Keeping up with technology is a lot of work. Luckily, we enjoy wading through the noise just to find the gems of awesomeness sprinkled throughout. Fusion Radar is our gift to you, Current or Potential Client, so that you can enjoy all of the awesome without any of the drudgery. Unwrap it each week, and know that you’re loved by the geeks and pixel-pushers at Agency Fusion.
Scratchpad
Scratchpad is a useful tool for those who are just beginning to learn CSS, as well as anyone who needs to perform collaborative coding in realtime. This simple site allows users to code and watch it render instantly; and they can also share the URL, which allows other contributors to see their work.
DocHub
Although they’d never admit it, it’s not possible for most developers to remember every single command while using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, DOM, jQuery, PHP, or Python. Forget the orphans property in CSS, or how to convert binary data into hexadecimal representation in PHP? DocHub is there to help.
BuiltWith
BuiltWith gathers information from any site you want, and then lists out server information, content delivery network, widgets, document information, and other useful tidbits of info.
Analytics.js
Although analytics are vital for just about any project, it’s a pain to have to use third-party APIs for all the different analytics services you want to use. Analytics.js provides an alternative: it allows you to add a single set of hooks that then route to any analytics service you want.
http://segmentio.github.com/analytics.js/
Google Tag Manager
And while we’re on the subject of analytics, you might find yourself interested in the Google Tag Manager. The Tag Manager is a user-friendly service that lets you add and manage analytics on your website without having to update the actual website files each time you change an analytics setting. This is especially helpful for developers or IT people who want to allow clients or the marketing team to control analytics settings without getting into the actual website code.
http://www.google.com/tagmanager/
HTML5 Test
The onset of HTML5 left many browsers behind, technologically-speaking. This simple site tests your browser’s compatibility with HTML5-based audio, video, parsing, forms, UI, and microdata elements (among others). My browser’s score? A solid 426 out of 500.
The Game of Books
Apps are a constant source of either entertainment or utility, and The Game of Books looks like it combines the two. Project founder Aaron Stanton developed The Game of Books as an attempt to encourage and stimulate an interest in reading by gamifying the experience.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aaronstanton/the-game-of-books-a-discovery-game-for-libraries-a
Ed Lund Art
Artist Ed Lund has taken infographics to a new level with HTML5-powered interactive infographics.
http://www.edlundart.com/index/index.html
Google Analytics in Real Life
If you haven’t had the chance yet to be frustrated with the checkout process on at least one website, you probably haven’t been online for long. Google Analytics plays off of all of our frustrations in this fun YouTube video.
Google Analytics in Real Life – Online Checkout
Olly
Olly is one of two awesome gadgets we’ve found this week. You link it to any of your social media accounts – Facebook, Twitter, etc. – and then Olly “notifies” you whenever activity occurs on your account with a scent it releases into the air. So, if you get a comment on your blog, or someone Tweets @[you], or someone shares a cat photo with you on Facebook, you get to smell whichever favorite scent you’ve added to your Olly.
Projecteo
Projecteo is the little gadget perfect for anyone who loves old things (like 35mm slide film) and new things (like their Instagram and/or their iPhone).