ToMuse.com

5 Great Productivity Apps For Getting Things Done Using Your T-Mobile G1

Kevin — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 05:54:34 +0000

I’ve had my T-Mobile G1 for nearly a month now and I’m still totally in love with it. It seems like every time I wish it did one other thing, someone comes out with a new app that fills that need. There’s many free productivity apps available in the Android Market that can help towards getting things done but currently my favorite five are those listed below.

Voice Recorder - I’ve been waiting for this for a few weeks. It not only allows you to do simple voice recordings but it also permits you to send your recordings via email or text message. It works great for recording meetings or taking personal voice notes when a pen isn’t handy. I would love to see them take this a step further and enable it to record actual phone conversations and conference calls. Conversion from the .3GP format to a more ubiquitous format like mp3 would be nice too but it’s not totally necessary.

Dial Zero - This let’s you quickly dial the customer service numbers of over 600 companies and bypass the annoying voice prompts to speak with an actual living person. The app also lets you comment on the service provider and the effectiveness of the current phone number for a given provider. Thus if the working phone number is ever changed it can be easily updated by anyone in the Dial Zero community of users.

QSearch - Enables you to search multiple sources from this single Android app. Currently you can search Google, Google Maps, YouTube, Dictionary, and Amazon.

CountDown Alarm - Simple yet so powerful, this app does exactly what it says but does it very well. You can change the alarm sound, set it to vibrate, have it blink the LED on alarm, change LED color, and have it show a persistent status bar icon when the timer is running.

AK Notepad - A great little notepad that I frequently use to jot down an address or ideas that I have and don’t want to forget. It’s not fancy but it works perfectly. You can also send your notes to a friend via email or SMS (see how-to video below).

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This is a post from ToMuse: Wonderings of a Web Consumer

5 Great Productivity Apps For Getting Things Done Using Your T-Mobile G1

MakeFive, A Digg For Your Top Five List

Kevin — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 04:04:29 +0000

MakeFive is a fairly new and addictive service that does one simple thing really well. That is, it lets you create a top five list of anything and everything on the MakeFive website and share it with your friends. The concept of MakeFive was conceived in late 2007 but with its successful implementation of video and integration with Twitter it has now began to gain a foothold and traffic is climbing.

MakeFive literally does cover everything from the Top Five Pro Wrestling Finishing Moves to the Top Five Cell Phones. And as Eric proclaims in the video below, it is indeed quite addicting. For me, it is comfortable to have a go-to list and to establish a sort of order to things and that is where MakeFive excels. For instance, you can create your own version the Top Five Cell Phones and keep it separate, but at the same time your picks/votes are counted towards the overall rankings of the Top Five Cell Phones. Thus in the end, the true favorites and most popular cell phone will win-out. It kind of reminds me of a Digg for favorite things (not news), where you can vote up/down for something by adding it to your own list and then further ranking items within your list.

The service currently permits you to gain points by creating your own list, adding photos and descriptions, ranking items, commenting, and performing other content-creation and socially-driven activities. Those points are then used to rank members accordingly but they are also used to award prizes for reoccuring monthly contests. There’s been a winner every month since last May but there’s no information on the actual prizes that have been given away. On the main Contest page the image below is displayed, suggesting that the prizes include a variety of iPods and t-shirts. An iPod Touch would especially be a great prize considering they are currently priced between $200 and $350 depending on the dedicated amount of hard drive space. The MakeFive team has already created a Facebook App to display your lists of top fives and share them easily with your friends - a smart move that should help spread MakeFive and bring it to the masses.

This is a post from ToMuse: Wonderings of a Web Consumer

MakeFive, A Digg For Your Top Five List

WP Secure Downloads Plugin, An Ecommerce Solution For Selling Digital Products

Kevin — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:00:47 +0000

Today we are very excited to announce the release of WP Secure Downloads, our second WordPress plugin to date. The plugin is an ecommerce solution that permits the sale of digital goods from one’s own WordPress based website or blog with the utmost ease. This is in stark contrast to most currently available digitial product sales solutions which utilize 3rd party service providers to host and sell downloadables. These service providers then charge you a commission or some type of usage fee or storage fee.

Because WP Secure Downloads is integrated with your blog, you maintain total control over your digital products and sales at all times. You are no longer constrained by the restrictions that are often imposed on sellers when using a 3rd party service provider to host their digital goods. Thus you can sell whatever and whenever you like without sharing your profits or paying any more of those extra fees (i.e. storage fees, commission fees, etc.). Some examples of digital products that could be sold from your own blog include ringtones, music, ebooks, video, themes, images, icons, logos, audio files, songs, manuals, plugins, Drupal modules, software, digital art, fonts, tips, hacks, discount coupons, promotional codes, and much more.

