ultimate geek girl » Technology

Productivity to the Max!

HarriMac — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:00:18 +0000

We’re all productivity junkies, right? Even the best of us sometimes has issues with a system not working or falling down on the job of organization. Or we have a really great system but then a wrench tossed into plans means we need a new system. Well recently a very busy co-worker showed me how she keeps up with everything on her plate and how she keeps it organized. The system was absolutely meticulous and I couldn’t wait to share it with you all. If you’ve used something similar or have a really cool system of your own, please write a comment!

To let this make more sense, I’ll let you know that this ends up being a private website that brings together all your favorite productivity tools and websites into a single location. So let’s get started:

1. Start with a website. Not a public one, but a private one.

2. As you do with any website, figure out how you’re going to lay it out and what all is gonna be there. The sections she used correlated to every facet of life. Examples are:
a. Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Yearly Task Lists
b. Health Info
c. Family
d. School or continuing education
e. Career advancement
f. Vehicle
g. Banking or finances
h. Shopping
i. Favorite Links
j. Important references
k. Travel
l. Civic involvement/Organizations

3. Each of the sections you chose in #2 is going to be a different page in the site. It’s important to remember here that you aren’t posting any vital info here like passwords or password reminders, etc. If your site gets hacked, they’ll only know your habits but can’t get into your bank account! Go ahead and set up each page, but we’ll work on fleshing them out in a second.

4. To flesh out each page, think about the productivity tools you already use to do some of these activities. You know, tools like Evernote, Dropbox, Wunderlist, Remember the Milk, Producteev, Google Docs, Microsoft Onenote, Springpad, GoToMeeting, Mint, Endnote, Delicious, etc. Think about websites you use regularly. Think about e-mail providers you use. Think about all the airlines and hotels you have reward numbers with. Think about all your financially related sites – banks, student loan sites, car loan sites, credit cards, etc. Think about all the physical activity you want to keep track of and how you do it – tools like MapMyRide. Think long and hard, surf your bookmarks in your browser, check out all the apps on your phone, and just think. Once you have a list, go to step 5.

5. Develop each page, one at a time. For example, I want my front page of my website to be tasks I need to remember to do every day. Things that need to be done by a certain time should have the time by them or if the tasks need to be done in a specific order they should be numbered. After each task, include the links or information needed to do that task. If the first thing you want to do is check your email, the second task you want to do is unplug all your appliances before you leave for work, and the third task you want to do is to turn the dishwasher on. You could set it up like this:

1. Check email:

- http://www.gmail.com
Account A
Account B
- http://mail.yahoo.com

2. Unplug appliances:

- Entertainment Center
- Office (desk)
- Office (bookshelf)
- Bedroom

3. Turn on dishwasher

Of course you might have far more tasks you want to remember to do every single day, but that’s just an example. Let’s say you have a list of people you want to make sure you send birthday cards to and you keep your list of birthdays in your GoogleDocs. Well insert that link into your to-do list for the day. This way you don’t have to change the website daily, you just edit the outside link as usual. For something like birthdays, you might also have a list of cards that you have on hand with a reminder to buy more before you run out. So try:

4. Mail birthday cards

- Card list – http://docs.google.com/birthdays
- Stock of cards – http://docs.google.com/cardcountdowns

Pretty cool so far, right? Say you keep documents in a DropBox folder. Put links directly to those folders in this list. Say you have Endnote libraries that you store in Evernote – link directly to those libraries in this list. It doesn’t replace what you already use, it just gives you a one stop shop to get to all of it. Of course you could set this up in something like Evernote. Or Springpad. Or anywhere really. But that’s the point – if you can’t find a single resource to fix all your productivity needs, merge them!

If you try this or something like this, please let us know! We would love to see how you stay productive!

How To Use Evernote…A Step By Step “Aah Help Me!” Guide

HarriMac — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 20:00:34 +0000

I absolutely love Evernote. I’m really glad I came across the software. There are plenty of other apps and websites to keep track of your documents, pictures and audio notes but for some reason, the absolute simplicity of Evernote is what makes it stand out for me. I use it to keep up with recipes, fraternity notes, bookmarks, news articles I want to read later, travel info, addresses, etc. I keep thinking of new uses all the time. Maybe it’s the ease of using the website, using the desktop application, or using the iPhone app (or all 3) to keep up and be productive that makes me love it so. There are plenty of tutorials all over the net about specific things to use Evernote for and even some cool videos on their site, but sometimes that info can be overwhelming. Let’s start simply.

1. Where are you when you want to pull up your info? I’m always on the go and not always on a device that belongs to me but I do have an internet connection. But when I’m on a device that belongs to me, I want the info there too. If you use Evernote at work or a public place or even on a friend’s system, you’ll definitely at least want access to Evernote via the web. If you have a smartphone, you might want to have a free Evernote app on that device. And if you have a personal computer (or more), there are free desktop applications. The phone and desktop applications allow you to sync your notes from other places and allow you to work “offline” then sync once you’re connected to the internet again.

Do you want access via:

A) Internet (http://www.evernote.com)

B) Phone (iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone 7, and WebOS currently supported)

C) Desktop (Mac OS X, Windows; Also supported for Safari, Firefox and Google Chrome)

D) Combination?

