TipTalk: from Microsoft At Home & At Work : On the Go

Tips to help you work less and relax more in 2009

ahawblog — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 07:26:00 GMT

Certainly, today's always-on-and-available-anywhere technology can lead to addictive work habits. We've all seen examples of that among friends and family.

But having a cheap, convenient, 24/7 global reach through technology can also efficiently enable you to live the life you've always wanted. The choice is yours.

Here are some affordable tools and ideas that harness technology's power to save you time and money.

Use Voice-over-Internet protocol phone service (VoIP) to create a virtual office.
To maintain a professional phone line and still travel, take time off or live abroad, VoIP telephone services are a terrific help. You've probably heard about such affordable services, which, basically, use the Internet to send and receive calls. Usually, you pay only for Internet access and not for calls, much the way e-mail works.

There are dozens of VoIP providers to choose among. Try a Web search if you don't know one.
Use online services for office communications and banking.
If you host your company computers on external servers, you can access all e-mail, files, and financial information or transactions from any Internet café. (Of course, you do want to have privacy safeguards in place when working this way.)
Leverage the power of a professional Web site.
Setting up a Web site, more than any other technological helpmate, will shave considerable time and effort from your workdays.

With a professional site, you can more efficiently conduct business, fulfill orders, organize contacts, share documents with employees or contractors, and market your wares or services, even when you're out of the office or on the road.

For more about launching a site, see the Microsoft Office Live Small Business offerings. Once your site is up, you can bolster its effectiveness by keeping customers, stakeholders, or media up-to-date with an online media kit.
Use your site features to stay in touch with customers.
With so many marketing channels and consumer options these days, increasingly, it's the business that quickly responds to customer needs that gains a competitive advantage. You can use your Web site to "listen" and react to what your customers request.

For example:

Set up an online forum so customers can register and post comments to you and to each other.
Set up a survey that customers can take online. This can be a focus group type of survey (say, about a new product) or a customer satisfaction survey.
Set up a special e-mail address and ask customers for specific feedback or advice whenever you launch a new product, service, or special promotion.

To get more tips, read the full article by by Joanna L. Krotz.

Use Windows Live Writer to publish to your blog

ahawblog — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 22:23:00 GMT

For those people wanting an easy to use weblog (blog) tool, then look no further than Windows Live Writer. This tool can be used with a multitude of blog interfaces supported by Live Spaces, Google Blogs, etc. It is very easy to use and comes with a number of add-ins such as for posting videos that are hosted on MSN Soapbox, or YouTube. So if feel up to the challenge of jotting down your daily activities and telling the world what you are about, why not download this version 2.0 Beta and get cracking!?

New Authoring Capabilities

Inline spell checking
Table editing
Ability to add categories
Page authoring for WordPress and TypePad
Support for excerpts and extended entries
Improved hyperlinking and image insertion
Paste Special

Integration and Compatibility

SharePoint 2007 support
New API's enabling custom extensions by weblog providers
Automatic synchronization of local and online edits
Integration with Windows Live Gallery
Support for Blogger Labels

Plus...

New look and feel
Available in 6 languages
Improved accessibility and keyboard support
Many other frequently requested enhancements!

The weblog settings let you update your weblog style to that of your blog, including transparency. All in all a much better tool

How to listen to music on your phone

ahawblog — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 20:19:00 GMT

People usually get a Windows Mobile–powered phone because they want to get e-mail on their phone. That's a good reason. There's something really cool about being able to check your e-mail wherever you are. I never fail to get oohs and ahhs whenever I show people e-mail on my phone.

But even if you purchase a Windows Mobile–powered phone for e-mail, and you're a super serious "get things done" kind of person, there are going to be times you need more. Say you're working late at night, putting the last touches on a presentation. Or you're cooling your heels waiting for a meeting to start. Or you have to travel to meet a customer. In other words, you probably have lots of down time to fill. That's when you'll want to listen to music on your phone.

To listen to music on your phone, here are some things you'll need and some things I recommend:

Windows Mobile–powered phone with Windows Media Player Mobile 10 for the best experience.
A desktop computer and Internet connection.
A storage card to store your tunes on.
A stack of your favorite CDs.
A good set of headphones.

The rest of the article gives you some tips to help you get started.

