Cactus Juice

iPad: Moving pictures

There are quite a few options for watching TV and video on the iPad, but one of my favorite TV applications doesn't actually play the shows.  What's On? gives you the TV schedule with accurate channel numbers for any provider and location.  You can mark shows as favorites and ask it to provide reminders.

Crackle is a free program that plays some old movies and 2nd rate TV snows.  For free you can also get a PBS player, ABC Player, TMZ(an iphone app), and TV.com (CBS).

Another fabulous free program is Flixster.  This program lets you find movie theatres by GPS and buy tickets online.  It is integrated with Rotten Tomatoes for reviews.  It also lets you set up a DVD list and supposedly interacts with iTunes videos, but I'm not sure how that works.

For less than $10 a month each, you can get Netflix and Hulu(the free version of Hulu does not provide the iPad app).

Lastly of course you have YouTube and any movies, TV shows etc. purchased off iTunes.  Frequently websites will automatically pull up the YouTube app, getting around the no Flash issue, but sometimes you have search in YouTube for a video that was part of a web page.

iPad: Travel

This week I'm kicking off a new Friday topic: Vacation!!!  So leading into that here is a review of the travel resources on my iPad.

The 3G iPad comes with real-time mapping, and that's actually the only thing I've used.  I downloaded a free speaking GPS program called NavFree, but haven't used it.  USA Today gave it a good review.  Apparently it warns you of turns ("turn right in 200 ft.") but does not announce street names.  Since my Blackberry only gets to stating the street name 100 ft. after the turn, I can probably live with that.

WorldMateis something every traveler should have.  It organizes your planes and hotels and rental cars and, if you want, meetings, into itineraries that you can send to people or just use to keep yourself straight.  Even better, it automatically parses the automatic travel emails you receive from vendors like Expedia and can even enter the information into your Outlook or smartphone calendar.  It will remind you if you know anyone on LinkedIn who lives in the area.  The app only comes in iPhone format* at this time (remember, you can use iPhone apps on your iPad, they are just iPhone size).

But the true value of WorldMate is in the $100/yr Gold subscription.  It sends an alert to your phone if your plane is delayed.  When I lived on the road, I frequently got delay notifications before the gate attendants did.  It also offers you a list of alternative flights, including some clever ones that are not where everyone else is trying to go.  Did I sneak into a corner and whisper with the booking agent so that 100 other (possibly higher ranked) people wouldn't follow me to my alternate plane?  You bet I did!

I've already written enough about how important Evernote is to my life in general, but it is invaluable for travel.  Reservation lost?  Nothing is quite as effective as being able to immediately provide their confirmation documentation.

American Airlines has what is generally considered to be the best airline app.  I haven't tried any others, but it is good.

I also have the Hilton and Hertz apps, but haven't really used them yet.  A lot of resorts have apps these days, so check out where you are going.  I was recently at the Fontainebleu in Miami (oh yes, you will be hearing about this on Friday!).  Their app (only comes in an iPhone version) gives you the poolside menu so you can get your story straight before flagging down a server.  It also lists the menus at all the restaurants and then links you directly to either web or telephone reservations.  Ditto for the spa.  If you want to come back, you can make your reservation directly from the app and if you have a mailer with a discount, no problem, it will use the camera to read the discount code.

Continuing on the food theme, check out Urbanspoon and Speak4It.  Urbanspoon has a fabulous interface for finding something new and interesting with selection lists for location price and variety, or you can "spin" for a random suggestion.  Speak4It gives you the more traditional map view of what you know you are looking for.  Of course, I also have the Starbucks finder.

For disasters in food: I seem to remember BlimpMe doing what I wanted in the past, but today it is a disaster.  The Yelp app works off of a different database from their website and is also a disaster.  In Manhattan, it listed less than 20% of the restaurants in the area where I was searching.

Back to vacation, the timeshare trading organization RCIhas two apps.  Many timeshares are rented on the usual suspects (Expedia, etc.), or directly from week owners on places like redweek.com or tug2.net. To be a member of RCI itself requires owning a timeshare, but some groups like government employees can get in without an ownership.  In any case, anyone can use these apps.  The first app "RCI" is a search database of all resorts in the RCI network.  It is slow and buggy, but with some patience it makes for a fun dreambook.    One note: the first set of resorts it shows you for a region (with the associated map) are not all the resorts in that region.  Scroll to the end and you'll have an option to "load more results."  The app provides the rating and awards for the resort, a brief overview and photos, and an option to save the resort to a favorites list.

