Tag Archives: Envato

Prefixr: Cross-Browser CSS in Seconds

Many CSS3 attributes (e.g. border-radius) have long been implemented in various browsers with vendor prefixes, such as -moz and -webkit, which allow browser vendors to work on implementations of new features before the standard notation is set in stone.

Remembering the different prefixes and the sometimes ridiculous variations in syntax for the attributes is a pain. Fortunately, Nettuts+ has made a nifty web utility that analyzes your CSS and adds in extra rules with the vendor prefixes. You just need to write your CSS with either the official attribute or one of the prefixed versions, and Prefixr will do the rest for you.

It can even minify your CSS for you. (Though Mac may users may also want to try Minimus for that.)

If that wasn’t cool enough for you, it even has an API. You could use this to create your own tools that make use of Prefixr, or you could use it to integrate it with your favorite text editor. Examples are included for Textmate, Vim, Espresso, Alfred and Coda. And someone has already cooked up a Text Filter for BBEdit. That’s the killer feature for me. I can just hit a keystroke in BBEdit and the text updates a second later.

Cross-Browser CSS in Seconds with Prefixr [Nettuts+]

StatDash: Statistics on Your WordPress Dashboard

Wouldn’t it be neat to have an at-a-glance display of common statistical information on your WordPress Dashboard? The StatDash plugin does exactly that, adding a customizable widget that shows stats from Google Analytics, Feedburner, Twitter and even your earnings from the Envato Marketplaces.

You can choose which of the services are displayed, as well as hide the chart if you wish to have the widget be a bit more compact.

StatDash is my first item to be released on Code Canyon. It’s priced at $8, and is GPL compliant of course.

Envato Expands AppStorm Blog Network

Envato has just opened up two new blogs in their AppStorm network. Adding to the existing Mac, iPhone and Web app blogs, the new Windows and Android sites deviate the most from the network’s current audience. Some readers have  voiced concerns that the new sites betray the audience and make the network too generic. (Personally, I just say they should subscribe to the individual AppStorm blogs that interest them and leave the Windows one to the unenlightened.)

Also, the AppStorm main page has received a redesign. It’s simple, matches the rest of the site, and I like the icons along the top.

Envato Launches the Tuts+ Marketplace

Envato, the company behind the Tuts+ blogs, has launched a new marketplace for buying and selling premium tutorials. Running from $3 to $7 apiece, the tutorials include the ones available under the Tuts+ subscription as well as user-submitted ones unavailable elsewhere.

It’s certainly an interesting idea, though I wonder if it might take away from the blogs a little bit? The Tuts+ blogs pay a lot of money upfront to their regular authors, but infrequent contributors could be more attracted to the promise of recurring sales.

New Envato Site “Mobiletuts+” Launches

I have made some comments on Twitter about there being a shortage of good tutorial blogs for iPhone app development. Envato has answered my wishes with a new Tuts+ site: Mobiletuts+. It launched on the 13th of May, with a nice long introductory tutorial on the iPhone SDK.

It’s all about quality tutorials for mobile developers – all mobile developers, regardless of preferred platform. Topics will include native development with the iPhone, Android, Windows and Blackberry platforms, cross-platform development with tools like Titanium and Phone Gap, and techniques for building mobile web apps and mobile accessible web sites with HTML 5.

Hopefully we’ll see some good content coming out of the new site in the future.

Envato Redesigns Tuts+ Sites Again

Once again, Envato has redesigned their Tuts+ blogs. The changes are primarily evolutionary, though there is a big difference. The new layout features a wider content area and a stronger focus on larger screen sizes.

One of the first things I noticed was that the sites’ advertisement strategy seems to have been rethought. There are no more large leaderboard or 250×250 banners; instead, there are only 125×125 banners. They sit at the top of the narrow sidebar and run down the side of the page in a single column. It actually looks pretty good. They’re out of the way, yet still visible enough to be sought after by potential advertisers.

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Design Spotlight: Envato Marketplace Redesign

Envato launched the redesigns for their marketplace sites last Sunday. They all look pretty much the same, save for some color and logo differences, so I’ll just focus on ThemeForest here.

ThemeForest Redesign

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ThemeForest Adds Multi-Project Licensing

Envato’s ThemeForest marketplace has added multi-project licensing for their products.

Buy a 10 Project License for just 3 x the cost of a Single Use License.
A 10 project license means you can use the same file over and over – up to ten times – without having to buy it again and again.

They also offer a Web Service Licence, which costs 50x the cost of a Single Use License. The license could be used on a site such as WordPress.com, if Automattic had the inclination to purchase a theme from ThemeForest. A site where the design might be in use by multiple clients, but hosted by yourself.

There doesn’t seem to be a way to upgrade a license you already purchased, but you can simply buy another instance, as people have done in the past when they wanted to use a theme on another site.

The Design Secrets of Collis Ta’eed

Collis Ta’eed, co-founder of Envato, is one of my favorite designers. His designs have a certain quality that you don’t see just anywhere. They’re simplistic, stylish, and unique.

Freelance Switch

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Changes at Envato: Meet Tuts+

Envato, the ever-interesting network run by Collis and Cyan Ta’eed, has revamped their TUTS websites. NETTUTS, PSDTUTS, and their kin are now housed under the name of “Tuts+,” with a central website at Tutsplus.com. They’re the same sites, but more tightly-knit.

Today across the Tuts+ network we’re rolling out some changes to our brand and how our sites work together. These changes include a rebrand of our logos, a shift from multiple domain names to a single top level domain, a universal Plus membership, a Plus Affiliate Program, updated Plus interface, a Twitter Tuts+ news stream and a new tutsplus.com site complete with a rearrangeable dashboard. In other words, a whole bunch of stuff!

You can read the full announcement here, with all of the big changes they’ve been making.

Overall the changes seem pretty good. I’ve always been a fan of the Ta’eed’s sites, the TUTS ones especially. However, a couple of the changes bug me a little…

  1. The new logos and naming scheme don’t seem quite right. Net.tuts+ just seems kind of awkward. It doesn’t read as well as NETTUTS. I’ve always wondered whether I should say “Net tutts” or “Net toots,” but now I have to say “Net tutts plus,” and write it with that awkward period and plus sign.
  2. The move to subdomains of tutsplus.com seems silly. You have the domains, they’re well established, they’re easier to type why change them? They may still get you there, but you’re jsut dilluting your existing brand. There’s already Tuts+ and Envato branding plastered all over the TUTS (sorry, “Tuts+”) sites. I can see not wanting to drop thousands of dollars for new *tuts.com domains, but it seems silly to change the other ones as well. I think it would be better to make the subdomains be the secondary, redirect URL for the sites that have their own domains.

I can understand the changes, but those two just don’t sit well with me… I suppose I will get used to them in time.