Here’s the last installment on the technology series:

An area where I will be sticking with the paid versions is Groove.  What, you don”™t know what Groove is?  You need to.  Groove is a collaboration software tool that comes in the new Office 07 suite.  I can create multiple workspaces, invite who I want to them, assign permissions and begin sharing any sort of document with whomever I want (of course, they must also own and install Groove).  If they make changes to the document, it synchronizes the doc for any who are a part of the workspace.  You can even create files on your desktop to be “Grooved” and share those files with those you want so that you don”™t have to recreate or upload files to a separate workspace.  The only problem with this is that the 64 bit version of Groove does not work with Vista and Microsoft has no plans to make it work. Go figure.  This was a major bummer for me.  For pastoral ministry this has become invaluable.  Our pastoral team collaborates with one of our members who actually puts up a copy of the bulletin each week and we all add our two cents.  I do this also with our Sunday School bulletin, PowerPoint presentations, and a vast array of documents I want to share with others.  I looked into Zoho”™s Sharepoint-like site, but it simply was not as easy to use or set up.  Groove has been a pleasure to use.

What about note taking?  When Office 07 came out I became hooked to One Note.  However, I think the free stuff is better here.  I really love using Evernote.  Not only can it import all my OneNote files, its UI is excellent and easy to navigate, and it is very fast in finding the information I want.  Furthermore, it synchronizes with the web-based server, so I have access to all my notes wherever I have an internet connection.  Also, since I use an iPhone, the free Evernote application makes all my notes accessible on my phone is an awesome looking and easy to use platform.  I can also add a one click add-on to Firefox to clip anything to Evernote from any web-page I”™m browsing.  I did look at Google”™s notebook, but it simple does not seem to have the power that Evernote does.  Did I mention that Evernote is free?  It is better than what you can pay for ““ not merely comparable.

Let me point you to one other free app that, in my opinion, beats out the alternatives.  Picasa.  Download this one to your desktop.  It is for the PC what iPhoto is for the Mac (mostly).  All of your photos are accessed by Picasa (you don”™t have to import them like the Vista photo app or iPhoto).  You can easily arrange and share photos.  I have made a number of slideshow videos with music and uploaded them to YouTube from Picasa.  Because Picasa is part of the Google family, you can upload your albums to the web and a slick and easy iPhone app exists also (Blackberry also has a Picasa app).

What about video conferencing?  I”™ve tried three different apps:  Skype, ooVoo, and TokBox.  Out of the three I”™m sticking with Skype.  While ooVoo and TokBox will allow you to have up to three people on the video conference (for the free versions), I have not had good experiences with either of them ““ very buggy and losing the connection frequently.  Skype works all the time.  When I”™m away from home or at the office for a very long day, I will Skype Kel and the kids.  On Easter Sunday morning, our Sunday School class did a Skype call with a missionary in Colombia ““ very cool and edifying.  It was simple to set up, project to a wall in our classroom.  We had probably 40 people in the class and did about a 7 minute call.  Awesome.  I”™m looking forward to doing this with our entire congregation.  And once again, it is free.

One other free app that I have begun using is Dropbox.  Dropbox is free for 2GB worth of space and will allow you to upload any and all folders and documents you want.  Download the program to a second (or third or fourth . . .) computer ““ or access it from the web and you will have instant access to your documents and they will be kept in sync with any of your changes.

So, there”™s my evaluation of the world of the free.  For serious work, you”™ll probably need to stick with a few paid apps.  But the world of the free has a number of significant offerings that actually begin to eclipse the expensive stuff.

I would love to hear what other apps you find most helpful.

Now, after all that, we really need to answer the issue of Mac vs PC.