Not only will you be able to instantly attain greater profit margins using WP Secure Downloads, but another added benefit of selling your digital goods from your own website is the added boost in traffic. Moreover, keeping buying customers on your website not only increases page views, but it ncreases the potential for even more sales, and results in greater click through rates. There are lots more of added benefits of using this great plugin to sell your downloadable goods. For more information, and to test the plugin, visit the dedicated WP Secure Downloads plugin page.

This is a post from ToMuse: Wonderings of a Web Consumer

WP Secure Downloads Plugin, An Ecommerce Solution For Selling Digital Products

WP Widget Locationizer Plugin: Smarter Widgets, Better Ad Targeting

Kevin — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 12:08:37 +0000

I am pleased to announce the release of Widget Locationizer, our first premium WordPress plugin. This plugin solves a long standing problem in WordPress. That is, the inability to control where and when your widgets appear. For the longest time WordPress users have been stuck with all of our widgets loading for every single page, post, tag, category, and archive. Sure there were a few workarounds like creating multiple versions of a sidebar through hard coding but with the Widget Locationizer plugin it is so much easier now.

Once the plugin is installed, all you have to do is go to the widget in question and assign the posts, pages, tags, or categories for which you want it to display. The benefits that come with having such great control and flexibility of your widgets is multifaceted. For instance, because you can now match your sidebar content with that of the individual post, page, tag, or category that is loaded, this permits better ad targeting, less duplicate content, the ability to display a greater variety of content in your sidebar, and much much more.

The Widget Locationizer can also help you with your search engine optimization (SEO) by giving you the ability to assign a dofollow or nofollow status for the content within a given widget. This can be especially helpful in preventing leakage of your PageRank to advertisments or when you want to pass on PageRank to a quality link. You can find out more about the benefits of this plugin by visiting the Widget Locationizer page.

This is a post from ToMuse: Wonderings of a Web Consumer

WP Widget Locationizer Plugin: Smarter Widgets, Better Ad Targeting

TextFlow, First Parallel Word Processor, Now Available In Public Beta

Kevin — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:47:42 +0000

Today you can freely download and install TextFlow’s Adobe AIR based desktop application for your own document collaboration and editing needs. TextFlow’s claim to fame is that it is the world’s first parallel word processor. It’s basically a Flash-based document collaboration editor that enables you to import multiple versions of a document and quickly identify any changes and reconcile these differences into one final version. This is particularly helpful when you have multiple editors reviewing a single document in which they have made their own changes and there is now multiple versions.

To use TextFlow you simply drag and drop Word documents on to the application where they will be automatically imported and any discrepancies between documents will be identified. From there you can simply approve or reject the individual changes or suggestions and they are automatically implemented or denied, respectively.

Sharing and inviting others to edit your TextFlow document is made simple by sending them a private URL invite. After clicking on the invitation link, the user will be directed to TextFlow where the document editor will load the document and it will be made available to edit. I have embedded a tutorial video below to see TextFlow in action for yourself. It is actually quite remarkable to me that the creators of TextFlow were able to accomplish so much with so little (~$15k in funding).

This is a post from ToMuse: Wonderings of a Web Consumer

TextFlow, First Parallel Word Processor, Now Available In Public Beta

Best Wireless Broadband Internet Service Plans Compared

Kevin — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 08:12:36 +0000

With more 3G networks established now, the higher wireless speeds and lower costs have made wireless broadband much more attractive and affordable. I’m currently using Sprint’s wireless broadband and I have been quite happy with its great coverage and ability to obtain download speeds of 1 to 2 Mbps. While my cable connection at home operates quite a bit faster (between 3-8 Mbps) I’ve considered going totally wireless and dropping the $50 per month service. Thus, I’ve decided to research the wireless broadband service providers to evaluate and compare them more closely. All the data included in this article was taken direclty from the service providers’ websites.

Verizon’s wireless broadband service is $59.99 per month with a $35 one-time activation fee. The least inexpensive data card will cost you only $29. The service plan is limited to 5 GB per month with the over limit fee set at $0.25 per MB. Users can expect download speed from 0.600 Mbps to 1.4 Mbps and upload speeds from 500Kbps to 800 Kbps.

