Image via CrunchBase

Writing code has been my focus over the past few months, both with personal projects and work, and I’ve given my headphones a good workout. As much as I love to toute my musical savvy, variety is all that I require – I love music, but enjoy hearing a mix of genres and artists. On this front, Pandora is great. If you just want someone to pick the music for you, Pandora will do that task very, very well.

However, sometimes I want to listen to someone specific rather than a style and for this, I’ve turned to Spotify. Spotify has an enormous library of songs and you can chose exactly what you want. My brother in law, a jazz guitarist from Toronto named Andrew Scott (look him up) is in their library. That is awesome. Did I mention that the service is free? If you sign up you get 10 hours free music listening per day – about the length of an average work day plus commute (coincidence? Ha!)

That’s not even the best part – the mobile app is fantastic. You need a premium account, which goes for 10 dollars a month, but it’s worth it. You can download your music to your iPhone/Android and listen offline. Perfect for those who want a large selection but don’t want to waste their data plan on Pandora.

A surprising bonus: you can discover new music using sharemyplaylists.com, a collaborative spotify playlist sharing service. Here you can find new music, check out oldie playlists and share your creations. I needed an option like this when I logged into spotify for the first time – there is so much choice that it’s difficult to know where to start.

Ultimately, I use both accounts. My Pandora stations are a great way to discover new music and Spotify fills the gap when I want something but don’t want to shell out for the album.

Give both services a try and let me know what you think. You won’t be disappointed either way…

~ab

Anyway, pushing my soapbox back under the bed, I have an iPhone and looking back at my activities for the last few weeks, I am struck by how little I’ve created with my new toy – it’s as if someone crammed every form of media into an all powerful demon in my front right pocket (the left pocket just doesn’t feel right after years of carrying my blackberry in my right).  I figure that, rather than fighting these forces, I should embrace them.  In that vein, here are my favorite apps on the iPhone, purposely split into groups, consumption and creation.

Consumption

1. MobileRSS is an application that I started using on my iPod touch. I’m sure that there are updated RSS readers, but this one does everything I want.  I can sync to my google reader feeds, so that I only have to mark something read once.  I can also tweet, save for later with ReadItLater, open in Safari etc.  The real kicker of the app is the design, which is fluid and intuitive: swipe left or right to move between posts, pull the page down or up to load new posts.

There is a free version that is add supported, but if you’re consuming feeds through a firehouse, it’s worth the 3 dollars to have a cleaner experience.

2. ReadItLater is a way of bookmarking things that you want to (duh) read later.  It’s pretty simple and their site walks you through the details of getting the app.  I like the integration with MobileRSS, but I love how ReadItLater content is available via the web too.  I can bookmark something on my computer and read it on my iPhone through the app or I can grab something on my phone (usually large videos) and read/watch from the comfort of my Mac.

There is a free version of this that suits me just fine, as I rarely share via Twitter or other outlets from the app itself.

3. Kindle for iPhone provides a remarkably comfortable reading experience.  If you have a Kindle and have purchased content, you can download one of your books from the digital library and start reading (in seconds).  I’ve forgotten my Kindle while traveling a few times and the iPhone/iPod Touch version allowed me to keep reading.  You can also email passages of text, something that even my real kindle can’t handle.

The Kindle app is free as in beer and speech (but you can only access your paid content as far as I can tell).

4. Games, games, games… I don’t play games for long, but when I’m sitting on a runway, or waiting in line, it’s a great way to pass the time.  I recommend: Collapse, Angry Birds, Ragdoll Blaster 1 & 2, Trenches, Finger Physics free, Unblock Me, Zen Bound 1 & 2, N.O.V.A (this last one is an action packed 1st person shooter, but the rest are simple puzzle games).

These apps may run you from 1 to 3 bucks…

5. Pandora, Last.FM and Grooveshark are all streaming music services that have iPhone apps.  It has to be said: these crush your battery life.  However, in a pinch, it can help relieve the boredom of your overplayed music collection.

