A SOFT VIBRATION on my desk told me I should look at something sent to me via an Android application so I stopped typing on my laptop and swiped down on my Xperia X10 handset to see what was cooking. The X10's Tweetcaster app told me about a conversation I was monitoring. It offered me a vibrating nudge before Seesmic alerted on my desktop. Because of its tendency to offer me early alerts to business-related items, I now consider my Android phone the equivalent of a third monitoring system. Besides being reliable, it's very mobile. The most common alerts are from updates to newsfeeds via News Rob, Tweetcaster mentions, Vark questions, and free changes to software I've downloaded from the Android Market. I'm using the summer months to tweak my X10's long range radar so that I can see updates students make to continuous assessment material. I want to set up free and reliable alerts to blog posts, social bookmarks, music tracks, and calendar events. After a month of toying around with various settings, I have to say that the flexibility availed by several different programs I've found in the Android Market is delivering a very smart experience to alongside my laptop mouse and in my shirt pocket.My X10 at work.
