When it comes to professional bloggers, they’re truly addicted, but for non-professional and personal bloggers the thought of writing and posting every day is pretty troublesome, so in a bid to cure that syndrome, the people at WordPress have launched The Daily Post, a guide with daily tidbits of “inspiration, encouragement and advice about blogging.”

It is true that many people would have made blogging as one of their New Year’s resolutions, as blogging online is a free, fun and interactive way of sharing your own content, be it of any kind, with the world. WordPress’ Daily Post seems like a good enough place to induce that very charm into those who find blogging on a daily basis, tiresome as its suggestions for evocative post topics are great springboards for thoughtful writing.

So if you’re willing to participate in this particular challenge from WordPress, simply state your intentions then tag posts with “postaday2011″ or “postaweek2011″ throughout the year.

Did you make blogging as one of your New Year’s resolutions and do you plan on taking this challenge to make sure that you write and post at least one post per day or week? Let us know in your comments below.

Via Mashable

The mechanism behind the function of these curated topic pages is very simple as there will be contributors and editors with each tag page who will curate what displays in the tag, users will then be able to follow them in order to obtain updates in their Tumblr Dashboard. It is also being said this feature will soon be adding more categories and editors will be reached out to for their volunteer help to curate new pages.

Mark Coatney, media evangelist at Tumblr says:

We’ll be adding another 3-5 topics over the next few days and weeks, whenever we think we have another good curated one ready to go

Curated posts are included as default on these pages, including most popular posts within that tag category and the raw stream. A “tracked tag” is displayed in a user’s Tumblr Dashboard when they follow a particular tag.

These pages are currently available in three categories being News, Fashion and Long-Reads, however they are still in beta.

Via Mashable

Here’s the official description of the app:

Connect with your IM friends using video and voice with the newest Yahoo! Messenger app for your iPhone. Make free voice and video calls to your Messenger friends, low cost calls to land line or mobile phones, video calls—plus get new features like multitasking, instant notifications and free SMS.

I know the official description has you all excited but If I was you I won’t be that excited. Here’s why - the voice and video chat features are limited to iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS users. Want another shocking fact? Here you go – The app brings multi-tasking support for iPhone 4/3GS owners only.

This begs the question as to why iPod Touch  users have been left wanting?  I would like to take this opportunity to take my words of Yahoo prepping a FaceTime killer app back the reasons to which are crystal clear.

In case you own iPhone 4/3GS and want to take advantage of the video and voice chat capability, you need to have iOS 4.1 running on your device. Be sure to share your app experience with us.

Download Yahoo Messenger for iPhone 2.0 (iTunes link)

Named after Italian hazelnut chocolate, Gianduia will rival Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight.

Apple introduced Gianduia last summer at WOWODC (World of WebObjects Developer Conference), an independent event scheduled near the company's own WWDC event in June. It is likely that more information will surface at this year's WOWODC and WWDC events. Gianduia, named after an Italian hazelnut chocolate, is "essentially is browser-side Cocoa (including CoreData) + WebObjects, written in JavaScript by non-js-haters.

Giandui will be able to provide a platform for developers to create Rich Internet Applications such as MobileMe that has been created by Apple using SproutCore Javascript Framework. Currently! Apple Retail has actually already been using Gianduia to create web app clients.

However with the advent of HTML5, the question is whether such new platforms are even needed anymore?

[via AppleInsider]

The Backgrounder is a Mobile Substrate-based extension to iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad's SpringBoard application launcher that allows applications to run in the background (applications are normally terminated upon suspension). Follow the steps to install it on iPad.

1. Get an iPad Wi-Fi or an iPad Wi-Fi + 3G
2. Follow instructions on How to Jailbreak iPad Firmware 3.2 with Spirit
3. Fire up Cydia, install Backgrounder and reboot

That's it. After the reboot the device will be able to run any application in the backgrounder which would allow you to multitask and do a lot more with iPad's fast processing power.

