The iPhone/iPod has a built-in control in the player to speed up the playback of audio files, but it’s only available if you set up the audio files as podcasts or audiobooks — if your device thinks it’s playing a music file (the default), it won’t offer you the control.

To set up the track correctly in iTunes, select it and go to File->Get Info, and under the “Options” tab, ensure that “Media Kind” is set to “Podcast” (or “Audiobook”).

On an iPhone/iPod touch, tap the screen while the file is playing and you’ll see a little “1x” icon at the top-right — tap that, and it’ll change to “2x”  Your file is now playing at twice the speed. Better yet, it seems to use time stretching, so you don’t end up listening to high-pitched “chipmunk” voices.

This technique works pretty well on all the podcasts I listen to; even podcasters who speak fairly quickly to start with remain understandable — and you can always quickly switch back to normal speed if things get too fast.

Note that you could also do something similar by listening to your podcasts using Windows Media Player, which also has a built-in speed control (which actually works on all audio files, not just those tagged as podcasts), or you could speed up the files themselves by pre-processing them using software like Audacity.

Have a tip for more productive podcast consumption? Share it in the comments!

For Gmail users with an iPhone who work from home, this is great news. Often, those of us not plugged in to the corporate world miss out on the little niceties like Exchange information syncing. Google Sync, now that it includes Gmail, offers a great free alternative for those of us who’ve left our office working days behind. And it uses Microsoft Exchange technology to do it.

Now you can manage your contacts, calendar and email all from your smartphone, and have that information synced back to the cloud in real time, so that wherever you access it, you’ll be looking at the same thing. I’ve been using MobileMe to do that for about a year now, but since many people already use Gmail, and since Google’s alternative is free, this is much more useful for most people.

If you’d like to set up your iPhone or iPod Touch to work with Google Sync, check out the instructions posted by the official Google Mobile team. Some may prefer to continue using Gmail on IMAP with their device, since it means you can set the schedule by which you’re notified of new mail, instead of having incoming messages dictate to you. Also, keep in mind that the iPhone supports only one Exchange account at a time, so if you have one already for work, you won’t be able to take advantage of Google Sync.

Are you using Google Sync?

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Good news! SugarSync, a file synchronization and backup service for PC and Mac (reviewed positively here on WWD), today started offering free accounts (previously the cheapest option was $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year.)

The catch is that free accounts are limited to 2GB of storage, which will be inadequate for backing up large collections of files or music, but for syncing a few big files between machines — accessing project files on the road, for example — it could be very useful.

SugarSync differentiates itself from its competitors (like Dropbox) by offering comprehensive mobile support, with clients for iPhone/iPod Touch, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices. The free accounts announced today include access to the mobile clients.

Let us know what you think of SugarSync in the comments.

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Overview

Timewerks creates invoices and tracks billable hours and materials used on a per-project basis. You begin by creating projects. The application contains five primary screens: Projects, Invoices, Clients, Work Items and More. The features in More include Data Export, Help and Invoice Color, while the Clients section integrates with your phone’s Contacts so you don’t have to enter contact information twice.

Using the Timer

In my test, at first I thought that the timer had a bug. As you’d expect, you tap Start and Stop to manage the timer as you work on a task. After stopping the timer, you can associate the hours with a work item. The problem I had was that the work items I added when setting up my projects didn’t show up as an option right away. Eventually, the items did appear in the list of tasks — but it’s not clear what made that happen.

The Project Summary screen provides a clean overview of the project, complete with time spent, billed and unbilled items and direct access to that project’s invoices.

Create and Customize Your Invoices

You can invoice by hourly rate or by item and create items for expenses and materials. To include your company’s information on invoices, go to Settings on the iPod Touch or iPhone and look for the green Timewerks icon. The only customization option available (through Invoice Colors) is the background color of the invoice. I’d recommend leaving it as the default white, as the limited color choices don’t really improve the invoice’s look. For example, here’s a wheat-colored invoice.

When you create the invoice, you can add the tax rate, if applicable, and email it to your client. If you need to accept credit card payments, Timewerks integrates with Inner Fence’s Credit Card Terminal. The credit card application is a separate product, but at least you have a way to accept credit card payments as part of the invoicing package.

Export Your Data

Data Export gives you the ability to export Timewerks data to use in another app. You can access the exported Comma Separated Value (CSV), or a Tab Separated Value (TSV) files from any web browser connected to the same network as your phone through an address provided by Timewerks. It took me a little fiddling to get this feature to work. The app provided http://localhost.local:8000 in my test, which didn’t work. I had to use the following steps to get my local IP address:

1. Go to Settings on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
2. Tap Wi-Fi.
3. Tap > next to your network, under Choose a Network.
4. Copy the info next to IP Address, typically something like 192.168.1.1.

To get your data, open your web browser and enter the IP address plus port 8080, for example: http://192.168.1.1:8080/ (include the backslash).

The exported data can be imported into a spreadsheet or another billing app, as many accept CSV and TSV files.

Sorth, the company behind Timewerks, provides documentation and screenshots so you can get a detailed feel for the app before deciding if it’s right for you.

If you love portable solutions, you’ll dig Timewerks. It’s available at the iPhone App Store for $4.99.

What business apps do you prefer to use on your cell phone or handheld device instead of on a computer?

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Photo by Josh Bancroft

I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I never listen to music on my iPod. Seriously. I keep a playlist of 25 songs on it just in case I get the urge to listen to music, but I never do.  And yet, I listen to my iPod for a minimum of 30 minutes every day and often for several hours.

Instead of music, I fill my iPod with audio podcasts. I don’t watch the news on TV or listen to the radio, so I rely on podcasts as my primary way to consume some types of news (blogs and feeds are also a big part of how I consume information). I use iTunes subscriptions, which allow my podcasts to automagically appear on my computer every day, and I sync my iPod first thing in the morning so that it is ready at all times.

Most of my regular subscriptions fall into a couple of categories.

General News. NPR 7am News Summary and New York Times Front Page.

Tech News. TWiT, net@night, FLOSS Weekly, Buzz Out Loud, WSJ Tech News Briefing, IFW Daily, CNET News Daily, Strange Love Live, BBC Digital Planet, PRI The World

Special Topics. NPR Science Friday and TEDTalks.

Like most of you, I am incredibly busy, so how can I possibly consume so much content? The secret lies in multi-tasking. Here is my quick criteria for whether I am doing an activity that is iPod friendly. I can listen to podcasts if I am doing a task that

1. doesn’t require deep thinking and analysis
2. forces me to be away from my computer and
3. has a minimized danger of tangled headphones (yoga is not an iPod approved activity).

For me, this means: getting ready in the morning, riding the bus, shopping, putting away groceries, running errands, working out (see above caveat about tangling), walking between meetings, doing dishes, laundry, cooking, cleaning, organizing and more.

Maybe I’m not as “hip” as the cool people in the iPod commercials, but I am a more productive web worker as a result.

What’s on your mp3 player? How do you use it to increase your productivity?

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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.

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