The second free RCI app is an interactive magazine called Endless Vacations.  The magazine has a couple of random travel articles and then focuses on about three vacation destinations per issue.  It has beautiful pictures and provides links to restaurants, hotels and resorts other than RCI, and links to area RCI resorts inside the RCI app.  More fun dreaming!

---

Picture: My tootsies enjoying the Fontainebleu in Miami.

*It's also available for Blackberry and several other smartphone varieties.

iPad Games!

I am not your go-to person for games, but since this is a complete tour of the iPad, here goes:

• Words with Friends.  A Scrabble type of game that can be played between iPads, iPhones and Android devices.  Fantabulous.  Can play people you know or search for strangers.  If you find someone who is a good match you may end up playing day after day and using the chat function to find out a little bit about each other.
• Boggle.  Exactly like Boggle, including shaking the iPad to mix up the dice.  You can play the old-fashioned way, putting the iPad in the middle of the table, or play one person at a time on the iPad, or play just one person.  The awesome thing is that at the end of the game it shows you all of the possible words, so you can get better.
• New York Times Crossword.  For free you can get a historical game each day.  For a fee you can get today's crossword.
• AWSudoku.  I love this one!  It lets you use some of the common notetaking methods or draw freehand as you are working the puzzle.
• Solitaire Free.  Gets the job done.
• BridgeLessons.  I have't gotten into it, but there is a fad to teach children bridge in order to improve their social skills along with their mental skills.  So in a few years any old people who want to keep up are going to need to know how to play bridge.
• Angry Birds.  Of course!!!
• Pac-Man.  The controls aren't so great, but then they weren't on the original version either.
• iFish Pond.  You get fish, lilly pads, frogs, and flies.  If you catch the fish (very difficult!) you can get fancier fish.  If you dabble your fingers in the water, you get a very realistic water sound and reaction from the fish.  Not exactly a game, but extremely soothing.  Popular with 2-year-olds of all ages, one elderly woman confided that she might get an iPad just for the fish.
• Tour Wrist.  Another thing that isn't a game.  You select a location (such as a view over Paris) and the iPad becomes a moving window.  As you move it around, you see what you would see if you were there and looking that direction.  Amazing.
• Plants vs. Zombies.  Okay, I haven't bought this one because I know I would go through a period of obsession.  One PhD posted that he would have finished graduate school a year earlier if it weren't for Plants vs. Zombies.  I only play it on someone else's iPad!

Do you have any games that people just have to get?

 

iPad: The Social Network, Part II of II

Today, instead of phones there is FaceTime and Skype.  Anyone who thought calling without warning wasn't fairly intrusive should get the message at this point: electronically showing up in my house, even worse.  FaceTime doesn't even have the choice to turn off the camera (you can turn the camera to the desk or navigate to another program, which leaves only the audio on), though Skype does.  Still, when everyone has a plan to spend some time together it is really truly fabulous.  When my 2-year-old niece was recently in the ICU, she Skyped with her 5-year-old brother to the great delight of both.  The beloved FaceTimes my cat every night, and sometimes they even talk to me.

So clearly video chat is for the very-inside-circle, but there's a lot of stuff for the wide circle as well.  LinkedIn, the professional social network.  There is not an iPad app and the iPhone app is eh-eh, so I've got a link to the website.  Then Meetup.com, the website for meeting in person with people you don't know over some subject.  There is an iPhone app which does a couple of things well, so I've got the app and a website link.  Finally, Yahoo!Groups, for not meeting people in person over some subject.

So that's what I've got.  Anyone else using a social network they couldn't live without?

iPad: The Social Network, Part I of II

I have developed a bad habit of not carrying around my phone.  I'm pretty sure this put a phoning and texting friend's undergarments in a bunch recently, and this weekend it caused me some anxiety when someone knocked on my door at 3:30AM and I didn't even know where my phone was.  But people don't call any more.  Maybe great-Aunt Ida will call me without warning, once a quarter.  And the pharmacy.  The darned pharmacy that re-fills my drugs on the wrong dates and calls to tell me about it.  Not enough to be glued to the phone.