Once Backgrounder is intalled, make sure to turn ON the "badge" in the settings which will indicate if an app is running in the background. As ProSwitcher has not been updated for the iPad so Palm WebOS Cards-styled Multitasking is not available for now.

In a recent tweet; he posted to have achieved "verbose" on the iPad which is nothing but a term used to describe the behind-the-scene processes and commands inside a device and can only be demonstrated with root access.

This means that Geohot was able to Jailbreak the iPad and obtain root access. Interestingly! this isn't the first Jailbreak for the iPad that we have seen lately; we already have the Spirit Jailbreak that will be coming soon.

Now we are only left with the race between Geohot and the iPhone Dev Team. Let's wait to find out which one of those managed to release the first-ever Jailbreak tool for iPad on Firmware 3.2 for the public.

The update, which is region specific for now, brings along a lot of new features, a lot of bug fixes and a new interface design that everyone will love.

Following are the new most noticeable features of the Firmware v20 for the Nokia N97.

• Improved touch screen scrolling.
• Ovi Maps 3.1 with 3-D Maps.
• Nokia e-mail, Ovi Contacts and Ovi Store.
• VoIP support.
• Improved battery and memory performance
• Improved image and video stability

Here is how to update to Firmware v20 using your device. Set your device to alert you when new software updates are available.

1. Select Applications > Software Update in your device's menu.
2. Choose the applications you'd like to update.
3. Follow the instructions on the device display.

You may also be able to update individual applications even if there is no software update available for your device.

For instructions on how to update through PC, follow this page.

Though of course there are some limitations which might not make many iPhone 3GS users happy out there. Follow on to know more.

The new PwnageTool 3.1.3 only has support for the iPhone 3GS and even the iPod 2G, but the catch is that only users with a previously Jailbroken iPhone 3GS would be able to update their phones to Firmware 3.1 and the tool does not have support for ones with Firmware 3.1 out of the box. Likewise for the iPod 2G.

PwnageTool will only work for Mac users but we shall soon post an alternate solution for all Windows users out there. Follow the links below to download the new PwnageTool and make sure to read the release statement by the iPhone dev team.

Download PwnageTool 3.1.3 (At thePirateBay | Alternate)

An Exclusive Tutorial for users with iPhone 3GS is now available.

The inspiration for the design of MacPress comes from Mac OS X Leopard, and much like the operating system itself, the theme is simple, elegant, classy and stylish.

Here you go with some of the features of MacPress:

• Compatibility - It is compatible with the latest version of WordPress.
• Elegant Design - Much like Leopard, the theme has a eye-catching UI of its own.
• Theme Options - The theme also comes with a built-in Options panel.
• Validated Code - From the XHTML to the CSS, every bit of code has been validated.
• SEO Friendly - It bears a fine code with SEO friendly tags and structure.

And some of the features planned for the future releases:

• Styles Chooser - The Options panel would allow the user to select a pre-defined style.
• Magazine Layout - A switcher between normal/magazine layout modes.

and lots more to come.

The theme has already been tested thoroughly but if you still find any bugs, please report in the comments. Also if you would like to request some feature, pass a suggestion or comment on the theme, make use of the comment form in this post.

We will be updating the theme on a daily basis to fix the usual bugs so keep checking back for newer versions. The theme has also been submitted to the WordPress Theme directory and we hope to get it approved soon.

Download and Demo

This blog is currently using the theme itself so for a live demo, simply navigate around and test it out for yourself. And for download, use the following link.

Download MacPress from WordPress

We would very much appreciate if everyone who uses this theme on their blog joins our Facebook page to become a part of the community, the widget is available in the sidebar.

Even though the final shipping date has not been confirmed by Apple yet, the OS can be pre-ordered at Amazon which will then ship the package once it arrives.