Pandora and Last.FM are free.  Grooveshark will require a pro account (worth it at 3 bucks a month) but you can listen to anything in their vast library.

6. This American Life and NPR are streaming radio.  Again, the battery thing is a problem, but it’s sooooo worth it if you’re stuck in an airport and need to drown out the angry people on cell phones…

This American Life is paid but supports NPR.  The NPR news app is free.

Creation

1. Twitter is what it is – love it or hate it, there is an app.  Including Twitter proves that my definition of creation is not terribly strict. I like the official version of the app as it’s free and full-featured, but there are other clients out there that work just fine.

2. Evernote is the app form of the service Evernote.com that I’ve written about before.  Their tagline is “remember everything” and that pretty much describes how I use the app.  I take photos of whiteboards, notes during meetings, voice notes or meeting recordings, and even iPhone screenshots and upload all that to my Evernote account to work on later.  It’s my memory dump for everything that isn’t a task and it’s the starting point for nearly every blog post I write (including this one).

Evernote is free, but you can get a pro account for a few extra features.

3. Remember the Milk, like Evernote, is the app form of a larger service.  Remember the Milk (RTM) allows me to create and save tasks to my master task that I view on my computer, but it also allows me to mark tasks complete, set reminders, etc all from my iPhone.  Like I said before, most of my content goes to Evernote, but if it’s a task (again loooooooose definition of creation) then I use RTM.

RTM requires that you have a Pro account, which runs $20 per year, but you can use the web interface for free.

4. Dragon Dictation is a natural language processing app for your phone that allows you to dictate text and then copy it into emails, text messages or anywhere else that you can hit paste.  I was blown away when I first tried this, as the accuracy is freakishly good. You might be dubious about the benefits of an app for this, but try it out.  It’s fantastic.

Dragon Dictation is free.

5. Sketchbook is for drawing.  I can barely draw a circle, but I love scribbling out rough ideas to return to later.  I can save my images and then suck them up into Evernote for storage (see what I mean? Evernote is awesome).  It’s a one-trick-poney, but then again, how many tricks do you need your ponies to do?

Sketchbook is $2.99.

So the final score is 6/5 Consumption/Creation.  I probably could have squeezed in another one or two on either side, but to be honest, consumption could have destroyed creation: I didn’t even include the “reference” part of the consumption family.  Apps like Menupages, Google Maps, Yelp, and TripIt are also a huge part of my iPhone usage.  I was nice to creation and drew the line closer to the middle…

What apps do you use to consume/create?  Shout it out in the comments.

~ab

Note: I’ve written about the iPod touch and my apps before, but I think that this post shows off some of the iPhone specific functions (as well as things I’ve learned since my last post).

1. Fast greetings: I sign most emails with either “Thanks, {Return}Alex” or “Best, {Return}Alex”.  To save some time, I use “t,” and “b,” for those phrases, respectively.  This permits me to quickly finish an email and then send (using Alt + s in Microsoft Outlook or Tab then Space in Gmail).

2. Personal data: If I type “Addy”, Texter types out my home address.  ”mynum” types out my phone number.  Both of these are simple time savers that I’ve used a lot while communicating travel plans or shipping information.  When I was in the UK, I used “uknum” for my local phone number.

3. Loyalty info: “starwood#”, “skymiles#”, “wbs#” and about a dozen other word + # combinations make up my library of travel numbers.  As a frequent traveler, I got tired to looking at my cards or a spreadsheet to keep track of all my numbers.  Instead, I just type “hhonors#” and Texter inserts my Hilton Honors number.

4. Dates: “dt” and “dts” are the Texter codes I use for long date and short date respectively.  One of the great features of Texter is the inclusion of built-in commands.  In this case, I put %dl in the replacement text for “dt”.  This tells Texter that when I type “dt”, I want today’s long date (Monday, 30th of July 2010).  %ds produces a mm/dd/yy value instead.

