Lynch Insights

Keep Google Reader alive

2013-03-13T21:37:00.001-04:00

Google Reader is going to shut down

First Reaction

My first reaction was NOOOO (Thank you Scott Stratten for the Instant No Button). I have been using Google Reader for years. I use it several times a day. What will I do now that Google is closing its RSS doors? I will try out new sites and services to meet my needs. Thankfully the market is prepared to react.

Sites that are quick to respond to the need include:

Feedly
NewsBlur
Prismatic
Digg (announced they have something in the works)

Upon Further Thought

The petition to keep Google Reader alive has reached 96,331 this morning. Only 24 hours after the announcement I am excited to see what the other services have to offer. There are two main feature sets that I am looking for.

RSS for Industry News and Research

In this category I need a new service to have easy buttons for me to share feeds with EverNote and Pocket.

RSS for Social Media Sharing

I need the new service to be able to easy share posts with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+.

Petition | Google: Keep Google Reader Running | Change.org

I wonder how this will effect services like zite that are based off Google reader ?

The New Roku 3: Super Fast Spanking New Interface and a Wireless Audio Mode

2013-03-06T11:04:00.001-05:00

The New Roku 3: Super Fast Spanking New Interface and a Wireless Audio Mode:

The best little streaming black box just got a spanking new model: the Roku 3. The slightly updated design adds a few curves to the square black box design and also throws in an updated user interface, a much faster processor and even a private watching mode that uses wireless audio from the remote control. Yes, the remote control has a headphone jack. More »

AdStage Launches Its Cross-Network Ad Creator, Raises $1.4M

2013-03-06T11:01:00.000-05:00

AdStage Launches Its Cross-Network Ad Creator, Raises $1.4M:
AdStage, a startup aiming to make it easy for small businesses and other advertisers to run cross-network ad campaigns, launched today at the Launch conference in San Francisco.
The company also announced that it has raised $1.4 million in funding, with an investor list that includes Freestyle Capital, Quest Venture Partners, Dave McClure/500 Startups, Digital Garage, XG Ventures, Mark Mullen, former Facebook/Myspace/Zynga executive Owen Van Natta, Jim Patterson, Stewart Alsop, Federated Media founder John Battelle, Rich LeFurgy, and Doug Barry.
You can watch co-founder and CEO Sahil Jain’s presentation here, where you can see the ad creator in action (and listen as Robert Scoble declares “This is the hottest idea I’ve seen so far”). The company offers a single, self-serve dashboard for creating ads that run across Google, Bing, Facebook and LinkedIn. Every feature seems designed to create an optimized campaign with as little work as possible. Most notably, AdStage provides recommendations throughout the process based on data from similar and competitive companies.
Those recommendations can help businesses write the ads and select keywords, as well as figure out the best way to spend across all four networks. And after the campaign has been launched, AdStage can look at the results in realtime and alter how much money goes into each network to deliver the best return.
Prior to AdStage, Jain co-founded mobile development startup Trigger.io. The company launched in private beta last week, and plans to add 50 more advertisers soon. Jain said that AdStage will be adding other ad formats, too.

springpad encroaching on Evernote turf?

2013-03-06T10:25:00.000-05:00

Image via CrunchBase

Springpad is a new cloud social notebook service. The service allows you to create notebooks from your travels online that are synchronized between your online account and your tablet. I am a big fan of Evernote and you can tell from previous posts.
If you are available at 4pm today they are working with MakeUseOf and will be presenting a sneak peek of SpringPad 4.0 in a Google Hangout.

Related articles

Penultimate, The Hand-Writing iPad App Acquired Last Year By Evernote, Is Now Free

2013-01-31T11:25:00.001-05:00

I have loved this app on the iPad with my only real complaint being the integration to cloud/evernote. Now that is fixed. Below is the post that was in my RSS reader this morning. Thank you TechCrunch

FROM TECHCRUNCH:
Penultimate, The Hand-Writing iPad App Acquired Last Year By Evernote, Is Now Free:
Productivity technology Evernote has been hard at work lately. Alongside the dramatic update to its personal contacts app Hello (which you can read about here), today Evernote also released an updated version of Penultimate, the popular handwriting app it acquired in May 2012.
The most notable part about the new Penultimate is that the app, which previously cost 99 cents to download, is now free. That was a “non-trivial decision,” Evernote CEO Phil Libin said in an interview this week, as the app was bringing in a healthy revenue stream. But, he said, the change fits into Evernote’s larger policy of making its core products free and charging dedicated users for extras.
Evernote has also tweaked Penultimate with a host of across-the-board updates such as a new UI design, handwriting search, sharper ink on retina displays, new languages such as Russian and Chinese, and of course a deeper integration with Evernote that also syncs your Penultimate data across other devices in which you use Evernote.
The two app updates put out by Evernote today represent two “completely different philosophies” for the company, Libin said. While Hello was a full-scale app redesign for Evernote, Penultimate’s makeover was more subtle. “The design brief for the Penultimate update was to make it a little better, but don’t break something that’s already great,” he said.
You can download Penultimate for iPad here.
And here is a video of the new Penultimate in action:

