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Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use some specific wallpaper for a long period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That’s why we have decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers over 12 months.

And to make them a little bit more distinctive from the usual crowd, we’ve decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you need to look up some date, isn’t it better to show off a nice wallpaper with a nice calendar instead of launching some default time application?

This post features 40 free desktop wallpapers, created by designers across the globe. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free.

Please notice:

• all images can be clicked and lead to the preview of the wallpaper;
• you can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our desktop wallpaper calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?

So what wallpapers have we received for July 2009?

When The Day Comes

Designed by Vladislav Gerasimov from Irkutsk, Russia.

• preview
• with calendar: 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1600

Cafundó: July has come! Spread the News!

Designed by Cafundó Estúdio Criativo from Brazil.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1200, 1950×1200

Man In The Mirror

“A tribute to Michael Jackson. Let us remember a great musical icon who through his work, managed to inspire us all.” Designed by Umer Tahir from Canada.

• preview
• with calendar: 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Magic Forest

"Inspired by many animated movies taking the viewer to the small world we often don’t see because it’s under our feet. I hope lot’s of green will help you relax ." Designed by Lukasz Bien from Poland.

• preview
• with calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Cutting Smashing Calendar

“I took some extra effort in creating this wallpaper.After downloading SM logo it inspired me to make outlines from it and then Imade some real life elements using my cutting plotter, done some photo shotsand then finally digital editing! Hope you’ll like it! Take care!” Designed by Dejan Cirovic from Serbia.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Blue Grunge

“This image is a result of my affinity towards blue.A slight addition of grungecan boost up any image and here it has made the cool blue more awesome.This calendar also special ’cause my birthday comes in this month” Designed by Viswanath Jagadeesan from India.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050
• without calendar: 320×480, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050

Summer Dream

“”Have you heard the wind?” – Asked the girl.
“No, no I did’t” – Rabbit replied
…. and dragonfly flew by thinking that this summer should never end …
” Designed by Jana Jelovac from Belgrade, Serbia.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×960, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×960, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Thirsty

“Not exactly inventing something new with this style, but a nice feature of brushes and colours to create that summer feeling.” Designed by Halvor William Sanden / Minimal Skala from Norway.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

Deep Sea Diving

“Cool off this summer with a little dip in the sea!” Designed by Chris Alexander (Yipori) from England.

• preview
• with calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 1920×1440
• without calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 1920×1440

Gustav Mahler

“A tribute to Gustav Mahler, born July 7 1860. This Wallpaper combines a photograph of the composer, the score of Mahler’s Lieder “Feierlich und gemessen, ohne zuschleppen” and “Starry Night” by Vincent Van Gogh, a contemporary of Mahler. Both artists shared a vivid and somewhat dark imagination.” Designed by Maurice Depestre from Canada.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050

Ink Mountain

“This is a rough and dark, sketchy wallaper with the emphasis on the weight of the “ink” and form of the shapes.” Designed by Mike Healy from Australia.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×960, 2560×1024, 3360×1050, 3840×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×960, 2560×1024, 3360×1050, 3840×1200

Sunflower

“This time I just wanted to make something vector with grungy touch. There aremagnificent sunflowers fields everywhere in full bloom these days, so I addedsome sunflowers and came up with this.” Designed by NarjisNaqvi from Pakistan.

• preview
• with calendar: 800×600, 1024×640, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 800×600, 1024×640, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200

Go Green!

“May be not in the real world, but wallpapers like this will surely let you to take a fresh breath.But the reality is the Earth is heating up in every single hour. The early warning signs of global climate distractions are in — heat waves and warmer weather, high tides, Cyclone,spreading disease(e.g. Swine Flu), earthquake, earlier spring arrival and so on. It’s the time to stand up and protect our environment.” Designed by Sagar from Bangladesh.

• preview
• with calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200
• without calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200

Room

“Great wallpaper for designers, esp. Web designers like me who need organize space on desktop.I put two size of this wallpaper in PSD format ( CS4 ) so you can edit it by yourself and even making better one.Also you can checkout mine and getting some inspiration for yours!.” Designed by S.Reza Movahedi ( Riza ) from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600

The Demonic Divas

“The demonic divas are back again.” Designed by Puneeta Prakash from India.

