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Tuesday Total Textures is post series that will bring a new life to your Tuesdays. Every week I’ll be posting some free hi resolution textures that you can use in your projects. Check out this week’s textures, download the ones you like and start making your texture collection.

<!–break–>

Click on the texture you like to get directed to the download page

Bulletin Board

by subspaceNinja

Distressed

by Manarangi

Flower Wall

by waterweed-stock

Old Bricks

by ntyb

Ragged

by JWJjjoj

Blue Rust

by sarahwerrin

Metallic Purple Vortex

by tatt2dchic

Tangle

by pendlestock

Hair Texture

by djsoundwav

Wrinkled Paper

by texturezine

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In this week’s 7 minute episode of Doctype Jim covers jQTouch, a plugin for jQuery that enables quick iPhone websites, and Nick talks about how to design for the small screen.

Think Vitamin will be bringing you two further episodes of Doctype so be sure to check back next Tuesday for the next installment.

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Read the rest of Dell Adding Enterprise OptiPlex XE Desktop [New OptiPlex Features Tough Case, Core 2 Duo, ATI graphics]

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Image by HGruber.

Men’s Fitness offers 101 ways to get rid of a flabby gut and trim down your middle. Many of the tips are things we’ve all heard before—like cut back on fatty foods and eat more fiber, but there’s lots of cool ideas that aren’t so obvious. For instance, did you know that a cardio workout you do after lifting weights will have a greater impact than if you do it before lifting?

Speaking of weightlifting, you don’t have to power through 500 reps for an hour every day day to get results:

If you’re lazy, it’s not as bad as you think—just 10 minutes a day of lifting, three days a week, will help. Harvard research shows that 30 minutes of weight training per week has a greater reduction on waist size than almost any other variable.

Hit up the post for more ideas on how to blast belly fat and get svelte. Of course the tips will work for women and men so, ladies, we have no excuses for not heading over and grabbing some tips for ourselves.

Have you trimmed inches or pounds off your waistline? What exercise and diet tips worked for you? Let us know in the comments. Thanks Brian!

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I read A LOT of web design posts during a week and thought that the very best articles deserved to be shared with you, my wonderful readers. So be sure to check back here every Saturday to find some great web design links.

Whitespace The Underutilized Design Element

In Defense Of Vertical Navigation

Process Of Redesigning N.Design

24 UX Articles To Start 2010

The Web Designers Guide To User Experience

Charles Elena Design Review

12 Killer Tips For Designing In The Browser

4 Rules For Pitching To Offline Clients

If you like this post you may also want to look at:

Blue Website Showcase

Guerrilla Advertising – Creative Attention Seeking #4

Why not follow me on twitter: @atikusdesign
or to ensure you are updated with every D-Lists posts follow: @d_lists

Did you enjoy this post? If so please share and allow others to enjoy it:

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Dark Tiger

Download

Wallpaper Resolutions:

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• iPhone

Production & Process

I created this design around October, when I tried to design something everyday for a whole month. I had a stock photo of a tiger and I wanted to do something creative with it. I started off with a radial gradient going from black to brown. I then overlayed a tiger skin and a rough paper texture over the original background. I then extracted the tiger from its background and placed it over the background.

I also added some paint textures and splatter. Next, I wanted to darken up the image a bit and enhance the contrast, so I played around with some blending modes. Lastly, because the tiger’s eyes started to get too dark, I brightened up their eyes and made it stand out more.

Quick Summary

• Estimated time: 1.5 hours
• Tools: Photoshop
• Total Layers Used: 31

Screenshots

Please share your thoughts about this wallpaper on the comments section below. If you liked this wallpaper, please tell your friends by re-tweeting it. You can also subscribe to the RSS Feed.

Related posts:

1. Wallpaper of the Week – Colourful Universe
2. Wallpaper of the Week – Solid
3. Wallpaper of the Week – Escape

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What a week! I am still kind of reeling from the devastation that occurred down in Haiti, which actually hits very close to home for me. I’ve already started doing some design work to help drum up funds for the relief work. I’ll be posting more on that, and my own personal connection to Haiti later.

I’ve also been extremely busy with client projects – specifically, I’ve been working on a couple of websites, both of which are approaching completion. I’ll also be posting about those once they’re all done and have gone live.

All told, that’s why it’s been a bit quiet here on the Echo Enduring Blog this week. I do have a long line of content lined up though. It’s just a matter of getting in written, polished and posted. Hopefully you will see more of that over the coming weeks!

Now on to this week’s Echoes!

Logo – Living Grace Lutheran Church

It’s always great to see a well designed church logo that moves beyond the simple cliches that so many of them seem to use – a dove, a simple cross, a globe. This week’s logo is just such an example!

Living Grace Lutheran Church

Okay, so the logo is not entirely devoid of the cross image, but I’ll cut the designer some slack. The cross is the quintessential symbol of Christianity, so it only makes sense to have it reflected in a church logo. What I like about this one, though, is that the designer didn’t just fall back into the same old version of the cross. Actually, the cross shape is almost secondary. The first thing most people will see when they look at this is the tree.

There is actually a scriptural basis for the tree metaphor. In the book of Acts, the apostle Peter refers to the cross as a tree, and throughout the Gospels, Jesus presents several parables in which he talks about trees. I won’t get into the specifics here, but the image of the tree works very well for a Church.

It also does a nice job of dividing the background of the logo into four quadrants, which are coloured differently, to suggest the four different seasons. This suggests that the church itself is a church for all seasons, or, if reading the metaphor a bit more deeply, for all ages.

Art – Chaos

Even though I got a lot of my inner geekiness out in my “If Photoshop Was Batman, Then Illustrator Would Be…” post, there’s always room for a little bit more with me. So, when I came across this incredible painting of the Joker, I just knew I would have to feature it here in Echoes.

Chaos

I feel that the composition of this piece perfectly reflects the damaged psyche of the Joker character. The image itself is broken and distorted, just like the Joker himself. At least, we assume that the Joker is broken and distorted. It is entirely possible, however, that he is actually quite sane – and just completely evil. But that’s an entirely different can of worms.

There is something very interesting about the eyes in this one, though. They look almost calm and serene, states of being that are certainly not traditionally associated with the psyco-sociopathic clown. The make-up is also made to look more like paint, which appears to be melting off of the Joker’s face, further suggesting that the maniacal persona is exactly that, just a persona that the Joker puts on.

An interesting idea, and an awesome painting.

Tutorial – Design a Surreal Desert Scene in Photoshop

It’s been a while since I’ve featured a complex photo manipulation tutorial here on Echoes, so that’s what we will be looking at this week. The tutorial is from Tutorial 9, and provides in-depth, step by step instructions on exactly how to create a surrealistic scene using an interesting variety of different pieces of photographs.

Design a Surreal Desert Scene in Photoshop

Like most photo manipulation tutorials of this type, this one involves a lot of cutting elements out of their backgrounds, layering them over top of one another and using a variety of blending modes and other techniques to bring them all together into one cohesive looking final image. I don’t find that there’s anything really all that mysterious in this one. It makes some interesting use of levels for some colour adjustments, and does a good job of creating realistic shadows. Basically, though, it’s just a solid exercise in blending different photographic elements.

I also particularly like the techniques from the final few steps, which use some gradient maps and blending modes in order to really brighten up the image and give it that dreamy, surrealistic look. Those techniques are enough, in and of themselves, to make this a valuable tutorial.

