Archive for March, 2011
Absolutely Incredible Collection Of High-Quality Design Freebies For Designers
Today, we have made a list of incredible collection of high-quality design freebies. We obviously cannot cover all the best from the web, but we have tried to cover as much as possible that are fresh and must have for designers.
You are welcome if you want to share more useful collection of design resources that our readers/viewers may like. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at SmashingApps.com, just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter and follow us on Digg as well to get updated.
50 Free Web UI, Mobile UI, Wireframe Kits And Source Files For Designers
45+ Neat Coming Soon and Under Construction Templates
50 More Beautifully Designed Tumblr Themes
Fresh Icon Sets To Improve Your Designs
Premium Quality Free WordPress Magazine Themes
80+ Color Altering Photoshop Actions
50+ Hand Picked (Yet Free To Use) Fonts for Designers
50 Fantastic Textures for Your Toolbox
Useful PSD Files For Your Creativity
60 Attractive Photoshop Grunge Brushes for Designers
45 Free And High Quality (X)HTML/CSS Website Templates
Interesting Thought, I Have To Post This (Comic)
Creating a good content is not an easy task and most of the time you might get stuck to create something that would stand out in the crowd. Few people around always steal others ideas, and fill up their online blog posting needs but few are those intelligent guys who extract a creative idea from the same content which gets copied so many times by various people.
I recently found this illustration here which demonstrate the above situation very creatively with full of humor in it. We would love to know what you are thinking while viewing this message from Microsoft. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at SmashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter.
Five Excellent (Yet Free) Video Converters For Your iPhone And iPod
As entertaining as they are, unfortunately portable media players cannot handle all media types you throw at them. Unless there comes an all-format-accepting portable media player, we have to use video conversion software to transform our media type before our iPhones and iPods can play them.
For my fellow iPhone and iPod owners who are looking for a competent yet free software solution for video conversion, here are 5 of the best options available online. I am sure that you will find them as useful as I did.
FreeStudio
FreeStudio is DVDVideoSoft’s handy video conversion freeware that will excellently suit iPhone and iPod video conversions. The application is compatible with Windows computers and facilitates various video format conversions. While its download size is quite high – 58MB – the features surely justify it.
Daniusoft Video Converter Free
In addition to iPods and iPhones, Daniusoft Video Converter Free also supports video conversions for PSP, Zune, and other cell-phones and portable media players. The download is 12MB, much smaller than the abovementioned program. Supported media formats include AVI, MP4, WMV, MOV, MPEG1, MPEG2, FLV, MP3, WAV, and WMA. You can install Daniusoft Video Converter Free on your Windows computer.
Any Video Converter Free
Any Video Converter Free is a personal favorite of mine because it excellently blends functionality with an appealing user interface. A wide variety of media formats are supported and converting video for your iOS device will be very easy. You can control advanced conversions options as well such as video and audio bitrates.
Quick Media Converter
Quick Media Converter comes in the setup size of 28MB. Along with supporting video conversions between various file formats, it provides a progress bar with each conversion process so you know how much of the process has completed and how much is left.
Format Factory
Although Format Factory does not offer the prettiest user interface, it does offer the most functionality out of the other entries in this list. Supporting media conversions between various video, audio, and image formats, Format Factory can quite easily become your default media conversion application. The program has a setup file size of 38MB.
Hey Microsoft, It Took You Almost A Decade To Feel Sorry About IE6
Obviously, it’s better late than never but Microsoft took almost a decade to realize the people’s complaint and express their sorrow about the buggy Internet Explorer 6. Although, they only addressed the web developers in their message which shows they don’t value their general users who are in millions as compare to developers. In the same message, they are also claiming that their upcoming IE9 is way better and everyone will like it. But at this stage, I want to say to Microsoft that It’s 2011 and with the better version of IE you would also need to give us some strong reasons to switch from Firefox or Google Chrome to Internet Explorer 9. Now it’s not that easy as it was in 2001 when you released Internet Explorer 6.
I recently found this picture at twitpic. We would love to know what you are thinking while viewing this message from Microsoft. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at SmashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter.