Facebook Talks about their Graph Search

2013-01-15T14:21:00.000-05:00

Facebook today announced their efforts in what they are calling Graph Search. At the start of the announcement Mark Zuckerberg mentioned; "To give you a sense of how much work this is, already today across all of our data centers 10 percent of CPU capacity is spent computing privacy checks." That is a lot of effort to maintain the privacy settings of over a Billion users. Mark Zuckerberg reiterated the three pillars of the Facebook ecosystem. 1. News Feed - whats going on with people around me, 2. Timeline - tell me something about this person 3. Graph Search - what about places my friends have been or liked?

Users Fear NOT

Facebook isn't going to rush into this as they did with timeline. In the announcement Mr. Zuckerberg was clear that they will be rolling this out over the next few months and that users will be prompted for a privacy review of their settings before it is enabled.

Small Business Should Fear A Little

If you have a small business, this is your warning. Don't put off setting up and building your Facebook page any longer. There are about to be a Billion people that are going to be able to search for things like 'pizza friends like in San Diego', if you are not engaging now then you won't make the list later. From all reports that I have read the rankings is going to be based on the quantity and closeness of the relationship to the person searching. What does that mean? It means that NO SEO is going to help you. What will help you is engaging on Social (Facebook) with your customers!

Job Hunting? Recruiting and Management.

One of the examples that was given included a search like this; "people that work for XYZ Company" to show me all the people that I am connected to that work or have worked for XYZ Company. First this will help people to make a personal connection to a company that they think they want to work at. Two, it will be a slight ding to LinkedIn as Facebook connections are closer relationships then LinkedIn. Three, management will want to make sure that ex-employees speak well about the working conditions at your company or you could end up with a shrinking talent prospect pool.

BRANDS

It was not covered in the announcement what effect this will have on brand pages. Logically if you have a standard brand page, your content is 'public' and should show up fine in the new searches. What impact will brands that have their content hidden behind a Like-Gate (you don't get to see the content unless you 'like' the page) is just not clear at this time. Will Brands be able to search for public mentions of their names? That question is not clear yet. I am sure after tomorrows talk of Open Graph things will get clearer.

If you would like to sign up for the beta you can do so by clicking this link.

Finally a tool to help cord cutters

2013-01-10T13:13:00.001-05:00

While the financial benefits of cord cutting are easy, more money saved. One of the challenges that I have found is that in a family of five, it can be hard to find something to watch. Because we have streaming services including; Hulu Plus, Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBOGO and of course pay streams like iTunes and Amazon it can be hard to find a show that the family wants to watch without having to go from service to service to see whats available.

There is a site and iOS application called Matcha. Matcha is easy to sign in using your Facebook authorization. Then you just need to tell it what accounts you have. You don't need to give them your information just what you have. It will then give you all kinds of information about what is available to you. You can search for shows and movies and it will show you where to find it. I like that I can easily turn OFF the purchase option and the system will show me only the shows/movies that I already have access to without having to pay more money.

If you are a cord cutter or just someone that uses multiple streaming services this app is a must.

Start the year off Paperless!

2013-01-02T20:22:00.003-05:00

I have been on a journey to paperless for a few years now. It isn't as easy as you would think. Google has replaced the Filofax that used to hold everything I knew. Evernote has replaced my business and personal journals. Below is a short list of the tools/apps that have made me mostly paper free in 2012 and the goal is paperless in 2013.

Hardware

In order to give up the paper, folders, pens you are going to need some hardware. I have other devices that jump in and out of usage but the A-Team players include; iPhone, iPad and a Mac desktop (Mac pro, iMac, MacBook Air).

The reason I have settled on the mac platform is that the applications that are available in the App Store are of a higher quality and stability than their counterparts in the Google Play Store.

Sidebar: I love Android and the Nexus 7 is an amazing machine. It is just that when I fall in love with an app, the version available for Android is either non-existant or not as polished and ready for primetime as the iOS version.

