The Web has become increasingly interactive over the years. This trend is set to continue with the next generation of applications driven by the real-time Web. Adding real-time functionality to an application can result in a more interactive and engaging user experience. However, setting up and maintaining the server-side real-time… read more
Websites with full page backgrounds are pretty cool, there’s no doubt about that. Whether you’re using Flash to achieve your full page background, media queries in CSS, or simply setting your height and width to 100% and not particularly caring about the quality of the image, the outcome is usually… read more
It cannot be denied that Facebook is now a large part of most people’s lives. For many of us, its use involves catching up with friends, organising events and sharing our experiences of the world around us. With over 900 million members, there is no doubt that Facebook is the… read more
Our guest today is a famous designer Von Glitschka. Von is also famous because of his books, which are devoted to vector graphics. “The best way to improve your design as a creative is to improve your drawing skills. The more you do it, the better you get” – he… read more
Mac is a dream platform for designers. Depending on how many complex features are needed to get the job done, there are a myriad of apps available for designers. It goes without saying that a designer has to handle everything from an exciting new mobile app interface to a boring… read more
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Maybe this scenario sounds familiar to you: A few years ago I found myself working an office job that was ok. It paid ok, I liked the work ok, I liked the people I worked with ok, and I was pretty ok at what I did…. read more
A career in Freelance Illustration is much more than drawing pretty pictures. While as much as you’d like to spend the entire day sitting in front of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, or your other favorite tools, like most freelance professions is is more about selling yourself, keeping your portfolio fresh… read more
There are tons of magazine covers with models, females and males that amaze the onlookers with their bodies or faces. The perfection expressed by these models conducted to deviated behaviors, many young women attempting to look similar to these and many times the effects were disastrous. The tabloids encouraged the… read more
It’s not good for you but every now and then, we all hit the drive thru for something quick and easy. The golden arches are the most recognized brand in the United States, if not the world. When my family moved from Brooklyn to St. Louis, my three-year old son… read more
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Creative Fuel is a periodic collection of design and creativity awesomeness found around the web. Find out about new apps and services, the best freebies, and other significant news from the design community!
Design Goodies: Basic Social Media Icons & Transparent Flip Clock
First up, we have this great… read more
NEW ORLEANS – Speaking during a keynote session at CTIA Wireless on Tuesday, AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega said Facebook is good for his company’s business.
“I think that social networking is going to be a major force in this industry for years to come,” says Vega. “I think… read more
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Name: AnswerQi
Quick Pitch: AnswerQi provides on-demand tech help.
Genius Idea: A TaskRabbit for technology problems.
Maybe you need your… read more
1. Nanolet Watch
Keep your Nano nearby with this snug wrist case.
Price: $22.71
Click here to view this gallery.
3D printing… read more
What Should We Call Social Media
When someone tells you they don’t have a Facebook, then you realize they… read more
The evolution of social TV for consumers, content producers and advertisers continues to move at a breakneck pace.
Several second-screen-experience insiders recently gathered at Mashable Connect in Orlando to weigh in on those shifting dynamics in the television industry.
With their cautious eyes set on the future, panelists Randy Shiozaki,… read more
Hackers claiming to be affiliated with the hacktivist group Anonymous claimed this week to have accessed and published the details of about 55,000 Twitter accounts.
But Twitter said Tuesday those claims are largely bogus, and that the group mostly posted duplicate information or username and password information for suspended spam… read more
The media, forever a navel-gazing industry, worked itself into a fever earlier this week after evidence emerged that usage of Facebook’s social reader apps is declining.
In an article designed to further dramatize The Washington Post‘s recent tension between its editorial and financial divisions, Jeff Bercovici at Forbes pulled up… read more
Like many people, my path into photography came from a Soviet SLR, in my case a Zenit 11. For my 16th birthday I had the choice of an Olympus Trip or the big clunky Zenit with lots of buttons and dials. Even in those days I was a budding gadget… read more
Harvard University pitcher Conner Hulse threw the Internet a curve ball this week by uploading a video of his teammates lip-synching and dancing to Carly Rae Jepsen’s viral hit “Call Me Maybe.”
