Although tight ties between performance and feedback are important, the two are often separated by the realities of organizational life. “Annual reviews rely on hazy recall, with managers remembering recent events and overlooking what was done earlier in a review cycle,” says Stanford Professor and organizational expert, Jeff Pfeffer.

Similarly, though with more colorful language, past CEO of Yahoo, Carol Bartz says,

I have the puppy theory. When the puppy pees on the carpet, you say something right then because you don’t say six months later, “Remember that day, January 12th, when you peed on the carpet?” That doesn’t make any sense. “This is what’s on my mind. This is quick feedback.” And then I’m on to the next thing.

Our product life cycles are getting shorter and shorter — putting more pressure on how quickly we can form teams and work effectively in and across teams. At the same time, team members are often working apart or on-the-go. In order to give effective feedback in this environment, managers need support, and performance management platforms, such as Rypple, aim to help.

In the most adept teams, members know who knows what, who needs what information, and how to coordinate as a result. Rypple’s mobile capabilities mean that feedback can be given and received in ways that parallel the stream of daily work.

Rypple also helps make goal setting a living process, rather than an annual consideration. After an individual or team goal is set, other people can be invited to track the goal. Progress can also be monitored publicly, adding further accountability.

When I talked with Daniel Debow, co-founder and co-CEO of Rypple, he said that Rypple replicates common online behavior. People regularly check spaces like Facebook to update their activities and see what others are saying. Rypple “harnessed what was already happening,” he said.

Rypple supports “a desire to do what we already know is common sense,” Debow said. He also noted that managers should coach people every week or two, update goals, and recognize performance immediately.

In the weeks since the call, I’ve noticed additional cases highlighting the wisdom of speeding-up and socializing feedback.

For example, I went back to reports that Zappos had done away with annual performance reviews. In a presentation on their membership-required ZapposInsights site, they say that they found annual reviews unproductive. “Nobody wants to give them or receive them…If everyone is always in open communication, then annual reviews are redundant and not very useful at all.” Zappos does use a culture assessment as a feedback tool, but they are careful to say that this is not a substitute for annual performance reviews. Given the company’s open communication style, annual reviews just don’t have a place.

“A recession is a good time for managers to focus more on evidence and less on received wisdom or old habits. Asking hard questions about performance management would be a good place to start,” says Jeff Pfeffer. In my opinion, we have an opportunity to improve performance management in modern organizations. The people are ready. The technology is ready. Our organizations should be ready.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• The rise of tablets in the enterprise
• 2012: Data, spectrum and the race to LTE
• Connected world: the consumer technology revolution

On the BlackBerry, WatchDox users can render PDF and Microsoft Office. It offers features allowing users to:

• Share and view documents securely on BlackBerry devices.
• Restrict shared documents from being copied, printed or forwarded.
• Eliminate documents remotely, if needed.

The company also announced updates to its Apple iOS app, including:

• Document sync. Users can securely sync their online documents or their virtual data room folders through the secure app versus less secure consumer-grade syncing methods.
• Passcode protection. In case of device loss or theft, a passcode provides an additional layer of security against information leaks.
• Performance enhancements. Access to documents should be speedier.

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

• Mobile Q2: Smartphone growth surges; iPad’s rule continues
• The rise of tablets in the enterprise
• A Media Tablet Forecast, 2011 – 2015

I’ve taken a look at the new features, and like what I saw. The new interface will feel familiar to Twitter and Facebook users; it’s well laid out and easy to navigate. The UI is now available in several languages.

The HTML5 mobile site, which joins the existing Android and iPhone apps , is also well designed, attractive and easy to move around in, although I saw some navigation bugs: When moving between screens, sometimes the program would revert to the standard HTML site rather than going to the appropriate location on the mobile site. These sorts of issues should be easy for the developers to fix, though.

Flowr’s new features, together with such tools as a bookmarklet for sharing, email integration, desktop notifications, and an API for developers, gives it robust abilities that will be welcomed in many collaborative teams.

Flowr has changed its pricing structure. It still offers a free plan, which includes up to five users and 100MB of storage. The paid premium plan starts at $59 per month, which includes 15 users, 1GB of storage per user, and some advanced features. Additional users are available at $3 per user per month.

