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Turn your Smartphone into a Genius Phone

Do you ever wish you had a secretary to take care of setting things up for you? Yeah, me too. Well, I found the closest thing to having your own secretary that you can get without opening your wallet. The free service Dial2Do.com will allows you to use your phone to do the following: check and update your calendar, send emails and text messages, create to-do’s and memos, check the weather, update your twitter account, and a bunch of other things.

Here’s how they describe their service:

Dial2Do lets you do common tasks by just calling a number and speaking. Use it to send EMAIL or TEXT messages, record REMINDERS to help you remember things, post updates to your TWITTER or JAIKU stream and LISTEN to your favourite internet content. It’s easy and handsfree…

How does it work?
You get a call in number when you set up your account. When you dial the number a robotic voice ask you what you want to do. You say what you want and they recognize what you said and do it for you instantly.

They integrate with more services than you can shake a stick at. Calendars, Email, RememberTheMilk, Evernote, Twitter, FriendFeed, Wordpress, Blogger, and Typepad, Twitter, Ping.FM, and Tumblr. See the complete list of all of the services that you can use with Dial2Do.

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Podcast, Product Reviews, Productivity, Software, Tutorials Blogger, calendar, dial2do, evernote, FriendFeed, organization, personal productivity, Ping.fm, rememberthemilk, software tutorial, task management, twitter, TypePad

Always Have Your Important Files

Do you work on multiple computers during the day? Perhaps one at work and one at home? Maybe one is a Mac and another is a PC? Well there are a lot of files that you may create or update on one machine that you suddenly need on the other. Sure, you could use a USB drive, but that is very manual and error prone.
If you need to have a common collection of files that are synchronized and instantly available everywhere, you should use DropBox. DropBox is a service that allows you to sync files between multiple computers via their servers.

I have a few computers in my house: A windows desktop in my Office, Windows laptop downstairs, a Linux Laptop in our Bedroom (My Wife’s) and a new MacBook Pro where I do most of my writing now. I have some files on my old Windows desktop and laptop that I need on my MacBook and newly created files that I want back on my PCs. The other problem is that I need to work with certain Windows or Mac only apps at different times. This allows me to move all of the files that I need back and forth to the machine where I need to work in “real-time”.

If I do a Screencast on my PC, I just put it into my DropBox and upload it from my Mac when I’m ready. If I make something in iMovie on my Mac, I just drop it in and open it on my PC later.

What exactly is Dropbox?

This is how DropBox describes their service:

Dropbox is the easiest way to share and store your files online.
Works like you do
No complicated interface to learn. Dropbox runs in the background on your desktop.
Worry-free syncing
Sync your files automatically to your computers and the web.
It’s everywhere you are
Sign in and access your files from any browser or mobile device.
Easy sharing
Sharing files with your friends and family is just two clicks away.
Photos
View your photos in a gallery and share them easily with anyone.

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Podcast, Product Reviews, Productivity, Software, Tutorials dropbox, iPhone, linux, mac, software tutorial, sync files, video tutorial, windows

Capture Anything, Anywhere, and Recall it with Ease

When you have to create content for a living (here and my day job), you are constantly processing information. I am constantly looking for new approaches to capture the information and ideas during the day. The best tool that I have found so far is the note taking service Evernote.

Here’s how Evernote explains their service:

Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.

1. You capture the things you want to remember using what you already use—your Windows or Mac computer, the web, and your mobile phone.
2. We run everything through our recognition technology, and then synchronize it across your devices. You can then organize and tag the notes, if you wish.
3. When you want to find something, just search or filter and there it is just like you remember it.

Adding Information to your Notebook

You can install a desktop application on Windows or Mac computers and use their web interface on Linux machines. They also have a browser plug-in for Firefox and Safari that allows you to clip text and images from web pages and save them.

If you use multiple computers (work and home) with multiple operating systems, don’t worry Evernote will sync your notes to all of your devices instantly. No matter which device I’m using I can always capture any information and pull it back up. You can use a PC, Mac, and Phone (text, voice, photos).

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Media, Miscellaneous Ramblings, Movies, Podcast, Product Reviews, Productivity, Software, Technology, Tutorials

Simple Flexible To Do List Management

Keeping track of the myriad of things that I need to get done on a daily basis can be near impossible. I use the RememberTheMilk task management service to keep track of my tasks. This is a very simple, powerful, elegant tool for task management and to-do list creation.

You can sign up for a Free or Pro (paid) account. The Free account gives you just about all of the best, most valuable features. The Pro account ($25 USD/year) adds applications for your phone (iPhone, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile). I currently use an iPhone and used to have a Windows Mobile phone and always just used the free mobile web interface, which is very good. Times are tight and so’s my wallet.

