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Fresh Websites with Unique Non-Standard Design

Today we have showcased some websites that are a bit different from what we usually see. These websites are special for their design which is very creative and unique: they’re colorful, artistic, have a lot of interesting effects and non-standard elements as well as custom navigation. These sites are very different but they have one thing in common – they do stand out!

REI 1440 Project Fresh Websites with Unique Non Standard Design

My Life in 20 Years Fresh Websites with Unique Non Standard Design

Handy Test Fresh Websites with Unique Non Standard Design

See All Unique Web Designs »

Free Magic Giveaway – Win Your Very Own Foldable Cardboard Buddy.

VectorStock Giveaway – Download 100′s of Amazing Vector Images, Illustrations, Icons, Logos and Clip Art.

A Great Combination of Free Online Tools for Web Designers.

Mozilla makes strides with mobile-oriented Firefox OS

Mockup of Firefox OS

Last week we suggested a few things to keep an eye out for at Mobile World Congress, and last night we had our first sighting.

Mozilla announced a greatly expanded line-up for its Firefox OS. Firefox OS, or FOS, is interesting because it is entirely ‘web-based,’ meaning the average HTML-literate web developer can write an app for the system. Many developers (and carriers) see this as somewhat of a holy grail, the ultimate end game of all the mobile operating system platform wars.

Creating great mobile experiences in a world of OS fragmentation is one of the major themes of VentureBeat’s invitation-only Mobile Summit, which is only six weeks away (April 1-2 in Sausalito, Calif.). Read more about the Mobile Summit themes.

Firefox will not bring an end to the platform wars, but it is a step in that direction. In our post last week, we told you to keep an eye out for new hardware partners and new carriers. And at its press event yesterday, Mozilla delivered both. They now have three hardware partners including TCL (aka Alcatel), LG Electronics, and ZTE. That’s a good start, with devices shipping ‘this summer.’

Mozilla also announced 17 carrier partners, and this is probably far more important. Telefonica was already on board, having been the first to announce Firefox OS support last year. Added to this were America Movil, Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Hutchison, KDDI, KT, MegaFon, Smart, SIngTel, Sprint, Vimplecom, and a few more.

You may not recognize some of the names on this list, and that’s because Firefox OS is targeting carriers in emerging markets. But Mozilla ha now lined up something like 17 of the top 30 carriers globally. This is a pretty serious list.

So far so good. There is still a lot we don’t know about Firefox OS, and it is still largely untested in the marketplace. But last night annoucement shows the company has made considerable progress.

Filed under: Dev, Mobile VentureBeat Mobile Summit We’re holding our third annual VentureBeat Mobile Summit conference this April 1-2 in Sausalito, Calif. The invitation-only event gathers the top 180 executives from all segments of the mobile ecosystem to develop a blueprint for the industry’s growth in the coming year. For more information and to request an invitation, click here.



What’s New in Opera 12

363-opera-106

Unlike the minimal Firefox and Chrome rolling releases, Opera has a more traditional approach to software engineering. It’s been almost one year in development so you know Opera 12 will provide a slew of shiny new features. Let’s look at the best…

Camera Support

Forget keyboard, mouse and touch control — that’s old human interface technology. All the cool kids will be using webcam gesture recognition now Opera has become the first browser to support the W3C getUserMedia specification.

Several demonstrations are provided, including:

Facekat — move your head to avoid asteroidsExplode — break someone’s faceReal Life Color Picker — capture colors from your webcamPhoto Booth — what did you expect?

More are available from shinydemos.com/getusermedia/.

While the technology is experimental it has a promising future. Browser-based Kinect-like control and augmented reality has become possible.

Themes

Opera has provided alternative skins for many years but version 12 introduces lightweight themes.

Opera themes

In essence, they’re different background graphics and are similar to themes you find in Chrome and Firefox. A couple of dozen examples are available at addons.opera.com/themes/ but expect more to appear very quickly.

Better Security Badge

Opera security badgeSeveral interface improvements have been made to the web address security badge. It’s a good move — personally, I think Google and Mozilla have gone a little too far in removing address bar clutter.

Improved HTML5 and CSS3 Support

Opera is often ahead in the HTML5 feature race but version 12 adds a number of overdue facilities such as drag and drop, CSS3 transitions and animations.

Other Features

Miscellaneous improvements include:

Over 60 languages with five new additions: Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Hebrew and Kazakh.Do Not Track support.Experimental hardware acceleration. To enable it, set opera:config#Enable%20Hardware%20Acceleration to 1 and restart the browser.Better plugin handling. Plugins now run in their own process to make the application more stable.A page zoom slider.A 64-bit edition of the application.

And let’s not forget Opera’s speed. Version 12 is faster than ever and, while it doesn’t enjoy the speed differential it had a few years ago, it’s more than a match for the competition.

I like Opera 12. It’s more of an acquired taste than some browsers, but the application has some revolutionary features and deserves a bigger market share. Give it a try if Chrome, IE, Firefox or Safari are failing to satisfy your browsing needs. Oh yes, if you’re creating websites or applications without testing Opera, you deserve to have your web development license revoked!

Download Opera 12 for Windows, Mac, Linux or FreeBSD from opera.com.

What’s New in Opera 12

363-opera-106

Unlike the minimal Firefox and Chrome rolling releases, Opera has a more traditional approach to software engineering. It’s been almost one year in development so you know Opera 12 will provide a slew of shiny new features. Let’s look at the best…

Camera Support

Forget keyboard, mouse and touch control — that’s old human interface technology. All the cool kids will be using webcam gesture recognition now Opera has become the first browser to support the W3C getUserMedia specification.

Several demonstrations are provided, including:

Facekat — move your head to avoid asteroidsExplode — break someone’s faceReal Life Color Picker — capture colors from your webcamPhoto Booth — what did you expect?

More are available from shinydemos.com/getusermedia/.

While the technology is experimental it has a promising future. Browser-based Kinect-like control and augmented reality has become possible.

Themes

Opera has provided alternative skins for many years but version 12 introduces lightweight themes.

Opera themes

In essence, they’re different background graphics and are similar to themes you find in Chrome and Firefox. A couple of dozen examples are available at addons.opera.com/themes/ but expect more to appear very quickly.

Better Security Badge

Opera security badgeSeveral interface improvements have been made to the web address security badge. It’s a good move — personally, I think Google and Mozilla have gone a little too far in removing address bar clutter.

Improved HTML5 and CSS3 Support

Opera is often ahead in the HTML5 feature race but version 12 adds a number of overdue facilities such as drag and drop, CSS3 transitions and animations.

Other Features

Miscellaneous improvements include:

Over 60 languages with five new additions: Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Hebrew and Kazakh.Do Not Track support.Experimental hardware acceleration. To enable it, set opera:config#Enable%20Hardware%20Acceleration to 1 and restart the browser.Better plugin handling. Plugins now run in their own process to make the application more stable.A page zoom slider.A 64-bit edition of the application.

And let’s not forget Opera’s speed. Version 12 is faster than ever and, while it doesn’t enjoy the speed differential it had a few years ago, it’s more than a match for the competition.

I like Opera 12. It’s more of an acquired taste than some browsers, but the application has some revolutionary features and deserves a bigger market share. Give it a try if Chrome, IE, Firefox or Safari are failing to satisfy your browsing needs. Oh yes, if you’re creating websites or applications without testing Opera, you deserve to have your web development license revoked!

Download Opera 12 for Windows, Mac, Linux or FreeBSD from opera.com.


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