Twitter

The Look

You won’t see anything drastic on the new homepage yet there are some adjustments. The new homepage is designed to make it easier to access and scan the relevant information for you. The biggest improvement is the media which is now embedded into the timeline. There’s no need to view photos or videos in new tabs anymore, you can access them straight away ( of course, you still have to click). You can also immediately access your favorite features from the lefthand side.

The new homepage’s goal is to be consistent between all your devices. Twitter has always been about simplicity and nothing has changed with this version. Although with the right aligned timeline Twitter has has started to resemble other social networks.

The profile view has experienced some changes. The number of lists you’re included on is now gone. In fact, lists have been made more irrelevant with this update. You also get a larger picture thumbnail and the new Me tab allows you to edit your profile straight within the profile page.

@Connect

The @Connect tab has taken over the previous Activity tab’s duties. It’s the place where you can see who has followed or mentioned you, retweeted or favorited one of your tweets. The tab is splits Interactions and Mentions so you can easily track your Twitter influence. Basically nothing much has changed except the name which I believe does the trick.

Another thing Twitter has introduced in this version is the switch from usernames to real names. Now everything’s backwards – first name you’ll see above the tweet is the real name which is a hyperlink and only then comes the username.

#Discover

Discover lets you tap into a stream of useful and entertaining information, customized just for you. Discover is something like the old search function only way more better. What it does is it generated your personalized information and stories based on who you follow, your location, trends and your interactions. Discover tab consists of five sections – stories, activity, who to follow, find friends and browse categories. Interacting has been made extremely easy.

While some of the experienced users often get bored by those following suggestions which aren’t always the best, the #Discover is a superb feature for those who are new to Twitter and don’t quite know where to start off.

Brand Pages

Twitter has followed the example of Facebook and Google+ and introduces the brand pages feature with this update. Although it’s nothing game changing because most of the companies already have Twitter accounts this feature will allow companies to customize their header to make their pages look more official. Companies will also have the chance promote a tweet which will appear at the top of the timeline. The new pages also let brands separate their replies and mentions. And, of course, they’re free.

Embedding Tweets

@1stwebdesigner nice article, this one reason why I need optomise my website for mobile devices.

— Juan Tarrats (@jtarratsart) December 21, 2011

The new update also comes with great news for developers. Instead of copying and pasting a code users can now simply embed their tweets with just a couple of clicks. All the usual actions are available and easy to use with the embedded tweets – reply, favorite, retweet.

WordPress bloggers will be able embed Tweets directly into their posts by simply copying the Tweet URL or using a familiar shortcode.

Finally, Twitter has refreshed the design of Follow and Tweet buttons and introduced two more buttons – #hashtag and @mention button. The new #hashtag button tells your visitors there’s an interesting conversation happening on Twitter, and lets them join in with just one click. The @mention button encourages visitors to Tweet to your account, driving public conversation directly from your website.

What’s gone

Most of the negative feedback comes from iPhone users. The option to translate tweets is gone and users can no longer copy and paste from a tweet. There’s also some buzz about saying thank you to multiple people. With the tweeting now happening from a pop up window you no longer reply to several people at once so you just have to type in the user names manually. Which again is a little inconvenient because of the use of real names.

Yet I was unable to find anything significant that the new version lacks so I’d be grateful if you could point these things out for me and other readers.

Overall

Twitter really appears to have hit the bull’s eye with this update. Most of the users seem very fancy about the new changes and reviews are only praising the new features. There are opinions that Twitter has officially gone mainstream but that’s the very same thing you’d do with such an influx of users. The new version really makes engagement and interaction easy. We’ll see the results but for now on it seems rather promising and optimistic.

Additional resources

• New Twitter: 25 Tips and Tricks for Savvy Tweeters
• The New Twitter: It’s Just Not For Me, But I Understand It
• Six ways the ‘new new’ Twitter changes everything

Tweetdeck

The same day Twitter announced it’s new version the most popular tweeting platform Tweetdeck got a new look as well. Tweetdeck was acquired  by Twitter in May 2011 allegedly for around 40 million dollars. Finally, the conversion from beta is complete and we can get our hands on the new platform.

You can get Tweetdeck either as a web application, Chrome plugin or desktop plugin. In this review I’m using the desktop version yet there’s actually no difference. So, what’s new?

The Look

The most radical yet not so noticeable is the shift from AIR to a native desktop app. The dashboard is almost identical with the old version however there’s been an irreversible change. The next thing you might spot is the missing orange logo which is replaced by Twitter’s blue bird.

The column navigation has switched to the top of the window and is more handy. Yet there’s a considerable drawback namely the columns aren’t resizable anymore. Actually you couldn’t resize columns in the old version as well but the minimum width for them was lower and more columns would fit the screen.

Unlike the old version the tweeting is now done from a pop up window. Some other minor changes include blue links, switch from usernames to real names, tweets now miss day and date and a smooth search bar at the top right.

Overall, the look now seems somehow cleaner and coherent. Browsing experience is made more pleasing and perceptible. Yet there’s a price. And it becomes apparent when it comes to performance and features which is far more important than sleek neat visual look.

Performance & Features

Usually with an upgrade we expect new features and improved performance but it’s quite discussible within this case. So is there something new? The message box is more compact as it merges the messages you have with a person. Also you get a solid info about a user you follow by clicking on his avatar. Yes, that’s about it.

But what’s gone? First of all there’s no more support for Foursquare, LinkedIn and Google+ also hasn’t hit the list.

While some of you might be glad that the AIR is gone there are some cons. And the most apparent is the approximate 20 second delay for updating tweets. It may not be so essential for ordinary user but it may create some problems for those who used to use Tweetdeck seriously.

Here are other important drawbacks and missing features:

• There’s no more option to edit lists and add new people to them.
• Retweeted tweets doesn’t stand out in any way so it’s harder to spot them.
• Media from Twitpic, Instagram, Youtube etc doesn’t show in a pop up. Instead you have to view it in browser.
• @Me column shows only mentions without retweets.
• No drag and drop support for image upload.
• You can’t translate tweets anymore.
• No more support for keyboard shortcuts.

Overall

While Tweetdeck can be proud of the fresh beautiful look it just can’t hide and countervail all the missing features. One of the Mashable’s commentators wrote – “Tweetdeck wasn’t just a Twitter client but an overall social media dashboard.” Sadly but it’s kind of truth. Some maintain that this is the Twitter’s strategy to stimulate users to use the native Twitter website and maybe it is so.

However, Tweetdeck was never a business platform. It was created for Twitter power users and I believe it hasn’t changed it’s nature. The new look is definitely a benefit and, well, do we care if Twitter pushes us to use it’s own tools? For the average user it doesn’t make a difference and if the app works and meets all the needs – why not to use it?

