The Productive Organizer

To all my friends who thinks that iPhone is overtaking the world, take a look at this worksheet:

The Omni group have a really nice group of apps going to help Mac users and make Mac a really good productivity platform.

9to5mac reports that in a survey by medical lynch-pin Epocrates [Free - iTunes link], up to 60% of doctors were at least considering an iPad:

• 9 percent want it now
• 13 percent want it this year
• 38 percent were interested and wanted more info

Mac developer Omni Group, which has dipped a toe into iPhone development with Omni Focus [$19.99 - iTunes link], has decided to port than entire portfolio of apps — OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, OmniPlan, OmniFocus, and OmniGraphSketcher — to iPad even if it delays development of the Mac version

News out is that they are likely to put their next releases on the Mac on the line so that they can port all their great Mac apps over to the iPad.

The iPad and Mac platform are great from the productivity point of view and its something that other platforms are trying to measure up.

Remember you can fight on many fronts in this tablet war: do you go for great reading experience? or great multimedia experience.

But the competitors need to know that there is a vast market for education applications and niche office productivity. if they failed to see this and tap onto this and let apple have their way then they are dead

Here is a good test that the author actually thought up when curiosity got the better of him which device input is he better on. The result is rather interesting. Perhaps i should do something like this on my own!

[Pen v Keyboard v Newton v Graffiti v Treo v iPhone >>]

IBM plans to release official Lotus Notes client for Android devices though an official timeline hasn’t been made available. The app will handle mail, calendar and contacts and will be designed to run on Android 2.0 and higher. The full details and specific features  have yet to be finalized by the company.

Basically, it’s just IBM saying that they recognize Android as a platform viable enough to create an app for.

Speaking at their Lotusphere conference in Florida, IBM said the app will be called Lotus Notes Traveler and will be a free download. Of course, users will be required to have Lotus Domino server software.  This marks the second major secure email client for Android behind Good Technology’s.

Source: ZDNet UK

Here’s a good tip from Crackberry. This software called SmartWifi does the handywork to help you save battery life of your blackberry phone by smartly turning off WIFI:

• Saves battery by turning off WiFi when not needed.
  
• Remembers the WiFi locations you use.
  
• Up to 100 WiFi locations supported!
  
• Powers WiFi back on when you are back at WiFi coverage.
  
• Saves battery by avoiding to constantly check for available WiFi hotspots.
  
• Displays useful information: BSSID, SSID, Data Rate, Radio Band & Signal Level.
  
• Supported mobile devices: GSM / GPRS, CDMA and iDEN.

[Hattip Crackberry >>]

This week on  RSS feed world, gadgets take an important precedence snice CES is happening this week.

And just like i said previously, the iTablet news is spawning off alot of challengers for apples latest potential game changer.

We have the JooJoo and HP tablet slate to Lenovo’s Hybrid Ideapad. But not much have been said about the price.

As far as ebook readers are concern, if they are unable to reach 150 USD then alot of normal folks won’t bite. Lets hope throughout the year some of these folks hit that pricing range

Nowadays i realise that one of the intangible annoyances is really passing business associates contacts around. That is why there was a prevalent movement to transfer info via iPhone or Windows Mobile Phone.

Another main annoyance is to input a name card you just gotten into your phone. Thank fully for Blackberry users they get software like Business Card Reader that lets you easily scan your business card and the technology behind will translate it to your contact list.

SHAPE Services has released a new application for those of you who hate inputting information from business cards manually. Business Card Reader is a scanning utility that simply lets you scan a business card and by making use of ABBYY’s text recognition technology allows for the extracted information to be added directly to your address book filling in all the appropriate fields. Having tested it on some business cards I have, I found it to be quite accurate in its rendering and identifying of information. Could be quite useful if you deal with business cards quite frequently.

[Hattip Crackberry >>]

I wish i had the chance to get my hands on a blackberry. Would love to see what it can do. I seen people in lifts playing with it but none of my friends (except Augustine) who has it.

Anyway to start of probably a series for folks that thinks BlackBerry is just for corporate users here is a video on the pioneers for developing where blackberry it is today. They talk about why use java, importance of security and the idea behind blackberry.

I came across this very good article at CrackBerry on the hierachy of Smartphone Needs. Basically the author tries to order and prioritize the needs and benchmarks a smartphone should achieve where every smartphone should expect to be at the top of the pyramid.

I thought this is a really good way of illustrating what we expect out of a smartphone. Too long we say that i want this i want that in my smartphone. My phone can do this my phone can’t do that without realizing which level a phone pass or fails at:

At the top of this article is my take on the Hierarchy of Smartphone needs. Let’s take a quick walk through it starting from the bottom and working our way to the top.

1. connectivity, compatibility and security: Without this, your smartphone is no longer a phone nor a data-enhanced device. Having adequate coverage from your carrier, where you live, work, play, go to school, travel, etc. is critical to a smartphone user. There is nothing more frustrating than being in the middle of an important call and having it drop, or not being able to secure a data connection when you really need your GPS to be working so you can figure out where the heck you are. WiFi is part of connectivity these days too – to many people, a phone without WiFi is a phone they will not purchase. Likewise, compatibility is critical when selecting a smartphone. The device you purchase needs to work with the systems you use on a regular basis. You’re a Mac user? Then you want a smartphone that plays nicely with Macs. Want to use your smartphone for your work life as well as your personal life? Then you may need to ensure your device features Microsoft Exchange support. Security is also critical. These days I think a lot of consumers simply assume security is present (enterprise is a different story – they need to see the proof) in the device they choose. It’s one of those things that you don’t see when it’s there and things are running smooth, but are catastrophic the second it goes away and hell breaks loose. If you knew a device wasn’t secure, you’d never entertain the thought of buying it.