Sign-up for either plan is available at the developer’s website, or in the Google Apps Marketplace.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• The Future of Work Platforms: An Overview
• Report: A Mobile Video Market Overview
• Mobile App Developer Survey: Profiles, Platforms and Monetization

Forty-three percent of businesses are planning to increase their mobile use in the future, and by 2015, it’s expected that half of all devices on corporate networks will be mobile devices. This explosion in the use of mobile devices in the enterprise will help fuel demand for mobile apps, with the worldwide market expected to grow from approximately $6.8 billion in 2010 to $25 billion by 2015. Click the image for the full-size version.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• The Future of Workplaces
• Hot Topic: Tablets
• Forecast: Tablet App Sales To Hit $8B by 2015

Here are some of the latest and greatest apps I’ve found to help me connect with others, find places to go and document and share my experience.

1. SXSW Go. This is the official SXSW app, which helps to track the multitude of sessions and events you can attend.
2. Plancast. Announce your plans, such as the conferences or events you are planning to attend. Then search for plans, people or categories of events through this app and see where your friends are going. Check out the Unofficial SXSW Events Guide.
3. GroupMe. Create a private text chat room by grouping people in your contact list. Handy for making plans amongst friends and acquaintances to meet up at a conference. Other similar text grouping apps include Beluga and TextPlus.
4. Yobongo. This app runs on the premise that you may want to chat with others based on proximity and may need help breaking the ice to get a conversation started in real time.
5. Hashable. Track the people you are meeting with and introducing to one another using this app to help build your network and augment your address book with key information about your relationships with others.
6. Hurricane Party. With this app, you can specify your location and the time and tap into your contacts to bring people together. Personally, I may use this app to let folks know where I’m having lunch within walking distance of the convention center to invite them over to join me.
7. Liquidspace. This app identifies possible work locations nearby and can issue you with a “visa” for your Liquidspace “passport” to book and access those work spaces. Spaces can free or fee-based and can include empty work cubicles or board rooms at nearby offices; meeting rooms at hotels; backrooms at restaurants, or any underutilized work-ready space. The company behind the app provides the owners of these spaces with tools to manage space inventory including bookings. If you’re at SXSW, look for the workspace in a bus renovated by Steelcase/Turnstone.
8. Paperlinks. I’m embracing the QR Code trend with new business cards courtesy of Paperlinks. I’m also investing $250/year for the custom mobile destination site where my cards lead. See my earlier post on Paperlinks for more details.
9. Retrollect. Remember View-Masters? This app lets you upload, save and view photos in a similar way. I’ll also use my favorite storytelling photo app Whrrl, Instagram, and I’ll check in now and then on Foursquare.
10. Geoloqi. If all this location sharing has you freaked out, this app allows for private, real-time sharing of location data. You can leave “Geonotes” at locations where you’ve been, be notified if your friends are close by or share GPS maps of your locations only with people you know.

For more on useful mobile apps for conferences, check out my post from last year and my toolkit at OneForty.

What apps are on your smartphone for SXSW and upcoming conferences?

Photo courtesy stock.xchng user bvdwiel.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub. req.):

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QR codes are an increasingly-popular way of converting data like website addresses into a form that can be easily scanned. Thus, it’s possible to publish a website address in print, and readers can go to that address without having to type in the address.

For example, users can have the camera on their phones scan a QR code from a print ad, a business card, or a computer screen. Once scanned, the scanner software on the phone will read the data and ask the user what to do — most likely, open the website address embedded in the code.

Technically, QR codes are a specific type of 2D barcode. QR codes are more recent descendants of the UPC codes on your groceries, and the ISBN number codes on your books.

QR codes generally include the same information that a web link does. This web link and the QR code on this page both go to the same URL: http://gigaom.com/collaboration. But the code makes it easy to transfer the link from one machine to another, and even one medium to another, in just a second.

Almost every smartphone has a camera, and there are many QR code reader apps for all of the major platforms. You can generate your own QR codes at Google, at bit.ly, at Jumpscan, and many other sites.

