Category Archives: Reviews

Should I keep using Outlook or switch entirely to Gmail?

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For more than 10 years Outlook as been my base of operations for email communications.  I loved Outlook.  It was feature rich and it there were third party applications that made it even more useful.  For years my biggest fear was was losing my email either from data corruption or a lost laptop.  About six months ago I started copying all of my email to my gmail account.  In this way I had a copy of all my incoming mail.  That didn’t help with outgoing mail so about 2 months ago I started working in Gmail about 80% of the time.  I think I am just about ready to abandon Outlook entirely.

Now that Google has Calendering, email and an address book it looks like there are fewer reasons to stay on Outlook.  I’m not sure what I’ll do about some of the tools I use with Outlook like Anagram.  That will be one application I’m not sure I can live without.  Send Personally from Mapilabs is another.  Gmail has forgotton attachment protection so that’s an applet I won’t need. 

A major benefit to using gmail exclusively is that all of my mail will now live in the Cloud.  No more worries about hardware failure or lost laptops.   I’m sure there are some new concerns but those don’t seem to worry me as much as the everyday problems encountered when your data lives on one harddrive.  

Google will soon offer Blackberry support via Gmail.  That means syncing of contacts, addressbook and emails between Gmail and your Blackberry.  That alone might justify the move to premium Google Apps. 

Have you ditched Outlook in favour of Gmail?

Google Latitude Is Not Creepy

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I recently installed Google Latitude on my Blackberry.  My wife thought  that the fact that people can now follow me in real-time was very creepy.  She already thinks that Twitter is a bit like stalking.  I decided to ask my Twitter followers (this includes anyone that reads my status updates in various other locations) if they thought it was creepy.  I received five responses to my tweet: Google Latitude Cool or Creepy? All responders said it was creepy yet none of them actually use Google Latitude so their opinion is not based on the practical application of the technology.  It is clear that the notion of someone, anyone, being able to see where you are unnerves a certain portion of the population. 

As a user of Gooble Latitude I don’t think it’s Creepy because:

  1. only people you invite get to see your location
  2. you can turn it off at any time
  3. you can turn off or limit by user (exact location, city level only, or no location)
  4. you can “specify” a location.  

Could this technology be abused, absolutely.  Any technology is only as benign as the person using it.  Look at email.  It’s a great technology but I’m sure there is more than a little hate out there for spammers!

My take on Google Latitude is that it’s worth a look.  You can sort out for yourself whether you think it’s creepy or not.

What do you think, creepy or cool?  Leave your comments below.
[update] This post has been edited for clarity.

Less is Definately More

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Many years ago I studied to be a photographer.  It was a passion of mine and I thought I was pretty good.  I’m not sure how good I was but during my studies I did learn that in many cases less is more.  I’ve carried that theme into all areas of my life especially in the work I do online.   

I cam across a post today that I found incredibly helpful while at the same time the model of simplicity.   The post was a review of the book Pentagram Marks, a book about logos.  The post is basically a series of pictures of the pages inside the book.  Not all the pages just a few to give you an idea of what’s inside.  ”never judge a book by the cover ;-) ”

The pictures were simple.  They were lit with light from the window which gives a pleasing soft light.  What I found interesting about these pictures is was the inclusion of the hand holding the pages open.  Right away this gives the viewer a sense of reality.  This was a post by a PERSON.  

The post was about a visual medium so pictures made sense.   Instead of just grabbing shots of the logos the pictures “felt” like a review of the book and not an exposition of the logos.  

I was impressed.