productivity

Easy as ABC: Web apps for students

Summer is, unfortunately, almost over and that means that students are starting to head back to school in the coming weeks. There are so many online tools that can help students today to stay more organized and productive that I thought I would outline a few here and hopefully ease the pain of the upcoming school year.

Remember The Milk

Remember The Milk is the best online to-do list out there right now. It plugs into a slew of other services, including their killer Gmail add-on, Netvibes, iGoogle, Jott, offline support with Google Gears, and a promised iPhone standalone app. … Read more

Blippr offers micro-product reviews

Definitely Techcrunch material: Can there be a trendier start-up than a site called Blippr that provides "micro-product reviews"?

With its 160-character length limit, the site replicates microblogging sites, and there are good reasons to assume that this format translates well to product reviews, as David Binkowski writes.

(Striving for) perfection - does it still matter?

I saw the Royal Ballet of Flanders perform William Forsythe's "Impressing the Czar" last week at the Rose Theatre in New York. It was a mesmerizing experience: a demonstration of the possibilities of the human body and its bold orchestration as part of a stampeding, Dionysian collective.

As I followed the breathtaking, ultra-structuralist choreography, especially the acclaimed "In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated" part, I couldn't help but draw parallels to other high-performing teams: Why, I wondered, can't businesses (and governments, for that matter) accomplish the same level of perfection? What is it they … Read more

Ain't nothin' but a headphone thing

When Dr. Dre rapped that he would "keep those heads ringin," the Grammy-winning artist perhaps only meant to foreshadow the Friday release of his new headphones, "Beats by Dr. Dre."

While they are marketed with the name of the rapper-turned-producer, the headphones are actually made by Monster Cable, which specializes in audio and video accessories. Jimmy Iovine, chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, also was on the development team.

Monster claims that the Beats headphones are "the most advanced headphone ever built." According to the product Web site, they were designed so … Read more

IDEA award winners: From laptops to futuristic doors

What do a MacBook Air and a submersible rolling pin have in common--besides both being made on planet Earth? Both are winners in this year's International Design Excellence Awards. The competition, run by the Industrial Designers Society of America and sponsored by BusinessWeek magazine, invites businesses and students the world over to submit their best inventions or design concepts.

Out of 205 IDEA awards this year, some, like the iPhone, are no-brainers, while many conceptual designs do much to stretch the imagination. Though the list is brimming with interesting gadgets, a few caught our eye.

Samsung's Design Touch concept, which won a gold medal, … Read more

The rise of digital nomadism

On the occasion of Independence Day, Steve Rubel reflects on the growing independence of knowledge workers in the network economy and predicts the rise of "Digital Nomads:"

"If you spend as much time on the road as I do, you're likely to run into Digital Nomads. This sector of the workforce includes both independents and corporate workers. They use web-based tools like Twitter, wikis, Google Docs, social networks and Skype to collaborate and work wherever, whenever and however they want.

(...)

The reality is that many of the tools that workers need to do their jobs are … Read more

Mandatory employee blogs: one way to boost knowledge

I have a piece of advice for those who bemoan the lack of knowledge-sharing in their organizations: Make tacit knowledge explicit. Externalize expertise and experiences across all functions, from the office manager to the executive team.

How? Make it mandatory for every employee to keep an internal blog and post at least once per week. Depending on their role, employees can blog about customer experiences, sales tactics, strategy, product improvements, organizational design, competitors, market trends, and even gossip. Potential productivity losses are outweighed by the value of knowledge that is being generated and shared.

And what is productivity anyway these … Read more

The next big thing: table tennis triples

The Table Tennis Triples and Modular Table Tennis System (MTTS) was a finalist in the Australian Next Big Thing Awards.

I love how the invention's "unique benefits" are listed on the award site:

"- More people play on one table: social benefits, reduced waiting times

- Greater shot range, fairer 'Triples' scoring system

- Conventional tables can be reversibly 'Triples' retrofitted

- Numerous games/table shapes possible with the MTTS sectors"

(Hat tip to Jordan Kanarek from frog)

When tech product placements go bad

Cue gravelly voiced trailer man: In a world where tech companies desperately want to look cool, there's only one thing they can do--give ginormous sums of money to film and TV producers to use their stuff...

Ever since an Apple PowerBook saved the world in Independence Day there's been a powerful feeling that every movie and TV show should feature a gadget doing something to make the world a better, safer place--or at least look cool and shiny. We've collected some prime examples here.

(Source: Crave UK)