I mentioned a month ago that I’d be writing a weekly column for TIME.com starting in September. Well, here we are: My first column is live, and new ones will show up each Tuesday. I’ll give you a heads up as they appear.
Column #1 is about how tough it’s going to be for the result of the industry to build iPad competitors that are, indeed, competitive. It’s called “Will the First Real iPad Rivals Please Show Up?“
Last week, I wrote about Roxio Creator 2011, the new version of the do-it-all creativity software for Windows that includes video, audio, and photo editing, file conversion and sharing, disc burning, and more–including new 3D capabilities. The Roxio folks have offered to give free copies of the $79.99 software to five Technologizer readers. We’ll choose the winners in a random drawing–here are three ways to get your name in:
1) Add a comment to this post talking about the the most important audio, video, and/or photos in your life. (Be sure and provide a working e-mail address so we can contact if you win,)
2) Send me an @reply on Twitter (where I’m @harrymccracken) with thoughts about your most important media. (Follow me so I can direct message you if you win.)
3) Head to Technologizer’s Facebook page and leave a message on our wall with your thoughts about your most important media.
Whichever method you choose, do it by 12pm noon PT on Sunday, September 5th–we’ll pick winners from everyone who’s entered as of then.
Good luck! We’ll report back here once we’ve found our winners.
How old are my desktop PC speakers? When I got them, I was using Windows 3.1. On a 486. If these speakers–a pair of Bose MediaMates–were human, they could get a learner’s permit. I don’t use them as much as I once did, since I’m far less likely to sit at a desktop PC these days. But they’re the oldest piece of tech I still use (unless you count wristwatches) and it wouldn’t stun me if I used them someday with a PC with a dozen cores.
I had fun writing about them in a guest post for HP’s Reimagine ROI site. Take a look–and then tell us about the most venerable gadget(s) that you still find useful.
Got an iPhone 4 and/or opinions about how Apple has handled the controversy? We’re conducting a survey which is closing soon. Click here to take it if you haven’t already–and thanks. [UPDATE: We have enough responses, so the survey has closed. Thanks again.]
37signals–the creator of Basecamp, Highrise, and other popular workgroup services that work in your browser–has long been one of the most influential companies in the whole world of Web-based productivity. Cofounder Jason Fried is being interviewed in a free Webcast this Thursday, July 22nd at 11am PT. I’ve been invited to watch the interview and guest-tweet some thoughts as I do. (If you take in the Webcast yourself, you can tweet it from the video player yourself, and your tweets will be shared with the rest of the audience.)
Click here to go to the Webcast site and learn more about Jason Fried and the event.
If you have any questions for Fried–who’s full of strong opinions about Web design and modern business in general–leave a comment on this post. We’ll collect ’em for the Webcast Thanks!
(Full disclosure: The interview with Jason Fried is sponsored by HP and is hosted on one of its sites. The Twitter hashtag for the event is #hpio.)
Tomorrow at 9:30am, Google is holding a press event at its San Francisco offices. Not surprisingly, it isn’t saying much about the topic other than that it involves search, that it’ll be “brief,” and that it features “a few new things we think you’ll be interested to see.” Marissa Mayer, the company’s VP of Search Products and User Experience, will preside.
I’ll be in the audience and will liveblog the news as it happens, and hope you’ll join me. Visit technologizer.com/google-search-event for our coverage.
A year ago, I declared July 14th as Technologizer’s birthday–which means that we’re turning two today. I almost forgot.
When people ask me what my job is like, I have a standard response: It’s both the toughest gig I’ve ever had and the most fun. I’m not one of those journalists who seethes with doom and gloom about the media business. I choose to be an optimist about the amazing changes this industry is going through; I find new reasons to get excited every day, and can’t imagine a better place to ply my trade than right here.
This is the first era in journalism history in which a paperless, not-many-resources-required microbrand like Technologizer is even plausible, and I feel fortunate that I happen to be around to give it my best shot.
The best thing about my job by far is hanging out with smart people–by whom I mean the community that comments on our stories, chatters with me on Twitter, and visits our Facebook page. Thanks to all of you. I’m in awe of the quality of conversation that goes on around our content, and am immensely grateful that you choose to share your insights and knowledge with us.
I’d also like to thank…
These first two years have been a blast. There’s lots more to come, and I hope you’ll stick around as we continue this little experiment over the next couple of years and beyond.
Roku’s neat little Internet TV box is also a platform for third-party channels–app-like services which can offer music, photos, social networking tools, and more. The company is taking a logical step to encourage developers to create cool stuff: It’s holding a channel competition and giving away a total of $35,000 in prizes to the creators of the best channels.
Who decides which entries are the best? The first round of judging will be done by Roku owners. Then a final pass will be done by guest judges: Jim Louderback of Revision3 will look at video channels; Michael Endelman of Rolling Stone will handle music; Dave Zatz of Zatz Not Funny will take care of photos; actor, director, producer, and Twitter superstar LeVar Burton will be responsible for social media; and Roku founder Anthony Wood will choose a special award called Founder’s Choice. Oh, and I’m handling screen savers–should be fun.
The deadline for entries is September 6th, and winners will be named in October. Here are the complete rules.
In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made a famous phone call to his associate, Mr. Watson. Almost immediately, it occurred to folks that Bell’s gizmo would be even cooler if it had pictures. And for 130 years, people have been fantasizing about videophones, building them, and generally expecting that they’d eventually become pervasive.
Last week, Steve Jobs made a highly-publicized call–using the iPhone 4’s FaceTime video calling feature–to his associate, Apple design honcho Jonathan Ive. Tech historian Benj Edwards took FaceTime’s debut as an excuse to look back at the long, checkered history of the videophone–there have been a lot of attempts to get consumers to buy into the concept. Here’s his slideshow exploration of the subject.
On Tuesday evening in San Francisco, we threw a party we called SpringThing at a cool art gallery called 12 Gallagher Lane. Our cohost/sponsor was Seagate, which gave demos of its just-announced line of FreeAgent GoFlex external hard drives. The folks in the photo above (by Ken Yeung) all look so attentive because they’re watching the giveaway drawing we did for five GoFlex drives. We can’t recreate the whole nifty SpringThing experience online, but here’s the next best thing: we’re replicate the giveaway drawing.
