Posted on Mar 18, 2009 in applications, cellphones, mobile | 0 comments
For anyone who hasn’t opted for an iPhone, or other mobile that features downloadable apps, there’s quite a few services out there that you can use simply by calling or texting keywords. I have an iPod Touch for using Apple apps, but I haven’t yet upgraded to a smartphone (mostly because AT&T service in VT is horrible where I am, making the iPhone pretty useless). I currently use many of the following services to get information or make updates from my basic Samsung Alias.
Update Blogs/Social Networks:
- Facebook Mobile – Update your status, send photos, poke, send messages, and get phone numbers via email/SMS
- LiveJournal – Update your blog via email/SMS
- Twitter – Send tweets, see tweets, send replies and direct messages via SMS
- Posterous – Update your Posterous blog via email/SMS/MMS
- TwitPic – Share photos on Twitter
- Twittermail – Email updates and photos to Twitter.
- Twitxr – Update Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, Twitter, etc.
Get Weather, Sports Scores, etc.:
- 4INFO – Get weather, stock quotes, sports scores, news, diet tips, etc.
Voice-Automated Services:
- Dial2Do (Fav. of Mine) – Amazing service. You simply call your given number, say a command, and follow it with what you need to do. Examples of available services include writing emails, listening to your emails being read to you; updating Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, etc.; keep notes or send notes to Evernote or Remember the Milk; have news read to you from TechCruch to LifeHacker, etc.; post to your LiveJournal, Blogger, WordPress blog, etc.; Get weather, update xpenser (see below), etc. The list literally goes on and on.
- Reqall (Fav. of Mine) – Similar to Remember the Milk or Jott. Let’s you call and send in notes, to-do’s, dates to remember, etc.
- Jott – Voice to text notes and to-do’s. Email and text message reminders.
- GOOG 411 (Fav. of Mine) – Free 411 service. Call for “pizza” in a city and it returns all listings. Or call with a business name in a city and get back the number with options to text it, send it, or connect to them for free.
- Tell Me – Especially works well with Blackberry. Get movies, stocks, weather, etc.
Keep Checkbook, Schedule Tivo, Add to Netflix Queue, Manage To-Do’s:
- Remember the Milk – Get email, SMS, or IM reminders, manage tasks, share tasks, etc.
- XPenser – Manage a check register. Text in withdrawals/deposits or set up voice activation with Dial2Do (mentioned above). Check your entries/enter entries online and export data for use in spreadsheet applications.
- Google Mobile – Offers everything from SMS, Blogger, Calendar, Docs, Reader, Notebook, Photos, News, iGoogle, Sync, YouTube, Gmail, Maps and Search.
- Kwiry – Update Netflix and Tivo, search Amazon, check email, update Facebook and Twitter, get Yelp results, etc.
- Quicken Beam – Check balances via SMS
Voicemail Services:
- Message Sling – Get messages, see missed calls (even when your phone’s off), use custom greetings, listen to your messages online, etc.
- YouMail (Fav. of Mine) – Get messages, see missed calls (even when your phone’s off), use custom greetings, listen to your messages online, etc.
Miscellaneous:
- Text Marks – Choose what message you want to display when people text a term to 41411. For example, when someone texts ‘mepriestley’ to 41411, they get a text message sent to their phone with all of my contact information.
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Posted on Mar 17, 2009 in applications, gadgets, tech | 0 comments
As I was reading through my RSS feeds, I came across a blog post on the Flip the Media blog entitled Can you live with your mobile phone? (I think they meant to say ‘without’ because the first line in the article started the same way.) Either way, I thought it was an interesting question, so I decided to check it out. The post was rather shorter than I expected, but luckily, the author linked to the source of their inspiration for the entry: You phone, your life: New apps change how you use mobile devices by John Boudreau of Mercury News.
They tell us where to eat, how to find friends, when to make a left turn.
Oh, and they can also make a phone call.
What a great starting set of lines. It’s so true. With the dawn of the Apple App Store (and subsequent app stores), you really can get software that perform almost any function that you need at any given time. What, you don’t have Midomi? Even then it’s only a few clicks and problem solved. You can find restaurants, keep track of expenses, make calls, text, update Twitter, check sports scores, etc. all from your cell phone. I think what’s even more impressive is that these services aren’t even limited to Apps on a smartphone. There’s numerous services you can sign up for that let you access information without even having a smartphone, just by using simple SMS (text messages).
I think I could live without my phone, my computer, etc. pretty easily for a set amount of time, but being the gadget freak that I am, I’d start to feel withdrawals within a few days. I have been in the habit lately of trying to avoid plugging in my computer on the weekends (unless I have a job deadline). I also try not to use it too much at night. During those times though, I find that I still have to check my email, Twitter, etc. I just use my iPod Touch. I think it’s a good compromise. I do not own a iPhone or other smartphone (although I may update this Summer). I find that I can achieve a perfect balance between my cellphone (Samsung Alias with flip QWERTY keyboard), my iPod Touch, and my laptop. I use my laptop most days, for the majority of the day. When I’m not “plugged in” I use my cellphone’s SMS capabilities on the go or my iPod Touch if I happen upon a wireless hot spot or in my apartment.
