I can think of the following…

TV addicts – Those who never post, only come to watch the show
Lurkers – Again, hardly posting, but eager to comment on (or like) others’ posts
Faceless – Haven’t even got their profile pic up yet!
Super active – A tweet or an FB post every few minutes
Battle pickers – No matter what the topic, they have to pick a battle online
Forward addicts – Treasurehouse of interesting videos and funny pics
Shutter happy – Come back from any outing with 233 pics of the event!
Friend gatherers – Ahem, more than 500 pals on your FB list?!
WTF – They post alright, but you just can’t relate to them no more… 

Did I miss anything?

Frustrated by the media?  Disillusioned by our seeming inability to come to grips with difficult issues?  Us too.  We think improving the credibility of the information we encounter is key to solving this problem.  In fact, we think it’s humanity’s biggest challenge.

Hypothes.is will be a distributed, open-source platform for the collaborative evaluation of information. It will enable sentence-level critique of written words combined with a sophisticated yet easy-to-use model of community peer-review. It will work wherever you are – as an overlay on top of news, blogs, scientific articles, books, terms of service, ballot initiatives, legislation and regulations, software code and more – without requiring participation of the underlying site

Hypothes.is is a non-profit effort built on strong principles, and a clear vision of what it wants to achieve.  When I first discovered it via Twitter, I was stunned by its clarity on the subject, from the concept video by its founder – Dan Whaley – to the FAQs that ask hard-hitting questions and answer them.

The project has been self-funded till now, but to deliver a working prototype, Hypothes.is has joined hands with Kickstart to help raise $100,000 via crowdsourcing.  Your pledged amount will not be charged unless they hit the goal.

Every dollar counts, and all of us will benefit from it. I’ve pledged my support, and hope you do too.

Update:
As on 13 Nov, 2011, Hypothes.is has raised over $230k from donors across the world!

Steve was not a spiritual guru or a political leader, but a force to reckon with… someone with both the determination and the talent to change the world.  And, change the world he did. 

Tomes have been written already on the man and his legacy, and a lot more will be said in the years to come.  Sure, he gave the world the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad.  But he did much more than that.  Steve’s work touched millions of lives in more ways that even he could have imagined.  I just wanted to take this opportunity to pen down what he meant for me, and to thank him for the contribution he made to my life…

Thank you, Steve, for teaching us that “Design is how you Think!”

Thank you, Steve, for demonstrating that you can follow your dreams and change the world, without compromising on one or the other.

Thank you, Steve, for proving beyond a doubt that Less is More.

Thank you, Steve, for the learning that we don’t have to choose between Form and Function.

Thank you, Steve, for showing the world that it’s possible to raise the bar so high that you touch the sky.

Thank you, Steve, for having the courage and the conviction to go with your instincts and not ask us – the consumers – what we really wanted.

Thank you, Steve, for making a dent in the Universe…

You will be missed.

I spent a good part of Sunday moving all her critical information from her old Nokia to the new Android phone.  While Nokia makes it a breeze to switch phones from one of their models to another, try doing it across platforms and you’ll soon be tearing your hair out!  Short story – Nokia doesn’t play nice with anything else.

So, here’s how you can get rid of your Nokia phone and move to a nice Android smartphone…

Before we get started, make sure you have a Windows PC (yes, Nokia still doesn’t support Mac OS X!!!) with the latest copy of the infamous Ovi suite installed.  You can download it for free from the Nokia site.  You will also need Outlook installed on your PC, to make it easier to send your info to Gmail’s services.

If you’re moving to Android, I also suggest you set up a new Gmail account only to use with your phone for the purpose of Contacts and Calendar sync.  That way, your phonebook will not get cluttered with the thousands of email ids already stored as contacts in your primary gmail account.

Once you’ve got the Ovi suite up and running, do the following:

- Connect your Nokia handset to your PC, using a USB cable, and Backup your phone!
- Go to Sync settings and enable Sync with Outlook for Calendar, Contacts and Tasks
- Enable sync for Messages if you’re keen on also getting your messages off your phone
- Now, run the Sync operation till complete
- Disconnect phone and exit Ovi
- Launch Outlook to ensure that Calendar/Contacts/Tasks are all in
- In Outlook, File/Import Export and export these to DOS comma separated files (CSV)
- Launch your newly-setup Gmail account, go to Settings and import Contacts from the CSV file
- Launch said account’s Calendar, go to Settings and import Calendar entries from the CSV file
- If you want to set up Tasks in Gmail too, you may have to add each task manually

(If you have a lot of recurring events or complex entries in your Calendar, you may have to run a sanity check on Google Calendar to ensure the recurrence and notifications are as intended.  Also, if you do setup Tasks in your Google account, you can use the GTask app to sync those with your phone.)

