Is technology making it harder for creative professionals to survive in today's economy? Or is it just a matter of learning to adapt?... Read the full entry »
This second-generation ‘plug offers some intriguing new features, including support for up to four external drives, but we’re having a hard time getting past the…pink.
Granted, the Pogoplug was never expressly intended for business users (despite it having myriad small-business applications), but the new design will almost certainly keep non-consumer buyers away in droves. Men, too.
Almost every day, I board a bus and relax for the 30 minutes it takes me to get to work. Along the way, I use my iPod to monitor the route using GPS (to make sure the bus driver doesn’t get lost), check e-mail, listen to podcasts, and watch the occasional video. On this lazy Friday morning, I thought I’d recommend four free apps you can use to get video on your own iPhone or iPod Touch.
Round these parts, I frequently need to share Web pages with co-workers. Sometimes it’s fine just to send a link, but occasionally it’s critical to freeze a moment in time. Sending a link is dicey, because the page could change before anyone sees what I had intended to show. Sure, I could take a screenshot, but that only captures part of the page at a time. What I need is a way to make a PDF out of the entire page.
As for the why-you-should-care part, you probably shouldn’t — at least for now. Chrome OS is at least a year away, and there won’t even be a beta until well into 2010.
That said, envision a netbook that boots in seconds, connects you instantly to the kinds of apps you use most (e-mail, Web, word processing, etc.), and costs around $200 — because you didn’t have to pay an extra $100 for a Windows OS.
That’s a little pie-in-the-sky on my part, but I’ll meet you back here in a year and see where things stand. You heard it here first.
I don’t often agree with Dave, but he’s right about one thing: multiple monitors rock. Nothing, but nothing, beats having Outlook open on one screen and your browser on another. Or your browser and Excel. Or Excel and iTunes. You get the idea.
Just one problem: What if your desktop or laptop doesn’t support a second monitor? Or there’s no room in the budget to buy one?
Occasionally, debate will rage over the question of using two or more monitors. In my judgment, there’s no debate: No other single change to your desktop can have so profound an effect on your productivity. When I tell this to people that have never tried multiple displays, though, I get the same question every time: “What’s it good for?” Well, here are four ways to make that second monitor pay for itself.
The Word 2007 ribbon: You either love it or hate it. There’s apparently no middle ground. But even if you like the way the ribbon exposes Word features that were previously very hard to find, the fact remains that it’s sometimes frustratingly difficult to track down something that you used to know exactly how to find in Word 2003. Well, fret no more. You can now have the best of both worlds.
I can honestly say I wouldn’t buy a smartphone if it didn’t offer at least one good e-book app. And by “good” I mean one that lets me read mainstream books purchased online.
Well, Android owners now have such an app: eReader. Available free from the eponymous bookseller, eReader for Android lets you read books right on your phone.
Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. Many people suspect reading on a small, electronic screen will be unpleasant, but I’m here to tell you: Once you get used to it, you’ll love it.
Indeed, there’s nothing better than having a book to read everywhere you go. (Kindle owners know what I mean, but who wants to tote a Kindle everywhere? Your phone is always with you.)
Like other versions of the eReader app, the Android edition lets you read books purchased from eReader and Fictionwise. (Tip: Here’s how you can get a 100-percent rebate on New York Times bestsellers.) Just buy them on the site, then fire up the app to download them from your library.
Speaking of the app, you can get it by pointing your phone’s browser to www.ereader.com/android. Of course, this option isn’t limited to the Android crowd:
Well, do you? We talk a lot about Twitter around these parts, and we’re proud to count hundreds of Business Hacks readers as followers, but we’re still curious about whether you actually use the service.
For example, I do a fair bit of tweeting (mostly in the form of links to BH posts), but don’t actually read many tweets from others. That’s because Twitter quickly leads to information overload (”twoverload”?), and I just can’t keep up.
What about you? Are you actively hash-tagging and retweeting and all that? Vote in our latest poll, then hit the comments to follow up. If you use Twitter, what for? If you don’t, why not?
Writing e-mail isn’t exactly Shakespeare, but there’s an art to it nonetheless. Indeed, if Shakespeare were alive today, he’d probably have committed the occasional e-mail faux pas, like YELLING AT Christopher Marlowe or sending typos by forgetting the U in colour.
Read on for the top 5 e-mail dos and the top 5 e-mail don’ts.
Dave Johnson
Over the past 20 years, Dave Johnson has written three dozen books (including the best-selling How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera), co-hosted a weekly call-in radio show, and covered technology for a long list of magazines that include PC World and Wired. As his neighbors can attest, he also plays drums. more »
Thanksgiving plus recession equals car sickness drugs for dogs, according to a new press release from Pfizer (PFE). The company is urging people to bring their dogs with them as they travel for Thanksgiving dinner. Why? Because Pfizer makes a motion-sickness drug for dogs, Cerenia, so now there's no excuse for leaving Rover at home.
So much for the empty nest. More and more adult children, unable to support themselves in a tough economy, are showing up on mom and dad’s doorstep. Here’s how to minimize the financial drain and emotional strain, while helping your children get back on their feet — and out the door.
Remember Pogoplug, the little gizmo that turns a USB hard drive into network-attached storage? Well, it’s back, and it’s…pink.
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