Peter Gasston follows up his CSS3 book ("The Book of CSS3") with this more encompassing subject on web development.

While I hardly need to restate a statistic that has been beaten to death in the past few years, mobile platforms are not only growing but outstripping traditional desktop computers in some parts of the world and in some industries. However, that doesn't mean that all web development needs to be solely targeted at small screen devices. For that reason, adaptive and responsive web design has arisen to avoid the original method of building separate websites for desktops and mobile  devices. And as the author opines (and I agree), with the increasing variety in screen sizes, trying to build a set of fixed-width pages, even adaptive ones is a "fool's errand".

So what is the "modern Web"? Is it HTML5? Is HTML5 merely HTML + CSS3 + JavaScript? Actually, no; the reality is even more amazing. Just take a look at

Our homes are our castles and, it's fair to say that we love to fill our castles with technology and gadgetry. While there is a myriad array of gadgets out there that you can get today, today we figured we'd give you a quick look at three (3) that we feel are particularly cool.

The Floor Plan Light Switch

While only a concept idea, the contemporary-styled Floor Plan Light Switch by Taewon Hwang lets you control the lighting in your home from a single switch, with each room in the home represented on the floor plan shaped light switch.

How many times have you left a light on upstairs just as you're rushing out the door for work and don't have time to switch it off? No more running back upstairs or the other side of the house to turn it off to save on electricity. Here's to this being produced!

Hi-Can Bed

The app world for Android (and iPhones/iPads) is ever-changing, so don't be too annoyed that this is still yet another list of apps. This list is on the practical side of life, so you should find at least one in here that'll be of some use to you. Personally, I use ColorNote myself at least daily.

1. ColorNote Notepad Notes

Here is a free app that will help you become more organized. You can color code your notes (or lists) to keep track of them more easily. There are widgets to display them in your launcher and reminders can be configured to remind you either once or on a recurring basis.

2. ThickButtons Keyboard

Do you do a lot of typing on your mobile device? If so, you may like this keyboard app best out of the all the rest. It is a touch keyboard that thinks for you. When you hit a key, the nifty keyboard on this app will calculate which keys you are likely to use next and shrink down all of the other keys so that your choices will be larger in size and easier to use.

New York City-based spy shop, Spy Tec, decided to enter the field of 'spy glasses' and build their own, the Inventio-HD video sunglasses. Here's our detailed review.

Overview

The Inventio-HD glasses appear to be mid-ranged plastic-framed sunglasses in the style that you might see a mountain biker or perhaps a golfer or skier wearing, but not quite as stylish. But style is not the primary function of this gadget. You'll notice the arms and frames are distinctly thicker than most sunglasses you'll find today, but the electronics has to hide somewhere. On the bright side, they are not as ridiculously thick as the original MP3 sunglasses that Oakley put out years ago.

On the underside of one of the arms is a micro USB port and on the side of that same arm is a multi-function button that turns it on and off and stops and starts video recording. There's no button on the other side, but given the symmetry, there could easily be one in the future, and I'm all for splitting up functions especially when a single button requires more complex sequences.

I love the Doxie One. Paperless nirvana, here I come. I've dreamed of a paperless and more importantly, an electronic document repository, for a long time, but that has been mostly a dream as I've dreaded having to haul my papers over to my clunky all-in-one printer-scanner, then scan papers 1 or a few at a time.

I've used the Doxie One for the past 4 weeks and with a few exceptions that I'll talk about, I love it. If your goal is to go paperless and stay that way, I can highly recommend the Doxie One as an essential component of your paperless toolbox.

In the Box

The Doxie One comes in a minimal of packaging (no blister packs thankfully), with a power adapter, a USB cable, 2 GB SD card, and a cleaning and calibration kit. Apparent took a page from the Apple playbook and minimized the number of features and buttons to only the essential. In this case of this product, that works perfectly.

British electronics & accessories maker, Veho, has a neat gadget called the Muvi X-Lapse that allows you to take panoramic time-lapse photos. I had a chance to test one out courtesy of accessories seller, MobileFun.