Now, you’re all set to import all this information to your handset.  Start your new Android phone (with wifi on or an active net connection), setup your newly-created Gmail account as the base/default account, and the phone will automatically sync your Contacts and Calendar to your phone!

The best part of this setup is that, once this is done, all new Contact/Calendar entries created using your phone in the said Gmail account will autosync to the cloud, eliminating the need for backups altogether! 

If you’d like to export your Messages to the new phone as well, you can try using a combination of Nokia2AndroidSMS (PC) and SMSBackup and Restore (Android), but for some reason, that didn’t work for me.  If all you want to do it save those Inbox messages in an accessible format, just in case you need some of that info, you can instead download NBUExplorer from SourceForge, and point it to your full-backup Nokia file, from which you can access all your messages.

If you use Notes actively, and would like to move that to the cloud as well, look no further than SimpleNote.  The web service works with just about anything, including MNotes on Android and JustNotes on Mac.  You’ll just have to add your old Notes, one by one, to get started.

So, that takes care of all your Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Notes. 

Bye bye data backups.  Bye bye Nokia…

Read Also: Moving to Android: Essential Guide

In it, Bill Keller describes his observations on the wonders of modern Technology, and how they impact our lives… sometimes, not so favourably.

I don’t mean to be a spoilsport, and I don’t think I’m a Luddite. I edit a newspaper that has embraced new media with creative, prizewinning gusto. I get that the Web reaches and engages a vast, global audience, that it invites participation and facilitates — up to a point — newsgathering. But before we succumb to digital idolatry, we should consider that innovation often comes at a price. And sometimes I wonder if the price is a piece of ourselves…

My father, who was trained in engineering at M.I.T. in the slide-rule era, often lamented the way the pocket calculator, for all its convenience, diminished my generation’s math skills. Many of us have discovered that navigating by G.P.S. has undermined our mastery of city streets and perhaps even impaired our innate sense of direction. Typing pretty much killed penmanship. Twitter and YouTube are nibbling away at our attention spans. And what little memory we had not already surrendered to Gutenberg we have relinquished to Google. Why remember what you can look up in seconds?

By day, I lead a team that goes by the name of Business Solutions & Innovation, where we focus on leveraging Technology to improve customer engagement across a diversified range of financial services.  So, I am well acquainted with the benefits that Technology and Innovation offer.  But, I am also acutely aware of the downside.

Keller touches upon my fears in his essay, too: 

Basically, we are outsourcing our brains to the cloud. The upside is that this frees a lot of gray matter for important pursuits like FarmVille and “Real Housewives.” But my inner worrywart wonders whether the new technologies overtaking us may be eroding characteristics that are essentially human: our ability to reflect, our pursuit of meaning, genuine empathy, a sense of community connected by something deeper than snark or political affinity.

The choice of poison differs, but the consequences are the same – Email clients that sync every few minutes; Blackberry devices that show you that all-important (and not-so-important) message as soon as it arrives; Twitter and FB updates that refresh on your preferred screen every few seconds, and of course, every conceivable piece of information that is now just a “Google search” away… 

Increasingly, we are all growing up in a culture of instantly-available, always-on, information-overload. 

The “shelf life” of most of the stuff we encounter in today’s day and age is abysmally low – sometimes as low as a few seconds (a la Twitter).  And, by and large, we seem to be “okay” with that.  But, it’s leading to shorter (as in really, really short) attention spans, which demands even faster turnaround times from such mechanisms, further fuelling the viscious cycle!  And, it’s leaving us little time to digest much of the content we consume, which means that few of us are really “processing” any of the stuff we come across, let alone synthesize it with our own learnings and world views.

How would this affect how we view relationships?  How would we define “long-term” in the years to come?  How would this impact creativity – the art of creating something new by combining two seemingly-unrelated entities?  Will we lose all understanding of “delayed gratification”?  What would “learning” be like, in the next decade or two – when all information would literally be at our fingertips?!

