2012
Creative Thinking Tip #8 - Be silly and draw something
If you haven't read my other articles in the series, read them before continuing: Creative Thinking Tip #1 - Take The Day Off Creative Thinking Tip #2 - Make A Friend Creative Thinking Tip #3 - Small Is The New Big Creative Thinking Tip #4 - Learn To Mediate Creative Thinking Tip #5 - Daydreaming Your Way To Creativity Creative Thinking Tip #6 - But What If You Could Creative Thinking Tip #7 - Disprove The Assumptions TIP #8 BE SILLY AND DRAW SOMETHING Creativity encourages creativity.
Could there be Salmonella in your Nesquik powder?
Nesquik has started a voluntary recall for some containers of Nesquik powder sold in the US (10.9m 21.8 and 40.7 oz containers). It seems the calcium carbonate may have been contaminated with Salmonella. Lookunder the can for the production code then compare it to the list found here. All affected products have an expiration date of October 2014. If you have a batch, return it to the store fore a replacement or refund. You can always reach Nestle support at +1 800 628-7679.
When will Lark Life be available in stores?
If you haven't read my article about Lark Life, go read it now. Based on the literature, I think I may like this more than the Fitbit Ultra/One or the Nike Fuelband. I havent seen or played with the device yet but many of you have asked me for a street date (aka when it will be available for sale). I have spoken to their PR agent and unfortunatly they aren't providing a firm date so we'll just have to wait.
Creative Thinking Tip #7 - Disprove the assumptions
If you haven't read my other articles in the series, read them before continuing: Creative Thinking Tip #1 - Take The Day Off Creative Thinking Tip #2 - Make A Friend Creative Thinking Tip #3 - Small Is The New Big Creative Thinking Tip #4 - Learn To Mediate Creative Thinking Tip #5 - Daydreaming Your Way To Creativity Creative Thinking Tip #6 - But What If You Could TIP #7 DISPROVE THE ASSUMPTIONS When using creativity to solve a problem, this tip may come in handy.
Employees mistreating iPads at Walmart?
A video went viral yesterday supposedly showing 3 Walmart employees throwing around iPad boxes and laughing. I haven't seen anything that would confirm the veracity of the video but it is enough to make you stop and ask questions. Watch the video and make your own conclusions.
Review of the iphone NightCap app
“The best camera is the one that you have with you. “ I really embraced this statement about 6 months ago when I really got into iPhoneography. One issue I quickly ran into was bad images in low light, enter NightCap. It is a small iphone camera app that uses longer exposure times (compared to the default iPhone camera app) which results in clearer and brighter photos. The developer claims NightCap can capture 20x more light than the built in camera app.
Some Twitter accounts hacked. Time to change your password!
It seems some Twitter accounts may have been hacked. A quick search on Twitter reveals an interesting number of people complaining about issues with their account or tweets being sent from their account without their knowledge. No official statement has been made by Twitter but it may be a good time to change your password and revoke Twitter access from unused third party apps. If you don’t know how, read my article here.
Joby GripTight GorillaPod Stand for iphone or Android smartphones
If you haven't read my review of the Joby GorillaMobile for iPhone 4 then go ahead and take a quick look here. Eversince I discovered the concept of iphoneography, I fell in love. The idea of using your smartphone, the only device that is always with you, to capture the important moments in life is fantastic. First I chose my iPhone camera apps, 645 PRO and Camera+. Then I downloaded iPhoto, Perfectly Clear and SnapSeed to retouch my images. To get tack sharp images, there was one more element missing….
Skydrive for Windows Phone 8 now available
WPCentral is reporting that Skydrive for Windows Phone 8 devices is now available. If you use a Windows 8 tablet, PC or smartphone then you know the benefits of trying everything together via SkyDrive. Strangely enough, the Windows Phone 8 app wasn’t available until now. As a version 3 level app, it supports New settings for photo upload and download size Support for Windows Phone 8 Updated app icons and visuals The app is said to be faster and overall a much better experience.
Pulse releases version 3.0 for iOS
I have been using Pulse to read my news on my iPhone since it came out and love it. I was excited when they released their version 3.0 update today for iPhone and Android. Pulse 3 was able to maintain everything I have come to love about it and improved on the other features: Unlimited pages Universal app (works on tablet and phones) Infinite scrolling I like the new navigation sidebar they added (think Facebook). Adding (or searching for content) is now even easier.
