You may be proven correct or end up looking foolish and further complicate things. You could think for viable evidential options in asking your partner for his or her phone to begin with. In turn, you could be utterly dismayed by the absence of any unknown calls, explicit messages or lovey dovey pictures on the cell phone, as all these would be deleted.

This definitely calls for the need for the installation of a Cell Phone Spy software onto your partners phone. A commonly used Cell Phone Spy software in the form of Spy Bubble would be an ideal bet for a start. It’s basically an application that enables you to discreetly track and monitor the social network of a Smart Phone, in addition to the user of the phone itself.

It retails at a ridiculous bargain of around $50, only in local prevailing markets and could even be sourced online. If you think it to be on the higher side, chalk out an ideal comparison for yourself. Compare the cost of hiring the services of a private
detective, and you would be surprised at the cost of hired services and quality of service, as
compared to the Cell Phone Spy software.

This particular Cell Phone Spy software works on a discreet basis. Upon installation, only the licensed holder would be aware of its activity. It does not create any new applications in the installed phone, leave alone giving the target even the slightest hint of being monitored.

The Cell Phone Spy software is provably untraceable by nature and comes with a 60 day period money- back guarantee. From a financial perspective, a concerned partner could track and monitor multiple other target phones on purchase of a single Cell Phone Spy software and still end up paying for one license.

It would be unlimited in its application, as it would function on a global level. It would be ideally compatible with all smart phones that operate on Google Android & Symbian platforms, Blackberry’s & iphones, for that matter.

As a subscriber, you will be entitled to receive mails regarding various activities of the target phone. Such emails would entail a call & VOIP based history, Geo Location data, texting records, phone contact database, browsing history, images and mails of the targets phone.

Another uncanny aspect of this Cell Phone Spy software is the SpyCall feature. This so-called feature enables you to dial a particular number listed on the targets phone and secretly listen to the previously tapped conversation, without your partner even having the slightest whiff of proceedings. In short, this Cell Phone Spy software provides you foolproof information.

Coming to a conclusion, the wait and watch approach would sometimes prove futile, as that would probably entail days and months. Practically speaking, one does harbor sentiments of catching one’s partner red handed or caught in the act whatever.

However, if wisdom prevails, it would be sensible to think of adopting the technological aspect of Cell Phone Spy software method. You would make a conscious effort of trying to save your relationship rather than wait for the inevitable to happen eventually.

Slide to Unlock is a simple game, but a great way to spend a couple of minutes – a perfect example of one of those ‘waiting for the bus’ games.

As iDevice owners, we are all familiar with the ‘Slide to Unlock’ slider that appears every time we wake up our devices, Slide to Unlock takes this feature and manages to turn it in to an amusing, yet simplistic game.

All you need to do is slide the ‘Slide to Unlock’ sliders (as you would to wake up your device) as they appear on screen – sounds simple right? Well it is at first, but as you progress through the level the sliders start appear faster and faster, so you have to work harder to keep you screen clear. If 5 sliders appear on your screen at one time, that’s it – game over!

The rate at which the sliders appear on screen increases the longer you play, but expect a steep difficulty curve. After around a minute I think it becomes physically impossible to move your fingers fast enough to stop the sliders building up!

Also be aware that the ‘Slide to Unlock’ gesture requires you to slide your finger across the entire screen, this can be a little difficult to do repetitively, leading to the occasional missed slide – all it takes is one missed slide and it can get a little difficult to catch up.

Expect plenty of greasy fingerprints all over your screen too!

Game Modes

There is a variety of game modes to keep you entertained, each with a slightly different take on how the sliders appear on screen:

• Classic – You only have to slide incoming sliders to the right, this makes for a great warm up game and introduction to the general aspects of the game
• Twist – Just like classic, except you will need to slide incoming sliders to both the right and left. As such a little more tricky than classic
• Doubles – You will have to slide incoming sliders both left and right, but occasionally those sliders will arrive as doubles – meaning you will have to use two fingers to do well on this game mode!
• Revenge – Just like doubles except, when a double arrives, you will need to slide one to the left and one to the right. The makes for the most difficult game mode and requires a lot of dexterity!

