These are the apps on my Android - any suggestions for additions?

stst.31415's Android apps on AppBrain

Maybe the last post on distraction free writing you will ever read

And it is short. I am infected with the writemonkey virus. Found it on alternative to and I am amazed. It has the settings I want and is nearly too good to be true. And there is spell check for different languages!

web: http://writemonkey.com/
twitter: http://twitter.com/writemonkey

More writing free of distraction

I wrote a post about distractionfree writing. And I went through some older papers of mine and rediscovered darkroom. There is no screenshot of it because it would be only black with some occasional green letters. This is awesome retro editing. For those of you who haven't been there: There once was thhis strange illness called monochrome.

Now comes the fun part: There is a plugin for Word (2003/2007) called Writespace. It removes all the Word clutter and leaves the same perspective as darkroom. With the full advantage of spellchecking.

Which form of retro hardcore is the optimum for you?

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Why Android is suitable for business

I often hear that Android is not suitable for business. If you take the time and get into an in-depth discussion, you will find out that people have strange prejudices on Android phones.

1. Android phones sync with Exchange! On my HTC there were two mail applications preinstalled. G-Mail and Mail. It is obvious, what G-Mail does but the HTC mail application can handle several accounts using activesync, POP3 and IMAP. Push is supported and it works perfect. It even has the strange effects, that mails arrive before they do in Outlook or the G-Mail web interface.
2. You can open all standard attachments (Word, Excel, Powerpoint). If you buy a full version of Documents to Go (yes, the one used on Blackberry) you can even edit powerpoint files and similar.
3. You can track your calls to a calendar using Call Track. I created a calendar where all incoming, missed and outgoing calls are mapped to. I even create calls to make there, so I have everything concerning phone in one place.
4. I already wrote about dropbox and how to keep your reading list in earlier posts.

Maybe there are thousand more reasons why Android phones are as suitable for business as other ones. One of the most important reasons is: They are flexible. You can arrange things in scenes. That means, that you can define screens for different surroundings (but still keeping the power to use all the functions). Weekend means fun, games, meeting friends and - in my case - also using c:geo and georg to find some nice geocaches.

Do you still want to be the slave to your Blackberry?

How to create a QR code business card

If you own a smart phone - or an even smarter phone you probably already know what an QR code is. If you don't know I a sure you will have seen this somewhere on the web or in a magazine.

A QR code is a two-dimensional barcode. A big part of it consists of error correcting code and it somehow looks funny. I was looking for a possibility to share my contact coordinates or even calendar entries for smart-phones when I stumled across http://zxing.appspot.com/generator/

With that webpage you can create these QR codes for your business card, for coordinates and for calendar events. When you try the calendar event, test the QR code before you use it. Daylight savings time is a real *****. When I tested it on my HTC Desire with Barcode Scanner I experienced a strange bug. Every calendar event I created lasted only for 1 hour. Even when it was supposed to be longer.

Anyone with Blackberry or Iphone experiencing the same behaviour?

How smart phones and the web centralize your digital life again

I admit. This is from the point of a Android user, but I think it shouldn't be different if you have any other OS on your phone.
Basically we are at the end of a phase where there is no more need to carry around floppy disk (in case you cannot remember, click here). Actually the media got physically bigger first (Floppy disk, CD, DVD, external Harddisk) only to get smaller last (USB-Stick) and finally disappear. This is where the dropbox comes in. Online storage for free (BTW: If you use my link we both receive 250MB more).
This is where the second line comes in: Next to storage and carrying data from one place to another (the workaround to email everything back and forth does not count) is the fact, that we all use various computers. Various computers, files, versions... ...I think you get the point. So the idea is brilliant.
And the most brilliant idea of all was to make the cloud available for phones. So I have my calendar, my dropbox, my everything with me...
Can anybody tell me: If the cloud knows everything. What is the equivalent to a thunderstorm?

Writing free of distractions

If I write text I often use an editor. The formatting follows in a second step. I am a big fan of Notepad++ and I really enjoy the wide variety of features and ways to handle data.

And then I discovered Bend. 

A very simple and distraction free interface, tabs, a great search feature and the best feature of all: it simple looks good and does all you need. For those of you who are not that much into writing: It also does syntax highlighting. But you should really have a look for yourself.

Bend

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Qwitter Therapy

You can receive messages for all kind in Twitter. But you never know if someone unfollowed you. Well, the people at http://useqwitter.com/ started these and they are good. They even offer therapy :-)
I received the first email today. It did not make me sad, it was one of these advertising twitters with no input at all. So remember: Even quiting can have a positive aspect (and I am not talking about smoking).

A simple LOG trick

Have you ever wondered or wished how to get the date and time into an diary-like file (a real diary, phone log or similar)? Actually it is easy, if you use the Microsoft Editor which comes with Windows.

1. Open the Editor and create a new file
2. Put ".LOG" into the first line
3. Save this file (you can give it the extension .log, but .txt will work as well)

Finished. Everytime you open the file the current date and time is added automatically. I use this to keep track of unregular input to projects. So nothing gets lost and you can still keep track of the timeline.

This is not the only version. Keep in mind, that most software dedicated to writing will offer the entry of date and time using a menu and if you are lucky there is even a shortcut. But it still requires action. The LOG trick is free and requires your input only.

Stay productive

Things I learned from Twitter

Do you get caught by yourself using the #s and @s twitterstyle in your Mails, Tickets or notes? I have to say: Guilty!
It doesn't matter which medium I use. Even when writing with pen on paper I tend to leave the visual clues. I already used the @ before I used Twitter (or knew Twitter even existed), but in a sense of adressing a location, lateron a person. In the last few months I started to use the # for topics or enumbered lists. I quit with the numbered lists (An won against Wikipeditis ;-)
So what comes next? What do you think? Which semiosis from the online world will break into the real world?
At least I came across this posting with lifehacker, which tells you what you learn from Twitter: K.I.S.S. ( I hope you do not have to google that).

Thinking in timezones

I happen to work at an office in the middle of Europe, having contacts in different time zones. In the beginning it was very hard to remember which cities are in what time distance to the current time zone. http://everytimezone.com/ solved the problem. In addition to a nice visualization you get a tool which makes planning of contacts with partners possible - in their time zone.

Smart Measuring with Android

I often discovered myself asking how tall is this and what are the measurements of this and that. The solution is often simple: I used my steps, my arms, my thumbs and even my GPS to estimate distances. I even sometimes guesstimated some distances.
Mostly I was right. Today I discovered these two nice applications by Androidboy.

Smart Measure
With Smart Measure you can estimate the height of objects using the phone's camera.








Smart Ruler
Simply lay objects to the screen and measure them by sliding a ruler with your finger.
If you check out these two tools, you will see: Even if you do not use them on a daily basis they are fun to use.

Feed your blog to Twitter

There is definitely the point, where you ask yourself: How do I get the updates in my blog into Twitter? As long as it is not much, there is the option to do it manually. But wait! Why should you do it manually if some service does it for you?
Over at twitterfeed.com you can find a simple solution. Create a login, provide the RSS-Feed from your blog and there you go.