The Yankee Clock Peddler and his travelling companion start out on a sales tip in a rural area, and they stop for the night at a farmer’s house. In the morning before leaving to make sales call in neighbouring communities, the clock peddler asks the farmer if he’d store a clock for him for a couple of weeks, and that he’ll pick the clock up on his way back home. The farmer agreed to this, so the Peddler wound up the clock and placed it on the farmer’s wall before leaving (the farmer does not yet own a clock).  When out of ear shot, the traveling companion asks the clock peddler why he left the clock at the house. Didn’t he want to sell the clock on the trip?  To this the Yankee Clock Peddler replied, “don’t worry, by the time I come back in a couple of weeks, the clock will be sold… the farmer will happily buy it from me.”

The moral of the story is:  “We can do without any article of luxury we have never had, but when once obtained, it is not in human nature to surrender it voluntarily.”

Here are some of the ways my iPhone is an article of luxury that I could not easily do without anymore:

• I consume almost all my news on my iPhone and to a lesser extend on my iPad. I start my day reading the news in bed on my iPhone. This way I can be up to speed on the news before heading out for the day, and I don’t wake my wife before she needs to get up at the same time.  For reading new I use the built-in Safari web browser, Zite and Flipboard. Sports with ESPN sports.
• The other thing I do before getting out of bed (and at other times during the day) is skim through my email in the Gmail app, as well as my to-do list in GoTasks (GoTasks hooks into my Google Task list).
• As I get ready to leave for work in the morning I check out the built-in Weather app so see what I’m facing weather wise before getting on my bike.
• Before leaving campus around 5pm, I download the 6pm CBC news (from an earlier East coast broadcast) and then listen to it on the way home in the Downcast app at double speed.  Why at double speed to you ask?  Because my bike ride home only takes 15 minutes, so at double speed I can listen to the whole 30 minute news cast on my commute home.  I also listen to a lot of technology podcasts for news and continuing education.

My iPhone also comes in handy for:

• Settling bets.  If there is disagreement over any obscure facts over dinner or in a conversation, it’s nice to know that it can settle the argument in 30 seconds with my iPhone and Siri or Google.
• I frequently read books in bed, over lunch, or if I have some idle time. Kindle, iBooks are my favourite readers (Kindle ebooks tend to be less expensive in my experience). The place in the book you’re reading syncs nicely between iPads and iPhones, so you don’t have to keep track of where you are if you read on both devices. I love being able to easily change the font size to match how tired my eyes are at any given time. I think the changeable font size will be a big selling feature for older readers.
• Lastly, I love to be able to share photos with family and friends when I’m out and about, rather than take time to upload them to Facebook from my computer when I get home.

I’d argue that one modern-day incarnation of the Yankee Clock Pedder’s windup wall clock is the iPhone. Once you’ve had a chance to use used an iPhone for a while, you’ll probably end up wondering how you did without it. I’m confident that would be the case for the intrepid retired women I talked to last week.

• Kindle & iBooks – The Kindle and iBooks readers are the only apps you’ll probably need for reading books, and PDF files that people email to you. Both Do are excellent eBook readers, but books typically cost less in the Kindle store. On the other hand, I’ve found it much easier to get PDF files into the iBooks reader, so you’ll want to have both installed on your device. Don’t waste your time on the Kobo reader.
• Zite & Flipboard - Zite is a free personalized magazine for your iPad that automatically learns what you like and gets smarter every time you use it. Flipboard on the other hand had a little bit slicker interface than Zite, but it does not learn your likes and dislikes as you read over time, but stick with the sites and categories you’ve chosen to read. I’d try both out to see which you like better.
• Facebook & Path - Almost everyone is on Facebook now, and if you are, you should install the Facebook app. The user experience using the app is much more responsive and polished than the mobile web browser interface. You might also want to try out Path. Path allows you to post through to Facebook if you choose, or limit your posts to other Path users.  If you try it, I suspect you’ll like it.
• Evernote - An excellent tool for capturing, syncing data between your desktop and cell phone. I love the ability it gives me to take a picture of a white board, and then later do a key word search on the text that Evernote has OCR’ed for me. I like to call it my “external brain”.

• DropBox – DropBox, combined with Document to Go Premium is a great solution for those who want to be able to edit MS Office documents on their mobile device, and have those files automatically sync back to their desktop or laptop computer.  See my previous Blog post for more details.
• Documents To Go Premium ($17) – Open & edit Word, Excel & PowerPoint Documents from all the most popular cloud sources: Google Docs, DropBox, Box.net & SugarSync.
• Notability ($1) – An excellent tool for taking notes, that also allows you to record audio and sync it with your notes as you take them, as well as import and annotate PDF files.
• Gmail – If you use Gmail, you’re punishing yourself by not downloading the Gmail app for your iPhone and/or iPad. The Apple mail app is ok, but you’ll be much more comfortable in the native Gmail app.
• GoTasks – I use the task manager built into Gmail, so this free app has been very helpful in giving me a elegant app interface into those tasks.  I actually prefer GoTasks to the native Google interface.
• TripIt – “Tripit turns all your flight, hotel and rental car confirmation emails into simple, mobile travel itineraries just by hitting forward.”  Once you’ve used TripIt, you’ll never go back to managing your travel itineraries any other way.
• Google Translation & Google App – Google translate let’s you type or speak phrases and give’s you back a translation in the language of your choice. The Google search app allows you to take pictures and traslate the text into another language.  It can also take a picture of a business card and add it to your contacts on your iPhone.
• Flixster – Want to get quick reviews for movies, or find out what time a show is starting locally, Flixster comes to the rescue. Flixster’s critics and audience ratings are usually very helpful.
• Photosynth – A great free tool from Microsoft for taking panoramic photos with your iPhone.
• Downcast ($2) – If you are a podcast listener, I highly recommend you try out Downcast.  Why? 1. you can skip ahead 30 seconds or 2 minutes with a press of a button. 2. You can download your podcasts over the air and not have to plug into your main computer to update your podcasts. 3. You can start listening to a podcast as soon as it starts downloading rather than be forced to wait until it’s finished downloading. 4. Lastly, if you want to seed up your listening experience you have your choice of 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, 2, 2.5 or 3 times faster than normal.
• AirVideo ($3) - If you already have a video on your desktop computer, but you don’t want to have to spend the time and effort into converting it into an iPad friendly format, Air Video allows you to simultaneously trans-code and stream the video to your iPad or iPhone over your wifi network.  This works wonderfully when you’re at home, but will not work when you’re on the road.  Even so, Air Video is a app I use on a weekly basis.
• Navionics ($15) - If you are a sailer or boater with an iPad 3G or iPhone, Navionics Marine software is a must buy! Not only does the software track your cruises, but gives you access to tide and current information.  Once your done on the water, you can upload your cruise track to Facebook, or email it to yourself or to your friends to view in Google Earth.
• ShipFinder - Ship Finder provides a near real time map show the location of commercial shipping in coastal waters. If you are interested in shipping, cruising or sailing in ports and locations across the world, this is an app that you’ll enjoy.
• Marine Conditions for Victoria BC – While this is more of a mobile web app than a true iPhone or iPad app, it is something I wrote myself. It allow you to view up to date weather, current and tide information for the Victoria, BC, Canada area on your mobile device. Enjoy!