• preview
• with calendar: 640×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050
• without calendar: 640×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050

Firefly

“One of my favorite memories from my childhood was chasing fireflies on hot summer nights in my grandfather’s backyard. This wallpaper represents that memory and all of the fun we used to have together out under that colossal tree in his backyard.” Designed by Stacy Blackman from United States.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Sweet Child o’Mine

“This is a photo taken some weeks ago: she’s my baby, with her mom (although you can see her arm only). No Photoshopping on this photo, I swear: she’s really as beautiful as you can see her I liked it so much, and I wanted to share with you…” Designed by Daniele Marino from Italy.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Raining Sunrise

“The month of July is the month of rain in most parts of India. This wallpaper is a celebration of the enchanting feeling of early morning rain. The photograph used is my own.” Designed by Kumar Ritwik (ritwik_mango) from India.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080

Getting famous

Designed by Ionut Zamfir from Romania.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Leap of Faith

“This is photo is of a girl leaping on top of a hill (this is lomography).” Designed by Chad Gilchrist from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050

Tilt-shift photography

“Wanted to try to make a tilt-shift photo. I took one of my many, many photographs of Vienna and Presto! People are little ants from 170m high.” Designed by Anca Varsandan from Romania.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Summer Time

Designed by Tatiana Valkovskaya from Ukraine.

• preview
• with calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050
• without calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050

Scorcher

“This summer Siberia enjoyed just a week of broiling bliss. We do long for more. Should you have it enough and to spare, please send us a little!” Designed by Rumake Web Agency from Novosibirsk, Russia.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 1920×1440
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 1920×1440

Summer Sun

Designed by Nikola Lazarevic from Serbia.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Beach

“When the soul wants freedom and rest we find it on the sea. The shining sun,the dark blue sea, yellow sand gives a charge of forces and positive emotions.” Designed by Lex Rusakoff from Russia.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Anote

“Alphabet biscuit packaging named ‘a note’ as to portray a unique way to send your message out for others, not only through writings. Photography done by the designer using Nikon D40.” Designed by Josephine Toh from Malaysia.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200

Talisman

“This idea came out of some pen and ink drawings I made when thinking about these ideas: protection, the evil eye, and the game Hangman where you try to guess a phrase letter by letter before you complete a hangman’s noose and platform. It is a visual wish for safety and peace.” Designed by Arcane Palette Creative Design from United States.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Just July

“For a long time I wanted to participate this greatWallpaper Colection. So I hope you like it ” Designed by Kai Stabel from Germany.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1900×1200

Flying Lizard

Designed by Valeria Kuzminska from Ukraine.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050

Ele-Centric

“Everyday do I quick little something (whether it be colour swatches or banner design) and a friend suggested that I sell what I’m doing, so I recently started an etsy store. This is one of the designs that came from the daily doodles. ” Designed by Elly Gedye from New Zealand.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Summer Fun

“This is my first calendar and it is on summer theme. It has a simple design, but I’m working with Photoshop and Illustrator just for fun (I’m not a designer).” Designed by Irina Kupenska from Bulgaria.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Willet Birds

“Willet birds walking on the beach.” Designed by Brown Bug, LLC from USA.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Friends

“It’s the time of year for sharing good times with close friends and significant others.” Designed by Bryce M. Ulmer from Wisconsin, United States.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1280×800, 1280×1040, 1440×900, 1680×1050
• without calendar: 320×480, 1280×800, 1280×1040, 1440×900, 1680×1050

4th of July Cloud

“I wanted to incorporate red, white, and blue into the design, for Fourth of July in a subtle way so that those who don’t celebrate it can still use it.” Designed by Saarah Saghir from USA/Pakistan.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900

Bronze Addiction

“It’s summer! Feel the heat! For those who love sunbathing, it’s time to go bronze and radiant! At the same time, I hope you enjoy this glimmering wallpaper!” Designed by Athena Emily from Hong Kong.

• preview
• with calendar: 320×480, 1280×960, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 320×480, 1280×960, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

MinimalED

“Design by Bloged.it – il blog di eniodesign.” Designed by eniodesign from Italy.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

July Sentense

“Just motivating sentence for July ” Designed by Temeshi from Poland.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Blue Plant

“Blue plants pattern on dark sky.” Designed by Guillermo Galván Gómez from Argentina.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Mad Mind

“More dark in sunny July.” Designed by B$A from Netherlands.

• preview
• with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
• without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200

Join in next month!

Please notice that we respect the ideas and motivation behind artists’ work which is why we’ve given artists full freedom to explore their creativity and express emotions and experience through their works. And this is also why the themes of the wallpapers weren’t anyhow influenced by us, but designed from scratch by the artists themselves.

Thanks to all designers for participation. Join in next month!

What’s your favorite?

What’s your favourite theme or wallpaper for this month? Please let us know in the comments! And have a smashing July, folks!