Google

It sounds simple but Google (Gmail, Contacts, Calendar and Docs) has made my digital life easy and organized. I try to keep my Google Contacts to a max of 2,500. More than that and I find it hard to locate numbers and emails on my phone.
Google Docs (now part of Google Drive) is the Document, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Drawing and Form software from Google. At first I was unsure about depending on it so much. There are fun things that you can do with fonts and layouts that can be done in Microsoft Word that are not available on Google Docs. What I found is that the clean interface keeps me focused on the content more than the extras. Sharing a document is easy and people that you share with are all editing the same document so there are no version issues. Anyone can edit at anytime and if two (or more) people are editing the same file you can see where they are by highlighted colors. If I am typing at the top of a paragraph my curser is blue, the person I shared with can be editing the next sentence and I see an orange curser with the person's name under it.

EverNote

In order to go paperless you need to have a place to take notes while in business meetings or onsite at a clients or industry conference. The solution needs to be simple, simple, simple to use. It has to be intuitive and powerful but also balanced with minimalism. There are a few areas that Evernote shines in. Basic note taking is a breeze. I have a meeting folder that has all my notes from meetings. I don't loose information and Evernote allows you to search so reviewing meeting notes and action items is very easy. Another area that EverNote shines in is their Web Clipper extensions for Chrome and Safari. This lets me take snapshots of webpages while I am on the web. Because it all syncs I don't have to worry about where I took the note to find it. If I write on my iPad, then im on the train with my iPhone all my notes are there. When I get home or to the office, all my notes are there.

Sign-N-Send

I often need to send back contracts with my signature. Most of the time it is confirmations of trade show booth orders or trade publication agreements. The supplier will send me a PDF that I have to fill out, sign and send back. Doing this the old way; I would download the PDF, Walk to get the Printed PDF off the printer, Fill in the form back at my desk, Walk to the copier/scanner to digitize the document, back to my desk to connect to the networked scanner and retrieve my file, put that on my desktop and then email it back to the sender. It is so easy to just open the email on my iPad, click the attached PDF and choose "open in Sign-n-Send". In the app, I can add text, check the boxes I want, then sign with my finger and click "send". The edited PDF is returned to the sender and only 1 copy is stored on my device.

DropBox & Google Drive

This is one area that I can't pick a favorite so I use both. DropBox and Google Drive are both sync'd cloud storage drives. On DropBox I have 100gigs ($99/year) and Google Drive 5gigs (100gigs would be $60/year). I have had dropbox for years also every now and then there is a large file (5+gigs) that I need to send to someone. With DropBox you can create a shared folder, put the file or files in and email the person you want to share with. This is another sync'd service so my iPad, Desktop, iPhone all all in sync. Whatever I do on the iPad is automatically on the desktop. I keep all my active files here so that no matter where I am, there are my files.

Toodledo

I like to keep my To Do List separate from other programs. For me, it helps to keep my notes, files, digital clutter separated from my deliverables. I have tried many other list apps and sites but I needed one that was both a good app and a good site AND sync'd. That is what I love about Toodledo. The interface is clean, it is easy to make tasks, give them notes or sub-tasks. It also is sync'd in the cloud so all my hardware is in Sync.

Sketching / Scrap / Doodling

For me there are just times that I need to draw (I am NOT an artist) something out to see the whole concept or how something relates to a larger effort. This activity in my Papered Life was done with many notebooks, scratch pads, Post-it notes all over my desks. Now in my Paperless Life I needed something that I can jot, scribble, doodle on.

Today I am torn between a few great apps. I think the reason that I don't have just one is that they are all great apps and all share some common strengths such as; sync with dropbox, provide me many pen/pencil/brush options.
The Apps that I am currently loving include:
Moleskine: It is as close to a digital version of the book as you can get.
Paper53: So easy to sketch notes and doodles
NoteShelf: Great for that hybrid typing or hand writing note times. This is my default note app.

Spending time with Surface :-(

2012-12-07T16:19:00.000-05:00

UPDATE:

I have been trying to get the Surface is some condition so that it might be usable.
There are a few minimum requirements that any tablet should be able to do in order to be considered.
Below are 11 apps that are drop dead minimum in order to be a usable tablet. The Apple iPad and Google's Android systems have these and much more. The only one that is currently available on the Microsoft Surface is Stumble.

Social:

Facebook
Twitter
Google+
Stumble

News

Zite
Huffington Post
RSS Reader

Organization

Google Drive
Drop Box
EverNote
Skitch

I am trying out the surface from Microsoft. I am trying to keep an open mind. I love my iPad. I also have grown very fond of the Nexus 7. While there are some things that I think can be improved on the Nexus, overall the $199 tablet from Google rocks.

I will post more about the experience later, but while the brand new unit figures out that it is on the same network it was yesterday I thought I would put this blog post out.

