Scarlet Umbrella|Adventures in Mobile Technology

I am writing this post on my lovely screened in porch enjoying the summer weather and the benefits of a ceiling fan. Feel free to feel jealous.

I’m not posting to gloat (well, not too much). I am posting to do a bit of evangelization to the crowd that still feels it is okay to lug around an 8 pound notebook everywhere. It’s not. I am always bemused to see someone walk into the local Panera lugging a huge go bag, and pull out a desktop replacement, mouse, smartphone, ipod, and assorted other gadgets. This is NOT a healthy mobile lifestyle. I can’t even imagine how much stress that carrying all that weight is putting on a person’s back.

Today I am going to talk about a concept that I like to refer to as samurai mobility. Samurai mobility is a software-based approach to cut down on the amount of “stuff” that you carry around on a daily basis. Samurai mobility warriors do not need to carry around every gadget imaginable to get the job done.

The first step in samurai mobility is to leave the desktop replacement at home. I know you have all of your important documents and applications exclusively on it. Well, that is going to change now. With the many Web 2.0 applications out there, you have no reason to have all of your files stuck in one place.

To kick off the discussion of samurai mobility, let’s talk about online storage. Online storage options can range from free plans with limited options to deluxe plans with the ability to edit your files “in the cloud.” Here is a selection of some of the best storage solutions:

Box.net Box.net is a comprehensive Web 2.0 style storage system. They offer three levels of storage from free (1 GB) all the way to corporate (15 GB) pricing. The free storage plan comes with limited functionality but the other plans offer file sharing, the ability to edit photos and images online as well as the ability to edit Office documents.

Omnidrive Omnidrive is setting itself up to be a major competitor to Box.net. Currently in a closed beta, Omnidrive offers free storage up to 1 GB. Included in this is the ability to edit your files including Office applications and media. They also offer a Pro level with supposedly unlimited storage. Omnidrive is preparing to roll out version 1.0 at which point they will open signups again.

openomy openomy is another new storage solution. Currently, they offer free storage up to 1 GB. Files are organized by tag rather than folders which may help with searching. openomy is being closelipped about future plans. A pro plan is reportedly in the works. They also have developed an API so interaction with other applications is in the works.

GMail GMail gives you tons of free storage. Why not use it to store files? A comprehensive look at using GMail to store your files is beyond the scope of this post but several software solutions to upload files to GMail are a google away. However, unlike the previously mentioned solutions, GMail was not designed for file storage so use at your own risk.

file, file storage, GMail, mobility, online, online file storage, web 2.0, web2.0

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Recently I have noticed a new trend in my daily consumption of blogs. Ordinarily, when I found a page interesting, I would bookmark it with del.icio.us. However, more and more I have found myself just grabbing the feed for the website and putting it into Google Reader.

I find this technique useful for a couple reasons. First, I find that if I like one blog post a person has written, I will probably like other material that they post. Secondly, RSS feeds combined with Google search make a much better method of searching than tags and my own (bad) summaries of web content.

Most sites publish full RSS feeds. This is really useful in Google Reader when I am trying to find that post that one person wrote about, for example, three new and useful GMail Labs Apps. I can use Google Reader’s search function to search for “GMail Labs Apps” which gives me the blog post that I am looking for much faster than searching all of my “GMail” and “useful tags” on del.icio.us.

Of course, I haven’t found a way to integrate all of my internet links into Google Reader. There are still the few sites that don’t have a RSS feed. Also, there are sites that only give the headlines on the RSS feed. While some people may like this, I definitely prefer full posts myself (hint to blogs: provide both).

The best benefit is that I have a database that automatically adds more information to itself. I really can’t express how valuable this is. I love DevonThink on the Mac and I have often wished that I could have something similar on a PC. Google Reader is almost equal and some ways better to DevonThink. When I use DevonThink, I have to continually add to a category. However, once you have enough useful subscriptions on Google Reader (I like to call this critical mass), new content is added every time you hit refresh. Simply awesome.

database, Google, googlereader, hacks, information, lifehacks

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The tech community hasn’t even settled on a name for the EEE and its ilk and already there are already nine other competitors at various stages of development and production. Oh yeah, let’s not forget the 10 inch EEE as well. If you are like me, you need a list to keep track of what’s going on in this market. Fortunately for us, Jenn Lee over at pocketables has done us all a giant favor and created such a list. Thanks Jenn!

EEE, mininotebook, netbook, subnotebook, ultraportable, UMPC

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