I just finished The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You by Eli Pariser.
This is an excellent book covering the issues involved with the increasing move towards personalisation (filtering) being implemented by Google, Facebook and many other companies (plenty of iPad apps that do this now too). This is something that I have frequently thought about myself – how an increasingly more narrow view of the world will effect our perspective and our behaviour.
My wife and I bought a holiday home in France 11 years ago as an investment “with benefits.” The idea was that we would purchase a property in a market with strong capital growth, rent it out for as many weeks of the year as possible, and visit every now and then when it wasn’t rented out for a “free” holiday.
It’s worked out pretty well for the most part – at least until the recent recession. When speaking with other second home owners, I think we did some things well. We also made a few mistakes. So here’s my advice if you are thinking about doing something similar.
Investment or Second Home
First, you need to decide what you want from this property. Is this a place for you to vacation regularly and then help support the costs by renting it out when you don’t need it? Or is this an investment first and if you get an extra holiday or two, then that would be a bonus? The difference between these two approaches are profound – and so start here and don’t search until you have made a decision.
UPDATE: I have moved to a new app since writing this post. Details on my new best Google Reader app here.
I am a very heavy Google Reader user and am currently subscribed to over 600 feeds/blogs. Having the ability to keep up with this fire hose of great information when I am not at my desk is one of the primary functions of my iPad (and my iPhone before it).
I used several of the major reader apps – there are many – before I discovered NewsRack (iTunes link). This is currently the best Google Reader app available for the iPad and iPhone.
The interface is simple and easy to use. Once you have installed it, simply add your Google Reader account details and synchronise. NewsRack will pull down your feeds. Once you have read one, it will also update Google Reader – keeping your account completely in sync.
First – forget about the “news rack” screen – where the feeds appear as newspapers; I don’t like cover flow in iTunes and I don’t like it here either.. completely useless. Make sure you are working with the interface as folders. If you have more than a dozen RSS feeds, then you should really be categorising them into folders in Google Reader – it will save you loads of time and help you prioritise the topics you really must keep on top of.
I’ve been involved in a few discussions recently on whether we have customers or clients. For some, this may be a mere matter of semantics – saying that the terms are interchangeable. But I think a business needs to be consistent in their reference and we haven’t been.
Customer vs Client – what is the difference?
Both customers and clients spend money with you – but the simple difference is that clients buy services and customers buy products – right?
Well that used to be the case at least.
Recently, the “virtual” pop group Gorillaz recorded and released an album that was created entirely on the iPad. Most of this was done while they were on tour – composing and recording on the tour bus itself.
Everyone talks about how the iPad is a device primarily for media consumption – but apparently you can create and produce media just as well.
The Gorillaz are always pretty open about their work – often allowing it to be downloaded for free. They are just as open about how they recorded this album by providing a list of the apps they used.
18 Apps to Create your own Music Studio (via Gorillaz)
StudioMini XL
A powerful yet easy to use recording studio with CD quality audio, pro audio loops, multitrack (8 tracks), etc.
Speak it! Text to Speech
A text to speech translation engine.
The lack of an effective system for managing tasks and time can leave you feeling over-whelmed and under pressure. It amazes me that time management (or task management) systems like Seven Habits or Getting Things Done are not taught in school as the positive impact that they can make on someone’s life is immeasurable.
I have been using the same system for fifteen or more years and it can be summarised into three simple rules. These rules will change your life.. they will help you become more productive, less stressed and contribute towards a more harmonious work/life balance.
This is not some crazy self-development seminar, this works and works in the real, every day world that we all live in.
Rule #1: Write Everything Down.
One of the main contributors to stress is the effort that you have to make in trying to remember everything you need to do. It wastes “spare cycles”. It prevents you from relaxing. This is the main contributor to stress in your life. Don’t remember it. Write it down.
The type of device you write it in doesn’t matter providing that it is ALWAYS in the same place and that you have complete faith in its reliability. Pen and paper? OK – providing that the same pad never leaves your side. Electronically? Absolutely (and it is my preference) but you need a platform that is reliable and a device that is always accessible.
My recommendation – is a website called Toodledo.com. This is an excellent online task management system that has become a platform for other tools as much as a web interface for todo list management. You can get versions for your phone, integration with Outlook – so that your todo list can be made available to you anywhere, any time, any place. Perfect.
So write everything down. Every idea, every thing you need to do.. at any point in the future. Completely outsource the storing of “things I need to do” to Toodledo or whichever platform you choose.