OpenDNS allows you to filter web content and block adult websites on the internet by simply changing the DNS servers that your computer or router uses. While not full proof (no solution is), it quite works well. After you’ve setup an account, you can specify the kinds of web sites you want to block or allow. You can also specifically allow web sites that may be grouped in a category you have blocked. You have all the control that you could ask for. If you want you can install on one computer in your home to let OpenDNS know if your IP address changes, so that it can continue to filter based on the criteria you’ve set in their control panel.

If you want, you can also enable logging so that you can keep track of the websites computers in your house are visiting. This all happens transparently, without having to install any software on your computers, iPods or iPads.

The easiest way to protect  all the computers and internet devices in hour home is to manually change the DNS servers that your internet router uses to the two OpenDNS servers. If you want to change your DNS settings now just use the following:

• 208.67.222.222
• 208.67.220.220

If you need help figuring out where to change the DNS settings for your router, OpenDNS has a great tutorial that shows you how on their website.

OpenDNS along with Dropbox and two services that every home should seriously consider using. OpenDNS is completely free, and Dropbox is free up to 2GB of data backed up. Enjoy!

Introduction to the Survey Results

In addition to the technology questions we’ve been asking UVic Law students over the past nine years, we decided for the second year in a row to ask some extra questions about the mobile technology that students are arriving at Law School equipped with. This survey was completed by 139 incoming and transferring law students, which is a strong 90% plus response rate.

Executive Summary:

• 84% of incoming law students own “Smart Phones” that can browse the internet (up dramatically from 50% last year), with 42% of the total being iPhones, 13% Android and 27% Blackberry’s.
• 19% of students own tablet devices or ebook readers.
• 98% of students own laptops, and 16% own both a laptop and a desktop computer.
• 50% of student laptops are Mac’s, up from 44% last year.
• The average laptop price stayed basically the same as last year at $1,186, which is down from $1400 in 2007, and from $2,100 in 2004.
• The students’ average typing speed was was 60 wpm.
• 72% of all students bring their laptops to school almost every day.
• 55% of students use Gmail as their primary email account (up from 49% last year), 9% use UVic email and 22% Hotmail.
• 60% of students identified MS Word as their favorite tool for collaborative document editing (down from 67%).  30% favor Google Docs (up from 27%) and 2% OpenOffice.
• 58% of students report backing up their primary computer on a regular basis. 60% of those backing up do so to an external hard drive and 25% to a cloud storage solution.
• 97% of students use Facebook (up from 91%) and 92% (up from 80%) would like to see law school events and activities published on Facebook as well as through the online faculty calendar. 25% use Twitter, 21% use linked in, and 16% use Google+.

Smart Phone / Cell Phone Ownership

84% of students own “Smart Phones” or phones with built in web browsers that allow them to surf the internet on their cell phones.  That is up dramatically from 50% of smart phone owners last year.On the other end of the spectrum, 2% of students do not own a cell phone at all. This is significantly lower than the 11% of our sample of all law students who reported no cell phone in the spring of 2010. Just as laptop owner ship has been close to 100% since 2007, cell phone is now almost 100% as well.I suspect that over the next two or three years close to 100% of students will either own a smart phone, an iPod Touch, an iPad or Android tablet device.From the library’s perspective this is an important area to watch, as there are a number of interesting new technologies (like QR Codes) that could potentially enhance the library’s services that depend on library patrons having access to the internet on their cell phones along with a camera.

Tablet Device or Ebook Reader Ownership

For the first time we asked students about their tablet device and/or eBook reader ownership and found that most students do not have dedicated eBook readers. It will be interesting to see if a shift to digital reading of textbooks and other materials happens over time.  If text book makers lower the cost of digital books relative to paper books, we could see a rapid adoption of eBook readers.

Laptop Ownership

Laptop ownership has plateaued in the high ninty percent over the past five years (this year at 98%). Currently only three 1st year students arrived without a laptop this September. 50% of all incoming laptops are Mac’s (up from 39% last year), 1% are Linux, and the remaining 49% are running Windows (7% XP).The average price paid for student laptops has leveled out over the past two years at just under $1,200. In 2007 the average was $1400 and in 2004 $2,100. The increase in the number of higher priced Mac laptops is the probable cause of the leveling out of the purchase price of student laptops.Desktop computer ownership stands at 28%., down from last year.  All students have had access to high speed internet in their homes for two years now.

How often do students bring their laptops to school

One only has to look in Law Faculty class in session to realize that at least 72% of students bring their laptops to school almost every day.  Does this open up pedagogical opportunities, or is it just a thorn in the side of faculty members?Interestingly, 3% of laptop owners never bring their laptops to school with them. That combined with the 2% that do not own laptops, reinforces the need to maintain a certain number of public access computers and loaner laptops available in the building, especially for exam writing.

Typing Speed

Of the 73% of students who were able to tell us how many words per minute (wpm) they could type, the average was 60 wpm.

MP3 Player Ownership (besides smart phones)

95% of students own an MP3 Player or smart phone of some kind.  Of those students owning MP3 players, 96% own Apple products (up from 93% last year). For any instructors wishing to do podcasts of their lectures, there is no need to hold back any longer as the 5% of students with out PM3 players can review class lecture podcasts on their laptops.  Campus Systems is considering setting up a UVic iTunes site (like other universiteshave done) which would make distributing the mp3′s of class lectures very simple to do.

Primary Email Account

Currently only 9% of students use their UVic email account as their primary email account. The rest – 91% – forward their UVic email to a 3rd party email provider.  55% use Gmail as their primary account, and 21% use Hotmail, and 9% use their previous university’s email.

Favorite Collaborative Document Editing Software

Microsoft Word continues to be the most popular tool for collaborative document editing at 61% (down from 67% last year).  Interestingly, Google Docs is preferred by 30% of students (up from 27%).

You can’t put a hyper-link on a poster, sheet of paper or bookmark, but you can put on a QR Code. It is a much easier and more accurate way to link to a web page than to type a URL into your smart phone.

How can I use QR Codes?

Using a QR Code reader on your smart phone (like the Google App on an iPhone or Android phone) you simply take a picture of the QR Code and the reader redirects you to a mobile web page or some other resource on theinternet. Depending on what you download, you’ll be able to:

• Read a web page with text and pictures
• Watch a video
• Listen to an audio file
• Download an app
• Register for an event or buy tickets

QR Codes are commonly used on posters, in print ads, on bookmarks, on business cards and even on web pages.