What you see above is the error that the surface tablet can't find the driver for its own wireless adapter.

Google And Acer Debut $199 C7 Chromebook, Leave Us Wondering How Low They Can Go

2012-11-12T14:09:00.001-05:00

TechCrunch has a breaking post about a new Chromebook from Acer for a new $199 chromebook!
If you have been looking for a good laptop for kids or just to have a spare computer in the house, this looks to be a great option.

Google And Acer Debut $199 C7 Chromebook, Leave Us Wondering How Low They Can Go:
Google recently unveiled a $249 Chromebook from itself and partner Samsung, which seemed like a new pricing floor for a capable, light computer that’s designed for users who spend most of their computing time on the web. Today, Google announced the new Acer C7 Chromebook on its website, which ups the ante (while lowering some specs) with a $50 cheaper Chrome OS notebook which also features an 11.6-inch display, but also boasts an Intel Core processor and a 320 GB hard drive.
The Acer Chromebook might appear more to the traditionalists out there looking for a Chrome OS-based notebook computer, since the Samsung Chromebook is a ARM-based computer that also has extremely limited onboard storage, which it supplements by shipping with 100GB of free Google Drive space. The $199 C7 also comes with that cloud storage, but has a platter driver, too, and takes a hit on battery life (eking out only 3.5 hours, compared to around 6.5 for the Samsung Chromebook).
The computer is also slightly bulkier than its $250 sibling, at 1 inch thick and weighing 3 lbs, compared to just 0.7-inches and 2.4 lbs for the Samsung. As for ports, it has HDMI and VGA out, along with three USB 2.0 ports (no high speed here), an audio/input 3.5 mm jack and an Ethernet port for wired networking. It has dual band 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi for wireless connectivity, and an HD camera for video communications.
I’ve shared my opinion that Google’s goal with its branded device collaboration projects is to get more eyeballs on its products by providing cheap, capable devices with internet connectivity that works across a wide variety of geographies, and this netbook-inspired Chromebook is a perfect example. It’s not going to get anyone necessarily all that excited, but it’s a practical design that offers everything needed for a decent internet experience in a very affordable package.
The C7 goes on sale tomorrow in the U.S., on Google Play and Best Buy’s website, and in the U.K. on Google Play, Amazon UK, PC World and Curry’s. Google promises to bring it to more countries in the near future.

On Digital Ethnography, What do computers have to do with ethnography? (Part 1 of 3) [Guest Contributor] | Ethnography Matters

2012-11-12T12:00:00.001-05:00

On Digital Ethnography, What do computers have to do with ethnography? (Part 1 of 3) [Guest Contributor] | Ethnography Matters

This is an interesting post written by Wendy Hsu for Ethnography Matters. It highlights the technology infiltration into ethnographic research. This is just part one of her three part series. Wendy does a great job of detailing the inclusion of big data and the tools that are used to gather the data. You can subscribe to the RSS feed here.

What would happen if Siri started dating Watson?

2012-11-02T15:44:00.001-04:00

What could happen if Siri started dating Watson?

In human relationships they say that opposities attract. It would be great if that was also the case with computer systems. I have been a Siri user before it was bought by Apple. I have watched her grow up and I think that she is ready to start dating. My choice for her would be IBM's eligible bachelor, Watson.

What does Siri bring to the relationship? EYEBALLS Siri is loaded on more devices and is accessible by simply holding down a button. You couldn't ask for easier access. Most of the people that I talk to are not impressed with Siri. They use her for simple tasks and simple lookups. What Siri needs is real power. Apple's partnership with Yelp is nice, but it is no Google. Even if Google and Apple could come to an understanding the problem is Google knows too much. Something would have to be used to weed through all the information and only provide the most probable results.

That is where Watson comes in. We all watched Watson do an impressive job on Jeopardy. Since playing games like Jeopardy, Watson has gone onto medical school at the Cleveland Clinic. What could Watson learn if he spent some time in Mountain View?

The combination of Watson and Siri could be a winning combination.

iRock: An iOS device charging chair

2012-11-01T11:04:00.004-04:00

Thanks to Gizmag for this great post.

iRock: An iOS device charging chair:
We have come across a lot of weird Apple accessories but an iRock is quite a masterpiece. Micasa Lab, a Zurich enterprise innovated a solution to charge iPad and the iPhone while converting potential energy to kinetic by simply rocking a chair. This chair allows you to stay fit while working out your abs and simultaneously charging your iOS devices – iPad, iPhone and their speakers. iRock is a handmade product from a distinct variety of Swedish Oak that not only looks classy but also is useful. It can charge upto 35% of battery with an hour of rocking. The fine fixing mechanism allows you to plug your iOS devices to the dock on the hand rest.

