scheduling
Latest
Google Assistant can finally schedule your smart lights
Google Assistant already works with Hue and other smart lights, but functionality has been limited to turning them on and off, using them with alarms and a few other features. Now, you can schedule lights and other electric devices to turn on and off at specific and even general times.
Google just made scheduling work meetings a little easier
There's a little bit of good news for people juggling both Google G Suite tools and Microsoft Exchange for their schedule management at work. Google has released an update that will allow G Suite users to access coworkers' real-time free/busy information through both Google Calendar's Find a Time feature and Microsoft Outlook's Scheduling Assistant interchangeably.
Microsoft's latest acquisition hints at AI scheduling in Office
Hate the song and dance involved in finding just the right time to hold a meeting? Microsoft does too. It's acquiring Genee, whose centerpiece is an AI-powered virtual assistant that helps you schedule events in sync with your itinerary. Email both a client and Genee while you're arranging a lunch meeting, for instance, and it'll let your contact know when you can make it. Just what Genee will do isn't clear, but it'll "accelerate intelligent experiences" in Office 365 -- as elsewhere, Microsoft wants to make AI a key part of your workday.
Timeful for iOS helps you make time for the things you want to do
Timeful for iOS is an innovative app for managing your time, tasks lists, and habits in one place. Where most apps tackle one of the three or provide a task list feature within a calendar app, Timeful actively works to integrate all of those in a way that helps ensure you make the time for the things you want and need to do. Timeful requires iOS 7 or later and is optimized for iPhone 5. Best of all, it's free! When first run, the app asks for permission to access your calendar and reminders. It also requires you to create an account. (This type of thing bothers some users and the developers do nothing to explain why this is necessary, which doesn't help put anyone at ease. I'm personally not bothered by this but I understand that some are.) In the final stage of the setup process, Timeful provides a few suggestions for to-do items you can use to try things out as well as some habits you may want to begin. Whether you use any of the suggestions is up to you. Once you have completed the setup process you can create your own tasks and habits as needed. As you enter new tasks, you can tell Timeful when you would like to do them. Part of the magic of the app is that you don't have to be specific. You can say "Today" or "Tomorrow" or "On" a specific date, but you can also say, "Sometime in the next 7 days" or "Someday before" a given date. When you return to your calendar, Timeful will begin populating it with your tasks suggesting times for each one. You can accept the suggestion by tapping the entry in the middle. You can defer it to tomorrow by tapping the rightward facing arrow on the right, or you can drag it to another place in your schedule for today. If you have specified a time a given task will take (part of the task creation process), you can drag the task from the top of your calendar into the day and it will expand to the right width to match the duration. In other words, an hour-long task will be an hour-long block that you can drag around your schedule. In the example above and below, "Review site accessibility" is a task I have created that will take an hour or so to complete. When I tap on the task (shown above the schedule portion of my day) and drag it downwards, I can then drop it into my schedule and it will fill the correct amount of time (below). Habits are handled in a similar fashion except you specify how many times a week you want to work on them, which days you prefer and which time of day (morning, afternoon or evening) you prefer. Timeful will then attempt to set aside time for those repeating events. Of course, you can move the various habits around to suit your needs. Timeful is supposed to learn over time from your usage and become smarter about picking times for your tasks and habits, but I have not used the app long enough to comment one way or the other on this. Timeful is an innovative idea and fills an interesting niche in personal productivity apps. It may not serve all of the needs of the kind of person who uses tools such as OmniFocus or Things, but then again, the biggest problem is finding the time for everything. Timeful attempts to fill that gap and does it very well. It's free and that makes giving it a trial run a no-brainer. Though, I would recommend giving it more than a few days so you have time to get used to how it works and what it does.
Donna for iOS is a brainy personal assistant
Donna entered the App Store in the spring of last year. Since then, the app that lets you manage your day has added many new features, fixed a few bugs along the way and done a nice re-design for iOS 7. It's also now free. Donna can tell you when to leave for a meeting, can dial into conference calls, give you the weather outlook for upcoming appointments and let people know if you are running late. It knows when you are on the way without having to input that information, and it provides daily summaries and summaries in the evening for your activities the next day. With all that power, Donna is easy to operate. You do need to sign up for a free account. Favorite locations can be saved, and it syncs with your calendars including Exchange, Google, Apple's iCal and Yahoo. The app can provide driving or transit and walking directions, and using Google Street View, it will show you your destination. I set the app up, and it scanned my calendar and showed me what's coming up. Some of my appointments didn't have addresses, so I added those and saved them as favorites. The company has fully stated its privacy policy, and they pledge to keep your personal information personal and private. The Donna servers do store quite a bit of information about you, because that's what makes the app useful. Of course, this information could be retrieved with a court order, like a lot of other information that comes from your phone, so heads-up. Donna is very useful. It's intuitive to use and can really help you keep track of a busy day. The app settings are granular, so you can decide what notifications you get or don't get, and how much of your location information is shared. The features are similar to Google Now on Android. Some of those functions were incorporated into the Google Search app on iOS, but Donna has more extensive personal assistant functions. Having tested the app, I'll keep using it because it puts a lot of functions in one place. If you are looking for a smart digital personal assistant that goes a bit beyond what Siri can do, (but without voice interaction), give Donna a try. The app requires iOS 7, and it's optimized for the iPhone 5.
