check them out and stay up to date with the proceedings in South Africa. The very best part? — they are all free!

1. AP 2010 World Cup Coverage

The Associated Press’s mobile offering is actually available across all major mobile platforms, with the BlackBerry version working like a Flash-based microsite.

The app is supported by VISA (see the banner across the top?), while the homepage gives you one top news story and what it deems “recent matches.” The fact that this section includes yet-to-be-played matches (with appropriately nil-nil scores) might confuse some not familiar with South Africa’s different time zone.
With the option to customize for the team you support, as well as select your preferred language, the app offers news, photos, teams and venues.

The photos and teams sections are basic, and the “previous” and “next” navigation buttons in the gallery don’t work at all (at time of review). The venues section offers a fairly decent summary of the 10 different South African stadiums, although we can’t imagine anyone lingering for long on this option.

Where the app shines is in the news arena, with decent, lengthy, full-fat news stories from the AP on all aspects of the tournament.

Cost: Free
Best for: News

2. WC2010

This colorful app offers a simple interface with a homepage, scores, stats and standings. The homepage gives you a big banner announcing the day’s matches and editorial covering all the news angles you’d expect from the tournament.

Although the score on the matches banner appears to take time to update, the news comes in fairly fast, so you may find yourself looking at a nil-nil score, while the top news story has a half-time update including goals scored.

The standings offer a nice group grid showing the various teams, rank, games played, won, drawn, lost, goals for and against, the goal difference and points.

Stats is where this app comes into its own with a table providing info on goals, yellows cards and red cards, all organized by player and team. The detailed data is there if you need it, and we know that there are those of you out there that do.

Cost: Free
Best for: Stats

3. Goal Mobile

Goal Mobile from Goal.com has the most comprehensive football app here, which is a mixed blessing if you’re just a casual footie fan.

You have to hand over your email address before you can get going, but once you do you’ve got a plethora of options to chose from with a dual layer, tightly packed tab interface.

Unless you are interested in Football Leagues from around the world (there are many covered by this app), then keep yourself on the World Cup 2010 tab on the top menu. From there you can chose to browse the news, live scores, teams, match-results, group stage and knockout stage areas from another menu.

The news is varied, encompassing straight news, comment pieces, previews and reports, all with options to share on social networking site. The stories themselves are in-depth — the previews alone offer team overviews, past results, players to watch, a form guide and current team news.

The live scores section is worth a look as it makes clear which are the pre-match nil-nils, as opposed to final scores, and offers data from the day before and matches from the next day, while the teams section simply offers a list of matches (and results if they’ve been played) rather than any kind of half-hearted, haphazard bio.

However, for us this app was buggy, throwing up a ton of error messages that required some clicks to get past, sometimes multiple times in a row. It averages four stars from over 200 reviews, though, so it’s clearly hitting the right note with some BlackBerry-owning football fans.

Cost: Free
Best for: True football fans

4. ScoreMobile FC

If you’re not interested in the bells and whistles and just want cold, hard, football facts, then ScoreMobile FC is the app for you.

As with Goal Mobile, this is an app that covers a wider football gamut than just the World Cup. Make sure you select “FIFA” from the leagues menu when you first fire it up to get access to the World Cup.

Unlike all the other tab-based apps we’ve mentioned, ScoreMobile works with a drop down menu that offers scores, stats, tables and news.

Each of the options are fairly minimal from a design point of view — which we’d imagine would be good for your data bill — but present the essential facts in a clean and clear way.

The tables are particularly quick to access and easy to read while the stats only really offer useful info on goals scored.

The news here appears to be culled from AP’s stream, but presented without too many bells and whistles. If you have weak cell coverage or are counting the data pennies closely, you might prefer this to the more graphically rich AP offering.

Cost: Free
Best for: Minimalists

5. South Africa on BlackBerry

BlackBerry is pushing this app pretty hard with all manner of integration with your BB phone, such as push notifications, alerts to your inbox, the option to add games to your calendar as well as integration with BlackBerry’s “Messenger” service. Unfortunately the app is not compatible with our test handset — a BlackBerry Pearl 3G — (as this particular phone is not yet available in South Africa) so we were unable to get hands-on, but it looks like it’s worth a look if you own any other RIM-made handset. If you’ve already given it a try then let us know your impressions in the comments below.

How To - Follow the FIFA World Cup 2010 on Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Torsam) — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 20:34:00 +0000

How To - Follow the FIFA World Cup 2010 on Twitter

The 2010 World Cup is going to be a very interesting one as far as social media goes — it’s the first to be played out in the Twitter :) era and the first to fully embrace the social media universe.
This bodes well for avid football fans keen to stay up to date with all the most recent news from their favorite players and teams. The real-time nature of Twitter may well entice these newcomers to hop on the micro-blogging site. To get new users ready for the action, we’ve got a few tips for how to follow the World Cup on Twitter complete with a list of who you should be following to stay informed on the games, news, and goings on in South Africa.

