May 3, 2013 | blog, featured
It seems I haven’t covered this in quite awhile so I thought I’d give it a go again. After all, what’s more important than what we’re running on our mobile devices?
Ok here’s my current Top 10 list, drum roll please:
Beautiful Widgets Pro
I can’t talk about top ten without the number-one thing I look at every time I turn on the phone. Maybe it’s not what I’m after whenever I hit the power button, but it’s my favorite clock/calendar/weather widget for phones (not so on tablets – but that’s another post).
WeatherBug Elite
Even though BW has weather in the widget, I still count on a really good forecast tool, and WeatherBug has been my go-to weather app for years. Heck they even updated it in the past day with a nifty new UI. Clear, concise, fast, detailed, and with animated maps.
Feedly
This is a fairly new addition in the last month. While I wasn’t a big Google Reader app user on my phone, I was a gigantic Google Reader user on the desktop. Now that we see some forward innovation on the RSS reader front, I’m happy to report that Feedly brings innovation in megaton quantities An absolutely gorgeous UI, fast, easy to navigate, and most important of all – they listen to their users and respond to suggestions, ideas, and criticize criticism very quickly (and constructively). Highly recommended!
Google+
Many people love Facebook, and I do to an extent as well. However, Google+ is where I’m spending most of my time reading and posting. It’s easy, it’s fast, and it does more than just tie into the rest of Google’s services. Since I’m a big Google user, it really does work better for me, and all the people that I interact with are more active there in any case.
Plume Premium for Twitter
While the default Twitter client is quite nice, it does fail at showing me the information from my streams that I want to see. With the demise of TweetDeck, I needed a Twitter client that could show my lists as well as the main stream and mentions. Plume does this very easily. I’m sure there may be others out there that do this as well, but the three other clients I tried just didn’t make it easy. Plume does.
Pulse
I’ve been using Pulse for a couple years now, and it’s been evolving quite well along the way as an all around great news aggregation app. Recently purchased by LinkedIn, I see Pulse becoming a very important and powerful tool for reading and sharing news with peers in my industry. Great little app that keeps getting better.
Pocket
Ah, Pocket… one of my favorite read-it-later tools. In fact, Pocket used to go by the name Read It Later, then figured out how to make this type of tool/service even better. I can save things to Pocket from my phone, my tablet, and just about any browser that exists. They make it super simple, and very lightweight. Ties into Android like it was made for it.
Evernote
What can one say about Evernote? The all-around great note taking tool that runs on simply everything. It took me awhile to get into Evernote, mainly because I was a huge Microsoft OneNote user and, of course, they have no equivalent anywhere else (though there is a OneNote Android and iOS app now). Since I use Windows, Linux, and Android, I need apps that are on all these platforms. Evernote is this as well as one of the best note taking apps that exists.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn on Android used to be a pain to use. This past year, they seem to have gotten serious about the user experience and really worked on their app (much as Facebook has on theirs). The latest rendition of LinkedIn on Android is a joy to use. Fast, intuitive, and easy to connect with or respond too my industry peers. LinkedIn is growing in importance for me as a consultant, and a quality app like this one helps immensely.
Rhapsody
Finally we get around to something more mundane, like listening to music. Unlike most people, I never seemed to accumulate a lot of music. This was true of CDs as well back in the 90’s as I just didn’t have the money then to buy every CD I wanted. Somehow this translated to MP3s as well. In any case, subscription models seem to work well for me and I really enjoy Rhapsody on my phone and my Nexus 7 mounted in the dash of my truck (hey, I’m a true tech nerd). Easy to use, good UI, and the ability to cache anything in my library locally.
Last but not least is an under-sung hero of the phone and mobile movie scene, check out the Movie Box App. Well, that’s my list and I hope I’ve helped answer a question you may have had regarding any of these apps. If not, don’t hesitate to jump into the comments and ask me about them. Or simply let me know of a better app or ones that I should check out.
Aug 7, 2010 | blog
So you’ve done it, you’ve jumped on the Twitter “bandwagon”. At least, you’ve decided that its now worth your time and you’re ready to reap the rewards, whatever they are.
There’s been a lot of discussion in the corporate space for the use of Twitter. Why you should, why you shouldn’t, and a lot of “mushy middle” discussion around the water cooler that doesn’t really help much.
I’ve been there behind the firewall where it’s difficult to get access, or demonstrate value of a service. So here are some tips on how you really get value for yourself when using Twitter.
