When I purchased my iPad (aff link) I decided to see if there was an alternative. I did a search through the iTunes store and found a wide variety of GPS apps, some with expensive one time fees, others with monthly or yearly fees.

After some consideration I went with Motion X GPS Drive (yes, I am an iTunes affiliate as well) and I think made the right decision.

How I Use it

I place the iPad somewhere in the center console area. At first I was taping it to the dash to simulate the positioning of a built-in GPS unit, but found the GPS works just fine when positioned lower. It also looks less ghetto when you don’t use tape : ) The screen is big enough that you can see it when placed at a lower angle, and the voice navigation keeps you on track when you aren’t looking at the screen.

What I Like

The app itself is cheap, only $2.99 for purchase (the iPhone version is on sale right now for $.99). If you want to activate voice navigated turn-by-turn it is only $24.99 for the whole year. Compare that to a $49.99 one time purchase for the TomTom App or $69.99 each year for the AT&T app.

I like that I can get the same app for my iPhone and the iPad and that the interface is consistent. The UI is clean, easy to use and reasonably cool. I have found the directions to be spot on and the software is always able to find the location I am searching for (Internet permitting).

What I Don’t Like

Apparently there is no built in map data. Every time you want to put in a location you need to have Internet access, which means it won’t work so well on the road for wifi-only iPad owners. Even though I have the iPad 3G I find this to be an issue at times because ATT cell service is so unreliable in big cities. Note that once you put in your destination you don’t seem to need Internet connectivity again while you are in route.

I wish that the software told you the name of the street you need to turn on, instead of a generic “turn in 500 feet”. It would also be nice if the recent and saved locations synced between my iPhone app and iPad app, since they are both authorized by the same account.

You Should Know

If you purchase the iPad app and iPhone app along with voice navigation you can only use voice navigation on one device at a time. This isn’t really a problem for me, but I could see it being an issue if you are sharing these devices.

Overall

I give Motion X GPS Drive 4/5 tongues. It is cheap to try (they give you a 30 day demo of the voice navigation for free) and provides 90% of the features I really need and care about. I just wish AT&T coverage was better.

New FAA sport flying requirements mean you only need 20 hours of in flight training to fly an A5. At $139,000 it’s expensive but not absolutely ridiculous. For just $5,000 you can reserve one for delivery in 2013. Of course by then you might be able to buy all of Greece for just a few dollars more.

Enter Bring TIM!

I stumbled on this product this weekend and immediately placed an order. Bring TIM is a meeting cost calculator. You bring it to a meeting (I am going to leave it in the conference room), dial in the average hourly rate and number of people and hit start. You can see the cost of the meeting in real time so everyone is aware of just how expensive the time is. In my opinion this is a must have for any business, especially those that bill clients based on time (I want to get my lawyer one).

I have no doubt that this will freak out some of my team members but I can’t wait to put it into action. You can order your own here for $24.99.

I bought the $29.95 gold package and have been using it for a couple of months. I find it incredibly accurate and useful. The only thing I don’t like about it is you can only clean 500 songs at a time. I give it 4/5 Tongues.

I have been a Paytrust customer for about 8 years. I have no other relationship with them, I am writing this post simply because I love the service.  It is the single service I don’t think I could live without. While most banks have the ability to do online payments they don’t do it like Paytrust. Paytrust takes care of all payments, including companies and services that don’t accept electronic funds transfers (EFTs).

How it Works:

When you signup for Paytrust they give you your own P.O. Box. You switch the billing address for all your bills to this new address. When a new bill comes in they scan it and send you an email alert. You can then login to Paytrust and make a payment or set it up to be paid automatically. Paytrust can do EFTs like your bank, but the cool thing is they will also mail a check to companies like your lawn service or doctor that don’t typically accept EFTs. You can view and download all your bills online and you can purchase a CD at the end of each year with all your records in PDF format. Between Paytrust and my ScanSnap my records are almost completely digital.

Paytrust lets you put all your bills on autopilot. It is well worth the $12.95 per month I pay for the time I save (not to mention the cost of stamps). I never miss a bill and I always pay my bills on time.

I have talked about personal branding quite a bit in the past. I believe that it will be an area of growing importance in the future as the global economy becomes more competitive. A strong personal brand can make the difference between landing a job, winning a client or even finding a mate. Most of us start with a disadvantage… our own name. Do you know how many Ted Murphys there are in the world? It is much more difficult to build a brand around a name when other people have the same name. That is why corporations trademark and protect their name and celebrities adopt new names they can uniquely call their own.