If I don’t need wireless, I prefer my iPod Touch. I keep track of my expenses, track notes, play games, write drafts of blog entries, listen to music, etc. If I need to say, update my Twitter, Facebook, Netflix Queue, etc. and I don’t have wireless, I can easily do all that and more from my cellphone via SMS. I could “live without” my phone, but I certainly wouldn’t want to.
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Posted on Mar 12, 2009 in apple, applications, online, tech | 0 comments
In the past year, there’s quite a few magazines that I subscribed to. A few are worthwhile while others don’t really cut it. One of the ones I am planning on renewing is Mac|Life. It’s usually got great articles, great reviews, and just enough ads so that you don’t find yourself flipping through 5 pages between every article. This month’s cover article was: 50 Things Every Mac Geek Should Know. It’s probably a good thing that I can honestly say, I actually learned quite a few things that I didn’t already use on my Mac. Here’s a few of my favorites with the corresponding numbers from the article.
#9 Spotlight Can Do Math – Definitely didn’t know this one. I always find myself opening Calculator to perform calculations. Apparently OS X Leopard has a built-in feature where you can simply press Command-Space to pop open Spotlight, start typing in an equation, and press Return. Tada!
#13 Safari’s Private Surfing Is Not So Private – Fortunately, I don’t use Safari anyways, and my computer is my personal machine. BUT, if you are often at work, school, or some other public place, and enter pages you may not want people knowing you enter, this may be helpful. Private Browsing actually stores your preferences so anyone (boss, IT, etc.) can see your history by using the Terminal and typing: dscacheutil -cachedump -entries Host . You can purge this by typing this into the Terminal: dscacheutil -flushcache
#15 How To Reset Your iPod or iPhone – Okay, so I already knew this one…but since it’s extremely useful if you have an iPod touch or iPhone (and something I’ve had to use numerous times), I’ve included it. Just press and hold the wake/sleep button (top of device on the left) and the Home button at the same time until the Apple logo appears. Let go and let it reboot. (For clickwheel iPods it’s the Menu and center buttons at the same time.)
#18 Play Tetris In The Terminal – This is awesome 
. (1) Launch Terminal, (2) Type emacs and press Return, (3) Press Escape, then type x, (4) Type tetris
#20 The Dock Is Cool, But It Ain’t Perfect – Add A Recent Items Stack: (1) Open Terminal, (2) Type defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add ‘{ “tile-data” = { “list-type” = 1; }; “tile-type” = “recents-tile”; }’ and press Return. Type killall Dock and press Return, (3) When it restarts, Control-Click to customize….or….to make dock icons magnified really big if you have them really small, just hold Shift-Control when you mouse over them.
#32 The Finder’s Not the Only Way to Access Files On Your Mac – Shares info on the app Path Finder ($39.95) which you can use as a replacement Finder with more features. Cool.
#33 Zap Your PRAM – Delete your parameter RAM: (1) Shut down the computer, (2) Turn on the computer, (3) Press and hold Command-Option-P-R before the grey screen appears, (4) Release once the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
#36 Use Encrypted Disk Images to Hold Super Secret Files – (1) Launch Disk Utility, (2) Choose File > New > Blank Disk Image and enter a name for your image. Notice where it is going to save and change if necessary, (3) Select size, (4) Choose 128-bit AES encryption from the drop-down, (5) Choose read/write disk image from Image Format drop-down, (6) Create.
#45 Use FSCK If Safe Boot Isn’t Enough – Reboot your Mac while holding down Command-S. At the command-line, type: /sbin/fsck –fy. Let it do its thing. If you get: ** The volume (name_of_volume) appears to be OK, then everything is good. If you get: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****, then keep running FSCK until you get the first message. When you’re done, type: reboot, in the command-line prompt. Your Mac will restart.
#46 Fix Startup Issues With Safe Boot – Hold down the Shift key when you start or restart. Once you do that successfully, restart it in normal mode.
#48 Essential Third-Party OS X Utilities – PRODUCTIVITY: Quicksilver (free beta), AUDIO: Audio Hijack Pro ($32), MENU: FruitMenu ($12), ICON: CandyBar ($29), BACKUP: Déjà Vu ($24.95), CLEAN-DESKTOP: DragThing ($29)
#50 Play Snake in the Terminal – (1) Launch Terminal, (2) Type emacs and press Return, (3) Press Escape, then type x, (4) Type snake
And that’s that. Again, these are just a few of my favorites or ones that I find especially helpful. Here’s the link for the official Mac|Life article.
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Posted on Mar 10, 2009 in online | 0 comments
Twitter is being used for all kinds of things, from the posting basic micro-blogging comments, to posting pictures, searching, marketing, contest giveaways, event announcements, and even to serve as a medium for fundraising. Tweet to Beat is a great promotion of @tferriss, but at the same time, a great fundraiser for US Public Schools. @tferriss, author of the 4-Hour Work Week, has started a promotion in which for every follower he gains on Twitter, he will donate $3 ($1 himself, $2 from an anonymous person) to needy public schools to help promote literacy. He threw in some prizes (round trip plane ticket to anywhere and a Mac Book Pro) but regardless of prizes, you’re helping out a cause, which should be a prize all on its own. His cap right now (although he states that he is willing to adjust) is 50,000 more followers. I’ve been a follower for awhile, otherwise, I’d join in now. For all those out there who aren’t already, get on following @tferriss!
Read the full promotion here: The Tweet to Beat: Paying $3 Per Twitter Follower
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