My current favourite QR code reader for the iPhone is the Scan by QR Code City (search for “Scan” in the App store). For all other smart phones, I’d suggest trying the free Neo Reader.

Enjoy!

P.S. Here is handout with QR Code information. Here is a bookmark sheet to go along with the handout.

My first reaction to the Our Choice app (for iPad and iPhone only at the moment) was that it reminded me a lot of CD Rom products from the 1990′s. Call me crazy, but I loved the Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia because it not only included text and pictures, but added videos and interactive charts. I enjoyed the media rich CD Rom products that came of of the mid 1990 confluence of CD Roms, color monitors and speakers all shipping standard with PC’s.

So what is different this time around? For starters the form factor of the iPad make for a much more pleasant reading experience than sitting in front of a computer screen. In addition, the navigation interface that the iPad’s touch screen makes possible is intuitive and natural.  Push Pop Press is the company that wrote the software for the book, and from what they’ve said, they hope to make their tools available so that others can publish media rich tools. Watch the video below to see how the “book” works

It was a wonderful experience reading Our Choice. Not all books, especially novels, need videos and interactive charts, but for some books (like school text books in particular) these bells and whistles make a huge positive difference. I hope to see more book in a similar format in the near future.

The ebook creation process was so easy that during the session I download, installed the tools, and created an ebook of my conference notes before Elmer had finished his talk.  For anyone interest here is the process:

1. Download Sigil, the free and open source ebook editor for your operating system.
2. Install Sigil on your computer.
3. Open the word document that you’d like to turn into an Ebook.
4. Save the document as an html file by going to “File” -> “Save As” and then selecting “Web Page (htm)” in the drop down box. Then press the “Save” button.
5. Launch Sigil, and right mouse click on “Text” folder in the left hand column, and select “Add Existing Items…” Add the html file you just “Saved As” from word.
6. Now press the “Save” button on the Sigil tool bar, and you are done!

You might want to go to the Sigil “Tool” -> “Meta Data” menu to add a title and author to the book to make it look a little more professional looking, but other than that, you’ve created your first Ebook!  Congratulations! If your document is long enough, you can insert chapter breaks to make it easier to navigate.

You might be wondering how you get this ebook on to your iPad or iPhone.  All you need to do is either email the ebook to your self and then open it on your mobile device, or if you use Dropbox, move the ebook into Dropbox and then open it from Dropbox on your iPad or iPhone.  If you’re a kindle user, you should have an email address than you can send file to in order to add them to your Kindle device.

For your reading pleasure, here are my CALI 2011 Conference Notes in ePub, PDF and Google Doc formats. Happy reading!

This is one use for my iPad that I definitely did not for see when I purchased it last year: Navigating my sailboat with it!  Compared to using a paper map, navigating with my iPad is a joy. I still take a paper map with me of course, just in case, but my iPad is my navigation tool of choice.  Last week I participated in the Swiftsure Race, which typically take about 16 hours to complete. This year because of light winds and adverse currents we crossed the finish line almost 30 hours after we started.

I had my iPad running the Navionics charting software the whole time, and I was able to keep track of where we were for the whole race on a single charge.  I turned the screen on and off as needed, but was still amazed at the battery life I saw during the race. The only problems I had with Navionics is that the program rebooted spontaneously three times during the voyage. I was able to quickly restart the program, but it typically “lost” some of the route that it had been tracking for me.

The water off Victoria where I sail as part of the Oak Bay Sailing Club, is very interesting and challenging (here is a day sail route from May 2011). Sometimes it can be difficult figuring out where you are given all the little islands and navigation buoys, but Navionics makes it much less stressful to navigate. There is also an iPhone version that I purchased. It works well, but the iPad’s larger screen is much nicer to view, and the battery life on the iPad is much better. I also purchased a water proof case to keep my iPad nice and dry.

If you want to use mapping software for sailing or driving, make sure you get the “3G” version of the iPad, as the wi-fi iPad does not come with a built in GPS. The price difference is about $100 between the two devices, but it is well worth the extra money if you end up using your iPad for navigation. The US & Canada version of Navionics for the iPad costs $50.

Pros: Easy to use. Relatively inexpensive. Excellent battery life. Great for day sails or longer cruises.

Cons: Software sometimes reboots after several hours of use. This is not a saftey concern, but did cause me to loose parts of the track from the 30 hour race I was in.
Tagged: iPad, iPhone, Smart Phones, software, sports, travel ]]> http://richmccue.com/2011/06/03/sailing-with-my-ipad-navionics/feed/ 1 48.483174 -123.319451 48.483174 -123.319451 richmccue Navionics for the iPad http://richmccue.com/2011/05/17/how-to-edit-docs-on-your-ipad-sync-them-with-your-computer/ http://richmccue.com/2011/05/17/how-to-edit-docs-on-your-ipad-sync-them-with-your-computer/#comments Tue, 17 May 2011 19:05:37 +0000 Rich McCue http://richmccue.com/?p=731 ]]>

How to sync and edit documents from my desktop computer on my iPad is a question that I’ve had ever since I purchased my iPad in April of 2010.  The good new is that I finally have a good answer, and  ironically the apps that facilitate the editing and syncing are ones that I’ve used for years now, one of which has just recently come to the iPad and iPhone… or at least recently came to my attention.  Here’s the equation:

Dropbox + Documents To Go = iPad Document Nirvana!

Here is what you need to turn your iPad into a document editing & syncing machine:

Step 1: If you don’t have a free Dropbox account already, then now is your excuse to finally download and install it on your desktop computer(s).  Dropbox is a cloud service that synchronizes files between your computers, and keeps them up to date. It runs on Mac’s, Windows & Linux. For example, I have dropbox running on my Mac laptop and Windows desktop computer. So when I save a file to my Dropbox folder on my desktop computer, that file gets save to my account on the dropbox server on the internet. The next time I turn on my laptop, it checks to see if any files have changed, and then if they have, download the changed files to my laptop.  It is a wonderful service if you use more than one computer (or computer & iPad/iPhone).  The use of Dropbox is free for up to 2GB of data, and then $10 per month (for $99 per year) for 50GB of data.  I personally subscribe to the 50GB plan because I store all my family photos there along with all my documents, but I digress.

Step 2: Install the free Dropbox app on your iPad (or iPhone, or Blackberry, or Android phone if you have one) via the Apple App store. Enter the same user name and password that you setup your Dro

pbox account with on your desktop computer.

Step 3: Again via the Apple App store, and install Documents To Go Premium – Office Suite. Make sure you get the “Premium” version for $16.99, as the basic version does not sync files with Dropbox (or Google Docs). Once you’ve installed the app, press the “Online” button on the bottom nav bar, and then the app will ask you what type of account you want to synchronize with. Select Dropbox, enter your account information, and you set.

That’s it!  You’ve now turned your iPad into a legitimate business machine so that you can word process & spreadsheet on the go, and sync everything back to your desktop computer.  Enjoy!

