I’ve been using the new 2.0 version, which adds a number of functions that will make it very useful for web workers. The contact information to be shared is shared as a profile, which is based on the data about you that you’ve probably already added to your contact list, but which can be edited. You can also create more than one profile, so you can easily choose what information you wish to share.

In addition, Bump 2.0 allows you to automatically connect with others on Facebook and LinkedIn, and follow others on Twitter. It’s possible to share contact details in only one direction if desired. You can also share photos, other people’s contact information, compare calendars and send invites. There’s also a chat function for communicating with people you’ve “bumped” in the past, although I haven’t tried this yet.

According to Bump’s FAQ, it requires that both phones have an active Internet connection, since it “matches” the two phones that are connecting through the cloud. You may also want to check Bump’s privacy policy.

The free Bump app is available for the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Android, and the developers say that other mobile platforms are on the way. And yes, it’s possible for an iPhone user to connect with an Android user. There’s also an API, which will enable users to do things like send money via PayPal just by bumping phones.

Of course, the idea of sharing contacts wirelessly isn’t new. I seem to recall that my old Palm PDA had a similar function. But the 2.0 version of Bump is pretty slick, and it will be quite useful once it becomes popular.

What apps do you use to swap contact details?

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Are You Empowering Your Mobile Workforce?

When you open the app, instead of the usual grid of hours, you’ll see an analog clock face marked with AM or PM. Click the plus sign, and you’ll be presented with over 50 icons that can be used to create different types of events. These images are imaginative, and include a check mark, a golfer, a dog, a party hat, a sailboat, a skier and a blank one that you can add text to. Once you’ve selected the icon, you can drag it to attach it to the clock, or double-tap on it to add details. The result is a visual representation that’s surprisingly easy to understand at a glance. It works well for “dinner at 7″ but is probably not so useful for “train at 5:28.”

Diacarta has some cute touches, like a “ticking” sound that plays for a couple of seconds while it’s loading. It uses some unusual gestures like rotating the clock face — clockwise to move forward in time, or anticlockwise to move backward — so it takes a bit of learning. But I figured it out in only a couple of minutes, even before watching the entertaining and narration-free video.

What makes the app stand out are the graphics, which are elegant, and a real change from Apple’s usual clean, if slightly sterile, design. The app looks good on my iPod touch, and I suspect it’ll look even better on the iPad’s larger screen. The only jarring note is the use of a monospaced font in certain interface elements, which looks out of place to me, but which doesn’t detract from the app’s readability.

This is an initial 1.0 release, and it lacks some features that would make it more useful, like a way to sync information with the iPhone’s own Calendar, or with other services like Google Calendar. It also doesn’t have a way to create recurring events, or a backup and restore function.

But if you’re an analog sort of person who’s not “so amazingly primitive that [you] think digital watches are a pretty neat idea,” (thanks, Douglas Adams) you may find Diacarta a refreshing change from the traditional interface.

How do you manage your schedule on a mobile device?

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Report: The Real-Time Enterprise

The experience on a long-distance train is very different than that of “corridor” trains like the Acelas in the northeast and the Cascades Talgo trains in the northwest. I enjoyed watching the countryside go by and chatting with my fellow passengers. So much so, in fact, that I didn’t do any of the writing I had planned, or even crack open a book.

The technical planning I wrote about in my earlier post went as I had expected. I was able to check my email and keep up with Twitter, Facebook and RSS feeds on my iPod touch connected to a Sprint Overdrive hotspot. Amtrak does offer Wi-Fi on the Acela trains, and the service has been so popular that it will be expanded to other areas soon.

Connectivity was limited in some of the Great Plains, but I was a bit surprised at the poor connections in parts of New England. A colleague had a similar problem at a major resort in Florida using another carrier, so I can’t blame either Sprint or the specific equipment I was using.

Nevertheless, I was able to download what I needed while the train was stopped in places like Whitefish, Montana, after which I could read and respond to messages offline.

My colleagues have written a lot about how to take vacations, so I’ll just add a couple of suggestions of my own:

• Don’t plan to work any more than you absolutely have to.
• Decide how connected you really want or need to be while you’re away.
• Give yourself some planning time before the vacation, and decompression time afterward.
• Tell your clients in advance that you’ll be away. Most will be understanding.

