by Carrie on September 8, 2010
Gmail rolled out Priority Inbox last week and it’s pretty awesome. It’s like my much beloved Sort by Magic for Google Reader but for Gmail.
Priority Inbox learns from how you interact with your email, who are the real people you’re actually interacting with, which emails do you actually open, and which ones do you click through and uses that information to pull important emails to the top of your inbox.
For the past year or so, I’ve been using a mass of filters to try to keep non-priority emails out of my inbox entirely but I want to play with Priority Inbox and see how smart Gmail really is so I needed to edit my filtering system. Priority Inbox has an option to override filters but after 2 days, I could already tell that it didn’t actually do a good job of overriding filters at least the way I had mine set up.
In Gmail labs you can enable the ability to import and export your filters. Before you mess with your filters, back up your current setup and keep a clean copy of that back up (with that clean copy you don’t have to worry about messing up or breaking anything, you can always delete all your changes and reupload your old set up).
I decided I wanted to maintain all of my filters that label my emails but I wanted to dump and start fresh on my filters that either mark emails as read or have them skip the inbox so that I could really see the power of Priority Inbox.
Gmail does not have a good interface for searching or editing your existing filters but I discovered that I could open my filter export file in a basic text editor (TextEdit on a Mac, Notepad on a PC) and use a find and replace function (Edit menu then Find) to remove the lines of code that marked as read or skipped the inbox. To do this:
- locate one line of the code you want to remove
- copy and paste the entire line into the find field
- leave the replace field blank
- hit replace all
- repeat as necessary for any other types of filters you want to remove
Then I deleted all my filters in Gmail (make sure you keep that back up copy handy in case you want to go back to what you were doing before) and uploaded my edited filters file.
Now I can actually see how smart Priority Inbox is and how fast it learns.
To really make Priority Inbox a powerhouse, Gmail or Apple needs to work out an option so that only the items in my Priority Inbox show up in my iPhone inbox.
by Carrie on September 7, 2010
I’ve been buying my music on iTunes almost exclusively since 2004. It’s fast, easy, and it used to always be the cheapest.
But then some time ago they decided that new releases should be priced at $1.29 per song rather than $0.99 per song. I used to buy the new albums from all the bands I liked the day they came out, but now I usually give them several months before I decide if I really want them or not.
But after today, I’m going to always, always shop around before I commit to buying an album on iTunes.
Here’s why:
Anberlin is probably my favorite band that I’ve discovered since leaving high school. My last.fm profile has them coming in at my #5 all time most played band.
On iTunes, their new album is going for $11.99. On Amazon, they’re having a daily deal for the same album for $3.99 (so this deal probably won’t be around tomorrow but it screams to me that if there’s an album you’re interested in you should always check Amazon on it’s release date). You get one bonus song and 3 music videos on iTunes but I never watch those videos and even though I consider myself a huge fan, I can’t justify an extra $8 for one song. My philosophy from the day I bought my first CD was that I wasn’t willing to pay more than $1 a song.
To make buying MP3s on Amazon a little more streamlined and convenient, I opened the Amazon MP3 Downloader program and went into the preferences and set the download folder to the Automatically Add to iTunes folder that you should be able to find inside your iTunes Media folder. Once you have that set up, all you have to do is click Buy MP3 Album with 1 Click on Amazon and in that one click you’ll send everything you just bought directly into your iTunes library.
Disclosure: Some links in this post are affiliate links.
by Carrie on September 5, 2010
I love World of Warcraft and probably even more so I love eyeshadow so when I first saw Geek Chic Cosmetics 10 Man Raid eyeshadows I squealed with glee.
In World of Warcraft, there are 10 different classes your character can be. Class determines what abilities and spells you can learn, what types of armor you can wear, and what types of weapons you can use. A raid is a particularly tough piece of content that you would conquer after reaching the highest character level in the game. Depending on the raid, you need 5 to 40 players working together to complete it and you need a variety of skills and spells which you achieve by bringing a mix of classes.
When you are grouped with other players, you can find those players on your minimap and the dots that represent those people on the minimap are displayed in colors that identify their class. Geek Chic cosmetics eyeshadows correspond to these 10 colors.
In this minimap screenshot, the arrow represents my character, the orange dot represents my brother who plays a Druid, the pink dot represents one of our guildies who plays a Paladin, and the red dot represents a Death Knight and the yellow dot a Rogue that we picked up to fill out our 5 man group.
The names of the 10 Man Raid eyeshadows correspond to common in game terms associated with that color’s class. (Although I always thought Mana Battery was a Warlock reference and purple is the Warlock color and white is the Priest color but my research indicates it could refer to either one.)