I am convinced that if this continues – and it probably will – it will have long-lasting effects on the human race.  Like Keller, I also fear that we may be losing our most essential human qualities in the bargain.  And, that would be too high a price to pay for progress.

But, there’s always room for improvment.  And, I’m going to share a couple of tips with you that will let you take a great computing environment and make it even better!

#1 Time Machine – Backup your Mac

First and foremost, backup your Mac.  Yes, Apple computers are built to the highest standards of quality.  But, shit happens.  And, when it does, you’re not going to have too much fun unless your Mac (and your data) is there when you need it the most. 

I’ve evaluated dozens of backup tools and cloning utilities (both, freeware and paid) for Windows and Mac OS.   And, if you have a Mac, it really doesn’t get better than Apple’s built-in utility – Time Machine.  It’s the simplest, most comprehensive, automated (and gorgeous looking) backup tool you’ll ever lay your hands on… and it’s free! 

All you need is a portable hard disk that’s at least the size of your main hard disk, left permanently connected to your Mac computer.  Fire up System Preferences, find the Time Machine icon, and toggle the switch from Off to On.  That’s it.  It automagically records a copy of everything you do, every hour, without lifting a finger.  And, you can go back to your data, star-trek style, whenever you need to!!!

#2 TotalFinder – Finder on Steroids

The “Finder” file explorer that comes with your Mac has a few nifty improvements over Windows Explorer, but leaves a lot to be desired in other respects.  For one, there isn’t an easy way to “cut” files/folders, only “copy”!  For another, it defaults to a weird sort order of your contents such that folders don’t automatically get displayed at the top. 

Bottom line is that if you manage a lot of files on your Mac, Finder is nowhere near adequate for your needs.  Sure, there are freeware tools like XShelf that let you pause your drag-and-drop, or cross-functional file browsers like MuCommander that let you do more at the cost of speed.  But, what you really need is a Finder replacement that works like it was meant to live on a Mac, and addresses all the limitations of Finder!

TotalFinder is just such a tool.  A beautifully-designed Finder replacement that offers tabbed browsing of your files, dual pane file management, folders sorted on top, cut/copy/paste, and more… A small fee is payable, but it goes a long way in making your Mac experience smoother and creamier.

#3 Bonus – Caffeine

Ever wondered if there was an easy way to tell your Mac not to go to sleep or screen saver mode or dim the screen or any such thing, while your DVD burning or Photoshop editing was on?  Caffeine is what you need.  Period.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t do without any of these on my Mac.  Go and give it a try… you can thank me later.

Read Also: Moving to Mac: Essential Guide

The amount of digital information created in 2010 (1.2 zettabytes) will equal 75 billion fully-loaded 16 GB Apple iPads, which would fill the entire area of Wembley Stadium to the brim 41 times (via Information-Management.com, May 2010)

The amount of digital information created annually will grow by a factor of 44 from 2009 to 2020, as all major forms of media – voice, TV, radio, print – complete the journey from analog to digital (via EMC)

Twitter is estimated to have 175 million users, generating 95 million tweets a day (via Twitter.com, Sep 2010)

As of mid 2010, Facebook reports more than 500 million users worldwide who share more than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) each month (via Facebook.com)

Shocking statistics, aren’t they? The question really is: How are you gearing up for it?

Here’s what I think.  The problem is only going to get worse in the years to come.  There’s not much you and I can do about that.  What we can do, however, is develop the ability to filter out the noise from the music.

That’s easier said than done, especially when you’re looking at “information overload” so large that no single phrase can adequately describe how BIG the overload really is.  We’ve all faced consequences of it, either by way of a burgeoning Inbox that refuses to quiet down to manageable levels, or via the endless barrage of tweets and status updates we have subscribed to, or even the always-on Blackberry culture that keeps us tethered to the office.

For some, it may mean reducing the number of xml subscriptions in their newsreader, reviewing the number of twitterers to follow, or even unfriending some folks from their FB list, even if it means risking some “social quotient” in the bargain.  For others, it may mean changing their complusive habits, and slowly but steadily, learning the art of focusing on the essentials and ignoring the rest… 

Whatever be our approach, we’re all going to have to make some tough choices.  It’s the only way out.

P.S. For good measure, let me share with you a link to an incisive TED talk [video] on achieving the balance we so desperately need. Highly recommended.

By now, every one and their aunt has heard of “Android” – Google’s answer to making mobile phones smarter.  The popularity of the Android OS is presently among the hottest phenomenon in the world of smartphones, and continues to grow at a scorching pace any way you look at it.