5. Email lists: I find that email programs are generally quite annoying when you want to maintain groups of people in mailing lists.  For each program you have to setup your contacts into lists.  Instead, if I have a group of people that I’m emailing often, I just create a “@emaillist” hotstring, which tells Texter to put in my list of email addresses.  This can be a great time saver if you switch between Outlook and Gmail regularly.

6. Quick replies: For the same reason as number 5, Form emails are another great use for Texter.  If I type @Comment into Gmail or Outlook, Texter asks me who I want to write to (a little prompt appears) and then puts in “Hi person, Thanks for your comment on Justanasterisk.com. I’ve posted a reply to your message which you can see on the site.  Best, ab”  Obviously, person is the name that Texter asked me to provide in the beginning.  If you want to try this, include %p in your script.

7. Meeting details: Meetings inevitably require a ton of similar information.  One thing that I use constantly is “mtg#’ which inserts my dial-in number and meeting ID for the participants.

In the end, Texter is a tool that can really speed up your Windows work.  I started with a small number of uses, but the list has grown.  I don’t recommend trying to think of every use for Texter at once.  Instead, it’s easiest just to start using it for a few things and then add as the inspiration strikes you.  Also, make sure you go back and delete the Texter hotstrings that you don’t really use.  I find that this helps avoid problems and unexpected results.

Good luck and share any cool ideas you have in the comments!

~ab

1.  Three asterisks (yep it’s a thing)

Open a new word document and type *** then hit enter.  Word will automatically create a dotted line across the page.  In fact, it’s just one of a few examples.  === will produce a double line.  _ _ _ will produce a single line.  ~~~ makes a jagged edge.  The ones I could find are in the image below (click to see it full size).

Why would word hide these away?  No idea. Not even a clue.  I’m not sure what industry or profession was clamoring for this feature…  Moreover, as far as I can tell, this doesn’t count as Autotext or Autocorrect.

2. Autotext allows you to finish common words or phrases simply by pressing enter.  You may have noticed that when you type “best r” on a new line, you are offered “Best regards,”.  If you press enter, Word will finish the line for you.  This also works for months (try typing “Oct”), days of the week (try “mon”) and the current date.  That, by itself, isn’t that weird.  What is kind of strange is how open the possibilities are.  You can add your own entries and they can be absolutely anything.  Here are dumb examples that I’ll probably regret adding to my dictionary:

and    

3. Autocorrect was designed to take common misspellings (a word that is itself easy to misspell)  and correct them for you.  acn becomes can.  Ammount becomes amount.  However, it does much more than just fix your mistakes.  Here are some examples:

Those are just some of the many built in examples.  However, the possibilities are endless if you create your own.  It’s relatively simple to set it up, in your options menu, you’ll see the settings.  Here is an example:

When I was a chemistry grad student, I used this feature to turn H2O into (something that is not possible on the web, hence the strange image floating above the line)…

4. Random text

This one is weird but kind of useful.  Have you ever needed some random text to fill out a space, to check a font or whatever?  Try this: type “=rand()” and press enter.

In Word for Mac, the result is this paragraph 3 times:

“The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.  The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.  The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.  The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.  The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”

A quick side note, that phrase (the quick brown fox..) has every letter of the English alphabet…  The phrase that will print with Rand() is different in each version of word, so give it a try!

I think that about does it.  Let me know if there are any other weird word features via email: ab AT justanasterisk.com.

Enjoy,

~ab

In truth, I get it. The idea is so simple: click a button, pay $100 for a year and receive your push mail, contacts, calendar, storage for your photos and files, plus a “find my iphone” application all in one handy interface to your computer. However, it forever irks me when I’m told about these services as if they are the only game in town. I mentioned my doubt to the Mac Store genius a few days ago and was told “yes but MobileMe is seemless and far less complicated”…

That sounded like a challenge to me, so I wrote out my alternative to MobileMe system.  I thought it would take longer, but it’s actually quite simple.  Here are my choices:

Push Gmail, Calendar, Contacts

Comes straight from Google for free (Mail was included back in September 2009) and here are the steps to set it up.  When you make a change to your email, calendar of contacts, the change appears almost instantly on your iPhone or iPod touch.