Game Center and Achievements

I’m quite fond of Game Center, so any app that implements it well gets a thumbs up from me! So I was happy to see that Slide to Unlock has plenty of achievements to unlock. The achievements are split in to 3 main categories; Total number of unlocks, length of time survived in each game mode and fastest speed reached in each game mode.

Final Thoughts

Slide to Unlock has now, *ahem* slid, back down the Top Free Apps chart, but it is a great game at an even better price (free!) and definitely something worth downloading. It is not something you will play for hours at a time, but you will find yourself going back to the app to try and beat your high score and earn those prestigious Game Center achievements!

Photo Stream

One of the first goals of iCloud was to make wires as unnecessary as floppy disks in this digital age. Despite Apple devices being designed top to bottom for seamless integration, they still needed two things for this to transpire, wires and syncing.

Before Photo Stream, each of your iDevices had to be plugged into your personal computer in order to make a copy of your favorite snaps to edit and admire. Now each photo taken from your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch will jump straight to the visible mass of condensed water vapor in the sky as soon as it detects a internet connection. Stored online are the last 1,000 photos which are then downloaded and available on any of your devices, including your Mac via iPhoto or Aperture.

Documents & Data

To ensure your personal documents are also available on multiple devices, iCloud uploads a copy to distribute and update them across all devices, making sure you have the most recent version to hand. So your documents, spreadsheets and presentations will be stored and shared on the cloud, directly from Apples iWork trio, consisting of Pages, Numbers and Keynote. Apple’s equivalent to Microsoft Office for iDevices is as good a document processor you will find, allowing you to create, edit and share full documents straight from an iPad or iPhone, with all files fully compatible with Windows.

Unfortunately, every silver lining must have a cloud, and the downside to this feature is your files aren’t transferred to you Mac or PC. Instead they are stored at iCloud.com, meaning you must login and download the newest version, and upload the newest update to ensure everything is up to date.

iTunes Match

One of the biggest changes to iTunes since the introduction of movies is now iTunes Match. Previously, every song downloaded from the iTunes Store was available to download on all of your devices, so if you had forgotten your favourite Lady Gaga album on the move with your iPhone, you could still download it if you already bought it. Fantastic, but if most songs were taken from CD’s or downloaded from extremely questionable sites, you were left in the dark.

iTunes match changed that all for the low cost of £21.99. Paying this fee meant all of your music was ‘matched’ to the same on the iTunes store (and upgraded to higher quality if it is of poor condition) and allowed your favourite tunes to be downloaded to all your devices. Happy days.

Apple TV

So you want to make the most out of the little black box underneath your TV? iCloud can also enable your Apple TV to jump into the stratosphere to connect to your digital lifestyle. Available without the need of any computer or iDevice on your Apple TV are Photo Stream and iTunes Match. So the last 1,000 photos are there for browsing and appreciating constantly, allowing you to check the newest holiday snaps without so much as a wire.

Signing up to iTunes Match will also equip your TV with all of your iTunes songs streamed straight from the iTunes Store. Simple.

Developers

The last and maybe one of the most important aspects of iCloud is that it is available to the developers who make your favourite App. Tired of completing your favourite game on your iPhone only to have to start again on your iPad? Fed up with backing up to dropbox manually to make sure your diary or data is kept in sync? As more and more developers jump on the band wagon more of your Apps will keep themselves all organised and updated between your devices, its a bright future.

A great example of iCloud at work is found in the app, ‘Day One‘. This beautiful journal app uses iCloud to ensure that when you update your journal on your iPhone, the results are instantly shared with the Mac and iPad versions of the app. Every entry is synced flawlessly between all devices.

So that about sums it up for the features and highlights of Apple’s very own iCloud. Once again we hope you have found the following guide helpful, but if there are any questions or further topics you would like to read about then please get in contact with us here at Dink. Want to know how the iCloud integrates with Windows? Having trouble setting up Time Machine? Leave us a message in the comments section or contact us at Twitter and Facebook, so we can help you out with all your tech questions.

