A classy wrist watch is great for formal events, dinner parties and is a functional accessory fit for a casual day out. The type of watch you wear spells out the kind of person you are, whether you are one with a great sense of fashion, with expensive taste, prefer things simple and minimalistic or will go all out for function over form. These watches though are in a class of their own.

In this article, we’re going to feature watches that are out of this world, some requiring a manual to help you learn how to decipher the time. If that sounds like the watch for you, we have picked out 20 geeky and unique-looking watches for you to check out. Time’s a-wasting. Let’s check them out.

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Tokyoflash – Optical Illusion

You might need some time to get used to reading the optical illusion or you can always choose to ‘cheat’ by tapping the four touch-sensitive corners of the display. That is also where you can set an alarm, use the backlight feature and show the date. [$199]

Tokyoflash – Space Digits

This watch is like an arcade game with 3D tunnels. Reading from left to right will tell you the time (yellow shows 6:28, do you see it?) while reading from the top down gives you the date (04/30, ya this one is a bit trickier). It has a built-in alarm, a backlight and a 3D animation that plays every 15 minutes. [$149]

Phosphor – World Time

The curved E-Ink display allows the case of the watch to curve as well, making it comfortable to wear (at only 9.3mm thick). It can be displayed with a black or white background with the digits in contrasting colors. Navigate this watch by swiping through the display to check out the world time. [$175.00]

Solder: Time Watch Kit

For a truly geeky watch, why not make your own with this easy to do solder kit. It has all the components you need and all you have to do is assemble it. The clear plastic case shows all the components within for an extra geeky look. It’s also hackable so you can write your own source code to program anything on the LED display. [$35]

Ritmo Mundo Reflex

Ritmo Mundo has gone back in time and created this slap-on bracelet watch called the Reflex. A total of 28 LEDs light up to tell you the time or date upon the press of a button. It’s quite simple to read, the left column displays the hour and AM/PM while the right column displays the minutes. It comes in 15 different color variants. [$150]

Tokyoflash – Uzumaki

This analog watch features an outer ring that tells you the hour while the inner ring displays the minutes. Although there’s a second hand, you won’t be able to accurately count minutes as there are no minute markings. Uzumaki translates to whirlpool, go figure. [$139]

Void – V02

Here’s an unconventional one. It looks half covered but yes, you can tell time with it, here’s the manual. But the gist of it is the short hand points to the hour, the long to the minute, however each hand has two colors, white and red. So when it is the red hand, the red numbers it points to is the correct time; the same applies to the white hand. Seriously, just check out the manual. [€155-€195]

ZIIIRO Saturn

This particular model comes in 3 different color variants and only has one button to turn on the backlight. The way you read the time is by reading the hour from the outer ring while the inner ring displays the minutes. The ZIIIRO logo in the middle is shown when it’s PM and hidden when it’s AM. The drawbacks of this watch is that it has no alarm or timer functions. [€179]

ZIIIRO Proton

This watch has 2 transparent gradient discs, blue that represents the hour and another yellow one that represents the minutes. The green you see on the watch is created by the mixing of the 2 colors. When in doubt, just look at the borders of the colors. The straps on this watch has no buckle and is like a bracelet; the bracelet straps are available in various colors. [€129]

Tokyoflash – Spider

The Tokyoflash Spider uses 4 hexagons of different sizes to tell you the time. Each hexagon starting from the outer one represents a number of the current time. Read from the outer most to the inner most hexagon. It has a unique transparent LCD display. However, there’s no alarm function so you’re left with only the date and backlight feature. [$189]

Phosphor – Touch Time

This is a smarter digital watch with a permanently on and bright backlit LCD touch screen with swipe capabilities to navigate through the different apps and choose different time faces. You can set multiple alarms, reminders, view the calendar, use the stopwatch and calculator and it doesn’t require daily recharging. [$159-$209]

QLOCKTWO W

The concept behind QLOCKTWO W is to tell the time with words instead of numbers. Other than the 2 different colors, the watch is also sold in Spanish, French and German. The time isn’t shown all the time so you’ll have to press the single button on the side to show the date and time or hold it down to set the date and time. [$700]

