A Few of My Favorite Things

I am continually amazed at the quality and capability of many free online and mobile applications. It seems like just yesterday, I was paying for floppy disks loaded with 1,000 fonts. My, how times have changed. So here is a collection of my favorite free sites and utilities, most of which I use on a regular (if not daily) basis and can genuinely recommend:

Google Reader

This is bread-and-butter for me. I currently subscribe to about 30 RSS feeds using Google Reader, following everything from tech news sites to travel bargain tips. Seldomly a day will pass that I don't sift through each new item across those feeds. In fact I don't know how I would possibly find time each day to visit each of those websites ind

ividually. T

here are other feed readers out there, but as far as I'm concerned, this one is all you'll ever need.

Google Voice

Ok, I'm not trying to get Googly on you, but if you are still using the voicemail that came from your cellular carrier: WAKE UP. And if you're paying a monthly fee for visual voicemail... well that is just crazy. Check out Google Voice. You have the option of getting a phone number assigned to you, or you can simply get a voicemail box. You can customize greetings by day & time, or change it based on who is calling you. Don't want to hand out your personal number? Use your Google number and have it forward to one or more phones. Want to screen your calls? Force unrecognized callers to state their name before the call even rings to your phone. Check your carrier's site for information on how to forward your unanswered calls to an alternative voicemail service. Once you start using Google Voice, you can manage your voicemail just like you manage email with a visual interface - either on the web or on your smartphone application.

Tripit

I love to travel, and Tripit is a great way to keep track of all my travel-related information. Set up an account, and simply forward email itineraries that you receive from airlines, hotels, etc. to plans@tripit.com. Tripit will automatically organize the information and even insert driving directions, weather and other related information for you. Share your trips with friends or even find out if your Tripit contacts will be traveling nearby at the same time as you. You can subscribe to your travel calendar using an iCal feed so tha

t flight schedules & other information appear on your Lotus Notes, Google, or Outlook calendar. And yes, there is a mobile client for the major platforms.

ITA Matrix

ITA Software, now owned by Google, powers many of the popular airfare search engines. They have a public-facing search engine that gives you ultimate flexibility. I use this when I'm trying to construct a very specific routing (usually aimed at achieving the greatest frequent flier mileage at the least cost). Learn how to use their advanced routing codes, and you'll be building trips to Singapore via Lima in no time.

FatSecret

Track your calorie intake, weight loss progress, and exercise accomplishments with FatSecret's online & mobile app. Have an iPhone or Android? Scan a barcode on packaged food and the nutritional information will be added automatically to your diet calendar. Network with your friends and participate in on

line fitness challenges to keep yourself motivated.

Endomondo

Forget about buying special Nike shoes to track your runs. Endomondo runs on your mobile phone and uses GPS to map your hikes, walks and runs. It calculates your average speed and calorie burn for you, and uploads information to your online account. You and your friends can view and share routes online. The only thing I'd wish for would be an Endomondo-FatSecret integration so I wouldn't have to manually input my calorie burn to FatSecret...

Tungle.me

Have trouble scheduling meetings with people outside the company who don't have visibility to your calendar? Instead of sending emails back and forth to negotiate a time, use Tungle.me. Go online to http://tungle.me/patrickboruta to see my personal Tungle page and look for free time on my calendar. Tungle has a plug-in for most major calendar systems to automatically synchronize your schedule. You have the flexibility in Tungle to block out certain hours of

the day as busy time as well.

Crocodoc

Upload a pdf, jpg, doc or powerpoint file to Crocodoc for free and start annotating and collaborating with anyone who has the link. You can download the annotated version of the document later as a pdf file. Get email updates when other people add mark-ups or comment on your annotations.

Yammer

While there is a paid version of this service, the free one is pretty cool too... Create a social network built around your business's domain name. Membership in the network requires a valid email account in that domain for activation. Once you're signed up, you and your colleagues can share documents, links, polls, etc. Think private Twitter with some business-savvy enhancements. Make sure you try the desktop & mobile apps to get the complete experience. And if realtime notifications are important for you, check out the options for SMS, IM or Email notifications based on specific groups, feeds, or topics that are most important to you.