Serious Tools

• Evernote – Cost: Free or $5 / month – An excellent tool for capturing, syncing data between your desktop and cell phone. I love the ability it gives me to take a picture of a white board, and then later do a key word search on the text that Evernote has OCR’ed for me. – http://evernote.com
• Google Mobile App – Free – The app’s easy-to-use voice or image search feature locates what you are looking for without typing. Try an image search with Book or DVD covers, bar codes or house hold items. Google Goggles is a useful and fun tool. – http://www.google.com/mobile/google-mobile-app/
• Dragon Dictation – Free – Speech to text app that allows you to easily speak and instantly see your text content for everything from email messages, SMS, Facebook or blog posts – http://www.dragonmobileapps.com/
• Read it Later – Cost: Free – Allows you to bookmark interesting news stories on your desktop computer and then read those articles on your iPhone when you have a spare minute or two. It re-formats pages to make them easier to read on a small screen. – http://readitlaterlist.com
• myHomework – Free – Allows you to keep track of you homework, classes, projects and tests. If you need help staying organized this may be a useful tool for you. A great way to get your mom to stop nagging you about your homework. – http://myhomework.rigoneri.com/
• Wunderlist – Free – To Do list for iPhone, iPod Touch, Mac & Windows. An excellent generic GTD or Getting Things Done tool. iPhone/iPod Touch, Mac & Windows applications. – http://www.6wunderkinder.com/wunderlist/
• Mind Maps – Cost: Free or $7 – Turns your iPhone into a brainstorming, idea collection and thought structuring device – http://simpleapps.eu/simplemind
• iBooks – Free – a free ebook reader from Apple that allows you to read PDF files, and free ePub files from the internet. You can also purchase popular copyrighted books from Apple. – http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/ibooks.html
• YouTube – Free – Your teacher can’t explain something to you so that you can understand?  Try searching for the topic on YouTube and see if there is someone who can give you a good explanation. More often that not, you’ll find a master teacher that has taken the time to record a video for you. – http://youtube.com
• Google Docs – Free – Google Docshas real time collaboration capabilities, with built in version control, and all you need is a web browser.  If I was back in school, this would be the only tool I’d use for group projects. – http://docs.google.com

Fun & Useful Tools: They won’t necessarily help you with your school work, but they are cool none the less.

• StarWalk – Cost: $3 – Tilt your iPhone towards the sky to and the image on your screen will correspond to the area of the sky you are pointing your phone towards. A very cool app. – http://vitotechnology.com/star-walk.html
• Urban Spoon – Cost: Free – One of the funnest ways to find restaurants in your home town or on the road. Check out the “scope” to see how we might be finding our way around unfamiliar locations: visiting a new city or unfamiliar shopping mall – http://urbanspoon.com
• Run keeper – Cost: Free or $10 – A great tool that maps your runs for you via GPS. The integration between the mobile app and their website is outstanding. – http://runkeeper.com

1. What mobile technologies they own.
2. What technologies they currently use for homework and research.
3. How frequently they use school or public libraries for homework and research.

The survey was conducted in December 2010 by 6 classes at Belmont Secondary School, consisting of 143 students in grades 10, 11 and 12. This sample represents about 10% of the student population. Some students owned multiple devices (here is a summary of the survey data).

For a technologist working in a university library, the results were very interesting.  Let’s start with the devices the students own.

First of all I should note that 92% of students own some sort of cell phone.  33% of all students own a smart phone like an iPhone or Blackberry, and 59% of all students own phones that do not have a data plan.  Data plans are still quite expensive in Canada, and typically cost $30 a month or more.  While I think more students will own smart phones in the future, the cost of data plans will need to come down significantly if we are going to see smart phone ownership catch up to iPod Touch ownership.  On the other hand, if free wi-fi was available to students in their schools, the research and pedagogical related utility of iPod Touch like devices would be much higher, and the desirability of a smart phone with a data plan would be lower. An iPod Touch like device without a connection to the internet is simply a music and gaming device.

69% of students own an iPod touch. With the introduction of cameras on iPod Touches this fall, the device becomes much more capable from academic and productivity perspectives.  The ability to take pictures enables users to more fully use apps and services like Evernote, Google Goggles & Facetime video conferencing. As well, QR Code reading becomes a possibility with device sporting a camera in free wi-fi areas.  Currently 48% of students either have a smart phone with a camera, or an iPod Touch with a camera.  This number will climb to over 80% in the next two years as iPod Touch like devices with cameras become more wide spread.

When asked whether they used a computer to do homework or research on a daily or weekly basis, 86% said yes. Only 5% said that they never used computers for home work or research.  43% of students reported using a smart phone or iPod Touch for doing home work or research on a daily or weekly basis.  20% never use mobile devices for home work or research.  Lastly 35% of students use libraries on a daily or weekly basis for home work or research.  31% report never using libraries, and another 17% use libraries on only a monthly basis. That’s at total of 48% of students who rarely or never use libraries for research.

Resources used for Research or Homework on a Daily or Weekly Basis

Given the convenience of accessing reference materials on the Internet, as well as the breadth of resources only a key word search away, it isn’t surprising that the majority of students use computers so often for research. Once these students reach university or college, many of them will need to be re-introduced to the library, and shown the wealth of high quality peer reviewed electronic resources that are only available via the university library website.

One related question which I should have included in the student  survey was how many students read eBooks as opposed to print books.  Based on a show of hands in a class of about 30 grade 10 students, I’d estimate that about 25% of them have read ebooks on devices ranging from a Kobo reader to iPod Touches.  Almost all of the books read had been purchased.  Libraries and vendors need to quickly settle on standards that will allow their patrons to read library licensed eBooks on their personal readers.  This should be relatively easy to do with iOS and Android based devices, but less so on Kindle and Kobo hardware for example.  This potential problem needs to be communicated to patrons so that they are not unpleasantly surprised when, as I suspect will happen in the next 1 or 2 years, they cannot use their Kindle or Kobo eBook readers that they purchased for Christmas to read library eBooks.

As David Pogue points out, this might be just what the doctor ordered for your tween, who wants a cell phone, but you’re not interested in signing a 2 or 3 year contract.

Another option in Canada is Koodo Mobility. Two of our teenage kids have no contract cell phones through Koodo, and the $20 monthly fee they each pay gives them unlimited texting and 50 talk minutes per month (we had to build our own plan to get the monthly fee down to $20).  Given that they almost exclusively text, this works just fine for them.

If I did not have a year left on my cell phone contract what I would personally do is buy an unlocked iPhone from the Apple Store for $660 (yes we can buy unlocked iPhone in Canada). Get the smallest Data and Voice Plan I can find from a local carrier (about $25 per month with Koodo including 100MB of data), and then use a service like Line2 for $15 per month.  My Monthly phone bill would drop to $40.  For 500MB of data the cost would rise to about $55 per month.  Lower cost, and unlimited voice in North America.