Store more music
I have two sizes of storage cards that I use on my devices. I use a 128 megabyte (MB) and a 256 MB storage card. Since I have a smartphone that uses mini secure digital cards (miniSD), and a Pocket PC phone that uses a regular SD card, I buy miniSDs and use an adapter so that I can use my storage cards on both devices.

I recommend that you go out and get a storage card right after you first get your Windows Mobile device, if not before. There are so many things you'll want to add, and there isn't a lot of extra storage on the device.

You can get storage cards from a lot of places online, though they're much harder to find in brick and mortar stores. I have found them at Fry's, which we're lucky enough to have in Washington State.

A rough guide to how much storage you'll need is to allow for about 4-5 MB per song. Different devices require different types of memory, so check your owner's manual to see what type of memory you need and how to install it. Read more about storage solutions in "4 ways to store your data."

Rip your favorite CDs
You can load your music onto your device with just a few clicks. You'll need to be using Windows Media Player on your desktop, and have Windows Media Player 10 Mobile on your device.

Put your CD into your desktop computer.
Open Windows Media Player on your computer.
Select Rip from the bar that runs across the top of the player.

You will see a list of all the tracks on your CD. Windows Media Player automatically downloads artist and song title information from the Internet. This is where it gets fun. Most people like only a selection of songs on any CD that they own. But if they play the CD on a “regular” player, they have to listen to all the songs, unless they hit the skip button.

When you sync your music to your device, you can sync your favorite songs and leave the rest behind.

Click the check box on the left side of the column headings to deselect all songs. Then go ahead and check just the ones you like. When you've made your selections, click Rip. Songs will appear in your library. You can then sync them to your device using the sync tab.

Learn more:
Quickly Rip CDs to your computer Take your music and video with you

It's important to always sync your music through your mobile device. Do not attempt to copy the music directly to your memory card through a card reader. Songs that you buy online often come with a license. That license will only be copied if your device is connected to your personal computer. Keep in mind that not all music services allow you to copy music to your portable device.

There are two options for syncing your music. The easiest is automatic. Whenever you connect your mobile device to your personal computer, Windows Media Player will review your library to determine your favorites. It keeps records of how many times you listen to particular songs and also allows you to rate tracks on a scale of one to five stars. It will fill your mobile device with your highest-rated and most-listened-to selections, as well as any songs you recently downloaded.

To sync automatically, launch Windows Media Player 10 on your personal computer and then connect your mobile device to your computer. Select Automatic from Windows Media Player 10 on your desktop computer. You will only have to do that once. From then on, whenever you connect your device, your music will sync.

The other option is manual and it allows you to specify which tracks will be sent to your mobile device. To copy music, go into your Windows Media Player library on your personal computer and right-click on a song you want to copy. From the pop-up menu, select Add to and then click Sync List. Repeat that process for all the songs you want to copy.

When you're done, connect your device to your personal computer and select the Manual synchronization option. Select the Sync button at the top of your Windows Media Player and then select Start Sync. An indicator will tell you when it's done.

Buy some good headphones
The headphones that come with Windows Mobile devices are standard. You can get a better experience by buying a set of headphones that are more comfortable and more noise cancelling.

I'm not talking about headsets, which work well for your Bluetooth connection for the voice; I'm talking about headphones, which you'll use for listening to music.

I like the Shure headphones that are noise cancelling. They come in a nice case that's easy to carry around. You may have to get an adapter to use some of the models with different versions of your Windows Mobile phone.

Now that you're set up, get ready to dance to your favorite tunes, whether you're sitting in your favorite chair at home, or out for jog.

Track your expenses on the go

ahawblog — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 20:45:00 GMT

Have you ever struggled to figure out if a small piece of paper that went through the wash was an important business receipt — or just a piece of lint? For most people, keeping track of their expenses is about as much fun as an all-day staff meeting. But a Windows Mobile powered device and expense-tracking software can make the chore much easier.

There are several expense trackers for Pocket PC and Pocket PC Phone Edition devices. Pocket PCs are small handheld computers that easily share data with your personal computer. Some Pocket PCs also double as a mobile phone.

Since the devices are so small, you can carry them with you wherever you go. That's the benefit for tracking expenses. You can enter your expenses as you incur them, then send the data to your PC to analyze or generate expense reports. Here are some programs that I have found to work well.

