How to show an urgent message in the WordPress admin area

The following is a snippet of my custom function that shows a message to the user. This be used from anywhere in your theme or plugin if you wanted to give the user a standard message. e.g. “Settings successfully updated” or something similar.

/**
 * Generic function to show a message to the user using WP's
 * standard CSS classes to make use of the already-defined
 * message colour scheme.
 *
 * @param $message The message you want to tell the user.
 * @param $errormsg If true, the message is an error, so use
 * the red message style. If false, the message is a status
  * message, so use the yellow information message style.
 */
function showMessage($message, $errormsg = false)
{
	if ($errormsg) {
		echo '<div id="message" class="error">';
	}
	else {
		echo '<div id="message" class="updated fade">';
	}

	echo "<p><strong>$message</strong></p></div>";
}    

Now we just add a hook to the admin notices function to show our custom message.

/**
 * Just show our message (with possible checking if we only want
 * to show message to certain users.
 */
function showAdminMessages()
{
    // Shows as an error message. You could add a link to the right page if you wanted.
    showMessage("You need to upgrade your database as soon as possible...", true);

    // Only show to admins
    if (user_can('manage_options') {
       showMessage("Hello admins!");
    }
}

/**
  * Call showAdminMessages() when showing other admin
  * messages. The message only gets shown in the admin
  * area, but not on the frontend of your WordPress site.
  */
add_action('admin_notices', 'showAdminMessages');

And that’s all there is to it!

Thanks to Dan Harrison of WordPress Doctors for the tip!

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How to show an urgent message in the WordPress admin area

Task Eater: Chomp Away at Your Daily Schedule

Your day is busy, packed with all sorts of events and meetings. You need a task manager that’s going to keep you on track with your schedule, like Task Eater for iOS. Task Eater makes it really easy to add new tasks, providing you with a simple interface to create a title and add additional notes about your task. Use the notes field to add information like the event location, important phone numbers, or other information relevant to the event.

Task Eater has several features that separate it from the sea of task managers in the App Store, features like assigning task categories based on a chosen icon, local notifications, a great user interface, and much more. Let’s see how you can chomp away at your daily schedule with Task Eater.

Categorization with Icons

Task Eater's icons lets you visually separate tasks by Category

Task Eater's icons lets you visually separate tasks by Category

Task Eater makes it really easy to categorize your task with icons, letting you visually observe the category of each task. Tap the menu bar and select one of thirty available icons. Then select the medical icon for your daily “Take Medicine” task to be able to visually categorize it among others.

Task Eater even allows you to use your own icons. Just plug in your iPhone with Task Eater installed and open iTunes. Then select the Task Eater apps while dragging and dropping your PNG image files onto the Task Eater file sharing tab. Then open Task Eater on the iPhone and select the settings menu. Click import and those custom PNG image files will be available to use in the app.

Local Notifications

Task Eater allows you to easily schedule notifications.

Task Eater allows you to easily schedule notifications, providing you with a reminder at a later time.

Task Eater allows you to easily schedule reminders of your tasks. For each alarm set, you’ll get a local notification on your iOS device. Never miss a meeting and always remember to take your pills by setting daily alarms. Task Eater also supports reoccurring alarms, allowing you to be reminded daily, weekly, monthly, or annually. To set an alarm for a task, just tap the alarm button and select the date. When the notification rings, just tap “Open”. From there, Task Eater will allow you to either cancel the alarm or snooze.

Unique UI

Task Eater's take on the Apple Standard UI

Task Eater's take on the Apple Standard UI

One of my favorite features of Task Eater is the user interface, which you’ll admittedly either love or hate right away. Each task is styled to look like a piece of yellow legal pad paper, a reminder of the “pen and paper“ method for task management. Almost all of Task Eater is custom designed and even the icons available in the app are beautiful on the iPhone 4’s Retina Display.

Attention to Detail

Task Eater includes a comprehensive list of settings, allowing the user to customize how the app works based on their personal preferences. Change the font, default icon for tasks, task color, and so much more. Customize whether the app icon displays pending tasks, missed alarms, or overdue tasks. You can even change the local notification’s alarm sound. Take a look at the Task Eater settings menu for all the possible customizations.

Task Eater also allows you to easily make a backup of your tasks. Tap “Create Backup” in the Task Eater settings to create one. Plug your iPhone into your computer and open iTunes. Then navigate to the sidebar and click your phone. Select the apps tab and click on Task Eater. Click the TaskEater.backup file and click “Save to…”. Then you can copy the file to a secure location. If you ever need to restore it, drag it back into the Documents window and click the “Restore from Backup” button in Task Eater.

Conclusion

In an overwhelming sea of nearly identical task managers, Task Eater strives to be both simple and beautiful. It’s custom user interface and slick animations make it look incredible while retaining the intuitiveness of standard Apple controls. Aside from that, Task Eater is similar to any of the other task managers available. It lets you set an alarm to remind you of upcoming events, makes it easy to enter a new task, and lets you categorize each task for easy finding.

My only issue with Task Eater is the lack of lists to organize all your tasks. Sometimes, I need to input a series of similar tasks. Perhaps you need to attend a meeting, then fix a huge server issue and then get a quote for new hardware. All these tasks are related and I would like to group them together. Other task managers allow me to create a separate list which can contain tasks. Instead of having to scroll though pages of other unrelated tasks, I can click the list and focus on what I need to accomplish.

I think Task Eater has potential to be an amazing platform, not just for the iPhone, I can see it easily expand into a Macintosh/Web application as well. If you’re looking for a beautiful task manager that also is incredibly easy to use, check out Task Eater.

How to Save a Wet iPhone or iPod Touch

You just dropped your beloved iPhone into the pool! Now what? Today we’ll take a look at the best way to ensure that this isn’t the end of your device.

In addition to outlining which recovery methods work best, we’ll also tell you some very important actions to avoid if you don’t want to ruin your phone while trying to save it!

A Lesson Learned the Hard Way

Like anyone with a modicum of sanity living in the arid desert of Phoenix Arizona, I own a swimming pool. I also own an iPod Touch. You can see where this is going. One day, as I was diligently brushing the walls of my pool, a friend stopped by. Being the polite guy that I am, I turned my back to the pool to engage in discussion.

The problem of course with turning your back on a swimming pool is that you forget that it’s there, which means when you take a step back, your friend has cause to roll on the ground with laughter as you fall helplessly through the air in slow motion with one thought on your mind: My iPod is in my pocket! Splash.

I was drenched, completely submerged. As I scrambled out of the water I handed my phone to my friend to dry off, he managed to suppress his laughter for long enough to comply. At this point, we have an all too familiar situation on our hands. This is no mere $20 mp3 player. This is a significant purchase that has possibly seen its last Words With Friends session.

In this situation there is a right and wrong way to react. Before we get into the steps that you should take, let’s look at one important thing not to do!

