No broadband available? Let Connected Tennessee know

Connected Tennessee, which tracks (and sometimes publishes maps of) broadband access, wants citizens to go to bit.ly/TNBBStat to help correct their list of where broadband is and isn't available. That site will show you a list of providers which Connected Tennessee has serving your location. If the list is wrong, you will go to bit.ly/TNBBInquiry to provide correct information.

"We are excited to work together with Tennesseans sharing a common goal to ensure the most accurate portrayal of broadband availability possible," says Connected Tennessee's executive director, Michael Ramage, in a news release. "We will be able to utilize this data to inform broadband providers and community leaders about unserved areas, population density, and existing service; all with a goal of bringing broadband to the communities in Tennessee that are on the wrong side of the digital divide. We welcome your feedback and look forward to continuing to connect Tennesseans with all the benefits afforded by a high-speed connection."

If you can't access the web site, you can call (866) 881-9423 to participate.

* If you use client software to access Twitter -- that is, if you use a program like TweetDeck or Twhirl on your computer or an app on your mobile phone rather than just going to Twitter's home page on your web browser -- you may have noticed some problems. Twitter changed the way that such applications log you into your account last week, and a few programs -- such as TouchTwit, the mobile phone app I had been using -- did not keep up with the change, meaning that users of those programs could not log in at all.

If you've had any problems, check with your software's web site to see if an update is available. If not, you may simply need to switch to a different client. The good news is that there are plenty of them out there.

* Speaking of mobile phone apps, the Netted By The Webbys daily e-mail newsletter (netted.net), which I've mentioned here numerous times before, has a link to Lookout (mylookout.com), a smartphone app that serves as an antivirus program, an online data backup service and a tracking program for your cell phone. You can use it to find your cell phone's location, to cause your phone to "scream" (either as an aid in finding it or to dissuade thieves) and to remotely erase all personal information if you believe your phone has been stolen.

The existing product is a free download, but the company makes reference to a premium product which will be available soon. The installation program says it's recommended that you be on an unlimited data plan to use the software.

* By the time my column about GMail's calling feature was published last week, Google had already announced a new feature for its free e-mail service -- priority inbox. GMail, like many other e-mail services, already has filters to identify unwanted SPAM e-mails and shunt them off into a SPAM filter. The priority inbox uses that same type of technology to make an educated guess about which messages are most important to you, so that it can display them at the very top of your inbox. This is most useful, of course, for those who receive high volumes of e-mail each day.

Factors used by the software to determine which e-mails are prioritized might include whether the e-mail is part of an ongoing conversation, whether you're the only recipient, and so on. The program is supposed to become more effective over time as you correct its mistakes and tell it which types of e-mail you consider high priority.

The feature is optional; you don't have to turn it on if it doesn't sound like something that would benefit you, for example if you only get a few e-mails a day.

Unfortunately, when the feature was first rolled out, a little video tutorial popped up which annoyed and confused some users, causing some to think their machines had been taken over by a virus. Now, I believe you have to ask for the tutorial.

If the priority inbox feature becomes popular, it will no doubt be copied by other web-based e-mail services and eventually by the makers of e-mail programs.

--John I. Carney is city editor of the Times-Gazette and covers county government. He is also the author of the self-published novel "Soapstone." His personal web site is lakeneuron.com.