SilverStripe is a CMS for content editors.

For the most part, SilverStripe is just like any other CMS.

It’s written in PHP upon the Sapphire framework; Sapphire developers – migrate to SilverStripe!

It does, however, have the features to compete with other systems.

For example, SilverStripe has an integrated payment system which is great for publishers of books or a niche store.

What you’ll like about SilverStripe:

• Great documentation
• Nice built-in features (custom 404 pages, easy links to the site’s pages)
• Integrated payments
• Beautiful themes
• Built-in SEO and search
• Outstanding UI and backend

What you won’t like:

• Amount of widgets and themes is on the small side
• Too complicated for a one-page site
• Takes a while to get a grip of

Basically, SilverStripe is a CMS that you can deploy, theme a little, and go straight to using it. SilverStripe’s built-in features make it really convenient.

• Website: http://www.silverstripe.org/
• Demo: http://demo.silverstripe.com/

Mashi is a pretty interesting animation toolkit that works with timelines the way that MovieMaker or Vegas works.

You know, the first thing that stands out is the fabulous design of the homepage.

But, apart from that, Mashi provides a few fun features:

• Timeline-based animations
• Easily expandable with plugins
• <canvas> support (hooray, HTML5!)
• Open coding; you don’t have to switch frameworks to work with Mashi
• An active community and a GREAT documentation

This plugin should be interesting for designers who want new solutions that JS simply cannot offer at the time.

• Website: http://mashi.tv/

elFinder is a great file manager, resembling Mac’s Finder.

It’s made with jQuery’s UI and JavaScript. Its API is based on JSON.

Features:

• Copy, paste, cut, delete – all in the UI
• Hot keys
• Easy to integrate with web editors
• Favorites folder
• File preview (flash, pdf, text, etc)

elFinder is great for hosting websites; and can provide a simple advanced configuration backend for your clients. Or, you may want to simply use it for convenience.

• Website: http://elrte.org/elfinder
• Demo: http://elrte.org/elfinder/demo

jQPad is one of the first frameworks for the Apple iPad.

It is easily theme-able with CSS, and, as the name implies, uses jQuery for java scripts.

jQPad is loaded with numerous CSS hacks that make developing web apps for the iPad so much easier.

The framework is yet to be updated thoroughly, and we can expect caching; offline database support; and iPad’s hovering bubble to be implemented in the next release.

• Website: http://code.google.com/p/jqpad/
• Demo: http://www.mivlox.com/ipad/

Polymaps is a JavaScript library used for creating dynamic maps.

The plugin provides quick display of zoomable map data, and supports numerous data formats, such as those from OpenStreetMap and Bing.

Polymap can load huge chunks of data, so it’s ideal for creating country-based maps for internet stores; furthermore, Polymaps uses SVG so you can use the ever-familiar CSS to style your maps. Pretty neat.

The only downside to this library is the poor browser support; Polymaps has only been tested on Chrome 6+, Safari 4+ and Firefox 3.6.

• Website: http://polymaps.org/
• Demo: http://polymaps.org/ex/

Sparrow is an Objective C framework used for developing games on iPhone.

Sparrow is made in a way that allows completely skipping OpenGL coding–unless you really want to switch.

The framework’s main features are:

• Intuitive coding and easy to learn (Flash, Java, etc developers will love this!)
• Great performance (Sparrow can animate several hundred textured quads at 50+ fps)
• Numerous projects have already been developed with Sparrow (see ‘in action’)