September 2011
12 posts
5 tags
DOJ Acknowledges the Obvious: AT&T/T-Mobile is Bad...
The U.S. Department of Justice did what I never thought it’d do, it stepped in front of a mega-tech merger and said no. From the DOJ press release: “The combination of AT&T and T-Mobile would result in tens of millions of consumers all across the United States facing higher prices, fewer choices and lower quality products for mobile wireless services,” said Deputy Attorney General James M....
August 2011
24 posts
3 tags
5 tags
For the Love of a Nerd
When I was 15, I started playing Dungeons & Dragons. The popular fantasy role playing game had characters with strengths and weaknesses, detailed maps and, for me, a small group of like-minded friends who were all into it enough to buy the special die and likely-poisonous lead-based characters. I was then, as now, a nerd; not yet a geek, though, because no one called anyone “geeky” for being...
2 tags
Hurricane Irene: What You Think You'll Need
Hurricane Irene is churning up the east coast, its threat enough to empty shores and shut down subway systems. In the face of such an impending cataclysm, one’s thoughts naturally turn to survival. What will I need? What can’t I live without?
In NYC, where Irene could bring damaging winds and, especially, floods, residents are snatching up flashlights and batteries.
I wondered what...
5 tags
Steve Jobs: A Legend Moves On
Yesterday, the east coast had a rare earthquake. Today, the west coast had its own bit of seismic activity as Apple founder Steve Jobs officially resigned as CEO, a post he’s held twice and will likely never hold again.
Though I should’ve expected this—we all did—I’m still stunned. With Tim Cook now officially CEO, this is truly the end of an era. I’m just now...
5 tags
12 Reasons Why You Want a $99 HP TouchPad, and Why...
When HP stunned the tech world with its decision to discontinue its one-month-old TouchPad, tablet, some wondered if HP and its retail partners might use a bargain-basement price to clear unsold inventory. I guessed no because I didn’t think anyone would want a “dead-end” product and platform. I could not have been more wrong. Within a day, HP announced that it would be selling the 16 GB...
3 tags
The Apple iPhone 5 and its Worst Nightmare
6 tags
My Fantasmagorical Collaborative Writing...
I’ve been writing short stories, on and off, for most of my life. I consider them a welcome respite from the near constant stream of geek prose I churn out almost every single day. Of course, I have to be in the mood. Earlier this week the mood struck me and I felt the urge to write. Then I had a better idea: What if I combine my passion for social media with this steady to urge to write...
9 tags
HP Kills TouchPad and Blows My Mind
News that HP’s TouchPad was not flying off the shelves at Best Buy and other retail outlets was, to say the least, concerning, but I don’t think I could’ve imagined the hardware giant pulling the plug on the TouchPad—and all other WebOS-based devices a day later. This, folks is one for the books. It may be the most spectacular and, I think, expensive flameout I’ve...
7 tags
Chromebook Better, But Still a Work in Progress
I think it’s instructive to put my two “alternative OS” systems—the Apple iPad running iOS and Samsung’s Series 5 running Google’s Chrome OS—side by side because they illustrate two interesting counterpoints in battle for platform dominance. I’ve been working with Google’s Chrome OS for a while, first on the non-branded CR-48 laptop and now on this Samsung laptop running...
5 tags
360 Degree Photos Made Easy On Your iPhone
Lately I’ve had more time than usual to noodle around with my technology and try out new stuff. Today, thanks to Robert Scoble on Google+ (I think they guy posts 24/7) I discovered 360 Panorama from Occipital, LLC.
The app is free and quite powerful. With it you can make instantly sharable panorama and 360-degree images and it’s pretty easy, once you realize what you need to do.
...
5 tags
Google's Motorola Grab Reshuffles the Mobile Deck
If you ever wondered what a seismic shift in the mobile technology market sounds like, you just found out. It’s not a loud, cataclysmic boom. Rather it’s the sound of billions of dollars changing hands, which I’m not sure makes much of a sound at that, yet you feel the ground shift beneath your feet, all the same. That’s what it was like this morning when Google...
