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 fintech could be the key to surviving the Brexit fallout

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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.

Newspapers and magazines reach 90% of Canadians: Vividata

Availability check: Can you buy the latest Polaris and Pascal GPUs from AMD and Nvidia?

Two GPU families enter, but which GPUs actually leave in consumers' hands? We check the numbers and report back.

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).

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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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The First Solar-Powered Flight Around the World

Hannah Fullmer

• Green Building

Bertrand Piccard landed in Abu Dhabi on July 25th at 8:05 p.m. EDT (Easter Daylight Savings Time) after completing a two-day solo flight in the airplane, Solar Impulse 2 (SI2), an aircraft powered 100 percent by solar power. The journey marked the end of the first circumnavigation of the Earth in a solar-powered airplane.
The plane

New shapeshifting medical microbots inspired by germs

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

Happy 10th birthday to Intel's Core 2 Duo

Intel's Core 2 Duo turns 10 today. Somebody grab the candles.

Major LastPass security bug puts millions of accounts at risk

By: Libby Plummer

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

By: Libby Plummer

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Suicide Squad thanks Toronto with pop-up fan experience

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

38% of Canadians are aware of online AdChoices program

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

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

By: Victoria Woollaston

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Lady Layton takes over in latest Professor Layton sequel

By: Matt Kamen

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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

Rabbit ears are on the rise: MTM

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

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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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.

New form of carbon capture actually creates power, rather than consuming it

A new form of carbon capture could not only remove CO2 from the output of fuel-burning power stations, it could make a lot of extra power in the process.

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.

These 3 Obscure Smartphone Brands Are Killing Apple In China

Apple's announcement of a decline in China revenue in the latest quarter comes as little surprise. The iPhone, while a status symbol, is expensive and a lot of Chinese consumers aren't ready for that. But which companies are taking Apple's place in the world's largest smartphone market might deliver a few surprises. At least three of the brands you've probably never heard of at all. And we're not talking about Xiaomi, the legendary iPhone lookalike that was growing fast three years ago. Xiaomi sales have slid over the past year.

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.

Changes in the teenage brain give clues to mental health issues

By: Ben Woods

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Facebook Tests a Solar-Powered Internet Drone

Hannah Fullmer

• Systems

On June 28th, Facebook launched Aquila, a high-altitude, unmanned solar-powered airplane, for its first flight at Yuma Proving Ground in Yuma, Ariz.
Although the team has been running tests and practice flights for months, until this point, only a 1/5th scale airplane had been tested.

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.

Web Development Reading List #146: Peermaps, Passive Event Listener Note, And A Shift Of Focus

So, what do we have this week? Well, it's quite a lot actually. For example, there's now a deal that might make Opera's browser a Chinese business, leaving all privacy and security efforts that have recently been made in the browser uncertain.

If you want to dive into learning ECMAScript 6, Wes Bos has published a huge series of ES6 screencasts this week that are absolutely worth the money. Besides, there are a few other recommendations for you to read this week. Let's get started.

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