The Daily Grind: How late do you play?
We all have different schedules, different timezones, different levels of engagement in our games of choice. But whether you're going to work at 5:00 a.m. or 5 p.m., you still have a schedule. Sure, you normally don't get home until 4:00 a.m., but if that's the case you should really have been in bed an hour ago but you want to get just one more dungeon run. It's not just about being hardcore or not. Some people will log in to World of Warcraft for a raid, run what needs to be run in an efficient two hours, and then be free for most of the evening. Others log in to Final Fantasy XIV and wind up roleplaying until hours past a more reasonable bedtime. So how late do you play? Do you tend to get on when you get home and stay on until bed? Do you generally play an MMO and then move on to other things, or do you make that your last stop of the night? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Officers' Quarters: A sleepy guild leader
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. Scheduling raids at a time that's convenient for everyone on your team is one of the toughest parts of raiding. No matter whether you're flexing or taking down Heroic Garrosh, it's an obstacle that every raiding guild has to overcome. But what can you do as the guild leader when you can no longer attend your own guild's raids? Hello Scott, I don't know if you've heard THIS one yet! Short and sweet. Normally, when players and raid times don't fit, the players just go find another guild with raid times that do fit. No hard feelings and I wish them luck. But, what is a Guild Leader of a dedicated raiding guild to do when the raid times no longer fit my schedule?
Officers' Quarters: Expansion team
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. Here at the OQ we've heard from a lot of guilds who are being massacred by normal mode Throne of Thunder. This week it's refreshing to hear from a guild that has found unexpected success in Tier 15. They're now weighing a second raid team, but the raid leader has doubts about this expansion. Hello Scott, I'm the raid leader of a casual, family centered guild. We have always been on the lower end of the raiding curve, clearing raids only after they have become old content. However most recently we have been progressing remarkably well during Mists. For the first time our guild has attempted the raid while still current. While only going 3/12 in Throne of Thunder is nothing to the guilds who are now farming heroic Ra-Den, it has greatly lifted the spirits of our guild and it's members; so much so that there is now talk of forming a second raid team.
Officers' Quarters: Too much Stormstout ale
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. Adult raiders are free to enjoy a few adult beverages while they raid. This week, a guild leader wonders what to do when a raider has a few too many and ruins a night of raiding. (He also asks about raid scheduling, which isn't nearly as interesting, but we'll talk about it anyway.) Hi Scott, Yes, it's me again, Apocalyptic GM, sorry to be bothering you again, but you did such a good job last time of giving advice, that i felt the need to come to you again, especially now that two further large problems have arisen within my guild. Firstly, the issue of raiding days. Currently i work shifts of 4 on 4 off at night time, which means i am only available for every 4 out of 8 days. We raided fine with this for the last 6 months ... but recently there has been some descent among the ranks, and complaints that people aren't happy with the current raiding days set up, and this hampering our time raiding. Now I could easily change to a fixed raiding days, but that would leave me frequently absent from raids, which is not something i would prefer. And this leaves me in a pickle as to what to do. As guild master and raid leader I feel I should be able to set up raids to suit me, but then I also feel I should better accomodate my guild.
Officers' Quarters: 10 tips for successful guild events
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. Guild events outside of the usual raiding and PvP activities can help break up the monotony and get people excited about their guild. This week's email comes from an "event officer" who wants to know, how do you get people to show up? I am an officer in my guild, and we have been re-evaluating our roles. I am considering becoming the Social Event Coordinator, and I am looking for some advice to get things started. ... My ideas include scheduling nights to do scenarios/dungeons for achievements, old school raids, and probably a pet battle league once people aren't as focused on gearing up for raids. My questions are: Do you have any suggestions on how to communicate to guildies that aren't around much that these events are being planned? Do you have suggestions on how to determine interest before scheduling? Do you have suggestions on how to encourage participation? Do you have other event ideas that have worked for you?
