I have been on a quest for a number of years to become more elegantly (but not intrusively so) organized on a number of levels. In this time of ever-increasing availability of information I have found quite the smörgåsbord of options for keeping one's life in order. My particular quandary lies in the fact that there are times when I spend copious amounts of time using a computers, lots of computers, and others when I am glad to stay away for a nice long time.
I have enjoyed the usage of Microsoft Outlook at work in keeping me aware of and (as much as it is able to) on time for appointments. Before the days of cell phones that could synchronize their calendars with PIMs, I found a way to keep myself current while away from my own PC: using VBA to forward Outlook's pop-up notifications to my cell phone. I can't tell you how many meetings this kept me from missing. It made me aware that there are always alternative means to keep on schedule, and that I could increase the productivity of others by promoting that awareness.
At work, I use Outlook to keep track of multiple projects, remind me of mundane tasks, tell me where and when my meetings are, and keep the unimportant stuff from getting in the way of my work. While Outlook is a very capable application for work, have untethered myself from it for personal organization, as it requires me to be attached to a single computer. At home I have 3 different PCs I use, so it just doesn't do the job. Browser based email and calendaring, coupled with easy integration of newer "smart phones", give me the continuity I ask for without keeping me tied to a computer screen. The purpose of this post is to increase the awareness of many of the handy tools I have found, and maybe some of their lesser known features as well.
Web Browsers- There are a few big ones to choose from, and a lot of others that leverage their technology. While Internet Explorer is a necessary evil at work, it has no compelling features that make me want to recommend it. Here are my favorites:
- Opera: Very flexible and standards compliant. Available across multiple platforms, including mobile devices. Want to know what I like it best for? Setting the default magnification allows me to browse the web easilly on the 61" TV from across the room without ever having to fiddle with the settings again. Unlike any other web browser I have tried, Opera alters the size of images and plug-ins like Flash movies to scale the whole page (not just the text) for easy viewing. It seems to have some problems with some sites using Ajax features, but I've read that can be as much the website's fault as Opera's. Opera also includes voice support, by allowing you to control it vocally, and it can read content back to you.
- Firefox: My favorite all purpose browser. Firefox's strength is in it's ability to add functions thought up by smart people not associated directly with the browser's development. I'll touch on some of my favorite ones shortly.
- Flock: Based on Firefox's Gecko rendering engine, Flock is a wonder to behold. Coined as "The Social Web Browser", Flock has gone and integrated support for many of the more popular hot spots on the web, making quick work of uploading photos & videos, blogging, bookmarking, and keeping up with your friends who are doing the same. I try to use it for all my blog posts, because the off line capabilities combined with powerful online integration make it a very pleasurable experience. Like Firefox, Flock can be enhanced with extensions, and in fact many of the extensions written for the former can be used by the latter.
- Google: Talk about overload. It seems like I am always curious what Google is up to next. When they buy a company or enhance any service, I am all over it. They have extensive resources available on the web of course, but many of them bridge across to mobile use as well. I use GMail and Google Calendar to keep my personal life in order. While my cell phone's calendar gets synchronized with my work calendar, Google's Calendar sends me SMS messages to remind me where I need to be. I can add new events and invite people by sending an SMS message to GVENT. Google's recent purchase of GrandCentral caused me to sign up for that service as well. It is a universal voice telephone routing/messaging service that has so many possibilities I can't begin to tell you what they do in this post. Everything I get from Google is free of charge. I'm sure I'll end up paying for it in some other way.
- Yahoo!: I'll admit that I'm more attached to Google than Yahoo!, but Yahoo! has some very compelling competition to most things I use from Google. Something I've been wanting to try out from Yahoo! was their latest version of Yahoo! Go for mobile phones. It wraps up all their best mobile accessible content and squeezes it into an easy-to-use interface.
- AOL Instant Messenger: Don't get me wrong, I'm not really into instant messaging too much after it got me married (and it was AIM that did it, too). But after I got my first "nice" phone and was looking for ways to exercise it, I went looking for an IMAP email service that offered Push service. For a brief explanation, most email software needs to be running for you to find out that you have unread messages (the client PULLs the messages from the server), where Push services notify the client first (and in this case the client was my phone). AIM's email service is the only one I have found in the US offering free Push email service that didn't require extra software to be running on your PC or phone. Using AIM, I had working Visual Voicemail while it was just a cool idea at Apple.
- Vonage: I can't say they have distinctive service any more, and I can't say they are the best price in town, but they are the ones with the most reputation to protect. They give us reliable phone service with LOTS of features for a very low price. I get SMS alerts when someone leaves a message, and the messages are emailed to any email inbox I desire. Thanks for offering an alternative to Qwest!
- 4INFO: I found 4INFO after being disappointed by Cingular/AT&T's unreliable SMS alerts lack of punctuality (I think their "service" is contracted through Infospace, remember them?). After dropping the unlimited internet plan from my phone in favor of unlimited family messaging, I stopped my morning weather RSS feeds on my phone, and changed to morning weather SMS messages. I stuck with 4INFO because I can put up with the unobtrusive advertising at the bottom of the message, and because they send the information when I ask them to.
- Windows Live Alerts: This one I'm a little on the fence about, but I joined on the off chance that it would pay off. They supposedly offer local traffic updates, no matter how local you want to get, but I haven't gotten anything yet. Microsoft gets traffic data from both NAVTEQ and Inrix, so I figure if there's gonna be anything to report in Olympia, WA, it should be available there.
- Twitter: If I were a social butterfly, I'm sure I would be using this constantly. Twitter allows other you and your friends to keep track of the other's life via short messages that can either be entered via the internet or SMS. I think it would be fun for a large group of people to tour a park or zoo together. I only use it so far to access my To-Do List, brought to you by my next featured service:
- Remember The Milk: This service is my non-Outlook task reminder for things that don't go on the Google Calendar very well. RTM can be used for scheduling as well, but I like that I can use fairly plain English to set a reminder via SMS, quickly and easily. The first tab on my iGoogle home page contains an RTM widget now, which complements my Google Calendar widget quite nicely.
- Jott: This is one I just read about while looking for tips on advanced usages of RTM, and instantly had to join. There is a service that Vonage provides for an extra fee per message, or you can spend a little extra for multiple messages prepaid: Transcribed Voice mail. Jott doesn't quite do that to follow the same function as Vonage. You call Jott (toll free number is 1-866-JOTT-123) tell the machine who the message is for, and speak the message you want delivered, then Jott sends an email to the recipient with the transcribed message. The person(s) being addressed has to be in your Jott phone book for it to work.
Come back for Part II!!!
Blogged with Flock
No comments:
Post a Comment