That said, if you plan to move to your first Android phone, you will need a little help in getting the basics right.

Step 1 : Contacts

Most Important – Do this before you switch on your new Android phone for the first time!

Android has very tight integration with Google services and seamlessly syncs your mail, contacts and what have you, with your designated Google account.  If, like me, you’d like to keep your email contacts separate from your mobile phone contacts, the first thing you will have to do is create a fresh, new Google account which you will use to sync with your phone, henceforth.

If you want your phonebook (from your earlier phone) contacts transferred to your new Android phone, use your favourite backup/sync tool to export it to a standard format, and import it to your newly-created Google account.  Now, the first time you switch your Android phone on, login with this new Google account, and all your phone’s contacts will automagically sync with your new device and keep syncing effortlessly!

If, like me, your new Android 2.x device is an HTC, you can also enjoy the benefits of automatic integration with your Facebook account to show you all your contacts and contact details on your phone.  Plus, HTC caller id shows you your “linked” contact’s last FB update and profile pic when they call!  (Samsung’s new phones also offer good integration with Facebook contacts.)

Step 2 : Mail

Don’t worry.  You can setup multiple email accounts (from multiple providers) on your new Android.  If there’s a primary mail account you use, first start by configuring that as the default email account on your new device.  Before you run the first sync, make sure you go to “Accounts & Sync” and switch off the “Sync contacts” option, if you’d like to keep your email account’s addressbook and your phone’s addressbook separate.

A common tip across most popular apps and services on Android is that there are multiple ways to do almost anything you need to do on your phone.  For example, on my HTC, I can choose from Gmail app, Android’s mail app, HTC’s mail app and any number of third-party apps to check my email accounts.  Each come with their own UI and feature sets.  I use the Gmail App because it does a great job of managing labels and threaded conversations.  Your needs may vary.

Step 3 : Social Media & Web

As mentioned, there are usually 3 or more ways to do almost anything on an Android phone.  The good news is, unlike that default Gmail account which is not easily changeable, you can try out any number of apps for any of your needs, and change at will.  Within a few days of using them, you will soon figure out what works for your and why.

Me? I use the following :

Opera Mini - Easily, the best mobile browser on the planet
Facebook for Android - Facebook’s Android app for mobile-friendly access to the site
TweetDeck - The best Twitter client out there for Android phones

This is just a small list of the most-often needed apps.  The Android Market will give you access to more than 70,000 others for all your needs!

Step 4 : Tools and Utilities

Last but not the least, here is a list of some very nifty tools I use to manage my Android phone and keep it running smoothly :

Advanced Task Killer – Smooth and easy task-kill for background apps
AndExplorer - Powerful and easy-to-use File Manager for your device
JuiceDefender - Absolutely essential to help extend your battery life
PowerControl - Built-in widget for easy access to WiFi/GPS/Bluetooth/etc.
BatteryIndicator - Status-bar accurate notification of your remaining battery life

Hope this makes your transition to Android a bit easier, and more fun…

Read Also: How to move from Nokia to Android | Android vs Everything else

Having tested the Android 2.1 quite thoroughly, thanks to my new HTC Wildfire, I only thought it fit to share some of the learnings I’ve gleaned from it.  As always, this will not be a review of the device (Wildfire) or the OS (Android 2.1), since there are plenty of those available on the wild wild web.  Instead, this post will try to highlight some of the aspects that you may not have thought about in your feature-to-feature comparisons.

The Android Experience

Form Factor – Android phones are available in a large variety of shapes and sizes from the X1 mini to the XL sized HTC Desire / Samsung Galaxy.  You can also choose from devices that sport merely a touch-screen to those that include a full QWERTY keyboard built-in.  Not to mention, a variety of software keyboards for all kinds of needs, including foreign language support.

Hardware – You can choose to buy models with low or hi resolution displays, right upto the gorgeous Super AMOLED screens of some of the newer models.  You can also choose from various processor speeds and RAM/ROM configurations, depending on your budget.  As of today, phones available in the market will sport various versions of the base Android OS, ranging from 1.5 to 2.2, with various manufacturers having different upgrade cycles (and built-in delays), so choose your device wisely.