What is iCloud?

From the ashes of Apple’s less advertised and flawed MobileMe service comes iCloud. The new feature giving Apple’s combined devices true unity and seamless integration, all performed wirelessly without the touch of a screen needed. Offering flawless syncing of contacts, calenders, notes, photos, documents and more, chucking them in the cloud making them available solely to you at iCloud.com. There really is no excuse to ignore this free service, offering incredible opportunities.

The Basics

To enable iCloud on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, all you need is to be on the latest operating system iOS 5, offered as a free download from iTunes. To enable it on your Mac, you only need to install OSX Lion, for only £21.99 directly from the Mac App Store, or Vista for a PC. Once updated, if you have ever downloaded a single Application or iTunes track then you have all you need to get started, an Apple ID. This ID is actually your email address, and the one you use to access all of your Apple media from the iTunes or App Store. Simply sign in on any device under the iCloud setting with the same Apple ID, to sync everything together.

The Bare Necessities

The single reason that makes iCloud a absolute must is the ‘Find my iPad’ feature, also called ‘Find my iPhone/iPod/Mac’ depending on which device is in use. It allows you to find the location of any of these Apple products from any computer around the world at iCloud.com. From here you can wipe the device to protect any data, send a message, or lock the device preventing use. To any accident prone or forgetful iOS users, this is essential. Besides this by flipping a switch in the iCloud settings you can also back up your iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone to the iCloud, allowing you to restore any information in case a software restore is needed, or if you are receiving a replacement iPad.

Wireless is the New Wired….

The next way iCloud shines is by keeping all of your information up to date. Contacts, calendars, reminders, bookmarks and notes, will all be synced across your devices without you ever lifting a finger. Adding a contact to your iPhone will cause it to be updated or added on your iPad or Mac instantaneously. What’s more, this feature is available to App developers, meaning your favourite game saves could soon be shared across all devices and updated on the go, allowing you to switch between your favourite Apple products without wasting a single moment of game time.

So there you have the basics of the iCloud, allowing you to get the most out of your iDevice. Following soon will be more information into iCloud, including some advanced features to even launch your Apple TV up into the stratosphere. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and with our RSS feeds to stay up to date with Dink, or even request a tutorial on your most painful tech problems.

After upgrading to a new iPhone each year, I’ve happily been able to sell my old phone on with ease. It has always amazed me when removing the screen protector to see just how much damage the protector sustains.

For 4 years, I’ve been using these protectors and recommending them to friends as a must, until today.

Recently my screen protector, as they inevitably do, started to peel off, allowing bubbles to form and hair and dirt to build up beneath. So I bit the bullet and removed the protector – what a great choice.

Having removed the extra layer of plastic between me and my retina display, I am now able to view crystal clear apps in full 326 pixel per inch goodness. It is actually amazing how much the screen protector reduced my viewing experience of the new retina-enabled devices.

The Pros of Using a Screen Protector

The image above is the screen protector that I have used (up until a few days ago!) on my current iPhone 4. Although it is difficult to see in the image, the protector is full of micro abrasions and scratches. This brings us on to the benefits of screen protectors – they stop scratches!

There is a few things to consider however. The glass on the new iPhones is much more durable than previous versions and definitely a lot more durable than a flimsy bit of plastic! This means that although the screen protectors above looks pretty beat up, it doesn’t accurately represent the damage that might have been caused to my iPhone without it.

As long as you don’t keep your phone in your pocket along with your keys – then you’re actually quite unlikely to damage the screen that much.

The only reason I can think of using a screen protector now, is if I were going to sell it on. But with mobile phone recycling companies popping up left, right and centre, it is now even easier than ever to sell on your phone – aesthetically impaired or not.

This is a call to all of you with screen protectors – take them off! Enjoy the iPhone as it was meant to be!