In this article, we shall attempt to compare TextPattern and WordPress and see which one emerges victorious.

Before proceeding further, a short disclaimer: the division of this comparative review under multiple headings does not essentially have a logical explanation – I’ve simply attempted to compare it using four basic, but very important, categories, functionality and usability, mode of operation, extensions and plugins and finally, community and support.

Furthermore, I guess many users of WP and TXP will either agree or disagree with my views. To be honest, using a particular CMS also requires a certain amount of personal choice, what might work for me, may not work for you, and vice-versa. Differences in opinion are always welcome!

So without further ado, let us begin with our comparison.

Functionality and Usability

When it comes to functionality and usability, WordPress seems to win easily. While this does not mean that TextPattern is, in any way, less functional than WordPress, WP simply beats TXP in terms of ease of use! With the advent of version 3.x and higher, WP now boasts of a super organized administrative panel that lets you manage your website with ease. Don’t believe me? Take a look at WP’s admin panel. ‘Dashboard’, ‘Posts’, ‘Pages’, ‘Settings’ – which of these sections are not self-explanatory? Customizing the blog becomes a matter of few clicks. Take a look at the ‘Settings’ page of both the CMSes.

WordPress Settings Page

On the other hand, TextPattern’s administrative panel, though equally capable and powerful, seems ‘outdated’ in comparison to that of WordPress. Of course, TXP is equally robust in its admin panel, but overall the interface is not as easy to use and may even be confusing for beginners.

TextPattern Settings Page

Availability of Custom Plugins/Extensions and Themes

Apart from ease of use, the next thing that defines any piece of software is the availability of extensions for it. However, more often than not, there is a spiral between ‘ease of use’ on one hand and ‘extendability’ on the other. For instance, when it comes to mobile operating systems, Android is more popular than Samsung Bada. While this does not demerit Samsung Bada itself, Android’s popularity can be attributed to its ever-growing app market, which in turn is increasing because developers take an interest in it due to its easy extendability and wide usage, which ensures their efforts will not go unnoticed. Again, due to developers’ keen interest, the apps keep growing, and the users keep coming to Android.

Both WP and TXP support themes and templates as well as multiple plugins and extensions. However, WP has more themes and plugins then TXP. While this may or may not prove WP’s superiority, it surely plays its role in contributing to WP’s user base. Since many commercially viable tech blogs and websites are powered by WordPress (not to mention the millions of blogs at WordPress.com and Blog.com), it is but natural that WP has a large number of themes and plugins. Certain providers, such as WooThemes, offer themes for both WP and TXP. Yet, in this case too, WP dominates TXP in terms of the number of available themes.

If you have exemplary coding skills, fret not! You can easily tweak TXP and design your blog or website the way you wish to. But if you are an end user just looking to get a blog or website up and ready with as little technical expertise as possible, WP should be your safest bet!

Mode of Operation

Modus Operandi is by far the most debatable topic when it comes to comparing any two CMS’s, let alone WP and/or TXP.

To begin with, WordPress comes with a WYSIWYG Editor that makes editing posts and articles extremely simple.

WYSIWYG Editor in WP

TextPattern, on the other hand, has an equally awesome (though not so end-user friendly, as it takes some ‘getting used to’) editor, which can do almost anything you want it to, but will surely leave many beginners confused. In TXP, Textile and other related features can either be your best friends or your worst enemies.

Article Editor in TXP

In the admin back end as well, you will notice that mundane tasks such as updating the CMS, installing themes/plugins, or even navigating the back end – all seem easier on WP rather than TXP for a novice. However, the confusion vanishes once you get accustomed to the interface.

Community and Support

A CMS is only as good as its user base. Both TXP and WP have a good and fairly active community and many forums where you can seek support and advice.

In terms of documentation, TXP seems to win outright. WP is well documented, but it comes nowhere close to beating TXP – apart from the usual website, TXP also has its own User Documentation Website and another TXP Resources site.

Speaking of support, WP is updated on a more frequent basis as compared to TXP. However, this can be interpreted either way – supporters of WP will consider the frequent updates as higher level of activity at their developers’ end, while supporters of TXP can attribute the lesser updates to a sign of maturity of TXP in itself.

To sum it up

Before coming to a conclusion, let us recap each CMS’s pros and cons:

TextPattern:

Pros:

• Textile is a wonderful component, and if you get used to it, you will never, ever, miss WP.
• You can tweak your website as much as you want. There is negligible encapsulation done.
• Extensive documentation.

Cons:

• Admin back end looks outdated.
• Interface confusing for beginners.
• Lesser number of themes/plugins (as compared to WP)

WordPress:

Pros:

• Perhaps the easiest CMS ever
• Several themes/plugins
• Excellent update mechanism

Cons:

• WP is intended to power only one blog at a time (unless you’re using WPMU)
• With plugins/extensions, it may becomes bloated
• Editing article meta data is difficult
• Notorious for frequent security bugs and issues

And the Winner is…

As I stated above, using (or not using) a particular CMS is a matter of personal preference too. More often than not, our choice for a CMS is governed by our needs (and, perhaps, bias towards a personal favorite).

WordPress and TextPattern are both great at what they do! If you need a CMS just to power a blog or a small website, look no further than WordPress. If, on the contrary, you wish to run multiple blogs, or prefer to tweak your articles before posting them (or simply like to do things the geeks’ way), TextPattern might be your ideal solution. In simple terms, TXP should be chosen if you wish to define the dynamics of your website just as if you were ‘programming’ software.

Have you used WP and/or TXP earlier? Do share your experiences with us in the comments!

In fact Fireworks can be used hand-in-hand with Photoshop to create seamless mockup designs, wireframes, interface icons and so much more. We’ll be taking a look into how you can incorporate Adobe Fireworks seamlessly into your design workflow.

What is all the Excitement with Fireworks?

Many of you may be asking why there is so much excitement for this tool. It’s still very under-utilized software within the design community but has been growing more popular since Adobe acquired Macromedia in 2006.

The software itself is both bitmap and vector based. Fireworks is a powerful graphics editing tool initially created for the purpose of designing high-quality icons and graphics for the web. These could include icon sets or UI graphics on buttons. Frequently though designers are switching over to Fireworks for its potential in creating powerful mockup designs.

The true power of Adobe Fireworks comes with its 2 development states – vector and bitmap. The main difference between the two formats is how your computer renders each image. Bitmaps are created using pixels each shaded a different color while vectors use lines and curves to match up complex shapes.

