Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: August 2016

Since eight years, our monthly desktop wallpapers challenge is a Smashing favorite that wouldn't be possible without the tireless efforts of talented designers and artists from across the globe. On a quest to cater for wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd, we challenge you, the design community, to get your creative juices flowing and produce some interesting and inspiring designs each month anew. And, well, it wasn't any different this time around.

This post features wallpapers to get your desktop ready for August 2016. They all come in versions with and without a calendar and can be downloaded for free. A big thank-you to everyone who tickled their creativity and contributed their ideas!

The post Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: August 2016 appeared first on Smashing Magazine.

How Doctors in Florida Are Protecting Pregnant Women From Zika

Miami ob-gyn Christine Curry has treated about a dozen pregnant women with Zika. Now, she's telling us how it's done. The post How Doctors in Florida Are Protecting Pregnant Women From Zika appeared first on WIRED.

Web Development Reading List #147: Security Guidelines, Accessible UI Components, And Content-First Design

When working in a team, it's important to stick to rules. A common challenge is to build all your projects with a similar or the same toolset and coding guidelines. Only yesterday I discussed how we could port over a project that outgrew its initial codebase over the years to a fresh, React.js-based source code.

The decision for this wasn't easy, since we had invested quite a lot of work and money into this project already, and a move to React would require quite some time, too. But since the switch makes sense from a technical perspective and the team is already using React for three other projects, we concluded that this would be a good step to do. It will enable more developers of the team to contribute to the project, to review code and to reduce the shift of technologies in the company. Occasionally, it's time to re-evaluate your projects and move on.

The post Web Development Reading List #147: Security Guidelines, Accessible UI Components, And Content-First Design appeared first on Smashing Magazine.

How Shopify is using Snapchat as a recruiting tool

The ecommerce company is asking for Snapchat stories alongside CVs

Windows 10's free upgrade expires very soon and you really ought to download it

Microsoft's free upgrade to Windows 10 will expire soon -- we still recommend you grab your free copy and activate it, even if you don't intend to keep or use it.

How to use interactive notifications on iOS 10 - CNET

Apple is changing how you can use notifications, here's what you need to know.

Solar planes, farewell Philae: Podcast 278

We celebrate Solar Impulse's 2 historic round-the-world flight and say a fond farewell to the Philae lander

By: WIRED

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Getting Practical With Microcopy

The first question clients and stakeholders seek answers to with any digital product and/or service today - and rightly so - is how to establish an effective user experience. We, as designers, however, know that good design and a good user experience are rarely achieved by fixating on one discipline, but rather by adopting a multidisciplinary approach.

At best, it's about finding a balance between UX, UI and interaction design, usability, accessibility, web performance (front end, back end, networking), service design and content strategy (i.e. writing copy).

The post Getting Practical With Microcopy appeared first on Smashing Magazine.

Newspapers and magazines reach 90% of Canadians: Vividata

Rabbit ears are on the rise: MTM

8% of Anglophones access over-the-air TV using old technology

Lady Layton takes over in latest Professor Layton sequel

By: Matt Kamen

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Jupiter's mysterious Great Red Spot acts as a 'radiator' for the planet

By: Libby Plummer

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Coca-Cola cuts sales outlook amid weak demand

To offset decline, Cola maker is raising prices and putting drinks in premium packing

Suicide Squad thanks Toronto with pop-up fan experience

City-exclusive marketing activation included an appearance by two of the movie's stars

New shapeshifting medical microbots inspired by germs

This class of medical microbots could be useful for everything from drug delivery to microsurgery.

Major LastPass security bug puts millions of accounts at risk

By: Libby Plummer

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AMD has built hardware at Samsung, could tap foundry for future products

AMD has confirmed that it has built hardware at Samsung's foundries and has the option to utilize Samsung's 14nm in the future. It's an important move towards securing a stable manufacturing option across the industry as next-generation nodes are ever-harder to target.

Q&A: Magazines Canada CEO Matthew Holmes

'I'm seeing all kinds of opportunities' says head of magazine industry's governing body

You can now share Google Play downloads with other people

By: Libby Plummer

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How To Create Icons In Adobe XD

Released in March this year, Adobe Experience Design is a new all-in-one tool that lets you design and prototype websites and mobile apps. for websites and mobile apps. XD is still in beta and available for Mac with a Windows version on track for a release later in 2016. It is bound to provide a fast and efficient way to create new user interfaces, wireframes, and visual designs with various devices in mind.

