Automatically Tweeting Shared or Starred Items on Google Reader

For all those who asked us whats the easiest way to stay in touch with all the tech buzz and share interesting articles without having to explicitly post them ….

1. Use Google reader to subscribe to a wide range of news feeds
2. Share/Star items while browsing feeds
3. Set up Twitterfeed to automatically tweet the shared/starred items

Anyone who follows me on Google Reader, Twitter or Buzz will have access to whatever I share.

Implementation:

1. There are a bunch of aggregators or feed readers out there but Google Reader is my favorite since it lets me synch with other things effortlessly.
• Go to http://www.google.com/reader and sign in with your Google account
• When you log in you will notice an Add Subscription button. On clicking on it, it will show you a search box to search for feeds. You can type keywords that interest you like say “Technology”. It will bring up a bunch of tech blogs or tech news sources like Technology News sections of  New York Times or CNN or Reuters. If you know of a website/blog you would like to subscribe to like Mashable or Techcrunch, type the name as a keyword. Click on the Subscribe button of each feed that shows up in the result to subscribe to it.

• Here is a list of popular blogs to subscribe to http://technorati.com/blogs/top100/
• All subscriptions will show up on your left hand side panel under Subscriptions. You can organize your subscriptions in folders like Technology, News, Fiction, Photography, Sports based on your interests. When you click on a folder, all news feeds from the blogs in that folder will show up on the right hand side.
• Now you can access Google Reader anywhere, anytime through your web browser on your laptop/mobile device/notebook/tablet or any other gadget that can connect to the internet.

1. The next step is to Share or Star items while browsing feeds:

• Google reader has some neat browsing/reading features. For example, as you scroll down after looking through the title of the feed it will mark the ones you have scrolled past as “Read”. If there is anything you would like to read later you can “Star” it. If you would like to share it , you can click the “Share” or “Share with a Note” button. You can even add comments while sharing or you can “Like” a feed.

• You can view all your Shared and Starred items by clicking on the “Shared Items” or “Starred Items” on the top left hand navigation panel just below the “Add Subscription” button
1. Automatically tweeting/buzzing items you shared or starred
• First step to sharing your “Shared” or “Starred” items with your social network is to first make your feed public. In order to do so go to “Reader Settings” and then go to the “Folders and Tags” tab in the Settings dashboard.  Activate your feed by checking the box next to “Your Starred items” and “Your Shared Items”. Then select “Public” in the dropdown menu.

Now your Google Reader Starred and Shared items RSS feed is active.  Click “View public page” to view your Starred and Shared items. Anyone who follows you on Google or Buzz will be able to see your feeds.

• In order to Tweet your Shared/Starred items what you need to do is use a service called Twitterfeed. Twitterfeed will periodically check for your shared/starred items from your RSS feed and post your feeds on Twitter asynchronously.   You will need to
• Create an account on the twitterfeed site
• Get the RSS feed URL of your Shared/Starred items. You can find this on your public page as shown in the image above. You will see an “Atom Feed” link. Click on the link and copy the URL. It will be of this format: http://www.google.com/reader/public/atom/user%2F09997364830221729003%2Fstate%2Fcom.google%2Fstarred
• In Twitterfeed you need to set up two things: 1. Create New Feed with the URL obtained in the previous step and 2. Enter your Twitter username to authorize Twitterfeed to post to Twitter. There are some other things you could configure on Twitterfeed like how often to poll your shared items URL, how many items to post at one time etc.

Now you can see your shared feeds on Twitter:

You can also set up Twitterfeed to update your status on Facebook like you set up Twitter.

Efficient Kitchen Gadgets

1. Elevate Utensils : Innovative weighted handles on spoons to keep tools away from touching kitchen surfaces. No need of spoon rests                                    
2. Temperature sensitive Mug: Mug that changes color based on whether it contains a hot beverage or a cold one. So next time you look at that mug of drink on the kitchen counter you will know exactly whether you need to microwave it or let it cool for sometime without tasting it.                                                          
3. Scale that tells you nutrition value: Its called the perfect portion scale
4. All in one Spoon-Fork-Knife: Use it whichever way you want. Reduces your spoon load in the dishwasher by a third. Perfect for office/school and camping . I use it and love it.                                  
5. Pizza Scissors: Pizza cutting has always been a messy affair. But check this one out. Scissors + a triangular holder to hold the slice in place. Makes so much more sense!                                                                    

60 App Recommendations for new iPhone users

Here is a list of most of the iPhone apps currently on my phone. There are way too many other apps that
a) I have tried and deleted off the phone for one reason or another.
b) Do not get used enough by me to have much of an opinion
c) Do not provide enough (or any) value to be worthy of mention in this post. Apps such as TalkingTom, Illusions and VoicePlus fall in this category.
Hope this list is helpful to you in discovering useful apps. If there are any others that you use and think are worth recommending to others, please leave a comment.

