New applications are coming out every day that make our lives easier, or claim to. The right combination is a challenge, since performance and accessibility can be transparent to the human eye. If you download one application for a few bucks, why should you have crank out more of your hard earned cash to get a better one?

It’s personal, or just a bunch of noise?

Social and mobile applications should be focused on a personalized and real-time approach.  Receiving instant gratification is what people want, or should be willing to admit they want it.  If e-mail couldn’t be delivered immediately, I’m sure you’d notice right? The first and most important step, is organizing the brain.  Our ego may tell us everything is set for the week,  but that isn’t true!  Procrastination on some important task is prone to become lost and forgotten.  The most common regret I have is not documenting my last thought before shutting down at night.  Some of the best ideas can occur when your eyes are about to close.

Organize yourself.  You might be surprised.

Springpad is a great resource for making sure every last detail and task is etched into concrete.  It functions as a place to save any kind of information.  Between other applications,  Springpad aims to be your very own personal assistant.  Currently available for free on iPhone, Android, and Blackberry from a web interface.

If you went to see an amazing movie in a theater,  it’d be nice to know when it will come out on DVD.  Springpad can do that for you, along with many other features making their application fit every day needs.

Boston, MA—June 1, 2011—Springpad, the smart note app that makes it easy for consumers to save, organize and act on anything they want to remember, today announced it has added Shopping.com to the growing list of content partners, which includes leading brands such as Groupon, Fandango, OpenTable and Facebook. For the first time this list surpasses 100 brands, making it possible for Springpad to deliver news, discounts, deals and other updates directly related to the products, places, movies, recipes and music that users save in their accounts.

“Our goal is to help our rapidly growing base of 1.5 million Springpad users save time and money when they’re ready to act on the more than 18 million saved items that are important to them,” said Jeff Janer, CEO of Springpad. “By integrating with more than 100 partners, we’re helping our users by delivering useful news and relevant offers such as price drops on the product they’ve been eyeing, when the movie they’ve been wanting to see is available on Netflix or when a Groupon deal is available for a restaurant they wanted to try.

Absorbing quickly and effectively!

Feedly has a great way of approaching content.  While plugging into a Google Reader account, it pulls and displays RSS items in a magazine-like format.  The keyboard shortcut keys are the best feature to get through content fast and efficiently.  I haven’t used a stopwatch yet, but it definitely feels like Feedly scores a few points over the Google Reader UI. The social sharing features are also very polished, making it easy to share to twitter by hitting the “T” key.  Other networks are available as well. Feedly works with Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. With Twitter starting to acquire applications, it’s feeling like choices may eventually take a hit.  TweetDeck in particular has a great Chrome application.  I’m a much bigger fan of web applications than desktop versions since you don’t have to carry them between computers. HootSuite is a crutch for power users.  Since adding a paid subscription model,  it stays friendly after changes.  I usually have a difficult time adjusting to applications that sweep away a person’s footing by going from free to paid.  Company’s have to make money, but also cannot deter the overall user experience.

One feature that HootSuite has which needs to be highlighted, is Facebook posting.  Not many other applications let you choose a thumbnail attached to the article.   Facebook posts that aren’t clean can be perceived as spam or some form of malicious attack. Maintaining consistency between both web and mobile applications, is also a plus for HootSuite.  Usually not waiting obnoxiously long for one to catch up to the other in features.  With the iPhone and iPad versions specifically, you can add more accounts compared to the features offered in the free version.

Cost cutting measures.  Free is good!

Attempting to keep your digital life free of charge is a great way to make the most of what you have.  Pandora is a music giant and saves lots of money when comparing it to purchasing individual songs and albums.  To completely make it a music service of choice,  you may have to cough out $36 a year for unlimited listening. I made a New Year’s Resolution to not purchase any music in the year 2011 and strictly use Pandora as my music solution. As an effort to save money, but also to not “carry” music around anymore. It’s worked out great with exception to newcomer Rdio. At the moment,  Rdio has what Apple fans were looking forward to at WWDC.   Steve didn’t deliver on a speculated iTunes subscription plan,  which keeps my eyes on Rdio.  For $10 a month,  its possible to stream your music without syncing devices.

Cordless is truly becoming the convenience factor in the mobile lifestyle.  I gave up my ethernet capabilities this year as well.  The time for super powerful speedy personal computers is deteriorating quickly. Dropbox is my chosen method of storing files in general.  If it was in my budget, I’d upgrade my storage to a paid subscription.  This is definitely the path leading out of having an external hard drive. Cloud storage is new technology.  Newer and untrustworthy to a variety of demographics.  With all new technology, it’s prone to having it’s case of hiccups.   I’ve been storing a lot of my valuable content on Dropbox since it’s launch in 2008 with no problems.