They are all free for regular users (premium costs), so mix and match and choose away! But really, pick at least one so we can continue with the tutorial. Download

2. Now that you’ve picked one, you have the urge to make a note, right? Well, more on that in a second. First, let’s talk some Evernote lingo. There are notes (duh) and then there are notebooks. If you’re familiar with your computer setup or current email setups, you’re allowed to have folders to organize your materials. Well that’s what the notebooks are – folders. And of course you can have notebooks within notebooks and even have tags (or labels) to track items within notebooks or between notebooks (if you’re like some of us who are ultra organized).

Example 1: I have a notebook called “Public Health References”. I have notebooks within this – “Epidemiology” “Biostatistics” “Citations” “SAS” “Articles” “General”.

Example 2: I have a notebook called “Recipes”. I didn’t subdivide this one since I personally just like scrolling through the recipes to find what I want. Instead, I can use tags to get a better idea of what is in it. If I tagged all my cheesecake recipes “cheesecake” then when I search for that tag or click on that tag, I see everything that matches, regardless of what folder it’s in.

Another term to know is “clip” or “clipping” (saving different sources in whole or part from files or websites). You can use a browser extension or, if you installed the desktop client, you can highlight a website or just right click on a website and choose to add to Evernote.

What notebooks do you think you might want to start with? You can always add notebooks and delete notebooks (or even combine notebooks), so don’t feel constrained by what you choose now.

3. This is a good point to practice making a note. No matter which client you’re using (web, desktop or phone), click “new note” or the + if you see it. Give your new note a title. For this exercise try “Notebooks I’d like to make”. In the text area, make a list of all the notes you’d like to make. Evernote has some formatting capabilities similar to products you may be familiar with such as Microsoft Word. You can make bulleted or numbered lists, you can bold, underline, strikethrough, italic, etc. You can also change the font and text size, etc. You don’t necessarily need to test all these features now, but if you want to, do it! Playing is always fun. Once you’ve made a list of everything you can think of to make a notebook right now, try making a few.

4. Not only can you make text notes in Evernote, but you can also make audio notes (requires a microphone), webcam notes (requires a webcam), and ink notes (hand write a note in evernote. works best if you are really good with a mouse or have a stylus handy. awesome if you have a touchpad). You can also add photos or files to your Evernote notes. Say you’re working on compiling all your addresses in one place. You might type some in, but if you get a letter from someone, take a picture of the return address, attach it to a new note with the name of the person and bam! you have the address in your Evernote.

Or say you’re working on a statistics project and there is SO MUCH DOCUMENTATION (yes this is a real experience). Save the PDFs, drag and drop (or attach) them to a note and you’ve always got that documentation with you for quick reference. Now speaking of that documentation, you want to search and find out what all in your Evernote you have about “linear regression”. Type that in the search field, hit enter and Evernote will search the text of your documentation attachments as well as what is in your notes (at least PDFs). How cool is that?!

5. The last cool feature I’ll show you how to use in Evernote is to share your notes. You can share notes via email, twitter, facebook, or copy note urls to the clipboard. If you share a note, let’s say via email, it will email the content of the note. If you share a notebook, you can choose to share it with the public or share with specific individuals. This can be helpful if you’re working on a project together. You can always change these settings. I haven’t shared a notebook yet, but I have shared individual notes.

I hope this tutorial broke down enough of Evernote for you to get started. Let me know what you end up using it for or if there is another tool that works better for you!

Android and iPhone Apps To Get You Through The Holidays

HarriMac — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 14:00:51 +0000

Looking for a new and entertaining app? Trying to pass the time until you get back home from school? Need something to do while your computer does stuff at work? Check out these apps! All are free on the iPhone and I’ve done by best to find the equivalent or a very similar one for Android. Let’s get started shall we?

Music

Stitcher Radio – I know you’re saying “not another radio app! grrrr”. But hear me out – the Stitcher app lets you listen to on demand radio streams (think xm radio), your favorite radio stations from around the world (it doesn’t seemingly have ALL but it has most of the stations I searched for), and you can use it to play your podcasts. The coolest feature though, which I wasn’t aware of when I downloaded, is that it also serves as a news source. When breaking news hits, Stitcher sends me a brief notification which I can click and listen to a radio clip of that news. These notifications aren’t sent very often, but they really are breaking news not some weirdo’s idea of important news. While I haven’t figured out how to customize these notifications, I find them cool.

iPhone: Free
Android: Free

Songkick – Ever wanted to know if your favorite artist had a concert coming up near you or a thousand miles away? Songkick searches the playlists on your phone then can provide info about concerts for those artists. It will remember any location you give it and let’s you add the concerts to a remember list. You can see where teh concert is (google map), get a link out to tickets and share the concert information with friends. Pretty cool idea – the only thing that would be better is if it allowed you to watch past concerts.

iPhone: Free
Android: Gigbeat uses the Songkick API and has very similar functions. Also Free

NPR Music – If you like music, you’ll love this app. It gives you complete access to all the features of NPR music – album previews, desk concerts, review articles, streams of the music podcasts, etc. The layout is pretty (same color scheme as website) and the functionality is superb. I was able to get a complete stream of one of the “First Listen” albums without interruption via my data plan and via wifi. You can play it in the background, so listening to a stream won’t interrupt that game of Angry Birds you’ve been working on. Can’t say enough good stuff about this application or the service NPR provides.

iPhone: Free
Android: Unavailable. You’re stuck with searching the NPR News app for the new music features, but they are all there. The NPR News app for Android was user made but I hope it won’t have to be that way for the music app. Hop to it NPR!

