Happy 2010!  It’s still amazing to me that we’ve finished the first decade of the 21st century.

So, if you’re like millions of people around the world you resolved as the new year came in to get healthier.  And, if you’re trying to get moving and watch what you eat what better way to help you with that then some apps for your BlackBerry to help you along.

Most weight loss experts will tell you (and most people who have successfully taken off weight will agree) that keeping a food journal is a great help in watching your food intake.  Being the geek that I am I have a few requirements for my food journal:  1.  It needs to be “techy cool” 2.  It needs to have a web and blackberry sync 3.  It needs to be easy to use.  I’ve tried some computer based applications, I’ve tried BlackBerry only applications but I want something with both options.  Well, I found one and it’s FREE:  Calorie Counter by FatSecret.  FatSecret has an iGoogle add-on or you can use the website.  It also has apps for the iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, and iPod Touch.  I love this app (and website) for helping me track my food.  Calorie Counter is available for free at the BlackBerry App World.

FatSecret also keeps track of your exercise and calories burned but to help me track my walking, cycling, and running I use Bones in Motion.  It has a website to track your cumulative mileage, etc.  But, the BlackBerry app (also free) uses the GPS capabilities to track your average speed, distance, time spent walking, and the amount of calories it estimates you’ve burned.  It can also give you audible warnings at certain mile markers if you desire.  One cool feature (if you like to go on long excursions) is a tracker online that you can give your family.  It’s password protected so it’s not like anyone can see where you are but if you have the app running your family can track where you are on your walk/run/ride (I will admit that I haven’t used this because I haven’t had a need to have someone know where I am — but it is a cool feature — I wouldn’t mind if my friends who do the Ironman triathlon had this so we could figure out where they are).   Bones in Motion is free and available at BlackBerry App World as BiM Active.

So, here’s to a healthier, happier, and thinner 2010!

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A happy BlackBerry is a happy BlackBerry user.

So, how can you keep your BlackBerry happy?  QuickPull.  One quirky thing about the BlackBerry is that it needs a soft reset every once in a while to keep it running at it’s best.  To do a soft reset you have to do a battery pull which isn’t fun when that means peeling off your cool case and pulling the battery out.  Well, there’s a super cool free option — QuickPull.  You can schedule a soft reset when ever you want it (mine is scheduled daily at 3AM).  QuickPull is available at BlackBerry App World (which if you don’t have that on your BlackBerry get it NOW).

So, what is BlackBerry App World?  It’s the official store for BlackBerry Apps.   There are 100s, heck maybe 1,000s of apps for your BlackBerry on here.  You can download it to your phone to browse at your leasure.  Some apps are free some have a fee.  The nice thing is that most have reviews written by other users so you can see what people are saying before you try it out.  You definitely want it on your phone, though.  Nothing like being on a long car ride and needing a new game for your nephew (or yourself) and being able to click-click your phone and provide some quick entertainment.

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I recently stumbled across this really cool, geeky tool for practicing speed reading, and thought it would be a great share with all of my fellow geeks.

About Spreeder

Spreeder is an online speed reading utility to help train you to read faster. It does this by flashing words at a rapid rate, which helps in three ways:

1. Reduce subvocalization
2. Increase chunk comprehension
3. Eliminate backreading

You can read more about it and access a tutorial here.

How to Use Spreeder

The Spreeder website is super simple and at first glance, it may not be clear exactly what you should be doing, so here’s a really easy rundown:

• Go to www.spreeder.com.
• Paste any text that you want to use for your practice in the box on the screen and click spreed!

Once you get the hang of how it works, you can play around with the settings:

From the settings menu, you can change things like how many words per minute are flashed, the chunk size (number of words flashed at a given time), and background color.

The background color was a biggie for me — for some reason, I thought the black text on white was brutal. I changed my settings so the text was a dark gray and the background a lighter gray. Much easier on my eyes!

There is also an advanced settings option that lets you change things like speed variability, pauses, skipping “stopwords,” etc.

It’s a really cool tool for anyone who wants to learn how to read faster (and become more productive in the process). Oh, and did I mention that it’s free? Give it a try!

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Even if you’re not in the design industry, there will likely come a time when you need to grab an image of your computer screen to share. For example, you may need to compare notes with a client who is seeing something odd in the Word document you just sent them. You may need to grab an example of a software issue to send to support. Or, you may want to quickly share an idea with a colleague.