My main character and the only level 80 I have to raid with is a Mage (Glass Cannon), but I didn’t really feel like light blue was a good eyeshadow color for me so I tested out Tame This (a Hunter reference, my highest level alt is a level 60 something Hunter) and Mana Battery (a Priest reference according to it’s white color, my bank alt is a Priest and I’m currently working on getting her up to at least level 20 so she can have a mount to ride).
The 10 Man Raid eyeshadows are loose powder eyeshadows with absolutely gorgeous iridescence. I’ve worn Mana Battery with a dark eyeliner to work almost every day for the past week and Tame This applied with a damp eyeliner brush looks perfect along the lash line but is a bit dark and intense for an everyday all over the lid color for me. The eyeshadows have fantastic staying power. I always use Urban Decay’s Primer Potion under all my eyeshadows but even after I slept with my eyeshadow on (yeah I know that’s not good for your skin but I’m still suffering that fatigue and was just too tired to take it off) and mushed my face into the pillow all night, I woke up with a still perfect application of Mana Battery.
I have one full size Geek Chic Cosmetics 10 Man Raid eyeshadow in the color of your choice to giveaway to a Carrie Actually reader.
Of course I’d love it if you subscribed by email or RSS, followed me on Twitter, or liked me on Facebook but none of those are required to enter and they won’t make you any more likely to win.
To enter, simply leave a comment on this post. One entry per person.
Entries will close September 12, 2010 at 11:59pm Pacific time. Winner will be selected with random.org, notified via email, and must respond with their shipping address within 48 hours. Winner must be able to provide a US shipping address to receive their prize.
Disclosure: I received samples of Tame Time and Mana Battery for myself and Geek Chic Cosmetics is providing the full size eyeshadow to giveaway at my request.
by Carrie on September 2, 2010
Obviously cancer treatment is full of adverse side effects. For starters, my largest tumor was in my lung cavity which made it such that my lungs could not fully inflate. Then one of the chemotherapy medicines I was on was Bleomycin which can cause lung damage and unfortunately for me did cause lung damage. Then I got a lovely lung infection, possibly Valley Fever but the test results could not pin it down for sure, that caused pneumonia. And once I was done with all that, I went on to radiation where they could not angle the radiation beams to avoid my lung because of the position of the tumor. By the end of the ordeal, my lung capacity had been reduced to about 50% of what it previously was. The doctor’s answer to my reduced lung capacity issue was that I needed to exercise regularly.
On top of my lung issues, I’ve spent most of 2010 living an almost sedentary lifestyle with just a little bit of walking from the parking lot to my appointments and enough Wii Fit to keep my muscles from atrophying. One of the major side effects of radiation is fatigue which can last for weeks after the treatment is complete (my doctor thinks my fatigue will finally pass this month). The doctor’s answer to increasing my energy level was again that I needed to exercise regularly.
I liked the Wii Fit, but I wanted something with more structure and more intense cardio options so I decided to give EA Sports Active More Workouts a try. If you didn’t own the original EA Sports Active, you will need to get the accessory pack to be able to play More Workouts and if you do own the Wii Fit Balance Board, you can use it with EA Sports Active More Workouts but it isn’t necessary to play the game.
I just completed the 6 Week Challenge on low intensity. The 6 Week Challenge has you complete a specific series of 24 workouts (4 workouts per week for 6 weeks, it encourages rest days with no more than 2 days of working out in a row). You don’t have to complete it in 6 weeks, but you get a special trophy if you do. There are options for low, moderate, or high intensity and you can change your intensity at anytime during the challenge.
The first two days were grueling, my thighs were so sore I practically had to drag myself up and down the stairs by the handrail, but once I got a few days in it started to feel good. About halfway through the challenge, it started to incorporate a few moderate intensity activities to keep things from being too easy.
I love the structured aspect of the workouts. Unlike Wii Fit, which has you selecting random activities in no particular order, EA Sports Active More Workouts provides you with almost 100 preset workouts focusing on various areas of the body, of different lengths, and at different intensities. The only thing I felt like the preset workouts were missing was a strictly cardio boxing workout. And unlike Wii Fit, you can program and save as many custom workouts as you like and they can include any and all of the activities in the game.
My plan now is to start the 6 Week Challenge on moderate intensity (with the option of switching back to low if it gets too hard) and not push myself to complete it in 6 weeks or less so I can also mix in some of the other fun looking preset workouts like Step Aerobics Class, Island Cardio Blast, and Island Adventure.
