Thursday, February 24, 2011

An infrequent flyer

I don't travel by plane much, but when I do, I'm always faced with the chore of deciding what to bring with me. From earlier flights, I've found I have a tendency to come up with ideas at 10,000+ feet in the air, but didn't pack anything that would let me capture those ideas. That had to stop.

I soon made an effort to pack a notebook and an assortment of pens and pencils to jot notes down on. Those worked well but not as well as I'd hoped. The last two trips I've been on, I've brought my iPad with me. The first trip, because of it's newness, I wound up giving more demos to passengers and flight attendants rather than getting any work done.

My most recent trip, one I'm on now in fact, I've relied quite heavily on my sleek traveling companion. It's been loaded up with a variety of Pixar movies for my two boys, music for the whole family, and my usual mobile workstation of apps and eBooks, to help me get some work accomplished...even though I'm on vacation. In fact, I'm wrote this post on the plane. Inspiration hit, and I was able to act on it. Score a win for technology.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The search for the ultimate task tracker

I've been on a search over the past few years, and it's a search that continues to this very day. I'm trying to find a low-cost (free if possible) task and project tracker that allows for easy synchronization with the devices that I use on a daily basis. After all of this searching and countless trial and error, I think i may have found some things that work.

Finding the perfect task tracker has been virtually impossible. I've tried demos, trials, and even Google Wave (RIP) and none of them have stuck with me or my workflow. A few weeks ago I discovered Wunderlist from 6wunderkinder and it's given me hope that a app can hang with how I do my business. Between that and Evernote, I'm going to document my use of these apps and give some additional thoughts after I've had opportunity to put each one through the wringer.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Thinking Out Loud: Dealing with Distractions

Inspired by Timothy Ferriss's book, the 4-Hour Workweek (affiliate link), I had some thoughts about the distractions that we encounter in our day-to-day lives.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Find a need, fill a need.

In my second iPad Owner Interview of the series (for which I still don't have a name) I asked my longtime friend, Curt Hjort about his newest gadget.

Since I first met Curt in college, we became fast friends based mostly on our shared love of tech, gadgets, and general geekery. For most of our friendship he's been a Windows guy, until last year. As soon as he added the iPad to his lineup of "toys" I wanted to get his thoughts on it and he was gracious enough to oblige.

Why did you get an iPad?
I got my iPad because I really thought it fit a need that I had.

Do you like it/love it?
I really love it!

What need did it fill, or was it a want?
I thought it would fit the need I had to have something to be able to surf the internet with in my easy chair that is light, doesn’t need to be charged every hour or so, and eliminates a clunky mouse off to the side or ineffective trackpad. I filled that need and so much more!

How has the iPad changed your "normal" computer habits?
I no longer need to use my main desktop on a daily basis.
Most everything that an average person does can be done on the iPad.

What are you doing with the iPad that has made your life easier or has surprised you?
I don’t have to drag books around anymore. I don’t have to hunt through my file cabinet in order to find manuals for things in the garage or around the house. I can share pictures with people I visit without carrying around extra equipment and no longer have to figure out how to use their A/V stuff. I just pass the iPad around.

How often do you use your iPad?
I use my iPad daily for about 2 hours while performing other household tasks. I use it on the weekend about 6 hours a day.

Is that use more that you'd expected?
It is way more than I anticipated using it plus I figured I’d loose interest in it in a while but haven’t.

Do you still use other computers as much?
At work I use a computer all day but I no longer need to use my home computers on a daily basis. I think I cut them down to about maybe twice a week.

What apps do you use or have you purchased?
I use a bunch of different ones. I mainly focus on the free ones but have also purchased a bunch. I use Weatherbug (iTunes link), Numbers, Twitterrific (iTunes link), Calendar, Mail, Safari, iBooks (iTunes link), Star Walk (iTunes link), and two pages of games.

What would you change about it or what features would you add/take away?
Somehow making it lighter would be good. I would also like a bigger screened model. The Bluetooth stuff I’ve tried seems flaky but I don’t know it is the app’s fault. Maybe make it better or easier to use.
The things the new OS is bringing fixes a lot of my wants like printing and grouping stuff by folders. A camera would be great. Don’t take away anything! Add a USB port.

