The Pocquettes line of cases was clearly designed with the on-the-go fashionista in mind. The pebbled, full-grain leather cases rock the season’s latest ‘in’ colors (currently black, red and plum) for full color-coordination with your entire outfit.

These cases don’t just rely on looks, though; they’re as useful as they are stylish. Two gusseted, double-zip, suede-lined pockets comprise the case so there’s plenty of room for the device as well as accessories like cords and flash cards. A cleaning cloth and a Pocquettes earbud holder are included with each case.

Speaking of the Pocquettes earbud holders, they’ve traditionally been bone-shaped for easy winding of earbud cords, however, Levenger has introduced Pooch and Kitten Pocquettes.

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This is why their new 4G ads bug me. It’s not the fact that they are taking liberties with the definition of 4G (technically HSPA+ is not 4G/LTE.) It’s the rather spurious claims they’re making about the superiority of their data network overall.

Until recently, I had no reason to doubt their claims. However, a recent trip to New Orleans for the holidays proved to be an exercise in frustration and futility. With the exception of major cities (Houston, Lake Charles, Lafayette, Baton Rouge, New Orleans), the maximum download speed I was able to reach on my MyTouch 4G was about 13kbps. Meanwhile, my husband’s iPhone 3Gs was getting speeds in the neighborhood of 2015 kbps. (We were a bit closer on upload speeds; 10k for me, 14k for him.)

Upon reaching home, I did a little research and compared the two carrier’s coverage maps. AT&T’s map shows consistent 3G data coverage running the length and breadth of most of this nation’s highways, including the stretch of I-10 between Houston and New Orleans. T-mobile’s map shows small pockets of 4G speeds along the same route, but the Mobile Web (EDGE/GPRS) speeds are what’s primarily offered. Now I have no idea what top EDGE/GPRS speeds are supposed to be, but as I said, I never got above 13K in those areas.

I find it rather annoying that T-mobile is now focused on adding 4G to their lineup when they don’t even have the basics built out. I would much rather stop and ask for information in a busy city than along a deserted stretch of highway. AT&T apparently understands that one has to walk before they run; I have a lot more faith in their long-term plan at this point.

GooseGrade’s premise is brilliant: use web-based services to allow readers to copyedit online content. Unfortunately, the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

For example, in both Internet Explorer (7.x) and Firefox (3.x), the fields that contain the text to be corrected and the corrected text orient themselves vertically, not horizontally, which makes corrections very difficult as the fields are only a few characters wide. Also, having to enter one’s credentials each time one makes a correction is completely aggravating. Finally, it would be nice to be able to view and edit one’s corrections. (I made a correction to an article only to change my mind as I read further, but there is no way to communicate to the author that the corrected text should be left ‘as is.’)

I am interested to hear what other editors have to say about this tool. I love the idea and hope that the developers will continue their work, however, until GooseGrade makes their tool easier to use, I anticipate that users will be reluctant to use it with any regularity.

Update: GooseGrade gets an A+ for effort. Within hours of my post, I received an email letting me know that the size of the textboxes had been corrected. Although the interface is still a bit buggy, once I figured out to use the back arrow instead of closing the window each time, it became much less cumbersome to use. Also, I’ve been assured that they’re working on storing a cookie so even if one does close out the window, the app will recognize you for subsequent corrections.

A couple of things I think would make this really useful. First, if there was a way to communicate to the author why the edits are being suggested. This could be as easily accomplished by adding a notes field. Second, a way to view all of one’s suggested edits and the ability to change or delete them.

In any case, the text boxes being fixed go a long way to making GooseGrade more useful. I look forward to seeing how it develops.

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I found Sxipper too much of a departure from Roboform’s unobtrusive form-filling to be a good fit for me. Especially annoying was the way the entire page dimmed when a Sxipper form-filler pop-up appeared. I also found it to be too difficult and time-consuming to train the majority of the forms that didn’t work with Sxipper (about half of all forms I encountered.) I register for a lot of sites and generally speaking, I only register once per site, so training a site-specific form is an exercise in futility. I find Robo-Form to be more effective for my needs in this area – just fill it out and be done with it.