iScrob – Despite last.fm having an app and the desktop application supposedly being able to scrobble your tracks (let others know what you’re listening to via the last.fm site or app), it doesn’t work that way. Enter iScrob. Though you can’t control things like your EQ and occasionally the title of the track it shows you gets ahead of itself (it told me I was playing a track that in fact was the next one in the playlist), it does the trick, scrobbling directly from the app. It’s meant to be a replacement for the built in music app. Though iScrob is not available for Android, there are some really cool alternatives like Simple last.fm Scrobbler and Scrobble Droid (both free). [if it's any consolation for the last 2 music apps not being available on Android, I must mention I'm jealous that there is a Jamendo Player app for Android, a link to a great site for indie music of all kinds. I'm partial to the electronic music available there. And the app isn't available for iPhone].

iPhone: Free

Movies & TV

Fanhattan – Similar to IMDB but better laid out with cooler features, Fanhattan allows you to search through movies and tv shows to find out more about them, view a list of all the episodes, and link out to “watch now” via HuluPlus, iTunes, or Netflix. You can also view reviews, see what people are saying via social media (facebook and twitter), check out the soundtrack (and link out to purchase individual tracks), see apps related to the show/movie, find related items to purchase on amazon, and see similar movies or shows. Whew! That’s a lot of features!

iPhone: Free
Android: Supposedly in the works. IMDB, tv.com, Netflix and HuluPlus apps are the only alternatives right now.

Crackle – Similar to Fanhattan, Crackle lets you search movies and tv shows to find out plenty of information about them. What’s different? Crackle let’s you view these same movies and tv shows FOR FREE. Clearly, you can’t view the most recent tv shows or movies for free via an app, but it’s stuff you want to see and if you’re stuck listening to upset passengers in a greyhound station for hours on end, anything will do. Bring on those full episodes of Seinfeld!

iPhone: Free
Android: Free

Wigglehop – Do you actually want to get up and go see some movies at the theater? Then Wigglehop is your app of choice. Find theaters near you, movies that are playing near you, then the times they are playing. When you’re done, invite others to come watch with you via facebook, twitter, email or SMS (or take this time to get a breather from the family and sneak out the house…watch out for the legos your cousin leaves down as burglar alarms). You can choose multiple theaters to search, which is cool because you have a larger range of movie start times to pick from.

iPhone: Free
Android: Unavailable but the top movie app for Android is still Fandango (which has the added perk of buying tickets from the app and a lot more bells and whistles than Wigglehop)

Shopping

Goodzer/Milo Local Shopping – These apps are combined in this review because of their similarity. Both Goodzer and Milo Local Shopping apps let you find the product you want on local shelves. That 50mm Sony A-mount lens you were looking for? What about a bottle of Lubriderm lotion? Just type it in the search and see the search tell you where to get it and how much it costs. Milo let’s you scan barcodes to make the process easier and allows you to buy and pick up from the app (with select stores). Goodzer let’s you search internet stores too. Especially as there is a push to shop local, these apps (or ones like Etsy) can help you do so.

iPhone: Goodzer – Free Milo – Free
Android: Goodzer – Unavailable Milo – Free

Scoutmob - Have you ever been looking for a discount or coupon for a new restaurant or an old favorite? Need a good review from someone that’s been there? Scoutmob fits the bill. Available currently for several major cities and coming soon to more, Scoutmob adds a deal a day and each has an expiration that’s at least a few weeks away (most are a few months) so no rush to spend it. There are some really good deals, like 50% off a sushi place or buy one get one. And each has a review so you don’t have to go searching for it yourself. Excellent app.

iPhone: Free
Android: Free

Google Shopper - The new Google Shopper app is an easy way to find items you want to purchase. It also allows you to search for deals near you (discounts at restaurants!) and to keep track of your Google Offers and ones you’ve purchased. Not that we have to have another shopping app, but Google Offers is certainly something to keep track of as it expands.

iPhone: Free
Android: Free

Social Productivity

Pinterest – The latest internet craze is Pinterest. Find things you like on the internet or upload your own images of cool signs, recipes, actions, decorations, etc. The possibilities are endless with Pinterest. You can see what others post, comment on others posts, and share all the posts with others on Pinterest and those not on Pinterest. It took me a few days to get an invite to join, but until then the app is still functional to view what people are pinning. Definitely something you could do to pass the time until the game is on.

iPhone: Free
Android: Free (from AppGeyser)

Evernote Food – If you already use Evernote, this brand new add on app allows you to save meals, recipes, etc with photos, descriptions, locations and more. You can share any post via facebook, twitter or email. All notes can be tagged like any other post in Evernote and are saved in whatever notebook you want to save them to (default is main notebook). You can take photos from directly within the app and save to your camera roll. Not sure how using this app will affect regular upload limits from Evernote. Right now, it’s only available for iPhone (along with a slew of other new add on apps including some that would be helpful for students), but hopefully like the regular Evernote app will soon be available for Android. If you’re an Android user, you can save the same info by making a new note in the Evernote app – this specialty app only adds what I’ll call aesthetic value.

iPhone: Free

Sports

Team Stream by Bleacher Report – This app gives you constant notifications on your favorite teams and sports (if you want them) and allows you to see scores and such. Similar to the ESPN Scorecenter app, but I like that I get more news than I do with the ESPN app.

iPhone: Free
Android: Free

Bowl Bound 2011 – ESPN has once again made an app to help you keep up with all 80,000 bowl games. Get the latest news and updates as the bowl season begins.

iPhone: Free
Android: Free

You Got Skills!

