I'm thrilled to announce a new series of weekly videos and blog posts that I'll be publishing at FastCompany.com called "Work Smart," which will cover personal productivity in a digital world. Long-time Lifehacker readers will recognize much of the material, but some fantastic editing and animation make each 2-4 minute video segment a whole new, fun format. The debut Work Smart video segment takes on the age old digital productivity problem: email overload.
In this 2 minute, 45 second segment, I describe my three-folder system for emptying your email inbox on a day-to-day basis, and keeping on top of everything you have to do, are waiting for, or want to keep on hand for reference.
Swipe to Start Voice Input on Android
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A new-to-me Android 2.1 shortcut: if you want to use voice input without hunting down the microphone button on the keyboard, swipe your fingertip across the entire keyboard to start it instead. Start at 0:25 into the video to see it in action. ∞ January 13th, 2010, 2 comments
VisiCalc creator Dan Bricklin--you know, the guy who invented the spreadsheet--has delved into mobile development and released his first iPhone/iPod touch application, Note Taker. Rather than use keyboard, in Note Taker you jot notes using the tip of your finger on your touchscreen as if it were a pen on an index card. (See my bad handwriting in Note Taker in the screenshot here.) Note Taker looks and sounds more awkward than it actually is: the application employs some nifty interface mechanisms that make it easy to write long sentences across your screen. For example, it scrolls right while you jot without requiring swiping, and it shrinks your words to a legible version for reading while you write. Note Taker doesn't do text recognition, but you can transcribe jotted notes using the keyboard. (Update: You could also just email your Note Taker image to Evernote to do the recognition for you.) This app isn't for folks who are comfortable typing on the iPhone keyboard and have terrible handwriting, but it is for folks who like to sketch, mind-map, or list without fat-fingering small keys. You just write the way you normally would on a notepad.
My favorite part about this app is the fact that it comes from a giant in personal computing, who, after 30+ years in the business, is still motivated enough to pick up a book, learn a new platform, and release software. Bricklin explains:
O'Reilly has posted the video of my 15-minute keynote speech at Web 2.0 Expo this week, entitled "Making Sense of Google Wave." There were over 2,000 people seated in the audience, and I was nervous. I wanted to communicate my enthusiasm about Wave but also get across that it's an power tool for power users, with a learning curve.
I used to use an Automator action for this, but Mac OS X Hints unearthed a sweet Snow Leopard shortcut for geeks: the ability to show or hide hidden "dot" files in any Open or Save As dialog. The magic combination to start imprinting into your fingers' muscle memory is Cmd+Shift+Period. Press it again to toggle the visibility. Hit the play button above to see what it does in my Mac's home directory.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks for Mac users who try out my Todo.txt CLI is finding and opening hidden "dot" configuration file (which is the standard Linux naming convention), so this will help me help them. Sadly this shortcut does not work when you're just browsing in Finder. [via DF]
Update, April 2011: Hi, reader! Before you go any further, you should know this article is out of date. To find out the best and most up-to-date way to root your Android phone, check out Lifehacker's Always Up-To-Date Guide to Rooting Any Android Phone.
I'm not dead. I've just moved into a new place where there is no internet connection yet, which is the equivalent of dead when you work and live online. Up until now I've resisted "rooting" my Android phone because I didn't want to go down the iPhone jailbreak road. (A major reason I have Android is so I don't have to jailbreak my device to get it to do something interesting!) But desperate times call for desperate measures. Living somewhere with no computer internet connection is a really good reason to root your Android phone. With a rooted phone, you can tether your Android device to your computer and get some internet love wherever you are. (There are quite a few other good reasons to root Android, too, not the least of which is speed boosts and early Donut access.)
If you're paying attention and reading the instructions, the rooting process isn't that difficult. I made the mistake of trying this out without my phone's USB cable (which was still packed away in some box) and in a loud sports bar during the first Chargers game of the season, with one eye on my screen and the other on my beer. Things didn't go so well. This morning I was able to finish up the process and get tethering working just fine. Here's what (and what NOT) to do when you root your Android phone.
Major tech pubs put out their Snow Leopard reviews last night, and they're all predictably positive. Snow Leopard offers lots of small and subtle improvements to your Mac plus gets speed boosts out of even older hardware for an affordable $30. This jibes with my experience of the developer build the last few months. Here's the rundown of reviews I've seen so far:
Best way to see how much faster Snow Leopard is than Leopard doing a simple task like opening a few high-res photos in Preview? This video clip, courtesy of Gizmodo.
Funny web series about two guys living with Google as a roommate. After you watch episode one above, move onto episode two and three. [via Asian Angel]
Google's rolling out some improvements to Gmail labels today, including drag-and-drop labeling, smart hiding of labels you use less often, and a location promotion to right below your inbox. Gmail product manager Todd Jackson told me that about 29% of users actually try out labels in Gmail at all, and these tweaks aim to increase that number.
Uploaded a new version of the Better GReader Firefox extension late last week, with a long overdue bug fix on one of its most useful features: inline article preview.
While you're using Google Reader to peruse your feeds, with Inline Preview (click) enabled, you can click the article headline to load it within the Google Reader frame, no new tab required. This is especially useful for news articles that don't include the full text inside their feed items. Thanks to scripter Bryan Tsai, this new version also lets you Ctrl+Click a headline if you do want to open it in a new tab. See it and a few other Better GReader features in action in the video below. Or just download Better GReader here, or ask questions on the mailing list here.
I haven't gotten an invite to try out the Google Wave Preview (yet? pretty please Mister Google?), but based solely on the 80-minute demonstration video, two weeks later I'm still jazzed about the upcoming product. Everyone I talk to about Wave who's not a tech journalist hasn't taken the time to watch the lengthy video, which is understandable.
If you haven't either, you're in the right place. To save you the trouble, using TubeChop I've sliced up the video into eight 30-60 second clips that show off the best parts of Google Wave (minus the awkward nerd moments, bad scripted jokes, and network outages that happened during the full demo). Here they are.
I'm thrilled to announce a new series of weekly videos and blog posts that I'll be publishing at FastCompany.com called "Work Smart," which will cover personal productivity in a digital world. Long-time Lifehacker readers will recognize much of the material, but some fantastic editing and animation make each 2-4 minute video segment a whole new, fun format. The debut Work Smart video segment takes on the age old digital productivity problem: email overload.
O'Reilly has posted the video of my 15-minute keynote speech at Web 2.0 Expo this week, entitled "Making Sense of Google Wave." There were over 2,000 people seated in the audience, and I was nervous. I wanted to communicate my enthusiasm about Wave but also get across that it's an power tool for power users, with a learning curve. 
Thanks to FOXNews.com's 
I'm not dead. I've just moved into a new place where there is no internet connection yet, which is the equivalent of dead when you work and live online. Up until now I've resisted "rooting" my Android phone because I didn't want to go down the iPhone jailbreak road. (A 
Major tech pubs put out their Snow Leopard reviews last night, and they're all predictably positive. Snow Leopard offers lots of small and subtle improvements to your Mac plus gets speed boosts out of even older hardware for an affordable $30. This jibes with my experience of the developer build the last few months. Here's the rundown of reviews I've seen so far:
Google's rolling out some 
Uploaded a new version of the 
I haven't gotten an invite to try out the 
I'm 
Logo by 