I've got handy old AIM on the iPad and the phone (and the laptop, why not).  It can text AIM people and it can text people at their phone numbers if they insist on paying $20 a month to, um, not use AIM (why???).  Messages go to my iPad, and my phone, and my laptop if it is on, problem solved.  Of course, these are the very small number of people whom I am willing to text (as in, less than 5, don't feel bad if you aren't on the list).  We text, of course, because phone calls are rude.  As if random texts are any less intrusive and obnoxious.

So, for everyone else, there's email.  Yay.  I thought that I read my email on Blackberry, but I'm learning that I didn't.  It's so much easier to understand on a larger screen, truly.  I've got my email coming into my iPad as a copy (just as I did on the Blackberry).  It then deletes from the server when I download the batches into Outlook on my laptop to delete automatically after 90 days.  Why do I do that?  Because none of the email systems I use will do an automatic delete after 90 days.  In fact, most of the make it about impossible to delete any other way.  There are emails to save, of course.  Those get forwarded to Evernote.

And then there is Facebook.  People still in the "push" phase of socializing don't understand Facebook.  Here's how push works: take my call when I call you.  Text me when I text you.  Read what I think is interesting when I forward it to you on email.  If a business acted like this it would be obnoxious.  If a person acts like this maybe they are 92.*  Facebook is where you can put all of that stuff you think your friends might be interested in and when they want to come coddle you over your deep grief for your dead goldfish they can.

This isn't as cold as it at first seems: how many people would you have to call before you found someone who had the time and inclination to share your dead goldfish grief?  But if you post it on Facebook, that person finds you.  And you haven't annoyed your 10 other friends who would have preferred to feed your goldfish to their cat.  You might even miss out on an afternoon of tears when one of them tells you so.  See, Facebook: win, win, win.

Then for that friend who wants to recite his political outrage (how outraged can a person be every single day, sigh) or explain why you just must, must, must buy a tablet device (my life is fine, thaaank yooou!, or so I've heard) there are blogs.  I wrote last week about organizing blogs since sometimes they are news, but sometimes they are social.  For when Facebook just can't contain it all.  Though, you can make your blog feed into your Facebook and thereby make paying attention to your rants one stop shopping for your friends.

----------------

*Which is not an excuse since there are 100-year-olds with blogs, but 92 is the generally accepted age around here to just make everyone else conform to however it is you do things.  Plenty of 65-year-olds act that way, but if I were to change the accepted age to 65 then the pre-elderly set would be insulted that I'm the one that said they can't change.  So, 92-year-olds off the hook, everyone else get with the program!

Ipad: Consuming the News with Flipboard, Pulse News, and Evernote

There are plenty of people who consume my weekly media diet before breakfast on Monday.  Whether my consumption level is good or bad and what the consumption of news media is good for anyway will be addressed in a future post.  This post is dedicated to describing what my current consumption is.

What is is an awful lot and some of it is awfully expensive.  I would be toast without a plan.  On the iPad, you can make a web shortcut show up as a button right next to your applications.*  This allows you to order your buttons in a way that organizes your consumption.  Mine start with what I consume multiple times a day, through my once a days, and into my occassionals.

Central to my plan is Twitter feed into Flipboard, both free (click on the screenshot above to see).  Where do you get your news?  Local newspapers, local TV stations, industry specific news?  Set up a twitter account and link in their feeds.  Here is what I follow, if you're interested.  Flipboard will also allow you to add some other "channels" (up to 18 total) including some pre-selected multi-streams such as "Lifestyle" that pulls from Apartment Therapy, Whole Living, bon Appetit and others.  You can also pull in your Facebook and Flickr feeds, and others.  Click on an article beginning and it takes you to the entire article in Flipboard.  Swipe up and you go to the webpage.  If desired, go over to the web browser to look at that page further.  And then go back Flipboard and it has saved your space.  For serious Twitter maniacs I have to note that it can be about an hour behind on your Twitter feed.