Guess who is eyeing this rocking product, Android but the only hinge is that it allows only a 30pin dock. iRock is estimated to sell for $1685 in the American Market.

iRock: An iOS device charging chair is a post from [Gizmag]

Why Sales People Actually Hate Leads

2012-10-26T14:22:00.001-04:00

Why Sales People Actually Hate Leads:
I have worked with many different sized companies helping them to scale their business. One of the key things I always look at is this: How does the sales force get leads, and what do they do with them?
Generating leads is at the center of most marketing mandates, yet most companies never really take full advantage of their investment in those leads. And when they think about scaling the business, they think they need to generate even more leads. I see too few companies invest in getting more revenue out of the leads they have.
One of the universal truths I have seen is that sales people basically hate leads that are generated by marketing. Unless, of course, the “lead” is ready to buy.
Note: Sales people only like hot leads. I don’t say this to take a shot at sales people. Effective sales people do a heroic job of cultivating their own business, and getting their own leads based on personal outreach, account development, and referrals.
That is precisely why warm or cool leads generated by marketing are just not helpful--leads that are not hot, to a sales person, are just extra action items, which get in the way of developing the business they are working on.
A Joint Marketing & Sales Approach
The real goal should require a joint sales and marketing approach for marketing to deliver to sales leads which are of high enough quality (and "hotness") that the sales force actually is motivated to work them. And then the sales force needs to work them in a way that every lead has a clear outcome.
I have seen two very basic practices make a huge difference to increase revenue in this way.
Actually Use Your CRM System
In so many companies, the CRM system becomes a “write-only” database for leads. The information in it gets stale and out of date because it is not used as a day-to-day tool for developing business.
One time as a CMO, I investigated the leads that were in "Stage 1" of my company’s CRM system with people from sales, field marketing, and corporate marketing. “Stage 1” is where leads that have been fully qualified by a sales rep were supposed to live.
In an unusual fit of honesty from all involved, I got some real answers about the state of all the Stage 1 leads in our CRM System:

Only a small percentage were actually Stage 1 leads. They were being actively worked by sales people who had qualified them and personally moved them to Stage 1. This was by far the minority.
Some leads were there because the sales people were getting measured on qualifying leads--so they just moved anything with their name on it to Stage 1 to meet that objective, and then just ignored the leads.
This behavior of moving leads without really qualifying them was also good for marketing teams being measured on Stage 1 “qualified" leads, so it mutually reinforced useless behaviors and inflated false success measures all around.
Some leads were there because even though the deal had been actively worked and moved forward in the real world to a later stage, no one bothered to update the status of the lead in the CRM system.
Some leads were there because the sales rep left the company and they were never reassigned.
Some leads were duplicates. They were there because the sales rep created a new lead so they could get credit for generating the lead personally. If they deleted the original, marketing-generated lead, that would be giving the game away.
Some leads there were actually worked and found to be not qualified, but no one bothered to close them out.

…You get the picture. A lot of garbage in the system that both sales and marketing can point to and say, “Look how many leads we have!”
Then sales can ignore them entirely, because “there’s so much garbage in the system, you can’t tell what’s a real lead.” And marketing can get busy spending more money to generate even more new leads to “get their numbers up.”
The way around this waste is to actually use your CRM system.
Have Lead Review Meetings
Sales teams typically have weekly order or revenue review meetings. I have found that the most effective sales teams also have lead review meetings.
Imagine each week, if every sales team was looking at their assigned leads in the CRM system and every sales rep had to report on the status and progress of each and every lead that was assigned to them.
Reviewing every lead in the system every week is how sales teams turn leads into business. It keeps the good leads moving forward, ensures that garbage leads get deleted, and that all leads are worked one way or another.
This is not just about forcing sales to use the system, so everyone can have a nice, clean system. This is about developing business and making sales.
This works. The more focus sales teams have on the development of leads, the more business they get. It’s pretty black and white.
It’s also not a bad idea for marketing people to sit in on some of these sales lead review meetings to hear how sales is using leads and what is happening.
For Marketing: Don’t Waste Warm Leads
This qualifies as some of the oldest “news” on earth. I bring it up again now only because it is one of the most well-studied AND most ignored marketing practices: Continue marketing to warm leads. It’s cheaper and more valuable than generating new leads.
Companies spend money to generate new leads and have a process to qualify them. The hot leads get worked on, and the rest get thrown away (or thrown into the CRM system and ignored). Then marketing does another program to get a new crop of leads and the cycle continues: Hot leads get worked, warm leads get wasted.
Again, sorry for this very old news (warm leads are really valuable), but think about this…
Why not instead, only deliver hot leads to the sales force? Keep the rest in marketing and keep marketing to them until they are hot. Then give sales people fewer, but actually hot, leads.
Sales people will love (and work) these leads. And the marketing team will build credibility and value in the company by clearly making a more direct impact on revenue.
The company will get a far higher return on its investment in generating leads, and these joint sales and marketing practices will fuel real growth.
Patty Azzarello is an executive, best-selling author, speaker and business advisor to CEOs. She became the youngest general manager at HP at the age of 33, ran a billion-dollar software business at 35, and became a CEO for the first time at 38 (all without turning into a self-centered, miserable jerk). You can find Patty at www.AzzarelloGroup.com, follow her on Twitter or Facebook, or read her book RISE…3 Practical Steps for Advancing Your Career, Standing Out as a Leader, AND Liking Your Life.
[Image: Flickr user Nomadic Lass]