Don’t Turn Your Device On

This may sound like an obvious piece of advice, but trust me, it’s not. In fact, when as I climbed out of the pool having already handed my iPod to my friend, I found that this is exactly what he did. He quickly dried off the outside of the device with his shirt and then naturally wanted to see if everything still worked and tried to use it.

This is a fantastic way to fry your device permanently. Granted, it’s likely already on standby and not truly off, but you’re still only going to heighten the risk of permanent damage if you try to increase the electronic activity.

Fortunately, in the end, this action didn’t spell disaster for my iPod Touch, but you might not be so lucky.

Drying Out the Device

As soon as you recover your device from its watery grave, the first step is to get all of the water out that you can. This goes beyond wiping the device off to even gently shaking it to try to free any trapped water inside.

Be Wary of Heat

From here one of the most common ideas is to grab a hair dryer. The problem with this method is that you can do as much damage as you repair. We know that water and electronics don’t mix, but it turns out heat and electronics have a similar relationship.

I’ve talked to and read about people that have successfully saved their iOS devices with a hairdryer, so it can in fact work. However, I don’t recommend it. If you’re convinced that this is the way to go, just be sure to use a low heat setting and take frequent breaks to allow the sensitive components in the phone to cool down.

Silica Packets: Do Not Eat!

You know those packets that come in everything from shirt pockets to guitar cases? These handy little guys are always equipped with a life-saving warning: “Do not eat!” This message doesn’t really help us in this situation but the packets are actually quite useful. As you know, they’re designed to absorb moisture, which means they offer a great method for sucking the water out of your wet device.

screenshot

Silica packets are awesome for saving wet electronics

What you want to do is fill a plastic bag or tupperware container with silica packets like in the image above and then toss in your iPhone. Next, seal the container and let it sit for a lot longer that you want it to. At the very least, let it go over night. If you’re cautious, 24-48 hours is a safer bet.

During this time, resist the urge to take your phone out and turn it on to see what happens. There will still be some condensation hanging around inside and you therefore have the same circuit frying risk as before. Patience is the key!

Rice: A More Practical Solution

In theory, a bag full of silica packets is awesome, but who really has twenty of those things lying around? If I tear my house completely apart I might be able to find two if I’m having a really lucky day.

When my iPod Touch went for a dip, I was too busy being angry at myself to fix the thing. Luckily, my wife jumped in and took over the situation. Being the resourceful woman that she is, she put my iPhone in a bag and filled it with rice. I was born with an overactive sense of skepticism so I saw my wife’s actions as pure nonsense and started planning my trip to the Apple Store for a replacement.

screenshot

Rice is a great substitute for silica packets

It turns out though that my wife’s black magic is actually a fairly common practice with wet electronics. The rice acts exactly like the silica packets and absorbs the moisture. In fact, this trick worked like a charm and in 24 hours I threw my iPod on a charger and it came to life. That was well over a year ago and the device still works!

The reason that rice is a less ideal solution than the packets is that it’s much messier. Rice might take the water out of your device, but it can fill it with dust. Still, unless you’re a strange hoarder who happens to have mounds of silica, rice can be a very effective solution.

Conclusion

To sum up, as soon as your iPhone gets wet, resist the urge to turn it on. Next, dry it off as best as you can, avoid heating it up unnecessarily and reach for the silica packets. If you don’t have any, fill a bag with rice, throw in your iPhone and seal it for around 24 hours.

Despite many stories of successful revivals, you’ll likely find that an iPhone that has been completely submerged in water will never be quite the same. Even if it still works, there will be noticeable quirks in how the responsiveness of the buttons, the audio quality, how well it takes a charge, etc. Ultimately, if you didn’t kill it, you’ve definitely brought it much closer to death than it was before.

It’s important to note that Apple has sensors in place that can tell if your phone has gotten wet, so don’t stroll into the Apple Store and claim that the thing just stopped working unexpectedly. Be honest and tell them what happened. You probably won’t get a free phone but Apple should offer you a discounted replacement (often refurbished).

If you’ve ever gotten your iPhone or iPod wet, tell us your story below. What method did you use to dry it out? Would you recommend that to others? Did Apple work with you on getting a replacement? We want to know!

Photo Credits: Scott Brown and Lisa Norwood.

Tweetbot: It’s Time for a New iPhone Twitter App

One short year ago, Tapbots announced that they had started working on a new Twitter app: Tweetbot. Twitter had just announced that they were buying out Tweetie, and soon turned it into the new free Twitter for iPhone. Since then, Twitter has made it obvious that they want their own apps to be the only standard consumer Twitter apps, and recommended developers find other things to focus on.

Overall, though, Twitter for iPhone is still a nice app, and is quite popular. However, it has had some recent problems including the recent addition (and quick removal) of the extremely unpopular Quick Bar, which showed trending and promoted topics on the top of your tweet stream. Even though Twitter has now removed the Quick Bar, the episode has left many iPhone users considering other Twitter apps again.

The stage was set for an all-new Twitter app to be released. And Tapbots stepped up to the challenge.

Meet the Fourth Tapbot

Tapbots infuses everything they touch with their own unique design that takes common iOS elements to the next level. Their popular Calcbot, Convertbot, and Pastebot apps are popular for their combination of useful functionality with beautiful design, and have inspired the design of many other apps in the App Store today.

Tweetbot, the newest member of the family, is no exception. Their fourth app (apparently since it was announced before Calcbot), Tweetbot includes a 0004 branding under it’s main background texture, one of many delightful design touches. In fact, when you go to add your Twitter account to Tweetbot, make sure to enter your password incorrectly just to see the error box. If your account info is incorrect, you’ll see a standard notification that lets you know the info is wrong, which then drops away instead of simply fading. Beautiful!

The fourth Tapbot keep up the tradition of quality and style

While there’s only so many features you can include in a Twitter app while still keeping it simple, Tweetbot includes enough new tricks to fill a small intro tutorial when you first log in to Twitter on the app. Swipe through the pages to see the unique features, including timeline list selection, conversation and related Tweet views, special features for double and triple taps, and more that we’ll look at below.

Yes, there's enough new features to warrant a guide

Not Just Another Twitter App

When you first get to your account, it’s easy to think that Tweetbot is just a close cousin of Twitter for iPhone with a slightly different style. You can pull down on your list to refresh the timeline, or tap a tweet to reply, retweet, favorite, view included links and media, or add a link to your Instapaper account. You can also double-tap on a tweet to view the full tweet with additional info, or triple-tap on a tweet to instantly reply.

At first, it looks like a re-skinned Twitter for iPhone

Keep digging though and you’ll find more and more unique features that set Tweetbot apart. The most unique feature is the conversation and related tweets views that let you see the whole conversation around any tweet in your timeline. Swipe to the left over a tweet to see related tweets include replies from others to that tweet, or swipe right to reveal the conversation so you can see what you’ve missed. This is the best way I’ve seen to get the whole conversation from a tweet, on any platform.