When you write it down, it is useful also to categorise the task into work related tasks ( e.g. marketing, sales, project X, etc) if appropriate and personal related tasks. Remember this is about changing your life – not just your work life – and so personal tasks should also be recorded in this system. Also be sure to assign a due date – for me, this is when you should be doing the task and not necessarily when it is “due”.
Rule #2: Review Every Morning.
At the beginning of your day, you need to review your todo list. The purpose of this review is to re-assess the tasks assigned for that day and decide what can and will be done that day.
There is absolutely no point in having a to-do list that is unachievable. You should sort your task list so that it ONLY shows you tasks that are due today (and perhaps overdue tasks, but if you follow my three rules you will never have any). Most, if not all, todo list systems like Toodledo support views / filters like this.
There may be tasks in your list for today, that you scheduled a few weeks back – hoping that you will get to them today. You may have tasks in your list for today that are scheduled reminders. You may have several tasks that are simply low priority tasks and moving them will have no impact on your productivity. So move them.
At the beginning of every day, review your task list and ANYTHING that you will not realistically accomplish that day, reschedule – to tomorrow, later in the week, next week, next month, whenever.
Your goal is to arm yourself with the most important tasks that need be – and can be – accomplished on that day. Anything else is a distraction.
Do this every morning. Without fail.
Rule #3: Clear It at the End of Every Day.
At the end of your working day – just before you go home. Clear out your to-do list completely of any and ALL work-related tasks. You are not to go home until this has been done.
You thought you could accomplish what you had on your list, but you didn’t. There is no point in keeping them on today’s to-do list if you are not going to get them done. Reschedule everything that is left – either to tomorrow or another day that will be more appropriate. When you leave work – you don’t need to think about what is on your to-do list.. it is now empty.
If you are keeping personal tasks on your to-do list, then leave these for now. But before you go to bed – at the true end of the day, once again – clear out your to-do list. Before you go to sleep, make sure that your to-do list is empty. You should NEVER have over-due tasks.
Nothing in your todo list, not stress. You should not underestimate the relief of having an empty to-do list – even if you had not accomplished everything you had hoped (that happened anyway). You can be at home without dwelling on work-related tasks which will lead to an enhanced work/life balance.
So – there you have it. Three very simple rules for increasing your productivity, reducing stress, and improving your work life balance.
1. Write everything down.
2. Review and reassign your daily task list first thing, every morning.
3. Clear out and reassign your task list at the end of each day (work day and full day).
Follow these and I promise that it will change your life – immediately.
One of the really nice features with the iPad is the ability to watch videos. There are plenty of “media player” apps that support video including Apple’s own iTunes app. In fact, the most recent iOS update now allows you to connect to your home PC/Mac and watch all the media in your iTunes library “on demand” using the “home sharing” feature that was added.
The problem, however, is that Apple / iTunes doesn’t support all the media types that are available. Especially if you choose to download video (movies, tv, or even home movies) rather than simply watch streamed content. Which means that you would be totally unable to watch some content with iTunes.
Furthermore, what if you want to watch content remotely? iTunes Home Sharing works well within your local wi-fi network, but if you want to show some of your videos on your iPhone or iPad remotely, your only choice would be to synchronise (copy) the content and eat up precious storage space.
AirVideo
For me, the best solution to this issue can be found in an app called AirVideo (iTunes link).
This is a fantastic app for both iPad and iPhone – but it does also require that you install some software (a media server) on your PC/Mac. It can be downloaded from here and is pretty low profile (i.e. it won’t negatively impact the performance of your computer).
So – download and install the server application. Then, download and install the app on your iPad.
Once you have the server installed, you simply need to tell it where to look for your video content. To do this, go to the server settings screen in AirVideo and add the directory where you keep your video media files in the “Shared Folders” tab.
Once you have done this you need to connect to your new media server by simply opening the iPad/iPhone app and adding your computer to the list:
AirVideo – Connecting Remotely
As mentioned above, one of the nice features of AirVideo is the ability to connect to your video content stored on your PC from anywhere. In order to do this you will need to make sure that your router is uPnP compatible so that the AirVideo software can configure it – but most are these days.
From the AirVideo server settings dialog, select the “Remote” tab and enable “Access from the Internet.”
See that nine digit number? That uniquely identifies your server on the internet from the iPad and iPhone apps. So to connect to your system remotely, open the iPad app and enter the Server PIN details as follows:
(images are used courtesy of InMethod to protect my own configuration).