Mygazines.com: A Web Based Platform For Easy Distribution, Tracking And Analyzing Content On Any Web Enabled Device
One of the biggest challenges of any business is to connect with its audience. Regardless of your product or service, engaging with users and tracking how they access and use your content –including catalogs, brochures, whitepapers, corporate documents or traditional publications- is one of the most difficult and challenging tasks.
With the immense growth of mobile platforms and tablet devices, how people use your content remains a question. As the content creator, you have to ensure that your message is being delivered.
This is where Mygazines comes in.
Mygazines is an easy to use web based digital publishing software that empowers companies to deliver content to their target audience. As a content publisher, you can distribute, track and analyze content that is being read from any web enabled device – be it a desktop PC, MAC, smartphone, iOS devices, Tablet computers, iPad’s and so on.
It works like this – you create your content (let’s say a PDF document) and submit it to the Mygazines application. Mygazines takes that file and creates an engaging, attractive and a universally accessible experience.
One link gives access to your content on any web enabled device, hence there is no need to create multiple versions of the same document – one for mobile devices, another one for desktop, one for tablet computers and so on. One link does it all.
With Myganizes very own web based tools, you can also enhance your content with links, videos, audio and widgets. There is more – web publishers can protect and control the availability of their content and even deliver different versions of the content by location.
As an example, here is how a published piece of content looks in a desktop computer, thanks to Myganizes.com’s digital publishing tools
Once your content is served to your audience, you can track how users are interacting with it and study their behavior. This helps in determining or evaluating your overall business ROI from a simple web based account (no software installations are required, thus can be accessed from any computer, anywhere).
If your company needs an online magazine software to portray content to a widespread audience, you just can’t afford to miss Mygazines.com
Mygazines Mobile – An Universal e-Reading System That Works On Any Mobile Device
Want to make sure readers access the same piece of content from an iPad as they do on a PC? Mygazines Mobile presents a universal e-reading system which works across multiple mobile devices. E.g. Android, iOS, smartphones and the like. You never need to format content for different or emerging mobile platforms and can get rid of all the management hassles involved with mobile publishing
Mygazines HTML5-based system works seamlessly cross iPhone, Blackberry, Androids and it feels like a native app without the need to access the same from an App store.
Web publishers whose targeted audience are iPad users –currently the most popular device in the market- and who always wonder whether there is any separate software available for iPad publishing, should test Myganizes.com. It will deliver an optimized version to iPad users without taking any additional steps.
There are no extra payments, uploads or formatting steps required for the content creator. Users access optimized mobile editions via the same URL they would use on our desktop solution. No “download this app” nags, cut down the number of steps and let users engage with the content right from the very first second.
Catalogs
Looking for an online catalog software to merchandise and distribute content to your audience? Mygazine.com’s catalog inventory allows you to merchandise your content for different audiences and engage users with videos, links, animation. This is useful and lets your product and service stand out from the crowd. The more engaging and appealing your copy is, the more likely you will convert users into customers.
Learn More About Mygazines.com
Watch the following video to learn what Mygazines digital publishing solutions is all about and how it can benefit your business and help you reach and engage with a targeted audience.
MacX DVD Ripper Pro Giveaway
Digiarty Software is running a contest, where 20 winners will get the MacX DVD Ripper Pro of worth $34.95. Well, you guys know what MacX DVD Ripper Pro? Lets say it once again for n00bs.
MacX DVD Ripper Pro is an ultimate DVD backup and ripping software that brings you the best DVD ripper for Mac to rip DVD to MP4, iPhone, iPad/iPad 2 and Mac.
The MacX DVD ripper for Mac software allows you to rip DVD to MP4, H.264, MOV, FLV, MPEG, M4V, AVI, QT(QuickTime) with high quality video/audio. The New-DVD-Backup feature let you copy DVD to single video file with original video quality and 5.1-channles AC3/DTS Dolby audio.