Have a great summer, and bon voyage!

How will you take time off this year?
Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Are You Empowering Your Mobile Workforce?

It was a coincidence that I had to shop for a new cell phone on Earth Day. But buying  the Samsung Reclaim from Sprint seemed like a good way of marking the occasion. Sprint says that the Reclaim is “both eco-friendly and…feature-rich.”

Reclaim’s hardware is made from bio-plastic materials extracted from corn, making 80 percent of the phone recyclable. Reclaim’s eco-friendly features extends to its packaging and support materials, which include a link to an online user manual in lieu of a print version, use of soy-based ink on enclosed printed materials, a phone box and phone tray made from recycled materials, and an Energy-Star approved phone charger.

In honor of its green-ness, the Reclaim is available in a “Earth Green,” but the color is too bright for my tastes. I opted for “Graphite Grey,” which, in light of the recent news, looks rather like volcanic ash. On the whole, it’s a nice-looking gadget.

The Reclaim is considerably lighter and thinner than my old Treo. Its screen is bright and clear, and it seems to be pretty sturdy. I’ve dropped it a couple of times with no adverse effects. The covers for the slots for the charger plug and the MicroSD card seem awfully flimsy, though, and I suspect they may break easily.

I prefer full keyboards with vertical layouts as on the Treo, Palm Pre, and many BlackBerry phones. Keyboards that slide out sideways don’t work too well for me, since I’m left-handed, and the navigation keys are invariably on the right side of the keyboard. The Reclaim’s keyboard is well laid out, but the keys themselves are flat, close together, and not easy to type on.

Incoming sound quality is very good; one person said I sounded a bit “electronic,” but otherwise, outgoing voice quality seems to be fine. Signal strength has been excellent, even in places with marginal reception.

The volume of the ringer, earpiece, and speakerphone can be set quite loud, which I appreciate. I haven’t had the phone long enough to really test its battery life, but Sprint claims 6 hours of talk time. I also haven’t tried some of its other features, including a 2-megapixel camera, voice recognition and stereo Bluetooth.

The software isn’t bad, as long as you know what you’re getting. The Reclaim comes with Sprint’s “One Click” interface and basic productivity apps, including a mail app, a web browser, a calendar and an address book. It also has apps for social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube. The screen fonts on the Facebook app are so tiny I can’t read wall posts, even with my glasses on — I guess Sprint figured that oldsters like me wouldn’t be using Facebook.

Sprint claims that this phone can download 60,000 free applications through the “Digital Lounge,” which is the Sprint-branded version of the GetJar app store. I did find some free apps, but most of the useful apps I looked at carried monthly fees of $3-10. And the quality of apps is variable. The free version of Google Maps is almost illegible on the Reclaim’s screen, and didn’t pick up where I was, even after enabling GPS.

So compared to the one-time purchase costs that are common on the iPhone/iPod touch and Android platforms, apps for the Reclaim can get expensive very quickly. Sprint even charges a monthly fee for their service to back up one’s contact list — and it’s not even full sync. For me, this is the biggest limitation of the Reclaim’s software: its inability to sync address book and calendar data. (There are some third-party solutions that claim to be able to do this, but I have no idea if they work.)

Sprint is continuing its green efforts and has just announced the Restore, another eco-friendly phone, which is scheduled for availability this summer. Meanwhile, Sprint is offering the Samsung Reclaim online at no charge after rebates and with a two-year contract, which is a good deal. But for web workers who are used to smartphones like the iPhone, Treo, Pre, BlackBerry or Android-based phones, the Reclaim has limited functionality. If all you need is a phone that can make calls, send texts and do some light web browsing, it might work for you.

If you find the Reclaim’s green tech credentials appealing, you should check out our Green:Net conference, which takes place on April 29 in San Francisco — there are still a few tickets left.

Do you think you could get by without your smartphone?

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Cleantech Market Overview, Q1 2010

Since I’ve already got a couple of laptops, an iPod touch, and an old Palm Treo 755p smartphone, I decided to try reading books using these first before spending money on yet another gadget.