My first preference would be to use Google Voice, but as I mentioned it is not yet available in Canada yet. In any case this sort of competition should benefit all cell phone users as it will put pressure on them to lower their costs or risk loosing customers as their contracts expire.

That said, here are my current crop of favourite iPad apps:

1. Kindle Reader (free) – Amazon’s eBook reader has the biggest selection of current books at the moment. I have read close to 10 books on my iPad and love it as an eBook reader. I appreciate the ability to re-size the font size, look-up words instantly with it’s built in dictionary, and sync my furthest read location to my iPhone.  That said, there are a number of books that I cannot buy in digital format (are you listening W.W. Norton & Co, publisher of Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin novels?).
2. Flipboard (free) – “A personalized social magazine.”  It is the easiest and most user friendly way to browse your twitter feed (if you have one), or browse the online version of the Economist magazine for example.  In addition you can see the twitter comments that people have made about the articles.  This is a difficult app to explain, but once you’ve used it you’ll love it.
3. Air Video ($2.99) – If you already have a video on your desktop computer, but you don’t want to have to spend the time and effort into converting it into an iPad friendly format, Air Video allows you to simultaneously trans-code and stream the video to your iPad or iPhone over your wifi network.  This works wonderfully when you’re at home, but will not work when you’re on the road.  Even so, Air Video is a app I use on a weekly basis.
4. Read It Later (free) – Similar to Instapaper ($4.99), Read It Later allows you to bookmark articles that you’d like to read later while browsing news on your PC, Mac, iPad or iPhone, and then download those articles to read later on your iPad or iPhone. In the case of the iPhone, it re-formats the article so that it can be easily read on a small screen.
5. Kayak (free) – If you’re looking to travel, Kayak is a great tool to see what flights are available at what price.  It’s hard to explain how pleasant the software is to use.  I’ve found myself using Kayak at times even when I’m not traveling just to see how much it would cost to travel to Brazil, “just in case” I was able to go. In this case the iPad software is much nicer to use than the Kayak website. Even if you don’t end up purchasing your ticket through Kayak, it’s a nice place to start your travel plans.
6. Navionics Marine: Costal B.C. ($29.99) – If you are a sailer or boater with an iPad 3G or iPhone, Navionics Marine software is a must buy! The iPhone version of this charting application costs only $9.99, and it is well worth the money.  I wish I had the 3G version of the iPad with it’s built in GPS hardware so I could use this software on my iPad as well as my iPhone. Not only does the software track your cruises, but gives you access to tide and current information.  Once your done on the water, you can upload your cruise track to Facebook.
7. iBook (free) – Apple’s ebook reader is very similar to the Kindle software, except that the book selection for purchase is much smaller, but you do have the ability to view PDF documents and ePub books in iBook.  I use both the Kindle Reader and iBook depending on what I’m reading.
8. Adobe Ideas (free) – Want to draw a quick sketch or doodle? Adobe Ideas is the app for you.  Even if you can’t draw, you can always import a picture, and then trace it before exporting the drawing.  Fun and functional.
9. The Economist (free) – I love reading the economist, but having it on my iPad makes it much easier and convenient to read. It also allows me to listen to the stories if I don’t feel like reading them.

What are you favourite iPad apps?

http://library.law.uvic.ca

I did a training session at the UVic Law Library this morning on QR Codes in Libraries.  Here’s a link to my slides, and I’ll copy and paste my handout below.  Enjoy!

• The move from the morning paper to reviewing the news on the iPad, make breakfast a much more pleasant experience, because of the smaller and more easily managed iPad form factor.  I actually do a lot of my “newspaper” reading in bed now.
• When used in meetings, it gives you the ability to take electronic notes and consult the web for meeting related material, with out “barricading yourself behind a screen.”  For me this has made a huge difference, especially now that the novelty of the iPad is wearing off and more people have them in meetings.
• When traveling, it’s 10 hour battery life makes long flights more endurable as I can watch movies I really want to watch, or play games while in the air.
• The 10 hour battery life means that I don’t need to recharge it during the day, and often I go 3 or 4 days between charging.
• Reading using the Kindle reader is a joy. I especially appreciate being able to go back and forth between my iPad and iPod and the Kindle app knowing where I left off on the other device (this work across all Kindle apps and devices).

What I’m hoping gets fixed in version 4 of the iPad OS:

• One of the main drawbacks is it’s limited ability to multi-task that we’ve become accustomed to on laptops.  Copy and pasting text or an image from a web page just takes a lot longer.
• One other drawback is the iPad’s current inability to sync files from your desktop computer, or from some cloud based system.  If I could have 2 way syncing of some of my DropBox floders I would be a very happy man.
• This is not a big issue, but I’d love to be able to output the contents of the screen via the Apple VGA dongle, from every application, not just Keynote.

That’s it for know… You should really read Anne’s article for all the interesting details she includes.

iPad + Velcro = Amazing

Step 1: Open Firefox, and download the Video Download Helper plug-in.  This plugin will allow you to save Flash Files to your desktop.  If that is allow you want to do, then you should be able to view the video using a video player like VLC Player.  If you want to convert the flash video into something playable on your iPhone or iPod, then on to the next step.

Step 2: If you are running Windows and want to convert the flash video to an iPhone compatible format, or Windows media format, then I’d suggest you download and install Format Factory.  If you are running Mac OSX, then I’d download Handbrake, to do the conversion job.

DVD Conversion: If all you want to do convert some DVD’s to iPhone or iPod Touch format for the road trip, then install Handbrake on your computer and rip the DVD’s into MP4 files.  This will take a while to convert the videos (almost as long as it would take to watch the video itself), but can be worth while if everyone is able to keep their sanity on the trip.

Have fun converting YouTube videos for your kids iPods for that next long family road trip!

In addition to the technology questions we’ve been asking UVic law students over the past seven years, we decided to ask some extra questions about the increasing important mobile technology that students are arriving at Law School equipped with.  One major change to the methodology of this survey compared to past years is that we sent the survey to all students at the law school, not just first year students.  The response rate was 25% this year rather than close to 100% in previous years.

[Note: if you have problems seeing any graphs on this page, please look at the underlying Google Doc's page for this blog post]

Executive Summary:

• 30% of students own “Smart Phones” that can browse the internet.
• 97% of students own laptops, and over 60% own both a laptop and a desktop computer.
• 39% of student laptops are Mac’s.
• The average laptop price dropped to $1,200 from $1400 in 2007, and from $2,100 in 2004.
• All students now report having high speed internet in their homes.
• 82% of students bring their laptops to school almost every day.
• 86% of students own MP3 players capable of listening to recorded lectures.
• 54% of students use Gmail as their primary email account, 18% use UVic email and 15% Hotmail.
• 58% of students identified MS Word as their favorite tool for collaborative document editing.  27% chose Google Docs, 5% OpenOffice Writer & 10% “Other”.
• 100% of students now have access to high speed internet at their homes.
• 86% of students use Facebook and 65% of those students would like to see law school events and activities published on Facebook as well as through the online faculty calendar of events.

