tech, simplified.

The Calculator That Should have Shipped with iPad - Calcbot

One of the first things I noticed on my iPad was the lack of a calculator app. Not like there's not half a dozen gadgets around that also have a calculator built in, but somehow it just seemed odd to not have one built in. Apple did a great job making Notes, Calendar, and Contacts look awesome on iPad, why not Calculator (and Voice Memos, Stocks, Clock, and Weather)?

At the same time, even on the iPhone or iPod Touch, the calculator app could be improved. In general, the iPhone Calculator app is good enough, and for a basic calculator with standard and scientific mode, it's about as simple as they come. But still, wouldn't you like to have calculator history, be able to see your expression's result as you're typing, and more?

Calcbot from Tapbots is a great solution to both of these problems. It's an elegant universal calculator app that makes it simple to do any calculation you need on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad. This app was designed to make doing math take even less time on your devices. Is this even possible? Let's take a peek under the hood and see if you really do need a new calculator app for iOS.

Calculating with a Robot

Calcbot describes itself as a “simple, yet intelligent calculator”, and I definitely found it to live up to its name while reviewing it. You’ll see a quick Getting Started guide when you first launch the app that will help you get up to speed on how to get the most from Calcbot. Whether you load it on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, you’ll get the same great features.

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The main interface looks much like you’d expect. You’ll see standard calculator features on the main screen, but swipe to the left to see advanced, scientific mode features such as sin, square roots, and more. Tap the orange Shift key to see the inverse of the functions of the light blue buttons, such as sin-1. Best thing is, you can find any root or raise a number to any power you need. For example, if you need to calculate 74, enter 7, then swipe left and press yx, then swipe right and tap 4. With that, you’ll find the answer is 2,041, and you’ll still see the equation underneath in light blue!

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Calcbot automatically computes your equation as you’re entering it, so you can see everything in light blue underneath your solution at the top. If you make a mistake, swipe left over the calculator screen on the top or press the red delete button on the bottom to delete the last thing you pressed. No more blindly pressing C or MC anymore;  who could even remember what they did, anyhow?

Once you’re finished, press the equal button on the bottom to save your answer. Everything you enter is saved in Calcbot’s history, so you can easily jump back and see everything you’ve calculated by pulling down on the top of the app. This will open a history tape that remembers both the answer and the equation you’d entered, much like many scientific calculators such as the popular TI-30X. That calculator saved me in highschool, and I don’t know how much time I saved by being able to go back and grab something from the history. It’s every bit as helpful in Calcbot, and once you’ve used it, you’ll wonder how you lived without it.

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Supersize Me

As mentioned at the beginning of this review, Calcbot is a universal app and works great on iPad, too. In Landscape mode, you can get the same great calculation features on the left with your history tape on the right. This makes it quick and easy to run a ton of calculations and quickly jump between the ones you need. Whether you’re a student in math class or are getting ready for tax season (oh my…), the history on the side is incredibly handy. Just tap one of the entries to use the result or equation again, or to email the problem to your professor, accountant, or archrival! You can even send the entire tape history as an email or copy it to your clipboard from the gear button in the top right.

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Want the largest calculator you’ve ever used (well, at least the largest one that still looks stylish…)? Just turn your iPad to portrait mode, and Calcbot will fill your iPad screen. Oddly enough, you can’t access history this way, but just turn your device to the side to see your history as before. Everything else works the same … swipe left to see extra functions, or tap the i button to change settings and get info about the app. Somehow, this reminds me of a cash register, though if that’s what you’re actually using your iPad for, you’d likely be better off with Square ;)

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Conclusion

It’s hard not to love Calcbot. Tapbots did a great job integrating beautiful design with advanced functionality that just makes it easier to check out a quick calculation. You’ll never have to second-guess if you entered your equation correctly, since it shows up right up under the answer, and you can always go back and check it in the history. It still doesn’t give your iPad or iPhone all the features of, say, a TI-89, but it does give you most of the features of a standard scientific calculator such as the TI-30X, including History mode. Finally, it’s a universal app, so you won’t have to purchase a different app for each of your devices. If you’re looking for a great calculator for your iPad, and wouldn’t mind getting a better iPhone one at the same time, this is the calculator app to get.