The Lowly Button Gets a Brilliant Upgrade

2012-10-25T15:50:00.000-04:00

The Lowly Button Gets a Brilliant Upgrade:

There should be a special Nobel Prize set aside for geniuses who find ways to improve the simplest things in life. And this year's award would go to Shapeways user OliveBird, whose Button 2.0 turns any shirt into a convenient headphone wrangler. More »

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Why Evernote Just Doesn't Work For Bian but I can't live without it.

2012-10-25T10:00:00.000-04:00

Evernote (Photo credit: /Sizemore/)

Below is a post from Brian at ReadWriteWeb (an awesome site that you should subscribe to). His post is a great read and I feel many of his points but for me, I can't live without Evernote. I have been trying to go paperless for years now. In my mind, I should be able to use my iPhone and iPad to replace the need for any notebooks. I am always bouncing between, web research, meeting notes, writing concepts.

Many apps with a common connectionI use Paper53, NoteShelf, and Skitch several times a day. The commonality between them is that they all sync with Evernote. When I am mind mapping out a communications plan I am using Paper53 to allow me to moc up my thoughts. I am then able to send it over to Evernote and using the Chrome web clipper put in examples of the direction that I am thinking and other sites that may be similar to where I want to go.

ToDo lists I manage with ToodleDo and have been happy using it for years. I agree with Brian that Evernote is not ideal for this and it would take a lot for me to leave ToodleDo.

Evernote may not be for everyone, but I can't work without it.

Why Evernote Just Doesn't Work For Me: from ReadWriteWeb by Brian ProffittEvernote is a very useful, Swiss-Army knife kind of software application that provides users with the tools they need to collect all of the information from their online journeys. It is a boon to anyone serious about task management and online research. So why can't I get it integrated into my own work habits?
For some inexplicable reason, I have never been able to really truly integrate Evernote into my daily work environment. And it's not for lack of trying. Many of my colleagues recommend it, and since they are in the business of writing content for the Interwebs, what's good for them should be good for me, right?
Yet every time I try Evernote, it never seems to be quite all there for me. Even as a Premium user, which I am, at the urging of my colleagues.
Researching the Problem
Take research, for instance. I know that as I move around from site to site on the Internet, looking for material to source for an article, I can easily assign sites to individual notebooks in Evernote so I can come back to them later. The problem is, unless I am working on a really big story, "later" is usually "now," and I have all the tabs in my browser nicely open for me to reference.
I would like to be able to stick websites into Evernote's notebooks in "blue sky" mode, which is when I am just surfing around and might happen to catch my eye on something that I might want to come back to later. Except Evernote's integration in iOS Safari doesn't work half the time, which is too bad because iPad time (unlike computer time) is usually great for blue sky meandering. (Evernote does work very well on my Android browser, but honestly, I don't use my phone to surf around aimlessly much.)
Seeing a Solution?
I got really excited when I heard about Evernote's improvements to Page Camera, and was hoping to try them out to pull my written notes into text via Evernote's optical character recognition. I take written notes copiously (I own fountain pens and Moleskines by the dozens) and writing-to-text would be awesome with a cross-platform app.
But nope, Evernote's OCR, which pretty good, only indexes snapshots for note searching. There's no magical "here's your text" feature for me to cut and paste content into a story. You can export an OCR note to an ENEX file, but when you open the thing in a text editor, it's so heavily marked up you can't get the text out easily at all.
One thing Evernote does have, however, is a pretty good Dictate feature that I have used from time to time at conferences to catch longer interviews and presentations. I really wanted the OCR capability to work, but I suppose speech-to-text could be another option. I am worried about the monthly data limits on my Evernote account, though.
All Things for All People
Part of my continued firewall for Evernote usage has little to do with the app itself. One of the many uses for Evernote could be task management. Think of something to do, and make a note for it. But in this area, I already have a very good task manager, OmniFocus. In fact, OmniFocus' integration with my OS X machine and iPad means that I can capture a lot of information as I think of it or see it on a website, dump it into my OmniFocus inbox, and then sort it into a task category/timeframe later. That capture-and-figure-it-out-later process is part of the Getting Things Done process OmniFocus is really good for, and Evernote isn't quite.
While it may be obvious that Evernote and OmniFocus are not meant to do the same things, pointing out this difference speaks to a larger point about apps like Evernote that try to be all things to all people. That simply is very hard to do, and rarely works out for the best. It would be better, I think, for Evernote to do fewer things very well than many things just okay.
That may be the biggest reason why Evernote simply hasn't worked for me.