One of the problems with Twitter, Flipboard and the rest are lack of context.  So I also have buttons for a local TV station website and the two local newspapers. (Remember, you cannot get Kindle newspapers on the iPad.)  International newspapers such as the New Zealand Herald and the FP News (Canada) have free apps and can provide some perspective.

Context is the one thing you can buy.  Context has value.  How much value in dollars, I am not certain.  I currently subscribe to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal on the iPad.  Some other options that I think would present similar value are The Economist and the Financial Times.

There are a few other apps I have found which give you some daily "stuff" (all free):

• Discover is an app that provides a visually attractive front-end to Wikipedia.  Every day it posts the random Wikipedia entry of the day.
• MyCongress provides the recent news references, YouTube postings and Twitter feed of the congress people you select (it helps you find yours using your zip code).
• Life provides the top photos of the week. (There is a different paid app for the magazine).

For philosophy and work there are (all free):

• Artsandlettersdaily.com, web link.  The feed just doesn't have the same effect.
• AMA News, web link
• Science Daily, web link
• NEJM App (weekly postings for free)
• Medscape (news and drug database)

For blogs I follow, I have gone with Pulse News, a free app which does much of what Flipboard does only differently.  Flipboard does it better, except for blogs.  Both pull in your selected blogs from your Google Reader account.  Flipboard then shows the posts in time order.  In contrast, Pulse keeps each blog in context on it's own row and allows 60 different blogs to be listed, 12 per page on five pages (compared to Flipboard's 18 channels).  Here's a screenshot:

Just like with Flipboard, you can click on an item to open a full view or go to the original webpage, or go out to Safari to view the webpage.

The final part of my media plan is Evernote, used for two purposes.  First is as a media trail.  If I don't save what I read, I will never ever find it again.  Anything that captures my attention goes into Evernote.  First, I go to the original article (in Flipboard this requires going into the article and then swiping up or clicking on the go to article link, or sometimes copying the link to Safari).  If there is a printable version, I select that.  Then I copy the article.  This is usually done by touching the blank space at the top of the page, but sometimes you have to select the text you want to copy.  Touch "copy".  Then email the article to Evernote, and paste the copy into it.

The second use for Evernote is read-it-later.  I could have all those articles go to different places (you just add the pound sign and the name of the folder to the email title), but I send them all into one inbox and sort them out later.  I keep a folder for articles that I would like to read when I have time to concentrate.  Instapaper is another way to do that and may even be better, I just haven't gotten into it.

I use the above two items for anything I read on paper also, using my scanner to put the articles into Evernote.

And that's my media consumption plan.  What is yours?  What are your tips?

 ----

*In Safari, click on the arrow to the left of the web address and select "add to home screen".

iPad: Typing on Glass

We're going to be typing on glass a lot more in the future.  Acer has just released a dual-screen laptop which, though it has a lot of shortcomings, is a sign of the possibilities.

What's so great about typing on on glass?  First, it removes the root of many computer failures.  If you've ever tried to limp along with a laptop that was fine except for that one stuck key, you know the problem.  It is silly that a several thousand dollar machine can be felled by a spring.  Next, it's hygienic.  Keyboards are gross.  Last, it is easily reconfigurable.  On the iPad you can load several different keyboards and easily switch between them.  Apple doesn't have to manufacture a differently keyboarded device for every culture.  They don't currently have a mathematical keyboard that you can bring up, but that's a possibility and some of the calculator apps use the app part of the screen plus the text keyboard to effect the same thing.  We haven't even begun to see where the glass keyboard can go.

The iPad glass keyboard works a little differently from a standard touch keyboard.  I've seen some complaints on app reviews that weren't about the app at all but rather about not knowing how to use the keyboard.  First, if you do use more that one typing method or are used to a keyboard from another culture, go ahead and load up that keyboard.  A world button will appear next to the space bar which makes it easy to switch between keyboards.  This is fantastic for language learners who can now learn on the proper keyboard for their language.

