Over the last couple of weeks, I have added a new tool to my writing arsenal. Google Docs. If you haven’t heard of it before, it’s Google’s latest attempt to gain space in the Office market. It’s a free web based Office suite entailing a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation app. It is currently still in BETA (would you expect anything else from Google?) and it originally was formed from the purchase and collaboration of the web app Writely.

Since then Google has added both spreadsheet and presentation functionality.

But what makes it so great?  Why should you uninstall Microsoft Office from your Mac or PC and embrace Google Docs? - here are five reasons.

Collaboration

One of the most interesting features of Google Docs is the ability to collaborate on documents and share them with ease. So, say you were working on a report and needed to share a few points or even do a communal edit. With Google Docs it is as simple as clicking a button to make someone a collaborator, which then gives the new user the ability to edit and add new collaborators. Therefore, you no longer make the mistake of having the old version of that document.

Very simply, you can use Google Docs as a simple Wiki - something a lot of companies are starting to embrace.

Easy Access

Google Docs is obviously web based.  This means that you can access a lot of your documents online wherever you are. This can be incredibly important if you’re jumping between multiple machines, or don’t have your personal computer with you. Now some may say that with something like Sky Drive you are able to upload the documents and then download them when you want to. But with that there are two extra steps that really aren’t needed - the downloading and uploading.

The whole point to this state of mind is that if you want it, it’s there.  If someone else wants it…it’s there.

Simplicity

It’s ridiculous how many features a program such as Microsoft Word actually has, especially when most average users probably use what? 5% of the power that Word has. Whose fault is this? No one’s.  People expect new features with a new release, so it is expected that over time applications are going to become more “busy”. Of course there will be those that complain that this is a bad thing and detracts from how simple writing a document should be.

Google Docs has a very clean and intuitive interface which makes it easy and simple for even the novice user. That’s what I like about it. My grandparents get lost in Word, but in Google Docs, it is much simpler for them to get things done.  Sometimes less is better.

The user-interface is also reminiscent of the Office apps, just with less items on the menus - you won’t find yourself digging through every single feature looking for the blockquote option.

Security

You can’t afford to loose your data and neither can Google. By having your data off site, things are less likely to go wrong.  If your laptop is stolen, no problem because all your documents are on Google Docs.  Some might say (just to be the Devil’s Advocate) that there could a problem, like a fire at a Data Center.  Though this is possible, Google probably has far more protective measures then your office does.

So basically, thanks to storing all your data with Google, you’re protecting yourself from any unforeseen problems.

Integration

When using Google Docs you are able to integrate everything that Google offers around the internet into your word processing. So you could have your iGoogle showing all of your newest documents, then you could send a file from Google Docs with your Gmail account. The possibilities are endless.

Also on the point of integration, for all you yet to be converted Word users, Google Docs also allows documents to be saved in the .doc format.

Final Thoughts

So there you have it, five good (in my opinion) reasons why you should at least consider giving Google Docs a try. There may be a couple of things that Google still have left to incorporate (like page formatting), but all these things are easily remediable.

Do you use Google Docs?  If so, why?

Back in 2004, Realmac software released the first version of its popular RapidWeaver web development software.  Since its initial release, it has won many awards from Mac publications all around the globe, and still continues onward with that trend.  Just a couple months ago RapidWeaver 4 hit the streets, and is already changing the way consumers create websites.  From its more professional iWeb-like templates to its ease of creating pages, RapidWeaver 4 is sure to be an instant hit for people who want a simple way to create professional looking websites.

Make a Site.

It couldn’t be any easier. You simply click file > new project, and a new project will form. Once you complete that, whenever you want to add another page, you simply click the button in the top left hand corner.  It will ask you what kind of page you want - From Blog and Photo pages, to Blank and Contact pages as well. Simple as that. You can now choose from the abundance of themes that RapidWeaver has to offer, or you can download more themes form the Realmac website. Editing your site is also very easy and straightforward. You simply hit the edit button to edit the photos and text on the current page, and if you want to see a preview of your site, just click preview to see a version of your site as it were already online.

Publish a site.

To publish your website you created with RapidWeaver, you press the publish button.  From there you are presented with two methods of publishing. You can ether publish using your own domain name, or using your MobileMe account (previously dot Mac). You then fill out the form, and click publish.  Within a few minutes you have a professional looking website.

Features.

You can adjust almost anything you want about your website, whether it be the font, or coloring a section of a theme.  It’s all at your fingertips. Navigating through RapidWeaver is a breeze. It’s so simple, straightforward, and professional. The buttons are laid out perfectly, and the menus are super easy to use and customize.

Overall.

I love RapidWeaver 4. It’s so simple to use, and it gives me better results than iWeb ever will. With RapidWeaver 4, you can finally make sites with ease, and have them looking as if they were designed by a professional graphic artist. I would definitely recommend giving RapidWeaver a try, and seeing just how well your website comes out. You can try RapidWeaver for free for up to 30 days. My only gripe is that RapidWeaver 4 can only be used on a Mac running OSX 10.5 Leopard. RapidWeaver 4 retails for $79, but can be found on Realmac’s website for $59 for a limited time.

Happy Weaving!

As the Web 2.0 trend continues to grow by leaps and bounds and websites become more complex, monitoring servers and websites has become a necessary task for webmasters and site owners alike.  I recently stumbled upon an app that handled this task with ease, all the while doing so in a simplistic yet intuitive environment.  Dejal Simon is aimed at making website and server monitoring as simple as possible, while providing you with all of the features and tools that you would come to expect.