So how can you use QR codes?

To transfer contact information. Darrell has described how QR codes can be used on business cards, and Aliza has noted that QR codes are showing up on name badges at conferences. It’s possible that transferring info this way will become more popular than apps like Bump. (As an experiment, I’ve turned my Facebook profile picture into an QR code, but none of my friends has commented or asked about it yet. I guess they know I’m a techie!)

To drive traffic to special offers. Google is providing cards with QR codes that can be placed in the window or on the counter of a business. The codes on these cards lead to the Google Places page for that business. Google recommends using the codes so that people can find offers from your business, although if they’re already on site, why not display such offers more directly?

To drive traffic to websites from display ads. What’s more likely, I think, is that we’ll begin to see QR codes in print ads, billboards, and possibly on television. New York City has already placed a giant QR code on a display ad in Times Square.

Developers of Android software are using QR codes extensively. Since it’s often easier for phone users to scan a code than to type in a long website address, you’ll often see QR codes on websites for mobile apps. I’m sure that we’ll see new and creative uses for QR codes in the near future.

Do you use QR codes in your work? What’s the most intriguing use you’ve seen for the codes?

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As I frame my view of where mobile is going, I can’t avoid starting with some numbers I just saw in Seth Weintraub’s post in Fortune about Android.

Globally, market intelligence firm IDC counted 269.6 million smartphones sold this year, compared to the 173.5 million units shipped in 2009.

In 2011, we might see half a billion phones sold worldwide. Smartphones will likely blow by traditional computers next year as the way most of the world gains access to the Internet.

If that doesn’t blow your mind, I don’t know what will.

Are you thinking about mobile yet? And if so, how are you thinking about it? Let’s plant our feet firmly on the ground and talk about how you should be thinking about mobile. Here are some guiding thoughts:

1. Don’t think product; think platform. People are excited about devices and apps: that is, products. As a marketer, you need to look at devices and apps as platforms for communication, conversation, conversion; pick your “C” word. Develop your app or apps with that broader concept in mind. Look to integrate mobile into your current marketing mix as a new communications and marketing platform. Don’t try to sell a product now; you can add sales later.

2. Leverage the ubiquity. Smartphones — and more recently, iPads and other tablets — are becoming essential tools. Their ubiquity is going to be unprecedented. We love these devices even more than our laptops. We are bringing them into places and situations we never imagined. There’s an intimacy, a necessity, that these devices are engendering in us. Whether that’s good, bad, or indifferent, it’s our new reality. So, as a marketer, how can you leverage this intensely personal, can’t-live-with0ut-it feeling smartphones generate? How can you be present on these devices in a way that’s meaningful, useful, and purposeful? How can your app be indispensable? Don’t think, “I want to create a cool app.” Think, “I want to solve real problems, offer real solutions, create a must-have feature” for your audiences’ mobile device. Create something essential.

3. Put goals in the driver’s seat. Don’t go crazy and forget the fundamentals of business and marketing. We saw companies forget these when they first went on the Web. They thought that they could spend a lot of money to build a website, and all their business problems would be solved. We have seen similar madness with people getting on Facebook and Twitter without any sense of why they should be there, who they are trying to reach, and what they are trying to get their friends, fans and followers to do — other than “buy our product” or “do business with us.” Without a clear plan and strategy, mobile will become this new year’s huge time and money suck.

Mobile can be a new platform for building brand loyalty, stimulating traffic, and enhancing interaction. Eventually, sooner than we think, mobile will drive sales. If you’re going to “go mobile,” make sure that your efforts are framed by clear and attainable goals.

What will be your mobile strategy in 2011?

This post was inspired by Fred Wilson and his post The Smartphone Explosion which references Seth Weintraub’s post in Fortune about Android.

Image by sxc.hu user mrceviz

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The developers call Ringio a “new approach for call collaboration.” Borrowing from call center technology, when a call comes in, users are presented with a real-time popup showing data about the caller, so that one can decide whether to take the call, redirect the caller to voicemail, or to another team member. The information presented goes far beyond caller ID, however, and includes details such as who the caller last spoke to, what previous calls were missed, and notes about the caller from colleagues. The desktop app uses an Adobe AIR interface, which I generally don’t like, but Ringio’s app is quite attractive.