Our Rating: 9/10

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Download Calcbot from the App Store | $1.99 (universal | iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch)

Calcbot’s Official Site

Giveaway: CSS3Machine - Web Creativity on iPad

Even though the iPad was released almost a year ago, the jury’s still out on whether it’s a device for consumption or creation. I personally feel it’s a great creative app, and even find it great for writing in Pages or PlainText. Today we’re going to look at an exciting app, CSS3Machine, that can take your creativity on the iPad to new levels and let you design animated sites all in native CSS3. We’ve even got 5 free licenses for a giveaway, so keep reading to find out how to enter.

Getting Started

CSS3Machine starts with a site selector hovering over the main screen. You can pick from 2 impressive premade demo sites to try out, or tap the plus icon to create a new site. If you want to copy a site to your computer, press the arrow button to email it to yourself.

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Alternately, tap the gears icon to see CSS3Machine’s settings. You’ll notice a web address listed; this lets you access your CSS stylesheet from your desktop browser. You can also set a default email address to send templates to, or get more info about the app.

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Flash? Who Needs Flash?

Let’s dive in and see what you can do in CSS3Machine. Once you’ve opened the template you want to play with, you can immediately see the impressive animated transitions built in, or start tweaking the code to get it to work like you want. Each property is listed on the left, and all of its functions are on the right where you can quickly tweak them as you like. As soon as you tweak a property, the preview on the bottom will update to reflect your changes.

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Tap the plus icon in the properties list to add a new property to your site. There’s tons to explore here, and with time, you can make some truly impressive animations powered only by CSS3.

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The preview box only shows a static copy of your rendered code, so if you want to see the animated CSS in action, tap the Animations button on the bottom of the left pane. Now tap the play button at the top of the preview window to see your CSS animation fully rendered on your device. If you’d like to see a video of it in action, check out the CSS3Machine official site.

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Not Just Fancy Animation

If you’re not trying to create the most amazing CSS animations and effects, CSS3Machine is still for you. You can create a new basic style, and then add your own text CSS to tweak as you want. Here I’m tweaking the H2 style on the default text used on document samples in CSS3Machine.

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Drag sliders and tap color swaths to find the perfect look for your shadows, colors, background gradients, and more. The great thing is, you can try out so many different options and then immediately see what it creates in the preview on the bottom. I’ve never seen a web editor that works like this on a PC; it’s a fun and creative way to make your code look just like you want!

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CSS3Machine is also a great way to learn more about CSS. Just tap the i icon in the top right of any property editing screen to find out more about that CSS property. You’ll get a quick overview of its history and what it does, as well as which browsers currently support that property.

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Want to switch to your own text or change something else about the base document? Tap the arrow button in the bottom left corner of the site preview box to open the HTML template editor. The editor includes common HTML characters and snippets so you can type in what you want without shuffling between iPad keyboard layouts. You can then copy the text to your clipboard from the top arrow button if you wish, or just save the changes to CSS3Machine.

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Get Your CSS on Your PC

Now, to put your code into use, browse to the address in the settings screen we saw before from your desktop browser while CSS3Machine is running on your iPad. You can then copy the code directly to your favorite code editor, WordPress Dashboard, or whatever you use to manage your site. From a touch interface to standards-compliant code, CSS3Machine is a pretty awesome tool. The app did crash on me a couple times while I was testing it, but other than that, it was a very cool way to try out all of what CSS3 has to offer on my iPad!

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Enter the CSS3Machine Giveaway

Edit: Giveaway now closed. Thanks everyone who entered!

If you’d like to win a free copy of CSS3Machine for iPad, just leave a comment below with a valid email address.  The contest closes at Midnight EST, Thursday, January 20th, so make sure to leave a comment before then. If you don’t have an iPad but want to comment, please state so in the comments so we’ll be sure to pick someone that can actually use the app.  Want another shot at winning? Tweet the following (or something similar with a link to this post), then leave a second comment with the link to your tweet.

Win a free copy of CSS3Machine for iPad from @techinch! http://bit.ly/e1LYuX

If you don’t win, don’t worry … you can still pick up a copy from the App Store for $4.99. It’s a great way to explore what CSS3 has to offer while learning what each property does. If you create some awesome web art or a new site using CSS3Machine, be sure to let us know in the comments … we’d love to see it!

Purchase CSS3Machine from the App Store ($4.99 – iPad Only)

Get more info about CSS3Machine from its official site (Numerosign.com)

Save Draft Posts to WordPress with the WordPress iOS app

Whether you're carrying around an iPhone or iPod Touch in your pocket or have a new iPad you'd like to make into a mobile writing powerhouse, chances are you'd like to write blog posts on the go. The WordPress for iOS app is the obvious blogging choice for iOS devices if you've got a WordPress blog. You can quickly edit existing posts, write new ones, and even add pictures and screenshots directly from your device.

