Evernote was recently spotlighted in Inc. Magainze, and for good reason–it’s a fantastic app for helping you remember stuff. It goes beyond simple note-taking and makes it easy to take quick notes, record a quick sound clip, or save a picture for later.

The best way I can describe it is a brain dump repository. The pain Evernote solves is the fact that your brain can only handle so much information. Evernote solves that by making it quick and easy to take notes, tag notes, and find them later.

One of the best selling points of Evernote is that you can have it on just about any platform–Mac, PC, Android, and iOS. There’s even an open source version for Linux that is built using the Evernote API. This means that I can take notes on my tablet and have them show up on my phone, my computer, and in any browser.

The Evernote widget for Android is especially great, making it even easier to quickly jot down a note or record a clip on the go.

If you’ve never used Evernote, it’s worth a look. Do you already use Evernote? What’s your favorite way to use it? Let me know in the comments.

DISCLAIMER: It’s a pretty irreverent book, with a fair bit of language and bathroom analogies (obviously). You’ve been warned.

Well, Spotify, it’s been a good run. You got me through the summer, helped me during Fall semester, and now it’s almost time to say goodbye. I hope you understand that I enjoy your service. The problem is simply the fact that you’re not unique enough to make me pay.

Sure, you boast a large library of great tunes. But so do many others, and I don’t think I’m picky enough to care about differences between selections. I know you’ll still give me 10 hours of free music streaming per month, but that’s hardly enough. There’s a chance I’ll max you out every month, right at the beginning, before I move onto another service–but part of me might just cut all ties so I don’t have to worry your limits. I’ll be sure to say hi to iHeartRadio, Grooveshark, Pandora, and Mog for you.

I might be back. I might realize just how great you really are in comparison. But for now, it’s adios. Call me when you make it a free service again.

(Mashable – 5 Alternatives to Consider After Spotify’s Free Music Cutoff)

The news came out yesterday that Google search will soon be including results from its Google Plus network. This is pretty huge if you think about it. It means that when I search for a book, for example, I’ll be presented with something a friend of mine said about that book 3 months ago, or maybe even yesterday. Google has already done a great job making the search results relevant to me, but this is another huge step in the right direction towards really relevant searches.

It got me thinking, though, about how Amazon needs to incorporate a social element to the online shopping experience. Consider Amazon reviews–they’re the best thing in the world, right? More often than not, a decision on whether to buy one product over another comes down to the reviews.

But not all the reviews are accurate. The sheer volume of reviews helps to mitigate this problem, but the problem is still there. Like the guy who gives a product 1 star because he had a bad shipping experience–something that has absolutely nothing to do with the product itself.

Imagine if you could build trust circles, or trust groups within Amazon–a group of people whose opinion you trust around a certain topic. Like a group of people whose opinion you trust about books, or technology, or art. Maybe this list of friends gets pulled from Facebook, or maybe it comes from Google+. Or maybe Amazon builds their own social network, allowing people to connect with other friends on Amazon (and easily share books via the Kindle).

Now imagine you’re looking at a product page, and see that the product has an average rating of 3.5 stars from all users. Not bad. But then you can tweak the 5-star rating to only include those reviews by people in one of your trusted circles or groups. Now the average goes up to 4 stars, and the reviews you are reading are by people you trust. Assuming you’ve chosen your circles or groups wisely, you can be confident that the reviews are more relevant to your tastes, likes and dislikes.

The Amazon rating system could be so much more if they could bring a social element to it. Right now, shopping on Amazon feels like I’m in my own little world, but I think the future of online shopping will be a very social experience.

I’ve had my Kindle Touch for a little over a week now, and absolutely love it.

First of all, I prefer it to reading on my Samsung Galaxy Tab, mostly because of the e-ink screen. I spend all day staring at a computer screen at work, so the last thing I want to do when I come home and read is stare at another glowing screen. The e-ink is refreshing and doesn’t stimulate my eyes right before I go to bed like my tablet does. For me, the best thing about it is the screen.

I’ve found the navigation to be fairly intuitive. A few minutes playing around and I had the hang of it. In the course of my reading, I’ve also found a few swiping gesture shortcuts to navigate around (try swiping from top to bottom, bottom to top, and right to left while reading).

The other nice thing about it is the long battery life. I haven’t had it long enough to test the 2-month battery life claim, but I don’t doubt it at all. After using it pretty consistently for the last few days, the battery meter reads just under full. I’ve made sure to turn off the wireless when I’m not using it. In contrast, consistent use of my tablet requires charging at least every other day.