Each has their own pros and cons list which represent their main use. Bitmaps are the images you’ll see around the web – .jpg or .png are examples. Vectors are mostly used for logos or drawn artwork since there are no hard edges. The entire image is rendered using complex mathematical formulas which determine how vector lines should smooth or curve.

Rolling both of these formats into Fireworks is where we can start to see some major benefits to web designers. The tools and palettes are also very similar to Illustrator and Flash, so it’s not difficult to pick up and learn.

Fireworks Wireframing and Mockups

The true beauty for us web designers comes from Firework’s ability to create stunning website wireframes. A wireframe is a type of design mockup which contains all of the major elements needed to display a website’s core features without getting bogged down in the finer details.

A wireframe doesn’t require special software to design. You could just draw it with pencil and paper if you were inclined to do so. However the major benefits Adobe Fireworks brings to the table when discussing wireframe mockups are staggering. One advanced feature is the possibility of creating Master Pages to implement features easily throughout a mockup.

For example if you were creating a wireframe for 5 pages of a website you wouldn’t create 5 separate documents (well you could, it would just take longer). Designing a Master Page which contains all the elements common to every page in the site (navigation, header, footer, content area) and expanding it throughout your other pages is the simplest way. Fireworks features this functionality right out of the box and even allows for deeper customizations when it comes to the Master/Regular page relationship.

Interactive Web Design Prototyping

Creating a beautiful website prototype is no harder to do in Fireworks than a simple wireframe. With a prototype you’d be designing all of the major elements such as navigation links, buttons, search boxes, and everything else the user interacts with. By giving design and shape to these objects in a graphical setting it makes transferring code into HTML that much simpler.

The great thing about Fireworks is how you can apply behaviors to elements found in your documents. This means you can set a button to change state or replace text when clicked on. You can also import graphics from other software suites into a prototype mockup – meaning any logos or vectors created in Photoshop or Illustrator can still carry over.

Fireworks does have an export feature which allows you to directly convert an image mockup into HTML/CSS code. It’s not the greatest code when it comes to efficiency and generally isn’t worth using in my opinion. Run Fireworks for what it does best – digital graphics placement and manipulation.

Designing Mobile Applications

iPhone and Android-powered devices have seen enormous growth over the past few months. It’s an area of the web not yet explored and it’s continuously evolving each day. Fireworks is the perfect software for creating an iPhone app prototype and plays well with many other operating systems.

The main benefit is how quickly other designers caught on to using Fireworks for mobile prototypes. This means there are many readily-available packages and toolkits for download to help ease the process of mobile app development.

A quick query into Google for “iphone GUI fireworks” brings up plenty of interesting results. Scanning through some blogs on the topic you should stumble into plenty of resources for mobile app mockups.

And these are only a few things Fireworks can help with! Having such powerful functionality at your fingertips means finishing design work that much quicker. With Adobe frequently releasing new updates to Fireworks and the entire Creative Suite we can see changes being made almost instantaneously.

The software is really exciting and it’s a new area for designers to break into. This has been an introduction into the world of Adobe Fireworks but it’s by no means a complete guide. There is so much information about web design and prototyping in Fireworks it’s a simple skill to pick up. Although it may not stand out right away, utilizing Fireworks as your mockup creation tool can save loads of time and frustration during complex projects.

Among thousands of logos out there, some of them may look cheesy and cheap, and some visually give us confident. In order to grab our attention and get our trust, many companies even consider to re-brand/redesign their logo. As might be expected, the company will have to take the risk and be prepared of the pros and cons of this act. They should have really consider the reasons behind the redesign of their brand.

Below is a list, in no particular order of what I think to be famous and successful logo redesign from their old logo to the latest with explanations of what has been improved.

1. Toys R Us

Toys R Us has been the second largest overall toy retailer in the United States with many branch chain which located in Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa, and Canada.

Old Logo History:

The yellow reverse “R” in quotation marks, which is similar to the Cyrillic letter Я, (ISO 9: Я), imitates a small child’s backward writing of “R”, which is short for “are”. The “R” is the most distinctive part of the retailer’s colorful kid-friendly logo. The current, modernized Toys “R” Us logo was introduced in 1969 as the first logo, then a blue star was added to the logo in late-1998/early-1999 during the Toys “R” Us “Concept 2000″ era.

New Logo – What has been improved:

On September 24, 2007 the logo was redesigned with alternating sized characters and a star in the middle of the reverse R. The letter R was changed from yellow to blue. In this new logo, the company achieve a better shape for the font character, leaving the “classic” feel behind and gives a bright and fun feel to it.

2. UPS

UPS, short for United Parcel Service, Inc. is the world’s largest package delivery company. Headquartered in Sandy Springs, Georgia, United States. UPS is well known for its brown trucks, internally known as package cars (hence the company nickname “The Big Brown Machine”).

Old Logo History:

The iconic package and shield originally designed in 1961 by Paul Rand. It became their original logo and first saw use in 1916 when the company was American Messenger Company. In 1935, the logo was redesigned to reflect the company’s new name United Parcel Service.

New Logo – What has been improved:

UPS decided to re-brand themselves in 2003, the new logo was designed by New York-based FutureBrand and it represents a strategic decision to emphasize UPS’s expanded business operations. All four designs for the logo shared the shield theme, but the new design clearly feels much more modern and and clean. Although the logo obviously doesn’t direct us to the shipping company, it gives the safe feel with the shield on the logo, knowing that our package will be protected.

3. Skittles

Skittles is a brand of fruit-flavored candies which were first made commercially in 1974 by a British company.

Old Logo History:

Candy brands are some of the most enduring brands in the market. Skittles have the excellent & long standing tag line ‘Taste the Rainbow”, with this tag line the company only focus on the rainbow color for additional effect behind their “Skittles” text which in this case become their logo.

New Logo – What has been improved:

Miles Newlyn admitted that concept & design for the new Skittles logo is not his but that of Dragon Rouge. Nevertheless, The colorful ‘tongue’ he retouched has been blogged around the internet. This multi-colored tongue concept is a literal though stylized translation of the brand’s slogan, “Taste the rainbow.”

4. MTV

Easily recognized since it’s first launched on August 1, 1981 is an American cable television network based in New York City. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs. Today, MTV doesn’t play music videos, and primarily broadcasts a variety of popular culture and reality television shows targeted at adolescents and young adults.

Old Logo History:

Throughout MTV’s early days, the channel’s main logo was a large yellow “M” with red letters “TV,” but unlike most networks’ logos, the MTV logo constantly morphed and adapted with different colors, patterns, and images filling in the large block letter. The very first moments of MTV after the “moon landing,” as well as the top of every hour until at least the mid-1980s, featured a rapidly changing station ID logo that changed its appearance several times per second. The only constant aspects of MTV’s logo at the time were its general shape and proportions; everything else was dynamic.