Photos

If you’re using Gmail, you have a Google Account. This means you have a Picasa account, even if you haven’t activated it. Just head over to picasaweb.google.com. Your storage is shared with your email (most people have about 7GB). If you need more space, it’s available for a reasonable rate (see my picasa post for more details).

Storage (iDisk)

Dropbox is a service I’ve talked about before.  It’s easy to use and it integrates with both Windows and Mac.

See the little icon with the box and the check?  i got that to replace the default MobileMe icon on my Mac with several hours of coding…  HA! Just kidding.  It was as simple as dragging the old icon off the tool bar and installing Dropbox (10 seconds).  I would love a free Mac product to store my stuff, but using Dropbox is a breeze and it’s free.

Find My iPhone

Finally a service that doesn’t have a free alternative.  You setup your MobileMe on your iPhone and the service will help you find it if you misplace it or someone steals it.  I won’t downplay how great this service is, but if it’s the only part of the MobileMe family that you can’t get for free… is it worth paying $100?  There is a similar product on the app store right now (who knows for how long) that’s called “Find my phone” which does exactly the same thing (as far as I can tell) for only $0.99.

The moral of the story

I’m not trying to be a jerk.  My new Mac has made me very, very happy.  Moreover, I’m perpetually enthused about Apple products.  My only complaint is that MobileMe is $100.  It should be free or at the very least, uber-cheap.  If that were the case, I’d convert over from my google alternatives in a heartbeat.

In short, don’t believe all the hype quite yet.  If someone is asking you to pay $100, it should probably be for something entirely unique.

Enjoy!

~ab

If you’re trying to decide between the hot new Nexus One vs. the iPhone 3Gs, here’s the skinny on what sets them apart. Both phones sport the aesthetic appeal of that sleek “wow” factor sheen, but there are a few differences you should know about which may make one a better fit for your needs than the other.

Despite its light weight compared to the iPhone 3Gs, the Nexus One picks up where the iPhone left off in the bench-press department. Its faster processor and more efficient Organic LED screen will keep your video sizzling sharp and your images pinpoint crisp while making the overall screen color reproduction more accurate (though strangely enough the orange colors on some of the YouTube videos I streamed to the Nexus One appeared a little too red for my liking).

The built in camera flash on the Nexus One is a very useful feature in low-lighting. It’s also a feature that the iPhone currently lacks, though rumor has it that Apple already put in a big order for flash devices for its next generation of iPhones. No doubt Apple will also be ramping up its camera resolution which is currently only 3-megapixels on the iPhone compared to the whopping 5-megapixel deliciousness of the Nexus One camera.

Unlike the iPhone, the Nexus One sports a full hands-free driving GPS navigation system with turn-by-turn directions functionality included right out of the box. On the iPhone, you only get the standard Google maps directions right now which is basically a little dot moving around on a 2D map…not very impressive unless you are willing to shell over the cash for a third party navigation application such as the $70 Navigon or the $80 iGo My Way.

Aside from these extra perks included with the Nexus One, the main point of difference I encountered between the two phones was their dependence upon wireless connectivity. iPhone applications run as smoothly when you are out of wireless range as they do when you are in range because your data is largely saved to the phone and is re-synched when your phone reception returns. This approach keeps your most of your data on your physical phone device, at risk of being lost along with the device if that data has not been synchronized and backed up first.  The Nexus One takes the opposite approach. It seems geared toward storing as much of your personal data as possible on Google’s computer clouds rather than on your phone’s memory. Unfortunately, while it does mean that your data is theoretically safer, it also means that you have to have a strong wireless connection for many of your applications to be useful. This is particularly true if you’re looking to leverage some of the coolest features Google provides such as voice recognition (see below).

