When Microsoft invested $240 million to take a small stake in Facebook at the then gargantuan valuation of $15 billion, the deal was as much about securing an ad deal as an equity bet. But now, Microsoft is seeing some of its advertising pulled as the social network continues to build out its own ad options and revenue models.

According to BusinessWeek, Facebook has dropped Microsoft’s banner advertising in several international markets, and is considering doing the same in the US. Currently, Microsoft serves fairly generic banner advertising on Facebook, but the social network is pushing more engaging formats, like brands promoting their Pages and encouraging users and their friends to become fans.

Perhaps then, this a sign that Facebook’s social ads are performing well and its business is maturing – so much so that the company needs to grab back some of the inventory that has previously been filled by Microsoft. At this point, that looks more likely than any sort of riff between the two companies, whose deal also includes Bing powering web search results on Facebook.

Recent estimates suggest that Facebook is on track to bring in more than $700 million in revenue for 2010.

Tags: advertising, facebook, MARKETING, social media

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With rumours still flying left and right as we close in to Apple’s expected Tablet announcement next Wednesday, perhaps the most sought-after missing piece is still its name. Could it be iGuide, or iSlate?

Maybe — but it looks like iPad is definitely a strong contender as well, according to the Mac News Network. Apple has filed for a trademark on that name in Canada, Europe, and Hong Kong, but in the U.S. that trademark is already tied up by Fujitsu. The Japanese corporation has an existing product using that name: a handheld device used by workers in retail.

Yet while Fujitsu first filed for the trademark in 2003, at some point they stopped responding to the US Patent and Trademark Office’s requests for additional information. The USPTO never awarded the official trademark and ended up declaring the name “abandoned” in April 2009.

Although Fujitsu began pursuing the iPad trademark again last June, Apple has reportedly filed at least three requests to extend the deadline for presenting opposition to Fujitsu’s claim. The company now has until February 28 to submit evidence, potentially positioning itself as the rightful owner of the iPad trademark. Launching an actual product under the iPad name before that date may strengthen Apple’s legal claim to the mark, leading to logical speculation that iPad is the chosen forerunner for the tablet’s name.

What’s your favorite name for the still-mythical Apple Tablet? Place your bets now, people!

[img credit: TGR]

Tags: apple, Apple Tablet, fujitsu, gadgets, iguide, ipad, iSlate, trademarks

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Only 200 tickets remain for Mashable’s Social Media Week event, NextUp NYC – The Future Journalist on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 92YTribeca.

Join us for networking and a conversation and Q&A with Sree Sreenivasan (Professor and Columbia Journalism School Dean of Student Affairs and contributing editor of DNAinfo.com) and Vadim Lavrusik (new media journalist and digital media graduate student at Columbia University Journalism School).

Details

Location: 92Y Tribeca, 200 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10013

Socialize (new): Facebook Event Page

Pricing: $20 in advance, $25 at door. Tickets on Sale Now.

Food and drink: Full cash bar and food menu available

Schedule

• 6:00 – 7:15 = Open Networking
• 7:15 – 8:45 = Conversation and Q&A with Sree Sreenivasan and Vadim Lavrusik
• 8:45 – Bar Close = Open Networking

A Conversation and Q&A with:

Sree Sreenivasan – Prof. Sree Sreenivasan, Columbia Journalism School Dean of Student Affairs and contributing editor, DNAinfo.com.

Sree Sreenivasan is a tech evangelist and skeptic specializing in explaining technology to non-techies. He is a professor and dean of students affairs at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where he teaches in the digital media program. Sreenivasan is contributing editor at DNAinfo.com, a Manhattan-news startup he helped launch in 2009 with Joe Ricketts, the founder of Ameritrade and whose family just bought the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field. He also has been a fixture on NYC-area television. For more than eight years, he served as technology reporter for WABC-TV and WNBC-TV and now occasionally appears on various TV shows (on CNN, NBC’s Today Show, CNBC and elsewhere) to talk tech. He has written articles for The New York Times, BusinessWeek, Rolling Stone, National Journal, Bloomberg, Forbes and Popular Science. You can find him on Twitter at twitter.com/sreenet and on the Web at sree.net.

Vadim Lavrusik – Online journalist and M.S. candidate in Digital Media at Columbia Journalism School

Vadim Lavrusik is a new media journalist and social media consultant studying digital media at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where he is launching NYC 3.0, a tech start-up news site as part of his Master’s project. He is also currently working as a social media consultant at the New York Times. He’s reported for publications like the Star Tribune, The Minnesota Daily, the Mpls./St. Paul Business Journal and most recently was a guest feature writer for Mashable.com, where he covered trends in news media, and contributed to Poynter Online’s E-Media Tidbits. You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/lavrusik and the Web lavrusik.com.

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Tags: Events, future journalist, nextupnyc, NYC, social media week

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The study found broadband Internet users are at east 50 percent less likely to give up on job searches because of discouragement than those who do not use the Internet. Dial-up Internet users are about one – third less likely to drop out of the labor force.

"By connecting Americans to jobs and information about job opportunities, Internet usage feeds hope and encourages frustrated workers to keep on looking even when job prospects are dim," according to Phoenix Center President Lawrence J. Spiwak. "These findings suggest that broadband connectivity can contribute to economic recovery."

"Our study also shows the enormous potential benefit of community broadband centers for those who are not connected at home," Spiwak adds. "While broadband use at home delivers significant benefits, shared facilities can be a valuable solution to connectivity gaps in unserved and underserved communities."

The Phoenix Center says the new study provides insights to policymakers at a time when unemployment is  high, with government estimates suggesting the unemployment rate, when broadly defined, now exceeds 17%. In fact, large numbers of Americans have given up looking for jobs because they think none are available.

The U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is responsible for the government’s monthly data on employment and unemployment, estimates that adding "discouraged workers," as defined by the Bureau, who had quit looking for work as of December 2009, would boost the current U.S. jobless rate above the frequently reported 10 percent level.

Related Articles:

> Open Internet Heavily Promoted at CES

> Internet’s Possible Future in the US Gets Ready to Be Decided

> FCC’s Net Neutrality Site Gets a Blog

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"First off, if you go to the Bing Maps AJAX site and have Silverlight installed chances are you will be redirected to the Bing Maps Silverlight site (note this change only affects users in the US)," explains Microsoft’s Chris Pendleton. "We’re rolling this out with a small percentage of users increasing up to 100% of all users in a few weeks. If you don"t have Silverlight installed you can hit the AJAX site and will be prompted to install Silverlight (which you can opt out of, but WHY would you??). Well, to make the AJAX site a bit smoother we’ve introduced some new transitions in the tile loading process for panning and zooming. So you can have your Silverlight and AJAX too. If you don’t want to stay on the Silverlight site, you can opt out and return to the AJAX site (aka Bing Maps Classic) via the link on the Silverlight site."

Microsoft has also launched two new Bing Maps Applicaton Gallery apps. These are "Destination Maps" and "Local Events". The former shows vector-based route geometries on new map background, and the latter lets users find things to do in their own towns.

From the sound of it, Bing Maps users should expect much more in the way of apps. "These apps are only the beginning," says Pendleton. "You see it coming? A massive wave is upon you. Get ready."

More detailed information on the two newly launched apps can be found here and here respectively. On another Bing-related note, Microsoft has started improving its autosuggest feature. Time will tell if it proves to be an improvement over Google’s much criticized Google Suggest.

Related Articles:

> Bing Launches New Maps with Apps

> Microsoft Changes Bing User Privacy Methods

> Bing Makes Out Well In Search Spend Report

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Six of the top 20 highest growth website categories in December were travel and weather related.  The airport travel category attracted 40 percent more unique visitors in December (2.1 million) than the previous month.  News sites related to weather and traffic also saw big growth, increasing visitors by 34.8 percent over November to reach 52.5 million unique visitors.

Weather.com still has a clear hold on the online weather market. The popular forecast site attracted 33.6 million unique visitors in December, a 46.7 percent increase month-over-month and 22.1 percent growth over 2008. Wundergroud.com also continued steady growth, reaching 6.98 million unique visitors in December, which represents 19.3 percent growth year-over-year.

Shipping services attracted consumer’s attention in December as they logged on to track shipped packages and research shipping rates. UPS.com led the online shipping sites with 25 million unique visitors, a 51.9 percent increase month-over-month and 17 percent year-over-year growth. USPS.com trailed, attracting 23.4 million unique visitors, while 15.5 million unique visitors clicked on FedEx.com.

While the top 50 websites in December once again remained largely unchanged, there were two notable moves among the group. eBay moved up the ranks to take the number five spot on the most popular site list. With 88.5 million unique visitors in December, the site was previously ranked number eight edged out Amazon (85.9 million unique visitors) by growing 19.6 percent month-over-month.
 

Related Articles:

> The Top 50 Websites in the US

> Online Shoppers Have Bigger Holiday Budgets Than Offline Shoppers

> Compete Builds "Twitter Down" Case

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The bill was introduced into the New Jersey senate by Senator Raymond Lesniak (D-Union), who also introduced a separate bill which calls for New Jersey residents to vote on a constitutional amendment that would allow state-regulated sports wagering in Atlantic City casinos, and to state residents via an intra-state Internet gambling system.

New Jersey currently offers gambling on horse races to state residents through the 4NJbets.com website. The state would expand the law to permit online versions of games currently allowed in Atlantic City casinos, such as Poker, Blackjack and Baccarat. The Internet gambling system would be regulated by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, which would establish a Division of Internet Wagering to manage operations and licensing.

Joe Brennan Jr.
IMEGA’s chairman

"We’re happy that New Jersey has taken this issue into their own hands," said iMEGA chairman Joe Brennan Jr.

"New Jersey is recognized as having the toughest gaming regulators in the US, but as a leading gaming state with a long track record of doing things the right way, Internet gambling will have a great home here and the opportunity to begin normalizing the industry."

The iMEGA says it supports efforts in Washington DC by Representative Barney Frank (D) in the House and Senator Robert Menendez (D) in the Senate, to create a Federal path to regulation, the association worked with New Jersey legislators on the bill to establish continued progress toward regulate internet gambling in the U.S.

"The efforts to resolve the Internet gambling issue have stalled in Washington DC," Brennan said.

"If states assert their right to regulate gambling within their borders and take a serious look at permitting Internet gambling, one side effect may be a breaking of the deadlock in the US Congress."

Related Articles:

>U.S. Asked To Halt Online Gambling Rules

>Kentucky Supreme Court Hears Online Gambling Case

>Americans Favor Legalizing Online Poker

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It is the time for a new raffle this week. Our new raffle has 6 winners, each winner will receive a free license of ManageME7. An ultimate payments management system.

Each winner of this raffle will receive a free license of ManageME7 to manage your payments and ensure you keep track of your clients’ payments and payments dues.

What you need to join the raffle:

Just add a comment to this post telling us how do you manage your payments with clients or what do you think is the best way to manage payment? Also, make sure to use the email you used to subscribe in Graphic Mania RSS feed to enter the raffle.

Raffle deadline:

The deadline for this raffle is next Friday Jan. 22, 2010.

The Prize:

Each winner of the 6 winners will receive a free license from ManagME7 with the value of US $ 12 each.

About ManagME7

Are you facing problem to track your payments and payments dues? Managing your payments is the most important operation to achieve your goal whatever it is. ManageME7 is payment management application that lets you keep track of every payment process amount, dues and other information.

ManageME7 is designed to suite every type of payments, For example, if you are a professional or business owner that would like to keep track of your clients and payments, you can relay on ManageME7 to handle your payments management.

ManageME7 is also useful for students that would like to save for collage or academic training for their career and life. Also, it is useful for homemakers who work at home or want to manage their home payments, debts and invoices…etc.

While using ManageME7 does not require training of specific knowledge, you can use it to make you financial life more easy and better managed for more saving, better payments handling and tracking.

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The Kindle — Amazon boss Jeff Bezos’ “iPod of reading” — has seen a similar (if scaled down) explosion of accessories, peripherals, add-ons and adornments as the Apple MP3 player. Finding great products to compliment your e-book reader can be a bit of an up-hill struggle, however.

To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of ten great accessories that will complete your Kindle with both style and substance.

1. Gelaskins

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For around the $20 mark, add some funky art to your e-literature with these wicked sticky-back plastic skins that offer 3M tech for easy application and clean removal. The only trouble you’ll have, in fact, is deciding which of the designs to go for.

Cost: $19.95 for Kindle 2 and Kindle DX

2. Mighty Bright XtraFlex2 Clip-On Light

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The Kindle’s E-Ink display is fantastic for reading in daylight, offering the same contrast ratio as paper. But just like paper, when the lights go down, you’re going to struggle to see the text, even if you’ve been eating your carrots. That’s where this clip-on light comes in handy, offering some targeted LED illumination. Plus, it’s got be better than strapping a flashlight to your forehead.

Cost: $19.99

3. ZAGG invisibleSHIELD Screen Protector

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Yes, this one’s a bit boring, but what could be worse having to grit your teeth and stare through a big, ugly scratch on your Kindle’s display every time you have a read? ZAGG’s pre-cut invisibleSHIELD for the Kindle has its origins in the military, where it was used to protect high-speed helicopter blades from dust, dirt and debris, which you’ve got to admit, does add a bit of cool factor.

