The PlanetRecruit Blog

Navigating the technology and applications market

Making sure that we meet the needs of our clients means that we are constantly keeping an eye on emerging technologies, staying on top of demand, so that when a new type of requirement materialises, we are in a position to respond and offer expert assistance. This does involve an element of guesswork and sometimes when you call heads it will come up tails from time to time.

We recently took such a plunge when we began providing specialist services to those looking to hire mobile application developers, specifically the development of new applications using the Android platform. Entering a new market takes time and money so it was with some satisfaction this week that I learnt that the number of Android mobiles has passed the number of iphones for the first time. Gartner research predicts that Android will account for almost 50 per cent of the smartphone market by the end of 2012, giving it an enormous lead on its competitors.

The market is ever more steadily moving towards applications and devices that can be used on the move. While we don’t yet have a credible rival to the iPad tablet, we are surely only a few upgrades away from having an iPad killer on the market, most likely running on Google's honeycomb platform.

Freelancing on a Part-Time Basis

Freelancing is the kind of work pattern that gives you the flexibility and margin to do self-employed projects, and earn a good deal as well. However, no matter how much good freelancing reaps you, it is certainly not everybody’s cup of tea. Therefore, to launch a career in freelancing it is advisable to start it on a part-time basis.

Freelancing has a number of benefits ranging from personal comfort to financial gain and individual recognition. Even so, I have seen many freelancers finding themselves at a dead end during the process. Reason being, either the fluctuating income affects their household or they simply get swallowed by powerful competitors. If you ever do have a disastrous end to your freelance career, it can be very difficult to taking that detour back towards full-time employment.

 

20 Useful Free iPhone and iPad Apps for Designers and Developers

Big shocking news of the day: iPhones and iPads are increasingly popular and widespread and are being used by more and more people. But what’s interesting is this also includes web developers. And the following list will feature 20 free iPhone and iPad apps for web developers.

While iPhones and iPads appear to be more consumer-driven devices, there are apps on there that can assist in your web development and make your development and design life much easier. Think of it as having sketchbooks, notepads, calculators, communications devices, and more – all in one device. Of course, there are paid apps that provide much more robust development tools, but these free apps will be more than enough to get you started using your iPhone and/or iPad as a web development aid.

Without further ado, here are 20 free iPhone and iPad apps for web developers:

Lock, Stock and 10 Smokin' Websites

1. Creative Commons use a clever Google Images search that finds images with CC attributions tagged to them. This allows you to find works of art, photos, illustrations (of just about anything) with a license that suits you.

Website: http://search.creativecommons.org/

License: Creative Commons (varies)

 

Google rocks the JPEG boat

Taking the next step in world web domination, Google has launched a new image file format that the company hopes will spell the end for industry standards such as TIF, PNG, and particularly for JPEG.

Initially released in a preview version aimed at developers, Google’s WebP (pronounced “weppy”, obviously) uses ‘lossy compression’ (a common method of compressing data that discards small but unnoticeable amounts of the original information, resulting in smaller files) to reduce image file sizes by almost 40% compared to JPEG, while retaining the same level of quality (although the degree of compression is adjustable, allowing for higher quality and file size if desired).

What does this mean in the real world? Essentially, that the mind-numbing time spent waiting for massive JPEG files to download or attach to emails – as well as mucking about with zip folders full of images and file delivery clients – could be considerably reduced.

30 CSS and Javascript Tabs Solutions

Tabs have been around for a long time. They are nothing new. But with so many sites (blogs, ecommerce sites, web apps…) needing to show as much content and navigation as possible, they have never been so relevant.

Tabs are the perfect web page tidying up solution for organising cluttered content in a space-limited web page. Separating content into tabs keeps everything nice and compact, clutter-free and the content is always at the ready should a user need it.

In this round-up from Speckyboy Design Magazine, we have a variety of easy to use modern tabs solutions, techniques, tutorials and plugins, most of them make use of a variety of Javscript libraries (MooTools, jQuery…), but you will also find some innovative pure CSS solutions as well.

Pure CSS Tabs Tecniques & Tutorials

Sweet Tabbed Navigation Bar using CSS3

Sweet Tabbed Navigation Bar using CSS3 →
Demo →

Illustrator template toolbox for web, mobile and app developers

Here's an extensive selection of UI templates, all in Illustrator format, and all perfect if you are a web, mobile or app designer who prefers to use Adobe Illustrator rather than the more commonly used Photoshop.

It was mildly surprising how difficult this post was to put together, I really did expect to find a lot more. What is clear from this is that generally most designers would not even consider Illustrator for UI design, which was an even bigger surprise. So, if you are a UI designer who does prefer Illustrator over everything else, then you may consider this post as your treasure chest.

iPad Wireframe Template (.eps)

License: This file must not be hosted on any other site but you are free to use it.