Smashing Daily #51: E-Commerce, Phones, Marketing
Many links about mobiles in this edition of The Smashing Daily, as well as different operating systems, the pixel ratio of these devices, and the question as to if we should really keep calling those things phones. But there’s more—there’s an excellent interview, an incredible CSS technique, some good research on checkout flows, and a post about marketing manipulation. Enjoy!
Notes From Using The Nokia N9
Martin Sutherland won a Nokia N9 on this year’s Mobilism conference, a phone with the Meego operating system on it (definitely not the most well known OS). He used it as his everyday phone and published his findings. A very interesting read, especially for people who think that everybody is using an iPhone or an Android.
Evolving E-Commerce Checkout
Luke Wroblewski did some research on the different e-commerce checkout flows, looked closely at what changed about them over the years, looked at the new trends, and tries to predict some things about them. Some very interesting insights in this long post. The only thing I really miss is the order online, pick-up later in a store near you pattern (which is, I think, a very nice option in a small country like The Netherlands).
More About DevicePixelRatio
What do all different browsers on all different operating systems tell you when you ask them about the devicePixelRatio? Peter-Paul Koch did some research and publishes his findings in this long post.
Maybe We Should Stop Calling Smartphones “Phones”
What’s the thing you do most on your mobile phone? Probably not making phone calls. So why do we still call them phones, and what else do we do with them?
Christian Heilmann On One Two One Two Microphone Check
One Two One Two Microphone Check is a website that publishes interviews with people who make things happen in various cultural fields. Here’s an edition with an interview with Christian Heilmann. Yes, of course it’s a good read.
Mozilla Close To Cracking HTML5 Mobile Hardware Integration For Android
The most interesting thing in the mobile operating system world right now is Mozilla’s development of Boot2Gecko. If you haven’t heard of it before you should definitely read this article about it. Yes, Mozilla is pretty late to the mobile game, but it’s doing great stuff that I actually want to use. Can’t wait to see it take off.
Nine Ways Marketing Weasels Will Try To Manipulate You
An oldie but a goodie, nine marketing tricks disected and translated into a language understandable for nerds by Jeff Atwood. You should really read this—it will save you lots of money.
Link Dump #137
Do you need more to read? Here’s an excellent and rather long link dump by Blair Millen.
Last Click
Creating An Angled Split Feature Area With CSS Transforms
I remember the day that I saw these blobs for the first time, and the explanation of how they work. It changed me into a Web developer. This article (which describes this demo) by David Storey might have a similar effect on others, too.
Previous Issues
For previous Smashing Daily issues, check out the Smashing Daily Archive.
Vasilis van Gemert is the Principal Front-end Developer at Mirabeau in The Netherlands and a board member of Fronteers. His aim is to close the gap between design and (front-end) development. He believes the excess of knowledge he has can be better used by others, by more creative and smarter people. You can follow him on Twitter.
Leave a Comment
Yay! You've decided to leave a comment. That's fantastic! Please keep in mind that comments are moderated and rel="nofollow" is in use. So, please do not use a spammy keyword or a domain as your name, or it will be deleted. Let's have a personal and meaningful conversation instead. Thanks for dropping by!
No comments have been posted yet. Please feel free to comment first!
Note: Make sure your comment is related to the topic of the article above. Let's start a personal and meaningful conversation!