Cost: $24.99

4. Customized Borsa Bella Bag

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If you think your precious Kindle is deserving of its own bag, then Borsa Bella offers some gorgeous, home-made options at a great value. And for 10% extra, they will customize a bag just for you, be it via personal choice of fabric (which you can send in), or an extra pocket here or there. Protect your Kindle and stand out from the crowd. It’s a win-win.

Cost: From $38. For customization, add 10%. Extra pockets by negotiation.

5. Cole Haan Leather Kindle Cover

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Give your Kindle the gravitas of a classic leather-bound tome with this saddle tan-toned, hand-stained, pebble-grain leather case, which we think says “I may be all up in your face with my cutting-edge electronic book device, but I still appreciate the classic things in life, like cow-hide.” Or something like that.

Cost: $99.99

6. Built Neoprene Kindle Sleeve

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If you’re really not the Cole Haan or Borsa Bella type, then a more modern approach to Kindle coverings may suit you, and Built’s neoprene sleeves for 6-inch Kindles fit that bill. Available in a bright stripe, or in red and black, they will add some urban-chic padding to your fave e-reader in an unfussy way.

Cost: $24.99

7. Kradle Kindle Stand

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The beige version of this looks like something IBM would have bundled with the 5150, but you can’t argue with the functionality. With this stand for the Kindle, you can catch up on Mashable over breakfast hands-free. It can be set to a 15-degree angle –- optimal for holding the device and reading, saving any strain on your wrists for other, less cerebral activities.

Cost: $19.99

8. Kindle Car Charger

---

Here’s another one that falls into the practical category. As the Kindle ships with both a US power adapter and a micro-USB cable for charging up via your PC, your vehicle is the only place you might run into power issues. This useful device promises a rapid charge, won’t overcharge, and comes with a lifetime guarantee, so certainly ticks all the sensible boxes.

Cost: $19.95

9. M-Edge Waterproof Guardian Case

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Said to be, and we quote, “‘oh crap’ proof,” the Guardian case offers your Kindle “ultimate protection” (which we’re sure is also a Steven Segal movie). And, thanks to its waterproof-ness and ability to float, you can finally take your Kindle into the tub for a nice long soak and a good read –- bliss.

Cost: TBD when the product launches this Spring

10. Mashable Kindle Edition Blog

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Oh come on, we couldn’t offer the best Kindle bits and bobs without some shameless self-promotion, now could we?

Mashable is available as a special “Kindle Edition” blog, so instead of fussing around with the device’s experimental beta browser, you can get Mashable content wirelessly auto-updated onto your Kindle so you can read up on all the news and features even when you’re not connected.

Cost: $0.99 per month (but worth every cent!)

More e-book resources from Mashable:

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- 10 Must-Read eBooks for Social Media Lovers
– Barnes and Noble Nook Meta-Review: “Not Fully Baked”
– Digital Textbooks: 3 Reasons Students Aren’t Ready

Tags: amazon, e-book, e-books, eBook, ebooks, ereader, ereaders, Kindle, List, Lists, online shopping, shopping

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On Friday McDonald’s officially added free Wi-Fi to the menu at most U.S. locations. Now you can have your Big Mac, fries and free Wi-Fi at 11,500 McDonald’s across the country.

News of the free Wi-Fi deal was initially announced in mid-December, but now the service is live.

You may recall that the fast food chain was previously serving up Wi-Fi for $2.95 for two hours of internet access, but AT&T swooped in to the rescue. By eliminating the cost, McDonald’s is taking yet another step to position their brand as an alternative to higher priced coffee retail chains.

There are 14,000 McDonald’s restaurants in the US – the small number that didn’t have Wi-Fi previously don’t appear to be part of the rollout.

[via Engadget]

[img credit: Tony the Misfit, Flickr]

Tags: Food, free wifi, McDonalds

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Nokia and Apple are in the middle of an intense patent war. Apple’s latest counter-strike is a complaint filed with the International Trade Commission (ITC) seeking to block US imports of Nokia mobile devices. This comes on the heels of Nokia’s own complaint seeking to ban imports of iPhones, iPods, and MacBooks.

Bloomberg reports that Apple’s efforts to block the import of Nokia devices are tied to yet another patent infringement complaint, and that notice of the complaint appeared yesterday on the ITC’s website.

The suit, countersuit back-and-forth between Nokia and Apple began in late October of 2009 with Nokia’s original lawsuit, filed in a Delaware District Court, against Apple for wireless technology patent infringement. Apple, of course, filed a countersuit. Then in December Nokia continued on the warpath with a complaint to the ITC and followed that up with a second complaint requesting the ITC block imports of Apple products.

Given that Apple’s mobile market share continues to grow while Nokia’s is declining, we can certainly understand why Nokia would feel threatened enough to take action, and why Apple would be compelled to respond. Both companies are facing harsh penalties that could severely affect their bottom lines and stock prices.

In a statement made via text message, Nokia spokesman Mark Durrant said, “Nokia will study the complaint when it is received and continue to defend itself vigorously … However this does not alter the fact that Apple has failed to agree appropriate terms for using Nokia technology and has been seeking a free ride on Nokia’s innovation since it shipped the first iPhone in 2007.”

Bloomberg also writes that:

“The ITC is a government agency whose job is to protect the U.S. market from unfair trade practices, including patent infringement. If it agrees to consider Apple’s complaint, it could complete the investigation in about 15 months. A copy of the Apple complaint wasn’t immediately available.

The agency hasn’t yet agreed to investigate the complaint filed Dec. 29 by Espoo, Finland-based Nokia, although the ITC typically grants such requests.”

Something tells us that we haven’t seen the end of this mobile mêlée.

[via Engadget]

[Img credit: DNY59, iStockphoto]

Tags: apple, ITC, Nokia, patent infringement

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"There’s a lot of awesome stuff on the Internet: Cats talking LOLspeak. Iranian dissidents tweeting. Live traffic updates. Science experiments," says Rick Whitt, Washington Telecom and Media Counsel on Google’s Public Policy Blog. "All of these things, and so much more, are possible because of the openness of the Internet. Any entrepreneur with an idea has always been able to create a website and share their ideas globally – without paying extra tolls to have their content seen by other users. An open Internet made Google possible eleven years ago, and it’s going to make the next Google possible."

Whitt outlined what Google supports in its FCC filing:

- Adding a nondiscrimination principle that bans prioritizing Internet traffic based on the ownership (the who), the source (the what) of the content or application;

- Adding a transparency principle that ensures all users have clear information about broadband providers’ offerings;

- Providing a carefully-defined "reasonable network management" exception so that broadband providers are empowered to address genuine congestion issues and protect against hazards like malware and spamming;

- Applying general openness protections to both wireline and wireless broadband infrastructure; and

- Creating better enforcement mechanisms at the FCC, and introducing the concept of technical advisory groups (TAGs) to potentially provide expert advice and resolve disputes.

Here is Google’s submission:

Here’s Google and Verizon’s joint submission:

The FCC’s OpenInternet.gov has numerous posts up liveblogging the recent "Innovation, Investment, and the Open Internet" workshop, which featured discussion from an interesting mix of people on the subject of the Open Internet.

Related Articles:

> Open Internet Heavily Promoted at CES

> Internet’s Possible Future in the US Gets Ready to Be Decided

> FCC’s Net Neutrality Site Gets a Blog

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The company is saying that Gmail and Picasa storage can also be used. Google Docs Product Marketing Manager Peter Harbison writes:

Each account will get 1 GB of free storage in Google Docs (in addition to the 1 GB of free storage in Picasa Web Albums and over 7 GB of free storage in Gmail) and will be able to upload any file up to 250 MB. If you’ve already purchased additional storage for Picasa Web Albums and Gmail, that storage is now shared with Google Docs as well, giving you more ways to use your online storage space. As we announced in November, additional storage is only $0.25 per GB per year. And because of the enthusiastic response, the Google Photos team has extended the special offer with Eye-Fi: users in the US or Canada who purchase 200 GB of extra storage for $50 will receive a free wifi-enabled SD card from Eye-Fi.

Google says the feature will be rolled out over the next couple of weeks. There will be a notification bubble when you sign into Google Docs.
 

Related Articles:

> Google Docs Delves Into File Storage

> Google Adds Relevance Option To Docs Search

> Google Exec: Docs Can Supplant Office In One Year

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Retail sales in the PC game software industry also saw declines, with revenues down 23 percent, reaching $538 million in 2009. The total console, portable and PC game software industry hit $10.5 billion, an 11 percent decrease compared to the $11.7 billion generated in 2008.

"December sales broke all industry records and underscores the incredible value consumers find in computer and video games even in a down economy," said Michael D. Gallagher, president and CEO of the Entertainment Software Association, the trade group which represents U.S. computer and video game publishers.

"This is a very strong way to transition into 2010. I anticipate these solid sales numbers to continue upward through 2010 with a pipeline full of highly-anticipated titles."

Portable hardware was a bright spot with a 6 percent increase in revenue in 2009, while the remaining video game categories all saw declines, with the largest decrease coming from console hardware (-13%). Consoles software and portable software both saw declines of 10 percent, while video game accessories saw a 1 percent dip.

"When we started the last decade, video game industry sales, including PC games, totaled $7.98B in 2000," said Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group.

"In ten years, the industry has changed dramatically in many ways, but most importantly it was grown over those years by more than 250 percent at retail alone.  Considering there are many new sources of revenue including subscriptions and digital distribution, industry growth is even more impressive."

Related Articles:

>US Video Game Revenue Down 31%

>Digital Music Sales Closing In On CDs

>42% Of Americans Play Games Online

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Every page of Yahoo Finance has a link that says "Finance Search". Users can simply click this to search or browse a list of the day’s popular finance searches.

When a user’s search exactly matches a ticker or quote name, the user will see pricing information and a chart. They will also get news stories from Yahoo and the web. Another section provides a list of companies (pubic and private), ETFs, Mutual Funds, and Indices (from US and worldwide exchanges) generated from matches between the user’s search and content on Yahoo Finance, including company/quote name, ticker, business summary, key execs, analysts, and insiders.

"As an example, you can enter the name of a person (‘Carol Bartz‘) or a topic (‘biodynamic farm‘) to find related companies," explains Yahoo. "In the example of Carol Bartz, she is a key exec and insider at the companies listed. In the example of ‘biodynamic farm,’ biodynamic farm is mentioned in the business summary on the company profile pages."

When a user uses web search results, they will find content from Yahoo Finance and the web. In the default "all results" view, the top three results come from Yahoo Finance and the ones after that are from the web. However, users can choose the option to view only results from Yahoo Finance or only the web.

Related Articles:

> Yahoo Sponsored Search Getting New Features

> Carol Bartz Gives Self A B-

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David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer, announced on its official blog last week, there is to be “a new approach to China”, which means, we want out. What the ultimate outcome of this furore will be is not yet clear, but according to sources China is said to have persuaded Google to stay on and announced that: “Beijing is trying to persuade Google to stay and give up plans to pull out its Chinese version from the country.”

On the same blog, Google said: “Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google.” Therefore, we quit? That simple? Not quite.

China’s foreign ministry said last Thursday that: “China welcomed international internet companies to conduct business within the country according to the law”. Well, that’s all well and good if the Chinese authorities are protecting users from viewing porn and overt sedition but the assumption of the foreign Press has been that the hacker attacks were orchestrated by the Chinese government to carry out investigations against human rights activists.

That sort of practice is, of course, unacceptable to us in the West, but doesn’t it smack of hypocrisy? There’s something awkwardly deceiving about Google’s moral stance on China when its corporate motto “do no evil”, an anachronism now but perhaps a catchy shibboleth in its time, is an almost obscene declaration of double standards while it retains data mining to service ad revenues, coupled with surveillance, digital profiling and personal intrusion.

Getting ever more involved, the issue has now become politicised, with the US government saying it will lodge a formal complaint with Chinese officials to express its concern about cyber attacks on Google’s Gmail service in China after Google announced it will no longer censor its content.

In the spirit of appeasement, China Internet Network Information Center, another official agency, said on Saturday that the number of internet users had reached 384 million by the end of 2009, a 28% jump in one year. In January last year, China also issued 3G licenses to major telecom operators, resulting in a massive hike in internet users. Now, around 8% of all internet access in China is through mobile phones, and growing exponentially.

Google is also apparently in trouble for copyright theft of Chinese writers without obtaining permission. Add to this the valid criticism by censors for allowing its site to be used for the distribution of pornography: Google should know better than to let that type of content through in China.

According to Techcrunch last week, “Google has had more success in China than a lot of other big Valley names, but [it] isn’t and will likely never be the market leader…Valley elites erupted into applause on Twitter and blogs saying Google was showing more backbone than the US government and was a model of integrity for the world.” Moral integrity and Google? A non-sequitur if there ever was one, surely?

But perhaps there are other factors at play: Google was not making a lot of money in China and played second fiddle to Baidu; and it was never going to make any substantially increase in its market share. Maybe economics was at the forefront of its decision, as last year China accounted for just under 1-2% of Google’s US$21.8 billion revenue.

