Author Archives: Shawn Blanc

Featured Sponsor: 22Slides, a Simple Portfolio Website Builder

22Slides is a simple portfolio website builder created by a photographer and long-time shawnblanc.net (and more recently, Tools & Toys) reader. Sideways-scrolling image galleries, full-screen photos, great search engine and mobile optimization, custom domain names, great image quality… yadda yadda yadda, you already know this stuff. The bottom line is that we can help make a great portfolio website with probably a…

Featured Sponsor: EverWeb Makes it Easy for Mac Users to Build Websites

EverWeb is a powerful, easy to use website builder that is a great alternative for Apple’s discontinued iWeb builder. EverWeb provides a full drag and drop user interface while still allowing for advanced features such as; mobile websites, drop down menus, rollovers, image sliders, built in search engine optimization and more.  EverWeb includes built in templates to help you get started with…

Featured Sponsor: Creative Labs AXX 200

We believe there’s so much more that your portable wireless speaker should do for you. That’s why we made the AXX 200. The AXX 200 is a Bluetooth wireless speaker + Sound Blaster audio processor. This means a portable wireless speaker with power for real-time audio enhancement. Intelligence. That’s what the AXX 200 brings to the table. Make a call. Listen to…

Featured Sponsor: Campaign Monitor

Designing emails that look beautiful, render perfectly and drive strong response is increasingly difficult. That’s why Campaign Monitor compiled the top 100 emails of 2013 into a free eBook, alongside tips on design and content. The Top 100 Email Marketing Campaigns eBook features brands like Fitbit, SmugMug, Panic and includes: High performing newsletters with open rates of more than 50%. Examples of…

Sponsor: Appoint – the calendar that works for you

Finally, a calendar app for iOS that is a real tool, not a toy. Appoint 2.3 is primarily aimed at people with busy schedules and little time. The app’s clever auto-completion engine prefills information based on past events. That means less typing in favor of a few, quick swipes. Awesome. Enter time naturally (“9-12am”, “1:30pm”), even in international locales Discover scheduling conflicts…

Featured Sponsor: Sound BlasterAxx AXX 200 by Creative Labs

Imagine your wireless speaker, on steroids. Each AXX 200 is a Bluetooth wireless speaker + Sound Blaster audio processor. This means a portable wireless speaker with power for real-time audio enhancement. Intelligence. That’s what the AXX 200 brings to the table for you. Make a call. Listen to music. AXX 200 intelligently adjusts the audio settings for you. The Sound Blaster Central…

Featured Sponsor: 21 Premium, Responsive, One-Page HTML5 Templates

Our friends at MightyDeals have a great deal on a bundle of 21 one-page HTML website templates with the popular parallax scrolling effect. Every template was built on a responsive design framework, loads super fast and is packed with great CSS effects. See the themes. * * * Our thanks to MightyDeals for sponsoring the RSS feed this week.

Featured Sponsor: Creative VIP

Creative VIP is the exclusive membership club for creative professionals, writers, and designers. Here’s what membership includes: Discounts on world-class services from Media Temple, Squarespace, Fontdeck, Virb, Name.com, and dozens of other companies. Discounts on apps you’ll love, like TextExpander, LaunchBar, and Backblaze. Access to a growing library of graphics, vectors, icons and themes. A regular goodie bag on your doorstep (with…

Featured Sponsor: myLook

myLook lets you easily manage your real-life wardrobe. You can create your own perfect outfits, change accessories and colors, find your friends, rate their looks and share yours. Create your real-life wardrobe mix and match your clothes, test different outfits design tomorrow’s or tonight’s outfit take a look into your wardrobe on your mobile device, anywhere; never forget your clothes again. Create…

Featured Sponsor: Step-by-step Learning with Mijingo

We all need to keep learning new skills and improving those we already have. Mijingo helps you learn web design and development topics through our well-crafted video courses. Right now you can get our 8-course The Happy Cog Way series for only $99. Through this series the experts at Happy Cog teach HTML5, Sass, Responsive Web Design, website deployment, typography, and more.…

Featured Sponsor: Out of Pages. Subscribe to notebooks.

Some ideas can’t be saved on a smartphone. They have to be sketched, diagrammed or written by hand. They have to be torn out and handed to someone or rolled into a bottle and sent adrift. Out of Pages wants to make sure you’re always prepared for those kinds of ideas. Create and subscribe to a plan that fits your needs. Enjoy…

Featured Sponsor: Faast

Faast is a real-time content reader for your iOS 7 devices. It combines all your RSS Feeds, Twitter, Facebook and email into one app. It uses the same backend technology used for my previous app Push4, featured in the Top 10 Feed & RSS Technologies of 2011 by ReadWriteWeb (“A double digit percentage of the stories I reported on this year came…

Featured Sponsor: Webydo — Professional Website Design Software

Webydo enables professional web and graphic designers to create, publish, and manage pixel-perfect websites without having to write a single line of code, and provides them with the freedom of creativity to focus on what’s important — the DESIGN. Webydo is made by designers, for designers and is the only solution for website creation with a built in CMS (content management system)…

Featured Sponsor: Atlassian’s agile guide

What’s the point of an agile standup meeting? Gone are the days of 30-minute status meetings where most people are half-asleep or pecking away on their laptops, oblivious to what’s being said. Agile standups are the leaner, more efficient cousin of status meetings where attendees actually stand up. On our feet, we’re more focused, attentive, and concise. It’s science! Whether you need…

Featured Sponsor: Pencils.com

At Pencils.com, we believe that creativity is the greatest of all virtues. And, with our selection of unique, high-quality pencils, notebooks, and creative tools, we’ve got everything you need to unleash yours. Whether you’re a pencil nut who knows all the brands (Caran d’Ache, Blackwing, Faber-Castell, we stock them all), or a casual doodler looking for something to inspire you, there’s something…

Featured Sponsor: Fracture. Your picture, directly on glass.

Fracture prints your photo in vivid color directly on glass. It’s a picture, frame, & mount all in one. It’s a modern, elegant, and affordable way to print and display your favorite memories. Your print comes with everything you need to display your photo, right in the durable packaging. Fractures come in a variety of sizes and prices, starting at just $12,…

Featured Sponsor: Voila: Ultimate Screen Capture Solution for your Mac

Voila is the most powerful screen capturing software available for your Mac. Voila lets you capture and record content and then easily share it with friends and co-workers or upload it to the web. Voila is the perfect screen recorder for your Mac. You can easily make high-quality product demos, DIY app simulations, and tutorials. Create interactive content by recording your Mac…

Featured Sponsor: Lootback

If you’re a web designer, you know how paying full price for resources like stock photos and fonts can have a negative effect on your bottom line. Now there’s a new service that can increase your profits by giving you cash back on these important design components. Lootback.com has found a way to work with merchants such as Thinkstock, iStock, and Envato…

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