Peter Bregman’s approach to email is very similar to the new routine I established for myself about 2 weeks ago. And I’ll say this: after 14 days it seems to be working very well.

The whole article is an ultra-geeky rundown of all the various apps and services he uses for writing. Personally, I can’t get enough from this stuff. Since I too write for a living, I learn something new every time I read about other people’s setups.

What I especially liked was Viticci’s concluding paragraph:

In thinking about a proper conclusion for this post, it occurred to me that the best way to sum up the possibilities offered by Dropbox to writers and note-takers is this: with just a folder, you can fine-tune your workflow using the apps you prefer. It’s a liberating effect: the text is there, and it will be there no matter how many apps you try or how much you tinker.

As detailed and geeky as the Dropbox-connected-writing-apps discussion may get, it’s still just plain text files saved in a folder.

Reminds me of my high school math class.

Nothing internet-related at all, starting today:

In my wild fantasies, leaving the internet will make me better with my time, vastly more creative, a better friend, a better son and brother… a better Paul. In reality, I’ll still be the same person, just with a huge professional and personal handicap.

It sounds fun and challenging. I love his reasoning behind the trek:

Now I want to see the internet at a distance. By separating myself from the constant connectivity, I can see which aspects are truly valuable, which are distractions for me, and which parts are corrupting my very soul. What I worry is that I’m so “adept” at the internet that I’ve found ways to fill every crevice of my life with it, and I’m pretty sure the internet has invaded some places where it doesn’t belong.

Growing up, my best friend’s family and my family would do what we called “Pilgrim Month” every November. For 30 days we used electricity as little as possible (considering we lived in a suburban home). We kept the refrigerator plugged in, but otherwise we used no lights, no microwave, no stereo, no television, no computer, etc. It took only a few days to adapt, and the month was filled with much reading and playing of board games by candlelight.

There is no way I could get by without the internet for a year because my entire career is tied to the Web. Giving up the Internet would mean quitting my job.

If, however, that were not the case, the challenge and change of pace to give up the Internet for a year, or even just a month, sounds fun. It would be a lot like giving up electricity.

My thanks to The Escapers for sponsoring the RSS feed this week.

Flux 4 is the latest release of the amazing web design app by The Escapers. Users and reviewers have called it “the DreamWeaver killer” and “the designer’s holy grail.”

Version 4 introduces FreeCode which allows total code freedom, while preserving the WYSIWYG control Flux users will expect.

Full Screen support in Lion works great with the Embedded Inspector and integrated Site Manager.

Version 4 also brings support for CSS gradients, image maps, and rock solid FTP/SFTP mirroring. Flux is available direct from The Escapers or the Mac App Store.

Glenn Fleishman gives an overview of a fantastic new feature addition to Dropbox that rolled out last week:

New features rolled out Monday extend Dropbox’s reach substantially by making it possible to create a public, revokable link to any file or folder in a Dropbox sync folder. Previously, only items in a special Public folder could be shared, and the links couldn’t be canceled; the item had to be moved out of the folder.

A lot of people are asking me what keyboard rig I use with my iPad. The answer is this Origami Workstation from Incase with the Apple Bluetooth keyboard. I want a keyboard rig that doesn’t convert my iPad into a full-time laptop, but yet allows me to use it easily with a Bluetooth keyboard. This Origami Workstation is perfect.

My dilemma has been in finding a small, high-quality, good-looking, affordable bag that is just big enough to hold the iPad and the Origami along with a few white cables.

Perhaps the most difficult thing to using the iPad as a laptop is finding a case. These guys describe exactly my same situation and frustration in trying to find a case for my iPad. They’ve designed their own case which they are now kickstarting. Me? I’m still Googling for something and complaining about it on my blog.

Lots of great new features, but: Droplr support! Woohoo!

Neven Mrgan’s review of a new iOS app that scans for and automatically imports all the screenshots on your device and then gives you a whole host of options to reference and work with them.

The way iOS handles screenshots is pathetic. One of my favorite things about webOS on the HP TouchPad was how it handled screenshots. Not only did they get their own photo gallery, but they were intelligently named using the application name and date for which the screenshot was taken.

Call me a one-string fiddle, but I don’t think the iPod nano has potential as a smartwatch type of device until it gets Siri and can connect remotely to our iPhones.

On this, the 58th episode of The B&B Podcast, Ben and I talk about camping, grilling, and wallets, as well as iPad keyboard accessories which are meant to turn your iPad into a laptop.

Interesting and thought-provoking post from Jason Kottke today where he draws a relationship between the way automobiles have caused a decline in walking and the way iPhones — or, perhaps more accurately: smartphones — have cause a decline in personal conversations.

I think his concluding sentence is very accurate (I won’t quote it here because I think you should read his whole post), and it’s something for which Windows Phone and Google’s Project Glass both have done marketing campaigns to try and say that they’ve “solved” the smartphone addiction problem.

From where I’m sitting, it seems to me that the only way to be “saved” from our phones is through self-control and intentional cultivation of real-life relationships.