2. daily usability and performance: When you choose to adopt the smartphone way of life, you very quickly become dependent on it. It’s like electricity – once you have it, there’s no living without it. That said, the smartphone you choose needs to be there for you when you need it (a smartphone with a dead battery is just a paperweight) and integrate with your daily life. Some items in this category fall under the more is better clause, such as speed and reliability. The faster the device the better. The more reliable it is, the better. The longer the battery life, the better. Other aspects are left more to personal preference. Do you need a device that you can use one-handed on the go? Are you willing sacrifice the convenience and speed of use offered by a front-facing physical keyboard in order to make room for a larger and more app/media friendly display? Considering the amount of time individuals spend on smartphones, often totaling several hours per day, it’s important that you be comfortable with the smartphone you choose. It should feel good in your hand and comfortable against your ear. For something that gets used as often as a smartphone does, you should enjoy using the device. These days a smartphone is as much of a statement as it is a gadget. For example, A person who uses a BlackBerry projects a certain image to those around about who they are. Does the smartphone you have possess the identity you want to project to those around you? Depending on where your priorities and values lay, a phone that falls flat on any of these particular factors that matter to you will be a phone you won’t want to use each and every day.

3. communication and productivity: Prior to the era of the smartphone, you had regular cell phones (feature phones) and PDAs (personal digital assistants). The core feature of a cell phone is of course communication – you want people to be able to get a hold of you while you’re on the go. The core function of the PDA was organizing your life. Our resident smartphone guru Dieter Bohn in the past has summed these up as the four pillars of PIM and COM, the four pillars of personal information management being: calendar, contacts, memos and todo, while the pillars of communication are: push email, SMS/MMS, web browsing and telephony. Communication gets pushed further these days with things like BlackBerry Messenger for the CrackBerry addicts out there and communicating via social networks (facebook, twitter, instant messaging services) while mobile is now the norm. But while the smartphone was born out of the cell phone and PDA, these days what it is doing more and more is becoming a computer. The smartphone is beginning to allow individuals to leave their laptops behind be productive from everywhere. But it comes to smartphone platforms, not all are created equal. Is the email push? Can I run multiple apps at once? Can I open and edit attachments? How’s the voice quality? Does it have a good speakerphone? How good is the web browser? All of these sorts of questions fall into this category, and the answers to them for some individuals will help determine whether a particular phone is right or wrong for their needs. Some may be critical. Others may be less important.

4. features for everyday life: These are the features that make your smartphone an indespensible, never leave home without it device. Some of these features are hardware related, while others are software, but all of them help to elliminate your need to carry around other “stuff” because your smartphone does it all. Think about all of the things the smartphone has killed the need for… you no longer keep a map in the glovebox of your car because you have one on your phone. Your calculator is your smartphone. You no longer have an alarm clock because your smartphone sits in a charging pod beside your bed displaying a clock. Your smartphone is your portable music player. Unless you’re a photo junky who carries an SLR around everywhere, your smartphone is your camera and video recorder. Password keeper, voicenotes recorder… the list goes on. Every smartphone from every manufacturer is very feature-rich these days, though between the platforms and particular devices there are differences that jump out. Some are better at certain things than others. And ocassionally, you find gaps (it took three iterations for Apple to put video recording on the iPhone). I also reckon there are still more features for smartphone manufacturers to build into their devices (front facing cameras for video conferencing on smartphones in North America, mini-projectors for video, etc.).

5. an app for everything: Heard of the arms race? Well what were living in now is the apps race. Smartphone apps have been around for a while, but it was Apple and their app store that fired the starter’s pistol and really brought the consumer attention towards mobile apps, putting them at the top of the hierarchy of smartphone needs. This position actually jives rather well with Maslow’s self-actualization sitting at the top, as that’s really what apps are all about. It’s not about installing 100,000 apps onto your phone or everybody using the same apps. It’s about each person finding those apps, be it five, ten, 20 or 50 of them, that are uniquely beneficial to the user. They enhance your life. They may be productivity focused or entertainment focused or they may be useless time killers, which is fine too. Every smartphone platform either has or is rolling out their app store, and it’s an area that every stakeholder is paying close attention to. Apple set the standard for apps and jumped out to an early need, and now it’s up to the rest to play catch up and find ways to differentiate.

[Read the full article here >>]

Its a good week in terms of uncovering mind mapping applications for mobile platform. I have been blogging about my experience with iThoughts on the iPhone recently. However, i’m even more impress if we have more good applications like this for Blackberry and Android.

MindBerry looks the part for BlackBerry. On a less flexible platform like J2ME (Compare to Cocoa) to come up with something like this is great to try out as an engineer.

Here is a mind map on MindBerry. Whats amazing is that most of iThoughts functionality can be found in this software. The most important factor for alot of people seem to be that you can import and export to Freemind and Mind Manager, which is great if you have existing applications

Here  is a video on MindBerry in action

My overall feel is that compare to iThoughts at USD 6.99 its a tat more expensive and provides less. But perhaps most Black berry applications are more expensive then iPhone apps

[MindBerry Download >>]