Digital Life Simplified
Posts tagged digital life simplified
May 7th
I recently asked several of my friends which news aggregators
they use. I was stunned to find out that most of them had no idea what I was talking about. They go to each individual website that they like and read what seems relevant. Who has time for that? We’re all busy, so having easy access to news is essential. However, we all need different news. For example, I’m an American MBA marketing and social media intern living in China. I need to know about what is happening in the USA, as well as in Asia. I need to keep up with general business and marketing trends, as well as more specific trends in social media and social networking. I also need a daily dose of laughter to keep me sane.
I’ve found some great websites to give me the updates that I want, but they’re scattered all over the web. That’s why I’m such a big fan of news aggregators. About.com provides a list of the top ten aggregators for Windows, but my favorite (and thus, the one I’m going to talk about) is Google Reader. Mostly it’s my favorite because I like having everything in one place: Google Talk, Gmail, Search, Buzz, Maps, etc., etc. Plus, I’m a fan of keeping info in the cloud so I can access from any computer with an Internet connection regardless of location or if I’m using a PC or an Apple product.
For those of you who don’t already know, an aggregator basically works by receiving messages (called RSS feeds) from your favorite websites when they are updated. It then puts the messages in one web page, so that you can access all news relevant to you in one place. Simple, right?
The greatest thing about aggregators is that they are personalized, so here are my personal favorite subscriptions on Google Reader:
Social Media and Tech News: Mashable, All Facebook, Gizmodo and TechCrunch
Celebrity Gossip: Pop Sugar (Found this one in the Staff Picks)
Humor: The Onion, College Humor (still funny, no matter how old you are)
World News: BBC News
Random interesting things: digg.com: Stories / Popular and Lifehacker
In Google Reader, you can view each article by just the headline or the headline with a brief intro. There are also several options to “like” or share the articles.
There are a few ways to sort your news as well; my favorite is “sort by magic.” Although not technically magic (but might as well be), this setting sorts your news based on what you “like” and share. This means that as time passes, your most interesting and/or relevant news appears at the top of the list.
There are many other features, but I’ll let you explore them on your own for now. If you have any questions or tips for fellow users, feel free to post them.
Happy surfing!
The NEW Digital Life Simplified Blog
Apr 23rd
Happy Lisa and the lollipop!
Hi, everyone!
We’ve been really busy the last few weeks at meshtop. We are about to release a new version (details to come), which has required a lot of man hours! And we’re re-designing the website to better express the essence of MeshTop. As part of these changes, we’ve decided to take this blog in a different direction, one that you guys can relate to and will find beneficial.
The idea came from thinking about some of our favorite things. For example, a few of mine are Diet Dr. Pepper fountain soda, lollipops, and strawberry bubblegum (note: it must be bubblegum; chewing gum is not the same!). I realize that this may sound a bit silly to some of you, but it really proves the conclusion we made: Many of the things that make us happiest in this world are the simplest things around. This lead to our new blog concept: Digital Life Simplified.
We began thinking about how using computers and other technology is meant to make our lives easier. Unfortunately, things have been getting more and more complicated in some ways. For example, as an expat living in the big city, every time I leave the house, I need to have three things with me: my phone, my camera, and my mp3 player. It’s a real pain to have to carry all that around everywhere; even worse for guys because most have to try to fit everything in their pockets! Fortunately, Apple came out with the iPhone. Not only is this a phone, media player and camera in one, it has the capability to download translators, dictionaries and taxi cards in the native language. Having all these conveniences in one hand-held device is much easier: less to carry, less to remember when you leave the house, less to learn how to use.
This concept is exactly what we aim for at meshtop. Social Networking has become a huge part of the business world. Many of us rely on social networking concepts such as Twitter, Facebook and MSN to communicate with our customers and build leads. By merging the information from these sites into Outlook, you can quickly see status updates from your friends from all sites in one place, without logging into multiple websites and juggling several tabs or windows. meshtop matches the email addresses in your Inbox with your Facebook/Twitter contacts, so you can quickly check someone’s recent updates before replying to an email. Meshtop also automatically searches for an email address on Facebook to see if the contact has a profile if you aren’t already linked to that person (Note to Ye: does it do this with Twitter and MSN too? I only noticed Facebook before, but I think it probably checks them all. Please confirm.), helping you remember who you have forgotten to add as friends. As our new tag-line indicates, meshtop truly is Digital Life Simplified.
Over the next few months, we will be introducing some new products to make your lives easier. We will also bring you information through the DLS blog. We will tell you about new products and articles to make your life simpler through technology. We hope you like our changes, and as always your comments and questions are welcome.