This is not just a Google issue though: all foreign media companies have found it very difficult to penetrate the Chinese internet market; they make only modest returns. What the backlash may be within the country and without is yet to be revealed, but media censorship is deeply unpopular, even with the Chinese people themselves, and some have suggested  that if Google goes ahead and pulls google.cn, the Chinese may yet stage protests against the government, citing Google as the catalyst.

One statement I read that came out of Google’s statement of intent was from Warren Cowan, CEO at Greenlight, a UK-based search engine marketing agency, who told TechNewsWorld: “China doesn’t need Google as much as Google needs China . China’s got the sophistication, the strength and the will to do whatever it wants.” Not so, methinks, or China would not have held out the olive branch this weekend; the “need” is perhaps better described as mutual.

But surely there must first be some resolution between Google and the Chinese authorities, as blocking access to sites such as Blogger, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and millions of other “undesirable” websites, is excessive use of their censorship “laws”. It was perhaps the hacking attack on Gmail that was the last straw.

The Chinese are still very sensitive about images of Tiananmen Square, the footage of Chinese police beating up Tibetan monks and the social unrest in Qinghai. It was these scenes that prompted the shutdown of foreign social-networking sites. Also, the scare of the footage on Twitter about the Iranian election protests saw them further retreat into their protective shells.

All this, together with the political overtures of President Barack Obama’s sharp slap on the wrist in his thinly-veiled criticism of Chinese internet censorship during his recent visit, and that the US is to receive the Dalai Lama and to sell arms to Taiwan, doesn’t exactly aid Google’s cause.

Of course, there is also the argument that whether or not Google leaves China, the Chinese have become adept at circumventing these Orwellian blocks to foreign websites with the installation of “virtual private network” software.

But let’s look at some social and economic perceptions of the international press: it has recently taken up the mantle of China’s economic ascendancy on the world stage and of its future dominance. But there are negatives in this narrative. First, intransigence was China’s hallmark during the recent climate change talks in Copenhagen which turned to condemnation; and there has been an international outcry about the jailing of a human-rights activist and the execution of a mentally disturbed British drug-smuggler.

China’s strongest asset, its booming economy, has also been damned by many a reliable source, with one describing it as “Dubai times 1,000, or worse”. According to the Economist, “China’s smooth ascent is exploding because its economic miracle has proved partly illusory. In fact, China’s government may be right to see the economic gloom as in part wishful thinking from outsiders repelled by its repressive political system… China is no Goldilocks economy. Bank lending is growing too fast, which may be fine if it is flowing into useful investments, but not if it is fuelling asset prices. The risk of bubbles and excess capacity will grow unless policy is tightened soon.”

Analyses have drawn a mixed crowd: there are those that think Google is morally right to withdraw from repression; others view it as financial suicide; others still see China’s ascendancy on the world stage as an entity it simply must engage with at whatever cost.

But let’s look at a few excerpts of Will Hutton’s “China, the West and the Credit Crunch”, regarding this new utopia: His lecture reversed some common expectations that the 21st century belongs to China and asserted that its extraordinary growth has been taken out of context. He contends that China’s growth offers no new paradigm for development, and its success is based solely on high savings and low-tech manufacture, having come about as a consequence of its One Child Policy, which effected a phenomenally high savings rate of around 40% as means to ensure old age financial support.

The other point to mention here is Chinese businesses mask pervasive state control. According to Mr Hutton: “Of the 1,105 enterprises floated on the stock exchange, 81% are actually state controlled; of the 6,000 restructured state-owned enterprises, the members of communist party committees have become non-executive directors in 70%.” These figures go a long way to explain Google’s and other multinationals’ treatment by the state.

And talking of economic growth and what the board of google.cn might have realised is, as Mr Hutton states: “…economic growth requires an educated and productive workforce, discerning consumers, property rights and the capacity to innovate. A telling statistic is that China currently accounts for only 0.1% of international patents.”

To conclude, this appears to be a Mexican standoff, with reports that Google’s China operations may be “officially terminated” in February, leading the Chinese government to block the company’s main site, according to Credit Suisse Group. But their decision to withdraw should rather be a precursor in raising a meaningful dialogue with the Chinese authorities. If not, who else is to contribute in becoming a “key enabler of a better-informed world” in China?

The West has a lot to learn from the Chinese and vice-versa, but it will not be an easy task while the Right continue to hold political and economic sway in the country. Although Google will hold more talks with Chinese authorities “in the coming days”, it would also do well to remember its own fuzzy logic: don’t be evil; in other words, be up-front about what personal data you collect. People in glass houses, and all that…

If it does eventually go sour, the biggest losers in this fiasco will be Google and China; both would lose face if the withdrawal proves to be true, with China deprived of Google’s innovation, international visibility and respect and Google’s visible global hand will be impaired.

————————–

John Sylvester is the media director of V9 Design & Build (http://www.v9designbuild.com) and an expert in search engine optimization and web marketing strategies.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Google squirts water-pistol at China’s Great Firewall amidst hypocrisy

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In the wake of the devastating Haiti earthquake, the Red Cross has already been able to raise $5 million for relief through $10 donations via text message, while Google has stepped up to the plate with a $1 million donation of its own.

But lots of other tech and Internet outfits are quickly moving to get involved too, both with their wallets and on-the-fly updates to their services that go towards helping the cause. Here’s a look at a number of initiatives that have come across our radar — please add links to others in the comments.

Zynga: The social gaming company has added virtual goods to its games – including Farmville – that go towards Haiti relief. So far, the effort has raised $1.2 million according to Social Times.

Skype: The VoIP service has sent $2 vouchers to all of its customers in Haiti, allowing them to make up to one hour worth of calls to US.

Salesforce: The CRM software provider has set up a donation matching program – i.e. – for every $1 you donate to Red Cross or World Vision, Salesforce will also give $1, up to $200,000 total.

T-Mobile: According to CNET, the carrier has dropped all charges for calls and texts to Haiti through the end of the month. Other carriers are waving charges for the donation text message that has been so successful for the Red Cross.

MyYearbook: The social network is allowing members to donate their virtual currency to the Haiti Relief Fund. So far, members have pledged $3.5 billion in “LunchMoney.” We’ve followed up with the company to see how much real world money that equals.

GoDaddy: The domain registrar has donated $500,000 to relief efforts.

Facebook: The company is leveraging its “Disaster Relief on Facebook” Page to spotlight ways that members can get involved. Facebook’s Randi Zuckerberg blogged about the effort earlier today.

Haiti Earthquake: Additional Coverage

- Haiti Earthquake Relief: 9 Ways to Help Now

- Survey the Damage in Haiti With Google Earth

- Red Cross Raises $3,000,000+ for Haiti Through Text Message Campaign

- Haiti Earthquake: Twitter Pictures Sweep Across the Web [PHOTOS]

Tags: charity, haiti, haiti earthquake, trending

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SDG Systems has introduced a new tough smartphone, for use in rugged environments where regular gadgets wouldn’t stand up. It has regular features like we’re used to, such as Android, a camera, and a QWERTY keyboard, but it also meets US military standards.

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Personally I couldn’t seem to stick with any Get Things Done (GTD) or task management apps, until I remembered I hadn’t really given Google Calendar a fair shake. After getting it setup and familiarizing myself with it, it was a solution that actually worked for me and I’ve stuck with it. It’s free, it’s flexible and it integrates well with my current workflow.

Today I’ll go through using Google Calendar to manage your schedule and get things done.

Getting Started

If you use any of Google’s services, you’re probably aware of the multitude of additional services they offer — for free. One of the more popular ones, is Google Calendar (GC). Assuming you already have a Gmail account (or use Google Apps), you’re already ready to get started using GC. If not, you’ll need to sign up for a Gmail account (or Google Apps) first.

I should point out that, for professionals or those that use Google Apps, Google Calendar has spot on integration with the rest of the Google Apps suite. Checkout our how-to on setting up your personalized Google Apps suite.

Once you’re signed into Gmail or Google Apps mail, click “Calendar” in the top left corner of the page.

Google Calendar

Viewing

By default, the calendar will be in Week view, highlighting the current day in yellow and the current time with a small red arrow at the far left (near the column of times) and a small red bar within the current day column.

Week View

You have five viewing options; Day, Week, Month, 4 Days and Agenda. Each gives you a different level of detail viewing. It’s surprising to see a feature like this missing from many of today’s GTD and task management apps. Quickly switching from a fine grained view of todays tasks to viewing what I have scheduled for the rest of the week, then the month, is invaluable for me.

Calendar Navigation

A quick way to navigate to a specific day, week or month, is by using the calendar on the left. Simply click the desired day or click and drag through the days you want to view. This could be a couple days, part of a week or even part of a month.

The great thing about this, is the calendar instantly changes to fit your specified date range. You get views that you can’t get from the general view tabs at the top.

Viewing Three Days

From viewing three consecutive days, to two weeks — instantly.

Viewing Two Weeks

Sharing

All these viewing options are great but the capability of sharing your calendar(s) with others, makes collaboration much easier. Even better, you can create public calendars for others and access some great public calendars from others. These include holidays from around the world, sports and a few others like your contact’s birthdays, phases of the moon, stardates, etc. (interesting huh?).

Calendar Sharing

Share Date Nights Calendar

I’ve added three new private calendars and subscribed to three new public calendars for US holidays and football games. Now I’d like to share my “Date Nights” calendar with my girlfriend so either of us don’t forget an important night.

I can make this a public calendar and share it with specific people as well as define permissions for each person. This makes it incredibly easy to keep others informed about your schedule and allow them to inform you of their schedule, simplifying and reducing the work necessary to keep track of everything.

Date Nights Sharing Details

Calendar Management

Calendar Settings

As you can see, it would be quite easy to setup more than a handful of calendars in no time at all. This is great for managing your life but could turn into a mess pretty quick if you need to make some bulk edits.

Not to worry though, just click the Settings link at the bottom of either of your calendar lists to view a full overview. From here you’ll be able to change list viewing options, notifications, unsubscribe, etc.

Calendar Settings Overview

Event Entry

Perhaps one of the most important aspects of schedule management is the flexibility and ease of entering information. In Google Calendar, you simply click the date in the calendar viewing area to create a new event. Enter the title and time, select the calendar the event applies to and click “Create event” or “edit event details”.

Create Event

Edit Time Block

Once you click “Create event” or hit Enter, the new event instantly appears in your calendar view, highlighted with the corresponding color of the calendar you selected. When you enter a new event in Month view without editing its details, it automatically sets it as an all day event.

If you enter a new event in a more detailed view, it will select a one hour block of time by default — which you can then quickly drag (using the two small lines at the bottom) to the block of time you want.

Detailed Event Entry

So far, entering events has been a breeze. However, there are times when more detail options are necessary. Those options are just a quick click away. When creating a new event, you can click “edit event details” to immediately edit more detailed information or, if you’ve already entered an event just click the event to see a popup bubble with the event details and a link to edit the event.

Edit Event Details

From here, you’ll be able to control your event details at a much finer level as well as include additional information such as the event location, descrioption, guests and notification options.

Editing Event Details

One of the great things here is the ability to manage a guest list. This means Google Calendar isn’t just a calendar and GTD app, it can be used to manage actual events to a certain degree.

Notifications

Notification options are pretty straight forward and include options that can be individually set for each calendar unless otherwise specified by events you’ve entered. Methods of notification include email and SMS.

Notification Options

Mobile Integration

You can setup mobile notifications (SMS) after you’ve verified your phone.

Mobile Integration

This method of mobile integration is fine and everything but the truth is, today’s popular mobile devices include the iPhone, BlackBerry’s, Android devices, etc. These devices are capable of a much more than simple SMS. Google is no slouch in this area and has implemented mobile sync for these major devices.

Mobile Sync

Mobile sync is compatible with Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Nokia/Symbian and Windows Mobile. This pretty much covers every major platform. I use Google Calendar with my iPhone and while I won’t cover the setup here, the level of integration and capabilities is just what I’ve been looking for.

Labs

If you already use Google Calendar, or you plan to start using it, don’t forget to check out some of the great testing features in the Labs. My favorite? World clock.

Labs

Final Thoughts

With such a great interface that isn’t intimidating and keeps the complicated features easily accessible but out of the way, Google Calendar is a great web app for managing your schedule. Its flexibility, integration and options make it easy to fit just about anyone’s workflow.

If you haven’t found a task/event/schedule management app that suites you yet, Google Calendar is definitely worth trying. As always with Google, you get these features at an always great price, Free

Hopefully this how-to will help those interested in Google Calendar get setup and running in no time. For those of you who have already found the app that works for you, what have you settled on? Let us know by leaving a comment below. Thanks!

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In the past year, there was an alarmingly large number of Facebook-related scams, viruses, phishing attempts and malware attacks. And though most of these haven’t happened due to Facebook’s error, it’s still very much their problem.

Today, Facebook and McAfee announced a partnership and a program to help Facebook users protect their computers from malware.

If you’re expecting something revolutionary, though, you’ll be disappointed. It’s essentially a discount: to get it, visit the the Protect Your PC tab on the McAfee Page on Facebook. After you become a fan of McAfee, you can download a six-month subscription to McAfee security software for free, and you’ll get a discount on the regular price once those six months are over. However, to enroll with the program (which is only available in selected countries including the US, UK, Brazil, Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy and Spain), you will have to supply your credit card number; your card will be charged at the end of the 6-month period.