• The free eReader software for the Treo 755p seems to work fine, but for someone with middle-aged nearsightedness, the 755p’s screen is just too small.
• On a laptop, the Adobe Digital Editions and Calibre programs are also good. Even with a big screen and an ergonomic setup, though, I’m not excited about reading on a computer. I stare at a computer screen all day as it is. I want to get out of an office environment after hours. I can’t see myself using a laptop in bed.
• For the iPhone/iPod touch, the free Stanza software is very impressive. It displays well, has all the features one could want. But reading a novel on the iPod’s screeen won’t work very well, as I found that my battery started to go dead in about an hour.

So, I thought, maybe a dedicated e-book reader does make sense. I took a look at a few. The following observations are certainly not comprehensive. But they list a few of the reasons why I liked, and didn’t like, the ones I tried.

• Barnes & Noble Nook. I spent about an hour at my local B&N store looking at the Nook. It has lots of nice features, but even with the latest firmware update, it’s very slow. I’m a pretty fast reader, so waiting a few seconds each time I want to turn a page would drive me crazy. It’s also heavy; not something that I could hold in one hand.
• Sony Readers. After looking at the Nook, I went down the street to Borders and checked out the Sony Reader Touch Edition and the Sony Reader Pocket Edition. The Pocket is small and light, and lots of people enjoy it, but for us left-handers, it’s impossible to use with one hand, since the controls are laid out for righties. Surprisingly, the larger Touch has a more ambidextrous interface, but its touch screen is fuzzier, less bright, and prone to glare and fingerprints.
• Amazon Kindle. Since the Kindle is sold only online, there’s no place to check one out before ordering. Darrell likes it, though, and I looked at one belonging to a friend. It’s not as heavy as the Nook, but like the Nook, it still feels too heavy for one-handed reading. It also uses a proprietary format for its books, which my local public library does not offer.
• Bookeen Opus. My local Fry’s computer store was selling this lesser-known e-book reader on sale for $149, which was $60 to $100 or more cheaper than any of the other readers I looked at. (Unfortunately, that special price is no longer available.) The Opus is small, light, and has a simple interface. It doesn’t have wireless connectivity, it doesn’t play music, and it doesn’t have many of the bells and whistles that some of the other readers have. But as I said, I already have lots of other gadgets, so I don’t really need these features.

The Opus came closest to what I want, so I did decide to buy it. But the usefulness of the Opus — like that of all of its e-reader cousins — is totally hobbled by books that come with digital rights management. Illustrator Brad Colbow has  a great, only slightly tongue-in-cheek, observation on why DRM doesn’t work — just substitute e-books for audio books.

A lot of the tech bloggers, of course, are salivating about the upcoming Apple iPad. Darrell has some great observations on what will be needed to make it relevant for web workers. So far, I’m not seeing anything that makes me want to spend that kind of money. And there are several other e-readers arriving, too.

On the whole, I was disappointed by the whole e-reader experience. I can see how an e-reader would be useful if you mostly want to read free e-books, like the ones Celine suggests. But until the prices of the hardware come down, the technical issues are resolved, and the obnoxious DRM is dealt with, I’ll probably still read most of my books in print, obtained from the library or one of the independent bookstores.

Do you use an e-reader?

Cybook Opus image from Wikimedia Commons.

Related GigaOM pro content (sub req.): Irrational Exuberance Over E-Books?

1. Use fingerless gloves. Any style of fingerless gloves will obviously work, but the Etre Touchy gloves I added to my inexpensive gift guide look particularly good, and because they are only missing thumb and index fingertips, your hands will stay a little warmer than full fingerless gloves. If you don’t like the idea of having exposed fingertips at all, then maybe convertible glove mittens are the answer — to answer a call or check email you’d just need to flip back the mitten top.
2. Use a stylus. You can buy relatively inexpensive styluses to use with touchscreen devices. (Here’s one specifically for the iPhone, for example.) It’s important to use a stylus that won’t scratch the screen over time. If you don’t want to pay for a dedicated stylus or happen to lose yours, Lifehacker provides this clever trick: Use the negative (flat) end of an AAA battery. Because the end of the battery is smooth it won’t scratch your screen, and exhausted batteries work just as well as fresh ones — it works well, as you can see in the photo at the top of this post.
3. Use conductive gloves. You can buy gloves specifically made to work with touchscreen devices — these Dots Gloves have special conductive pads on the the tips of the thumb and three fingers, and aren’t overly expensive (ranging from $15 to $25 per pair — they appear to be popular as many sizes are currently sold out). There are also these PlayPoint gloves. However, if you don’t want to shell out for special gloves, you can also make your existing gloves work with touchscreens by sewing conductive thread into the fingertips, and it’s easy to do — there’s a tutorial on how to do it over on Instructibles.

