If you love to blog, and you love to do it from your Android enabled device, AND you use Blogger.com to do it, Google just made your life easier.  Now they have an Android app for blogging via Blogger on the go.

If you’re into Blogger, check it out!

I for one love to use my Android to do my blogging work when I’m not at my computer.  Check out the article I wrote about the tools I use over at FiveFreeApps.com.

This may be something very well know across the Internet but I thought I’d share it anyhow because I once again found myself doing it the other day.

Say you come across a blog you really like and you know there is a subject they’ve covered in the past, but the blogger didn’t include the handy search box in the sidebar.

The easiest thing to do is head to Google.com and type something like this:

site:timmyjohnboy.com “android tips”

Notice I didn’t include any “http://” but just the site name and domain extension “.com” but I don’t think it would change anything if you did include it.  Another quick tip I used in the above example is the quotation marks.  This will give me results with the exact phrase match.  I could have typed something like:

site:timmyjohnboy.com “android”+”tips”

That would give me results containing both of those words but not necessarily in that order.

Anyhow, that’s your quick Google search tip for today!

If you know me at all, you know one of the greatest places I like to spend a lot of time at is my church (Friendship Baptist Church, Rome, NY).  If you ever visit (please do) you may see me there with my phone out during the message (gasp!) but I’m not texting in service (or Tweeting for that matter!).  I have learned how to take notes on my Android, that is all.

I wrote an article a while back about how to take notes in church with your Android phone.  An app called Evernote makes note taking on the go simple and lends itself to taking notes in church (among other places).  It’s cool and it has it’s place.

Now that Google makes it possible to edit Google documents on the go via mobile phones, I may just have replaced Evernote (is it even possible?).

I like Evernote and all but there are just some reasons that Google Docs will be what I’ll be using.  Let me share them with you.

1.  I already use Google Docs all the time at home.

This is a biggies, not just because I am familiar with using the tool, but also because using it on the go will integrate well with what I’ve already got going on.  I already have documents that I take notes in to catch up with later.  I also already have a document or two that I am collaborating with other people on that having the ability to edit on the go will be very handy.

2.  Google Docs works more like a word processor.

I have personally found Evernote’s layout to be a bit foreign.  I know part of it is because I haven’t given it a chance by getting used to it.  I know that there are many features that Evernote has to offer that Google Docs doesn’t, but right now, Google Docs does what I use the most: it acts like a word processor.

3.  Google Docs has some really cool real-time stuff going on.

I just tested Google Docs on my computer and my Android to see how well the real time feature works and I can’t be any more impressed.  I could just about see each letter as I was typing on my phone show up on my laptop in front of me.  Going the other way is a bit slower but still able to be classified as real-time.  If there is a longer lag, there’s also a refresh button.  Is there use to this feature?  I’m sure there is but I have to do some thinking on it to find it.

It is true that Evernote now has a widget I can place on one of my homescreens but at the time I don’t really even use it.  I just have the link to the app.  This means that accessing Google Docs will be just as easy with a link to the bookmark.  I’ll be testing Google Docs as a replacement for Evernote for a bit and I’ll figure out if it’ll work for me.

Meanwhile, what do you think?  Does Google have something good enough going to replace how you use Evernote?  Tell me in the comments!

Check out this hilarious video:

Yep, Google does it again!

A while back I wrote an article for MakeUseOf.com titled 5 Sites To Learn How To Repair Your Own Computer.  In it I complain about the repair prices of the “big box stores.”  Well, as it turns out I found an interesting video depicting some investigative reporting done on the topic of PC repair.  Check it out for yourself:

This kind of stuff happens quite a bit.  For instance, in the article I wrote, I also mentioned someone I knew who had a virus removed and anti-virus software installed for several hundred dollars.  Well, something similar happened to a family member this week.  Let me explain.

It started when the family dog chewed and damaged the cord to a laptop.  The computer continued to work properly with the damaged cord so they just continued using it.  Suddenly there was smoke so they stopped using it and brought it in to Best Buy to see what kind of damage there was.  After plugging the laptop in with the damaged cord and attempting to turn it on with no response, they had a suggested diagnosis.  They said they could have it sent away at the cost of $35 but that it would probably be a waste.  They thought the motherboard was fried and that the cost of repair would add up to more than the cost of a new laptop.