Packed into a van during a road trip, the baseball players take turns silently reciting the catchy tune… read more
President Barack Obama’s joke at the recent White House Correspondents’ Dinner — “Why am I telling knock-knock jokes to Kim Kardashian? What is she famous for, anyway?” — had many people laughing. Now, a social activist group is using the attention to stir a more serious conversation about media, politics… read more
Pandora now has more than 150 million registered users, the company announced on Tuesday.
Even as the online radio company faces increased competition from music streaming services like Rdio and Spotify, its numbers of both registered and active users have increased 50% since the beginning of the 2012 financial year…. read more
It’s primary day in Indiana, North Carolina and West Virginia, and politicians, journalists and voters are all over Facebook, Twitter and other forms of social media posting about the elections.
Mitt Romney has all but locked up the Republican presidential nomination with the exit of former rivals Rick Santorum and Newt… read more
Jonathan Rick is a director at Levick Strategic Communications. He contributes to Levick’s Bulletproof Blog. Follow him @jrick.
Why do search engines always rank certain websites so highly? Sure, their content might be great, but their search engine optimization is definitely awesome. Indeed, for many sites, the search-engine spiders that… read more
Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live studio is not your typical live studio audience setup. Visitors walk through an open floor plan office, where staffers are hard at work, to arrive at the pint-sized studio. There is enough room for about three chairs on its living room-styled stage.
There’s a bar too,… read more
Should MySpace last the next 20 years, it’ll have at least one close observer: the federal government.
MySpace’s privacy practices will be kept under close watch by a third-party observer for two decades as part of a settlement related to an investigation of the company’s advertising sales strategy, the FTC announced… read more
A Guest Post by James Maher
Street photography ain’t easy. It’s a fast moving world out there and it takes a lot of practice to be able to capture it well.
However, it’s not just about practice. Every seasoned street photographer has a bag of tricks to make their lives easier… read more
If you’ve ever dreamed of visiting the Great Pyramids of Giza, you can hold off on purchasing the plane ticket. An online experience now brings Giza to you, transporting you across the world — and through time — to the land of the Pharaohs.
Dassault Systèmes created a 3D model of… read more
Dr. Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, is president and CEO of Sally Ride Science. Each summer her organization hosts the Sally Ride Science Academy Brought to you by ExxonMobil, a teacher development program to strengthen STEM education in the United States. Follow her @SallyRideSci.
Thank you,… read more
The Yahoo director in charge of vetting CEO Scott Thompson is planning to resign from the board after questions emerged about Thompson’s resume, according to a report.
Patti Hart (pictured), whose own background was also called into question, will “not stand for reelection” at Yahoo’s next annual meeting, according to AllThingsD,… read more
Pop culture is the inspiration for many great artists. From music to movies, all of it provide great amount of ideas for people to do great, even witty pieces, like these, by American painter Hillary White.
Hillary came up with these fun pop-reinterpretations of some famous paintings, really worth checking out…. read more
Thanks to all of the participants of contest in which DesignModo’s Impressionist UI Pack (The World’s Biggest User Interface Elements Pack) were givingaway. We ran the MySQL random query and selected these comments to give them DesignModo’s Impressionist UI Pack.
Winners of DesignModo’s Impressionist UI Pack
Lucy Martin (Developer License)
Matiss (Personal… read more
PDF has become a worldwide document type standard and you no doubt deal with these documents fairly regularly. Because the file tpye is so common there is a plethora of applications available to work with them.
It can be a bit tricky to wade through the large number of choices though,… read more
What file sync service do you use primarily?
There’s dozens of ways to keep your files in sync, from the old standby Dropbox to Google’s new Drive app. We recently did a roundup of the best sync services, and many of you chimed in with your other favorite sync services… read more
Atlantic Media announced the name of its forthcoming digital-only business news publication, Quartz, Tuesday.