Tags: facebook, malware, McAfee, social media, social networking

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RIM may have a larger market share, LG, Motorola and HTC may have a lot more models, but it’s Apple (at least in the US) who has the #1 handset. Of course, we’re talking about the iPhone. A sleek and powerful device, good for both business and personal use, the iPhone is far from being perfect, hence why everyone dreams of a 4th generation model that would be packed with goodies, attracting even the worst skeptics.

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Read the rest of New iPhone Release Date Rumored for April [iPhone 4G (4th Gen) to Feature OLED, Dual-Core CPU & Removable Battery]

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Users can find instant, specialized information about illnesses, treatments, medical facilities, etc. when entering health-related queries.

"Bing discovers a relevant document in its library of health resources and presents a smart summary related to the query," explains Bing’s Alain Rappaport. "In addition, Bing uncovers key related topics by analyzing an index of medical sources and extracting meaningful data automatically. In this case, the user receives instant guidance through short lists of other conditions related to the query (for example, “obesity”), medications that are important to know about (for example, “insulin”) and US medical centers that are active in the field. Users may select any of these points of interest to continue their search in a new area."

A user can click on a medical facility and find more information about it, like patient ratings and other nearby facilities.

In addition to the new features Bing Health is simply covering a broader range of health and "better living" subjects. Users can find information for queries like "holiday weight gain", "baby milk allergy", etc.

Related Articles:

> Bing Maps Gets an Upgrade

> Bing Gets a Bunch of New Search Features

> How Does Bing Rank Tweets?

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After declining 8.2 percent in 2009, U.S. IT spending will grow 6.6 percent in 2010 to $568 billion. Global IT spending, which fell 8.9 percent last year, will increase 8.1 percent in 2010 to more than $1.6 trillion. Software and computer hardware will see the most growth.

"The technology downturn of 2008 and 2009 is unofficially over," said Andrew Bartels, Forrester Research vice president and principal analyst.

"All the pieces are in place for a 2010 tech spending rebound. In the US, the tech recovery will be much stronger than the overall economic recovery, with technology spending growing at more than twice the rate of gross domestic product (GDP) this year."

Global purchases of computer equipment will be up 8.2 percent, communications equipment buying will increase 7.6 percent, software spending will rise 9.7 percent, purchases of IT consulting and systems integration services will grow by 6.8 percent, and IT outsourcing services will be 7.1 percent higher.

On a regional basis, the strongest growth in 2010 will be in Western and Central Europe, where tech purchases will increase by 11.2 percent. IT purchases in Canada will grow by 9.9 percent, Asia Pacific by 7.8 percent, and Latin America by 7.7 percent. The weakest market will be Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, increasing just 2.4 percent.

"We are entering a new six- to seven-year cycle of IT growth and innovation that Forrester calls Smart Computing," said Bartels. "New technologies of awareness married to advanced business intelligence analytics make computing smart."

"Smart Computing rests on new foundation technologies such as service-oriented architecture, server and storage virtualization, cloud computing, and unified communications. 2010 marks the beginning of this next phase of technology advancement."
Related Articles:

> U.S. IT Spending Set For Rebound

> Forrester Records Big Rise In Social Networking

>Forrester: Interactive Marketing Spend To Double By 2014

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Twitter meets TV. Watch live TV on your PC and tweet about it. Watch shows from all over the world and read what others have to say about it. Watch TV news, sports, entertainment. Includes channels from US, UK, Germany, France, italy, Netherlands.

http://chitter.tv/

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Motorola have acted to confirm that, having already advised that their Droid, Blackflip and CLIQ phones were to gain the new edition of the Android OS (namely Andorid 2.1 Eclair) via an update in the US, European consumers can expect an Android 2.1 upgrade for their Motorola Milestone and Dext smartphones.
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Read the rest of Motorola Dext & Motorola Milestone to Gain Android 2.1 (Éclair) Update [Milestone & Dext Android OS Upgrade Pending, No Date of Availability Yet]

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I took my sweet time trying to figure out whether or not I wanted to switch from PC to Mac and during that time I was able to do quite a bit of research on whether or not it was possible to transfer my Windows license to Mac. To be honest, I didn’t find a whole lot of information regarding this topic except for 1 inaccurate blog post on Adobe’s website that claimed that a transfer would be free – which was not the case.

Leading up to this I called Adobe to confirm some of this information. What I learned was this: I COULD NOT transfer my Windows version of CS3 to Mac CS3 but I COULD transfer my CS3 license to a CS4 license. All I would have to do is sign a document stating that I would destroy my Windows copy and never use it again, send that document to the people at Adobe, and pay them the regular upgrade price of $599. Seems easy right? Well, it was, sort of.

Once you’ve come to the realization that you are going to have to pay a lot of money to do this, your first step should be to call Adobe Sales and ask them to process your order. If you’re in the US or Canada call:

1-800-585-0774
Monday-Friday
from 5:00am to 7:00pm
Pacific Time.

Once you’ve got them on the phone. Tell them what you want to do. They will want your serial number. If you registered it, they should have it on file. Once that is done they will ask for your credit card number to place the order. Then, they will place your order on hold until you have submitted their LOD Form. To do that you will have to print it, sign it, scan it, and then email it to them by logging onto their site. At that point they will be able to process your order but in order for that to happen it will have to be approved by some one in customer service.

I don’t like to wait, so after I submitted my form, I called them to see if it was received.  They said that it was but the sales office could no longer help me so they transferred me to customer service (make sure you get the number) then you will have to speak to some one from there. They will tell you that a Senior Customer Service agent will need to approve the request and that it will take a few days to do. Don’t take their word for it. Do your best to push the order along. Remember, you’re paying them $599. They should be in a hurry to do this.

Eventually my order went through. I received an email telling me my order had been processed and another email telling me that my order had been shipped. Once that happened, I received my copy within 2 days. To make your version of Adobe CS4 for Mac work they will send you a full-version of the software, not an upgrade. That is why they make you jump through so many hoops.

In all, I was pretty happy with the process. It did take a while to make the calls and fill out the forms but it was worth the $1200 I saved by upgrading instead of buying a new copy. Anyhow, I hope this article has helped put any of you potential Mac users at ease. Good luck and have fun with your new computer and software!

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The style is recognized for its unique and rather groundbreaking attention to typography. Needless to say, Switzerland’s design culture has taken the world by storm.

Of course, the style has grown beyond the graphic design industry and made its way into web design.

When we web designers search for inspiration, though, we tend to stick to this one culture.

Though a great source of inspiration, let’s look at some graphic design styles from other parts of the world. Perhaps we could incorporate at least subtle elements from those other cultures into our current style.

Drawing Inspiration and Lessons from Other Cultures

Finding fresh inspiration can be difficult, but with a bit of persistence and know-how, you should find it. The great thing is that any culture or environment that is foreign to you will probably elicit some strong emotion or fascination in you. In observing a different environment, things stick out at us, and we find beauty in certain things in a way that a person who lives there might not.

Because as people carry on day to day, they start to ignore our surroundings. Exploring a different environment helps us notice the little things again. Inspiration should come quite naturally in this situation.

Inspiration is one thing, though; knowing how to give it expression in a design is another. But just like any form of art, an environment and its elements have their own shapes, textures, colors, sizes, etc. Look at natural elements, the details and the bigger picture.

Covering every culture’s style would be impossible, so let’s look broadly at the continents and maybe zero in on certain sub-cultures of interest.

Europe

Because we have just referred to the Swiss style, let’s begin with Switzerland’s continent, Europe. Europe has always had innovative design, some countries more than others. And advances in technology have brought huge advances in design.

Much of what we see in European graphic design after 1950 is, again, Swiss-style: emphasis on typography, clean lines, legibility and new color palettes. Overall, we find much more simplicity, too.

Below is a vintage Swiss album cover (but still post-1950).

Many designers follow this style closely to achieve a vintage look, while others take lessons from its structural balance. An article over on Smashing Magazine, “Lessons from Swiss Style Graphic Design,” discusses just how this modern style reflects in web design, with many great examples of both.

Robust Germany

We did say we would look beyond Switzerland, didn’t we? So, let’s move over to Germany, whose graphic design style many of the design principles of its neighbor.

Again, we find the heavy focus on typography. By contrast, though, whereas Switzerland tends toward clean sans-serif fonts, Germany showcases its own traditional fonts:

The above is the top half of a German poster advertising the Klingspor Museum in Offenbach. German print and fonts have been around for centuries, and now in digital media they are being used to highlight the country’s history and celebrate its typographic style.

Romantic Italy

Italy has similar design principles to those of Germany but a much more artsy, informal feel.

The above poster is from Milano (1969), promoting an advertising agency. One notices much more “freedom” in Italian graphic design. Both abstraction and softer shapes seem to have a stronger presence.

The Rest of Europe

Overall, European graphic design is becoming more uniform. And yet each country has its own history of art, culture and, thus, design style.

We focused on Germany and Italy to show how geographically close countries can have such distinct styles.

If you’re looking for new inspiration, Europe has much to offer. Look at Europe’s historical art, or focus on a particular period of a particular country.

Asia

As on all the other continents, every country, cultural group and religion has its own art forms and history. The graphic design style often reflects this history, and someone who is not a part of one of these cultures could benefit a lot from incorporating some of the design principles into their own work.

Below is a website inspired by an Asian culture, China to be specific. Notice how the simple large background creates most of the effect. The natural textures in the rest of the design complements this theme.

The above design is effective because it reinforces the purpose of the website. Let’s turn to a couple of more cultures for inspiration. The lessons we learn can be applied to similar cultures as well.

Japan

More than others, Asia’s main cultures seem to incorporate a more historical sensibility into their modern graphic design. Japan in particular is renowned for mixing historical culture and modernism quite well, whether for graphic design, Web design, architecture or other structural designs.

A great example of this is how cities in Japan seamlessly integrate innovative and traditional architecture and use traditional architecture to inspire shapes, textures and structures into modern design.

The two images above show how Japan can be both innovative and traditional, and they’re also a lesson in art. We can draw inspiration from the design elements in both, and we can learn to mix different eras and styles of art for effect.

This is also evident on the Japanese art scene. Japanese art seems to swing between two extremes: traditional and modern. Sometimes, though, those extremes are harmonized. Below are a few pieces that show just this.

And in the graphic design, we see a familiar pattern:

India

India’s push into modernism has been relatively recent. But again, its graphic and Web design often reflects the country’s traditional art forms and can be a beautiful source of inspiration.

India is particularly known for its intricate patterns. Below are just a few examples:

Australia

Much of Australia is a vast outback: a landscape that is unique to the continent. It also offers great beauty in its coral reefs and underwater life. A strong theme of nature appears in Australia’s art and design.

The Outback Steakhouse restaurant (in the US) promotes “authentic” Australian food, and its website reinforces this image: simple use of a culturally appropriate texture in the background, and natural colors.

The above website subtly integrates a natural theme, but one can get just as much inspiration from the culture, both modern and traditional. Despite being such a small continent, Australia offers a lot of great design.

Africa

Such a large continent; such a wide array of art. Perhaps, some of us think of African art as being the opposite of modernism, more of a step back into traditional art and a celebration of nature.

Traditional Africa

African art has an incredibly long, and rather distinguished, history. Taking inspiration from it for graphic and web design is fairly easy.

Because African art uses natural elements so heavily, texture would have to play a strong part in any design based on it. Again, as always, look at shapes and patterns, too.

Below is a great example of a web design. It mixes both cultural and natural elements perfectly to create a clean, beautiful and effective design.

Although this organization is based in Africa itself, there is no reason groups in other parts of the world could not use similar elements in their websites. The design style could be appropriate for many types of websites and designs.

Wildlife

The African landscape has unique wildlife that can be found nowhere else on earth, except in captivity. Traditional African art features the people’s unique perspective of the wildlife.

Both the wildlife itself and the cultural art based on it are worthy of attention.

Egypt

We’ve included Egypt here specifically for its ancient art. From pyramids and other majestic sculptures to the rock art, ancient Egypt has much to offer the modern web designer.

Again, design can be found in a culture’s art and monuments, as well as from the textures, shapes and colors of the natural environment.

South America

Like Africa, South America has a large native population, and the design style reflects this. But South America has its own distinct perspective on nature and offers as much as inspiration as the art in Africa.

The above sculpture is a traditional one from the area. One could perhaps draw some parallels between this style and Africa’s, but differences are obvious: rich colors and materials and unique shapes.

It reflects the South American environment itself: dense jungles, wet swamps and tropical wildlife. Much of Africa is dry desert, which is why the art has its brown hues and rocky textures.

Notice the difference in shape, too, probably more a cultural than environmental factor. In general, native African art is “harder” and more rigid, while native art from South America has more curves.

South America is, of course, famous for its tropical jungles, and this will also figure in design styles influenced by the region. Other features might include rivers and swamps: South America is also home to the great Amazon river.

Taking this beautiful environment as his inspiration, the designer below chose a jungle theme for his web design.

North America

Much of North American design is rooted in modernism, but still quite a bit of non-modernist tradition and culture exerts influence on graphic designers in this area.

As in Europe and most modernized Asian countries such as Japan, the Swiss style is popular here. But dig deeper and you’ll find design styles specific to this continent’s culture.