Past years have been cruel to some of the strongest of organisations, and Sony are no exception. Continual losses and share tumblings have sent the company revenue and value spiralling in recent years. But if there is one shining light at the end of the ‘bullet train’ tunnel it is Kaz.

A Breath of Fresh Air?

What Sony needs is a breath of fresh air, to revitalise their product lines and make themselves stand out in a way thats been missing for almost a decade. Many of Sonys failures could be partly attributed to their lack of organisation. During the pre iTunes and iPod era, Sony had extreme difficulty pulling there resources together to create a competing music player and online music store, with many divisions creating individual flawed products. Worried about being outdone by other divisions this led to fierce rivalry and secrecy between colleagues that should of instead been pulling together.

In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal Kaz has said the following regarding the separated divisions;

A Future Hope

If theres a small hope that Sony begins producing truly unique and innovated products, it all rests in the hands of Kaz. Already planned are shake ups and corporate changes all designed to produce new innovations to more closely compete with other tech giants.

“We really need to buckle down and be realistic, I don’t think everybody is on board, but I think people are coming around to the idea that if we don’t turn this around, we could be sitting in some serious trouble.”

I don’t think anybody could have said it better, and CEOs are not usually so honest. I hope things do turn around, for Sony’s sake as well as everybody else’s.

Players will assume the role of a infiltrator inside a Cerberus prison, releasing prisoners and unlocking weapons that carry straight across to Mass Effect 3 to help continue your fight as Commander Shepard.

This isn’t EA’s first foray into recreating the Mass Effect universe on iOS devices, with Mass Effect Galaxy released back in 2009. It failed to live up to the exciting vision of the console outings, instead opting for a top down shooter with animated cut scenes. The change in gameplay will serve as a relief to hardcore fans and hopefully Mass Effect Infiltrator will be a game deserving of its place in a phenomenal trilogy.

For example, say you are at a store trying to decide on whether or not you should buy something. You can take a photo of the item and share it with other Thumb users along with a question such as ‘To buy or not to buy?’. Other Thumb users will see your post and start responding instantly with either a thumbs up or down. If you get more ups than downs you know you should definitely make your purchase!

It’s not all about asking the questions though. You can giving your opinions right away too. Tap vote and a random question and image will appear. You can then either thumb up or down (or reply neutral to skip), and the results are displayed – you also get the satisfaction from knowing that you’ve just helped someone make a decision.

You also have the option to leave a comment as well as simply supplying the standard thumb up or down.

Unfortunately, the quality of the questions posed aren’t consistent – some questions are wordy and it is difficult to respond with the simple thumb up or down. Despite this, the app is very addictive in an unusual way and I found myself voting on over 100 questions after I initially fired up the app.

The app does offer some more advanced features too – for example you can only browse specific categories and you are able to give comments ‘stars’ for good answers, which adds a competitive element to the app (much like the ‘best answer’ feature of Yahoo Answers).

There is also the option to share your questions with only friends (as opposed to public) and you can autopost your questions to Facebook and Twitter too.

Download Thumb today and start judging!

The Situation

With big blockbusters and critically acclaimed games being released every week and a large amount more in development, it may be easy to assume everything is okay from the outside. But sales are decreasing and more companies are in trouble of closing or not being able to compete. Game developers have been rising and falling since the first joystick was shafted, but recent years have seen the demise of some pretty big companies behind some even bigger series. The hugely appreciated Time Splitters series achieved great reviews and fantastic sales, but when their developers Free Radical released Haze with disappointing revenue, the company was forced to dissolve. Even more recent closures include Bizarre Creations who created Blur, The Club and Project Gotham Racing, Pandemic Studios, the team behind Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction and The Saboteur, and maybe most shockingly, Team Bondi, the developers of the sensational LA Noire.

The Retailers

Industry giants HMV produced disappointing 2011 results forcing them to sell off their Waterstones branches to be run by another company, GameStop and Best Buy (American game/tech giants) have stopped their UK high street invasion. Also more recently the GAME group, who own GAME and GameStation have been under the axe also. Following risks of the company not meeting lender expectations, the creditors who are keeping the company afloat could of asked for a return of money forcing a closure to the stores. Luckily the lenders did not take it this far and the GAME group continues to trade, but under increased pressure to turn things around. When their future was at risk gaming giants EA were among those to express the seriousness of the issue if GAME were forced to close.