How are you using the portability of the iPad to your advantage? Is it allowing you to write more blog posts or at least start ideas because of its mobility?
It definitely makes emailing people quicker than doing it on my phone as well as tweeting. I don’t do blogging.
The portability is awesome! I can go a whole three day camping trip on one battery life cycle. I am totally shocked. I use the thing like a clip board and walk around campsites taking notes for future times I may camp there. Then I know what sites are the good ones. I’ve also created and used a gas calculator for trips I go on. Numbers works really well for me and these things. I like using the iBooks reader for reading my favorite books however if they aren’t available, I use the Amazon one which also works well. I like being able to look up manuals in GoodReader (iTunes link) without having to find them in file cabinets.

Have you found any drawbacks in using the iPad? Size, power, weight, software limitations?
There aren’t really any drawbacks besides maybe the weight and being able to connect to a printer though I don’t print often. It would be nice to get pictures onto the iPad right from my camera though while camping away from my desktop.

Are you using the iPad in any non-conventional ways? If so, how?
Maybe the clipboard thing previously mentioned is non-conventional. I use it for a lot of things people would just normally pull out a sheet of paper for. Using the iPad for them just seems second nature. One could say I’m a greener person because I don’t need to use that paper.

I know that you're an avid camper and outdoorsman. Have you been able to work the iPad into any camping trips?
Every camping trip! Reading, playing games on the device, tracking card and other games, rating campground sites, tracking gas mileage, repelling mosquitoes with an app, checking weather reports, etc.

Have you seen any professional benefit from using the iPad? Permitted to use it at work?
We can bring them to work but we aren’t supposed to connect external devices to our computers nor can we connect to any wi-fi networks so it really is nearly useless at our work besides maybe for displaying photos or taking personal notes during the day. I leave it at home.

What's your favorite app and what made you choose it?
Hands down my favorite app is WeatherBug. I know it is silly but those folks really did a bang up job on that one! I can track on the map every place I’ve ever been to (seeing pushpins) or am planning on going to, to see what it’s weather is. I can zoom in, move the map around, see everyone’s pin points all extremely fast without having to actually select any different location. Then if I want to see details, I can switch locations and get detailed weather information and pictures. This app is super awesome! It is missing the ability to be able to somehow set a location based on where I tap on the map and remember them after closing and the alerts don’t work. Everything else is great though! I never look at the radar on any other computer anymore. I don’t turn on the TV or anything. I even run upstairs to get the iPad if I need to check the weather. No other weather application, site, service I’ve used has ever come close to this. When bad weather comes near, I sleep next to the iPad so I can pop it on and see the radar when my weather radio goes off (Heidi isn’t too fond of this).
Next favorite app is Numbers (iTunes link). I am a spreadsheet freak and it works awesome.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Why Evernote continues to rock my world.

I'm warning out to you right now, the following post is going to turn into a love letter. It'll get real mushy, real fast. It's designer/geek-love for an Web 2.0 service. Why I can't get enough of Evernote.

Since I picked up the blogging bug a few months ago (and can't seem to shake it) my go-to tool has been Evernote. Even before the post writing began, I've relied on Evernote to keep me sane and keep my thoughts semi-organized. It's become a combination of a junk drawer for thoughts, a book shelf for projects, and a personal assistant that knows where everything's been placed.

A place for every thought.
One of the killer features in Evernote is also one of the most basic; Notebooks. Whether you want to keep your personal notes in different "stacks" or need a way to keep business projects organized, setting up Notebooks is one of the easist ways to get this done. I use more notebooks than I can count, but they help keep me organized and that's half the battle.

Something for everyone.
There's no telling when inspiration will hit or in what form it will come and for that, Evernote has you covered. Besides written notes, you can upload photos or snap them from your phone or computer for those that are visually-inclined. If you'd rather talk things through, their apps support audio notes as well, so you could use it to record podcast audio or brief meeting notes if you'd want. On top of all of that, you can also clip Web pages and Web content into a note for later reading or inspiration.

The apps...the apps!
Another killer feature of Evernote is the portability and mobility it has. They've got apps for Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, Android, and Blackberry, plus you can even go platform independent by emailing or tweeting (via a Twitter DM) a note to your account.

A just-released feature for bloggers and Website owners, the Site Memory button, allows site readers the ability to clip individual posts and save them to their Evernote accounts. A one more useful tool for an already-useful service.