Revamping those to-do lists

'to do list' by Eamon Brett
under a CC license

To-do lists are nothing new. They are simple and humble yet, for some people, precious.

Personally, I'm not too much of a fan of such things. For that, I have paid the price at a number of occasions. However, having forgotten - a number of times - to get the all the things I need from the supermarket in a single go and having gotten things I didn't really need instead, I somehow convinced myself to ride the wave and install one of those 'to-do' list apps on my mobile.

I went for Wunderlist but I soon realised that there are numerous alternatives, such as Toodledo, Remember the milk (!), Asana and many. many others, including Google Tasks, which is tightly integrated with GMail and Google Calendar and the purpose-built Google Keep. Each of those has its pros and cons, some are simpler and more intuitive than others, etc., but all can, in some way, find home in your smartphone and replace that old-fashioned to-do list on a piece of paper.

(BTW, I won't be doing a review of those apps here. However, there are plenty of reviews over the internet, for example in LifeHacker, the Verge and PC World.)

I'm a bit surprised that some many people came up with an idea (or copied the idea) for an app to replace a simple piece of paper. I know, I shouldn't be. After all, this is a kind of useful app with quite some margin for extra features.

People have been creating to-do lists all the time and having them in a digital form does come with advantages, such as the possibility to re-use lists or list items, share them with others, collaborate around them, combine them with work planning, etc. It's just that such lists can easily exist on torn notebook pages and post-it notes and still reach their objective. In that sense, having such apps feels like an overkill but, at any rate, clearly, that will work, too. After all, smartphones are supposed to be much more besides a simple mobile phone and adding the to-do list functionality is another (small) step towards helping us in our daily lives.

Cloud automation and the internet of things

'Robot' by Christelle
under a CC license

Day-by-day, our lives become increasingly digital. With internet gaining share in our everyday routine it was inevitable someone would start interconnecting our network-capable devices (for which I think I've written about before...).

At the beginning, things were a bit basic. For instance, being able to check our cloud-based mailbox and our automatically synchronising cloud-residing files from all our devices (desktop, smartphone, tablet, etc.).

Then cloud application upped their intelligence a notch. It became - for example - possible to send somebody an email proposing a meeting date, the cloud service would add that date on the recipient's calendar and the recipient's smartphone would remind the user on time for the proposed meeting.

With more-and-more web services, programs and devices having public APIs, cross-application functionality has taken off and the user mashup potential has become evident. It may sound complicated but the fact is that it can simplify our daily lives (and - possibly - increase our geek level, too!). It is now possible to check on and control web applications in order to achieve things that in the past would require a separate web service, app or program.

Let's take IFTTT as an example (IFTTT stands for 'If This Then That', by the way - do check their website!): A user can choose amongst a large list of web services, devices with web output, smartphone events, etc. and when something specific happens to cause a reaction. For instance, User1 can set IFTTT to monitor the Twitter posts of User2 and when a new tweet is posted, IFTTT can send an SMS to the mobile of User1 or email that post to User1's email, etc. Interesting? It can get better. Imagine using it for networked devices, such as a networked thermostat (e.g., a Nest thermostat) or a networked light installation (e.g., Philips Hue) or a signal-producing usb device (e.g., Blink(1)), etc. For instance, you can increase the temperature at home when leaving work or set the lights to the bright setting when an incoming call comes from work. All of a sudden, it is possible to achieve automation that, albeit simple, would be next-to-impossible to do (cheaply) a few years ago.

Needless to sat that IFTTT is not the only player around. Zapier, Yahoo Pipes, We Wired Wed, Cloudwork and others - many others - are available, some for free, some at a cost. I feel certain that more will follow. I believe that what we are seeing is the early days of automation for the masses :-)

Of course, by interconnecting devices and services we are exposing an even larger part of our (real) lives to third parties. This, inevitably, implies risks. Rogue or simply irresponsible service providers may opt to sell our personal data, hackers may gain control of our smartphones, lights, etc. Our privacy may be compromised in ways that may not be immediately obvious, perhaps to directions that we wouldn't really want.

As always, innovation, in itself, is not good or bad. It is just something new. It is up to us to find the best way to use it. To strike the right balance. To shape the market into the form we want, placing the right safeguards and, ultimately, to make our lives a bit better (or funnier... or geekier...), while keeping us on the safe side.

Disclosure note (and some of the usual 'fine print'): I am not affiliated to or have received any subsidy/grant/benefit in return for this post from any of the companies, whose products are mentioned above. Mentioning, in this post, a product or a service is not meant to constitute an endorsement (as I have not, personally, used all those products). The names of the above mentioned products and services are property of their respective owners.

Batteries for our power-hungry lives

'Power sunset' by Khalid
Al-Haqqan under a CC license

The use of electricity has been one huge step for mankind. I sometimes wonder whether the electricians/ engineers of the first few years of electricity (in the 19th century) could predict the magnitude of its applications some 5-7 generations in the future.

Today, in the urban world, at least, it is very hard to leave away from a mains socket for long. True, big household appliances, such as the stove, the microwave, the washing machine and the vaccuum cleaner - to name a few - are nothing of an innovation, nowadays. But numerous other (electronic) gadgets for our daily life have emerged. Some competing for our "free" time, while others aggressively claim to be (and some truly are) productivity tools. Laptops, tablets, mobile phones and smartphones, digital cameras, mp3 players are amongst the popular ones. The list gets expanded constantly as we speak. Smartwatches, wearable devices, medical devices, and all those existing or emerging devices that gear up for the internet of things.

