Priority Inbox attempts to automatically identify your important incoming messages and separates them out from everything else. Gmail uses a variety of signals to prioritize your incoming messages, including who you emailed most frequently and which messages you’ve recently opened as opposed to which messages you’ve deleted.

The goal is to enable users to spend more time with the emails that matter most. A welcome feature in today’s flooded Inbox.

Here’s a simple video explanation.

Overall The Microsoft Store was somewhat confusing from a retail shop perspective. There was a large space dedicated to XBox. That dedicated space had the strongest presence and clear message. The rest of the Store had a mix of hardware from different manufacturers (Sony, Dell etc) but the Microsoft “experience” felt muted.

The Microsoft Store felt like a high end version of Best Buy. I don’t consider that a good thing. Microsoft needs to draw on their strengths and improve their retail experience. There was no strong message directed at anyone walking in the door. With an estimated budget of $1 Billion for a Windows 7 marketing blitz Microsoft needs to do better and should be learning from their company branded stores.

Time management is nothing new, but Pomodoro has some advantages in it’s simplicity. From their website:

Choose a task to be accomplished
Set the Pomodoro to 25 minutes (the Pomodoro is the timer)
Work on the task until the Pomodoro rings, then put a check on your sheet of paper
Take a short break (5 minutes is OK)
Every 4 Pomodoros take a longer break

That’s very simple! There are several small software applications to help you adjust to the Pomodoro Technique but for a quick test drive of the Pomodoro Technique simply visit this site and click on play. Then concentrate on a single task for 25 minutes. Reward yourself with a 5 minute break. I think you’ll find this addictive and rewarding.

Enjoy your new levels of productivity!

Google Wave was ahead of it’s time. We wrote about Wave and your business in October of 2009. Although Wave held a lot of promise, we had problems finding the right ways to use the capabilities of Wave.

But all is not lost on Google’s experiment with Wave. Many of Wave’s technologies, such as real time collaboration, have already made it into other Google products.

Kudos to Google for being ambitious. The fact they pulled Wave so quickly was a bit surprising but I’m sure they’ll put the lessons from Wave to good use.

To summarize, Ted grew up in Brooklyn the son of immigrant parents. Through hard work and fortunate timing he was very successful at a young age. But he wasn’t happy. A near death experience opened his eyes to his second chance at life and he decided to dedicate himself to being happy.

Ted’s theory is to not confuse being successful with being happy. He was successful, but not happy. Ted theorizes that successful people are not happy because they are successful, they are successful because they are happy.

Ted is an interesting guy. He’s done a lot! His insights into his time as Chairman at AOL gave me new found respect for that company. His story shows that hard work does pay off, but that there’s more to life than just achieving financial and professional goals.

After his near death experience, Ted creates a “list”. 101 and things he wanted to do before he dies. He admits many items did not generate happiness (own a Ferrari), but that he created the list at 28 and he’s been faithful on following through. The fact that he did follow through on his list when given an opportunity to achieve one of his goals fortuitously protected a large portion of his wealth during the dot com bust.

The book is broken in two parts. The first part is mostly autobiographical. An interesting read. The second half the author breaks down the six things he believes creates happiness.

This was a good and quick read. I recommend it!

We’ve run across a problem we can’t fix and it revolves around the way Google handles their products. Google is successful because so much of what they do is automated. For the most part this works great as Google excels at knowing what people need and fulfilling that need in a convenient and usable online format.

The problem is that even with Google’s technical capabilities some issues still require commonsense and a human touch. In our case several clients wrote glowing reviews of Network Velocity on Google Maps. That’s great and we really appreciate it, except the clients wrote the reviews under one of our competitors names. As a result this competitor is receiving the notoriety and benefit of our client’s goodwill.

When we approached Google to fix the issue we were told that the data (the reviews) belonged to the users. This meant Google could not alter the reviews according to their stated policy that users own their data.

We understand the policy. However, in our case it doesn’t make sense. The reviews mention our company explicitly by name but are credited to a competitor! Google holds fast in their refusal to correct the bad data.

We’re disappointed. Google is a great company but they must resist the temptation to be a faceless automaton. Use some commonsense!

Google experienced a backlash of a similar nature with the release of their Nexus One phone. Google completely skipped the fact that users may have issues and need to speak with a human being to find a resolution, initially offering only email support. Google lost the human touch and the result was a Public Relations disaster.

Google needs to stay human. Even though Google is great, no technology can replace humans.

Don’t believe me? Google it, or better yet, ask a human being and let me know what results you get.

Each upgrade represents a significant investment in licensing, migration time and user training.  To make matters worse, some software vendors require an upgrade by discontinuing support on products as soon as 24 months after release!

For those looking to break the cycle of software upgrades there is an option: a move towards Software as a Service (sometimes called Cloud computing). A prime example of Software as a Service is Google Apps. With any web browser Google Apps users have access to a suite of products that are very competitive to Microsoft Office. No installation, no security patches and more importantly, no upgrades!

In addition to controlled costs and easy scalability, one of the major benefits of Software as a Service is the ease of obtaining updates. In fact, new Google Apps features are rolled out almost daily, but there is zero impact on the user as upgrades are done on Google’s Servers. The next time a user logs in new features are available. It’s that simple. No upgrades, no overtime, no risk of losing data. Since the changes are done on a regular basis vs a completely new interface every few years no user retraining!

Given the prospect of staying on the software upgrade cycle and considering a move towards Google Apps what makes sense for your business? If you are struggling with this question, or other ways to effectively manage your technology, we encourage you to contact us at 858-270-3595 x 1 to learn more.

In a previous blog post we summed up multitasking as:

Multitasking is the ability to shift between tasks very quickly. Also known as timeslicing, these transitions happen so quickly it appears like multitasking. However, each time you switch between tasks you must back up just a bit and review where you left off to make sure you don’t miss any critical information, essentially doing the same work over and over. The constant starting and stopping of tasks leads to “mental friction” and increased stress.

Focus on one task until it is complete. You’ll be transformed to a  focused, productive and less stressed person!

VMware View with PCoIP allows companies to deploy inexpensive, power efficient and virtually unbreakable PC’s called thin clients to users while retaining a full dekstop experience with multi monitor setup, streaming video and fast video refresh. Company data can be securely locked away in a remote datacenter without users ever noticing a difference in their day to day computer usage.

In the video below, keep in mind this person is performing all these activities over a remote connection. The video and sound at the 3 minute mark is indistinguishable from a local PC.

VMware View promises to be the first no compromise Cloud based desktop product on the market today.