Corrosive Online
- Web Design
- Graphic Design
- Articles
- Tutorials
- Downloads
News
News
Gadget Show Live - 8th - 11th April 2010
If you've never seen it before then I'd thoroughly recommend The Gadget Show on Channel 5 (UK) at 8pm on a Monday evening. The presenting team of Jason Bradbury, Suzi Perry, Jon Bentley and Ortis Deley test, review and complete challenges using all kinds of innovative new 'Tech'. It is excellent Monday night chillout TV.
Every year The Gadget Show hold a live event at the NEC (National Exhibition Centre) in Birmingham called 'The Gadget Show Live'. The live show has hundreds of stands where you can try and buy the latest gadgets available to consumers, special areas include the personal transport area where you can try new transport gadgets such as Ozo, Segway or Rockit Science and the gaming area for hardcore gamers and casual observers alike and a live theatre show with all the presenters.
A review of The Gadget Show Live is now available. Click HERE.
Adobe Creative Suite CS5 Launch - 26th March 2010
Adobe's much anticipated Creative Suite 5 will be on the shelves in April and Adobe have sent out invites to a special online lauch event on 12th April. For us in the UK the scheduled time is 4 - 5pm so that will fit in nicely after a hard day's graft.
Tha launch event is being broadcast on Adobe TV and will showcase many of the new features available in this release of their awesome Creative Suite which includes favourites such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks and Dreamweaver.
Google phases out support for IE6 - 30th January 2010
Is there no end to the major players of the world wide web dropping support for IE6? Following the Chinese Google hacks, where a security flaw in the nine year old browser was pin-pointed as the route the hackers took, Google have announced that IE6 support will be withdrawn for many of it's sites. Include are both Google Docs and Google sites which will lead to some "key functionality" of the applications no longer working in IE6.
Amongst others, YouTube, Digg and Apple's MobileMe have dropped IE6 support in the last twelve months. Microsoft themselves have vowed to continue issuing IE6 patches until 2014. Following the Chinese Google hacks Microsoft realeased an updated security patch for IE6 three months earlier than planned. Tthe company has also admitted that it has known about the vulnerability "since early September" 2009.
With governments urging consumers and companies alike to switch to different browsers and the continued falling away of major web players support for the browser we can only hope that 2010 will see the final nail in IE6's coffin.
Firefox 3.6 and CSS3 - 20th January 2010
Firefox 3.6 is now available for general download and it supports a few more CSS3 properties.
Now covered by using the -moz prefix are multiple background images, CSS gradients and pointer events. All of these add a lot more flexibility for designers and should help to cut down on excess amounts of images being used for designs. Less images means quicker downloads as well!
The Firefox team have also claimed to have shaved 15% off page download times. This means that Firefox 3.6 is no slouch but I am still finding it hard to get it to stand up next to Chrome for download speeds. Firefox just remains a bit sluggish still when compared with Google's browser but it does offer a lot more bells and whistles, if that is what you like. You can download Firefox 3.6 here.
Google Nexus One unveiled - 6th January 2010
The much anticipated Google Nexus One phone was unveiled to the media at the company's California HQ yesterday. Although Google have previously worked in partnership with other phone manufacturers, this will be the first Google specific handset available and it will, of course, run on the latest version (2.1) of Google's Android phone software. The handset itself is manufactured by HTC and boasts 800x480 screen resolution, a 5 megapixel camera and 512mb RAM.
You can purchase a handset now from Google but, in Spring 2010, the Google Nexus One will hit the stores across Europe and will be avialable on the Vodafone Network. From a personal point of view this is welcome news considering it is only my preferred network choice of Vodafone that has prevented me from buying an iPhone.
Google are obviously trying to net a share of the lucrative 'application' market with a download store similar to Apple's App Store. However, it is more than likely that the real reason for launching the Nexus One is to ensure Google's continued domination of the advertising market. I firmly believe that we won't have home PCs in five years time as phones become more and more sophisticated and Google wants to make sure we can continue to search the web using their Search Engine. The best way to ensure that happens is to be our number one phone handset provider where everything is geared towards Google web surfing.
Want a sneaky peek at this new handset and what it is capable of? Click here.
IE9 to support CSS3 - 5th January 2010
Stands back in amazement... It looks like Microsoft are finally catching up with the likes of Mozilla (Firefox, Opera) and Webkits (Chrome, Safari) with the introduction of CSS3 support in IE9! Obviously we are some way away from release yet but it is good to see that IE9 will be providing support for the majority of CSS3 selectors that designers have been crying out to use. Amongst others, IE9 will be supporting the border-radius selector which should make for a nicely 'rounded' web in the future. We'll keep you posted on any further updates but, for the time being, check out the IE blog here.
15toFame - 2nd January 2010
Andy Warhol said "In the future everybody will be world-famous for 15 minutes". 15 to Fame is the website that looks to make that a reality.
15toFame is the brainchild of Italian Stefano Mendicino and, with co-founder Michele Mastroianni, was launched on New Years Eve 2009. I'll let Stefano tell you all about the idea from the press release that arrived at Corrosive Online.
"15tofame allows users to have a video shown continuously for 15 minutes chosen to play their chances of being famous, so during those 15 minutes everybody all over the world can see the same video simultaneously. In fact the home of the site is simply a "Polaroid" including a video which appears for 15 minutes, after that another user will have his 15 minutes of fame. A user on 15tofame can only have 15 minutes of fame in his life."
"Another outstanding feature is the simplicity with which users share their favourite videos seen on 15tofame. Users can instantly share them via the main social networks like Facebook and Twitter creating a viral buzz immediately. Registered users can also 'clap' their favourite aspirants famous people, so those with true talent will rise to the top."
I will certainly be keeping an eye on 15toFame to see what gems are thrown up by this innovative concept. If you'd like to try the site yourself or even book your 15 minutes of fame then visit 15toFame by clicking here.
Corrosive Online Forum Launched - 26th December 2009
Corrosive Online is proud to announce the launch of the Corrosive Online Forum. A place to dicuss all kinds of topics around web and graphic design and development. Please come and register as a member and check out the boards.
This is something that I have been wanting to do for quite some time having helped to participate and moderate other successful forums. I'm hoping that the Corrosive Online Forum will help others as mcuh as I was helped in my first few months of web and graphic design.
BBC Trust Backs Web TV - 22nd December 2009
I guess we are all familiar with BBC I-Player nowadays. It is a great way to catch up on the shows you may have missed (or forgotten to set on Sky Plus) and it has even been included in the Playstation 3 upgrade software released with the Playstation 3 Slim version.
Today the BBC took another massive leap forward in bringing web TV to the masses when the Trust (the body that governs the BBC on behalf of the license payer) decided to provisionally back a plan for a web TV channel called 'Canvas'.
Canvas is a joint venture between the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and telecoms firms BT and Talk-Talk and is proposed to deliver television programmes to a set top box which can be purchased for a one off fee.
The Trust will deliver a final verdict in February but commercial broadcaster BSkyB is already up in arms about the propsals as they feel that Canvas goes way beyond the BBC's public service remit. To be honest this seems like sour grapes from a broadcaster who has had it all too good for the last fifteen years and now feels threatened by the increasing number of ways to watch TV now available to the British public. Freeview, I-Player and Virgin Media have all given consumers a choice of how they get their free-to-air or paid-for TV channels.
I think it is important to watch this space for the final verdict from the Trust as this is a massive deal and could shape the future of television for everyone.
