28 Sep 2009

A Week in the Clouds Without a Notebook

On average I travel for business about seven to 15 days a month. Sometimes it can get a bit nuts, but I love it - I never get bored. This is one of those weeks. I will literally be in the clouds all week both virtually and physically.

I am starting my journey today in Toronto. Tomorrow I am speaking at the MIXX conference and will also participate in staff, client, industry and press meetings. Wednesday I head to Atlanta for the day for another private event and then right back up to Montreal that night. Thursday I am speaking at MIXX in Montreal. I head home for one night and then do a round-trip from NY to DC on Friday for, yes, another speaking gig. (Map above. I like maps!)

Despite the travel, however, I still need to be productive. I need to stay in touch with my colleagues and clients and also do some writing. Also, I want to stay in touch with you here on my lifestream and on social networks. Mobile technology is my friend here.

I have a couple of different laptops that I take on trips. All of them are light. But you see, I am on a quest. I want ditch my laptop on every trip and only carry a smartphone and my Iamakey for the rest. Right now I have an iPhone 3GS but I may add a Blackberry to complement it. My key files and even some portable apps are encrypted on the USB key.

The reason is simple: all of these devices are pocketable. A laptop isn't. I don't want to carry a laptop because it's mental baggage. I don't want to be thinking about where it is. Smartphones and USB keys are like appendages. I always know where they are. Plus, I know that one day soon we won't need to carry laptops on business trips because these phones - which are really pocket computers - will be able to do it all, including hook up to hotel TVs. I am trying to experience this future now.

I have gone sans laptop on business trips before but this one at three nights is the longest one yet - although I am home for one night in between trips. I have tweaked my setup so that the apps and services I use on my smartphone are identical to what I use on my Mac at home and - to a large degree - my desktop PC at work. I like the simplicity and consistency of it all.

Here's what I using... (workflow below)

  • Writing and To Do List - WriteRoom (which now has TextExpander support to speed up typing)
  • Contacts and Calendar - Address Book and iCal, which connect with our Exchange Server 
  • Notes - WriteRoom for temporary storage, Evernote for archiving (more on this in a subsequent post on lifelogging)
  • Files - Documents to Go, and if necessary, my IamaKey and Box.net/Sharepoint
  • Mindmapping - Mindjet and Mindnode
  • RSS - NetNewsWire, which syncs to Google Reader
  • Twitter - Tweetie
  • Plus, of course, Posterous and Instapaper for sharing and reading
The only thing I can't do with this setup is create or edit a PowerPoint deck, although I can view them. This is one reason I am considering getting a Blackberry too - you can edit PPT. I don't anticipate I will need to on this trip. However, I will need to write, but I can actually do so on my phone quite comfortably. If some people can write books on cell phones, then I can certainly crank out shorter stuff too.

You probably think I am nuts, but I hate carrying laptops. I have done so for years. I will keep you posted on my progress. Sometimes I am on the road seven or nine days at a time. I don't think I can ditch a laptop on these trips, but this journey might convince me otherwise. Wish me luck.
25 Sep 2009

The Pitch: Alan Warms of Appolicious

Alan Warms, CEO of Appolicious, stopped by my office today to give me a rundown of his site - a social network for mobile apps. Right now it's just for iPhone apps, but they will be expanding soon to cover Android and Blackberry. For more see this short video. It's an interesting concept, although I would be eager to see them do more to connect to Facebook and to bring the social network to the iPhone - which is in the works.

12 Jul 2009

Hey, Is That a PC OS in Your Pocket?

Image credit: Geek Life Blog

Now that it's Sunday I am digesting the big news of the week - Google Chrome OS. Right now there's not a lot of there, there. We'll have to see how it all comes to market next year. The devil is in the details. Will it run Photoshop? Or, will Photoshoppers turn to web based alternatives. Unclear.

Here's what I do know, though. There will be more machines in my future, not less. And portable PC operating systems will make this all possible.

