At Oozil, our philosophy of collaboration, creativity, and commerce means we love gadgets –especially gadgets that help us collaborate better, create more inventively, and earn more. After all, that’s why Oozil was created in the first place.

The iPhone is not just a toy for techies. With the right apps, it can also be a tool in your arsenal of creativity. We’re not talking about virtual lighters here, but real tools to organize you and inspire you. These are some of the best:

Print & Share

Our favorite part of this iPhone app is the “share” part.  With this handy tool, users can easily print out information from their iPhone to a printer. Anything from your phone contact numbers to web pages and photos can be printed out straight from your phone itself, to get it into the hands of potential clients ASAP.

Photogene

The iPhone can be tricky to shoot with, so if there’s anything a photographer needs it’s a photo-editing application. Photogene has a huge range of editing tools, and it scores points for being easy to use, so even if photos are your sideline, you can edit like a pro.

Brushes

If you doubt that anyone can do any real, serious creative work on an iPhone, you need to read about Jorge Colombo. Colombo created a cover for the highly-selective New Yorker earlier this year using the Brushes app, while waiting in line at Madame Tussaud’s.

TED

Those familiar with TED already know the level of inspiration at the conference that features lectures by “the world’s leading thinkers and doers.” This app lets you view high quality video of the entire TED archive of geniuses in technology, entertainment, science, business and global issues.

Reel Director

The brilliant geeks at Gizmodo say “This is as close as you’re going to get to iMovie on your iPhone.” The  video editing app lets you stitch together clips, add opening and closing credits, search within video clips, and preview your work with new editing applied, all while you’re waiting in line for movie tickets.

Read it Later

Anyone who works in a creative world knows the importance of keeping up with reading, whether it’s news about your field, insightful tips from a successful competitor, or an inspiring novel. Read it Later allows you to save pages to read anytime, and it works even without an Internet connection. You’ll never lack for airplane reading material.

Shozu

Social connections are important to creative workers more than ever. Shozu makes networking a one-step process, allowing you to transfer content from your phone directly to 30 different sites, including YouTube,Flickr and Facebook. It saves money too: you’re only charged for sending one message.

Cleartune

Even musicians can benefit from the technology of the iPhone with an app that’s beautiful in its simplicity. This chromatic instrument tuner and pitch pipe uses your phone’s built-in mic to fine-tune just about any instrument that sustains a tone: guitars, strings, brass, woodwinds and pianos, for starters.

You’ve got an Internet connection on that phone –why not bookmark Oozil today? We’ll keep our eye on what’s happening while you keep creating your best work.

By Elizabeth Kelly

Today, the possibilities for creative collaboration are light years away from what they were even just a decade ago. With new apps like Google Wave, and websites like Oozil providing a whole suite of free tools for collaborative communication, it’s almost counter-intuitive to work alone anymore.

Some of the greatest talents and minds in history have always known the power of working on a team. For example:

John Lennon and Paul McCartney

Almost anyone of any age knows the songs of the Beatles, and the groups two main songwriters undoubtedly represent one of the most successful music collaborations in history. Over a period of just seven years, between 1962-69, they published around 180 songs written collaboratively. Unlike many other music partnerships, Lennon and McCartney each wrote both music and lyrics.

Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro

While Hollywood partnerships usually last about as long as Hollywood marriages, director Martin Scorsese and actor Robert De Niro have made a total of nine films together, and their partnership is ongoing. Their projects include some of the undisputed greatest films of all time, including Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Casino. Their collaboration is well into its fourth decade with the recent announcement of The Winter of Frankie Machine.

Ellery Queen

If you’re not familiar with Ellery Queen, chances are your parents or grandparents are. In a series of novels that spanned 42 years, Ellery Queen was one of the most successful mystery writers of all time, transitioning from popular books to radio, TV, and movies. The name was the pseudonym of two writers, Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee, whose collaboration was so effortless, they only needed one name.

