Email Posts: Now you can send a post to friends and family by tapping the familiar “email” link at the bottom of a post. This will open the native email application on your device, with the subject line and post content automatically populated in the body of a new email. After sending the email, you are automatically returned to Reader. When I tried it just now, the Reader screen didn’t even have to refresh, so it looks like you can get right back to where you left off in your feeds. Nice.

Share with Note: While you’ve always been able to add a post to your shared items from your iPhone or Touch, now you can personalize it by adding a note. Tap the “with note” link at the bottom of a post, and a text box slides down for you to add text.

I’ve started using this share feature a lot more lately. I’ve added Reader to my minifeed in Facebook, and there’s also a link to my shared items from the geekstew homepage. If you’re interested in reading the posts where I’ve left comments, there’s even a link for that too.

Sharing is caring. That’s what my mom always taught me.

[homepage photo from JJ*'s photostream on Flicker]

If you’ve got an iPhone or iPod Touch, you’ll be happy to know you can now take advantage of Google’s mobile interface for your ASU account.

In a post on Thursday, Google made a few exciting announcements:

• Mobile version of Google News is now available for all you news junkies
• Expanded Google for iPhone and iPod Touch to 33 new markets and 16 more languages
• Full mobile integration of Google services with Google Apps accounts

I have a personal Google account in addition to my ASU Google Apps account. I noticed that you can be logged into both at the same time on my iPod Touch. This means I can get my ASU email, and browse my Google Reader account without having to log in/out. Beauty.

Does anyone else use Google on their iPhone or iPod Touch?

I’ve got two days of classes under my belt, and today I’m starting a drastic change in my driving habits. Last semester I was fortunate enough to have all my classes on a single campus. Because I live in Queen Creek, I’m really glad my program is based on the Polytechnic Campus. This semester, I’m not so lucky.

Three days a week, I have a couple classes on the Tempe Campus. In an effort to save gas and gain a couple of hours of study/work time, I’ve decided to make use of the (free!) inter-campus shuttle service.

Last year, ASU partnered with Verizon and equipped these shuttles with free Wi-Fi, I can easily use the commute time to work or study. Trust me, it was getting really difficult (and dangerous!) to try and blog and drive at the same time. I was having to constantly switch between holding my steering wheel, my coffee, my iPod, my lipstick, and my laptop. It was not a good situation.

Let’s break down the numbers on how this will help me, the environment, and my wallet:

• 900 miles of driving per month eliminated
• 3 tanks of gas eliminated every month
• $120 gas savings every month
• 24+ additional hours every week of study/work time (2 hours/day, 3x per week)

Now that I’m saving this chunk of change every month, I’ll have to start saving up to purchase some of the incredible new products announced yesterday at MacWorld ‘08. For example: the most incredible laptop I’ve seen in a long time.

Thanks for the ride, ASU.

Well, I must say, Santa treated me very well this year. I’ve got a pile of new toys to play with this year, one of which was completely unexpected. My wife pulled through with a replacement for my old, sick friend. My fingers have been busy getting used to a shiny new iPod Touch. She said I was shaking when I opened it. (Don’t laugh at me. I couldn’t help it.) I think she bought it for me so I would stop borrowing hers. Let me just say, all the hype surrounding this device is well-deserved. This thing is incredible. It fits perfectly in my trembling hands, it’s not too bulky in my pocket, and the screen is brighter than my old PowerBook.

Aside from doing an incredible job managing my music, here are a few Internet essentials that have been formatted for the iPhone/iPod Touch that I’ve managed to fall in love this week:

• Google
• Facebook
• Amazon
• Zoho
• Wells Fargo

Did anyone else get an iPod Touch for Chrismahannaqwanzikah?

I’m always on the hunt for a solid, time-saving computer hack. Anything that will help me read faster, jump higher, and sleep deeper is sure to make my list of favorite things. So I was excited to stumble upon a sweet little Mac application this morning called TextExpander . The concept is simple: if you spend time writing on your computer, there are probably a lot of phrases and lines that you use over and over again. (email signatures, greetings, phone numbers, etc.) Super-software to the rescue! By setting up what are called “snippets,” you can have TextExpander do the dirty work for you.