Do you have any other workarounds for using gloves with touchscreen devices? Share them below!

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Mobile Q4: All Eyes Were on Android, 4G and the Rising Tablet Tide
• Report: A Mobile Video Market Overview
• In Q3, the Tablet and 4G Were the Big Stories

After my recent post about the betas I use, I was introduced to Nimbuzz, an IM program that is now offering voice services in competition with Skype and Gizmo5 (which was recently purchased by Google).

The origins of Nimbuzz are in Europe. It claims a 20 percent market share in several European countries, and it’s popular in the Middle East. The company says that it has 12 million users, and is adding 40,000 users per day — not bad for a service that’s less than two years old. Nimbuzz is less well known in North America, but that may soon change.

Nimbuzz Mobile

Nimbuzz focuses much of its effort on developing mobile clients for a wide variety of mobile phones, including the iPhone/iPod touch, Android systems, and BlackBerry (a native BlackBerry app is new today). Nimbuzz clients are available in several languages.

The Nimbuzz Mobile client supports the IM services one would expect (Windows Live/MSN, Yahoo, Google Talk, AIM, ICQ); social networking chat (Facebook, MySpace); plus some services not often seen in North America, but which are popular elsewhere (the VZ Networks, Gadu-Gadu, Hyves, Giovani).

The client also allows you to make VoIP calls using any SIP account (like Gizmo5), Skype, or its own NimbuzzOut service. Nimbuzz claims that its international calling rates are cheaper than Skype’s.

I found the Nimbuzz mobile client for iPhone/iPod touch to be attractive and easy to use. Both the IM and voice functions work well. I have some minor grumbles, which I’m told will be remedied in upcoming versions.

• In order to make voice calls, the phone number to be dialed must be entered into your device’s address book in full international format — like +1 (555) 555-1212. However, one can’t edit this data directly from Nimbuzz.
• The client supports only one account per service, so if you have, say, two Google Talk accounts, you must pick one.
• Nimbuzz does not yet support GTalk for Google Apps accounts.
• I was recently required to change my GTalk password due to “suspicious activity,” but Nimbuzz for iPhone doesn’t seem to have a way to change service passwords. I had to delete the GTalk account in the client, then re-create it.

Nimbuzz for Mac

The developers at Nimbuzz say that they are “big Apple fans,” and it shows. The Nimbuzz Mac client comes close to the elegance of Adium. I hope the program will maintain its Mac-friendly design as it matures. The Windows version looks good, too, although I haven’t tested it.

The desktop client has most of the features and limitations of the mobile version, although it doesn’t yet support voice calling or Skype chat. It also doesn’t share data with the mobile version, which would be nice, so as to avoid having to input account data more than once. And I would have liked to have seen integration with the Mac Address Book app.

Nimbuzz also offers a web version, which isn’t as full-featured as some other web-based IM services, such as Meebo.

Nimbuzz doesn’t work with Twitter, although I think that’s a good thing. Twitter isn’t a messaging service, it’s a microblogging service, and I have found that Twitter functions in IM clients don’t work very well.

I’m very encouraged by the development of Nimbuzz so far. The company tells me that, instead of adding features willy-nilly, they have chosen to “do it right.”I can certainly agree with that in principle, although given the speed with which other apps are being created and updated, let’s hope that Nimbuzz can keep pace.

Have you tried the new Nimbuzz BlackBerry client? Let us know what you think of it below.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• A 2011 NewNet Forecast
• Transient Apps: The Consumer Influence on Enterprise Mobility, Part 2

But why not buy an iPhone, or a Palm Pre, which I’d had my eye on for several months? The Pre seems to be a good phone, but it doesn’t yet have the apps that the iPhone does. And the monthly fees for Pre service are considerably higher than what I’m paying now. The iPhone’s monthly fees are even higher, and many folks I’ve talked to don’t find it to be a very good phone.