Swipe to reveal conversations and related tweets

Then, the next biggest unique feature is the option to set your timeline to display the tweets from any of your lists. Tap the Timeline button to reveal all of your personal lists and the lists from other you subscribe to, then select the one you want to see. This is a great way to catch up on tweets on the topics you care most about. Best of all, you could just use a list as your main timeline if you follow too many people to keep up with. If you’re a heavy Twitter list user, this alone could be worth Tweetbot’s price.

Switch your timeline to a list by tapping the top bar

Do More With Twitter

On the bottom right, Tweetbot includes two customizable buttons. Press and hold to reveal the extra options, and the button on the bottom will change to show your most recent choice. Between the two, you can see your lists, favorites, retweets, and searches. The lists view here lets you edit your lists, while the search pane lets you find tweets or users quickly. Plus, checking the retweets list to see which of your tweets have been recently retweeted can be a great ego boost!

Customize the last two buttons on the toolbar

As mentioned before, you can double-tap on a tweet to view more info about it, including its time, the client it was sent from, and who retweeted it. Tap on an icon or the Twitter name under a tweet in full view to view a full profile page for that user. Here you can quickly see their site, add them to a list, view their recent tweets, followers, favorites, and more. There’s so much to explore here, you’ll never need to go to the Twitter web interface to find out anything about a user or tweet!

View detailed info about individual tweets and accounts

You can even include more info in your tweets with Tweetbot. Add as many images as you can fit in one tweet, and they’ll all show up in a small preview bar on the bottom of your tweet editor. If you need to save a tweet for later, Tweetbot has a robust draft tweet system that makes it simple to edit and send draft tweets. Tweetbot works great with multiple accounts, too. Just tap the back arrow on the top of your timeline to view and switch accounts, and click Edit to rearrange, remove, or add new accounts.

Multiple accounts? Multiple image uploads? All here!

Tweak Tweetbot

In the buzz on Twitter about Tweetbot’s launch, one common complaint was that many thought it didn’t include URL shortening and Instapaper integration. As it turns out, Tweetbot has an extensive settings section that includes these and more. To get to the settings, tap the back arrow on the top of your timeline, then select Settings under your accounts list. You can tweak sounds, font size, tap settings, and more from the main section, then select your account name to choose your URL shortener, image and video upload services, and add Read it Later or Instapaper integration.

The URL shortener doesn’t let you sign in with your Bit.ly account, though interestingly enough it does let you use CloudApp as your URL shortener. Additionally, while Tweetbot doesn’t support native push notifications, you can add Boxcar support for instant notifications of new tweets if you’d like.

Tweak settings for URL shortening, read later services, and more

Conclusion

So is it time to dump Twitter for iPhone? While most of Tweetie’s original goodness is still in Twitter’s flagship app, Tapbots showed that it’s not the absolute best a Twitter app can be. I’ve fallen in love with Tweetbot’s interface and features, and don’t plan to switch back. It’s good enough to have jumped to the 5th most popular paid app on the App Store only a day after launch, and with it’s solid ratings, it looks like plenty of other users think the same. If you’ve made the switch, or decided to pass, let us know why in the comments. At the very least, Tapbots proved that 3rd party developers can still innovate on the Twitter platform!

Quick Look: Gold & Chocolate

Quick Look posts are paid submissions offering only a brief overview of an app. Vote in the polls below if you think this app is worth an in-depth AppStorm review!

In this Quick Look, we’re highlighting Gold & Chocolate. The developer describes Gold & Chocolate as follows:

The name of the game “Gold & Chocolate” comes from the only two colors that make up this groundbreaking look. They are chosen to fit in elegantly with your iPhone and thus create a truly beautiful visual experience. With “retina display” its beauty is taken to a whole new level. Sometimes, it becomes strange to think that you are playing a video game.

Read on for more information and screenshots!

Screenshots

screenshot

Gold & Chocolate

screenshot

Gold & Chocolate

About the App

Here are the top five features you can expect to see in the latest version:

  • Beautiful and groundbreaking look.
  • This original look has been used to create a unique gameplay. You will have to use your focus abilities and your memory.
  • Relaxing.
  • Incredible with Retina Display.
  • 90 levels.

Requirements: iPhone – iPod Touch – iOs 3.1 or later
Price: $0.99
Developer: Cocobic

Vote for a Review

Would you like to see us write a full review of Gold & Chocolate? Have your say in our poll:

Would you like to see Gold & Chocolate reviewed in-depth on AppStorm?survey software

Quick Look posts are paid submissions offering only a brief overview of an app. Vote in the poll if you think this app is worth an in-depth AppStorm review! If you’re a developer and would like to have your app profiled, you can submit it here.

75 Apps to Customize Your iPhone Wallpaper

Who doesn’t love a little customization? Both the iPhone lock screen and home screen provide us with a blank canvas to display photographs and graphics that are both functional and fun. So how do you get your hands on the best iPhone wallpapers and background? There are of course, a few hundred apps for that.

We combed through tons of wallpaper and background apps on the App Store to bring you the top seventy-five from several different categories. Below you’ll find apps containing wallpapers with cars, artwork, nature, app shelves and a lot more, many of which can be downloaded completely free.

Shelves and Icon Borders

Dimensionz Wallpapers ($0.99) – Introducing a whole new way to customize your homescreen. Now you can place your apps on virtual shelves — inset them into your background — and create a crisp seamless HD layout on the fly. Dimensionz Wallpapers isn’t just a wallpaper app. It’s a whole new dimension in custom wallpapers.

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Dimensionz Wallpapers

Pimp Your Screen ($0.99) – Pimp Your Screen is here to customize the way your device looks by giving you an exclusive selection of specially designed backgrounds, icon skins, app shelves, neon combos and many other eye candies.

Shelf Backgrounds and Wallpapers Pro ($0.99) – With 1,000+ shelf backgrounds for your home screen. Amazing icon frames all in this single App. You can customize your own home screen with 450+ glow effects, including 24+ Christmas glow effects, show to your family and friends!

iWallpaper Maker ($1.99) – iwallpaper, made by a professional designer, has high quality frames and backgrounds. Just take your pick! iwallpaper maker helps you change and make easily your own backgrounds.

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iWallpaper Maker

Home Screen Wallpaper Maker (Free) – Add frames to your apps with our neon glow effects. Import your own photos and add any effects from our library to create custom home screen wallpapers.

Topping Pro ($0.99) – You can make your own home screen by not only choosing wallpapers but “Topping” with cute and unique character designs.

Create a awesome lock screen / i LockScreen Maker (Free) – Lock Screen Maker of YoungGam is definitely not typical Lock Screens that most apps offer. calendars, backgrounds, symbols and frames made by a professional designer provide a variety of high quality frames. It will help you change and make easily thousands of new Lock Screens you like. Just take your pick of any one of our Lock Screen Frames and enjoy your imagination!

iTexture Retina Background Wallpaper Generator ($0.99) – Generate your own wallpapers from the many included textures and icons backgrounds. More than 700 combinations available.

