TechVirtuoso

Get the most out of Evernote

December 8th, 2010 at 2:09 PM  7 Comments

I’m a huge fan of Evernote. It ranks right up there with Gmail in terms of applications I live my life in. When people sit down with it for a while and begin to use it, or have someone explain all the interesting ways it can enhance their productivity, it doesn’t surprise me that they become as hooked to it as I am.

I first became exposed to it when I got an iPhone 3G in 2008. It had existed as a platform a couple years before that and was popular with the Windows Mobile & Tablet PC crowd, but wasn’t really on my radar. At the time, I dismissed it as nothing more than a note taking app for the iPhone. The only reason I started using it was because I wanted something that would sync the notes on my iPhone to another system, since iTunes didn’t do it at the time. Not really something I’d adjust my workflow around.

Sure I’d used it off and on, but it hasn’t been until the last few months that I’ve come to realize all the ways it can be used. It’s more than just a simple mobile app, it exists on nearly every platform and helps sync your documents, notes, images and throughts between computers and between mobile devices. Their cloud keeps all your clients linked together and helps put the data and knowledge you keep in their service ready for use at any time.

I’ve decided to share some of the exciting ways I use (or have seen it used) to make myself more organized, more productive and less scatter brained.

Evernote has begun to replace my normal Windows file system for keeping track of data. Now obviously, when I say everything I don’t mean put your iTunes library in Evernote, or your Adobe Lightroom catalog. No, I’m talking about all your text files, PDFs and screenshots. The stuff that the normal system administrator has scattered all around their hard drives, but would greatly benefit from a centralize repository.

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Microsoft revives Mac vs PC, but in a friendly way

November 12th, 2010 at 1:06 PM  No Comments

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YbmK3Zu0Os

Note to Apple: This is how you can do a Mac vs PC ad, but in a less aggressive way. You can be cute, funny, point out the deficiencies in the other product (like the fact Steve Jobs hates Blu-Ray) but still all be friends in the end.

Sophos releases full featured Mac OS anti virus for home users

November 2nd, 2010 at 11:49 AM  No Comments

We’ve covered this before: the need for Mac users to secure their systems with a proper antivirus. But unlike the Windows space, there are not many/any really good, small footprint AV clients that are free. Until now.

Sophos has released a free client for Mac, based on their popular business product, which you can download from their website.

“While most businesses recognise the importance of protecting their Mac computers from malware threats, most home users do not,” said Chris Kraft, product management vice president at Sophos. “By offering free industrial-strength security to home users, we aim to protect Mac users against today’s and tomorrow’s Mac threats. Everyone knows that Macs are beautiful computers – Sophos wants to lend a hand to keep them that way.”

If only the teachers I had were ever this creative

November 1st, 2010 at 3:20 PM  2 Comments

You know what, the weekends don’t have a monopoly on funny technology videos. Enjoy.

Thanks @foodgeekery

Office for Mac 2011 released today

October 26th, 2010 at 1:50 PM  No Comments

Microsoft today released Office for Mac 2011 to the public. What is being lauded by both critics and Microsoft as the best version of Office for Mac ever, it’s probably the first version of Office for Mac in a long time that is at near feature match with the Windows version, although it doesn’t include all of the features. It also replaces the much hated Entourage email client for the less hated Outlook email client.

You can pickup a copy now from the Microsoft store for $149 for Home and Student, or $279 for Business. The business version is the only package that includes Microsoft Outlook, and includes 1 year of free technical support from Microsoft. The home version only includes Word, PowerPoint and Excel and 90 days of support.

MSDN & Technet users can download either from through their respective product sites and generate up to 5 keys.

Office for Mac 2011 requires at least OS X 10.5.8 Leopard with an Intel processor.

Surprise: Outlook 2011 renders emails using Webkit

October 25th, 2010 at 11:40 PM  2 Comments

Are your feet cold? Mine are, I think it’s because hell just froze over.