The deal seems quite fair and simple but there is a little catch. Snow Leopard will only run on Intel-based Macs so if you have a PowerPC, consider buying a new Mac. For those who already own an Intel-based Mac with Leopard installed it, the price for Snow Leopard is only $29.

And for those who own more than one Mac computers, they can order a Family Pack from Amazon at only $49 and install Snow Leopard on up to 5 computers.

This update for the iPhone 3.0 OS fixes the OS vulnerability which could allow any hacker to remotely access all the data on your iPhone by just sending you a text message. Although according to some inside news, this update also breaks the Jailbreak for iPhone 3GS and bricks the device so be warned!, Apple is not your friend.

For users who use iPhone in contract with their carrier, they are advised to update right away. However, users who own a Jailbroken iPhone should wait for the iPhone Dev Team to release the specific tools for their device.

Till then, make sure not to accept or open any text messages with square-symbols in it, even from a known contact. This is a text-vulnerability and will cause a hacker to remotely access the data on your phone.

Its only 11.98mm thick and has a 1.76-inch scratchless touchscreen display, which makes it considerably useful on a day-to-day basis.

As for the other usual features, it boasts of a 40Mb of memory, a speakerphone, music player, Bluetooth, voice recognition and Email with Outlook sync support making it one of the most tiny and useful accessories of today's age.

It will hitting the market in France this month at a price of 450 Euros.

Last year, our blog provided the iPod Touch users with an exclusive hack to Update to Firmware 2.0 for Free and as we see it now with the release of Firmware 3.0, most blogs have gone wild into copying the same instructions without testing it out.

Apple is once-again charging iPod Touch users with a fee of $9.99 but we have yet again come up with a hack to help all iPod Touch users do it for free and what makes our hack different is, that it has been tested on a real iPod Touch and actually works for both iPod Touch 1G and 2G.

Just follow the steps below and soon you will be having an updated iPod Touch with firmware 3.0 absolutely for free.

1. Download the latest iTunes from here.
2. Connect your iPod Touch 1G or 2G to PC/Mac with iTunes.
3. Click on Restore while holding Shift (for PC) and Option (for Mac).
4. Browse to the Firmware 3.0 for your device and select it.

Sit back and enjoy while iTunes does the rest! There you go, did it without even paying a penny!

Download links for the Firmware 3.0 are provided below:

iPod Touch 1G
http://tinyurl.com/sizlopedia-ipod1g-firm3-1

http://tinyurl.com/sizlopedia-ipod1g-firm3-3

iPod Touch 2G
http://tinyurl.com/sizlopedia-ipod2g-firm3-1

http://tinyurl.com/sizlopedia-ipod2g-firm3-3

Use HJSplit (for PC) and Split&Concact (for Mac) to join the parts into one file. Once you download the firmware locally on your PC or Mac, follow the steps above to update iPod Touch to Firmware 3.0.

Google itself discusses the issue in detail at demystifying duplicate content penalty but still remains a little foggy on the measures that could be taken to prevent it.

However, from now onwards, the duplicate content issue can be dealt with full confidence by making use of Canonical link tags that allow you to publicly specify your preferred version of a URL. In this way, all the other URLs without Canonical link tags but having the same content are taken to be pointing towards the same preferred URL.

Lets take an example here. Imagine the preferred URL of a page on your website is something like;

http://www.example.com/product.php?item=iphone

and the same page can be accessed by entering the URL;

http://www.example.com/product.php?item=swedish-fish&category=gadgets

So now you can simply add the <link> tag to specify your preferred version;

<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.example.com/product.php?item=iphone" />

inside the <head> section of the duplicate content URLs and Google will understand that the duplicates all refer to the canonical URL.

It not only will work with Google, but with all major search engines such as MSN and Yahoo!. For WordPress users, a plugin for Canonical URLs is also available.

Make sure to read about this issue in more detail at head on to Google webmaster central blog.