Ringio includes several team collaboration tools, including a shared corporate address book, the ability to easily share contact information and call history among team members. Ringio also includes systems for showing the availability of team members, share call-handling responsibilities, and send instant messages between team members.

Ringio also offers an Android application (which I haven’t tried) that allows users to hold, transfer, redirect and deflect calls while on the road. The app offers access to calls, voicemails, contacts, notes and other team members, and it synchronizes in real time with the desktop app. iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry and mobile web apps are on the way.

Administrators can customize Ringio through a web app that allows creation of sophisticated call routing. If desired, one can get rid of the “phone tree” and substitute something like “I see you talked to Charlie when you called us last; would you like to speak with him again?” I suspect that some of my customers would find this creepy; others would appreciate the time savings.

Ringio has some other nice features. It can be used together with an existing PBX system and, next month, it will be possible to terminate calls on VoIP systems using URIs (the phone equivalent of an email address). It also seamlessly syncs with Google Contacts (something that Ribbit Mobile — the closest competitor to Ringio that I’ve seen — still can’t do), and with Zoho CRM, Salesforce.com, Highrise, and SugarCRM. Ringio also offers features that are pretty standard among VoIP phone systems, including voicemail; call rejection and blocking; a “Find Me” redirect system; Caller ID that always shows your office number, even when on the road; availability of local and toll-free numbers; and number porting.

Pricing starts at $99 per month for four users, plus $25 per month for each additional user. The basic plan includes a pool of 2,000 incoming and outgoing minutes; with each additional user, the company pool increases by 500 minutes. Additional minutes are billed at 5 cents each. A free trial is available.

Have you used Ringio? Let us know your thoughts on the service.

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The fact is that companies aren’t willing to field test new mobile tech unless they receive a huge incentive to do so. Breaking ground with new tech often falls then to freelancers and contractors who have a greater degree of freedom regarding choice of tools they use. Not only is it just plain cool that field testing new toys often falls to us and then trickles up, it’s also a responsibility I think web workers and the places that support them should openly and actively embrace.

Sometimes this means taking a risk with your money and investing in something relatively untested, but that’s not necessarily what I mean to encourage. Some may not be so quick to drop hard-earned cash on things that might end up collecting dust on a closet shelf. You don’t always have to spend your own money to test things, though. There are ways to have your cake and eat it, too.

Firstly, if you think you can make a strong enough case, you can roll equipment and software purchase or rental costs into your contract price. This can work more often than you’d think, partly because companies like to spend money on software and equipment since it makes them feel like they’ll have a greater chance of getting a quality product back. I still can’t really get over how many times I’ve been asked to suggest a paid alternative to the free tools that I’ve written into contracts.

Secondly, you could ask for things you want to try out to be adopted at the places you frequent for work. That could mean the local coffee shop, or it could be your neighborhood coworking office, if you’re lucky enough to have one. For example, I’d like to get Qi-standard wireless induction charging pads to be made available at my own coworking haunt. It wouldn’t be hard, since there are even inexpensive Nintendo Wii charging accessories using that standard. You may face resistance and skepticism, but if a few others support your argument, you shouldn’t have too much trouble working something out.

Helping to discover and spread the word about new mobile tech advances is rewarding in its own right, but it also benefits you as a web working professional. You’ll be occupying the cutting edge, and it’ll show in the products you deliver and in how knowledgeable you come across to employers and peers. That’s worth the price of a few duds, even if you are buying your own gear instead of folding it into contracts.

Does anyone else feel that part of their role as a web worker is to test out new things, or is it just my way of justifying an extreme gadget-buying process addiction?

Since the dawn of the Internet, it’s been an article of faith that connection speeds will get faster and costs will drop. We might be seeing the end of that trend. If predictions are correct, we’ll be facing a mobile bandwidth shortage in just a couple of years.

