Tag: personal

• A few thoughts on the iPad

  It’s been just under a week since I began getting really excited about the iPad. The idea of having a mobile, flatscreen web browser, media player and word processor was almost too much to bear. That excitement is wearing off.

  Will I get an iPad? Maybe. But if I don’t, here’s why: By some accounts the iPad is difficult to type with, especially if you try to write more than a few sentences. This is frustrating for bloggers, students, and people who deal with lots of text for a living.  Sure, you can hook the device up to an external keyboard, but at the cost of compromising the iPad’s purpose — to fill the space between phone and laptop.

  I want a device similar to the iPad that’s more than a media viewer. I want a media creator; one that has a front-facing camera and USB ports to attach external devices. I don’t want to deal with unstable wi-fi, and I want the ability to install OSX-compatible software of my choice.

  I haven’t ruled anything out, but for now, I’m not completely sold.

  2010.04.06

• Austin tacos? There’s an app for that

  The people behind Taco Journalism, one of the best food blogs in the universe, have released an iPhone app that connects you with tacos and taco reviews no matter where in Austin you are.

  If that’s not incredible enough, remember that Taco Journalism fed a bunch of geeks for free during SXSW. If that’s not a sign of Austin hospitality, I don’t know what is.

  Download this app.

  2010.03.28

• Four-part French documentary on the history of techno

  Not as boring at the title might indicate. This is a captivating look
  inside the largely forgotten history of a post-industrial genre and
  its culture.

  (more…)

  2010.03.28

• A quick review of the WordPress for iPhone app

  I’m writing this from within the latest version of the WordPress app for iPhone. The iPhone isn’t known for its ability to offer a great writing experience while composing anything much longer than a tweet, but I can say as I type this that it does feel pretty comfortable. It took me about 30 seconds to write to this point.

  The WordPress iPhone app lets me moderate comments and edit posts or change the publish status of any post in my database. I can also easily upload pictures.

  The biggest flaw is that there is no way for me to insert links without having to manually code them in from the raw HTML view of the post. This isn’t a dealbreaker, bur since blogging is all about linking, I would like to see it fixes in the future.

  

  

  2010.03.22

• Beerland doesn’t care about your crappy hipster blog and would like for you to leave

  
  This may be a not-so subtle sign that even downtown businesses have had enough of SXSW revelers and out-of-towners.

  How about you? Are you ready for it to be over?

  Props to Flickr user ekai for the image.

  2010.03.21

• Turn your social media strategy into your customer service strategy

  The words you hear in Austin during SXSW Interactive start to sound similar after awhile: Community. Open. Sharing. Frictionless. Connecting.

  These are the warm, fuzzy words freely used at all social media and marketing conferences and discussions.

  But the real big word here this year, the subtext, the one that is the carrot attached to the stick, is selling.

  Very few people at the SXSW Interactive conference this year mentioned a recession in their panel, but the real message is that it is time to start selling and to start serving your customers.

  “You can’t scale caring,” Gary Vaynerchuk told a Monday keynote audience. “It’s not authentic.”

  It’s no longer just about social media for the sake of social media, to qualm fears that your brand is unconnected. These tools need to be used to connect your services not only to the masses but also to individuals. Too many companies are taking false security in collecting thousands of followers but doing very little to engage their audience and even less to truly serve them.

  In a downturned economy, spending money on online tools and strategies is truly wasteful without considering specifically how you will use them to speak not just to people, but to your customers.

  Before you do or say anything online, ask yourself this: How will it serve your customers? If you don’t, be assured your competition will.

  2010.03.16

• Video of the 1980s breakdancing madness that stole the 2010 Rackspace SXSW party

  2010.03.16

• Leo Laporte interviews Kevin Rose’s parents at the Big Digg Shindigg @ SXSW

  I snapped this picture just outside of Stubb’s after the Digg party. The look of a proud father.

  2010.03.14