July 2010
34 posts
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June 2010
28 posts
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iPhone OS Got a New Name, So When Will iTunes? →
Nick Santilli asks the right question. Synchronization is the killer application for the connected world, but Apple’s major sync tool is strangely placed: iTunes, which long ago transcended its name. Neither the online store nor the local application is primarily about music. It’s about media and synchronizing personal content. Then there are those curmudgeon business owners or...
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“Until the Net arrived, the history of media had been a tale of fragmentation....”
– Nicholas Carr, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains
Do you have a media story that you’d like told? Please email Joe Wilcox: oddlytogether at gmail dot com.
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I'm Adding Flow to the Blogging Stock
Today, I start an experiment here at Oddly Together that will take the blog off track a bit, but which could better build readership. “What?” You ask. “Joe, don’t you have another experiment going with comments turned off?” Yes, and that one ends next week.
The experiment comes to answer a question: What is the best way to be the better blogger? I’ve got to...
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TechFlash Podcast: Apple, Microsoft Retail Clash...
Editors Todd Bishop and John Cook invited me to join this week’s TechFlash podcast to talk about the epic retail clash in San Diego, where on the same day Apple released iPhone 4 to the masses and Microsoft opened its fourth retail store in the same shopping mall.
I’m a better interviewer than interviewee. Too many “ahs.”
Do you have an Apple or Microsoft story that...
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Microsoft’s fourth retail store launch...
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Earlier today, I burned up the calories running...
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The Future of the PC as Seen From 2003
Sometimes the past feels all the more distant.
In November 2003, Jupitermedia held a small event competing with the then massive and now defunct Comdex. As a senior analyst working for the company, I was asked to give presentation: “Evolution of the PC.” The topic is so broad I griped: “Why don’t you just give me a bag of rocks and tell me to hit one of the great...
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Eight Reasons I Love Pop17
If Sarah Austin is the future of journalism, I have hope that accuracy, authenticity and accountability may yet survive. Yesterday, Sarah tumbleblogged something she posted 16 days earlier that I missed: “Blogging Code of Ethics.”
Now there’s a strange concept: Blogging and ethics. It’s strange because I’ve seen too many blogs acting as marketing fronts—and too many...
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From the Oddly Together Archive: Five Blogging and...
By the feeds, follows and stats, I see there are plenty of new Oddly Together readers since I permanently moved to Tumblr from hosted WordPress (in May 2010). Welcome! For your reading pleasure, here are five past posts about blogging and journalism that I consider to be thoughtful, provocative and worth your time.
Please read at least one of them:
“The Price You Pay Google for...
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Things That Go Oddly Together #2: Donuts and Bacon
Maple Bacon Donut. I figure that’s 1,000 calories or more on the plate. Surely this, ah, delicacy is a major cause of obesity in America. I wanted to tell the story of the donut’s origins but found no trustworthy sources (sorry Wikipedia).
So I’ll commit a truly evil act of providing a list of a few U.S. eateries known to serve the maple bacon donut, or some variation:
...
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“It is our intellectual technologies that have the greatest and most lasting...”
– Nicholas Carr, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains
Nicholas refers to Nietzsche and the typewriter, but I immediately thought about iPad.
Do you have a technology story that you’d like told? Please email Joe Wilcox: oddlytogether at gmail dot com.
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Things That Go Oddly Together #1: Oil and Water
The Gulf Oil Spill. The setting sun gleans off the water’s oily surface. As I write, the revised estimate is 35,000 to 60,000 barrels of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico per day.
Note: This post starts a series putting oddlies together. Some will be things that just fit and others, like oil and water in the Gulf, go badly together. After reaching item #5, I will post a page titled...
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The Comments, No-Comments Debate gets Noisy
People love catfights, which perhaps explains some of the interest in the comments/no-comments debate I’ve been having with Mac blogger John Gruber. It’s a pseudo-debate, really, since the only engagement is blog posting. John and I haven’t directly communicated.
I started it all, by calling out John for not having comments on his blog. I told him to “Be a man,”...
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Blogging: Is Curation or Comments Better?
John Gruber has responded to my Saturday post at length: “I’ll Tell You What’s Fair.” John’s response is thoughtful and responsible, so much so I’m trying things his way. I challenged him to turn on comments at Daring Fireball, which clearly won’t happen soon, if ever. I don’t agree with all his reasons but see how he applies a writer’s mind...
