DailyTechTalk Show: Episode 2 (Macworld Bound)

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:23:06 GMT

Episode 2 of DailyTechTalk Show is up. It's just me in this podcast. I have interviews for the next few shows but this one focuses solely on Macworld Expo which is coming up in just a few months. I like to do an introduction to Macworld while people are still planining.

Adobe San Francisco Photos

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:48:40 GMT

While at iPhoneDevCamp last week, I took some photos of Adobe's entrance area and the boxes of previous Adobe software really impressed me. I'll let the photos tell the story from here.

Interviewed by Stickam at SummerMash SF

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 02:32:35 GMT

Just realized that an interview I did at SummerMash SF for Stickam was posted. Check it out below.

Software Makes The Difference

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 21:50:49 GMT

I am going to get some hell for this one. Windows Vista and Blackberry are the best for me when it comes to staying organized and getting more work done. Windows Vista is not as reliable as Mac OS X and comparing Apple's iPhone and Mac OS to Vista / Blackberry is a hard sell when it's so much easier to use Apple's offerings. From a usability and learning curve perspective, I love Mac and iPhone but there are days when I have 200 unread messages, 400 unread RSS feeds and my phone is ringing constantly where I wish that I wasn't using a Mac. Here are some reasons. Why Windows Vista beats Mac OS 1. Office 2007 is a fantastic suite of applications for Windows. I love writing with Word 2007. The Ribbon interface in Word and Excel is so beautiful and incredibly useful. I can write for hours in Word and I won't get distracted. Outlook is the killer app for me and I miss using it on a daily basis. There isn't a mail application today that is functional like Outlook...

Amazon is Undervalued

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:42:49 GMT

Amazon is doing some very awesome stuff on the web but the hype around their products is slim to none. I'm glad that Amazon has seen a little more buzz over the past few weeks but compared to someone like Apple, Amazon doesn't even exist. I understand that Apple is doing so much with iPhone and Macintosh but Amazon is doing a few big things and I feel they need a little more credit. 1. Amazon.com is the best place online to buy nearly everything. I use Amazon for everything except PC parts and for that, I use Newegg. You can even sell your stuff on Amazon for very cheap and it's better than using eBay in some cases. 2. One-click which we use very often on the iTunes Store is registered and owned by Amazon. They invented one-click and we benefit from it today. 3. S3 & EC2 Services. Amazon's cloud computing and storage services are used by nearly every web 2.0 startup today. It's funny because, once every 6 months S3 has some downtime and every startup crumbles to...

DailyTechTalk Show is now on iTunes

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 07:02:48 GMT

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Griffin Nu Form for iPhone 3G

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 17:18:36 GMT

I picked up a Nu Form case for testing. I'm not a huge fan of cases that make the iPhone thicker and take away from its beauty but for some people, this case will work very well. I immediately gave the case to Laura, my girlfriend, for testing. She wrapped the Nu Form around her iPhone 3G and used the built in screen protector too and stuck it in her purse. A week of testing and here are the results. The phone is completely protected at all times. It's a bit bulkier but the case is very well made and very easy to take on and off. All of the buttons, camera and dock are still accessible but they aren't going to get damaged if I drop the phone. Speaking of dropping, that happened a few times on various surfaces and the iPhone is doing A-OK. The case does show some scratches but it is plastic so that's expected. i wasn't a fan of the included protectors but Griffin has made recent changes based on consumer feedback and future models will be improved. Basically, the screen...

Griffin Elan Clip for iPhone 3G

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 17:11:09 GMT

I am a big fan of holsters that clip right to my hip and aren't too difficult to get on and off. Some individuals put their phones in elaborate cases but I enjoy my iPhone being exposed and easy to grab. The Elan Clip is perfect for someone like this. The belt clip is pretty standard except it could be a little stronger. Taking the clip off of my belt is much too easy but it holds the iPhone 3G perfectly without any issues. Removing the iPhone is sometimes a chore but this task is only hard because the phone is securely strapped in the event that you have to take off running or bump into a wall. The phone can be docked in the case facing out or in and I like both. For those of us that want the iPhone's screen to be protected and easily accessible then it's perfect. I'm also a fan of holding just the phone to my ear. The iPhone feels so good in your hand but a case ruins that but I still want protection. With Elan Clip, there's protection, convenience and accessibility when it...

DailyTechTalk Show: Episode 1 (Introductions)

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 03:51:01 GMT

Thanks to Daniel for being on our first show. I had a few podcasts before but it was time for a fresh start. Enjoy!

DTT Media July Statistics (Wow!)

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 07:28:08 GMT

I just wanted to post an update as I have been for the past few months. Another month means another jump in visitors. Here are stats from the last three months: Unique Visitors: May: 97,235 June: 103,039 July: 109,472 Hits / Pageviews May: 200,921 June: 234,810 July: 294,879 Operating Systems: Windows: 64.8% Macintosh: 28.50% Linux: 6.42% Browsers (by popularity) 1. Internet Explorer 2. Mozilla 3. Safari 4. Opera Just to put things in perspective. January is our biggest month because of Macworld so I wanted to post stats from that, too. Unique Visitors: 133,223 Page Views: 299,436 I'm getting very close to hitting my Macworld 2008 numbers. That's a good sign for DailyTechTalk. Such fantastic numbers and yet I can't get any advertisers. Sad times. Advertising is super cheap (as little as $25 dollars per month) and yet I can't attract anyone. Anyone interested, feel free to drop me a line.