Productivity:
Google - Very convenient for doing a quick search using voice input.
Todo - Paid app for Tasks. Good by itself but not as great if syncing is the goal. Syncs with Toodledo (online) or Appigo’s desktop app. I was not able to sync it with the beta version of Appigo’s desktop app for Windows. Mac users may have better luck.
EverNote - One of the best note taking apps with a desktop app and an online portal that all sync with each other seamlessly.
(Not used much) – Siri

Reading:
NetNewsWire - RSS Feed Reader (Syncs with Google Reader account and FeedDemon)
MobileRSS - RSS Feed Reader (Syncs with Google Reader account)
(Not used much) – WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Kindle, Read It Later, iBooks

SMS / Instant Messaging:
TextFree.us - Unlimited Free SMS. Great app. Sometimes it pings you with offers, but overall a great experience.
Fring: For making voice calls over the GTalk network and generic chat client.
Skype: Its Skype. Needs no more explanation. Free skype-skype calls.
Yahoo Messenger
Google Talk
(Not used much) – Text+, Meebo, eBuddy, pMessenger, MSN Messenger

Social:
Facebook
TweetDeck
Foursquare
LinkedIn
Flickr
(Not used much) – Google Wave, Google Buzz, Meetup, Yahoo!

Remotes:
AirMouse: Excellent app for controlling your mouse pointer over the Wi-Fi network, especially if you have a media PC connected to your TV
Remote: Great app for controlling your iTunes on a computer through your iPhone, especially if you have it connected to a sound system and want to walk around the house and be able to control the music.
VNC - I like it if needed, but not used too much because of the small screen.
Boxee - If you are into Hulu/Boxee type of solutions, then this is a must.
(Not used much) – TouchMouse, RemotePad

Sports:
ESPN ScoreCenter
iCricket
(Outdated) – Wimbledon, 2010 FIFA World Cup

Travel:
Yelp
Kayak
HotelsNearMe
TripAdvisor
Southwest
LiveTracking
(Not used much) – Metro, AAA Roadside, Traffic, Cultures, LonelyPlanet

Lists
Grocery Gadget – Good if both the partners have an iPhone. Easy to keep the grocery list always updated.

Health
Lose It!

Finance/Bills
Mint.com
BofA
myWireless

Location Based (Find the nearest):
AroundMe
Starbucks
(Not used much) – HappyHours, Where, The Weather Channel, iRecycle

Entertainment:
Flixter
IMBb
Pandora
Shazam
(Not used much) – Mini Piano

Shopping:
Amazon
(Not used much) Paypal, ShopSavvy, RepairPal, Wootwatch, RedLaser
Food:
OpenTable
Epicurious
UrbanSpoon
AllRecipes

TV/Video
HowCast
Discovery
TED
Nikon L&E
(Not used much) – NFB, 1Cast, TV Guide, Justin.TV, Mobi.TV

Utilities:
RulerPlus
IHandyLevel
Units
Currency
Wi-Fi Finder
SpeedTest
(Not used much) – Battery, Translate, Translator, Alarm Clock, FedEx Mobile, UPS

Games
TapDefense
BrainTeaser
Chess Free
Mancala
UnblockMe Free
Words Free
Scramble
TicTacFree



Things that Tweet (furniture,lights,toilets,bridges,dogs,shoes & more..what next?)

Twitter has changed the way not only humans communicate, but also how non-living things, objects, animals and plants may communicate digitally.  The ‘Internet of Things’ is finally approaching reality and feasibility.  Here is a comprehensive list of things that tweet. If we have missed something let us know and we will add it.

Living Things:

Plants: Plants that tweet when they need to be watered @pothos

Puppies and Pets: Puppies’ barks can be translated to tweets.

Baby Kicks from the Womb: This is the ultimate! Baby kicks from the womb are tweeted. A father to be rigged this up to be notified whenver his to be born baby kicked. @kickbee

Heart Monitor: Heart monitors can tweet thereby informing whether a person is alive or not. Depends on a

Gadgets and Furniture:

TweetAWatt:  Power meter that tweets your energy and power usage.  @tweetawatt

Lamps,  Windows: Someone wired his entire house with sensors that can tweet. Lamps that tweet “I am turned on”, Windows that tweet “I am open” and even a mouse trap. @andy_house Another person can even send commands to his lights to turn off. If you tell it to turn off something with an @ reply like “@MattsOffice light off” , it will turn off the light.

