As you’re probably aware the iPad is on the way and its going to save the world! All will be right again when the Apple iPad hits the streets in early April. Nikon and Canon photographers will sing Kumbaya together, dogs will get along with cats and newspapers will again be profitable… well you’d think that would be the case from all the hype. I’ve had several conversations over the past several weeks with friends about the iPad and as a huge fan of Apple I will hold no punches in saying I’m underwhelmed with the device that has turned out to be nothing more than a mega-iphone less the phone. That being said there is one thing about the Apple iPad that has grabbed my attention and it has nothing to do with the device itself.
I’ve read various blog posts to the effect that the iPad will usher in a:
What has grabbed my attention is an undercurrent of buzz in relation to content. What the iPad offers is a color display, a supporting network of content distribution via Apple’s iTunes store and broad market appeal. Whether the iPad turns out to be the next iPhone success or Newton failure its mark will be left in how content is crafted, displayed and consumed. This is why the iPad matters, yet doesn’t matter. It’s launch is the landmark, not the device. While Apple will certainly make a shiny penny in selling the iPad it will have the longest lasting impact on content creators & publishers.
What’s your opinion? Is the iPad the savior of photography, a means to a content standard or something else entirely?
Technorati Tags: photography, Apple, iPad
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Copyright Jim M. Goldstein, All Rights Reserved
Why the iPad Doesn’t Matter, Yet Matters
I've recently spent some time using VodBurner, a new software package which automatically records your Skype calls - including video. The software package installs simply and then just activates when the call begins. It subsequently produces video files which are customizable via the company's post-production console.
A video interview (not done by TMC) using VodBurner of company founder Jeremy Hague
The quality of the console and what it can do is adequate for most consumer and social networking use and it will likely work for most training environments as well. Using the software you can add numerous captions and allow either participant or both to be visible when you "produce" your final file.
At this point you can easily upload to social networks using the software or play it locally.
Once post-production is complete you can export in a range of sizes. I tried exporting files in 854x480 format a few times had problems doing so each time. What worked for me repeatedly though was the 640x480 size.
All in all VodBurner is a good solution for Skype recording and with some tweaking it can become even better. I suggest the company continue improving the post-production console allowing more professional transitions and work out some glitches which caused me to reboot once during my testing in order to get the product to export properly.
But the program is relatively new so these problems are forgivable. And in the end, the ability to record your video meetings and conversations with the kids more than makes up for a few minor problems I experienced in my review.
The company calls their payment model freeish -- which means you get 30 days to use the software and then you pay $9.95/month to eliminate the watermark the company will then put into your videos. If you don't mind the watermark, you can continue to use it for free.
Tags: jeremy hague, skype, video, vodburner
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We just took a peek at T-Mobile's answer to 4G, and the sorts of speeds you might be able to expect using the service. Not content to let another carrier hog the spotlight, Verizon's come out with an announcement of its own, and its projected 4G speeds look like they'll be the ones to beat.
Verizon techs put the company's fledgling LTE 4G network to the test, seeing just how much bandwidth they could pull from the towers. Before we get to the jaw-dropping peak speeds, we'll take a look at a real-world data test. You'll rarely be receiving a perfect signal, with interference from other electronic devices, reflected signals off of buildings and trees, and the bandwidth needs of other users all taking their toll on your connection. Realistically, Verizon says, you can hope to pull 0.6 to 1.5MB/s downloading, with upload speeds just below that at between 0.25 and 0.6MB/s. If those rates are reliable, that's quite speedy for a wireless connection, surpassing many wired home broadband hookups.
Now, don't run out and sign up for 4G based on this alone, as getting a perfect signal means avoiding all those snags we listed above, but it should be possible to download at up to 6MB/s and upload at 3MB/s. To help your brain make sense out of those ridiculously high speeds, you could in theory download over Verizon's LTE network faster than you could copy files of a DVD-ROM with a quad-speed DVD drive.