I just have one question. Why does so much surrealistic art want to include clocks? Think Salvador Dali…

Website – Denise Chandler Website

Here’s a cool little site that came across in one of the CSS galleries that I frequent. This one has a pretty cool design, with a few interesting features.

Denise Chandler Website

For the most part, this is a minimalist site. The design elements themselves are relatively simple, and there is not a lot of excess decoration going on, and virtually no texture. Of course, the big, bold header of a question contrasts beautifully against this minimalism, giving the site immediate weight and impact from the moment it opens in the viewer’s browser window.

It’s also the first phrase of what seems to be somewhat self-effacing copy throughout the site. It’s all carefully chosen, of course, and crafted to make it seem like Denise doesn’t take herself too seriously (and she probably doesn’t). I’ve noticed that this is kind of a trend these days on designer sites. I wonder if the humour is beneficial?

The coolest part of this site has to be the bees though. The two very simply rendered little insects buzz merrily around the top of the page. This is a great example of how to give a bit of life to a static design without using flash. The bees exist simply as animated GIFs. Yes, that’s right – animated GIFs. They do still exist, and can have a purpose in the modern web beyond just advertisement banners! Very cool!

Well that’s it for this week’s Echoes. Which ones were your favorites? As always, if you know of any designs, tutorials or art that merits being included in a future post, feel free to let me know about it!

And please do keep the people of Haiti in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you.

Exclusive Content

To thank you for subscribing to my feed, I am including exclusive, feed-only content for you at the bottom of each post!

Current Freebie Code – 0rx655ws

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Read the rest of HarperCollins Negotiating an eBook Deal With Apple For Its Tablet [New Apple Tablet to Bring eBook Support When Released?]

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While pondering ideas to cap off the week, I thought it would be a good chance to take a look back at the popular posts over the last couple weeks as well as some of the upcoming posts and contests. Also, I would never leave you guys without a tasty morsel of contesty-goodness if I could help it — so read on to see what goodies you can grab from CodeCanyon.

In Review

Now that I’ve picked up the reigns here, I’m gaining speed and planning some great stuff for later. So far though, these are a few of the posts that have been most popular.

Myows

Instant Copyright Protection with Myows

As a digital media author and HTML/CSS template reviewer at ThemeForest.net, I know first hand how frustrating copyright can be — especially for those who pay their bills with the works they create. It’s difficult, at best, to keep an eye out for people infringing on your works let alone attempting to do something about it. Even worse, authors can be accused of copyright infringement by those who may know nothing about it, causing serious problems for (an often innocent) author.

(read more…)

Setup Your Personalized Google Apps Suite

Setup Your Personalized Google Apps Suite

Google provides a powerful suite of web applications ranging from email and calendar to documents, chat and sites [and so much more]. For web professionals, the typical “@gmail.com” just won’t do. Thankfully, Google offers a professional version (called Google Apps) for professionals, educators, non-profits and government.

(read more…)

5 Great IDEs to Start Coding in the Cloud

5 Great IDEs to Start Coding in the Cloud

Cloud computing has started proceeding beyond the hype stage and into the beginning of mainstream adoption. Gartner had included cloud computing in their list of Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2009. They also reported that worldwide cloud services revenue is on pace to surpass $56.3 billion in 2009.

(read more…)

Getting Things Done with Google Calendar

Getting Things Done with Google Calendar

It’s 2010 and it’s time to get things done! Okay, 2010 or not, many of us are always looking for a better way to manage our tasks, events and goals. The truth of task management is that there’s no single best way to tackle it for everyone. It will depend on your style of management, your interaction preferences and how the solution integrates into your current workflow.

(read more…)

Upcoming

Transitioning into 2010 I took a moment to list some of the planned improvements for this year. Those are still on the way! While I can’t give too many secrets away too far in advance, here’s a few sneak peaks of upcoming posts.

FormSpring

FormSpring

Next week we’ll be reviewing FormSpring and some of its awesome capabilities and uses. FormSpring will also be giving away a couple paid accounts. That giveaway will accompany the review!

Twitter Customizations

Twitter Customization

There are some great apps for customizing your Twitter page as well as using Twitter in other places. We’ll take a look at a few of those apps and services as well as show how to use a few of them.

Threadsy

Threadsy

You may have heard of Threadsy, a really exciting, upcoming web app. We’ll be reviewing Threadsy and to cap off the week (next week), Threadsy will be giving away a ton of invites for Web.AppStorm readers!

CodeCanyon Contest!

As a web developer, I’m always watching for new files at ThemeForest and CodeCanyon. The CodeCanyon marketplace has lots of great web application elements and even some full blown web applications. These are some great items to include at Web.AppStorm occasionally, even if they are a little more developer-centric.

CodeCanyon Contest

For contest entry you’ll need to complete the following.

1. Browse the CodeCanyon marketplace and select an item you would purchase and use.
2. Tweet @WebAppStorm with how you would use the item.
3. Leave a comment below, letting us know how you would use the item, also include your Twitter username.
4. Make sure you’re following @WebAppStorm to find out who the winners are!

Three winners will be chosen at random at the end of Sunday night, Pacific Time. Each winner will receive the CodeCanyon item they chose. Winners will be announced via Twitter Monday morning.

Please Note: Envato staff are ineligible to enter.

- -

Winners: The winners have been randomly selected and contacted. Thanks @AlexDenning, @webbografico and @zarathos!

Thanks for participating everyone!

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So that whole mobile local, “check in when you go out” space? It’s so on.

This week we pit three of the top local check-in services against each other for the title of Check-in Champion: Foursquare, Gowalla, and Yelp.

As you may know, we’ve been doing a long-running Faceoff Series here at Mashable where we pit similar services and products against each other to see who can win the hearts and minds of Mashable readers. This time we look at two fairly established competitors in the mobile local space, Foursquare and Gowalla, and see how they stack up against the major competitor who just stepped in to challenge them: Yelp.

The long-standing local social network just last week added the ability to check-in to venues you visit, putting it squarely on the playing field in the mobile local arena. Yelp doesn’t yet offer the same level of “game-like” points and achievements for contributing your social life’s location metadata, but it does offer an incredibly deep set of data surrounding place information and user ratings and opinions. It will be interesting to see how this space shakes out with these various players’ different takes on the mobile social experience.

And right now, we’re asking you, dear Mashable reader, to stake your claim on which of these three mobile applications is your favorite. If you could only check in to a single site (and let’s face it, who wants to keep up with a multitude of check-ins every time you arrive somewhere?), which would you pick?

Leave your vote below; the poll will remain open until noon PST on Friday, January 22. Be sure to let us know in the comments who you voted the way you did, too.