Used Games

Recently, every man and his virtual dog have jumped on the pre-owned market in a effort to boost sales profits. This is because its cheaper for stores to buy games from consumers, than the developers themselves, but this can be both good and bad. Thanks to increased VAT and the increasing cost of buying in new games from the developer (due to the volume of money it takes to develop, produce and distribute games) retailers have announced they cannot stay profitable without pre-owned games. This is especially true for indie stores, that are in increasingly short amount on the high street thanks to these added pressures. However the flip-side to this argument is that pre-owned sales do not produce any profits for the actual companies making and developing these games, but actually does the opposite, stop people from buying their product new. This produces less revenue for the games developers which can affect future game development and budget.

Supermarkets

Popular super stores have stocked different forms of media for tens of years, but with the increasingly popular games industry taking a larger amount of the entertainment sector, they have jumped feet first into the games industry. The problem occurs when the massive profits and constant revenue streams of these companies allows them to make a loss on selling games. By selling them below the RRP by a significant amount on launch day, taking the competitive high street ethos a bit too far, distracting buyers away from the value of the games and making more people expect similar discounts.

Diversity

Everybody has preferences to which console is their favourite and for what reason. But despite the advantages of a better online experience, more unique IP’s or enhanced graphics, the fact is that diversity is not needed, and several larger developing companies have agreed to this. The leading consoles are extremely similar, with mostly the same games on both platforms offering mostly similar experiences. So separate consoles may not be needed, and create unnecessary competition and increasing costs for developers to produce games on both. It’s worth mentioning that this is only a side note as all consoles have generated some truly unique experiences at some point and games that have made this industry change for the better. So basically there will always be the fierce competition.

What Can Change?

With some serious problems still existing it’s clear that something must be done. The used game market is seen by developers as a core area for lost revenue and they want something done about it. Most recently rumours have been floating around that the next Xbox, dubbed the ’720′ for now, will not allow 2nd hand games to be used, with some developers in complete agreement. But there are other options available, as some stores have announced if distributors were to lower the cost of buying in new games, they would share some of the preowned profit, but reaching a decision on this would seem extremely unlikely.

With GAME attempting to sell off all of their 600+ European stores, it is clear they are trying to streamline and concentrate more on the UK, which must be its key territory despite it possessing less than 50% of its total stores. Part of GAME’s strategy last year was to price match trade ins, possibly showing that being the leading high street games specialist isn’t enough to compete anymore. If the publishers of games could agree that supermarkets should be sticking to the recommended retail price of games it could add to the value of the games they are trying to sell. Especially considering that the average supermarket has literally zero gaming knowledge, failing to add the support and advice backing up their prices.

So while retailers and game developers continually come and go, it seems clear that there is a lot of challenges facing the UK and its biggest entertainment industry. Even the largest companies have used up most of their lives by now, I just hope something can be done before its game over.

These updates are downloaded straight to the Mac and are installed at Apple’s request, having gone through a rigorous screening and testing period, removing any bugs or errors that seemingly build up in any unchecked line of code. But when the newest set of software updates were installed, things didn’t go so smoothly.

Update 10.7.3 for Lion brought a significant error to most applications, resulting in freezes and shutdown windows without the usual ‘Quit’ or ‘Continue’ buttons. Displayed instead were random discoloured questions marks with operating code that should be out of sight.

At the same time Snow Leopard was also updated, somehow causing some Rosetta supported applications to have multiple errors or simply cease to work. To undo both of these errors some users have resulted to restoring from a Time Machine back up that potentially takes hours, or installing specially written software to fix this problem.