You'll have to wait until later this year to get on board with Verizon's 4G, with access becoming available in 25 to 30 areas of the country.
One thing that makes American cell phone users stand out from our international friends and family is that we pay both to send and receive SMS and text messages. If you have an iPhone, there was a time when you couldn't even send SMS messages--and depending on how you use your iPhone, you still may not be able to. There have been a few free SMS apps for the iPhone to appear that use data networks to send free SMS messages, but none of them have quite the polish of TextPlus, from Gogii. 
The app supports both portrait and landscape typing, and you can add people to ongoing conversations quickly and easily from the composition screen. For example, if you have an ongoing conversation with someone about where to meet for dinner, you can bring in someone else at any point of the conversation to get their recommendation on a dining spot and everyone in the message thread will see their responses. This is how TextPlus differs from essentially phone-based instant messaging apps: you have the ability to bring people into or remove people from a group conversation at any time, and if those other people are using TextPlus as well, they can do the same. 
This is where the app breaks down a little. If you're using TextPlus, you don't pay to send messages, and you won't pay to receive them as long as your contacts are sending them to your TextPlus account and not your actual phone number. If you're initiating the conversations with your friends or responding with your TextPlus account, your friends will quickly get the message, but if they continue sending standard SMS messages to your phone number, TextPlus can't intercept them, and your normal SMS messages aren't rolled into the TextPlus app. 
If you're getting tired of Avatar after your twelfth viewing, wish you had some new games for your Nintendo Virtual Boy, and just don't feel that the real world "pops" in 3D like the movies do, the 3D fix you've been craving might be just around the corner, as Best Buy is about to give the US its first big taste of in-home 3D screens, with a little help from Panasonic.
Starting this week, as soon as Wednesday, Best Buy is going to set up 3D demo areas in its stores to show off the technology to consumers. Just like how the company created listening rooms to show off the capabilities of surround sound systems, these demo stations will likely introduce this new technology to plenty of people for the first time. The showcase of the displays will be Panasonic's 3D sets, with Best Buy stocked and ready to start selling them to interested customers.
Best Buy will start things off in 300 of its stores in major markets, and plans to expand its promotion of 3D sets to about 1,000 locations by the end of the year.
Though certainly more expensive than normal 2D screens, the Panasonic models Best Buy will be selling aren't priced so exotically as to make them unaffordable - in fact, we should be getting the sets cheaper than they can be found in Japan. A 50-inch set will go for around $2500, with another $500 for goodies like the 3D glasses and Blu-ray player you'll need to really enjoy some 3D content. Just think of the expense like 250 trips to the movies; after that, you're saving money.
"Your identity is counting on you." So say SmithGifford's memorable spots for IdentityGuard.com, which show consumers having conversations with themselves about how to safeguard their identities in our oh-so-complex, high-tech age. One ad is posted below; see the other one after the jump. The ads portray the "identities" as obsessive, paranoid duplicates with lord-knows-what to hide. Sort of like our evil twins. Which leads us, in a natural and unforced manner, to ... William Shatner. Man, he would've killed in these ads, getting all weepy and verklempt on the right side of the screen, while cackling and hyper-expressively twirling his mustache on the left. At least, that's my take. The other Dave here agrees!
—Posted by David Gianatasio
“IBM research shows that about 80 percent of those who begin a corporate blog never post more than five entries,” journalist and heavy-duty blogger Mathew Ingram wrote on GigaOm on Friday.
IBM is hawking a solution to blogger’s block. It’s called Blog Muse, and IBM claims it raised bloggers pageviews, comments and “likes” — those one-click votes for a post some sites allow.
Here’s how it works:
In order to inspire bloggers, our system suggests topics they can write about. The audience is given a voice by letting blog readers share topics they would like to read about with the blogging community. Our system then suggests these topics to potential blog writers who can decide whether or not they would like to address the topic requested. The underlying intuition is that users are more likely to blog if they know about their potential audience and the topics of interest.