I've recently learned that you can host your Dot Com domains on free hosting servers which provides a good amount of disk space and bandwidth limit. I would highly recommend that you buy a .com domain instead of working on Blogspot or WordPress because once you start getting good traffic on it, it won't be easy to switch from your Blogspot domain to your own personal website. You will not only lose your readers but also the traffic and revenue

Below is my list of some of the best Free Web hosting servers available.

1. 000webhost

000webhost is one of the most reliable and feature rich web hosting that runs on users donation. It offers you 1500 MB disk space and 100 GB bandwidth limit along with PHP and MySql database support. It gives you the most advanced control panel in industry with tons of features which are quiet easy to use and manage.

Key features include

• Website Builder
• PHP scripts Autoinstaller
• 1500 MB disk space
• 100 GB bandwidth limit
• Backup options
• 99.9% uptime
• FTP support
• No advertisement

2. 110MB Hosting

110MB hosting is a ad free web hosting service that offers you 5 GB of disk space along with PHP and MySql support. It gaurantees 99% uptime and you can always create your own free subdomain which will go like abc.110mb.com.

Key features include

• FTP support
• No Advertisement
• 5 GB disk space
• 300 GB bandwidth
• Site promotion guides and
• 99% uptime
• 1 click blog and forum install

3.  SitesFree

Register with Sitesfree.com and get yourself 500 MB of free website space and 7 GB data transfer limit. It support PHP, FTP, MySql and web based file manager

Key features include

• Free sub domain eg. yourname.sitesfree.com
• 7 GB Bandwidth
• 500 MB disk space
• Ability to host your own domains
• Powerfull and fast support
• FTP access for uploading your files on our free hosting
• Web based file manager to upload your free websites
• Powerfull online editor to create high quality free websites!
• PHP, MySQL

4. Zymic

Zymic is another ad free web hosting that offers reliable and feature packed services on the net. Just like any other free host, its services include PHP, MySql and free domain names.

• FTP Access
• MySql database support
• 5 GB disk space
• 50 GB data transfer
• No Ads

5. YourFreeHosting

YourFreeHosting is a new and fast provider of free web hosting. All accounts come with a easy to use control panel that makes it very simple to manage your web site and files. It offers

• 5 MySql databases
• 5 GB of Disk Space
• 50 GB Bandwidth limit
• 24/7 Technical Support
• 99.9% Uptime

6. Doteasy

Doteasy is an online service that allows anyone to host their dot come domains on the internet. It offers 100 MB disk space, 1 GB bandwidth, domain forwarding and 24/7 FTP access.

Key features include

• Website Creator tool
• 24/7 Email support
• 100 MB Disk space
• 1 Gb Bandwidth
• Online Control Panel
• Domain Forwarding and more...

The main problem I faced using the new system until now was that I couldn't make WordPress align the images properly for me. I thought I was the only one facing this problem but a helpful post by Daniel made it clear that there are perhaps more users facing the same problem.

I am sharing the fix just in case someone comes searching through to find a fix for this problem. All you need to do is add the following piece of CSS code to your theme stylesheet and you are good to go.

img.centered {
display: block;
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
}

img.alignright {
padding: 4px;
margin: 0 0 2px 7px;
display: inline;
}

img.alignleft {
padding: 4px;
margin: 0 7px 2px 0;
display: inline;
}

.alignright {
float: right;
}

.alignleft {
float: left;
}

This will make WordPress aware of all alignments.

Planetozh has coded a very neat and useful WordPress plugin which will not only kill all wasted space in WordPress administration menu but will also add a css drop down menu for fast and easy navigation.

The basic feature of this plugin is to get rid of all unused space in WordPress admin menu and instead insert a new menu on the top dark grey bar which makes the layout more compact and easy to navigate.

To install the plugin on your WordPress blog, simply upload it to your plugins folder and activate it. It is even compatible with Fluency Admin Theme for WordPress.

As many of you would know, 9Rules only recruits some of the best blogs on the Internet and to get into 9Rules helps a blog get more traffic as well as perfect branding.