At the heart of Simon is the monitor window.  From here, you can see the current status of all of your monitored servers, websites, and applications.  Included in this window is the “test table” which shows valuable information such as how long ago the last change or failure occurred, and when the next check will occur.  If you don’t feel like taking the time to read all of the statistics, Simon has that covered.  Also included in the monitor window is a graphical layout of the tests.

One feature in particular that I found very useful was Simon’s “Smart Change Detection”.  With this extremely customizable tool, you can narrow down the sections of your website that you want monitored for changes.  A huge benefit of this is that you will no longer get false positives from banners, ads, etc. It even works for port tests, allowing it to detect when the number of messages in your mailbox changes.

So Simon detects changes, failures, and recoveries.  What about when you’re out of the house?  You’re a busy person, but you need to know when these things happen.  Worry not; Simon has a handful of notifiers to get you the info you need when you need it.

A quality that I look for in any application is good use of screen space.  Simon has truly impressed me in its usability from both the dock and menu bar.  Its status menu allows you to quickly access global functions, all tests including their status icons, and sub-menus of quick-access operations all from the comfort of your menu bar.

Simon is a very useful tool for anyone who needs to monitor a handful of servers or websites. After using it for a while, I’ve noticed that I am more relaxed knowing that I will be notified at the first sign of anything gone wrong.  Not only does Simon monitor your servers and sites, it puts your mind at ease and lets you enjoy the more important things in life.  Simon says so.

Simon is available at Dejal.com with pricing starting at $29.95 for a basic license.

Seesmic is a relatively new web startup that is already attracting a lot of attention in all corners of the internet. The part French company based in America could be at first glance dismissed as another YouTube knockoff, but delving in further reveals a powerful YouTube/Twitter hybrid brining social interaction to a whole new level.

It’s undeniable that Seesmic is modelled after Twitter considering the company recently acquired Twhirl, an AIR based Twitter client. When you first launch Seesmic after receiving your invite and logging in you’re greeted with what is a very well designed Flash UI (the whole site is one big Flash application) with a large screen for video playback and recent public videos on the left sidebar. Instantly it is obvious that Seesmic is a video collaboration tool allowing you to post videos to the public or to your friends and receive video replies. This is much like the YouTube’s reply that feels somewhat tacked on whereas Seesmic builds itself on this concept.

On the public timeline (just like Twitter) you will find some replies in the form of “RE: title etc”, clicking on it will launch the video reply and the timeline will transform into a list of all replies related to the original. This is where the first usability bug became apparent, I had to scroll right down to the bottom to locate the original video, in this case a I prefer YouTube’s UI that makes it fairly obvious where to find the original. But being in ALPHA stage I am sure this will appear shortly.

Being a Flash based application, Seesmic allows you to record directly from the webpage making communication fairly easy. In minutes I can have one of my egotistic views broadcast across Seesmic and receive troll like responses almost instantly. But here lies another bug that isn’t so much the fault of the service but more of society on a whole, will the public timeline become diluted with random and offensive junk just like YouTube has become? Hopefully Seesmic can deliver an image to the market stating that is more of a thought provoking or collaboration tool, not a place to boast about someone’s next “killer/sick” fight. 

One great use of Seesmic I spotted was the young Daniel Brusilovsky announcing his new idea for a website supporting  the youth in technological activities. Instantly I was able to access all these replies igniting the discussion and brainstorm of this simple idea. This video also had the likes of Robert Scoble encouraging this idea, that was something pretty exciting to witness. I could imagine this sort of brainstorm and active discussion could be replicated over numerous areas such as views on specific news topic or global collaboration between students. Seesmic allows posting to Twitter, so those using Seesmic can be notified of new videos from their friends without leaving the webpage open. 

The use of Flash for the site is also a slight caveat for those used to browsing video sharing websites, the simple browser navigation no longer exists. You cannot use the back button on the browser to go the recent page, because everything runs inside the Flash application. This could take sometime to get used to but isn’t a bad trade-off for not having to wait for the web browser to load another page when switching videos.

One cool feature I’ve noticed popping up is their Wordpress plugin. TechCrunch currently has it installed and gives users to to leave video comments on a blog post even if the user doesn’t have a Seesmic account. This new wave of commenting is a great idea as people are more inclined to leave more beneficial comments if they have a face to the comment. Anyone can hide behind their keyboard.

Seesmic has a bright future ahead of it but needs to adapt quickly if it wants to reach the level of portability and mobility that Twitter has. Seesmic should ramp up production of a mobile client much like Qik, allowing a brainstorm on the go. Without this extension Seesmic could end up as just another video sharing site.

This year marks the start for a new uprising of web services which focus around the concept of Cloud Computing, the ability to run high end and useful applications from the web using an ordinary internet browser. One such experiment is from Adobe Lab’s which is the web version of Photoshop aptly named Photoshop Express (BETA).

Photoshop Express (BETA) is a Flash powered website that allows you to perform the basic Photoshop operations on photos such as colour adjustment, cropping, red-eye removal, and special effects. To get started you simply create an account (currently you can only join by stating your country as the US), login and then upload your photos. Now this presents PSE’s first hurdle, redundancy of data. Now this is intended for quick touch ups and edits, just like it’s competition which is the mediocre applications that ship with digital cameras. The advantage with these applications is that any inexperienced user can plug in a camera and be instantly downloading and editing their photos. I found it annoying to have to use my browser to look for the photo I wanted to edit, it was just a step I felt I could do with out.

What I think Adobe may getting at sooner is extending this service into their AIR platform, allowing the AIR application to directly access the user’s hard-drive and pull all the photos they have on their hard-drive or memory card. This is something that could be a real winner for Adobe, allowing my grandma to visit our house and immediately show us her new photos without having to email a 50MB zip file.