Once upon a time, web developers knew that we had to keep graphics to a minimum, since many Internet users had slow dial-up connections. Today, we’ve become dependent on multimedia, which, in many cases, is a crutch for those who don’t have the time or just don’t want to bother to write effective site content. This is a bad idea. Sites with content that is wholly, or mostly, contained in videos are probably not reaching:

• Most of the people who use mobile devices, including iPhones. Over 50 percent of Internet shoppers are using mobile devices, most of which don’t support Flash, and have small screens that don’t display images — especially moving images — well.
• Many people with mobile connections who have data plans that cap bandwidth use. Exceeding those caps can be very expensive. You and I are probably already considered part of the “mobile workforce,” and this category is growing rapidly. One-third of all workers are anticipated to be mobile by 2013. These users will likely be on capped connections.
• People who don’t install Flash for security reasons.
• People with old browsers.
• People with visual disabilities.
• People who are behind corporate firewalls.
• People who use software or browser add-ons that block multimedia content.

If you’re a web developer, or are updating your web presence, try not to get too dependent on video, audio and other bandwidth hogs. I like a friendly multimedia experience as much as anyone. But do yourself a favor and ask these questions.

• Is this video (or audio) really necessary, or is it being included because it’s easier than actually writing a cogent description of what the site is about?
• If you must include a video, then what will people see if they can’t load the file? Will the site degrade gracefully? That is, will people see helpful alternative content?

It’s possible that faster, better and cheaper bandwidth may be on the horizon. Google seems to want that. But they are also pushing projects to increase the efficiency of the web. So living with limited bandwidth may be the next “inconvenient tech truth,” and we should plan our web projects accordingly.

How can you make your web projects more bandwidth-efficient?

Image from sxc.hu user CDWaldi

stock.xchng by bigevil600

While I don’t have a crystal ball, here are some developments that I think are worthy of our attention and will affect how we do things in the social mediasphere over the next few years. Many of the things on this list will not be news to the very well-informed social media consultant types who live and breathe this stuff. But for the rest of us, there are seeds of opportunity here that should not be missed.

1. MySpace: CEO Leaves; MySpace will die. Last year, I was telling my clients “We are cautiously optimistic that MySpace (GigaOM Pro company profile) will make a comeback because their new CEO is a Facebook co-founder.” Scratch that. I think MySpace is about to go the way of Friendster, although it is still a player in the entertainment space. Because Facebook doesn’t allow flexbility and customization, I’m going to miss MySpace. But now I wonder: Who is going to be the next MySpace? Virb? Bebo? (And don’t underestimate LinkedIn.)
2. Virtual Goods: Insane, but insanely popular. The creation and selling of virtual goods and gifts makes absolutely no sense to people who just use the Internet as a basic communications tool. Try telling someone who isn’t really into Facebook that they could buy a virtual bouquet of flowers for 99 cents and send them to a friend — they’d look at you like you were mad. But with virtual goods as an industry already raking in the billions of dollars worldwide and over a billion in the U.S. alone (source: “Inside Virtual Goods: The US Virtual Goods Market, 2009 – 2010″), how can anyone ignore them? I’m not saying everyone needs to make and use virtual goods, but there is opportunity here for both marketing and revenue. Have you even thought about how you might be able to leverage virtual goods? Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): How the Next Zynga Could Reinvent Social Gaming
3. Gaming: Not just for kids anymore. I think the very fact that the largest player base of passive online games is women flies in the face of the typical view that games are for kids. According to Nielsen Entertainment in August 2009, of the 117 million active gamers in the U.S., 56 percent play games online and 64 percent of those online gamers are female. And the revenues generated from online games is enormous and growing. Do not underestimate the power of games and gaming — and not just the marketing and revenue opportunities, but also the learning opportunities as well in the form of fun quizzes and polls. Have you used gaming yet in a social media marketing campaign?
4. Twitter: Still transforming communications. Back in 2008, I wrote about Twitter’s impact on the fundamental ways we communicate and the way new tools and applications are being developed, but it continues to grow and evolve. How has Twitter helped you lately?
5. Niche networks: A marketer’s secret weapon. Whether you choose Ning.com or KickApps or any of the other “white label” customizable social network-building platforms, the concept of creating a “gated”online community that is narrow in focus is smart and potentially powerful. The concept isn’t really that far removed from hosting an online messaging board in the early days of the web. If you held the keys to the gate of a more private, closed or niche community, you had everything from an instant focus group to a band of passionate buzz agents on your hands — if you knew how to properly leverage the community participation. Fast forward to today and the tools ca now give your members integrated communications, networking, publishing and social tools — brilliant. What niche networks are you participating in or do you run?
6. Augmented reality. Sounds sci-fi, but it’s really here. I’m having a hard time describing Augmented Reality to people who haven’t seen it (if you haven’t seen it in action, these infographics from GigaOM might help). The reaction isn’t just “what in the world?” but “who cares about that stuff?” AR uses simply boggle the mind, and I plan to explore more of that in this column soon. I do wish we had a better term for it, though (like “data overlay” or “overscreen view”) so it didn’t have such a sci-fi feel to it. What potential uses for AR are getting you fired up? Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Augmented Reality: Lots of Promise, Lots of Hurdles.
7. Google Buzz: Pay attention, even if you don’t care. I am one of the gazillion people who currently do not care about Google Buzz, apart from the fact that just because Google did this it means something in terms of the tools we’ll be using in the coming years. Right now, I feel like Google has the means to just throw tech spaghetti on the virtual walls of our work and lives to see what sticks. Anything it does has major significance and impact, even if it fails. So pay attention as you scratch your head. How is Google Buzz changing the way you communicate, or is it? Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Google Buzz’s True Home Is in the Enterprise
8. Mobile: Be there. I don’t know about you, but I consider my iPhone to be a mini computer and Wi-Fi device first and phone a distant second. I’m never normally an early early adopter because I’m too busy to keep up most of the time, but I will be one of the first to buy the iPad, because it looks to me like a bigger iPhone, and I rely on my iPhone in ways I have never relied on my computer or my regular cell phone. My entire concept of connectivity and my access to everything has changed so dramatically since I got a smartphone that I know I can never go back to the old ways. What forays into mobile marketing are on your radar for 2010? Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Web Tablet Survey: Apple’s iPad Hits Right Notes