Researchers discover method of improving bandwith speeds using existing infrastructure

2012-10-24T19:18:00.000-04:00

Researchers discover method of improving bandwith speeds using existing infrastructure:

A group of researchers led by MIT professor Muriel Medard have discovered a way to greatly improve the speed of wireless signals without the need for new infrastructure. By tackling the issue of dropped data packets, the team has been able to increase speeds by up to 27 times just by altering how the information is sent. As explained by Technology Review, dropped packets require data to be resent, which, when compounded over a period time, can noticeably decrease the speed of transfer. The new technology, referred to as coded TCP, addresses the problem by replacing traditional packets with algebraic descriptors, which can be solved by the receiving device to recreate missing data, thus cutting down on the time wasted when requesting new...
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Can't Make The Meeting? Send Your Robot Instead

2012-10-24T19:16:00.000-04:00

UPDATE: This just showed up in my RSS reader.

Can't Make The Meeting? Send Your Robot Instead:
Remotely piloted telepresence robots could be the beginning of another tech revolution. Some observers are already predicting that they wi

ll be the first robots to go mainstream. But it won't happen right away.
Though the robots themselves are still rare and exotic, the telepresence concept is very simple: basically Apple’s FaceTime videconferencing feature on a mobile, self-propelled, motorized platform. The idea is to make them cheap and easy-to-use stand-ins for people in school, office and
other settings.
Today's typical telepresence robot has a display, video camera, microphone and speakers on a stalk attached to a two- or four-wheel platform. The devices are still severely limited in their abilities but are beginning to find homes in health care to stretch resources, in businesses to enable remote meetings and other interactions for telecommuters and in education.
In Seneca, N.Y., and Knox City, Texas, an elementary and a high school student are each using Vgo robots to attend classes and socialize with friends. Both suffer from rare diseases that prevent them from leaving their homes. They control their mechanical surrogates from a personal computer.

Prices Coming Down

Right now, most telepresence robots cost thousands of dollars, but manufacturers like MantaroBot and Double Robotics are trying to change that by leveraging existing consumer technologies. The companies are building robots that use an Android tablet or Apple iPad for the video conferencing functionality. Just like the more expensive models, a remote worker can attend meetings and move the robot from one conference room to another or "visit" with colleagues.
Despite using off-the-shelf technology, though, these devices still tend to be too expensive for consumers. The Vgo robots cost $5,000 each, while pre-orders of the slick looking Double Robotics product cost $2,000. (The price is scheduled to rise to $2,500 once the robot goes on sale in early 2013.)
At those prices, the products are likely consigned to a niche within the telepresence market that is expected to reach $13.1 billion worldwide by the end of 2016, according to ABI Research. To try to take mobile telepresence to the masses, entrepreneurs are turning to Kickstarter to raise money to build smartphone-toting robots that would cost just a couple of hundred dollars.

Telepresence Robots For $200?

Examples include Botiful, developed by roboticist Claire Delaunay of Silicon Valley, and Helios, invented by Tian Long Wang, an electrical and electronic engineer of Princeton, N.J. Both robots are essentially wheelbases with a smartphone cradle that can tilt up or down for better viewing.
While the entrepreneurs deserve credit for trying, these low-priced gadgets may not be successful in the mass market. That's because they do not offer much more than what a person can do holding a smartphone or tablet in their hand. The inventions are essentially novelties - with no real problem to fix. "It's not something that most people really need or really want," said Phil Solis, analyst for ABI Research. At this stage, cheap telepresence robots are more likely bought as fun Christmas gifts than for everyday use.