Who would win in a fight: Yelp, Foursquare, or Gowalla?(online surveys)

Web Faceoff: Overall Results

Week 1:
– Mozilla Firefox vs. Google Chrome
– WINNER: Firefox, 4600 votes (Chrome: 3310 votes, Tie: 911 votes)

Week 2:
– Tumblr vs. Posterous
– WINNER: Tumblr, 1809 votes (Posterous: 1496 votes, Tie: 256 votes)

Week 3:
– Pandora vs. Last.fm
– WINNER: Last.fm, 1187 votes (Pandora: 1156 votes, Tie: 122 votes)

Week 4:
– Twitter vs. Facebook
– WINNER: Facebook, 2484 votes (Twitter: 2061 votes, Tie: 588 votes)

Week 5:
– WordPress vs. Typepad
– WINNER: WordPress, 2714 votes (Typepad: 267 votes, Tie: 357 votes)

Week 6:
– Windows 7 vs. Snow Leopard
– WINNER: Windows 7, 3632 votes (Snow Leopard: 3278 votes, Tie: 121 votes)

Week 7:
– TweetDeck vs. Seesmic Desktop
– WINNER: TweetDeck, 3294 votes (Seesmic Desktop: 1055 votes, Tie: 260 votes)

Week 8:
– Microsoft Office vs. Google Docs
– WINNER: Microsoft Office, 1365 votes (Google Docs: 994 votes, Tie: 315 votes)

Week 9:
– Apple iPhone vs. Google Android
– WINNER: Google Android, 3323 votes (Apple iPhone: 1494 votes, Tie: 228 votes)

Week 10:
– AT&T vs. Verizon
– WINNER: Verizon, 1161 votes (AT&T: 538 votes, Tie: 118 votes)

Week 11:
– Google vs. Bing
– WINNER: Google, 2180 votes (Bing: 519 votes, Tie: 97 votes)

Week 12:
– iPod Touch/iPhone vs. Nintendo DS vs. Sony PSP
– WINNER: iPod Touch/iPhone, 704 votes (Sony PSP: 639 votes, Nintendo DS: 482 votes, Tie: 108 votes)

Week 13:
– Digg vs. Reddit vs. StumbleUpon
– WINNER: Digg, 14,762 votes (Reddit: 11,466 votes, StumbleUpon: 2507 votes, Tie: 1032 votes)

Week 14:
– Old versus new Twitter retweets
– WINNER: Old style retweets, 1625 votes (New style retweets: 699 votes, Tie: 227 votes)

Week 15:
– Gmail vs. Outlook
– WINNER: Gmail, 3684 votes (Outlook: 980 votes, Tie: 590 votes)

Week 16:
– Boxee vs. Hulu
– WINNER: Hulu, 626 votes (Boxee: 591 votes, Tie: 106 votes)

Week 17:
– Nexus One vs. iPhone 3GS
– WINNER: Nexus One, 6743 votes (iPhone 3GS: 2818 votes, Tie: 592 votes)

Tags: -local, foursquare, gowalla, iphone, lbs, Mobile 2.0, mobile local, polls, social media, web faceoff, yelp

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The best way to keep track of our tweets is simply to follow us on Twitter, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the best tweets that we sent out this past week.

Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that we tweeted about, so don’t miss out.

To keep up to date with all the cool links, simply follow us @DesignerDepot

10 Keys to Growth as a Designer: http://bit.ly/85TvVc

How to create funny swirls in Illustrator: http://bit.ly/6RQ6Rf

Printers from hell? http://bit.ly/5gSM2y

To Serif or Sans-Serif, That is The Question: http://bit.ly/7laIpZ

Stunning Bokeh Textures: http://bit.ly/4Q9efG

12 Killer Tips for Designing in the Browser: http://bit.ly/55RE9g

On font pairing in logo design: http://bit.ly/81gGYz

The Case Against Vertical Navigation: http://bit.ly/5F8clt

Let Your Audience Guide Your Design! http://bit.ly/5v3q3y

The six fundamental ways of adding depth to your designs: http://bit.ly/5AsYjA

What happens when you mix living room furniture and the male form? http://bit.ly/8rrDsO (via @Behance)

On the Track of Good Type: http://bit.ly/51bOX9

Designer Desks to Kill For: http://bit.ly/4xSCKV

Designing an Idea – How to Beautify your Inspiration: http://bit.ly/75O2pl

How to Make Yourself Stand Out as a Freelancer: http://bit.ly/4QFd1p

Usability Study: Shopping For Bedsheets – How Hard Could It Be?: http://bit.ly/5NVzt6

Principles of Great Design: Craftsmanship: http://bit.ly/8YpT7C

Packaging Designs That Pack A Punch: http://bit.ly/6YU2aj

All the Apple tablet rumors in one picture: http://bit.ly/8zhTiY

Clever and Creative IKEA Advertising: http://bit.ly/5e1MIU

Want more? No problem! Keep track of all our tweets by following us @DesignerDepot

If you find an exclusive RSS freebie on this feed or on the live WDD website, please use the following code to download it: E0th0K

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The content revolves around web design, blogging and funny situations that we encounter in our daily lives as designers.

These great cartoons are created by Jerry King, an award-winning cartoonist who’s one of the most published, prolific and versatile cartoonists in the world today.

So for a few moments, take a break from your daily routine, have a laugh and enjoy these funny cartoons.

Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions below as well as any related stories of your own…

A Marketing Genius

Bad Timing

We’re in the Money

Can you relate to these situations? Please share your funny stories and comments below…

If you find an exclusive RSS freebie on this feed or on the live WDD website, please use the following code to download it: E0th0K

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I’m starting to think that Apple and the iPhone should be a bit concerned, because its Google-built Android rival is quickly gaining goodwill and market share.

Every week, we host a poll series on Mashable called the Web Faceoff, where we give you the reader a choice between two or three major tech or web-related products to choose from. In this week’s edition, we asked you to choose between the Nexus One and the iPhone 3GS, two of the best smartphones on the market.

After more than 10,000 votes, the Nexus One has thoroughly annihilated the iPhone 3GS. The Nexus One captured a full 66% of the poll (6743 votes), while the iPhone 3GS was only able to muster 28% support (2818 votes). 592 of you declared it a tie.

This result almost exactly mirrors our Android vs. iPhone OS poll, where Android garnered 66% of the vote to the iPhone OS’s 30%. Still, we’re shocked that a device that’s only been out for a few weeks could crush Apple’s device so thoroughly.

Our conclusion: Android and the Nexus One are charging at full steam. If Apple isn’t careful, it could eventually find its cell phone in second place.

Who Would win in a fight: Nexus One or iPhone?(online surveys)

Web Faceoff: Overall Results

Week 1:
– Mozilla Firefox vs. Google Chrome
– WINNER: Firefox, 4600 votes (Chrome: 3310 votes, Tie: 911 votes)

Week 2:
– Tumblr vs. Posterous
– WINNER: Tumblr, 1809 votes (Posterous: 1496 votes, Tie: 256 votes)

Week 3:
– Pandora vs. Last.fm
– WINNER: Last.fm, 1187 votes (Pandora: 1156 votes, Tie: 122 votes)

Week 4:
– Twitter vs. Facebook
– WINNER: Facebook, 2484 votes (Twitter: 2061 votes, Tie: 588 votes)

Week 5:
– WordPress vs. Typepad
– WINNER: WordPress, 2714 votes (Typepad: 267 votes, Tie: 357 votes)

Week 6:
– Windows 7 vs. Snow Leopard
– WINNER: Windows 7, 3632 votes (Snow Leopard: 3278 votes, Tie: 121 votes)

Week 7:
– TweetDeck vs. Seesmic Desktop
– WINNER: TweetDeck, 3294 votes (Seesmic Desktop: 1055 votes, Tie: 260 votes)

Week 8:
– Microsoft Office vs. Google Docs
– WINNER: Microsoft Office, 1365 votes (Google Docs: 994 votes, Tie: 315 votes)

Week 9:
– Apple iPhone vs. Google Android
– WINNER: Google Android, 3323 votes (Apple iPhone: 1494 votes, Tie: 228 votes)

Week 10:
– AT&T vs. Verizon
– WINNER: Verizon, 1161 votes (AT&T: 538 votes, Tie: 118 votes)