1. Hashtags and Searches

While Twitter’s hashtag system is a great way of monitoring a certain topic, and for getting real-time updates on what the Twitterverse is saying about a live event, the organic nature of exactly how the tags are decided can cause confusion.

Currently, there seems to be a fair amount of footie-related tags in circulation, although we’d imagine by the first few days of the tournament these will be narrowed down as the most popular ones become trending topics and are adopted by tweeters.

At the moment, #worldcup seems to be the largest tag by volume of tweets, but #wc2010 is also doing the rounds, as is #2010worldcup. Don’t forget, however, that the World Cup is a global event, so different languages also come into play. In Spanish, World Cup is “Copa Mundial,” in French it’s “Coupe du Monde,” and so on.
Other tags have, of course, sprung up around teams. #England is what most people are using to refer to the England team, while mentions of the United States team can be found under the tag #USMNT.

To quickly access a stream of tweets containing a certain hashtag you can save a search on Twitter, so that the results are just a click away from your home page — and the search can be easily removed after it’s no longer relevant.

2. Lists

The World Cup only lasts for a month, so it’s unlikely you’ll want to permanently follow all the World Cup-related sources you’ll be getting your footie news from over the next four weeks, especially as many sources have been created solely for the event.
There’s a Top Tweets account direct from Twitter that algorithmically selects the “top tweets” about the World Cup. Simply follow the list and then you can unfollow it after the final.
Alternatively, if you’re just interested in the big headlines, rather than blow-by-blow coverage, TweetMeme’s World Cup 2010 aggregated feed of popular tweets might be of interest.
It’s more work, but if you’re a little more selective then you can create your own list and simply delete it after the tournament on July 11. To get you started we’ve made some suggestions of World Cup Twitter news resources that can be found below.

3. World Cup News Sources on Twitter

Whether it’s the official FIFA feed, tabloid newspaper coverage, big broadcaster’s headlines or just the final scores, you’ll find the news you need in this list.

2010 FIFA World Cup – “The Twitter page of the 2010 Organizing Committee.” News and updates.
SA2010 World Cup – “Official 2010 FIFA World Cup South African Government website with all the information you need!” News, personal updates and commentary.
FIFAWorldCupTM – “The FIFA soccer world cup tweets. All the latest FIFA news and information on the 2010 soccer world cup.” Updates, human interest, emphasis on players and coaches.
TheFA.com – “The official website for the England Football Team and The FA Cup.” Updates on England players and live Tweets from England matches.
US Soccer – “U.S. Soccer: the governing body of soccer in all its forms in the United States.” Inside look at the US team, players and matches.
CNN World Cup – “All the latest news on the 2010 World Cup in South Africa from CNN International.” News and match scores culled from CNN reporters.
Telegraph World Cup – “World Cup 2010 news, analysis, pictures and video from Telegraph.co.uk” Links back to stories posted by The Telegraph.
NY Times Goal – “The New York Times Soccer Blog reports on the international game and the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.” Live updates and links back to New York Times stories.
AP World Cup – “Join the conversation as @AP covers the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.” News, match scores and brief commentary.
BBC World Cup – “A feed dedicated to World Cup headlines from the BBC website.” Links back to BBC.
Sports Illustrated Soccer – “Soccer, World Cup coverage from Sports Illustrated and SI.com writers and photographers.” Player news and general features.
The Sun World Cup – “Follow all the latest news on the 2010 World Cup in South Africa with The Sun.” Mostly England updates and news, general match coverage.
Four Four Two – “Humorous but wholehearted, polished but readable, substantial but accessible, it’s football’s most insightful brand – with added F.U.N.” Quirky and off-beat updates, general news.
Fox Soccer News – “FOXSoccer.com headlines.” Links back to Fox Soccer.
World Cup Scores – “Live 2010 world cup soccer scores.” Match scores and live updates.
World Cup 2010 – With upcoming matches, top tweets, staff picks, media and individual feeds for eatch match, this account is a great one-stop shop.
UnivisionFutbol – “Univision Soccer World Cup: The last news, interviews, goal videos and exclusive photos from the South Africa 2010 World Cup.” Live tweets and general updates in Spanish.

Top 6 iPhone Applications - FIFA World Cup 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Torsam) — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 14:51:00 +0000

Call it whatever you like — football, soccer, the game with the black and white checkered ball that you kick around the field. Pick a name and get ready for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Every four years soccer fans go wild and neighborhood bars are packed to the brim in broad daylight with devoted viewers.
While the BBC and ITV apps that promise to stream the games and video highlights have yet to be released, there are still some great, free iPhone apps to satisfy your World Cup appetite.