Of course you can use the screenshot functionality included in your operating system (Apple Grab on a Mac, and the print screen function or Snipping Tool on Windows), but if you want a little more functionality, here are some really cool (and free) tools to check out.

Screenshot Tools for Windows

Cropper: A simple screenshot tool that lets you take screen grabs and crop out sections you don’t need.

MWSnap: An installation-free screenshot tool that can capture your entire desktop, a highlighted window, an active menu, a control, or a fixed or free rectangular part of the screen.

Snippy:  An installation-free tool for Windows XP that allows you to take screenshots of a page, even if you have a dual monitor setup.

Webshot: A tool that allows you to take screenshots in Internet Explorer and save them in JPG, GIF, PNG, or BMP formats.

Screenshot Tools for Macs

Paparazzi!: A small utility for Mac OS X that takes screenshots of web pages.

Skitch: Take screenshots, do some light modifications, and annotate with text, graphics and more.

SnapNDrag: A tool that lets you take a screenshot by just clicking a button and dragging the window. Supports PNG, TIFF and JPEG.

Cross-Platform Screenshot Tools

Jing: A powerful program that not only lets you take screenshots, but record screencasts and audio. From TechSmith, the makers of Camtasia.

Screengrab: A Firefox add-on that captures a full window, the entire page, just a selection, or a particular frame and lets you save the images either to a file, or to the clipboard.

Tiny Grab: A tool that instantly uploads your screenshots to easily share online. Free version is limited to 10 uploads per day.

What’s your favorite tools for capturing screenshots?

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I started my geek days as a Mac user. Since I worked primarily in web and graphic design, my Mac was a perfect fit for me. Over time, though, as my service offerings expanded, and I started to rely on more Windows-friendly software, I switched back to a PC.

Then last year, I decided to become a bi-platform professional. I kept my Dell XPS desktop and got a MacBook Pro as my portable machine. It was one of the best moves I could have made for my business, and I have found that I am most productive and efficient when I use both computers in tandem.

One immediate benefit of the dual systems is that the setup lets me avoid file format issues with clients who are on Windows platforms. I don’t have to worry about saving in a compatible mode or testing conversion of my files before sending work off to my clients.

Of course, my Mac gives me the best-of-the-best when I’m designing. Plus, it’s just more visually appealing to me when I work on my Mac. While I tend to favor my Mac for these reasons, I have found having constant access to a both computers lets me take advantage of software that works in only one of the platforms. There isn’t really any software out there that I can’t use in my business.

On a logistics level, having two machines available to me at all times means I can double the number of apps I can have open at a time without overloading either machine. And I do! Plus, I can use my PC for running things I don’t want to check all the time – like HootSuite for keeping up on Twitter – so I know it’s there, but it’s not getting in the way of my other work.

One thing that makes me most productive is the backup system I have in place. My files on both computers are automatically synced as I work, so if I need to bounce around from computer to computer, I don’t have to worry about wasting time transferring files. I think I would be slower and less efficient without my current setup…but what do you think?

Do you or would you ever consider using both platforms in your business?

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Want in on a secret?  I upgraded my phone this month from the Pearl (which I loved) to the Storm (which is out of this world).  Seriously, if you thought I was a BlackBerry fan before, you just wait.  I know I mentioned wanting to upgrade to the Tour but, honestly, when I was in the store playing with it I didn’t like the Tour at all.

So, last month I talked about one RexWireless app that I love and I promised to tell you about another.  Well, as promised, here’s my other favorite app from them…RexConnect.

Here are a few examples of how I’ve used RexConnect (and why I can’t live without it)

1. Say your mom calls you and says she wants to send a card to your cousin but she doesn’t have her address.  You tell her no problem.  Pull up your cousin’s contact information, click “RexConnect”, choose the e-mail (or text) option and send the contact info off.
2. Say you get an e-mail about the location, time and date of a meeting (or party) you’re attending and you don’t want to lose the address (or other important information).  Easy, in the e-mail click “RexConnect”, choose calendar and insert the e-mail in that day/time on your calendar.  It will show as an appointment with the e-mail body in the notes section.
3. Say you need to keep track of the day and time a call was made.  You go to your call log, click “RexConnect”, choose ToDoMatrix, and enter it in the necessary folder.

The send contact information feature alone makes this app a must-have for me (seriously).  The others are just added bonuses in my book.  In essence, you can be in pretty much any app and send that information to another app.  It’s awesome.  I love being able to add things to my calendar, ToDoMatrix, send e-mails/texts easily with a quick click of a button.

