It Is Time To Unfriend Facebook
What happened? I was such a Facebook fan. There was the “courting stage” where I migrated my social media life from MySpace to Facebook. With Facebook, I was just happy to open up a user’s page without music blasting over my laptop speakers. So long MySpace. Then, it was the “I can’t believe who I can connect with” stage as I re-connected with friends from childhood. Next, was the “let’s share how cool my life is” stage. Now, as I have gotten older, I have realized how uncool I really am. My life isn’t at all so interesting that I need to share a daily update.
I travel a bunch. As I spent a whole 45 seconds staring at the wall in an airport restroom, I found myself reading a few of the wall scribes. Of course, my initial thought was, “Who carries a Sharpie?” Then I realized, the posts on the bathroom wall weren’t any more amusing nor interesting than those on Facebook. Ugh! It hit me. I’ve lost hours of my life reading Facebook posts! I realized, there is a new stage, “Time to unfriend Facebook!” Luckily, I came to my senses and began to use the Paper app for Facebook. It’s Facebook in a newer, fresher view. Unfortunately, most of the posts I read are boring still.
If I do use Facebook, I generally use the check-in feature. It amazes me that I find someone to meet at my check-in location or city. It truly is a small world. A new feature, Nearby Friends, was released by Facebook. It is an opt-in only feature, which is a nice perk and should address privacy issues. We used Find My Friends while at Disney World, so this type of feature can be a beneficial tool. Another app alternative, Klutch, allows for a group of contacts to decide where to meet and when. This can replace the five emails it often takes to request a meeting time and location.
I’m a productivity app junkie. If there is one that will make my work and personal life more organized, I’ll try it. Microsoft Office has turned my iPad into an actual workable tablet. Microsoft released Excel, Word and PowerPoint for iPad and iPhone. They lack a few features that you should expect to receive with your desktop, however the apps are a great way to reduce the need of carrying around your laptop. One drawback is that it does not integrate with Dropbox. Speaking of Dropbox, they released a new app, Carousel, which manages photos. You’ll need to monitor the amount of your available Dropbox storage, but it should be an alternative to Picasa. One key feature is the easy way to share a volume of photos with other folks.
I hurt my back handing Mrs. App’s laptop cord to her the other day. OK, I didn’t hurt my back, but it is a heavy cord. Dart launched a new cord, which is light and compatible with Mac and most laptops. This is a great item to Google for travelers. It is available for $79 on Kickstarter. It may be best to set aside the rest of May to apologize for what you’re going to do this Cinco de Mayo.
Do you have a favorite app you’d like to share? Contact Brian at brian@brianzabroski.com, on Twitter @BrianZab or LinkedIn at www.linkedin .com/in/brianzab.
Brian has focused on helping technology companies grow their businesses for nearly 20 years. He currently serves as the Director of Channel Management for a cloud-based software business, which specializes in network monitoring, phone system usage analytics and mobile device analytics. Simply put, if your business’ network, phone system and corporate cell phones are slow, have issues and are expensive, then his software reduces and eliminates these challenges. The software is resold through an international channel of technology partners. He travels across North America educating technology companies how they can increase their business value nearly five-fold through his hybrid managed service selling technique.