Editorials

Vinyl in a World of Digital Music An Interview with Tom Tom Mag's Mindy Abovitz

Editorials, Music Diary

Vinyl in a World of Digital Music An Interview with Tom Tom Mag’s Mindy Abovitz

While Judie and I were attending the Create.Work.Inspire event sponsored by Dell and Intel last week we had the chance to sit down with Mindy Abovitz, the founder and editor in chief of Tom Tom magazine. (As an aside, we both really love the magazine and highly recommend you check it out.) While the conversation was ostensibly about the Create.Work.Inspire project, Mindy was the driving force behind it, we couldn’t resist using the time with her to ask a few other questions. One that we had been dying to ask had to do with the recent uptick in vinyl record sales. As…

Hoarding! Why Can I Not Clean Up My iPhone?

Editorials

Hoarding! Why Can I Not Clean Up My iPhone?

I spend much of my time browsing for iOS applications. Finding new apps on blogs or finding reduced price and free apps is kind of a hobby of mine. Often, I will download apps with no intent of using them, but to collect them in my iTunes just in case. A few of my friends like to make the, “there’s an app for that” joke almost anytime I talk about my phone. Some of my students were recently discussing the show about hoarders. You know the program where people stack random items in their houses until it is basically not…

The Future of Touch Interfaces?

Editorials

The Future of Touch Interfaces?

Image courtesy of Multi-touch Research Because of my work, I have to toggle back and forth between a Windows laptop and a MacBook Pro during the day.  I am not going to add to the Apple/PC wars, nor to the Windows/Mac OS X discussion; instead what I’ve noticed most, every day, day after day, is the huge productivity difference I get out of . . . the Apple Magic Mouse

Scientists Give "Fake Meat" a Whole New Spin

Editorials

Scientists Give “Fake Meat” a Whole New Spin

I was a vegetarian for 7 years, so I have eaten my fair share of veggie burgers and fake bacon (actually, fake bacon is why I stopped being a vegetarian, but that’s a whole other story). So the idea of “fake” meat doesn’t bother me most of the time, but this latest news is truly creepy-scientists are working on making “meat” using stem cells and Petri dishes. According to the BBC: Scientists in the Netherlands hoping to create a more efficient alternative to rearing animals have grown small pieces of beef muscle in a laboratory. These strips will be mixed…

I Prefer Amazon's AppStore to the Android Market and Apparently I'm Not Alone

Editorials

I Prefer Amazon’s AppStore to the Android Market and Apparently I’m Not Alone

Do you want to know my #1 pet peeve with the Android Market? How unnecessarily difficult they make switching devices. I upgraded to a new Droid 4 last week and I STILL don’t have all of my apps set up yet. Contrast this with Amazon, where all of my apps were all ready to reinstall as soon as I logged into my account. The basic problem is that the Android Market doesn’t track apps for your account unless you spend money on them … which is perhaps the most idiotic thing I have ever heard about. This means trying to…

Microsoft Pokes Fun at Google Apps with New 'Googlighting' Spot

Editorials, News & Features

Microsoft Pokes Fun at Google Apps with New ‘Googlighting’ Spot

Last year Microsoft created the ‘GMail Man’ spoof commercial (I’ve included it at the bottom), that cast things that are completely true — that Google has programs that ‘read’ your email and target you with advertisements based on keywords found in your messages — in a completely creepy way by personalizing the scanner. The intent was obvious – show personal and especially business users that their sensitive personal data and intellectual property was anything but safe in GMail.

Apple TV All About Social Media? Nah.

Editorials

Apple TV All About Social Media? Nah.

Image courtesy of iJailbreak Tech-head Dave Winer is a smart guy, and has been writing interesting things about technology for pushing 20 years now, and he is one of the few in that category that I really respect.  But in his recent post about Apple TV, what he thinks it will offer, and why he thinks it will succeed, I think he’s, well, just wrong:

The Dismal State of Android as a Music Production Solution

Editorials, Music Diary

The Dismal State of Android as a Music Production Solution

I took the picture above on New Year’s Eve, and I was originally planning to use it as part of a post illustrating how an iPad-centric music system costing under $1000 is capable of producing better music than multi-million dollar studios from just 25-30 years ago. So let’s take a quick look: My son Christopher is working a DJ mixer which is interfaced to a netbook that is streaming music from MOG; an iPod Touch with some other pre-recorded music; and an iPad. The iPad is the workhorse of the music system, located just to the left of the iPod…

Oops They Did It (and were caught doing it) Again ...

Editorials

Oops They Did It (and were caught doing it) Again …

The quote I have been seeing – and using a lot lately is critical in describing Google’s behavior working around browser security settings and the very desires of users in insinuating their advertising into Safari as they were caught doing last week: Despite being thought of as a tech company, Google is actually an ad agency. Last week Google was caught bypassing user settings and Safari security as noted here: – Google secretly developed a way to circumvent default privacy settings established by a hated competitor, Apple – Google enabled this workaround to further its own advertising (revenue) and social-networking…

Personal Privacy: Is It an Archaic Concept?

Editorials

Personal Privacy: Is It an Archaic Concept?