The keyboard guesses when you want to capitalize and there will be a little blue in the shift key.  If you don't want to capitalize, just touch it take that off.  If you want caplock, press the shift key twice.  The keyboard is a one key at a time device.  This is like your smartphone: you press shift, then you press the letter; you don't have to hold them together.  There are two other things hiding on the main keyboard: if you hold the comma key, you get a foot mark (commonly used for an apostrophe in quick typing such as notes or email).  If you hold the period key, you get an inch mark (commonly used for a quote mark in those situations).  For accent marks, hold the key and then slide your finger over the accented letter that pops up.  For example, if you hold the "e" key on the United States keyboard, you get eight accent choices.

Now click the key to go to the number and symbols board.  There are some things hidden here too: 

• Holding the n-dash key gets you some choices, including an m-dash.
• Hold zero to get a degree.
• Hold $ to get other currency symbols.
• Hold & to get the section sign.
• Hold the period to get ellipses.
• Hold the question mark or the exclamation mark to get the inverted symbols.
• The apostrophe and the quote mark get you several choices, including real apostrophe and quote marks.
• On this keyboard there is a symbol key to get you further symbols.

 The spell-check on the iPad does learn, but until it learns it is a bit dictatorial.  Clicking the tiny "x" to cancel a spelling correction does not always work for me.  Backspacing when a spelling correction appears generally cancels the correction.  Sometimes that doesn't work out and the last solution is that the third time you re-type a word it will not be corrected.  Spell-check can also be used to your advantage: if it's got the correct work, press space and move on.

Safari on iPad has it's limitations, and one of them is that typing windows don't lengthen as you type.  This is a problem in Facebook, for example.  The solution is to type what needs typing on the notepad, and then copy-and-paste it back into the webpage where you want it to stay.

Lastly, the iPad has a privacy problem.  Since you generally use it flat or at a slight angle, it is visible to everyone.  Since iPads are not adopted into our culture yet, a lot of people stare.  I keep my diary on my iPad, so this is an extra problem.  Awesome Note allows you to control the font size so that you can scale it down to where you can barely read it from your seat, and it would take some effort for someone to read it walking by.  Unfortunately, none of the other programs that I use for typing allow control of font size.

You can use a bluetooth keyboard with the iPad.  I bought one, but I just don't use it.  I guess if there was some sustained amount of typing I wanted to do I might use it, especially if I were in a situation where touch typing were more crucial, such as typing notes at a meeting or in-person lecture.  As it is, my spacial awareness is good enough to type on glass in all the situations that I currently encounter.  It took about four weeks to develop that spacial awareness in my fingers, and I was already a fairly solid touch-typer at 40+ wpm.

And that's everything I know about typing on glass.  If you've got some other tips, please post them!

iPad Series: Life Management with Awesome Note, Evernote and More

Awesome Note is a visually stimulating full-service action item and non-standardized calendar application which I use to manage my life.  If you snuck a peak at my iPad at any time of the day, this is what you would most likely see on the screen.

First, let's talk about what Awesome Note doesn't do.  It doesn't integrate with other calendar applications using the calDEV standard (things like Google Calendar, Outlook, etc.).  The reason I have not selected a calDEV application is because the only cloud sync calendar available for free* is Google Calendar, and Google Calendar is in beta.  It is not reliable.  Put in a repeating appointment on Tuesdays and have it show up on Wednesday or put in an item at 5PM and have it show up at 6PM; these are things which have happened to me.

In return for giving up calDAV (which was going to have problems no matter what), what I get is full integration with Evernote.  This allows me to be very close to the most important thing in electronic document management: having a Single Source of the Truth.  By searching in Evernote, I can find everything else I have saved into Evernote in addition to what is in Awesome Note.  If you have been meticulous about keeping everything in Evernote (and I have been!), this gives you one place to find every document and idea you have recorded about any subject.  This is Fortune 500 level information management, and it is now available to every individual with $5.00 a month to spend on Evernote.  Awesome Note just takes that information and makes it even more useful and way more awesome looking.  Here is how the Awesome Note data looks in Evernote (my chicken-scratch privacy marks make it look even uglier than the ugly that it is):

     

AwesomeNote isn't the only iPad app for action items that integrates with Evernote, but it is the one which meets my needs the best.  I was looking for something simple.  Because of how Awesome Note presents information, it is the easiest to use if you don't want to create an indivdual item for each and every action.  For most projects, I create just one note with the Next Action as the name of the note.  The rest of the project is listed in the note itself.  If I have a complex project that I would like to calendar out, I can make a folder for my project and divide up my actions into individual notes.  By creating contexts and tagging the note (e.g., @errands) and using the search function on Awesome Note, I have a fully functioning Getting Things Done system.**

