World Cup Blog – Classic Version

World Cup Blog – Bracket Version

Mirror Football World Cup Wall Chart

Selectabet A4 PDF Wall Chart

Metro.co.uk World Cup Chart

Are you ready? Come on, England!

While the iPhone App Store is filling quickly with 3D games, the Android Market is focused more on customization and performance tweaking than on games and social networking. The range of wallpaper tools and widgets is impressive, helping to give each Android a life of its own. Read on for our top 50 picks of free apps from the Android Market.”

Check out the whole list via CNet.

Google has just released a video demonstrating the speed of the new beta of its Chrome web browser. Cool!

1. FireFTP
FireFTP is a free, secure, cross-platform FTP client for Mozilla Firefox which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP servers.

2. Echofon (previously known as Twitterfox)
Echofon is a family of Twitter apps and notifies you of your friends’ tweets on Twitter. Brilliant add-on. Tucks in quietly and neatly at the bottom right hand corner of your browser.

3. Screengrab
Screengrab saves webpages as images. It will capture what you can see in the window, the entire page, just a selection, a particular frame. Very useful indeed.

4. Firebug
Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page. I use this almost everyday for my work. =)

5. Web Developer
The Web Developer extension adds a menu and a toolbar to the browser with various web developer tools. After installing the extension there is a ‘Web Developer’ menu under the ‘Tools’ and context menu of the browser, as well as a new toolbar.

Here. We. Go!

http://www.minimalsites.com
The name speaks for itself. A showcase of clean websites.

http://www.greatdeals.com.sg/
A Singaporean site that provides shopping news and deals in the tiny red dot.

http://www.miguelbuckenmeyer.com/index.php
Love the usage of big banner space. Clean and neat site.

http://www.brooklynfare.com/index.php
Love the big fonts, big pictures and of course, the Tiffany Blue.

http://www.poccuo.com/index.php
Like the way they uses columns to divide their contents. So neat.

http://www.kidd81.com/
Colorful and cheerful. Everything is draggable on the site, almost. =p

http://webdesignledger.com/freebies/50-time-saving-photoshop-actions-for-enhancing-photos
Time-saver!

http://www.thecoolhunter.net/
Where the cool shit are.

http://webdesignledger.com/inspiration/the-design-evolution-of-popular-websites
The design evolution of popular websites. The befores and the afters.

http://www.fatcow.com/free-icons/?LinkName=No_Name
Free icons for download!

http://www.vistawallpaper.org/vista-wallpapers/stairway-to-heaven.jpg
A beautiful wallpaper which i had on my desktop for a few weeks. =)

http://twittercounter.com/
A site that allows you to check your twitter statistics.

http://carsonified.com/
Beautiful site – every page has only just 2 colors. Meaningful illustrations too.

http://blog.webdistortion.com/2009/08/16/30-mind-blowing-papervision-3d-sites/
30+ mind blowing Papervision 3D sites, according to the article’s title. Not all i feel, but still worth a look.

http://www.bestofthe2000s.com/
Which is the Agency of the Decade? Brand of the Decade? Web Site of the Decade? Blog of the Decade? This is the Link of the Decade!

http://clientsfromhell.tumblr.com/
Updated almost daily. Damn those !@#$%&!@

Last but not least…

http://www.facebook.com
Facebook is a social network…. nah.. just kidding. =)

IKEA had been using IKEA Sans, which is a customised version of the Futura font, for 50 years. In late August, it was announced that the Futura font has been replaced by *gulps* – the Verdana typeface. There’s even an online petition to stop IKEA from using Verdana, which i feel will eventually proved to be fruitless, just look at the numbers. To be honest, I am not a big fan of Verdana either even though I used it for most of my body text for websites. I personally think they look best when they are in size 10/11px. Anything bigger, they look horrible and yes, definitely not on print.

Majority of those who signed the petition are probably typeface/graphic designers or even web designers (like me). But to the rest of the world (most importantly, the regular IKEA shoppers), do they really care about this new typeface as long as the prices of furniture remains low and affordable? Probably no.

As I was reading this post regarding the new IKEA typeface on Brand New, I spotted one of the comments, apparently a staff from IKEA.

