Smarterware » Bylines

Third Edition of the Lifehacker Book Due in 2011

Gina Trapani — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 17:11:45 +0000

I'm very happy to announce that my book publisher, Wiley, has commissioned a third edition of the Lifehacker book, due out late summer 2011. The book is a compendium of the best tech how-to's and productivity methods ever published on Lifehacker.com, and the second edition, published in March 2008, is in dire need of an update. The new edition will include material on the booming mobile space (smartphones powered by iOS and Android weren't around in early 2007 during the writing of the second edition), as well as new operating systems that have come out since publication, like Windows 7 and OS X Snow Leopard.

I've been out of the Lifehacker game for 2 years now, so I'm particularly thrilled my successor Adam Pash will be writing the new material for the third edition. I'll be the tech editor on the book, testing and re-testing every hack to make sure everything works as advertised. Adam has been doing a fantastic job leading the largest editorial team Lifehacker.com has ever had, turning out feature-length how-to's and video tutorials a rate that makes me wonder if any of them ever sleeps. He will fold much of that new material into the book.

The Lifehacker books have been some of Wiley's best-selling tech titles. Between the first two editions, they've been translated into Dutch, Italian, Chinese and Japanese. Not many books get the opportunity to have three lives, so I'm thrilled about the upcoming refresh. The publication date hasn't been finalized yet, but right now we're aiming for late summer next year. Keep an eye here and on Lifehacker.com for more news as we get closer to publication.

New Twitter.com Screenshot Tour

Gina Trapani — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 16:07:26 +0000

After using it in tandem with TweetDeck for a couple of days now, I'm still impressed with Twitter.com's revamp: no longer just a list of 140-character lines, the new Twitter.com is a rich iPad-like web application. Over at FastCompany earlier this week, I ran through a screenshot tour of the redesign and why it gives your favorite Twitter app a run for its money.

Buy The Complete Guide to Google Wave, Get the Ebook Free

Gina Trapani — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:29:45 +0000

Copies of The Complete Guide to Google Wave have been selling like hotcakes, and unsurprisingly, the ebook has moved a lot faster than the print version. We've still got a stack of full-color, hold-in-your-hand paperback books just dying for a home, so we've got a special deal: if you buy the paperback book for $25, you'll get the ebook free, emailed to you on the spot for instant gratification while you wait for the softcover to arrive at your door.

The electronic version of the book is now available as both a PDF and an ePub file; you'll get both when you buy the paperback. We're also happy to announce that The Complete Guide to Google Wave is now officially available in the Kindle store, no awkward PDF-to-Kindle conversions required.

Best of all, thanks to a partnership with a local charity, when you buy a copy of the paperback book, you're helping to employ developmentally disabled adults here in San Diego. Meet the folks who will fulfill your order when you buy the book, thanks to NBC San Diego:

PWI is a fantastic organization and we're so happy to partner with them in this indie publishing venture. Thanks so much for supporting me, Adam, and the great folks at PWI when you buy a copy of the book.

The Complete Guide to Google Wave

Online Privacy: Check Yourself (Before You Wreck Yourself)

Gina Trapani — Mon, 17 May 2010 18:29:27 +0000

Maintaining your privacy online isn't as simple as Pirillo puts it, but his tweet made me laugh, because it's such an important point. Awareness and prudence are more critical than any piece of software or privacy setting when it comes to protecting your personal data. Over at Fast Company this week, I took a stab at the most important things you can do to protect your privacy online. It's common sense, worthy of repetition.
Online Privacy: Check Yourself (Before You Wreck Yourself) [Fast Company]

What Private Facebook Information Your Friends Can Publish

Gina Trapani — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:00:52 +0000

Just because you've set your Facebook profile to "Friends only" access doesn't mean someone who is not your friend can't see it. One of the most confusing aspects of Facebook's privacy settings is an area where you specify what information your friends can share about you through applications and web sites, even parts of your profile you made private.

By default, regardless of how private your Facebook profile is, your friends can share the following pieces of information about you, straight from the screenshot on the right: Personal Info (activities, interests, etc), Status updates, Online presence, Website, Family and relationship status, Education and work, My videos, My links, My notes, My photos, Photos and videos I'm tagged in, About me, My birthday, and My hometown.

This whole friends-can-share-private-things by default can lead to some awkward situations, like one I ran into last week.