As a calendar***, Awesome Note allows a created date, a due date, and an alarm.  The items shows up in calendar view on the created date if there is no due date (for example, meeting notes or a to do without a due date set) or if it is an action with a due date it shows up on the due date.  When you open the list for the folder and sort it by date, the dated items show up first, then the undated actions, and the completed actions at the end (a lot of actions I just delete rather than mark completed, others can be group-searched in Evernote and moved into an archive folder in Evernote periodically).  The date requires a time, which means that Awesome Note can be used as a fully functioning daily agenda calendar.  The downside to this is that you have to put in a time even if you don't know it.  If it is an event where the time was in question, I tend to write something about the time inside the note so that I know that I truly have the event time (or don't).  Also, only a start time is provided; if you want an end time you have to write it into the note.  Awesome Note does allow for repeating appointments, though you have to set them up in the form of a task and only the current iteration shows up on the calendar.  I have made it a practice to set the items as a calendar and just re-schedule my repeating appointments during my weekly review.

You can create and edit items in Evernote and sync the edits back to Awesome Note.  I add Evernote items (for example, scanned event fliers or saved emails that I want to turn into calendar items) to the Awesome Note "in box" to prompt me to format and organize them in Awesome Note the next time I sync.  This also means that if you sync regularly your Awesome Note information is available everywhere and on every device simply by looking in Evernote.

Awesome Note also makes a wonderful diary or even a scrapbook.  I use Olive Tree for my daily Bible reading, which has a verse selector allowing the reader to easily bring Bible verses over to my Awesome Note diary.  Another user reports using it to keep photo journals for her small children. You can include items such as web clipping and photographs in notes.  Check out the Awesome Note web site for some screen shots.  You can also lock individual folders for added privacy (downside: notes in locked folders will not show up in all notes).

In Awesome Note, you can set the color of each folder and how the notes look and how they are ordered.  Each folder retains its settings and looks the same the next time you open it.  You can also set a default template note for each folder, and a default view for the folder.  Above is how I have set up my standard All Notes view.  Most of the day, this is what I'm looking at on my iPad.  Below are a couple of other folder views.

   

I usually use the longways view because it maximizes the folder and item lists that can be seen.  Turn the iPad sideways and you can see indivdual notes next to the note list for a folder.  This is convenient for flipping through the notes quickly.

 

Or in the previous orientation the note just opens over the list.

 

Awesome Note doesn't have a PC or Mac package, but you can edit the notes in Evernote and sync them back into Awesome Note.  You can also create notes in Evernote inside the Awesome Note folders and they will show up in Awesome Note after you sync.

There are three other programs I use to round out my life management system:

• iThoughtsHD.  I never was a mindmapping person before, but the mindmap is a perfect fit with the iPad.  iThoughts exports in its format, into a standard mindmap format, into PDF, and into text outline.  It syncs with Box.net (free).  It is great for high-level "40,000 ft" life planning.  Or low level planning: I have my packing list on a mind map.
• BugMe!  I've used BugMe since the days of Palm Pilots.  It is great for short-term notes.  For example: You are writing an email and get a call which gives you an action item for immediately after the email.  You don't want to forget, so you make a quick BugMe note and maybe set a five minute reminder.
• Timer+.  Allows you to see multiple countdown timers.  Think Thanksgiving dinner prep.

And there you have it: the life of loafingcactus on the iPad! 

-----

*There are rumors that Apple's me.com may be free by the end of 2011. I have no information or opinion about the validity of those rumors.

**After I wrote this post Awesome Note added tags and progress status options.  The tags do not sync into Evernote tags.  I see this as a feature because I don't want these tags mucking up my Evernote tags, but other GTD users probably will not agree.  You can still search by tag in Evernote because the tag name is in the note.  They also added view selections such as "Today" inside a list without the calendar present on the screen.  This takes the GTD functionality to an entirely new level.

**The calendar builds when you open it.  So if you then change items under the calendar, you won't see the changes on the calendar until you close and re-open it (click the calendar button twice).

