• Google Apps for Domains – KEPT - Oh heck yes.  I can’t stress this enough.  Even if you don’t get a website, you owe it to your company, your clients, and everyone else to use this product.  This includes Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Sites, etc. all on your own domain name.
• IWantSandy – DROPPED - I can’t make it work.  I’ve tried.  I want to like her, but she doesn’t deal with my iPhone (won’t recognize my email) and she’s not accessible.  She’s not a calendar, not a to-do list… she’s just not.
• RememberTheMilk – KEPT - LOVE is a good word.  RTM has two or three features that I can’t get enough of.
• Highrise – KEPT - Can’t beat an amazing contact manager that allows me to keep notes and collaborate.  We use it at work, at home, and in various organizations that I am a part of.  Especially helpful for our class reunion coming up.
• Jott – KEPT - Limited usage, but amazing for making things work on the road.  Walk out of a meeting with a client, hop in the car, call Jott, send a text, add an event, etc.  It just works.
• GrandCentral – KEPT - I kept it, but for a different reason.  I’m not going to use it for myself – I’m going to use it for my Lodge, which doesn’t have a phone.  This way we can list our phone number and have voicemail at no cost.  I would have gotten a new one for them (Since my digits rock so hard) but alas, invites are CLOSED.  So sad.
• SplashUp – Dropped - I can’t get away from Photoshop.  Too much experience, too much flexibilty.  It would be nice if there was an API to make it interact with your sites that need photos uploaded, but to a certain size.
• Twitter – Added - Interesting concept, we’ll see how it works out.  It’s fun to use, but I don’t know my long term investment.

I’ve already been playing with some available .de domains. I thought about the .us domain, but a quick Google search told me that someone beat me to the punch. Search for “Words that end us” and see if you can find any of those words as domains.

What am I talking about? del.icio.us has started something in the collective consciousness of internet users – you don’t HAVE to have a very distinct extension to have a memorable domain name. .me and .de (and others) will provide ample oppurtunity to get awesome, memorable, and hopefully top-level domains. All we have to do is get Google and Yahoo! to ignore periods in domains. (maybe they already do?)

Well, as we’ve talked about earlier, I use a couple of Web2.0 apps – but I’m adding one to enhance some others. Enter Jott. I’d read about it, but until you check it out, you just don’t get it.

Sandy and Remember the Milk both integrate seamlessly in to Jott. That means that my wife is now #2 on my speed dial list.

Since the makers of the iPhone didn’t deem it neccesary to add a To-Do list to the primary application list, and since I run 1.0.12 and therefore can’t jailbreak, and since 3rd Party Apps are still pushed out till 1st Qtr of 2008, the ability to utilize these Apps by just dialing a toll-free number comes as close to blowing your mind as we can get in this “I’ve seen it all” society of ours. As Lisa Simpson would say… “Meh.”

Or, maybe I should be quoting Neo. “Whoa.”

Also, if you haven’t heard yet… Remember the Milk released a Gmail Firefox Plugin.

My dream is this: I want to be able to create new, clean “web2.0″ inspired themes for Joomla quickly and easily. I have considered using V5WebMarketing.com as a platform for development, but, once again, I have little time for that.

Editor’s Note: I know that “Web2.0″ is not a style, but it kinda is… it’s just so fresh and clean and stuff.

For now, there’s the option of using Barry North’s Joomla 1.5 CSS Template Tutorial and start from there. I still personally don’t understand the whole concept of correctly formatting my modules. I know the 0,-1,-2 options (kinda) and I think -2 will set it to display table-less, but I somehow get hung up there.

I’m down to basically my FTP client and Photoshop. Photoshop may fade fast now that SplashUp is here.

Unless I feel like playing GTA:VC or one of the other quickly aging games on my PC, then everything I do is online. I’ve already inundated you with tales of Google’s superiority, and I know there are things that I do on the computer that are different that the vast majority of people surfing the web. I do graphic design and web development and design. I use a metric buttload of RSS feeds on Reader.

Right now, my PC functions as nothing more than a storage facility for files like digital pictures and music files.

I recognize the fact that I am not a “typical” computer user anymore, but I think I’m actually adopting the usage that the next generation will take for granted. I also think that the Web2 mentality is what has caused Microsoft so much trouble with Vista. More and more we find that it’s not what’s on our computer, but what is on the web. Increasing access to knowledgeable developers with shared platforms and increasingly followed web standards (not to mention the incredible influence of the Open Source community) leads us to web apps that do things we never even thought to want for. Take Sandy for example. From any email accessible device I can send my “personal assistant” an email that says “Remember Mom’s Birthday 12/24/07 @yealry” and each year from now on Sandy will remind me via email and SMS to get it taken care of.

Not to beat a dead horse, but my iphone, (mine as soon as I get it) already breaks the mold in most cases by relying on webapps (especially if you jailbreak) to do so many things. I was telling a colleague the other day about why he might consider an iPhone over a blackberry despite the cost difference. The biggest reason for me is that I’m using many of the same apps on the iPhone as on my computer – any computer for that matter – and I’m not locked in to Outlook or any other specific piece of software (besides iTunes).

I’m tired of being locked in. In looking at the business the other day I realized that we rested upon a nasty little precipice. We have the two most important functions of the business locked in to proprietary software (well, I just don’t like the hoops you have to jump through with QuickBooks). It scares me. Now I’m merging my personal and business contacts in to Highrise and teaching Joe (Dad/Boss) how to manage his customer relations through that.

A little later I’m going to be writing about what software is need for my industry, and how it relates to software development in the future. Oh, and is it really software? Stay tuned…

What are your favorite Web2.0 Apps?