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Of Course, Technology Changes You
Over the weekend, I unexpectedly read New York Times Op-Ed “Mind Over Mass Media,” by Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker. Professor Pinker rallies for the status quo, argung that “new forms of media have always caused moral panics…but such panics often fail basic reality checks.” He talks of a panic, but I don’t see one. However, there is a new book...
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Internet Attention Deficit Disorder
Nicholas Carr’s book, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, may be the defining manuscript of the World Wide Web era; so far. I haven’t read the book yet, but I have followed Nicholas’ writings leading up to The Shallows. I get his point, because I’ve experienced it. He merely wraps research around the experience. The point: Interaction with the Web...
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Be a Man, John Gruber
If John Gruber allowed comments on his blog, I wouldn’t need to write this post, and it has been long-time coming. I considered writing it every time I read something outrageous at Daring Fireball but couldn’t directly respond because John doesn’t allow comments. Finally, this morning, I had enough.
John’s post “John Battelle on Apple’s Banning Google From iOS App...
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Tweet if You See a Tooting Llama
Mark Arm’s Tumblr post—photo of a Central Park animal—reminds me of a story. Summer 1980, I had just turned 21 and lived in a group house on New York’s Upper West Side. The Democratic National Convention convened at Madison Square Garden for about four days of mayhem.
I hung around outside harassing the crazies (e.g., protesters) that New York City cops separated by barricades. I...
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WWDC 2010 Keynote: A Story in Tweets
Joe: Netflix for iPhone, huh? Well, what do you think of those new 200MB, 2GB metered data plans now, assuming Netflix supports 3G?
Joe: [Steve] Jobs is making the right pitch to developers: $$. How much they can make. Successful platforms make third parties lots of $$.
Greg Glockner responded: @joewilcox Great point Joe. Windows is successful because it's a platform that made many others successful.
Joe: Apple Store online is open, which means no new products for sale today. Otherwise, the store would be down during Jobs' keynote.
Joe: Nice smoke and mirrors by Jobs about "Retina Display". There's more to the display than ppi. For text, font rendering, for example.
Joe: My criticism aside, iPhone 4 contrast ratio and clarity look pretty good.
Joe: My Nexus One has 252 ppi; 854 x 480 pixels. Human eye can see 300 ppi. iPhone 4 is 326 ppi; 960 x 640 pixels.
Joe: I've said smartphones will replace PCs. iMovie for iPhone is taste of the future. If you can shoot and edit on phone, who needs PC?
Joe: RT @teedubya: the new iPhone4 seems more impressive than the iPad... [Joe: Agreed. Too bad about those new AT&T data plans]
Robert Scoble: I turned my phone off. Steve Jobs is that convincing. :-)
Joe responded to Robert: @Scobleizer You're giving up on Android so soon? That Kool-Aid is intoxicating. Cover your ears! Close your eyes!
Joe: RT @anildash: Attention Apple keynote attendees: You don't have to put down your laptop just because Steve says. You paid to be there...
Tim Conneally: I'm missing #wwdc, but while 9000 ft up in the Alps. I theres full 3G with tmobile where I am...so #iphone 4 would work here.
Joe responded to Tim: The Alps. You're still in Europe, Tim? How is that T-Mo 3G over there.
Tim answered: @joewilcox 3 more days then back home and probably out to E3. T mobile is going strong. Its been good everywhere but poland.
Mugunth Kumar: Someone edited wikipedia already. There is no more iPhone OS page. It redirects to iOS!
Joe responded to Mugunth: @mugunthkumar Not just iPhone OS. Someone edited the [Backside] Illumination page to include iPhone 4, ignoring CMOS makers like Toshiba.
Mugunth answered: @joewilcox Looks like they are much faster than twitter :)
Kawika Holbrook: @joewilcox Nice thing about @Scobleizer giving up on "Android so soon" is that he—nor anyone else—doesn't have to. Use both.
Joe responded to Kawika: @kawika I'm sticking with Android. New iPhone looks cool, but AT&T metered data plans, termination fees and calling problems keep me away
Joe: iBooks for iPhone is no shocker. Good usage rights, like when iTunes launched. DRM is there, but most people won't notice it.
Joe: RT @rossrubin: Three stores is not a benefit. One integrated store for everything is a benefit. [Joe: Excellent point]
Joe: Does everyone get Jobs' "emotion + interactivity" pitch for iAd? "Emotion" is missing from the Google ad model.