The included Android Calendar application is a perfect example of why storing data on the cloud isn’t always the best solution. The included Calendar application is barely functional without a direct link to the internet, and it will not operate unless you have first assigned it to a preexisting Google Calendar account. While these limitations may not be an issue for someone who already uses Google Calendar and who has frequent internet access, I found it an unnecessary burden, and wasn’t thrilled about being forced to use a the Google Calendar which was only recently endowed with integrated Task features.

There are a few other ‘gotchas’ you should be aware of before you buy, such as the not-so-multi-touch feature of the Nexus One’s touch screen. The iPhone’s multi-touch feature is more than just fancy hand-waving; it allows you to use more than one finger at a time to interact with your mobile phone screen. This makes the phone easier to operate and cuts down on the number of buttons that would otherwise clutter its interface. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the Nexus One. Though the Android interface itself has been given an appealing facelift, (with live animated backgrounds and the like), it is currently limited to single touch functionality. [Note: You can enable multi-touch yourself if you are brave enough to attempt a ROM hack on your Nexus One].

Another iPhone feature I missed in the Nexus One was a simple notepad. You may be able to download one from the Android Market, but not having one pre-installed is inconvenient, and it makes taking notes or jotting down ideas difficult when no pen and paper are handy. If you’re creative, you could record videos of yourself talking and then sync them with Evernote, but if you’re looking for more direct digital copies of you paper masterpieces, check out the Scan2PDF Mobile application which instantly converts phone photos of your notes into fully searchable PDFs.

As any personal trainer will tell you, you won’t see your best results until you’ve put in the necessary hard work and preparation. In the same way, the Nexus One really starts to shine brightest once you start using one of its most underappreciated yet most awesome features, its voice recognition technology. Leveraging the technology it has long been toiling over for its Google Voice telephone service, Google’s Nexus One makes searching as easy as pressing a button and telling your phone what you want it to find. Seriously, it’s that simple! After a few tries, the phone will train itself to recognize your voice patterns and will identify pretty much any word you throw at it. And since every search you do is logged with Google, I’m guessing that your subsequent search patterns will be used to teach the software so that it continually gets better at recognizing which of your verbal commands it interpreted successfully.

Even more useful, and novel by comparison to what the iPhone offers, is the voice-to-text feature which magically transcribes whatever you say to your phone into an email or text message. This voice recognition feature, in particular, turned out to be a big time saver for me, just like using voice recognition in the built-in GPS navigation made hands-free navigation that much easier and safer while driving.

If you currently have an iPhone and are looking for those extra features that will squirt a few more ounces of productivity into your life, you may want to wait until the next iPhone iteration comes out. The additional benefits the Nexus One offers are mostly under the hood, and while they do add up, the margin of difference they make depends upon how ambitious you are about tackling the learning curve burn cycle, especially if you’re already acclimated to the iPhone interface. On the other hand, if you aren’t in love with the iPhone or if you are upgrading from a previous non-iPhone model and are looking for a top of the line phone with tremendous long-term potential, the Nexus One is probably your best bet.

And in case you’re still deliberating over the technical details behind the gloss, I recommend checking out Gizmodo’s definitive smartphone comparison chart for a great side-by-side comparison of these top two contenders.

~jp

Justin Palmen is a recovering technoholic with a passion for everything fast, mobile, and cloud enabled.  When not working in cyberspace, he enjoys traveling to exotic locations and would love to travel in real space some day.  He’d also love to receive your questions or comments at jp@justanasterisk.com

Good luck!!!

~ab

There is a purity to the idea of music as the primary goal for the iPod (the phrase “it used to be about the music” always reminds me of Almost Famous and this scene above).  I’ve written about the feature craziness of the iPhone (here), but recently got an iPod Touch for Xmas, so I thought I would try an experiment.  You see, the iPod touch really has only two features – it plays music and video, like any iPod these days, AND it has a WiFi connection, a feature that leads to all sorts of mischief.  I wondered what I could get up to with only the WiFi connection.  Would the device still be useful if it were not about the music at all?

