If you want an account, you either need an invite or have to start paying for the service (see Account Options below to see what you get in each plan).

There is a lot of buzz about this service and if you are one of those people who has to try it now, you can get a free account right now with this pretty simple loophole.

Account Options:

• Free users can sign up to access Spotify’s library, but streaming will be time-limited and ad-supported.
• Unlimited Streaming ($4.99/month) – gives you unlimited listening with no time limits, ad-free streaming, and the ability to share songs and playlists with friends.
• Premium ($9.99/month) – adds to the unlimited streaming features with mobile apps and offline listening, and the best sound quality the service has to offer.

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Whether you are a designer, developer, writer, marketer, you need to understand usability to be able to create experiences that people would enjoy. Being aware of what is going on, also makes it easier for the team to work with a usability professional and move the project along.

Here are some resources where you can learn more about usability

1. Interaction Design Association. It is a global network dedicated to the professional practice of Interaction Design. With the help of more than 20,000 members since 2004, the IxDA network provides an online forum for the discussion of interaction design issues and other opportunities and platforms for people who are passionate about interaction design to gather and advance the discipline. Their website has a great list of resources with video talks from past events/conferences.
2. Interaction Conference – Every year, IxDA gathers the interaction design community to stretch our minds, sharpen our skills, and inspire each other.  We are very excited to be a media partner for the interaction ’11 conference in February and will be conducting interviews with some of the presenters and writing about some of our favorite sessions.  So stay tuned!
3. Learn from Other’s Successes  – Find other web applications that people are raving about and learn from them.  Here is a list of great web app interfaces to get you started.
4. Read books on the subject: 11 Usability, UX, Interface books you should own

Do you have other suggestions?  Please share with us in the comments!

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Once you install Dropbox on a computer, all you have to do is drop the files you would like to sync & share  into the Dropbox folder and they are automatically updated and uploaded on all of your shared computers .

Here are some ways DropBox makes me more productive:

• Seamlessly synchronize my files – If I’m editing a file on one computer, as soon as I save it, Dropbox will sync this same file to all of the other computers instantly and automatically…this gives me the freedom to work on any computer and always have the files I need.
• Collaborate on group projects – Our virtual team can have access to key files regardless of which computer we are on.  We also no longer have to send documents via email attachments to each other and the built in version control will keep a history of all of the modifications to the file so we can see how thes document evolves and undo changes if we make a mistake.
  

  By default, we keep the last 30 days of undo history for all your files. We also have an unlimited undo option called “Pack-rat”.

• Instant Access to all the files from anywhere – Using the Dropbox website interface to get access to my files from any computer or mobile device.
• Automatically backup your files – Every time me or my team put a file in to the Dropbox folder it is automatically backed up to DropBox secure servers and we can be restore at any time.

Watch a demo of DropBox and I look forward to hearing your experiences with it!  Are you already using DropBox?  Let me know your thoughts in the comments section.

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When I got connected at home, the trouble began. I noticed that my Internet connection would get slower and slower, and then these horrendous pop-ups and explicit web sites starting popping up. I knew that viruses had over-run my system, and I quickly took it to get it “cleaned,” for a fee.  Before this, I downloaded free anti-virus software that came highly recommended, but it either did nothing or contributed to my system crashing. I will never download anything like it again—I bought the Norton ™ Internet Security software and have been satisfied ever since.  It may hurt financially at first, but in the long run, it’s worth it.

Now my power cord is frayed and its looking like I am will have to replace it. These occasional but annoying drawbacks make me wonder if paying over $1000 for a MacBook Pro is worth it in the long run. They are lightweight and apparently quite durable, which is good for me because I can be accident prone at times. I don’t know how it happened, but my current Dell laptop has a slightly long yet subtle crack near the keyboard. I also keep hearing that Macs are much more virus-resistant than their PC counterparts, which leaves me wondering if it is worth shelling out all that money up front for the former is a more sensible investment.

I guess I know the answer my questions, but I am not planning to run out and buy a Mac anytime soon. I think I am going to slug it out until next spring or early summer before I decide to purchase a new laptop. I’m off to my local electronics megastore to buy a new power cord for my old PC. This is not the time for big financial splurges, even though I’ve been known to indulge in the past. I am just praying that my machine will keep for another year. In the meantime, I am backing up all my files and praying that the inevitable won’t become a reality anytime soon.  

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From productivity tools like Open Office to numerous free wikis on the market, open source software has become more mature and ready for prime time in a year where CIOs will be looking to cut enterprise costs where possible while keeping teams intact and productive.