I think that Sxipper is a beautifully designed product with a couple of neat features – the idea of training a form for the benefit of others who will use the form is nice – and I look forward to seeing the product when it is mature. For now, though, my heavy-duty form-filling requirements are best met by RoboForm.

After registering you’ll be offered the chance to start building your hurricane plan. The site suggests that building your plan will take about 20 minutes, but you should allow longer if your important documents are not already organized in a central location. Alternatively, you can opt to add additional information at a later time. The screens are ordered logically, and while comprehensive, the process goes very quickly since most input is done with check boxes as opposed to actually typing.
Having the following information handy will make the process go even faster: emergency contact numbers of friends and family, family neighborhood meeting place and out-of-town meeting place, pet immunization records, prescription information, and healthcare provider information.

The final section of the wizard lets you print out lists of supplies that are still needed, supplies on hand, human and pet health information, and contact information. You are also invited to share your contact, pet and health status with local emergency officials. I opted to just share my contact information.

This is a great site and I’d love to have been able to write a more comprehensive review, but my printouts indicate that I need to stock up, so I’m off to Sam’s Club. Stay safe, all.

The interface is slick and very easy to use. Choosing cities is accomplished by checking boxes on a pop-up; Select All and Restore defaults are provided options but they could really benefit from a Deselect All choice here as well.

Search is straight-forward. Choose a CraigsList category and/or use keywords, just as you’d do on CraigsList. One of the things I really like about the search is that it displays a list of the cities you’re searching – very handy, that, if you’re searching multiple cities. Each search result is appended with the city it’s located in, another handy feature.

It’s Craig’s Little Buddy’s handling of images, or rather their lack of handling, that keeps this from being a truly killer app. It would be nice if they’d include the ability to search only ads with images. It doesn’t seem like it would be that hard for them to integrate as Craig’s List already provides this functionality. Also, there are very few preview pictures, and what preview pics there are seem to be for dealer ads. I do like how they’ve handled the display of the preview pics, however – integrated right into the search result. Another nice feature to have would be to display the full-size image on rollover, much like the Firefox extension CraigsList Image Previewer. (In CLB’s defense, it is most likely CraigsList’s stingy nature that have prevented them from displaying preview photos.)

For the moment, I’ll stick with my combination of CraigsList and the FF CraigsList Image Previewer extension, however, if I was just using CraigsList, I’d switch over to this option in a heartbeat. If they’re ever able to more fully integrate images into the search results, this will be a hard site to beat.

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I tell the folks at work that I only have a job to escape the zoo at home, but the truth is I like to get paid, too. (Okay, the donuts on Friday are a draw, too.) Since I’m a contractor, that means I have to keep track of my hours – and I haven’t been so good about that in the past. Filling out timesheets has always been an ordeal for me as I wrack my brain trying to remember what hours I worked on which days. Since I’ve discovered TickSpot, and more importantly, the TickSpot Yahoo! widget, keeping track of time is much easier.

Now, I’m going to make a confession here – I’m not using TickSpot to its full potential. I am pretty much a one-gig woman. I have but a single client, and although my tasks vary from time to time, most of my billing falls under one category. I’m also limited to 40 hours a week. (I have to write this blog some time!) TickSpot more than adequately meets my needs. Where it really shines, though, is its ability to help teams keep track of time they’ve budgeted for projects. The TickSpot team uses the analogy that time is inventory for service providers; when team members can see how much inventory is left (time budgeted for projects) it enables them to schedule resources much more accurately. Ahead of budget? Throw a couple of extra programmers at the project. Behind? Maybe you should give up on that super-cool extra feature you wanted to throw in and just get back to the basics.