Don't worry... I won't be lecturing you on our level of dependence on those numerous electric and electronic devices. After all, they are here to make our lives a bit better, even if we are talking about small things, such as reading a tweet from a friend, googling an unknown word or anything of that scale (I'm being a bit unfair, since living in networked wolds offers great potential - and I've written something vaguely on that in the past).

But I will share with you that being "forced" to seek for a mains socket every so often annoys me.
OK, not so much when I'm at home or at work but definitely when I'm away on a business trip or on holidays. It is 2014, I know. There are power sockets in most places. Charging hubs in airports and cafes with wireless charging stations starting to appear, as well.

You may feel differently but I' d really applaud any development that would increase our flexibility away from a mains socket. Having said that, the options are limited. Sun charging doesn't seem to be living up to the hype (it takes too much time under intense sunlight to charge a moderate smartphone). Energy harvesting is still in development. Batteries have come a long way so as to hold more power, endure many more recharging cycles, tolerate heat or cold, etc.  but at the same time, however, our devices need more juice to "do more stuff". I feel that we are witnessing an energy stalemate, where the power storage front barely manages to meet the energy demand of our devices.

Unfortunately, as a consumer, I don't see any major consumer drive to prolonged power independence. I hope I am wrong. I hope engineers will manage to give us better energy storage options and, at the same time, manage to do more "stuff" with less power. To put it in a more naive (but challenging) way: My 10-year old mobile had a 900 mAh battery and could last for some 7-8 days albeit under low use (say, a phone call per day). My current smartphone has a 1500 mAh battery and can barely reach 4 days (with WiFi, 3G, BT and GPS off). Could a future smartphone survive for a week with all the bells and whistles on? I only wish....

Retro innovative technology (think Polaroid[tm])

When I was thinking to start this blog, a few weeks ago, I had in mind to avoid referring to real life products, companies or people. I thought - and still believe so - that, unless you refer to things really close to you or directly under your control, it is not too difficult to get the facts wrong. Since then, however, I have realised that it is such things that act as "inspiration" to talk about innovation. Thus, starting today, I'll be less strict, allowing myself to share, now and then, a few personal thoughts on "innovative" (or "anti-innovative") products/ companies/ practices/ people that have managed to attract my attention somehow.

(Note 1: This is neither a product review nor a sponsored entry; I am not affiliated to the manufacturing company or any other party involved in the marketing of the products below.)

(Note 2: every company name, product brand or product name mentioned below, is property of their respective owner)

On the point now: I recently got into my hands on of those photo-printers for home use. Yes, there are plenty of those. However, I'm referring to the Polaroid PoGo CZU. That is a very special product, which I'm not quite sure if it should be marketed exactly as a photo-printer. Yes, it prints photos from cameras and mobile phones (or other devices that can support PictBridge) through a USB or Bluetooth connection. BUT: You can't connected to a PC, the printouts are fairly small (2''x3'' or approximately 5.1x7.6cm), a bit bigger than most business cards and you can only use the ZINK paper packs from Polaroid.

Having said that, the PoGo printer if FUN to use. It is the only mobile photo printer I am aware of, with dimensions similar to a small external hard drive (weight: 220g), able to fit in your jacket's pocket, having a rechargeable battery that can print about 15 photos per charge. Not to mention that the only consumable it needs it's the paper (the paper compartment can fit 10 sheets) - no ink cartridges needed, as the dye crystals are embedded on the paper.Ah, and it looks sleek (I used the black version - there is also a pink available, which would not exactly fit my taste is colours)! Cost-wise, the printer sells at about EUR 50-55 and the cost per printed photo is about 29p. For a bit more than double the price you can find the faster and much more versatile - but bulkier, non mobile, non cordless - Canon Selphy 780 (cost per 10x15cm printout is approx. 31p), although you may be able to find other similar products at lower prices (especially if you look for discontinued models).

Well, you may say, it is a Polaroid after all, which had a major breakthrough a few decades ago with the instant photo cameras. In the modern era, where the average digital camera owner may shoot over a few hundreds of photos per year, most of which never make it onto paper, a product like the PoGo printer can bring fun to places where it 's difficult or inconvenient to share digital content. The photo paper used features also a shelf-adhesive side, so printouts can be used as stickers. Think of parties, think of decorating notepad covers or backpacks or boxes, etc. Think of holiday time, where printing a couple of shots on the spot could be a good laugh (yes, you can share the 10Mpixel quality original when you return but that's a different thing).

What I find "refreshingly innovative" in that product is that it managed to merge some modern technology with nostalgia.

Do I need to close this entry with advice? Well, the bottom line is sort of obvious: If you need a photo printer for quality printouts at a variety of sizes or on different paper qualities, having fast printing speeds and or if you normally have the digital photos stored in a computer, please look elsewhere: Most inject printers can achieve good photo quality print outs, most multi-machines support PictBridge, and an increasing number of photo-specific printers is hitting the market. If you think that getting small, easy to share, stick-able printouts on the spot from your digital camera or your mobile can be fun, even when you are on the move and away from normal digital conveniences, then go ahead and have a look...

(photos: "Polaroid One-Step", CC by SqueakyMarmot; "Polaroid PoGo being used at its finest", CC by Inhisgrace, respectively)