A Moto phone for rugged types
Mobile Phones
Sprint Nextel Corp. and Motorola Inc. last week announced a walkie-talkie phone with a macho rubberized exterior, which is about as necessary for most people as roo bars on an SUV.
The Motorola i580 has a clamshell design with rubber grips, and meets military specs for rain, dust, shock, and vibration resistance. Motorola says the phone is designed for contractors and outdoorsy types whose phones are likely to take a bounce off a rock face from time to time. The i580's 1.3 megapixel digital camera with 4X digital zoom and small LED light (for close-up subjects only) is supposedly meant for construction and field workers who need to document their work.
But I suspect that one of the markets Motorola is eyeing for the i580 is aspirational: guys who want to look like they work for a living, and who might feel like sissies carrying lightweight RAZR phones.
The phone, which costs about $280 after rebates and discounts, includes a removable 64 megabyte SD card, Bluetooth support, an internal color display, and advanced walkie-talkie and messaging features for sending multimedia files to your contacts. And since guys hate asking for directions, the phone supports GPS-based extras such as TeleNav, MapQuest FindMe, and Trimble Outdoors.
Organizing
That's the problem with pen and paper (or cocktail napkins): Those reminders don't jump off the page at certain intervals. And that's why task-management software packages such as Checklist 3.0 from Task Solutions Inc. (tasksolutions.com) are so popular. Checklist lets you prioritize and color-code tasks, set time limits, and mark your accomplishments. Task Solutions is promoting the software as a cognitive crutch for overwhelmed managers and home office workers juggling family and business demands.
This latest version of Checklist, released a couple of weeks ago, has improved hierarchal views and filters so you can hone in on specific tasks. Task Solutions also sells other versions of Checklist for assigning tasks to others or sharing your own task lists with others in your workgroup.
Checklist's PC Windows interface isn't pretty, but it's not messy, either. The software, which is available for a free trial, is available online for about $40.
Online Auctioning
My Internet connection, thank goodness, is usually too slow for me to outpace my opponents in those closing minutes. Otherwise, no doubt I'd end up paying more than I should for something I didn't need in the first place.
``The eBay Price Guide: What Sells for What (in Every Category!) " may not cure my impulsivity, but it will make me a smarter bidder. The 608-page book from No Starch Press contains exhaustive lists of prices for antiques, books and jewelry, video games, and movie memorabilia. It saves you the trouble of searching closed auctions on eBay for comparative prices.
Author and veteran auctioneer Julia Wilkinson does a good job introducing each of the major categories she covers in the book. It's good to have a knowledgeable companion by your side as you place a thousand-dollar bid on an antique, for example.
But ``The eBay Price Guide" lists only the titles for the items sold in each category and subcategory. And since a chip in a 200-year-old Shaker farm dining table can take hundreds away from its value, the book comes with a companion CD that includes detailed descriptions for several of the items.
``The eBay Price Guide" CD includes software from HammerTap (hammertap.com) that helps you research current eBay auctions to help you get the best deal for your specific item, no matter what side of the transaction you are on. The CD also includes some advice for newcomers to eBay and those who might want to make a living as full-time sellers.
