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Category Archives: Android

Confessions of a #Podcast Listening Driver with @MichaelHyatt @soniasimone @brianclark

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podcast-listenerI think some of the biggest gains I have made in my personal development time has been spent listening to podcasts in my car on my evening commute home.  Carnegie Mellon came out with a study that just listening to cell phones significantly impairs drivers. In this case, I am doomed.

Regardless of what your area of interest is, or whether its business related or not, chances are pretty good that you will find a podcast of someone discussing your topic. With an iPhone its stupid easy. With an Android, I’m not sure but I am just guessing its not that difficult. Check out this AndroidCentral article on podcasting.

If you’re new to podcasting or haven’t full embraced podcasting, let me encourage you to try this sometime. In Atlanta traffic, I blow 8 hours a week driving. I’m by myself and I’m a horrible singer. I realize this most when I try to sing along with the radio. But, I am a pretty good listener and it really helps me in my personal development to listen to some of these podcasts.

One guy I really like is Michael Hyatt. I’ve listened to over a dozen of his podcasts and this guy is spot-on. The show always maintains my attention and I feel like it equips me to be better in so many areas. I highly suggest checking out this podcast.

If the area of digital marketing interests you, then you need to listen to Confessions of a Pink-Haired Marketer with Sonia Simone. I’ve never met her personally but I feel like I have. She is totally authentic and just sounds like the nicest person you’d ever want to meet. More than that though, she gives you some straight scoop on digital marketing and conducting business online. I have found her to be a valuable resource.

Finally, I also like to listen to Brian Clark and his show New Rainmaker. I really like his style and the format of the show. I cannot tell you how much I learn sitting on my butt in traffic! It’s truly amazing!

Regardless of what Carnegie Mellon has to say about it, I want to encourage you to listen to podcasts while driving. It redeems the lost time of driving and turns it into an experience to look forward to!

GO AHEAD, make me remember ONE MORE PASSWORD!!!

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dashlane-linkedinHow many passwords do you have rambling around in your head? How many places do you use the SAME password? Do you use complex passwords that contain both upper and lower case, numbers and symbols?

Let me introduce you to my new friend –DASHLANE. I think I have gotten at least 25% more brain space available by switching to Dashlane. We all have way too many passwords to remember. We have financial passwords for banking accounts and investments. We have passwords for work, in some cases up to a dozen for various systems. We have passwords for websites that we use. We have password for online shopping accounts. The list is seemingly endless and it also seems to be growing. Every time I turn around it seems some place else wants me to create an account.

Do you really want to see me go ballistic? Ask me what your password is! “Well, you helped me change it the last time” is not a valid answer. I have my own passwords to remember, do you really think I’m going to be able to remember yours too?

dashlane-iconEnter Dashlane. Download the app on your Mac or Windows PC and it reads all of the stored passwords from your browsers. Next, it analyzes your passwords and gives a security grade for each letting you know what passwords you might want to consider changing.

If you want to get fancy, you can go for the premium subscription (starts at $39/yr) and it will sync across your devices so you won’t ever be left wondering what your password is even with just your phone or tablet.

If all this weren’t enough, there’s a cool area for you to store information you want kept securely. I think this is a great place to put banking information, how to access your safety deposit box, girlfriends phone numbers (just kidding, honey). Additionally, it safely stores your credit card information as well and that makes online shopping a breeze!

If you absolutely hate keeping tracking of passwords, Dashlane is going to change your life! You can download it by visiting dashlane.com and downloading the app for your OS and be sure to try it on your mobile devices also. It’s a free 30 day trial so you can see how it syncs to your mobiles but I think I’m stuck on Dashlane and am just going to bite the bullet for 3 years at 99$.

Easily Run Android Apps on Your Mac or Windows PC

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bluestacks.linkedinIn June 2010, Steve Jobs announced we were entering the post-PC era. Five years later, few people doubt that. My wife is like many, who have not touched a PC in years. For surfing the web, checking email and many other tasks, an iPad or tablet is more than sufficient to provide an efficient and, in most cases superior, user experience to that of a desktop.

msw-win10-hero-slider-familiarIt’s no wonder why Windows 8 metro apps are now beginning to catch on. We want the user experience that mobile apps brings us yet few desktop apps provide that for us. Some apps that we have grown accustomed to and are an integral part of our daily lives aren’t even available in a desktop version. I think with the launch of Windows 10, you’ll start seeing greater acceptance of Windows apps because of this mobile-like functionality that people have now become used to.

Enter Bluestacks that can run Android apps on both Macs and Windows PCs. How cool is that? The really cool thing is – IT WORKS, and works well! This isn’t some emulator hack. Android apps run smoothly and act just as they would on a mobile device. Now, it does take some time to get used to pretending your mouse is your finger and how to emulate touch gestures while using a mouse, but once you get the basics down it’s smooth sailing.

What’s your favorite app you can’t live without? For me it’s Flipboard. By the way, I’m a die-hard Apple Fan Boy. I have a Mac, iPad and iPhone and have fallen in love with the Apple ecosystem. Still, the Android apps function almost identically as an iPhone so if you’ve never used Android before, do not fear. If you are an Android user, you’ll be totally freaked out by Bluestacks because your PC is now an Android device. Scary, I know.

BlueStacks-Flipboard

Anyway, Flipboard is what I use to peruse articles that I want read later. It’s basically an information aggregator that displays posts from newspapers, magazines, websites and other sources (even your Facebook and Twitter account if you choose) in a gorgeous magazine-style format. I like to go through and cherry pick article, save them to and app called Pocket, and then read them later. I couldn’t read a third as much as I do if I couldn’t use Flipboard. Now, I can use Flipboard while I’m at my PC (which is where I spend at least ten hours a day).

If you’re tired of the ho-hum of regular apps on your desktop PC and you need the functionality of a mobile app on your desktop, try running Android apps using Bluestacks on your Mac or Windows PC.