Open Atrium

Download the intranet package and there you go… you now have a blog, wiki, calendar, dashboard, to-do list, and shoutbox. You can read the how to on building customizable features for your Open Atrium.  Create groups and add users to share your private content- blog or calendar. You can join forces on a document as well as send quick messages within your group.

Zotera

This firefox add-on is about helping you collect and cite your research. By using its interface you can see your collections, access collection items, and make edits to them.  An interesting feature includes Zotera’s advance search tools that can search for key words found in a pdf itself. Other features include access to over a thousand bibliographic styles, creating a library that you have access to using any computer, a word processor plugin that allows you to cite using Word or OpenOffice (in which Zotera inserts the reference).

Launchy (Windows and Linux)

Launchy is a utility that improves opening your files, programs, folders, and bookmarks. It changes the way the start menu functions by searching from one place and launching after hitting enter. You can also index music, images, documents, and custom commands!

Google Wave Notifier

For you lucky people that have Google Wave accounts, this firefox add-on notifies you of new wavelets sent to your inbox. Those who are unfamiliar with Google Wave, it is an online tool for communicating and collaborating in real-time. The add-on icon is conveniently placed in the lower part of your browser.

Wisestamp

Click here to view the embedded video.

Signature Tweaks

This is an extension that adjusts the placement of your digital signature. If you would prefer your signature to appear after your reply and before the quoted text, this is the extension for you. This can be enabled by signing into your Gmail account and by going to Settings (top-right corner) > Labs > Signature Tweaks. Make sure you save your changes.

Google Voice

Google Voice is a another service in beta in which you need an invite like the Google Wave service. Its purpose is to help better manage your voicemail and all of your phones. There are a lot of features such as using your existing number to make your voicemail more like email. Choose to receive a google number that will connect to all of your phones. Then, you can have more features like sending certain calls to your voicemail or screening calls before answering. Learn more about Google Voice features…

Google Voice player in mail

For those with Google Voice accounts, listen to your voicemail while you’re in Gmail by enabling the Google Voice player in mail. You click the icon to play your messages in your inbox. You enable this add-on by signing into your Gmail then go to Settings (top-right corner) > Labs > Google Voice player in mail. Again, make sure you save.

Feel free to comment on this list of tools? Are there any new tools that you would like to share?

Extend the time between charges.

This section is a list of things you can do to increase battery life.

Go to Settings> …

Notifications
Unless you have an app where Notifications are needed, turn this off.

Sounds
Turn off as many alert sounds as you can.

Brightness
I keep my brightness at about a third. If I need more light, I adjust as needed. The backlight is a big energy hog, and less than full Brightness is perfectly usable.
Enable Auto-Brightness. It adjusts the light level a little to compensate for changes in ambient light.

General
If you don’t use Bluetooth regularly (daily), turn it off.
Set Auto-Lock to 5 minutes (default). If you’ve set your iPhone to never Auto-Lock, you’re wasting a lot of juice while you’re not using the device.

General> Network
Unless you absolutely need it, turn 3G off. 3G is much faster than Edge for Internet activity, but it drains the battery Q-U-I-C-K! Most people don’t do enough intensive browsing and downloading to warrant the speed boost. If I need it (or want it) for something, I turn it on and off at my discretion.

What applications should I get?

This section is a list of free and paid applications (apps) I (and others) recommend–complete with clickable links that go directly to the app store so you can learn more. There’s a lot of text below. Weed through it and I think you’ll be rewarded with at least one app you’ll love.

First, if you’re at WVU, you should grab iWVU and WVU Mobile Web. iWVU is an actual iDevice app, whereas WVU Mobile Web is a webpage.

To create an icon on your iPhone for WVU Mobile Web that acts like an app, follow these instructions:

1. Use the Safari app to open m.wvu.edu


Go to m.wvu.edu in Safari

2. Click on the plus symbol.


The m.wvu.edu mobile interface.