Free App Frames – HD Wallpapers (Free) – FREE App Frames from Pocket Zebra includes the best collection of HD home screen wallpapers for your iPhone 4 and 3GS and select iPod Touch devices. Bonus lock screen wallpapers! Customize your device even further with lock screen wallpapers included for free as a bonus!

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Free App Frames

App icon backgrounds & home screen wallpapers (Free) – Focusing on quality not quantity we have made a collection of the best home screen backgrounds to customise your phone.

Shelf Maker ($0.99) – This app takes your own photos and creates an overlay that sits on top of a shelf graphic.

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Shelf Maker

Glow Effects

Retina Wallpapers & Glow Effects (Free) – You can save all pics in your device as Wallpaper! This app has the largest number of pics in the app store! You will find almost all Wallpaper, Eye Illusions, 3D stereograms Funny Pics and others in this app store.

All-IN-1 Wallpapers Box With Glow Effects (Free) – With 150,000+ wallpapers and 10,000+ Retina HD 640×960 wallpapers and 400+ glow effects, and more every day, All-IN-1 Wallpapers Box is the most full-featured, versatile and functional app you’ll find at any price.

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All-IN-1 Wallpapers Box With Glow Effects

Retina Wallpapers HD with Glow Effects (Free) – 11,000+ Crystal Clear and Vibrant Wallpapers for crisp retina screen from 30+ categories.

98,000+ Wallpapers HD & Glow Effects Backgrounds ($0.99) – 98,000+ Wallpapers HD & Glow Effects Backgrounds Pro, 70% off at launch, on sale now! Only 0.99, you can own more than 98,000 High Quality Pics and thousands of Glow Effects.

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98,000+ Wallpapers HD & Glow Effects Backgrounds

Glow Backgrounds & Wallpapers (Free) – Make your iPhone/iPod look outstanding with amazing glow backgrounds, customize your own app screen glow backgrounds and impress your friends.

Nature

Sea Beach Wallpapers ($2.99) – Sea Beach Wallpapers- is a great arrangement of the best and most sea beach wallpapers right on your iPhone. It is most perfect for all people those who love to stay in sea beach. Discover the ultimate collection of best picked high quality and most sea beach wallpapers for your device and decorate it nicely.

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Sea Beach Wallpapers

Nature Images (Free) – With over 3 million downloads, these beautiful, close-up Nature Images grace the desktops of computer users everywhere, and they’re now available for your iPhone or iPod touch. We’ve partnered with a photographer whose work is included in major operating systems and whose photos are among the most popular wallpaper images in the world. Only the best images have been selected and each is carefully optimized to fit the exact specifications of the iPhone and iPod touch screens.

Nature Wallpapers & Images (Free) – The application contains hundreds of nature wallpapers collected elaborately. There are magnificent scenes such as lakes, mountains and sunsets.

Flower Wallpaper (Free) – Decorate your iPhone screen with various flowers. Just download the flower wallpaper application and you can change your iPhone screen everyday! The application includes 20 beautiful flower images.

Amazing Fall Wallpaper ($0.99) – Amazing Fall Wallpaper features breathtaking images of autumn leaves, trees, foliage, and scenery that can be used as wallpaper and backgrounds designed specifically for your iPhone and iPod Touch.

screenshot

Amazing Fall Wallpaper

Space Art Wallpaper Backgrounds (Free) – Features beautiful Space Art Background images of planets in our solar system, extrasolar planets, gas giants, stars, galaxies, nebulae and more. Scroll through images or watch a slideshow, save them to your camera roll and use them as your Background Wallpaper on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Bugs! ($0.99) – Bugs! Features over 180 Amazing Macro Photographs of Bugs. Join Photographer Thomas Shahan as he reveals the remarkable beauty, color and detail of this tiny world. Share images with friends using the facebook plugin, and add to the experience by playing the free Ambient Forest Sound track on the embedded media player. You can also save images to use on your iPad, iPhone or iPad.

300+ amazing animal wallpaper HD offline (Free) – Awesome Animal Wallpaper provides you with the most amazing animals and the best visual effect with a maximum resolution of 640 x 960 pixels! It’s free!! No network connecting is required. No additional traffic. No extra fee.

Nature Clock (Free) – Nature Clock brings you 130+ high quality photos taken by a professional photographer spending almost 5 years. Photos include Insect, birds, romantic sunset, flowers and landscape around the world.

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Nature Clock

Nature Wallpapers HD (Free) – All images are HQ and in HD so you can enjoy the natural beauty of the scene. We only include the best!

Natural Wallpapers (Free) – Forget Browsing the Internet for hours to find backgrounds for your iPhone. Forget spending hours of time cropping and resizing the images to fit perfectly on your iPhone. Forget spending all that time to just get a nice background. This Application contains huge collection of high quality images sized specifically for your iPhone.

Amazing Nature – Wallpaper ($0.99) – This app contains more than one hundred of amazing wallpapers collected elaborately. All these photos can be saved to the album in your iPhone or iPad (Double-click on the screen, then press the button), and you can set them as wallpaper or send them to your friends.

Space Wallpapers Free – High quality cool space wallpapers for iPhone, updated regularly, and free!

Serene Nature ($0.99) – Get ready to relax and be at peace. This app contains a stunning user-driven collection of some of the most serene places in the world. Be sure to contribute and add to this experience!

Free Space Wallpapers (Free) – Get the awesome space wallpapers for free. High quality images which you can save and use as background.

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Free Space Wallpapers

Beach Backgrounds ($0.99) – World Beaches contains gorgeous pictures of beaches from over 17 countries! A massive collection of beautiful beaches in the palm of your hand.

Landscape Wallpaper ($0.99) – A collection of 80 high quality images (and more to come) from every season of the year. If you like nature this is a perfect application for you, set the slide show and watch all the great views in the photos.

Moon Wallpapers (Free) – Moon Wallpapers- is a great arrangement of the best moon wallpapers right on your iPhone. It is most perfect for all people those who love to watch moon and its wonders. Discover the ultimate collection of best picked high quality moon wallpapers for your device and decorate it nicely.

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Moon Wallpapers

3D

3D Wallpapers & Backgrounds (Free) – Unlimited collection! Tons of Stunning, clear and high resolution pictures. Updated regularly by user and app management team.

108 3D Funny Wallpapers ($0.99) – 108 Funny 3D Wallpapers contains 108 outrageously cute wallpapers rendered specially for the screen size of your iPhone/iPod Touch.

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108 3D Funny Wallpapers

Wallpapers 3d (Free) – 208 unique wallpapers so far. This app consists of concepts created at my spare time. Each concept consists of images. Each wallpaper has its own name and meaning. Choose an image by using the arrows or flick left/right to change an image and tap ‘Save’. Image will be saved to your Camera or Photo library.

