Our world has become smaller today as we work more and more with people across the globe. Advances in technology in the past 15 years has made it easier for us to communicate with people in different parts of the world. Though many do speak English around the world, we are also communicating with people who may speak a different language. As we travel to different countries, we will information presented in different languages as well as people who may speak a different language.

To help with translations, there are now several applications that can take work, phrases, sentences, or complete documents and translate them. One of the more popular applications is Google Translate. It is available through a standard web browser as well as on iPhones, iPads, and Android devices.

To translate, you can enter the text you want to translate and select the original language (there is also an auto-detect feature) and the language to be translated to. Google Translate also has a feature that will read the text in the selected language. I tried it recently when sending messages to family in Latvia as well as a recent trip to Spain. While the translations are not always perfect, it is still pretty accurate.

If you have used a translation tool that you like, please let me know.

I have been a fan of TED Talks for the past several years. Last year, I had the opportunity to attend a live local TED event, which I thoroughly enjoyed. For those unfamiliar with TED Talks, TED was started in 1984 as a one-time conference with a focus on technology, education, and design. They have since become annual events and increased its scope to include talks on science, culture, and business among other topics. Smaller, local TED events have also started to emerge. Their motto is “Ideas Worth Spreading”. TED Talks are short talks (between 10 and 15 minutes) about various topics and are usually inspiring and thought provoking.

With the growth of TED Talks, there is a rich library of talks that have been presented over the years. The TED application provides a way to access these talks from your mobile device. You can search for topics of interest or browse featured talks. There is even a feature called Surprise Me, which allows you to select the type of talk you want to hear (Funny, Informative, Inspiring, etc.) and the length of time you have to watch. It will then present you with some suggested talks to watch. The application also allows you to bookmark talks that you want to watch later or download a talk.

TED Talks are a great way to grow personally and professionally by hearing stories from others which will get you to think differently, consider new ideas, or just be inspired. This application provides a nice front-end to search and view these talks.

As part of my professional and personal development, I have been a big fan of audiobooks.  I’ve used them when I travel, go for a walk, or just relaxing at home. It has helped me to get through more books than I normally would. I found an application that allows me to borrow audiobooks, as well as eBooks, videos, and music.

The app is called Hoopla, which uses a free service allowing me to join using my library card. It is available through a standard web browser as well as on iPhones, iPads, and Android devices. To sign-up, you will need to have an account with a local library. You can look up on the site to determine if your local library participates. When signing up, you will need to identify your library, enter your library card number, and your on-line PIN for the library.

Once you are in, you can search the Hoopla database and borrow up to 10 titles in a calendar month. The content can be downloaded to your device or streamed. Titles can be borrowed for 3 weeks and will be removed when the 3-week period ends. You can also mark certain titles as favorites if you want to borrow them in the future.

In the past few years, I have found several great books and documentaries for my professional and personal development as well as some albums and movies for entertainment. Being able to load them on my iPhone and iPad allows me to take these books, videos, and music with me.

Hoopla is a great tool to leverage the benefits of your local library without having to go there in person or having to remember to return the materials that you borrowed. You can access Hoopla at http://www.hoopladigital.com.

A while back, I started using Evernote, an app that can be used to create, store, and organize your notes. There are similar applications out there, but Evernote is one of the more popular and widely used apps. It is available for Windows, Macs, and most mobile devices. I had found myself with many notes sprawled all over my desk, in notebooks, and in digital documents. It was challenging at times to find information when I needed it, which became time consuming. I wanted to be better organized.

In Evernote, I set up a number of “notebooks”, which provided me places to store similar types of notes for easy retrieval. I’ve taken notes that have accumulated on the desk, in notebooks and note pads, and on sticky notes and entered them into Evernote. I’ve also tagged my notes with custom tags which make it even easier to organize my notes. As I have thought of new ideas for future blogs, I create a note in my Blog Ideas notebook with my initial thoughts for the blog and what I want to include in the blog. This has given me a starting point for creating my blogs.

Evernote will also allow you to add screenshots, audio notes, photos, reminders, and lists. A feature that I really enjoy is the Web Clipper, which allows me to save web pages to Evernote. This is an add-on you can install on your web browser.  If you have the mobile app installed, you can access the Web Clipper through the use of the Share feature. I tend to find articles, web pages, and other information on-line that I want to reference later. In the past, I would either print out the document and put it on a stack on my desk or save it as a PDF to file it in a folder. Now, when I am on a web page that I want to save, I can click on an icon in Google Chrome which will bring up a pop-up box which allows me to save it. I can select the format (article, simplified article, full web page, bookmark, or screenshot), choose which notebook I want to save it in, and add any tags that I want to associate with the article or web page. There are also special formats available if you are saving an Amazon page or a YouTube page. This makes finding the information easier.

The data is stored in the cloud, allowing you to access the information from multiple devices. I can access and work on my information whether I use my laptop PC, iPhone, or iPad.

Evernote comes at different levels: Basic (a free version), Plus ($2.99/month), and Premium ($5.99/month). I started with the Basic version, which allows 60MB of uploaded data. As I started to capture more information (especially saving articles), I upgraded to the Plus version, which allows me 1GB of new uploads a month, offline access to my notes, and saving e-mails into Evernote. The Premium version allows 10GB of new uploads a month and other advanced features for the power user. Evernote also supports integration with certain other applications.

Whatever your needs are, Evernote can help you to better organize your information. If you do currently use Evernote, please share your experience with it or if you use another similar app, let us know about it.