Productivity Tools
A pearl for those invaluable cloud-based tools that help aid productivity. Free or freemium tools in the main but some are certainly worth paying for! Nov 20
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Dropbox Unveils Incredibly Simple Two-Click File-Sharing | Co.Design: business + innovation + design
I’m just minutes into my chat with Dropbox CEO Drew Houston about the company’s latest launch, and already I’m out of questions. But Houston wouldn’t have it any other way. "If it takes really long [to explain], then there’s probably a problem with the product," Houston says with a laugh. It’s that stripped-down approach to product design that’s turned Dropbox into a cloud powerhouse. The service, which offers arguably the simplest solution to accessing your files across PCs, tablets, and smartphones, has rocketed to well beyond 50 million users, and was said to be on track to hit $240 million in revenue last year.
The web is changing day in and day out at an incredibly fast pace. What I found that matters most to me when using new tools is that the switching cost needs to be as low as possible . They are super intuitive to use and save me a ton of time each day. Also, getting to know them better only makes them quicker and easier to use. Ge.tt – filesharing at its simplest
15 productivity tools to play with | Webdesigner Depot
Lifehacker is making some changes to its comment system that will require you to log in with a Facebook, Google, or Twitter account. You must convert your account to one of these services in order to continue using your account. Converting your account on Lifehacker will do so on all Gawker Media Sites.
50 Free Apps We're Most Thankful For
Online Appointment Scheduling
Add the convenience of online booking to your business. Let your customers select the service, location, time, and staff member for their next appointment. Email and text notifications will be sent to your customers automatically.
So maybe email isn’t going to disappear any time soon, and my post about email being dead was slightly premature. For those of you who are overwhelmed with email on a daily basis, you might want to take advantage of this week because January 23 – 27 marks the fifth annual international Clean Out Your Inbox Week. All over the web this week, you’ll find excellent tips on how to organize and clean out your email inbox.
Give your Inbox a Detox this Week! | Conspire: A Mindjet Publication
Search the World Search over 4000 library catalogs and databases from all major information providers. When searching the Web, the exclusive Picker extensions for Internet Explorer and Firefox let you effortlessly grab references, quotations, and images, making it quick and easy to expand your knowledge base. Full Text Management Citavi lets you add PDF articles as references, looks up their bibliographic information, searches for full text online, and creates screenshots of Web pages in PDF format, if desired.
Citavi – Reference Management and Knowledge Organization
Mendeley - Academic reference
Thanks for the reminder emma.b I've used Zotero for a long time now and meant to add - have rectified this now :) by Nov 21
Evernote
My Evernote accounts growing to over 3500 notes... Can't do without it... by Dec 17
The 10 Best Productivity Apps of 2011 - The Next Web
This has been a hectic year for nearly everyone I know. Thankfully, technology is one of the best ways to manage an over-active schedule. 2011 has also been a very busy year for app developers, and we’ve seen them churn out productivity apps right and left. But out of all the apps we’ve come across, only 10 shine as the most practical and enjoyable to use, all of which are examples of beautiful design and precise attention to detail.
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. Name: Citelighter Quick Pitch: Citelighter keeps information from multiple web sources in one place. Genius Idea: Making it easy to compile notes — and citations — from multiple web pages.
Citelighter Is Like a Highlighter for the Internet
30 SEO Bookmarklets
We all work hard at the SEO process - analyzing sites, gathering data, researching potential problems and identifying the solutions. Today's post is on how to work smarter and faster using bookmarklets for SEO. No matter your browser, these plug-and-play links will let you get your job done faster and easier, and look like a pro in front of bosses and clients. The list isn't completely comprehensive, but it covers 95%+ of the SEO data points I retrieve on a monthly basis and a few extras I don't personally use that may be valuable to others. It also has a section at the end on how to make your own bookmarklets for any site, tool or service you use. To employ, just click and drag the bookmarklet links from this blog post into your sidebar or bookmarks folder and rename to whatever you'd like.
5 URL Expanders to Help You Avoid Spammy Links
When URL shorteners first came about, spammers used them to disguise malicious links. Now that social networks like Twitter have propelled shortened URLs into widespread use, people are more comfortable clicking through. However, there are still occasions in which you confront possibly dubious links. Rather than debate the pros and cons of clicking (We’re guessing that ZOMG! video is never worth turning your PC into a spambot), we recommend bookmarking a URL checker to find out just where that enticing link points before you click through. We’ve found five URL expansion services that will give you some peace-of-mind when browsing.Clean up your social media permissions with one handy site | The Verge
Even with the best privacy management systems, it's easy to forget what apps have access to your account information. Now, there's a site devoted to making it easier to check in on them. At mypermissions.org , you can find direct links to the permission pages of eight major social networking and sharing sites, including Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter. Creator Avi Charkham , who also runs family album site MyFamilio , hopes that the site will "help people start 2012 with clean privacy permissions."All of my research for the past 3 years was done with free software. In this post I describe the free programs that I use every day, and what I use them for. I do not use them simply to conform to stereotypes about cheap Scotsmen. As you will see, I use them because they are portable and very powerful.