Quartz is the first publication in the business category designed to be consumed largely via tablets, smartphones and the web, competing against more established entities like The Economist, Bloomberg Businessweek and The Financial Times. Unlike those entities,… read more
WordPress has made it easier than ever for a web designer to setup their own blog. This system allows you to add content into your website and publish in a number of different ways. But with the ever-advancing Internet we are seeing posts transform into articles and webblogs… read more
T-Mobile may have been dealt a setback when regulators forced AT&T to scuttle its proposed acquisition of the company, but judging from its announcements today, the company is clearly still very much in the wireless game.
The country’s fourth-largest carrier revealed a plan to upgrade its network to make it… read more
I love it when two art forms collide and something beautiful emerges. Paper typography is one such type of art that has fascinated me since I was little. Maybe it’s because I learned about origami in grade school, and now also have a love of typography. So when I see… read more
Want to make money on that app you created? You’ll have to spend money and time on marketing your app outside of app stores for success, according to a recent study conducted by App-Promo, a mobile app marketing company.
The First Annual Developer Survey was created to help understand how… read more
Weddings are some of the most memorable occasions we attend, whether you’re participating or merely in attendance and, if it’s your special day, you’ll likely want to save the memories of the day forever. Lots of people hire wedding photographers to capture these moments officially but friends and family will… read more
Though I’m not quite ready to jettison my bookcase full of real paper books, ebooks have definitely won me over and convinced me of their worth due to both their portability and the fact that historical, classic and other copyright-free texts such as Leo Tolstoy’s complete works or Homer’s Iliad… read more
In this tutorial you will learn how to vector an execution axe from a reference. Discover essential techniques that you need as a vector artist, such as creating different types of shadows, specular and non-specular highlights, bitmap textures for surfaces, gradients for metals, and more. Let’s get started.
Tutorial Assets
The following… read more
Are you sick of seeing job ads for blogging that only offer $20 a post or less? Scanning the online job boards, you might think there are no good-paying blogging gigs.
But there are. I know because I’ve earned as much as $300 a blog post, and often get north… read more
The new Smashing Books have finally arrived—freshly printed, neatly packed and ready to be shipped to you, our dear reader. We believe this is by far the best book we’ve produced so far. We are very proud and excited, and the initial verdict has been thoroughly positive, yet in the… read more
These days, you can ask everyone, anywhere anything, anytime.
Since the advent of the social internet, gone are the days when seeking advice required thorough investigation of forums, IRC channels, and databases. Now, we have the power to ask anyone, anywhere anything, anytime by using crowdsourcing question and answer tools. Crowdsourcing… read more
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Textures are a wonderful tool to use for all kinds of design. Not only can textures make something look more interesting, they also add a sense of material realism that people can connect to. There are very few materials in the “real world” that do not have… read more
There are many photographers who aim for vibrant explosions of color in their work. Using these bright hues to connect with and move the viewer. Though there are some who take a different path for reaching their audience, however color still plays a part. They actually process the photos to… read more
This is our weekly column were we share our favorite design related articles, resources and cool tidbits from the past week. Enjoy :)
If you would like to receive our daily updates and keep up to date with the latest and greatest articles and resources from the… read more
When Google threw its hat into the cloud storage ring a few weeks ago with Google Drive, it added another good service to a quickly growing niche. With Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, Skydrive, Amazon Could Drive, and more, it’s tough to choose which is the best. Dropbox is the long-time… read more
It’s romantic, beautiful and a photographer’s paradise yet Venice can at times be a hard place to photograph. It is one of the most visited cities in the world and as such you can have a frustrating time trying to capture its beauty. In this short guide we will show… read more
Finances and dealing with money has been something that I have always enjoyed doing, not for work, but in general. I am always looking for better ways to save money and now with our first child, even more so, do we have to money conscious.