I could also add the concept of location to this list, but I’ll leave that for another column.

What developments in social media are knocking your socks off?

Photo by stock.xchng user bigevil600

Twitter for BlackBerry

Since I had been away from my home office for a few hours, I decided to check in with Twitter using the beta of RIM’s new Twitter for BlackBerry app. Unfortunately, the experience wasn’t as good as I would have hoped for.

The application works and feels like the similar Facebook for BlackBerry app; not necessarily a good thing, as working with it takes too much effort. Most BlackBerry Twitter applications require patience, but Twitter for BlackBerry is the worst. Much of the time, the screen remains blank while the data loads.

Like its Facebook equivalent, Twitter for BlackBerry comes with a menu of icons at the top of the screen. These include Home, @ Mentions, My Profile, DM, Find People, Search and Popular Topics (note that Twitter for BlackBerry has no Lists capabilities). But reaching these icons takes time, and then it takes even more time for the screens to load.

The application offers few options. It lets you include Twitter Messages in the BlackBerry Messages Applications, but who uses that? Other options include refresh rate, distance measurement and spell check. It has no options for changing the interface to make it faster and optimize the small screen; no ability  to turn off notifications; and no option to exit the application without logging out. UberTwitter (my BlackBerry Twitter application of choice) has more than double the number of options available and still works faster.

To ensure that Twitter for BlackBerry’s poor performance wasn’t a network issue, I used UberTwitter at the same time. UberTwitter still called for a little patience, typical of BlackBerry Twitter applications (I have yet to find a truly great BlackBerry Twitter app), but I accomplished tasks noticeably faster than I could using Twitter for BlackBerry.

Additionally, if you don’t want Twitter for BlackBerry using up your BlackBerry’s juice, you must log out of Twitter from within the application — not just close it. Closing the application still leaves the door open for it to notify you when you have new messages.

Twitter for BlackBerry isn’t yet available as a public download and is still in beta; I would hope that prior to being launched it receives some serious performance upgrades.

What mobile application do you use for your Twitter needs?