Since then both updates have been pulled by Apple, but should be released soon in their upgraded forms and be a bit more reliable. Still with Apple taking a increasingly larger bite out of the personal computer market they risk discrediting their reputation with unsafe downloads.

iMob II is Addmired, Inc.’s answer to ‘Original Gangstaz’. Simply, iMob II is Original Gangstaz, just with a slightly different colour scheme. Oh, and a casino – I guess that makes it totally different then…

For those of you who haven’t played any of these mafia freemium titles, the premise is simple. Do jobs to earn experience and money. Spend the money on weapons to make you stronger and properties to help you earn even more money. Use the experience points to level up and develop your skills.

That’s not all however, you must also fend off attacks from other players around the globe who are constantly trying to kill you and take your hard earned cash.

Ok, so it still doesn’t sound too complicated right? So why does the home screen look like this?:

Pretty busy right?

If you’ve not played it before, this screen can look a little daunting – but don’t worry, everything serves a purpose and all becomes apparent as you start to play through.

At the top you can see your money (note that I’ve stashed all mine safely in the bank), respect (the in game currency that you have to earn or spend actual money on…) and your level. Below that you have your health, energy (used for jobs), stamina (used for fighting) and loyalty (used for executing players and a handful of other delightful things). Above each of those is the time it will take to restore 1 point – this can be anywhere from 2 – 10 minutes.

My Thoughts

An addictive title that will have your finger teetering over the ‘Purchase Respect’ button – purchasing respect helps make the game much easier for you but does cost real money (some respect packages cost up to £65!). Other players who purchase respect will have a distinct advantage over you and you will find that they like to show this by frequently killing you – nice eh? Be strong though and don’t be tempted to spend your hard earned cash on this game.

Definitely worth a play, but be warned – it can be highly addictive! I’ve put some tips and tricks below to help you survive those first few levels.

Some Tips & Tricks

• You can earn respect in-game by doing quests, and mastering jobs – try and participate in as many quests as possible to get respect without spending!
• Don’t rush through levels if you want to be strong. Instead of using your energy on actually doing jobs, spend the energy on stealing the high quality loot items
• To steal a loot item, click the picture of the loot item below the ‘Do Job’ button – stealing requires only half the amount of energy needed to do the job and has double the chance of looting the item!
• Invest in properties early and start accumulating some money
• Your maximum mob size is 10x your level. Each member of your mob holds 1 weapon, 1 gear item and 1 vehicle. So for example, if you are level 10, try to buy 100 of each of the strongest item type in the weapons store
• Check the social tab every day to add 50 extra members to your mob
• Mob size is important in the early levels so make sure you always have a mob size 10x your level – if need be, manually add friend codes from the comments of articles such as these
• Connect your twitter and Facebook accounts to earn extra casino chips each day – once connected remove publishing rights from the app via the desktop Facebook and twitter sites, otherwise the app will autopost and spam your friends
• Once you have 50 respect, be sure to purchase the ‘Offshore bank’ perk as this will reduce the amount of money taken off your deposits to the bank and save you tons in the long run!
• Always deposit money to the bank so you don’t lose it in fights
• People can’t attack you if you are sent to the ER, sometimes it is better to stay in the ER than to heal
• You have the ability to join a ‘family’ in iMob II, but hold off until you have a decent repertoire of weapons and loot as joining a family makes you a target for prestige hunters
• You can check the stats of someone before you fight them, doing this can help you work out who is an easy target and who isn’t
• Often people who are ranked low in their family are easy targets, family rank is determined by the icon next to a players name – in the screenshot above, I have a grenade next to my name indicating I’m rank 8 in my family (out of 10) – low rank icons include a fist, knuckle duster, nightstick or pistol

Friend Codes

Share your friend code in the comments below to allow other people to add you to their mob – or you can add the codes in the comments below yourself by tapping the ‘Social’ icon at the bottom and then scrolling down to ‘Friend Code’. Your friend code is listed on he home page to the right of your name.