New Logo – What has been improved:

MTV’s logo has been instantly recognizable for the last three decades. Up to this point, MTV revised their original 1981 logo by excluding the “Music Television” caption under the big “M” letter, and the trailing letter “V” that branched off to the side of the original logo. Their long-running tag line “Music Television” at this time has been officially dropped since they are not primarily broadcast music videos anymore.

5. Delta Air Lines

As it emerged from bankruptcy, Delta Air Lines wanted to signal to both customers and employees that the airline was “coming back new and better”. In preparation for the momentous occasion, Delta engaged Lippincott to reposition the airline with a revitalized image and redesigned customer experience that would force reconsideration of the airline.

Old Logo History:

Delta’s identity has been short-lived for the last decade or so. Throughout its history with a whopping 19 logos in 78 years — with two major identity changes. See Delta Logo Timeline.

New Logo – What has been improved:

Some people think of Delta’s redesigned logo is more to a realign than a redesign. In spite of that,  Delta’s new logo now looks sharp. The colors in are more subdued and the choice of a all caps sans serif typeface gives the modern look and feel as well. This 3-dimensional red widget logo successfully reflects Delta’s transformation into a highly-differentiated, customer-focused airline.

6. Starbucks

With the largest coffeehouse company in the world, we can hardly ignore this green logo from Starbucks.

Old Logo History:

The original Starbucks logo sported a wood cut type illustration of a siren from Greek mythology. The logo has been significantly streamlined over the years. In the first version, which was based on a 17th-century the Starbucks siren was topless and had a fully visible double fish tail. In the second version, which was used from 1987 – 1992, her breasts were covered by her flowing hair, but her navel was still visible, and the fish tail was cropped slightly.

New Logo – What has been improved:

Starbucks’ current logo is used since 1992, her navel and breasts are not visible at all, and only vestiges remain of the fish tails. Today the current incarnation of the logo is much more streamlined and and memorable. It is a significant and unique logo for coffeehouse furthermore giving the impression of ‘one of a kind’.

7. Sprint

Sprint is a global Internet carrier and makes up a portion of the Internet backbone. In the United States, the company is the third largest long distance provider and also owns a majority of Clearwire, which operates the largest wireless broadband network.

Old Logo History:

The original Sprint logo was used from 1989 to 2005 with 4th variant used from 1995–2005.

New Logo – What has been improved:

When Sprint merged with Nextel a few years back they underwent massive re-branding campaign. Nextel’s attention getting black and yellow color scheme was merged with The Sprint name. The new symbol is based on sprints signature ‘pin drop’. The switch to a nice sans serif typeface also does wonders for making the logo look modern. This logo really shines when the symbol is set in motion.

8. KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken)

Old Logo History:

By the late 1990s, the stylized likeness of Colonel Sanders as the KFC logo had been modified and only used until November 2006.

New Logo – What has been improved:

With the colonel putting on his apron to replace his suit coat, this new KFC logo giving us the friendly and inviting feel. The new angled backdrop to the logo also adds a nice dynamic feel and implies quickness.

9. CBS Broadcasting Inc.

CBS Broadcasting Inc. (CBS) is a major American television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network’s former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the “Eye Network” in reference to the shape of the company’s logo.

Old Logo History:

CBS unveiled its Eye Device logo on October 17, 1951. Before that, from the 1940s through 1951, CBS Television used an oval spotlight on the block letters C-B-S.[16] The Eye device was conceived by William Golden based on aPennsylvania Dutch hex sign as well as a Shaker drawing and made its broadcasting debut on October 20, 1951. Since then the company insisted on keeping the Eye device and using it as much as possible.

New Logo – What has been improved:

Today the logo which is alternately known as theEyemark, has been slightly changed on the typography to get the modern and futuristic feel, keeping their classic long lasting Eye device logo (vaguely bigger) in the front of “CBS” characters.

10. Apple Inc.

Old Logo History:

Apple’s first logo, designed by Jobs and Wayne, depicts Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree. Almost immediately, though, this was replaced by Rob Janoff’s “rainbow Apple”, the now-familiar rainbow-colored silhouette of an apple with a bite taken out of it. Janoff presented Jobs with several different monochromatic themes for the “bitten” logo. In 1998, with the roll-out of the new iMac, Apple discontinued the rainbow theme and began to use monochromatic themes, nearly identical in shape to its previous rainbow incarnation.

New Logo – What has been improved:

Entering the digital era, in 2007 Apple started to redesign their apple logo to give their customer a simple, minimal, yet modern look with the touch of chrome shade.

11. FedEx

Old Logo History:

The original Federal Express logo was designed by Richard Runyan in 1973.

New Logo – What has been improved:

The Fed is always purple and the Ex is in a different color for each division and grey for the overall corporation use. The original “FedEx” logo had the Ex in orange; it is now used as the FedEx Express wordmark. The FedEx wordmark is notable for containing a hidden right-pointing arrow in the negative space between the “E” and the “X”, which was achieved by designing a proprietary font, based on Univers and Futura, to emphasize the arrow shape. Other than giving the new and modern look, this new logo with the hidden arrow was a genius idea behind their new logo,  made it looks like it’s presenting the moving forward company as well.

12. City of Melbourne

The City of Melbourne is a Local Government Area in Victoria, Australia, located in the central city area of Melbourne.

Old Logo History:

City of Melbourne first logo M and leaf symbol was introduced in the early 1990s.

New Logo – What has been improved:

The new logo received many critiques for the cost of the big “M” research and design. Despite that, this dimensional colored “M” is different compared to the other city logos on earth. Unique and sophisticated.

13. Discovery Channel

Old Logo History:

The Discovery Channel’s very first logo was a television screen picturing a map of the World. In the mid-90s, the word “The” was dropped from the channel’s name. A globe became a permanent part of the logo and a strap was added to the bottom of the logo.

New Logo – What has been improved:

Discovery Channel started using a new logo on 2008. With new graphics and the new tagline “The World is Just Awesome”. The new logo has been designed by Viewpoint Creative in Boston and replaced Aurora Bold Condensed with Gotham. The globe has been merged with the “D” in “Discovery”. Their new logo now looks more simplified and less crowded.

14. MailChimp

MailChimp is a free and paid email marketing service started in the 2001.

Old Logo History:

Their first logo was the iconic monkey head used in the year of 2001 until 2005. In 2006, they decided to change the monkey-icon logo with using only typography “MailChimp”.