ACBL Club Finder – Traveling and want to find a bridge game near you? Been out of the game and want to get a refresher and maybe find a good partner? Look no further. The official ACBL club finder app helps you find all of that and more. It only finds sanctioned games and clubs, so if you’re looking for Aunt Cleo’s club that doesn’t play ACBL then it probably won’t show up. Now if we could only get a good free bridge game app that runs from your phone not the internet….

iPhone: Free
Android: Free

Skyview Free – Android 1, iPhone 0. It’s always been simple to use an Android phone to look at constellations in the night sky. iPhones, nope. Skyview Free not only allows you to search the sky when you’re outside, you can do it from inside too! Using the technology in your phone, it helps pinpoint where you are in relation to the constellations. If you move your phone around you can see the constellations in the sky. Made me giggle.

iPhone: Free

Now that I’ve listed well over a dozen apps, I’d love to know which apps you’re relying on to get through the holiday season. Let me know what you think of these in the comments and, if you’re an Android user, definitely let me know if you find the Android apps have just as much functionality as the iPhone ones. If I’ve missed some that are compatible, I know you’ll sound off!

Join us next time for a new to-do topic (at least one we haven’t touched on in a while). Until then, happy downloading!

Back to School Part 3: Digital Calendars

HarriMac — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 21:27:27 +0000

As I have gained more responsibilities and my schedule is getting to be extremely full of things to do again, I realized that I needed to find a way to try and tie all my calendars and all my tasks together. Even though I’ve always been busy and I’ve used a good paper calendar since I started college, I have started to use my phone as a quick reference to what I need to do and what I need to remember. Though my iPhone calendar has been useful til now, it’s not flexible enough for my needs, so I set out through the App Store to find a better app that was free. Here’s what I found:

Calvetica – Nice layout. Allows a different landscape view of what’s on your calendar. It allows you to pick which of your calendars you already sync with the native calendar show up here. Not only does it pull info from the native calendar, the native calendar is updated with changes you make so if you just need it for some reason, the info is there. Allows you to look at just a list of appointments for that day, an 8-5 day, or all 24 hours in the day. Turn it landscape and you can look at the whole week like it’s usually laid out in a planner (days side by side) or you can look at each day and just the appointments each day. You can also look at the whole month at once, send yourself notifications about events, etc. The bad? Hard to edit existing calendar items if you need to change anything other than duration, you can’t pick a custom repeat so stuck with the same ones in iPhone calendar, and it’s a little wonky when trying to do a multiday event (I tried to do a 2 day event that was all-day both days but if you do that, you can’t choose 48 hours, you have to choose less than 48 hours or it makes your event 3 days). Conclusion: Decent, but missing a few things I need. [the version that is available for free download is version 3.7. the newest version, 4.1, is $2.99]

Planner – Does not automatically sync with the iPhone native calendar. If you’re like me and already have a full calendar on the iPhone or with Google, it’s rather difficult to accept an app where you’ll have to re-enter everything. You also have to have the pro version in order to get notifications about things on your calendar or even set up repeating tasks. That being said, it allows you to view a whole month or a single day, to keep track of what you planned to do today versus what you actually did today, and to keep statistics on what you spend your time on. Conclusion: Great ideas, but again, not for me.

Organizer Lite – Similar to Planner, this app doesn’t sync with the native calendar. I also found it somewhat difficult to actually enter tasks, though the ability for free text, inserting pictures, emoji and linking tasks with contacts in the phone is nice. You can view your calendar by the day and by the month (default is by the day). Easy on the eyes. Conclusions: Decent, but missing a few things I need.

Planner& Lite – Very nice layout. This app allows you to set appointments, list tasks, make notes and set reminders. You can view your calendar by the day, week, or month. Very easy to access and change settings, export what’s in the app to google docs (or import), export via mail, or access a web server. You can also set a password for the app and search through all your appointments, etc for that one task you knew you had but didn’t remember when it was. Biggest downside is that the app does not sync with the native calendar or google calendars. Conclusion: Would be an A+ if it had a sync feature in free version.

Organizer – Pretty cool app. Lets you do your grocery list, calendar, to do list, add others to your calendar, see what others are doing, and chat with your family. It really is meant to keep up with multiple people at once, so great if you’re going back to school and managing a household or trying to keep up with several siblings, etc. You must register to even use this app, but it’s similar to Mom Planner (same company). This doesn’t automatically sync with the native calendar, but just like Planner & Lite, this would be fantastic if that feature was automatically available (or if I didn’t have to register to even try it out).

There were a few other free calendars out there like SnapCal and Pimp Your Calendar, but I’d just be repeating the same as I have already. I wasn’t truly impressed with any of the calendars enough to make them true replacements for the native iPhone calendar. If you haven’t used the native app yet, these might be really great to start with, but not expandable enough if you want to sync or move the calendar later.

Are there any apps I missed? I still haven’t found the perfect one for me, but for many students the native calendar or one of these will suffice. If you know of one that is amazing, share with the world by posting in the comments.

How To Choose A Digital Camera

HarriMac — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 15:00:41 +0000

Almost every phone these days has a digital camera built in. But what if you want more? You want better zoom, more precise shooting, or just manually adjusting the shutter speed or aperture? You can’t do that on every phone. So here’s a quick how to for picking a digital camera to use in the place of or in combination with you camera phone.

Ask yourself five questions -

1) What do I plan to take pictures of?

2) Where do I plan to use my camera?

