Although I do most of my work in my office, I am constantly on the move, and as such I need to be able to move my office with me. If you are a consultant or a road warrior, or just want to be more efficient away from your primary workstation, I hope this post will offer some good suggestions for you. Running a mobile office should be simple, but can get a little tricky. Don’t be caught coming up short when travelling, just remember that today’s work is important, and in a recessive economy even a simple mistake like not being able to take a phone call when you don’t have a cell signal may cost you a job. As always, I welcome any tips or tricks you have, please drop a note in the comments to share. With that in mind, let’s get started! (more…)
If you are in Southern California Thursday, May 7th and you like tech stuff (particularly mobile) then join us at the Cat & Fiddle for the Mobile Geeks of Los Angeles (MGoLA)! We’ll be gathering for an informal evening of mobile story swapping, gadget playing and maybe a drinks. This is a no-host event, but is brought to you by James Whatley of SpinVox fame, Jeb Brilliant, mobile consultant, and your’s truly.
I think this is going to be a blast! This is a pretty central location for Los Angeles, and I know that there are many of you that I’ve wanted to meet in real life as we’ve come to know each other online. Please come by and say hello, even if it’s just for a quick drink…I would love to put a face with the name, more than a 24×24 avatar. ;)
BTW, this is a very casual event, so come as you are! Personally, I’ll be in flip flops.
Go check out the official Facebook page and RSVP, and feel free to drop me a tweet if you have any questions or comments. Check out the short video below from James (you may also know him as Whatleydude), showing the sick amount of hardware that he’s bringing over from London for this meetup. I hope to see you there! (more…)
My friend James Whatley of SpinVox fame recently had a chance to try out what I believe to be the future of mobile presentations: a micro laser projector from Microvision. The fine fellows at Mobile Industry Review give us a look at an incredible product; imagine a projector that fits in your back pocket, plugs directly into your mobile device and sends a full sized image up to a screen or wall. If you have ever presented to a group using a 25lb projector attached with too many cords to your laptop, then like me you would be quite anxious to get your hands on one of these.
Check out this 6:50 video, it is simply incredible. Although this projector seems to be a bit of a novelty now, I believe that in just a year or two they will be commonplace, the demand for these will skyrocket. Beyond this projector, the United States seems to be lagging far behind much of the world in the use of our mobiles, something that I am sure will change over the next few business cycles. I’m looking forward to doing more with my mobile and less with my standard laptop.
Last.fm today announced its launch on the Android platform, offering an ‘on-the-go’ music application enabling users to access all the best of Last.fm from their mobile phones. Features include similar artists and genre-specific streaming radio stations, personalized streaming radio, up-to-date concert information and the ability to track users’ listening habits to their Last.fm profile. The launch of Last.fm on Android marks the latest step in Last.fm’s expansion into the mobile music space. The application is available for download through the Android Market.
Last.fm Now On Android
Using the Last.fm application, users can listen to streaming radio stations such as personal recommendations, similar artists, and genre-specific tracks. Users can also share tracks with their friends on Last.fm and stream other users’ stations. The new ‘Background Playback’ feature enables users to listen to Last.fm’s streaming music while accessing other programs, such as email, without interrupting the music experience.
Last.fm users can view an on-the-go version of their personal music profiles that includes mobile versions of Last.fm Charts page and Artist pages, with biographies, tags, similar artists and top listeners, all optimized for the Android platform. Users can access Last.fm’s Events listings to browse artists on tour, search for events, view Last.fm recommendations and view mapped directions to music venues.
“We are thrilled to bring Last.fm even further into the mobile music space with the launch of this app. The Last.fm service on Android enables our listeners to use virtually every Last.fm feature on their mobiles,” said Martin Stiksel, Last.fm Co-Founder. “It truly is a ‘to-go’ version of the site. Last.fm on Android takes the mobile music experience to the next level.”
Last.fm on Android follows Last.fm’s successful launch on the iPhone and iPod Touch last year, as well as integrations with Vodafone, T-Mobile, and the Three/INQ1 Social Mobile in Europe. You can find more information on the app at Last.fm.
I just wrote a new post on Mashable called “How To: Use Twitter On The Go“, it’s about browser based option for Twitter control, as well as voice to Twitter services like SpinVox. I think you will find some of the information useful, especially if you live in California and can no longer use your mobile device to type while driving.
Once you check it out, come find me on Twitter and say hi, I would love to hear your feedback.
The ability for all of my readers to see my posts in the method of their choosing is very important to me. Although the majority of my traffic comes from desktop and laptop computers, I’m starting to see an increase in visits from mobile browsers. I’ve tried different plug-ins from time to time that are supposed to redirect to a mobile friendly page, but for the most part they have been too watered down. With 3G and other high speed networks, I’m not sure that text-only is the way to go. I think I’ve found a service that finally balances mobile speed with aesthetics. Enter Mippin.
Based in The UK, Mippin does an amazing job of transforming my site from bells and whistles to mobile friendly. From my POV, the ease with which this is done makes it a bit of a no-brainer. They will grab my feed and transform it for free into a fully functional web site that is mobile browser friendly. If you want to see what this site looks like, browse on your mobile phone or look at this page in your browser.
If you run your site on WordPress, they have sweetened the deal even further. They have created a WordPress Plugin that you upload to your wp-content/plugins folder, activate and that’s it. I have tested this on a few different phones and it redirects without problems. Of course the question that you have to ask yourself is, do you want to redirect? The plugin actually steers your audience to the Mippin site, away from yours. Personally I’m okay with this, but I know some people that are not. It’s a personal choice.
If you run a blog, you need to try this out, it’s fabulous. For more info check out their blog, or follow them on Twitter.
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Yesterday I was working on an RFP, trying to focus on what I was doing, typing away and listening to some pretty relaxed music. Something was seriously distracting me, it was the horrid sound of interference coming through my computer speakers about once a minute thanks to the close proximity of my iPhone. I’ve been putting up with this problem for a long time, but I never checked into it. I finally tweeted my frustration, and my problem was solved right away. The solution was much easier than I anticipated.
Tin foil. UPDATE: I am constantly being corrected…apparently it isn’t made of tin anymore, rather aluminum. You get the idea though, go get some Reynold’s Wrap.
It seems the GSM phones (AT&T, my carrier, uses GSM) work on a frequency that interferes with many electronic products, and you hear this interference most often in speakers (near your TV, on your computer or in your car). Both fxmixer and jmccartie suggested I use tinfoil to fix the problem, and fxmixer even linked me to this article over on bub.blicio.us. Bravo! I cut out a medium sized piece of tinfoil, folded it a couple of times and put it on my desk near my speakers. I then place my iPhone on it and…instant success! This actually works, resting my iPhone on a square of tinfoil cuts out all interference!
So there you are, friends. If you are going crazy with speaker interference like I was, your solution is just a square of tinfoil away.
I am the Senior Director of Social Media Strategy for M80 in Los Angeles, however everything I write here is my own opinion and not that of my employer. I hope they're close though!
Although I do most of my work in my office, I am constantly on the move, and as such I need to be able to move my office with me. If you are a consultant or a road warrior, or just want to be more efficient away from your primary workstation, I hope this post will offer some good suggestions for you. Running a mobile office should be simple, but can get a little tricky. Don’t be caught coming up short when travelling, just remember that today’s work is important, and in a recessive economy even a simple mistake like not being able to take a phone call when you don’t have a cell signal may cost you a job. As always, I welcome any tips or tricks you have, please drop a note in the comments to share. With that in mind, let’s get started! (more…)
