Basecamp
Tips: Make sure your time stamps show up accurately in Basecamp. You can create an announcement that appears at the top of a project’s Overview page. The announcement can describe the project, give a special heads up, or say anything else you want people to see. The footers of Basecamp messages now show a list of everyone who is receiving the email. We also changed the way Basecamp email notifications appear in your inbox. Notification subjects will always show the name of the project in brackets at the beginning of the subject line. Maybe you’d like to set up an email filter for messages, like this one in Apple Mail:

Extras: BugDigger lets you create bug reports at the push of a button — and it integrates with Basecamp. bcToolkit, a Basecamp reporting tool, announced an update that fixes issues with moved to-do lists. Video Bug Recorder for Basecamp is a Windows tool that records video from your screen and uploads it to your Basecamp account with just a few clicks.

Buzz: Basecamp is the Editors’ Choice winner of PC Mag’s “The Best Free Online Project Management Software.” They say, “Basecamp is the simplest, fastest, and most scalable project management service available.” Mark White has an eBook that promises to reduce your workweek from 70 to 40 hours and advises using Basecamp to avoid phone calls.

Case studies: Cyber-Duck is a digital agency based in London that swears by Basecamp. Matthew Egan, President of SEO firm Image Freedom, wrote to tell us how his team uses Basecamp.

Highrise
Extras: Randall Robinson offers advice on using MailChimp and Highrise together to create mailing lists and track campaigns. Use Mumboe with Highrise to keep track of business agreements and contracts. CompanionLink Express lets you sync Highrise contacts, tasks, and cases with your phone. Ringio moves your phone system into the cloud and it now integrates with Highrise. Sage Wedding Pros’ Michelle Loretta wrote about how she loves the integration between Formstack and Highrise. The FreshBooks Add-on Store opened up and includes a free add-on for Highrise.

Buzz: A NY Times article discussed people who run a business alone but want it to appear bigger than it really is — as if it has teams of employees and lots of resources. One of the article’s subjects, Peter Sorgenfrei, uses Highrise to keep track of his email. Basecamp and Highrise top eCommerce Hacks’ “7 Indispensable Web Tools Every Ecommerce Merchant Should Be Using.”

Backpack
Extra: Version 2.0 of Pouch brings Backpack’s Reminders, Calendar, and Journal to the iPhone and iPad.

Case study: tap tap tap’s John Casasanta creates iPhone apps and he published a list of tools that help the members of his virtual office collaborate: “Out of all the apps and services I use throughout the day, I find myself spending most of my time in Backpack.”

REWORK
Buzz: In the Sioux City Journal, Corey Westra, the commissioner of the Great Plains Athletic Conference, talks about how he’s found REWORK insightful. REWORK is one of the best business books of all time, according to UK brand strategist Ben Austin. Scott Buchmann’s REWORK review praises getting your hands dirty. He wrote, “The world is littered with classes on how to do anything: how to ride a motorcycle, how to paint, how to juggle, how to make money. Fact is, that you will never learn to do any of these things unless you actually go out and do these things.”

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