My list of recommended must-have WordPress plugins. I have these plugins installed across all of my blogs and WordPress instances, no doubt about it.

• Google Analyticator puts Google Analytics tracking information on your WordPress site to track clicks, search keywords, time on site, etc. You need a Google Analytics account for this.
• Google Sitemap Generator generates an XML sitemap to help boost search engine traffic
• WordPress Database Backup backs up your MySQL database to server and email
• WordPress Backup backs up your theme, plugins and uploads to server and email
• Lightbox 2 to elegantly display images
• WP Contact Form to embed a contact form into your blog
• Wordbook to automatically cross-post blog entries to your Facebook profile
• …and of course Akismet, which comes with WordPress by default, to fight spam comments

Newly released WordPress 3.0 is looking both beautiful (new default theme) and functional (batch updates, custom menus, custom post types, contextual help). I’m going to upgrade one of my blogs right now!

New features of WordPress 3.0 include:

• Admin features
  • Set your admin name to whatever you like
  • Unified updating – update WordPress, plugins and themes in batch, in one place
  • Contextual help on every screen
• New default theme “Twenty Ten”
  • New look
  • Custom backgrounds
  • Custom header images
• Custom menu system
  • Mix and match pages, categories, custom links
  • Reorder menu items, create submenus, rename titles
  • Sidebar widget to match
• Custom post types
• Built-in shortlink generator
• Update a network of sites from a single WordPress installation

UPDATE: Upgrades ran smoothly. Even batch-updated my plugins.

Looks snazzy. But multi-tasking — only now? And still no Flash support? Hmm… I’ll stick to my Nexus One, gracias amigos.

A friend asked me for advice on apps he should download to his new Android phone and I responded with a long-winded, 27-bullet reply (a last-minute addition to this blog post makes 28). Here it is.

100% vital (and FREE) apps:

• Owner – Show  contact information on your lock screen
• Battery Indicator – Puts an exact percentage of battery remaining in the top left notification bar
• Advanced Task Killer – Android phones allow multi-tasking, unlike the iPhone which only allows 1 program to be used at a time, so some programs run in the background and waste your phone’s available memory. Use this app to “kill” all running tasks by the push of a button. Dont forget to put vital apps (ie: Battery Indicator) on the “ignore” list so that they continue to the run in the background.
• Google Voice – If you have a Google Voice account, you can set it up on your phone to transcribe and play all of your voicemails right to your phone

Good to have:

• Digital Clock – Put a big digital clock on the home screen
• Facebook – Decent app for FB
• gTasx – If you use Google Tasks, this is a standalone app for managing tasks (you can also point your browser to the mobile Tasks page but I like the app)
• Personal Assistant – Check all of your bank and credit card accounts from one app
• Sound Manager – You can schedule your ringer, alarm & media volume by time (ie: mute ringer from 9am-5pm while at work, etc)
• Kayak – Find airline flights on your phone
• Amazon – Amazon shopping app
• PayPal – If you use PayPal a lot, this is a good app to monitor your usage and send money
• Google Reader – To read your Google Reader RSS feeds
• Listen – For podcasts
• Stopwatch – Decent stopwatch app

Cool apps:

• Google Sky – Points out the constellations in the sky
• Pandora – I use this app for internet radio every morning in the shower
• Ringdroid – If you want to edit mp3s to make your own ringtones
• Shazam – Hold it up to your car speakers and it’ll tell you what song is playing
• Tube Downloader – Download YouTube videos right to your phone (awesome)

Other Essential Android Tips

• If you hold your finger down on an empty area of your home screen, you can install widgets or add quick-dial shortcuts, bookmarks, etc, right to the desktop of your phone. You can even create folders to hold shortcuts to apps that you specify.
• Keep GPS turned OFF to save your battery life
• Check all of your apps to make sure that sync’ing is done every hour or more, instead of every 15 minutes (to save battery life)
• I even keep Wifi off to save battery, and only turn it on when I need it
• Go to Settings > Location & Security to set an unlock pattern for your phone
• Go to Settings > Language & Keyboard > Android Keyboard to “vibrate on keypress” — it helps with typing
• Get a minimum 4gb microSD card to hold music on your phone
• If you’re on a Mac, download DoubleTwist onto your Mac to sync your iTunes playlists to your phone

“Dear Friendster,

Please add a ‘Website’ field to our Friendster profiles. RSS is great, but c’mon!

Mary”

This error message made me so depressed yesterday. Sigh.

http://www.google.com/phone

I got an email from the guys at Friendster thanking me for being a part of the “thriving” Friendster community. That line made me smile for the irony of the word in quotes but also because I hadn’t logged into Friendster for possibly 2-3 years since they dropped the ball in providing a usable social networking experience.

But the email said a “new and improved” Friendster had arrived and it’s easier to use, more fun, more colorful, faster, has easier commenting and photo-sharing, provides profile skins and a new ‘gift shop’. Ok, I’ll bite, I said to myself and I clicked a link in the email to check it out.

And then I got a broken link:

Friendster FAIL.