As someone who has worked on and at computers for years, there was a few obvious things they didn’t think to do before jumping to the “time to replace” spiel.  One of those steps was to try using a CORD THAT WASN’T DAMAGED!  Forgive me if I sound haughty when I refer to that as obvious.

In this situation I was able to step in and save my family from impending unnecessary spending, but not everyone has someone close who can help.  Here are a few tips to help you find someone or someplace that you can trust to work on your computer in situations when you can’t fix it yourself.

(1) Ask around

If you are trying to find someone you can trust, ask people you trust for referrals.  The key here is obvious, if you are looking for advice you can trust, ask someone you KNOW you can trust!  Do you know other people with a computer?  These days almost everyone does.  One tip would to not ask someone who does NOT even have a computer; odds are they won’t have good advice about them.  Ask other people you know and trust who they go to and their experiences.  At least that is a good place to start.

(2) Look for reviews

After asking around you’ll hopefully have a few options to choose from.  Once you have that list to work from, you can then look up those references and see what kind of reviews they have.  There are several places online you can go to find business reviews.

One place I go to is Google, more specifically Google Maps.

I just search for the city and state, click the arrow, and click “search nearby.”  OR you can run a search such as: “computer repair loc: CITY, STATE.”  In the balloon you’ll find a link for reviews.

Another good site to search is the Better Business Bareau.

The BBB‘s website not only lists businesses registered with them, but also other businesses.  It lists pertinent information like owner’s name, addresses, phone numbers, possible complaints, etc.  Its worth a shot.

There are also other good sites to find reviews.  Do some research and find out what people are saying.  Get a consensus of the “crowd.”

(3) Ask good questions

There are a few questions you should ask the computer technician before handing over your computer for repair (from About.com – PC Repair):

1. How much do you charge per hour?
2. Can You Tell Me How Many Billable Hours This Might Take to Fix?
3. Do You Have a Minimum Charge?
4. Should I Expect Any Charges Other Than the Hourly Rate? (I’d be specific and also ask if there is a fee for diagnosis)
5. Do You Charge Extra For In-Home/Business Service?
6. Do You Guarantee Your Service?
7. When Might I Be Able to Pick Up My Computer?

On a similar note, you also should be able to explain the issue thoroughly to the technician.  A good thorough explanation of the issue with give you the best odds of getting the issue resolved.  Check out this About.com article titled: How to Describe Your Problem to a Computer Repair Professional.  I also asked a group of computer techies some questions including what kind of things they like people to do BEFORE seeking help.  Check out the interview series.

What tips do you have for someone looking for a good computer repair service?  I’m sure someone can add something to this list!

Image via Wikipedia

I just read an article about Gmail’s latest outage.  It was the title that caught my eye: “Why you should be glad about Gmail failures.”  As someone who is using Gmail, the title kind of got my proverbial goat.  As it turns out, the article was less about boasting on Gmail’s failures and more about how Google has the opportunity to learn from its high profile mistakes.  Although I still have my reservations about Google’s low profile issues, it does seem as if when problems hit in the public’s eye, lessons do get learned.

While reading this article, it reminded me of my many mistakes in blogging through the years.  Some were fixed with a relative lack of difficulty while others I have yet to have the courage to find a fix.  In this article I would like to be candid and share some of those mistakes and some of the fixes and changes I have enacted since.

(1)  The topic

When I began blogging at the domain timmyjohnboy.com I was using it as a personal blog.  The topic basically changed with my whims.  I wrote about whatever I wanted to.  This ended up being a mistake because I not only didn’t reach any goals for my blog, but the goals in and of themselves were vague.

This did not help Google Adsense serve relevant ads.  It also did not help with SEO.  Without a specific topic for the blog, I wasn’t doing so hot with the search engines.

Since then, I took the time to choose a topic I love enough and one with which I have passion and began to create content on that topic.  Choosing a niche helped me participate in the conversation with others in similar niches.  I was able to find people with similar interests.  Although not perfect yet, my ranks have at least begun to grow.  Google Adsense now comes across a bit less confused.

Is your blog more of a personal one, or does it revolve around a specific topic or niche?

