Read it Later

When I'm surfing the web, I find that my ADD takes over! I'm reading one article, click a link that takes me to another article then click a link that takes me to a new website. I start chasing bunny trails all over the web and lose track of my original article that I was reading.

A couple years ago, I found a service called ReadItLater that does a remarkable job of keeping that ADD at bay while still allowing me to follow my bunny trails, just not right at this moment.

Like Evernote, ReadItLater syncs to all of the places where you might read online content: your browser, your phone and your tablet. You can even download your content so that you can read it without an Internet connection on your device.

The service is easy to use. Create an account, download the bookmarklets and, as you read and find a link that you want to read later, right click on the link and choose the option to "Read It Later." That link is now added to your list of items in ReadItLater.

Also, in Firefox, I have a little yellow arrow that sits in the address bar that I can click to read a link later.
 
I love this service! When I'm standing in a long line or waiting at the car dealership or can't fall asleep at night, I love catching up on my reading quickly and easily.

http://readitlaterlist.com/

Go straight to voice mail when calling mobile phones with Slydial

I recently found a service called Slydial that forces your calls to bypass the chance of talking to a person and goes straight to their voice mail! This service works like a charm, does not require registration and is free! Here are a few situations when the service might be useful. 

How to Get Started: Add the Slydial phone number (267-SLYDIAL or 267-759-3425) to your contacts on your phone. Call the number, and when prompted, enter the mobile number that you would like to slydial. Wait for a bit, and you are connected straight to voice mail. That's it!

Limitations: This service only works with mobile numbers. You do have to listen to an advertisement while you wait for your call to connect, but it didn't bother me. I have used it three times so far, and two of the three times, it worked. I am guessing that the third person I tried to call did not have voice mail turned on on their mobile phone. Even with the limitations listed above, I am going to continue using the service.

Premium Service: Slydial does have a premium service that removes advertising from the calls and offers several other features. The service is $2.95 per month or $29.95 per year. Or, you can per single use at $.10 per slydial.

Mobile Apps: There is an iPhone app for Slydial, but it received bad reviews in its current version, so I'm going to pass on that for now. There are also apps for Android, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile, but I don't have any knowledge of how well they work.

Use SlyDial to go straight to voice mail when you are calling mobile numbers. Let me know if it works for you.

Google Voice, Revisited

I wrote about Google Voice several months back, but they have so many new features that I knew it was time to share again!

Google Voice is yet another amazing and free tool that, once you start using it regularly, you will never know how you lived without it before! The service provides you with a free virtual telephone number that you can forward to any phone number or straight to an email address if you choose not to take calls.

Here's an example: You spend the weekdays at work where you have bad cell reception, so during the weekday work hours, you can forward your Google Voice (GV) number to your work phone. After work, you can forward your GV number to your cell phone. And at night when you are sleeping, you can forward your GV number straight to email so that you will not be interrupted.  You distribute your GV number, and you decide when, where and how you are contacted each day.

How I Use Google Voice:

• I give my GV number to those businesses that I want to contact me again, but I don't want them to have direct access to me.  I want to choose how and when we communicate. For example, when I give blood, I give the agency my GV number because I don't want to answer their weekly calls requesting more of my blood for the rest of my adult life! I still would like to know that they called and that they have a shortage of my blood type, but I much prefer they just leave me a voice mail that I can hear later.
• My high school students who want to use me as a reference for a prospective job. I really don't want to give them my cell phone number, but I don't mind giving them my GV number since all calls and voice mails are sent directly to my email account.  No prank calls at 2am!
• Sign up to get text messages from my stores and other businesses. Some of my favorite stores have text message sign ups, and I want to be included on their text messages including sales and coupons, but I don't really want all of their advertising to clutter my text message inbox. 
  

(Note: I use GV as my secondary phone number as you see above, but Google now offers number porting, so you could move your cell phone number into GV if you want to use it in that way.) 

All of these calls, voice mails, and text messages go straight to my GV account then I receive an email notification. The great part about GV is its ability to personalize. You can receive calls to any phone number at specific hours of the day or never at all.

After you have created an account, you will be amazed at all of the ways people use GV!  They have a YouTube Channel with more ways to fully utilize their service.

I would love to hear how you are using Google Voice!

Join.Me for Free Remote Screen Sharing

A few weeks ago, I showed you how to send videos to your parents (and others) about how to do simple things on the web, like copy and paste, change your homepage and attach a picture to an email.  But sometimes, my parents have a problem with their computer, that despite all of their efforts to explain it to me, I can't seem to diagnose by phone. 

I have found several options to be able to be able to remotely view their computer screen, but none of them are free, and that fact was holding me back from using them.

Last week, I stumbled upon a tool that is easy to use, web-enabled, and FREE!  It's called Join.me and requires no registration.  The software runs through your web browser and works very well!  The site itself is simple, reminds me of Bing.

To begin, the person who needs help clicks the orange "Share" button and receives a number on the top of their screen. You type that number on the Join.me site in the green section, and you are connected. It's just that easy!  And your mom and dad will be forever thankful to you for fixing their computer!

Try Join.me today, and let me know how it works for you.  Do you know of any other free remote sharing applications?

Online Photo Journals

In looking back on my life, the parts of my life where I kept a journal are the ones where I feel like I made the best choices and was confident in those choices later. For me, there is something beautiful and beneficial in looking back and looking forward through words and pictures.

Over the years, I have tried many types of journals -- pretty pink diaries with locks, simple spirals from the drug store, leather bound journals, online blogs, and more recently, photo journals.

Sometimes I take pictures with my phone, other times with my camera. Either way, it's quick and easy to upload pictures to any of these sites. Currently, I use: Shuttercal as my photo journal, but I'm planning to test each of these out until I find out that fits me.

http://shuttercal.com/
http://www.loggel.com/
http://dailybooth.com/
http://www.plurk.com/
http://280daily.com/

Do you keep a photo journal?  Or another type of daily journal?

Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/