New Logo – What has been improved:

Since 2008, MailChimp with their third generation logo has become one of the best email marketing services. The new monkey logo gives us a warm, friendly feel and overall pleasant.

15. Target

Target Corporation, usually known simply as Target, is an American retailing company that was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1902 as the Dayton Dry Goods Company.

Old Logo History:

In 1968, Target changed its bullseye logo to a more modern look. Target script used from 1980 until 2004. Changes from the original logo are that its brandmark is a single red ring with a red dot in the middle, and its wordmark uses the Helvetica font.

New Logo – What has been improved:

Target’s latest logo are in red block letters using Helvetica font that the word “Target” uses in favor of a more streamlined red “Target Brand” look.  Over the survey, ninety-seven percent of American consumers recognize the Target Bullseye logo. Perhaps their logo redesign isn’t essential, but by making their Bullseye bigger that the “TARGET” characters, it obviously focusing more on their recognizable brand.

What are your thoughts about these logo redesigns? Feel free to share them with us.

Videos are simply great to deliver a message in a very short time and for most people bandwidth is not a problem any more.The following screencasting  tools are all free to record screen but of course their features are not as much as paid ones.You can easily record your screen and add audio or edit your recorded screen videos with these tools.If you know more free tools then please denote in comments section.

Free tools

1.Aviscreen

AviScreen is an application for capturing screen activity in the form of AVI video or bitmap images.It has a unique feature called “follow the cursor”. Using this mode you can produce a video or image of relatively small dimensions while covering all mouse activity over the whole screen area.You may stop or pause the video capture at any moment.  If you use the popup menu to stop/pause the capture, the process will also be captured and may need to be trimmed later. When the computer is slow or very busy, sometimes it is necessary to hit the shortcut key several times before it works.This is a free capture program that records the video into AVI files, but can also do BMP photos. It’s Windows only and does not record audio.

2.Camstudio

Free and open source streaming video software for Windows that allows you to capture screen and audio activity on your computer and create AVI video files and export to SWF. CamStudio has an easy-to-use interface and includes a video annotation feature, custom cursors and selected screen region recording.

3.Copernicus

A free program for Macs that focuses heavily on making quick and speedy films by recording the video to your RAM for quicker access. Does not include any support for audio.

4.Goview

Free Windows software from Citrix Online, that allows you to record video of your screen, capture audio, edit and host your videos without bandwidth limitations. Screencasts can be password protected, and downloaded/uploaded to other sites.

5.ISU

ISU enable people to easily Record a sequence of operations in applications.
Edit the recorded presentation, draw on it and add nice notes and stylish HTML pages.Send it to friends via Email, Messenger or any other application or Browser Email. Or even create FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) in a Center-Folder.

6.Jing

Free simplified screen recording software for Mac and Windows machines that allows users to quickly record videos (including audio) from a window or region on their desktop, including the mouse, scroll movements and clicks on websites or applications. You can record up to five minutes. Jing is a product of TechSmith, the makers of Camtasia Studio and Camtasia for Mac.

7.Krut

Krut is a screencast tool that is written in Java and well suited for making video tutorials (instructional videos) on most platforms. Krut records movie files, including sound, of selected parts of your screen. The files use the quicktime mov format. The program has an intuitive and compact user interface.

8.Freescreencast

Free software that lets you record your screen, capture audio, control the cursor, and export to FLV format. You can then upload to FreeScreencast.com  for free hosting (no file size or resolution limits) and sharing.

9.Screentoaster

ScreenToaster is a free web-based screen recorder designed to capture your screen activity, audio and webcam images in real-time then publish and share your video in blogs and websites.ScreenToaster works in all browsers and doesn’t require any download so that you can use it anywhere, anytime.

10.Microsoft expression encoder

This free version of Expression Encoder 3 does not include support for IIS Smooth Streaming and H.264 encoding.

11.Screen castle

Screen Castle is an online recording tool.Of course it is not professional as the others but you can easily record your screen with one click and get the sharing codes immediately.

12.Screencast O matic

It’s like an online tool which you don’t have to download anything.You just click the Create Button and a box appears which works with Java and you adjust the screen area to start recording as you see in the below screen shot.you can send the recorded file directly to through hosting.

13.Screen jelly

A free web-based utility that lets you record your screen and audio for up to three minutes, then send it out to Twitter or in an email.

14.Screenr

A free web-based tool for Windows or Mac that lets you create screencasts without installing any software. Your screencast is published in high-definition Flash format, and can be shared on Twitter, YouTube or anywhere else on the web. Screenr is made by Articulate, the makers of Articulate Studio.

15.Oripa screen recorder

oRipa Screen Recorder is a handy tool to record your Windows desktop activities in real time and save it as a video file. oRipa Screen Recorder also captures anything you can hear on your PC, such as, music and talking through the PC’s microphone.

16.Utipu

UTipU Tipcam has 2 versions.FREE and PRO.It is another easy to use tool for recording both video and audio.You can also make smart zooming which is very useful for presentations.Click the Zoom button to zoom into closer. This type of zoom will follow your mouse. You can also zoom before you start recording.

17.UltraVNC

The screen recorder is build with the old Rendersoft camstudio source.UltraVNC boasts a chat window, a dialog for file transfer and an embedded Java viewer which allows you to open a UltraVNC session in a browser. Supports audio also.

18.Webinaria

You can easily create screen records as .avi file and turn them in to .FLV file.You can also add you voice and edit the recorded file later.It requires Windows and totally FREE.

Let us know if we have missed some awesome app for screencasting and we will update the article.:)

1. EyeOs

EyeOs is a Cloud Computing Platform that includes an office suite, group ware applications and the toolkit to develop specific web applications that you need.

2. iCloud

icloud consists of a desktop with applications and files that you run through your web browser. Because it’s running in the cloud (the internet) it can offer you impressive features such as easy sharing and rich collaboration.

3. CorneliOS

CorneliOS is a web-based OS that runs in your web browser. All applications and files are stored on the CorneliOS server and are accessible all the time and anywhere. CorneliOS is platform and browser independent and is available as free Open Source software under the GPL as well as under a commercial license. The CorneliOS Web OS includes a Content Management System (CMS) so that you can easily set up and manage your own website as well as a Database Management System that allows to rapidly build any kind of database application.

4. Glide OS

Glide OS 4.0 is a comprehensive Ad-Free cloud computing solution. Glide provides a free suite of rights-based productivity and collaboration applications with 30GBs of storage. The Glide OS provides automatic file and application compatibility across devices and operating systems. With Glide OS you also get the Glide Sync App which helps you to synchronize your home and work files.