The site itself is incredibly easy to use and the site design is beautiful in its simplicity. The widget, too, is beautifully designed and simple to use. Simply turn the timer on when you start working; when you’re ready to enter your time, click the Enter Time button and choose the Client, Project, Task and enter any notes. (The time is adjustable too. I find that especially handy since I always forget to turn on the timer until about 20 minutes into my task.) Click Enter Time again and voila! The time is submitted to the site. Timesheets can be printed at any time. In addition, reporting features are offered, as well as the ability to export data to CSV.

TickSpot has four flavors of paid plans but ifIf you only have one project (like me) and don’t need SSL, technical support, or Basecamp integration, then the TickSpot free plan will be fine for you. Basecamp integration and tech support (plus up to 3 projects) starts at just $9 a month; SSL is added in the 35 projects, $39 a month plan.

This site is definitely a must-see and I’d love to tell you more about it, however, I’m running late for work, and you know, time is money!

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Lately I’ve been trying to simplify my life, and where I can’t simplify, then automate. My most recent adventure in home automation was to purchase an automatic litter box. Although ultimately I decided on the ScoopFree system with a permanent replacement tray from Forever Litter Trays,it required a lot of research. There were a lot of visits to Amazon.com and LitterBoxCentral.com. (Yes, it’s a real site. No, I couldn’t make this stuff up if I wanted to.)

In the early days of my job, I could have done my research at work – I had plenty of downtime. But now that we’re so busy, I had to (gasp!) rely on my personal time. (And this is why I’m trying to simplify – because I have no personal time. See how we made a full circle there?) Apparently, though, there are people out there that are not as slammed at work. According to a recent Salary.com poll, about sixty percent of respondents admitted to wasting an average of two hours a day on the Internet. That adds up to a lot of cat litter!

If you’re one of those people (and you know who you are) you probably want to be productive at work but it’s just so easy to lose track of time once you start surfing! The good people at 8aWeek have developed a Firefox toolbar that will help you reclaim your lost time. The toolbar works by presenting your browsing habits in graphs so that you can analyze where you’re spending the most time (see pic at left). If you find that LitterBoxCentral is taking up a good chunk of the day, you can add it to a restricted site list. Let the toolbar know the maxium allowable time you can spend at restricted sites per day and it will count down the time for you. When time’s up, you get reminded.

If something a bit more hard-core is needed, switch to block mode. (It’s okay – you get periodic cheat times thoughout the day so that you don’t have to go cold-turkey. Cheat times can be set up in the preferences.)

The toolbar also lets users save interesting sites to a list that you can be visited at a later time (presumably when the user is not at work.)

Although 8aWeek features privacy functions (logging can be done locally, on the 8aWeek server for additional functionality, or completely turned off.), I am curious as to what is done with the data that is collected – since they offer the toolbar for free, they have to be doing something to make money, right? Their privacy policy takes great pains to point out that logging can be disabled at any time and that user information won’t be disclosed without “express permission” but a little farther down in the “Information Usage” section it says:

“8aweek may use information collected through our website or toolbar for research regarding the effectiveness of the website and the marketing, advertising and sales efforts of 8aweek and its trusted affiliates.”

Hmmm… In any case, if you’re okay with your data possibly being shared, this is probably the thing for you. Personally, I’m hoping that the time I save by not having to clean the litter box can be spent online – at home.

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I am so, so glad to be back after a long absence. So many cool sites and new technologies have launched since I took what I thought would be a brief hiatus to find a house. After viewing more than 200 houses over a period of nine months, I am greatly relieved that we are finally moved in. We’re still living out of boxes, but we have Internet and our laptops are unpacked; what more do you need?

Since my last post over a year ago, I’ve discovered some great sites, software, and tech toys; today I’m going to post about some of my favorite, and most frequently used, discoveries. First up is the new IM client, Digsby. Digsby acts as my all-in-one communication hub. Not only does it combine all of my buddy lists from AIM, Google, MSN, Yahoo!, ICQ, and Jabber, it updates me when I receive new email, and when my MySpace and Facebook accounts are updated.