3. Choose Add to Home Screen.


Add to Home Screen option.

4. I leave the name alone, but you can name the link whatever you want =)


Rename m.wvu.edu if you want.

5. Now the link shows up as an ‘app’ on your iDevice. Click it to open, move it wherever you want–just like a regular app.


Icon is now on you iDevice.

For other useful apps, try these:

• Free
• Paid
• My games

Free

Pandora: If you don’t already listen to pandora.com, and you love music, get to the page and sign up for a free account–now! You enter songs or artists, and Pandora creates stations for you based on the qualities of the entries. It accesses the Music Genome Project, and makes connections between songs you would probably never make on your own. It’s done more for broadening my musical interests than any other thing in my life.

Facebook, MySpace, and TweetDeck: I think these are self-explanatory, and Tweetdeck has a standalone version for Mac, PC, and Linux =)

FiatLux: A free flashlight app with different colors. Hint: red is great for not disturbing sleeping partners in bed.

WhitePages Mobile: Find people and places with relative ease.

Inquisitor and Google: The only two search apps you really need. I find myself using Google less, and Inquisitor more. Google has a neat voice recognition feature.

Wikiamo: A great Wikipedia-specific search tool. I use this less since I started using Inquisitor.

AroundMe: Find everything from Bars to Zoos, based on your current location (GPS enabled).

Evernote and Dropbox: evernote.com is offsite memory storage for your mind. See something worth remembering? Evernote it! dropbox.com is offsite file storage, accessible on your computer or iDevice wherever you have an Internet connection.

iCraig: Craigslist app.

Dictionary: Everyone needs to look up a word now and again.

Mint: mint.com is a finance tracking site. You might find it useful to keep tabs on your bills and bank accounts.

Now Playing: The best app for finding movies and schedules.

eBay Mobile: eBay search and management app.

BigOven: Recipes!

Google Earth: Great fun with maps. Fancier and slower than the built-in Maps app.

PhoneFlicks: Manage your Netflix account and queue.

Kindle: amazon.com’s book reader, in iPhone form. FREE!

Skype: Chat/VoIP app.

WootOn!: A woot.com watcher. One day, one deal… except when there’s a wootoff! That’s where they put an item up til it sells, then another, and another, until their stock is manageable again.

WebMD: Good tool for basic medical info.

Urbanspoon: Get restaurant reviews and let the app choose a restaurant for you.

Shazam: Hear a song? Don’t know what it is? Let Shazam find out what it is for you. It’s like magic- really.

Paid

Recorder Pro: Feature-rich recording app. I like it better than the built in memo recorder.

Photogene: Think of it as more Photoshop for the iPhone than Photoshop for the iPhone is. Follow that? It’s my go-to app for adjusting images. Worth every penny.

Camera Genius: Great app with built in anti-shake, digital zoom (digital zooms look like crap, but I take what I can get), timers, and other features in a nice replacement for the built-in camera app.

TiltShift Generator: Apply the in vogue Tilt Shift blur to your images. Fun.

ColorSplash: Bleed color from your images to make striking, if not slightly cliched, images.

AutoStitch: Arranges photos in to panoramas. Very cool.

QuickOffice Mobile: Office lite clone on the go.

WeatherBug Elite: My choice over the paid version of The Weather Channel and the built-in weather app.

Convertbot: A diverse measurement conversion app. Not the best interface in the world, but I like it.

RemoteKu: Turns the iDevice in to another remote for your Roku (a Netflix streaming box).

RedLaser: Wonder if the deal you found at Target or Sam’s is the best around? Use this app to scan the barcode and see if there are better deals online.

1Password: Companion app to the standalone Mac program. Helps keep my passwords/logins together and safe.

MotionX GPS Drive: Awesome, low-cost, GPS app for driving.

QuickRoll and MachDice: For my fellow rpg’ers. Customizable dice rolling apps.

