Informal Brain

strategic thinking from Shawn Smith

Archive for October, 2008

Poll: Byline or Google Reader for Mobile?

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Written by Shawn Smith

October 19th, 2008 at 6:34 am

Posted in iPhone

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Things, Getting It Done For The Rest Of Us!

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Things. a relatively new player in the GTD (Getting things done) application space has really impressed me with their simple to use desktop client and powerful iPhone application. The combination gives you your task list in your pocket when you need it most, and allows you to do the heavy lifting on your Mac. The synchronization feature between the iPhone and desktop applications works flawlessly over WIFI which is very nice.

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A few of my favorite features:

1. Simplicity: The guys at Cultured Code really understand how to build a set of applications which embody simplicity. They choose to use tags rather then columns, and a simple Drag and Drop UI. Very nice.

2. Today: I love that I can just drop a task to the today item and it is ready to be acted on right now.

3. Areas: I can organize my tasks easily to my areas of responsibility.

4. Projects: I can group a set of tasks which will drive out the execution of a project. Works well when you have multiple tasks to complete to wrap up an effort.

5. Sync: I can synchronize the iPhone and Desktop versions of the application quickly over WIFI.

6. Drag and Drop: I can easily drag and drop tasks between the different GTD action types.

Written by Shawn Smith

October 15th, 2008 at 1:11 pm

Posted in iPhone

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Byline 2.0, a “HUGE” update!

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One of my favorite iPhone applications called Byline by Phantom Fish has just been updated to version 2.0.

What an impressive update!

Here are some of the highlights:

1. Folders: You can now see each of your Google Reader folders.

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2. Clean, fast new interface: The interface has been cleaned up. Gone are the flat blues and now we have a cool wood grained view which is easy on the eyes. And did I mention faster! The entire application is much faster to load new items.

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3. Notes: You can now write notes while sharing items just like in the web based google reader application.

4. Built in Web Browser: No more sudden swaps to Safari. Now you can browse inside the application without switching. This is a favorite feature because I would frequently hit a link by mistake and swap to Safari. No more.

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Written by Shawn Smith

October 15th, 2008 at 3:45 am

Posted in iPhone

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Bailouts 2.0 and 3.0

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Now that bailout 1.0 is behind us it is time to start thinking about the future:

Bailout 2.0: Healthcare

We need a healthcare solution in the US which is cost effective for end users, and is available to all citizens regardless of their preexisting conditions, or financial situation. Perhaps the government can bail out the healthcare system next?

Bailout 3.0: The Environment

The environment, needs a bailout plan. We need to infuse capital into technology which can reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. This will help the US become a global leader in clean technology and will create new research and manufacturing jobs.

Sounds to me like these might be some great ways to spend our tax dollars? 1.2 Trillion to bail out the financial services industries. How much could bailout 2.0 and 3.0 cost?

Written by Shawn Smith

October 6th, 2008 at 4:04 am

Safari 4 vs Firefox 3.1

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There are two things Firefox can do that Safari can’t:

1. Set pipelining on. Although there is risk that the web servers can’t support pipelining it provides a nice speedup on a high-speed connection.

2. Allow tweaking of the Connections per server setting. This is technically against the recommendations of the w3c protocol but when you have lots of bandwidth you can really get a nice performance boost pulling down the attached images.

I wonder when Safari will support these settings? I wonder when the max connections per server will be increased by default?

Written by Shawn Smith

October 5th, 2008 at 8:45 pm

Posted in 365

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IBM demonstrates they understand iPhone security with iNotes Ultralite

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Just another sign that IBM really “gets it” when it comes to iPhone security. I happen to work at a Lotus Notes shop and we have been taking a strong look at the iNotes Ultralite application for some time now. You may have seen some of my previous posts about the lack of enterprise level encryption for email on the iPhone. This is a show stopper for our company where we manage complex PHI (Personal Health Information) for our customers. We can’t afford to loose even one device (laptop, smart phone) which is not encrypted.

IBM is always concerned about data security for its customers, and as such they decided to make iNotes Ultralite a web app rather than a native iPhone application. IBM felt it was important to customers to insure that all communications between the iPhone and Lotus Domino server be encrypted, and that no data remain on the device in case it was lost or stolen.

[From iPhone in the Enterprise: Lotus iNotes Ultralite - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)]

I suspect we will see a native Notes application for the iPhone or a plugin for the native Mail application in the future when encryption is available. Until then, IBM is delivering what we need right now.

Written by Shawn Smith

October 2nd, 2008 at 1:00 pm