Make sure not to miss this submission round as then you will have to wait 3 months before the next round opens on November 5, 2008.

For bloggers in India and Pakistan, the open submission time frame translates to approximately 11:00am on Aug 6th to 10:59am on Aug 7th. If you submit your blog within this time, there is a 99% chance it will get reviewed by the 9Rules staff.

As for the submission tips, make sure your blog is at least 6 months old and has good original content. A good blog design and branded blog logo is always a plus point.

I am myself hoping for Sizlopedia to get into 9Rules in this round. Good luck to Sizlopedia and all those who are trying for this.

Previously there have been hacks that could be used to increase Feedburner subscriber count illegally but a recent hack published by TheNextWeb beats them all.

This hack makes use of a glitch in the Netvibes system through which all the feeds aggregated by FeedBurner are treated individually even if they are subscribed by the same user for the same blog.

To understand and use the hack (not recommended) please watch the video below:

p.swf?clip_id=1463913&server=www.vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="251">

Though its just a matter of time till Feedburner and Netvibes find a solution for this glitch as it has now been revealed publicly.

The other interesting part would be to notice which blogs have had a sudden subscriber count fall once we know that the glitch has been fixed.

Well, it is a platform you are familiar with, it is extensible, extendable and very much customizable. There are tons of themes available for WordPress. With a couple of tweaks and plugins, WordPress can function as a full fledged CMS. On top of that, most of the new start-ups these days select WordPress as their CMS setup.

Some days back, I read this post on StudioWorpress and got the idea of gathering the best wordpress themes available, which are best suited for a CMS and present them here on Sizlopedia. So here we are, with the best of WordPress themes for a CMS!

The Unstandard

A WordPress theme comprised of a - grid aligned - images for forward facing pages, and clean textual presentation on the inner pages. Two column theme, with a neat a organized front page. Pictures add to the beauty of the theme. The search bar and the nav-bar and nicely designed

Download/Demo

WordPress Grid Focus

Another great choice for a CMS. It is a 3 column theme, quite minimalistic and elegant to look at. The extreme left column can carry the news on your site, the middle one can show links and reference material for your visitors and the right column can show advertisements or popular content.

Download/Demo

Mimbo Magazine

Mimbo is a magazine-style WordPress theme which makes extensive use of WP’s template tag system to create a non-traditional layout. It contains no images and only minimal CSS styling. Mainly it exists as a clean, grid-based starter layout for designers to install and style to their own liking. Best suited for news sites.

Download/Demo

Linoluna

Linoluno is a gorgeous looking theme where the content is presented in a very pleasing way. You have a featured post column in the front and other posts below it, carrying a description and a picture alongwith. It is a simple and neat theme for a magazine-styled site. The theme use the WordPress’ template tags quite extensively but still, it is very easy to use.

Download/Demo

The Morning After

Quite a popular theme is The Morning After and one of the best crafted with the professional look you will need for your website. The theme was created based on a brief survey on the WordPress forums about what people would want to see in a unique magazine-style theme. It supports widgets and provides all the features you expect from a kickass theme

Download/Demo

Arthemia

You have to see it to believe it. Arthemia is a true wordpress CMS theme! It carries a featured article space, a beautiful navbar and good placements for advertisements. In the middle of the front page, Arthemia has a nice blue-and-black category bar which will help your readers exploring you site. At the bottom, Arthemia is outfitted with a must-have section, a three-list of favorite posts.

Download/Demo

WP Magazine Theme

Another Magazine Styled theme with the Popular, Latest and Sponsors' columns at the first glance. A feature rich theme which will power your CMS setup. Carries a dropdown navigation, is widget capable, can easily be monetized and also has a place for putting up a video!

Download/Demo

I hope you enjoyed the post

This is a guest post by Keshav. He is an enthusiastic young freelance writer who likes blogs and web apps.