3) How much control over the composition do I want?

4) How much do I want to spend?

5) Do I want to fit the camera in my pocket, in a small bag, or do I want to carry tons of accessories and tripods, etc?

Most people just want something to take pictures of cool stuff they see – people, buildings, flowers, sunset, parties. They don’t care about adjusting settings and don’t want something that could be difficult to carry around. For these people a pocket sized camera will work well. You can get these for under $100 to over $300 and in multiple colors.

Other people want to take cool pictures everyday but also want to take their camera to places where they won’t be able to be within 50 feet of their subject. Think air shows, the zoo, a graduation, a kids soccer game, the street from the Top of the Rock in NYC. Still, though, they do not want to have to lug around big bags or change lenses. They want a point and shoot camera that also gives them the chance to do a little more. In this case, a bridge camera might work best. These cameras have really large zoom lenses, but pack compactly. You can pick up one of these generally in the $300 – 700 price range.

Some people really don’t care how much they lug around, don’t mind changing lenses, and generally want far more control over the composition of the picture than the average user. They shoot pictures for money or their skill has outgrown the bridge camera. They might want to shoot pictures all day long in places like wildlife reserves, national parks, weddings, etc. They also know they can get the bang for their buck by buying a DSLR, which has a >$500 price range.

Some people buy cameras that a) are way to complicated for their skill level with no intention of ever learning how to use it, b) don’t match what they want to shoot, or c) don’t fit where they want to use it. In a search of Amazon DSLR listings, it was surprising the number of parents who bought these advanced cameras to shoot a kids game but complained about the price or the quality. They might have been better served by a bridge camera, as would have the users who bought a non Sony NEX pocket camera and wanted amazing zoom. Some may have gotten exactly what they needed with a DSLR but could have thrown in another $100 for a decent intro lesson (or $20 for a book on how to use this camera or compose better).

I currently shoot with a Sony a55 with 18-55mm and 55-200mm lenses. I anticipate getting an 11-18mm lens in the next six months. I have been teaching myself the art of photography for five years now and have progressed from a simple point and shoot, to a bridge, to a point and shoot, to a point and shoot and a bridge, to a more advanced bridge and a point and shoot, to a DSLR. I was able to change my camera as I learned more and learned what I wanted to do and how to do it. I have a camera phone but usually only use it in a pinch or to take pics of documents as a reminder. If you want to do a one time buy but really plan on sticking with it, go for the DSLR but don’t rely on factory settings or AUTO shooting. Really teach yourself or take some lessons from a pro.

Check out all your options and think about the five questions I mentioned above when picking a camera. Go to an actual camera store (they do still exist) or go online and chat with customer service at some stores like Wolf Camera or Butterfly Photo to find out what best fits you. Some photographers are brand loyal and will never buy another brand but I suggest buying what works for you. I’ve shot with Fujifilm, Kodak, and Sony. The difference each time was moreso that a great photo depends on the photographer, not the camera!

What kind of cameras do you shoot with? What are your photography dreams?

8 Android and iPhone Apps To Check Out Today!

HarriMac — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 15:30:27 +0000

We all need more tools for productivity (and procrastination). These 8 apps are all available on both Android and iPhone platforms and prove to be useful for being on the move and keeping track of your business. Most don’t require signing up to use (a couple do even to test the app and we all know no one likes extra signing up or extra email).

Poynt

Poynt is a location based search tool. Using your phone’s GPS, it helps you find businesses, events, restaurants, people, movies, and gas where you are or in a location you provide. Pretty low key and nifty – far less clunky than apps like Yelp. It also gives you the weather in your current location It’s also available on WP7, Blackberry and Nokia platforms. Check out this video demonstration:

Download Poynt – Android iPhone

Hulu+

Given the increase of costs for Netflix and the better availability of current television shows on Hulu, some of you might be interested in upgrading your Hulu account to Hulu Plus. Another reason to sign up might be that you want to watch Hulu on your phone. The Hulu Plus app is easy to use, though the audio-video isn’t always as great as on your laptop (the Netflix app [Android ; iPhone] has the advantage with consistently decent AV). Anyway, you can get a free trial of Hulu Plus if you want to check it out. I am currently using a free month trial since I signed up with my student email address and they have other deals for longer trials as well.

Download Hulu+ Android iPhone

Taptu

I’ve been on the move trying to find a good news source since the NY Times went to a paid system. Taptu isn’t just one news source, it’s as many as you want to add. Somewhat of an RSS aggregator, you can quickly sift through news and magazines such as LiveScience, Apartment Therapy, the NY Times, Sports Illustrated, NPR News, and The Onion. Link Taptu with your Google Reader account to put all your news in a single place (the only limit is that you can only add up to 30 streams from Google Reader). Tap a button to share an entire news stream or just a single article via email, Twitter, Facebook, or Instapaper, or to open in a browser on your phone. You can bookmark news articles within the app to quickly access later. Great source for news.

Download Taptu Android iPhone

Memonic -

Memonic is similar to many other note taking programs. You can write a note, take a picture of something you want to remember, and organize your memories into folders or by tags. You can even create a shared “memonic” with others. That might be really useful if you’re working on a group project or want to share a thought with many friends or family. You don’t need to create an account to use it, but you will if you want to synchronize your notes to the internet (you can also add things from your web browser) or to your computer. If I could use it in landscape mode, I’d probably use it a lot more often since for me it really compliments the list making app Wunderlist which I use to keep track of what I need to do every day. Do note that there is the free version of the service and the paid version – the free has a 100 note/3 group limit while the paid version is $28/yr and has unlimited usage.