That is why I got really… read more
White V-Flat as fill behind
If you have ever had any interest in beauty or portraiture, but found yourself frustrated not being able to afford expensive lighting, studio space and more – fear not! With a quick visit to a local signage or art supply store you can buy the right… read more
Within any field of application production you often find the workload split between design and development. It’s a simpler process to let the designer handle creating the user interface while the developer codes it into reality. This is the case for desktop applications, mobile apps, and especially websites.
In this article… read more
While certainly not as well known as Photoshop, Adobe Fireworks is a great tool for creating user interfaces, website designs and mock-ups, wireframes, icons and much more. However, most designers who have been using Photoshop for years may find Fireworks a bit awkward at first. Fireworks does have a slightly… read more
Follow this simple but detailed quick tip and learn how to draw an apricot using the Mesh Tool. It includes step by step instructions about how to create all the mesh points and lines plus all the color shades used so you can draw a realistic apricot from scratch…. read more
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Freelancing seems like one of the most lucrative job titles. And it’s true that setting your own hours and working on interesting projects can be a lot of fun. But there is also the matter of looming deadlines and touchy clients you need to keep satiated.
One… read more
Remember the joy and happiness when you first got your hands on the magic iPad. Yeah, iPad has undoubtedly changed the way we used to browse the web. It is slim, sexy and simply irresistible and therefore, it is no wonder it is admired and adopted by millions of people… read more
Like many among us, I am not accustomed to paying for a music player. I am happy with iTunes and Winamp in both Windows and Mac. Still, if you are looking forward to pushing the boundaries in playback quality and revolutionary user interfaces, there are a handful choices available in… read more
We are again excited to present you with special, more exciting prizes. InstantShift again came up with cool freebies giveaway as promised. This is our way of saying thanks to our readers for being part of the iShift community and helping us make it to where we are right now.
We… read more
With so many folks developing jQuery plugins, it’s not uncommon to come across one that just plain – for lack of better words – sucks. There’s no examples or documentation, the plugin doesn’t follow best practices, etc. But you’re one of the lucky ones: this article will detail the pitfalls… read more
Adobe has announced the immediate availability of Creative Suite 6, the next reincarnation of its popular graphic and web design software. The company’s official store has been updated with all the new products and users can either purchase the software outright ready for download or upgrade from previous versions of… read more
All designers should have a healthy collection of resources in their toolbox. Always ready for any possible scenario. So, just to help your collection we have for you today 50 fresh, free and fantastic texture packs that are freely available to download.
You may also like:
50 Fantastic… read more
Using watercolor in web design is not a new thing that designers are implementing, by any means. In fact, it has been used in web design for years. In no small part due to the fact that digital watercolor effects are inspiring and attention-grabbing, and on top of that, easy… read more
Ask any job seeker, and he’ll tell you that looking for a job is, in and of itself, a job. It’s time-consuming to prep your cover letter, tweak your resume, follow up and plan your interview, especially when you’re applying for multiple positions. Sure, you could make an intense, color-coded… read more
A San Francisco company called Bespoke Innovations is using 3D printing and modeling technology to give prosthetic limbs new life as custom-designed, wearable pieces of art.
Here’s how it works: First, the company 3D scans both customers’ natural and prosthetic legs. A 3D computer model is created, maintaining as… read more
Many photographers dream of owning one of the super wide lenses. Not a fisheye but a lens so wide it verges on fisheye. However as well as being expensive, there are some steep learning curves to overcome when using such wide lenses. In this brief article we will discuss a… read more
Klout has had a busy few weeks, unleashing an iPhone app, brand pages and a new API. But more changes are on deck.
Klout CEO Joe Fernandez hinted at those developments on stage and backstage at Mashable Connect in Orlando.
The San Francisco-based startup will announce this month four more partners… read more
The Comedy Awards is the baby of the awards show ceremonies — only two years old. But the show’s huge digital and social presence keeps pace with the big boys.
