Genuine Curiosity

Author Dwayne Melancon is always on the lookout for new things to learn. An ecclectic collection of postings on personal productivity, travel, good books, gadgets, leadership & management, and many other things.

 

Cool news roundup

I've been a bit busy lately but, in cleaning up my inbox I found several very cool news updates that I want to share with you:


SameCell is now at Version 2.0!


I've written about SameCell in the past (here and here) and still think it is a very cool app for the Blackberry. It is even cooler with their version 2 (full list of new features on the SameCell web site).


Beyond some nice interface improvements I think my favorite new feature is their new Events feature (example at right), that lets you create new events (and even new event categories) and broadcast them to other SameCell users nearby. You'll notice an intriguing "Speed Trap" event, for example. You can also customize how you broadcast any event to others - including whether you share your contact info, your location, etc.


They've also added some tagging and rating features to you can tag favorite locations, rate restaurants, and things like that. Very nice additions to an already powerful application.


And it's still free. Find out more or sign up at the SameCell site if you're interested. I've already dropped my hints there that I'd love to see an iPhone version, by the way.


Free photo calendar creation tool available



Thanks to Kathy for telling me about a free online tool to create calendar pages with the photo of your choice. You can print any month's calendar with an image you upload on the page size you select. In a few seconds, you have a PDF of that month's calendar that you can print or share. Perfect for hanging at work or around the house.


My kids will have fun with this one! If you want a sample, click here to download an August 2008 calendar page I made. It features the picture I used to create the current Genuine Curiosity banner background (it's one I snapped of a museum in Cannes, by the way).


You'll note there is not advertising or anything else on the calendar - just your stuff. Pretty cool.


Corporate Change Manifesto at ChangeThis!



My friend Mike Kanazawa (author of Big Ideas To Big Results) has published a paper at ChangeThis called, "People Don't Hate Change, They Hate How You're Trying to Change Them." I worked with Mike and a team of others on a corporate transformation at Symantec Corp. back in the 90's and really admire his perspective. This manifesto is no exception. My favorite section is "Do More On Less" - which is a great treatment of the power of focus in a corporate context.



Download Mike's manifesto today - it's great reading. And watch for my review of Mike's book coming soon.