For example, if you like to change your email signature depending on who you’re emailing, you can set up a snippet for each signature. Let’s say you have a signature for work, and a separate signature when writing to friends. You could set your work signature up with the snippet of “sigw” so every time you type “sigw” (minus the quotes), TextExpander will convert those letter to your full email signature.

There is also a modified spell-checker which automatically fixes often-misspelled words on the fly. And for those of you who write code, there is a group of snippets specifically for HTML markup. If I tried to explain all the little tips, this post would be way too long.

Instead, check out the post about it at MacApper.com. Blogger Michael Mistretta does a fine job showing us what to expect from TextExpander. (hope he doesn’t mind the publicity)

For those of you on a PC, there are similar programs for Windows as well. Lifehacker.com recently featured a post about a free program called Texter. Which reminds me - TextExpander is not free. You can get a 30-day trial, but after that it’s $29.95.

I was driving home from my second-to-last final exam today talking to my brother. He mentioned that he saw an article on Apple’s website about ASU and their involvement with iTunes U.

Check out the article if you like.

I really hope more teachers get involved with this service. It would be so great if my lectures were all recorded and I could access them again at anytime from my iPod. Wait…I still need to replace my iPod…(insert sad face here).

It’s a sad day at my house. A friend of mine is really sick. We’ve been friends for about 3 years, so it’s tough to see him go through such a rough time. Other than my wife, he’s probably the best friend anyone could ever ask for. He doesn’t talk back. He does what I ask him to do. He remembers lots of things that I often forget. He comes with me to the gym and encourages me during my workout. He never yells. I never have to drive his drunk lifeless body home after a party. If I don’t want to take him somewhere, he doesn’t complain. It’s been a great friendship.

So like I said, he’s sick. It all happened last weekend in a dumpy San Diego hotel room. My friend came along with me and my brothers to a concert. (Phantom Planet, The Hives, and Maroon 5.) (Side note: I’m done with Maroon 5. They were much better when they were known as Kara’s Flowers. Adam Levine is too sexy for my taste.) We had just returned to the hotel after the concert, and it happened. My friend just stopped talking. I tried everything I could to get him to speak up, but nothing worked. I rubbed his little scroll wheel. I gently pressed his buttons. I talked to him. Pleaded with him. Cussed at him. Almost threw him against the wall. All this to no avail. My iPod, I’m afraid, is on his death bed.

After coming home from California, I tried connecting my little white block of musical delights to my iMac. Nothing happened. Not even a glimmer of hope. So I opened up the Apple Support site and read my friend’s eulogy:

In most cases, the sad iPod icon indicates a hardware issue. If you are able to force iPod into Disk Mode, then it may not be a hardware issue, and you should try to restore your iPod with the latest software. If you cannot force your iPod into disk mode and restore it, then your iPod is in need of service. Set up an iPod Service Request or make a reservation at the Genius Bar before visiting your local Apple Retail Store. To make a reservation go to www.apple.com/retail, choose an Apple Store location, then click on the “Make a reservation” link.

I tried forcing my friend into disk mode. Unfortunately, like real people, iPods also don’t like to be forced into doing something they don’t want to do. This clever little tactic didn’t work. I’m debating whether or not I should try to repair my friend. But then I start to think about all these celebrities that have gone to rehab and it never seems to do any good. What if my friend doesn’t get any better? I don’t want to be stuck with a loser.

So while my friend is sick, I decided to look around a bit. (No, not on Match.com.) There are so many new and exciting things in the iPod world these days. The iPod Touch is especially tempting. Me likey multi-touch technology. I could even go for a beautiful, skinny little iPod Nano. (Hope my wife wouldn’t be jealous.)

I don’t know what I’m gonna do. But while I make my decision, I will be browsing a neat-o little section of iTunes that I just stumbled upon. It’s called iTunesU (short for University). ASU has posted a bunch of videos that users can download. Everything from Exercise and Wellness to podcasts from Michael Crow.

If anyone has any suggestions, condolences, or thoughts about my iPod plight, please leave a comment. I’d be happy to hear what you have to say.