Week 11:
– Google vs. Bing
– WINNER: Google, 2180 votes (Bing: 519 votes, Tie: 97 votes)

Week 12:
– iPod Touch/iPhone vs. Nintendo DS vs. Sony PSP
– WINNER: iPod Touch/iPhone, 704 votes (Sony PSP: 639 votes, Nintendo DS: 482 votes, Tie: 108 votes)

Week 13:
– Digg vs. Reddit vs. StumbleUpon
– WINNER: Digg, 14,762 votes (Reddit: 11,466 votes, StumbleUpon: 2507 votes, Tie: 1032 votes)

Week 14:
– Old versus new Twitter retweets
– WINNER: Old style retweets, 1625 votes (New style retweets: 699 votes, Tie: 227 votes)

Week 15:
– Gmail vs. Outlook
– WINNER: Gmail, 3684 votes (Outlook: 980 votes, Tie: 590 votes)

Week 16:
– Boxee vs. Hulu
– WINNER: Hulu, 626 votes (Boxee, 591 votes, Tie: 106 votes)

Tags: apple, Google, iphone, iphone 3Gs, Mobile 2.0, nexus one, poll, web faceoff

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Related posts:

1. Attitude Twitter update for the week (2010-01-08)
2. Attitude Twitter update for the week (2009-10-09)
3. Attitude Twitter update for the week (2010-01-01)

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The wallpaper of this week is a very colorful image created by Fatkur Rokhim, a freelancer designer from Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Fatkur is also known as “svpermchine” at his Deviantart profile and he sent this wallpaper to us, so if you have a wallpaper and you want it to be featured on the Wallpaper of the Week, just let us know. Send it via email to abduzeedo@abduzeedo.com

For more information visit Fatkur’s DeviantArt profile.

Desktop Version

iPhone Version

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The search giant sold 20,000 phones since launching Jan. 5, said Flurry, which makes its estimate by tracking use of mobile applications. By comparison, Apple and AT&T sold iPhone 3GS phones in their first week last June, and Verizon sold 250,000 Motorola Droids in their first week on the market in November, the San Francisco-based group reported. Even T-Mobile’s myTouch — an Android device that started selling on the network last August — scored more sales in its first week, at 60,000.

The sluggish start bears out — for now, anyway — skepticism about Google’s entry into retailing with a strategy of bypassing carrier stores and relying on its own marketing. Instead of going the usual route, Google opted to sell the phone, which is currently available in a $529 unlocked version or a $179 version with a 2-year T-Mobile contract, exclusively online through Google’s site.

“While this distribution strategy is among the most innovative facets of the Nexus One launch, and a threat to carrier control of the consumer relationship, a series of customer service and other mistakes reveal Google’s lack of retail experience,” Flurry’s marketing director Peter Farago said in a blog post on the company’s site.

A Google spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment

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A recent report coming from mobile app analysts from Flurry (sounds more like a wild guesstimate), has revealed that in its first week the new Google Nexus One has only managed to sell 20,000 units. It might surprise some, but our impression is that Google never wanted a create a big buzz around their phone — although they definitely have the power and the means to do it — hence why the Nexus One can’t even compare to the likes of Motorola Droid that sold some 250,000 units or the iPhone 3GS that had 1.6 million buyers in the first seven days.

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Originally posted at Digital Noise: Music and Tech

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At CES last week, one of the stories was tablets, with the impending Apple i-whatever, the HP/Microsoft tablet, and other companies trying to get their attempts into the ring. Cowon quietly showed off their W2 MID device last week. While the company may be better known for their PMP products, the specs on their W2 MID looked worthy.

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Read the rest of Cowon W2 MID Revealed [Cowon's MID Shown Off At CES, 4.8-inch Screen, Atom Processor, Windows 7]

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While we don’t have any solid numbers on Nexus One sales just yet, we can take an educated guess. And if we base that guess on Flurry, which monitors usage of over 10,000 developers’ applications on iPhone and Android platforms, the results are less than stellar.

According to Flurry, only about 20,000 Nexus Ones were sold in its first week on the market. It was outsold by Droid by more than 12 times, myTouch 3G by 3 times and iPhone 3GS by 80 times.

Here’s how the folks at Flurry came with this number:

“To estimate first week sales totals for the Nexus One, myTouch 3G, Droid and iPhone 3GS, Flurry detected new handsets within its system, and then made adjustments to account for varying levels of Flurry application penetration by handset. Flurry additionally crosschecked its estimates against Apple actual sales, released for iPhone 3GS, which totaled more than one million units over the three days, June 19 – 21, 2009. Flurry first week sales estimates can be found in the table below.”

Nexus One was a highly anticipated mobile phone, but Google didn’t spend millions of dollars advertising it, opting for a sort of a soft launch for the device. It’s also sold directly to the consumers through Google’s website, which may be an innovative approach, but it can also hurt sales. Motorola, on the other hand, had spent close to 100 million dollars advertising the Droid, and if Flurry’s numbers are correct, it definitely shows the difference a good advertising campaign can make.

[Image courtesy of Flurry]

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Last week HP introduced six new notebooks aimed at the professional market. The ProBook and EliteBook aren’t any sort of netbook or ultraportable – instead, they’re good old fashioned full-sized, fully powered notebooks for the business market.

(…)
Read the rest of HP ProBook, EliteBook Notebooks Refreshed [HP Adding Core i7, USB 3.0]

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What’s Required

1. A solid grasp of the English language.
2. Consistency. You must submit one article each week – the day to be determined between the two of us.

I’m Interested. What Next?

You have a few options:

1. Email nettuts@tutsplus.com with your first tutorial idea. I’ll either okay it or request a different topic.
2. Take the initiative and prepare a high-quality design article, and submit it to nettuts@tutsplus.com.
3. Leave a comment with any questions that you might have.

When you’re ready to begin writing, be sure to take a look at our formatting instructions.

How Much Does the Job Pay?

You’ll be offered $150 per article for your first few submissions. However, once you’ve consistently submitted a weekly article for a month, your pay will be upped to $200 per article.

• Follow us on Twitter, or subscribe to the Nettuts+ RSS Feed for the best web development tutorials on the web.

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Today we start a new post series that will bring a new life to your Tuesdays. Every week I’ll be posting some free hi resolution textures that you can use in your projects. Check out this week’s textures, download the ones you like and start making your texture collection.

<!–break–>

Click on the texture you like to get directed to the download page

Wood Texture

by SynGT

Leaves

by pendlestock

Old Paper

by Ayelie-stock

Gravel

by ntyb

Black Board

by djsoundwav

Rusty Metal

by ntyb

Old Bricks

by ntyb

Hair

by tatt2dchic

Old Newspaper

by powerpuffjazz

Wrinkled Paper

by Manarangi

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Thanks to Archnemesis_Goldenhair for the great picture.

The open thread is, and shall always be, your weekly opportunity to talk it out with your fellow Lifehacker readers. Ask questions, offer advice, share the progress of your resolutions, or go entirely off topic with whatever you like. You can continue the conversation at any time of the week at the #openthread hashtag page, but this is the day you’re sure to get the most replies. All you’ll need to participate is a commenter account. Happy Friday!

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The best way to keep track of our tweets is simply to follow us on Twitter, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the best tweets that we sent out this past week.

Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that we tweeted about, so don’t miss out.