(2) The Goals

When I began to blog, I really didn’t have much of a goal.  It was more getting things off my chest.  I did gain a love for writing and I did meet some interesting people.  But I didn’t have real goals to meet by blogging.

Since then I have been blogging in order to do a few things, one of which is to strengthen my authority in my niche.  This means that I am not only learning more about my niche, but I am also showing my own current aptitude.  I am also working on my writing style.  The more I write, the better I get at communicating.  Although I have not quite arrived in the place where all my goals are met, I do have a reason for blogging and my goals are being achieved.

What are your goals for blogging?

(3) The Domain Name

The name actually came from a nick name my father gave me when I was young.  Basically with a first name Tim and a middle name John and an apparent like for the Waltons as a television show, the name came together as TimJohnBoy or TimmyJohnBoy.  I began using it online when I first started using webmail and I’ve been using it ever since.

I haven’t actually decided if this has been a bad choice for the domain name.  On one hand, it really has nothing to do with technology, computers or the Internet.  On the other hand, using my own name in the domain can aid in strengthening my name’s “brand” or “authority.”  What I mean by this is that it can strengthen the tie between my name and the topic  that I write about.  For instance, although he may see his domain choice as being a mistake, it is difficult to hear John Chow’s name without thinking about the blogging about blogging niche, right?

You tell me, is my choice of domain name a mistake?

We all have made mistakes.  It is only when we see what we can learn from them that we learn how to grow.  Sometimes we CAN be glad about our failures!

If you are not familiar with it, Delicious.com is what is called a social bookmarking site.  This means that users can save bookmarks on the site, organize them according to topics by using tags, and then share them with others.  The interesting thing about Delicious.com is that as people bookmark and share sites they come across, those sites gain in popularity.

This post, however, was written to deal with the searching capabilities of Delicious.com and how they compare to the oh so famous search engine, Google.

It occurred to me the other day, while researching for another post I was working on, that perhaps there are more research options out there than Google.  I then hit up good ol’ Delicious.com to see what I could find.  The results, although not perfect, were surprisingly sufficient!

Basically, Delicious and Google base their search result listings on different things.  If I am correct, Google’s search results are based upon “three distinct phases: spidering the web to find and read web pages, indexing the web pages found and responding to user queries to produce a set of ranked results.” (quoted from article entitled How Google produces relevant search results – Indexing and PageRank explained).  Delicious on the other hand is based more on user bookmarking habits and user tagging.

All of this means that both sites come up with search results.  The results are different and they are based on different things.  The quality of your search experience will depend on the topic of the search and even the terms you choose to use in your search.  I am hearing that Yahoo, using methods that Delicious uses, may be looking to change the way we search online.  Hold onto your seats, we may be into another search engine battle!

What about you?  Have you ever ventured off of the well-beaten Google search path and tried sites like Delicious for your searching needs?  What site do you prefer?  Let me know in the comments!

A Guest Post by Brett Barner of GodlySheep.com and @Godlysheep about Trillian Astra.

Instant Messaging (IM) clients are a dime-a-dozen nowadays. Though IMing seems so ’90s, it is still useful today. The big issue with IM clients is that unless you and all of your friends get together and decide universally what IM service you all want to use, you’re stuck having 4 different accounts. That, and you’re still using the screen name you came up with in high school (CreedFan4Eva) because you don’t want to take the time and effort to create and tell your friends of your new, more adult, screen name. This isn’t a problem for all your high school chums, but if you meet someone new, you cringe giving it out. That’s where Trillian Astra steps in, and then organizes even more.

Instant Messaging:

The founding function of Trillian Astra is its IM feature. It is it’s own IM network, but also supports other IM networks in case you venture away from just AIM. Here’s a list of the IM networks Trillian supports in addition to it’s own network: AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber/XMPP, MySpace IM, Windows Live, and Yahoo!. Not only can you have multiple clients open at once, you can also have multiple screen names under the same client open at the same time. This comes in handy if you have different screen names for different reasons. (i.e. personal & professional). You can also set all your status as “Away”, “Invisible”, “Offline”, or “Online” with the click of one button. (or you can set them individually)

Trillian also offers video/audio support and file transfers. It supports Skype, which you can add as one of your services as well. You can use Skype as an IM service as well as a video and audio client. The downside of using Skype with Trillian is the amount of system resources it requires to run Skype alongside of Trillian. Trillian manages Skype, but if you’re concerned about processor speeds, Skype eats up a lot of your RAM, even when it’s just sitting there.