Water Tanks, Security Systems: Anything at home can be made to tweet literally.Other things in his house that tweet:  “400 litres of water used so far today”, “security system: door open” @andy_house

Thermostats, Heaters: Thermostats can not only tweet the current temperature but also respond to questions and commands. For e.g., If you ask it “how cold is it?” – responds with temperature or “How bright is it?” – replies with the current ambient light reading. @mattsoffice

Washing Machine: Washing machines and driers tweet when the load is done. @pimpy3wash

Toasters: Toaster tweets when its done toasting @mytoaster

Toilets: A toilet that will post to twitter with every flush @hacklabtoilet

Chairs: Chairs that tweet in response to farts! @officechair

Ovens: Ovens tweet to bakers when something hot and fresh has been baked.  @albionsoven

Telescope: Telescope that tweets where it is pointing to. @LovellTelescope

Personal Use Objects:

Wi-Fi Body Scale: Body weighing scale that tweets your weight  My weight is ..

Shoes: Nike can now automatically tweet your fitness status based on the info it gathers from the sensors while you run

Vehicles:

Ferries: Ferry tweets its location. Pretty accurate and up to date. @red_ferries

Structures:

Bridges: The London Tower tweets when its opening or closing and for what. @towerbridge

5 Reasons why the iPad *will* be successful

The iPad is here. It is easy to hate it. Why? Because of all the features that were rumored to be but were found to be missing. Everyone is out to bash the device and express their disappointment through various jokes and articles. Did Apple make a big mistake? You may want to think twice about that. The name aside, here are 5 reasons for why the device is headed for being successful at what its intended for.

1. Sex Appeal: You can try to deny it but at the end of the day, the sex appeal of the device gets more weight than most people realize. Once its available in the apple stores to play with and someone in your friend circle gets one, suddenly your phone screen will start to seem small and the laptop will start to feel heavy to carry around. It has happened before with other devices. You see something –> You don’t need one –> You want one –> You need one.  The feedback from some of the media folks that attended the launch event says that watching someone else play with the device does not do it justice and that once you play with it in your hands, its beautiful and enticing.

2. Apps: Why did the iPhone become so popular? Apps. Apps. Apps. The iPad comes with a double whammy. Not only does the iPad get to leverage the existing 100,000+apps from app store but the fact that so many people already know how to build these apps and now want to make tons and tons of money by creating iPad apps, the number of available apps will continue to skyrocket. This dramatically increases the value for money you receive by purchasing this device.

3. Multimedia Content: Never before has a device like this been available to content producers. This opens up a whole new world of possibilities from a content production perspective. A book does not just have to be text, but rather it can contain multimedia components now.  With newspapers being in a crunch, this gives them an opportunity to differentiate themselves, create quality content and charge a premium for it. Once there is enough content available, people will choose the multimedia content rather than plain old text.

4. Futuristic Features: Some of the features provided by the iPhone such as the accelerometer and the compass created a new category of applications not available to app developers for other devices.  The same will be true for the iPad. In addition, this is just version 1.0. Going by some of the patents that apple has filed, the features that people were expecting in this version should not be too far away. The recent decision by Apple to remove the Wi-Fi restriction for VOIP calls will also enable you to make phone calls through the iPad. A camera and proximity gesture control may be on their way too. We can be sure that if a feature goes into the device, it wil be because Apple will implement it really well and until then, we just have to wait.

5. Price: Yes, its not the cheapest device in the market but thats not what its trying to be. Apple managed to set high expectations for the device and then coming under the $500 mark for the starting model changes the game. Very soon, people are going to think “If I am spending X amount of dollars, then I might as well spend Y amount of dollars and get the iPad because the iPad is capable of doing so much more.”. Apple has managed to squeeze the e-book readers and the netbooks with a single device by pricing it well. People will feel they are getting more for their money with the iPad even if they do not use or care for those extra capabilities that they iPad is capable of.

Summary:

The iPad is going to be a game changer. Already, Macmillan publishing was able to negotiate a higher price after being initially declined by Amazon for their content on the Kindle. Why? Only because of the other option now available through Apple that gives them a higher cut. The iPad is sure to attract more people into the Apple ecosystem (as closed as it may be) and change the dynamics for multiple industries.

5 ways Twitter can streamline your life and enhance productivity

Increasingly, Twitter is becoming a funnel for performing various actions that you perform in life, but have to go to different avenues to perform them. Its like this catch-all that takes what you give it and as long as you have configured things correctly, knows what to do with it and automagically takes care of the action item. Here I list out a few such available services that help you do just that.

