A few useful tools

It's been a while since I highlighted some tools here, so how about it?

Mp3cutter (any platform) - free

The iPhone is a bit of a pain when it comes to creating free ringtones from songs you already own (seems they want you to pay, and pay, and pay...) but if you're using just about any other smartphone, you can use any .mp3 file for a ringtone. The challenge is getting just the right portion of the .mp3 file so that it sounds as awesome as you want it to be.   

The answer? the online tool "mp3cutter"  which provides a web interface to clip your .mp3's down to just that part you want to hear when someone special calls. It's pretty straight forward, and very much free. One note: it seemed temperamental when using it with Safari, but seems to work fine with Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Go through the editing and cutting process, save it to your local computer, copy it to your phone, and you're in business.

Fresh (Mac) - free to try, $9 to buy (and worth every penny)

Fresh is a cool app. It sits unobtrusively at the edge of your Mac OS X desktop as a gray tab. It's job is to hang on to recently accessed files for you, as well as things you'd like to have available for immediate access.

When you click on the tab, Fresh extends out into the desktop (screenshot below) and has two main panels

"Fresh Files" (the top one) - this is a list of the most recently opened or accessed files. It's very handy when you realize you just closed something you weren't finished with. You can not only open the files, you can right click on them and take other actions. Pretty handy. And if there is a type of file you never want to see there (like temp files or your iTunes database), you right click and tell it to stop showing you that file (or that type of file). Pretty slick.

"The Cooler" (the bottom one) - this is a list of files you've selected. You drag files, folders, etc. there and it hangs on to them so you can get to them quickly. You can drag them from Finder, the Desktop, or even from the Fresh Files pane and they stay there til you remove them. This is handy for keeping things that you want to get to in a couple of clicks - such as your "stock" presentations, files or folders related to your current projects, etc.

This was the surprise hit of the spring for me and has saved me more time than I'd have imagined.

Fences (Windows) - free basic version, Pro version for $9.99

On my Windows system, I've developed a nasty habit of putting things I want to get to quickly on my desktop. That means a messy Windows desktop. When I discovered Fences, I loved it immediately. I actually have Fences Pro, and I think it's worth the $10 - at least for me.

What does Fences do? It helps you organize the icons and shortcuts on your desktop. You create "Fences" which are little corrals that icons live in. You can show or hide each Fence, which allows you to hide icons you don't care about at one moment, but bring them back instantaneously when you need them again.

My favorite feature is the "Quick Hide" capability. By double-clicking on a clear area of the desktop, you automatically hide all the icons on your desktop so you can instantly clean up before a presentation, a demo, or when you just want to focus.

What's that you say? There are a few icons you don't want to hide? Easy. Just right-click the icon when it's visible, click "Exclude from auto-hide" and that icon will stick around when you hide everything else. It may not sound like much, but try this for a day and you'll be hooked.

The Pro feature has an additional function I really like - you can set a default Fence for new icons. For example, I created a fence for documents that automatically "collects" any .doc, .docx, .pdf, and .xps file that I save to my desktop. Snazzy.

Gadgets, Personal Productivity

AT&T Data Plans, Your iPhone, & International Travel

[Updated April 12, 2010]

If, like me, you’re a smart phone user and you travel outside the country, you’ll need to figure out how to deal with your AT&T data plan lest you find yourself with a ridiculously high mobile phone bill.

My best-known methods

Here are my current best practices (told through the lens of an iPhone user – if you use a different smart phone, you can make these changes by accessing your account through the AT&T Wireless web site):

• Install the free AT&T myWireless iPhone app on your phone. This will let you change your account settings on demand, right from your phone.
• The day you leave (preferrably, while still in the US), use the app to add an international data plan to your phone (see screen shot). You’ll notice I also turn on the “World Traveler” feature, which gets me discounted rates for calls while I’m traveling abroad. These changes will go into effect the day you make the change, and will be pro-rated on your bill based on the start and end dates for each feature.
• [Update April 12, 2010: AT&T is unpredictable about how quickly you get the benefit of your data plan, as I found out when I got an unexpectedly high bill after a recent trip. They can fix it up afterward if you rant enough, but it is easier to call them right after you add the feature and let them know you need the all of the extra data *right now* and not over time. They can do that - don't take no for an answer.]
• Be careful while traveling abroad, as wireless data usage can mount quickly. Some data hogs:
• • Synchronizing your email, especially if you receive a lot of email
  • Uploading pictures (whether to Twitter, sending via email, or otherwise sending them to anyone else)
  • Using your phone for Skype calls over the 3G data network (using it over Wi-Fi is fine)
  • Downloading large apps or songs over the 3G data network (again, not a problem on Wi-Fi)
  • Using Google Maps a lot (it is very “chatty” and downloads lots of map data, etc.)
  • Listening or watching streaming media (YouTube, internet radio, etc.)
• Use Wi-Fi (especially free hotspots) where you can, as this will allow you to handle large amounts of data in an unmetered way.
• When you return to the US, wait a day (just to be safe) then use the AT&T myWireless app to turn off the international data plan. Again, you’ll pay a pro-rated fee based on the start & end dates for which the plan was in effect.

