Howdy folks- I hope your holiday season was a good one! On behalf on the Connect team, best wishes for 2007!

 The Connect team has been working hard on the next version of Connect- 2.3. I've been spending a lot of time writing specifications and there's some pretty cool stuff coming, including some AJAX components. I've also spent some time prototyping on some nifty features and I hope to show you some of those in the next few weeks. As we shake out the schedule I'll let you know where we stand there.

 I had the opportunity to take my first vacation in my entire career also, which is one reason I haven't been around much of late. Now that we're through the holidays and thing are picking back up, I'm getting excited about the next steps for Connect.

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Filed under: Business, Fun, Internet, Productivity, Web services

HiTask is an online based task management tool that collects tasks, groups them and applies colored tags so users can easily review them. The HiTask interface is built with an easy to use drag and drop calendar to schedule items and reshuffle or prioritize them as needed. Tasks can also be rearranged in groups or projects for added organization.

The scheduling of meetings, reminders or notes can be setup by dragging and dropping their instance onto a calendar and dragging instances down based on how much time is required. Colors can be assigned to tasks to highlight important tasks or categorize them. HiTask can also be used in a team environment by inviting members and easily assigning those tasks by dragging them onto the individual's name.

The interface is very clean, and it's simple to use, there is no learning curve here that's for sure, and the drag and drop feature makes it easy to organize. Now, is it fun? I wouldn't call it fun, but it is pleasant to use. If the free plan isnt enough for you, there is also a Premium account available for $12 U.S. per year that allows for unlimited everything.


[via mashable]

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Filed under: Business, Internet, Video, Web services, Google

Everyone knows its America's number one pastime, and now Google has announced their entrance into the TV ad market.

There has been a lot of speculation recently surrounding the fact that Google's been nosing around the TV market to extend their offline ad experimentations, and it was just a matter of time before the news officially dropped. With this new TV Ad trial, Google hopes to improve user experiences and bring value to both advertisers and publishers. They are currently working with EchoStar and Astound Cable to deliver ads to viewers, as well as helping advertisers and programmers buy, schedule, deliver and of course measure ads on television. We also dropped news this morning about how Google and Dish Networks will be announcing a deal to serve ads over their network.

The ads will be purchased through an automated interface auction model, pricing based on a CPM basis with ads then targeted by demographic, time of day and channel. The ads will be delivered with all reporting and statistics done through set top box technologies. The boxes will report on how many times an ad was viewed and whether it was watched in completion.

So needless to say, if more advertisers buy into Google's technology and take the statistics into consideration when planning campaigns, we might never see boring, useless commercials ever again! Then again, it sure does feel a little like big brother is watching us.

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Google Docs & Spreadsheets - Learning Impact 2007 - Tuesday Strands I am in Vancouver attending the IMS Learning Impact (formerly Alt-i Lab) conference until Wednesday. The conference goes until Thursday but I am giving a talk at the BCLA conference as well as visiting with Brian at UBC so will miss the last day. So far [...]

Filed under: Business, Google

Calling all Google Apps users, your schedule might not be spot-on this Thursday.

Users of Google Apps can expect some downtime during routine maintenance of the Google Calendar Thursday April 26th, from 8AM to 9PM. As is expected with any sort of maintenance, downtimes may and will occur and in this case Google Calendar might not be accessible for some time. Scheduled maintenance during daylight hours, what gives, Google?

This blow to users scheduling sure does make us wonder if Google Apps is worth using for our main scheduling application. It is understandable that system upgrades have to occur in order to improve services, it just sucks that we are now forced to suffer.

For Google Apps support you can check out http://www.google.com/support/a/

Drop a comment on Thursday to let us all know if you were affected by the maintenance and approx. how long your downtime lasted for.

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Filed under: Business, Internet, Office, Web services, Google

Tired of waiting until you get to your office or home to check appointments in Google Calendar? Wait no more, Google has just added the ability to make Calendar items available on mobile devices.

Google's Calendar for mobile devices can be activated by visiting "calendar.google.com" from your phone. When logged in, you can see upcoming events with dates, times, locations, descriptions and even guest lists. Will we soon see a mobile application for this? Maybe, given Gmail's track record.

Needless to say, you might not have to fiddle around with plugins and extensions to sync Google Calendar with Outlook from now on. Just remember to watch your data rates if you don't have unlimited service on your mobile.

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Filed under: Business, Internet, Productivity, Web services

With so many hassles and things to worry about when moving, why not hire a professional. Better yet, check out a free service called Moveme.

Moveme is based and focused on the London, UK area. It offers individuals and families an easy way to keep track of their moving tasks like changing mailing addresses, forwarding mail, hiring a moving truck and activating new utilities. The interface is clean, simple, and easy to navigate. Upon entering your current, new address and date to be moved in, Moveme plots everything down on a calendar, and schedules tasks from the current date up until the move time. Task can be viewed in a list format, on a calendar, and reminders can be sent out. Letters and forms can also be created through Moveme to inform your contacts and suppliers of your new address.

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Filed under: Internet, Web services, Google

Google has now made it possible to send updates to Calendars using SMS. The request to do so came in on the Google tip lines. People wanted a way in which to send text messages to add events, or a way to find out which events they had coming up.

The SMS updates work by sending a text message to 'GVENT' (48368) , with some details about the event, (ie. Starbucks meeting at 2pm). The GVENT will them be added to the users calendar immediately, and a text message confirming the details will get sent. If the word "day" is sent to 'GVENT', a text message will get sent back that contains all of the day's events. "nday" can also be used to get a list of all schedules for the next day.

Way to go Google, always innovating. Just let me pull out my cheat sheet so I can take a look at all the other shortcuts like this I can use.

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Filed under: Fun, Internet, Kids, Productivity, Web services, web 2.0

Forget about pen and paper, its all about family scheduling online with Chore Buster. This online application still isn't going to work any magic, or ensure the kids clean up their mess, but it will help you to stay a little more organized.

Signing up with Chore Buster is free, and ad supported. Schedules are emailed out weekly, complete with how often chores have to be done, and how hard they are to complete. It's a great tool to use for the entire family to ensure that things get done, and fair chore allocations are divided.

Another great family chore tool is Cozi. This downloadable application created by a few ex-Microsoft employees helps create family schedules.

[via ehub]

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Filed under: Internet, Productivity, Web services

Tired of staring at the dry erase board on the fridge reminding you to take out the trash? Sure, you could sign up for a useful online service to help you and your roommates/family remember whose turn it is to pay the bills. Or you could try to make a game out of it.

Chore Wars takes the latter approach and almost kind of sort of succeeds. The web service is designed to resemble a multiplayer role-playing game. You can create characters, join guilds and go on adventures. But while the way to "level up" in most games is by performing repetitive tasks like slaying monsters, in Chore Wars you perform repetitive tasks like washing dishes.

Every time you complete a real world task, you can sign in to Chore Wars to check it off a list. You'll be rewarded with gold and experience points. Of course, both of these are meaningless in the real world. In fact, when you set up the tasks, or "adventures," you can select how large the reward should be for each activity.

You can also create monsters and treasures that you might encounter each time you complete a task. If, for example, you run across a rat when taking out the trash, you can read the blow by blow description of the battle you've had, although you have no control over it. Like some Greek hero (Sisyphus perhaps), if you die you get a little gold and experience anyway and have to take out the trash again tomorrow.

Is Chore Wars going to make you or your kid any more likely to make your bed or vacuum the house? Probably not. But we've seen your house, and we're going to root for any service that might prompt you to clean it up.

[via WebWare]

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