Michael Doan

Eddie Smith, responding to Ben Brooks’s¹ experiment to use only one monitor instead of two:

In my experience, the value add of an extra screen depends entirely on the kind of work you do… if I’m wearing my actuary hat, and I’m cranking through spreadsheets, remote displays, PDF, mind maps, and other documents, multiple screens are my best friend. There’s no doubt that multiple displays make me more efficient by reducing the cost of constant window switching. The combination of a “reference screen” and a “working screen” is very powerful for me.

Writing takes focus and having one screen helps. Doing accounting work, like actuary work, typically requires the document you’re working on one screen and a reference document on another screen. Two screens, sometimes three, is the clear winner here.

I would go even further an say that the type of writing you do could benefit from multiple screens. You can probably get away with one screen Writing an opinion piece, but writing posts like Horace Dediu does for Asymco, multiple screens are better.

I’m with Eddie on this one.

HP isn’t all that good at building tablets, but they are great at building calculators. They just released the 30th Anniversary version of the HP 12c Financial Calculator. I was never much of a 12c guy. Instead, I opted for the 18c which I still have but don’t really use.

Today, my calculator is on my iPhone so I don’t have much of a reason to carry around a separate calculator, but I may just buy one of these. I’ll do a review of Digits, my iPhone calculator soon. I briefly discussed it here.

The 12c isn’t the latest and greatest technology, but it just goes to show that a well built thoughtful tool is timeless. When we integrate technology into our workflow, we should always implement thoughtful technology and avoid implementing technology for technology’s sake.

For those of who use Macs and like the Apple’s wireless keyboard, but miss the keypad¹, a solution may be here. Get yourself Magic Numpad.

Numpad is basically Apple’s Magic Trackpad with a clear film overlay that has numbered keys. It comes in three lay outs:

• Have a full Numeric Calculator Keyboard at your fingertips or,
• Have a full-function Numeric Calculator Keyboard plus a tactile area on the Magic Trackpad or,
• Have a full-function Numeric Calculator Keyboard with configurable “shortcut” buttons for use with programs of your choice

Numpad’s software turns the Trackpad into a number pad. I haven’t tried it, but I have tried ten-keying on my iPad using Digits, a calculator app with a ten-key layout. That’s not easy to do.

(via 52 Tiger)

The iPhone home screen is the second most coveted screen real estate on my iPhone – the Dock is the most coveted. For an app to make the cut for a home screen spot it needs to meet the following criteria:

1. It’s an app I use daily; or
2. It’s an app the I need quick access to.

Here’s a screen shot of the apps on the home screen, starting from the top left corner:

Camera+

This app is not work related but I like having quick access to the camera. With three children, having this app on the home screen increases the chance of me getting “the” shot. This app has some enhanced features not found in Apple Camera app that are off-topic for this post.

Capture

Like Camera+, this is not a work app. Capture is a video app that starts to record immediately when the app is launched. Again, it’s all about the kids.

Weightbot

I track my weight. Enough said.

Instacast

I listen to podcasts almost every morning while preparing breakfast and driving into work. This app let’s me subscribe to my favorite podcasts without having to tether iPhone to the computer. Podcasts are updated when the app is launched so I’m always current on my podcasts. There is also an option to cache podcasts for offline reading. Listening to podcasts is a great way to learn about new ideas, so it’s not all about entertainment.

Evernote

This app is my external brain. It let’s me capture (text, photos, voice) anything I want to remember later. It synchronizes to all other computers/devices that have Evernote installed. There’s also a web-based version so I don’t ever have to go with out access to the information. It works with PCs, Macs, and almost every relevant mobile phone platforms.

Settings

I find myself messing around with the iPhone settings almost daily. This app falls under the category of quick access more than frequency of use.

Instacard

This app is a the fastest way to send a contact card (vCard) to someone. I developed it with a friend, so if you buy it, you’re giving me some money (disclaimer). I wrote about instacard previously.

Digits

I don’t use Apple’s default calculator app. I prefer Digits because it runs a “tape” of my inputs. I can go back to the tape and correct an entry which is handy when I am adding long list of numbers. I can also label amounts to remember what the numbers mean. Tapes can be emailed and printed. I can also have multiple tapes – very handy. It’s a universal app so it works on iPad as well.

Notesy

This app is a text editor that synchronizes to Dropbox. The app is universal so it works on the iPad. I can access the text files from my work PC using Window’s default text editor or Mac’s default text editor when I’m at home. By he way, much if the first draft of this post was composed on Notesy for iPhone.¹

Verbs

Verbs is an instant messaging client that supports multiple multiple protocols: Gtalk, AOL, MobileMe, and Facebook. There are many IM client apps available but I like this one for it’s simple user interface. In addition this app allows me to stay connected up to 7 days even when I’ve exited out of the app (this feature is an in-app purchase that require a one time payment).