1. Todo: Two of the most popular todo services that bring together online/desktop/mobile experience well are Remember the Milk and Toodledo. I currently use Toodledo and love it. To add a todo, I only have to send a direct message to ‘Toodledo’ and can add anything to my tasks lists very quickly. It also supports simple syntax to specify other options like priority, folder and due date from within that one line direct message.

Example Tweet: ‘D Toodledo Respond to David’s VM #Today’

2. Calendar: Google Calendar is arguably one of the most popular calendars that people use. If you want to add an event, it can be quite a task to visit the site and add an event. I use TwitterCal to connect my Google calendar with Twitter. Once set up, you just send a direct message to ‘gcal’ and quickly add events to your calendar.

Example Tweet: ‘D gcal Meeting with paul tomorrow at 7pm’

3. Notes: Evernote is one of the best services available for this. If you are not familiar with it or have not tried it, you should. From Wikipedia: ‘Evernote is a collection of software and services that allows users to collect, sort, tag and annotate notes and other miscellaneous information.’. It brings together all these notes seamlessly with mobile apps and online access. Notes can be added by sending a direct message to ‘myEN’ Imagine being able to take a quick note of something by quickly sending a direct message to the service. Very efficient.

Example Tweet: ‘D myEN January phone bill confirmation number 34529812′

4. Movies: NetFlix is my service of choice along with many other people. So many times, a friend would recommended a movie to me and I either had to remember the name to add it later (which rarely happened) or lose that recommendation altogether. Once I got the iPhone, I tried to make it better by almost always keeping one of the browser windows open with Netflix and add the movie directly by searching for the movie name and adding it to my queue. That was until I discovered AddNetflix. The service lets you add a movie to your account by sending a direct message to it at ‘addnetflix’ so now, as long as I have a twitter client open, it only takes a few seconds to add a movie.

Example Tweet: ‘D addnetflix Avatar’

5. Share Links: If you are someone who likes to share links of interesting articles and pages with your network of people, Twitterfeed makes it simple for you. Earlier, I maintained a blog where most of my blog posts were nothing but the few interesting links I found during the day. If you use an RSS reader like Google reader or Feeddemon, you can use the ‘star’ or ‘share’ feature to create an RSS feed out of all the posts you mark. Twitterfeed lets you link your twitter account with this feed and periodically tweets these links on your behalf. So now, if I find something interesting, I just click ‘Share’ and the rest is taken care of by Twitterfeed.

Example Tweet: N/A.

Summary

The biggest reason why this helps me streamline my life is because of the abundance of Twitter clients available. I use Twitlet, Twitterbar and Tweetdeck on a regular basis. Essentially, at almost all times, a textbox for me to tweet something is readily available thus making it very quick and simple for me to perform the other tasks through the services mentioned above. If you have any comments/suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

10 Twitter Manners – how to gather good Twitter karma

If you are a citizen of Twitterverse, you may have found some etiquette of Twitterers that impress you and some that annoy you. Here is a list of Twitter manners that, I think, define your Twitter karma

1. When someone asks you a question, answer it
2. When its not your opinion, please add a RT or via @xxxx who was the originator of that opinion. If you read something on a popular site and it does have a Retweet button, use it. If it doesn’t have a retweet button, its ok to post a link to the article. If people find it interesting , they would visit the site anyway. If you have feeds set up to automatically tweet things you like, it is ok not to add a via.
3. When someone follows you and retweets you often, and you are not a Mashable or a Scobleizer, return the favor.
4. If someone says something good about your work, your blog, your site.. say a Thank You. Retweet it if you want to. If your work is very popular and you get loads of good feedback, then don’t keep retweeting every praise you get. Be humble.
5. Be honest. Don’t say things you don’t mean or don’t have claim to. For e.g., don’t read the comments of an article and rephrase it in your own words claiming them to be yours.
6. If you want someone to RT something, don’t force it on them. Say it in kind words like “Please RT if you like”
7. If you requested someone to RT something and they did , thank them
8. Don’t rephrase someone’s tweet unless you need to shorten it. If there a bunch of names in the via or RT, then its ok to remove all the retweeters to shorten it , but retain the originataor of that tweet.
9. Don’t automate your direct messages… that’s extremely spammy. However it is nice to introduce yourself or exchange an Hi with someone who you find interesting and who follows you.
10. Help people and they will help you back. Show some kindness and it will come back to you. There is Karma in Twitterverse as well