E L S U A ~ A KM Blog Thinking Outside The Inbox by Luis Suarez

Archive for September 3rd, 2010

My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week – Week #2

Posted on Sep 3, 2010 | Categories: Fun Stuff and Musings, General Interest, iPad, Life, Productivity Tools, Social Enterprise, Tools and Gadgets, Work Life Integration | 2 Comments

Judging by the good number of positive comments I have received both online and offline, it looks like the first of the series of blog posts on My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week has been somewhat helpful to a good number of folks. So, like I have mentioned on the initial blog entry, here I am, once again, wanting to share on this blog the top picks for Week #2.

You would remember how I am putting together these short articles based on the Daily #iPad App series I keep sharing over in Twitter, more than anything else as a reference for myself that I can keep mentioning back and forth, whenever people would be asking me about my favourite iPad apps. And also as a way to provide a more permanent basis for those recommendations, other than Twitter, since its search engine can only go back up to so many days…

The purpose of this exercise is to keep it on the short side as well, so you have an opportunity to read briefly why I have gone for those weekly picks and then provide you with a link to where you could download the apps, as you may see fit. So I am also going to continue with that plan for this particular blog post on Week #2. And without much further ado, here we go, once again:

Twitter for iPad: Last week I mentioned how my all time favourite Twitter client on the iPad is Osfoora HD; this week, it looks like we have got a pretty decent rival in the shape of Twitter for iPad, the official Twitter client that has put together some pretty nifty features that would surely bring you a new Twitter experience on a mobile device. Now, I will still continue to make use of Osfoora HD, but you cannot deny one of the biggest advantages from this Twitter client: it is free! Worth a try, for sure!
MindNode: Like I have mentioned in the past, I have been a big fan of mindmapping for several years now and time and time again, whenever there is a new mindmap app out there worth while having a look into I just can’t resist the temptation. Check MindNode. One of those mindmapping applications for the iPad that surely is quite interesting and worth while having a look into, more than anything else, because, if you have got MindNode Pro installed in your Mac, there is a full, and rather nifty, integration between the iPad and Mac apps, so you can take your newly created mindmaps where you would you would to. Pretty neat, don’t you think?
GoodReader for iPad: There are quite a few file sharing apps available for the iPad, but if I would have to pick one that I enjoy quite a bit, I think that one would be GoodReader. One of the reasons why I have been accumulating a good number of PDF files, and other file formats is because I now have a lovely way of interacting with them through GoodReader, no matter how large they are. There is one other app I enjoy quite a bit (That I will probably talk about in another blog post from the series), but I think this one will make it into the top list of essential ones to get without any doubt. Another must-have.
Newsy: If you are a news junkie, like I am myself, if you have a tendency to enjoy a cup of coffee (Or tea) in the morning and / or in the afternoon while you are catching up with the worlds and its various news, Newsy is one of those resources you just can’t do without. From an innovative approach towards delivering news (“Multiple Sources. The Real Story”), to a rather refreshing user experience of how you are actually going to digest the ones you would be interested in, Newsy is the kind of iPad app I am sure you will be checking out a couple of times a day …
Words with Friends HD: And, finally, the iPad game of the week! This one, Words with Friends, is actually one of my all time favourite ones, as I have mentioned, and blogged about, not too long ago. It’s like playing Scrabble, but with friends, so it gives you an opportunity to chill out in between activities, on a break at work, while you are travelling, while on vacation, etc. etc. and be just one short message away from those friends who may have hit that magic word that will get you in trouble. In a good way, obviously… And all of that in a matter of a couple of minutes. Here and there. Ideal for those idle times while you are waiting for things to happen
(Feel free to reach out over there, if you would want to play a game or two, because I guess you already know what my handle over there will be, right? )

And that’s it, folks! That’s My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week for Week #2. Hope you have enjoyed the post and stay tuned for next week’s where I will be sharing the next round!

Have a good one everyone!

Technorati Tags: #elsuapps, Apple, Collaboration, Games, iPad, iPad Apps, Mac, Mindmapping, Osfoora HD, Productivity, Productivity Tools, Scrabble, Words With Friends, MindMaps, Recommentations, MindNode, Twitter for iPad, GoodReader for iPad, Newsy, Words

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Knowledge Is … All About Working Smarter, Not Necessarily Harder!

Posted on Sep 3, 2010 | Categories: Collaboration, Communities, Enterprise2.0, Fun Stuff and Musings, General Interest, Hippie 2.0, IBM, Innovation, Knowledge Management, Knowledge Tools, Learning, Life, Personal KM, Productivity Tools, Social Enterprise | 10 Comments

I love it when it happens! You know, that “Serendipity Doing Its Magic” thing. It just happened once again! Earlier on today, as I was recovering from the @RWW effect, I was catching up through my Twitter timeline stream and I bumped into two wonderful YouTube video clips that come from two completely different worlds, yet, they are so well interconnected with one another that it is rather amazing how wonderfully well they combine each other’s powerful message: Knowledge is all about working smarter, not necessarily harder!

Those two video clips will take you about three and a half minutes to go through; I know, very short, very straight to the point, but incredibly inspirational. The first one is coming from IBM under the heading “IBM Business Solutions: CIO Collaboration Tools for a Smarter Planet” and it lasts for nearly one minute. Don’t worry, this blog post is not going to be one of those marketing pitches on how wonderful blah blah blah blah. Just follow the drift for a little while longer and watch it over here with the embedded code below:

Right, that wasn’t too bad, was it? Ok, you have watched that one already and you saw and heard a good bunch of interesting data of how unproductive work seems to be nowadays. You could probably say that it is not even knowledge work altogether, right? Well, what if it were. What if it were, but with a different twist to the whole equation? What if we would have that unique opportunity of injecting both smart collaboration and open knowledge sharing into the mix? How could we make it happen, you may be wondering, right?

Well, have a look into the second YouTube video I bumped into earlier on today and which I think would perfectly pave the road towards that smart collaboration that is mentioned on the first video clip as well. This time around this clip is the inaugural video from the 3rd International Conference on Managing Knowledge for Space Missions and you will be able to see it over here. It lasts for a bit over two and a half minutes and it starts with that brilliantly provocative heading of “Knowledge Is…“.

Now, I am not going to go much further into this blog post and spoil all the fun. I would encourage you all to click on PLAY on the embedded code below and in just a couple of words I will summarise quite nicely what you are about to watch further: be inspired!

You will probably have to watch it twice to capture all of the evocative messages, as you watch them pass by and let them stick around inside your brain, but, I tell you, this video is one of the more inspiring ones I have seen in months! And I am surely glad that it made my way today, because it surely confirms, if you have been reading this blog for a while now, how, indeed, Knowledge Is All About Working Smarter, Not Necessarily Harder. Because, after all, “knowledge is … passion and desire to learn!“