December 2011
1 post
2 tags
My Top 5 Roku Private Channels
Like a lot of people, yesterday I received a Roku 2 XD as a gift. This is my second Roku after picking up the first generation SD device last year on eBay. Roku is like Apple TV on steroids with over 350 channels of content in their Channel Store. Most of these are free with a few pay services like Netflix, Hulu Plus and EPIX also available. But there are gaps in the channels, particularly if you...
November 2011
16 posts
2 tags
“What the professor has determined with a complex computer algorithm for consumer...”
– Forecasting the Best Deals (via New York Times)
1 tag
Steve Jobs talks PC vs. TV →
Not even Steve Jobs could get everything right. Or did he?
via Observatory
1 tag
Google 's secret weapon against Twitter and... →
So Google+ is the new MySpace?
3 tags
“People come to the Apple Store for the experience — and they’re willing to...”
– What I Learned Building the Apple Store - Ron Johnson - Harvard Business Review
67% Of Small Business Owners Won’t Invest In... →
via AllTwitter
Financial Times Hits 1M Users On HTML5 Site That... →
The economics of closed app stores will probably force content producers away from native apps to web apps like FT has pioneered. This is somewhat ironic since web apps were exactly what Steve Jobs wanted when he launched the iPhone in 2007.
1 tag
Daring Fireball: Getting Steve Jobs Wrong →
Thoughtful analysis of a flawed, but fascinating, biography.
2 tags
A human review of the Kindle Fire – Marco.org →
I guess we will not be seeing an Instapaper app in the Amazon App Store anytime soon…
Steve Jobs Secret Meeting to Explore an iPod Phone... →
Fascinating…
Protect The Internet →
2 tags
Amazon Releases Kindle Fire Source Code →
Can’t wait to see what the folks at SlateDroid and XDA Developers cook up with this code…
Darth Vader as The World’s Greatest Dad →
I always thought Lord Vader to be a pancake man, but I stand corrected ;-)
“Building a solid, but inexpensive tablet that does a few desirable things very...”
– Here’s the secret to Amazon’s, B&N’s tablet strategy — Mobile Technology News
October 2011
14 posts
“We all — in the end — die in medias res. In the middle of a story. Of many...”
– A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs - NYTimes.com
“The simple advice was to build what you love and focus on the folks who actually...”
– Steve Jobs’ Final Lesson to Me, Microsoft, Google and Obama - Forbes
“So Jobs made an arrangement with the leasing company; he would always change...”
– iTWire - The truth about Steve Jobs’ number plate
2 tags
“I finally cracked it.” →
Steve’s Final “One More Thing…” (via TechCrunch)
2 tags
“Here is an encyclopedic survey of all that Mr. Jobs accomplished, replete with...”
– Making the iBio for Apple’s Genius (via New York Times)
2 tags
“it’s lipstick on a pig” →
A Google TV 2.0 Sneak Peak
Find The Best Wine With Oink →
Look, I’m wine blogging again!
2 tags
Matias Duarte on the philosophy of Android... →
“Honeycomb was kind of that emergency landing.” — so that explains it.
6 tags
Head To Head: Siri Vs. Google Voice Actions →
Some interesting findings here… apparently Siri is just a personality layer on top of search.
1 tag
4 tags
2 tags
The Problem With The Eastman Kodak Company
I worked for Kodak longer than any employer, almost 13 years. When I left the company in 1998 the stock was trading around $60 a share; last Friday it closed at 78 cents. The reason I left was not because I didn’t enjoy working for Kodak, it just seemed like the grass was greener on the web at the time.
The reasons for Kodak’s current troubles are many and complex but the writing was...
September 2011
7 posts
5 tags
Kindle Fire is the tablet for the rest of us
As expected, Amazon announced the Kindle Fire today for $200. While it is no iPad killer, it is a very interesting tablet that will be the hot tech gift this holiday season. And for a lot of us, it will be more than good enough as our tablet of choice.
Amazon’s strategy here is brilliant. Instead of trying to challenge Apple’s iPad at the high-end, they have chosen to take on book...
6 tags
The Best Android Tablets Are Just eReaders?
Perhaps my enthusiasm was misplaced for the upcoming Amazon tablet? In just a couple days we will know for sure but it looks like the most “successful” Android tablets this holiday season will be color eBook readers that have heavily customized user interfaces nothing like stock Android. And new entrant Amazon Kindle Fire is just a “stopgap” and not the real deal.