The only problem I faced when using the WordPress app was the lack of a "Save as Draft" feature. By default, the WordPress app saves draft posts to your device, but doesn't give you the option to upload the draft. When I write a post, I prefer to upload a draft of the post to make sure I don't lose what I wrote and also so I can easily add to it online. Additionally, I write for several different tech blogs, and on most of them, I can only upload a draft post and submit it for review, and the editor then publishes the post on the site's schedule. Many freelance writers have a similar setup, so the lack of a draft upload feature makes the WordPress app almost unusable.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="576" caption="Maybe I can't upload posts from my iPad..."][/caption]

Behold the Hidden Draft Upload Feature!

Turns out, draft uploading is only hidden, not missing. WordPress for iOS lets you set a post's status, so you can get your post saved online just like you want. If you simply press Save by default, you'll get a draft of your post saved locally. Tap the Status bar, however, and you can choose exactly how to save your post. Select Draft to post a draft to your blog so you can continue editing online, or select Pending Review to submit your fresh post to your editor. No matter what you want to set your post's status as, you can choose it here. Awesome!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="576" caption="Post Status? We have Post Statuses ... wait, is that a word?"][/caption]

Once you've done this, you'll simply see a Save button in the top right corner of the app instead of the Save and Publish buttons you had previously. Press Save, and seconds later your post will be online, ready for further editing, scheduling, and more.

Editing Posts Online

Speaking of which, if you ever want to edit a post on your WordPress dashboard directly from your iPad, you may have noticed that the editor box doesn't show you the entire post. Don't worry ... You can still edit any part you need. Just drag inside the box with two fingers to scroll as you would from a laptop touchpad, then tap to start editing where you need. Everything else on the WordPress dashboard works fine. You can tweak plugins and themes, edit posts, and even add new plugins from the Plugin Directory all from an iPhone or iPad. However, you can't add new photos, plugins, or themes directly from your device, since iOS doesn't let sites or apps see the main filesystem. Hopefully they'll enable this in the future ... At least we can hope!

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So, with these tips, your iDevice can become a much more useful blogging tool. Do you find yourself blogging from your iPhone or iPad often? Let us know your blogging habits in the comments!

And, for the record, I wrote this whole post directly on my iPad in the WordPress app...

Speed up Evernote on Windows

Have you ever fired up Evernote for Windows to find something you’ve jotted down only to find that it’s running glacially and takes forever just to open a note?  Even with the new and improved Evernote 4, sometimes it still is one of the slowest apps on my PC.  So much so, in fact, that I’d nearly switched to using Evernote web instead of the desktop interface.

Today, thanks to an Evernote forum thread, I found a couple tricks that can help speed up Evernote.  Follow along, and we’ll see if you can get Evernote feeling snappy again.

Activate Detective Mode

Ok, it’s not quite that dramatic, but Evernote does have some hidden developer tools that can help improve Evernote for Windows’ performance.  First, if you have Evernote running, exit it from your system tray.

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Now, open the Run command by pressing your Windows key and R at the same time (Win+R).  Enter the following in the box, the press Enter or click Ok:

Evernote.exe /DebugMenu

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When Evernote opens, you’ll notice a new [Debug] menu on your toolbar.  This includes two options that really seemed to speed up Evernote on my computer: Optimize Database and Recreate Note Images.  Optimizing your database is likely to help Evernote’s performance the most, though if you have some notes that have odd thumbnails (or no thumbnails), then you might try recreating the note images as well.

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Both of these options will take several minutes to run, during which time you’ll see the status updated in a progress bar.  If you’d like to give both options a shot, just run one, then the other.

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Once it’s finished, you can continue to use Evernote as normal, or restart it to get rid of the [Debug] menu.  Evernote still isn’t the fastest app, but it’s much improved after optimizing my database.  I've got tons of notes in Evernote, and love the Evernote apps on iOS, so would really hate to quit using it.  I really hope Evernote works to optimize Evernote for Windows and make it run faster, but in the mean time, this at least provided a bit of help for me.  Hopefully you’ll find this helpful too … let us know in the comments!

Firetask | Project Management on Your iPhone

Looking for a way to manage your projects on the go with something more advanced than a standard todo list app?  There’s a fine line between having too little or too much info about the things you need to do.  Today we’re going to look at Firetask for iPhone, a detailed project management app that lets you keep track of all the details of the tasks in all of your daily projects.

