The iPhone only makes sense for its computer-like functionality utilizing the apps that work for you. For me, it is really all about communication. That includes email via gmail, IM via trillian, basecamp, Remember The Milk and SMS.

I’ve grown used to the keyboard and can really move at a decent clip while I type. But voice is faster. And safer when I’m in the car. So I was looking for a good service and I tried out a few. This one wins in my book. Dragon Dictation allows you to click, talk and then wait a little to see it in text. While I’m sure that was the technically hard part – its the next part that shows the ingenious flexibility. You can then Send to Email, Send to Text Msg or Send to Clipboard.

The last one allows me to paste the text into any application. Now that is flexibility and worth sharing with you .

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If you have many open tabs in firefox, and especially if you leave them open for a long time (overnight anyone?) then you have experienced memory usage of hundreds of megabytes. Personally, I’ve seen it as high as 800mb and higher.

An add-on called AFOM seems to have solved this issue. I’ve installed it and then let loose with my 20+ tabs. Worked for a while and checked my memory. It was at 130mb. Wow!

I immediately wrote this post to share it with you. Check it out yourself.

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Who isn’t getting calls for donations from all kinds of charities these days? In the current economic climate, needs are greater than ever — and you certainly don’t want your money going to unnecessary overhead. How can you be sure you’re doing the most good with your donations?

Technology to the rescue! While you’re still on the line, you can check Charity Navigator’s profile of the organization.
Charity Navigator gives you an overview of a charity’s financial effectiveness. From their revenue growth to their CEO’s salary, all the details for a comprehensive assessment of the organization’s financial management practices are on the screen in front of you.

If you don’t like what you see, let the callers know that they need to clean up their act before you’ll donate.

Once you’re off the phone and have some time to explore further, you’ll find that Charity Navigator has a lot more to offer, from tax tips for giving to historical data on specific organizations.  Register for free and you can save a list of charities you’re interested in, share information with friends, and compare organizatons side by side. When you get that next phone call, you can line up the caller against organizations you’ve given to in the past and see whether you’d want to add or switch.

Do good and be smart.

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We believe in backup. We’ve written before about programs to back up all the files on your copmputer, but sometimes you might want to back up something that’s not exactly on your computer. That’s when Lifestream backup comes into play.

Lifestream backup will automatically back up your stuff in a variety of online programs, including Flickr, Twitter, and Photobucket, with Google docs, Delicious, and WordPress coming soon.

Share your log-in info with Lifestream, and you’ll automatically get multiple backups made and stored in multiple locations, with no further effort on your part.

Where’d the name come from? Many people are now using the term “lifestream” to refer to the bits of information you leave hither and yon — in your Flickr account, on Twitter, at your blog, and so on. It’s ephemeral, really. If your blog platform goes out of business, then your blog is gone. Lifestream backup saves and replicates your lifestream for you for about a dime a day.

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Every company has at least one: the experienced manager we all like to go to for advice and decisions. He knows it all, because he’s seen it all. He listens, thinks… and gives us the wisest course of action. It looks like magic – or, if not magic, at least an amazing and inexplicable insight into situations and people.

In fact, the wise manager is using rules. From his experience, he has learned that if this happens, that will probably follow. Multiply this simple pattern by dozens or even hundreds of rules in multiple situations, and it all happens so fast in his brain that he isn’t even aware that he those rules operating.

The rules are trapped in his head, as tacit knowledge. He couldn’t explain how he makes those decisions – so he can’t pass on that knowledge to another manager.

And yet, that knowledge is part of the the capital of your company. We recognise that information is an asset. You know that your data, your special processes, your innovative ideas are part of the intellectual capital of your company, creating value that’s potentially negotiable. Read the artilce »

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We’ve completed another piece of a hypothetical trading system, Overcollaterization Ratios, for the Clevertech Portfolio Management System.

In today’s market, we need to give  our clients the ability to make safer and stronger decisions in their businesses. The add-on tools we’re working on right now are allowing our clients to gather the kinds of data they need to simplify the decision-making process while making it stronger and more certain.

As developers, we find it exciting to see a system start in its infancy and grow into the trusted foundation of a business.

It begins with listening to the client’s needs. With our business training and problem-solving skills, we can see into the heart of the challenge our client is facing, and reframe that challenge in a way that allows us to meet the need in the most cost-effective and efficient way, saving the client time and money. Let us do this for you. Contact us today to begin the discussion.

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Have you ever talked back to your computer? I know you have. . . Using colorful language right?

At CleverTech we design friendly user interfaces that evoke an exclamation “that was easy!”  One of our favorite examples is the menu program we developed for RAM, an elite Manhattan caterer. The menu screen is designed for people whose skills are in business, cooking, and celebration, not AJAX and CSS. We do that part.

With good design on our part, building a complex menu uses drag and drop features, quick search capabilities, and keystroke shortcuts. Instead of wrestling with their computers, they can think about Yellow Tomato and White Bean Bruschetta on Garlic Cilantro Rounds or Roulade of Black Olive Stuffed Chicken Breast or Griddle Pancakes With Assorted Toppings Of Sliced Bananas, Sliced Strawberries, Walnuts, Pecans, Chocolate Chips, Godiva Chocolate Sauce, Hot Maple Syrup, and Whipped Cream… Read the artilce »

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Some things in life are complex. Desks, for example.

Other things are simple. Mozy Remote Backup, for example. Download Mozy, answer a few simple questions, install, and Mozy will back your files up forever and ever amen.

