To mock-up the user interface of a website, software or any other product, you’ll need some basic UI elements. And this is where wireframing kits and UI design kits come in handy. When you want to create a low-fidelity prototype for your projects, you can use these kits to give your idea a certain shape, keeping it abstract and not losing yourself in details.

SmashingMagazine prepared an overview of useful web and mobile user interface kits, handy PDFs and resources that we can use in our projects. They’ve carefully selected the most useful kits and resources to get you going in the early stages of a project. Enjoy!

Apple has suffered another embarrassment. A security breach has exposed iPad owners including dozens of CEOs, military officials, and top politicians. They—and every other buyer of the cellular-enabled tablet—could be vulnerable to spam marketing and malicious hacking. The breach, which comes just weeks after an Apple employee lost an iPhone prototype in a bar, exposed the most exclusive email list on the planet, a collection of early-adopter iPad 3G subscribers that includes thousands of A-listers in finance, politics and media, from New York Times Co. CEO Janet Robinson to Diane Sawyer of ABC News to film mogul Harvey Weinstein to Mayor Michael Bloomberg. It even appears that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s information was compromised.

It doesn’t stop there. According to the data we were given by the web security group that exploited vulnerabilities on the AT&T network, it seems that 114,000 user accounts have been compromised, although it’s possible that confidential information about every iPad 3G owner in the U.S. has been exposed.

Read here the full story.

Good news for iPad developers that want to monetize their apps: AdMob has just announced the availability of its SDK for the new Apple device.

Developers can then download and use the AdMob SDK in their iPad apps, just like they do with iPhone. The supported ad sizes for iPad will be: 300×250, 728×90, and 468×60 pixels. The SDK is available, as usual, on AdMob website.

Another interesting detail from today’s announcement is the experiments that AdMob is doing with iPad ads realized by using HTML5, and that could open the door to a new generation of interactive, immersive ad experiences.

The usability guru Dr Jakob Nielsen just published a free 93-page report on iPad usability. In his report he
critiques the most important iPad’s usability failings and points out how Apple should allow more diversity on its platforms including the option for Adobe Flash.

“For once, I’m on the side of Flash,” he says, “because I think Apple is trying to over-rigidly control what’s on its devices. I can understand there are benefits to doing that, but there are also benefits to the diversity of the internet. Diversity is a very powerful mechanism. In the early days of the web, there were many alternatives that were closed services – AOL, CompuServe, Trilogy – but on the web, anybody could put up anything, including a lot of bad stuff. But users vote with their feet, or their clicks: they can click away from bad Flash and click towards good Flash. It’s a shame Apple is so restrictive on what they allow on the iPad and the iPhone. When a customer has bought a device, it’s theirs; they should be able to see the information they want, and run the applications they want.”

Completely agree with him! Read the full article from guardian.co.uk.

From today the iPad, the revolutionary Apple tablet, is finally available for italian customers! You can take a look to the iPad specifications here… Prices and plans are a little bit expensive but if you were waiting for this event you can finally get your dream gadget from one of the official stores or directly online from Apple. Good luck!

The Wired iPad application just went live on the AppStore. It has all the visual impact of paper, enhanced by interactive elements like video and animated infographics. A great example about how to improve user experience depending on the media we’re using. Take a look at the video above or read more from Wired.