You can rip encrypted DVD to iPhone, iPad/iPad 2 iPod and iMovie, MacX DVD Ripper give you the easy way to rip all type of encrypted DVD and copy-protected DVD (remove DVD CSS, region code, RCE, Sony ArccOS, UOPs, Disney, etc). Thus you could make a perfect backup for favorite DVD movies.
Disclaimer for winners: Once the program has been activated, it could be kept as long as you don’t reinstall the system. However, the giveaway version do not support free upgrade.
This contest will run from March 10, 2011 to March 18, 2011 and we will select the winners randomly by running MySQL query. Result can be announced any day before March 22, 2011 so keep visiting here or subscribe to our rss feed to get the latest updates. To participate in the contest and win MacX DVD Ripper Pro, All you have to do is :
1. Just leave a comment.
2. Use valid email ID in the email box.
3. Make sure that you are following http://twitter.com/SmashingApps on twitter and subscribe our rss feed to track this contest and for future updates.
4. And that’s it!
So, what are you waiting for now? Let’s participate in the contest and good luck!
Ten Brilliant Web Tools To Make Your Life Easier
There are many web apps out there for you, but getting by free and good ones is not that easy. That is why I am sharing Ten Brilliant Web Tools To Make Your Life Easier. Read each entry in the list and see which tool suits your needs best.
You are welcome if you want to share more useful web apps that our readers/viewers may like. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at SmashingApps.com, just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter and follow us on Digg as well to get updated.
PDFUnlock
PDF files can have restrictions that prevent you from for example copying text from them or editing, printing or merging them. PDFUnlock can remove these restrictions (a.k.a “owner password”)
ShiftEdit
ShiftEdit is an online IDE for developing PHP, Ruby, HTML, CSS and JavaScript with built-in (S)FTP.
Join.me
Join.me is an impromptu meeting space that happens wherever, whenever. It’s getting a second or third pair of eyes on your presentation from across the hall or across the continent. It’s sharing your screen instantly with anyone or everyone to get stuff done, quickly.
IdentyMe is a service for making of virtual business cards. You can collect all your contacts in one place and create a portfolio. It will helps you share information with new people, find new friends and business partners.
TitanPad lets people work on one document simultaneously. While working on this app, you may do infinite undo and everyone gets their own color.
dushare is a simple direct file-file-transfer service. It makes sending unlimited file sizes between two people as simple as clicking a link. You can send you files to your peers directly (P2P) with no server for upload/download.
SmartPointment
SmartPointment is a simple but effective way to schedule appointments online. With this, You can let your customers schedule appointments at their convenience. SmartPointment analytics give you the insight you need so you can direct your efforts into what has the most impact on your business.
Respelt is a free online spell checker with a powerful feature set. It help you spell check your documents, web pages and even RSS feeds.
PrintWhatYouLike
Tired of printing web pages only to find your printout is full of ads, empty space and other junk you don’t want? PrintWhatYouLike is a free online editor that lets you format any web page for printing in seconds.
codepaste
CodePaste provides an easy and convenient way to send/share PHP, C++, Javascript, Java, CSS, Actionscript and HTML code with others. Copy and paste the code and enter the email where you want the CodePaste to send it. CodePaste then nicely formats the code and sends it over.
How To Identify A Programmer’s Personality By Just Watching His Keyboard Moves (Comic)
Programmers have very fast typing speed normally and they use some weird combination of keys as well, like if they want to hit ctrl + 0 , they will use there left hand to do it all. Though they can use right hand to do it quickly and easily. This comic illustration below beautifully shows us same scenario and identify a Programmer’s personality.
We would love to know what you are thinking while viewing this illustration. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at SmashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter.
Via Sixtus
21 Free UI Design Tools, Toolkits and Resources (Part 1)
Having a nice and complete set of web user interface always come in handy for a web designer in order to simplify and ease the design process. Designing user interface particularly in the initial stages is a difficult thing and UI design elements can come handy.
This is first part of the series of posts where we are showcasing a compilation of some amazingly helpful UI Design Tools, Toolkits and Design Elements for the web designers that can make their designing process an easier task.