I'm Facebook friends with my teenage nephew, who is friends with another teenage pal who I am not friends with. This pal has his status updates set to "Friends only" access, which means I can't see them. But, he hasn't changed his default "what friends can share about you" settings. So, my nephew "liked" one of his pal's status updates, and it showed up in my newsfeed, since my nephew and I are friends. I clicked on the status update, and by virtue of the like, I could see the status and the 50-comment conversation that followed between a handful of teens whose profiles are set to "Friends only" and who I am not friends with. Essentially I could see private posts that were never meant for me to see--I'm pretty sure my nephew would be embarrassed if he knew I'd read some of his comments directed at his friends. I felt like the invisible adult who'd stumbled into a middle school locker room conversation that clearly wasn't meant for anyone to hear but these teens.

The lesson? If you're using Facebook as a private place to just talk to friends, in addition to setting your profile parts to "Friends only", make sure you also hit up the what friends can share about me panel (under Privacy Settings > Applications and Websites > What your friends can share about you). This way, if you're a 14-year-old who is friends with your old aunt, she won't get to see comment threads that might embarrass you. (The sad truth is that most teenagers aren't spending the time to update their privacy settings, so things like this are just going to keep happening.)

For more details on the changes to what Facebook (and your Facebook friends) can share about you in light of Facebook's recent changes, check out my piece at Fast Company last week, Time to Audit Your Facebook Privacy Settings, Here's How.

On Tweets in the Library of Congress

Gina Trapani — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:17:36 +0000

Published my first opinion piece on CNN.com today, in which I argue it's a great thing that the Library of Congress is archiving billions of public tweets. Despite some parentheses trouble and unclickable URLs in the story (I've alerted my editor), I'm proud of how the piece came out, even though CNN.com commenters seem to think tweets are a waste of storage space. Thanks to @matty_g, @Jason_Pollock, @Swiftsfan, and @itwalkabout for the example tweets in the story. Who says tweets are trivial? [CNN.com]

I’m Not Buying an iPad This Weekend

Gina Trapani — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 15:54:20 +0000

Even though I'm desperately curious how one looks and feels and works, I'm not buying an iPad--just yet, anyway. I'll head down to the Apple store and fondle one on Saturday, just before TWiG, so that I can talk about it on-air. But I'm already suffering from gadget overload, with a netbook and an iPod touch and the Nexus One and a Kindle, so bringing another gadget into the house just doesn't makes sense. I will buy a tablet in the next year or so--after I eBay my Kindle and my iPod touch and get to see some of the Android models in person, too. If you're on the fence about whether or not to succumb to the iPad, read this: Why You Shouldn't Buy an iPad (Yet).

The Power Users Guide to Google Apps at Maximum PC

Gina Trapani — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 17:04:32 +0000

My Maximum PC magazine cover story, The Power Users Guide to Google Apps, is now available online. In it, I pick my favorite advanced features in Google Maps, Calendar, Docs, Wave, Reader, Alerts, Profiles, Chrome, Search, Picasa, and Gmail--and trust me, there are a lot of them.

The Complete Guide to Google Wave Now in Print!

Gina Trapani — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:20:36 +0000

I'm thrilled to announce that the online book by Adam Pash and myself, The Complete Guide to Google Wave, is now in print! Order your copy here.

The new edition is double the pagecount of the Preview PDF released last fall and it's packed with screenshots and examples. In this expansion, Adam and I went out of our way, page after page, to illustrate the answer the most common question about Wave: "What is the point?" We added two new chapters, completely rewrote several existing chapters, and since the book is now available in print, added an index for easy reference. We scored a Foreword from one of my web heroes, Lars Rasmussen, who with his brother Jens created Google Maps and Google Wave.

The coolest part of this DIY undertaking is that a portion of print book sales go to a great cause. San Diego-based charity Partnerships with Industry fulfills our print book orders. Instead of sending half the cost of the print book in an existing online print-on-demand service, your book dollars create a job for adults with developmental disabilities in my community.

The new edition of The Complete Guide to Google Wave is available as both a PDF ($9) and a print book ($25) and on the web site (free). If you've already purchased the Preview PDF, to thank you for your early support, we're upgrading you to the First Edition PDF for free. Keep an eye on your email inbox for that. If you haven't already bought a copy, order one here. Thanks for checking it out, and I hope you'll let us know what you think.

The Complete Guide to Google Wave
San Diegan Self-Publishes First Google Wave Book [NBC San Diego]

Four Google Apps Marketplace Apps Worth Trying

Gina Trapani — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:18:03 +0000

For my latest column at Fast Company, I took a spin through the just-launched Google Apps Marketplace and found four apps worth hooking up to your domain. (One of my picks, TripIt, does a smart job of merging your existing account with your Google Apps account, too--the model for how any service that plugs into Google Apps should work.) Here's the full story.