The Future

Nevertheless, these early devices will help build awareness of the use of robots in the home. Apart from the Roomba vacuum cleaners, the vast majority of robots today are found in factories, with the auto industry alone accounting for half of the products sold. That could change as aging baby boomers look to robots for assistance in order to remain independent in their homes when human helpers become too expensive. "It's an evolution," Solis predicted.
Eventually, telepresence could be incorporated into security robots that a homeowner could control while on vacation to check their house, rather than have multiple cameras fixed throughout the building, Solis says. While such robots have been used in commercial buildings and mansions, the introduction of new technologies could help drive prices low enough for the mass market.
In the short term, a few makers of telepresence robots will fill a niche, while others will come and go. But , someone will use the technology in something useful and inexpensive, and to the victor will go the spoils.

Top Hat Monocle Transforms Tech From Classroom Distraction into Teaching Tool

2012-10-23T11:35:00.001-04:00

Top Hat Monocle Transforms Tech From Classroom Distraction into Teaching Tool:

Name: Top Hat Monocle
Quick Pitch: Transform tablets and smartphones from classroom distractions into teaching tools.
Genius Idea: Top Hat Monocle lets college students use smartphones, tablets and laptops instead of traditional classroom response systems to engage with their professor's lectures.
If Top Hat Monocle has its way, teachers won't yell at students for taking out their cellphones in class -- they'll encourage it.
The Toronto-based startup is rethinking the way students engage with teachers during college lectures by replacing so-called "clickers" -- the remote-control response systems used in classrooms -- with web-based applications that work on students' sma…
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Wi-Fi Lightbulbs Are Real

2012-10-22T16:39:00.002-04:00

Wi-Fi Lightbulbs Are Real, And They're Awesome (First Impressions):

We tech sites see a lot of Island of Dr. Moreau-style splicing of technologies. "Haven't you always wanted a lava lamp with a built-in hatchet?" No, I haven't, Mr. Pitchman, please get away from me with your abominations. More »

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency ends BlackBerry contract, will issue iPhones instead

2012-10-22T16:39:00.001-04:00

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency ends BlackBerry contract, will issue iPhones instead:

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has ended its agreement with RIM to provide staffers with BlackBerry smartphones and will instead offer its employees iPhones. Reuters notes that this move affects about 17,600 employees and will cost the agency about $2.1 million. The ICE has used RIM's products for eight years, but it claims that at this point, BlackBerry smartphones "can no longer meet the mobile technology needs of the agency." The group did look at Google's Android platform as another option, but it concluded that Apple's tightly-controlled ecosystem would best serve its needs. "The iPhone services will allow these individuals to leverage reliable, mobile technology on a secure and manageable platform in...
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Starbucks now giving away free TV

2012-10-22T16:38:00.000-04:00

I have enjoyed for some time now the free songs, then the free apps from Starbucks. If you didn't know, when you are loading up your coffee with milk or sugar there is usually a stack of cards. These cards have a code on the back that allow you to get a free song, or a free application. Now it seems that Starbucks is offering free TV episodes. This week is the Simpsons. I'll take it, thanks Starbucks.

Augmented Reality Technology Pushing Forward

2012-10-22T12:30:00.000-04:00

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - JUNE 27: A Google employee wears a pair of Glass during Google's Developers Conference on June 27, 2012 in San Francisco, California. Google Glass, available for pre-orders to developers at $1,500, feeds the user information and uploads data and images from and to the web. Also announced during the conference was the new Nexus 7 tablet and the social streaming media player, the Nexus Q. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

Augmented Reality keeps pushing forward. There are technologies like Google Glass that are promising seamless integration with everyday life. Metaio announced that they are going to release a solution to enable developers to produce platform independent solutions.

Facebook Penalty: Care enough to post your very best!

2012-10-20T11:40:00.000-04:00

Care enough to put out your very best. If you use a tool that allows you to create a post and have it simultaneously deploy on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, etc.. you are showing all those networks that you don’t truly care about them. You didn’t care enough to craft your message for the network you posted it on. If you don’t care, why should the consumer/viewer? It turns out they don’t care a lot, 234% less likes according to Hub Spot.

Today over at hubspot there is a good article on the penalty for showing people on social media that you take short cuts. My personal rule; Always engage on Social Media in the format of the network you are on. It sounds simple, if you are on Twitter, then use twitter to create your posts. There are tools out there like bit.ly and hootsuite that can help you craft your message and I don’t have a problem with them unless you are using these tools as a short cut. Take the time to craft your message in each network that you engage on. Show your fans, followers, circles that you truly care about the social conversation.

I like research quotes

2012-10-20T11:32:00.000-04:00

A theory is something nobody believes, except the person who made it. An experiment is something everybody believes, except the person who made it.

- Albert Einstein

Lynch Insights

Keep Google Reader alive

First Reaction

Upon Further Thought

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