Coco Chanel and Pierre Wertheimer

Great collaborations don’t always have to involve two creative types. Sometimes they just require one creative type and a benefactor who recognizes the other person’s genius. Such was the case with fashion designer Coco Chanel, who benefited from theWertheimer’s expertise on commerce as well as his capital to launch Chanel perfumes. While the deal later went sour, working with Wertheimer ultimately made Chanel a very famous and very rich woman.

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield

Sometimes it helps if you’re already best friends. In 1978, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield opened an ice cream shop in an old gas station in downtown Vermont, after learning ice cream making through a correspondence course –the early version of learning it online. You now know them as the names on your carton of Ben & Jerry’s

Larry Page and Sergey Brin

Though some say they disagreed about almost everything on their first meeting at Stanford University, Larry and Sergey quickly became friends. Cramming their dorm room with cheap computers and armed with Brin’s data mining system, they ultimately used a rented garage to start up what ultimately became Google.

What do all these great collaborations have to do with Oozil? Everything. Enabling collaborative work is one of the driving forces of Oozil, and you can be part of it. With Oozil’s tools, you can find the Lennon to your McCartney, or the Larry to your Sergey, without even leaving home.

Oozil’s got your ticket to ride.

By Elizabeth Kelly

What’s new in the world of technology is the same thing as what’s new in the world of Oozil. When a new company is on the cutting edge of creativity and communication like Oozil is, it all ties together. Here’s what I mean:

Google Previews Google Wave

Search engine titan Google premiered an invitation-only beta version of its new Wave application recently, introducing a new service designed for collaborative work that the company believes represents the next generation of Internet communication. The web-based product will merge emails, IMs, wikis and social networking into one, allowing for real time communication and collaboration.

How is Google’s news big news for Oozil? Because, as Oozil guru Lee Epstein can’t help noticing, it’s “exactly one of the premises Oozil is being designed around.” Oozil’s tools for creating revenue streams will include cloud applications, video conferencing, advanced IM and email, and that’s just the beginning of the list of services Oozil will offer its members.

Oozil is proof that new ideas in collaborative communication aren’t exclusive to that other company with the funny name.

R.I.P. Email

Is email dead? That’s what the Wall Street Journal thinks. A recent column by writer Jessica E. Vascellaro called “Why Email No Longer Rules” says that email’s reign as the king of communication is now over. She cites networking sites like Twitter and Facebook as more relevant to the way we use technology now: “…Email was better suited to the way we used to use the Internet—logging off and on, checking our messages in bursts. Now, we are always connected, whether we are sitting at a desk or on a mobile phone.

M. Siegler, writing for the weblog Tech Crunch , agrees, but he believes Vascellero shortchanges Google Wave in her praise of other new communication technologies like Twitter, saying that we “want the option to communicate in real-time at will, but also the ability to communicate at our leisure at times.” In other words, we desire a new, more flexible method of communication, such as Google Wave.

Siegler’s most interesting assessment comes at the end of his essay, when he says: “Whether Google Wave succeeds is really irrelevant. More important is if the idea of Wave does.”

Oozil already knows that the ideas behind the new app are the way of the future, and we’re ready to let people use and benefit from creative collaboration in our own unique way. Is email dead? Oozil doesn’t care, because we know it hardly matters. The new wave is here.

Are you ready to ride the wave of the next generation of communication? Or will you be left behind? Join the Oozil community, and be part of the revolution.

By Elizabeth Kelly

The other day I was chatting with Lee Epstein, one of the Oozil gurus, about some of the incredible tools Oozil will be providing for its members: cloud applications, large memory allocation, a super-high-tech email and IM system, and a virtual portfolio, among other features. One of the tools that stood out to me was the mention of “video conferencing.” As a longtime writer, I’m always giddy about anything that can improve my work options (which translates into more money.)

I’ve grown accustomed to needing little more than a laptop, a printer, and an Internet connection, though. What could someone like me, or any other creative person, do with video conferencing? I’ve done some sleuthing, and now I can’t wait to use it. These are just some of the things you can do:

1) Brainstorm in real time. The biggest downside to email is the time lag. Even though we’ve come to think of it as instant, it’s far from it. A brainstorming session thrives on spontaneity, and one idea generating another before there is time to pause. With video conferencing, brainstorming can work like it’s meant to, with a quick, free exchange of ideas.

