Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on July 13, 2011 by CyberNet.

Whenever you’re working with a lot of smaller images you’re supposed to combine them into a single one called a sprite. You can get an example of what I’m talking about by looking at Google’s sprite, which has most of the little icons you’ll come across while searching.

How can you build these yourself? Well, you can try to carefully craft a grid of icons and then calculate the offsets you need to use in your CSS code, or you can take the easy way out. There are a bunch of sites out there that will assemble multiple images into a single sprite, and then they give you the CSS code you need to access those images. One of my favorite sites is Instant Sprite.

For me Instant Sprite has all of the right features, and aside from being easy to use it also takes just a few seconds to get exactly what you need. You can even change the order in which the images appear in the sprite, which many of the services don’t allow.

I recommend bookmarking Instant Sprite, and then you’ll be more likely to pull it out the next time you’re doing a little web development.

Instant Sprite Homepage

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Global affairs magazine Monocle continued it’s expansion into new sectors over the weekend, opening up it’s first ever Monocle Cafe. Friday saw the opening party of the new Mens Hankyu department store in Tokyo which houses the new Monocle Cafe along with 8 floors of luxury mens brands.

The spacious cafe, in the basement of the department strore, also houses a small MONOCLE shop which is an addition to the other two MONOCLE shop’s in Osaka and in Tokyo’s upscale Aoyama neighborhood in the FrancFranc store. Natural materials have been used in the design of the interior which features furnishings from Japanese classic furniture brand Maruni, whose furniture was designed in collaboration with Naoto Fukasawa. The whole design concept is in keeping with Monocle’s image and branding, a modern approach which also takes into account traditional methods, clean and simple.

Regular visitors to Japan Trends will also remember the smiling face of Eiichi Kunitomo, pictured below. Kunitomo is the barista and man behind Omotesando Koffee, and he has been put in charge of overseeing the coffee and sweets menu at the new Monocle Cafe. This is certainly good news for coffee lovers who can expect the same high level of coffee found at Kunitomo’s own tiny space, (with the actual Monocle Tokyo office being just behind Omotesando Koffee, I expect frequent visits have certainly influenced this!).

“We’ve long been interested in doing a cafe and are excited by the prospects of doing something with such a talented team in Tokyo. We want the Monocle cafe to offer the best tastes and experiences found on our editors’ travels and this means great coffee, cosy classic dishes and excellent desserts,” says Tyler Brûlé, MONOCLE’s editor-in-chief.

The opening of the cafe comes as Monocle also launch their own international 24-hour web radio service, Monocle 24. The service launches live today and features “a pacy mix of current affairs, business, culture and music”.

The Monocle Cafe is located in the Hakyu MEN’S department store, B1 and is open 10am – 11pm.

Related Pots:
Hidden Tokyo: Omotesando Koffee
Cafe Uniforms Become Designer T-Shirts
Pharrell “Tokyo Rising” Documentary Looks at Creative Japan

Continue reading Maide Control iPad app lets you build and view 3D models with your bare, sweaty hands (video)

Maide Control iPad app lets you build and view 3D models with your bare, sweaty hands (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 08:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Earlier this summer, a judge in The Netherlands ruled to ban sales of Samsung Galaxy S, S II and Ace smartphones, stating that the devices violated an Apple patent which deals with a “method of scrolling.” Well, nearly two months have passed, and Samsung is just now getting around to releasing “upgraded” versions of the affected devices, presumably implementing a non-infringing scroll tool. A Samsung spokesman told Reuters that the three phones will “shortly be available for sale,” neglecting to provide an exact release date — so we wouldn’t suggest lining up to get your Galaxy S II fix just yet. This small victory is only the latest in the Apple / Samsung lawsuit saga, which has created quite a stir in a handful of courts around the world. We have yet to hear about a solution to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 ban in Australia, for example, where fingers are being pointed in every direction.

Samsung modifies Galaxy smartphones to satisfy Dutch court, plans to resume sales soon originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Oct 2011 08:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This is not a real iPhone 5. Repeat, not a real iPhone 5. Photo: Benm.at

And the “Biggest Apple Fanboy of the Week” award goes to (drum roll please) the guys who made this insane real-life, glass and aluminum mockup of an iPhone 5.

A team of Apple fans at Benm.at in Germany used CAD designs, leaked hints, case designs and realistic mockups to develop a 3-D computer model that was then used to build a true-to-life, true-to-scale iPhone 5 mockup.

The team says they used the same process to create their prototype that is used to create the iPad. The rear of the case was hewn from a solid block of aluminum, which was then treated with glass pearls to give it texture.

Their mockup measures in at 2.36 inches wide, which is just slightly larger than the iPhone 4, but is slightly squatter (4.33 inches compared to the current 4.5 inches) and thinner. They adopted the rumored teardrop shape of the device, so the top is about .04 inches thicker than the bottom of the device. They also opted for an oval-shaped capacitive touch home button, rather than a mechanical button.

The result is kind of amazing, based on their photographs. Here’s one more — how their iPhone 5 fits in with some of the iPhone family — for your viewing pleasure.

Photo: Benm.at

via Cult of Mac