1. World Cup Countdown

We know you’ve been counting the days until the non-stop soccer action. This app counts down the excitement by the days, minutes, hours and seconds until it all begins on June 11th. The app also has an interactive photo slideshow with a series of cool pictures of South Africa. You can click on the photos to learn more about each scene.
There are even interesting video and audio options, like a spectacular overview of the countryside and some local music and dance moves. It’s a great way to learn about the country hosting the games, especially if you are planning to attend in person.

2. ESPN 2010 FIFA World Cup

This app has just about everything you need to prepare for the tournament. With a full schedule, you’ll never miss your team in action. The app allows you to select your favorite team or teams so you can easily keep track of all the news surrounding them. It also has full biographies and stats for each player for all 32 teams, so you’ll know exactly who is playing the game.
Super-fans will appreciate the app for its extensive history of the tournament, which dates back to 1930, and includes an overview, trivia and controversies for each year. Sign in with your myESPN account to post comments about your team or participate in the “Fantasy Bracket Predictor,” where you can attempt to forecast the outcome of each World Cup match.

3. World Football Live!

This app gives you the latest news about all things football/soccer from BBC Sports, Yahoo! Euro Sports, and ESPN. News is updated in real-time and you can bookmark your favorite articles or e-mail them to your friends. The app also lets users browse offline. Once you’ve updated the latest news, you can read all the downloaded articles without a WiFi or 3G connection.

4. AP 2010 World Cup Coverage

The Associated Press has been covering the games since the very beginning and is committed to giving fans full coverage. Once the games start, the app will provide up-to-the-minute news from more than 100 journalists in South Africa who will be covering the action. It has a multi-language platform and users can choose to get their soccer fix in English, Spanish, French or Portuguese.
With customizable skins for each team, you can show everyone (at least everyone you show your phone to anyway) who you are rooting for. There is an easy to follow schedule feature that shows which teams are playing and at what time. Also, a photo and video feature will be updated once the tournament starts. The app also has a “venue” feature and lists a bit of history and interesting facts about all 10 stadiums where the games will be played.

5. World Cup Factoids and History

If you really want to know what you’re talking about when you say that Germany is going to kick some butt, this is the app for you. With lists of every winner, host nation, defending champion and number of appearances since 1930, you’ll be able to make some informed predictions as to who will take home this year’s big title.
History buffs will swoon for the detailed chronicles of pre-tournament dates, starting with the world’s first international soccer match between Scotland and England in 1872. The app also connects you to news from BBC, ESPN and the official FIFA site. You can help spread World Cup fever (not that it really needs the help) by pressing the button that lets you tweet about the application.

6. World Cup Trivia Challenge Lite

Once you’ve brushed up on your facts and history, you’ll be ready for this game. Set on a soccer field, the lite version of this app has 50 questions that will test your soccer hooligan mettle. It’s a fast-paced game. With 90 seconds on the timer, you must answer questions like “How many nations appeared for the first time in 2006?”
Once you get three questions right, you score a “goal.” For every question you get wrong, your opponent (who isn’t actually answering any questions) scores a point. There are three stages to work through and it includes a penalty shoot-out for a tie game. You can even listen to the sounds of whistles, cheers and music from a real life game, or choose to turn them off.
Once you’ve mastered all 50 questions, you can upgrade to the paid version for $1.99, where 600 more questions are ready to test your fandom.

Retro-Futuristic Minimalist Space Posters - Math +Art

noreply@blogger.com (Torsam) — Sat, 29 May 2010 05:42:00 +0000

Math + Art = Retro-Futuristic Minimalist Space Posters:

These posters advertising the International Year of Astronomy 2009 are truly works of art. Would you believe they were created by an amateur as a personal project? The IYA 2009 was coordinated by the United Nations as a year-long celebration of astronomy culminating with the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s invention of the telescope. When mathematician Simon Page heard about the event, he was so inspired that he created some promotional posters on his own. IYA 2009 staff spotted them, loved them, and the rest – as they say – is history.

Simon Page has always had an interest in art, according to an interview he did with Grain Edit; however, his formal training is in mathematics. His design skills are completely self-taught and lean heavily on math. Using what makes the most sense to him – numbers – he creates logical, practical shapes in arrangements that just happen to be extremely pleasing to the eye.

Their simplicity is reminiscent of 1960s minimalist art, but they are teeming with a lively enthusiasm. He believes, and probably rightly so, that most designers rely on math to create their best work – even if they don’t realize it.

Though his background is in math and programming, Page’s design work has been drawing increasing attention from around the world. His posters have been featured in the New York Times and Creative Review, and he was offered an interview with Disney for some (again, self-initiated) promotional posters he created for the upcoming Tron sequel. His Flickr stream has also been getting considerable traffic, especially his weekly Alphabattle contributions.

