Category Archives: productivity

Who Wants a Stylus?

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Even before the iPad existed, Steve Job expressed loathing for the stylus.

The whole point was to have a simple device that required no accessories to fiddle with or to lose (take that Palm!) Since then, the iPad and other tablets have also proliferated, and they arguably could benefit even more from accessories than hand held devices might. There are also situations and creative use cases for mobile devices that Jobs might not have thought of back in 2007. Anyone who needs to be mobile but also writes long pieces or sketches and diagrams a lot could undoubtedly boost their comfort and productivity with an accessory or two. Continue reading →

Keeping Up in Your Field with BrowZine

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Have an iPad? Help us evaluate a new research tool that is being considered for possible subscription. The libraries of the University of California are running a trial of a new app called BrowZine. It allows you to browse and monitor many academic journals right from your iPad. To facilitate research, articles discovered through BrowZine can easily be sent to Zotero, Dropbox, iAnnotate or several other services to integrate with your existing workflow. Continue reading →

A Review of Gmail for iOS

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Are you a hardcore Gmail user? The kind with multiple Gmail accounts, who compulsively archives, stars, and labels, and who relies on priority inbox and search to find your important messages? If you use an Android device, then you’re probably content. But if you’re a power Gmail user with an iPhone or iPad, then you might consider switching from Apple’s built-in Mail app to the Gmail app for iOS.

Overview of Gmail 2.0 for iOS

Gmail for iOS features Continue reading →

Silence Is Golden: “Do Not Disturb” for Android

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Do Not Disturb feature for iPhone

Do Not Disturb for iPhone

With the release of iOS 6, Apple announced the Do Not Disturb feature, which silences all notifications whenever you have it turned on. You can set it up so certain contacts can still get through — for example, people in your Favorites group. It also has a “Repeated Calls” option, so if someone calls you repeatedly, like in an emergency, the call will ring through. You can also set up Do Not Disturb to automatically turn on according to a regular schedule. See Lifehacker’s summary for more details.

Even before the iOS 6 launch, I had been looking for a whitelist app for my Android phone. I really wanted a way to silence my phone except for calls and texts from certain contacts. For this post, I set out to find an equivalent to Do Not Disturb for my older Android. Newer Android phones may have a built in Blocking mode.

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Exchanging my iPad for Paper

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After about a year of owning my beloved iPad, I was making pretty good use of it as a portable device that I can carry around with me at my wi-fi saturated workplace, and have continual access to email, wikis, websites and more. It has been a great photo album for visits to family and a nice way to keep up on magazine subscriptions.

I found myself increasingly using Evernote on my iPad to take notes at the many meetings I was attending. For long meetings, I was even bringing my portable keyboard along, so that I could really type away. It was extremely helpful to be able to access the synched notes from my desktop, my home computer and iPad. At meetings, I loved being able to pull up notes on topics related to my meeting, even if it was from a different project or activity. I could email meeting notes to my boss and look super efficient, which I was!

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