But, Adobe also does allow me to import my photos from Facebook, Picasa or Photobucket so I can edit a headshot of me for later use. Something that if promoted would win over the Facebook crowd.

The first couple of features are pretty stock standard such as Red-Eye removal, Auto Correct and Exposure. One feature that really striked me as quite attractive was the Touchup feature, allowing me to select an area that may be blurred or scratched and replace it with a swatch from another area. It takes a little getting used to because you need to adjust the red circle (the area you wish to copy) before clicking the green circle (the area to replace) otherwise it may accidently take a swatch from the background or some random area.

With White Balance, PSE has some nifty presets for adjusting based on the lighting conditions at the time. Highlight adds extra light to a photo which, unless the photo was taken well, will result in just a washed out photo. Sharpen and Soft Focus perform exactly what their names imply.

Pop Colour is a nifty effect allowing you to select a specific colour and have it stand out, much like those photos you see with a greyscale photo encapsulating a coloured object, for some artistic users they may enjoy producing art basically on the fly. The Hue, Black & White, and Tint effects are what you’d expect from any photo application. Sketch transforms photos into something like it had been drawn while Distort allows you to bend photos creating “fish-eye” effects.

As you may of noticed that effects are pretty standard, but this is a powerful web application for quick edits and novice users. I am found myself using it when I need a quick crop, it saves me the wait of Photoshop to load or to have iPhoto want to first import it into its 6GB library.

Photoshop Express is a winner for anyone on the go wanting to edit that little blemish or produce a mug-shot in a snap, it especially appeals to those running Windows who right out the box want to edit a photo without loading some trialware enhanced application. I will certainly be using this a lot more in the future.

The Story

I’ve had hundreds upon hundreds of requests for this certain WordPress theme I was using at my personal blog for the past 12 months. The three column theme labeled as “The Red Three” displays content in a very organized manner, providing room in the two sidebars for extra content, advertisements, or notices you wish to provide for your reader-base.

The public release of this theme is my way of saying thanks to the WordPress community, and you - the readers of Desktop Vibes.

The theme which was originally created by Andreas Lengyel, then further customized by myself has had hours upon hours of dedication and hard work put into it. I hope you enjoy using it as much as I have over the past year.

Instructions

Red Three is a three column theme made specifically for WordPress blogs. To edit the title/description of the site in the header, edit these values in the manage settings section of the WordPress back-end.

Please leave all footer links in-tact. These are served as a way for readers of your site to source the original theme download page.

Download & Install

Known to be compatible with WordPress 2.5+. If you are running an older version of WordPress, please, stop what you are doing and upgrade! To install, download and unzip the unstandard directory and upload to wp-content/themes.

Download Red Three Version 1.1

Update: This theme has been updated to version 1.1. Version 1.1 is now compatible with widgets in WordPress.

I’ve been thinking abut the way I use the computer a lot over the past seven days. A majority of thinking has gone into the process so far and as the week has past, I’ve noticed developing trends regarding which applications I’m using most frequently.

While a switch to a MacBook Air may or may not be on the cards for various reasons, the decision turners for making the change (or not) will fall into its own post later in the week.

The increased use of Safari is also down to moving away from three desktop based applications (Mail, NetNewsWire, TextEdit), moving to three similar browser based Google applications - Gmail, Google Reader, and Google Docs.

After keeping a close eye on which applications I used over a seven day period, I came up with the above chart. Overall, it doesn’t really surprise me considering I spend most of my time on the computer writing, while listening to music, keeping an eye on email and RSS, while occasionally popping open iMovie to export video to YouTube and editing images in Aperture.

The only thing holding me back from the MacBook Air at this current point in time? The 15% area on the chart dedicated to Aperture & iMovie.

Late Addition: I’m going to stick with the MacBook Pro - install a new internal HDD, and see what Apple has in store with the next revision of the MacBook Air. I’ll keep riding this laptop until I see a need to change, adding a 2nd rev MacBook Air at a later stage looks likely - however.

From where I’m standing, Twitter is increasingly becoming a means of communication for many creative professionals in doing different things throughout the day - ranging from updating contacts with what they’re doing, direct messaging friends with quick messages instead of an email, and sending/receiving links to newly posted media on the web.

I’ve been mulling over this growing trend for the past few months, and kept an observant eye on not only how I’m using Twitter, but how my contacts are utilizing the service.

What I’ve found is that Twitter has become a tool for doing much more than just updating your friends with what you’ve up to, it’s also a great way to keep in contact with them using the direct message feature. Twitter is increasingly becoming more of an essential relationship and communication tool.

I pulled this following two paragraph quote from a weblog post entitled “Why Twitter Matters.”

By following people on Twitter and other microblogging platforms like Facebook, I’ve gotten to know people at a much deeper level than if I was just to read someone’s blog or socialize at a conference.

Short updates allow me to know a person’s favorite sports teams, restaurants, weekend activities, family adventures and the like. And by weaving together the pieces of someone’s life in this manner, I’m able to know them on a much deeper level. It’s actually quite rewarding on many humanistic levels.

From my point of view, this statement is very accurate. Most of the messages contacts post to Twitter are personal to a certain state, things that help you understand, and get to know a person better. People post thoughts which wouldn’t otherwise be published on their weblog or regular technology column. For instance, if I wasn’t following John Gruber on Twitter, I wouldn’t know that he “fell down the stairs 15 minutes ago”, or that his favorite Super Bowl commercial was the Audi’s R8 “Godfather”.