Email:

If you set up an AIM, Google Talk, Windows Live, or Yahoo! in Trillian, you will get the option of setting up the email notifier that is associated with those accounts. If you have another kind of email service, POP3 and IMAP. A small notification window will pop up in the bottom, right-hand corner of your screen to notify you of your incoming messages. Click on the link, and Trillian will whisk you away to the new message through your browser.

Social Networks:

If you’re hip to Facebook or Twitter, Trillian Astra’s got you covered. With Facebook, Trillian will notify you of people’s status changes, and profile updates. If you or a friend’s wall has been written on, it’ll let you know. If you receive a Facebook email, it’ll notify you of that as well. My favorite part of Trillian’s Facebook tool is that it also notifies you of your friend’s birthdays. This has helped me out since Facebook moved the birthday portion down on its homepage.

Trillian’s Twitter tool gives you up to you news feed of who you are following, direct messages, and you can tweet directly from the contact list with TinyURL support. Trillian also supports multiple Twitter accounts.

Trillian is typically running in my system tray and helps keep me up to date with it’s great, OS X Growlish, notifications. You can even have multiple accounts with Trillian. For example, my wife and I have our own accounts with saved personal settings. There are a lot more other features as well, with widgets and different skin settings.

Trillian Astra is free with the option of a pro version. Trillian is only available for Windows right now, but is close in development for Mac and iPhone users. There is also a web version that doesn’t require a download.

Screenshots:

Visit: Trillian.im

OK, those of you who know me know that text messaging sometimes gets on my nerves.  As you can tell from past articles, such as the one I wrote on the topic of texting while driving, I have a view that texting CAN be useless and even dangerous.  Well, as it turns out, Google is beginning to force me to change my mind… to a point.

ALSO, if you know me, I do not have a data plan on my phone, neither do I have the need to, neither do I see the need to in the foreseeable future.  Google is actually helping me in this area.  As long as I have unlimited SMS, I can do many cool things without an expensive data plan.

You see, I just recently upgraded my phone to one of those “messaging” phones which has a quirty keypad making texting a whole lot easier.  Having the ability now to actually type, I’ve been exploring what I can actually do with SMS besides the obvious corny messages between friend and family.  Well, as it turns out, there are several ways that SMS can enhance the way you use Gmail and Google Calendars.  I’m sure these tricks have been kicked around for awhile, but here is what I get out of it.

SMS and Gmail

There are a few ways that SMS can work with Gmail.  I’ve figured them out by either messing around or by, you guessed it, Googling it!

1. I can be notified via SMS when I get email.  That, in and of itself is cool, you can do that with any email service, just forward email to (yournumber)@(your phone carrier, such as vtext for Verizon).com.  With Verizon you can set up a nickname, too to cut out using your own number.  With Gmail’s labels and filters, I can actually choose what kind of email to notify me about.  For instance, I set up a filter to send all emails from my wife to my vtext email address.  At this point, I am notified that I need to pick up milk, or whatever.



2. I can use Gmail to take a note for me so I will remember it later when checking my email.  I set up a filter to label all email with a phrase like “makeamemo” anywhere in the email with a label such as “MEMOS.”  So now I can just send an SMS to my Gmail address and have a nifty list of memos to remember. Notice that I made sure it filters only email from my address so no mistaken mail gets plopped there.  ALSO I made sure that the messages skip the inbox so that doesn’t get cluttered.

I am sure there is more I can do with Gmail and SMS.  I am still learning.  As I learn, I will share.

SMS and Google Calendars

Here are a couple of tricks I learned about Google Calendar and how SMS can enhance my use of it.

First you’ll want to set up your Google Calendar account to work with your cell phone.  Just click settings and follow the instructions in the mobile setup section.