The south-eastern United States, for example, is known for its wild cowboy days. Most of us have heard of Outlaw Design Blog, and its design mixes texture, objects and landscape to perfectly capture this culture and its appeal.

Also worthy of attention is the art of the Native Americans, who once dominated the land. The website below does not exactly reflect Native American art, but it borrows the colors and textures to good effect. It also presents a typical North American landscape, setting the tone.

Being from the Midwest myself, I just had to include a farm and country design to the mix. The smart web design below features a Midwestern landscape that can be found throughout parts of the US and Canada.

Keep in mind, this continent stretches from the equator all the way up to the frozen arctic. The particular cultures reflect these various regions, and any of your design elements should, too.

The continent has more design styles than could be covered here, such as the northern Canadian arctic, Mexico, and Central America.

Wrapping Up

This post is almost anthropological, but that can be good for us designers looking for fresh inspiration and lessons. Webdesigner Depot is known for exploring alternative sources of art for our benefit. Exploring different cultures is a great way to do this.

There still remains, though, the general feeling that the Swiss style is the most modern, with everything else being less “formal.” You could stick broadly to the Swiss style, maintaining a simple and modern look, but incorporate subtle textures, colors or decorative elements from other cultures.

However far you decide to go, incorporating elements from different cultures in your design will likely be a change for the better. And when you have the whole world at your fingertips, the possibilities are endless.

Written exclusively for WDD by Kayla Knight.

Do you draw inspiration from other cultures? How has this impacted your design?

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Gavin Elliot is the creative mind behind DIBI conference. What exactly is this magical DIBI conference? We will get to that in a minute along with a promo code for the conference and a wicked competition to win a free ticket. But, first we are going behind the scenes with Gavin Elliot- you can also follow him on twitter.

The Skinny on Gavin

Gavin has some notable facts to bring him into the role that he is in today. He worked as a civil servant, a soldier in the Royal Corps of Engineers & ran his own business.

He now works at Codeworks as the Marketing & Creative Executive where he primarily works on looking after the Thinking Digital Conference and other projects within Codeworks.

What is your typical daily routine?

Typical doesn’t happen for me that often. Every day is usually different. I’ll generally get up at approximately 6.30am get things sorted and make myself a coffee (Starbucks ground coffee FTW) for the trip into the office. I’ll arrive around 7:40am and look over Twitter, I still don’t use an RSS feed and Twitter seems to work well for me. I like to get my emails sorted as soon as I sit down, so the music goes on and before 9am and I can usually have all of my replies done. I’ll check my diary to see if I have any meetings but my work pretty much is around the creative and ‘social’ side of Thinking Digital, DIBI then working with the other teams within Codeworks. I get up to alsorts whether it’s designing or writing. I’m pretty much busy all day. Head back home approximately 5pm before getting in to other projects or more writing. I love what I do so I probably seem like a workaholic.

What are the three things you could not live without?

1. My macbook and macbook pro (we’ll count those as one)

2. Basecamp (For managing my daily life and all the project I’m involved with).

3. My notebook where I draw or make notes. (I carry this pretty much everywhere these days.)

Do you find time to devote to all of your creative endeavors?

I do, I often think of ideas on the fly and quickly have to tell someone. I’ve set up various blogs over the years but am starting to tailor these back. I write quite often about design on my personal blog and have just had an article published in .net (Practical Web Design in the US). I enjoy writing and joining the Project 52 I’ll be publishing a specific post every week. Working out the time between design and writing can be somewhat cumbersome. I’ll be working on a small personal project over the next few months which the design community can use which I’m definitely looking forward to getting started on.

What do you think we will see in the design community in 2010?

I’m hoping there will be a lot more collaboration between designers. I think we’re now finally starting to see the community coming together and learning from each other. In past years there have been a select few who’ve been fortunate to build strong bonds with others but now with all of the social apps we’re seeing more communication with the community as a whole. I would say that the financial climate doesn’t seem to have hit the design/development community so bad over the past year or so however a lot of companies and freelancers have upped their game to hone their skills and decide what is exactly for them and then price themselves accordingly for being a professional in that particular field. 2010 could bring some very specialised designers in to the public spotlight. On top of that we’ll definitely see a surge in mobile design.

What drove DIBI conference to become a reality instead of just a dream in someones head?

We have a lot of web conferences in the UK including the likes of dConstruct, FOWA, FOWD, UX London and Build. Generally though, the conferences never reach further than Leeds/Manchester. Build took place in Northern Ireland last year so when you look at it, conferences have never been taken further North to the likes of Newcastle upon Tyne/Gateshead where DIBI will be taking place. We have a vibrant web community in the North East of England and it is an ideal place for people to travel to. With an international airport, train and ferry links it is an ideal location.

DIBI has a unique cast of characters speaking. Most of which are very prevalent in the web design community, how is it important to make sure you get people to present who are on top of their game?

We thought long and hard about what we wanted to achieve with the conference. It’s highly prevalent that you must reach out to speakers which are either doing something new or leading various areas of the industry to new places. It’s all well and good saying that you want to set a conference up but when looking at the finer details you want to create longevity and a good sense of hype and communication with the people who will be attending. Codeworks have a long standing commitment with the digital agencies in the North East of England and regularly hold ‘Think and a Drink’ evening events on a monthly basis.

What are you trying to make your audience aware of? Is it more of a conference where you talk about current trends and happenings or something that will educate them as a whole?

Definitely education. Whilst we’re expecting lots of attendees who are on top of their game, there is always the opportunity for people to learn more. Making sure that the topics are correct for the audience is paramount, attendees expect something different which is what we’re hoping to achieve with DIBI.

Will the success of DIBI determine the if the conference will be around next year or do you already have ideas of doing another?

Codeworks have had major success with other conferences such as Thinking Digital and GameHorizon and we’ll be looking to achieve the same with DIBI. Definitely look out for DIBI being around again next year.

How does DIBI set itself apart from other conferences? It seems the age of the speakers at DIBI is less than others. What else?

DIBI is one of the first two-track web conferences that we know of. The tickets are limited to 350 and we’re hoping for an equal amount of designers and developers attending. They will then form the DIBI 350, a unique set of professionals taking part in the first North East of England Web Conference. It’s unusual to bring both designers and developers together at the same time, we hope that whilst they’re in the same place as each other, relationships can be made and collaborations can happen. With regards to the speakers, we looked around to see who was available so that we could provide a good amount of variation from other conferences. The DIBI Conference itself will be running from 9am till approx 5pm then we’ll be moving on to a Think and a Drink/After Party in Newcastle upon Tyne.

THE GIVEAWAY

Here’s where you get a chance to win a free ticket to DIBI! Now, all you need to do is put the most creative reason why you want to go to DIBI (and a valid email in the comment box) and we will handle the rest. Do you want to go to learn? Network? See long lost friends? Tell us and you have a chance to get a free ticket!

Need More DIBI?

Site: dibiconference.com

Twitter: twitter.com/dibiconf

Discount for being a reader: Promo Code: “DIBI_hohoho”

Sponsored by

Advertise on Fuel Your Creativity.
Fuel Your Creativity 2009 cc (creative commons license)

The Creative Mind Behind the DIBI Conference

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Mashable’s Pete Cashmore tells us:

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg claims that if Facebook was starting out now, sharing with everybody would be the starting point, rather than with a small group of friends. Is this more about reflecting social norms or changing them to help Facebook compete with Twitter?

The statement, made during a livestream of the Crunchies awards, hits on a hot button issue for Facebook: it recently notified users of privacy changes via a pop-up notification. While the message claimed that Facebook was displaying the message to give users more privacy controls, blindly clicking “next” was a way to make much of your data public. And in fact, some data like the Friends List has become more public without any settings changes by users.

I honestly don’t know where I stand on all of this. I think my only real concern is just how little attention most people pay to these major shifts in social norms especially when they are moved along at rocket speed by something as pervasive and powerful as Facebook. I know that even with the new “everyone needs to see everyone else’s stuff” privacy policy at Facebook, I can go in and lock down my public profile to whatever degree I want. How many of the 350 million supposed users of the service actually know that or even care? I don’t know. I suspect not as many as should.

An interesting article appeared in the Wall Street Journal today from Jaron Lanier, which is an excerpt from his new book. He is a pioneer in virtual reality technology and has some very real concerns about this new move to the “social collective” and I don’t disagree with him on much of it. Here’s a sample:

Here’s one problem with digital collectivism: We shouldn’t want the whole world to take on the quality of having been designed by a committee. When you have everyone collaborate on everything, you generate a dull, average outcome in all things. You don’t get innovation.

There’s a dominant dogma in the online culture of the moment that collectives make the best stuff, but it hasn’t proven to be true. The most sophisticated, influential and lucrative examples of computer code—like the page-rank algorithms in the top search engines or Adobe’s Flash— always turn out to be the results of proprietary development. Indeed, the adored iPhone came out of what many regard as the most closed, tyrannically managed software-development shop on Earth.

I realize that I am mixing and matching the personal web and the business of the web. They are, however, intricately intertwined especially as we move into the future. When the generation of “open information and free stuff etc, etc” are in the business world (and a lot are already) this new “social norm” that Zuckerberg talks about so casually could very well mean the end to true innovation unless signed off by the collective. As a result that means watered down ideas in most cases. As if it’s not bad enough, the US government is showing socialist tendencies. What if the business world became that way too? Geesh, time to buy some land, make my own clothes and grow my own food. We will all be brought to the middle and the world could be very average.

Of course these are just my own opinions on this but I am really no that interested in having to depend on everyone “signing off” on one my ideas before it can move forward. I am not thrilled about the idea of things like “search neutrality” that reared its ridiculous head in the recent weeks. I like privacy. I like some semblance of control. Maybe it is time to consider that plot of land and a tractor. That is of course, if it’s OK with everyone.

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In November, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said he needed 2,500 “volunteers” to give up their jobs, but not enough of them got the message — only 1,100 walked away on their own.

Now Armstrong is entering the second phase of his corporate slimdown, and is firing some 1,000+ employees.

AOL officials say the company has begun notifying European employees of its plans to shut down many of its offices there, and has started tapping some American workers as well. The bulk of the US layoffs are slated for this Wednesday, the company says.

This is a very sad story indeed. While we keep hearing forced words of hope and encouragement that “things have turned around” we get crap unemployment numbers in December and news like this from one of the industries that is supposedly “doing well”. Let’s be honest, you need to simply count your blessings if you are in a pocket of performance no matter what industry you call home and the online space is no different.

To underline just how different this world is the following was noted in the article written by Peter Kafka.

The company hasn’t released a breakdown of cuts by territory or by department. But I’m told that the company’s editorial/content production staff, which Armstrong and his lieutenants have been emphasizing as a priority in recent months, will not remain untouched.

This just means that the outsourcing of content production is likely the way that AOL will go more and more. Pure speculation on my part but if your strategy moving forward is creating more and more content then taking away part of that internal team just means it’s likely cheaper to outsource.

The full release can be found at ATD but the closing remarks are as follows.

We will be offering packages to impacted employees in the U.S. that will include severance, benefits and outplacement assistance, among other things.

All of our cost alignment work is about ensuring AOL’s sustainability and future success. Project Everest is the completion of phase one of AOL’s turnaround.

Interesting how they name something like this as if it were a military undertaking and the curious use of a mountain’s name that few have conquered and many more have failed to climb.

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Is this ad racist? Your opinion might vary depending on your cultural background … and that’s a new reality we’re facing in the YouTube era.

The Australian KFC ad in dispute (below) shows an Australian cricket supporter in a crowd of West Indian fans. Supposedly to make himself more comfortable amid the opposition supporters, he offers up a bucket of “crowdpleaser” fried chicken from KFC.

The ad received no negative response in Australia where it aired, but it soon made its way to YouTube, where it caused controversy.

Cultural Clash

The issue: in the US, there’s an offensive racial stereotype involving fried chicken and African Americans. No such stereotype seems to exist in Australia (and certainly not relating to West Indians), where the ad was intended to air. The result? YouTube has put KFC in the middle of a cultural clash.

Hence we have the Baltimore Sun stating: “If it is a genuine KFC advertisement, it could be seen as racially insensitive” … and KFC replying that it has been “misinterpreted by a segment of people in the US”. In fact, the controversy became so inflamed this week that KFC has pulled the ad in Australia, perturbing some Australian viewers who think US viewers are misinterpreting it (see second video below).

The opposition to the ad may be a minority of the audience, however: a NY Daily News poll has 27% calling the ad racist versus 69% who think it isn’t. It’s unclear how many of those polled were American and how many were Australian.

US Reaction (from The Young Turks)

(Note that The Young Turks received such a negative reaction from their Australian viewers, they posted a followup. They maintain that the ad is racist for spreading US stereotypes.)

Australian Reaction

YouTube’s New Reality

Regardless of whether you find the ad offensive, the event could force ad agencies to consider the global cultural reaction to their campaigns, even for those ads intended for regional audiences.

In the YouTube era, ads made for national markets quickly receive international distribution — sometimes with unintended consequences.

Tags: kfc, youtube

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Normally $29.99 the stand is currently on sale for $4.99 + shipping. It’s lightweight, clear—begging for an LED mod if you ask us—and sports a rubberized lip to keep the stand from sliding and your laptop held fast. The middle of the stand is slightly convex to provide extra space for air circulation and cord management.