Mutewatch

We’ve featured the Mutewatch before and it now comes with even more colors. The watch is touch- and motion-sensitive where you can flick your wrist or tap the face to show the time; swiping the face lets you navigate the menus. It also features a vibration alarm and uses a battery that can be charged via USB. [$259-$299]

ClickWatch Safe

This is the brushed stainless steel version of the original Keypad watch. Pressing the ’0′ will show you the time while pressing the ‘asterisk’ shows you the date. The time or date is displayed as numbers light up one at a time. [$160]

Nooka Zub Zayu

Although this watch might have an unusual orientation, it can be worn on both left and right wrists. The pill-shaped dots determines the hour, while the wider bar fills up to show the minutes; the thinner bar is obviously for the seconds. Pressing one of the buttons allows you to reverse the bars so that it’s not upside down when worn on the other wrist. [$119]

Nixon – Lodown

The Lodown is pre-programmed with tide information which includes future tide and wave counters for over 200 beaches until 2020. Surf addicts will be able to catch the best waves. It has 20 different color combinations that may attract non-surfers as well. [$125]

LED Binary Watch

The One sells these geeky binary watches that’s quite simple to read but involves basic addition for you to determine the time. The top row of LEDs determines the hour while the bottom row determines the minutes. Adding up the numbers that are lit up gives you the time. [$159.00]

Nooka Zub 20

This is a unique watch that comes with many colors and special editions. The dots arranged in a circle shows you the hour while the bottom line fills up to show you the minutes. The small box counts the number of seconds while the dots show the AM/PM. The watch also features an alarm and chronograph mode. [$119]

Remix Watch

The Remix watch might look like any ordinary wrist watch but what’s cool about it is that with a press of a button the whole thing lights up with multi-colored LEDs. The flashing of lights lasts for about 10 seconds before turning off. The colored face and straps are also interchangeable to create your own unique colored combination. [$44.95-$54.95]

The Gentleman’s Faceless Watch

No one will know that this fancy looking bracelet can actually tell the time. By pressing one of the buttons, the LEDs will light up to show you the time. It’s quite simple and elegant that comes in 2 color choices to fit your style. [$149.95]

Publishing online is as easy as pie, anyone can do it, even without paying a cent, thanks to numerous CMS (Content Management System) that are available for FREE, I’m sure you are already familiar with WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. These are currently the most popular CMS that are equipped with a set of powerful features.

In this post, however, we are going to take look at a lesser known CMS that I think is a good alternative to these big three, called AnchorCMS. AnchorCMS is a lightweight and super-simple blogging platform by Visual Idiot (who is also known with his clever tech-jokes).

Installation

The installation process is made simple, but your server needs to at least support PHP 5.3.6+ and MySQL 5.2+ to run AnchorCMS. If you are unsure, you can contact your hosting provider support for more information.

To install, simply go to the URL where you uploaded AnchorCMS, and click on the Run the Installer.

Next, fill in your database name and password, and if you encounter the following error replace the 127.0.0.1 with localhost within the Database Host field.

Next, fill in your website information and create your first account, and you are done. This probably can be done in less than 5 minutes.

Post Publishing

As mentioned, AnchorCMS is super simple; it is focused only on the publishing. To make it even simpler, it does not provide GUI for marking your content. Instead, you have to write the content in HTML or in Markdown format.

Still, it allows you to set the post parameters such as the post URL, post description, category, and you can even insert custom CSS and JavaScript. In addition, you can also create Pages.

Theming

It’s easy to develop themes for AnchorCMS. At least, you should know HTML, CSS, and a bit of PHP and you will be able to build your own theme (the documentation is quite helpful to help you through). Next time, we will see how to build AnchorCMS themes in more detail.

Additionally, if you prefer, you can also use the ones made by the community. There are a considerably lot of beautiful themes built for AnchorCMS, see AnchorThemes.

Extensions and Plugins

At the time of the writing, AnchorCMS provides two default extensions, Custom Field and Meta Data, which can be accessed through the Extend menu.

Custom Field: this extension allows you to create a custom for Page or Post editor. There are four types of fields allowed: HTML, File, Text, and Image.

Using the example of adding File field type, you will be able to upload and add file for your pages or posts. Then, you can call it in the front-side using article_custom_field function within your theme.