Image courtesy of The Punch In 1990, science fiction writer David Brin released “Earth”, a book that was set 50 years in the (then) future, or about 2038.  It extrapolated a number of things–increased UV and higher coastlines due to global warming, for example (Houston is inundated with water like Venice!).  One of the key back plot elements, though, is a “Helvetian War”, a war fought against the Swiss to end the secrecy of the Swiss banks, and attempt to get the people back some of the ill-gotten gains of the rich.  (Switzerland is turned into a radioactive abattoir as…

Is Amazon Evil, or Is It Just Business?

eBooks, Editorials

Is Amazon Evil, or Is It Just Business?

With all the upheaval in bookselling, there seems to be a growing distrust and backlash towards Amazon. Borders imploded, B&N is struggling with their physical stores, independent bookstores are disappearing, and Amazon is waiting with open arms for any lost consumers. The anti-Amazon discussions boil down to two main arguments; the idea that as convenient as Amazon is, buying “local” is worth the higher costs, and the idea that Amazon is just plain evil. I understand the “buy local” argument, but the “Amazon as an evil entity sent to suck the life from the competition” argument is, to put it…

Can You Hear Me OW!?! AT&T Continuing Their Heavy-Handed Assault on Unlimited Data Plans

Editorials

Can You Hear Me OW!?! AT&T Continuing Their Heavy-Handed Assault on Unlimited Data Plans

Much has been written about AT&T now warning the “top 5% of iPhone data users” on unlimited plans that they would begin seeing their data speeds slowed because of their adverse affect on the network as a whole. At first pass most would think that meant individuals streaming video constantly and using up tens of gigabytes of data. That isn’t the case. In a month where I have been switching on and off between the iPhone 4S and the Titan (in other words using my iPhone far LESS than normal), I got the above warning. “Uh Oh!” I thought to…

No Picture

Editorials

Gear Chat 2012 Episode 3; Hear the Mountain Lion Roar

We’re back with Episode 3 of Gear Chat 2012. This time out we’ll talk about OS X Mountain Lion, iPad 3 rumors, Evernote Hello, iPhone case fails and more. In addition, Carly will bring the latest in eBook news and Mike will let us know what is new in the world of gaming.

OS X Mountain Lion; Yeah, It's a Big Deal

Editorials

OS X Mountain Lion; Yeah, It’s a Big Deal

Mike posted word the other day that Apple outed their next operating system, OS X Mountain Lion and gave it a late summer arrival date. Yes, just as Apple Computer lost the “Computer” from its name as it began to shift its company positioning, they have now dropped the “Mac” from Mac OS X. Mountain Lion is, in my opinion a bit of good news and a bit more good news. The good news is that they are continuing to bring OS X into line with iOS. The additional good news is that they are doing it in a manner…

No Picture

Editorials, Vehicles & Gear

Cadillac Celebrates 100th Anniversary of Making Cars Less ‘Cranky’

Talk about taking technology for granted, how about the electric starter? Cadillac is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its debut of electric start technology that first appeared in its 1912 Cadillac Touring Edition. Before this ground breaking innovation, cars were a bit “cranky.” Literally. Back then it took a hand crank and some muscle power to turn over the motor to be able to drive your vehicle.

Want Android 4.0 or Google Chrome on Your Phone? Don't Buy a Motorola!

Editorials

Want Android 4.0 or Google Chrome on Your Phone? Don’t Buy a Motorola!

Recently Motorola talked about the difficulty and complexity of updating the operating system on phones, placing the blame for the ‘expectations game’ squarely on Google and how they choose to roll things out: When Google does a release of the software … they do a version of the software for whatever phone they just shipped. The rest of the ecosystem doesn’t see it until you see it. Hardware is by far the long pole in the tent, with multiple chipsets and multiple radio bands for multiple countries. It’s a big machine to churn. So when Google released Android 4.0 Ice…

Road Warrior/Technogypsy Notes: The Right Stuff Helps

Editorials, Travel

Road Warrior/Technogypsy Notes: The Right Stuff Helps

™ No, I don’t travel with quite that much stuff; close, though (Image courtesy of The Tech Journal) So it used to be that I had to travel basically every week–my job was in California, but my home is in Austin, so I did an awful lot of flying around.  After a while, it got to the point where it was practically automatic, and I didn’t give much thought to the things I did to make traveling easier. Recently, however, after a 5 month hiatus, I had to make a business trip, and I’m finding that some of the gear…

Is the iPad 3 in Your Future? A Gear Chat

Editorials

Is the iPad 3 in Your Future? A Gear Chat

Yes, it is that time of year. The annual iPad announcement and release is likely on the way and, with it, the flurry of rumors are in full force. Moreover, as we have seen in recent year, these rumors are often accompanied by slightly blurry spy shots of various components. We saw a supposed back plate for the iPad 3 and today the supposed hi-res display has emerged. We do our best to stay away from rumor and innuendo (although sometimes we just can’t resist) but that does not mean we aren’t thinking about what we want in the iPad…

AT&T Set to Double Their Upgrade Fee to $36?

Editorials, News & Features

AT&T Set to Double Their Upgrade Fee to $36?

AT&T is reportedly slated to increase their device upgrade costs from $18 to $36 this coming Sunday, February 12. Because the overall costs associated with upgrading to a new device have increased, effective Sunday, February 12, 2012, AT&T will change its upgrade fee from $18 to $36 Just my luck. I’m due for an upgrade, and I’ve been chomping at the bit to try a Windows phone, as evidenced by Dan and Judie’s saga of their HTC Titan usage. Speaking for myself, it’s just unfortunate that by the time I want to try out the Titan II or the Nokia…