Officers' Quarters: Tier transition trouble
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available now from No Starch Press. For many guilds, the release of a new raiding tier isn't as cut and dry as simply moving on to the new bosses and leaving the previous tier behind. These days, there are a number of reasons to continue with older content: finishing legendary grinds, completing achievements, and downing unkilled bosses on either difficulty. This week, a guild leader feels conflicted about how to approach the raiding schedule with so much unfinished business in Firelands. Hi Scott: I'm the guild leader for a medium sized guild. The guild is about 9 months old at this point, and we've had our share of raid member turnaround. Through each generation though, we've gotten stronger. Now that the team is pretty solid and showing up on schedule weekly, a problem has reared its ugly head, and its name is Dragon Soul. You see, because of the constant turnaround, we were stuck in tier 11 longer than we should have been, and are only now at the point that going 6/7 in Firelands can be done in a couple of hours. We still don't have a Rag kill under our belts. Compounded with that, our Legendary recipient is only in the second collection phase. But with the new dungeons dropping 378's and Deathwing taunting us, some members of the raid group have voiced in interest in raiding Dragon Soul. One member (who got a Rag kill with another team a couple weeks ago) said he can't wait to kill Rag so we "never have to go to Firelands again." That really REALLY aggravated me, but I kept my cool in Guild Chat.
Doodle adds iCal connector for cloud scheduling
Mac users of the cloud-based scheduling service Doodle will be happy to learn that the company has released a beta of its iCal Connector software for Mac. Doodle is a service that lets users send out potential meeting dates to friends or clients. Those recipients see a poll with the meeting schedule options; they can vote on which date would be best for them. The tentative dates show up in that user's calendar client (Outlook, Google Calendar, etc.). Users can see what other dates people choose as well. When the original meeting organizer looks over all the dates and chooses the best one for the group, all the tentative dates are automatically wiped clean from everyone's calendar software with only the chosen one left. Until now Doodle's third-party calendar support was limited to Google Calendar or Microsoft's Exchange calendaring. With the iCal beta, now Mac users can take full advantage of the cloud-based meeting selection service, no matter what calendar service they use. If you want to learn more about Doodle, check out this short video. Doodle offers both free and premium accounts for users. The Doodle iCal Connector is a free download.
Officers' Quarters: Alt run aggression
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available now from No Starch Press. Alt runs can be tricky things in this age of shared lockouts among raid sizes. No longer can we bring an alt who's saved to a 10-man raid to our main character's 25-man run. Scheduling alt runs can also be difficult. There's only so much time in the week where players' schedules mesh. This week, a guild leader tells the tale of the alt run that caused a firestorm and asks what he can do to resolve the situation. Hey Scott! I wanted some of your lights on a recent issue I'm being faced with. Basically, the point is twofold: misunderstandings and the limits of our powers as officers and GMs. Here's the rundown: I'm GM of a casual raiding team (Friday/Saturday night, 6 hours of so, two 10 man raids at most) who was originally built to offer those that could not afford to raid during the week an opportunity to raid decently without most of the pressure of attendance. That was a couple of years ago and we've been doing pretty well for ourselves. Just last week, one of our members (let's call him Hoots) offered an alt raid on Monday night, which was decently successful. The day after, there was an argument with an officer that basically amounted to "we should focus our activities on the weekends, since we're a weekend guild." The argument kinda escalated when another member jumped on the officer, accusing her to forbid weekday raiding, to which the officer freaked out and the argument went off tracks. It went to the officer council the day after, and we actually punished the trespasser (take a memo).
Google flight schedule search takes off, helps you figure out when to get aboard
Been wishing you could find flight information the same way you would for a bus or train? Now you're covered with the new flight schedule search feature Google launched last week. By simply typing "flights from / to" a destination in the search bar, it displays specific flight routes or all routes from a particular airport, all of the airlines serving the locales along with flight numbers, and travel dates / times. The ITA travel search software which the DOJ finally allowed Google to purchase last month isn't powering the feature, although Google stated on its blog that the flight schedule search is a "small step" in an overall effort to make finding flight information simpler. The service supports ten languages, and you'll find more info by hitting the source link below. Now if only it could tell us whether our flight has WiFi...
RIM acquires Tungle, might soon bridge your calendar across platforms
The BlackBerry PlayBook may be noticeably lacking a calendar app of its own (at least for now), but it looks like RIM could soon have more scheduling options than ever -- it's just acquired fellow Canadian company Tungle, which specializes in syncing your calendar across platforms. At the moment, that's done with either the company's web application, or its iOS or BlackBerry app (an Android version has also been promised), which also let you share your calendar with folks inside or outside your company and, of course, tie it into your various social networks -- so you can learn about the person you're having a meeting with, for instance. As you might expect, however, RIM is staying mum on exactly what it has in mind for the company, and it also isn't divulging any specific terms of the acquisition. Head on past the break for a video demonstrating how the current service works.