The results were entertaining.  I spent my vacation downloading apps and trying to get as much mileage out of the Touch as I could.  In fact, I’ll give you a preview of the ending: it was a lot of fun.  Let the games begin…

I started my trip to Milan for Xmas with Tripit, a program I’ve used before (but never on the Touch).  I synced my travel plans (with confirmation numbers and quotes), allowing me to tell the rather snotty Italian Avis rental guy that no, it was no ok if the price was 50 Euros more than the quote and yes I do have proof. In Italian this exchange was the rental guy saying  “e normale…” (shrug) and me responding: “NO non e normale.”  (insert look that said “just because I’m foreign doesn’t make me an idiot”).

Once on the road, I could look at my world clocks to make sure that my time zones were in sync.  This isn’t technically a new feature (it’s on the iPod Classic) but I found it very useful.

While in the air, I had read through one of  my kindle books (no not the complete works of Shakespeare – it just makes a nice picture).  It was great to do the same tricks that I do on my kindle:  taking notes, highlighting passages and adding bookmarks.  I also like having access to all my books, with the ability to download the books that I make have deleted or recently purchased using WiFi.  If the screen were 1 inch bigger, this app alone would be a selling point (if you don’t already have a kindle).

At road stops, a quick glance at Google earth provided a bit of entertainment, as I pinpointed my location and explored local attractions.  In the end, I used it for almost the same purpose as Google Maps (also included on the Touch), but I found the controls much more fun…  Turn by turn directions are available from other apps and as there is no GPS on the touch, it’s tough to get more mileage out of mapping features.

Once at my destination, I managed to tune my guitar (picture on the left) and then call ANYONE in my address book for free with Skype (picture on right).

Skype is such a useful app on the Touch that I’d almost buy one if it were a one trick pony.  The ability to call anywhere from any WiFi network saves oodles of dough and somehow, almost magically, the call quality is better than when I call from my laptop.  All you need to make this work is a headset with a microphone built-in – conveniently the same as my old blackberry headset…

Once I had arrived at my destination, there was nothing else to do but enjoy the vacation.  I wrote blog posts using Evernote, my favorite online note taking application.  You can write notes, add pictures, and then sync it all up to the cloud for safe keeping.  I will say that the built-in camera of the iPhone does add to the power of having applications like Evernote, as you can upload shots documents like business cards and such (which Evernote can scan for text and process for you).   However, I enjoyed typing away while in the kitchen with my grandparents.  It was convenient and much more subtle than opening a full laptop.

I won’t go into the details of the rest of my trip, but suffice to say, it was with family so the lively conversation sparked a few ideas which I captured with Remember the Milk (on left), probably the best task application out there (which I wrote about here).  I also had to do some grocery shopping, for which I found the lovely app ShopShop (right).

Also, family conversations inevitably end up in small arguments about relatively insignificant facts.  Wolfram-Alpha to the rescue!  This handy (although expensive) app connects to the full Wolfram-Alpha website (which I wrote about here) and allows you to type natural language queries such as NYC vs Milan (8.364 million people vs 1.298 million people) or my age in days (10061 days).  I find the math functions most impressive in this app (integrals and derivatives computed in seconds), but access to swaths of useless information is an agreeable plus!

For those of you who haven’t had a Panettone, your lives are incomplete.  That said, a quintuple bypass is probably not a life goal so perhaps a fitness app would be useful?  I’ll admit that I haven’t actually worked out per se with this sucker, but it looks great!  iFitness allows you to make up your own works outs from a large collection.  My new year resolutions will involve heavy use of this software – I’ll let you know how it turns out…

To close, I include the apps that are only for amusement.  Flixster allows you to update your NetFlix queue while doing heavy movie research complete with trailers and reviews.  You can also buy tickets and find theatres for new releases.  Also, I’ve included a screenshot of the games I’ve tried so far.  I think Collapse might be my kryptonite (perfectly good evenings gone forever trying to beat the floating bat creature who ruins this Tetris like game with gobs of ink).  Physics free is fun too – it’s not nearly as nerdy as it sounds.