Blog Muse replaces the function traditionally performed by editors: Assigning topics to writers based on what they believe readers will go for. It also outs a human trait not always discussed in conversations about blogging: Many writers will cover a topic they’re iffy about, if they believe more people will read about it. And sometimes, they just need a prod from someone else. Even if that someone is an IBM bot.
[Photo: BlogComics.net]
People: IBM
Toyota is in a huge amount of trouble with the government for its cover-up of safety issues. But based on a dozen recent conversations with friends and family members, Toyota appears to be rapidly losing credibility with the public just as quickly. That will not be helped when, according to the Wall Street Journal, Toyota plans to attack an ex-employee that was handing over documents to the government and claim he had mental problems.
One friend, an engineer who has owned Toyotas since they were first sold in the United States, said he would never purchase another because of the company's behavior. He cited Toyota's refusal to share black box data that's recorded in each car during an accident, saying, "As an engineer, they must think they have something to hide."
Public opinion among my friends is going from "Toyota makes the best cars and these problems happen with all makes" to "What is Toyota afraid of?" My wife, who loves her one-year old Toyota Highlander Hybrid, surprised me and reversed her opinion about buying one again, and now says she probably would not buy a Toyota if she had to do it all over again.
One marketing professor friend thought Toyota's performance will make it the subject of one of the biggest business school cases of all time, about how Toyota fell so far so fast. He says he's never seen such inept crises management and "Everything they do seems to makes matters worse." He thinks once owners start losing their lives in cars that have been recalled and repaired, NHTSA may actually ban some models from being sold.
All of my anecdotal experience indicates Toyota is rapidly losing the confidence of the public, and its president's testimony before Congress did nothing to slow that down.
Don’t expect Google to retire its little-used Latitude location sharing service any time soon.
With Buzz offering a pretty damn good social platform for sharing and discussing locations, you might think Google was planning to abandon its slightly more hardcore ‘always on’ location sharing service, or perhaps merge it with Buzz.
Not so, says the man responsible for overseeing Google Maps and Latitude.
Google Product Manager Steve Lee has been talking to eWeek and has revealed that he sees Buzz and Latitude as totally different services. “Latitude is a friend-finding app. It’s about a user continuously sharing location… Google Buzz is about creating conversations, and keeping up-to-date with friends and keeping your friends up-to-date about you… They’re totally different use cases”.
Since its launch in February 2009, Latitude has failed to gain a significant userbase. Low take-up is likely down to the fact that sharing your location in Latitude lacks any context. Users sharing where they are in Buzz are discussing what’s going on around them. With Latitude you simply say “I am here”, a prospect that doesn’t seem to appeal to many people.
Despite this, Lee told eWeek that there are plans afoot to develop Latitude further, and even integrate it with Buzz:
“Down the road, there might be points of integration between Buzz and Latitude, but they are separate products… We’re thinking of what apps we can build that have certain compelling use cases and how can location enhance those apps.”
So, Latitude is here for the long-haul, but don’t be surprised to see it flirting with Buzz in the future.
Enough chitchat: deeper conversations lead to happiness, study suggests - http://bit.ly/c55gxq /via @stevesilberman
[Direct Link]5 Ways to Increase Donations through Social Media http://bit.ly/bCSU0L via @kyleplacy
We finished up our Increasing Donations through Social Media seminar yesterday and it was great to meet individuals from the not-for-profit world in Indianapolis. We had some awesome conversations surrounding the idea of telling YOUR story to the world… the story that drives emotion through each and every donor. I wanted to upload the Powerpoint presentation I used yesterday and give a couple of pointers on increasing donations through social media.
5 Ways to Increase Donations through Social Media
1. Message Boards. Create a message board or central location for your supporters and their friends to communicate with each other and your organization. For a great example check out the Lupus Foundation of America’s message boards. It is so important to create a comfortable place for your supporters to chat. It is up to your supporters to decide where they want to host the conversation. If it ends up on Facebook then… it ends up on Facebook.