When I need to get a quick message across to someone and they’re on my Twitter contact list, I fire off a message to them via the Twitter website or via Twitterrific. While it restricts my messages to 140 characters, this essentially helps me stay blunt, simple, and to the point with my wording. Most of my personal correspondence with personal contacts is now routed through Twitter, not email as it was for most of the 2007 calendar year.

I’ve found I’m now corresponding with a lot more people than I was in the past, down to the fact that it’s more simple than clicking on Mail, creating a new message, entering an address, subject line, email, and clicking the send now button - and vice verca on the receptiants end.

While Twitter as a service is still new and developing, utilizing Twitter in the online life of a creative professional is well underway.

On the back of an article I read recently via Khoi Vinh’s archives at Subtraction, I’m taking on the much needed task of de-cluttering one of the most important information sources in my daily realm, RSS feeds.

Over the past few months since my last cleanup I’ve accumulated hundreds of new feeds, picking up more and more as each day passes. I’ve finally come to my senses that one can have too much information coming in at once. It really isn’t a good feeling.

How about keeping it simple and just subscribing to fewer feeds? Do we really need to ingest content from 100 sources? And do we really need more software to make managing our addiction easier?

It’s about priority. Come on, these are feeds—they aren’t children. You can toss a lot out without shedding a tear. You won’t miss them once you make the effort to forget them.

JF over at 37 Signals states an inspiring fact as pulled above, do we need content coming in from so many different sources, many just re-stating what others have already said? Probably not. Are we going to miss feeds if we make an effort not to? Surely not. He makes a great point which really inspires me to remove not only unessential RSS feeds, but clean up other aspects of my life.

RSS feeds don’t need to take up hours of your life each day, they can easily be slimmed down without much loss on your part. Do you really need all that extra stress of knowing you have dozens of unread posts to catch on from Engadget when you wake up, after your lunch, and then again before you head to bed? Think about it hard, if something really is important in the news, you’ll hear about it elsewhere.

As Apple has become more involved with mobile media, they’ve developed a strong connection with Google integrating YouTube into their line of products. The integration of YouTube they’ve mapped in on the iPhone, iPod touch and the Apple TV is impressive - their connection with Google has increased in strength and reach as the year has passed, I’m very excited to see where it’s going to head in the future.

In a thoroughly thought out decision, I recently settled on YouTube as the main resource to spread my video show because of the increasing widespread compatibility over different platforms and devices. Apple partnering up with YouTube really makes it hard for competitors to get into the market, with YouTube regaining exclusive iPhone and Apple TV deals providing widespread exposure for YouTube publishers.

Putting it in perspective, if you were to publish a video to the web, would you prefer to upload it to YouTube where you have millions of potential viewers from all over the world, via computers, the Apple TV, the iPod touch, and the iPhone within minutes uploading it, or alternatively, would you prefer to upload it to a smaller video site to retain a somewhat ‘better’ community feeling?

I chose the larger community with the more widespread viewer base. Sites like Vimeo initially attracted me due to their tightly knit community feeling, though the pulling power of Apple + Google’s YouTube made my decision for me. YouTube appears as if it will provide a much more stable base for my videos in the future.

Just a few quick notes which don’t warrant a full post of their own, but I wanted to make a quick mention of.

I’ve sat down with a few other Mac fanatics and recorded the first episode of the MacFocus podcast. The team of Nick Danforth, Alex Killpatrick, Wesley Yendrys and myself produced the first podcast yesterday evening. Oh, and before you mention something - I’ve already told Wesley the show needs an iTunes feed before any further episodes are made.

Chanpory Rith from the popular blog LifeClever which focuses on helping you design, work, and live better, asked me to write a guest post a few weeks back. My article, 5 Simple Steps To Greater Productivity is now live on the site.

Last but not least, up-and-coming Mac blogger Shawn Blanc interviewed me on his personal weblog. The interview was conducted over dozens of emails and more than three days last week, and is now live for viewing on his blog. I was very pleased with how the interview evolved, very detailed and fun to be a part of.

On a final note, writing this post has left me considering integrating a link blog into the blog where I can post little rambling much like this on a daily basis. Kind of like the Daring Fireball Linked List. Any thoughts on this idea?

While keeping an eye on Twitter updates via Twitterrific today, I stumbled across an excellent web application called Wakoopa. Weird name huh? What’s it all about?

When signing up to the service you’re prompted to download the desktop client for either Mac OSX or Windows (the Linux version is current a work in progress). This client tracks what software you’ve been using and transmits the data to your profile on the site.

Essentially, Wakoopa tracks how much time you’ve spent in various applications. It provides you with a sense of general habits and allows you to see your potential time wasters. You can receive updates on what applications friends are using the most, and see reviews on applications you’re using. Another cool feature is Wakoopa’s ability to notify you when there are updates available to any applications you’re using via a neat widget on the site.

The design looks very clean and well organized, navigating around the website and through profiles is a very unstained experience. I’m not too hot for the colour scheme but I’m sure it’ll grow on me.

Overall the service looks pretty solid. I plan on using it for the simple task of watching general habits evolve in terms of what software I’m using the most. My bet for the number one slot, Safari.

Want to take a look for yourself? Here’s my profile dashboard on Wakoopa, and here’s my full usage charts. Post your profile link in the comments below if you decide to sign up.

I’ve finally managed to get my feet of the ground and launch the video show I’ve been talking about for a few weeks now.

My main goal with this show is to involve you, the community, in the general art of content creation. I’ll be creating videos from user submitted questions. That means if you have a basic (or advanced) question you want advice on, you can email it to me and should see a video appear in the near future on your topic of choice.

