Multitasking

It's the time of year when all those nifty little electronics that have been beckoning are on sale, and more and more folks begin to think they need one.  I know, I love 'em too, but by the same token I like to try to keep it simple.  The right tool for the job, the proper app for the purpose, all multitasking as much as possible.  Reminds me of a time years ago when a couple kids were going door to door selling "the greatest cleaner that was ever made".  They tried hard to sell it, went down a laundry list of what their nifty cleaner would do, but I already had a product for each and every purpose they could think of. They asked what would impress me. Honestly, something that will take care of an as yet unmet need. I didn't have any, no sale.

I look at technology in the same way.  I don't need the wand scanner I keep seeing advertised. If I need something scanned, I have a scanner or a phone that will turn a photo into a PDF, and mobile apps and open source computer applications that will transform it into an editable document.  For Mobile: Smart OCR:Text Miner  For PC: Tesseract OCR

Another mobile device that proves very useful is the camera.  People snap and post pictures with phones all the time, quick and easy. Digital cameras are also a good thing, like on a trip, but the hassle of dealing with the camera photos means that when we get home, I rarely take the photos off the camera.  They sit there till next time we need the camera unless there's still lots of room on the card.  Enter a totally awesome idea, wifi cameras  that allow instant offloading (my next one will be wifi) and wifi SD cards to give older cameras the same functionality.  Solves the problem in a couple ways, and I can keep the cameras I like while they get easier to use.   Toshiba FlashAir 8GB Wireless Memory Card

The problem with the other camera is that though it shoots super fast so I get what I was shooting, it uses a proprietary memory card.   That means I can't use the nifty wi-fi card with it, but I can now use an adapter that will allow a micro-SD card to work, and I have those around in abundance since they work in everything else.  Done.  Micro Sd to Memory Stick Adapter

But, what if the price you see is still too steep?  Price shopping is mandantory this time of year, and there's a web service to help.  It has a memorable name, so go there and use price history, set alerts, and browse the deepest discounts.  One less thing to keep track of since this service will do it automatically.  CamelCamelCamel

Enter Amazon.  Another multitasker for me.  One of the places to price watch, plus the smart apps on the TVs will stream their free Prime movies.  Daily free Kindle books and free apps, and Prime members get free two-day shipping for a year.  Members can also use their Prime shipping to send their purchase to anyone they like for no additional charge.  Amazon's free shipping on other purchases just went up to $35, maybe as a way to boost Prime memberships before the drone fleet takes wing.  Try one free.

Now what to do with these alerts?  Ahh, glad you asked.  IFTT will handle almost any alert you have.  If This Then That is your app collection stepping up and interacting.  What IFTT does is allow users to set automated actions when triggered.  It connects to Evernote, SMS, Dropbox, Box, Drive, Feedly, WordPress, and many others.  When an event occurs in one app, another responds. Say you subscribe to news feeds in Feedly and one item is worthy of saving.  Save it in Feedly, a clip shows up in Evernote.  Your package was delivered and the Boxoh event triggers an SMS. Save yourself time by using truly simple web based automation.  IFTT