2009: Products I Can’t Live Without

Inspired by TechCrunch I have put together my own “can’t do without” list as we head into 2009.  This of course skips over all the boring by necessary productivity software (Office, Visual Studio etc).
The following is my list of technology products that I use on a daily basis:

• Blackberry Bold 9000
• Facebook
• FeedDemon
• Flickr
• Google Search
• TweetDeck
• Twitter
• TwitterBerry
• Typepad
• Wikipedia

BlackBerry Bold – I have tried a lot of mobile devices and the BB Bold is the one I have liked best so far.  I would not use another Windows Mobile device at this point, some major improvements would have to be made before I ever touch one of these again.  In saying that, the BB Bold has crashed quite frequently but I have just updated the firmware which apparently fixes this – here’s hoping.

Facebook – I had a Facebook account for years before I started really using it.  It wasn’t until after a lot of non techie friends signed up that I really used it and now it is a good way to stay in touch with people who are all around the planet.

FeedDemon – I think I must be one of the few people still using this instead of Google Reader.  I haven’t actually taken the time to look at Google Reader yet.  Shame on me I know.  Feed Demon is what I monitor all feeds in.  Works ok but sucks memory up from time to time.

Flickr – Have a pro account and keep a copy of all my photos here.  Mix public and private for everyone, family and friends.

Google Search – What can I say, I Google things probably 50 times a day on average.

TweetDeck – This isn’t as good as what it could/should be but the interface is better than what comes natively with Twitter.  Real time tweets stop me having to hit the refresh button constantly and groups allows some sort of order to be applied.

Twitter – It took me about a year to get into Twitter.  I now see a clear distinction between blogging and micro-blogging and Twitter is now the only place to micro-blog.

TwitterBerry – A lot can happen on Twitter in a short space of time, the only possible way to stay up to date is to keep an eye on things regardless of where you are.  TwitterBerry allows me to do this from the Blackberry.

Typepad – For some reason I chose Typepad as my blogging platform in 2002 and I have used this for all my blogs since.  Typepad hosts everything and allows me complete control over layout, does everything I need and I am very happy with it.  Has an API so I even integrate some of the blogs with twitter.

Wikipedia – I have a pretty specific area of knowledge which means I need to look other things up, often.  Regularly I note that when I Google something if there is a Wikipedia link for what I am searching for I go straight to that.  Also more often I am searching directly on Wikipedia rather than Googling.  Wikipedia is great.

And that’s it.  I will do this list next year and see how much stuff changes.

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