I see this as an excellent way for me to become more connected with my readers, and now viewers. I believe content creation has become a little stale recently, something excellent community interaction could, and can change. I currently have three videos online. The intro video, a video showing off my office, and a video answering a reader question on whether the iMac is a safe buy at the moment.

I’d also like to make a quick shout out to Kiro who created the excellent video intro to the show using Apple’s professional tool Motion. I know Kiro spent many hours perfecting it, and it shows. Thanks!

Lets get the ball rolling, send me any questions you want answered to glennwolsey@mac.com and I’ll add them to the queue.

Subscribe on Vimeo, or subscribe to the show RSS feed.

The latest web application in the spotlight called Pownce was launched by a crew of four comprised of Kevin Rose, Leah Culver, Shawn Allen and Daniel Burka last week. Initial comments from on-lookers have been both rather skeptic, and rather ecstatic. I’m part of the second group, Pownce is everything a Twitter user could wish for plus more. I have mulled it over for a few days before segregating my personal opinion.

Firstly, I’ll put it right out there. I am right behind Twitter, I love the idea and originality Twitter brought to the table when it launched back in March 2006, I have no current plans to leave the service. However, for a two week old service, Pownce has thoroughly impressed me through both form and function. Pownce improves on Twitter’s current feature set and in addition, includes a few extra features which differentiate it from Twitter.

The Essentials And Extra Additions

Pownce is very similar to Twitter from a quick scan. You add friends, post messages for others to read, and generally connect with other people. The difference is, Pownce adds to these features in a highly functional and appreciated way.

For example, messaging. When you post you have four options. You can post a Message, Link, File, or Event. Clicking on one of these dynamically refreshes that element of the page to reflect your posting choice. Your second choice is to chose who the message is intended for. The default setting is for “all my friends,” however this can be changed to either the public, or a specific person - in other words, Pownce can be used to connect with just your friends, the general public, or one specific person. Very handy for different instances and uses.

More specifically, you can set groups for different contacts. For instance, if you have a lot of Developers and Bloggers on your friend list you can conviently create a seperate Group for them. When posting, this group will be an option alongside all friends, the public, and individuals. This is essentially useful if you just want the Bloggers to know about your latest post, or just want the Developers to see a link you’ve posted to the latest Expression Engine build.

If you’re a Twitter use, you’ll be familiar with the process of using @YourNameHere to reply to others tweets. Pownce takes the art of replying to others in a whole new direction, just like Digg, Pownce has a threaded message system for replying to specific messages. This makes the process of holding a conversation very functional and easy to grasp a hold of.

To further test out Pownce as a tool of communication I asked my friends to post a quick one sentence review of Pownce in reply to my message. I received around 20 replies which can be found here. Below I’ve displayed a selected few which represented the views of a few different individuals.

Patrick Yan. Great web app from the $60 million man, Kevin Rose—but the lack of mobile (updating & browsing) and a real desktop app is keeping this from becoming as popular as Twitter.

Jeremy S. Pownce is basically a souped up version of twitter without the external inputs like texting and Instant Messages. Even though Pownce is currently small, I can see a bright future headed toward it.

Matt Brett. Seems like a lot of people are forgetting that Pownce is less than a week old and invite only beta. If this is beta, I can’t fu**ing wait to see what they have in store for 1.0!

Chris Marshall. I think Twitter is great for ’statements’ and has been massagd to death to allow conversation. Pownce has way more potential for developing discussions, building communities, and faciliating viral marketing

But I Want To Use Both

I’ve heard this statement numerous times over the past few days. People wanting to use Twitter in conjunction with Pownce instead of pick a favorite are in luck - you can cross post messages to both services.

The blog JetPacked has posted a brief tutorial on how to forward messages you post on Pownce directly through to Twitter.

Go to TwitterFeed.com and login with your OpenID. Create a new Twitter feed and enter your information. When asked for a feed, type in http://www.pownce.com/feeds/public/username. Select the frequency of posting. Be sure to deselect “Include description.�?

This process will be handy for those who want to post messages to one service, but have them distributed to both. For now, I’m sticking with individually posting to both Pownce and Twitter, although cross-posting has struck me as a good solution for keeping involved in both.

A Very Strong Initial Release

Overall, Pownce hasn’t fail to impress. It’s a solid service which I assume I’ll be in constant contact with in the future. There are a few things I’d like to see added and improved on in the future, just like hundreds of other early adopters. Some features I’d personally be pleased to see in future updates include the following.

- Improved Desktop Application. Something which matches up to the elegance and functionality of Twitterrific, Pownce the desktop app needs thorough work if they want to take the service to the next level and be a realistic contender to Twitter. Kevin Rose, get in contact with the team at The Iconfactory and start talking. Period.

- Remove Default Email Notifications. Within hours of signing up to Pownce my inbox was full with over 50 automated emails notifying me of friend requests and messages. Please, have these turned off by default.

- Online Indicators. Allow users to see friends who are currently online by displaying a green indicator next to users logged in, and red next to users offline.

- Official iPhone Compatible Web Application. Move one step ahead of Twitter by developing an official version of Pownce directly compatible for the iPhone. There is yet no solid solution from Twitter for iPhone tweeting, here’s a perfect opportunity to gain one extra step in the race.

- Statistics. I’m a big fan of statistics, I enjoy seeing numbers rise (or fall) live, play by play. This isn’t an essential feature but it’d be “fun” to be able to view stats on your profile including how many messages you’ve sent, and how many times your profile has been viewed. Taking this a step further, how about Top 10 lists for various categories.

Conclusion

Overall I’ve been immensely impressed with the value Pownce has added to my online experience. I’ve felt so much more connected over the past few days - Pownce really is Twitter with all the trimmings you could wish for from a service which is only at version 1.0.