BrainHack and AmbiSci BP: Brainwave apps. Tone generators for inducing different modes of consciousness. I like the tones for relaxation and concentration =)

iStumble, ICHC, FML, Flickr, Cooliris: These are fun apps. Time wasters, if you like… well… Flickr is actually a productive app if you have an account and store your images there. There are pay and free versions of most of these.

Air Mouse Pro: Turn your iPod/iPhone in to a multi-touch remote trackpad/keyboard to control your computer.

VLC Remote: App to specifically control VLC on a Mac/PC remotely. VLC is, for those who don’t know, one of the best video file playback apps available–and it’s free.

My games

I’m not listing all the games I recommend. I’ll just throw up screenshots of my game pages, and you can decide if anything strikes your fancy.

iphone games graphic

Anyway, he brings up some excellent food for thought on how universities should to revisit how we think about openness.  Not only in the types of systems and software we employ, but in our academic materials.  He reminds us that the fundamental reason we are in higher education is to educate and share knowledge.  What difference does it make, really, if people can download our course materials?  Why shouldn’t they?  Because they haven’t yet paid for them?  Why is that important?  To get any kind of degree the will actually need to enroll, so I fail to see how that would affect the school’s bottom line.

MIT has for a number of years now offered most if not all of their course materials online for free.  Think of the savings to students in not needing to purchase books every semester.  What if the students did have access to all of the course work ahead of time, wouldn’t that just make it easier for them to complete the work and do better?  Perhaps they would get more out of the course if they were prepared and could be ready when the semester “clock is ticking?”

Here is the video clip of his presentation.  I’d love to hear what the university community thinks about this.

Cultural Agoraphobia: What Universities Need to Know About Our Bias Against Openness
In this presentation, Professor James Boyle will argue that we have a cognitive bias–he calls it cultural agoraphobia–that leads us to underestimate the potential of open networks, open culture and open productive processes. What is the evidence for such a bias?  What should a university do about it–from the library to the classroom to the archive? Using examples ranging from the development of the World Wide Web to Wikipedia and open source software, this talk will try and answer those questions.

Watch the webcast

PDFvia is a free online service that allows anyone to upload and share PDFs without using email.  Just share the link where not only the PDF is uploaded but also GZ and ZIP files.

If you’re interested in creating flowcharts, sitemaps, organization charts, and wireframes you may want to sample Lovely Charts (in beta and preparing to launch).  You give the content and the free application will map it.  Talk out your ideas on the screen without determining colors, lines, shapes, or any of the drawing.  All you have to do is drag and drop.

Text2iPod makes certain one can read text files on an iPod without controlling the size.  When the text is converted, you will be able to read it in one file not bits in multiple files.

MiniTask (free application for Windows, Mac OS and Linux) was designed to include only what is needed to make managing tasks faster and convenient.  Features include:

• drag ‘n’ drop reorder
• alarm timers
• printing task sheets
• copying tasks from and to other applications
• quick editing

Voxli is a free (in beta) service that could be useful for online meetings.  Chat online with others by sending the given URL through email, blogs, or IMs.

ImageDropr is a Flickr web application (works on Windows, Macs, Linux) for transporting your images .  Drag images from your files, drop them onto  ImageDropr, then upload to your Flickr account.

FoxTab is a Firefox extension servicing visually attractive 3-D layouts for managing your browser tabs.  Close, switch, find, and “flip” through your tabs using different FoxTab features. This extension supports Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac OS X, and Linux.

Using Firefox on more than one computer? Foxmarks, a Firefox add-on, syncs your bookmarks and passwords on each computer.

Another useful add-on for Firefox is Interclue that becomes part of your browser’s toolbar.  As you hover over a link, its summary will appear and you will also be informed if it is malware or a dead link.  Buttons will appear to give you the option to navigate among similar links, how you want to open the page, bookmark the link, increase and decrease the font size, share the url on Facebook, email the given content, copy the link, and many other options.  (You are able to change these options under the button “Change your options”).