So, keeping my current phone and buying an iPod touch seemed like a good compromise. I can get good Wi-Fi coverage in most areas where I live, so I’ll be able to go online, even without the phone function.

Many of my WWD colleagues already have iPhones. Aliza has recently written about good apps for web workers. Dawn’s shared her favorites, too. But with the holidays coming up, here are some of my ideas for apps to put on that brand-new iPhone or iPod touch:

Communication

• eBuddy. A multi-service instant message client for MSN/Windows Live, AIM, Yahoo, Gtalk, ICQ, Facebook Chat and MySpace Chat. Supports multiple accounts on the same service. Versions for web, Android and other platforms also available. Free.
• Facebook. A well-designed way for Facebook users to keep up with their friends while on the road. The app has had its issues, but they are apparently fixed now. Free.
• Gist. Scott and I have both found Gist useful, and the Gist iPhone app does a pretty good job of presenting a lot of information in a small space. Free.
• LinkedIn. This app keeps LinkedIn users, er, “linked in” from their iPhones and iPod touches. The latest upgrade adds some nice features, including an inbox for LinkedIn messages. Free.
• Nimbuzz. You can use this app to make inexpensive international calls over Wi-Fi. The app also includes a chat function, but it’s pretty rudimentary compared to eBuddy. Free app; rates for calls vary.
• RingCentral. If you’re a RingCentral user, you can use this app to manage your phone messages and more. Free for RingCentral users.
• Tweetie. There are lots of Twitter apps, but so far, I like Tweetie the best. It has a clean interface, and supports multiple Twitter accounts. Thanks for the tip, Darrell! $2.99.
• Waveboard. Mobile access to Google Wave. Will hopes for better access soon; I imagine that this app will become more sophisticated as Wave does. $0.99.

File and Idea Management

• Dropbox. This app is another reason to love Dropbox, which many of us at WWD do. As one would expect from Dropbox, it just works. Free.
• Evernote. My colleagues at WWD like Evernote, too, and I’ve finally seen the light. It’s a great replacement for PhatNotes, which I used to use with various Palm products. (The Palm versions are apparently no longer available.) Free.

News

• Reeder. A very nice and elegant RSS reader that syncs with Google Reader. $0.99.

Just about every news source also has its own iPhone/iPod touch app these days. So far, I’ve been impressed with the ones from NPR and from some news outlets that have used the PodCurry platform.

Password Management

• 1Password. Manage and sync passwords. I’ve been playing with the brand-new version 3, and it’s good enough that I’ve moved from SplashID after many years. Use Dropbox with 1Password to make your password data available on multiple machines. $7.99.
• LastPass. Manage and sync passwords across multiple machines. The Firefox add-on for this service was included in WWD’s Add-Ons Collection. Apps for iPhones and other mobile devices available with premium membership, $12/year.

I’ve barely begun finding fun stuff, but I think I’m off to a good start with the Google Earth app, and TriPeaks Lite. I’m sure that I’ll find more, but I really need to get back to work now. Happy holidays!

What iPhone or iPod touch apps would you recommend for new users?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Communications, Platforms, Privacy Ruled NewNet in Q4
• In Q3, NewNet Focus Turns to Business Models and Search

1. Shoeboxed. Organize your receipts and business cards through this service (see our review here). With the web app, you scan in what you want to save and organize or mail in your “shoebox” of items to scan and let Shoeboxed do it for you. The results are searchable and easy to organize. With the iPhone app, you can take a photo to digitize a receipt or card.
2. Evernote. The Evernote browser bookmarklet makes it easy to save all or portions of a web page to categorize content and images (see our review here). The Evenote iPhone app lets you do the same with a snap of your iPhone camera, create notes and record audio memos.
3. Bento. If you’re using the personal FileMaker Pro application (see our review here), you might want to try the iPhone app which can operate as a standalone app or sync with your desktop version. You can get mobile access to your Bento libraries and collections, create new records, edit details, sort data, and modify forms.
4. Freshbooks. If you’re looking for easy invoicing, Freshbooks is a great solution (see our coverage of the app here). You can use the MiniBooks app to sync with your Freshbooks account and manage invoices, time, and other related functionality.
5. Task2Gather. Gather, manage and share your tasks, subtasks and projects for yourself and your team (see our review here). Sync the iPhone app with the free Task2Gather desktop application and manage tasks on the go.
6. SugarSync. Work in the cloud, collaborate, back up and sync important documents across all platforms and key devices with this pervasive application (see our review here). View and share files on your iPhone to keep the work flowing, even if you’re not near your computer.
7. TimeBridge.While TimeBridge sets out to be your meeting and conference call one-stop solution (see our review here), the iPhone app gives you control of your meetings while you’re traveling. Call in and handle business on the go.