Sprint’s wireless data plan is set at $59.99 per month with no activation fee. You can get a free mobile broadband card with a new 2-year contract. The data plan’s limit is set at 5 GB with an overuse fee of $0.05 per MB.

AT&T’s wireless broadband service will set you back $60 per month with no activation fee incurred. You can obtain a free mobile data card by signing up for a new 2-year contract. AT&T’s data plan includes a 5 GB limit.

T-Mobile offers wireless internet for $49.99 per month with unlimited data transfer and no activation fee. Currently the only broadband card available on their website is $149.99.

Cricket’s wireless broadband service plan cost $40 per month and includes unlimited internet access. There is a one-time activation fee of $25 and the cheapest broadband USB modem is $59.

Alltel offers wireless broadband for $59.99 per month and a free wireless data card if you sign-up for a new 2-yr contract. Alltel wireless broadband customers should expect download speeds up to 3.1 Mbps.

Below you will find the comparison chart for the providers discussed above. The service providers were compared according to price, activation fee, cheapest modem or data card available, the data limit for the wireless service plan, cost per MB of over usage, download speeds, and upload speeds. Keep in mind that wireless connection speeds vary according to your location and a carrier’s coverage is limited. So make sure you check the available coverage in your area before signing up. Unfortunately, not every bit of comparative information was found on a provider’s website (e.g. upload/download speeds). We have every intention of providing this information when it becomes available and if you have some insight for the data cells currently filled with a ?, please add your comment below to let us know what those are.

This is a post from ToMuse: Wonderings of a Web Consumer

Best Wireless Broadband Internet Service Plans Compared

Dial2Do, Reqall Are Free Speech To Text, Voice Recognition Alternatives To Jott

Kevin — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 05:16:08 +0000

Jott is one heck of a great GTD service but a little while ago they moved from being totally free to pay only. While I definitely think that it is worth it to pay the nominal fee to access Jott, if you’re looking for a free alternative, Dial2Do and Reqall may very well fit the bill for you. I’ve assessed the feature list for each provider and included a video to become acquainted with each of the speech to text providers. At the end of this article I’ve embedded a comparison chart that displays some of the key differences between these three voice recognition platforms.

Feature List For Jott:

Notes
Reminders
Emails
Lists
Text messaging
Group messaging
Calendar integration: Google Calendar, 30 Boxes
3rd party integrated services
RSS feed integration
iPhone app
Blackberry app
Outlook app
iGoogle Gadget
Blog integration

Feature List For Reqall:

Notes
Reminders
Emails
Lists
Text messaging
Instant messaging: AIM, Yahoo Instant Messenger, GoogleTalk and Jabber
Calendar Integration: Google Calendar, Apple’s iCal, Outlook 2007, Mozilla’s Sunbird
RSS feed integration
iPhone app
Blackberry app
Photographic memory storage via Picasa web albums

Feature List For Dial2Do:

Notes
Reminders
Email
Text messaging
Calendar integration: Google Calendar, 30 Boxes
RSS feed integration
3rd party integrated services
Blog integration

As you can see the chart below, Reqall and Dial2Do offer a lot of great features that rival that of Jott’s that can help you stay organized towards actually getting things done. In addition, Reqall provides instant messaging integration and a new feature described as a photographic memory storage (via Picasa web albums). Dial2Do is a solid competitor but it is lacking some of the frills that Jott and Reqall offer (e.g. apps for Outlook, iPhone, Blackberry). One feature not offered by Reqall or Dial2Do that I believe is worth the price for Jott is the group messaging ability. This is particularly indispensable for large organizations that require frequent communication and coordinated efforts of team members. If that’s not a core requirement for your specific needs however, I’m sure you’ll agree that Reqall and Dial2Do are both excellent free productivity enhancement alternatives.

Feature Set Comparison Chart

This is a post from ToMuse: Wonderings of a Web Consumer

Dial2Do, Reqall Are Free Speech To Text, Voice Recognition Alternatives To Jott

Logo Design Companies Reviewed And Compared

Kevin — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:56:39 +0000

Lately I’ve been seriously considering a professional logo for my own website. With so many online professional logo designers to choose from however, the decision has become quite difficult. Since I am going to be researching these already I thought that it only makes sense to share my findings with everyone. If you have used any of these logo design companies in the past please leave a comment to let us know if you had a good experience with them.