Smart Phone / Cell Phone Ownership

4. I do not own a cell phone  - 11%
3. Regular cell phone  -  59%
2. Smart phone - iPhone –  9%
1. Smart phone - Blackberry –  16%
0. Smart phone – Other  -  5%

30% of students own “Smart Phones” or phones with built in web browsers that allow them to surf the internet on their cell phones.

From the library’s perspective this will be an important area to watch, as there are a number of interesting new technologies (like QR Codes) that could potentially enhance the library’s services that depend on library patrons having access to the internet on their cell phones.

On the other end of the spectrum, surprisingly 11% of students do not own a cell phone at all.  Given how ubiquitous cell phones are becoming, I suspect that this number will drop over time. The high cost of cell phone plans in Canada relative to other countries probably contributes to the number of students with out cell phones.

Laptop Ownership

For the first time, all respondents to the survey report having either a laptop, a desktop computer, or both.

Laptop ownership has plateaued at 97% after years of steady increases. Currently 39% of all laptops are Mac’s, 3% are Linux, and the remaining 58% are running Windows.

The average price paid for student laptops has dropped again to just over $1,200 this year from $1400 in 2007, and $2,100 in 2004.

Desktop computer ownership has been increasing over the past two surveys, with over 60% of students owning both a laptop and a desktop computer.  All students now have access to high speed internet in their homes.

How often do students bring their laptops to school

Almost every day  -  82%
More than once a week  -  10%
Occasionally  -  8%
Never  -  0%

One only has to look in Law Faculty class in session to realize that at least 82% of students bring their laptops to school almost every day.  Does this open up pedagogical opportunities, or is it just a thorn in the side of faculty members?

MP3 Player Ownership

4. No  -  14%
3. iPod (audio only)  -  61%
2. iPod Touch  -  21%
1. iPhone  -  8%
0. Other  -  10%

86% of students own an MP3 Player of some kind.  Of those students, 88% own Apple products. For any instructors wishing to do podcasts of their lectures, there is no need to hold back any longer as the 14% of students with out PM3 players can review class lecture podcasts on their laptops.  Campus Systems is considering setting up a UVic iTunes site (like other universites have done) which would make distributing the mp3′s of class lectures very simple to do.

Primary Email Account

7. UVic  -  18%
6. Previous University  -  3%
5. Hotmail  -  15%
4. Gmail  -  54%
3. Yahoo  -  4%
2. Shaw  -  6%
1. Telus  -  0%
0. Other  -  1%

Currently only 18% of students use their UVic email account as their primary email account.  The rest – 82% – forward their UVic email to a 3rd party email provider.  52% use Gmail as their primary account, and 15% use Hotmail.

Favorite Collaborative Document Editing Software

Microsoft Word  -  58%
WordPerfect  -  0%
OpenOffice Writer  -  5%
Google Docs  -  27%
Other  -  10%

Microsoft Word is currently the most popular tools for collaborative document editing at 58%.  Interestingly, Google Docs is preferred by 27% of students. The strong showing of Google Docs is probably due to it’s real time collaboration features that allow multiple authors to work on a document at the same time with built in version control.

High Speed Internet

This is probably the last year that we will mention this question in the survey summary, because after coming close to 100% in previous years, this year, 100% of students responded that they now have access to high speed internet at their homes.

Facekook Usage

Currently 86% of students use Facebook. This is up marginally from 79% two years ago.  Of the Facebook users, 69% connected with other incoming students via Facebook, and another 3% did not, but would have liked to.

65% of Facebook users would like to see Law School events and activities published on Facebook as well as in the online Faculty calendar.

Some students voiced strong reservations about mixing their “business” and “personal” lives on Facebook.  It was also mentioned that many Law School and LSS events are already on Facebook via “organic” groups.  What might be interesting to pursue is to ask the LSS to post all Law Faculty events on their group, so that those who use Facebook can have the option of subscribing to a complete list of Law Faculty and LSS events with out Law Faculty or Staff being involved on Facebook. This would address the primary privacy concern of students.  We would also continue to provide our in house Calendar for those who do not use Facebook, or who do not want to use Facebook in this manner.

Student Comments:

• Beyond the issue of direct interactions with staff and professors, I have concerns about the encroachment of other law school activities into the Facebook world. How long will it be until law firms begin using the law school networks to interact with students? This would raise serious issues of personal information being revealed to a prospective employer which, by law, may not be released to them (marital status, sexual orientation, age, religion and other personal attributes are often easily ascertained when viewing a person’s profile).
• Many of the law school events are already published to facebook – i.e. LSS events, guest speakers brought in by clubs, etc. However, it would be helpful to have all events on Facebook, for example the LCO events.
• There is already a great deal of law school activity on facebook. I’m not sure if it would be worth it for the faculty to consider implimenting facebook into social networking as there is already a very organic and active network there. almost every student or club-organized.  event is already on facebook.  Don’t get too excited about it.
• Ban it from classrooms. just one thing i notice missing from the survey: lots of students have a powerful laptop that they keep at home for the most part, except maybe for exam writing at school. then they also have a netbook which they keep at school for note taking, web, email etc. this is a growing trend I think.
• Personally, I don’t like to receive multiple notifications of the same event via different media. Since everybody doesn’t have facebook, it probably wouldn’t make sense to use it as the primary communciation tool. However, having a calendar or other pages available to access as desired could potentially be helpful.
• Very invasive.
• Facebook is a social tool, not a professional one. For many people, embarrassing and awkward situations have arisen due to forgetting this distinction. I intentionally segregate my personal Facebook from my professional activities and formal acquaintances.
• For better or for worse, the Faculty of Law at UVic is a formal, professional acquaintance for students in the program.
• Let the Business students across Ring Road “network” and self-promote. As future lawyers, we have an obligation to professional and respectful dealings with each other. Please help maintain and perpetuate this atmosphere rather than moving law school activities onto Facebook and contributing to a downward slide into informality and familiarity.
  This is the second time the law school has asked this about facebook.
• I know you guys are old but please… use your head. Facebook = social tool. Law school = career tool. NEVER THE TWAIN SHALL MEET.
• Would the law school phone me at home to invite me to a social event? No. If they did I would be annoyed. Similarly, I don’t want Facebook invites from the law school inviting me to social events.
• I already get MEGA SPAMMED by the law school by email. This is irritating. I do not want Facebook spam too. If nobody comes to the events it’s not because nobody knows about them, it’s probably because they are boring.
• Sorry, but someone’s gotta say it.  Facebook is a social tool and is not professional enough to be used as a tool for official university messages. I have considered deleting my Facebook account because of concerns about future employers looking at personal social information out of context. There may be other social networking tools that the school could appropriately use, but I strongly believe that Facebook is not one of them.
  Facebook should not be used in relation to law school, especially in publishing law school events.
• set up a facebook block in the classrooms so students cannot access f/b during classes.
  I would like to see events made available via a general RSS feed. I would like those events to include student events.
• I dislike Facebook but joined because I found it was a necessary tool for staying in contact with other law students re study groups, etc.
• I hesitate to encourage widespread Facebook use. Many career-related CBA speakers have told us that in fact social networking can be detrimental to both privacy and career. It is also–from what I can see around me in class every day–a huge time-waster and almost an addiction.
• The more things that are put on facebook, the more it becomes close to compulsory in use, even to those of us who are consciously eschewing its use for good reasons.
• Facebook can be alienating for certain demographics. Using it is kinda like mandating gym class or sororities: i.e. it’s great for athletes and rich kids; less so for others.
• Facebook is a massive waste of time. It is also a huge distraction in class where classmates are constantly “facebooking” in front/beside us.
• Rarely use it, and not for organizing my schedule.
• I would prefer not to have law school events on facebook, but it just seems to be the only forum that connects most law students in a way that is efficient for informing students and promoting events for clubs. I sincerely hope that the faculty and administration doesn’t start using facebook…