So I...
2 tags
9/11 Changed Everything
My favorite Steve Jobs speech is his 2005 commencement address at Stanford University. In under 15 minutes he gives three stories from his life that when connected backward was significant in his life.
Today as I watched the 9/11 commemorations on TV, I remembered my own 9/11 story. No, I wasn’t in New York or Washington DC that day but in Chicago’s loop in the shadow of the Sears...
2 tags
Moving Your Blog to Wordpress
As I promised attendees of today’s Minnesota Blogger Conference here are my slides. I cover a lot of ground here about migrating from another blogging platform to Wordpress but much of the information delivered was verbal. Post any questions or comments here and I will get back to you.
Moving Your Blog to Wordpress
]]>
4 tags
Google Bids High for Hulu (via AllThingsD) →
My money is on Amazon winning here. Instant Video + Hulu would give Apple’s Netflix + iTunes a run for their money.
4 tags
Talkin' Wordpress at MN Blogger Conference
It seems like yesterday I was asked to speak at the 2nd Minnesota Blogger Conference but its been several weeks. The big day is just about 4 days away now so I should get serious about my session on migrating from another blogging platform to Wordpress (I plan to cover Blogger, Typepad/Moveable Type, Posterous, Tumblr, Joomla and Drupal). I will also lead an ad hoc Q&A session on Wordpress.
...
5 tags
Have The Tablet Wars Begun Or Is It Just The End...
Well, well, it seems our friends at Amazon are preparing to get into the tablet game after all. MG Siegler over at Techcrunch has seen and played with a prototype and has written up his impressions. What I find most interesting in all of this is the branding and control over the user experience that seems almost Apple-like.
So have the tablet wars begun or are we just watching the end of the...
July 2011
5 posts
Why I'm Not Upgrading To OS X Lion
Like other early adopter Mac users, the day a new version of the operating system is a group event. We used to line up to get the DVD at our local Apple Store the moment it became available and then rush home to do our clean install and then load up our applications and data.
Today’s release of OS X Lion is the first time since MacOS X 10.4 Tiger that I will not join the group upgrade. In...
2 tags
What Does Your Home Screen Say About You?
As our mobile devices become more connected to the cloud and used more for productivity I wondered what my homescreen says about me. Clearly I have a social media addiction, like to know what’s going on outside, and want to know what’s coming up next. And I keep track of money. Not sure what this means but maybe I’ll post home screens over time and see what my most used apps and...
Google Plus is Not Your Blog →
I agree with most of what Chris says here but also think Google+ is a gateway drug for blogging. So, ironically, Google might have just saved blogging.
5 tags
Why Google+ Just Might Beat Facebook
It has been a couple weeks since Google launched their social networking service, Google+, and there is a wide variety of opinion on whether or not Google will beat Facebook at their own game. After using the new service for a few days, I think Google has a very good chance of giving Facebook a strong #2 competitor (think Apple & Android in smartphones) if not overtake them much in the same...
May 2011
1 post
January 2011
3 posts
2 tags
1 tag
How To Fix Broken Wordpress Widgets
One of the most maddening problems you are likely to face with Wordpress is when your widget admin stops working. Most times this is due to either an issue with your Wordpress install itself or a permissions problem. So the first thing I usually try when I can’t open or move widgets in the admin view is to backup, erase everything but wp-config.php and manually reinstall Wordpress. This will...
December 2010
2 posts
3 tags
Using Advertising Manager With Thesis Theme
Advertising Manager is one of my go-to Wordpress plugins but until this week I had never used it for banners in the content area of a blog using Thesis theme. The sidebar widgets included with the plugin make it easy to add banners but in order to present banners in the content areas you need to use a custom function.
After messing around with shortcodes for far too long I found how to add...
3 tags
Does iPad Mean Business?
I’ve been a fan of Apple’s iPad from the moment Steve Jobs introduced it last January. The idea of extending the screen size of my iPod Touch made sense to me for reading eBooks and magazines, browsing the web, email triage and playing games. I, like a lot of observers 11 months ago, found the iPad a fantastic content consumption device but were not convinced the iPad could act as a...
October 2010
4 posts
