40Tech

Being a tech fanatic can be a bit disheartening if you’re not in a tech job. You’re aware of all sorts of great tech tools, but have no reason to use them (hello, Google Wave). Some tech apps, though, actually are useful in non-tech jobs. Here’s our take on five of them.

Web based office suites are great – and getting better all the time – but none of them can really top the formatting capabilities and ability to work without an internet connection that comes from Microsoft Office. Still, we are a world heading for the proverbial Cloud, and we often find ourselves with the need to easily share and collaborate on documents over great distances. The Make Tech Easier blog took the time to lay out three ways to get that done, using Google Docs, Zoho, and, of course, the relatively new Office Live.

Just last week, Producteev announced on their Posterous blog that their software now has the power to act as a virtual assistant, of sorts. Producteev has embraced the power of “natural language”, allowing users to actually tell the system (via email, IM, browser extension, and more) to do things like create or update a task and assign it to a specific person with a level 5 priority and a Friday due date. Producteev now also allows you to reply to reminder messages to change the status of a task, and to retrieve tasks by query. Read on for more.

I received my Droid X this week, which I think everyone can agree is somewhere near, if not the top, of mobile technological achievement (I’m willing to share the spot with the iPhone 4, but it’s worth pointing out that mine makes calls with or without a case). The device is truly a testament to what humanity has been able to achieve. Holding this marvel of modern technology makes me wonder – what happened to low-tech? So the question I pose to you, good readers, is what low-tech device or strategy do you use that has proven better than the high-tech option, and why is it better?

I admit it: I’m a productivity junkie. I am ever on the search for that elusive application that brings me just one step closer to organizational nirvana. Currently, I’m loving Producteev — but you’re never to tied down too look… right? As debatable as that may be to some, when a business acquaintance introduced me to Glasscubes, I was wowed enough to dig in and give it a try. Glasscubes is pretty, smart and extremely well rounded! If you are looking for a really slick and functional service that allows you to collaborate on documents, share files, manage tasks, projects, and calendars — and even use as a CRM and teleconferencing tool — then you’ll want to check out Glasscubes.

A few weeks back we announced a writers’ contest. The folks at GTDagenda, a Getting Things Done app, offered us two free-for-life premium subscriptions to their task (and life) management service ($69.95/year value, each), and we decided to give one of those subscriptions away to the winning writer of an impartial review of the app. The winner of this phase of the contest is Josh, for his exuberant and well rounded take on GTDagenda as a service (congrats Josh!). Check out his review — and how you can win the second part of the giveaway — after the jump!

The human memory is an awesome tool, but it isn’t perfect. We all need gentle reminders now and then, so that we don’t forget what we need to do and where we need to be. It would be nice if there was one source that could be the end-all, be-all when it comes to sending yourself reminders. I find, though, that I use a mix of tools to remind myself of what I need to do. Here are four that I use.

We tech geeks spend much of our time at the computer, and, as a result, we spend much of our time in a chair. If this concerns you, it is with good reason. BusinessWeek recently discussed how your office chair is killing you. That article finally spurred me to do what I’d been considering for a year or two now – use a fitness ball as my primary office chair. For over a month now, I’ve been using a fitness ball as my primary office chair, albeit switching to my normal office chair for up to half the day. How’s it been working? Read on for my take on the experience.

GTDagenda is a productivity application made to fit directly into the Getting Things Done methodology created by David Allen. The program appears to be fairly robust, though still “up and coming” and we’ve been curious about it for a while now. Our curiosity was piqued further when we heard that they had recently implemented an Evernote integration, which could solve some of the issues (such as calendars and reminders) that people run into when using Evernote as a GTD platform. So when the folks at GTDagenda contacted us to see if we would do a review – and offered two, lifetime, Premium subscriptions to our readers for free – we figured this was a great opportunity search for a few new writers.

Wait. What? – Read on. You’ll see what I mean.

Some have you may have noticed our minor obsession with productivity applications here at 40Tech — particularly with task management apps. In the past, we have written on GTD in Evernote, Action Method Online, reQall, Dial2Do, ToodleDo vs Remember the Milk, and more. We also briefly made mention of Producteev, then a promising but still incomplete service focused on cross-platform task management and communication. Now Producteev is back and swinging out hard with Producteev 2, promising one of the best personal and business task management apps to hit the web. Producteev’s goal is to enable you to work with their task management system without requiring you to make major adjustments to your current workflow. Producteev 2 is powerful,highly flexible, and free for individuals…