Updated: Going Paperless

This is going to be a nuts-and-bolts about how I've gone paperless in my house.  That's right, except for a couple of items that I'm required to keep for three years on paper for taxes per my employer (but not per the IRS as best as I understand the regulations; check with your tax specialist because the government is doing a lot to help everyone go paperless) I have not created a single file folder in my house since I went paperless.  I have two file cabinets, one that I am working on scanning back and emptying and the other that is full of genealogy originals that will be kept on paper forever and ever amen.

Going paperless has required three main tools.  The first is Evernote.  The paid version is what you need and it is only $5.00/month.  Evernote does something different from what a file back-up and sharing system like Box does or what a note organizing system like Microsoft OneNote does, although both programs are essential to managing my digital life, as is a photo organizing cloud system (I use Flickr).  At this point I'm almost entirely in the "cloud."  My laptop is a box; if it got run over by a truck I could grab another laptop and be ready to go.

Evernote has a "we're not responsible" tone (frequently those exact words) to their error/operating messages and I have experienced the same in my two interactions with their customer service (the email thread reads like a farce, I might have to post it someday), but they appear to have done a good job handling a server failure that occurred in the late summer of 2010 so I wouldn't write off their corporate culture just yet.  But don't trust that they will help you when you need help either.  Also they are still a baby-venture and there's nothing to guarantee their success.  However, their desktop program allows you to completely copy your data onto a local drive (while still having it available across other computers, a web login, your smart phone and your ipad) so there is no chance your data can go down with Evernote.  You'll be able to use it locally on Evernote forever or move it to another system at your leisure.

The second tool is the Canon P-150 "scan-tini" scanner (also available for Mac).  I did a lot of comparison shopping and I am very happy with my choice.  This scanner is powered entirely through your USB connection, with a second USB-to-power connecter or AC adabtor if you need extra power.  The extra power really speeds things up for 600 dpi double-sided, but since you shouldn't be scanning at that high of a resolution for routine document storage the one USB connector does what you need 99% of the time.  This is the ultra-portable answer; the only thing that would make it better would be if I could scan directly into an ipad.  If you have to save your paper to go back to a central location then you are not paperless; a portable solution is required!

I also had a Magic Wand stick scanner.  This has been replaced with a better smart phone camera and JotNot.  JotNot is more that able to turn full-size journal pages into readable PDFs.

The third essential a second screen.  Being paperless means more screens.  For example, you may go through your paper bills in a stack next to your computer screen with the financial management program of your choice up.  You can stack and arrange windows to make this work, or you can just have Evernote up on that second screen while you're in your financial management program on your first screen.  Ditto for writing a research paper (in that case, for me, it is OneNote up on that second screen too) or any other activity that used to involve a stack of paper next to the computer.  Depending on what programs you are using, the iPad may be effective as that second screen, either on it's own or using one of the applications which make it act as a screen extension on your computer.

Now you are ready to go paperless!  You'll be able to set up a scanning folder on your computer to be automatically emptied into Evernote.  You want to set up as few folders as needed and as few tags as needed.  Don't set up folders or tags for things you can search for!  You need to set up "an "Inbox" folder where all your scans land.  My folder is called "aaa" so it will always be at the top.  Aside from that I just have a folder "library" for publically available items that I feel comfortable sharing with close members of my family and folder "history" for everything else.  Eventually when my hard drive fills up "history" could be split, backed up, and removed from my harddrive (it would still be searchable on the web tool). I will probably have to put my local copy onto an external hard disk as it gets larger.  The web tool is almost to the point where one doesn't necessarily need to the local copy, except that the data is so important I don't think I would do without.  However, one could operate on the web tool primarily and just drag out the hard drive to update the back up periodically.

