Backpack
Many of us who colaborate on the web find it difficult to keep ideas and projects organized. 37signals has a suite of productivity applications available but for this post I am concentrating on one: Backpack.
Backpack has a newsroom to keep track of activites going on with your team. You can make customized pages with which you can setup notes, todo lists and more. There is a calendar that can centralize everyone’s activities and also be used to schedule meetings. You can also use it to centralize discussions. I can not tell you how many times that I have said to an associate, “Do you have a log from that messenger conversation that we had?” I find the disscussion feature really handy. You can also set reminders that go to either an email address or text a user’s cell phone. Check out the intro video below for more information. There is a free (limited) account available, and different tiers of accounts available all with free trials.
Graffitio
GPS on mobile devices has potential to bring in a new aspect to social networking. Since the most consumer oriented smartphone now has GPS built in, many apps have been created with location in mind. One of my favorite however (also one of the simplest), is Graffitio. Graffitio is basically a virtual wall wherever you are. You can write a message on a wall for anyone else with Graffitio to find later when they are in that same area. For now this app is on the iPhone. I haven’t heard of any plans to release it to other platforms at this point.
This type of app is sure to pave the way for many GPS based apps. I think there is a lot of things possible combining GPS with the internet. I recommend that you give this app a try if you have the chance.
Yahoo! Pipes for Fun and Profit!
Have you used Yahoo! Pipes?
“Pipes is a powerful composition tool to aggregate, manipulate, and mashup content from around the web,” Yahoo! said stoically.
It sounds complex but Pipes is actually a really user friendly way to combine and filter information from all types of sources on the internet. Pipes gives you instant access to the data and functionality provided by sites like Flickr, Google Base, and Yahoo! Local & Search. You can also easily input your own data or RSS feeds. Once you have your source data, you can then use any number of modifiers to filter, combine, and analyze your data. It is astonishing how easy it is to do some really powerful things. The simple drag and drop interface is simple as can be. After watching a brief tutorial video you will be on your way. Welcome to the club, Pipe Builder…er…Plumber!
Confused? Don’t know where to start? No problem. There are tons of Pipes that have already been built that are just waiting for you to run them. Have a browse, there are some incredible Pipes. One of the best uses I have found so far is using a series of different Pipes for a quick and easy way to monitor what is being said about me and my brands across the internet. I use Pipes to monitor “Shoshul”, “Inkblot Robot”, and “Justin Thiele”. The Pipes create an RSS feed that is updated each time one of these terms is mentioned, for example, on Digg, MySpace, Twitter, or in blogs. This is a perfect way to keep your finger on the pulse of your brand all across the internet just by watching a couple of RSS feeds. Very productive and very timely.
Here are some good Pipes to get you started monitoring Social Media:
And one to help you find great deals:
How are you using Pipes for fun and/or profit?
Big File Sending
Do you ever want to share a file or two with family, friends, or colleagues? There have always been ways to do this. The most popular way that everyone knows about is to use email attachments. And this works well when the file is just a few megabytes, but for larger files other methods are required. For some FTP would be the ideal solution to all your troubles. I have been using it for years. However FTP is not for everyone. Once you know how to use it, it is pretty simple, but not so many do. What we need here is something as simple as sending a URL and the rest is self explanatory. There are many services that do this:
This service allows uploads of up to 100MB for it’s free service, with an option to upgrade to a premium service. The premium service includes 1GB of storage space for up to 1 year for $10. The site places emphasis on privacy. When you create a drop, you don’t need to enter anything! Just upload the file, and optionally place a password. On both the free and the premium versions, there are many ways to interface with your drop including email, voice mail, fax, an embeddable widget, and of course the web URL.
This one works directly with the email address of the recipient and yourself. There is a free service which allows up to 100MB and also tiered premium services. Premium service will cost quite a bit more than Drop.io, starting from a $9.99 per month account which offers 2GB maximum transfer with a 40GB cap on download bandwidth. Depending on the account you want though, you can spend up to $2999.99 per year, which allows 25 users, Unlimited bandwidth, and 60GB storage space.
The free account with DropSend offers 250MB of online storage, but limits the number of sends per month to 5. The premium accounts here are also tiered and offer no more than 1GB maximum file size, but up to 500GB storage space. The gist of this pricing schedule is that more dollars equals both more sends and more storage capacity. Those dollars amounts range from $5 to $99 monthly. DropSend does offer a desktop component for both PCs and Macs that allows you to upload without visiting the site.
