Most Monday mornings, I start my work day by creating a to-do list of tasks for the week ahead. But try as I might, I can't find any better tool than a pen and paper.

While I make use of electronic tools in almost every other facet of my working day, my list of tasks remains firmly stuck in the pre-digital world.

Over the years I've tried a range of alternatives that I hoped would boost my productivity by keeping me on track. I've tried simple text files containing lists of tasks and apps written specifically for the job.

When Google added tasks to Gmail I jumped at using it, thinking it might be the answer to my quest - but it wasn't to be. After a week or so of diligently logging things, I found myself once again reaching for the pen and pad. Along the way I've also tried apps such as Evernote and even Remember The Milk.

While they all offer great features, none really mapped onto the way I work. I need a place where I can log tasks as they come up, cross them off when they are completed and quickly get a feel for how I am traveling with big projects. The list also has to be instantly accessible so I can quickly remind myself of what has to be done next.

For me, the pen and pad delivers this and so remains an important tool in my daily work toolbox. But this doesn't mean I've given up the hunt for a digital alternative.

Will Australia's Galaxy S4 exclusive content deals lose more viewers than they gain?

Catch Up TV options now come built into a wide range of Australian home entertainment gear, although you shouldn't get your hopes up until you read the fine print. You'll find a wealth of content on the Seven Network's Plus7 website, but switch from your computer to a TV, Blu-ray player or PS3 and suddenly there's very little worth watching unless you're a fan of World's Funniest Police Chases or whatever reality TV crap is popular this week.

The networks like to blame broadcasts rights for such limitations, but Samsung's new content deal with Plus7 proves that where there's a will (and a big cheque book) there's a way. Samsung is going toe-to-toe with Apple in the content wars, stockpiling a wealth of content for its new AV range as well as the flagship Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 8. The Plus7 app on Samsung home entertainment gear and Android gadgets will offer 85% of the content currently available via the Plus7 website, with only a few US shows missing. That's obviously great news for Catch Up TV fans, until you realise that it's a Samsung exclusive so the rest of us miss out.

It's frustrating enough that the Foxtel Go and Quickflix Android apps are Samsung exclusives, but to withhold content from other devices which actually support Plus7 is an even bigger slap in the face to Australian viewers who are already feeling unloved by the free-to-air broadcasters. It's tempting to paint Samsung as the bad guy but, as with the Foxtel/HBO Game of Thrones deal, it's actually the content provider which is to blame here. The Seven Network agreed to the deal, rather than offering the same content to Plus7 on all devices.

Samsung's exclusive content deals might win it extra customers in the short-term, but it's also likely to drive more Australians to source their content via less legit methods. Once viewers have had a taste of BitTorrent it's hard to win them back. A smarter strategy might be for Seven to treat viewers with a little more respect and help everyone make a smooth transition to internet video, but that's just not their style.

Apologies upfront for the lack of a column last week; personal matters intervened. Now, on with the show…

I was reminded last night at the Samsung Galaxy S4 launch -- you can watch my 30s worth of opinion on it here -- that there are plenty of premium smartphones out there at the moment. Indeed, I can't think of a period where we've seen quite so many "flagship" phones launched in such a short period of time. There are differences between Android handsets, but they can be subtle, especially when you consider that it's feasible to reskin Android to be just about anything, and the scale runs from low-end phones with terrible screens to high-end models with all the bells and whistles, and a price point to match. The same is true to a lesser extent in the Windows Phone world, albeit with Nokia doing much of the jostling in terms of hitting different price points. It's even partially true in the iPhone world, albeit only because Apple keeps the previous generation iPhone around to keep the budget US market happy.

Then there's the Z10. It's not only the flagship of the BB10 world, but it's also the only BB10 device you can buy, at least until the Q10 actually launches. Even then, that's a small market offering, pitched at the premium end of the market.

After a month using the Z10, I was rather split. There are aspects of the BB10 interface that do work well, and it's at least doing something different from the rest of the pack. At the same time, though, it's very clearly a device for the information junkies in the corporate world, something that was rather heavily highlighted by Blackberry itself at the BB10 launch. Consumers won't need -- or even access -- Blackberry Balance, for example. That doesn't mean that no consumers should consider it -- indeed, there's a strong argument here that those who "just want a phone" might find the simplicity of approach quite appealing. Then again, they may very well be the market that just buys the cheapest Android handsets instead. There's absolutely nothing wrong with a phone with a specific focus, especially if it can do so well, and the Z10 does perform those basic information tasks well. For my own purposes, though, I've jumped back to Android… at least for the time being.

If you are one of the billion or so people in Australia who own a GoPro then you will know that as good as they are, there are a few drawbacks to getting the best quality imagery from them due to the nature of the beast.

These drawbacks – cause they are not really ‘faults’ – include rolling shutter errors, fisheye distortion, sensor noise, jerky footage due to movement and to a lesser degree, colour errors.
At the NAB trade fair in Las Vegas recently, German company ProDAD, released a single application called ProDRENALIN that addresses all these problems and more.

Additional functionality allows video to be rotated in case the camera had been mounted upside down, support for 4K and 2.7K resolutions, side-by-side comparison with the original and corrected footage and batch processing letting you apply correction to a large number of clips in one sitting. This latter function allows different setting to be applied to each clip in the batch as well.
ProDRENALIN is fully compatible with all GoPro Hero cameras in all supported resolutions, with the ability to import other action camera profiles.

ProDrenalin will be available beginning in May for AUD$49.00 from the proDAD online shop, and there is a pre-order special price of AUD$35.00 available now until the product begins shipping. More information is available at Auscam Online.

With all the attention devoted to cloud computing, it's easy to think it's become the normal method of operation in the business world. Reality, however, appears to be rather different.

Clouds

While most businesses now understand the benefits offered by cloud-based services and infrastructure, it's going to take a little while longer before they are fully on board with the concept.

A recent survey by analyst company Ovum found 74 per cent of IT activities within organisations are still performed by an in-house IT facility. Indeed, only 4 per cent of IT activities currently make use of cloud resources.

While this percentage is forecast to rise quickly during the next few years, it's somewhat surprising that it's still so low. This is despite massive marketing and education campaigns by vendors and extensive coverage in technology and business media.

Seems a world where the cloud is the primary technology platform for business is still a little way off.