To keep up to date with all the cool links, simply follow us @DesignerDepot

The Funny and Bizarre World of Client Requests: http://bit.ly/82SjGM

Ok, this is scary and absolutely beautiful (pic) – http://bit.ly/70aPE9 (via @smashingmag)

The New Designer – Are You Still Relevant? http://bit.ly/5zZU6H

A guy designs his own Iron Man costume: http://bit.ly/1RH9ED

Tools, Tricks, and Resources for Boosting Productivity with Firefox: http://bit.ly/5dzU16

A UI Design and Prototyping Treasure Chest: http://bit.ly/6Zy0ZJ

The Voglreiter Auto house in Germany: http://bit.ly/91bVv8

Smiling… http://bit.ly/8mUKw1

What High Tech Offices Used to Look Like: http://bit.ly/8ms4jK

Digging into WordPress, the book: http://bit.ly/7UYWZW

Your Personality, Summarized in a Typeface: http://bit.ly/6L8orG

A New Kind of New Year’s Resolution: Saying No: http://bit.ly/7mhAMn

The Risk of Being Unique – The Logic of Design Styles: http://bit.ly/5YNnuN

Anaglyphic Text Effects with CSS: http://bit.ly/5QpMAP

Must see! Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival: http://bit.ly/81wvUL

Stop Using Stock Photography Clichés: http://bit.ly/8wZm0Q

When Clients Take Too Much Design Control: http://bit.ly/4Bw3Ef

40 Striking High Resolution Photography Wallpapers From National Geographic: http://bit.ly/6BGIh4

Lorem Ipsum is Killing Your Designs: http://bit.ly/5FD73h

Ambient user experience: http://bit.ly/7snZlg

Want more? No problem! Keep track of all our tweets by following us @DesignerDepot

If you find an exclusive RSS freebie on this feed or on the live WDD website, please use the following code to download it: C5aI5x

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The content revolves around web design, blogging and funny situations that we encounter in our daily lives as designers.

These great cartoons are created by Jerry King, an award-winning cartoonist who’s one of the most published, prolific and versatile cartoonists in the world today.

So for a few moments, take a break from your daily routine, have a laugh and enjoy these funny cartoons.

Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions below as well as any related stories of your own…

The Price of Marketing

Dream a Little Dream

The Smell of Success

Can you relate to these situations? Please share your funny stories and comments below…

If you find an exclusive RSS freebie on this feed or on the live WDD website, please use the following code to download it: C7kj9r

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Another Mashable Faceoff in our series wraps this week, and it was an appropriate one given the prevalence of online TV solutions on hand here this week at CES. We pitted two online video favorites against each other in a head-to-head battle, and have the results below.

It was a close race. Premium content portal Hulu pulled it out by a narrow 35 vote margin in the end, capturing 47% of the vote to Boxee social media center’s 45%.

What do you think of the results — did you expect a clearer winner? How do you get your online TV fix?

Who would win in a fight: Boxee or Hulu?(polls)

Web Faceoff: Overall Results

Week 1:
– Mozilla Firefox vs. Google Chrome
– WINNER: Firefox, 4600 votes (Chrome: 3310 votes, Tie: 911 votes)

Week 2:
– Tumblr vs. Posterous
– WINNER: Tumblr, 1809 votes (Posterous: 1496 votes, Tie: 256 votes)

Week 3:
– Pandora vs. Last.fm
– WINNER: Last.fm, 1187 votes (Pandora: 1156 votes, Tie: 122 votes)

Week 4:
– Twitter vs. Facebook
– WINNER: Facebook, 2484 votes (Twitter: 2061 votes, Tie: 588 votes)

Week 5:
– WordPress vs. Typepad
– WINNER: WordPress, 2714 votes (Typepad: 267 votes, Tie: 357 votes)

Week 6:
– Windows 7 vs. Snow Leopard
– WINNER: Windows 7, 3632 votes (Snow Leopard: 3278 votes, Tie: 121 votes)

Week 7:
– TweetDeck vs. Seesmic Desktop
– WINNER: TweetDeck, 3294 votes (Seesmic Desktop: 1055 votes, Tie: 260 votes)

Week 8:
– Microsoft Office vs. Google Docs
– WINNER: Microsoft Office, 1365 votes (Google Docs: 994 votes, Tie: 315 votes)

Week 9:
– Apple iPhone vs. Google Android
– WINNER: Google Android, 3323 votes (Apple iPhone: 1494 votes, Tie: 228 votes)

Week 10:
– AT&T vs. Verizon
– WINNER: Verizon, 1161 votes (AT&T: 538 votes, Tie: 118 votes)

Week 11:
– Google vs. Bing
– WINNER: Google, 2180 votes (Bing: 519 votes, Tie: 97 votes)

Week 12:
– iPod Touch/iPhone vs. Nintendo DS vs. Sony PSP
– WINNER: iPod Touch/iPhone, 704 votes (Sony PSP: 639 votes, Nintendo DS: 482 votes, Tie: 108 votes)

Week 13:
– Digg vs. Reddit vs. StumbleUpon
– WINNER: Digg, 14,762 votes (Reddit: 11,466 votes, StumbleUpon: 2507 votes, Tie: 1032 votes)

Week 14:
– Old versus new Twitter retweets
– WINNER: Old style retweets, 1625 votes (New style retweets: 699 votes, Tie: 227 votes)

Week 15:
– Gmail vs. Outlook
– WINNER: Gmail, 3684 votes (Outlook: 980 votes, Tie: 590 votes)

Week 16:
– Boxee vs. Hulu
– WINNER: Hulu, 626 votes (Boxee, 591 votes, Tie: 106 votes)

Tags: boxee, hulu, internet tv, ONLINE VIDEO, polls, social media center, software, tv, web faceoff

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With 100,000 gadget fans attending the tech mecca that’s CES this week, it’s worth noting that the month’s two biggest product launches are happening elsewhere: Google chose to launch its Nexus One this Tuesday in Mountain View, while the Apple iSlate may be unveiled in San Francisco later this month.

Perhaps just as remarkable: the gadgets that define technology’s future aren’t solely about hardware specs anymore. Rather, it’s all about content: app stores that hope to gain critical mass and create an insurmountable lead.

That’s the topic of my CNN column this week.

Check out the column at CNN.com >>

Tags: Apple Tablet, CES, cnn, google nexus one, iSlate, nexus one

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John Thornton (@JohnThornton) played in the NFL for 10 seasons with the Titans (1999-2002) and Bengals (2003-2008). He now runs Jockbiz.com, hosts “Bengals Rountable” on 700WLW in Cincinnati, and blogs at Allproblogger.com.

This is the first full NFL season where a large number of players have used Twitter and other forms of social media to engage with fans. The off-the-field life of a pro athlete was previously limited to MTV Cribs or tabloid web sites. Now, all you have to do is follow your favorite athlete on Twitter to find out everything you need to know. And for the most part, players have not abused the rules that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell set before the season — no tweeting 90 minutes before the game, and no tweeting after the game until the media session is over. The NFL knew it had a monster on its hands, which is why they opted not to outlaw social media altogether.

NFL coaches hate the fact that players use Twitter, and certain teams don’t allow their players to tweet. But the majority of coaches just tell their players to be careful. Now that the playoffs are here, players and coaches will get extremely tight with information. Still, some players will still rely on Twitter to talk to fans during down times before the big game. Here are three things that I’m looking forward to on Twitter during this NFL Wild Card Weekend.