5. myGoya

6. atoolo

atoolo is a personal communication platform or differently spoken: an individual home in the net and a useful aid with the everyday work on the PC.

7. Cloudo

With Cloudo, every computer, in school, at work, at your friends’ or even in the library becomes your own, free of charge computer. And with Cloudo Mobile your online computer is accessible from your mobile phone as well.

8. OOS

OOS (Online Operating System) is your personal online desktop that supports multiple applications and allows online collaboration and it comes with Windows XP like theme.

9. Pipio

Pipio is a social operating system that aims to give people the ability to share and communicate in real-time. You can search what other people are communicating about in real-time based on contextual, geographical, and chronological relevance. As an operating system, Pipio allow full functionality of third-party web apps within the Pipio ecosystem.

10. KIDO’Z

KIDO’Z is a web OS for kids. KIDO’Z Kid’s Web Environment is safe, easy and fun way for young kids to surf their favorite sites, watch videos, play games, send emails, create and communicate without knowing how to read and write. KIDO’Z is powered by parents and gives parents the power of control.

11. Peepel

Peepel is an online WebOs and office suite.

12. Startforce

13. Fenestela

Fenestela is an operating system for WEB space with a simple and convivial graphic interface. Code your Web pages, your programs, and save your files online. Share with your friends your photographs, family movies and office documents.

14. mybooo

15. SilveOS

16. Lucid

Lucid is a free, open source web desktop, or webOS that lets you: Access your media, office documents, and other files anywhere Stay up to date with Twitter, RSS feeds, and what’s happening on the web Create great web applications in short amounts of time.

First of all and if you have never seen Adobe Flash, do not try to convince yourself that you can manage it. Yes, you can probably learn some simple things from YouTube tutorials, but the flash templates of the new generation are much more than just a number or links, images and text blocks. So what’s the solution if you are a flash fan and dream of an awesome interactive flash template?

Flash Content Management System.

What’s a flash content management system or simply flash CMS? That’s a system that helps you manage your flash website without actual source files editing. The CMS based flash template usually consists of the 3 main sections: the design skin- that works like the shell for the content, the core- the codes and programmed functions, and the website content- that can be stored in the database or external txt/xml files. The content management system in simple words is an administrative interface where you can enter the content in a convenient, intuitive, friendly manner without going into any codes and this content will show up on the website in the real time.

So Flash CMS seems to be a really cool solution but can you build your website using its functionality if you are not a flash developer? The answer is obviously no. There have been lots of Flash CMS solutions reviews recently but they are useless for the regular users as most of us simply don’t know where and how to implement them. That’s why I have decided to create a review of Flash CMS templates solutions presently available on the market, the solutions that will allow you build your new flash website quickly, easily at without additional costs.

1. Wix Site Builder

If you have ever been looking for a free flash website you might have been on a Wix site and even considered using their builder to create your free flash website. Guys at Wix have a huge number of nicely designed templates and working with the Wix system is a real pleasure. It takes just a few minutes to sign up with them, choose the template and proceed to the editing interface. Editing the template reminds more of a fun game with big iconed tools :) You can change texts and fonts, you can add photos, videos and music and create nice galleries. You can also view your website online on the link like this one http://www.wix.com/adzyasan/anastasia and it’s also for free.

If you want more features than the free version of Wix allows you can sign up for a premium account (starting from $4.95/month) and use your own domain name, remove Wix ads and logo from your website.

2. ReadyPhotoSite Flash CMS

Initially developed for photographers community, ReadyPhotoSite CMS can be used to create any type of website, from business to entertainment sites. The product is available in 4 packages:

• Basic- for business websites;
• Creative- for photography websites and personal portfolios;
• Ecommerce- for online flash stores;
• Premium- includes the design .fla files allowing to make modifications not available from the admin area.

The modules presented in ReadyPhotoSite CMS include:

• General website settings (logo, menu, copyright etc);
• Meta-data manager;
• Photo gallery (unlimited number of photo galleries);
• Video gallery (unlimited number of video galleries);
• Slideshow creator;
• Mp3 tracks editor;
• News section;
• Events editor;
• Password protected galleries;
• Shopping cart and online store.

The pricing for ReadyPhotoSite websites depends on functionality. The basic package is $149, creative $159, ecommerce- $199 and premium package is $250.

The collection presently includes 10 templates and several new templates are added monthly. The templates do not require database to store info. All the texts, paths to the files and parameters are stored in the external XML files used by the system. The system is skin based but there are certain design restrictions applied for every template and thus changing one design to the other might be not a good idea. Deep linking technology makes ReadyPhotoSite websites search engine friendly and lets your reference the difference sections of your flash website as if it was simple clean HTML.

View ReadyPhotoSite templates View admin area demo

3. Fancy CMS

Fancy CMS is a new promising flash content management system that seems to be still in development. They have triumphantly launched their first template and promise more to come shortly. As a fresh developing product Fancy CMS might also be interesting for flash developers as there’s a beta version of Fancy Flash CMS Core available for free. One oops- the admin area is not available yet so if you decide to download the templates be ready to edit the info directly in the xml files.

Among the interesting features of Fancy Flash CMS are:

• Rich content pages with 2-level menus;
• Flash blog;
• e-commerce shopping cart,
• Option to change the pages design and layout;
• Video, Image & Sound Galleries.

The system is skin based so you can easily change skins to newer design versions. At the moment the system is free.

Download Free Fancy CMS

4. FlashMoto CMS

Loved by flash developers the FlashMoto CMS has the widest range of functionality possible. There’s an option to edit the core of the system, add new modules and widgets and create separate projects based on the FlashMoto CMS. However when it comes to website management it gets complicated for most of us… since there are too many options available. Certain functionality limitations would guarantee that design look and feel remains stylish and professional but this in not the case when you can play around with almost every element and then can’t set it back to default position. Yet, we have to admit that FlashMoto CMS is a powerful engine, though (and in the consent of our theme today) oriented more on developers than end users. What’s really cool about this CMS is the Multilingual Control Panel supporting 12 languages.

Among the features of the FlashMoto CMS you will find:

• Interface to update general settings like logo, menu, company name etc;
• Ability to add unlimited number of pages in a rich WYSIWYG editing environment;
• Media Library & Preload Item option;
• News module, Video & Image Gallery ;
• Video and MP3 player.

While the admin area works smooth I can’t call it intuitive though this can be a matter of time and getting used to things. People logging in for the first time to WordPress or Oscommerce admin area might be feeling kinda lost as well :)

The templates cost around $250 and are all designed in the up-to-date clean style which makes the offer even more attractive.