What if you forget?

AT&T has gotten better at helping users understand this, it seems. I landed in Amsterdam this week and, upon turning on my phone and joining the mobile network, I received the following text message:

I was tired, so I ignored this message. After a nap, I wandered around Amsterdam, looking up things on Google maps and Bing (yes, there’s an app for Bing), etc. That evening I got second text message from AT&T:

Act Now!

When you get the “data usage is very high” message, it means you’ve gone over 20Mb of cellular data which, if you do the math, will cost you nearly $400! If you see this message, call the number immediately and ask them to add the International Data Plan to your phone right away! If it’s before midnight in the US, the data plan will apply to all your usage earlier in the day, back to the previous midnight – this can help drastically reduce your charges (I happened to have only about $5 of data that wasn’t covered when I called them).

I’m documenting this here in the hopes I can make someone else’s international travel a bit less stressful. Happy landings!

Gadgets

Use your iPhone headset on your MacBook

I'm becoming familiar with my new MacBook Pro, which I've had for about 6 weeks. Today I was listening to the No Agenda podcast on my iPhone and was wondering if my iPhone earbuds would work with my MacBook. I knew I could use them to listen to music, but today I found myself wondering if the volume control and "clicker button" would work with iTunes on my computer.

The good news is in: Yes, you can use your iPod / iPhone earbuds with your MacBook Pro, and the controls work just like they do on the iPhone - one click to play / pause, 2 clicks to skip forward, 3 clicks to skip backward, and full use of the volume controls if your earbuds have one. That is very cool.

This has the added advantage of allowing me to use my iPhone earbuds for Skype calls while traveling, to record voice notes, and things like that.

In a quick poll of my Mac-using friends, none of them realized you could do this, so I figured others might find this useful.

Do you have a MacBook but your earbuds don't have a volume control? Click the image on the left, and order a pair.

Gadgets

The Backchannel – a video book review

I’ve been procrastinating long enough.  I’ve been deliberating about whether to start using video on this blog and decided to go ahead and give it a shot.  I’m starting off with a review of Cliff Atkinson’s latest book, “The Backchannel:  How Audiences Are Using Twitter and Social Media And Changing Presentations Forever,” so please let me know what you think.

Here are the links I mentioned in the video:

• Order “The Backchannel”
• Order “Beyond Bullet Points”
• Read my review of “Beyond Bullet Points”

Also, please leave a comment and let me know what you think of this format for book reviews and blog entries.

(By the way – thanks to Matt Hixson for the nudge in finally doing this)

Kindle goes horizontal

I just finished installing Amazon's latest update on my Kindle 2.  This update adds a number of enhancements:

Support for landscape-mode reading.

• This capability was already included on the larger Kindle DX, and now works on Kindle 2 devices.  There is no sensor in the device, so you change the orientation of the screen manually from a new option in the text menu (at right).

Native support for PDF files. 

• You can get them on your device in 2 ways:
• Email them to a special address that sends them to the Kindle for 15 cents per megabyte.
• Connect the Kindle to your computer via the USB cable and drag your PDF files over to the Kindle - this is free.

Longer battery life on the global wireless version.

• This will allow you to read for up to a week - even with the wireless on.  Apparently, this doesn't improve wireless battery life on the US-only version since the US version uses a different wireless technology.

The option to convert your PDF's to the Kindle format

• Converting your documents to the native Kindle format can sometimes make them more readable as this will allow them to be reformatted based on your selected font size (this requires you to use the email-based conversion process, which costs 15 cents per megabyte).

How do you get the Kindle update?

You'll receive the update automatically over wireless in the next few weeks. If, like me, you are impatient, Amazon has provided instructions for updating your Kindle to the new firmware manually.  It's a piece of cake - I installed mine in less than 10 minutes and it worked flawlessly.

If you're thinking about a Kindle, let me just tell you this:  I have had mine since the Kindle 2 was released early this year and I haven't gotten tired of it yet.  In fact, I'm growing even fonder of my Kindle since I can carry so many books with me with so little effort (and yes, I've used the iPhone Kindle app - it doesn't hold a candle to the Kindle).

Whether you want to pick one up for yourself or as a gift, I recommend you become a Kindle owner and pick one up, especially since they lowered the price recently.  If you're still on the fence, you can read my initial review of the Kindle 2 for more data.