The brilliant thing about this is that the streaming quality will adjust automatically depending on your connection speed.
AirVideo and the Apple TV
Another new feature in the new operating system (iOS 4.3) was the ability for third-party apps to play video using Apple’s AirPlay technology. You no longer need to buy a dedicated media player/server for your home entertainment system – AirVideo now also supports AirPlay. This means that you can play your videos directly to your Apple TV from your iPad and iPhone – the result, a complete media player / media server solution that works wherever you need it to.
So if you are looking for a media server and have an iPad.; or if you are looking to play video files (some unsupported by Apple) on your iPad or iPhone; or if you would like to have access to your video collection from anywhere in the world – then I whole heartedly recommend you tryAirVideo.
Facebook has an excellent app for the iPhone – there is no need to go elsewhere; but there is no official Facebook app for the iPad.
So, if you like to get your daily dose of Facebook with your iPad, then here are a few recommendations:
Facebook’s Website
Well the easiest method to connect to Facebook is to simply go to Facebook.com using Safari. All the features work well and it has become, in many ways – Facebook’s official iPad non-app.
You can even create an icon for it to make it even more “app like”. To do so, simply load Facebook.com in Safari and then press the “Add to Home Screen” option.. select “Add” and voila.. a Facebook “app” for the iPad.
MyPad (itunes link)
This app was formerly named FacePad but changed its recently (not 100% sure why).
If you use the official Twitter app for the iPad, then this app will look familiar as they have based their user interface on it. You swipe left to drill down on items / people in your news feed, and then swipe right to go back to the main list.
It’s not bad, but it isn’t great either. It seems to only support landscape mode, which is inconvenient. It also feels slightly claustrophobic – if you are used to the Facebook website, then you are used to seeing more information than just the news feed and so you are left with a bit of tunnel vision I think.
The free version is ad-supported and so if you try it and like it, I would recommend you spend the extra 59 pence to upgrade to the “plus” version as the “flashing” ads are very distracting and annoying.
Friendly (itunes link)
This app is simple, easy to use and has just about all the features you would expect to see in a “paid for” app – but for free. The fonts are clear and the navigation is well laid out. You will be able to do most of what you want from within this application.
Here’s some things that I don’t like, however. Similar to the MyPad app – you get a news feed and that is it which as I mention above leaves you with a bit of tunnel vision. It does support portrait and landscape, but it simply scales – I really feel that the developers could have done more with the UI in different aspects.
If you want a nice, clean and simple Facebook app for your iPad – then you can’t go too wrong with Friendly.
Friended (itunes link)
I only recently discovered the Friended app and it fills all the gaps left by other apps. The interface is clean and not only provides you with a feed in its main view – but photos, friends and chat. The developers make use of the different aspects (portrait and landscape) and adjust the user interface accordingly.
Friended has quickly become my default app for Facebook on the iPad – replacing the Facebook.com web interface. I like it and I think most of you will too.
Flipboard (itunes link)
Not strictly a Facebook client, I wanted to give Flipboard a mention. Flipboard is a unique app that converts social networking streams (Twitter and Facebook) into a personal, social magazine. If you are tired of reading your Facebook news feed linearly where you click on links to see what sites, videos and photos your friends are sharing – then you should give Flipboard a try. You will find that you discover and read more information than the usual “sip from the firehouse” style of keeping up to date with your friends on Facebook.
One of the great things about Twitter is that you can easily share links to news, web sites, blog posts, and articles to your followers hoping that they will also find them useful. It is one part of being an online “Maven” – sharing your knowledge and information relating to your areas of interest and expertise.
But if you tend to read this shareable information in batches like I do, then tweeting / sharing too many articles too quickly will annoy some people and result in a loss of followers due to a mild dose of “spam”. There’s been a lot of research on the topic with varying results, but the consensus view is that the more frequently you tweet links, the click-through rate (CTR), retweet rate (RTR) and follower count all drop dramatically.
But I have so much to give.. so much to share!
The solution is to read in batches, but schedule the tweets that you want to share across the day – no more than every 10-15 minutes.
Here’s how:
Scheduling of tweets is not built into the standard Twitter interface and so in order to do this, you will need to use a 3rd party twitter client such as TweetDeck or Hootsuite. Both of these tools require you to register with their servers and by doing so, provide advanced functionality such as scheduling of tweets.
In TweetDeck (desktop or mobile versions):
Next to the Send button for your TweetDeck is another icon that looks like a clock.
