I love my Palm Pre, and when I read about, and watch the videos about the TouchPad, I get really excited.  Then, I stop and ask myself “why?”  My Windows 7 HP dv4 laptop has “cards that slide” through Aero.  My full calendar and email via Outlook. (And, let’s not forget Foresight! )  I have full social media experiences through my browser or, I’m sure if I wanted to download something from the web.  I have “Facetime” via Skype (which I frequently do to other Pad owners).  So, why do I still gravitate back to the TouchPad, and even my Pre?  It’s the “always on” factor.

I’ve been trying to leave my laptop in “on mode” by letting it sleep or hibernate when I’m done – instead of turning it off.  But, when I pick it up (though, it’s a TON better in Windows 7 than it was in previous versions), you have to wait a few seconds, log in, and let Windows re-establish its self.  Sometimes, Windows doesn’t manage to completely re-establish itself self.  Sometimes, I have no sound – requiring a reboot or a re-sleep.  Sometime it just doesn’t act right, again, requiring a reboot.  With my Pre, I press “on” and I’m ready to go – reading the text that just came in, or, heading right to the destination I want.  It wouldn’t hurt my feelings if I could have this same experience in a larger form – hence the TouchPad.  And, the TouchPad boasts integration to my phone – someday, that is.  That’s a real downer at the moment; not knowing when a Pre 3 will come, and if it will come to Sprint.  I think this integration is a key feature for HP / Palm which has real appeal and can take personal productivity to a new level.

Microsoft, listen up – want to stay competitive in today’s world?  Make Windows and my laptop “instant on.”  Yeah, I know you don’t have control over hardware consistency, as well as what users might load on it, but that’s the gauntlet the world has thrown down for you.  Meet that challenge, and you have a huge chance of becoming relevant again.  You are relevant now in that everyone uses (okay, you Mac people, “a lot of people use”) Windows, but, you are not a part of the conversations and buzz of today.

HP / Palm, listen up – very happy that you are finally bringing out products – but you have to speed things up.  Get the Pre 3 out, on multiple carriers (Sprint first, please! ), so you can boost the slight buzz you have now.  You’ve got “the right stuff;” you now need to let it fly.

I finally wrapped up President George W. Bush’s book, Decision Points.  I say “finally” as I am, unfortunately, a slow reader.  Nevertheless, I loved this book every time I picked it up as I always got something out of it.  One of the biggest things I learned about President Bush (who I will affectionately refer to as “W”), is that he is an incredibly smart man.  I have always believed that W had to be a smart guy – he has an MBA so I knew there was no way he was the “dummy” popular public perception wanted you to believe.  “Popular” perception can often times be wrong, as the case here.  W is very thoughtful, a deep thinker, and as the book shows can come up with sharp, articulated plans based on his, and his alone, ultimate decisions.

Some other takeaway’s I got from this book that I know will bolster me personally include:

1) Listen to all the angles / seek advice from trusted advisors - W is not a “Lone Cowboy.”  He worked hard to build relationships with people he knew he could trust.

2) Make a Plan – He collected all the input he could from people he trusted and always put together a plan.  W purposely titled the book “Decision Points” because he specifically collected all the times he was faced with issues and methodically showed you how he came to a decision.  These decisions always came with a plan.

3) Execute – W did not just make up plans and walk away.  He put people in charge of these plans and followed up with them to assure progress was made.  If the plan needed to be revised, it did not bother him in the least; it didn’t bruise his ego or pride – he just wanted to get the job done.

“Didn’t bruise his ego or pride” is a great way to close.  W is a very humble man.  Deep in his Faith, he shows very clearly that he took every decision very personally, giving credit to the people on the team when things work, and taking full responsibility, as well as very personally, when they didn’t.  He cares greatly about the people who serve in the military and grieves when one is lost.  I have always loved W, but have a full new respect for him after reading this book.  This book will really inspire the reader about the true way to get things done.

SpenceSmith

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(Written via notes capured in Notes by Inglorious Apps. Posted via Poster by Gabriele Nizzoli – all on my Palm Pre. Please excuse any brevity, terseness or type-o’s. Thank You!)

http://michaelhyatt.com/what-to-do-when-you-are-forced-to-wait.html

(Photo Credit: Me.  When I see my daughter ride and see the smile on her face; you can see her passion!)

While traveling this week, I had a “small world” experience and ran into a good friend whom I had not talked to in a few weeks.  I had just been thinking about him and it was a real boost to see him.  We got to chat about life, family, jobs, things we’d like to invent – it was really energizing for me.  One thing that our conversation centered on was being passionate about what you do in life.  It may seem like a “no duh” type thing, but it is so easy to get tied up in the day to day rat race and not take time out to think about this.

It really got me thinking.

Are you passionate about what you are doing?  Have you connected with someone recently who has given you a boost?  Critical things to think about as we kick off a new year.