Are there any FireFox add-ons you’re using that you think we should check out?

Blogging has become an important form of social media for professional and for personal activities.  It is important to find what tools brings out your best blogging skills.  Windows Live Writer is a desktop blog-publishing application for you PC users to work off-line.  You are able to blog using Windows Live Writer and then publish to your blogging site provided by Windows Live, Wordpress, Blogger, Live Journal, TypePad, SharePoint, and Community Server.

Work with photos, videos, maps, and plug-ins. So,  not only are you able to post photographs, but Windows Live Writer also makes it possible to post albums.  There are a number of editing tools included.  Whatever published effect you set for your photos such as a “tilt” or a “scatter” album, a link will direct the viewer to that album in Windows Live or a larger photograph.  Also keep in mind there is a toolbar provided for formatting your post.  You can set up embedded videos to not only publish in your blog but also in YouTube or Soapbox.  Customize your application using Windows Live Writer’s provided plug-ins.  The newer plug-ins are in favor of some very popular social media applications which include Flickr Upload, Digg This, and Twitter Notify.  So you will be actively blogging as well as sharing through the mentioned applications.

Worried about the visual result?  Your blog post is meant to appear in preview mode as it will in the published view.  This should prevent surprises from popping up in your published post.

Here is Windows Live Writer’s “Full Feature List”:

• New border treatments (including Instant Photo)
• Crop and tilt photos
• Insert multiple photos
• Toolbar alignment commands enabled for images
• Insert and upload Windows Live photo albums
• Insert and publish video to YouTube
• Additional spell checking languages: Arabic, Basque, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, English (Australia), Estonian, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Turkish, and Ukrainian
• Server-side tagging (for supported blogs)
• Type-down filtering in the Open dialog
• Twitter, Digg and Flickr Plug-ins
• Improved blog account setup
• Lightbox and Windows Live Spaces inline preview support
• Improved category control: adding categories, type-down filtering
• Tabbed view switching
• AutoLink glossary
• Smart quotes/typographic characters
• Word count
• Support for bidirectional languages (like Hebrew and Arabic)
• Tabs for view switching
• Updated look and feel

Are you using or have used Windows Live Writer?  What do you think?

Mint.com gets a mention this month, simply because it is a really helpful website and application for personal finance.  It can import your online banking information and help you keep track of your spending. Clear Mountain Bank account owners will be disappointed though as it can’t yet sync with that bank’s accounts.  Centra Bank accounts, on the other hand, do work with this website.

IntenseDebate may be one of the most talked about services in the blogging world in 2008.  It allows you to manage comments you make on blogs across websites.  It also lets you reply via email.  If you have a blog, you should check it out.

Twalala is a Twitter client that allows you to politely block tweets without “de-friending” your tweeps.  You can choose to “mute” a specific person if they seem too distracting.  You can also block certain posts by entering keywords and phrases.

Clikboard is a web-based tool in which you can post a “noticeboard” for others to access.  You can share with others by having a public link to your Clikboard.  Updating your site is conveniently trouble-free.

Grapevine is an application for communicating with clients, colleagues, and any other group.  It gives one the freedom to enter and depart the on-line collaborating group as needed.

NiceTranslator is a free on-line translator with a straightforward interface.  Amusez-vous!

Convert PDF document to word is a site that…well, converts PDF files to word documents.

Tr.im is another tool for shortening urls.  If you are using Twitter, you are able to tweet (post to twitter) the url automatically from tr.im.

Thumbizy creates a thumbnail of a website.  You just type in the url and choose a size and effect.

Melt Mail is a service that forwards “temporary email”.  You are able to choose the amount of time for your email to exist before it melts away.