There’s an interesting fact that FlashMint and FlashMoto which are supposed to be competitors have recently signed an agreement where FlashMint will be developing templates based on FlashMoto CMS.

View FlashMoto CMS templates View admin area demo

5. Mint Editor

Mint editor is another flash website management product created by www.flashmint.com. This is not a standalone product or system but rather a management interface allowing to easily update info on the flash templates via simple admin area. While opened in Mint Editor, the template is represented as a structured combination of various flash components, with a separate set of configuration settings for each of them. The list of components include:

• Audio gallery;
• Image gallery;
• Video gallery;
• Slideshow;
• Dynamic news;
• Dynamic text page;
• Contact section.

Mint Editor is probably the cheapest solution of that kind presented on the market. Mint Editor templates cost $50 and are hand-coded for a certain appropriate design.

6. AuroraFlash Site Builder

In simple words AuroraFlash site builder is your desktop flash WYSIWYG editor allowing to build fantastic flash websites without any special skills and within 30 minutes. The concept is very simple and the editor works as a candy. All you have to do is download the editor and auto install it on your computer in several simple clicks. After that the program will offer you choose the template to work with from the number of default designs and the interface will load.

The components presented in default free templates include:

• Text pages;
• News;
• Photo gallery;
• Contact section.

There’s a set of flash templates you can download directly from the website absolutely for free and use it for creating of your personal website, however if you plan creating a project for your customer based on AuroraFlash website builder be sure to read the licensing terms.

7. Yooba Flash CMS

Developer:

Yooba Flash CMS is a tool for creating simple flash animated websites in the Yooba environment. That’s a hosted solution so in order to manage your website you have to login to the membership area on the Yooba website. Before starting on the project you’ll have to prepare the design of your new web page and save all the elements as separate images that then will be uploaded to your Yooba interface. The nice feature about Yooba is that they offer simple website visitors stats.

The price of Yooba is somewhat high- €40 per slot a month and you have to build the design on your own. Yooba is not a CMS in the usual understanding however it allows to create animated websites with easy and without flash or any other special knowledge.

8. FlashMint CMS v3

FlashMint is a leading provider of Flash CMS Templates. They have CMS v1, CMS v2 and CMS v3 templates presented in their collection. While the first two versions of FlashMint content management system where pretty primitive, version 3 looks cool. There’s a nice intuitive admin area and the administration interface allows to perform the following basic actions:

• Upload your logo; add company name;
• Upload website background image;
• Change company name and menu colors.

As every content management system FlashMint CMS v3 allows:

• Create unlimited number of text pages;
• Rearrange the order of the menu tabs.

FlashMint CMS v3 was developed mainly as the content management system for portfolios and photography websites hence the following features:

• Unlimited number of photo galleries;
• Photo controls for the website visitors;
• Photo search;
• Unlimited number of video galleries;
• Slideshow creator.

Other modules presented in FlashMint CMS v3 include news editor, events editor, mp3 track editor, meta tags section. There are 30 beautiful flash templates to choose from, no special server requirements and no complicated installation. The system is not skin based, so every template is developed separately.

Template price: $204-215

9. TemplateAction Flash CMS

Developer:

According to TemplateAction team, TemplateAction website templates are fully customizable and editable via an extensive control panel. The admin area allows:

• Rename pages, edit and format texts;
• Add links, add/remove/change images;
• Change the video background.

Compared to other Flash CMS system reviewed above, TemplateAction CMS doesn’t have an advanced functionality but it’s quite enough for a simple flash business or personal website. There are 17 nice templates presently available and the price is fair- $89 only. There’s a admin panel demo available on YouTube so you have a good chance to review the functionality before making your choice of the CMS based flash template and placing the order.

In conclusion I’d like to say that it’s only up to you what system to choose for creating and managing your flash website but let me give you some advice.

1. Check the admin panel demo before making the purchase and make sure that it’s convenient for you. Don’t trust the words, test it.
2. Think what features you need and what you don’t- you don’t have to pay for the stuff that you don’t need.
3. Make your decision based on your template type. If you are a photographer- you’ll need photo and video galleries as well as your own domain name for brand recognition. Wix templates will work for a personal hobby website but you have to be more thoughtful when choosing a flash solution for your company business website.
4. Avoid all the templates with huge/complex animations. This websites will not only work slowly but can make the browser and computer freeze.

Feel free to share your thoughts. All the best guys! Have a great day and see you soon again :)

I’ve done my best to help you make an informed choice by listing and reviewing the best tools I found so far.

1. TeuxDeux

What is TeuxDux: A very simple web app where you can make to-do list for your next 7 days. I guess they did this because they recommend to plan your week upfront (which makes sense).

Why is it useful: It’s simple and easy to understand. Also it’s very user-friendly. I was able to start using it after 30 seconds literally without any confusion.

My experience with it: I’ve decided to play around with it and create a simple to-do list with not-so-simple-to-do items :). Take a look:

Okay :), not the best list in terms of breaking things down (I’ll let you know what I mean by that later) but gives you a pretty good idea on how can you make your list. You see how intuitive the interface is?

2. Ta-da Lists

What is Ta-Da lists: This is a tool created by 37 Signals, the guys who are responsible for inventing Ruby on Rails . As you can suppose, Ta-Da lists is also created with this programming language.

Why is it useful: Simple, easy to understand and very intuitive. You can create lists for a group of tasks and share every list easily. Sign up required 10 seconds, as you can see from the above picture (my experience also confirms this.)

My experience with it: I’ve played around with Ta-da lists and found it very easy to learn. Again, here’s a simple to-do list:

Oh well, I live in a village, you know :)

3. HiTask

What is HiTask: This is a bit more complicated web tool than the previous two. HiTask is a detailed tool, you can set up tasks at exact time on an exact day.

Why is it useful: You can set up projects, invite team members and easily turn HiTask from a simple to-do software to a powerful team management tool. It’s your choice whether to keep it simple or go more complex (remember, if you don’t have to, don’t over-complicated stuff.)

My experience with it: Their interface left me a good impression. You have a screen shot below:

Next!

4. Remember The Milk

What is Remember the Milk: I would say this is a semi-complicated (using it in context where simple is a “to do checklist” and nothing else, see #1 for an example) application for getting stuff done. You can categorize your activities in different categories, the default ones are Personal/Study/Work.

Why is it useful: Remember the Milk is useful if you need lists for things to do at home, school or work. No default set up is required to organize these tasks.

My experience with it: I’ve played around with this application a bit, here’s a screen shot below:

5. Todoist

What is Todoist: Another great web app for to-do items. The unique thing here is that you can create sub-projects and have a calendar you can utilize.