Keep Track of Everything About Your Tasks

Firetask is a task and project manager that lets you keep up with a surprising amount of data about the things you need to do from your iPhone or iPod Touch.  One nice thing is that it’s rather easy to get started with.  Whenever you open a screen for the first time, you’ll see a hint notification that explains what to do there.

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Add a new task from any screen by tapping the plus icon in the top right corner.  Just type in your task name and press Save, or scroll down to add a wide variety of extra data to your task.  You can set the task’s priority, due date, flag or categorize it, add notes, or assign it to different people in your team.  The only problem here is that Firetask is a single-user app without a cloud interface, so it really doesn’t work well for managing tasks for a whole team.

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Many of the options open a separate dialog where you can select the category, status, or more for your task.  Unlike most todo list apps, your tasks are not limited to simply done or not done.  With Firetask, you can track a task from start to completion like a full-blown project management system.

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Now, from the Today screen, you can see all of your upcoming tasks and those due soon.  Tap Focus to see only the tasks without dates and those scheduled for today or tomorrow.  You can also view all of the tasks in categories from the bottom menu.  If you took the time to categorize tasks, you’ll easily recognize tasks with their icons on the left even from the Today screen.

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Dates and categories aren’t enough sometimes, so Firetask also lets you organize your tasks into projects.  I’ve found this very useful, as I can quickly get all of my tasks into a group and see related tasks in 2 taps.  When you add a new task in a project, you can still add categories, notes, flags, due dates, and more to each task.

Once a task is in progress, tap the box on the left to mark it as In Progress with a tiny graph icon.  Tap again to mark it as complete.  Or, press Edit List to reorder or remove tasks from the list.  Firetask works great with projects like this, and you’ll still be able to see upcoming tasks from the Today screen and in their respective categories.  No matter how much you have to do, Firetask can handle it.

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Conclusion

If you’ve wanted to be able to keep up with more about your tasks and projects, organize them efficiently, and more, you may have found most iPhone todo list apps too feature-limited for your needs.  Firetask includes tons of ways to organize and sort your tasks and projects, and it feels more like a mini-Basecamp than than a todo list.  The only problem is, all these features make Firetask more cluttered than competing task management apps, and it has a somewhat steeper learning curve.  If you prefer to just keep up a quick todo list, you may find one of the other todo list apps better for your needs, but if you’re wanting to keep better track of everything you’re doing, the extra steps and learning curve may be worth it.  Additionally, if you have a Mac, you can purchase Firetask for Mac and keep your tasks in sync between your computer and iPhone.

Our Rating: 7/10

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Download Firetask for iPhone from the App Store | $5.99

Checkout all of the Firetask Apps

Today todo | Simply Focus on What You're Doing Today

Tired of all the me-too todo list apps on your iPhone or iPod Touch?  Sometimes it seems like everyone tries to make their apps look as much like other popular apps as possible, especially for productivity apps.  Today Todo is a fresh change that takes your tasks into a new day, literally.  Apple recently featured Today Todo in their list of essential College Survival Kit apps, so let’s take a look and see how it will help you manage your time, assignments, and more.

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, and the Future

When you first install and start Today Todo, you’ll be greeted with a bright sun and blue sky, with todo’s floating on top.  The default tasks are a tutorial that help you quickly get up-to-speed on how Today Todo works.  Once you’ve finished a task, just press the circle on the left to check it off.

On the top of each screen, you’ll notice a small white pull-down shade.  This shows your lists of tasks, where you can separate your tasks, say, into school, home, work, or other categories.  Tap the category you want to see the tasks it contains, or tap All to see all the tasks you’ve added to every list.

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To add a new task, just tilt your device to the left or right and start typing.  You can press the plus button to add a task, but just turning the device is much simpler!  Type in your task on the top, then select a date for it on the bottom.   You can also tap one of the three bars on the top right to select a priority for the task.  There’s no tagging, notes, or location … just your task, the priority, and when it needs done.  Once you’re done, just flip your iPhone back up to see your filled task list, or just press save and immediately enter another task.

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To view your tasks scheduled for the future, swipe the sun icon on the top to the left.  Swipe again to see tasks scheduled for Someday without a specific date to be completed.  Then, once you’ve completed tasks, you’ll see them show up in the Yesterday screen which you’ll find by swiping the sun to the right from the Today screen.  This is a cute way to keep everything organized by the time you need to do it.