IM conversations are tabbed for easier navigation (I HATE having twenty little boxes all over the screen) and logging can be enabled for those of us that need to refer back to conversations. (I use IM heavily at work and this beats taking notes. ) One of my favorite features (it’s the little things that count, y’all) is that buddies can be renamed with an alias. So if you have a friend whose entire internet pedigree is displayed, i.e. i.am.a.friend.who.needs.to.get.a.shorter.email@msn.com, you can rename it to something shorter, like “Friend.”

The feature I use the most, though – besides the IM of course, are the email notifications. In preferences, I chose to have an icon displayed in the system tray that lets me know how many new emails I have. (You can choose notifications for your Facebook and MySpace accounts, too.) Clicking the icon pops up a list of emails with choices to Mark as Read, Delete, Open, Archive, or Report as Spam. Incredibly easy and convenient! Digsby also displays update in unobtrusive pop-ups at the bottom of the screen. Bye-bye Gmail notifier!

Digsby is still in private beta and is still a bit rough around the edges, but this is an app to watch. The developers are uber-responsive to requests in their online forums; since I joined Digsby two days ago there have been three updates. (Updates are done automatically – everything about this app is easy.) Hopefully they’ll respond to my reqeust for Lotus Sametime support, and then this will be the perfect app. Digsby’s so good though, that I’ve kicked Trillian and Pidgin to the curb and just run Sametime seperately.

Other thoughts:

• Amazon’s Kindle: Are you serious? It has a monochrome display, DRM out the wazoo, and it’s $399! Use your cell phone and sites like EReader.com and Fictionwise.com for an experience that’s just as satisfying and much cheaper.
• Yahoo! Widgets: I have recently discovered Yahoo! Widgets and I can’t stop playing with them. They add so much usefulness to my desktop. So far, I’ve installed the SoftCode Analog Clock, TV Navigator, CallWave Visual Voicemail and Text Messaging, Yahoo! Maps, Daily Planner Calendar, Flickr, Generic Countdown Timer, Google Calendar, Informer, MicroPlayer, Mind Like a Sieve (a Remember the Milk plugin), Vonageer (interfaces with my Vonage account and makes call logs and voicemail easily accessible), a Twitter client, a thesaurus/dictionary, Zonal Clock (world time), and of course, Yahoo! Weather. Somebody stop me, please!
• Yahoo! Go 2.0 – Yahoo! has a winner here. This is simply the best all-in-one mobile app out there. It’s fast and responsive – unlike Microsoft’s offerings (I had to uninstall MSN Direct from my T-mobile Shadow because it kept hanging), the maps are far more accurate and easier to understand than Google’s, and the interface is slick and just plain pretty!
  Plus, I really love that it syncs with my online Yahoo! account so that my preferences are automatically added to my mobile app.
  • Note: Yahoo! Go 3.0 is out for Blackberry, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson phones and supports mobile widgets!

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I have been spending a lot of time on del.icio.us, looking at sites that have been tagged with GPS, Googlemaps, and maps. While perusing the Googlemaps tag, I came across a site that is sure to appeal to anyone interested in history, religion, or religious history (like me.) Created by the folks over at HeLives.com, BibleMap.org is remarkable in its simplicity. A Google map of Middle East region is overlaid by an unobtrusive pane that contains selected books and chapters from either the King James or English Standard versions of the Bible. Clicking on the hyperlinked place names presents the selected area. Being able to visualize the setting in which these ancient events took place makes them, I find, more tangible.

Another site that may be of interest to religious history buffs is the article Mapping New Testament Networks over at the ESV Bible site. The ubergeeks over at ESV compiled data sets of the many figures in the New Testament and mapped their relationships visually using IBM’s data visualization tool Many Eyes. There’s also a link in the article to a (free) ontology of New Testament names that’s worth checking out.

Well, I’m not sure how this post got sidetracked on to religious reference (it was supposed to be about maps) but since we’re here, be sure to check out EBible.com, a competitor to BibleGateway.com that arms the intrepid researcher with an aggregated search of not just Bibles, but biblical commentaries, dictionaries, and encyclopedias. Finally, there’s also BiblePlaces.com, a pictorial library of Bible lands.

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