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Howdy friends! A quick 'hello' from Paris this week. I'm on my way home to my family in Germany, and Paris is (kinda) on the way there. I had a great time at the very first IAM conference in Barcelona this past weekend. The goal of the event was to highlight and celebrate how the Internet affects and reshapes the media landscape, but also how, as a result it helps connect real people from all kinds of unexpected places. Of course, Offscreen fits right in there and based on the feedback I received about my talk, people in the audience really enjoyed seeing that older media types (e.g. print) are still going strong, not despite but because of the Internet. But the conference also triggered some critical thoughts on mixing creative content with commercial incentives. Anyway, it's also been a very exhausting weekend, and so I'm gonna leave you with a great article on getting started with meditation (in the hope that I finally adhere to a more regular schedule myself). — Kai PS: Almost forgot, you can now browse the previous five issues of TMD on our website. |
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This Weekʼs Line-Up |
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As I said before, I love my standing desk. My only gripe: it's certainly not the sexiest piece of furntiture in my office. And so when I see beauties like the StudioDesk by Bluelounge I get desk-envy. It's not all about the good looks though. Under the hood this desk features a spacious cable compartment to keep the mess hidden and your devices powered. |
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It was the design of the website that made me look twice at this app. Trippeo is a beautifully executed, smart expense tracker that looks at your calendar and your location to automate and simplify the recording process of your business expenses while on the road. |
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This notebook comes with an iPhone app that lets you take photos of your pages, which are then sent to your dedicated cloud service (like Dropbox) depending on which icons you checked at the bottom of each page. That's pretty smart. When you're done, chuck the notebook in your microwave to erase the text and get fresh, blank pages. Weird, I know. |
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Live chats are great when they work, and really frustrating when they don't. Olark is one of the more established and trusted live-chat services. Their app looks solid. Core features that stand out are the inbuilt rating of the experience and being able to target specific customers only (e.g. only offer live-chat to customers half-way through the checkout process). |
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This is one of those Kickstarter projects I seriously considered backing. Beam is essentially a mini-projector in the shape of a light bulb. Watch movies, present slides or show off your travel photos to friends. I can think of tons of different ways Beam could be useful (and that doesn't even include commercial applications). It looks like a great product with a well-exectued design and branding. |
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Zapier has the potential to fundamentally change the way you work. Create a Zap to connect one app with another and make things happen based on conditions you define. For example: automatically send out a Tweet whenever you receive a PayPal payment. Over 300 apps and services are supported. Mix and match whatever makes your life easier. |
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The Modern Desk is a brief, once-a-week newsletter with a handful of apps and accessories to help you create a more productive and enjoyable work environment. Unless clearly marked as sponsor/advertiser, we do not receive compensation for any of our recommendations. Follow us on Twitter for related updates. TMD is a project by brizk, 20 Breese St, Brunswick VIC 3056, Australia. Kindly supported by Campaign Monitor. Header photo via Blood & Champagne and Minimal Desks. |