Christmas gifts. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Planning ahead will benefit you in ways you never even imagined — especially when it comes to shopping for the holidays. I always start my holiday shopping in August. Yep — I’ve already bought a gift for someone on my list! This is a tradition that I think you should start as well. Read more
As far as self-professed nerds go — Carley Knobloch is the coolest. I would call her a tech goddess in fact. I’ve talked about her site former Digitwirl.com because I really think it’s great. It’s a site dedicated to technology, apps, websites and products to make your life easier. Carley is also a featured speaker at BlogHer12.
She produces high-quality video and tips that are informative, quirky and cute. I’ve shared a few here for you to check out and will continue to do that. Digitwirl is how I learned about Smore.com, which I used to make my “Lists & Libations” Meetup flyer.
Carley isn’t only a tech nerd…er goddess..she’s also a list maker! So she’s this month’s featured list producer: Read more
Lists make life easier — plain and simple. Recently I introduced you to my new favorite list-making tool to keep track of all the restaurants I love or want to try called Matchbook. It allows you to easily add restaurants and any place with an address really – to your iPhone. I’ve used it about a zillion times since finding it. Seriously.
The brain behind this incredible app is, of course, a list maker. Meet Jason Schwartz — this month’s Featured List Producer:
Q: Why do you call yourself a compulsive list producer?
A: I actually consider myself a compulsive list-enabler. I constantly see ineffective 
lists in action, and that is what drives things at Matchbook. The same scrappy list of bars and restaurants shows up repeatedly in the notepad of people’s phones. If you ask people if this list is useful, they say that it isn’t. Lists are supposed to make us more efficient and organized, and a massive number of people compulsively create restaurant lists that don’t live up to that promise. I want to make all that work useful.
Q: What do you make lists about?
A: My first love is lists of places. Restaurants, bars, and shops that I want to go to, or remember to go back to. It’s like my little black book of gems that I know about and nobody else does. Read more
I’m all about shortcuts to make life easier – even when it comes to list making. Up until now I had been testing out a few apps to store my “must try” and “favorite” restaurants. But I kept reverting back to my usual list-making ways: writing them down and storing them in Evernote or Wunderlist. Those have all worked fine.
But – I have found an app that is smart and easy to use and does just what I need it to do. Perfect! Gone are the days of trying to remember the name of that restaurant or shop that you passed by last week. Now all you have to do is download one app – Matchbook.
Matchbook allows you to enter the name of the place you want to remember manually or search for it. If you are nearby – you can click the button “I’m walking by it” and Matchbook will find it for you! Brilliant!
You can add tags to remember certain things about the place like if it’s got a great brunch, is loud or is super trendy. If you’re stumped for a spot to meet friends after work – you can search via neighborhood and tags. It’s much easier to navigate than Yelp’s vast database of knowledge but the searching is a bit quirky. That will be fixed in future updates, I’m sure!
It works all over the world and organizes your bookmarks by area, which makes it easy to find a place quickly. There’s also a map so you can see your bookmarks laid out in front of you and see what you’re closest to.
You can share places with friends but you don’t have to “friend” anyone through the app. Just lots and lots of list making! Check it out and let me know what you think.
If you’re still wondering what to get your dad for the big weekend — help is here. Techie gifts are super popular and will keep your dad in the know. From high-tech ties, to apps and even some clothes — my friends over at Digitwirl have you covered.
Click on the photo below for a look at their top techie gifts for dads this year.
Happy Shopping!