Please note this does not apply to the GroupWise calendar. At this time, the best way to access your GroupWise calendar on your Apple device is through Safari via https://wvugw.wvu.edu

Checklist:

-A 2nd generation iPhone or iPod Touch, or a 1st generation iPhone or iPod Touch with the latest system update installed (version 2.2).

- You’ll need your username and password for the GroupWise email you want to access.

- You’ll need your Central ID username and password, too. If you don’t know yours, start here http://centralid.wvu.edu

- Make sure your device has an active connection to the internet.

1. Find and open Settings
   
   
2. Select Mail, Contacts, Calendars
   
3. Select Add Account…
   
4. Choose Other
   
5. Enter your account information:
   
   • Name = GroupWise
   • Address is your GroupWise email address.
   • Password is the password you use to access your GroupWise email.
   • Description should fill in automagically.
   • Tap Save to continue.
6. Under Incoming Mail Server, enter the Host Name gwpop.wvu.edu
   
   • User Name is the name you use to log in to your GroupWise email.
   • Password can be left alone. It carries over from earlier.
7. Under Outgoing Mail Server, enter the Host Name exsmtp.systems.wvu.edu
   
   • User Name is your Central ID.
   • Password is your Central ID password.
   • Tap Save to continue.

Now your device will attempt to log in and retrieve your email. Chances are, it will ask you to accept a security certificate. If it does, please do! Or, if it fails to access your account the 1st time, follow the prompts to try again.

Sometimes it takes a minute or two for everything to sync. Be patient =)

Many of us are familiar with social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.  They are both very intriguing on a personal level because you can share your information with lots of people.  You can also join groups with common interests.  Facebook and MySpace groups are great for getting messages out, but they can be limiting.  What about creating your own Facebook?  What if you could take everything you do in Facebook or MySpace groups and add an easy to remember web address and more functionality?

Well if you think that might be a plus, check out Ning, a website that lets you create your own social network.  You are provided a site for your class, athletic group, research group, and any other organization or group.  Some of you may already be involved with a Facebook group such as “1,000,000 West Virginia University Mountaineer Fans,” or even “You don’t know what a Pepperoni Roll is ?!?!” Ning, on the other hand, lets you focus on a particular group and provides a forum to discuss issues or topics for your class or research group.

Ning’s features are better suited for extensive group work and communication than Facebook or MySpace groups.  Facebook Groups have a more static focus on a common goal or belief of a particular group.  Ning allows for a group to create a real network in which the members are able to interact on the very front page.  So, teaching or attending a class that lacks in daily class participation or any student group or project may find better feedback and communication by using Ning.  Members can privately or publicly share blogs, videos, forums, events, and notes for the group.  Other features include RSS, messages, comments, chat, music, text box, and photos.

Anyone already using Ning?  Share your experiences or any tips that you may have.

FoxMarks

FoxMarks is an add-on that allows you to synchronize your bookmarks across different computers.  I have my work computer, a laptop and a desktop computer at home.  I got tired of redoing my bookmarks in FireFox on every computer.  With FoxMarks, every time I add something it adds it to all of them.  Much simpler.

Delicious add-on

Delicious Bookmarks add-on is great for collecting websites. With this extension, you are able to view your bookmarks, open your del.icio.us account, and bookmark a web page.

Diigo add-on

I just started using Diigo at the recommendation of some of my Twitter contacts (”Tweeps”). It seems a bit more versatile than Delicious, so this might be a better choice. We’ll see how it goes.

Twitterfox

Twitterfox (Firefox add-on) is a more convenient way to send and receive tweets.  Rather than flipping over to another window, you are able to glance at your browser’s status bar to read the latest Tweets. If you have more than one Twitter account it also lets you toggle between them easily.

Screengrab

Screengrab copies and saves a web page as a screen shot picture.  You can copy or save the whole screen as an image or make a selection.  The selection option is especially useful if you just need a quick image for a blog post (like this one!) it saves the images in .png format and is very simple to use.

Which FireFox Add-ons are you using?