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© Smashing Editorial for Smashing Magazine, 2009. |
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Post tags: calendar, Graphics, wallpapers

Smashing

There used to be a time when a new Firefox release was an exciting day for early adopters. We’d delve into the new features, rejoice in the speed improvements, and moan about our lost extensions. Today should be another action packed upgrade day – it’s reported that Mozilla will release Firefox 3.5 later today (update: it’s here now) – but, this time, something is missing.

Firefox just isn’t dazzling us the way it used to. In fact, in some cases, it’s as if the browser is playing a game of catch-up instead. With new features like Private Browsing and TraceMonkey, an engine that speeds up web applications, Firefox isn’t exactly blowing us away – they’re simply introducing features that put them on par with Google Chrome and even, gasp, IE.

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Private Browsing

One of the most notable of the new additions to Firefox 3.5 is the Private Browsing feature. Often jokingly (or perhaps not) called “porn mode,” this special browsing mode keeps all traces of your web activity off your computer, including everything from browser history to passwords to search bar entries and more.

Although we’re certainly happy to see Firefox add this now-standard web browser feature, it’s the first time we can remember Firefox copying something from Internet Explorer and not the other way around. For the browser that brought us a revolution of tabbed browsing and extensions, copying IE seems like a sad state of affairs. IE8 has offered private browsing since March of this year, Chrome had it from day one – back in 2008, and Safari had it before both of those. What took Firefox so long?

At the very least, can we hope that Firefox does private browsing better somehow? Well, it does let you individually remove sites from your history via a new “Forget About This Site” option in case you forgot to “go private.” But then again, erasing your browsing history accomplishes this task, too. In 3.5, you can also specify time ranges of history to clear – anywhere from the past hour to the past day. That’s a nice little added tweak, but nothing ground-shaking. In the end, private browsing is more of a “me-too” feature than anything extraordinary.

Speed: TraceMonkey

Under the hood, Firefox 3.5 is introducing a new engine called TraceMonkey, which is said to result in a “massive speed increase both in the browser chrome and web page content.” Specifically, this improvement affects programs written in JavaScript, as many rich internet applications (RIAs) are today. Historically, web apps running in JavaScript haven’t been able to match the speed with which native software runs on the PC, but TraceMonkey brings that gap much closer together.

However, although Firefox 3.5 is faster – a lot faster, in fact – it’s not the fastest browser out there. A SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark test (courtesy of PCPro) shows that it’s currently being beaten by both Google Chrome and Safari 4.0.

Location-Aware Browsing

Finally, location-aware browsing – a feature that is innovative! In Firefox 3.5, the browser can tell web sites where you’re physically located in the world so you can find relevant information more quickly. In other words, if you’re searching for a nearby restaurant, you can simply search for “sushi” and the search will return localized results. However, this all depends on whether or not the web site in question is a “location-aware” site. If it is, it will ask you if you want to share your location. It’s too bad there’s not an all or nothing switch for this feature, though. Instead, you’re prompted to allow the feature to be switched on whenever you visit a location-aware site for the first time.

Still, this one’s a point for Firefox.

HTML 5 Support & Other Geeky Stuff

HTML5, the next version of markup language used to build web sites, won’t be ratified into a standard for another year, but Firefox 3.5 is already supporting many of its capabilities. For example, the new browser will support audio and video embeds without the need for the Flash plugin.

Also supported are offline data storage, support for native JSON, the <canvas> element for drawing vector graphics and animations, and new CSS options that let designers create text with shadows and draw border images.

However, although the offline data storage feature of HTML5 will eventually lead to a standardized way for web applications to work offline (that is, when you’re without a net connection), it already has a competitor: Google Gears. Gears, now an open-source technology, is currently used for the same purpose as HTML5 when it comes to offline data storage. And unlike HTML5, Gears works in older browsers too.

Finally, there is the addition of “web workers,” a way for web content to run resource-intensive scripts in the background, a feature that will make the browser feel faster while also helping improve stability. But will it “feel” as fast as Chrome? Well, it might, especially when you take into consideration the memory usage issues of Chrome.

Conclusion

Overall, the latest upgrade to Firefox is definitely worthwhile and filled with improvements that will please its users. With its new features, speed increases for web apps, and support for standards, 3.5 represents a major upgrade, not a minor release.

Firefox continues to dominate the other “alternative” web browsers at 22.5% marketshare compared to Safari’s 8.43%, Chrome’s 1.80%, and others who haven’t even reached 1.0% yet (stats via Net Applications). However, this time around, a few of Firefox’s “upgrades” aren’t entirely new to us as web browser connoisseurs. The browser is late to offer private browsing and although speedier, it’s not the speediest anymore.