Letting Go

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking; wishing I had more time to sit and reflect on what I did this year and what I want to do next year.  I’m actually slightly stressed about the fact that it won’t happen.  So, funny; as I was trying to find a spot in OneNote to do some of thinking on this subject for five minutes, I ran across this thought I wrote down in 2009 that I planned to blog about someday:

Things are never finished, so, let them go.

I’m sure this stems from other posts I’ve written where I know, deep down, that I need to do this.  My favorite Bible verse affirms this:

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.”  Matthew 6:34 (NKJV)

Life Planning

If you do want to do some planning, and you are looking for a guide, Michael Hyatt has a great post and document that will help. 

Make it a Great New Year

I hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday, a great New Year’s and an amazing New Year!

What is your long term focus?

What is your short term focus that will let you get there?

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(Written via notes capured in Notes by Inglorious Apps. Posted via Poster by Gabriele Nizzoli – all on my Palm Pre. Please excuse any brevity, terseness or type-o’s. Thank You!)

As I sit here on the road, I’m pushing the Pre to it’s limits.  In addition, I’m pondering a piece of blog feedback I received about talking more about the Pre “extending the brain,” and the best answer I’ve come up with is, well, two possibilities: Life Comes Fast, Don’t Miss a Thing – thanks Palm – or, a better fit that just struck me – Relaxed Productivity!

The Pre truly lets me do what I want to do, most of the time, when I want – short of “Sorry – Too Many Cards!” or, holy cow, I just had a call come in, (a good thing), I answered it and all I could hear was myself in my ear buds (a bad thing!)  So, here is some random thoughts via a post that started as a rant, shows some love, and ends up with a final thought (Plea?) for Palm.

* Video
I love the quality of the video, as well as the share options (Facebook, You Tube, etc.). Sometimes, completing an upload seems for not, resulting in errors until I reboot.
(Well, side note, I thought the Facebook upload was going to fail, but it pulled through. So I’m batting .500)

Many times, the audio gets out of sync from the video.

* Life Moves Fast
I love notifications. (Love, love, love!) They let me keep on top of everything (alarms, texts, Facebook and Twitter if I want to) and truly makes sure I don’t miss a thing.

* Moving Backwards
Why did the calendar loose features moving from PalmOS to WebOS?

- The monthly calendar is useless on WebOS. On PalmOS, I could look at it and quickly identify through colors, categories and symbols what was happening through the month. You can’t do such on the Pre.

- Reminder options are limited.

- Seeing meeting attendees is neat. (I can’t remember if you could see those on PalmOS.) However, you can’t use the feature to invite someone to a meeting via the Pre.

- I LOVE the calender collapsing the freetime space – that is a great, great feature.

* Moving
I love being able to listen to Pandora, write this post, surf face book, review and post videos (when they upload) and im / text all real time. I can move from app to app seamlesly.  NORMALLY, I can answer calls! (Fail! – as my teenagers say.)

* Innovation
(Not sure if that is the right section title.) So, I ran across a client today with a Pre. I got about the same reaction out of him as I do most. Mixed to negative. The Pre doesn’t seem to “wow” him as much as it does me (for some of the reasons I chat about above). I get a much different reaction from iPhone users. This coupled with the fact that Palm has only brought out the Pre with really one or two minor OS updates in the same time Apple brought out the 3G, Multi-Tasking OS (though not as slick as WebOS), 4G and the iPad, makes me say that Palm had better get it in gear. Life IS moving fast, and I hate to see them miss the thing – a thing called survival.

(Side Note: Pasting from Notes to Poster lost my extra CR LF that I use for breaks between paragraphs. I think I got them all put back in here.)

Untitled - By Me

A short while back, I had asked for some feedback and direction.  From this, I received several replies; thank you so much!  Here is one of those replies:

“I’ve been using PDAs since the mid ’90s, and I’m interested in using them to extend my brain — productivity, in other words.  Overall, there’s been little focus on this since the rush for communication.   I’d love to hear your thoughts on what works, and what doesn’t work, under webOS.”

(Thanks, Doug, for the response!  Doug’s product looks like a great productiviy product for the Palm Pre.  I haven’t tried it yet, but plan to do so.)

I think this is a great idea and I will work on a post about this.  In the meantime, I wanted to talk a little more about a particular subject; one who’s name Doug actually wrote above – Focus.

I’ve alluded to it, and have talked about it directly in a couple of posts.  I sincerely think focus is a huge area one has to work on to increase personal productivity in order to accomplish goals, and finally handle everything life throws at you in a relaxed manner.

Side Note: Doug, I think the Palm Pre & WebOS helps with this tremendously by letting you take things in stride, not get interrupted and maintain focus.

Yesterday was Independents Day (I hope you had a GREAT day).  Focus was surely a gigantic necessity in forming our country.  I’m picking up this book and reading it to see how the Founding Fathers kept their focus and accomplished such a great task.