Amazing 3D Wallpapers ($2.99) – Massive collection of “Amazing 3D Wallpapers” is now at your fingerprints. All the wallpapers have been picked and prepared with a heart & soul effort by the content management team. Smarten your iPhone with such high quality & remarkable 3D wallpapers.

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Amazing 3D Wallpapers

Holiday

Valentine Wallpapers for Retina Display (Free) – Huge amazing Valentine Wallpaper for Retina Display is now at your fingertips. Liven up your iPhone 4 at your valentine with such high quality amazing valentine wallpapers.

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Valentine Wallpapers for Retina Display

Halloween Wallpapers for Retina Display (Free) – Now its Halloween time and “Halloween Wallpapers for Retina Display” brings the great opportunity to get in the Halloween mood perfectly. It provides you a set of high quality original Halloween themed and the most attractive Halloween wallpapers that you can discover the ultimate collection of best-picked high quality Halloween wallpaper for your Halloween event and make your Halloween especial from others.

Holiday Wallpapers HD (Free) – Collection of the best HD and Free April Fools Day and Easter wallpapers and backgrounds. Celebrate these two occasions with all your friends! Happy April Fool’s Day and Happy Easter!

Christmas Wallpapers & Backgrounds in One Pro (Free) – A large collection of wallpapers to show your Christmas spirit!

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Christmas Wallpapers & Backgrounds in ONE Pro

Cars

Autoshow(Wallpaper) vol.6 ($0.99) – Autoshow is a collection of great 100+ latest auto wallpapers!

10,000+ Car Wallpapers Free – Offers thousands of high quality car pictures and car wallpapers. All makes. All models. Classic cars, muscle cars, exotic cars, supercars, everyday cars – we’ve got all them car pictures!

HD Lamborghini Wallpaper ($0.99) – HD Lamborghini Wallpaper is collection of cool HD (High-Density 640 x 960) Kawasaki wallpaper for iPhone 4, iPhone 3G/3GS & iPod Touch. All wallpaper are optimized for iPhone 4 with fine details and superb resolution. iPhone 3G/3GS and iPod touch users can also use this application. All wallpaper will automatically shrink to fit the screen of your devices.

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HD Lamborghini Wallpaper

BMW Sportscar Wallpaper ($0.99) – BMW Sportscar Wallpaper is a collection of the world’s finest BMW sportscar wallpaper. All wallpaper are optimized for iPhone/iPod Touch.

Cars Wallpapers Cut ($0.99) – Cars Wallpapers is a collections of amazing cars from all over the world. You’ll get 250+ amazing car photos that you can email or save. No internet connection needed.

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Cars Wallpapers Cut

Miscellaneous

Backgrounds Plus (Free) – 10,000+ of the best backgrounds and wallpapers hd to customize your device with. All in high resolution and optimized for the Retina display. Our team of artists have created and hand picked thousands of the best high definition backgrounds and hd wallpapers for your mobile device. We include only the best!

CoolPapers Pro – The Best Wallpapers & Backgrounds ($2.99) – CoolPapers Pro lets you customize your home screen by allowing you to browse and download the most stunning photos of your favorite celebrities, models, movies, cars, luxury brands, and much more! New wallpapers are added daily.

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CoolPapers Pro

Society6 Daily Art Wallpapers and Backgrounds (Free) – Society6 artists hailing from Brooklyn to Barcelona bring you an endless supply of Grade-A quality Artist Wallpapers and Backgrounds to meet your recommended daily dosage of retina candy – all for free.

Wallpapers by GelaSkins (Free) – We at GelaSkins are proud purveyors of artist-designed, removable covers for iPhone, iPad, iPod and many more devices. We created this app so you can easily download amazing wallpapers directly to your iOS device. Browse our artist gallery or check out our collaborations with great studios like Marvel Comics, National Geographic, and Busted Tees.

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Wallpapers by GelaSkins

Backgrounds (Free) – 10,000+ Backgrounds from 100+ Artists and our Design Team. New Backgrounds added daily. Choose from over 60 categories such as: Funny, Cars, Guys, Movies, Space, Cute, Girly, Sports, Games, Beaches, Water, Messages / Quotes, Night, Hearts, Swirls, Explosions, Buildings, Cities, Fantasy, Sunsets, Technology, Flowers, Animals, Music, Space, Valentine’s Day, Christmas, New Years, Easter and many more.

Cool Wallpapers HD & Retina (Free) – Now with Effects, as of Version 2.0! With Cool Wallpapers 2.0, you can add glow effects, black and white effects, and blur effects. Unleash your inner artist, and share your masterpieces with friends!

Backpapers – Online Backgrounds and Wallpapers (Free) – Backpapers is an online background and wallpaper viewer. It allows you to browse and search iPhone wallpapers and download them to the device to set as your home or lock screen. Browse new daily photos by flicking through backgrounds specifically made for your device which includes retina resolution wallpapers for iPhone4.

100 Free Girly Wallpapers (Free) – adorable doggies and kitties fairy wallpapers romance wallpapers and more!

Quotes Wallpapers & Backgrounds 25,000+ (Free) – Over 25,000 funny, love and famous quotes wallpapers in the palm of your hands. Become smarter and wiser every second by reading famous quotes from famous people.

Fantastic Wallpapers Free – Hundreds of high quality fantastic iphone wallpapers, free! Just shake to show a random wallpaper.

50,000+ Retina Wallpapers (Free) – 50,000+ high quality 640×960 Retina Wallpapers, perfect for iPhone 4, also suitable for iPhone 2G/3G/3GS and iPod touch, update regularly.

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50,000+ Retina Wallpapers

ImagePro – Google Image search ($0.99) – ImagePro provides easy-to-use interface to the Google Image search. Just type the search keywords and ImagePro will start fetching images from Google. Save a photo or image to your Photo Albums, set it up as a Wallpaper, or go to the original photo/image web page.

So Cute! – Super Cute Images, Wallpapers and Backgrounds (Free) – Can’t get enough cute? Brighten up your device with 1000s of hand picked cute images and cute wallpapers!

Cool Backgrounds ($0.99) – Cool Backgrounds gives you a collection of amazing, awesome and ultimate wallpapers. Don’t waste time going through a collection of photos that requires you to connect to the internet each time. Get the ultimate collection of pre-selected high quality wallpapers for your phone that is available all the time.

Rare Wallpapers Collection (Free) – A huge amazing rare wallpaper collection.

10,001 HDR Wallpapers ($0.99) – Get 10,001 HDR Wallpapers for your iPhone or iPod! In image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminance between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than current standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods. This wide dynamic range allows HDR images to more accurately represent the range of intensity levels found in real scenes, ranging from direct sunlight to faint starlight.

iPhone Wallpaper – Luxurious textures (Free) – Please enjoy our 42 luxurious wallpapers for Retina Display & iPhone 3G/3GS, more than 40,000 fantastic wallpapers from web service, making tool for your own wallpapers with any price.