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Edit and Backup Tasks from your PC

One frustrating thing about many todo list apps is that they leave your todos on your iPhone.  Whether or not you enjoy typing on your phone, sometimes it’s easier to type on a full keyboard.  Plus, sometimes you can just copy and paste tasks you need to do from a webpage very quickly from a full computer.  Today Todo includes a neat web server mode that lets you add and edit tasks from any computer or browser.  Just tap the I icon in the bottom right corner of the app, then tap the slider beside Enable web server.

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Now, browse to the address listed on your device on your PC or Mac, and you can view and edit all of your todos on your iPhone directly from your PC.  Changes are saved to your device directly, so whenever you’re finished just tap Stop Webserver on your iPhone or iPod Touch and you’ll immediately see your updated task lists on it.

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Today Todo doesn’t include an iPad version, but you could run it on an iPad in iPhone mode.  Or, you could always view and edit your todos in the webserver mode in Safari on your iPad.  This way, you can view, edit, and add todos to your iPhone or iPod Touch from a larger keyboard without using a PC at all!

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Conclusion

Truth be told, I didn’t expect as much from this app as it offers, and figured it wouldn’t be as serious of a to-do list app with the whimsical background images.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that Today Todo is one of the most intuitive todo list apps I’ve tested.  I especially liked the way you can just tilt your device to add a task, the tilt it back to see your list without pushing any buttons or closing dialogs.  Plus, the backgrounds actually add a nice, carefree attitude to the app.  For once, managing tasks is actually fun!

My only complaint would be that Today Todo doesn’t keep a log of the tasks you’ve already completed, so you can only see your tasks from yesterday.  That said, if you’re looking for an affordable and simple way to keep up with the things you need to do today and in the future and don’t want to fuss with notes, tags, or anything extra, this is a nice app you should definitely try.  It’s scheduled tasks at it’s best!

Additionally, if you’d like a free todo list to just keep up with what needs done today, you can download Today Todo Basic, which lets you only add tasks for today and see what you did yesterday.  It’s a great way to try out Today Todo’s interface for free, too.

Our Rating: 9/10

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Download Today Todo for iPhone from the App Store | $3.99

Today Todo's official website

Review: Cooking for Geeks

When's the last time you did a chemistry experiment? Truth is, most of us do chemistry experiments more often than we imagine. Every time you try tweaking a recipe or try to cook something new, you're doing a chemistry experiment. Best thing is, you can use the basic properties of food to make new dishes and recreate your favorite foods.

This can be difficult to do on your own, though, and most cookbooks are designed to just help you make individual recipes and don't overly teach you how to design new ones. Cooking for Geeks is a great book that does exactly that. Author Jeff Potter guides you through the basic ways foods work so you'll understand how everything from eggs to high temperature cooking works. It includes tons of recipes, but best of all, it'll leave you with an understanding of what made that recipe tick and how you can use the ideas from it on your own. You'll even learn better ways to make boiled eggs, of all things!

Whether you're cooking on your own or using it with a school group to teach, Cooking for Geeks empowers you to take your cooking to the next level. Sure, cooking is not a technology centric thing, but this book makes cooking appeal to those of us who enjoy hacking and tweaking. Plus, when's the last time you saw the Mac vs. PC debate mentioned in a cookbook? My family and I have found this book very educational and enjoyable, and if you find cooking any bit interesting, I believe you'll be fascinated by this book, too.

Our Rating: 9/10

Checkout the Official Cooking for Geeks site

Purchase Cooking for Geeks from Amazon.com [$21.54 paperback | $15.39 Kindle Edition]

Purchase Cooking for Geeks from O'Reilly [$34.99 print | $27.99 eBook]

I review for the O'Reilly Blogger Review Program

The Personal MBA: Can You Get an MBA From a Book?

Have you ever wondered if staying in college or going back to college long enough to get a MBA would make a significant difference in your career?  Making the choice to stay in college longer and spend tens of thousands of dollars for something of an uncertain benefit can be a very difficult thing to do.  The truth is, though, what you need is not another degree: you simply need to learn more about what makes business tick and how to improve your own ventures or the company you work for.  Now you just need to figure out what to study, and you'll be ready to learn all the skills an MBA would give you on your own.

Why do you need to learn more about business?