The event airs Sunday night at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Comedy Central, but it was taped last Saturday. Mashable had the… read more
The Federal Bureau of Investigation wants to make Facebook and other social networks easier to use for spying on suspected criminals — and it wants access ASAP.
High-ranking FBI officials and other government representatives have been meeting with Internet industry leaders to ask them not to oppose a proposed… read more
When I was in Colombia last month, my photography team took on the challenge of photographing portraits for an entire orphanage full of adorable and energetic children. We had about 20 minutes one morning to photograph all 60 or so kids. There would be no other opportunity to do so… read more
Roger McNamee, the managing director and co-founder of venture capital firm Elevation Partners, has a theory about how Apple became the biggest U.S. technology growth story of all time:
“The thing that made Apple successful was betting against the web,” he said on stage at Mashable Connect Friday.
While Google adopted the… read more
A new Kickstarter project wants to build an even closer connection between our real lives and mobile devices.
The Rowdy Robot team has created a device called Tōd, which it hopes the Kickstarter community will be eager to fund. Tōd is a programmable Bluetooth dongle you can… read more
College students today are more tech savvy than ever before. Just how important is technology to their academic lives?
More than 90% use email to communicate with professors and 73% say they cannot study without technology. Seven in 10 take notes on keyboards instead of paper, virtually all students who… read more
In our social entrepreneurship series, The World at Work, Mashable interviews the faces behind the startups and projects that are working to make a global impact.
By harnessing the power of the web and digital technology, these companies have offered resources to women-founded startups, funded socially conscious ideas and used… read more
Try to guess America’s most engaging social network. Facebook? Wrong. Twitter? Wrong. Pinterest? Wrong again. According to comScore‘s most recent social networking data, from the month of March, the San Francisco based site Tagged engages users like no other service. It was the only site to finish in the top… read more
For me personally becoming a freelancer was one of the best ideas I’ve ever had. Being a freelancer beats all jobs I have had in the past and maybe more that 99% of all potential jobs I could realistically expect to have. And I certainly can’t complain of… read more
The Best of Instagram Series is presented by T-Mobile. Its 4G Tweet Race, a week-long campaign launching May 3, pits Twitter users against one another in a daily, frantic race for retweets. There are 7 races, and the winners of each heat win a new HTC One™ S phone with… read more
Although 3D printing has been around since the ’80s, it only recently moved out of specialty prototyping shops. As the technology becomes more accessible — allowing anybody to design anything they want — it could revolutionize the way products are made and distributed.
“We think it will give rise to a… read more
1. Mophie Juice Pack Plus – (PRODUCT) RED
If you’ve got the cash to spare, this Mophie case is… read more
This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
There’s a new dilemma in today’s training world: Is it prudent to allow technology devices in the classroom? One school of thought is that there should be… read more
Mashable won a Webby Award for our business coverage, so how on earth could you let yourself miss our latest digital media resources? Just kidding — for whatever reason you couldn’t keep up this week, check out our features roundup for the best social media, business and tech resources.
This week,… read more
Ricky Berens is a world-class athlete, but he’s no Michael Phelps. The two teamed up to help the United States win a relay swimming gold medal at the 2008 Olympics and will probably both participate in the 2012 Games. But outside the pool their lives couldn’t be more different.
Berens… read more
For the Summer Gadget Series, our Mashable tech experts road-tested some of the hottest tech toys around to spice up your arsenal of vacation must-haves.
On this list is a little something for every kind of weekend warrior. Whether you’re into high-velocity white water rafting, taking in the sights of… read more
30 Productive Marketplaces To Buy and Sell Stock Images
Will life-size holograms of your colleagues and friends be the new norm? The Human Media Lab of the Queen’s University in Canada says yes.