So where are the options to go from vendor to open?  Here are a few to consider either for yourself or for your department/business:

Open Office

Open Office is Sun’s response to Microsoft Office, just free.  Five basic applications are provided, which are equivalent to Microsoft Word (Writer), Microsoft Excel (Calc), Microsoft Power Point (Impress),  Microsoft Access (Base), and Microsoft Visio (Draw).  While this is close to being an apples to apples comparison, the main productivity feature that lacks, which may cause some companies to shy away from Open Office, is the lack of shared calendaring and other advanced calendaring and spreadsheet features Microsoft offers.

Zoho

For a small business or independent consultant, Zoho will pretty much provide all the collaboration tools you need for free to manage your business, from CRM, Microsoft Office equivalents, to free web conferencing (sorry no toll free number included, but, just use Skype for free voice over IP long distance!).  The only catch is to not go above 5-10 users to keep the free version.

Moodle

How are you keeping your teams learning and growing so you can continue to add value and survive the recession we are in?  Moodle, though used in education, can also be used to help manage and track educational process while delivering virtual classes.

GNUCash

Don’t want to buy Quick Books?  GNUCash has been at the top of 2-3 other open source accounting software technologies out on the market for the last few years.  It provides double-entry accounting, invoicing capabilities plus many other features and functions to run anyone’s personal finances on or small business.

Google

Google has become a major player in the hosted tools market, going beyond their search and Gmail capabilities to provide a number of Google Apps to help run one’s business.  It’s not free, but $50/user (versus $1K+ for many desktop alternatives and reduction of needing inhouse IT staff to manage the desktop version of these Software as a Service – SaaS – options)

So what should trigger you to switch or deciding on free versus commercial when kicking off your new independent consultancy this winter?  Common reasons are anywhere from being fed up on paying exhorbatent fees for software that is available for free, usability to having a philosophy that supports open source to how much or how little end user support you want these vendors/communities to provide to you and/or your employees.  The other benefit of most open source software is you can build in your own features if you are technical enough.

For example, an acquaintence switched to Open Office when Microsoft finally nailed the coffin on free Microsoft Office upgrades with Vista.  He could upgrade Microsoft Office for free previously when he upgraded the OS, but not any more.

Remember there are options to continue digital productivity you do not have to pay for!

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What Venture Capitalists are NOT investing in

• Web 2.0: Because companies are investing less in ads, social networking sites and other ad-driven sites are harder to get funding for. They say that even companies like Facebook might have been passed up if it had been pitched in a similar climate.
• Mobile Software: In spite of the success of mobile devices like the iPhone, investors are reluctant to invest in mobile applications because companies are not ready to sell mobile ads. Businesses aren’t yet convinced that ads on mobile devices will be as lucrative as web ads have been.
• Large, clean energy projects: In 2008, investors pumped $3 billion in these projects, up from $1.9 billion in 2007 (according to the National Venture Capital Association). But in 2009, building large factories is seen as too expensive and risky.

What Venture Capitalists ARE investing in

• Mobile Hardware: Investors think there’s opportunity to improve mobile hardware. According to the article: Revenue from the iPhone and BlackBerry exceeds that of the entire mobile content market. Mobile accessories are also expected to do well in ’09.
• Enterprise software: Investors are turning from the individual consumer back to enterprise software. Though they’re reluctant to invest in corporate software package, they are looking at open-source, web-based software, cloud computing, and virtualization software.
• Clean Energy Software: Even though they’re not investing in clean energy plants, venture capitalists are looking for software that helps monitor energy consumption.
• Personalized Health Care: Investors see this as a wide open space that hasn’t yet been tapped. Software could range from applications that predict medical outcomes based on genetics, to software that helps manage health savings of companies or individuals.

Read the full article: In Silicon Valley, Venture Capitalists Turn Cautious and Focus on the Short Term

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This was my first BarCamp event, and I was fascinated by how structured this ad hoc event actually was. The day’s schedule was organized on the fly over coffee and doughnuts an hour before start time. Anyone who showed up ready to present wrote the name of their presentation on a piece of paper, and the organizers taped each presentation name on a wall under an open time slot and room. The attendees picked what session they would attend based on the options on the wall, and just like that the slots filled up and we were off to learn about the current state of mobility.

Below is a quick recap of some of the sessions I attended. I don’t have all the presenters names because, as I mentioned, there was no official schedule, and some people said their names too quickly for me to jot down. Oh, and please pardon the quality of my photos. I took them with (you guessed it) my mobile phone.

Introduction to Developing Apps for the iPhone

In this first session, the presenter walked us through the steps on setting up a “Hello World!” application on the iPhone or iTouch. He showed us the basic registration process and how to download the SDK. He showed us the drag and drop interface and other WYSIWYG features. Then he demoed the device simulator, which lets you preview your application on an iPhone or iTouch through your computer screen.