Also, it’s nice to have a device dedicated to reading. For someone like me who likes to multitask, the tablet offers plenty of distractions and makes it hard to get through a chapter without some sort of notification getting in the way. Ditching the distractions makes for a great reading experience.

I was really excited when I learned that Utah libraries now support ebook rentals through OverDrive. However, the excitement quickly died down when I logged in and saw that the waiting list for popular books like The Help is 100+ people. I’m not getting that book anytime soon. Unless public libraries purchase and make more copies available, I doubt it’ll be useful in the long run (unless you’re looking for really obscure books).

My excitement returned when I learned about Amazon’s Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, a way to check out books from Amazon (up to one book a month) with no due date if you have Amazon Prime ($40 for students after the free trial). Not every book is available as part of this program, but it’s got a pretty decent selection which I imagine will expand over time.

My first rental from the lending library has been The Hunger Games. The catch with these rentals is that they’re only available on an actual Kindle device–the book doesn’t show up in the Kindle app on my tablet, or in the web-based reader. Since you can rent up to one book a month, it’ll be easy to keep my 2012 resolution of reading one book per month, without needing to actually buy any books.

What’s been your experience with the Kindle? Are you sitting on the fence, wondering whether you should get one? Have any more tips and tricks to using the Touch?

Lizzy is doing a really cool “12 in 2012″ resolution idea. She has 12 different things she’d like to get better at, and each month she’s going to do one of those 12 things every day. When that month is up, she can either continue doing that thing (if the habit has formed), or she can drop it. Either way, each day of the next month will be spent on the next of the 12 things.

With Google Music, you can download the Music Manager, a small application that acts as the link between your computer and Google Music. With Music Manager, you can upload your current library (you specify the location) or download the music you’ve purchased through Google (someday I expect the ability to also download music you’ve uploaded). But iTunes podcasts aren’t included in that library upload by default.

Under the Advanced tab in Music Manager is a checkbox to ‘Include podcasts in uploads’. Check that box and now you’ve got your podcasts available in the cloud, accessible from the web and the Google Music app on your Android phone. If you leave both iTunes and Music Manager running in the background, new podcasts will be downloaded and uploaded without any supervision.

Here are a few of my favorite podcasts:

• This American Life (iTunes) (RSS)
• Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me (iTunes) (RSS)
• TEDTalks – video (iTunes) (RSS)
• Stuff You Missed In History Class (iTunes) (RSS)

I’ve also done a bit of a redesign, switching to the default Twenty Eleven theme on WordPress. The header was pieced together after I wrote down the alphabet with a sharpie, took a picture of it, did a Live Trace of the letters in Illustrator, and constructed the header image.

Don’t forget that Lizzy and I are also working on another blog called The Luncheon Project, where we meet new people, take them to lunch, and blog about it. It’s been a great experience so far and we’ve met some pretty incredible people along the way.

I went for a pair of the Men’s KSO FiveFingers, which seem to be the most popular and most versatile of the different models. And from what I’ve heard from different salespeople at different shoe stores, there isn’t really a whole lot of difference between the models. That makes total sense, since the whole point of the shoe is being barefoot–something that doesn’t have a whole lot of variation.

When I first put them on, they felt a little too small. I had gone through the measuring process to figure out my size, but my big toes seemed too close to the edge. Turns out the ideal fit is when your big toes (or longest toes) graze the edge of the toe pocket. They’re supposed to fit like a glove, but not curl your toes. After wearing them for about 5-6 hours, they feel just fine.

Wearing them is fantastic. It really does feel like you’re walking around barefoot, just with a little protection on the bottom (the KSOs have a 2mm sole). They’re natural, they don’t get in the way, and it’s easy to forget that I’m wearing them at all. The thing I enjoy most about them is the same thing I enjoy about being bald–it’s one less thing to worry about. When I’ve got the shoes on, I can be inside, outside, go to Costco, or curl up on the couch. I don’t have to think about putting on and taking off shoes, just like I don’t have to think about doing my hair.

If you’re on the fence about getting a pair of FiveFingers, I’d definitely recommend them. So far I’ve only done regular walking, but I already feel like the shoes have been a good investment. I’d like to get into barefoot running in the coming weeks and will write another post if that happens. But if the price tag bothers like like it did me, be patient as you look for a deal–they don’t come too often.

UPDATE (1/2/2011 7:20pm MST): I found another deal on this exact pair. If you’re interested, you can check it out here. Not sure how long this will last.

My favorite album of 2011 is definitely The King is Dead by The Decemberists. I found it this past summer, right before The Decemberists came to SLC for the Twilight Concert Series, one of the best concerts I think I’ve ever been to. Be sure to listen through the entire album–every track is fantastic.