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iPhone Wallpaper – Luxurious textures

Cool Color Wallpapers & Backgrounds Box (Free) – With 5000+ all kinds of Color Wallpapers, specially for iPhone 4 Retina display, and more every day, Cool Color Wallpapers is the most full-featured, versatile and functional app you’ll find at any price.

Wallpapers For IP4 ($0.99) – Wallpapers For IP4 is ultimate collection of hundreds of carefully selected high resolution wallpapers for your iPhone 4/new iPod Touch.

iTexture v6 Vintage Retina Background Wallpaper ($0.99) – Generate your own special Vintage wallpapers from the many included new textures and icons backgrounds. More than 1000 combinations available.

50,000+ WallPapers & FX ($0.99) – More than 50,000+ high quality iPhone and iPod touch wallpapers. You can scroll the page vertically or horizontally to find the all 50,000+ pics in 120+ categories.

Album Wallpaper ($0.99) – Album Wallpaper lets you select artwork from your iPod library and then formats it perfectly to fit as a wallpaper on your device. Randomly selects artwork or choose the artwork you want.

Wallpaper Creator – Custom Backgrounds & Wallpapers ($2.99) – Place your own text on top of the backdrop (your name, your number, a contacts name if using for a contact graphic, or indeed anything else you can think of!); with 20 backdrops that are dynamically updated at regular intervals (or use your own photos and images from your Photo Library), 160 static built-in backdrops, 30+ fonts, 20 font colours, and 18 text effects, there are literally hundreds of thousands of combinations you could create.

Wallpaper Designer ($2.99) – Make your unique iPhone and iPod of HD wallpapers collection using unlimited combinations of backgrounds and special effects picked from 5 different categories: Frames, Shelves, Glow, Color and Holiday. Take full advantage of exclusive features like “Frame your Photos” and “Slide to Color”.

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Wallpaper Designer

Football 2010 Wallpapers ($0.99) – The 2010 World Cup tournament is here! This app provides iPhone optimized wallpapers for each participating country’s flag.

Vivid Wallpaper ($0.99) – You can create a stylish background image just by selecting colors, lines and patterns. It’s so simple to use!

Art Wallpaper ($0.99) – You will be intrigued with the coolness of this wallpaper app.Give your iphone a very cool art look!Basically turn your iphone into an “Art Phone” with those beautiful clear high resolution wallpaper(Sum 380 Cool Art Wallpaper).

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Art Wallpaper

Texture it! ($0.99) – Instead of being overwhelmed with thousands of wallpapers to choose from, Texture it! includes 200 beautiful iPhone wallpapers optimized for your iPhone. Categories of photographs include, beach, graffiti, natural, and more.

Which Is Your Favorite?

Obviously, we’re not suggesting that you download all 75! This article is instead aimed at helping you find those one or two perfect wallpaper apps for your particular tastes.

Personally, I love apps like those in the first section that let you mix and match various background with different shelf graphics because they help me create a clean, organized environment for my ever-growing collection of great software. Leave a comment below and let us know which wallpaper apps are your favorite and why.

Tight Typography Tips #8 – “Let’s Get Graphical… Graphical”

This entry is part 7 of 8 in the series Ten Tight Typography Tips

Like I said at the beginning of the week, every project is different so this tip will look very different for each project, and each person. Try to use more then just words if you can. This will stretch your creativity and may even require you to seek some outside help in creating elements, but will be worth it in the end. Look for words that have implied attributes or characteristics. These sort of words let you have fun and add little elements to help convey their meaning.

The other words to look for would be general objects. These words will allow you to actually get rid of the word and in it’s place, put a graphical element. When bringing in or creating objects, the goal is seamless integration. I tend to look for images with less intricacies and details. Again, this depends on the style of your project, but most fonts aren’t overly elaborate, so keeping your objects equal in their simplicity overall will help the merge feel smoother.


Tutorial

Download Tutorial .mp4

File size: 52.8 MB


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Tight Typography Tips #7 – “Get Ready… Preset… Go!”

This entry is part 8 of 8 in the series Ten Tight Typography Tips

There is this idea that if you’re a true artist, you have to create everything from scratch… I think this is an over compensation for not wanting to be one of those guys who has Video Copilot projects filling up their demo reels… Truth is, it’s totally fine to use stock footage, tutorial concepts, and animation presets…. just make sure those things are swimming in a pool of your own original content and you’ll be fine.

When it comes to typography, there are a ton of preset text animations you can apply that come with AE. Though these PRE-done PRE-sets are all useful… I find it really enjoyable to create my own text movement presets… these are often just modifications to the included text presets.


Tutorial

Download Tutorial .mp4

File size: 82.1 MB


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Adobe InDesign CS5, Advanced Typography and Special Characters


Adobe’s InDesign is considered to be the most advanced multi-page editor software, but we need to take advantage of it’s full power to quickly create and deliver professionally formatted documents. In this article, we’ll review the nine advanced and special character topics, as well as corresponding shortcut keys, and additional information.

Continue reading “Adobe InDesign CS5, Advanced Typography and Special Characters”

Quick Tip on the Kick Click

Ever found yourself wanting to add more presence and definition to the attack phase of your kicks and feeling you’ve run out of options when EQ and dynamic effects just won’t do? In this brief write up, we’ll look at a little known technique of using a generally unwanted artifact produced by noise gates to get your kick’s attack sounding punchy and clear.

The first step is to get your kick recording down. In this example, I’ve used NI Battery and imported a pretty decent sounding rock kick. I then added some attack time to make the original a bit less defined so we have a looser starting point for the example.

Download audio file (1.mp3)

The next step is to duplicate the kick and slap a noise gate on it.

Download audio file (2.mp3)

From the default I’ve gone on to set the gate so as to have it cut out most of the kick and to have such a short attack time that it produces and audible ‘click’. I’ve set the release time long enough to avoid a secondary click, but just barely. This emulates a beater click which provides a lot of definition to your kick sound.

Download audio file (3.mp3)

From here it is just a matter of playing around with different gate settings while also listening to the original track to create a click that fits in with the original. A great thing about this trick is not only do you create a beater click when none was present, but you also double the attack phase of the kick, creating more punch on the front end of the sound.

From there, it is just a matter of mixing the levels and eq-ing them both as a unit and individually to form a cohesive whole.

Download audio file (4.mp3)

This trick works best for percussive elements that are (more-or-less ) of an equal amplitude so they activate the gate on every hit. (If the gate fails to open on 2 and 4, things will sound unnatural at best).

Obviously, this is easy to achieve for MIDI, but for live drums all you really need to do is add a compressor before the gate to even out the levels in order to make sure you get your kick clicking on every kick.

Have fun!


