Creation by ~lbsquat on deviantART

After my first collection of useful android applications, here’s another one:

AK Notepad: Set a reminder based on your note, share note with others through SMS, email & stick a note on your home screen. You can customize the note’s appearance, organize by label(hash tags),sort & search notes.

Astrid Task/Todo List: Astrid is the highly-acclaimed open-source task list that is simple enough to not get in your way, powerful enough to help you get stuff done! Tags, reminders, RememberTheMilk sync, Locale plug-in & more!

mAnalytics: Is a program to view your basic Google Analytics stats on your Android phone. Supports multiple accounts, profiles, basic statistics and charts for visits and pageviews.

eBuddy IM: One of the best instant messaging apps. Fast and reliable messenger. Chat with multiple MSN, Facebook, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, GTalk & MySpace accounts. All IM friends in one buddy list. Run in background. Messages sent as data, not SMS/Text.

twidroid for twitter: Twidroid is the leading full-featured Twitter client for Android.

Dolphin Browser (Social&Smart): Dolphin Browser gives you a better Mobile Internet experience. Gestures, Sync Google bookmarks, Download youtube videos.

Flashlight: Grow small plants in your pocket. Build a new Pharos of Alexandria. Interrogate suspects. Find your keys. The only limit is your imagination! This app maximizes brightness and keeps the screen on while in use. Look elsewhere if you want colors, streamers, and wacky sounds… This is a flashlight.

Some of the applications listed here have also a paid version, but this post refers only to their free versions.

Do you have a favorite android application? Feel free to share it by leaving a comment!

no comments | belongs to: android | posted on November, 2009

Photo by ~radagacuca on deviantART

The “404″ or “Not Found” error message is an HTTP standard response code indicating that the client was able to communicate with the server but the server could not find what was requested (read more about the HTTP 404 error).

The motivation towards a custom 404 error page is to create a more (visually) appealing, usable and user-friendly page than the default (and dull) 404 error page of your Web server. The main reason to do it is to give the option to a user that landed on the error page to stick to the website. There’s nothing new about it but a lot of Web developers overlook or underestimate it.

There is a number of elements you can use in a custom 404 page:

• First, an image or some text to explain to the user what happened. If the website’s visitors don’t have a technical background, a “404 error” message won’t explain anything to them, so try to explain it without any technical details. You can also have a humorous message or image. After all, an amused visitor is always better than a frustrated one!
• A must have, is a link to the homepage so the user can have an alternative of closing the browser or re-typing a URL.
• Another good idea is to include a search box.
• You can also provide some links to popular or interesting content of your website.

Below is the image I’m using for my 404 error page:

Finally, some resources (external links) for 404 error pages:

• The Perfect 404 (@ A List Apart)
• 404 Error Pages, One More Time (@ Smashing Magazine)
• 50 Creative and Inspiring 404 Pages (@ Webdesigner Depot)

Of course, the web is full of creative and innovative 404 error pages. Feel free to post a link to your own!

no comments | belongs to: urban legends, web design | posted on November, 2009

Photo by ~toxictwo on deviantART

In order to complete this tutorial you will need to apply for a flickr API key. You will also need to download a copy of phpFlickr API Kit. The use of an API Kit makes the use of flickr’s API methods easier. You can also view the demo page of the tutorial (opens in a new tab).

Let’s begin. First, we need to include the phpFlickr main file and then create a new phpFlickr object which is stored in the $phpFlickrObj variable. Make sure you enter the correct path (where you extracted the phpFlickr files) and also enter your flickr API key.

require_once("phpFlickr/phpFlickr.php");
$phpFlickrObj = new phpFlickr('Your_Flickr_API_Key');

The next step is to obtain your NSID by using your flickr username (in the example I’m using my flickr username), which is stored in the $user variable. Using this NSID, we get the url to the specific user’s photos and we store it in the $user_url variable. Finally, we get an array ($photos) containing all the relevant information (id, title, etc.) of the last four (if you want to change the number of photos, just change the number) photos appearing in the user’s photostream.

$user = $phpFlickrObj->people_findByUsername('stathisg');
$user_url = $phpFlickrObj->urls_getUserPhotos($user['id']);
$photos = $phpFlickrObj->people_getPublicPhotos($user['id'], NULL, NULL, 4);

In this example we use only the id and the title of each photo. If you want to view all the information contained in the array, you can use print_r($photos).

The final step to display the photos, is to convert the multidimensional array into an array of one dimension and use a loop to display everything. The following code, displays the photos. The photos can be displayed in six different sizes. To change the size, you need to alter the “square” value. The available sizes are: square, thumbnail, small, medium, large and original.

foreach ($photos['photos']['photo'] as $photo)
{
  echo '<a href="'.$user_url.$photo['id'].'" title="'.$photo['title'].' (on Flickr)" target="_blank">';
  echo '<img alt="'.$photo['title'].'" src="'.$phpFlickrObj->buildPhotoURL($photo, "square").'" />';
  echo '</a>';
}

The complete code is diplayed below. You can also view the demo page of the tutorial (opens in a new tab).

require_once("phpFlickr/phpFlickr.php");
$phpFlickrObj = new phpFlickr('46dea5f6abb12aed7a823adb7ecf5816');

$user = $phpFlickrObj->people_findByUsername('stathisg');
$user_url = $phpFlickrObj->urls_getUserPhotos($user['id']);
$photos = $phpFlickrObj->people_getPublicPhotos($user['id'], NULL, NULL, 4);

foreach ($photos['photos']['photo'] as $photo)
{
  echo '<a href="'.$user_url.$photo['id'].'" title="'.$photo['title'].' (on Flickr)" target="_blank">';
  echo '<img alt="'.$photo['title'].'" src="'.$phpFlickrObj->buildPhotoURL($photo, "square").'" />';
  echo '</a>';
}

no comments | belongs to: tutorials | posted on November, 2009