If you wish to add me on either site, feel free to do so. My Pownce profile is located here, and my Twitter profile is located here.

What are your thoughts about the Pownce vs Twitter clash? Which do you think will win the race, and most importantly, which are you using the most?

Unlike many others, I haven’t been with Digg since its inception in 2003. I’ve been a member of the worlds largest social bookmarking site since August 14, 2005. Since then I have submitted 174 stories, with a success rate of 24% from my 42 homepage stories.

Almost two years of my short life have been accomplished with Digg set as my browser homepage. I’ve found it handy to have the latest in the world of technology news directly in front of me when I launch Safari throughout the day. It’s a way to keep me connected and “in the know” of recent happenings and announcements. Digg can be simply described as my portal to the web.

Kevin Rose and the team at Digg have done a great job continuing to add new features to the site, while not groundbreaking, each new additional feature makes Digg a better and more enjoyable place for all who love sharing Technology, Sport, Business, or Offbeat News. There’s something for everyone.

Interestingly enough, the ten thousandth story I dugg was relevant to the fashionable topic of late, Apple’s new iPhone which I have purposely overlooked writing about to this day due to two facts. The point of fact I haven’t touched one yet, and secondly, I’ve found it to be a little over-talked on blogs over the past few days, hold on, make that months.

Moving back to the point of the topic, I’ve been a Digg member for just on two years now and it still has a hold on me. There’s something seemingly refreshing about Digg which keeps me coming back for more. I don’t know if it’s the downright widespread and opinionated community, or my desire to keep up to the minute with the latest tech news. All I know is that two years later, Digg still has a hold on me which won’t cease anytime soon.

How do you feel about Digg? How long have you been a member, how many stories have you dugg, and what keeps you coming back for more?

NewsFire just bounced an informed me of a few new articles, one of those was by Honda Wang from Macteens, “Safari On Windows? Why?” I just read the article through and though I’d state my opinion on one of the reasons they ported Safari to the darkside.

Look in the top right corner of your browser, see the Google Search hard coded into the browser? Though so, I see it too. Now open Firefox, Flock, and Camino. See the same thing? You didn’t think companies implement these into browsers for free did you? Apple gets a commission on every Google search completed through the browser toolbar, the same with Firefox, IE, Flock, and all of the other major parties.

Steve Jobs specifically stated they wanted to increase market share by porting the browser, Safari currently holds a 5% market share over the browser industry while the target is 15% according to the keynote slide.

More exposure = more users = more market share = more money from Google. Get the drift? I believe the extra incentive of cash-flow was on attraction to the possibility of the port.

Update: It must be stated this is not my only reason why I believe Safari was ported, although in my eyes it was the standout reason. I’m all for having Safari on the Windows platform, I think it’s a good move on Apple’s behalf.

Update 2: Once again, it must be emphasized that I do not believe this is Apple’s single reason for porting Safari. This is simply one standout reason in my mind of why it could have appealed to Apple. If you think differently, don’t hesitate to let me know.

I’ve been asked many times in the past about what ads I’m running on my blog. Many have emailed me complementing the “beautiful style” of the ads which “don’t look like ads at all”. I thought I’d post a little blurb to save others from having to ask the same question.

Question: What ad service do I use on my website?
Answer: None.

That’s right, there is no back-end to my advertisements, they are not automatically generated by code like Google Adsense or similar services, I pursue companies and developers personally to gain sponsorship.

Sure it takes a lot longer and requires much more effort than using a simple service like Adsense - but in hindsight, the ads look much cleaner, and as users have said in the past, they look beautiful.

It’s really nice to be in contact directly with people who are interested in sharing their product via my website. I gain satisfaction when I hear someone purchased an application/service after seeing an image in my sidebar or reading one of my posts.

Interested in sponsoring me? Contact me for more details.

I would estimate at least half of people who read blogs aren’t experiencing the blogosphere to its fullest. These people sit behind their feed reader which is stocked with hundreds of feeds, and let the news come to them 24/7.

Letting the news arrive to your desktop is the point of a feed-reader, but it breaks the experience of blogging in a form. You don’t get the content in the way the author intended you to - meaning you miss out on the blog design, experience, and the opportunity to get involved in the community aspect of the site within the comments.

I currently have 80 feeds in NewsFire. When I stumble across an article of interest I follow the link through to the blog and read it within my browser. The only exception is sites such as Engadget, TUAW, and Gizmodo. For any other blog I click straight through to the article, reading the content in the way the author intended.

This is something I’d like to see more do, as convenient as it is having content coming straight into your feed reader, there’s something about clicking through and experiencing the content in its original form.

How about you, do you often venture out from behind your feed reader?

Everyone is different, and has a different set of unique tools they enjoy using over the internet. I try and keep the web services I use to a minimal amount, so anything which makes it into my bag of tools has to be truly impressive.

Digg. I love Digg, it’s a great place to keep up with all the latest news from dozens of different topics. Digg is set as my browser homepage in Safari and it’s the first site I visit each morning. I like to start the day up to the minute with the latest in tech news.

Flickr. I’m an avid amateur photographer, I love heading out with my Canon 350D and creating images. Flickr allows me to upload my images and get comments and critic on them. I use Flickr to keep up to scratch on the latest gadgets my friends have purchased, and enjoy using the search feature when I’m considering purchasing a new product or item.

