banners

Mountain Lion has pounced into the Mac App Store. If you haven't already upgraded to the latest version of OS X, you'll want to make sure your Mac is ready for the upgrade.

Once you have gone through the preparation and installation of Mountain Lion, you're not going to want to wait to dig right in and get all of the new features set up.

One of the (many) features OS X has incorporated from iOS in Mountain Lion is the Notification Center. If you use an iOS device, you're already familiar with how … Read more

When I reviewed the Panasonic TC-PVT50 series, I was annoyed to see that the latest software update caused a banner ad to appear for a few seconds whenever I turned on the TV. It disappeared quickly and only popped up upon power-on, but it was still obnoxious. The first thing I wondered was whether I could turn it off.

Happily, Panasonic built in a way to disable the advertising. It's a simple, albeit buried, menu command. Here it is in a nutshell.

A notification banner, first noticed by MacRumors, which bares a striking resemblance to iOS notifications introduced with iOS 5, appears to only be a placeholder. It is vaguely titled "Default Title for English" with a message of "English - This is a test message description."

The message appears when you log in to your icloud.com account directly from the Web site.

Apple's preview of Mac OS X Mountain Lion shows off a similar banner notification system, which may be related to the iCloud notifications. Certainly syncing notifications across all iOS devices and your Macs … Read more

Google+ has a cool five-photo lineup near the top of your profile page, so why not utilize it for something awesome?

Bored of five random images? Then it's time to try this free Web tool. You don't need to install any fancy programs; all you need is a Web browser, a large picture you like (of yourself or anything else), and a few minutes of your time.

Step 1: Head to this site and click on the Upload Your Picture button.

Step 2: Locate the picture you want to use for the banner. This image should be at … Read more

Banners are perhaps the most obvious way to customize a blog or Web site, especially if you're using an otherwise generic template. Creating a banner isn't always easy, though, if you don't have any graphic design skills. Easy Banner Creator (Free Edition) is an extremely simple utility for creating basic banners. It's nothing fancy, but it will do the job if you need to create a banner without a lot of hassle.

The program's interface is straightforward and easy to navigate. Down the left side there are controls for size, background, text, and animation. From … Read more

Flash Banner Slideshow Maker provides a limited palate of tools for creating an online banner ad or similar display. We were disappointed with its layout and lack of professional look, and also in the quality of the final product.

The program's interface is cluttered but easy enough to navigate. We had to take our time because the program's brief three-step tutorial isn't much help in getting you started. However, we were able to build a banner with little trouble. Unfortunately, the results were disappointing. While we were able to save and publish the banner easily, the banner … Read more

One of the best known and simplest Firefox add-ons, AdBlock Plus effectively blocks online ads from a predefined list of ad providers. You can quickly personalize that list by clicking on the AdBlock Plus "stop sign" button it installs on either your navigation toolbar or your status bar. Adblock Plus runs unobtrusively in the background, and right-clicking an ad brings up message box, through which you can easily add to the list of blocked ads. Removing an ad from the blocked list also is as simple as clicking and choosing the appropriate option. Via the same list, you … Read more

Banner Designer Pro offers users an opportunity to build a digital banner just like they see when surfing the Internet. With an intuitive design and generous options, we were impressed with how easily our test advertisements were created.

The program opens with a smoothly designed, professional-looking interface that we quickly worked our way through. Initial options for banner size and shape felt natural and selection became a snap. In addition, redesigning the templates to meet our needs was simple enough that most users will not have to visit the Help file to navigate, however, it is available (although, via Banner … Read more

A collection of nearly two dozen online publishers plan to offer advertisers at least one of three new display advertising formats beginning in July, the Online Publishers Association announced Tuesday.

The ad units are designed to be larger than banner ads, offer interactivity, and comprise a greater proportion of the advertising-to-editorial ratio that most publications operate under.

The move by online publishers comes at a time when the economy is in a recession and advertisers are pulling back on their spending.

"Agencies are looking for new ways to integrate their clients' brand experiences with more interactivity on the page, … Read more