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Spring widgets

What is a widget?

Many people still don't know what  widget is.  It's a pretty simple concept.  It is an interface, usually on the smaller side that you can upload features to.  Kind of like a mini website, like something you would see on an iphone.  You can upload a blog feed, code a little game like tic tac toe, or even have a slideshow of your family.  Now these are not new concepts for websites, but the cool thing about a widget is that you can upload it to any website, sort of like and added feature.  Because there are so many widgets out there that are preset, generally if your just looking for something fun you can find one, and all you have to do is copy the code and paste it onto whatever page you want it on; whether it be your blog, myspace, or even your own website.

I have recently come into contact with this website:

www.springwidgets.com

I have to say that I am very impressed with the structure of their widgets!

The exterior design is very clean, not too much going on, with a subtle sheen so as to take on the appearance of metal or glass.  You can also edit the color of this frame to match the content included in the feed, or to match your website design.  

- You can choose from a multitude of widgets to include on your webpage like calendars, short quiz's, advertisements for companies, and blog feeds of course.  Below is an example of my widget of a friends blog feed: http://websitedesignnortherncalifornia.com

Another company that has been around for a while longer is widgetbox.com, 

they definitely have more widgets to choose from but the look of their widgets from a design standpoint is not as impressive.  The navigation bar on these widgets looks like its straight from the 90's.  So if your at all concerned about the appearance of your design, I would go with springwidgets.com

Tell me about your widget experiences and if you have created anything out of the ordinary please do submit or give me a link!

The Top 10 Premium Specialty Themes for WordPress

The top ten Premium Specialty Themes for Wordpress

According to DESIGNM.AG  these are the top 10 specialty wordpress themes, and by specialty I mean you have to buy them.  I have both wordpress blogs and blogspot blogs.  Aside from the fact that you have to pay for your blog, ie. hosting, when your using wordpress, to the common person it is going to be a lot more difficult to set up.  Whereas blogspot is extremely user friendly.  

- But if you are going to be using wordpress then I recommend either learning how to edit the code yourself to make it visually appealing, or purchasing a premium theme, of course you have to buy it, but generally they cost no more than $100.  

- Here they are:

Fabulous real estate agent tool.  This theme allows them to add up to date information and show photographs of homes easily and quickly!

This them is very posh, clean, and sophisticated.  This is for video bloggers specifically, so be ready to upload original video content to this theme.   Great for young film students.

Awesome choice for designers.  This blog allows anyone with a portfolio easily update their new projects, and even gives you the ability to create a page about each project so that you can explain the specifics.  Their is a cool java script embedded into the them so that you can have the images of your projects animate by blowing up on the screen for a close up while making the background dark. 

This nifty theme allows companies to advertise job openings, and keep them update.

This is a great choice for church's seeing as they don't have much money.  This design enables them to keep their community up to date on their current activities. 

Another snazzy video blogging theme!

This theme actually enables you to be able to get your own store up and running without having to go out an buy some crazy shopping cart software that is usually way over priced and low in quality. 

This is another e-commerce theme, a little bit more fancy.  The design seems to cater more to the technology industry than the one above.

This sports themed blog is a dream for any man.  You can track any sport or team you deem worthy of your time.

Classipress Text is kind of like craigs list.  It enables you to have classified ads in any genre. 

Adobe new release Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2

Adobe recently released lightroom 2, a program digital photographers use to more or less tweak their photos to perfection.  VERY exciting for the photography community!  Lightroom is cross platform so you can use it on a mac or pc.  

New features: (to name a few)

- Dual monitor support

- advances in non-destructive localized image correction

- streamlined search capabilities