1 – The Follow
Don’t think of “friends”, think of people you would like to learn from or listen to. Sure, your personal friends and colleagues will be among those you follow, but find interesting people to follow. Check out who your friends follow, you’ll meet a few new folks, then check out who those people follow, and I guarantee that you’ll start connecting with truly interesting people that you’ll benefit from knowing. It’s really a form of viral networking.
2 – Be Conversational
Jump in and take part in conversations and discussions. Or simply share your quips and quotes, though with nearly any followers at all you’ll be brought into the conversation. Twitter is possibly one of the best tools for introverts to meet new people and enter into conversations.
3 – Be Inquisitive
Ask questions, seek answers, explore! While an unending stream of questions can be annoying, starting conversations through the use of questions is quite often appreciated. By our very nature, we all like to learn something, so for the sake of a conversation or for getting an answer to something, ask away! Twitter is a wonderful crowd sourcing tool.
4 – Be Helpful
A very powerful aspect of the Twitter community is how helpful most people are. There are so many ways being helpful to your friends and followers that it’ll pay you back in the long run. Think of it on interpersonal networking terms. The folks you help out may end up helping you in the future.
5 – Please Disagree
Differing points of view help foster learning and discovery. Its ok to disagree with friends and followers. What isn’t pleasant is arguments. Sure these happen in any social interaction sometimes, but its having different points of view that make sharing more interest. Be respectful, be nice, but be yourself.
6 – Don’t Flame
This goes hand-in-hand with number five above. If you can’t add something constructive, informative, or useful, perhaps it’s time for a break.Flaming only harms a person’s reputation (personal brand) and since it’s online, it’s hard to get rid of that newly written record of your actions. Something to keep in mind for online reputation management!
7 – Share Things
Everyone enjoys learning something new, so bring a link or unique piece of knowledge. Maybe its in your profession, or more enjoyable, something that you’re passionate about. Don’t hesitate to share things you find online as your Twitter community is probably already sharing things with you. It’s a great way to learn new things.
8 – Peripheral Services
There are a ton of unique services that build on top of Twitter, or make it an even better platform for communication. There are a number of audio, photo, and video services that add extra dimensions to Twitter. Other services use Twitter to share what you’re doing, like webcasting, or checking in with geo-location services. Other services are built for sharing links and use Twitter for that sharing platform.
9 – Twitter Clients
The Twitter ecosystem has expanded to include dedicated client software as well. There are web based solutions and desktop/laptop based solutions, not to mention mobile apps too. You can likely find the one that fits you best to help customize how you use Twitter and read the stream of information from your network of peers.
10 – Be Yourself
Of course, it should go without saying that you need to simply be you. Trying to be something you’re not usually is discovered early on anyway, and the value of interaction is to be transparent – that’s one of the ethos of social media to begin with. So be you and be proud of it, even if you’re more of an introvert, you’ll find Twitter is a great way to break out of that shell.
Photo credit: Leo Reynolds
Jan 13, 2007 | blog
I’m just going to give out my recommendation as a blanket statement to everyone. When you start seriously thinking of upgrading to Microsoft’s Windows Vista, simply plan on buying a new computer.
In the long run, you will be much, much happier with the result. Unless you just bought a new computer and have the “coupon” for the Vista upgrade, upgrading aging hardware, migrating your data and dealing with some hard to find drivers will be a painful experience.
So, I strongly recommend just going and buying a new PC when the time is right. Instead of spending additional money on upgrading RAM, disk, video, etc… just put that cash aside for a new computer.
With that said, my second recommendation to go with Vista is to forget desktops. Look at purchasing a laptop instead. Yeah, yeah, yeah this doesn’t accommodate all the gamers out there, but you guys know what you need anyway. I’m talking about the average computer user who is served quite well in the sub $1,000 market for laptops. Trust me, there are literally dozens of options among the 1st and 2nd tier vendors. Laptops are starting to head below $500 now for the low-end, but you’ll find the machine to fill your needs somewhere between $600-$1,000 at this time.
Another option to consider is the latest in mobility, a UMPCs that will provide the utmost in mobile computing convenience.
Just remember that Vista is a new experience, and the slow or troublesome computer you’ve been putting up with will be a great backup web browser, but not a good candidate for a Vista upgrade.
Disagree? Well, let me know in the comments!
It seems I haven’t covered this in quite awhile so I thought I’d give it a go again. After all, what’s more important than what we’re running on our mobile devices?
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