Download Memonic Android iPhone

Goodreads -

Everything these days is becoming a social network. So why not books? For centuries, people have read books because others suggested or because they found something interesting about an author, etc. They found a genre they liked and stuck with it. You can now do all those things through Goodreads via the apps or the web. I haven’t branched out much into the community, but I love that I can write my own review of the books, easily find similar books or authors to those I have mentioned I have read, and let others know what I’m reading, who my favorites are, and what I’d like to read. I can even follow my favorite authors that use the service. I’m from a family of bibliophiles so that is a great tool!

Download Goodreads Android iPhone

Firefox -

I don’t know how Android users feel about the built in browser they have, but Safari really is not my cup of tea most of the time on the iPhone. I use Firefox as one of my main browsers on my PC (Chrome and Opera are the others), so I was excited when Firefox released apps where I could access my bookmarks from my computer (and passwords if I choose to sync those too) and browse them in the Firefox app. Pretty simple to use and very clean design. Good alternative to the built in browser. The apps are different between Android and iPhone but both are very useful.

Download Firefox Android iPhone

Springpad -

Springpad requires a login or registration. You can login with an actual Springpad account or via Google, Facebook, Twitter or Yahoo. You can save items you want to remember (think Evernote or Memonic) to your phone, the internet, and your computer. You can organize the items you save into notebooks including barcodes, photos, etc and you can search nearby for other notes. Do you forget to organize all the things you save? No more worries – Springpad will do it for you and even find relevant information related to what you’ve saved – price drops, links, etc. You can even use the Board feature to visually plan out projects you’re working on. Definitely a multitasking tool.

Download Springpad Android iPhone

Walk Score -

Linking you up with WalkScore.com, the Walk Score app lets you see how walkable your current location is. Are you in walking distance (with actual sidewalks) of things to do or are you in a barren land? If you’ve lived somewhere for a long time, this app might not be helpful, but think about when you’re trying to pick a new neighborhood or if you’ve just moved and trying to find out what’s nearby. Extremely useful app for those of us that do not like to spend a lot of time in a car.

Download Walk Score Android iPhone

I hope you get to check these apps out soon! If you’ve used them, let me know what you think. Look out tomorrow for the post on helping others out via organ donation, blood/plasma donation, etc. If you know any students, tell them to be on the lookout Friday for the first of several back to school posts

Long overdue…20 fantastic iPhone apps for spring and summer fun!

HarriMac — Tue, 17 May 2011 23:40:37 +0000

Even though the weather right now screams more of March or April than May, your iPhone can help you keep up with whatever time of year you want it to be. Here are 20 fantastic (and almost all FREE) apps that can help you be more productive this summer or the life of the party!

1. Allergy Manager – It’s the peak of allergy time for most people and what better way to see when you might just need to stay indoors than with the Allergy Mgr app from Omnaris. There are similar apps available, but this allows you to see the next four days and expected allergy count. It lists the predominant allergens in the air as well. It also looks cleaner than some other apps, including Zyrtec’s AllergyCast. It also includes a refill reminder for those that use Omnaris. If you’re an allergy sufferer, I highly suggest you check this one out!

2. Pulse News – If you like all your news in one place or at least a variety of news, check out the Pulse News app. You can pick and choose from dozens of news sources and social media feeds to keep up with whatever you want. I’ve already been turned on to a few cooking recipes and apartment decorating tips from news and web sources I’d never heard of. It refreshes news pretty often so you aren’t stuck with old news longer than you want to be. Very decent replacement for me to the NY Times.

3. Soundhound – Have you ever wondered what “that” song was? Been watching a TV show and think that song was awesome? Well never fear, Soundhound is a great source for finding out what the song is. Don’t have a recording of it but know how to hum it? This app recognizes that too. I’ve used it to find a few really hard to find tunes and not been disappointed.

4. 100 push ups – Just like the website of the same name, 100 push ups is a six week challenge that will get you to doing 100 pushups consecutively. Not for the faint of heart, but definitely for someone motivated to shape up (regardless of fitness level), this app helps you keep track of your progress and even counts out breaks in between sets. Get those arms ready for the beach!

5. TuneIn Radio – The free version of this app has ads and doesn’t allow you to record live radio (like the paid $.99 version does), but it has more than 40,000 radio stations, can identify local stations, and, best for me, lets me listen to ESPN radio ALL DAY LONG. I can’t wait for football season to see how many games I can pick up with this app!

6. Cartoon Network – I absolutely LOVE cartoons. And especially now that Thundercats is coming to Cartoon Network, I’m going to love being able to watch it from my phone. Not that I don’t have cable, but something about being able to lay in bed with a tiny screen or lounge on the couch is awesome. Watch full episodes, clips and more! And if you’re into the late night Cartoon Network feature of Adult Swim, they have an app too! I’m a huge fan of SeaLab 2021 and now I can watch all the eps!

7. SimpleGoals - We all have goals we want to reach. This app allows you to put in your goals and track your progress toward each one. A cool addition is that if you shake the iPhone, you get inspirational quotes!

8. Doodle* – Ok, the FIRST paid app I’ve reviewed ($2.99 on itunes). First, I absolutely love Doodle. A friend turned me on to it a few months ago when I was trying to set up meetings with my capstone committee. Since then, I’ve found that having it on my phone to keep up with events I’m planning or attending and being able to schedule events without sitting in front of a computer is an absolutely awesome thing. If you plan a lot, check out their online scheduling and if you love it, download this app!