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Create Light Painted Typography From Scratch in Photoshop – Psd Premium Tutorial


If you’ve ever attempted to write words using traditional light painting photography techniques you probably know how challenging it can be to create words that are easy to read. In this Psd Premium tutorial, author Alex Beltechi will demonstrate how you can create a similar look without a camera and tripod. This tutorial is available exclusively to Premium Members. If you are looking to take your typography skills to the next level then Log in or Join Now to get started!


Professional and Detailed Instructions Inside

Premium members can Log in and Download! Otherwise, Join Now! Below are some sample images from this tutorial.


Final Image


Psd Premium Membership

As you know, we run a premium membership system here that costs $9 a month (or $22 for 3 months!) which gives members access to the Source files for tutorials as well as periodic extra tutorials, like this one! You’ll also get access to Net Premium and Vector Premium, too. If you’re a Premium member, you can Log in and Download the Tutorial. If you’re not a member, you can of course Join Today!

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Exercise Accessories Help You Measure Up

Can a smartphone help you train better?

Maybe — if you’re the kind of person who gets obsessed over logging every workout, tracking your pace and counting how many miles per week you’ve averaged. And if you’re that kind of person, there’s a host of apps and gadgets that can feed your mania for recording progress.

I spent months with two apps — RunKeeper and MapMyRun — getting a taste of the quantified fitness lifestyle.

While they may not be making me a better runner, I am far more aware of how much (or little) I’m actually exercising, and that alone is a strong impetus to work out more and to do it better.

The apps show how a smartphone can turn into a collection point for an array of health and fitness data, including speed, distance, elevation, heart rate and other workout metrics such as calories and cadence (the measurement of steps or pedal strokes per minute). RunKeeper has also recently added the ability to track weight and even sleep patterns, with the right accessories.

Both MapMyRun and RunKeeper work similarly. When you start a workout, you launch the app and tell it what you’re about to do — run, walk, bike or swim. The app then measures how long you’re working out, records your path if it’s able to pick up a GPS signal, and records your heart rate if you’ve got a heart rate monitor. When you’re done, you press a button and your workout gets zapped up to the cloud, where you can view it and share it.

Both are available as free downloads for Android and iPhone, but to get the most out of these apps, you’ll need to spend some dough on a few extra gadgets. A heart-rate monitor is probably the most useful addition for exercise nuts, because it can tell you if you’re actually working out at the appropriate intensity.

For Android phones with Bluetooth support, chances are good you can use a Bluetooth heart-rate monitor. I used the Polar Wearlink+ ($60), which worked just fine. It paired with the phone, and the data was immediately available in both MapMyRun and RunKeeper.

If you’ve got an iPhone, you need a different solution, because the iPhone’s Bluetooth won’t work with the Polar Bluetooth adapter. Instead, I used Wahoo Fitness’s Fisica sensor key ($80), a small white tab that plugs into the iPhone connector port on the bottom of the phone. This adapter communicates wirelessly with any sensor that uses the Ant+ protocol, including Wahoo’s own heart-rate-monitor strap ($60). The combination is more expensive than a plain Bluetooth heart-rate strap: Yet another reason for your Android-loving friends to lord it over you.

Runkeeper can also integrate with weight data from the Withings Wi-Fi Body Scale, stride data from a Wahoo Stride Sensor ($80), and sleep and activity data from a Fitbit or Zeo device. I didn’t test these sensors, but it’s comforting to know that when I want to turn even more of my life into pure, clean numbers, it will be easy to do so.

Once the data’s in the cloud, you can view reports, of course, and also share it with your friends, either to boast about your accomplishments or to encourage one another to keep going — or maybe a little of both. And you can start to analyze trends: For instance, I log more miles on Saturdays than I do on Tuesdays. And I’m faster on my lunchtime runs than my early-morning, pre-breakfast runs.

Of the two services, Runkeeper has a cleaner, easier-to-read interface on both smartphones and its website. Runkeeper also offers voice prompts, which can tell you how far and how fast you’ve gone at various intervals.

Apart from the voice prompts, MapMyRun matches Runkeeper feature-for-feature, but I found it harder to navigate, and the website offers fewer options for slicing and dicing the data. It’s also got more advertisements in both the app and on the website (though you can pay to make the ads go away).

Both apps have free versions, but to make the most of both apps, you’ll need to pay something. Runkeeper offers “Runkeeper Elite” subscriptions for $5 per month or $20 per year. They offer real-time run tracking (so your friends can keep an eye on you as you run — including during races) and a wider variety of charts to analyze your performance trends.

MapMyRun offers various paid options ranging from $6 per month to $20 per month (or $30 to $100 per year), which give you access to additional advanced training charts and reports, and also eliminate ads from the interface.

After using both apps for months (in Runkeeper’s case, I’ve used it for years) am I a better runner? Probably, but it’s not because the data has given me superhuman self-coaching abilities. Rather it’s that the mere act of measuring my activity has made me pay more attention to it.

If I were a more serious runner or had a definite exercise goal like losing weight, these apps and gadgets would give me a valuable edge. As it is, they help me stay on track — and for now, that seems to be just what I need.

Photo by Jim Merithew

Handsome But Tough-to-Read Timepiece Leaves Us Second-Guessing

Most wristwatches come in two basic temperaments: the tried and true, hassle-free type; and the too-clever-for-their-own-good troublemakers that are tougher to read than Finnegan’s Wake.

In that sense, Skywatch’s Black & White chronograph has a split personality. The stark black face and white hands of the main dial are the picture of clarity. But not so with the chrono, which causes a lot of squinting.

The designers must have thought it would be cool to trump function and use black paint for the markings on the black inset dials. The result is a black hole of Swiss inscrutability. Even in bright sunlight, the chrono hands are difficult to read against the black dials. Although the photo-luminescent graphics on the hands help in dark settings — as when you’re 100 meters underwater or locked in the trunk of a speeding BMW — only the hands illuminate, not the dial numbers.

At least everything about the Swiss-made watch is outwardly attractive — the simple design, the shiny porcelain unidirectional bezel, the black sailcloth strap with a nubuck leather lining — and the 3-ounce weight is pleasing, especially since the 44-mm-diameter steel watch looks a lot heavier than it actually is.

If you’re a junkie for a superclean design, the Black & White Skywatch provides a good fix, and if you want a watch that displays the time clearly, this model’s primary display certainly provides that. But if you want a crisply marked chronograph, look to other Skywatch models. There are plenty to choose from: Most of them have clearly delineated dials, though a few are even harder to read than this one.

All the other Skywatch models we checked out are handsome and, like ours, feel solid on your wrist. They are also a very good value for battery-powered Swiss timekeepers.

And that’s the truth in black and white.

WIRED Well-contrasted display on a well-constructed Swiss-made watch. Feels sturdy on your wrist. Watch’s 3-ounce weight belies its bulk. Easy to operate.

TIRED Chronograph functions are nearly impossible to read because of black-on-black design. Sailcloth wrist strap fits like a stiff new pair of shoes until you break it in.