Another aspect of the game I love are the trophies. There are 30 different trophies to strive for including things like completing the 6 Week Challenge, burning 1,000 or 10,000 calories, playing for 10 hours total, or getting a perfect score in a hard intensity activity like Squash or Water Skiing. The trophy system is much more robust than Wii Fit but still a far cry from the 700+ achievements to be had in World of Warcraft. To get all of the trophies, I’ll have to work myself up to the hard intensity activities so it definitely gives me something to strive for.
One area I thought the game was lacking in was it’s goals system. You can set goals for how many calories you want to burn, how many workouts you want to do, and how much time you want to spend working out over whatever period of days you set. But those goals don’t really do anything. I’d love to also be able to set a goal weight and then set it to 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week and have it generate the workouts I need to complete to reach my goal.
EA Sports Active 2 is coming in November 2010 and incorporates a heart rate monitor, special arm and leg bands so that you don’t ever get stuck on the nunchuck cord again, a new 9 Week Challenge, online tracking of your statistics and progress, and versions for the Xbox and Playstation in addition to the Wii. Unfortunately EA Sports Active 2 is more than double the price of EA Sports Active More Workouts and the accessory pack.
I’m very happy with EA Sports Active More Workouts and I definitely feel like using it is getting me back to my normal breathing and energetic self but because of my fascination with statistic tracking, I’ll probably upgrade to EA Sports Active 2 come November so I can get that heart rate monitor data and the online tracking.
Disclosure: Some links in this post are affiliate links. Electronic Arts provided me with EA Sports Active More Workouts and the accessory pack for review at my request.
by Carrie on September 1, 2010
I thought the Apple event today was a bit of a let down but the stock is doing really well and usually when I love the event the stock tanks so what do I know?
I did not get a bingo. Less than half of my predictions happened. The event was extremely limited to just iPods, iTunes, and the Apple TV.
I was underwhelmed by the new iPod lineup. I won’t be buying a new iPod because I would still have to plug it into my computer to sync it. And I’m even working on selling my old 2nd gen iPod Shuffle on eBay right now (had a non-paying bidder when my 1gb model sold for $27 a couple weeks ago) and the new 4th gen Shuffle looks exactly like the 2nd gen and the new 2gb model goes for $49 so now I’ll probably get even less for my old Shuffle.
iTunes 10 looks pretty exciting. The update server has still been overloaded so I haven’t been able to download it and play with it yet. I’m very excited about Ping and how it compares to Last.fm which is the music social network I’ve been using since July 2005. I currently listen to internet radio at work via Pandora or Last.fm and I don’t think Ping will count what I listen to in there so until iTunes will stream my music to other locations I don’t think Ping will be as good as Last.fm but let’s hope this is a step in that direction.
I’m most excited about the new Apple TV. I already ordered mine. I have the old Apple TV and I’m very interested to see how the two compare.
I have had numerous complications trying to stream media (particularly HD media) to my Apple TV. Even after I upgraded my internet to the fastest I could get in my area, I still can’t stream a movie and not have it pause to catch up on downloading. What I had gone to doing was downloading my movie and then watching it a few hours later but since the new Apple TV doesn’t have a hard drive that won’t be an option anymore (unless I decide my old one is better and stick with it). Hopefully Apple’s new data center will pick up the speed on their end and improve the experience.
Netflix on the Apple TV is very exciting. I’ve been streaming to my Wii for several months and really love it but I think the interface will be much improved on the Apple TV. Again, sometimes my internet doesn’t seem quite fast enough so I get some choppiness when trying to watch shows but Netflix seems to be better than what I’ve tried to stream from Apple in the past so I think there is room for improvement for Apple.
I don’t know what I think about renting TV shows. I’ve bought a lot of seasons via iTunes and at first I feared I wouldn’t be able to watch them with the new Apple TV but now I’m pretty sure I will be able to stream them from my iMac. I like the idea because it would solve the bulk of my storage space problems. Even after getting the 2tb hard drive in my new iMac, I had already decided I wouldn’t be able to buy my entire fall lineup in HD because it would eat up almost all the free space on my drive. I could rent those shows for half the price but I’d be limited on when and how often I could watch them. I think I’ll probably buy my staple shows in SD this year, test out renting a few movies, and see how I feel about renting TV shows next year.
What I think is particularly interesting about the new Apple TV is that it’s the first Apple gadget that doesn’t require a computer to set it up. It’s ready to go out of the box. No activating and no syncing. (We think it’s a little ridiculous around here that you have to sync a new iPhone to your computer before you can use it. I could get everything I need on mine instantly with Mobile Me.)
What did you think of the event? Did you order anything yet? Are you planning to get any of the new gadgets?