Let's sort your mail.  Your mail probably has:
-Fliers and newsletters.  Mark down any action items and scan and shred.  If you really want to keep your newsletter around to read, mark it "scanned" so you know you can throw it away after you scan it.
-Bills.  Scan and shred and tag "pay".  If relevant, also tag "taxes" (you don't have to tag the year because it saved the year you scanned it... at the turn of the year you can just adjust that to make it land in the right year).  Now you have a file you can go through when you do your electronic bill pay (you do electronic bill pay, right?).  Sometimes a few stubs and envelopes have to be saved for paper checks.  Since I have so little paper, I just mark them "scanned" and put them in a desk drawer.  When I pay the bills I change their tag to "paid."
-Catalogs.  They probably have a website?  Scan the page with your customer number and the website info and put in the recycling.
-Magazines and newspapers.  As I read them I either rip out the articles I want to scan or log-in to download the articles to Evernote (much smaller files).  For magazines that have a lot I might want to find again I just rip out the table-of-contents and scan that.  I can always find the article again in a library if I truly want it.

Remember that you do not need to tag this stuff!  If you want to find the article about the Grand Canyon again, you're just going to search for "Grand Canyon".

What about your own notes?  I used to take a lot of notes on paper while I'm reading and I'm a huge journal-keeper (though now more likely on the iPad than on paper).  I keep these notes for as long as they are immediately relevant, then scan and shred.  Slowly I'm going back through my history and catching up.  That 50 pound box of childhood journals I've been lugging around since I was 18?  Someday it will scanned and shredded.  Your printing will be searchable; your handwriting might be searchable.  I print keywords in the margins.

Their are a few other inputs into Evernote:
-You can type directly into Evernote on your computer, the website, or smartphone.
-You can drag and drop anything from your computer (although only supported items will be searchable, and almost everything is supported).
-You will get an email address that allows you to email into Evernote.  I used to read my email on my blackberry and then sort it _again_ on my desktop.  Now I read on my blackberry iPad and forward anything that requires more attention or needs to be saved to my history to my Evernote inbox.  You can also use email to save journal thoughts, action items, whatever you need.
-You can save from Microsoft Outlook directly into Evernote.
-You can forward or write tweets to Evernote.
-On a computer with the desktop client, you can left-click on any website and forward it to Evernote. (Go to the "print" version of the page if possible.)
-You can send pictures from your smartphone or iPad.  For example, you can take a picture of a flier and it will be searchable in Evernote.  I sometimes photograph small newspaper articles or at the bookstore I'll photograph books that interest me.
-You can send a voice-to-text message to Evernote.  I think it's 5 per month that are free; then you need a paid account.  This is one of the many vendor add-ins available in the Evernote "Trunk."

The Evernote upload limit has been enlarged can be a little restricting.  You can save literally thousands of websites and other text items, but I hit the scanning limit early in the month.  300pdi lets you save 10s or 100s more items than 600pdi will allow.  If one did happen to hit the limit, Evernote allows you to save your overage (or stuff you just don't want to put on the web) in a local-only folder, but it's not backed up.  I have scanned as much as possible working on backlog and have not been able to exceed the new limit.

----------------

Originally posted 19 September 2010.
Updated 21 May 2011.

eReader Addendum: Paper Books

The question remains what to do with the inevitable paper book that remains?

One could gullitine (about $1.50 at Kinkos) and scan books for ones own use.  The legalities of this are iffy, apparently.  You would think it is fair use, just like making a tape or an electronic version of a CD that you own, but some people say no.  This is a legal issue that needs to mature.  In any case, retaining the book cover as proof of ownership and of destruction seems prudent.  Japan, in contrast, has made it very clear that you can use a book you own any way you like, and I am told that there are more than 40 companies in Japan in the business of taking in your entire library and giving you back electronic files.  These companies also exist in the USA; Blue Leaf is one.  However, this is expensive: a review of the process posted on TeleRead paid almost $30.00 for one book.

One could also just refuse paper.  I have to admit, that if I have no strong reason for reading a particular book and it isn't available electronically, I don't bother pursuing it.  I feel resentful of paper books I own which are available electronically: how decadent is it to just buy the electronic version when it comes reading time?

However, at the end of the day, there are books which are important to my reading schedule and are only available on paper.  I can see cases where I won't be willing to destroy them for the scanner and where it isn't worthwhile to send them away to Blue Leaf, so what to do?  At first I kept my paper notebook for my notes on paper books.  However, I quickly found that it is easy to hold the book open with the top of the iPad while making my notes in Evernote, so away with the paper notebook.  And, frankly, it is still easier to carry that one paper book than the pile of them which was required before.