Spot’s Stealth Commuter Breaks the Chain

The Spot Ajax is the quietest bike I’ve ever been on. During one test ride, I found myself cutting through a deserted parking lot away from traffic. The only sound the bike made — and this was while pedaling — was the squeak of the tires against the asphalt. If the matte-black Ajax looks stealthy, it’s even more so once you ride it.

Though materials and build play a part in the Ajax’s silent operation, the main reasons are the 8-speed internal hub and belt drive at the heart of the bike’s derailleur-free drivetrain. Single-speed elitists are easy to dismiss. But their off-putting hipsterism is rooted in one undeniable truth: Taking derailleurs out of the picture makes things a whole lot simpler and more reliable.

Of course, taking gears out of the picture can make riding a lot less fun, if not downright miserable for those in hilly areas. Multigeared internal hubs like the Shimano Alfine 8 featured on the Ajax hit the best of both worlds.

All gearing is internal, meaning no derailleurs to break, bend, or fall out of tune. Internal hubs even let you shift gears without pedaling — a godsend for urban commuters who forget to downshift before stopping at red lights.

With the Ajax, Spot takes the simplicity and dependability further by replacing the chain with a belt, like the ones found on automotive engines. In fact, Gates, the maker of Spot’s belt-drive system, is primarily a parts supplier for the auto industry.

The durable belts, made from layers of polyurethane, rubber and carbon-fiber strands, don’t need lubrication, either. So there’s no risk of showing up for work with grease stains on your chinos.

The Ajax’s belt drive uses the new CenterTrack design from Gates. A retaining ridge down the center eliminates any side-to-side slipping.

The Ajax’s distinctive, swoopy looks and great handling are thanks to Spot product manager Sky Yeager, a veteran bike designer who previously worked for Swobo and Bianchi and created their best-known urban bikes.

Though the Ajax comes spec’d with backswept mustache bars, Yeager gave it a nimble geometry more in line with cyclocross bikes — all the better for darting in and out of traffic. The mustache bars are plenty stable and comfortable, but more aggressive urban riders will want to swap in a road-bike-style drop bar, which would probably be more in line with the frame’s aesthetics, anyway.

The molded aluminum frame is married to a carbon-fiber fork, which mutes a bit of road vibration and helps quiet the rattling typical of most aluminum frames. Stopping power comes from Shimano mechanical disk brakes, which are not as pleasantly plush and modulated as hydraulic discs but they are simpler and less expensive. For city riding, they were all the brake I needed, even on the 28-percent-grade decent that is part of my morning commute.

Tabs and bolt holes molded into the fork allow for direct mounting of the front brake caliper, rather than relying on extra bolts and hardware. Touches like this, plus the butted aluminum frame, keep weight for the entire bike down to a very respectable 26 pounds.

The Ajax comes with mounts for fenders and panniers, both things I would likely add, though they would mar the bike’s stripped-down look.

Not included with the Ajax, however, are reflectors. Not exactly, anyway. Instead of bolting slabs of cheap, unsightly plastic to the wheels, Spot has spec’d the Ajax with WTB tires that have reflective whitewalls. They pop in headlights as well as any standard reflector but disappear in the daylight.

But the most ingenious feature of the bike has to be the rear dropout. Belt drives require precise tension to work correctly. Change a flat on your rear wheel, and you might need to go to a shop familiar with belt drives to get everything working again.

To remedy this, Spot created a new dropout that attaches to the bike on a small pivot. There are two other bolts on the dropout, one for adjusting belt tension and another for locking everything into place. Tension is set at the factory, and the vertical dropout allows the user to remove the rear wheel without ever changing the tension setting.

It might seem like a small thing, but it helps keep the Ajax running smoothly without frequent visits to the bike shop. It’s those small things that make the Ajax such a pleasure to ride.

WIRED Distinctive, urban-inspired looks with anodized, matte-black finish. Almost as quiet in motion as it is standing still. No-lube drive train means no grease on your pants. Carbon belt should outlast a standard chain. Built-in reflectivity on the tires, so no dorky reflectors on the spokes.

TIRED Mustache bars are not for everyone. Relatively narrow platform on the pedals increases risk of foot shooting off the side; most riders, especially those with a wider stance, will want bigger ones. The parts and tech may justify the price, but this is still a lot to pay for a city bike.

Photos: Jim Merithew/Wired

Vibram’s Newest FiveFingers Fit Better, Still Look Funny

FiveFinger shoes made by Vibram, the poster children of the barefoot-running movement, are as close as you can get to running in your bare feet without having to worry about hookworms and broken glass.

One of the company’s newest offerings, the Bikila LS, is designed specifically for the barefoot runner. Named after Abebe Bikila, who ran barefoot and took the gold medal in the marathon in the 1960 Olympics, the Bikila LS sports a few features added specifically for distance runners.

The outsole is beefed up with extra padding on high-impact areas like the heel and forefoot to soften the impact of running on concrete, and Vibram has added cushioning in the cuff and the shoe’s topline to reduce irritation and pressure on longer runs.

A drawstring closure secures the shoe, which is a distinct departure from the Velcro closures on every other FiveFinger shoe. It makes a big difference — the shoe’s cuff opens up wider for easier entry, and the lacing draws the middle of the shoe up around the midfoot. It makes the shoe fit even more snugly than previous FiveFinger shoes I’ve worn. It’s easily the most glovelike iteration of the Five Fingers family. They’re also the most comfortable — the soft interior lining and padding make them feel great for just walking around town, as long as you don’t mind the occasional pointing and staring.

Purists may balk at the phrase “more padding,” but believe me, it’s incremental. While the padding does a bit to absorb the shock from running in what amounts to your bare feet, the modular pod design of the outsole ensures a full range of motion in the sole, and you still feel every bit of each step. During test runs on pavement, I could feel the contours of the road as my toes splayed out and I felt every single rock that I stepped on.

There’s little margin for error. The occasional heel strike was a jarring event, and after about half a mile, I had settled into a proper forefoot strike. Running up hills actually felt much better than doing so in regular running shoes, as the neutral heel made it easier to stay up on my toes and charge uphill.

The padding takes some of the sting out of pounding pavement in your bare feet, but don’t go all out if you’re not used to running in barefoot-style shoes. It’s best to start with short distances and work your way up into longer distances. Be prepared for some sore calves and arches.

Usually, if you’re wearing toe shoes, subtlety isn’t high on your list of priorities, but the Bikila LS’s styling is about as subtle as toe shoes get. My pair’s black body with gray details drew much less attention than, say the blue camouflage styling of the last pair of Vibrams we tested. That said, you’re still going to draw some stares during your run. I mean, come on — they’re toe shoes.

WIRED Great fit, thanks to the new speed-lace design. Easier to get on and off. Interior is soft and comfortable.

TIRED Lack of sole cushioning can be painful. Silly-looking, and definitely not for the insecure.

Photo by Jon Snyder/Wired.com