And a little something extra: Starbucks has not one but two iPhone apps, so you can find the Starbucks nearest you and even build a perfect drink that you can share with friends. Then use your iPhone and the Starbucks Card Mobile to pay for your java (in selected stores) and manage your account. I’ll take my cuppa joe with extra cream, please.

What is your favorite web application with a companion iPhone app, and why?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Mobile Q4: All Eyes Were on Android, 4G and the Rising Tablet Tide
• Report: A Mobile Video Market Overview
• Are Web Apps Becoming Over-Reliant on One Another?

For some tasks, you absolutely need network access, but for others, a rich and varied stock of offline-accessible information and research resources should provide plenty of fodder for getting things done. Your iPhone or iPod touch can be a great supplemental resource for exactly this kind of thing. Here’s how to turn your device into an offline road warrior.

Instapaper or Read It Later

These apps are great because when you do have connectivity (if you get a signal briefly, for example), you can quickly save articles for reading in extended blackout zones of little or no coverage. Both these apps allow you to capture and store web content as offline pages. What’s more, integration with both of these apps is often baked into other iPhone gems, like Tweetie, the popular Twitter client that recently got a brand new version with lots of extra bells and whistles.

Instapaper comes in two flavors: a Free version, and a Pro version for $4.99. The more expensive app allows for Folders, article recommendations, background updates, and more, and really is worth it if you’re an avid Instapaper user. Read It Later also comes in Free and Pro flavors, with the Pro costing only $2.99. It features full-screen reading, sharing, and the ability to send articles to other iPhone apps.

Dictionary.com or WordBook

Despite having impeccable spelling skills (quiet, Simon), even I can see the value in a dictionary app. For instance, I often have an overwhelming urge to look up the origins of words. Not necessarily of tremendous professional value, but still. And of course, I’m kidding about the spelling thing. I often need to double-check words, especially ones for which I seem to have a mental block like “aesthetics.”

Both Dictionary.com (Free) and WordBook ($1.99) offer offline access to more than 200,000 definitions. My personal preference of the two is WordBook because of the UI, but both provide a thesaurus, word of the day, audio pronunciation guides, and more.

Encyclopedia

Wikipedia is a great on-the-spot reference for background and contextual information on new and unfamiliar terms and concepts. Which is fine when you have an active network connection, but doesn’t help much when you’re on a train in a 3G dead zone and you’re looking to provide a quick overview of the USB 3.0 standard for a client report.

Enter Encyclopedia ($8.99, iTunes link), an iPhone/iPod touch app that stores a complete full-text offline version of Wikipedia on your device. All internal links function, and you can navigate your history and backtrack when you need to. Beware, references are excluded in the interest of usability, and it will take up a full 2GB of your device’s storage space, but it’s much simpler and more convenient than the alternative.

myPANTONE

Web designers, and people who just take an interest in the finished look of their documents and web work, will truly appreciate the usefulness of the recently released myPANTONE app. The app gives you access to Pantone’s color libraries, and allows you create color schemes on the go. You can even use colors from photos taken with your device to find matching Pantone hues. Even if you’re not a professional print designer, this app can still be very helpful in coming up with pleasing color combinations for documents, personal websites and more.

It’s a little on the pricey side at $9.99, but it does let you do really cool things like GPS tagging, and voice/text annotation of palettes you create. If color is important to the work that you do in any way, there might be no better way to spend otherwise unproductive time out of network range.

