Reality is Perception

As with the other Gadgets and Lifestyles posts, I like to share how I’m using technology in hopes that other people can understand them easier, and to hear from others more tech-advanced than me on how to get more out of them.

For the longest time, I resisted using RSS feeds.  I didn’t understand them, it seemed annoying everyone trying to get me to “subscribe”, and I just never felt like there was anything with it that would be useful to me.  I didn’t even get the name: RSS.  It means “Really Simple Syndication”, but what does that mean to me?

Then, as I got more into the different Google tools, I saw the Google Reader (Google’s tool they’ve created to assist you in reading different RSS feeds).  So I said, OK, I’ll subscribe to one feed and see how it looks and if it’s something I could use.  I went to one of the blogs that I liked to read, looked for the RSS symbol and clicked on it, then chose Google Reader as the subscribing tool.  (Try it here on my blog with the RSS symbol on the top right of this page!)

Once I subscribed to the post, I went to Google Reader (www.google.com/reader), and I was able to look through the blog post titles and tell really quickly whether I wanted to read them or not.  I added a couple more blogs that I was interested in, including my own blog, and started to have a list of blogs that I was usually interested in what they posted.  In the mornings, I started looking at Google Reader on my iPhone on the bus on the way to work, and it suddenly hit me.  This is the same thing I do with MSBNC mobile, Crain’s mobile and other news sites!

I realized that what I had created was a news site that had sections (blogs) of all my favorite topics, and each morning I can skim the headlines to see which articles I want to read!  No more having to go to several different places to read the morning news, when I could just use Google Reader and get it all in one place!  One additional trick is that most news sites are starting to have RSS feeds of their news articles as well, so you can have your blog posts, press news and anything really, since there are starting to be as many blogs as there are websites nowdays.

There are many different RSS Readers out there, Google Reader is only one of them.  However, from the several that I’ve reviewed personally, Google Reader was the easiest and most consistent when switching from iPhone to desktop and back.  Some additional features available with Google Reader include Sharing, Starring, and several other share functions I haven’t used yet.

“Sharing” posts in Google Reader make the articles available in a list that others can see if they’re “following” your Reader account.

“Starring” posts in Google Reader makes them available in a special STARRED list you can access in one list (in case you want to come back to it later) without having to go to the individual source and try to find the special post again.

There are social networking features in Google Reader as well, just like other networking sites like Facebook, etc.  You can search for your friends by email, etc.  You can then see your friends’ shared posts under the “People you follow” section.

Google is constantly updating their sharing functionality, especially with social networking like Twitter and Facebook.  With the existing functionality pretty cumbersome to use, I’m definitely looking forward to some easier options.  Fortunately, emailing the post is very simple, but as we know, that’s not really “sharing” in the social sense we’re used to today.

Are you using RSS readers?  Which one do you think is the best?  Does it have great social networking sharing features?

Go try Google Reader at www.google.com/reader

My friend G and I have talked about this before, but never have really gotten it off the ground and had people share, so here we go…

Since iPhones are so customized and usually very personal, especially in my case since it’s my “other relationship”, let’s answer the question:

What’s on YOUR iPhone?

The top row contains my most frequently used apps:
- Mail and Calendar - for personal and work (Exchange) syncing.
- The Weather Channel - in the mornings.
- Buster - the killer app for the Chicago Transit Authority Bus GPS statuses.

The second row contains apps that I need in a hurry!:
- GoogleMaps - for obvious reasons, especially traffic updates while driving/riding somewhere! Very accurate!
- FourSquare - to throw a quick shout-out to wherever I am and great things about the place.
- Apartments.com – GPS while riding around to check out neighborhoods and find apt listings/prices, etc.
- Camera - for those award-winning one-of-a-kind moments..

The third row contains my “Staying Connected” apps:
- TweetDeck - even though it still has some flaws, it’s still the best Twitter app around IMHO.
- Facebook - obvious – the real-time, online Days of Our Lives… you can’t write stuff this good!
- MSNBC (msnbc.msn.com) - mobile site with quick headlines, loads fast, REALLY easy interface.
- MacRumors (mobile.macrumors.com)- mobile site, to satiate my relentless cravings for all things Apple.

The fourth row are my fave utility apps:
- Loopt (more fun with friends, but wish it was part of Facebook, not just able to update Facebook)
- Shazam and Pandora are a match made in Heaven!  Shazam will listen to and tag a song you’re hearing, then launch Pandora, enter the song or album or artist name, and voila! A whole radio station of the music you love!

My favorite story about these two is that I’ve always loved spanish guitar music, but could never find an album I liked.  I was sitting at brunch and heard a song that was a perfect example of it, launched Shazam and tagged the song (it listens for about 10-20 seconds and if it recognizes it, will tell you artist, album, song name, and as many social media links to their music).  I then launched Pandora and entered the song name, and it’s now one of my favorite online radio stations to listen to!   Harmonious perfection!

- And finally, G-Reader – mobile site that’s new for me, haven’t found a really good RSS reader on the iPhone yet that’s better.  Would love to find one..  This one is definitely lacking…

So now I pose the question to you… What’s on YOUR iPhone??