By Rich Baker
Chances are that you, like me, conduct a fair amount of business either over the web or via phone. Some of you might also work from home and not keep a fax machine by your sofa.
Sometimes, we need to be able to sign things electronically without having to buy toner or wait by a fax machine.
I’ve been looking for quite a while for a digital alternative to the hand written signature. Generally I found found a few solutions that use a scanned/digitised version of a handwritten signature or involve a costly plugin or software by adobe or microsoft. At other times people just won’t accept these as your signature.
Tonight I had the need to get a copy of an Non Disclosure Agreement signed and sent, and that copy signed and returned to me by tomorrow. I restarted my search and finally found a solution that is not only FREE to light users, but also allows you to do everything online in a matter of minutes. It’s absolute genius!
Its called echosign (referral link) and it totally streamlines the process of getting documents signed. I love it.
Check it out.
Podcasting on the move
By Rich Baker
This morning I thought I would have a go at embedding audio into my blog. After all, digital engagement is more that about the written word isn’t it. Problem is, if you, like me, use WordPress.com to host your blog (rather than doing it yourself using .org) then it becomes rather difficult.
You can’t just embed audio or video into your post as you might think from any site. It supports Youtube and some other sites but that doesn’t help if you are creating your own content.
I took the route of buying the space upgrade ($20) and uploaded the mp3 I recorded earlier using the ipadio iPhone application. I know that kinda defeats the objective of mobile podcasting so if you have any ideas on how to do it better please let me know.
By the way, the ipadio app is a joy to use. I just can’t get it to automatically update my wordpress.com blog like they promised.
Dagnamit.
[audio http://lazymagic.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/ipadio_15009_phone_blog_experiment.mp3]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTlp71r8TRM]
By Rich Baker
Here is a blog post using OmmWriter for the Mac.
I have never used or seen anything like it as a tool to help creativity.
I have included a short video (not produced by me) that shows how it works.
I am sitting here typing onto a transparent ‘window’. Behind my text is a wintry scene. I have my Atomic Floyd headphones in and the application is streaming ambient music while I write.
There is a rather reassuring ‘blip’ each time I type a letter.
I can change the music, the background, the size of text, the font and the ‘blip’ sound.
And that is about it.
When you have finished, you can download what you have typed as a .txt file to insert into your blog/report/article.
A nice idea – but I will leave it up to you to decide whether it actually helps!
The Kindle iPhone Application is available in the UK
By Rich Baker
Today Amazon finally launched it’s Kindle app in the UK for iPhone users. The long awaited application has been available in the US for nine months.
The Kindle is an electronic book which uses ‘electronic ink’ that looks and reads like real paper, and has no glare, even in bright sunshine.
The application will allow iPhone users to purchase books from the Amazon site and read them on the go.
To download the application to your iPhone click here.