AT&T demos U-verse / smartphone integration, ComplemenTV iPad app at CES
Looks like AT&T will be pushing out more than just a dozen Android phones here at CES. During the outfit's Developer Summit, Peter Hill, VP of ecosystem and innovation, demonstrated how U-verse Mobile Application Development Technology can effectively enable a mobile device to interactively share media, content and apps with the TV. In theory, this could lead to the creation of apps that will enable AT&T customers to control more of the U-verse TV experience with their handsets, and possibly vice-versa. In his words, the tech "can easily connect mobile devices to set-top boxes via WiFi," and it'll complement DLNA with authentication. At the Summit, a brief demo saw an iPad app schedule a show and control the U-verse DVR, and a brand new option -- dubbed ComplemenTV -- took center stage. Essentially, the iPad was able to look at what channel was being viewed and then delivered relevant extra content on the iPad. Sounds more like an advertiser's dream than anything else, but we're holding out hope for more enticing uses in the near future. Unfortunately, no dates were given as to when this stuff would be rolled out, but the future's looking bright, anyway.
Officers' Quarters: The great raid size debate, part 2
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available now from No Starch Press. Last week, I received an email asking me for my thoughts on raid size in Cataclysm. As it turns out, I have quite a few thoughts -- three columns' worth, in fact, covering four different categories: gameplay, logistics, rewards and intangibles. My goal is to help officers and their guild members to choose which raid size is best suited for their guild. A week ago, I wrote about the gameplay category. This week's column will cover two topics that have been linked together throughout the history of the game. From the very beginning of WoW, Blizzard has made a connection between more difficult logistics and greater rewards. Molten Core, Onyxia, and later 40-man raids rewarded the best available gear in their respective heydays. Throughout The Burning Crusade and Wrath, 25-man content yielded the best items. For Cataclysm, this paradigm is shifting. Let's take a look at the logistics involved with the two raid sizes and the rewards that each size offers.
Storyboard: A group effort
Roleplaying is like many other activities in MMOs -- it can't be done alone. That means that no matter how much of an antisocial player you might be for the rest of the game, you'll need a number of other people to make any roleplaying work. By extension, any longer storylines and character development require people working together with some level of consistency. You can technically have a character's development take place without the same audience, of course, but it won't mean as much to the late arrivals. Put very simply, you want a coherent overarching sequence of events that you can point to for your characters. This is going to require some level of group coordination, and group RP events are a great excuse for roleplaying bonds to form anyway, so it's fully endorsed. For this week's Storyboard, we're going to take a look at running a group event in the smoothest way possible, ranging from a simple one-off night of adventure to a long guild-wide storyline that ends with time travel. (You know the story is really getting overwrought when the time travel makes things simpler, see.)
TiVo granted patent on recording Season Pass subscriptions by priority
It's been a ten year process, but TiVo just won a patent on managing DVR recording schedules and resolving schedule conflicts using a list of shows ordered by priority. US Patent #7,665,111 covers "recording, storing, and deleting of television and/or web page program material" by generating a prioritized list of shows that contains both shows chosen and ranked by users and shows the DVR think you'll like, matching that list against the program guide and available recording space, and resolving conflicts based on priority. Yeah, that's what essentially every DVR on the market does now -- but before you run off screaming into the woods, remember that this was all basically uncharted territory when TiVo applied for this patent way back in 1999, the same year it launched one of the first DVRs. Now, TiVo has been anything but shy when it comes to suing over its other hard-fought DVR patents, so we'll have to see how the company decides to use this new bit of IP leverage; patents that have been pending for this long aren't exactly secrets to anyone, and we're sure TiVo's competitors have been thinking of clever ways to design around it. (One bit that jumps out: the priority list has to contain both "a viewer's explicit preferred program selections for recording" and "inferred preferred program selections for recording," so DVRs that don't auto-record like TiVos could potentially be excluded.) Of course, we'd rather just see TiVo retake the lead in the DVR space with some entirely new ideas -- we'll see what happens next month.
FastTrack Schedule 10 for Mac ships this fall from AEC Software
In the mid-1980s I was first earning my stripes as a project manager, and I was fortunate enough to have Apple's MacProject application to help me out. As Microsoft Project began to capture a larger share of the project management software market in the 1990s, Mac users weren't left out in the cold thanks to AEC Software, which introduced a powerful cross-platform project scheduling and management application called FastTrack Schedule.FastTrack Schedule 10 is scheduled for release this fall, and includes a redesigned, iWork-like interface to make using the application much less intimidating. Experienced PMs are going to love the new assignment contouring capability, and other new features such as resource usage graphing on the Gantt chart and an iMedia browser for dropping in photos or diagrams also add to the mix. The application still retains a high level of data compatibility with Microsoft Project.When the new version ships, existing users of FastTrack Schedule 9 can upgrade for US$149, while new users can purchase FastTrack Schedule 10 for US$315 by pre-ordering (regular price is US$350). If you're not familiar with the application, AEC Software also provides online training courses to bring you up to speed.