UI – Since the Android OS is a great platform to build on, players like Sony and HTC have built their own UI enhancements on top of the OS to offer a richer visual experience to users.  Once again, you can choose from a variety of options like HTC’s Sense UI, Motorola’s MotoBlur, Samsung’s TouchWiz and Sony’s UXP.  Think of these as skins for your complete Android experience, and choose based on what works for you best.

Apps – The Android Market boasts over 50,000 apps that you can download, today.  Many of these are free, and include tools, utilities, games and reference apps.  Of course, for all the usual suspects like Facebook, Twitter, etc., you have multiple apps and variants to choose from.  By the way, unlike the iTunes app store which is very tightly controlled by Apple, the Android Market is an open, free-spirited entity with not too many dos and don’ts.

Integration – The Android OS is meant to live “in the cloud”, and offers very tight integration with Google (surprised?!) and other online services like Facebook and Twitter.  That means, your new phone can sync with your Google account for mail, contacts, calendar, rss feeds, etc. etc. etc.  Facebook contacts can be linked to your phone book (but maintained separately), and multiple calendars keep your FB events, Google events and Office events separately.  All this, of course, happens automagically and with minimum fuss, syncing with the “cloud” as per your specified frequency.  Incidentally, the 2.1 version of the OS also offers Exchange Server sync options.

All you need to do is pick up an Android handset of your choice, insert a SIM card of your favorite service provider, and you’ll start living in the cloud in a matter of minutes!  Oh, and did I mention that features like multi-tasking and folders that have only just been rolled out on the newest iPhone (iOS4) have been standard inclusions on Android for months?!

As an example, let’s take a quick look at the iPhone Experience.

- Very tight integration with Apple computers, software and devices
- Excellent, crisp display and silky-smooth touch-screen technology
- Hundreds of thousands of apps to choose from (many of which are paid)
- Almost no options to change the UI experience (unless you jailbreak it)
- Usually tied to a service provider’s talk plans (unless you unlock it)
- Oh, and it features a built-in iPod!

If you’re familiar with Nokia’s Symbian platform, you will know that it’s an extremely stable and capable platform for smartphones, but has lived its life to the fullest.  Blackberry users swear by their email capabilities, but there’s little else to talk about when it comes to a BB device.  It may also be pointed out that the whole “Android” phenomenon is just over a year old, and the technology is nowhere near its maturity.  Already, users are seeing first-hand how their Android 2.x experience is so significantly superior to some of the early alternatives.  I can’t even imagine how things will be when it reaches version 4.0 !!!

Enough said.

Read Also: Moving to Android: Essential Guide

It’s January 2012 and you’ve just gotten your new Android 3.0-based phone. You’re going on a road trip so you start up the newly-released Foursquare. Gone are the checkins of 2010. Now you tell it where you’re going. This time we’re headed to Harrah’s at Stateline, Nevada. But this is no Foursquare you’ve ever seen before. They’ve finally integrated Waze, Tungle.me, and Yelp information into it. So, let’s discover more of what happens on our trip.

As we pull out of my driveway in Half Moon Bay we cross a geofence that sends alerts to the various systems that I’ve connected to Foursquare. Tungle.me knows I’m meeting Mike Arrington for dinner at Harrah’s. He gets an alert on his mobile phone that I’m on my way and Glympse sends him the ability to watch my progress so he’ll know if I’ll be on time. Plancast lets me know that four friends are attending the Black Eyed Peas concert at Harrah’s tonight. I see that Siri is offering to find me tickets, so I ask it to find me some tickets under $400 each…

… When we arrive at Harrah’s, we cross another geofence which lets Arrington know we’re here. It also checks us into Foursquare, and tells us: “there are 29 other people we know about, including three of your friends.” Then Siri (which received a message from our geofence) chimes in with: “are you still having dinner with Mike Arrington at 8 p.m. at Friday’s Station Steak & Seafood Grill?” I answer: “yes.” That goes away, but on screen is a Yelp review about that restaurant and I realize that the attire is dressy and I only have jeans and t-shirts. So, I ask Siri: “are there any other four-star restaurants like Friday’s Station nearby?” It answers with a list from Yelp and then it starts showing places that still have spots left for us this evening by querying OpenTable’s APIs. Siri then tells me it has found two seats for tonight’s show at Harrah’s outdoor arena, and asks if it should buy them from Stubhub?

Read the whole thing.  It’s fascinating.  And, the best part is that most of the technology Scoble talks about is already here!  It’s just not talking to each other, yet.