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So I’m pleased that I’ve discovered MailboxMap. It’s a simple web site built around a Google Maps mashup. Just enter an address or zip code, and it will display a map showing the locations of mailboxes in the neighborhood. Click on a mailbox icon, and it will display pickup times.

MailboxMap also shows post offices and UPS locations, complete with hours. And there’s a mobile version, which has the advantage of displaying search results in a list, making it easier to skim for late pickups. It would be nice, though, if one could search for, say, pickups after 3:00 pm, or for Saturday pickups.

It’s not a perfect service; for example, it locates Seattle’s downtown post office on the wrong side of the street. Google Maps itself locates the same address correctly, so it’s unclear what the problem is. Nevertheless, MailboxMap is a useful service.

The site has been around for a couple of years, but it seems to be up to date, as it shows a recent pickup time change for my local box. It’s probably too much to hope that USPS will buy this site and add it to usps.com.

How often do you mail letters?

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Location: The Epicenter of Mobile Innovation

More Than Just Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi is crucial to a web worker’s ability to work on the road, but just knowing a that your local library branch offers free Wi-Fi isn’t enough to tell you that it’s a great workspace. Knowing how good the Wi-Fi is will tell you how much work you’ll be able to get done, especially if you’re working on something that requires a lot of bandwidth. If you’re working in a coffee shop when someone has to reboot the router every hour or in a co-working space where everyone is a heavy Internet user, you may not be able to get the kind of access you need for your work. Unfortunately, it can be hard to figure out the status of the Wi-Fi until you sit down and turn on your computer. It may be worth booting up and trying it out before you settle in for the long haul.

Depending on how long you plan to work, you may also need an electrical outlet to plug your laptop into. You’ll find different policies on just outlet usage, depending on where you go to work: at most chain coffee shops, there are at least a few outlets that customers can use. In some independent coffee shops, though, it’s becoming more common to find outlets taped over, unavailable for your use. Keep an eye out for accessible power on your way in — if you look around and there are no outlets you can use, it may be time to move on to the next place on your list.

Think Ergonomically

When you’re choosing a place to work, it’s important to make sure that you can sit comfortably for a long period of time. If you wind up hunched over your laptop, sitting in an uncomfortable chair, it’s much harder to get work done than if you find a comfortable chair that allows you to easily reach your laptop. Being able to use a table can make a big difference in how comfortable a workspace is, but other factors can be more personal. Look for chairs and arrangements that match your own preferences for comfort.

Coworking spaces can often provide a step above other options when it comes to comfort. Coworking spaces are usually designed from the ground up to provide guests with a place to get their work done, as opposed to a restaurant that may want to encourage customers to move along so new customers can sit down.

The Cost of the Workspace

Despite the fact that some people view being mobile as a way to avoid paying for office space, there are still costs associated with going into a coffee shop and sitting down. You’ll order at least a cup of coffee, and most people consider it polite to keep ordering food and drinks as long as they are taking up a table. A library may have no cost associated with using it as a workspace, but the library staff may ask you to limit your time if there’s a lot of demand at a given time. A coworking space will have an upfront fee.

It’s important to consider the cost of working at a particular location. Even if such expenses are tax deductible (remember to keep receipts!) they can quickly add up.

What do you look for in your mobile workspaces?

Photo credit: Flickr user theregeneration

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For a while, I’d sync Outlook and Palm Desktop, and then Outlook would update the BlackBerry (I didn’t actually use Outlook at all, it just acted as the middleman). It worked great. But then my dependence on Google Calendar  grew, because I could access it from any computer as well as my BlackBerry, and it wouldn’t work with my sync setup.

I investigated many tools and synchronization applications to find a perfect sync solution. I didn’t want to use lots of different applications to syncing needs.

The almost perfect solution was to find a dedicated synchronization app. Mine comes from CompanionLink. This method cuts out Outlook for good. CompanionLink now has a Google edition available that synchronizes all of Palm Desktop’s features with Google, too. For updating my BlackBerry, I use Google Sync for Mobile. It’s still not perfect, but it works and I can access and update my information in Google or Palm, while my BlackBerry just has access to the information.