9. GasBuddy – Everyone’s favorite topic these days, gas! Easy enough to turn on this app and find the best prices or nearest gas stations to your actual location. The prices are accurate and has really helped me find the cheapest gas without going out of my way. A must have if you’re buying gas these days.

10. Mixology – There are plenty of bartending and drink apps out there now. This app has thousands of drinks and you can also search by what you have available in case you aren’t up to going to the store. It also includes non-alcoholic beverages and lets you favorite your fave drinks so you can easily find them again.

11. Jimmy Johns – I’m a foodie and I love Jimmy Johns. Now I can order from my phone which makes me uber happy! You can do regular orders or catering orders via the phone now and use your existing account from their website. Check it out!

12. Papa John’s – Have a bunch of kids coming over and need to feed them quickly? Get on your phone and order some pizza or wings from Papa John’s. The only downside to this app is that you can’t get to non-pizza items directly without logging in or going through ordering a pizza first. Hope they fix this part soon!

13. Kroger Co. – Love coupons but don’t want to print them out or clip them? You can save Kroger coupons and view the ads with this app. Pretty handy for saving some money when shopping!

14. Wunderlist – I love making lists. Lists list lists. And I have tons to do so I need lists. This app, which I can sync to their website and to my desktop via that app have made life so much easier. I can put deadlines on things to do, I can denote the most important things I need to do, and I can make different lists that fit every part of my life (work, frat, manuscripts, etc). Awesome!!!

15. Path – I love using this app to take pictures with my phone and automatically share them with others. It automatically tags the location and date of the pictures so you can keep track of where you’ve been. A pretty nice photo journal of life if you take it that way. Do know that if you put in someone’s email to share it with, they automatically get every photo you post. You can selectively send posts as well. Just an FYI for such an awesome app!

16. GetGlue – This is a cool social media site for sharing what you’re listening to, watching, thinking about, etc. You can rank your favorites for every category and it tailors itself to your likes. Easy to tie into other social media like twitter and facebook. It is a good way to find out other things you might be interested in. I got recommendation for several authors that I had never heard of when I started rating authors and books I liked.

17. Boxcar – I wanted GOOD push notifications for twitter and I didn’t want to pay for an app just to find out the timing sucked. Even though I use Twipple regularly, the push notifications were when the app wanted to. Now that I use Boxcar, I get on time notifications and can reply directly from Boxcar or use it to open another app to reply. Simply awesome. And free!

18. Evernote – Very easy to use to “clip” anything on the internet you like including tweets and websites. You can also create your own notes and reminders. You can download Evernote not only for your phone but also can download the desktop app to do the same from your computer and sync the two.

19. Fitness Free – If you want to make up your own workouts, you can use this app to pick from over 700 exercises that match the part of the body you want to work. It has pictures that demonstrate each part of each exercise so you can see how to do it correctly. Pretty neat tool to make up workouts!

20. TreeHugger – After all your spring and summer fun, don’t forget you need to clean up after yourself! This app not only has environmental news but you can also look up where to recycle certain objects and items. Makes it so easy to find this out and you don’t have an excuse not to know anymore! I can’t wait to use it to find a place to get rid of some old laptop batteries.

What iPhone apps have you found useful lately?

Android 2.2 aka FROYO

wjemison — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 23:48:16 +0000

I know this post will be incredibly late in Android years, but after patiently awaiting the update to Android 2.2…AKA…FROYO, I must say that the update was worth the many hours spent contacting Samsung (I have a Vibrant) and laughing at conspiracy theory after another regarding Samsung’s or T-Mobile’s plan to screw everyone in buying a newer model.

From my last few weeks playing with it, the FROYO build is quite a bit faster than 2.1 and makes the media and internet browsing experience on my Vibrant more lively and pleasurable (thanks in large part to the Flash addition). The response time on the touch screen is better and I also find myself making fewer errors when I type. It is also important to note for T-Mobile readers, the Wifi calling addition and simple to use tethering features are well worth the time to master, especially if you are a regular traveler, like me.

With all those pluses, there are a few drawbacks:

1. There will be many application updates to tackle once you update

2. Your friends stuck with 2.1 or older (or the iPhone) will be envious and ultimately despise you

3. Depending on your service provider, you may not get Gingerbread until 2012.

Will

10 Awesome iPhone Apps

HarriMac — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 21:00:41 +0000

Continuing in this series about awesome iPhone apps, I have searched high and low to find ten more free and awesome apps. Several of these are also available for the iPad. If you’ve used any of these or more, please let me know by commenting on this post! Happy downloading!

Posterous
I was looking for a way to quickly update my blog from my iPhone. You could get to blogger from the Google app, but I wanted something that didn’t involve a million steps and that I could use to cross post if I chose. Insert Posterous. This app is very simplistic and does what it claims. I don’t use it super often, but when I’m on the go and wanting to update using text, audio, video, etc, I am very satisfied. Posterous has the ability to post not only to your posterous blog, but also to twenty-ish other social sites. Neat, right??

DMB
Ok, so I’m not a groupie, but I LOVE Dave Matthews Band. So from this site I can keep track of where the band is, what is coming up, buy tickets, buy stuff from their store, keep in touch with other fans, listen to music, glance through show pictures, etc. I love the functionality of the app. While they aren’t the only band to use an app to keep in touch with fans, they are the first band that made me want to download the app. Check it out if you’re a DMB fan.