The Pocket Reference Re-imagined

Imagine how crazy the idea of having an encyclopedia in your pocket would’ve seemed 20 years ago? Plenty crazy, I’d say. Thanks to the versatile platform Apple developed for its mobile devices, you can now have multiple encyclopedias on hand in a package slimmer than most people’s wallets. And it doesn’t end where I’ve stopped here. There are plenty of very specialized reference apps available via the iTunes App Store, for little or no money.

What reference apps do you carry with you?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Mobile Q4: All Eyes Were on Android, 4G and the Rising Tablet Tide
• Report: A Mobile Video Market Overview
• In Q3, the Tablet and 4G Were the Big Stories

MiniBooks comes with the following features:

• Clients: Search for clients and contact them with the iPhone’s phone and email applications.
• Invoices: Create, edit, search, view and email invoices from within the app. You can also view the status of the invoice and record payments.
• Timers: Start and stop timers that can track multiple activities on one screen. Active timers will keep running even if you close MiniBooks.
• Estimates: Create, edit and email estimates that you can turn into invoices.

If you don’t already have a FreshBooks account, you’ll need to sign up for one before downloading MiniBooks. MiniBooks can’t synchronize taxes or give staff members access to FreshBooks, due to limitations on the FreshBooks backend. The free MiniBooks Lite version limits you to three clients, while the full version retails for $14.99.

Do you use a billing app on your phone? What do you use?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Mobile Q4: All Eyes Were on Android, 4G and the Rising Tablet Tide
• Report: A Mobile Video Market Overview
• In Q3, the Tablet and 4G Were the Big Stories

I’m still on the fence about purchasing it only because it isn’t like an iPhone with its near-ubiquitous connection to the Internet and online work tools. When I’m not around wifi, it is not as useful to me from a work standpoint. So in addition to looking for work-related applications, I’ve been scoping out any application that can also support offline work.

Here’s my growing list of iPod Touch/iPhone apps that are giving me added productivity when I’m not around my MacBook.

from veriosoft

1. Datacase ($6.99) by Veiosoft, LLC

Datacase allows you to use your iPod as a wireless hard drive. Drag and drop files onto your iPod to access later. You can view audio, video, photos and document files including Word, PowerPoint and Excel spreadsheets. And you can view files in both Landscape or Normal mode. I’ve started using this to review proposals and presentations that I’m working on while I’m at a wired cafe or at the airport and don’t want to pull out my MacBook.

2. MiGhtyDocs (free)

I can view all of my text Google Docs on my iPod even when I don’t have an online connection (as long as I remember to download the latest ones). Right now spreadsheets and presentation files are not supported but that is coming soon. Again, this is view-only – and it seems to only work in Normal mode vs. Landscape. So much of my work requires that I read over documents. It’s great to be able to do this during some down time – like standing in line at the post office.

instapaper.com

3. Instapaper (free)

Oh how I love Instapaper. It is so simple, so focused on one thing, but really works for me. I use the Instapaper browser button to read articles and blog posts later, then I can sift through the articles – even on my iPod – to catch up with anything I haven’t had time to read. It really helps me as I conduct research for client projects. Again, anytime I can access something that is online even when not connected to wifi is a boon.

4. To Do ($9.99) by Appigio

I downloaded about seven To Do apps from iTunes but couldn’t get the hang of any of them. Then a friend recommended Appigio’s To Do which sounded familiar because Judi had listed it as one of her favorite apps.  I’m not a Remember The Milk fan even though the cow is still sitting on my MacBook desktop, taunting me. Instead, my friend told me she loves Toodledo which also syncs nicely with Appigio’s app. So far, so good although I’m probably only scratching the surface of its capabilities.

5. Evernote (free)

I’ve been using Evernote on the Web for a while. Never did get into using the desktop version. But I’m transitioning easily to the iPod version. In a way, there may be some redundancy with Instapaper, but I find that I save more text-heavy articles on Instapaper and the more graphical ones on Evernote.