2. Start a Blog and Communicate. This really should be number one on your priority list. You should be writing your story… every second of every day. You do not need to be sitting down and typing out each story but (at the very least) you should be thinking about how to form the story of your organization. People buy into stories… period. For a great example of story telling check out the organization > Charity + Water.
3. Start an Affiliate Group on Facebook and LinkedIn. Create groups of Facebook and LinkedIn that connect your supporters to each other in activities outside of your organization. An example of an affiliate group would be a Facebook Fan Page for your local youth soccer league or a LinkedIn group for your local Kiwanis club. Why does this matter? You are creating touch points with an audience that is not expecting you (the organization) to be at that place…. at that moment.
4. Start a Facebook Cause and Encourage Supporters to Join and Share!
5. Use Your Email List to Drive Growth on Social Networks. Every supporter who has given you permission to market to them through email… could still be utilized to support your cause on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Search for your email subscribers in the social networking world… the chance is… they are using the same email to support their social networks. The more times you can connect with a prospect or supporter… the better.
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Do some people confuse public Buzz messages with private email conversations? I don’t know, but some of the following conversations I found using Gmail’s Buzz search sounded a bit odd. One of the conversation, for instance, was by a person who only follows one person and only has one follower. Then again, how would this misunderstanding come about, if that’s the case, as Buzz says “Public on the web” next to the Post button, and doesn’t offer a field to address only a single person? Gmail puts private emails and public buzz messages in one app, one click away in the interface... is that enough to trigger misunderstandings? I’ve obfuscated some parts in these screenshots.
[By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: Do Some People Confuse Public and Private Buz ... | Comments]
Do Some People Confuse Public and Private Buzz Messages?
- Louis Gray
Quentin Tarantino has resurrected many careers. His next personal project, according to conversations we overheard between the two men, involves Chris Tucker.
Tarantino, hair dyed brown with gray roots showing, in a leather cowboy shirt, was drinking vodka and orange, holding court at the Weinstein party at Soho House. His enthusiasm was predictably off-the-charts. He opined on Italian B movies and how much he loves black voices and was very happy to chat to anyone who came past him.
Except that apparently Tarantino and the wildly lame Chris Tucker—wearing an embroidered jacket to rival Tarantino's leather shirt—are talking about two projects. One is a Tarantino-helmed doc/road movie of Tucker's standup. The other is a "soldier film," as Tucker phrased it. If Quentin could rescue John Travolta, we suppose anything is possible.
[Photo via Getty Images]
Formal complaint alleging 'pecuniary advantage by deception' sent to Scotland Yard's specialist crime directorate
Lord Ashcroft should have admitted that he was a non-dom many years ago because keeping the matter secret suggested that he had done something wrong, Lord Tebbit said today.
The former Conservative party chairman told the Guardian that although Lord Ashcroft had not broken any law, he had forgotten that what matters most in politics is public perception.
Many Tories have criticised Ashcroft strongly in private, but Tebbit is one of the few senior figures in the party to speak out in public. He made his comments as it emerged that Scotland Yard has been asked to launch an investigation into Ashcroft, the Conservative deputy chairman, for allegedly profiting from a peerage obtained through a lie.
Tebbit said that Ashcroft had not committed any offence, and in paying the minimum amount of tax he was legally obliged to pay he was doing "what we all do, if we have any sense". But that what mattered politically was that Ashcroft had not asked himself "the Daily Mail question".
He went on: "Many, many years ago this was explained to me by Harry Legge-Bourke, the then chairman of the 1922 committee, when he said of a certain course of action that was being discussed: 'If you would not be happy to read that in tomorrow's Daily Mail, then don't do it.' That Daily Mail test is the one that matters above all in politics."