Why is it useful: Well, they were kind to answer this question instead of me:

My experience with it: …has been great so far. Very intuitive and easy to understand, as you’ll see from the screen shot below:

2 Things To Remember When Making To-do lists

I told you I’m a productivity freak. Here are 2 useful things to remember when doing to-do lists:

• Break things down. For example, if you write ‘clean out the office’ and think that’s a to-do item, well, you’re wrong. That’s more like a project. ‘Clean out the office’ is a COLLECTION of tasks, not a task itself. So if you have this ‘project’ in mind, then break it down into several ‘to do items’ like ‘shred unneeded paperwork’ and so on.
• Don’t be vague. When you write your to-do items, be specific. For example, if you need to add an effect to a Photoshop image, don’t write ‘add Photoshop effect.’ Write down WHICH effect you need to add. Possibly, also write where you need to add it. Your purpose is to look at the to-do item and know immediately what you need to do without thinking very much.

By the way, the principles above are from a book I own named “Upgrade your Life” from LifeHacker which I found very useful for improving my productivity.

Congratulate yourself because you are already taking action and are in the next stage where you’re learning how to take action more efficiently. I hope this article helped you with that.

Xara 3D is simple 3D animation program, which is very easy to use and it’s great program for beginners or people, who just wants fast and amazing outcome. Graphic designers usually use this program to create nice 3D text, then export it to Photoshop for example and add some spice. Xara 3D serves well also for clean 3D logos,buttons creation. Program is really light weighted too, installation file is just 25mb small! If You hear about Xara 3D first time, then just keep reading and You’ll understand what’s this program capable of.

I added few images which were created using Xara 3D to keep Your interest:

Xara 3D here has been used as primary tool for 3D text creation and everything else can be easily done in Photoshop or other program You prefer.

The user interface is highly intuitive and I felt good after just 30minutes playing with tools – it felt even too simple, but as I already said -  everybody with simple needs for starters will be satisfied. Xara 3D is worth just as low-cost way to start to get acquainted with the basics of 3D animation and rendering. The program comes with plenty of samples, textures, demos and there are great videos easy to download and understand. With Xara3D you can create an endless variety of 3D graphics from TrueType fonts and imported 2D shapes with wide range of controls as lightning, bevel, font size, type, color extrude depth and texture rendering. All images are anti-alias in very smooth and professional quality. Below are few examples what Xara 3D can do:

These examples can be used great as excellent 3D logotype, button or just graphic effect. Of course, if You are looking for something that allows You to get more creative, You may want to consider using programs like Maya or 3dsMax. Below are examples of simple animations Xara 3D is capable of:

I hope these animations will not crash Your browser, if it goes really slow, just tell me, I will take those out. Xara 3D allows You to create animated 3D graphics that surely will attract more attention than a static image. Those awesome 3D animations can be created in seconds – *.gif, *.avi and *.swf formats, every animation You create also can be saved as screensaver.

Overview:

Pros:

• Intuitive interface
• Easy to learn and use
• Allow to create advanced animations and 3D effects in seconds
• Result is very smooth and anti-aliased ( important for logotypes, headers etc.)
• Light-weighted and there is no need for powerful computer to use it
• Low-cost program

Cons:

I found just one very big con for this program – Xara 3D is limited in its animation options, 3D effects, lighting and Your creativity. If You are serious graphic designer – You will have to retouch Xara 3D output in other software programs as Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash.

Okay, now You have seen what Xara 3D can do. I found few tutorials for You to help get known with this program. Enjoy:

If You liked this post, keep in track with this site, because I will create nice Xara 3D + Photoshop tutorial in next few days.

Xara 3D is shareware, a free download ( 15 days trial) is available so You can test by Yourself how good this program is. To download the free trial version, or to see more videos and examples about Xara 3D, click here. Actually the price is especially attractive, xara.com offers this program for: $44.99-54.99 USD, low in comparison to many other 3D programs as Maya, 3dsMax etc.

So first I can say it’s EXTREMELY fast, and yes – I really mean EXTREMALY! I am great fan of FireFox, but I can say, I loved Chrome from my first minute. At first it took just ~2 minutes to download and install – every page just loads in few seconds and design is very clean and intuitive, which is great, although I already missed my FF plugins :)

So okay, lets dig deeper:

What’s new with Chrome really? :

1. One box for everything

You got one browser box, where You start typing and browser automatically suggest You popular searches, visited pages while You are writing. Great feature, because now You got Search and Browser box in one field!

2. New tab

You can click on New tab icon – You can see Your nine most visited pages with thumbnails, history search, recent bookmarks and latest closed tabs. I found it pretty useful.

3. Crash Control

Chrome handles tabs differently than other browsers – each tab loads in his own process. This feature cuts out possibility of crashing Your browser – now there will crash just one tab. You can see below in image, what I am talking about.

So now Chrome has his own Task Manager and You can see there, how much memory uses  browser, each tab, plug-ins and easily end process of desired page.

If You like detailed statistics  – open stats for nerds to see summary.

4. Incognito mode

Image is pretty self explaining – if You don’t want to display pages in Your web history – just choose incognito mode and do safe browsing :) If You work in office – this one could be pretty useful spy mode.

5. Importing settings

Google Chrome  made pretty easy for new users to switch to their browser with easy bookmark,password etc. importing from Your previous browser.

6. Instant bookmarks

Browser automatically warns when You are going to visit some unsafe web site – I think You can trust Google as it is one of the biggest Internet giants in the world.

7. Simpler downloads

When downloading a file,  it will open in left bottom sidebar – just like FireFox with Statusbar extension. Thoughtful!

8. Dynamic tabs

You can easily manage Your tab order or create new window, just by easily clicking and dragging.

9. Speed

As I already said – Chrome is very fast, while browsing pages – however I am not an expert to make speed testing, however I found some tests.

Those are 5 subtests measuring browser’s JavaScript performance.

And there are more speed tests made by lifehacker.com :

10. Design

Interface in Chrome is very clean and intuitive, every icon and page just in place – excellent design. There are just minimalistic toolbar at top of the browser with just few buttons like:

And two icons – one for customizing current page and another to set Your global configuration settings:

Here I can see how less can be more.

Summary

Looks like Chrome will be serious competitor, because of its speed, cleanness and simplicity. I already see great war happening between FireFox, Chrome,Internet Explorer and Safari. Yeah..and for us, designers, looks like there will be one more browser to validate for. However I cant wait for full Chrome version and FireFox response to this step. See you in blogosphere!

If You are interested to know more about Google Chrome and why they made new browser, check their homepage:

I will be very glad to hear Your opinion about those news!