As an icon creator, I tried to use XD to create icons from scratch and to apply them to a new user interface. In this tutorial, I want to guide you through the steps it took so you can follow along. We'll take a look at how to create a set of office icons for a new app. Plus, I'm going to show you how you can use XD's features to interact with your newly-created user interfaces during the prototyping phase. So, let's get started.

The post How To Create Icons In Adobe XD appeared first on Smashing Magazine.

38% of Canadians are aware of online AdChoices program

Awareness level 'respectable' given program's newness says DAAC study

ET deals: Dell PowerEdge T20 quad-core server for $279

Today, Dell is offering up the PowerEdge T20 tower server at a substantial discount. If you're in the market for a super-cheap server set-up, you won't want to let this deal pass you by. Today's coupon code expires soon though, so don't wait to get your order in.

Twitter and Sky Sports team up for Premier League highlights

Near-live highlights of Premier League matches are coming to Twitter for the 2016/2017 season

By: Libby Plummer

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The Human Connectome Project zeroes in on the firmware of the brain

They're calling it a "parcellation." That doesn't even come close to explaining the unprecedented clarity and resolution with which scientists have further refined the network diagram of the human brain.

Finding MH370: How algorithms are helping to hone in on the missing plane

By: Victoria Woollaston

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Farewell Philae: Lander tweets its heartbreaking goodbyes

By: Victoria Woollaston

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AMD announces Radeon Pro SSG: A GPU with 1TB of SSD storage attached

AMD announced a major new prototype today -- an "SSG" graphics card with 1TB of on-board PCI Express NAND flash.

Alain Tadros leaves Publicis for Metro

President of the Montreal office heads client side for the first time in his career

The Illusion Of Life: An SVG Animation Case Study

With flat design becoming the ever visible trend of 2016, it's clear why there's been a resurgence in SVG usage. The benefits are many: resolution-independence, cross-browser compatibility and accessible DOM nodes. In this article, we'll take a look at how we can use SVGs to create seemingly complex animations from simple illustrations.

This project began as a simple thought experiment: How far can we push SVG animation? At the time, designer Chris Halaska and I were colleagues working on an illustration-heavy campaign website. While aesthetically pleasing, the designs lacked the required “oomph” that all creatives search for.

The post The Illusion Of Life: An SVG Animation Case Study appeared first on Smashing Magazine.

China bans Internet companies from reporting news, tightens grip on media

China's government has cracked down on Internet news sources and original reporting. From this point forward, major Chinese Internet services will only be allowed to carry official, government-sponsored news.

Testing Credit-Card Numbers In E-Commerce Checkouts (Cheat Sheet)

As a developer, I work a lot with e-commerce websites and, as a result, with a lot of payment gateways. I'm fortunate that I get to work on many different projects for different clients, each with its own unique challenges. I have, therefore, found myself working with a lot of different payment gateways over the years, from the more familiar ones like PayPal and Stripe to some lesser known ones.

While I love the variety of my work, I generally find working with payment gateways to be frustrating. I'm sure I'm not alone in this opinion! For many payment gateways, the documentation is poorly written, lengthy and, at times, difficult to find.

The post Testing Credit-Card Numbers In E-Commerce Checkouts (Cheat Sheet) appeared first on Smashing Magazine.

Online mattress retailers dream of disruption

Endy Sleep, Casper and more turn the traditional retail model on its head

Brie Larson takes flight as Captain Marvel

By: Matt Kamen

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Best biscuit for dunking? Rich Tea – and we have the science to prove it

By: Ben Woods

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ExtremeTalk: Does anyone actually love Windows?

Microsoft's CEO, Satya Nadella, has repeatedly said that he wants users to love Windows. Does anyone?

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Your privacy at risk: Verizon reportedly close to purchasing Yahoo's Internet business

A major report suggests that Verizon may be about to buy Yahoo's internet business. It's unwelcome news for anyone concerned with privacy, but a potentially great move for Verizon's bottom line.