1. Chad Ochocinco (Bengals) Vs. Darrelle Revis (Jets)

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These two have been going at it for over a week now. Last week it was all fun and games. The teams played in a game that was basically meaningless for the Bengals, but meant everything to the Jets. Chad started off the week by letting Darrelle know what he was in for and how Darrelle couldn’t cover him one on one. Darelle fired back by letting Chad know that he would cover him with ease. Both guys had fun with it, and Darrelle’s Jets went on to beat Chad’s Bengals 37-0 on Sunday night.

Luckily for football fans, there will be a rematch this weekend in Cincinnati. But if you’ll notice, both players are putting the brakes on the tweeting. Why? It’s the playoffs, and there’s a lot at stake. Players don’t want to be accused of causing a distraction or providing bulletin board material for the other team.

If Chad Ochocinco repeats last week’s tweeting and then goes out to have zero catches like he did in the 37-0 game, people would speculate that Chad’s tweeting was a distraction that contributed to a loss. I played with Chad for six years in Cincinnati, and he is the one guy I know who could talk all week and back it up when the game rolled around. But I’m sure he doesn’t want to give the fans and media a reason to blame him for distracting his young team in the playoffs.

I have also been good friends with Darrelle for five years, and he is normally a quiet and focused guy. I know he won’t let Twitter get in his way this week. But if Chad decided to stir up another online rivalry, Darrelle wouldn’t back down — it’s all in good fun. This will be another great match-up in Cincinnati on Saturday, both on the field and on Twitter after the game.

2. NFL Reporters

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Social media has changed the way that journalists cover sports, and Twitter has become a great platform for NFL reporters. I don’t even watch ESPN, CBS, or Fox as much as I used to — I just follow all of their football reporters on Twitter to get the same info. I am also looking forward to seeing which reporters break news stories first.

The fun for me is in watching a “breaking news” tweet come in, only to be followed by ten other “breaking” tweets with the same information. I can picture the reporter who broke the news first, holding his iPhone in one hand and pumping his fist, so happy his tweet got out there first. Twitter has given the fans instant info from reporters the same way they get it from the athletes that they follow. If you want to get up-to-the-minute information, even while the game is going on, follow some Twitter-savvy NFL reporters for the entire scoop.

Start here for a list of some great reporters and NFL insiders to follow. Pro tip: create a Twitter List with NFL reporters that cover your team so you can watch an undiluted stream of football tweets during the game.

3. Post Game Tweets

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I’m always interested in how players handle their new found fame via Twitter. During my 10 year NFL career, I would always go into hiding after losing a game, not because I was embarrassed, but because I just didn’t want to deal with the public and have to answer questions.

Some star athletes have hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter just waiting for them after a game. And if that player’s team happens to lose, watch out. Some fans love to get under players’ skin by making negative remarks and daring the players to respond. This is where players need to be careful. One bad tweet by an athlete can end up on ESPN’s SportsCenter and all over the web in a matter of minutes, and team fines and suspensions could follow. Just ask former Kansas City Chiefs and current Cincinnati Bengals RB Larry Johnson how losing your cool via Twitter can almost ruin your career.

During this past NFL season, I have noticed that players on winning teams are quick to tweet after games, and players on the losing end usually take a few days to resurface. The one player who usually bucks this trend is Bengals’ WR Chad Ochocinco. He is pretty consistent, and shows his Twitter face no matter what.

So while you’re watching this NFL Wildcard Weekend, see how long it takes your favorite player to tweet after the game. I even have some fun with my followers where we guess which Cincinnati Bengal will be the first to tweet following the game.

More sports resources from Mashable:

- 5 Essential Online Resources for the NFL Playoffs
– When Social Media Gets Athletes in Trouble
– 5 Predictions for Athletes on Social Media in 2010
– 5 Most Memorable Sports Tweets of 2009
– 5 Best YouTube Sports Moments of 2009

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, LUGO

Tags: athletes, celebrities, ESPN, nfl, social media, social networks, sports, twitter

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Related posts:

1. Attitude Twitter update for the week (2010-01-01)
2. Attitude Twitter update for the week (2009-12-18)
3. Attitude Twitter update for the week (2009-10-16)

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Spyre Studios

Spyre Studios hosts this fantastic overview of the six most common types of blog posts, and highlights the advantages and disadvantages of each. A great article for anyone currently growing their blog.

Visit the article

Design Reviver

2010 is now well underway, but this 2009 roundup from Design Reviver highlights some brilliant posts from last year. If you missed any of them, here’s your chance to catch up on the indespensible knowledge each article shares.

Visit the article

VectorTuts

This in-depth tutorial from VectorTuts highlights some useful Adobe Illustrator techniques and shares the process of creating a curious owl character. Particularly, how gradients can be used to create depth and dimension.

Visit the article

Web Design Ledger

This roundup of website navigation menus from Web Design Ledger provides some fantastic web design inspiration by showcasing a wide collection of various design styles and unique approaches.

Visit the article

Fred Design

Typography is one of the core principles of a great design. This article on Fred Design takes a look at some simple rules that you should follow to inject your designs with good typography. What’s more, these rules can be spread across the whole spectrum of design, whether it’s for print or web.

Visit the article

• This Week’s Favourites – December 25th 2009
• This Week’s Favourites – December 11th 2009
• This Week’s Favourites – November 27th 2009
• This Week’s Favourites – November 13th 2009
• This Week’s Favourites – October 16th 2009

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This was a slow but important week. 2009 is done – it’s funny how time flies. The office stood still as we gathered with families, friends to celebrate the new year. Ourselves, we’re concentrating on 2010 – it’s going to be an important, career (and company) defining year.

Important decisions were made. As I briefly mentioned last week, we have always struggled with the question of whether to focus on our products (which we love) or to help other people with their own through consulting (which we also love to do). We’ve reached a conclusion, we’re happy with our decision and we’re sticking with it.

The decision is to do both, but with a twist: we’re taking a very limited number of consulting projects each year from now on – we’re thinking of about 4. This is the best of both worlds. When we’re consulting, we’re inspiring and getting inspired by other people. When we’re working for ourselves, we’re reinventing our ideas and hopefully building special products that you can use.

I wonder (and the others do too) how clients will receive the idea of us only doing a limited number of projects. We want to make the best out of the time we dedicate to other people. We want to be completely passionate about it, so four projects seems like the sweet spot. We’ll see how it goes.

If we have one new year resolution, it is to bring passion back to our business. If you want to work with us (or to have us work for you) in 2010, get in touch – we’ll try to help. Thank you, and happy new year!

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Welcome to this week’s edition of our ongoing Faceoff Series, where we pit two (or sometimes three…) services or bits of software against each other in a knock-down, drag-out barroom brawl for Mashable readers’ love — or at least, their votes.

Last week we saw cloud computing put the hurt on desktop email, when 70% of our readers chose Gmail over Microsoft Outlook. This week, we’re taking a look at two popular players in the online video space who have already exhibited their share of heated rivalry in the past.

Boxee is set to up their game with the D-Link-built Boxee Box, which will bring a low-cost dedicated hardware option to the popular social media center software. Meanwhile, premium content video portal Hulu is set to pass 1 billion monthly streams, exhibiting an impressive growth rate over the past year.

The two have had a rocky relationship in the past. Whereas once Boxee had a Hulu channel incorporated within its powerful media aggregation functionality, Hulu pulled the plug on it as well as several workarounds that emerged to try and plug the gap. Hulu’s stance appeared to suggest that they didn’t want people watching their TV content… on their TVs.

