A new line of Gillette razors has hit stores recently, the Gillette Fusion™ Power, boasting five blades to give every man a better way to shave. Apparently the tri-bladed Mach3 (The Fusion’s predecessor) was not enough. The Fusion Power has added two additional blades to the front of the shaving cartridge, and one to the top for precise trimming. Add to that a AAA battery that emits “gentle micro-pulses,” and Gillette is sure you are in for an incredible shaving experience.

Now on to the review…

As far as design, and the bling factor to impress your friends, this thing has got it all. As if five blades weren’t enough, a chromed out handle and a futuristic design are sure to turn the heads of whoever may be in your bathroom.
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RALEIGH, NC - Praxis Design Studios, a Graphic Design and Web Development company in Raleigh, North Carolina announces the completion of a fundamental redesign of their company website (www.praxisstudios.com).

Praxis, which is based in North Raleigh, develops cutting-edge websites and high impact graphic design locally and nationally for clients of every size. Owned by designers and fine artists Dean and Tricia Sauls, Praxis has been operating as a Graphic Design and Web Development company for nearly ten years. more >>

Previously, we talked about the drawbacks of iFrames in Should I Use iFrames in My Web Design?. But we did not delve into better alternatives.

Most all applications of an iFrame have alternatives that will benefit your site in the search engines, benefit you with easier content updating, and benefit your users with a more cohesive web experience. Here are some common reasons people give for wanting to use an iFrame, and better alternatives for each more >>

Finding the right web designer is one of the most important decisions when starting a web based business. You have to make the right choice because your business depends on it. Here are some of the things that are a must when considering your web design firm:

• Basic knowledge of web design

First, you have to have basic knowledge of web design and running a web site. It is a fact that before you enter a business, you yourself must have a good grasp of its importance. When you are educated, you know when a design is functional and useable or when it is not. You also know whether to criticize or appreciate the work of your web designer.

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Andy Budd gives his Web Design and Development Trends rundown filled with predictions about web applications, slick user interface and interaction design in 2006.

Also checkout Camron Moll with his 2006 design predictions of rounded corners, page refreshing and that fisher price look.

At first glance, iFrames may look like a quick and easy hack for your website’s needs, but after weighing the pros and the cons, an iFrame is almost never the best solution.

An iFrame (introduced in HTML 4.0) is an in-line frame that can be placed anywhere on a web page, and is used to hold content. Navigation buttons can reside outside of the iframe and when clicked, only the content in the iFrame changes. An iFrame is a newer alternative to an HTML frameset or “regular frames”. Framesets share almost all of the disadvantages of iFrames and have many additional disadvantages.
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“As an owner of a small business with no product or service that can really be sold online, do I need a company web site?”

The answer, there is very little that can’t be sold over the Internet. There are over 30 million people shopping online, buying everything from music to cars to real estate property. Research predicts that revenues will be over $300 billion in 2005 and will grow at a rate of 30 to 50 percent over the next few years. These numbers alone should be enough to persuade you that your business should be online.

Regardless of whether you sell your services or product online, you should at the very least have an online presence so that customers, potential customers, partners and even potential investors can easily and quickly find more information about your company, the products and services you have to offer, as well as how to contact you.
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Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are used within the HTML behind your Web site as a way of controlling how each page is laid out and what elements on it look like. For instance, you can use CSS to make headings in your copy a standard size across the whole of your site.

CSS has been around for several years and is supported by all the major browsers available today, including Internet Explorer for the PC and Mac, Firefox, Safari and Opera.

Using CSS on your Web site will give you several benefits:

Makes your Web pages snappier
By using CSS and writing your HTML code to match standards like ‘XHTML Transitional’ or ‘XHTML Strict’ you can decrease the ‘render time’ of your pages. This is the time it takes between downloading the page and actually showing it on screen to your Web site visitor.
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There’s a new iPod on the scene—the iPod nano—and you need one. What follows are our first impressions of this very impressive little player.

The iPod nano comes in two colors (white and black) and two configurations ($199 for 2GB, and $249 for 4GB). Each model stores music on a memory card rather than a hard drive, very crisp color display, and—like current full-sized iPods and the now-old iPod mini—sports a click wheel. Unlike with other iPod models, you’ll find the headphone port on the bottom of this iPod, next to the dock connector. The Hold switch remains, all alone, on the iPod nano’s top.

The nano is as thin and light as Steve Jobs says, weighing just 1.5 ounces, and is as thick as a stack of six credit cards. Despite its small size, the markings on the click wheel are clear and the click wheel is responsive. The screen really does look awesome—it’s very bright and readable. And the nano feels perkier than my other iPods, scrolling very quickly through a window full of songs, moving rapidly from one screen to the next, and flying through pictures.

In the iPod nano’s narrow box you’ll find the iPod itself, a USB 2.0 cable, Apple’s earbuds, two sets of foam covers for the earbuds, and an iPod Dock Adapter—a white plastic insert that will fit in future iPod dock connector accessories.

I can hardly wait until the next generation of iPods.

reviewed by: Dean Sauls

iPod nano review

overall rating: very good
Get an iPod Nano