UpGRD me » Productivity

Finally! Wunderlist Is a Task Management App That Does It All

Saurabh — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 11:57:50 +0000

I honestly can’t believe it took this long to happen. For the past 3 years I have been looking for an application that could meet my requirements for task management. I wanted something that

was client based so that I could use it offline, synced between multiple machines and iPhone/iPad
allowed me to maintain lists and set due dates to tasks
looked good
preferably free.

I had looked at Things (does not sync over multiple machines, and only syncs with iPhone while they are both on the same WiFi network), Google Tasks (really utilitarian and cannot handle lists or due dates well), Remember The Milk (not client based), and so on.

Finally, wunderkinder has released an application called Wunderlist, which does it all! It syncs my todos over the web. It has multi-platform support (no iPhone while in beta but it’s coming very very soon). It allows me to maintain lists and organize todos through a simple drag and drop interface. It looks clean and gorgeous. And it’s free. Tah-Dah! Love it!!

I Love Flipboard!

Saurabh — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 07:00:21 +0000

Flipboard is one sweet piece of code. Available exclusively for the Apple iPad from the iTunes App Store for a sum total of ZERO dollars, this awesome application culls RSS feeds from numerous newspapers, magazine websites, blogs, and most importantly your Facebook and Twitter accounts, and then presents it in a gorgeous, easy to read magazine style format. Like I said, I LOVE FLIPBOARD!

So…What Would You Do For $5?

Saurabh — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:00:10 +0000

It’s a simple concept. What would you be willing to do for $5? Taking a bit of Craigslist, and a bit of Ebay, Fiverr is a community that allows people to advertise things that they would be willing to for a fixed price of $5. Current listings range from the funny (“I will record a 30 second voicemail message for you in the style of an English butler for $5″), to the helpful (“I will answer all your web development questions (php/js/html/css/mysql) for $5″) to the bizarre (“I will mail you a random object from my house (US residents only) for $5″). It looks to be super fun, and for $5 (of which Fiverr keeps $1 as a service fee), it’s cheap fun. (Found on TechCrunch)

Microsoft Lab’s Pivot Revolutionizes Sorting & Filtering Large Amounts of Graphical Data

Saurabh — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 13:53:17 +0000

Thank you Microsoft, for making one of the first pieces of programs that I am actually excited to use. Download and check out Microsoft Pivot. I can’t wait to try this out and see how powerful this program is. From the demos in the video, the program looks like it can smoothly handle huge volumes of images in large resolutions. I really like the smooth job it does rendering the datasets.

GRID-IT Helps Keep Your Bag Organized

Saurabh — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:45:45 +0000

Cocoon Innovations has created what seems like very simple organizer to deal with our complex worlds. Using a series of layered elastic straps, the GRID-IT allows you to easily secure various objects, such as USB cords, cameras, iPods, phones, journals, pens, markers and keycards/creditcards to name a few. It seems very useful, and comes in a bunch of different sizes, and even implemented in tote bags, messenger bags, and laptop bags if you are looking for that. The above is a 8″ x 12″ and retails for $20, which I think is quite reasonable for what it is offering. Check out this short video taken in Union Square of people organizing their bags using a GRID-IT organizer:

VistaSwitcher Is a Great Alt+Tab Replacement For Vista

Saurabh — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 17:00:07 +0000

If you’ve been forced to run Vista at work, or if you are running Vista out of choice, you will love this alternative to the default task switcher. VistaSwitcher is a great bit of code that makes it easy to see what windows you’ve got open, and then even select multiple windows and cascade, tile vertically, or tile horizontally. You can close windows, or even minimize windows, all right through the task switcher. One other great feature is the ability to alternate just between windows from the same application (similar to the Alt + ` feature in the Mac). (Found on Lifehacker)

Xpenser Makes It Easier To Keep Track Of Your Expenses

Saurabh — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:30:29 +0000

Most of us are familiar with Mint, some of us are even familiar with Buxfer and Tripit, and now welcome Xpenser. While the site has been around for a bit they’ve rolled out some great new features. Xpenser is your personal expense tracking website, allowing you to easily track how much you are spending, when and where. Xpenser makes it easy to add expenses while you are on the go: you can email it, SMS it, IM it, tweet it, and now even call in your expenses and Xpenser will parse your voice into an expense note and auto-categorize it. You can even email a photo of the actual photo to Xpenser, and it can attach it to an expense while adding it to your report. Lastly you can import your credit card statements and then export to Quicken, Freshbooks, or even Excel if you would like. (Found on TechCrunch)

Picasa 3.5 Catches Up To iPhoto And Adds Facial Recognition

Saurabh — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:37:39 +0000

Windows users can finally rejoice and find lost photos of friends and family in their massive photo collection now that Google’s Picasa has updated to 3.5 and gone ahead and added facial recognition to it. Early reports are that it can take a while to sort through gigabytes of photos, but that’s honestly expected. In addition to searching for people, Picasa now also has a People sidebar, from where you can easily find the photo you are looking for. About time Google. Get Picasa today if you haven’t already. (Found on Lifehacker)

Redbeacon Is The OpenTable For Everything Else

Saurabh — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 03:10:45 +0000

You need a mover, or you need someone to fix that dent in your car, but you don’t know who to book, nor do you want to deal with the hassle of calling people up, find the prices, and then see if they have a opening for a time that’s convenient for you. That’s so 90s (or even 00s). Now you have Redbeacon. Coming of as the winner at TechCrunch 50 2009, Redbeacon sets out to do for every other service what OpenTable has done for restaurant reservations, Redbeacon allows you to put up requests for services (similar to Craigslist), and Redbeacon notifies qualified and reviewed vendors of the request. They then quote their price, which is emailed to you in a summary of all vendors in about 4 hours, at which point you can select the vendor and schedule the job all online. No phone calls. Less hassle. And hopefully a simpler way to getting things done.

Flightcaster Is a Flight Delay Predicator…Brilliant!

Saurabh — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:30:29 +0000

Flightcaster is a newly launched Y-Combinator company that is going to help you while you travel. It is going to predicate how likely it is your flight is going to be delayed, and by how much. But airlines already tell you if a flight is going to be delayed? Really? Clearly you don’t travel enough. I can’t even keep track of the number of times flights have report to be on time, right up to the expected time of departure before being delayed, and delayed again, and then sometimes canceled. This is where Flightcaster comes into play. It looks at a lot of different data sources, incoming flight status, weather at the arrival and departure airports, and even general FAA airport delays, and then calculates a percentage of how likely your flight’s going to be delayed and by how much. They have an application up for the iPhone and Blackberry retailing temporarily at a 50% discount at just $5. (Found on TechCrunch)