In my dream, I convinced Tara to name our son Taco Murphy. Partially because I love tacos, but mostly because the domain name and trademark were available. Yes, the name Taco Murphy is a little crazy. I’m not sure that I would really name my kid Taco, but the concept is more important than the execution in my dream. When I do have a child, I want to make sure I can secure their domain name, trademark and, possibly, some social media profiles (though I am not sure they will all be relevant by the time they grow up). I want my kid to be able to “own” their own name from day one and use that name to propel their personal brand.

We are all products. We are all selling ourselves to one  another. A memorable brand name is a key component of any successful product development strategy. Why not apply the same principle to “human product” development?

—-

After an initially difficult childhood Taco Murphy grew to become the CEO of a vast Taco empire. His breakthrough was taco shells made out of bacon that somehow didn’t make your hands greasy. He named his children enchilada and chimichanga.

Yes. I bought the domain. Just in case.

What I want in an OSX Twitter Screen Saver :

• Elegant design
• Utilization of Quartz, maybe with a little 3D action
• Ability to customize the source of the tweets (people, keywords, lists)
• Ability to customize the fonts and colors used
• Display of avatars next to the name of the person
• Integration of geo data if available
• Integration of photos (show me a preview of the link)

I was able to find some decent screen savers for Windows. Flitter looks close to what I was thinking I would find when I first started looking. Damn you Windows. Damn you.

Twitter Screen Savers for Mac

Twistori (3/5 Tongues)

This is the most interesting of the bunch. Twistori is a Twitter screen saver (and website) that displays tweets based on emotional keywords (love, hate, think, believe, feel, wish). It’s funny to see how people express themselves, you can certainly get sucked into this experience.

Twistori is available for both Leopard and Snow Leopard . I am bummed that this screen saver has zero customization options. I wish I could add my own emotions or get rid of certain words like hate. I have no desire to have the word hate repeating on my screen all day… it’s just bad karma.

TweetSvr (2/5 Tongues)

TweetSvr is a very basic Mac screen saver that displays tweets from you, your friends, or the public timeline in floating clouds. I grew board with this screen saver instantly. You can’t customize the font or size of the text. It’ doesn’t display the avatar of the person that made the tweet. The graphics are just blah. The only good news is that it works with Snow Leopard and doesn’t seem to have any technical issues. You can download it here.

If anyone has found a Twitter screen saver for OSX that they really like please let me know. I would love to check it out.

This afternoon Tara and I watched the movie Welcome to Macintosh (yes, I am an iTunes affiliate) and I started to think about how many Macs I have had in my life. I am not sure about the exact number, but through my companies I have bought somewhere between 250-300 Macs over the years. I took a look at apple-history.com to see how many different Macs I can remember buying (or my parents buying before I had my own money). Here is the list:

• Macintosh 512k
• Macintosh Plus
• Macintosh SE30
• Macintosh Powerbook 140
• Macintosh LC III
• Power Macintosh 8500
• Power Macintosh 7200
• Newton Message Pad 2100
• PowerBook G3
• Power Macintosh G3
• iMac
• iMac (Rev.C)
• Power Macintosh G3 (Blue and White)
• PowerBook G3 (Bronze Keyboard)
• Power Macintosh G4 (AGP Graphics)
• iMac (Slot Loading)
• PowerBook G3 (Firewire)
• Power Macintosh G4 (Gigabit Ethernet)
• PowerBook G4
• Power Macintosh G4 (Quicksilver)
• iMac (Summer 2001)
• Power Macintosh G4 (Mirrored Doors)
• Xserve
• iMac (Flat Panel)
• PowerBook G4 (12.1″)
• PowerBook G4 (17″)
• Xserve RAID
• Powerbook G4 (17″ 1.33Ghz)
• Xserve G5
• Mac mini
• MacBook Pro
• MacBook Pro (17″)
• AppleTV
• iPod (many)
• iPod Nano (many)
• iPhone (1st Gen, 3G)

Me in 1999 with a G3 laptop and stupid hair

Yeah, I am a Mac. Old school baby! I know there is a lot of buzz about Windows 7 but I will never be a PC guy. The closest I have ever come was a couple of Power Computing rigs in the 90′s. Apple FTW!