At this very moment I’m using a Macbook Air, iPad, and an iPhone as my only electronic devices.  For higher end projects such as video, these might not be the ideal threesome.  The compromise is being able to rush through airport security without removing anything from a bag.  Doing more in less time is my motto.

Text Messaging is killing our pockets, or is it?

Text Messaging rates can hinder those who depend

on consistent or real-time communication with people.  With group messaging applications being a highlight this year at SXSW,  it shows that people are looking for a more affordable solution than adding more cost to cellular bills.

“With all these group messaging tools, there was no winner,” Fast Society co-founder Matthew Rosenberg told CNET, adding that Fast Society had seen a 25 percent uptick in usage throughout the festival; though it did not distribute any grilled cheese, Rosenberg said that Fast Society’s SXSW party drained 90 bottles of Patron tequila (some of which had been used to spike tequila-flavored ice cream) and 4,000 cans of Dos Equis beer. “At the end of the day, no one stood out. What I think happened was, at the end of the day the people that loved us, loved us, and they loved us even more at SXSW.”

A digital marketing firm called Pop Agency did some basic number crunching–e.g. analysis of how much each company’s name turned up on Twitter–and found that GroupMe prevailed at least in that category. There were 6,417 mentions of GroupMe, 5,422 of Beluga, 1,811 of Kik, and 1,303 of Fast Society according to an infographic that Pop Agency put together; the whole thing made TechCrunch writer Alexia Tsotsis quip, “If we’re judging the winners by Twitter mentions, doesn’t that mean Twitter actually won? Well, welcome to tech.”

My personal favorite is Kik Messenger.  They’ve defined the platform as real-time since the beginning.  Kik only works between Android and iPhone users, it remains polished despite other applications having more features.  Currently,  I’m beta testing a new version.

Location awareness.  It’s buzz, NOT stalking!

On my recent drive down to the SiliconANGLE office in Dallas,  I used my phone as a GPS device.   Of course it’s not very convenient for people to reach you,  but using a cell phone for conversation during driving isn’t recommended anyway.   The Navigon GPS application proved to be just as accurate as purchasing an actual device separately. If an actual emergency were to occur,  Navigon has the ability to tweet, Facebook, and email coordinates.  The urgency of news breaking first on Twitter can happen with distress calls.  Few months back I had a flat tire.  Using location based applications like Foursquare,  I indicated at the venue that I was fixing a flat tire.  The response I received from people around was instant! The sense of urgency that can result from broadcasting can be a surprise.

One argument, is letting people know you are NOT at home which leaves one vulnerable to a potential burglary.  I don’t disagree,  but the advice I give is not to check in at home.  If you’re clearly broadcasting somewhere you don’t want other people to go, it clearly becomes a target.

If you’re out in public,  the “assailant” clearly has to mow through a whole bunch of other people who whip out their cell phones at the same time.  With many applications implementing geolocation, you’ll have an on-going support system.

Change, change, and change every single day.

Things are going to change everyday.  By the time all of you read this,  something will have changed.  My angle is time management.  Doing more in less time is something we all want to attack right? The biggest change I’m waiting for is the day I can sell my external hard drive.  As I hinted,  cloud storage is making people carry around less materials and increasing productivity.

• Companies need only pay for the storage they actually use.^[1]
• Companies do not need to install physical storage devices in their own datacenter or offices, which reduces IT and hosting costs.^[1]
• Storage maintenance tasks, such as backup, data replication, and purchasing additional storage devices are offloaded to the responsibility of a service provider, allowing organizations to focus on their core business ^[1]

The power of portability.

My external hard drive is 1 TB in size,  but currently do not use up it’s entire capacity.  Cloud services may come with an expensive price to some,  but the ongoing price to pay is for convenience.  High Definition televisions used to be way out of reach within budgets.

Slingbox and Netflix are a gratifying  solution to portable needs.  Defining those needs are up to you.  The services I use are all available to me without having to plant myself in a central location.

The growth of portable internet solutions are growing with 4G speeds entering many different markets.   My particular area in Dallas is a bit too congested for CLEAR internet,  but definitely recommend giving them a try if coverage is available.

I’ve had the least amount of luck with Virgin Mobile Mifi.   It struggles to connect sometimes regardless if coverage is excellent or not.  The advantage is having no contract.  Plans from $10 to $50 are available without signing your life away. Dallas in particular is the home of AT&T which makes my iPhone the best running portable device.

The most convenience for your buck?  That’s what I pay attention to.  The iPad has a smaller screen, but it has capabilities practically equal to the price of a television.   The bonus is other features such as apps, games, and being able to take it with you.

There are plenty of solutions to one particular problem in the social and mobile space.  Finding out which does a particular task better is time consuming as well.  These services allow me to get the most out of my day.