Meta data specifies the website information like the Site Name, Site Description, Post Count, Theme selection, etc — similar to the Settings page in WordPress.

Unfortunately, AnchorCMS has yet to allow for third-party plugin, but it has plans to support it in the near future.

Room for Improvement

I like how AnchorCMS is designed; it’s simple, elegant, and flat. Still, there are several parts that can be improved, and here is one (in my opinion) which is quite essential:

WYSIWYG Editor; The goal of AnchorCMS is to make blogging super-simple, and beautiful. However, that does not mean it has to sacrifice user experience. As mentioned, you should write the content in Markdown or HTML format. I can say that not everyone is familiar with these languages (except, perhaps for this kid). It is a very steep learning curve for most users if they have to understand either one these formats before they are able to publish the content. So, having a WYSIWYG feature on the next release or as a third party plugin option would be really great.

Final Thought

AnchorCMS is still in its early stages development and though it has fewer features than the mighty WordPress, if you only aim for blogging, AnchorCMS might be a better option.

Do you like to mod your Android homescreen? For some of us trying out different widgets, applying beautiful icons and wallpapers is a favorite pastime, however as responsibilities pile on in work and for studies, we may no longer have the luxury to ‘play’ with these customizations no more.

This is when Buzz Launcher and its magic homepacks will help you get your desired homescreen ready in your device, in no time.

It is really easy and straight forward to use, without many complications that stem from multiple trials and errors. Find out about its features in this article, and you might just want to try out Buzz Launcher for yourself.

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Grab Buzz Launcher

You can download the launcher from the Google play store here. You will be prompted with nice and clean default home packs when you first open the app.

The core concept of Buzz Launcher is cutting down on the long hours you spend putting together a good homescreen with widgets and icons that is suited to your tastes. They have a huge selection of homepacks to choose from and we have to say the list is pretty amazing.

Most of them include some 3rd party widgets to make their homepack look beautiful and complete.

Setting Up The Widget/App

To use the already included 3rd party widget/app is easy. Start by applying your chosen downloaded homepack and then tap on the widget/app to download it.

Once you have downloaded them, the apps will be automatically added to your homescreen whereas you will have to move the widgets to your homescreen yourself.

Socialize with other users

In the homepack page of your choice, you can see the author description of the homepack and what kinds of app he/she uses along with it. There is also a comment section for you to interact with the author too.

While you at it, you can share this to your own buzz page (Buzz it) or share it to your social media and Android apps as well.

Upload your homescreen

Want to share your own homescreen as a homepack? You can, even when you use other features from other homepacks. Apply and mod it to your heart’s content then upload it. Your homescreens will be ready as a homepack once you have uploaded it.

Intergration of its own social features inside the app keeps the community active, allowing any homepack creator to receive feedback or usage advice from other users.

Other features

Note that a homepack is not equivalent to a theme, rather, it is a whole set of apps/widgets mixed together making a complete homescreen.

Backups

Therefore, the only way to switch homepacks easily without re-downloading and re-applying it is to do a backup. Don’t worry, it is just a few taps away to backup or restore a homepack.

At the backup page an image preview of the homepack is shown on the left side of the screen. Tapping on Backup does the trick.

Gesture Support

Besides that, they do include some gesture support too. Those gestures will activate actions, apps or shortcuts immediately from your homescreens.

Limitations & Suggestions

There are still no updates about them collaborating with an app developer like UCCW, since it is one of the most used widgets in their available homepacks. You stil need to download the UZIP file manually though.

Having a search feature to look for specific home pack theme would be nice too. So far they only provide categories for homepacks, and to be frank it is time-consuming to scroll through a long list of entries in each category.

We have yet to be abel to access the homepack page and download them through a browser (apart from the recent homepack event competition recently held).

Should you switch launchers?

The homepack feature is really one of a kind, putting together famous widgets into one place through collaboration among developers. This sets them apart from other Android launchers. Performance-wise, you will not see any noticeable slowdown (if you didn’t download any data-sucking widgets, of course).

Go ahead and start modding your own customized homescreens today. For a dose of inspiration ,check out some of the popular homescreens from mycolorscreen, which is available in the homepack page too. Will you be trying this out?