First, though, you'll need to decide if you really need to learn more about business.  When I personally started college, I never thought I would end up taking business classes.  I was shocked when my college required a number of business and economics focused classes, and initially resented having to take them.  I then started seeing how the classes had helped me look at the world of business differently, and I found the info in them benificual in everything from running my own site to working as a freelancer to my ministry work in Thailand.  The thing is, business permiates every part of life, and the more you can learn about how to start your vision, progress it into something others are willing to pay for, and then grow the business to fit your and the market's needs, you'll find it easier to do your own job or start the business you've always wanted to.

That's where The Personal MBA comes in.  Author Josh Kaufman has been sharing tips and training on his website, PersonalMBA.com/blog, for years, trying to help people learn all they can about business from the best authors and online content.  From highlighting the best business books to distilling his own business knowledge in informative blog posts, the Personal MBA site has a wealth of info to help you learn everything from an MBA without having to go back to school.  Then, building on this knowledge, Kaufman has distilled it into his new book, The Personal MBA: Master the art of business.  This book is being released today, but I had the privilege to receive a pre-release copy for review and was very impressed at how thorough and informative this one book is.

An MBA in a book

The Personal MBA book is a nearly 400 page book that lets you explore all the topics you'll come across about business and economics related to running your own company.  But rather than being a dry book that tries to teach you a whole field of knowledge in each chapter with different concepts mixed in throughout the whole thing, this book is designed to let you learn about individual concepts thoroughly with mini-essays about each.  It's laid out similar to 37signals' Rework or Getting Real, with short sections that pack in a powerful concept and make you ponder its implications for your work.  From ROI to Bias to Risk reversal to Association marketing, you'll learn about an amazing variety of business concepts on your own pace with interesting and easy to understand explanations and applications.

Then, each section of the book includes a Share This Concept link at the end.  Each individual idea has a companion page on the book's site, which includes a video explaining more about the topic, and an outline of what that section of the book discussed.  For example, page 180 discusses what bootstrapping means, how it's benificial to your business, and more.  This section's Share This Concept link, http://book.personalmba.com/bootstrapping/, both gives you more info about the topic and lets you share what you've learned with colleagues and friends.  If you take the time to explore this extra content, you'll find that you learned even more from the book than you could from the text alone.

I was very impressed with the depth of business topics that The Personal MBA covered, and was very excited to see that it didn't make business dry or difficult to understand.  Unlike a textbook, The Personal MBA is designed to let you explore a topic you need to learn more about, even if you haven't read the whole book.  Whether you're a business student or want to learn more on your own, you'll find this book a great reference guide to help you master business better than you could on your own.  Best of all, it's a great example of how much you can learn today online, from books, and in self study, without spending tens of thousands of dollars or wasting years of your life in school.  For once, technology and its related older cousin, paper books, have made life simpler and can help make you more productive!  The most important part isn't about where you learn, or how you learn, but it's what you learn and what you do with it.  The Personal MBA empowers you to understand the business world and drive your visions into profitable ventures, and if you're motivated, you can use it to learn more than an undedicated person would in a traditional business program.

Purchase The Personal MBA from Amazon.com ($15.21)

Purchase The Personal MBA in Kindle eBook format ($14.99)

Learn more about The Personal MBA

Great Tech Deals for Christmas

Black Friday and Cyber Monday may have come and gone, but there's still tons of specials and giveaways online now for the Christmas season.  Here’s some of the best I’ve seen, and please chime in with any others you come across.

WordPress

Books and eBooks

Other

Please add any other deals or giveaways you know of, and a very Merry Christmas to all!

Update: Just added some bundle deals that are available right now also.  Enjoy!

Reviews on the AppStorm Network

Looking for more good reviews of apps you might want to try out?  In addition to my How-to Geek writing and posting reviews and tutorials here, I've begun writing articles for Web.AppStorm.net and iPhone.AppStorm.net.  These sites contain exclusive reviews of webapps and iOS apps, respectively, covering only the best apps in each category.

I'm excited to be working with the great teams at each of these sites, and have already written over a dozen articles between the two sites.  Just like I do with all of my writing, I've been regularly tweeting my new articles as they're published.  If you'd like to keep up more directly with my writing at these sites, you can find my articles at the links below:

Additionally, sometime in 2011 I'll be updating Techinch's theme to include tumblog style posts.  Once that's done, you'll start seeing link posts to any new articles I write around the web.

I hope you find my articles interesting and helpful.  If you ever have a program, webapp, or iOS app you'd like to see reviewed, or something about tech you'd like to see explained better, feel free to contact me or leave a comment anywhere on the site.

Happy Reading!