GoPlan. If you are like me and are working on many different projects, you need one place to keep them all together and organized. I currently use the Personal GoPlan service, and keep all my projects online complete with task lists, calendars, notes, and more. It helps me keep organized and on top

Twitter. Twitter is perfect for me as I rather dislike staying logged in on instant messaging services. If people need to get hold of my urgently, they know to send me an email. With Twitter, I can now have people send me non-urgent messages over the service, and I can send back quick answers. Twitter also helps me avoid the dreaded IM question, “What’s up?” If I want to tell people, I will over Twitter.

What web services do you use on a daily basis?

Update: I’ve decided to change my plan of attack, and lighten the load a little. Blog comments & Flickr activity now get directed into my RSS reader.

A few weeks ago I changed all my social web accounts to send emails to me when activity happened on my profiles/accounts. My volume of email has increased, but it makes a handy collection ground so I don’t need to trace around the web checking for updates as frequently. When something happens, I hear about it straight away.

What gets delivered to my inbox? Continue Reading »

Twitter is one of the latest and most popular Web services for the masses. The basic object of Twitter is to let people know what you are doing, in order to eliminate the dreaded message saying “What’s up” over IM.

This morning I stumbled across a website via Technorati called Twitterholic. Twitterholic basically scans the Twitter public timeline for new users to watch. A few times a day, they calculate individual statistics for each user user in their database and compile a “Twitter Top 100″ list based on the statistics tracked. Continue Reading »

Gravatar, the extremely popular globally recognized avatar system is back online after been down for months, and causing some users to think it might have died a silent web death.

Registration is now open for the new 2.0 Public Beta. Previously registered members don’t need to sign up for a new account and can continue using their existing login details.

For those who don’t know what Gravatar does, it simply allows you to upload an 80×80 pixel avatar image to your account. When you post a comment on Gravatar enabled sites or blogs, the avatar will automatically show up without you having to complete any further steps.

What kind of image do you use as your global avatar, or do you have separate ones for different sites and forums?

I’ve been wanting to start a blog based around Macintosh applications for a long time, as no other blog has covered this niche too well in the past. With MacApper, myself along with my crew of contributing authors aim to fill that niche, and offer top quality Mac software reviews, previews, interviews, tips and giveaways to the Mac community.

To mark the launch of MacApper we have published our first interview with Dustin MacDonald, developer of the popular password management application Wallet. We are giving three readers the chance to win a copy of Wallet on the blog - all you have to do is leave a comment on the interview to be in the draw.

Finally, a niche site dedicated to Mac Applications. Get ready to fill your applications folder, as we have many app reviews, interviews, and contests up our sleeve.

The list of Web 2.0 sites is so extensive, there are now hundreds of sites labeled with the “Web 2.0″ tag out there now, and that number is growing by the day.

Go2Web20 is an awesome little Web 2.0 directory. They have listings of all the different sites and services currently out there, and allow you to browse them by looking at their unique logos. Click on a logo and you will be presented with site information in the sidebar - interested to visit the site? Simply click on the logo again and you will be taken to the chosen site.

You can sort through the logos by the date they were added to the directory, date they were launched, or by tags such as “Address Book” or “Social Bookmarking”. If you know exactly what kind of service/site you are after, you can start a custom search to minimize the results.

If your favorite site is not listed, you can submit is for approval to the directory. They even have a RSS feed for all the Web 2.0 junkies wanting up to the minute updates.

Check it out here, but a quick warning - be prepared to give up hours upon hours of your time getting involved in the Web 2.0 community!

What Web 2.0 sites are you currently a participating member of?

• Dont like the new Photoshop CS3 icon? Replace it with Susumu’s new icons.

• Want to create and customize your own themes for use in RapidWeaver? Then RWThemeMiner is one application you must install on your Mac.

• Considering purchasing a Mac Pro to run the beta of Photoshop CS3 on? Then check out the benchmarks for dozens of reasons why the Mac Pro should be on your Christmas wish-list.

• If del.icio.us doesn’t tickle your fancy, but you still want somewhere to store all your occasional bookmarks, join Ma.gnolia and take your bookmarking to a social occasion.

Next Saturday I am going to be away for a week on a cricket tournament, we have been instructed to bring Monopoly money with us for some late night poker games to see who is champion among the team. The only problem is I have no idea how poker is even played, let along having the skills to blow away the competition!

This is when Poker on a Mac, an Online Poker resource that caters towards Mac users came in helpful. The site is full of reviews of Mac poker rooms, online poker strategy guides, and Mac poker news. The news didn’t interest me much, but the strategy guides will have me rolling in the gold (okay, monopoly money…) in no time.

Now how is this site different from all other poker sites, and why am I going to this one to learn. The main reason is no advertisements, yes, you heard that right. This must be the only poker site on the web which isn’t full of annoying “spammy” advertisements or pop up ad’s.

The site layout is clean and easy to navigate. Want to play poker? Sure, one click and you have a list of Mac compatible poker rooms complete with reviews (did I mention all the content on the site is 100% original?).

The creator of the site stays in touch with all the major online poker sites, and is usually the first to find out if or when a site is planning to release Mac software. PokerStars (the largest poker site on the web) is working to develop Mac software in 07, which is really exciting news for online poker players.

The site has certainly helped me brush up my skills, and I’m hoping to be tough competition when I’m away for cricket tournament.

Disclosure: I will be receiving $30 for this post.

Blogs can be a great hobby, but they are even more fun to write when you are getting rewarded with cash. It can give you that extra little edge and push to write great content, keep you focused, and keep you blogging for longer periods of time.

ReviewMe has made that goal achievable for every blogger in the world now, thanks to their great new service.

The basic concept of ReviewMe is simple. Bloggers are paid to write sponsored posts in return for a payment from advertisers. The payment is judged based on different stat rankings of your blog such as Technorati rank, Alexa rank and number of subscribers to it’s RSS feed.