Today IKEA can not use existing fonts through all channels. This new font allows us to continue to be efficient in our operation to a lower cost. The change strategy will be to change fonts following normal change cycles, to avoid any extra cost. Verdana is a standard font, functional, free of charge to be used through whole IKEA.

Why change?

Since end 1970 IKEA has used two fonts primarily; New Century Schoolbook and Futura. To use these fonts, IKEA always paid licence fees, as they are not free of cost.

In 2001 IKEA decided to develop unique IKEA typefaces to avoid these license fees, to have a continuous development of a unique visual identity and not to have the majority of co-workers to consider what typeface to use. The specially designed and unique IKEA fonts are mandatory to use and are owned by Inter IKEA Systems B.V.

Today the IKEA typefaces (IKEA sans, IKEA serif and IKEA script) can not be used through all channels. This means we can not use same fonts throughout all channels and media, present and future.

The solution – One font for the whole IKEA

As a low cost retailer IKEA needs a long term strategy for what font to use that is sustainable and consistent, and cost efficient to meet the today’s market and the coming 10-20 years. The solution is therefore to have one standard font, Verdana as the only font for IKEA. The value for IKEA to use this font is to integrate existing and new media channels where we can secure the output being consistent and make all co-workers focus on the important thing, the content.

It is a functional solution – readability in all media. It is a simple solution – one font in all media, in all languages (Today IKEA has 18 languages, 13 new ones in pipeline and another 8 in plan). It is a cost conscious solution – one standard font, free of charge. The mandatory fonts for IKEA will be changed into IKEA Verdana and replace IKEA sans, IKEA serif and IKEA script.

Ugly? You decide.

First impression of Chrome 3 was pretty good though, especially the theme customisation. Currently, there are 29 themes, including the classic blue theme. Just installed it on my home pc and applied the Gradient theme. Looking great! Speed-wise, it is definitely still the fastest browser for me. Other improvements include HTML 5 support (HTML5 Gallery – a showcase of websites using HTML 5 markup, for those interested) and the new page tab, which you can pin the mini-screenshot portlet and keep it.

Won’t be swapping with Firefox permanently just yet, but the gaps are certainly closing.

Eric Chu posted the following on the Android Mobile Platform.

I’m pleased to let you know about several updates to Android Market. First, we will soon introduce new features in Android Market for Android 1.6 that will improve the overall experience for users. As part of this change, developers will be able to provide screenshots, promotional icons and descriptions that will better show off applications and games.

We have also added four new sub-categories for applications: sports, health, themes, and comics. Developers can now choose these sub-categories for both new and existing applications via the publisher website. Finally, we have added seller support for developers in Italy. Italian developers can go to the publisher website to upload applications and target any of the countries where paid applications are currently available to users.

I am kinda excited about this. Not the most mindblowing update on Android 1.6 but definitely a welcome one.

Ever since i got news in early April that Android 1.5 aka Cupcake is coming out, I’ve been waiting for our amazingly efficient telco to upgrade my G1′s firmware. Finally, after months of waiting and speculations, in late-July, Singtel has finally decided to update the firmware over-the-air (OTA). No more time-wasting trips to Care Center for updates! The update file was 44MB, and took roughly 20 minutes to download and 5 minutes to install. With Cupcake installed, the G1 almost feel like a new phone! If only I could change the black casing to pearl white.

The most anticipated new feature is definitely the on-screen keyboard. I’m not really a sucker for an on-screen keyboard as i still prefer the slide-out keyboard which i can really feel the keys being pressed. But there are times when you are in crowded areas, especially on buses/MRTs, you only have one available hand, the on-screen keyboard will come in real handy. The new update will also have Home Screen widgets which includes widgets for the user’s calendar, music player and a picture frame.

Another new feature is video recording, as well as the addition of video playback support for MPEG-4 and 3GP, which is a welcome addition for many whose biggest complaint is the lack of video recording using the built-in camera. After using the Cupcake for slightly over a month, I’m really beginning to enjoy using it again. Not too sure if it’s just me, but with the new update, battery life seems to last longer and the G1, as a whole, appears to run faster and smoother.

While I’m enjoying this little cupcake, apparently rumours of Android 2.0 – Donut is in the works? No confirmation yet, probably just a temporary codename for developers. Whatever it is, I’m just going to enjoy this yummy cupcake. Till the next update! (and only God knows when.)