Page’s passion may be for math and patterns, but his growing catalog of design work is truly impressive. As for what’s ahead for the designer, he is selling prints on his website and even venturing into t-shirt design, among other projects. We can no doubt look forward to a handful of surprises from this self-taught artist in the coming months.

Data Reveals Trends Among Social Media Platforms

noreply@blogger.com (Torsam) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 18:52:00 +0000

In January, Openideas published data on trends in the social media space related to user login preferences across 170,000 websites using JanRain RPX for authentication. The data showed clear preference differences based on industry vertical (media vs. technology). Today, they shared an update of that data with Mashable and on this blog, with the added inclusion of the retail vertical and a quick look at social publishing trends.

The breakdown of the most popular identity providers for user authentication:

Across their customer base, Google remains the most popular identity provider, comprising approximately 38% of all logins. Facebook remains the second most popular choice for users despite losing 3% share during the past quarter. Yahoo!’s share has increased during the quarter, with over 12% of users preferring to login with their Yahoo! accounts. The propensity for logins via Windows Live has also increased. Three months ago, 3.7% of all logins on RPX-enabled websites occurred via Windows Live, but just during March, 7% of logins have been via Windows Live, and on aggregate, it now comprises 5% of all logins on RPX-enabled sites.

As more providers like LinkedIn, which JanRain added to RPX in February, come on board and gain traction, we will continue to keep close tabs on trends.

Among four major US media companies, the distribution looks notably different. While Facebook is the most popular platform for user authentication among the four media companies sampled, 55% of visitors to these sites prefer to login via a different identity provider. It is important to note that not all media companies sampled chose to enable each identity provider. Thus, the following is a snapshot of the popularity of each provider only when that particular provider is enabled as a sign in choice:

Compared to their January report, Facebook has grown from 38% to 45% at the expense of other providers except Twitter. Another key take-away is that Yahoo!, commands double its aggregate share within the media vertical, comprising 25% of logins among sampled companies.

Among three online technology platforms (comprising various customer feedback tools and white-label social community and networking platforms), they again see a variation in the distribution. Twitter comprises a much larger share of this space - over 16% of all logins in this vertical, compared to 6% for our customer average. Again, this data provides a snapshot of user preferences only when a particular provider has been enabled by the website as a sign in choice:

They also included a look at a sample of four companies in the retail vertical in this analysis. While Facebook again performs best, nearly 50% of internet users prefer a Yahoo! or Google account for authentication:

In addition to logging in with a social network identity, users are increasingly publishing their activities back to the social networks. They took a look at 15 sites across multiple industries for a snapshot of how users are sharing information through RPX:

This data demonstrates the value of giving users the option to publish their activities to multiple social networks. While a majority of all activities from the sampled websites are being published to Facebook, nearly 50% of all social sharing occurs beyond Facebook. Twitter’s value proposition as a service for real-time sharing of information is reinforced by this data, as 38% of users prefer sharing their online activities with their followers on Twitter. One thing to note – RPX supports publishing to multiple social networks simultaneously, and many internet users prefer sharing their online activities to friends on multiple social networks. This data takes such behavior into account.

They conducted similar analysis on user publishing and sharing behavior by vertical, but did not detect significant differences in preference by industry. We will continue to keep an eye on changing trends and report our findings.

So what does all of this data mean? As a web marketer, developer or technologist, you can make your organization’s online presence more successful and yield a higher ROI by leveraging the social identities of your users, and gaining a better understanding of your audience and how they use the social web.

Evolution of Olympic Pictograms : Through the Ages

noreply@blogger.com (Torsam) — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 13:34:00 +0000

Every Olympics since 1936 has had a series of pictograms (i.e. icons that look like restroom signs) that represents the events. Here are pictograms for the Vancouver games, and here they are for the Beijing Olympics. Some series are distinct while others clearly sucked it up. Designer Steven Heller discusses the evolution of these Olympic pictograms in this video for The New York Times. Which set do you like best?

How a Giant Shark Took Down an Airplane : Death In The Skies

noreply@blogger.com (Torsam) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:32:00 +0000

This graphic from designer Stephen Taubman is entertaining in so many ways. It is based on the amazing story of Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus, one of the greatest movies ever made. I've never seen it, but after you watch the clip below, you'll be running to find a copy.

Don't even try to convince me that couldn't happen. That could happen. I don't think I can fly ever again, at least not ones that fly over water.
[via Forest and the Trees]

The State of the Internet : Exclusive Video by JESS3

noreply@blogger.com (Torsam) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:18:00 +0000

From JESS3 is this video on the state of the internet. It's essentially a barrage of numbers, but it's fun nevertheless and it's got some interesting morsels in there.

World Progress Report : Global Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (Torsam) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:07:00 +0000

The World Progress Report was the most recent print, highlighting what's going on in the world, using data from United Nations databases