A few new software sites I'm playing with...
Category Everything Else
Over the last week in between other things I was doing (or should have been doing), I incorporated a couple new websites into my regular computing routine.
The first is my new primary RSS reader, Google Reader. I've been using SharpReader for some time, and generally it's worked out well. But it seemed like I was doing a lot of clicking to mark things as read, and I had to click through on more stories than I generally wanted. A couple of friends had posts on RSS readers, and I decided to try out an on-line version. This solves a big problem for me when I go mobile, as I run my feed reader on my desktop machine. After exporting my feeds and importing them to Google Reader, I quickly became hooked. Response time is great, and the interface is very clean. If I want to keep a post around, I can star it. And my favorite feature... You can display the posts in expanded mode, and automatically have them marked as read as you scroll by them. That's a big convenience for how I tend to work with readers. I've shut down SharpReader, and I don't miss a thing. Google Reader is worth a look if you're searching for an on-line site for gathering your RSS feeds.
The other site I'm getting hooked on is Jott.com. This free beta service allows you to dial a toll-free number and dictate a message, or "jott". This message is then automagically transcribed into an email and sent to the recipient. You are allowed to set up an address book of recipients, and the service will do voice recognition to determine where it goes. So if I'm in a bookstore and find a title that looks interesting, I can call Jott, say "me", and then give the title of the book. When I get home, the email message will be waiting for me. The transcription might not be perfect, but it will be enough to remember what I was thinking or seeing at the time. This may be one of those services that I pay for when it comes out of beta...
Over the last week in between other things I was doing (or should have been doing), I incorporated a couple new websites into my regular computing routine.
The first is my new primary RSS reader, Google Reader. I've been using SharpReader for some time, and generally it's worked out well. But it seemed like I was doing a lot of clicking to mark things as read, and I had to click through on more stories than I generally wanted. A couple of friends had posts on RSS readers, and I decided to try out an on-line version. This solves a big problem for me when I go mobile, as I run my feed reader on my desktop machine. After exporting my feeds and importing them to Google Reader, I quickly became hooked. Response time is great, and the interface is very clean. If I want to keep a post around, I can star it. And my favorite feature... You can display the posts in expanded mode, and automatically have them marked as read as you scroll by them. That's a big convenience for how I tend to work with readers. I've shut down SharpReader, and I don't miss a thing. Google Reader is worth a look if you're searching for an on-line site for gathering your RSS feeds.
The other site I'm getting hooked on is Jott.com. This free beta service allows you to dial a toll-free number and dictate a message, or "jott". This message is then automagically transcribed into an email and sent to the recipient. You are allowed to set up an address book of recipients, and the service will do voice recognition to determine where it goes. So if I'm in a bookstore and find a title that looks interesting, I can call Jott, say "me", and then give the title of the book. When I get home, the email message will be waiting for me. The transcription might not be perfect, but it will be enough to remember what I was thinking or seeing at the time. This may be one of those services that I pay for when it comes out of beta...
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Posted by subske At 01:00:06 On 22/05/2007 | - Website - |