AppShopper
Similar to Chorus, an app that I reviewed a few months back, AppShopper is a way to find apps that you may like and see what apps friends of yours like. I believe this to be a better alternative to Chorus. I like that it lets you make a wish list and will show you tons of apps in different categories, free and paid and can also sort them on how old they are. I can find out if apps I already have are coming out with updates soon. All in all, a better way to find new apps than trying to sort through the App Store.

Quickoffice Connect
I travel quite a bit and sometimes can’t get to my laptop or don’t have a free wireless connection to check my email. Oftentimes, however, I still have emails to look at and most contain attachments of word files or PDFs. So, one day, desperate to read a very important word file, I started searching for apps and I found Connect. I tried a couple other apps at the same time including USB Disk, but Quickoffice Connect comes in both free and paid versions and allows me to transfer files wirelessly, write and read pdf, excel, word and picture files – all from my phone. It is compatible with Microsoft Office 2007. I can’t say that I’ll ever write a document from scratch, but when opening and editing attachments or opening files from my google docs account, I can say that it is my go to app for word and excel files. I think iBooks has a better pdf reader.

Scramble
So I have finally given in to the game bug and besides the ever popular Words with Friends, I have fallen in love with Scramble. If you’re a fan of Babble or other word games, you’ll love Scramble. It’s challenging to play against the clock and I always learn new words. Don’t want to play against time? There is an unlimited play option and in one session you are untimed. It’s just fun!

NHL GameCenter
Now that it’s hockey season, you need a way to keep up with all the scores, the rosters, the trades. This app is pretty awesome because it does all of that and more. If you’re a hockey fan, there’s not much more I can tell you except download this app!

Seesmic
Though I’ll always be a fan of TweetDeck, I needed a little bit more from my twitter client on my phone and on my desktop so I downloaded Seesmic. Similar to TweetDeck with a column layout and support of multiple accounts, Seesmic allows the user to further customize whether searches and lists are seen and easily allows landscape mode to be used when typing messages. You can easily search through tweets for something you are looking for or you can easily add video, images, etc to a new tweet. Seesmic, just like several twitter clients, allows you to update other social media accounts such as Facebook. The desktop version is far more functional than the iPhone app, but I am definitely hooked!

RxmindMe
If you take any medicines, you know that you can easily forget to take them or to get refills in time. With this app, both are things of the past. This app lets you put in the prescription number, doctor that wrote the prescription, how often to take, dose, pharmacy name and number, etc. Take an over the counter medicine or multivitamin? You can add that here too! If you don’t need a daily reminder, but just want a list of all your meds in your phone, this works for that too (you can turn the reminders off). Definitely a great tool for anyone that takes any meds.

Close Call

I actually downloaded this app after Ellie passed. In her phone she had not only kept a list of her meds labeled “ICE” (see the previous app for a different way to keep them), but also contact info for emergencies. Close Call allows you to make your emergency info the home screen on the phone so if you have a problem, anyone can easily see who to call, the number and a note that you can leave. My note says to open the RxmindMe app and to call my mom if there is a problem AND it has my picture so people know what I look like. I know we like to have pretty images on the phone, but what about a pretty person (yourself) and a way to save your life? (As a side note, if you have a password protected phone this might be the only way someone knows what to do).

Netflix
I have subscribed to Netflix for years and downloaded this app as soon as it was available. It’s easy to watch my instant queue over 3G or wifi. Most movies show up with amazing graphics and rarely does the stream hiccup. I highly, highly recommend this app for watching videos, but since it doesn’t allow you to edit your regular disc queue (come on Netflix!), I can’t recommend it for that purpose. If you’re looking for an app that does that, check out PhoneFlicks (not made by Netflix).

Which of these apps is your favorite? What apps should I be downloading??

How to: Sync Outlook to Android

Ellie — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 15:54:47 +0000

I’ve gotten this question twice in the past week, so I figured I should share this knowledge with the world. I’ve already discussed how to sync Android and Mac to copy files to/from your SD card. This is exclusively about Outlook. Read on!

CompanionLink (link) is the first app that I came across. This app syncs directly from Outlook to your Android. It syncs your email, contacts, tasks, etc. from Outlook. You must use your data cable and have an app called DejaOffice (free in the Market) already on your device to get this program to work. Some might not like the price at $39.95, but if you need Outlook and want to bypass Google, this is one of your few options. CompanionLink only works on PCs.

The Missing Sync for Android (link) is also $39.95, but this program syncs your Outlook data to Google then to your device. You can do this syncing wirelessly or via Bluetooth. Sticker shock aside, this program simply works. Future features include Outlook tasks. The Missing Sync works on Macs and PCs.

gSyncit (link) is another option that is a little less expensive at $14.99. It syncs Outlook email, contacts, tasks and calendars by syncing to Google then to your phone. It also syncs wirelessly. This program works on any Android powered device.

Touchdown (link) is perhaps the most popular of the Android-Outlook sync programs because it ties in with Pure Widgets like Pure Calendar and has a lot of features. With a 30 day trial, you can decide if you want this app, which retails at $19.99.

The default Email client on Android will sync your Outlook email and contacts to your device. Unfortunately, it won’t sync anything else, but you could sync tasks into a task manager like Remember the Milk with SprinxCRM.

Do you have suggestions on how to sync Outlook to Android? Let’s hear it in the comments!