Overall, the grand experiment was a success.  I managed to do many tasks on the one device and could have ignored the music function completely.  I recommend an iPod Touch to any traveler who wants a bit of fun on top of music player.  Let me know if you have any suggestions for me to try in the comments!

~ab

Enjoy

~ab

You were right.  It took me nearly a year, I swore up and down that my Flickr account was the bees knees, I wrote articles and explanations of how to use Flickr’s advanced tool set, and I ruined perfectly good cocktail party conversations, berating all services that did not stack up to my personal choice.

A year has gone by and now, like a dope, I have to reverse my position.  Why?  Because Picasa just changed the game, and I can no longer ignore the beautiful integration between Picasa and all my other apps.  Before I start into the details, this isn’t to say that Flickr is a bad service – it’s just no longer for me (yes I’m trying to save face – but let’s not write off Flickr entirely… there are too many devotees).

Without any more ado, here are the top 4 reasons I’ve decided to change over.

1. I can host 80GB of files for $20 a year.

This was the clincher, so in a way, it’s normal that it be my number 1  reason.  Suddenly, Flickr and Picasa are essentially evenly priced.  Before this week, buying the required space for all my photos, and future photos, was simply exorbitantly expensive.  My last defense crumbled, which allowed me to acknowledge the next 3 points…

2. Integration

In Flickr, when I wanted to send a photo to someone, there were three options – 1. I had already done this before and saved the email address. 2. I had to go into my email and find the email address before hitting send back in Flickr.  3.  I could just copy the link and ignore the email functions because my address book wasn’t available.

In Picasa, I just click the share button below and poof – my contacts are available from Gmail.

As you can see from the picture, it even looks like a Gmail message.  This is what makes the integration between these tools so powerful.  You don’t have to learn anything new.

This doesn’t end with email.  There is integration with other Google products too.

For example, you can specify the site of the photo on a Google Map, exactly like you did when you were looking for takeout last night.

If your camera (or cell phone camera) can geotag to your photos (a longitude and latitude value), these will appear in the familiar Google Maps interface, just to the right of you photos.  This makes sorting photos by destination a very pleasant task.

As far as integration goes, using Picasa if you already use Gmail for contacts and email will save you a ton of time.  If you don’t use Gmail, you might not be better off…

3. Ease of use

Gmail caught on because it was easy and fast.   When I started evangelizing, often I heard “but I already have an email program” and “I just don’t get it”.  These same people are nearly all Gmail users now.  I have to believe that the snappy response time for searches and other tasks makes a serious difference.  I won’t rant and rave about how Picasa takes things to a new level – in most ways it doesn’t.  However, it does benefit from the same value created by Gmail and other Google products – a simple interface.

4. All the same features (or at least the ones I use)

Finally, it’s worth emphasizing that this is not a baby version of the other popular photos sites.  There are some serious features involved.  Hardcore photographers will be asking, where are the camera related details for each picture?  Where are the ISO settings?  Where are the exposure details?  Well these are all available (if you hit more info), but are hidden to make the screen less cramped and to provide a better viewing space for your work.

Other fancy pants features exist too:  We’ve mentioned geotagging above.  There is also facial recognition, allowing you to tag your friends photos (using their integrated contact information from your Gmail).  In addition, there are collaborative albums, fans, commenting, full tagging features, video capabilities, email upload, and mobile access…

In conclusion

Yes I was wrong, dear wife, but I’m working to fix it.  This probably won’t be my last change of heart in the technology department.  You do deserve credit for seeing most of this right from day one.  Nice work.  Feel like writing for JAA?

~ab