If you want a closer peek at the stand before purchasing it, you can check out this video of its US-market introduction:

You can take advantage of the sale by visiting the Amazon link below—strangely the item is offered by TigerDirect but isn’t for sale on their actual website.

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The tool is great for people who feel that they maybe more effective with a verbal message.  The tool is also Free! It allows you to record your own voice and also allows you to use TTS – many voices to choose from and you can also change your message anytime.

Another tool that the developers of Audi Pal has is its Site Pal.  Site Pal enables you to have a talking head on your site.

SitePal is an easy-to-use service that allows you to create a speaking avatar for your website and empower your online communication.

• Upload your photo
• Over 250 customizable stock avatars
• Record your own voice or use built-in
  Text-To-Speech in multiple languages
• Unlimited audio & avatar updates
• Add an image or video background
• Built-in lead collection, FAQ, AI chat
• Publish to HTML page, Flash, emails
• Compatible with all server technologies
• Programming skills not required
• API for advanced users

SitePal is a fun and powerful tool, but it comes with a price of US$9.95 a month.  I have included a demo here for you to check out and see if its the right one for you.

Main Image Source

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For over a month we have been preparing this epic scale event in your favor. This giveaway represents $60,000 worth of goods from some of the leading services in each genre. We can all thank the wonderful and cool sponsors for their commitment and cherished gestures. As a thank you to them, please visit their sites to check out why they are the best in their field. Believe me, they truly deserve it!

This “Epic Giveaway” will end on the 16th of January, 2010. We will then review every participants entry and select the most unique one for each prize. We will announce the winners on the 18th of January, 2010. The winners will be put in contact with the sponsors for delivery.

So what do you have to do in order to bring home one of these prizes? Well, it’s rather simple really. To be a valid participant in this epic giveaway all you have to do is to follow these rules:

Rules

1. Explain why you should receive a specific prize and what you would use it for in the comment area of this article. Also add the prize ID at the top of your comment. If a sponsor has more than one prize, be sure to specify which one you are interested in by typing “Prize: List specific prize“.  At the bottom of your comment be sure to include your twitter username.

2. Tweet this:
I just participated in @bitrebels Epic Giveaway for some free stuff! You can too! | http://www.bitrebels.com #EpicGiveaway

3. Add a link to Bit Rebels and the sponsor of the prize you have chosen on your site. Include “Link Added” at the bottom of your comment. This step is optional but adds to your chances of winning your favored prize.

So, what are the giveaway prizes? We are happy to announce that we have 28 different companies on board for this giveaway and their commitment is just outstanding. In the list of prizes there is everything from free business cards to free hosting services, free vector graphics to complete free website designs.  These prizes represent pretty much everything you need to start the year of 2010 off with a bang for your business.

We have two categories of sponsors. “Premium Prizes” and “Sponsored Prizes“. Both categories deserve your full attention but our “Premium Prizes” come from our valid sponsors of this site. These companies are the ones that unconditionally support the continued life of this blog.

Premium Prizes

If you are serious about winning the ultimate prize, these four companies in our Premium prize section have taken the time to make sure you will be hooked up with the best of the best stuff!  Visit their websites and check them out.  You don’t want to miss these.

Printfac3 International Co., Ltd

ID: Premium Prize #1
Website: http://www.printfac3.com
Prize:
- 100pax Free 250 Business Cards (54mm x 89mm, printed on Gloss Art Card 260gsm, 2 side coated, either 1 or 2 sided printing with Matt Lamination, 2 sided).
- 100pax Free 50 Announcement Card in DL size (99mm x 210mm, printed on Gloss Art Card 260gsm, 2 side coated, either 1 or 2 sided printing with Matt / Gloss Lamination, 1 sided).
Available: 1 of each.
Value / Prize: $40 including shipping (to the US).
Info: Prizes will be given while stock lasts.

Inkd

ID: Premium Prize #2
Website: http://www.inkd.com
Prize: Free Design Template
Available: 3
Value / Prize: $299
Info: Inkd is the world’s first buy and sell marketplace for original print design. Approved designers can contribute professional graphic design templates and earn totally passive income as their designs are sold over and over again. Small to large businesses or organizations – even agencies or independent designers – can browse a wide variety of industries and focuses to pick from thousands of graphic design templates on Inkd, then download the design instantly, including graphics and photos that are ready to edit and print!

Inkd is giving away 3 design templates of your choosing – any brochure, business card, newsletter or other design showcased in their collection – whatever you want! That’s a prize value of up to $299!”

WPWebHost – Web Hosting Made for WordPress

ID: Premium Prize #3
Website: http://wpwebhost.com
Prize: 1 Free Year “Freedom Plan”
Available: 2
Value / Prize: $80
Info: Freedom Plan is a WordPress hosting plan that is specially tailored made to get the best compatibility and maximum performance for your WordPress-powered sites.
- 50GB Space
- 500GB Bandwidth

DPD: Digital Product Delivery

ID: Premium Prize #4
Website: http://www.getdpd.com
Prize: Free for Life DPD 30 Product Paid Plan
Available: 5
Value / Prize: $10,000+
Info: Each day, thousands of vendors use DPD to automatically sell downloads and deliver their digital products to customers. Integrating with PayPal and other popular payment processors, DPD is the quick and easy way to set up your products for automated selling.

DPD is fully affiliate enabled allowing you to run your own full-featured affiliate program. DPD is also the only download cart provider that allows you to create multiple carts and sell downloads on multiple sites, run multiple affiliate programs, and more- all under one account.

Sponsored Prizes

You are going to be very impressed when you check out all of the valuable prizes here in our Sponsored prize section.  These companies are graciously giving you lots of valuable things to make your life easier!

WinSoft

ID: #P5
Website: http://www.winsoft-international.com
Prize: ScribeDOOR for Creative Suite 4
Available: 1
Value / Prize: $119

Designius.com

ID: #P6
Website: http://www.designious.com
Prize: Vintage Mega Pack 8
Available: 5
Value / Prize: $50

LayerOnline

ID: #P7
Website: http://www.layeronline.com
Prize: 1 Year of Free Platinum plan hosting with a Free new/transfer domain.
Available: 1
Value / Prize: $99.98

Pro Theme Design

ID: #P8
Website: http://prothemedesign.com
Prize: Mimbo Pro WordPress Template
Available: 3
Value / Prize: $79

Usabilla

ID: #P9
Website: http://usabilla.com
Prize: 1 Premium Large Account, 2 Premium Standard Accounts, 3 Premium Small Accounts
Available: 6
Value / Prize: $49-$950

AlgoZone.com

ID: #P10
Website: http://www.algozone.com
Prize: Free eCommerce Template (up to $150) of your choice.
Available: 1
Value / Prize: $150

A51 d.o.o.

ID: #P11
Website: http://www.a51dev.com
Prize: 1 License of activeCollab Corporate, 2 Licenses of activeCollab SmallBiz
Available: 3
Value / Prize: $249 – $499

Taste of Ink Studios

ID: #P12
Website: http://www.tasteofinkstudios.com
Prize: 1 x Business Card Design, 1 x 500 Slim-Cut Silk Business Cards
Availabe: 1 of each
Value / Prize: $190 – $235

SnobbySlice

ID: #P13
Website: http://www.snobbyslice.com
Prize: 1 Page “Slice”
Available: 7
Value / Prize: $299

Techinline Ltd.

ID: #P14
Website: https://www.techinline.com/BuyNow
Prize: Remote Desktop Unlimited Subscriptions
Available: 3
Value / Prize: $85 – $300

Hotcards.com

ID: #P15
Website: http://www.hotcards.com, http://www.hotcards.com/blog
Prize: 1 x 5000 Business Cards (Printed on premium 12pt gloss coated card stock), 1 x 5000 Postcards (Hotcards.com’s 6′ x 4.25 postcards), 1 x 1000 11 x 17 Posters.
Available: 3
Value / Prize: $100 – $281

Marketcircle Inc.

ID: #P16
Website: http://www.marketcircle.com
Prize: Daylite Productivity Suite
Available: 2
Value / Prize: $189

Page.ly

ID: #P17
Website: http://page.ly
Prize: 1 x Free Service for Life + 1 Year Free Domain, 3 x 6 Months Free Page.ly Service + 1 year Free Domain, Anyone can get use promocode: BITREBELS for 20% Page.ly Service through February 1.
Availabe: 4
Value / Prize: $90 – $500

Golden Black and Pale Horse

ID: #P18
Website: http://thegoldenblack.com
Prize: $260 Worth of Royalty-Free Stock Vectors, Fonts and Brushes
Available: 1
Value / Prize: $260

WPfromPSD.com

ID: #P19
Website: http://wpfrompsd.com
Prize: Free 1 Page Basic PSD to WordPress Theme Conversion with Delivery within 7 Business Days
Availabe: 1
Value / prize: $150

Brandstack

ID: #P20
Website: http://brandstack.com
Prize: Free T-Shirt and 3 Months Premium Seller Membership
Availabe: 1
Value / Prize: $45

The Resumator

ID: #P21
Website: http://www.theresumator.com/s:bitrebels
Prize: 6 months free use of The Resumator Start Plan
Available: 1
Value / Prize: $114

Wix

ID: #P22
Website: http://www.wix.com
Prize: Unlimited Packages – Flash Website
Available: 2
Value / Prize: $149

FlexJobs.com

ID: #P23
Website: http://www.flexjobs.com
Prize: A year membership to FlexJobs.com
Available: 1
Value / Prize: $49.95

PageLime

ID: #P24
Website: http://www.pagelime.com
Prize: Kindle Wireless Reading Device (6″ Display, Global Wireless, Latest Generation)
Available: 1
Value / Prize: $259

Pixel Graphic Design Studio, Inc.

ID: #P25
Website: http://pixelgraphics.us
Prize: PDF Book – The Art of Making Super-Fast Vector Illustrations
Available: 5
Value / Prize: $14.99

moo.com

ID: #P26
Website: http://www.moo.com
Prize: 50 Business Cards
Availabe: 3
Value / Prize: $21.99

InMotion Hosting, Inc.

ID: #P27
Website: http://www.inmotionhosting.com
Prize: Power Hosting Package for 1 Year
Availabe: 5
Value / Prize: $107.40

SnackTools

ID: #P28
Website: SnackTools, BannerSnack, PhotoSnack
Prize: 1 month premium (100 points, expiring in 1 month), 5 x 500 points (no period expiration)
Available: 6
Value / Prize: Not Listed

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According to various users posting in the Google Mobile Help Forum it seems that Google’s Nexus One Android smartphone is experiencing some issues in terms of 3G reception with a number of Nexus One users reporting that Google’s much hyped smartphone intermittently looses 3G reception – thus falling back onto EDGE connectivity – or suddenly drops to just 1 bar in terms of reception quality for an as yet unknown reason.
(…)
Read the rest of Google Nexus One 3G Issues Widely Reported [Nexus One 3G Reception Issues Plaguing Users in US, T-Mobile & HTC Seemingly Clueless]

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Google recently applied for approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for the right to purchase and monetize energy, just like the utility companies you are already familiar with do. Google has said that its actions had more to do with the enormous amount of energy it consumes itself (consider all of the machinery and equipment it takes to keep a company like Google running at its current pace on a daily basis).

Questions have been raised however, about if Google could actually end up functioning as a utility. From the sounds of it, the company isn’t exactly ruling it out.

Jeffrey Marlow with the New York Times asked Google’s "Green Energy Czar" Bill Weihl if the company views its work on alternative energy as a money-making component. In his response, Weihl noted that some of Google’s initiatives come from Google.org (the company’s philanthropic arm), and said:

The reason Google.org is not just a foundation is that lots of people believe that if you want to have a big impact at scale on the world, then you need to go beyond what a 501(c)3 can do, which is to make charitable grants, so you need the ability to invest in companies, to do engineering projects, to do things that might at some point actually make money.

We’d be delighted if some of this stuff actually made money, obviously; it is not our goal to not make money. All else being equal, we’d like to make as much money as we can, but the principal goal is to have a big impact for good.

Google says its goal is to make renewable energy cheaper than coal. Coal is said to be the source of about half of the electricity consumed in the US. Google is looking at concentrated solar thermal, enhanced geothermal, and wind energies.

Related Articles:

> Google Gets Energetic Syndicate content

> How Much Energy is Consumed by a Google Search?

> Google Testing PowerMeter To Save Energy

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"’Near me now’ was designed to address two user problems," explains Google’s Mobile team. "First, we wanted to make it fast and easy to find out more about a place in your immediate vicinity, whether you’re standing right in front of a business or if it’s just a short walk away. For example, you may want to know what other customers think about a restaurant before you go inside (see quick video below) or what they have been raving about on the menu before you order. By selecting the ‘Explore right here’ option, you can find out more about a place ‘right here’ with just a few clicks."

The restaurant example is illustrated in the following clip:

"Second, we wanted to make searching for popular categories of nearby places really simple," the team adds. "Imagine that you emerge from the subway station and you want to grab a coffee, but you don’t see a coffee shop around you. You can simply search for all nearby coffee shops by using ‘Near me now’. To search other categories of places not shown, ‘Browse more categories’ provides access to our local search product with more category choices."