As we head into 2010, where are people going to be going to get their online video fix? Of these two powerhouses, which do you think would ultimately win in a fight? Let us know before Friday at noon PST in the poll below!

Who would win in a fight: Boxee or Hulu?(trends)

Tags: boxee, hulu, ONLINE VIDEO, polls, social media, tv, video, web faceoff

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John Mayer introduced the idea on his blog December 30th, and in four days, it has become the new health craze – healthy for your mind and spirit. Even @Jason_Pollock is currently on a digital cleanse.

The concept is that you basically unplug. There are some exceptions which he listed on his blog post here – http://jhnmyr.tumblr.com/post What’s the thought process behind it? In a nutshell, we are all so attached to our email, IM, social media, etc… that we no longer make telephone calls or interact with people the way we used to.

We are always in a frenzied mental state, taking in bits of information from all over the place and responding constantly. According to John Mayer, this is a mentally scattered and unfocused existence. People everywhere are joining him in this cleanse. Some people are doing it for a day or two, some for a week.

I have a different perspective on the whole thing. I just have one question, why would I ever want to give up Twitter for a week? That would not be an enlightened experience for me, instead, that would be torture. Why do people still go on and on about how unhealthy it is to be a social media addict? I mean, really, aren’t there worse things to be addicted to? My best friends are on Twitter, why would I want to alienate myself… just to prove I’m still capable of making a phone call?

I know we all need a break every now and then from our computers, but can’t we do that without completely giving up the things we love? Isn’t that a little bit extreme? Besides, isn’t that what a vacation is for? Maybe I’m missing something and you can educate me, but really, I don’t get it. I’m not criticizing anyone that thinks they need this, I’m not one to judge anyone for their decisions, I’m just saying for me personally, it’s not happening.

According to John Mayer’s blog, he has invited everyone that participated to come back after the cleanse and share their experiences. I’m excited to see what people say about their experience with this.

Thank you to http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgilles/3044872397 for the great picture above!

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The best way to keep track of our tweets is simply to follow us on Twitter, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the best tweets that we sent out this past week.

Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that we tweeted about, so don’t miss out.

To keep up to date with all the cool links, simply follow us @DesignerDepot

30 Examples of Beautiful Portfolio Designs: http://bit.ly/8SJsVd

10 Best iPhone Apps for Dog Lovers: http://bit.ly/8M7h5O

Very Easy Heroes Eclipse in Photoshop: http://bit.ly/bkuWq

Designing News Websites – http://bit.ly/6Bk93H /via @smashingmag

Transparent truck? http://bit.ly/8w5XSu

10 Ways Freelancing Has Changed in the Last Decade http://bit.ly/7ciq82 (via @FreelanceFolder)

The Science of White Space in Design: http://bit.ly/5AtUVr

Humorous Photography: http://bit.ly/51NblK

Understanding the Value of Constructive Discussion in the Design Community: http://bit.ly/4EtNQf

10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling: http://bit.ly/4AYMbb

Pictures of the decade: http://bit.ly/8jCord

VIDEO: McDonald’s Ad Produces Steam! http://ow.ly/QY7H (via @inspiredmag)

7 Must-See Web Design Videos and Presentations: http://bit.ly/7eRHjs

The Beautiful Art of Japanese Web Design: http://bit.ly/5jrl9v

A “Bystander’s Perspective” on the Design Community: http://bit.ly/6JvEMY

I’m Feeling Lucky: Google’s New Year Surprise – http://bit.ly/617afR (via @mashable)

Color Trends: Best Magazine Covers of 2009: http://bit.ly/6g9Ddq

A Colorful Clock With CSS & jQuery: http://bit.ly/6BBAUQ

This is brilliant. Well done @andyrutledge. Creativity is not Design (Test 2) http://j.mp/63hrZP (via @buildinternet)

3D Night Wallpapers: http://bit.ly/5M2fLO

Great Examples Of Coming Soon Pages And How To Create Yours: http://bit.ly/4G7jCK

Want more? No problem! Keep track of all our tweets by following us @DesignerDepot

If you find an exclusive RSS freebie on this feed or on the live WDD website, please use the following code to download it: r5IY2e

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Related posts:

1. Attitude Twitter update for the week (2009-12-25)
2. Attitude Twitter update for the week (2009-12-18)
3. Attitude Twitter update for the week (2009-11-20)

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Tracking progress towards a goal is a powerful motivator. This week we want to hear all about your favorite tool for tracking your goals and keeping yourself focused on them. What makes your tool effective? Tell us all about it in the comments.

Hive Five nominations take place in the comments, where you post your favorite tool for the job. We get hundreds of comments, so to make your nomination clear, please include it at the top of your comment like so: VOTE: Favorite Goal-Tracking Tool. Please don’t include your vote in a reply to another commenter. Instead, make your vote and reply separate comments. If you don’t follow this format, we may not count your vote. To prevent tampering with the results, votes from first-time commenters may not be counted. After you’ve made your nomination, let us know what makes it stand out from the competition.

About the Hive Five: The Hive Five feature series asks readers to answer the most frequently asked question we get: “Which tool is the best?” Once a week we’ll put out a call for contenders looking for the best solution to a certain problem, then YOU tell us your favorite tools to get the job done. Every weekend, we’ll report back with the top five recommendations and give you a chance to vote on which is best. For an example, check out last week’s Five Best Wallpaper Sites.

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Photo by rainy city.

The open thread, as always, is your weekly opportunity to talk it out with your fellow commenters. Unlike our regular comment threads, where we ask you stay on topic, the open thread is your chance to discuss anything under the sun, no matter how related or unrelated it is to Lifehacker. Share your New Year’s plans, ask for advice, and just enjoy yourself. (You can also continue the conversation at any time of the week at the #openthread hashtag page.) Normally on Friday, we’re running a little early this week since most of you will be recovering tomorrow, so: Happy Thursday!

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Photo by ghindo.

The folks over at Business Week interviewed Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice-president of search products, who is known for running a tight and effective meeting. She shared six great guidelines for holding an effective meeting including one of her long standing rules: “Don’t politic, use data.”

This idea can and should apply to meetings in organizations in which people feel as though the boss will give the green light to a design created by the person he or she likes the best, showing favoritism for the individual instead of the idea.

Mayer believes this mindset can demoralize employees, so she goes out of her way to make the approval process a science. Google chooses designs on a clearly defined set of metrics and how well they perform against those metrics. Designs are chosen based on merit and evidence, not personal relationships.

Mayer discourages using the phrase “I like” in design meetings, such as “I like the way the screen looks.” Instead, she encourages such comments as “The experimentation on the site shows that his design performed 10% better.” This works for Google, because it builds a culture driven by customer feedback data, not the internal politics that pervade so many of today’s corporations.

It’s far more effective to look at what the data says than it is to let a meeting turn into a whine-fest where your whole team is taken away from productive work to hear the less-than-happy members complain. Check out the rest of the article at Business Week to see some more of Mayer’s techniques, including holding office hours—a carryover from her days as a professor.

Have a strategy you use in your workplace for increasing the effectiveness of meetings? Let’s hear about it in the comments.

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Originally posted at Relevant Results

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Evidence continues to mount that the Google Phone, a.k.a. Nexus One, will make its debut during the first full week of the new year. The latest: an update to an internal T-Mobile website that says, “Google, with support from T-Mobile, is scheduled to launch a new Android device in early January.”

