Category Archives: Features

Feature Articles

11 Must-Have Mac Apps

Posted on by David Pierce | 26 Comments

Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.

I’m about eight months into owning a Mac computer, and I can’t imagine using anything else. It took a while to get optimized exactly how I wanted it (I had Windows down), but I’ve finally got it working exactly how I want it to work.

The operating system has a couple of nice touches, but isn’t actually that different anymore, particularly since Windows 7 came out. What makes Mac OS different is the developers, the applications that are released with an incredible attention to detail, beauty and simple functionality. I’ve tried a lot of these applications. I’m a serial tester and adopter anyway, and getting onto a new platform was like being a kid in a candy store. Or a geek in an Apple store…

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Finally, a Bookmarking System That Works

Posted on by David Pierce | 20 Comments

Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.

For whatever reason, the Achilles Heel of my life online has long been my bookmarking system. I read a lot, write a lot, and am constantly looking for “that thing I read that one time that would be totally perfect right now!”

In my search for the perfect system, I’ve learned that many, many people have the same problem: we come across all this cool stuff, and there’s no system in place to put it somewhere we’ll reliably find it, or remember it exists, ever again. I promised that, if I figured out a system, I’d share it.

Well, here goes.

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The Digitizd Network: Gear, Library, Discuss, and Digitizd Facebook

Posted on by David Pierce | 9 Comments

Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.

Over the last year, the community around this site (and before, when it was The 2.0 Life) has evolved. The site is now one part techie, and one part technological novice – people coming to learn about and discover new technologies. That balance has been my hope for this site all along, and I’m thrilled that people are getting value from it.

In an effort to make Digitizd an even more useful place, and to connect new people with technology and help techies get more from it, I’m launching not one, not two, but three new arms of this site. (Well, four, but we’ll get there).

You’ll be able to find all the arms of the network in the nav bar of this site, and each one has its own unique brand of awesome. Digitizd Plus, a place for tips, tricks, and other bits of cool technology, has been up for a while, and now we’re adding to the family!

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Minimalism versus Lessism

Posted on by David Pierce | 54 Comments

Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.

Forgive the rant.

There’s this funny trend happening on the Web the last few months. It started with people like Leo Babauta of Zen Habits and Patrick Rhone of Minimal Mac, both of whom have sites I read daily and love. Their basic hypothesis is this: we have too much unnecessary stuff, and it affects our lives negatively. So they preach “minimalism,” the systematic getting rid of the extraneous.

That idea, valiant as it is, has warped. As the trend of minimalism has caught on, the definition has changed, and the mantra has gone from being about getting rid of the unnecessary, to looking around your room and saying “what can I get rid of to show everyone how little I have?” Minimalism has given way to lessism.

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Fixing the Computer Reading Experience

Posted on by David Pierce | 6 Comments

Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.

A good bit of my day, every single day, is spent reading on screens. I’ll read news on my computer, and then save some interesting stuff to Instapaper to read while I’m on the subway.  I’ll read RSS feeds when I get to work, read blogs and news throughout the day, catch up on ESPN when I’m bored, and maybe end the day reading a book on my iPod Touch or my laptop while I’m sitting in bed.

All of that would be fine, except that computer reading is a nightmare. There’s the obvious problems, like “you’ll go blind,” as well as a host of other annoyances. Between blinking ads that pop up over the first nine paragraphs of the story, ads about some girl’s nasty yellow teeth I’d really rather not see, and the “hey there, want to subscribe to my newsletter?” notes that seem to be plastered all over most blogs, reading on your computer (or any screen) just sucks.

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53 Of The Best Tech Blogs Out There

Posted on by David Pierce | 130 Comments

On Twitter yesterday, I asked my followers for some of their favorite blogs. I got some great answers, which I’ll share, but what was more interesting to me was how many people were in my situation: liking reading blogs, and finding it harder and harder to find new good ones.

I’ve also realized that, for most people, blogs are still a totally foreign concept. We don’t know how to find good ones, how to use those to find others, or how to connect to this whole crazy blogging world. I think that’s why the reactions to my lists of great business blogs and great blogs for foodies were hits.

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Weekend Project: Become a Programmer

Posted on by David Pierce | 9 Comments

Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.

(Every week or so, I post a bunch of resources to get you going with a digital project of some kind. In this case, it’s programming..)

Programming, writing software and web code, is going to become more and more important as the world turns digital – everything from art to software requires some programming knowledge, and there are tons of different languages, thoughts, and methods out there.

Luckily for you (and me, certainly), they’re not that tough to learn. And, thanks to some great resources out there, you can learn them right from the computer screen, without paying a nickel.

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How the Best and Brightest Use Their Computers

Posted on by David Pierce | 9 Comments

Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.

How do we learn, well, anything? We watch how others do it. It’s how I learned to throw a baseball, smoke a cigar, drive a car, open a can (poorly–don’t ask), and so many other things.

Computers are no exception, either. The best way to learn which software you should use, which computer to use, how to set it up, and what the heck to do with it all, is to see exactly how they do it. In the tech world, people often will review products that might be great, but that they don’t use themselves; the best of the best, tend to be used by the best of the best.

A few smart people, around the Web, have been compiling and sharing what those people are doing—from their favorite software, to the contents of their bag, to what their desk looks like.

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Keep the Junk Out of Your Inbox

Posted on by David Pierce | 6 Comments

Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.

Every night, between when I go to bed and when I get up, I get about 25 emails. To answer your question, no, I’m not nearly important enough to be getting emails in the middle of the night.

Those emails are all newsletters, or Spam, or Ticketmaster trying to sell me Jonas Brothers tickets just because I went to 19 of their concerts. The vast majority of the email I get is of absolutely no interest to me – and I don’t think I’m alone.

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8 Ways to Get More From Google Docs

Posted on by David Pierce | 12 Comments

Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.

I hate Microsoft Word. There, I said it. As much as I loathe it, though, I’ve mostly stuck with it for the last few years, just because it’s the best option out there for word processing.

Or so I thought. Google Docs, as it turns out, offers a huge number of features, some of which don’t get nearly enough press, that make it better for anyone, but especially those working remotely, than Word. I’ve talked about how much I love Buzzword and Zoho before, but Google Docs is really the standard.

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