Evernote

Do you have trouble remembering the passwords to those websites you rarely visit?

Did you want to keep those pdf instruction manuals in a place where you can always get them?

What about a recipe you’d like to try later?

Would you like to access this information from your work PC, your home MAC, your iPhone, PalmPre, Android, or Blackberry?

And here’s the coolest thing – would you like to search text from anything you entered even a photo, pdf, or web page?

If you are overloaded with information and looking for a place to put it that’s searchable, then you should try Evernote.  I happened across this site October 2008 but didn’t realize it’s usefulness until about a year ago.

Evernote is available for free, has a nice feature set, and the ads that financially support the site are not obnoxious.

-Searchable text:  I am not an especially organized person, so being able to upload just about anything and instantly recall it with a simple text search is huge!  Even with the free version you can search text inside images.  Using a smartphone with a good camera, you can take a picture of a business card, upload it to Evernote, and the text on the card is searchable!  My wife clips recipes out of magazines and hands them to me.  I scan them and put them on Evernote.   Then, I can find every recipe that has “salmon” in an instant.  (As a byproduct, I’ll also find anyone’s business card or a photo of us standing in front of a restaurant that has the word “salmon”).

-Premium version:

• For $45/year, Evernote will allow you to upload and more file types including Microsoft Office documents and video.  The premium version also searches text in pdf documents – a big help when I’m trying to check a feature from an uploaded manual.  Many equipment manuals are available as pdf’s these days, so when I have a question about my Canon Vixia HF S100, or my htc Evo phone I go to Evernote.  I can type a search string such as “HDMI” and learn how to connect my camera or phone to my widescreen TV.
• Collaboration:  the premium version also allows users to allow others to edit notes.
• More upload capacity:  premium users have 500MB/month in uploads versus 40MB for free.  I was fine with the free version until I started my Evernote collection of recipes.

As a somewhat forgetful and disorganized person when it comes to random scraps of paper and/or thoughts, (just ask my wife and co-workers), Evernote helps make me into the smart person I aspire to be.  And having all the information searchable from any computer on the web, or using their application on my laptop and phone is huge!

Do you use Evernote or other sites like it?  We’d love to hear your tips, tricks, and opinions.  Please comment below or email me at chiefgeek@gadgetreviewworld.com.

iPad and Velcro

Let me first disclose that I’m violating my own editorial guidlines (product must be used by the writer), but hey – I think this idea is too good not to share!  It shows many creative uses for the iPad when you put Velcro on the back.  iPad vs. Velcro

Pen Tablet to the rescue!

If you’re starting to get that tingly feeling in your wrists it’s a warning. You could be showing symptoms of carpel-tunnel syndrome. Perhaps a Pen Tablet could help.

Hey I’m not a doctor, but if you prefer to treat the cause of the problem, or better yet prevent carpel-tunnel altogether read my earlier post about my own experience.

The pen tablet has been a key factor in eliminating discomfort in my wrists. Try this simple exercise to understand how poor ergonomics using a typical mouse can cause problems for some people:
1.) Sitting down at your computer in an armless chair, put your hand at your side. Make sure it’s relaxed.
2.) Lift your arm from the elbow, and rest it on the table. Notice that your hand is resting on the “pinky” side of your hand, with the thumb on top.
3.) Now, grasp the mouse as you would work with it. Notice how your wrist twists and possibly bends? A pen tablet can help eliminate the twisting and bending in your wrists and perhaps reduce injury.

I have two pen tablets that I have purchased. One is in my home study, the other is with my computer at work. Both are made by Wacom and are Graphire models that are discontinued. They were priced at roughly $100, and easily hooked up to a MAC or Windows machine.

Outside of the possible health benefits, there are many useful operational and creative advantages.
1.) Multiple pointing modes: Mouse, pen, multi-touch finger
2.) You can customize the way the pen, mouse, or even your finger are used with individual programs. That feature can be a major productivity boost when you switch from Microsoft Word to Adobe Photoshop. The included software keeps track of which tool and the software you are using.
3.) You can write or markup documents as though you were writing on paper.
4.) A pressure sensitive pen makes the process of retouching photos or drawing more intuitive. Basically the more pressure you use, the wider the stroke.

Which one should you buy? There are many tablets out there, starting at $70 and going into the thousands. My personal suggestion is to check out the Wacom product line, and compare with others you find.

Do you have experience with a pen tablet and have recommendations? We’d love to hear from you! Please leave a comment.

Remember, technology is your friend!
-John (aka Founding Geek)

iFixit.com

iFixit.com is a great site for the person who is not too afraid to open their computer, ipod, or other gadget and fix it. This is an Apple centric site primarily to fix your ailing Apple computer, iPhone, and iPod. You can also witness first time tear downs of the latest products. In fact, only a couple days after they released the new generation Nano, they had a tear-down for it.

Having said that, you should always have a healthy respect opening a complex gadget. Also, you should never be pressured by time. So, if you have a fair degree of mechanical aptitude you could save yourself a ton of money and have some fun to boot!

iFixit.com sells the tools and parts and provides free instructions. Considering tools, what’s the difference between a $2 and a $20 dollar 00 Phillips head? Plenty! Buy high quality tools. Cheap ones fail (especially Phillips head drivers). A cheap Phillips head won’t survive the first tough screw it encounters.

I have repaired two PowerBook G4’s. I replaced the hard drive on mine with a larger one. On a friend’s Apple PowerBook 15″, I replaced the DC sound card. This card is in the bottom of the computer so I had to take most everything out of the case to get to the card. i also had to disconnect every wire attached to the logic board.

Tip: use an eggcrate or iFixit’s useful screw map to keep straight which screws belong with which step.

Challenges:
With both laptops, I managed to strip a screw. In both cases, the screw was not critical to fastening a part and there were other redundant screws to carry the burden. A small screw extractor can extract the screw.

To recap:
1.) Have plenty of time and be patient. I could fix my problems because I could approach them fresh and with different tools (like the screw extractor) the next day.

2.) Buy good tools. What’s an extra $20 when your saving $50/hour for labor?

3.) Have fun. It’s amazing what you’ll find in there. How many can say they fixed their laptop, iPhone, iPod themselves?

I wish I had a site like this when I was a child taking apart retractable ball-point pens…

-Remember, technology is your friend!
John (aka Founding Geek)