This confirms earlier reports that suggested the device would launch on or around January 5, which makes sense given CES is also taking place that week. The update also confirms that the phone will be sold directly by Google via the web, with T-Mobile offering “billing, coverage, features and rate plans.”

Other key details, like Google’s retail pricing and potential discounts that might come with a T-Mobile contract remain to-be-determined. What appear to full specs of the device, however, were leaked on the web last week.

Tags: Google, google phone, nexus one, T-Mobile

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Last week in our Web Faceoff series, we took a look at one of the newest forms of web communication: the Twitter retweet. This week though, we’ve decided to look at one of the oldest: email.

Email has been around in one form or another since the 1960s, before the Internet was even born. Today, it is the most crucial tool for communication online. There are thousands of tools for email now, but this week we’re specifically pitting desktop email vs. webmail by having you vote between Google Gmail and Microsoft Outlook.

Microsoft has dominated email for years. Hotmail is one of the most popular web email services, while Outlook remains the most popular desktop tool for reading and managing the inbox. Gmail on the other hand represents the rapid advance of online email technology, which allows you to access your inbox from anywhere in the world.

Which do you prefer? We want to know, so be sure to add your vote in the poll below and let us know what you think of desktop email and Outlook versus Gmail and the advance of webmail in the comments.

Who would win in a fight: Google Gmail or Microsoft Outlook?(polls)

Web Faceoff: Overall Results

Week 1:
- Mozilla Firefox vs. Google Chrome
- WINNER: Firefox, 4600 votes (Chrome: 3310 votes, Tie: 911 votes)

Week 2:
- Tumblr vs. Posterous
- WINNER: Tumblr, 1809 votes (Posterous: 1496 votes, Tie: 256 votes)

Week 3:
- Pandora vs. Last.fm
- WINNER: Last.fm, 1187 votes (Pandora: 1156 votes, Tie: 122 votes)

Week 4:
- Twitter vs. Facebook
- WINNER: Facebook, 2484 votes (Twitter: 2061 votes, Tie: 588 votes)

Week 5:
- WordPress vs. Typepad
- WINNER: WordPress, 2714 votes (Typepad: 267 votes, Tie: 357 votes)

Week 6:
- Windows 7 vs. Snow Leopard
- WINNER: Windows 7, 3632 votes (Snow Leopard: 3278 votes, Tie: 121 votes)

Week 7:
- TweetDeck vs. Seesmic Desktop
- WINNER: TweetDeck, 3294 votes (Seesmic Desktop: 1055 votes, Tie: 260 votes)

Week 8:
- Microsoft Office vs. Google Docs
- WINNER: Microsoft Office, 1365 votes (Google Docs: 994 votes, Tie: 315 votes)

Week 9:
- Apple iPhone vs. Google Android
- WINNER: Google Android, 3323 votes (Apple iPhone: 1494 votes, Tie: 228 votes)

Week 10:
- AT&T vs. Verizon
- WINNER: Verizon, 1161 votes (AT&T: 538 votes, Tie: 118 votes)

Week 11:
- Google vs. Bing
- WINNER: Google, 2180 votes (Bing: 519 votes, Tie: 97 votes)

Week 12:
- iPod Touch/iPhone vs. Nintendo DS vs. Sony PSP
- WINNER: iPod Touch/iPhone, 704 votes (Sony PSP: 639 votes, Nintendo DS: 482 votes, Tie: 108 votes)

Week 13:
- Digg vs. Reddit vs. StumbleUpon
- WINNER: Digg, 14,762 votes (Reddit: 11,466 votes, StumbleUpon: 2507 votes, Tie: 1032 votes)

Week 14:
- Old versus new Twitter retweets
- WINNER: Old style retweets, 1625 votes (New style retweets: 699 votes, Tie: 227 votes)

Tags: email, gmail, Google, microsoft, Outlook, web faceoff

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10 – Twitter Background Design How-To and Best Practices

9 – Create a Letterpress Effect with CSS Text-Shadow

8 – How To Create an Awesome Vector Skate Deck Design

7 – Create a Clean Modern Website Design in Photoshop

6 – Handy Tips for Creating a Print CSS Stylesheet

5 – Create a Bright Retro Grunge Vector Illustration

4 – How To Display Your Twitter Status in a Unique Design

3 – Create a Trendy Galactic Poster Design in Photoshop

2 – How to Create a Lifestream of Your Online Activities

1 – Create a Cute Furry Vector Monster in Illustrator

Which posts or tutorials did you enjoy the most this year? I’d love to hear which ones you personally found useful.

Behind the scenes

I also recorded a behind the scenes video to offer a little insight into how the video was put together. I’ve had a few questions asked in the past about what hardware and software I use, so here’s your chance to find out. The main presentation was also hashed together unscripted, so there were plenty of times when I lost my way mid-sentence

View the behind the scenes video

• Top Places to Find Quality Illustrator Tutorials Online
• This Week’s Favourites – December 25th 2009
• Downloadable Source Files Added to Popular Tutorials
• This Week’s Favourites – December 11th 2009
• This Week’s Favourites – November 27th 2009

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	#image		 { opacity: 0.8;}
	#image:hover { opacity: 1.0; }

Sorry for the lack of posts, I have been working on my new site, TheDesignersYard.com, which I will post screen shots and features very shortly!

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I designed this wallpaper about 3 months ago for my personal use. I was trying to do something creative with a quote by John Ruskin and decided to make a wallpaper that exhibited a lot of color.

Love Color

Download

Wallpaper Resolutions:

• 1920×1200px
• 1680×1050px
• 1440×900px
• 1280×1024px
• 1280×800px
• 1024×768px
• iPhone

Production & Process

"The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love color the most."
-John Ruskin

I found this quote interesting so I decided that it would make for a good wallpaper. I quickly opened up Adobe Photoshop and got to work. I started with some wavy shapes that I colored purple. I decided to duplicate this shape into different layers and I painfully rotated them into place to fill the entire canvas. I also changed the colors on some of the layers. For the text, I decided to use Rockwell as the main font.

I really like the kinetic typography style so I decided to layout the text based on that style. I was pleased with the final result and this wallpaper actually stayed as my desktop wallpaper for over 3 weeks.

Quick Summary

• Estimated time: 1.5 hours
• Font: Rockwell
• Tools: Adobe Photoshop
• Total Layers Used: 72

Screenshots

Please share you thoughts about this wallpaper on the comments section below. If you liked this wallpaper, please tell your friends by re-tweeting it. You can also subscribe to the RSS Feed.

Related posts:

1. Wallpaper of the Week – Solid
2. Wallpaper of the Week – Shine On
3. Wallpaper of the Week – Desire and Disparity

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The wallpaper of this week is from James White and it is simply awesome. James created this design for a poster for the Abduzeedo 3rd Anniversary. It’s colorful and full of light effects, everything we here at Abduzeedo love and have posted about during this 3 inspiring years.

For more informatio about James White’s work visit his website at http://www.signalnoise.com/, you won’t regret it

Desktop Version

iPhone Version

Resolutions:

• 1920x1200px
• 1680x1050px
• 1440x900px
• 1280x1024px
• 1280x800px
• 1024x768px
• iPhone

About the author

My name is Fabio Sasso, I’m a graphic/web designer from Porto Alegre, Brazil and I’m the founder of Abduzeedo. I hope we can share lots of information, tips, and ideas through Abduzeedo. Also you can follow me on Twitter or my personal site at http://fabiosasso.com.

Sponsored Links:

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