9to5Mac has the goods:

A little tidbit from the Microsoft gathering this evening.  While demonstrating Outlook for Mac and the HTML rendering engine, Microsoft employees revealed that instead of using the Word HTML rendering that previous versions of Mac Office used (and the PC version as well), Microsoft has moved over to Apple’s Webkit rendering engine to render HTML mails.  Outlook 2011 also uses WebKit to create HTML mail.

Coupled with the recent announcement that they were moving Windows Live Spaces to WordPress, I think Microsoft has managed to surprise me twice in one month.

The fact that Microsoft is actually using open source code in products is a great start, one can only hope they’re contributing back.

Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac will be released tomorrow.

Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac released in beta

October 25th, 2010 at 8:17 PM  2 Comments

Microsoft has delivered on a promise to allow Mac OS X users to sync their Windows Phone 7 devices today by releasing the beta of the Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac. This software will sync your WP7 device with your iTunes and iPhoto library, using Apple’s public APIs. According to Tom Warren at Winrumors, Microsoft did not need to consult with Apple in order to implement the connector. Here’s to hoping Apple doesn’t find a way to break it just because. Hopefully Microsoft will deliver a full blown Zune client for Mac users in the future.

The connector requires at least OS X 10.5. You can download the beta, weighing in at a light 1.5MB, directly from Microsoft’s website.

via winrumors.com

Decision is final: Apple’s failure is sending me to Android

June 29th, 2010 at 8:28 PM  No Comments

Ever since the iPhone supported Exchange, I’ve been a huge supporter. I’ve spent two good years on the iOS with my iPhone 3G. My job bought it for me back in 2008 and I got it shortly after launch. It was a solid phone with a lot of good things to say about it. I evangelized to everyone I knew about how they should get an iPhone, how it’s the best smartphone around. I got a 3GS for my wife, I’ve told countless other family members to get one. In most ways, when it was introduced, it was the best thing around. But things have changed.

When the iPhone 4 was announced, I followed the WWDC keynote with great anticipation. I ooh’d and aah’d at all the advances in design and software. When pre-orders started, our company bought 11 to start, and we waited until last week when they finally arrived (early) from AT&T. I rushed across campus to rip open the box and activate my new toy (err) tool. There it was, the iPhone 4, before most anyone else on the planet had their hands on one. I took pictures, I tweeted about how amazing it looked, how the screen was fantastic (it is) and how fast it was compared to my 3G.

Taking it home that night, I started to notice something was a little off with my phone. In Kansas City, AT&T really is the top carrier, and with my 3G, reception was never an issue. I can think of only one place in the city where coverage is any type of issue, and it’s not an area I frequent. So with the iPhone 4, the fact that I was only holding 4 bars at maximum, and typically 3, seemed a bit odd.

Later, I realized I was on EDGE service with hardly a bar to see, for most of my time before I jumped on my home wireless. As I started reading the news on various gadget blogs, I quickly realized I was suffering from the antenna problems that were plaguing almost ever other early adopter.

I dropped a few calls that weekend, including one to my father who seem’d to have lost my mother, but I could make due. The view from most of the people within the Apple world was that it was firmware related, and would be quickly fixed. Then Steve Jobs opened his mouth.

“You’re holding it wrong.” … or something to that affect.

Excuse me? (more…)

Next version of Microsoft Office for Mac to include Outlook

August 16th, 2009 at 9:42 PM  1 Comment

Thursday, Microsoft announced that the next version of the Office suite for Apple OS X would include Outlook, replacing Entourage as the bundled mail client.

“It is an exciting time for the MacBU with updates to our current products and the first public announcement about the next version of Office for Mac. For several years we have focused on providing the best Microsoft Exchange client for the Mac, and the Web Services Edition delivers that today for Entourage users,” said Eric Wilfrid, general manager for the Mac Business Unit at Microsoft. (more…)