Keeping Up With Technology

Seriously, how does one stay on top of what's going on in the tech world while still actually getting real work done? It's definitely easier said than done. There are websites upon websites that have different feeds of information, all of which could have stories and news relative to my interests or even potential client needs. Staying on top of things can be taxing but it doesn't always have to be. Here are a few ways I stay up-to-date on the news.

Summify

This is definitely one of the better tools out there for aggregating news. Hands down more functional than Paper.li auto-tweets. (It's actually my belief that God kills a kitten every time a " _____ Daily is Out!" tweet is published). Summify aggregates all of my Twitter news and delivers the top five stories to my Twitter feed via a daily morning email. It rocks and helps give me a snapshot of the news my social circle found important the day before.

It's not perfect. From time to time there are a few glitches to where I'll get three of the same story in my morning read, just from different websites. Personally, I'd like to see five different stories. I reached out to Summify about this and they said it was an issue they were trying to fix. Since then, the rate in which I get the same story in one email has decreased a lot.

Pulse

It's honestly just a glorified Google Reader but a lot easier on the eyes than Google Reader itself. This is one mobile app that I couldn't live without and whenever I get a tablet (because I'm sure I will at some point) it'll be the first thing I download. I've talked about Pulse before on here but it's worth bringing up again. If I'm ever in one of those awkward waiting-in-line or "I have a compulsion to pull my phone out and check something" type of moments, it's a great tool to check up on something new and share that news from right within the app. Love it. My favorite reader out there right now.

Twitter Lists

I've started using Tweetdeck as my 3rd party Twitter app of choice and have found that having different lists of people who consistently share relevant content is an easy way to filter out what you want to read and other Twitter noise. I haven't completely built my lists out to the extent that I would like yet but I currently have lists of tech news Twitter handles (TechCrunch, TheNextWeb, Verge etc), friends from our house church here in Atlanta and then of course a list of all the tech geeks here at Engauge. Which leads me to my next source:

Work at Engauge

If there's anything new out there that I haven't heard about, the chances of somebody sitting around our office knowing it are pretty good. We are currently using Diigo as a group to contribute interesting articles and news to help keep each other on top of what's going on in our world of work. In addition, our creative department has started a new blog of creative fodder, sources of cool creative blends of technology and creativity that serve as sources of inspiration for future work. That one post a day that the creative group curates is awesome and a good way to help my mind shift gears for a few moments every day. Just being around the smart people here at this office helps me learn more about what is going on along with helping drive me to push harder and learn even more.

Your Turn

So that's how I attempt to keep the technology firehose at bay. What are some of the ways you keep tabs on new tech news?