This was definitely an introduction for beginners (he actually did an advanced session in the afternoon), but it allowed us to get a good overview of the process so we could know what to expect. (Plus I ate a cream-filled doughnut during this talk, so I was happy.)

Location-Based Marketing

The next session I attended was on how to market to people through mobile devices. For example, companies are exploring ways to deliver real-time messages based on where people are at that moment. So if you’re walking by a coffee shop, a coupon to buy one coffee and get a free donut (so I still have donuts on the brain) could appear on your screen. Ideally, these would even be personalized or behaviorally targeted, so a vegetarian wouldn’t get a $1 off a cheeseburger coupon.

The presenter opened it up and let people throughout the room talk about what they were working on in this space. Several people in the room already have had success with location-based marketing:

• Buzzd helps people discover what’s going on around them right now based on GPS.
• 8coupons texts deals to your mobile phone and you just have to flash your screen to the cashier to get the discount.
• Unype shows discounts in stores around you.

People in the room agreed that there are two major issues inhibiting progress:

1. Devices need to be awake to receive the messages. So when I’m walking past the coffee shop, I only get my coupon if I happen to be using my mobile device. It doesn’t wake up and alert me that I’m walking past some great deal.
2. People love their privacy and may not want companies collecting their GPS coordinates every step of the way (literally).

All this sounds cool, but it also sounds like a lot of spam. I can’t wait to see what this becomes over the next few years.

Designing for Real-World Game Experiences

Next I went to hear Karen Schrier and Nick Smolney discuss digital games that can played in physical space. There are several apps already doing this, most notably the Japanese game Mogi Mogi, which allows you to pick up virtual items by moving to physical spaces.

Karen and Nick, however, took a different approach and are focusing on creating real-world games with a social purpose. They wanted to create a game that started to capture the large discrepancy of food prices throughout the city and that revealed which stores had the best tasting and lowest cost items. Any New Yorker can attest that a can of salsa on one block can be $3 and then that same item can be $6 a few blocks in another direction.

Using New York City as a board game, they developed a game that broke people into teams and had each team shop for a grocery list at the grocery stores and bodegas in a certain area of the city. The teams had a set budget and amount of time for shopping, and in the end they were judged on lowest price and best taste. The result is a growing database that is collecting the current price points of items at different stores.

It was an interesting look at what games, mobile devices, and social communities can create.

Building Things that Make New York City Easier

Dennis Crowley, best known for creating Dodgeball, led an exploration of the many mobile applications we New Yorkers are scrambling to create. He zipped through what seemed like 50 examples of apps that mix GPS location with an element of community in an attempt to make our lives on this cement island a little easier.

Here’s just one of the many New York-specific examples: On sunny days, New Yorkers seem to all end up craving one thing: a think shake from the Shake Shack in Madison Square Park. So we each head off to the park only to discover that everyone else is there and the line is wrapped all the way around to the dog run by the R train entrance. Ugh. But those days are over! Some clever soul whipped up the Shakeshake Twitterbot, which allows people in line to update the rest of us on how long, or short, the line is. (Pst. Go now! At the time I’m writing this, the most recent post says: “hi no one in line. The data is correct!”)

And for you non-New Yorkers, he also discussed apps for all locations. Some were simple, like Umbrella Today? which texts you on mornings when you should carry your umbrella.

As with location-based marketing, these nifty apps face the same issues with privacy concerns and the hurdle of sleeping devices. But there are some new challenges as well because of the community aspect:

1. Each app faces a cold start, and most aren’t very useful until the crown shows up.
2. Early adopters often leave because they don’t want to wait it out for others to join the party.

In addition, Dennis mentioned another point that I hadn’t ever heard someone verbalize when it comes to mobile games: they’re not all that fun. He cited the example of Nike, which allows you to track the times and paths of your runs on their site and even challenge other people. He said it would be a lot more fun if he could snap a picture of the large graffiti mushroom that was recently painted on the Williamsburg Bridge, upload it, and then others could earn points by running over the mushroom, like in Super Mario Bros. I run the Brooklyn Bridge, but I’d happily take a detour to earn some extra points.

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Whether it be the functionality, or tracking, or analyzing trends these tools do it. They might be a great fit for your company or for some of the clients that you work with.

Sitecore is a Web Content Management System (CMS) software that helps you create and maintain dynamic, full-featured websites of all types and Patrick Coyne of Sitecore gave me a demo and showed me how easy Sitecore is to use. It is good for the non-techie.