The X-Lapse itself is a fairly small, circular gadget that you can hold easily in one hand. By holding, the bottom white portion with the time markers, you can twist the upper black portion until you get to the amount of time and coincidentally the # of degrees of panorama you'd like to shoot. It's hard-coded, so to speak, to go 360? in 1 hour, and similarly, 180? in 30 minutes, etc.

Once you set the time/angle and let go, the X-Lapse starts slowly rotating back to its starting position while ticking furiously like an old, angry alarm clock. I found this a bit distracting and annoying, but in the scheme of things, minor.

The good folks at Zinio have teamed up with us to offer 10 free electronic magazine subscriptions to our readers. So what we're going to do is run this as a contest where we'll randomly pick 10 lucky winners at the end of the entry period.

In case you've been living under a rock for about 10 years now, Zinio is the premier publisher of electronic magazines, as well as books and other docs. They have gorgeous apps for your smartphone, tablet and desktop computer. We featured them as far back as 2004!

For an idea of what Zinio offers, hit the link (or the image) to the right.

Hit the jump to find out how easy it is to enter...

Entering is simple:
1. just talk about this contest somewhere -?Facebook,?Twitter,?Google+, your own blog, etc. with a link back to this post. Here's a nice short link for ya:?

Here's another entrant to the portable backup battery market, this one from Korean company Misemet. There are a couple of quirks to this one that makes it stand out: it comes with a solar panel to charge the battery pod, and the pod itself contains an LED flashlight. Yup, the flashlight part is definitely quirky.

Both pod and panel come in one of three colors, green, red or yellow, and the panel is wrapped in a soft silicon case for protection and texture. There is also a similar cap for the lightbulb portion of the pod that protects the glass and also creates a mood light effect.

Now the r.pod is hardly meant to be stuffed easily into your backpack or your shirt pocket, as it not only weighs over 1/3 lb (6.3 oz) but it's as large as a medium-sized vitamin bottle and coincidentally shaped like a large capsule pill. On the plus side, it contains a 4000mAh lithium-polymer battery, good enough to charge up your cell phone a couple of times or your iPad/tablet once.

I've been using a Philips Sonicare Essence electric toothbrush for a few months now; here are my thoughts on it. My beloved Oral-B Triumph 9400 died after a long 6 years. I think it was because the hermetic seal broke and some moisture got in. But I have no regrets, it was well worth the $100 or so that I spent on it.

Since my household was on the hunt for at least 2 new electric toothbrushes, when we spotted the Philips Sonicare "Elite" package with 2 handles, brushes, etc. at Costco for $100, we picked it up. There was also the "Platinum" edition for $150 which also included 2 handles, the latest DiamondClean brushes, but strangely only 1 travel charger and case. Go figure. Oh, you can pick up a single handle for about $50 on Amazon.com or the like.

The 2 most important things that I wanted, practically needed really, were a high-speed brushing action (sonic or otherwise) and a quad timer (an alert every 30 seconds to tell you when to switch to cleaning a different part of your mouth). Check and check. It also has a massage mode, but that's not something I used even on my Oral-B.

Image courtesy of Wisfer

Everyone has their own personal style when it comes to decorating and organizing their home. Some like the eclectic look, while others prefer a more traditional look and feel. However, some people really care about more the high tech gadgetry inside and integrated into the house. Here are 3 cutting edge gadgets that you can get today as well as some future-looking designs that may make its way one day into your own home.

Lockitron

Wouldn't it be cool if you could walk up to your door and have it automatically unlock for you, or be able to unlock it for friends and family without having to drop what you're doing? The developers of Lockitron have made this a reality. The Lockitron device is easily installed onto your door's existing dead bolt which can then be controlled using an app on your phone or tablet.

The app is available for several different types of smartphones and uses Bluetooth or WiFi to connect with your Lockitron device. When it senses you walking up to it, it automatically unlocks. If you don't have a smartphone, the device can still be activated using a text message (SMS). The device itself comes with Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity. In the app, you can also add friends and family members to the list of people allowed in your home, and Lockitron will recognize them when they walk up.