6. Spend Lite (free)

I’m trying to set business budgets and manage them better. Spend Lite supports up to 5 weekly budgets versus the full version of Spend ($0.99) which allows for an unlimited number of daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly budgets. Not bad for less than a buck. Right now, just trying to figure out how Spend Lite works, but if it does work for me, I should have a much better handle on budgeting than ever before.

from TypePad blog

7. Tumble (free), WordPress (free), TypePad (free)

In an effort to be more bloggy remotely, I’m exploring Tumble for Tumblr and the WordPress and TypePad apps. Well, almost. Tumble works for me but so far, I haven’t been inspired to use it as I more often rely on it as my lifestream, not my main blogging site. TypePad app is giving me an unexpected error so even though I need desperately to do more blogging on my 3 TypePad blogs, so far I cannot access them via the app. And for WordPress, I am still not sure how to set up my account to work on my pro-blogging gigs (all of which, coincidentally, are on WordPress). So maybe I’m not exploring but more like contemplating the usefulness if I can get these apps going.

8. CheckPlease (free)

This may not seem work-related at first, but how many times have you gone out for a meal with a colleague or client and the awkwardness of splitting the bill comes up? Of course, the best case scenario is that someone (hopefully the one with more money) picks up the whole bill. But if not, now I can just whip out my iPod Touch and not only estimate tip based on any percentage I choose but also split the check amongst the parties. Fast, simple and really Gee Whiz for the whole table to Oooh and Aaah over. Makes me look so thoroughly modern and high tech.

What other iPhone/iPod Touch apps are you using to be productive? I’m open to trying almost anything that can help me be more productive and more informed, with or without a wifi connection.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Mobile Q4: All Eyes Were on Android, 4G and the Rising Tablet Tide
• Report: A Mobile Video Market Overview
• In Q3, the Tablet and 4G Were the Big Stories

I was listening to a story on NPR by Laura Sydell called Computing in the Cloud: Who Owns Your Files? The story brought back all of the fears I’ve had about working in the clouds but have suppressed because:

A. I want the convenience that cloud computing offers;

B. I recently experienced the Computer Crash of Doom and want to know I have reliable backups;

C. I want to get more work use out of my iPod Touch and cloud work is the way.

So what was the bottom line of the NPR piece?

Read the User Agreement. Yes, the gist of the story was that none of us are reading the user agreement with Google or Yahoo or any other company that is housing our emails, documents and files. We actually covered that subject last month, but hey, I’m one of those who never, ever reads the user agreement. Who has the time? Who has the brain capacity? Who likes sifting through pages and pages of legalese?

This is a problem, according to Harry Lewis, a computer science professor at Harvard. All someone has to do is accuse you of something – unproven – and the company hosting your files can simply cut you off, close your account, no questions asked, rather than entering into a legal battle.

There are no rules and more importantly – no laws – when it comes to hosting your files.

Ever since I went to Gmail in the clouds from Apple’s Mail on my computer, I’ve wondered “what would happen if Gmail went down…forever?” The entire record of my work over the last three years would be gone. I tried backing up all of my historical Gmails onto my computer once but it was a major undertaking and never became a habit.

If we aren’t reading the user agreements, how can we protect ourselves from major loss in the clouds?

1. Backups of backups? Does it make sense to have the copy on your harddrive along with the copy online? Lately, I’ve been composing my documents in Google Docs and only saving them back on my harddrive as needed. Should I do it as a rule?

2. Backups of backups of backups? Once I save my docs on my computer, my Time Capsule captures them every hour on the hour. But is there a way to get my Time Capsule to pull my cloud work into a backup drive? Or is that an app that is on the way because it is a critical process that is missing from cloud computing?

3. Distributed files. Does it make sense not to have all of your work and files on one system? Sure it seems convenient and integrated to use all of Google’s cloud working solutions, but should we put some of our work – or back up some of our work – on other sites? Like using Dropbox file storage as a repository for anything and everything from everywhere?

4. Being selective. Do we need to be more selective about what we are willing to put online, keep online, and work on in the clouds? Are we getting a little too careless and thoughtless about the ease of cloud computing or rushing to it without a security plan in place because it seems like the place we need to be?

No technology is failsafe or foolproof. When we are using technology for “convenience,” but have to back up that technology “just in case,” are we losing some of that convenience that we are craving? It seems that, as usual, nothing is ultimately free and everything comes with a price.

How much are you willing to spend – and risk – on cloud computing and how are you backing up your work?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• VMware’s Cloudy Ambitions: Can It Repeat Hypervisor Success?
• Infrastructure Overview, Q2 2010
• Defining Internal Cloud Options: From Appistry to VMware