If you are an advertiser and want to purchase a review of your product/service, simple. Just browse around looking for a site your interested in having the review on and click the “Add to Cart” button.

ReviewMe does have a few rules that bloggers do need to follow. For example, each review must be at least 200 words, and you must disclose that your review is a sponsored one.

Looking forward to seeing how this effects the blogging universe. What are your thoughts? let me know.

Disclosure: I will be receiving $30 for this post.

Derek Punsalan, a freelance web designer behind 5ThirtyOne has just released yet another amazing WordPress theme to the public free of charge.

The new theme, Widgetized October Special is a newer version of his great theme Pink For October (which was also made available for free).

The theme is a widgetized release which allows users to manipulate sidebar content - both top and bottom - using convenient drag ‘n drop “widgets�? within the Presentations Dashboard preferences pane.

Support Derek and download it here.

I woke up this morning, and checked my RSS feeds as normal. But one thing I do different when checking my RSS feeds is I actually click through to the site if I want to read something of interest.

Macworld UK was one of those sites this morning, I clicked through on a news piece that interested me and was pleasantly surprised at the modernized design of the site.

I have no idea how long it’s been up, but it’s a well needed fresh coat of paint for Macworld and I’m really enjoying it so far.

From the people who brought you My Dream App comes the next big thing in Mac software.

You might have seen other sites talking about MacHeist, but unlike everyone else in our little corner of the internet, we actually know what MacHeist is all about.Here’s what we know:

* The eventual product of the site will be a deeply discounted software bundle only made available to users. I’ve had a look at the contents of the bundle as they stand so far, and they are, as those crazy kids say “killer dude”

* Dozens of Mac developers have signed up to participate in MacHeist

* Throughout the event, users can participate in mysterious “heists” to gain an even deeper discount on the bundle as well as special freebies.

* The event will be invitation only, at least for the first couple of weeks, with users selected out of those who signed up on the MacHeist or My Dream App sites.

TUAW Exclusive: MacHeist details

This looks great, I’m looking forward to this starting. MDA was such a success I’m interested to see how this turns out.

• TUAW is looking for some new bloggers. Interested?

• Need help working out mathematic problems? Soulver is the answer. Expect a review coming next week.

• Apple’s Finder bugging you with it’s basic feature set? Check out ten alternatives to the Finder here.

• Need a nice theme for your Wordpress blog? This list of the best Wordpress themes should be all you need to get started with a beautiful blog.

Google has laid speculation to rest — it is buying YouTube for US$1.65 billion in a stock transaction.YouTube operates a wildly popular Web site showing original videos in a range from amateurish to professional.

It will continue to operate independently after the Google acquisition “to preserve its successful brand and passionate community,�? Google said Monday when it announced the deal.Bringing YouTube into the ever-growing Google empire will mean that users have a “better, more comprehensive experience�? when they upload, watch and share videos, Google said.

It will also provide more opportunities for professional content owners to get their work out to a wider audience, the company said.

Macworld: News: Google to buy YouTube in $1.65 billion stock deal

This was unexpected to say the least, speculation seems to have been going on for months about who would acquire YouTube to fund it’s massive bandwidth bills and continue to make it grow. In my views, no better company could have taken it over, I cant wait to see what this acquisition does for YouTube.

Tired of loading you default homepage to the web dozens of times each day when all you want to do is go to another site? If this is the case, you want a really fast loading page as your homepage.

The answer for most is Google.com, but today I found a super-fast alternative called Smplr.

Smplr is one of the fastest loading web-pages I have ever visited. The mili-second after Safari has opened in the dock I’m already displayed with the page, ready for me to type.

If you type a search term in the pretty blue box, you are re-directed to a Google search for that keyword, so it’s essentially a super fast gateway to Google.

Below the search bow resides a handy little table of websites sorted by categories. These links are to sites such as Digg, MacZOT, CNN, MySpace, FaceBook, and more.

My verdict: great if your on the lookout for a mini “hub” to the web with a search box and links to frequently visited popular sites. Check it out here.

Look’s like Engadget has undergone a radical re-design.

Some of the new features include

• Digg like user moderated comments

• Auto comment login

• Dynamic content width for widescreen monitors

• Engadget Mobile headlines

• Tags and tag feeds, and category feeds

• Multiple podcast feeds!

What do I like about the new site? The design now look much more Web 2.0ish, the new dynamic content looks great when stretching images and text to fit my widescreen monitor.

The new user moderated comment system might not be a worlds first, but is one of the first I’ve seen on a blog, so a big thumbs up for that.

Engadget mobile headlines are nothing but a step in the right direction for the future. People are starting to use mobiles to browse news sites, and now Engadget is added to the list of compatible sites. Another huge thumbs up for this.

Tag and tag feeds. These are great! Only want to know about news related to the iPod shuffle, and Office 07, then set up a RSS feeds for these 2 tags and get only the news you want, nothing else.

Check it all out over at the all new Engadget

>
• A brand new YouTube like site featuring videos full of advice for bloggers, Tubetorial is a video based tutorial site which will focus upon web development and internet marketing.

• Have a liking for pretty desktops? TUAW has launched a new Flickr group specifically for users to post their desktop image and attempt to be featured on the homepage of TUAW.com, check it out here

• Musicast, is an $18 application for the Macintosh that lets you broadcast the unprotected contents of your iTunes library over the Internet

• CoreDuoTemp 1.0 monitors the temperature of Intel Macs, including the iMac (2006), Mac mini (2006), MacBook Pro and MacBook. The new version includes a menubar application, floating palette and a widget.