Within the companies listed below some offer free logo designs or DIY (do it yourself) logo creation tools that can help you keep your overall cost down. But unless you are a designer yourself you’ll probably be better off just hiring a professional. After all, your logo should be a shining representation of what your company is about and if your logo doesn’t shine, what does that say about your company? Some logo design companies also provide branding of your logo on promotional items, products, stationary, letterheads, business cards, shirts as well as provide other services like website design and web banner creation. If a logo designer indeed offers such additional products and services, they are frequently bundled into different packages/plans and you can usually save you lots of money in the long run for your company, especially if you’re in the startup phase of development.

I’ve created a comparison spreadsheet that reviews all the pertinent information of each online logo provider. This includes do it yourself (DIY) providers, custom made professional logo providers, pricing, support, days until delivery (turnaround), and whether or not they provide other services such as website design, banners, promotional products, stationary, and brochures. Most of logo providers also offer discounts on professionally printed business cards as part of their sales packages. I’ve coded the logo plans to indicate the number of designers, number of design concepts, and the number of revisions. For instance if a logo company’s Plan 1 is 1-2-3, that means that for that plan you would get 1 designer assigned to create two concepts of a logo for you and that you would get up to three revisions for your logo.

See the LARGER VIEW OF THIS CHART

Domain Appraisal Resources: What Is Your Website or Blog Worth?

This is a post from ToMuse: Wonderings of a Web Consumer

Logo Design Companies Reviewed And Compared

Etherpad Offers Real Time Text, Document Collaboration Tools

Kevin — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:51:02 +0000

Today I discovered a new online document editor called EtherPad that has successfully solved the long standing problem of how to allow multiple people to edit a document at once and while being able to actually see the editing occur in real time. Until now the closest attempt at this goal with Google Docs which could display multi-user changes approximately every 10-15 seconds.

Etherpad acts, and currently looks, much like a wiki. As a user types in his/her text, their work is color-coded to easily differentiate one’s own text from another team member’s. Beyond collaborative text editing, the users can chat with one another in the sidebar as they continue to work on their project. Inviting others to join in the collaborative effort is easily done through email and private URL invitations. Etherpad permits you to create new workspaces, which gives it more of an online project management feel than traditional online document management applications.

I tested Etherpad myself and it works great. However, I ended up basically just chatting with the other user like it was an IRC room. I can’t really see people using it to write research papers or other similar writing intensive projects but I’m sure there are other instances in which it would be the perfect solution. Perhaps it would be a good fit for programmers that are collaboratively writing code or in the case of a conference call where you could ensure that both parties are privy to each other’s overall message by seeing both sets of notes in real time. I wonder if it could also fill a need in the class room to promote more interaction and participation? Regardless of who its target user is, Etherpad has created a great service that is easy and fun to use. You can see Etherpad in action via their screencast video or you can test it firsthand without registering.

This is a post from ToMuse: Wonderings of a Web Consumer

Etherpad Offers Real Time Text, Document Collaboration Tools

Domain Appraisal Resources: What Is Your Website or Blog Worth?

Kevin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:04:05 +0000

Have you ever wanted to know the value of a website or specific domain? Perhaps you’ve always wondered what a internet giant like Google, Yahoo, or Facebook is worth? While the value of a website or domain is ultimately determined by what the buyer is willing to pay, there are some available tools that can help you get a good estimate of what your website or blog may be worth.

There are several free domain appraisal services and website or blog valuation tools that are very simple to use and can quickly spit out a valuation estimate by just plugging in the domain in question. These estimates are primarily based on traffic data, PageRank, the age of the domain, the number of pages indexed by the major search engines, traffic rankings from Alexa, Quantcast, and Compete, directory listings such as DMOZ or Yahoo! Directory, and the number of backlinks. However some of these merely just base your website or blog’s value based on the domain name only (i.e. its word count, length, etc.) Below is a list of some of those free appraisal services and tools that we’ve found thus far. Feel free to leave a comment at the end of this article to inform us of any more of these such free tools.

While the tools listed above are fun to play with, they don’t really give you an accurate indication of the site’s real worth. An alternative would be to use a professional domain appraisal service that will research the specific site and domain and provide you with a valuation estimate for a nominal fee. There are several domain appraisal services available including the ones listed below.