Researchers were inspired by Star Trek-like teleportation to create the TeleHuman cylindrical telepresence pod. A long tube is outfitted with six Microsoft Xbox Kinect… read more
Today’s marketers are under-utilizing the large amounts of personal data their customers are sharing publicly every day, according to Adobe’s senior manager of social-media products, Chad Warren. By looking at their customers’ activity not just on social networks but all over the web, brands can potentially engage with them in… read more
Joe Trippi, campaign manager for Howard Dean’s underdog 2004 presidential bid that began and ended on the web, has a piece of advice for anybody running a political campaign: “It’s the network, stupid.”
Trippi, who literally wrote the book on digital politics, told a packed house at Mashable Connect that the… read more
In this reviewing business you occasionally get waylaid: in preparing a new camera review I usually begin with the text sources and specs data to feel my way. In this case, I did so, quite carefully, but dug into the wordage of the Nikon Coolpix P5100. Wrong!
The way model numbers… read more
The marketing world needs to stop being so afraid and start solving problems, according to Cindy Gallop, an entrepreneur and consultant whose prescription for growth calls for synthesizing creativity and data collection.
Gallop, who spoke at Mashable Connect Saturday morning, critiqued the current state of marketing, which she believes is driven… read more
The product featured in the above video may be the perfect accessory for a Saturday night. Meet the “Spray That Makes You Drunk” — WA|AH Quantum Sensations — created by scientist David Edwards and designer Philippe Starck.
The WA|AH spray lets users skip breakfast, lunch and dinner and go straight… read more
When I leave the house in the morning, the first thing I check is that I have my phone with me. It’s not my keys nor my wallet, but my phone that I’m most worried about forgetting.
My mobile device has become my lifeline in a lot of ways — and… read more
Tony Morrison is the Vice President of Business Development at Cachinko. Find him on Talent Connection and connect with Cachinko on Facebook or Twitter.
In the recent years, we have heard in the news some pretty creative “Take This Job and Shove It” stories. Joey quit his job with the support… read more
Google may see the costliest repercussion from its alleged Apple Safari privacy breach coming from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
The FTC may fine Google more than $10 million for violating Internet privacy according to Bloomberg, citing “a person familiar with the matter” in its report.
“We will of course cooperate… read more
If the full moon looks a bit bigger and brighter in tonight’s sky, you’re not seeing things: It’s just the “supermoon” — the biggest moon of 2012. And there’s a meteor shower from Halley’s comet peaking tonight, too, adding to the sky show.
Editor’s note: Send us your supermoon pics here!<br… read more
U.S. Army Captain Bruce Kevin Clark, 43, died during a Skype video call with his wife on Monday. Clark was an army nurse stationed in Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan, supporting Operation Enduring Freedom at the time.
The circumstances surrounding his death are still unknown, according to CNN.
The army will be… read more
If you’re doing most of your sharing on Pinterest from the office, you’re doing it wrong. The best time to share things on Pinterest is Saturday morning, according to data from Bitly, the URL shortening service.
Hilary Mason, Bitly’s chief scientist, revealed the nugget during a talk at Mashable Connect in… read more
It has always been a dream of mine to work at an orphanage.
I know. It’s a little bit random, and not exactly typical for an American girl. But it’s true: working at an orphanage was my earliest dream job. I think I was 9 years old. I don’t remember what… read more
One of the biggest ongoing evolutions in technology has been the way we interact with devices.
Whether it’s function keys on a mainframe, the trackpad on a laptop, or a touchscreen on a smartphone, product interfaces are constantly changing to improve usability. Soon we may not even use our hands… read more
It’s time for our best news of this week. We have a lot of graphic and web design, a bit of architecture, ads, tech news, awesome reads and other crazy stuff! So take a look at the links we’ve selected for your inspiration and to keep you updated about what’s… read more
View engaging conference lectures, interesting how to discussions, and high quality freelance advice via video here on FreelanceSwitch.
This week we look at Designing books is no laughing matter. OK, it is. presented by graphic designer Chip Kidd. In this video we learn about the art of book cover design…. read more