I've come across some pretty useful tools that I find myself using a lot lately.  Some of these work great especially if you have an iPhone because they sync up and keep things streamlined.  So.. Here we go in no particular order.

Twitter

Ok, so this one isn't "lately" and it's pretty obvious but, I love how Twitter fills in the gaps and helps people stay connected.  Do people really care what you're eating for breakfast?  Probably not, but it's cool knowing you're eating your cereal while I'm sitting here having a breakfast burrito.  And besides, Twitter truly has moved beyond the mundane and inane and become a viable form of communication.  If you're not Twittering or Tweeting, you should be.  If you already do, let me know.

I use Twittleator on the iPhone and Tweetdeck on my laptop.  Also check out Twitpic.  Some people you really want to follow are...

Mariadelpilar
Mr. Kimlin
Rainn Wilson
Jimmy Fallon
MC Hammer
Ragamuffin Soul

 

Evernote

Some people like paper and pen.  I just can't do it.  If I had it my way, I'd scan and file all my hard copy items digitally.  I just don't have the time.  Evernote is an incredible note taking tool.  I actually prefer Journler on my MacBook but what makes Evernote so much more appealing is that is syncs wirelessly and almost instanlty with the Evernote app on my iPhone.  And they are both free.

With the Evernote app on both the iPhone and desktop, you can record voice notes, take and store pictures, generate clippings from the web... there are a lot of useful functions.  Of course, you can set up a folder structure and all of that stays synced as well across both platforms.  I find myself using this more and more.

 

drop.io

I actually came across this one tonight but it's so packed with features, I know I'll be using it.  Basically, drop.io is an online drop box that you can share with others or not.  It's extremely intuitive and so easy to access.  It's also very flexible.  You can upload to your drop... email to your drop... MMS to your drop... even fax to your drop.

They actually give you a telephone number where people can leave a voicemail message and it shows up in MP3 form in your drop.  You also get a personal conference call line where multiple parties can call in and chat.  All you have to do is schedule it and give out the number.  The best part is that all of this is free.  You only get 100MB of free storage but that's enough to get you started.  If you want more, it's only $10 per GB per year.

And yes... there is an iPhone app called Droppler. Haven't tried it yet but I did just drop (no pun intended) the $1.99 for this one.

I've setup a couple of different "drops" but you can find my public one here.  I'll be using the Firefox plugin to drop stuff in there that I come across but it's not worth actually blogging about.  The best part is that you can drop stuff in there as well.  So go ahead... send me the best and most interesting stuff you're coming across.