Category: Apps

Useful links: Copyright, new apps, RSS readers

Cory Doctorow, writing at Boing Boing, talks about an important copyright case in Supreme Court to Wiley publishers: your insane theory of copyright is wrong.

I get so many PR pitches for apps that I mostly just ignore them all. I seldom mention any of them.  But a couple of new ones somehow managed to catch my eye. EQuala plays songs your friends listen to. They call it social radio. Dubbler is used to create voice messages instead of text messages. The voice message can include a photo and be sent to Twitter and Facebook.

Have you been trying out alternatives to Google Reader? I’ve been using both Netvibes and Feedly in an effort to figure out which one I like better. So far I’m not crazy about either one – neither have the ease of use Google Reader did, and neither make it easy to find what you want quickly. I’m sort of leaning toward Feedly as my final choice, but everything is still in the running.

Google Reader: Oh, the Pain

Note: Here are some excerpts from the post I wrote for BlogHer today about alternatives to Google Reader.

Yesterday Google Announced that Google Reader would be retired on July 1. A howl went up from people like me who have a regular blog reading list and a happy relationship with Google Reader. An effort began to urge Google to reconsider, but mostly people began looking around for alternatives to the popular RSS reader.

google reader retires
Scream by soundfromwayout via Flickr with Google Reader Logo

Before I get into the alternatives, I want to point out the directions for getting all your Google Reader subscriptions transferred into some other RSS reader. Google provides an exporting tool called Google Takeout that promises a file of all your Reader data, which can then be imported into another reader.

Now for alternatives. Some are cloud based, some are mobile apps, some are browser plugins, some sync to all your devices from mobile to web.

RSS Readers that Work In All Devices

A cloud based option, Netvibes goes from browser to mobile device. Here are the directions for migrating from Google Reader to Netvibes.

Feedly is a browser based add-on for Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. It’s also an iOS and Android app. Lots or reports are saying to stay away from Feedly because it uses a Google Reader based backend, but Feedly announced that they have another backend ready to go and are prepared for the transition.

Newsblur is a works-everywhere choice. The free version is limited to a mere 64 feeds, but the paid version is only $1 a month. It has a Google Reader import function.

Taptu even works on Nook, as well as the usual app platforms. If you’re a tablet person, this might be your fav.

Mobile Apps that Read RSS Feeds

Google Currents is a very slick mobile app that makes reading some of the slow loading sites like Huffington Post really fast. However, I don’t know if it uses Google as a backend, so I’m not sure what its fate will be going forward.

For iOS and Mac only, Reeder is another app with a transition plan in place, according to a tweet from the developer yesterday.

FlipBoard is available for both iOS and Android. You log in via either Twitter or Facebook, and it sounds pretty image oriented like Google+, but it does read RSS feeds.

Pulse has a lot of rave reviews, including one from Steve Jobs, on its website. It works in iOS and Android.

Browser Only RSS Reader

The Old Reader promises to be like the old Google Reader, but has a tool for importing your subscription data from Google Reader.

The Word on the Street

Okay, not on the street. How about the word from the frantic blog consumers at BlogHer who are trying to find their favorite alternatives to Google Reader? So far there have been several good comments about Netvibes, particularly since it is cloud-based and not device dependent. People liked how NetVibes looks and how easy it is to transition, but had complaint that updates are slow. (Every alternative RSS reader site is dealing with heavy traffic right now and getting things going may take some patience.) Feedly got a couple of good comments among BlogHer adopters.

Useful links: Learn CSS Layout, Little Boxes, Veronica Mars, Google Reader

This terrific new site is a step-by-step tutorial that will get you educated on CSS layout in an easy, visual style: Learn CSS Layout.

No more little boxes filled with software from Adobe Creative Suite. It’s a Creative Cloud or download only world out there, folks.

The Kickstarter project to raise $2million for a Veronica Mars movie was fully funded in less than one day. Completely amazing what the right project can do with Kickstarter. You can still get in on the action.

Yesterday Google announced it is retiring Google Reader, breaking my heart and the hearts of a lot of blog readers like myself who have a regular daily reading list. I’m going to be researching alternative RSS readers today and will have some for you by tomorrow today (see Google Reader: Oh, the Pain).

Have you heard about these apps?

The other day I attended a breakfast meeting of Women in Technology (it’s a focus group under the umbrella of the NM Technology Council). We talked about apps. I was one of the speakers, talking about the app Swipp. My thoughts on Swipp can be found on BlogHer.

Here are my very rough notes on what the other apps were.

Scan biz cards: reads cards and lets you correct before you add to address book. Then can send an email intro with contact info and photo and invite to connect on LinkedIn.  Can also load into Salesforce. A lite version and a paid version.

Sales force: connects to all devices and outlook calendar. Lets you share information about your companies so that anyone can come in and support an account. Can enter tasks, appointments, notes. Contacts are searchable. Easy user interface. A paid app. Amount may depend on level of usage.

Evernote: take notes, clip articles, web pages, take pictures, share notebooks. Can set up notebooks for various projects. Includes Skitch, which makes annotating images easy. Searchable for all content including images and handwritten notes. Can share with others in your company. All cloud based. Both free and paid version. Lots of storage in free version. {Evernote trunk lets you add tools and capabilities. Lets you use Evernote tools from within other tools. } Can make todos.

RH Technology: good for job hunters. Enter your expertise and zip code. Can find jobs and email them to yourself. Free. Can calculate salary.  Lets you read articles about job hunting and advancement. Roberts Half.

Slide shark: can show slides you upload to slide shark.  Control the slides from iPhone. Free cloud based. Keep animations even when outside PowerPoint. Can see what’s coming next on iPhone. Has a build in “laser” pointer based on touch.

Lino:  like a giant bulletin board with lots of sticky notes that can be manipulated by all participants. Good for collaboration. Shared. Free.

Zip list: online grocery shopping lists. Can get list of ingredients for shopping. Calculates calories and weight watcher points. Book marklet lets you add recipes while surfing.  Send shopping list to your iPhone. While shopping can compare prices based on zip code. Tracks if you have coupons.

Mobile Women (Infographic)

Infographic from a BlogHer Women & Consumer Electronics Study in 2012.

I don’t think I participated in this study, but if I had, I would have come out in philosophical outlook with the Gen X early adopters, which is further proof of how out of line I am with my generation, a generation that is too old to even be called a boomer.

Useful Links: Sheryl Sandberg, Vine, Swipp

Sheryl Sandberg takes a blowtorch to gender stereotypes in the workplace. It isn’t 1951 and Jon Hamm isn’t your boss – but it feels like it.

Vine is huge after only about two days. I downloaded it while sitting in my living room and made a video of my only available moving objects – my feet. Are you already on the Vine bandwagon?

Speaking of apps, I wrote about an app called Swipp for BlogHer. I think it has the potential to be influential. Check it out: Swipp Your Way to Social Intelligence.

Stay Amazed

Sometimes we forget to be amazed by modern technology. Stay amazed. In the grand scheme of things, the way we live now is a blip and modern technology is a recent revolution. Stay amazed.

A few minutes ago I saw this tweet.

I admire Alex Steffen and appreciate his work, so I quickly checked out the book on Amazon and within about 2 1/2 seconds I had it downloaded to my Kindle Reader. You have to admit, the whole interaction between Twitter, Amazon, and my device is pretty amazing.