TimeTTracker MX not only keeps track of your money — it keeps track of your time. Start the built-in timer when you start working on a particular task; stop it when you're finished. It figures out how much time you spent on it and calculates how much to bill the client. It saves your data as a Microsoft Access database by default, allowing for detailed analysis. Other editions can export your data to Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Money, or several other programs.
Expense Plus makes sure you get reimbursed. It automatically generates expense reports for you whenever you sync your Pocket PC to your desktop computer. Each time you connect your mobile device, it checks to see if you've entered new expenses. If you have, it will automatically generate the appropriate reports in Microsoft Excel.
EZ-Expense is a fully-customizable expense tracker. Each type of expense has its own data entry form, making sure that you enter all the information you need and saving you the bother of skipping over fields that aren't appropriate. It also interacts well with Outlook, a big help if you regularly entertain clients or do business lunches.
Expense Organizer has a novel user interface that nearly eliminates the need for a stylus, a pen-like instrument used to draw on the Pocket PC's touch-sensitive screen. It uses large on-screen buttons to represent different types of expenses and to enter costs — buttons so large you can simply tap them with your thumb.

By entering expenses as you go, you save yourself the hassle of trying to re-trace your steps later. That buys you more time for work you enjoy — or simply more spare time for yourself.

— Suzanne Ross

What is Bluetooth?

ahawblog — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 01:32:00 GMT

Is the name Bluetooth new to you? If so, read on. (If not, this article may be too basic for your tastes…) If you've seen people walking around with an object stuck in their ear that's vaguely reminiscent of the earpiece that Chief Communications Officer Uhura wore in the original Star Trek TV series, the odds are that what you’re seeing is a Bluetooth headset.

What is Bluetooth?
In an increasingly connected world, many of us find ourselves ankle deep in piles of cables. If you're trying to connect your keyboard, mouse, printer, camera, cell phone, PDA, or other peripheral to your PC, odds are you're using a cable. Likewise, if you're trying to keep your hands on the wheel of your car, you may be struggling with a cable between your phone and ear.

To address these annoyances (not to mention accident risks) Bluetooth is one of several wireless technologies aimed at reducing the number of cables you need to be connected. Bluetooth technology is used to create a small wireless network (called a piconet) between two pieces of hardware through short-range radio signals.

O.K., I simply can't go on to explain Bluetooth without a side note about the unusual name. The super-short story is this: In the mid-1900's, a Danish king, Harald Bluetooth, united Denmark and part of Norway into a single kingdom. (You might wonder if there was a dental-related incident involved in the unification, but we'll likely never know.) The Bluetooth technology name is said to be a nod toward Harald's unification success.

What we do know is that roughly a thousand years after Harald's exploits, Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson conceived the idea for the technology which was then developed by Nokia, Ericsson, IBM, Intel, and Toshiba. Since 1998, Bluetooth has been working its way into the market as a way to connect devices such as keyboards with PCs and headsets with cell phones.

Why another connection type?
Today you may already use several different types of wireless communications. For example some computer products use infrared light waves (like those used between your TV and its remote) to connect things such as printers and cameras to your PC. Because infrared uses light, it depends on a line-of-sight connection, so it doesn't apply to situations where you might have to send a signal around corners or through walls, which you'll often want to do when connecting computers and other devices. For example, when I'm talking on my cell phone, I can leave it on a counter and walk around the house with the headset on and not worry about losing the signal.

Another wireless technology you may hear of or use is called WiFi (for Wireless Fidelity). (By the way, the official name, IEEE 802.11b is a good example of why the Bluetooth name may not be so weird after all.) WiFi also uses radio frequency communications, but is more commonly used for high-speed connections on the Internet and local area networks. If you see someone working on a laptop in a coffee shop, it's likely they're connected to the Internet using WiFi.

Bluetooth can also be used for connecting to the Internet, but today, the more common applications are connections between cell phones and headsets and between PCs and their related mice and keyboards. What's cool about Bluetooth is that after you set them up, two devices using the technology will create and sustain a signal that's unlikely to be bothered by other nearby radio transmissions. People using Bluetooth headsets are fairly easy to spot. What you're less likely to notice are some of the other cool products that use Bluetooth, such as mice and keyboards. Microsoft offers several Bluetooth-enabled products. You can learn more about the technology, the products, and how to get started using Bluetooth here.

Additional sources used for this story:

WiFi Planet
Bluetooth, wireless groups sync up
Bluetooth
Bluetooth Wireless for the Holidays
How Bluetooth Works
What the Heck Is Bluetooth and Why Should I Care?