Oh, you can make it more complicated if you want to. You can tell Mozy what kind of files to back up, schedule backups to run at the most convenient times for you or let Mozy choose idle moments, instruct Mozy to use more or less band width, or upgrade to MozyPro and keep your fingers on the pulse of your entire organization. If you like to be in charge, and don’t want some computer telling you what to do, there are plenty of ways to assert your individuality. Read the artilce »

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The Joys of Filing

Practically everyone must deal with the thrilling joys of filing. Whether it be your personal filing cabinet at home or the gargantuan one at the office, the tabs, manila folders, labels and the paper cuts always make for an extremely enjoyable experience.

With all the documents, bills, and contracts that we keep, our files grow thicker, and storage space becomes scarce. Yet we still have this burning need to hold on to every piece of paper that crosses our path – it might turn out to be important! Audits are always possible and it’s important to go back to your contracts – even with the water supplier for the office water cooler – to make sure you aren’t being slapped with extra fees. What is perhaps the worst problem is locating the file you have been saving for JUST that occasion, yet you can’t find it in your jam-packed file drawers.

Store Your Files Electronically

As always, technology to the rescue! Scanning technology has significantly improved to the point that is possible to make perfect copies. Scanning your files gives you so many advantages that it would be silly not to. But scanning is simply not enough. Who wants to sit down after they have scanned all the office files and organize them into folders and subfolders for easy retrieval? While its true, with windows search and Google desktop, that sort of electronic organization might be really great, but there has to be, and there is, a much better way.

Technology to the rescue! (Did I use that line already?) Evernote is a really cool piece of software that can search images and recognize text. It’s primary usage is sort of a pictorial list, helping your remember things you would have otherwise forgotten. If you take a picture with your digital camera, you can set it up to be sent to your evernote account, ready and able to be searched. For instance, if you are at a friend’s house and watched a great movie or saw a book you were interested in, simply snap a photo of the dvd and Evernote will keep it for you. That way, if you search for “Hitchcock” the dvd picture will come, and you can now see the title.

In our case though, after you scan your files, Evernote has the ability to search through your scans and find the exact one that you are looking for. Maybe as an added measure, simply tag your files and use some basic electronic organization, but Evernote should be able to help you retrieve your files quickly and painlessly. It’s so useful and easy that it would be silly not to use this software.

A Quick and Painless Solution

When you need the document in physical form, simply reproduce it by clicking the print button. Additionally, if you are shy about tossing out your files, toss them in boxes and put them in storage so that you always have the original documents.

Make sure to start this process now, so that you do not accumulate files as you go along. And if you are interested in converting all of you old files electronically, the task can be outsourced accordingly. If all you have is a few filing cabinets, college students are always available.

It is not difficult to make sure your electronic files are secure – your computer should already be using software for protection. Perhaps more on that in another post…

A little movie about Evernote:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_ncr1Ee9e8&eurl=http://evernote.com/]

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So if you haven’t been living under a rock this summer, you know about the release of the iPhone 3G. Made faster and more universal, the new iPhone covets that special place in your pocket or belt-clip that your Blackberry and Treo occupy. But before you jump on the iPhone bandwagon, let’s take a quick look at the pros and cons.

The Pros:

-The new 3G technology allows the iPhone to tap into AT&T’s network, making internet usage slightly faster in places without a wireless connection.

-The price. Instead of paying $599 for the original iPhone, you can feel like you are spending less by paying a low $199 and have Apple slowly take your money with a higher service package from AT&T.

-Exchange full support. Perhaps the biggest problem with the old iPhones was their lack of support for Microsoft Exchange. Finally, iPhone graduated from toy to business tool.

-Touch Screen – its so pretty…and the on-screen keyboard is surprisingly easy to use. It is also a pleasure to watch video with a widescreen view by simply tilting your phone sideways.

-Applications – Apple opened up the iPhone to 3^rd party developers, allowing for creative applications that make your phone great. One app allows your iPhone to function as a GPS (though without voice instructions), another gives you the location of all the ATMs in your area. Probably the coolest app allows your iPhone to listen to a song and search iTunes for the title by simply placing your iPhone near the music. Ever wonder what song you are listening to on the radio? Your iPhone will tell you. Applications are constantly being developed and present an arsenal of tools for your phone, constantly updating and making your phone smarter and smarter.

Applications are available for specific business use: iSpend keeps track of your finances,

Stage Hand allows you to see index card-like notes on your phone for presentations, and a whole host of applications are available allowing you to password protect and encrypt your data. But the most popular apps are games. With amazing graphics, Texas hold em’ and sodoku never looked so good!

The Cons:

-AT&T. AT&T is really not the best network. It’s good, like everyone else, in the city and other densely populated areas, but it’s not pleasant in some other situations. Also, you are tied to a two-year contract with AT&T, at higher rates than before, and without text messaging included.

-The Battery. The new 3G network saps battery life. Under heavy usage, the iPhone will not last a full day and you will need to recharge.

-Lack of Support – The iPhone still does not support a host of features. No flash, window’s media, or Java.

-Applications? Sometimes the applications allow for Apple to be lazy. For instance, there is no cut and paste, but there can be if you download a cut and paste application. No voice dialing, unless you download the voice dialing application. Don’t get me wrong, the thrill of looking for more and more applications to buff up your phone can be really great, but at a certain point, you get frustrated when you have to download applications to make your phone operate basically.

Conclusion:

It’s great, but wait. Unless you got really excited by this review, or you have a physical attraction to the iPhone (a disease that is spreading rapidly), you’d best wait till the end of the year for Apple to release significant software and, perhaps, firmware updates. If you’re still excited, you could try it out as a second phone while you make the transition. There is no question that the iPhone has the most potential, but wait it needs to mature a bit. It’s like younger girls/guys – they sure are pretty, but they need to grow up.

Check out this MAD tv spoof on the iPhone’s many capabilities and the over-adoring fans:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgZKjJt-TkU]

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