The feature is available in the US only at this point. It works for iPhone (OS 3.x) or Android-powered devices with version 2.0.1 and up. Users have to enable their location for the feature to even appear.

Related Articles:

> Google Unveils Nexus One "Super Phone"

> Google Reader’s Mobile Interface Upgraded

> Critical Local Search Factors To Pay Attention To

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Internet Usage

* Adults spend 15+ hours on Internet a Week
* Expected 217 MM US internet Users by 2012 (71% Penetration)
* 55% broadband access, will grow to 90% by 2012
* Online video viewing increased 35% year over year

YouTube Statistics

* #4 Largest Site on the Internet
* #1 Largest video site on the web
* 300MM Worldwide Visitors a Month
* 100 Million Visitors per Month
* 5 Billion Video Streams Every month – 40% of all videos online
* (Do the Math – 5 Billion / 300 million worldwide visitors = 17 streams a month per person)
* 15 Hours of video uploaded every minute

But what if you wanted to save that video? Maybe for listening to it offline, if it is a Music video or something interesting that you want to share with your offline friends.

It is very simple really, just copy the link of the said video you want to download, then go to Save Tube.  Paste the URL and then save.  Its that simple.  Watch the video below and see how its done via a demo.

You can also try KeepVid.

Main Image Source

Social Networking:
How To Save YouTube Videos

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Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few months you already know that Google have entered the mobile phone market by announcing their own device which goes by the name of Nexus One. We can now give you full specs and features regarding the device, know that it will be subsidized on T-Mobile in the US and that the UK, Singapore and Hong Kong will get their hands on it as test countries. But what about Europe? When is the new Google Nexus One going to be available in Europe?

(…)
Read the rest of Vodafone UK Google Nexus One Availability Confirmed [Nexus One Releasing in Europe in a Few Months?]

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With CES 2010 in full swing in Las Vegas, manufacturers are trying every little trick to get a bit more attention their way. One of the companies to actually manage to impress is Toshiba who are trying to position themselves higher in the home entertainment market by introduction their new Toshiba ZX900 Series CELL TVs and announcing that they should be available in the US, later this year.

(…)
Read the rest of Toshiba ZX900 Series CELL TV Release Date Confirmed [1080p Full HD Toshiba ZX900 "Is More Than Just a TV"]

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Brands include:

- Audi
- BMW
- Ford
 - Hyundai
- Jaguar
- Kia
- Land Rover
- Lincoln
- Mercedes Benz
- Mercury
- MINI USA
- Rolls Royce
- Scion
- Volkswagen
- Volvo

At least three new vehicles are on display at the event at the HD Radio booth – the Ford 2011 Taurus SHO, Volkswagen 2010 MY Golf TDI, and 2010 Scion xB. The first ever factory installed implementation of HD Radio enabled iTunes Tagging will occur at CES and will be showcased by Ford. A number of after-market solutions from various brands are being displayed as well.

"New low-cost, low power IC solutions were introduced at CES 2009," says iBiquity Digital. "Since that technical breakthrough, many new portable products have been committed for launch into the consumer market, several of which are currently available, with additional new models on display at CES 2010."

These include Microsoft Zune HD, Insignia ND-HD01, Cydle T43H (PND w/ Real Time Traffic), Cydle P15, Gigaware 12-645 and 12-646, Sangean DT 600HD and Sangean DT 800HD. iBiquity itself is developing a Software Development Kit (SDK) for receiver partners to aid feature integration, which is planned for later in 2010.

Over 2,000 stations in the US use HD Radio Technology. The technology allows for a richer multimedia experience than traditional radio giving users access to album art and other features.

Watch for more WebProNews coverage of CES, with exclusive video interviews coming soon.
 

Related Articles:

> CES: Opera Releases New SDKs and New Browser

> Cisco Leaving a Big Mark on Consumer Electronics Show

> HP Unveils New Touch Notebook and Some New Minis at CES

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The HP TouchSmart tm2 builds on HP’s existing TouchSmart software, and updates the tx2. "With the convertible tm2, customers can choose the product configuration and input method that is most comfortable and natural, whether on a couch, in an airplane or while surfing the web," the company says. "As a traditional notebook, the tm2 offers a keyboard and touch-enabled display for input. Converted to a slate, the tm2 morphs into a sketchpad with digital pen, allowing artists to sketch on the go and students to take notes in class."

HP lists the following new touch applications that enhance the tm2 experience:

- BumpTop, a touch-enhanced 3-D interface for photos and documents that allows users to spatially organize and “toss” or share files and photos to social media sites or email.

- DigiFish Dolphin, an interactive 3-D screensaver that recreates an ocean environment to be experienced via touch or a mouse.

- Corel Paint it! Touch, which allows users to draw and paint or turn photos into paintings using fingertips.

More details about the TouchSmart tm2 can be found here.

The HP Mini 5102 is described as a "full-performance "netbook designed for mobile professionals and students. It comes in either a standard or touch-enabled version. The touchscreen option includes multitouch gestures, finger taps, and swipes across the screen for navigation. More can be read about this here.

Finally, unveiled the HP Mini 210 and HP Mini 2102, with optional 3G broadband connectivity and GPS in multiple color options. HP says new software enhances the HP Mini 210′s multimedia experience:

- HP CloudDrive powered by ZumoDrive allows users to access their synchronized content – documents, photos and music – from the cloud, without having to store it on a local drive.

- HP MediaStream allows users to stream multimedia content from one PC to another over the Internet, without requiring data to be downloaded.

- HP QuickSync software, also available on the HP Mini 2102, automatically synchronizes files created or edited on the road with a home or business PC over a wireless connection when connected to the same network.

- HP QuickWeb allows users to access the web without booting up the notebook by simply pushing a button. In seconds, users have a connection to the Internet and can access websites and other content that normally requires a standard browser, as well as photos, music and more.

More details about the Mini 210 and Mini 2102 can be found here.

The HP TouchSmart tm2 is expected to be available in the US on Jan. 17 in all colors with a starting price of $949. The HP Mini 5102 is expected to be available in the US this month with a starting price of $399. The HP Mini 210 is expected to be available in the US tomorrow with a starting price of $299 for Windows 7.The HP Mini 2102 is also expected to be available in the US tomorrow with a starting price of $329.

Watch for more WebProNews coverage of CES, with exclusive video interviews coming soon.

Related Articles:

> CES About to Kick Off the Year in Technology

> Cisco Leaving a Big Mark on Consumer Electronics Show

> Looking Back on CES

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Some days ago I’ve posted about the 10 Tallest Skyscrapers in the World, and I couldn’t include this one because the building was not done at that time. Well, now this list has a new top 1… it was presented in Dubai the Burj Khalifa or Burj Dubai, the tallest building in world today with 828m. Wow!

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Officially opened yesterday, January 04 of 2010, the Burj Dubai is the tallest building made by the humans hand. When I looked at the first pictures in the beggining of the construction in 2005, I almost couldn’t believe in the enormous building they wanted to put in that place. The Burj is far taller than the previous record, the Taipei 101 Tower, in Taiwan with 509m. The building can be viewed from 95km away, is covered with 26,000 glass panels and the estimate cost for the Burj Khalifa was about US$1.5 bilion.

“The tower is a global icon. It represents the determination and optimism of Dubai as a truly world city. It is a powerful symbol for the entire Arab world.” Mohamed Alabbar

The numbers are somewhere around ‘awesomeness’ and that is exactly what they like. In another post we talked about the The Unusual Architecture of Dubai, where you can see that the buildings are created to make history, no matter how architects will be see them. We have to think if we really want this as a reference to new projects, what is the reason to build stuff even taller and more expensive? Maybe the investiment on the urbanism and the planning of Dubai would be more important than those sinlge projects.

The History

Some Videos

Take a look the latest news and the main sites about Burj Dubai:

• dailymail.co.uk
• dailyfinance.com
• archdaily.com
• news.bbc.co.uk
• guardian.co.uk
• burjdubai.com
• .burjdubaiskyscraper.com/
• wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_Dubai

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Website performance is a hugely important topic, so much so that the big companies of the Web are obsessed with it. For the Googles, Yahoos, Amazons and eBays, slow websites mean fewer users and less happy users and thus lost revenue and reputation.

In your case, annoying a few users wouldn’t be much of a problem, but if millions of people are using your product, you’d better be snappy in delivering it. For years, Hollywood movies showed us how fast the Internet was: time to make that a reality.

Even if you don’t have millions of users (yet), consider one very important thing: people are consuming the Web nowadays less with fat connections and massive computers and more with mobile phones over slow wireless and 3G connections, but they still expect the same performance. Waiting for a slow website to load on a mobile phone is doubly annoying because the user is usually already in a hurry and is paying by the byte or second. It’s 1997 all over again.

Performance is an expert’s game… to an extent. You can do innumerable things to make a website perform well, and much of it requires in-depth knowledge and boring testing and researceh. I am sure a potential market exists for website performance optimization, much like there is one now for search engine optimization. Interestingly, Google recently announced that it will factor performance into its search rankings, so this is already happening. That said, you can do a lot of things without having to pay someone to point out the obvious.

Know Your Performance Blockers

Performance can be measured in various ways. One way is technical: seeing how fast a page loads and how many bytes are transferred. Another is perceived performance, which ties into usability testing. This can only be measured by testing with users and seeing how satisfied they are with the speed of your interface (e.g. do they start clicking on your JavaScript carousel before it is ready?).

The good news (and hard truth) about performance is that 80 to 90% of poor performance happens in the front end. Once the browser gets the HTML, the server is done and the back-end developer can do nothing more. The browser then starts doing things to our HTML, and we are at its mercy. This means that to achieve peak performance, we have to optimize our JavaScript, images, CSS and HTML, as well as the back end.

So here are the things that slow down your page the most.

External Resources (Images, Scripts, Style Sheets)

Every time you load something from another server, the following happens:

1. The browser opens up the Internet’s address book and looks up the number associated with the name of the server that’s holding the things you want (i.e. its DNS entry).
2. It then negotiates a delivery.
3. It receives the delivery (waiting for all the bytes to come in).
4. It tries to understand what was sent through and displays it.

Every request is costly and slows down the loading of the page. This is also caused by browsers loading things in chunks (usually four at a time) rather than all at the same time. This is akin to ordering a product from a website, choosing the cheapest delivery option and not being at home between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm. If you include several JavaScript libraries because you like a certain widget in each, then you’ll double, triple or even quadruple the time that your page takes to load and display.

Scripts

JavaScript makes our websites awesome and fun to use, but it can also make for an annoying experience.

The first thing to know about scripts that you include in a document is that they are not HTML or CSS; the browser has to call in an expert to do something with them. Here is what happens:

1. Whenever the browser encounters a <script> block in the document, it calls up the JavaScript engine, sits back and has a coffee.
2. The script engine then looks at the content in the script block (which may have been delivered earlier), sighs, complains about the poor code, scratches its head and then does what the script tells it to do.
3. Once the script engine is done, it reports back to the browser, which puts down its coffee, says good-bye to the script engine and looks at the rest of the document (which might have been changed, because the script may have altered the HTML).

The moral of the story is to use as few script blocks as possible and to put them as far down the document as possible. You could also use clever and lazy JavaScript, but more on that later.

Images

Here is where things get interesting. Optimizing images has always been the bane of every visual designer. We build our beautiful images in Illustrator, Photoshop or Fireworks and then have to save them as JPG, GIF or PNG, which changes the colors and deteriorates the quality; and if we use PNG, then IE6 arrives as the party-pooper, not letting us take advantage of PNG’s cool features.

Optimizing your images is absolutely necessary because most of the time they are the biggest files on page. I’ve seen people jump through hoops to cut their JavaScript down from 50 KB to 12 KB and then happily use a 300 KB logo or “hero shot” in the same document. Performance needs you!

Finding the right balance between visual loss and file size can be daunting, but be grateful for the Web preview tool, because we didn’t always have it. I recall using Photoshop 4 and then Photoshop with the Ulead SmartSaver, for example.

The interesting thing about images, though, is that after you have optimized them you can still save many more bytes by stripping unnecessary data from the files and running the files through tools that further compress the images but are non-lossy. The bad news is that many of them are out there, and you’ll need different ones for different image formats. The good news is that tools exist that do all that work for you, and we will come back to this later. For more advanced optimizaition techniques feel free to take a closer look at the Smashing Magazine’s articles Clever JPEG Optimization Techniques, PNG Optimization Guide and Clever PNG Optimization Techniques.

Simple Tools You Can Use Now To Improve Performance

All of those companies that obsess about page performance offer tools that allow you to check your own website automatically and make it easy to work around problems.

Test Your Performance

The first thing to do is find out how your website can be optimized. Here are three great tools (among others that crop up all the time) to use and combine.

Yahoo’s YSlow

YSlow is a Firebug add-on from Yahoo that allows you to automatically check your website for performance issues. The results are ranked like American school grades, with A being the best and F being the worst. The grades are cross-linked to best practice documentation on the Yahoo performance pages. You can test several settings: “classic YSlow,” which is targeted to Yahoo-sized websites, “YSlow 2″ and “small site or blog.” Results are listed clearly and let you click through to learn.

