productivity

Livescribe Pulse Smartpen

Review: Livescribe Pulse Smartpen

Livescribe Pulse SmartpenOnce you start using a Livescribe Pulse Smartpen, you won’t want to go back to using traditional pen and paper. Yes, even pen and paper have received an e-age tech makeover.

So what does the Pulse Smartpen do? First, it records the audio it ‘hears’ either directly from the pen, or via the stereo microphones embedded in the headset if it’s connected to the pen.

Second, it maps that audio exactly to what was written on specially printed micro-dot paper. You can go back to your notes, press the tip of the pen at any point in the notes and the pen will start playing back the audio at exactly that point in time. This works amazingly well.

The Read it Later Firefox extension

Sometimes I just want to turn Gizmos for Geeks into a cool productivity tools blog. Fear not readers, we won’t be doing that, but there really are so many cool software & Web tools being introduced or improved all the time.

Take for example, the Read it Later Firefox extension which helps out you news and info junkies. Ok, I’m definitely one of you! Right. So the RiT extension lets you quickly mark articles/URLs for later reading, even letting you simultaneously mark a bunch of open tabs. It also lets you mark articles in your favorite news reader and even sites like Digg. Perhaps the best feature may be the ability to sync your reading list across multiple browsers/computer.

The video sums up the features nicely in 2 mins:

Gmail’s latest Lab feature: Multiple Inboxes

Gmail’s latest Lab feature, Multiple Inboxes, is a doozy. I had to try this the minute I saw it. The name is a tab bit misleading, but Multiple Inboxes (MI) lets you get a glimpse into your other Gmail folders, labels or saved searches by providing additional boxes on your main Gmail screen.

Here’s an example – you want to always see the latest 5 starred items in a separate list without having to click on the Starred link in the left pane. Easy, create a separate pane in MI that shows exactly that. The screenshot shows 3 additional panes to the right of the Inbox.

What’s funny about this is quickly discovering that my 19″ monitor just isn’t wide enough to show enough of the e-mail preview that I want. No worries, I just placed the preview directly under my Inbox. And yes, time to get new monitors!

Actual Window Manager for Windows

Here’s a nice productivity tool that can help you manage your chaos of open windows especially if you’re one of those folks who has tons of windows and browser tabs open (like me!).

It’s a Window Manager that has way more features than you can shake a stick at. Just for starters, you can minimize unused windows in various ways – rolling up, make semi-transparent, closing or to the tray. You can place and size windows exactly where and how you want them.

HitMeLater – Schedule your e-mail

E-mail overload? Only want to deal with an e-mail a specific time or day? Take a look at HitMeLater.com. Really easy to use – just send the e-mail that you want later to [email protected]. Say you want the e-mail in 5 hours? Send the e-mail to [email protected]. Want it on Saturday? Send it to [email protected].

Just one snag – HitMeLater gets a copy of your e-mails!

The free version lets you send up to 5 e-mails per day. The premium versions aren’t that expensive either.

The Voice to E-mail Sender

The Voice-mail e-mail sender is a simple-looking gadget that looks to be quite an efficiency enhancer. Typing up e-mails can be time-consuming, especially when you need to double-check for spelling and grammatical errors, whereas you may be able to quicker speak your thoughts out loud.

The voice-mail sender simply records what you say, converts into an e-mail and sends it. At a relatively cheap price, this may be one gadget you get that will quickly pay for itself in time (and hassle) saved.

Gimme!

Price: $41.44
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

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