I currently use the Samsung Galaxy S3 and absolutely love it. One of the features that I use almost more than anything else is the camera. Smartphones have given us the opportunity to:
Always have a phone with us
Take quality photos
Install various photo editing apps
The ability to easily share our photos [Read more...]
I was in the break room at work the other day to fill up my water bottle when some co-workers of mine were sitting at a table chatting. The story came up of how I used my Google Voice number to call one of the gals sitting at the table to play a little joke on her.
[I used my Google Voice number to call her phone so it didn’t show up as my work line calling her and thus ruin the whole operation.]
We all laughed as we reminisced.
The question then came up from another co-worker sitting at the table: “what’s Google Voice?”
Of course, I was ecstatic she asked me this because who wouldn’t want to talk about cool things like Google Voice?
[Okay, maybe this is just me and I think she may have regretted asking me by the time I was done 
]
Although I can be long-winded, I was able to share 6 awesome reasons I use Google Voice. The list of reasons I’m sharing with you is in no way an all-inclusive list; they just happen to be 6 awesome reasons I use Google Voice.
[Oh yeah, you get a free phone number to go with it; make it a local number or long-distance – you’re in control.]
One of my favorite things about walking into a bookstore is the smell of new books; who doesn’t like that smell? Unfortunately, eReaders don’t smell like new books and I don’t think they could make an app for that
You know that comfortable feeling that overcomes you when you grab a book, curl up on the couch, thumb through the pages to where you left off, and drift away in the story? It’s different when you’re holding an electronic device.
How about dog-earing that page or highlighting that line that struck you? Well, you kind of get that with an eReader.
Okay, so why does it sound like I’m making a case against eReaders? Because I want to show that traditional books are great and that I’m not discounting them; however, I want to also show the benefits of using eReaders and how they offer a different experience. [Read more...]
There has been a lot of chatter plastered all over the web about the recent announcement for Google closing down Google Reader (GR). People are upset and that’s not surprising – change is not something people don’t take lightly (Who Moved My Cheese); especially, when they feel they had no control over it. However, I don’t want to get into all the ins-and-outs of GR; instead I want to discuss something else all this GR chatter has made me think about.
Most people (in my belief anyhow) try to be somewhat organized or try to control some of the chaos to life as we know it. Living in the Information Age, we have so much information in front of us at almost any given moment. The question becomes “how do we organize such information?” [Read more...]
If you’re like a lot of people on Google+, you’re here for the engagement, networking, and the overall value-added content G+ can offer.
It’s exciting to provide content and have others comment on it. It’s a great feeling when you comment on another’s post and they +mention you. It’s plain fun engaging with others (why else would we be here? To get rich quick?Hopefully not!).
As you become more engaged with Google+, how you do you manage all of your notifications?
As you engage, you see the numbers jump up in the little red notification box on Google+; you’re notified when you receive comments, +1’s, +mentions, circle adds and any other notification that you have set up.
As you see that number increase, you want to click it to see what engagement-goodies lie in the drop-down; however, every time you click the box, you start to lose track of who engaged with you and whether you engaged them back.
I don’t have a large network and I don’t currently produce a lot of content, yet even with these factors, I still found it difficult to keep up with the notifications (I can only imagine what this may become like with a larger, engaged network).
I knew there had to be a better way and luckily that better way came to me via+Mark Traphagen and his article, How to Manage Google Plus Notifications in Gmail (http://goo.gl/ScN4c).
Mark offers up some very simple tips on setting up filters in Gmail to use with your G+ notifications and since Gmail plays nicely with G+, it’s really an effective method.
I set up three filters in my Gmail account:
1. G+ Comments – collects the comments others have left on a post of mine
2. G+ Mentions – whenever someone +mentions me, it’ll end up here
3. G+ Subscriptions – this houses everyone who circled me or circled me back
I then am able to go back through each of these labels and see whether I’ve engaged or not and if I have (or don’t need/want to) I delete the email and move on to the next one.
With the G+ Subscriptions, I am able to see whether I want to circle someone else back or not and once I’ve reviewed, I do the same thing as above – delete the email and move on to the next.
So far, this has really worked well for me. It gives me a sense of control over my notifications and allows me to ensure I’m engaging where I want to engage.
What method(s) are you using?
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Originally written and shared on Google+