In the components view, YSlow lists all of the issues it has found on your website and how serious they are:

The statistics view in YSlow gives you all information in pie charts:

The tools section in YSlow offers a lot of goodies:

• JSLint
  Checks the quality and security of your JavaScripts by running them through JSLint.
• All JS
  Shows all JavaScript code in a document.
• All JS Beautified
  Shows all JavaScript code in a document in an easy-to-read format
• All JS Minified
  Shows all JavaScript code in a document in a minified format (i.e. no comments or white space)
• All CSS
  Show all CSS code in a document
• All Smush.it
  Automatically compresses all of your images (more on this later).
• Printable View
  Creates a printable document of all of YSlow’s results (great for showing to a client after you’ve optimized the page!)

Google’s Page Speed

Like YSlow, Page Speed by Google is also an add-on for Firebug. Its main difference is that it does a lot of the optimization for you and provides the modified code and images immediately.

Page Speed’s other extra is that it monitors the overall activity of your page, allowing you to see when a document loads other resources after it has been loaded and to see what happens when a user rolls over elements or opens tabs and menus that load content via AJAX.

Be careful with this feature, though: it hammers your browser quite hard.

AOL’s WebPageTest

Rather late to the game, AOL’s WebPageTest is an application with some very neat features. (It is also available as a desktop application, in case you want to check Intranets or websites that require authentication.)

WebPageTest allows you to run tests using either IE8 or IE7 from a server in the US or the UK, and it allows you to set all kinds of parameters, such as speed and what to check for:

Once you have defined your parameters and the testing is completed, you will get in-depth advice on what you can do to optimize. You’ll get:

• A summary,
• Detailed results,
• A performance review,
• An optimization report,
• The content breakdown,
• The domain breakdown,
• A screenshot.

One very cool feature of WebPageTest is the visual recording you get of how long it takes for page elements to show up on screen for users. The following screenshot compares the results of this blog, Ajaxian and Nettuts+:

You can even create a video of the rendering, which is another very cool thing to show clients.

Once you get the test results, it is time to fix any problems.

Use Image Sprites

Image Sprites were first discussed in an article published by Dave Shea and based on the work of Petr Stanicek. They have been covered extensively here before, but understanding their full benefit is important before you start using them:

• All of your images will be available as soon as the main image has loaded (no flickering on roll-overs or other annoyances).
• One HTTP request is made, instead of dozens (or hundreds, in some cases).
• Images have a much higher chance of staying cached on the user’s machine because they are contained in a single file.

Shea’s article points out a lot of cool resources for creating CSS Sprites but misses one that was released not long ago. Sprite Me was produced by Google (under the supervision of Steve Souders) and allows you to create Sprites automatically from any website, even via a bookmarklet. It analyzes the images on a page and offers you various options before generating the Sprite and CSS for you.

Here’s a video of Steve showing Sprite Me in action:

Optimize Your Images

You know now that Page Speed can automatically optimize your images. Another way to do this is with Yahoo’s Smush It, which is a set of image optimization tools that analyze your images, create the smallest possible versions and sends you a ZIP file of them all.

You can use Smush.it directly in the browser or automatically from YSlow. The website tells you how many bytes you can save by optimizing your images. This is yet another cool thing to show potential clients when pitching for a job.

Collate Scripts and Load Scripts on Demand

As noted, try not to spread your <script> nodes all over the document, because the browser stops whenever it encounters one. Instead, insert them as far down in the document as possible.

You could even collate your scripts automatically in one single include using back-end scripts. Edward Eliot wrote one of these in PHP a while ago. It lets you create a single JavaScript include for all of your scripts and one for your CSS files, and it even versions them for you.

JavaScript can be added dynamically to the page after the page has loaded. This technique is called “lazy loading,” and several tools are available to do it. Jan Jarfalk has one to lazy load jQuery plug-ins.

Some JavaScript libraries let you import only what you really need, instead of bringing in the whole singing-and-dancing library. YUI, for example, has a configurator that allows you to pick and choose what you need from the library and either gives you a single URL where you can get the different scripts or creates a JavaScript that loads them on demand:

Notice that a tab tells you what the overall size of the library will be.

The main trick in lazy loading is to dynamically create script nodes with JavaScript after the page has loaded and only when they are needed. I wrote about that two years ago on 24ways, and it has been a best practice for displaying badges and widgets for a long time now.

Use Network Distributed Hosting

If you use a library or CSS provided by a library, make sure to use the hosted versions of the files. In the case of YUI, this is done for you if you use the configurator. And you can pick from Yahoo or Google’s network.

For other libraries, there is a Google code repository of AJAX libraries. This is useful for a few reasons:

• Visitors to your website will get the JavaScript and CSS from the server that is as geographically close to them as possible and won’t have to wait for your server to send the information from around the globe.
• There is a high probability that these servers are faster than yours.
• Visitors who have visited other websites that use the same includes will already have them on their computers and won’t need to load them again.
• You save on bandwidth and can easily upgrade the library by changing the version number of the include.

While you probably wouldn’t be able to afford distributed hosting for your own files, Coral makes an interesting offer to distribute your data onto a network of servers for an affordable $50 a month.

Watch Some Videos

If you want to see how some of this work, check out the following videos, especially Nicole Sullivan’s, which shows some very cool CSS tricks:

• Using YSLow 2.0
• Using Google Page Speed
• Nicole Sullivan tells you not to blame the rounded corners but to design for fast websites
• Steve Souders showing Sprite Me
• Douglas Crockford on AJAX performance.

Follow The Leaders

To learn more about website performance, here are some resources and people to follow. (Be warned: some of the content is technically tough.)

• The Yahoo Developer Network Performance Section
  Home of YSLow and probably the first official performance research website.
• Performance Planet
  A collation of all performance blogs and posts in one RSS feed.
• Steve Souders (@souders)
  Ex-maintainer of the performance section of Yahoo, now at Google. Author of the biggest performance books. And organizer of the Velocity conference.
• Nicole Sullivan (@stubbornella)
  Ex-team member of the performance group at Yahoo and co-creator of Smush.it. Also CSS performance goddess with great tips for designers. Currently working on making Facebook perform better.
• Stoyan Stefanov (@stoyanstefanov)
  Coder of Smush.it and member of the performance team at Yahoo. Created his own advent calendar of performance tips this year, and runs Performance Planet, as mentioned above.
• Ed Eliot and Stuart Colville
  Builders of the CSS Sprite Generator.
• Jake Archibald (@jaffathecake)
  Lead developer of the BBC’s Glow library. Delivered a great talk on performance at this year’s Full Frontal conference.
• Phillip Tellis (@bluesmoon)
  Performance junkie at Yahoo.
• And me, their fanboy and person asking for features: Chris Heilmann (@codepo8).

(al)

© Christian Heilmann for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | 50 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: optimization, performance

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Along with worm wishes with a great new year. I would like to introduce to you Graphic Mania’s first raffle in 2010.

The winner of the raffle will receive a free licence from Flashmoto.com, a Flash CMS system that is designed to provide you an easy method to edit your Flash template site content easily without knowledge of Flash design or developing.

What you need to join the raffle:

Just add a comment to this post telling us what do you like to see in Graphic Mania in 2010. Also, make sure to use the email you used to subscribe in Graphic Mania RSS feed to enter the raffle.

Raffle deadline:

The deadline for this raffle is next Monday Jan. 11, 2010.

The Prize:

The winner will receive a free license from Flashmoto.com CMS with the value of US $ 199.

About Flash CMS:

The fact it Flash sites are more attractive and provide more eye-catching elements comparing with static HTML sites. While it is easy to edit your HTML site without deep programming knowledge, it is not the same for Flash sites. Flash sites need knowledge of Flash design and developing skills. Flashmoto provides you a content management system for your Flash sites that allow you to edit your Flash site’s content, structure and function through easy to use user interface.

Each CMS license includes the following features:

• Any Flash website can be integrated
• No limits in animation and design
• Actionscript 3.0
• Built-in components – news, gallery, music player, contact form
• Custom modules and widgets integration
• FlashMoto API
• Custom fonts support with online fonts generator
• Comprehensive documentation & tutorials

Along with Flashmoto intelligent CMS, you can find large collection of Flash CMS templates in the Flashmoto Flash template gallery. When you buy any of the provided templates, you get a copy of the Flash CMS to enable you to edit your Flash site. Flashmoto templates do not need any requirements on the server. Furthermore, it comes with live-time technical support to help you step by step in building your online business or personal presence.

Related topics you may like to read

• AuroraFlash – Revolutionary Flash Site Builder
• Graphic Mania Best Content Contest Ended
• Graphic Mania Best Content Contest Extended
• Graphic Mania Best Content Contest
• Graphic Mania Contest Last Call, Deadline is Tomorrow!!
• Graphic Mania Big Subscribers Contest 02
• And the Winner Is…
• The First Subscriber Raffle Has Ended
• 2009 Adobe Design Achievement Awards
• Site of the Week Contest

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This round of funding might be particularly significant for the company. "We believe this latest round provides ChaCha the cash required to reach profitability," says CEO Scott A. Jones.

Over the past four years, since its inception, ChaCha has raised about $52 million from prominent tech leaders, venture capitalists, and angel investors. The company says its text service passed Google in mobile text traffic in Q3 2009. According to ChaCha, when the company’s mobile service launched in January 2008, Google SMS had nearly 100% of he mobile text search market, but ChaCha now has more text traffic, coming from users mostly under the age of 25.

That may be why ChaCha is considering itself the "#1 way for advertisers to reach teens and young adults on their mobile phones."

"Given that we started our mobile text service less than 2 years ago, that also makes us the fastest-growing mobile text service that provides advertisers with a way to reach elusive teens and young adults," says Jones. " We have been monetizing from national brands and local businesses who want to be ‘in the conversation.’  We have provided a successful advertising venue for brands, including The CW Network, IKEA, Paramount Pictures, McDonald’s, Palm, Coca Cola, AT&T, J&J, P&G, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and hundreds of other businesses."

"ChaCha acts as a ‘smart friend’ to answer any question via text (or voice, iPhone, or twitter), particularly from college-age and high school-age students," adds Mr. Jones.  "While many headlines frequently report ‘mobile web’ search traffic stats, the reality is that ‘smart phones’ represent less than 20% of phones that are in users’ hands today (iPhones represent about 6%).  For the vast majority of mobile phone users, the common denominator of texting, which works on virtually all phones, is the more universal way to get answers.  Interestingly, our new iPhone app gets MORE engagement from users than our mobile text service, which leads us to believe that ChaCha will be even more successful as smart phones (iPhone, Blackberry, Droid, etc…) continue to proliferate."

Between its mobile and online services, ChaCha has answered over 300 million questions in the past two years. The company cites data from Quantcast, which indicate it gets over 10 million unique monthly visitors in the US.

Related Articles:

> Need Answers? Text ChaCha!

> ChaCha Gets Extra-Important $10M In Funding

> ChaCha Receives $6 Million To Keep Dancing

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People in the US have been unable to use the service so far. There has been talk that this may soon change upon the launch of Google’s Nexus One phone, but this may not happen. There was rumored to be a US Spotify app for Google’s Android ready just in time for the launch of the phone. Michael Arrington reports:

The two companies sketched out a plan where Spotify’s excellent Android application would be build [sic] into the 2.1 version of Android and would launch in the U.S. with the Google Nexus One phone on January 5. The application – which is available in Europe and allows for offline syncing of songs – would give Google a much-needed competitive answer to Apple’s iTunes. The Android could realistically be seen as a media consumption device, like the iPhone, with things like Spotify built into it.

Google wanted Spotify badly enough that they were willing to cover the label costs for every user of $3 – $4 per month. Spotify would add advertising on top of it, as they do with the free version in Europe, to make additional revenue. Without Google paying those label fees there was no way Spotify could handle the costs of the user flow that 2.1 would provide. Currently, European users must pay for Spotify Premium to use the mobile versions of the service.

Those in the US waiting to get their hands on Spotify may have to wait though. Arrington says his sources indicate that the deal has likely "gone cold," but he says there is a chance Spotify could still be part of Google’s Nexus One announcement, slated for Tuesday, January 5.

Such a deal could mean big things for sales of Android devices and really give the iPhone a run for its money. It’s going to be quite interesting to see how the smartphone competition plays out over the course of 2010. This is only the beginning. Even if a deal is not made, Google is clearly interested in the musical side of mobile, and will likely pursue other options.
 

Related Articles:

> Google Phone Excitement Builds Ahead Of Jan. 5 Event

> Android Crowds iPhone In New comScore Report

> New Google Phone Has Tech Community Licking Chops

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1. iXpenseit – The application is US$2.99 and rated 4+ – the application allows the user to easily track his expenses daily and helps with the monthly budgeting.  The application is suitable for both personal and business use.

2. Save Benjis -  The application costs US$0.99 to download and is an app to help you search for the best prices.  Just take a photo of the item you want on your iPhone and let the app do its job.

3.  Bill Minder -  The number one on the Top Paid  app for Money Management costs US$0.99.  The application simplifies your life by tracking your bills, now you won’t need to miss the due dates when its time to pay those monthly bills.

There are a lot more applications you can check out HERE.  The list above are those that can really help simplify and make managing your money easier.

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