When you click on this icon, you are presented with some timing options for this tweet:
Simply select the date and time that you want and press “Set time”. You will then need to Send your tweet when you are ready (the revised button will now show the date and time of the tweet).
Any scheduled tweets are automatically added to a column in TweetDeck called Scheduled Updates. I would recommend that you look at this column before you schedule a tweet so that you know when the last one was set for (again – try to space out no more frequently than every 10-20 mins).
The method is more or less exactly the same with Hootsuite desktop, but here’s how I work on my iPad:
Personally, I read a lot of blogs using Google Reader and have found NewsRack (iTunes link) to be the best iPad / iPhone client for doing so. It has a really nice feature that allows you to share blog posts by email and to Twitter. The problem is that it doesn’t support scheduled tweets. And so here’s what I do:
Find a post that you want to share with your followers. And press the share icon at the top of the screen – then select Twitter.
Press the link and title buttons to insert these and then add any other comment that you would like.
Hold your finger on the text until you get the “Select All” menu – select this and then select cut. You can then cancel that screen.
Now, you need to switch over to the HootSuite app. Press the add tweet icon (top right).
Then hold your finger down until the “Paste” menu comes up – and select Paste:
Then press the schedule button.
Select the date, time.. then press “Set Date”. Make sure you are happy with the final tweet and then press Send.
As with TweetDeck, Hootsuite also creates a column that will include your scheduled tweets but called “Pending Tweets”.
So there you have it. My main advice is that if you are sharing lots of information with your followers, don’t do it en-mass – spread these tweets out a bit. If you read news and other information that you share throughout the day, then you shouldn’t have an issue. But if you read and process the information you share in blocks, then don’t share that in blocks – use features from various Twitter clients to schedule tweets throughout the day.
Apple added the ability to print from your iPhone or iPad in iOS 4.2. This was great news when it was announced, until everyone realised that only about six printers currently support the AirPrint functionality natively (mostly HP).
Have no fear, you can still print from your iPhone or iPad with AirPrint using your Windows-based PC by installing a small software package.
Here’s how:
1. Make sure that you have updated iTunes to version 10.1 or greater.
2. Make sure that any printers that you want to use with your iPhone or iPad are shared
3. Make sure that the PC/printer and your iPhone and iPad are on the same wifi network – this won’t work if you are online with a 3G connection. You need to be sure that you are connected to your local network via wifi.
If you are using iOS5, then follow these instructions:
4. Download and install FingerPrint from Collobos (hat-tip to Roderick Lane for this find)
5. Run the software and select which printers you would like to share (all are selected by default). If you close the app it will still be running in your task bar.
6. That’s it – spend the $10.00 / £6.70 and buy this software if you want to print with iOS5 at the moment. As soon as the freeware “Airprint for Windows” app (discussed for versions iOS4.3 and earlier below) is available I will update this blog.
If you are using iOS4.3 or earlier, then use these:
4. Download the AirPrint software from here and save it to your desktop (or other folder that you prefer).
5. Right click on the downloaded program icon – and select “Run as administrator” and let it install (press next and continue as necessary).
6. Now we need to ensure that connections to the printer can be sent through the windows firewall. So, in order to get this done – load the Control Panel (select Start menu and then “Control Panel”).
7. Select “System and Secirity” (my system is Windows 7 – but yours should be similar).
8. From the “System and Security” option, you will see “Allow a program through the Windows Firewall” – select this.
9. Now you need to select the “Allow another program..” from the button at the bottom of that form and locate the AirPrint program (for 64-bit systems it will be in c:\program files (x86)\airprint”) – it will be either:
C:\Program Files (x86)\AirPrint\airprint.exe
or
C:\Program Files\AirPrint\airprint.exe
10. You should see “AirPrint for Windows” in the list – and so now click on the “Add” button.. and then “Ok” when you get back to the Windows Firewall option.
And that’s it! You should now be able to see the printers from your iPhone or iPad. To try it, simply load Safari…
Here’s how to test:
At the bottom of the screen (iPhone), you will see the “share” icon – press it and select “Print”
You will then see this menu
Press select Printer – and you will see all your shared printers listed. Just select one and then press print.
Note – if it prompts you for a user name and password, this means that you have “Password protection sharing” switched on. You can disable this if you like – but I wouldn’t recommend it. Simply enter the user name and password that you have set on your PC and you are good to go.
There – lot’s of steps, but pretty simple to get set up – and once it is.. you can print from your iPhone or iPad to any shared Printer.