It is great for a developer or consultant who wants to take on a project, finish it, train the marketing department on how to use and maintain it, hand it off and move on to their next project.  Sitecore is really flexible, scalable and integrates well with your marketing organization, systems, and developer s.

When you go to the Socialtext website, don’t let all of the buzzwords fool you…Alan Lepofsky of Socialtext gave me the inside scoop, “Socialtext is a collaboration tool, with an enterprise wiki at it’s core. It will help any company work together on any project better, more intelligently, more creatively and more efficiently”.   It is a tool that combines collaboration with social networking and can help companies work more productively with their employees.

Socialtext is built on 3 core concepts – attention, collaboration, and discovery.
- Attention – they help your people know where to focus their time and attention, and on what is important.
- Collaboration – they can work together easily to create information and intelligence, proposals, and documents.
- Discovery – they can discover the connections, knowledge and easily leverage experts in your company.

This help their customers make faster decisions, accelerate innovation, work together better, use resources more efficiently, and take full advantage of their distributed workforce.

Have you ever spent time in a video-editing studio? If the answer is yes, then you know how expensive it is. Most of the time (and money) spent is getting a rough-cut or first draft, cutting the footage down and shaping your story. After you have the rough-cut the refinements come far more quickly.

Len Sitomer, president of PortalVideo, an Internet-based  and collaborative video editing application, is all about saving time when it comes to video. He showed me the power and simplicity of the new tool that he is offering. With simple “cut and paste”, PortalVideo reduces the time and costs for creating “the story” in interview-based footage, creating the rough cut and making it easier to create the right sequence, find the perfect sound bites and add it to a sequence of a transcript.

PortalVideo allows for easy collaboration, instant comments and feedback, notes and approvals. This collaboration functionality makes for a significantly more efficient project management environment. PortalVideo might be a great tool for you and your clients to save both time and money when creating interview or testimonial videos.

These are three tools to help you help your company or your clients work better and connunicate better and help you to achieve yours and their goals. In the coming week, I will highlight some more tools that I discovered that will help you be more productive,  reach your audience better or analyze what your customers are doing.

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Gliffy

Gliffy is a free web-based diagram editor. It has been referred to as the online visio killer.  Gliffy is a great tool that makes it easy to create, share, and collaborate on a wide range of diagrams.

You will need to register to begin drawing and must have a Flash plug-in installed in your browser.

Project Draw

Project Draw is another free web-based diagram editor.  This applications offers all of the tools to create basic network, flowchart or quick form layout diagrams.

DIA

Dia is a desktop application that can be run on a Windows, Lunix, and Unix operating systems.  In addition to drawing E-R diagrams, UML diagrams, flowcharts, etc., the DIA homepage suggests that it is also possible to add support for new shapes by writing simple XML files.

It can load and save diagrams to a custom XML format (gzipped by default, to save space), can export diagrams to a number of formats, including EPS, SVG, XFIG, WMF and PNG, and can print diagrams (including ones that span multiple pages).

ArgoUML

ArgoUML is an open source UML modeling tool and includes support for all standard UML 1.4 diagrams. It runs on any Java platform and is available in ten languages.

Although these free solutions may not have all of the bells and whistles that the paid software offer, they will suffice the needs of most people.

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In a New York Times article this week entitled “Disney Taps Into Blu-Ray’s Interactive Technology“, Disney announced that it will utilize Blu-Ray’s “BD Live” technology to allow customers to interact during the classic film Sleeping Beauty. For example, people can watch the DVD at the same time as their friends are and chat back and forth. Also, parents can leave their kids messages by pre-recording and inserting their own footage throughout scenes in the film. You can also challenge others to movie trivia.

But is interactivity during movies something people want? Personally, the last thing I want during a movie is interaction, but then again I’m a big fan of the solo Sunday matinee. Still, aren’t most people annoyed by mid-movie gabbing? While catching a film festival at the IFC Center a few weeks ago, I was irritated when the guy in front of me stepped out to answer a call–twice. I want to break those brightly lit devices people use in dark theatres while texting.

In the comfort of our own homes, do the rules change and we suddenly want virtual conversations with people down the street? Studios seem to be betting on it. Disney isn’t alone. Lion’s Gate and Sony plan to follow suit. These high priced DVDs are rolling out while the technology doesn’t yet come standard with most players. The Sony Playstation 3, however, can use it.

Maybe this added value of interactivity will help studios gain a competitive advantage over illegal street vendors. Anyone’s who has taken a ride on a public transit system recently knows that hackers record films in theatres and sell them the next day on the streets.

This is an interesting case of a feature companies are building before consumers demand it. Time will tell whether consumers will embrace the new technology, though past implementations indicate that more interaction between users is never a bad thing.

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