Twitter for iPhone

This is the official Twitter client for iPhone. I have only recently switched back to this client after using Tweetbot and Twitterriffic. There’s much to like about the other clients but I find that my twittering needs are minimal so Twitter does the job. Also I switched back with the anticipation that this app would have some tight integration with the upcoming iOS 5 which has Twitter functionality baked in.

Surprisingly, I have business people that I communicate primarily via Twitter’s direct message feature. Twitter is a communications platform so if you haven’t signed up because you thought Twitter is for kids, well, sign up.

1Password

All my passwords are maintained in this app. It works crossplatform on iOS devices, Mac and Windows. Security is an important issue for me, so I use this app to generate most of my passwords – many of which are 18+ characters long and I can’t remember them. There’s a nice browser integration so I don’t have to type in the long passwords. When I get to the website, the browser knows (via a browser plugin, Chrome in my case).

Due

Due is a reminder app. Set a time and date to be reminded to do something and it will sound an alarm when that thing is due. Alarms can be recurring at a future date as well. Now why use this when I have Omnifocus (see below)? Well, I use Due for things that must be done so when the alarm goes off, I either due it or defer it to another time. Reminders in Omnifocus occur once. Unless I check Omifocus habitually, I am likely to forget. Due nags at me until I check the task off as being done. I’ll write more about how I use Due in a future post. It’s an app that I can’t live without.

Safari and Contacts

I won’t cover these apps because anyone with an iPhone probably know about these apps. They are on the home screen because I need quick access to them.

Agenda

I don’t like Apple’s default Calendar app. It’s difficult to navigate and takes too many taps to move to different dates. Calvetica was my replacement calendar app – I wrote a review about it here². For the past several months, I’ve been using Agenda. The user interface is way better than Apple’s Calendar. There an excellent review of the app on The Brooks Review, so I’m not going into it here. The app synchs into my work’s Microsoft Exchange server so I am always current with my work calendar.

OmniFocus

Day to day task and project management is handled by OmniFocus. It’s a robust app that synchronized with iPad and Mac (no Windows version). It’s not an easy to use app so there’s a steep learning curve. It sits on the Dock, best piece of real estate on iPhone because I need access to it from any of the screens.

There you have it, the apps that I use almost everyday.

Steve Jobs’s commencement speech at Stanford in 2005:

One of my all time favorite videos.

Back in April I linked to David Pogue’s review of RIM’s Playbook. I ended the post with the following:

“It use to be said that no one ever got fired for buying IBM. Right now, you can comfortably say that no one every got fired (or will be fired) for buying iPads.”

Give HP’s speedy entry into and exit from the tablet market, I would say that my April statement is holding up pretty well.

You might be surprised to know that a friend and I developed an iOS app (works on iPhone, iPod, and iPad). It’s called instacard. We developed instacard to scratch an itch. Before I tell you what that itch was, it’s helpful to know what instacard does.

Instacard is the quickest and easiest way to send your contact card (vcard) to another person on an iOS device. It takes only two taps to send a card: one tap to launch the app and one tap to attach the vCard to send via email. This is the only thing it does, but it does it so well!

So where’s the itch? You probably already know that you can send a vCard via email or SMS using iOS’s Contact app. The itch caused by Contacts is that it takes 7-9 taps to send a contact card:

1. Tap Contacts
2. Tap the alphabet scroll on the right to find you card. I have 750+ contacts, so I have to search for my name¹, which means some typing – I don’t count those taps.
3. Tap to select your card
4. Tap to the Share button
5. If you’re on iPhone, you have to tap email or SMS. iPad and iPod takes you straight to email.
6. Tap send, after completing the subject line of e email and typing the message in the body of the email or SMS.

Whew, that’s a lot of work just to send out a contact card – technology is suppose to make our lives easier right?

So why is 6+ taps a big deal? First, it shouldn’t take 6+ taps. That simply takes too long and is too difficult for users to navigate. I’m willing to bet that most iOS users didn’t know that you can share your contact card because it’s buried in the under numerous steps. Second, you don’t have time to spend sending out contact information – especially if you’re at a networking event and someone asks for your contact information².

So if you think you can save some time and frustration, give the app for a spin. You can download it here from the app store. It’s only $0.99.

Occasionally I see an @mention come through to my Twitter stream from someone using the Paper.li service.

If you’re not familiar with Paper.li, the service turns your “Twitter and Facebook into online newspapers in just a few clicks”. This means that a Paper.li user can “publish” a “newspaper” that pulls in content from the people that he/she follows on Twitter or Facebook. For example, today I was @mentioned by @iso1200magazine which scraped this post into its “newspaper”.

Here’s the problem: I don’t like my content being scraped and I don’t like being associated with websites that I don’t explicitly give permission to be associated with.¹

Luckily, there’s a way to remove your Twitter handle from Paper.li, just tweet @NewsCrier.