Tebbit said he was not in a position to say whether he thought that Ashcroft had complied with the undertakings he had given William Hague, or whether Hague and David Cameron had handled the matter properly, because he did know the details of the conversations that had taken place. But he said that Ashcroft should have been more open: "The prurient always gain a kick from the prurience if what they see is seen through a not-quite-closed curtain. Probably it would have been better for Lord Ashcroft to have said what we now know some years ago."
Ashcroft was sharply criticised in several newspapers over the weekend. The News of the World, owned by Rupert Murdoch and previously edited by Cameron's communications chief, Andy Coulson, appeared to urge the leadership to drop Ashcroft as deputy chairman. "A very rich bloke is managing to sort his own taxes very quickly, thank you, while the rest of us have to pay through the nose to bail out his banker pals. Cameron, and particularly Hague, have had chance after chance to lance this boil of a problem, but they didn't. Now it has come back to haunt them."
In a separate development, the Guardian can reveal that a formal complaint was sent last week to Cressida Dick, the head of the Metropolitan police's specialist crime directorate. It claims that the Tory peer has gained "a pecuniary advantage by deception" by failing to keep promises that he would become a permanent resident in Britain.
Jim Miller, a writer from Leominister, Herefordshire, said he made the complaint because Ashcroft had deceived the British people and profited from that deceit. "I've read what's happened and I'm not happy about it. I wanted to put it before the police so they could decide whether an offence has been committed," he said.
In a letter to Dick on Wednesday, Miller said that a letter sent by Ashcroft to Hague when Hague was opposition leader gave a "clear and unequivocal assurance" that he would take up residency in Britain. "Lord Ashcroft did not take up permanent residence in the UK in 2000, and 10 years later he has still not taken up permanent residence in this country; he has done this in order to benefit from non-domicile tax status. He deceived the leader of the Opposition, and through him deceived the honours scrutiny committee, the prime minister's office, and the press and general public," Miller wrote.
A spokesman for Scotland Yard said today that it had not yet officially received the complaint.
Today Ashcroft's spokesman did not respond to messages left by the Guardian. But last week the spokesman said Ashcroft, who is expected to stand down as Tory deputy chairman at the election, had "never broken a promise and … never gone back on an undertaking".
Ashcroft himself said in a statement last week that in "dialogue with the government" it was agreed that his undertaking to become a permanent resident in the UK could be interpreted as meaning that he would become a "long-term" resident.
Jeff Jarvis and BloggerCon. (Scripting News). http://r2.ly/z7hz
Jeff Jarvis and BloggerCon
- Dave WinerJeff Jarvis and BloggerCon
- Rob DianaJeff Jarvis and BloggerCon
- Marc Canter@nwjerseyliz let's argue it out on Google Buzz: http://bit.ly/cLcsTv I can't stand having conversations on Twitter. :-)
[Direct Link]RT @socialwebtools: RT @bloggingtipscom Twittaw – Social Messaging with Threaded Conversations http://goo.gl/fb/jpYt
[Direct Link]
3G is yesterday's news, and all the major cell providers are experimenting with getting their networks ready for the high-speed data protocols we'll be using in the near future. Sprint's well on its way to 4G deployment, and today we got word of T-Mobile's latest efforts, a not-quite-4G HSPA+ implementation it's calling "Very Fast Mobile Web".
Don't let the fact that it isn't quite proper 4G scare you away, as HSPA+ is no slouch; T-Mobile claims that it can squeeze over 2.5MB/s to a device on its HSPA+ network. The company already has the network deployed in Philadelphia, and is now expanding to Chicago, LA, Dallas, and Miami.
The first "Very Fast Mobile Web" device T-Mobile users will have the chance to play with is a USB modem - the webConnect Rocket. Sometime later this year you should also be able to get an HSPA+ smartphone, likely running Android, on your T-Mobile account.
Details haven't been published yet on what "Very Fast Mobile Web" service will add to your T-Mobile bill, but if we can gleam anything from current and past data rates, expect to pay dearly for broadband speed on the go. With speeds this fast, though, it just might be worth it.