This is just a trial to see what sort of uptake we get from students, and how helpful they find it. Some other possible uses for this technology in the library are:

• Study room availability and room booking as I already mentioned.
• Library tours – posters in different areas of the library with the bar codes so that students can access information relevant to that particular space. Audio tours can also be provided this way.
• Library Maps – Instead of just a map that has, Reference, Reserve, Computer Lab on it, put QR codes for each area that has a web page, so that the patron can go directly to that web page for more information.
• SMS reference service via a 2D bar code on the library web site.
• Library Reviews – if someone has done a review on a book or item, a bar code can be put on that item, linking to the review.
• Event Posters – if there is a web page associated with an event, a bar code linking to that web page can be put on the poster.
• Link to Phone number on a web page so people don’t have to dial the number on their phone.

While installing the bar code scanner app on an iPhone is quite easy, it remains to be seen how many students have a smart phone capable of reading the bar codes, and how many of those students will actually find this useful. I just sent a survey out to law students, asking in part what cell phone they use, so we should have some good data on the number of students who have a device that can read the 2D bar codes in a week or two.

I have also spoken briefly with Ben Naylor about how the LSS might find this technology useful in their communications with students.  If multiple organizations in the Fraser building begin to use it, and enough students have cell phones that can read the 2D bar codes, we can hopefully make all our lives a little bit easier.

If you want to create a 2D bar code, here is a link to a free QR Code Generator that anyone can use.  Let me know if you have any other ideas on how we could use this technology!

On my first shopping trip I was looking for toner for my Lexmark 250DN.  At Staples, the toner I needed cost $150!  Can you believe that!  I only paid $250 for the printer, and now they want to charge me $150 for the toner.  A quick check at Amazon.ca showed the exact same toner costing $105.  I ended up saving $45 dollars. If I had just purchased it directly from Amazon in the first place, I would have saved  another $5 or more in gas for the trip to the store.

The second “in store, online purchase” incident took place last night.  Our son had asked us to purchase Assassin’s Creed 2 for the xBox 360 for him.  At EB Games in our local shopping mall, they were asking $70 for the game.  My iPhone informed me that Amazon.ca was selling the game for $57.  The kicker was that they didn’t even have the game in stock, so I simply purchased it from Amazon.ca as we walked away from the store.  I later learned that if you purchased the game from the EB Games online store you would only have to pay $60 (plus shipping… no shipping charges with the Amazon purchase).

New iPhone programs are making this type of comparison shopping easier and easier. RedLaser for example lets you scan bar codes and look up pricing (american pricing only for the time being).  SnapTell is another program that allows you to take pictures of products and get Amazon.com pricing for them, along with product reviews.  The product review can be very helpful, especially if you are not very familiar with the product you are trying to purchase.

There is real value in being able to go to a store and consult with someone about the purchase you are going to make.  There is also real value in being able to take something home right a way, if you need it in a hurry.  If I’m not in a hurry, and I feel that the price difference is too great, I for one am not afraid to walk away from a store and make my purchase online.

After you’ve finished your run, you can see the route you took on Google Maps on your iPhone, or go to your computer and log on to RunKeeper.com and see a more detailed map of the route you ran. The map on the website is excellent, complete with a graph showing your speed during your run, as well as the altitude you were at.  For me this clearly shows how I slow down when going down hills, and how I speed up at the end of the run as I push to the finish line. Click here for a view of a run I did a few months ago.

There are both free and paid versions of RunKeeper.  The free version has most of the features of the paid version, but $10 is not a high price for this excellent application if you end up using it a lot.  Have run running!

Drop Box synchronizes files between computers across the room or across the internet.  The service is free if you have 2GB of data or less.  For $10 a month you get 50GB of data storage.  I’ve used DropBox for several months now, and have to say that it works great.  It makes it much easier for me to quickly share documents between my Laptop (mac), my Work Computer (windows), and my Home Computer (mac).

Not only does it facilitate file sharing, but it also serves as an excellent backup system. While more expensive than Mozy’s $5 a month backup service, you do get a lot of extra functionality that Mozy does not give you.  DropBox works great on Mac, Windows and Linux computers, which means that it can be used on virtually any computer you own or can currently buy, including one of those cute little Net Books.

Another feature that some might find useful, is the ability to share sub folders with other people for collaboration purposes. As files are modified, previous version are kept so that if necessary you can revert back to a previous version of the document.  Files that are accidentally deleted can also be recovered, unless you manually purge deleted files.

I highly recommend DropBox for people who use multiple computers and need to share files between them.  Good luck!

SimpleMind’s Mind Map comes in two editions.  The free Express edition allows you to create and edit mind maps on your iPhone and export them out of the application via jpg pictures.  The Paid Edition, which costs $7 has all the same features as the free edition, and additional ability to send your mind maps to other users via email, or export your mind maps to Freemind format (Freemind is an open source desktop mind mapping application for Windows, Mac and Linux computers) and OPML format.

You have a great idea for a research project with a colleague over lunch: In order to rough out the project so that you can get a better grasp for it’s scope, you map out all the ideas related to the project with your colleague, and then email the mind map to him and yourself in FreeMind format so that you can fill in holes and collaborate further from your desktop computers.

Read It Later lets you save pages to read later, even without an internet connection.  In FireFox, simply install the “Read It Later” plugin, and magically a little button appears on the top right of your web browser.  When ever you come across an article that you want to read later, simply press the button, and it is saved in your online account.  Later from your iPhone Read It Later app, you can read the article that has been reformatted nicely for your iPhone or iPod Touch.  If it is something that you really like at that point, you can send it to Evernote for indexing and storage.

