Email Etiquette – Emailers Anonymous January 28, 2008

I am a huge fan of email etiquette, I spend so much of life in Outlook or on my BlackBerry that whenever I encounter random acts of email stupidity, I simply want to go postal. In a previous life, I would refer offenders to the company email etiquette policy  I had written up. Now I either send them Merlin Mann’s Inbox Zero video (the whole video just to prove a point) or hold it on and take it out on their inbox in person when they finally cal up for  some friendly tech support. I now have a new tool from my “web belt” that I will be sending out to repeat offenders.

The following is from Download Squad

Today we’d like to introduce the first in a new weekly series of posts at Download Squad called Emailers Anonymous, a series for anyone that is addicted to email as part of their daily life. We’re going to explore email from all angles – everything from email clients to email etiquette, email productivity to email formatting. And anything else you have questions about.

Today’s post will focus on email etiquette, and how to be a good email neighbor.

It’s easy to feel frustrated with friends and co-workers when they make basic email mistakes like sending messages with no subject text, or referencing an attachment but not actually including one. But are we completely innocent of making email offenses ourselves? Have a look at the ones listed below; maybe you could be a better email neighbor.

Links without context

This is maybe one of the most common, and most egregious faux pas that can be committed online. It happens on instant messaging programs and frighteningly often on Twitter, but it also happens very often in email. Think about the last time you came across a website you really wanted a friend to see. When you emailed it to them, did you give any descriptive text so that they had a clue as to what they were about to see when clicking on your link, or did you simply give the a link and expect them to blindly follow it? This is tantamount to saying “close your eyes and open your mouth” – no thanks! If you really want people to follow your links, take a moment to explain what they are about to see – a sentence or two is enough.

Continue reading Email Etiquette – Emailers Anonymous

Creepy Google Maps Video January 28, 2008

Thanks to Eric for sending this one in. We all love Google Maps, but do you just wish that sometimes, you could see a little more from the Street View. Well this creepy Google Maps video does just that.

[from Google Blogoscoped ]

BlackBerry’s Dark Little GPS Secret January 25, 2008

You _don’t_ need TeleNav! What you say? BlackBerry holding out their beloved _crackberry_ loyalists? Well yes, in the case of their GPS services they have completely undersold their own apps in order to sell you something you probably don’t even need.

I had never really used BlackBerry Maps on the my previous BB 7250 and 7130, simply because Google Maps is such a better application especially once they activated the little blue dot that used triangulation to find your location. But when I got the 8130 Pearl, I decide to give all the old apps a once over to see how RIM had improved/adapted them for the BlackBerry OS 4.3. I was delightfully surprised by just about every app and actually quite shocked at how much better BB Maps was. For a start they added GPS support for the 8830 World Edition, the 8130 Pearl and the Curve. Most of us will go to the Maps app, turn on the GPS, wait a few minutes and then after seeing where we are will turn it off again until we get lost somewhere without or TomTom’s.

This is probably our first mistake. If you leave the GPS on and then plot a course for say your local ski hill, then BB Maps will use your current GPS position and plot the rest of the course for you. So far this is still pretty much par for the course with other devices. So how is it so different? Well once you have your directions, instead of click on [Get Directions], simply click on view on map and then hit the [6] key and start driving. Your little red arrow will start moving along the map and if you are zoomed to 3 or 2 (two is a little extreme when doing any kind of decent speed) you will see your self moving along the purple course. As you pass your first step simply hit [6] again and the map will display the next marker and your location to it. Your location marker may be off screen but as you approach the next step you’ll pop into view again. If you missed the step or were a little over zealous with the [6] key, simply hit [4] top go back again. Clicking the trackball will switch between the zoom mode and pan mode. OF COURSE, You shouldn’t do any this while driving!

Most carrier will offer the TeleNav service for $10.00 on top of your data charges. Which is really quite steep for what you are getting more than what the basic Maps has to offer:

• Turn-by-turn driving directions by voice and onscreen.
• Biz Finder with more than 10 million points of interest.
• TeleNav Traffic alerts and intelligent rerouting.
• Full-color maps nationwide.

Turn by turn is pretty cool and has a lot of advantages, but if this is really what you want, you’re better off buying a TomTom for $150 and not get get bogged down with data charges. Every other feature is already covered in either the BB Maps or the FREE as in Beer Google Maps application.

So go ahead and use the BlackBerry Maps application for the few times when you really have no idea where you are going and save your pennies to eventually get a real GPS unit with a large screen, Bluetooth, and a sexy British voice like the TomTom ONE XL

The 60 Second Keynote! January 16, 2008

I love Mahalo for this kind of stuff. This truly is the only way to watch his Steveness with out being affect by the Reality Distortion Field. I must admit that into the 58th second, I could start to feel it.

So far my favourite review is from Scott Davis, who was force fed the keynote by Adi and I at the office. Here are my two favourite quotes of his :

In his Cultnote, HRS floated another biscuit called AIR. A notebook the size and weight of bathroom tissue, touted as the best, the skinniest and the flattest thing this year save the latest batch of European Supermodels. A dubious distinction but no Mickey Mouse about this latest iCrap.

You can pinch, rub, perch and rotate your way to Internet porn just like the rest of us PC twits, whilst doused in the soothing light emanating from the LED display/backlit keyboard. That way, you won’t need extra lighting when mooning the iSight, slapping the Safari, screaming oohh’s and aahh’s, extolling the power of Apple for 5 hours, secretly wishing to become the next viral Leave-Steve-Alone poser!

Scott is absolutely right and describes the new MacBook Air amazingly accurately, all the way down to the multi-touch track pad features. You can tell he secretly wants one of these books, but a long time ago Scott made a pact with the Devil: Belza-Gates-Ballmer that he would continue using beige boxes of boredom with their Fisher Price interface dreading the next BSOD. Sure he knows all about the Unix goodness inside OS X and he openly admits he lust after the Cupertino Designs, he even own an iPod! But the demons of Redmond refuse to release the shackles on his soul. And without quoting Tenacious-D or getting all Jack Black, I am glad that he has fueled all those years of MS_sochism, Dell_usion and Asus_nine rebooting into writing some truly wonderful and colourful blog posts.

Getting Ready for the Big SteveNote 2008 January 15, 2008

I will be spending my lunch hour, following this year’s Macworld KeyNote by Steve Jobs (SteveNote) on Engadget, TUAW and possible Cali Lewi’s GeekBreif coverage as well.

Hoping for a sub compact notebook, a MacMini/AppleTV Hybrid and an iPod Touch update. Oh and a Beatles Yellow Submarine iPod!

UPDATE

The GeekBrief Stream is not working well, So I’m streaming with iJustine. She seems to be sitting with The MacBreak Crew. and and Cali as well.