Joe: All this integration & exclusivity may haunt and help Apple, like Microsoft. Office locked in Windows sales & trustbusters balked.
Joe: About iPhone 4, I don't see much more than Gizmodo already revealed in stories and videos about the lost prototype. Anyone else?
Joe: iPhone 4 video calling is the One More Thing? Like Nokia has offered on N-Series handsets FOR YEARS?
Frank V. responded: Many of the things Apple introduces have been done before. Just not widely adopted. The Ipod was not the first MP3 player.
Joe answered Frank: @StationA It's all about marketing. Scoble's tweets suggest he's going back to iPhone. He just got to Android. Jobs is the master salesman.
Frank: That is true Joe. But like most things Apple does, this will signal the time when people actually start to use it.
Frank: @joewilcox I figured more people would have picked up on that M.O. by now..
Joe to Frank: @StationA I'm definitely not going to iPhone 4. I did a 29-day refresher in May. I'm Android and T-Mobile. AT&T is more the reason though.
Kawika: @joewilcox Curious which plan and carrier you have that doesn't have termination fees? (Obviously AT&T is still the weak point for iPhones.)
Joe answered Kawika: @kawika I switched to T-Mobile in Oct. Lower termination fees than AT&T (as of 6/1) and unlimited phone, data and text.
Kawika: @joewilcox @nokia doesn't have Sam Mendes directing commercials about video chats with kids, moms, and sign language. Very different.
Joe: So iPhone 4 video calling is WiFi-only in 2010. Many overseas carriers offer the feature over 3G on Nokia phones. Don't forget HTC EVO 4G.
Patrick Gauthier: @joewilcox But Nokia doesnt have a superstar CEO and legions of fans...
Joe responded to Patrick: Nokia doesn't have an all-star CEO, but it does have legions of fans. What strikes me is iPhone 4 similarities to some Nokias.
Patrick: @joewilcox NOKIA will capture 3rd party developers like APPL and GOOG can. I wish it was different. But numbers tell otherwise.
Joe: @PRGauthier Nokia doesn't have an all-star CEO, but it does have legions of fans. What strikes me is iPhone 4 similarities to some Nokias.
Joe: @PRGauthier I agree that Nokia has fallen behind in design. But Nokia still delivers quality, performance and price to emerging markets.
Patrick: @joewilcox Yes when it comes to emerging market the line up of phones AND services is strong. India is poster child there.
Joe: @PRGauthier Last I checked, Nokia's market share in India was something like 70%. It's pretty high in most BRIC countries.
Joe: Boy Genius Report says 200,000 HTC EVO 4G sales over weekend: http://tinyurl.com/2amzrf6
Joe: iPhone 4 launches June 24, but in only five countries—US, France, Germany, UK, Japan.
Nicole N.: Thinking I should get an iPhone ...but I really don't want AT&T...their coverage is so terrible....#decisions
Joe warned Nicole.: @NicolePRexec Nicole, take a week and let Jobs' Reality Distortion Field wear off some before deciding on iPhone 4. Breathe.
Nicole responded: @joewilcox That is good advice. I've stayed away from the iPhone hype for years...but now I'm starting to appreciate the video/app qualities.
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Even Paper is Better Than Windows Mobile
Say, does anyone remember that the Census Bureau was supposed to use HTC handsets running Windows Mobile 5 this year? I briefly blogged about the strange deal on April 6, 2006: “When New Technology is Old Again.” The post appeared on my old joewilcox.com blog, which content recently migrated to Oddly Together.
HTC handsets running Windows Mobile used for the 2010 Census go...
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New Media is All About Personality
New media—and social media, for that matter—share something in common with old media moguls: Personality, as in the persons so acutely identified with the organizations. The brands are big, but often no bigger than the people behind them.
Ten examples:
Michael Arrington, TechCrunch
Henry Blodget, Business Insider
Peter Cashmore, Mashable
David Carp, Tumblr
Nick Denton, Gawker Media
...
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WatchThis week at the D8 conference, Kara Swisher interviewed Demand Media CEO Richard Rosenblatt and ProPublica editor-in-chief Paul Steiger. As interviewees, the men go oddly together. Richard’s business is about social media and filling online informational niches. Paul’s business is gifted journalism, in terms of talent and financial backing. ProPublica is a non-profit site dedicated to...