Like my friend Om, after five years solely on the Mac I am now an multi-OS guy. I use a PC desktop at work. At home I use a Mac. On the road I use a netbook. And everywhere else an iPhone. Since all my data is in the cloud (mine or Edelman's) the majority of the time all I need is just a browser.

However, the cloud isn't ubiquitous yet, so secure cached data is important. That's why I carry an encrypted Sandisk U3 USB memory stick stuffed with portable apps like Evernote. But as these memory sticks get faster and bigger, I bet they will start to easily run a full operating system and apps - and that Chrome will be the first to go mainstream. Expect to see Google Chrome OS USB sticks in stores.

With PCs and desktops everywhere we'll be soon booting more off USB drives. Linux, Google Chrome OS, Mac OS X and Windows, etc. will all run off portable USB drives that we'll tote from PC to PC (or in Apple's case, Macs to Macs). The OS and its entire suite of applications will run off the devices which ensures your data stays yours.

Pocket operating systems won't be limited to USB drives either. Why can't an iPhone or a G1 phone store an entire copy of a PC OS and apps that you access when you plug into something else? Exactly, they will.

So as exciting as the Chrome announcement is, the biggest news is yet to come. PC operating systems will be always ready, in your pocket.
5 Jul 2009

The Big To-Do Over To Do's

Years ago, life was simple. You created a to-do list - on paper. You checked boxes. And that was that. Somewhere along the way, as technology unleashed more inputs into our lives, the simple to-do list became glorified. The rising demands on our attention spawned an entire cottage industry of stand-alone to-do apps!

Remember the old song Sixty 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover? It seems like there's even more ways to manage and track your tasks on a PC, Mac, mobile device or in the cloud. Here's one list. And here's another. And the market keeps expanding too, a sign of our times,

I have tried many of these - in some cases multiple times: Backpack, Toodledo, Google Docs, Things, Omnifocus, GMail Tasks, Remember the Milk, Evernote and more.

My needs are relatively simple: I want to follow the general principles outlined by David Allen in GTD and have all my lists be: a) searchable, b) cross-platform, c) mobile and d) private.

I haven't been able to find one that sticks. But now I think I have finally landed on an outstanding combo: Taskpaper, pictured above. This is a Mac app but it also has an nearly identical Windows cousin called ToDoPaper. Both are super. A web service powered by Google Appspot is coming soon to Taskpaper.com as is an iPhone app.

What's great about Taskpaper and ToDoPaper is that underneath they are just plain text files. This means I can read/edit my lists anywhere, mark them up in any editor and have the changes sync back everywhere via DropBox. 

Let's see if this one sticks but so far, I am loving this combo. What do you use?
22 Jun 2009

"Are the Free Lunch Days Over for Web Apps?" That's Not the Only Question

It seems as if every once-free service is now pondering ways to make money and extract revenue from their members, which makes sense when you consider that they are, after all, businesses.
Doriano Carta writing on webworkerdaily.com

I have long been a fan of using web apps. But a funny thing happened - 1) better apps on the desktop, like via Adobe Air (an Edelman client) and 2) mobile apps that are mini versions of the desktop apps. These use the cloud to sync and have changed some of my habits. That may alter the game for web apps just when perhaps they thought they had it cinched. The cloud is becoming an intermediary not the medium.

Steve Rubel's Posterous

Steve Rubel (bio) is SVP, Director of Insights for Edelman Digital, a division of Edelman - the world's largest independent PR firm.

He is charged with helping clients identify emerging technologies and trends that can be applied in marketing communications programs. Rubel also explores these topics on his site and in monthly columns for Forbes.com and Advertising Age. He can be found on Twitter and Facebook as well.

Steve can be reached via email at steverubel@gmail.com.

Note: Everything posted on this site is Steve's personal opinion. It does not represent the views of Edelman or its clients.

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