Apple’s latest iOS 7 was released to the public (globally I might add) yesterday, depending on your timezone. As usual there has been quite a bit of Apple-bashing online, rightly or wrongly, about the new (or the lack of, as the case may be) changes. I found this video, though made soon after the Apple WWDC a few months ago, presents a more balanced view of features of iOS7 and indirectly reflects how the smartphone landscape has changed since the original iPhone revolutionised this industry.
Just saw this series of maps providing different perspectives of the world we live in. In particular I was struck by how few countries are driving on the left (hence “not right” 🙂 ) side of the road!
Splurged on some geeky stuff today.
- Google chromecast: an internet media streaming device made by Google and cheap!
- Raspberry Pi: the “ultimate starter” pack from Amazon.
Although I have dabbled with (as a user) a number of productivity/to-do list/GTD/project management tools in the past, it’s not until this year that I have taken them more seriously. In all cases, I almost invariably only try applications when there is an accompanying mobile app because I figured without the mobile support, I probably wouldn’t be using the app so frequently. In hindsight, I think having some sort of discipline is essential – regardless of whether using a mobile app or not, although the mobile aspect adds to the motivation definitely.
- Basecamp (Android, iOS, sort-of): Enterprise-grade project management. My big peeve is that there is no good mobile app and the email notifications are not sufficiently informative for ease of keeping track of conversations.
- Dropbox: No explanations needed…
- Evernote (Android, iOS): Heard of this app since its beginning a few years ago. Didn’t take it seriously until recently when I decided to use it to store online resources; still not really using it to track documents and stuff.
- Google Docs: This online office suite and repository of documents is extremely powerful, in case you have not discovered the power of it. Can’t live without it! 🙂
- Google Keep(Android only?): New addition to the Google Drive family. Simple – as in with limitations – app for jotting down short notes. Has the obvious advantage that notes to synced to Google Drive.
- Todo (iOS): For a couple of years my favourite for its simple interface, until I switched to Android 1.5 years ago.
- Trello (Android): Discovered it a few months ago, but only now beginning to discover innovative ways of using this deceptively simple app. May replace Wunderlist down the line. Very fast for synchronisation and mobile UI.
- Wunderlist (Android, iOS): Started using since last year. Liked it for the simple interface and user-experience was somewhat similar ti Todo.
Honorable mentions which I eventually discarded:
- Google tasks
- Remember the milk
- Things
- Toodledoo
In the course of following the revival of Doctor Who series (well, that kind of happened a few years ago back in 2005…), it’s wonderful that I keep discovering new resources which help to rekindle my interests in all things related to Doctor Who!
Here are the links I found recently about the Doctor Who novels – originally serialisation of the TV episodes, but apparently due to the long hiatus until a restart of the series with Christopher Eccelston. Well here are the book series that have been published over the years and I have been slowly going through the original Target series at the moment. 🙂
- The Target Series: the original series I read during my childhood, basically novelisations of the TV episodes, many by Terrance Dicks.
- The Missing Adventures by Virgin Publishing
- The New Adventures by Virgin Publishing
- The Eighth Doctor Adventures: published by BBC, after the telemovie of the Eighth Doctor.
- The Past Doctor Adventures: from BBC and published alongside the Eighth Doctor Adventures.
- New Series Adventures: novelisations of the “modern” series.