If you're like me and find it helpful to organize your tasks with a to do list, check out checkvist.com. There are plenty of online to-do lists but I like checkvist for it's simplicity and dead-simple user interface. Just start a checklist and begin adding tasks.
enter to make a new task
tab to make it a subtask (indent right)updated by gopanthers | 22:31
shift+tab to move it back left againupdated by gopanthers | 22:32
hold shift and drag any task around to reorganizeupdated by gopanthers | 22:33
space bar to cross out as completed
delete to delete (duh)
Make as many checklists as you want. I have have a checklist for home tasks, work, and for various different projects I'm working on. In fact, I just quickly created a demo checklist just to show you how you can also share your to-do lists with others (this one is read only but you can let others edit too). Sure beats always having to carry around hand-written lists on folded up pieces of paper.
My mom got a webcam so she can see Maegan and Dara and video chat with us. Then Amy got a webcam too. At first we used Google Video Chat because we all had Gmail accounts and I figured that would make it easy. It worked okay but even though we already had Gmail accounts we still had to install special software to make it work - and installing software could be a major hassle for some non-techies. Plus the video display started out small, with your own camera (to make sure you're in frame) as an even smaller little insert overlayed in the corner on top of the other video.
Then I heard about ToxBox. What I first liked about ToxBox is that you don't have to install any software at all, so I gave it a try. Then this past weekend Patty and Maegan went to Hilton Head and I used TokBox to let Darah see and talk with them while they were gone.
Not having to install anything was nice, but after trying it I found other features that I liked too. For one thing, the video chat displays start off much bigger. There's really no need to expand it, but you can still enlarge it if you wanted to. And I also liked how your webcam display is side-by-side with the video of the person you're chatting with, so they're both the same size and don't interfere with each other. Although I haven't used it yet, TokBox will also let you video chat with multiple people at once - up to 20, although I wouldn't recommend that many. And finally, it was much easier to initiate a video chat with ToxBox compared to Google Video Chat. After you add a friend to your list, if they're online and available all you have to do is click on their name once for a pop-up of options and then click the video icon to initiate a call.
So in conclusion, hey Mom and Amy.... sign up for TokBox because that's what we'll be switching to. Want to video chat with us too sometime (ie. Dee)? If you have a webcam, sign up and let us know.
(yes this is the same image I used last week)
Update: I have nothing against Tokbox but I've since switched over to Skype. Still, Tokbox is great if you don't want to install any software.
Fizy is a simple but cool online music search engine. Search for almost any song and Fizy will find it from somewhere on the internet and play it for you within the same page as your search results. Fizy has indexed over 75 billion mp3s from around the world and you don't even need to register to use it! Plus unlike most other online music search, you can actually listen to the entire song and not just a short preview snippet. Very convenient for checking which version of an obscure old song you were looking for, or you wanted a friend to hear a song you were telling them about, or you just felt like listening to a particular song that you didn't already own. It's like a free on-demand iTunes player with an unlimited playlist.
Speaking of telling friends about a particular song; If for example I wanted to recommend to a friend that they should check out Bob Dylan's Shelter From The Storm, I could send them a link to existing search results, but the first result isn't the version I was thinking of so I can send my friend a link directly to the exact version I want them to hear. Pretty cool.
Google Voice is the newest among dozens of free web-based services that Google offers. It's so exclusive at this time that very few people have it yet - except me.
At it's core Google Voice gives you a free phone number that will automatically ring and transfer to any one of several different phones you have. For instance, if you have a home phone number, a mobile phone number, and a work phone number, you can give people your Google Voice phone number instead and it will automatically ring all three of your phones. Then Google will instantly transfer the call to which ever of your phones you pick up first. Here's a brief video overview:
That's pretty convenient if you want to make yourself easily available no matter where you are, but what if you're like me and have only one phone number anyway? Why am I recommending Google Voice and why should you care about and it?
1) Get a cool vanity phone number: Google Voice lets you choose your own phone number. No matter where you live you can choose which area code you want to use. Then choose from what seems like hundreds of available numbers within that area code. But it gets better. Remember 1-800-MATTRES (leave off the last S for Savings) in the late 1980s or 1-800-COLLECT from the early 1990s? Of course you do. They were just one thousands of business that knew how much easier it is to remember a word rather than a long series of random digits. So just like them, you can have your own customized vanity phone number (still free). With Google Voice you can search for available numbers - even by letters. I searched for the word "MIKE" within the 704 area code and one was available so I took it. Now I can tell people that my phone number is 704-###-MIKE and they'll easily be able to remember it! Or instead, maybe you can get a vanity phone number related to your business or your personality or almost anything else you can think of.
2) Stop (some) unwanted calls: Have you ever had to give your phone number to a business for some reason and ended up getting unwanted marketing calls from them? With Google Voice you can actually block numbers from ever ringing your phone(s). It's just like a spam filter for your phone. Next time I drop my car off for maintenance I'll give them my Google Voice number. If by chance they later end up calling me about buying a new car I'll just block them.
The only caveat at this time is that you can't actually sign up for the service yet, but I'm telling you about it so you can get on the waiting list now. Request an invitation now and as soon as you can join they'll send you an email. Click here to request an invitation to use Google Voice!
So how did I get access to Google Voice before almost anybody else? I signed up to be a beta tester of Grand Central long before Google bought the company and changed the name to Google Voice. Within minutes of Google announcing that they were slowly opening up Google Voice to the public, I received my invitation email. It was thought that anybody who wanted to join would be able to do so by the end of the week but Google is rolling this service out extremely slowly. It's now more than a month after their "public launch" and they're still not sending out invitations to people who weren't already on their waiting list to be a beta tester. The early adopters get the cool toys.
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