All that being said, Firefox is still the one to beat when it comes to IE alternatives. But with all these new contenders cutting into its marketshare, it may never topple IE from its throne after all.

Image credit: browser pie chart – Webmonkey

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ReadWriteWeb

XRegExp is an open source (MIT license) JavaScript library that provides an augmented, extensible, cross-browser implementation of regular expressions, including support for additional syntax, flags, and methods.

XRegExp adds new regex and replacement text syntax, including comprehensive support for named capture. It also provides a suite of 12 functions and methods that make complex regex processing a breeze. And it lets you easily create and use plugins that add new syntax and flags to XRegExp’s regular expression language.

XRegExp is fully compliant with the regular expression flavor specified in ECMA-262 Edition 3 (ES3), and has been tested with Internet Explorer 5.5–8, Firefox 2–3, Safari 3–4, Chrome 1–2, and Opera 9. XRegExp uses feature detection—no browser sniffing.

Requirements: -
Demo: http://xregexp.com/
License: MIT License

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Webappers

The days of moms covertly stalking their children on MySpace or freaking out over Facebook party pics are not-so-slowly shifting to headier days of proactive moms using the Internet to meet their own needs.

A new study from BabyCenter shows that mothers’ social media use has increased 462 percent over the past three years. The same group’s mobile web usage is up 348 percent over the same period of time. And these moms aren’t just keeping tabs on secretive teenagers. They’re networking for themselves, finding answers online, and sharing stories about their offspring. The two-part study was conducted between 2006 and 2009 in conjunction with NovaQuant. BabyCenter also conducted a series of 18 in-depth surveys between January and June of 2009

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This “21st Century Moms Report” states that the number of mothers using social networks has risen from 11 percent to 63 percent since 2006. And there’s good news for brands who are using the same networks. According to the BabyCenter press release, “Forty-four percent [of moms on the social web] use social media for word-of-mouth recomendations on brands and products, and 73 percent feel they find trustworthy information about products and services.”

As far as hardware is concerned, almost all moms say they never leave home without a mobile device. More than half say they have replaced traditional photo albums with online photo-sharing services. And moms are also the primary console gamers in the household after the birth of a first or second child.

Health is another important vertical for digital moms. Again, the report reads, ” In online communities, children’s health issues are the leading topic of interest in online communities (91 percent) followed by childhood development tips (79 percent).” Mothers are also seeking out expert advice, parent-to-parent wisdon, and product reviews via social media.

As Gen X and millenial women and men come of age and start families, their technological preferences are applied to new aspects of life, as well. Longstanding sites such as BabyCenter and niche startups such as LilGrams are in excellent positions to serve the needs of digital parents and connect them to brands, hopefully in ways that are relevant, helpful, and innovative.

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ReadWriteWeb

Colligo Networks has long built some of the most best-known desktop applications for Microsoft SharePoint. The Colligo Contributor software suite lends offline access and an interface that’s definitely easier to handle.

But with the 4.0 release of Contributor scheduled to ship on July 13th, they’ve expanded the suite’s capabilities with a pair of tools that touch the core of SharePoint’s capabilities: a new file manager and an uploader for Outlook. Other features incorporated in to 4.0 include an enhanced SDK, one-click attachments, and drag-and-drop control of folders.

While the additions to Colligo Contributor may not exactly be on the bleeding edge of enterprise software, they’re something that’s likely to be fairly indispensable for the legion of organizations still tied to SharePoint.

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Making the Desktop a SharePoint Repository

The first big addition to Contributor 4.0 is File Manager. The new software is an extension to Windows Explorer that allows users to integrate files within their systems with SharePoint document libraries, essentially making any document on the desktop accessible from the platform at will. In other words, by letting you add offline files to your SharePoint instance, Colligo eliminates the need for traditional network file shares.

Reducing Email Pains

Uploader for Outlook tackles a thorn in the side of any enterprise customer: email attachments. What it does is to take the files you’d normally just attach in Outlook, and move them to SharePoint for you to link to, rather than weigh down your Exchange server and flood your inbox.

Folder Drag-and-Drop

The last feature of note to be incorporated in to 4.0 is the ability to control folders through drag and drop. While this is not new to other desktop SharePoint clients, like Bamboo’s Desktop Explorer and Neoxen’s Visual Modus, it’s still a welcome addition to Colligo Contributor. Easy reorganization of your taxonomy of folders is something that SharePoint sorely lacks out of the box.

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ReadWriteWeb