If you’re struggling to find the perfect syncing app, here are some options (some free and some paid):

• Chapura: PocketMirror has been around for a long time, and syncs Palms with Outlook. Its Echo and PocketMirror work with Palm Pre.
• CompanionLink: Syncs Google, Palm Pre, ACT!, LotusNotes, Outlook and many others.
• Google Sync: free Google syncing applications for Mac, Linux, Android and others.
• gSyncit: Syncs Outlook and Gmail.
• Mark/Space: Sync apps for Macs.
• Sync’Em: Connects Macs with Exchange and Outlook.

How do you keep your data in sync?

Photo credit: djwudi

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I compiled a list of the current free BlackBerry Twitter apps and tested them out to find the strengths and weaknesses of each. All of the apps have the basic features (timelines, replies and direct messages), with some standing out more than others due to speed, ease of use, or additional functionality.

All of these apps underwent an obstacle course on my BlackBerry Curve 8310 to test their strength, agility and durability in order to find the better-performing apps.

Blackbird: Easy to use text-based interface that works with older BlackBerrys

What Blackbird lacks in looks and features, it makes up for in speed and usability: BlackBird performs fastest out of all the apps tested here. It only includes the basic features: timelines, replies and direct messages.

Pros: Fast. Easy to use.

Cons: Fewer features. Unclear error messages.

TinyTwitter: Works with any device that can run Java apps

TinyTwitter has a smooth timeline that scrolls fast, even with avatars. It can pull latest trends, do searches, copy/ paste tweets for easy retweeting in one move, as well as handling the basic Twitter functions. However, even with shortcuts, some of the actions take two clicks when one would do, a problem with many BlackBerry Twitter apps.

Pros: Efficient timeline. Runs on any Java-compatible device. Shortcuts. More than the basic features.

Cons: Too many steps to get where you want to go.

Twibble: Tweet photos from your BlackBerry camera

My first impression of Twibble was soured by the troublesome login screen. The app kept capitalizing the first letter of my username and password, causing the login to fail. Once past that, though, the rest of the experience wass Tribble-free. You can save time with shortcuts and by entering and saving often-used words as text templates to use in search or tweets. Screen shots are available from the Twibble site.

Pros: Runs on any Java-compatible device. Text templates. Share photos.

Cons: Not user-friendly. Location tool doesn’t work well. Sluggish.

TwitterBerry: Attractive interface with average features

4 

TwitterBerry looks easy on the eyes, but sacrifices load time for looks. Features include the basics that you find in most Twitter mobile applications, without any extras. If you go to Pictures, you can select a picture to send to TwitterBerry, but this option may not appear if you have other Twitter apps loaded on your BlackBerry. With few extras, you’d think the application would run faster than it does.

Pros: Sharp look-and-feel. Easy to use.

Cons: Slow. Lacks search and unique features.

Ubertwitter: Wealth of features

If you have multiple IDs, you’ll have to go through the wizard to change the login credentials, something that should take fewer steps (Tip: after you change the ID, hit the BlackBerry button to the left of the scroll wheel to save changes and exit rather than finishing the wizard). Despite this, most features take fewer steps to access compared to other apps and you can use shortcuts. You can take a picture from within UberTwitter. A map of your location appears with the photo. You can find people near you and view them on a roadmap, satellite map or hybrid map.

Pros: Take pictures within update. Control location options. Feature rich.

Cons: Time-consuming to change IDs and options. Sometimes dawdles.

Viigo: Add a new channel for every Twitter ID and search word

You can use Viigo to get news, local information and other customizable content. The Twitter app lives in the Social Networks tab, where you can create a channel for each of your Twitter IDs and frequently-used search terms. For example, if you participate in a weekly chat, you can create a search for the chat hashtag. Its performance is notably slower than its competition. Viigo has neat features, but the sluggishness tested my patience.

Pros: Set up multiple Twitter IDs and search words. All-in-one app.

Cons: Slow. More steps to reach Twitter channel.

The Verdict

UberTwitter offers the most features, while BlackBird has the best performance. But none of the free tools tested here really stand out; I’d still rather use a Twitter client on my PC or laptop.

What is your favorite BlackBerry Twitter app and why?

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