We have already published a post about Free Web UI, Mobile UI, Wireframe Kits And Source Files For Designers and today’s collection will also definitely help you in learning new skills by discovering a new and perfect tool kit for your design project. Check them out; you will be amazed to find them.
You are welcome if you want to share more useful apps and resources for designers that our readers/viewers may like. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at SmashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter as well.
Lumzy
Lumzy is a Mockup and Prototype creation tool for websites and applications. With Lumzy, you can easily create your mockups and send them to clients on the fly. Lumzy also features collaboration tools for team editing, a chat engine for deliberating over designs, file versioning and so much more.
Mockingbird
Mockingbird is an online tool that makes it easy for you to create, link together, preview, and share mockups of your website or application.
The Pencil Project
The Pencil Project’s unique mission is to build a free and opensource tool for making diagrams and GUI prototyping.
Dojo
Dojo saves you time, delivers powerful performance, and scales with your development process. It’s the toolkit experienced developers turn to for building superior desktop and mobile web experiences.
Mocklinkr
Make your life easier and impress clients by using mocklinkr to deliver your static mockups as a linked-up and clickable website.
MockFlow
MockFlow is an online tool to design and collaborate User Interface mockups for websites and software.
Serena Prototype Composer
Serena Prototype Composer enables IT organizations to quickly simulate process flows and mock up UI screens to help quickly clarify requirements.
Cacoo
Cocoo is a user friendly online drawing tool that allows you to create a variety of diagrams such as site maps, wire frames, UML and network charts. Cacoo can be used free of charge.
DENIM
An Informal Tool For Early Stage Web Site and UI Design
Hot Gloo
The Online Wireframe Application
User Interface Design Framework
A free User Interface Design tool for Web Designers.
Pattern Tap
A useful resource to find commonly used design pattern inspiration.
User Interface Design Patterns
User Interface Design patterns are recurring solutions that solve common design problems. Design patterns are standard reference points for the experienced user interface designer.
Patternry
Patternry is a user interface design pattern library aimed to help solve common interface design problems. With the new Private Libraries users can also build their private pattern libraries.
Mephobox
A good resource to find commonly used design pattern inspiration.
Android Asset Studio
The launcher icon generator will create icons that you can use in your Android application, from a variety of source images. To begin, simply enter the input details below. Output will be shown below.
Mobility
A free set of mobile UI design elements
Android UI Elements Set
Useful and free set of beautiful Android OS UI elements.
OSX Leopard GUI Set
The package includes fully editable vector Photoshop sources and a customizable Fireworks PNG file, the original fonts that were utilized for the making of the GUI are also included.
ALL In One Web Elements Kit
A great collection of elements for your web layout in layered PSD files.
iPad GUI Set
Very useful collection of iPad app layout in layered, vector PSD files.
Congratulations To The Winners Of Web Hosting Account At Zyma.com
Thanks to all of the participants of contest in which Zyma was Giving-away Web Hosting Accounts. We ran the MySql random query and selected these 10 comments to give them web hosting account at Zyma.
- Wiellyam
- Maury
- Carrie
- Kevin
- Jonathan Foucher
- Nica Erguiza
- Karan
- Alex
- Apisit
- Johnny
Zyma.com is one of the fastest growing web hosting companies in the UK. Their industry leading web hosting package offers the most attractive and comprehensive features for one the best prices on the internet. With their low cost web hosting package, You can host your website on superfast hi-speed servers, supporting over 70+ scripts and technologies.
Hosting Account Features
Each hosting account comes with unlimited web space, unlimited web traffic, unlimited email accounts, 99.9% uptime guarantee and unlimited add-on domains! You can find a full list of features by visiting the feature list.
Congratulations to all the winners from SmashingApps.Com. All of the winners will be contacted soon. If you are not winner at this time so please be patient and keep visiting here or subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter as well because we are coming up with another new great contest very soon.
Thanks to Zyma.com for sponsoring this wonderful contest at Smashing Apps.
If you want to conduct any contest at Smashing Apps just contact us and send us all the details.
