Well it came and went. No more bustling through stores trying to beat a little old lady down for that new, hot item that has limited quantities. No more listening to holiday music when you’re at the grocery store, in your car, walking through department stores, or sitting down to eat at a restaurant. It’s time to put all the holiday cheer behind us and prepare ourselves for the new year.

For the next few months, everyone will be discussing the inevitable – New Year’s resolutions (NYRs). Even as you’re reading this you’re already creating your mental checklist of NYRs. Some of the popular ones are: lose weight, drink less, exercise more, join a book club, become a popular socialite, make more friends, etc. The good news is, most of the things you want to change about yourself in 2010 can be accomplished with all sorts of technologies. Since this is a blog, and we’re not actively having this conversation, I’m going to put myself out there and share with you my NYRs for 2010.  For the next week, I will be posting one NYR per day and the technologies out there that can help me achieve them. Read the rest of this entry »

I read somewhere that the purpose of technology is to “improve the way of life”. I believe this assessment to be true. If you think about any piece of technology—fork, shovel, computer, internet—all of those things are designed to improve life and make it easier. If technology is created with that in mind, why so often do we find that technology companies or IT departments muddy up their processes with unnecessary tasks or too many people involved? Isn’t a large part of technology principles to make life more efficient?

In general, it’s good to have checks and balances in any process. You want to make sure things are done accurately as well as efficiently. Unfortunately, many companies take the checks and balances to the extreme. There is such a thing as “too many cooks in the kitchen”. I’m sure many of you know exactly what I mean. Read the rest of this entry »

Ok – you’re walking through Best Buy (minding your own business) when suddenly, something out of the corner of your eye catches your attention. You stop walking (directly in front of another person and cause them to have to stop and walk around as they glare at you), pick up the eye-catching device, and start reading the package. (For the purposes of this story – it’s a high speed wireless USB network adapter with Wi-Fi finder.)

All of a sudden, you’re thinking about all of the possibilities this adapter can provide for you. You’ll finally be able to use your wireless router on your ancient desktop computer! This is going to be $30.00 well spent! Read the rest of this entry »

We all have a technology toolkit—our “go-to” items, software, or websites that feed our inner geek. For those that don’t believe they have an inner geek: Do you find yourself feeling claustrophobic if you don’t check Twitter 5 times a day? Do you feel naked if you accidentally leave your mobile phone at home (and does it cause you to go back and get it)? These are things that you rely on every day, and yes they feed your inner geek. Here’s a little peak into my technology toolkit and what about the tools make them my “go-to” items. Read the rest of this entry »

More and more companies are building iPhone apps for their businesses to make themselves more marketable, competitive, and more accessible to their customers. Since iPhones are all the rage right now, it’s become quite the competition to create engaging apps that will spread like wildfire to iPhone users and (hopefully) create a following around that particular business, game, etc.

When I hear a particular company is developing an app, I’m interested to learn more. As an avid iPhone user, it’s feels like a Christmas present every time I download a new one. (Of course the “present” is even better when it’s an app that I like.) Today I learned about a company that is developing an “iPhone-esque” web application that will have the same look and feel of a native iPhone app, but will only be accessible via the phone’s browser. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday I was eating lunch with a friend of mine and she was staring at a lady who was waiting for her food. The lady was sitting there texting on her phone while she waited. My friend looked at me and said, “I don’t understand how people are like that. I guess I’m just not that connected.” I laughed because it got me thinking—we’re all connected in some way, shape, or form.

Think about it for a minute. How many pieces of technology (no matter how archaic they may seem) do you use every single day? Just thinking about my day today I’ve used a hair dryer, drove my car, worked on my computer, checked emails, played with my iPhone, made updates to some websites, watched my favorite shows online, called my husband on the phone, surfed the internet, and the list goes on and on.

My friend may think she’s “not that connected” but I have news for her and everyone else—technology is here and we’re ALL connected.  We may all be at different levels, but we’re connected just the same.

I say we give in, embrace the new and exciting, and don’t look back! Jump on the technology bandwagon or you’re sure to be left behind.