Most mobile app developers have an accompanying site that introduces and describes what their mobile app can do. Some of these sites are truly unique. While certain sites use beautiful background photography, others optimize the use of bold colors, typography, extra-large icons and white space to make an impression with visitors.

Today, I have collected 20 of these gorgeous mobile app landing pages that keeps readers informed in very creative and unexpected ways. Note that all these sites do is inform users about what their app can do, and the fact that some designers bend over backwards with the site design to make you pay attention means that they are real serious about their mobile application.

Recommended Reading: Design Killer Mobile App Websites: Tips And Examples

Human

Turnplay

Everest

ChowNow

Hipstamatic

Weather [snap]

Faces

ShakeItPhoto

Starmatic

Kelvin App

Spendee App

Note’d

FiftyThree

Flight Card

Triplagent

Nizo App

Tourism App

Weathertron

Fostr

Panik App

Many would have upgraded to Mavericks by now as it was made available as a free upgrade to all Mac users. While the upgrades from Mountain Lion weren’t as groundbreaking (or as polarizing) as Apple’s iOS 6 upgrade to iOS 7, Mavericks does have many cool new features.

After playing around with Mavericks and scouring through the Internet, we’ve compiled a list of Mac OS X Mavericks tips & tricks that you might not know of. Some of these tips & tricks require the use of Terminal, but they are easily reversible, while others are found hidden within the System Preferences. If you know of more, let us know in the comments section.

Recommended Reading: 100 OS X Mavericks Keyboard Shortcuts

1. Hide Icons In System Preferences

We’ve previously covered parental control tips and apps for Mac, but in Mavericks, you can hide certain icons in the System Preferences so someone else who has access to your Mac (e.g. your nosy kids) won’t be able to find it so easily.

To do this, open System Preferences then click on View located on the Menu Bar followed by Customize. You’ll then notice checkboxes on the icons. Uncheck the icons you want to hide and click on Done when you’re finished. The unchecked icons will now be hidden.

2. Disable Dashboard

If can’t find any use of the Dashboard — that space in the far left where you can put your widgets — you can disable the Dashboard using this command in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES

After that, key in this command to reset the Dock:

killall Dock

If you find you want to re-enable the Dashboard, enter the command below, and followed by the ‘killall Dock’ command again.

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean NO

3. Hide Username On Menu Bar

By default, your account username is shown on the Menu Bar next to the date and time. If you want to clean up your Mac’s Menu Bar, you can remove the username from System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Options > Uncheck Show fast user switching menu as.

Note that you might need to first double click the lock at the bottom left corner and type in your password in order to make these changes.

4. Permanently Disable Notification Center

The notification center bugging you with too many updates? Aside from turning it off with the Do Not Disturb feature, you can even remove it from the menu bar.

Enter the following command in Terminal:

sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.notificationcenterui KeepAlive -bool false

After that, enter this command in Terminal:

killall NotificationCenter

Then log out of your Mac. When you log back in, the Notification icon on the Menu Bar will be gone.

5. Align Dock On Corners Of The Screen

By default, you can position your dock to the left or right of the screen, or at the bottom. By entering this simple command into Terminal, you’ll be able to align the dock to a corner of the screen instead of the default middle alignment.

This command will align the horizontal docks to the top corners, and the vertical dock to the left of the screen.

defaults write com.apple.dock pinning -string start

This command will align the horizontal docks to the bottom corners, and the vertical dock to the right of the screen.

defaults write com.apple.dock pinning -string end

To return to the default, middle alignment, enter this command:

defaults write com.apple.dock pinning -string middle

Do note that after entering any of the commands above, you’ll have to reset the dock with this command in order to see the changes:

killall Dock

6. Use Emoji In Text

Mavericks comes built-in with Emoji; to access it, use the keyboard shortcut Command + Control + Space to bring up the special Emoji menu on any text area in any app.

7. Find Out Which Application Drains Power

Mavericks’ new Activity Monitor now lets you see more information about your Mac, particularly which app is draining your energy bar. You’ll have to ‘show’ Energy Impact by right clicking on the headers and checking it. Once you check Energy Impact, you’ll be able to see which application is taking up the most power (higher value) and stop it to maximize your Mac’s battery life.

8. Disable App Nap On Selected Apps

Apple implemented App Nap in Mavericks to further lengthen your Mac’s battery life by temporary slowing down apps that are not doing anything in the background. However, this slightly reduces the start up time of the app.

If multitasking speed is important to you, you can disable App Nap on selected apps by right clicking the app and clicking on Get Info. There, you’ll be able to check Prevent App Nap so that the app doesn’t slow down when it’s not in use in the background. Do note that by disabling App Nap, your battery life drains quicker.