2) Collaborate. A few weeks ago, I wrote about the magic that can happen when creative masterminds collaborate the right way . Video conferencing makes it possible for great minds from anywhere in the world to come together on one project, regardless of their other commitments and without the travel expense.

3) Be crystal clear. Frequent message board and email users are all familiar with the perception of “tone.” It’s easy for someone reading your message to misunderstand your intention, simply because they can’t read your emotions correctly. With video conferencing, clients or collaborators will know when you have a sense of urgency, or you’ll know when they seem confused. If there’s a sense of excitement about a project, that will be communicated too, and the result will be infectious.

4) Share documents. Sure, you could always use a fax machine, but that’s like using stone age equipment when you’re working on a collaborative creative project. For example, with video conferencing, let’ s say you’re working on a logo design, and your client /partner doesn’t like the style. You could actually re-sketch it on the spot and display it for instant feedback, without waiting for the clunky fax to do its work. We’re talking about mere seconds.

5) Learn. Need a tutorial on how to use a new high-tech piece of equipment? Wish you had someone to show you a certain art technique? You don’t need to attend a class or even leave your house. Video conferencing can be used as a way for one person to share their know-how with anyone, and they can actually demonstrate their expertise right in front of you.

Are you sold yet? I am. Video conferencing is yet one more way the world is getting smaller, and the best of minds from all over the world can meet together. Who knows what the result will be? I can’t wait to find out.

by Elizabeth Kelly

Do you have any experience with video conferencing? How has it changed the way you work? Or, how do you plan to use it once Oozil puts the tools in your hands?

We’ve all heard it said that too many cooks spoil the broth. Experience tells us that the cliché is quite often true. It’s not just broth-making, either. You could also say that too many painters spoil the masterpiece, or that too many writers spoil the movie. If you need a case in point, look to a film that employed a staggering thirty-two writers for its screenplay: The Flintstones. I probably don’t have to remind you how many Oscar nominations it received.

In contrast, screenplays that are written by one person alone are some of the best in the field. The Piano by Jane Campion, American Beauty by Alan Ball, Almost Famous by Cameron Crowe: what would have been the terrible result if thirty-one more writers had put their grubby hands on these scripts?

It probably appears that I’m making a case for creators to work alone. I’m not. These examples represent two extremes. Some good movies had several writers (Gone With the Wind had fifteen), and some singular visions are lucky to have even been made (anything by Ed Wood, Jr.)

The truth is that splendid things can happen when great minds collaborate. In 1954, a movie was made based on Cornell Woolrich’s noir short story “It Had to Be Murder.” John Michael Hayes single-handedly turned it into a screenplay. Grand master Hitchcock directed it, and Jimmy Stewart starred. The result: Rear Window, which received four Academy Award nominations and is #48 on AFI’s list of the best films ever made.

Do you see the difference in this kind of collaboration and the Flintstone’s kind? Rear Window’s collaborators weren’t all working on the same part of the machine, like the writers all unsuccessfully tinkering on the same film script. Each person had one job, and they did it singularly well, whether they were acting, writing, or directing. Several minds played to their unique strengths and culminated in a film masterpiece.

You might think that you work best alone. You may even be right. There’s nothing wrong with writing your novel, sketching your illustrations, or composing your music completely by yourself if you need to. But what might happen if you let another creative person add a new layer once your product is finished? What would your novel look like with illustrations? What would your painting look like if it were animated? How would your music sound as the background of a short film?

The key to successful collaboration lies not in several people all trying to do the same job, but in each person bringing their own brand of creativity, in their own way, to the project to make a single stunning product. Give it a try. The result could be the next Rear Window.

Of course you could always stick it out alone and try for the next Plan 9 From Outer Space. It’s your call.

by Elizabeth Kelly

Oozil aims to connect creative people of all types. The beginning of your successful collaboration could start here. Questions? Comments? We’re anxious to hear what you think.