Creative Thinking Tip #6 - But What If You Could
If you haven't read my other articles in the series, read them before continuing: Creative Thinking Tip #1 - Take The Day Off Creative Thinking Tip #2 - Make A Friend Creative Thinking Tip #3 - Small Is The New Big Creative Thinking Tip #4 - Learn To Mediate Creative Thinking Tip #5 - Daydreaming Your Way To Creativity TIP #6 BUT WHAT IF YOU COULD? Usually when I talk to someone who is stuck, I get some type of response like “I can’t think of…” or “I can’t find a way to…” or something else similar to that chain of thought.
Creative Thinking Tip #5 - daydreaming your way to creativity
If you haven't read my other articles in the series, read them before continuing: Creative Thinking Tip #1 - Take The Day Off Creative Thinking Tip #2 - Make A Friend Creative Thinking Tip #3 - Small Is The New Big Creative Thinking Tip #4 - Learn To Mediate TIP #5 DAYDREAMING YOUR WAY TO CREATIVITY Even as children, most of us were told daydreaming was a useless activity and we were normally told to “snap out of it and concentrate on the task at hand”.
Creative Thinking Tip #4 - Learn to mediate
If you haven't read my other articles in the series, read them before continuing: Creative Thinking Tip #1 - Take The Day Off Creative Thinking Tip #2 - Make A Friend Creative Thinking Tip #3 - Small Is The New Big TIP #4 LEARN TO MEDITATE An interesting study was released by psychologist Lorenza Colzato & al from Leiden University in the April 19th issue of Frontiers in Cognition. You probably haven’t read the article but it explains how certain meditation techniques can help the creative thinking process.
Microsoft Office for iPad (IOS) coming in 2013
Last year, The Daily reported that Microsoft was working on a version of Office for the iPad. Now the fine folks at The Verge claim to have credible information that Microsoft is working to release Office for the iPad (IOS) early 2013. The Verge believes that the product will be provided for free which will allow you to view Office files. They will offer an in app unlock option to enable the editing functions. The Verge believes the editing function will not be available for sale but rather made available to subscribers of its Office 365 online service.
Creative Thinking Tip #3 - Small is the new big
If you haven't read my other articles in the series, read them before continuing: Creative Thinking Tip #1 - Take The Day Off Creative Thinking Tip #2 - Make A Friend TIP #3 START SMALL A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Lao-tzu, The Way of Lao-tzu Chinese philosopher (604 BC - 531 BC) I love the writings of Lao tzu so it is only fitting that he provides my third tip to break the creative deadlock.
Creative Thinking Tip #2 - Make a friend
If you havent't read tip #1 (take a Day Off), go and read it now. TIP #2 Make a friend. Some problems are seem much more challenging to solve and sometimes may even seem impossible. If tip #1 hasn't solved your mental block then its time to move to tip #2, make a friend. This is a simple exercise where you pair up with someone you know and trust. You explain to them the exact situation (being as brief and concise as possible) and then you ask them to explain the situation back to you.
Creative thinking tip #1 - take the day off
As a business leader, you are paid for your creative thinking and not your ability to follow process. But there are times when you are stuck. You find yourself unable to make a breakthrough. I will write a series of very short snippets to help get you out of your rut and encourage the creative juices to flow. Tip #1 STOP THINKING ABOUT THE PROBLEM There comes a time when you have to take a step back and stop thinking about the problem at hand.
Archive your SMS messages in Evernote with mysms
I love Evernote and the team is always looking for new ways to make their users experience better. I use Evernote as my digital filling cabinet and imagine my surprise when I heard about a new function in mysms that allows you to archive your SMS messages in the wonderfully searchable world of Evernote. The idea of mysms The idea is simple yet powerful. You install the mysms app on your smartphone (iphone, android, windows phone) and any sms messages you receive are sent to the mysms cloud.
The New Evernote 5 for IOS look great
After releasing the beta of Evernote 5 for Mac, they started teasing us with Evernote 5 for IOS (iphone and ipad). It looks like a completely redesigned client with lots of features that will make the app easier to use and much more efficient to find information. It includes a Quick Note button, File style folders for NOtes, Notebooks, tags and places. Check out the above video Update on 2012-11-09 00:24 by Edward N Kiledjian The wait is over. If you update your apps, the new Evernote client is availble for download.
Would you buy a Windows Surface phone?
Most industry watchers were surprised that Microsoft was able to keep details of their Surface tablet secret for so long. As impressive as that secrecy program was, the WSJ seems to have evidence that the giant from Redmond is testing its own brand of Windows Phone device. Many believe that this phone is a backup device to create demand for Windows Phone 8 if its partner offerings fail (Nokia Lumia, Samsin Ativ or HTC 8x). I believe the above statement is true but that they are also waiting to see the market reception of the recently released Surface RT tablet.