Today Apple announced one more product in a long line of tools built to capitalize upon and further the success of their iPods. The iPod Hi-Fi was announced as a high quality compact speaker system that serves as a docking station for their iPods. It’s portable, it works with the Apple Remote, and it serves some value for people who want everything to look Mac-minimalist… But even the least technically-inclined have found easy ways to play their music at home, especially since they have a synchronized copy of their music in iTunes or other music software. This is nothing revolutionary.

What I’d like to see is a synchronized iPod car stereo. I’ll explain to you first what I see out there now and then offer what I believe would make the most sense…

Apple has done an excellent job of partnering with car manufacturers and car stereo companies to sell their proprietary iPod integration technology for cars. It allows for some decent controls, and the better models even provide artist information on the stereo screen. But it’s a far way off from the interface of iTunes or the iPod itself. They also require that you have your iPod with you.

A better idea would be to have a car stereo that synchronizes with your iPod, much like iTunes, and then offers a iPod or iTunes-like interface. Let’s just call it iCarTunes for the sake of the argument. People would still need to connect their iPod with their car stereo from time to time to update the car, but they’d have most of their music available when they haven’t synchronized. This would accomplish a number of objectives: (more…)

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…or at least it felt that way. You see, I pride myself on having a fairly extensive vocabulary, which occasionally leads to my being pleonastic or pedantic…but nonetheless I’ve always enjoyed richness in words (such as that discussed in the Word Nerds podcast). Anyhow, today I came across a flattering dialog box in Microsoft Word:

For thirty seconds I considered the possibility that Word was not in err and that I had in fact exceeded its capacity for vocabulary. (more…)

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If I had to point to one reason why business is good, I’d guess it’s because of planting lots of seeds. Very rarely has anything been immediately successful for me, but taking my time without pushing too hard has proven to work. As this has been an important lesson for me and as I’d like part of this blog to focus on business ideas, I want to share a little bit.

When I started my business I knew no one: my family was elsewhere, my previous local jobs were in government (the government is another world, let me just say), and my friends were too young to really help. So I did what I did in school to make friends–join lots of groups and volunteer your time. At first it was difficult to walk into room trying to sell myself, knowing no one, and being unable to offer much in return. But over time those casual acquaintances turned into real relationships.

Specifically, I (more…)

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By now you’ve probably used Search & Replace in Word, and you may have even tried some of the advanced tools within it. However, as an efficiency trainer, I get to see that there’s a huge difference between those who use this tool versus those who have mastered it. The result of mastery? A heck of a lot of frustration and time saved. Maybe even some bragging rights. But enough talk…

Tip 1. Don’t perform a “Replace All.”

Inevitably there’s going to be something that doesn’t fit a pattern. You have two choices, you can refine your search (see below) to a more specific term (which is a good idea, but can be time consuming) or you can take the extra 20 seconds to review each item before replacing it. And, for the record, you don’t need to keep pressing Find and then Replace. By merely pressing Replace (or better yet, pressing R on the keyboard!), Word will move you between each selection and then replace it. A quick glance before each replacement will ensure much more accurate search & replaces.

Tip 2. Refine your searches

(more…)

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What software do you love? Jensen Harris, an outspoken Microsoft Office developer, posed this question in his blog last week…and I wasn’t altogether surprised by the responses. In particular, most people loved the nifty, focused tools that make their life easier. No one mentioned Microsoft Word or Outlook, which might strike you as odd–given that the respondents participate in a blog dedicated to the development of Microsoft software. In this post I’ll offer my suspicions for people’s choices and at the same time give Microsoft a little more credit.

Everyone loves their focused software tools, and I chimed in with some of my favorites like hoekey, Firefox, and OneNote. Along the same vein and more in line with others’ responses I could’ve mentioned little apps like KeyTweak, Who Lock Me?, and TotalCopy. What do most of these programs have in common? They’re mostly small utilities that you haven’t heard of. What do all of them have in common? They’re all focused on specific tasks, and all the larger tools improved upon something that could be done (albeit messily, perhaps) using some of the more popular applications. (more…)

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