]]> http://d-ink.co.uk/product-review/imob-ii-another-freemium-clone-or-something-new/feed/ 13 http://d-ink.co.uk/sport/nfl/room-for-creativity-at-the-superbowl/ http://d-ink.co.uk/sport/nfl/room-for-creativity-at-the-superbowl/#comments Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:23:54 +0000 Dale http://www.d-ink.co.uk/?p=854 So its that day again. That special Sunday that comes around once a year and gets all NFL fans excited with that special feeling.

With the NFL International Series hosting a regular season game at Wembley for the past few years, the buzz for American Football has never been bigger in the UK. But the reason I continue to watch this sporting extravaganza annually is not for the massive half time show, the big glitz and glamour, the hard hits, or even the cheerleaders.

Its for that magical play. That one special moment when a team thinks outside of the box. When they try to pull off that extraordinary play that just leaves the other team wondering what the hell happened. Those moments are rare and they rarely work, but that’s what make it so special.

This video is the perfect example of how something different can make a big difference:

HorizontalWP [twitter], masterminded by Greg Ponchak, currently have 6 themes available. All share a similar minimalistic vibe and of course the immersive sideways scrolling. Prices range from $30 to $40. If that was all it took to convince you, then head over to HorizontalWP now by following that link or read on as I go over each of these gorgeous themes in a bit more detail.

The themes seem strongly favoured towards photography, but don’t let that put you off if you intend to use them for something else. Also, you can navigate between posts on some themes using the ‘J’ and ‘K’ keys. This works particularly well with the ‘MYM’ and ‘M3V1′ themes as you will see shortly.

What is great about these HorizontalWP themes is that they remove all the unwanted clutter found on the majority of blogs these days – Dink being no exception! There are no distracting advertisements or sidebars, comments or clutter. The focus of these themes is on your content and it works magnificently.

All themes have support for both photos and, more recently, videos and have been tested in Safari, Firefox, Chrome and Opera (note: not internet explorer). All themes require WordPress 3+ to function correctly.

Click on each image below to preview the theme.

INDEX

INDEX is priced at $40, it features twitter integration and has a pop-down navigation box. This theme is suitable for more text reliant posts, large chunks of text will sit nicely next to your images. This theme does not feature the keyboard navigation function.

COL

COL is also priced at $40 and is similar to INDEX in design. COL however is even more minimalistic and depends a lot more on harmony between typography and imagery. Navigation is found at the right where you can view your categories, archives and older posts (only the newest 3 posts are displayed).

MYM

MYM is again $40 and is the first of the ‘fullscreen’ themes. MYM is also the first to feature keyboard navigation. As you can see from the image above, this theme is perfectly suited for photography. Use the ‘J’ and ‘K’ to navigate between posts easily or click the navigation link to open up a full screen navigation page. This is my personal favourite of the 6 themes.

HV1

HV1 is priced at $30 and is probably the most suited to those wanting to add a bit more text to each post. HV1 features keyboard navigate and scrolls sideways between other posts (which are dimmed to keep focus on the post you are reading). HV1 also scrolls vertically however, for posts with more text or multiple photos (note that in the other themes, posts with multiple photos continue to scroll sideways). For me HV1 makes a great minimal and practical WordPress theme.

Utilitarian V2

Utilitarian V2 is $40 and is fairly similar to the COL theme in design, however, it features a static header which holds your blog title and navigation links. Navigation is similar to INDEX, a small pop-down with all your categories, pages and archives. Text which overflows in a post, i.e. is longer than the height of the photo, becomes scrollable in line with its post, which maintains the minimalist vibes. This theme also allows for comments on posts.

M3V1

M3V1 is again $40 and makes up the rest of the ‘fullscreen’ themes. Very similar to the MYM theme, however the navigation menu is collapsible to minimise the amount of text which covers your images. M3V1 allows you to scroll through 5 posts (as opposed to 3 with MYM) using keyboard navigation, which looks great as each image slides in.

As you can see, there are some great themes here. They would of course look great for photography websites, but don’t let these examples hinder your imagination! If you haven’t already, remember to check each theme out in full by clicking the respective images, a few lines of text doesn’t do them enough justice. Remember, you will need self hosted WordPress to utilise these themes.

Visit HorizontalWP