The Professional version of Read It Later costs $2.99, and allows you to easily post links to the article you’re reading to Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, and even plain old email.

Reading Documents on the Road: You are looking through a bunch of news in the morning and see a number of excellent articles that you don’t have time to read at that moment.  So you click on the “Read It Later” button, then later in the day while you’re waiting at the dentist’s office you read one or two of the articles before having the calculus removed from your teeth.

If you don’t use Firefox, don’t worry, there is an easy way to add a “Read It Later” button to all the major modern web browers (like Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Opera, etc.).

Just in case you’re not familiar with Zotero or Endnote, here a description that I lifted from the Zotero website that describes both products: “Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a software tool to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources.”   It is also very helpful in building bibliographies, because when your cite books via online journals, or your library’s website, Zotero captures all the bibliographic data available on the page.  Zotero started out as a Firefox plugin, but is now developing a web interfaces that can be used by the iPhone web browser.   At this point the Zotero Web interface is view only, and is not specially formatted for small form factor devices, but on the iPhone at least you can go in and browser your library of citations.

Access Citation information away from your computer: You are talking to a colleague at a conference, and while your discussing the importance of Vannevar Bush’s concept of the “Memex” machine, you remember a book that you recently cited in a paper you wrote. You pull out your iPhone, click on your short cut to your Zotero library on line, and quickly browse to the citation.

A very nice feature in the latest beta version of Zotero is the ability to sync your database of citations to a Zotero server, so that you can access all your citation information on any computer with a Firefox web browser.  For people who move between computers regularly (like between a desktop and laptop computer for example), this feature in invaluable. Hopefully Zotero will offer more a more smart phone accessible in the near future.

Reading Documents or Books on the Road: You know that you’re going to be away from your office for a while and would like to catch up on some reading without having to schlep a folder of documents or heavy books around with you (think about a trip to a conference, or even a trip to your doctor’s office where you’re not sure if you’ll be waiting for 30 seconds or 30 minutes)?  Quickly convert your PDF and Word documents by opening them in Stanza’s desktop client, and the launch Stanza on your iPhone and import the documents.  Quick, easy and a much lighter backpack!

As you read documents or books in the Stanza reader, you “turn” pages much like you would do with a physical book.  By touching the right side of the screen you page forward, and when you touch the left side you page backwards.  A touch in the middle of the screen brings up the menu navigation menu where you can quickly see how far in to the book you are as well as allow you to navigate back to the table of contents for the book.  You may also navigate back to your “Library” page to read other documents, or change settings such as font size and orientation of the screen.

One drawback to  Stanza is its current inability to highlight and annotate text.  It sounds like those features are being worked on, and with Amazon’s resources behind them I guess that it should not take them too long implement.   For just reading, Stanza is an excellent product, and the price is right.

For only $25 per year (about $2 per month) you can record 30 second messages that are then transcribed and then sent to your e-mail or other application of your choice.   The most simple way to use ReQall is to record messages that are sent to your email address.  If you want to get a bit more sophisticated in your use of ReQall, you can setup a link to Outlook, then you can send transcribed messages to Evernote, Google Calendar, Outlook Appointments, or Outlook Tasks.  All you need to do is install a small ReQall application on your computer to interface with ReQall.

The quality of the transcription is quite good, and in my experience is typically only inaccurate when I do not speak clearly, or if the word is not commonly used (like some legal vocabulary may be).  The service uses real people to transcribe the notes, so that you have a better chance of getting the message transcribed correctly than most computer based voice to text programs are.

Need to remember a list of things to do back at the office: You’re having lunch on campus and as you’re eating you remember a number of things that you should do before the end of the day.  You don’t want to forget them, you you launch ReQall on your iPhone and tell it what you need to remember.  Within one minute your to do list is sitting in your email inbox ready for you to return to your desk.

One other feature that ReQall touts, which I have not used extensively, is it’s ability to be locationally aware.  So if you are your local grocery store, it will use the iPhone’s GPS capabilities, to recognize where you are, and remind you that you need to pick up milk and bread.  This is a very cool feature indeed.  I’ll do some testing to see if it works as advertised.

ReQall will actually work on any Cell phone (not just an iPhone), but it does have an iPhone application that makes it easy to look at the transcribed messages. To use ReQall on a regular cell phone, all you do is call ReQall’s 1-800 number and you can give jot your message to transcribe, and tell it where you want it to go.  Very cool indeed!

Evernote allows you to clip web pages, images, PDF file, word documents, etc, on your computer, and then access them on your iPhone!  Evernote makes all of the files full text search-able on your desktop and your iPhone.

Evernote

On the iPhone itself, Evernote can be a wonderful tool for capturing thoughts and images while you’re away from your office, or accessing things on your cell phone that you’ve captured on your desktop computer.  In my office, the easiest way for me to record things it by typing, or better yet, copying and pasting.  Away from my office, typing anything of length on the iPhone can be painful.  Thankfully Evernote gives you options.  First, you can type in, or edit notes already in Evernote.  So if my itinerary that I’ve put in Evernote changes, I can go in and edit the text to reflect the change, just like I can in the desktop version of Evernote.

Accessing Clipped Articles in the Library: You’re in the library and need find the reference in an online article that you clipped so you can do further research in the musty stacks.  Take our your iPhone, launch Evernote, do a key word search for the note you’re looking for, and in seconds you have the full article in front of you.

Evernote on the iPhone

I also have the option of making a audio note.  The note is recorded on the iPhone, and then synced with my Evernote account so that it will be downloaded to my computer(s) next time I log on.  I can then do what ever I need to with the information in the audio note.  An interesting feature that I have not needed, but could be useful, is that the iPhone tags each audio or text note with the GPS coordinates where the note was taken.

Lastly you can take pictures of things you want to remember in store them in Evernote. An example of how you could use this is that you can take a picture of a sign, and Evernote will make the text in the picture full text search-able for you.  One way that I use this feature personally is to put all of my favourite Dilbert and Calvin & Hobbes cartoons into Evernote so that I can search the cartoons’ text for key words.  It is not perfect (as it depends on the clarity of the words), but it’s pretty good.

Searching for Text in Photos and Drawings: You’re looking for the Calvin & Hobbes cartoon that you clipped last year, as it fits in perfectly to the lecture on “Risk Analysis” you’re about to give. Simply open Evernote on your iPhone or desktop computer and do a key word search for text in the cartoon.  If the text is relatively clear, you’ll have the cartoon in front of you in seconds.

One specific application that I love is using Evernote for traveling.  I add my itinerary, my car rental, hotel and conference information into Evernote so that I can access it anywhere.

For the non iPhone users, Evernote has BlackBerry and Windows Mobile versions of their software, as well as Windows and Mac client software.   If Evernote is not installed on a computer you are using, or if you are using a public computer, you can always use the web based version of Evernote, which is quite capable.