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Podcast, Product Reviews, Productivity, Software, Tutorials

Image via Wikipedia

Give your Netbook a Little More Pep by Adding Extra Ram

GOAL: You will be able to add extra memory to a netbook or laptop in under 10 minutes.

If you are one of the 10 Million people who bought a netbook in 2008 (that’s right 10 Million!) you probably noticed that they are handy little devices, if not a little underpowered. There is no better way to make up for that anemic performance than a memory upgrade. Typical netbooks come with 1 gig of memory (Ram). They usually have capacity for a second gig, which I strongly recommend.

I bought my daughter an MSI Wind U100 for Christmas because it made sense with her lifestyle. She travels between her mother’s house and mine regularly and needs to be very mobile. She’s also on the tiny side, so the smallish keyboard is not a problem for her. I wanted to give the machine a little more oomph, so I ordered a stick of memory to install when she came to the house. (She was the camera person on the video below.)

Let’s Get Started!

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Gadgets, Podcast, Tutorials netbook memory, tutorial, upgrade memory, upgrade ram

This is the podcast file to accompany the Boost Google Reader’s Productivity article.

Download the Boost Google Reader’s Productivity Podcast Episode.Technorati Tags: podcast, google reader, zoho, web operating system

Podcast

Increase Google Reader’s Productivity Using Greasemonkey Scripts

I use Google Reader to read through 200+ feeds that contain mountains of information. Google Reader does a great job helping me manage this tall task. If you do a little tweaking, you can turn Google Reader into an amazing productivity tool. Firefox allows you to add extensions to increase functionality.

One of the most handy extensions is Greasemonkey. Greasemonkey allows you to customize the way a webpage works using small bits of JavaScript. There are thousands of Greasemonkey scripts available that help you get more from just about any popular website or service. I use a few scripts to customize Google Reader into more than just an RSS feed reader.

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Gadgets, Media, Movies, Podcast, Productivity, Software, Tutorials extension, feed reader, firefox, google reader, greasemonkey, Podcast, Productivity, RSS, script, software tutorial, tutorial

See How You Can Bring the Web Operating System to Life

Every so often I read about the Web OS or the Cloud OS, "When are we going to see the Web OS arrive?" In my mind, it’s pretty much here (with a few caveats).

 
A Web Desktop or webtop is a desktop environment embedded in a web browser or similar client application. A webtop integrates web applications, web services,  and applications on the local computer into a "desktop-like" environment. Web Desktops provide an environment similar to that of Windows, Mac, or Linux systems. It is a virtual desktop running in a web browser where data, files, configuration, settings, and access privileges reside remotely over the network. Much of the computing takes place remotely and the browser is primarily used for display and input purposes.

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Gadgets, Media, Miscellaneous Ramblings, Podcast, Productivity, Software, Technology, Tutorials, Web Surfing igoogle, integration, tutorial, web applications, web desktop, web operating system, web os, zoho applications

Small Price, Smaller Camera, Mixed Results

I wanted a small portable video camera to carry around with me. There are currently a few decent options in this category:

• Kodak Zi6 Pocket Video Camera
• Flip Video Minio HD Camcorder
• Handycam Camcorder
• Kodak Zi6 Pocket Video Camera

I chose the Kodak Zi6 (around $150.00). Kodak uses the phrase "Catch Life as it Happens" as a tagline for this camera. I think that just about sums it up. It’s a great little camera for sticking in your pocket and taking anywhere to save your memories. The camera is fun, convenient, and simple (with just a few minor glitches).

What’s in the Box?

You get a nice collection of accessories to accompany your video camera:

• Carrying case (not particularly sturdy)
• Two rechargable AA batteries
• Battery charger that does AA and AAA batteries
• Standard definition TV cable Hi Def TV cable
• Video editing software

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Gadgets, Podcast, Product Reviews, Technology gadget, kodak zi6, pocket video camera, product review, video camera

Use Software, the Web, and Social Networking to Ace your Job Search

Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last month or so, you’re probably worried about your job. Blue chip companies are falling into the deadpool or getting taken over on a daily basis.

You either just got laid off or you’re worried that you could be. If that’s not the problem, then you probably just need more money (welcome to the club). with the job market so tight, how do you compete?.

Let Technology be your not-so secret weapon to find all of the best jobs even in a tough market.

You can use software, social networking, and dead-simple techniques to make the whole process painless and successful.

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Podcast, Productivity, Tutorials career, job search, linkein, resume, simplyhired, tutorial