1. I can have Google send me an SMS reminder of an appointment coming up.  I am SO bad at remembering appointments, especially if they are made a long time in advance.  Well, I could either mess with my phone’s calendar, which I’d rather not, OR I can have Google calendar remind me.  With the flexibility and ease of use that Google Calendar provides, it seems an obvious choice.



2. I can MAKE appointments on my Google Calendar via SMS!  I think that is the coolest thing EVER!  All I have to do is send a message to the number Google provides me (48368), make sure the date, time, and details are all in there, and bodda-bing!  Google will then send a confirmation SMS making sure the date, time and details are recorded correctly so there’s no worries there.  For more information, check out the post in Google’s help pages.

The idea here is that I don’t really need a data plan when I have SMS, and therefore I save money.  I’m sure there are more ways that you can use SMS with Google’s services.  Have you read my post about filtering and canned messages?  I’m still looking to learn more so if you know of any more hacks or tricks I can use SMS for, let me know.  AND, as usual, I will share with y’all what I learn!

Admittedly, I am new to the gmail scene.

I’ve always used Hotmail, even before Microsoft took them over.  Yes, way back then.  I have been hesitating, then hesitating, and even hesitating to move to another webmail service.  There are many things I don’t like about Hotmail, but, hey, there are also many things to get used to somewhere else.  For years I’ve had this struggle, until just recently.

I signed up for a gmail account quite some time ago, but I just never got into using it.  Many parts of gmail are foreign to me, including the whole idea of labels instead of folders.  It’s just one of those things.  Gmail has kind of changed the whole email thing, to the point that sometimes it’s difficult to get into it.  Well, recently I starting using gmail a bit more.  I haven’t tossed out my Hotmail account just yet, but I’m tinkering, and I love tinkering!  I hooked up my domain with Google apps so I can have my domain’s emails handled by gmail and I kinda like that.  I hate using desktop-based email clients because I like being able to check my email from any browser anywhere.  I also didn’t like some of the other options such as Squirlmail.  SO, I starting messing with gmail once again.

Also, since beginning to write for MakeUseOf.com, I’ve had to use gmail for my @makeuseof email address, which is fine.  All of this just keeps pointing me towards taking a real look at gmail.  Well, while handling a large number of emails from MakeUseOf.com readers, I was able to learn a trick or two in order to handle the influx:

First off, I realized how easy it was to create a filter that would filter emails with specific words and give them a specific label.

This was really cool, because I had a lot of emails from people needing the same thing.  This way I could glance at just the emails filtered for me.  That was cool enough, but I can also do that with Hotmail.  I’ve talked about filtering before, but gmail’s ease is overwhelming.  The thing with Hotmail is that it uses folders.  That means that a message is either in one folder or the other.  That’s OK, but I’m beginning to prefer the flexibility of having the option to have the message show up in several places.  In other words, with gmail I’m able to have a message tagged with several labels, helping me to organize them better.  For instance, I can label all emails from a specific person with their name (or whatever) and also label all emails with a specific topic and messages from that person would show in both places.  I like that.

I realized that I could add and delete labels at will.

I could even remove the “inbox” label and remove the clutter from my inbox.  I think that the “archive” option does the same thing (removes the message from the inbox but still keeping the other tags, AND if there aren’t any, the messages will still show in search results – cool!).

I was extremely impressed with how easy it is to create and use canned messages.

If you find yourself replying with the same or similar message over and over again, you can save it and have it ready with the click of a button.  Oh, boy did this feature make my day!  In the situation with all of those emails from MakeUseOf readers, my job got A LOT easier!  All it took to reply was to click reply, click the canned response I wanted, and click send!  It sounds kind of impersonal, but in the situation it was quite necessary and it really wasn’t a big deal not responding personally.

Using filters WITH canned messages sealed the deal for me!

When I figured out that I could set up a filter, and have a canned response AUTOMATICALLY replied to the sender, I almost fell out of my seat!  This means that I could have SEVERAL things going on, people emailing me asking for SEVERAL different things, and all I have to do is set up a few filters???  Now that takes the cake!  And I love cake!

Anyways, I know gmail has been around for some time now, and that there is a possibility that some of the features are very well known, but I am still impressed!  I’m ready to learn gmail!  I’m also ready to learn how gmail can help ease the transition from other email providers.  This should be fun.