GoDaddy’s Domain Name Aftermarket - select the Domains tab, click on “Appraise a Domain” under the “Auctions & More” subcategory
Sedo
DomainAppraisal
Afternic

Domain appraisal services like those listed above may provide a better indicator of a site’s value compared to the free automated site calculators but what they can’t tell you is the annual revenue the site generates via advertising and sales (i.e. affiliate, products, services). Additional important metrics for accurately accessing a website’s value include the number of RSS and newsletter subscribers,

WebsiteBroker is a really great resource for how to go about evaluating a website for which you are considering selling or purchasing. They provide helpful tips for both buyers and sellers as well as useful information on how to promote your own site and add value to it. One tool that’s especially helpful is their Website Valuation Calculator that takes into account a site’s traffic, income, expenses, and much more to give you a real indication of what a site is actually worth. Unlike the domain appraisal services or website value estimators described above, you will need to obtain the pertinent information (i.e. sales, ad revenue, etc.) about the site in question in order to effectively utilize this tool. Oh, and if you’re seriously considering purchasing a website, don’t just take the site owner’s word for it when it comes to the its earning potential; demand receipts and pay stubs that verify the seller’s claims.

If you have any favorite valuation tools, other than the ones listed above, that you think could be helpful to other readers, include them with your comments below. In addition, leave us some feedback on any of these tools or services after you test them out and let us know how accurate you think they are in predicting your blog’s real value.

This is a post from ToMuse: Wonderings of a Web Consumer

Domain Appraisal Resources: What Is Your Website or Blog Worth?

Pimp Out Your T-Mobile G1 With Great Accessories

Kevin — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:49:25 +0000

Okay so you’ve got your new T-Mobile G1 and now your ready to pimp it out right?! Well there’s some really great accessories available out there that can help you do just that. Out of the box the G1 comes with a 1GB MicroSDHC memory card, a wall charger, a USB to mini USB cable, and a headphone set with built-in microphone. However, there are a few necessities that aren’t included. For instance, if you already have any devices that require a 3.5 mm jack to plugin them into your G1 then you’re going to need an adapter because the G1 has a mini USB/HTC port instead.

Memory Cards - You want to make sure you get plenty of memory for your new G1 and all that music, videos, photos, and documents that you’ll want to access on the go. I’d suggest getting a top quality memory card like Sandisk’s 16 GB MicroSDHC. You may also want get a USB reader for your memory card so you’ll be able to move files back and forth from your computer to your G1. In that case, the Sandisk 8GB MicroSDHC Memory Card with MobileMate Reader would be an excellent choice.

Chargers - When you purchase the G1 it comes with its own wall charger but not a car charger. So if you think you’re going to be on the road quite a bit you will want to get one of those. This is especially important if you’re going to be using the GPS quite a bit on your G1. That is, the battery time is significantly lowered by running the GPS system and the battery is only quoted for 3 hours talk time. If you’re gonna be away from any plugins for a while or perhaps you plan on going camping sometime soon you might checkout a solar battery charger for your phone as well.

Screen Protectors & Stylus Pens - Using the G1’s touch screen you’re going to quickly realize the need for a few screen protectors to prevent scratching and build-up of dirt and oil. Make sure you get a washable and reusable set of screen protectors that aren’t too thick and do not leave behind any adhesive when you remove them. You could also use a stylus pen to help prevent such wear and tear on your new phone. For various reasons a stylus pen can be very desireable when navigating the G1. A stylus pen can particularly helpful when using an app that requires selection specific area on the screen or when using the browser and attempting to select small links on a given web page.

Headphones & Headsets - There’s lot of options for headphones and headsets depending on your needs. Your G1 will come with its own combination headphones/microphone. However, you may have headphones of your own that you want to use. If that’s the case, you’re own headphones probably require a headphone jack plugin which the G1 doesn’t have. An easy fix for this is a mini USB to standard 3.5 mm headphone jack adapter. You can also entirely avoid this adapter requirement with a wireless solution such as a Bluetooth headset.

Vehicle Mountings - While your on the go you probably don’t want to be holding your phone and trying to drive at the same time. A vehicle mounting system is great for this and permits eye level viewing and easy navigation. This is can be very helpful when using your G1’s built-in GPS system and when you’re using the speakerphone feature.

Skins & Cases - The G1 is pretty robust and durable but you might want to get a skin or case to prevent scratches and minimal damage when its accidentally dropped. The slide-out LCD screen prevents some design challenges for overall protection but there are several solutions available. The soft rubberized skins (like the black on in the image to the left) won’t cover the frame of the LCD itself but several hardcover clip-on cases have been developed to do just that. The skins and cases come in a variety of different colors and styles. You may also be interested in a leather carrying case that clips to your belt. These can do double duty serving to contain your phone as well as your credit cards, identification, and currency.

This is a post from ToMuse: Wonderings of a Web Consumer

Pimp Out Your T-Mobile G1 With Great Accessories

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