I tend to sign up for anything that looks even mildly interesting, including the Useless Account.  I have found some decent online tools as a result.  All of them have free accounts.  Here are some for creating documents online that I’ve tried:

• Zoho - Similar to Google Docs but some additional features.  I like Zoho’s interface a bit more than Google Docs.  Check out Lifehacker’s comparison.
• Buzzword - A word processing tool from Adobe.  Buzzword is a fully-featured word processor that aims to give the user a desktop-like experience.  Really fancy interface.  Here’s a review.
• Writer - Writer is an online version of the distraction-free Writeroom.  Nothing fancy…just type.
• Gliffy - Great for creating Visio-like diagrams.  You can export to SVG which Visio can read, too.
• Writewith - Aimed at collaborative writing.  Chat and version history of documents are really neat.

Leopard has been out for a few weeks now, and there have been plenty of reviews. I upgraded, and have no regrets, but I have found that the only real advantage I am seeing is the performance boost. I have a MacBook Pro 2.16 Core Duo with 2GB of RAM and have experienced about a 30% speed increase overall. Programs launch quicker, boot time is reduced, and the system is more responsive overall.

What about all the other new features? I tried Spaces and couldn’t get used to it. I’ve tried VirtueDesktops in the past, which is similar to Spaces, but didn’t find it really increased my productivity.

As for Time Machine, it’s an awesome feature for those who don’t already make regular backups, or who have lots of documents that they update regularly. I back my computer up every week or so using SuperDuper, which creates a bootable image of your computer on an external drive. I’ve read that Time Machine can do this too, but SuperDuper has worked for me for a few years now. As for document versioning, I don’t really have that many documents that I update, and hardly ever feel the need to get back to a previous version.

The updated Finder with CoverFlow is pretty slick, though I can’t see any reason to browse regular documents using CoverFlow. I have been using it to go through pictures and video though.

There are many other features (around 300) in Leopard that I haven’t mentioned, but the major ones Apple is pushing don’t really apply to me. That being said, the performance boost was well worth the money.

Check out Lifehacker’s Leopard articles for more info.

In a previous post I talked about the online to-do list manager Remember The Milk.  The folks at RTM have teamed up with Jott which means you can call your tasks in and they’ll show up automatically in your RTM inbox.  This feature is only available on RTM pro accounts, but in my opinion it’s well worth the $25/year for this feature as well as the iPhone app.  And of course, supporting the developers.