9. Move Dashboard Like Spaces

The Dashboard can be moved around now, just by clicking and dragging it to where you want to leave it. You can even move it to your secondary monitor on a dual monitor setup.

10. See More On Activity Monitor Dock Icon

On Mavericks, the new Activity Monitor has several dynamic dock icons you can choose from. Right click on the icon then go to Dock Icon to choose between four activities to display or switch back to the regular icon by choosing Show Application Icon.

11. Enable Offline Dictation

Previously on Mountain Lion, in order to use Dictation you will have to be connected to the internet. On Mavericks, you can enable offline Dictation by going into the System Preferences > Dictation & Speech and checking Use Enhanced Dictation. Do note that it’ll require a 785MB download that might take up some storage space.

12. Use The Built-In Text Expansion

If you’ve already mastered keyboard shortcuts to improve your speed and productivity, Mavericks now comes with a text expansion feature that allows you to type a predetermined keyword to then expand it to something longer. You can access these settings in System Preferences > Keyboard > Text.

Do note that this text expansion only works on select Mac Apps.

13. Enable/Disable Auto App Updates

Just like iOS 7, Mavericks now has automatic app updates for your convenience. However, if you’re one who would read the app update change log and update it yourself, you can disable automatic app update. Go to System Preferences > App Store and uncheck Install app updates.

14. Hide Notifications On Lock Screen

Don’t like lockscreen notifications to pop up on your Mac? Disable notifications on your lock screen, by going to System Preferences > Notifications. Within each app, uncheck Show notifications on lock screen.

15. Move Application Windows In The Background

If you need to move a window in the background without switching to it, hold down the Command key before clicking and dragging the application windows.

16. Use The Built-In Spelling And Grammar Checker

Apple has a built-in spelling and grammar checker that you can use on selected apps. All you have to do is enter this keyboard shortcut to bring it up: Command + Shift + ;

17. Show One Application At A Time

Desperate times call for desperate measures. If multi-tasking is killing your productivity, you can enable a ‘single application’ mode by entering the following command in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.dock single-app -bool true

You must then enter this command in order to see the changes:

killall Dock

This mode allows for only 1 application to be shown at one time. It might slow down your multitasking speed, but you’ll be able to concentrate more on that one application without being distracted by any other applications in the background.

18. Show Dock On Secondary Screen

Mavericks comes with better dual-monitor support; you can now make the Dock show on your secondary screen by moving the mouse cursor right to the bottom of the other screen. After a one second delay, the Dock will disappear on your main screen and appear on your secondary screen.

19. Disable Startup Sound

If you find the Mac startup sound obnoxiously loud and want to permanently disable it, you can enter the following command into Terminal:

sudo nvram SystemAudioVolume=%80

You can return it to its default state by entering the following command into Terminal:

sudo nvram -d SystemAudioVolume

20. Access Hidden Mavericks Wallpapers

Once you’ve updated to Mavericks, you’ll be greeted with new default wallpapers. However, there are also more than 30 other new but hidden wallpapers that come with Mavericks. Run a spotlight search on "Default Collections" and you will be treated with 4 folders with all these awesome wallpapers.

From there, you can drag and drop these 4 folders into the desktop background options to use these wallpapers.

If you’ve been using Google Now on your Android 4.4 device, you may have tried using the handy "Ok Google" voice command to activate Google Now’s voice search. It’s a nice feature, and perfect for times when you can’t or don’t want to tap your phone to activate the voice search.

The web version of Google has had Voice Search for a while, and you can also use the hands-free "Ok Google" hotword on your computer too, albeit with a few limitations. Here’s how.

Recommended Reading: Everything You Need To Know About Google Glass

Getting “Ok Google” On Your Computer

Do note that the "Ok Google" hotword on your computer can only be used on Chrome.

Head to the Chrome Web Store and download the official Google Voice Search Hotword extension, currently in beta. Once you’ve installed it, you need to give the extension permission to access your microphone.

To start using it, just visit Google.com or open Chrome’s New Tab page and then say "Ok Google", followed by your question. Note that the "Ok Google" hotword will only work when you have the page itself open.

By default, the extension will stop listening after five minutes to save battery life, but if you need to disable it for any reason, you can do so in the extension’s options menu.

Don’t worry about Google listening in to everything you say; the extension only begins sending data to Google after it hears the "Ok Google" hotword. Anything you say that isn’t preceded by the hotword won’t be picked up. As of now, the biggest drawback is that the extension only works on Google.com and only supports English.