Next month I’m going to discuss some super important apps that will help make your BlackBerry experience more enjoyable.  And, if you have an app that you absolutely love be sure to contact me through my website and share.  I test all apps out personally before I’ll rave about them but I love trying new apps so it’s never a problem.

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It’s no secret that I love my Blackberry.  It’s with me everywhere I go.  In fact, this past weekend I was camping and had zero cell reception for the entire weekend (including the drive over that that’s a whole different story) which made a few off my Blackberry Apps completely useless — I was at a loss.  Luckily I had the river and some great hiking to distract me.

Years ago I read Getting Things Done by David Allen (excellent book by the way) which transformed a lot of how I organize my thoughts, life, and “to do” items.  When I got my Bberry I had to come up with a way to integrate what I’d learned in the book with how my smartphone could make my life easier.  I did some research and found the perfect app for me.  TodoMatrix by RexWireless.

This application is, in essence, a to do list.  But, really, it’s so much more.   They’ve taken the GTD file cabinet idea and made it into an application.  It’s like having a four drawer (or six drawer if you’re like me) file cabinet in your phone.  Within each “drawer” I have folders for that section.

For example:  In my “Personal” drawer I have folders for music, cash, food, movies, etc.  So, if I’m out somewhere and hear a song I want to download I type it in my music folder.  In my movie folder are movies that I’ve watched previews for or that people have recommended.  In my cash folder I log my cash spending to enter in my budgeting software.  Food — well, that would be items I need to pick up at the grocery store (you know, so I don’t forget that one thing I went to get and come home with five other things).

I have drawers for certain clients, my business, personal, travel (ideas, packing reminders, etc.), and family ideas.

The program has so many functions.  I can delegate tasks to people (and have the tasks e-mailed to them).  I can set reminders of due dates (for things I need to do — like take a medication or pick up someone).  You can set up locations (from the GTD plan) so if you are at your computer you can pull up your @computer list.

Seriously, my bberry todo list is hidden, I don’t even use it.  I HIGHLY recommend you check out RexWireless and todoMatrix.

Next month I’ll probably do a review on RexWireless’ RexConnect — another MUST HAVE app.

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Photoshop and Illustrator are among my favorite image editing tools. I use them daily for a number of things, from graphic design work to the simplest tasks, like re-sizing personal photos. But not only are they quite expensive, but the learning curve is tremendous.

It’s not easy for someone with little experience with these applications to install them and start using them fully. Heck, I don’t even use them to 100% of their capability and I have years of experience!

So what do non-designers do? What can you use to modify photos or do basic image optimization when the funtionality in the software that came with your digital camera or scanner is not enough?

Two of my favorite free image editors are Paint.NET and GIMP. I have used both on my second (and third) computers at home or at other locations when I’ve had to work in a pinch. Here are some details.

Paint.NET
Paint.NET is free and has a lot of features, including:

• Simple, intuitive, and innovative user interface
• Layers
• Effects such as blurring, sharpening, red-eye removal, distortion, noise, and embossing
• Adjustable brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, curves, and levels
• Simple tools for drawing shapes
• Unlimited history (I love this feature because it means you can undo and undo….and undo.)

I primarily use a Mac for my work and Paint.NET is only avaialble on Windows. But I have installed and used it on a PC, and it’s really easy to use…almost deceivingly easy with the amount of functionality it provides. There is virtually no learning curve here, so I vote this as a must-try for any non-designers interested in doing image editing work.

GIMP
GIMP is probably one of the most used open source image applications. It has pretty extensive functionality and mimics Photoshop in some ways. Some of the features GIMP has includes:

• Painting tools including brush, pencil, airbrush, clone, etc.
• Gradient editor and blend tool
• Unlimited number of images open at one time
• Layers and channels
• Editable text layers
• Transformation tools including rotate, scale, shear and flip
• Supports all of the major file formats

There are versions available for Windows and Mac. While it does have a lot of functionality, there’s a bit of a learning curve. If you have time to play around, do some tutorials and practice, you can do almost anything that can be done with Photoshop. One major downfall to note, however, is that GIMP doesn’t support CMYK, which makes it a no-go for any print design work. But this is still a very good, advanced (and free!) image editor.

So, have you used either of these? Are you up for giving them a try?

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