Ideas from Mark Stout

This is a big deal.  Evernote has reached two million users . Congratulations.  My only question is, why isn't everyone using it?

Today's Family Tech column is about organizing your technology for a better New Year . And my two pre-Christmas columns, published in the paper, are now also on-line.   Technology Gifts , and Gifts that can be delivered on-line (good year around when you almost forget someone's birthday). Links mentioned in columns are available here .

If you received a new computer for Christmas, here are a few tips on setting it up to be productive from a recent blog post.

A new version of the iPhone Evernote client was released yesterday.  The new version sports off line caching for all users, and offline notebooks for Premium Users and a host of other features.    Just a bit ago, Evernote released their Android client. Too bad I have neither, but joy to those of you that have one or the other.

I grew up east of Lake Erie, in a town that received awesome amounts of lake effect snow.  Awesome at least to a six year old when you struggle through chest high snow. The one place you could walk safely on recently snowed upon side walks was in front of one storefront down town.  Its sidewalks were at most wet, never icy, and never with snow.  And no one ever shoveled them. The storefront was the corporate headquarters for a small local Natural Gas company.  When you can pass your energy costs to your customers, you can afford to have hot water pipes right below your sidewalk.  The warm sidewalks melted snow on contact. So many years later, I'm living in an area forecasted to received as much as 24 inches of snow tomorrow.  Today I was in Lowe's and people were snagging up shovels, salt and snow blowers. Why do we have the same snow removal solutions in my son's teen years we had in mine?  Think about it.  He has access to communications...

   Evernote has released their client for Android phones.   TechCrunch in a post today first had the news.  It is available for download now . I so want an Android phone.  And Evernote's blog now has word of it.

Getting a new computer for Christmas or anytime, gift or not, is like buying a car with some assembly required. You really can't just fire it up, and take off.  There are a host of irritating little jobs you need to do before that new computer is truly useful About once a year it seems, someone here gets a new computer.  Since there are three of us, that's about right.  Rotating your computer every three to four years isn't extravagant, especially for the two here who carry laptops out into the world--that's rough on a machine. My son and wife truly want the power up and go experience from a new computer, so I've gotten rather used to prepping a new computer.  If you are giving a new computer as a gift, perhaps my little workflow can help you. Note : This is going to assume a Windows 7 laptop with wi-fi as an example PC. Take Notes Before you even take it out of the box, open up either a paper notebook, or if you have another computer close by, open up...