4 tags
I Am a Google+ Criminal
I just spent the last 20 minutes beating, stealing, shooting, vandalizing and being Public Enemy Number 1 in Crime City, one of Google+’s new free online game options. The Games icon appeared in Google +’s tiny nav bar when I visited this morning. I had a bunch of choices, but the Crime City graphic looked the coolest. The reality, though, was a bit different.
This tiny role-playing...
8 tags
IBM, Microsoft, and the Long Strange Trip to Your...
30 years ago IBM introduced the world-altering IBM PC. Back then, I was a high-school senior who had very little experience with computers of any kind. I knew of their existence, having in 11th grade stealed away into the math lab to play a “video” game with no graphics, just coordinates and commands you entered in as the computer described the action to you.
For me, this was a wholly...
4 tags
Fear, Uncertainty and Anonymous
This morning I’m digesting the news that an Anonymous faction plans on taking down Facebook on or around Nov. 5th. This is scary no so much because of the threat, but because, based on past experiences, we know they can do it. These hacking groups, Anonymous and the now absorbed Lulzec, have been bringing down and disrupting web sites for years (early on, Anonymous targeted the Scientology...
10 tags
Sorry, Kid, You're Not Getting a Tablet for School
Tablets are hot, they’re the future, but for now, at least according to my own very anecdotal poll, they’re not for school.
132 people voted on my poll asking if parents were buying tablets for their back-to-school children and 42% of respondents said that had no plans to buy a tablet for their child. Not surprisingly, those who are buying a back-to-school tablet plan on buying an iPad. As...
4 tags
Apple iPad's Crashing Secret
I’m typing this in Pages on my Apple iPad 1. I’ve been doing more and more work on this tablet and am fairly confident that I will get through this post without a crash. What’s that you say? You thought Apple’s industry-leading tablet didn’t crash? It does. No, it’s nothing as inelegant as a blue screen of death. When a Windows-based PC crashes, I mean really...
15 tags
Will You Buy a Tablet for Your Back to School...
My Sunday newspaper is stuffed with or back to school deal circulars for everything from backpacks and jeans to pencils and binders. There are also tons of deals for technology and gadgets of every sort. Mixed in among the desktops, laptops, mice and thumb drives is the largest variety of tablets I’ve ever seen. The Apple iPad may rule, but now it’s competing with a slew of new...
9 tags
Patent Battles: The Invention of a Bad Idea
I’ve been watching the patent battles for a while now and am starting to get an uneasy feeling. There’s a kind of bizarre patent land-grab underway and even though companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft and others are paying millions and billions for various mobile technology patents, I don’t see any winners here. If you create something, getting paid for your efforts makes...
4 tags
Pottermore Fever
A curious fever is gripping my home, or more specifically, my daughter. She’s obsessed with gaining early access to Pottermore.com. For those muggles who do not know what Pottermore is, a brief primer:
Pottermore is the online extension of the now complete seven-book Harry Potter series. Book author J.K. Rowling has promised that the web site will offer access to Harry Potter ebooks,...
4 tags
For RIM and BlackBerry, Timing is Everything
It’s been a long wait, but RIM is finally going public with all those sexy, new BlackBerry OS 7 smartphones the rumor mill’s been chattering about for months. For me, the timing is ironic, having just walked away from my Torch and BlackBerry, possibly for good.
Now, as I look at the new Bolds (9900 and 9930), traditional Torch (9810), and the big-screen, keyboard-free Torch ( 9850 and...
5 tags
Can Video Games Teach My Son to Drive?
Lately, my 16-year-old son has been trying to convince me that a driving virtual car at 200 mph around the Italian countryside—a manual transmission no less—is enough training to prepare him for driving a real car, at 30 mph on local roads.
My son’s a bit of a comedian, so I don’t know that he intends to be taken seriously, but I sense that when he insists on video-game driving...