Scott Beale of Laughing Squid on Internet Superstar

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 20:04:56 GMT

I had to take some time out to mention that my friend, Scott Beale who is "primary tentacle" of LaughingSquid and has influenced my direction in the move to San Francisco, a career choice and keeps me in the loop on everything happening in the bay area. He was the first local San Franciscan that I befriended back in 2006 and continues to help me at least twice a week with misc. things. Thanks Scott for: A) LaughingSquid.com B) Your awesome Flickr Stream C) Guiding me in projects and finding events D) You're freaking awesome parties & drinkups. The video rocks. It's about time someone put Scott in the spotlight.

Upcoming Projects

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 19:35:34 GMT

I'm working on 4+1 things right now. A) Helping a friend get a company off the ground B) Redesigning DTT Media's host of websites C) My own daily work D) A brand new project that I can't say anything about. E) Macworld Planning which is taking a lot of time as well I've been blogging at least 6 entries a day for the past two months. I'm ramping down a little bit over the next 2 weeks so I can get a lot of upcoming things done and in order. I'll still be posting just not as much.

iPhoneDevCamp 2 Group Photo

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 21:26:00 GMT

Just wanted to post this group photo from iPhoneDevCamp 2. Everyone that's interested in iPhone developement should attend this event! You can comment and view the photo full size here. Photo credit Adam Tow

Why Native Twitter Apps for iPhone Fall Short

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:12:44 GMT

Lately, I've been raving about Hahlo for iPhone. I absolutely love this app but the one thing that keeps this application from being highlighted by every blog out there is the fact that it is a web app. Web apps only run on the iPhone's web browser and don't run as a native application. There are three native applications for the iPhone from 3rd parties that are available on the app store that are currently the most popular. Those are Twittelator, Twitterific and Twinkle. These apps are great but I've uninstalled all of them because they all fall short of the power of Hahlo. Hahlo is so amazing that I have packaged the website into a self contained application that I run on my Mac full time. It's a beautiful and full featured client that has so many innovations that nothing else compares. Here are my favorite features of Hahlo: 1. It's always running. When I open Safari, Hahlo is exactly where I left it and hitting "refresh" shows me all of the...

One Week with Windows Live Search

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 18:16:01 GMT
Last week, I posted an article about Cuil and how I'm not switching from Google any time soon. As I wrote that piece, I had secretly started using Windows Live Search as my default home page and search tool within Firefox. Live.com has gotten lighter, faster and sometimes faster than Google. I love the home page and Microsoft is really pushing this search as better than Google's offering. As I said last week, "it's all about results" and Live doesn't deliver. performing nearly 30 searches a day, on average and I'm extremely disappointing. The results are not what I was expecting and searching for a page takes twice as long as it does with Google. Someone looking over my shoulder at iPhoneDevCamp said to me, "wow those results suck" and I agree. There's not another current search engine that I'm interested...

DNS Mistakes: Everyone Makes Them [TWITTER]

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 16:48:50 GMT
So it looks like Twitter is fully integrating Summize into the Twitter domain. It was search.twitter.com as of yesterday but this morning, I'm greeted with a networksolutions page when I try to go to both http://summize.com and http://search.twitter.com It's common for IT folk to make DNS mistakes that causes downtime for up to 72 hours. Twitter might have been affected by this too. You can view the image: CLICK HERE.

iPhoneDevCamp 2 (Day 2)

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 15:53:19 GMT
It's 8:45AM and I just arrived at day 2 of iPhoneDevCamp. Today's schedule is from 9AM to 10PM so I expect to get a lot out of today. Last night, I downloaded all of the iPhone dev videos available on iTunes U and watched them. I also installed Xcode 3.1 and the latest iPhone SDK. I don't know Objective-C language. Hell, I don't even know HTML or PHP but I'm going to try to learn as mu ch as possible today. We'll see. Enjoying my continental breakfast compliments of iPhoneDevCamp and their sponsors.

Live from iPhoneDevCamp 2

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 01:30:38 GMT
It's good to be a developer. I'm live here at iPhoneDevCamp 2 at Adobe's SoMa HQ in beautiful San Francisco. Perks: -300 developers -dozens of sponsors -all the beer and mixed drinks you can consume -tons of food -free massage therapist on hand -tons of collaboration -awesome internet connection -tons of power outlets -did I mention beer? I'm streaming live as much as I can all weekend. There are a lot of things that are under NDA that I can't broadcast but I'll do as much as I can.

Andrew Mager launches The Web Life

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:58:19 GMT
Andrew Mager over at CNET launched "The Web Life" this week. Huge congrats to him. You can read about the announcement on his blog. Check out The Web Life and add it to your RSS reader.

Chrome Bags SF Grand Opening

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:28:23 GMT
Yesterday was the grand opening of Chrome's new retail store. I've never been to the existing store but I did hear that the old store was small and this marks the progression of the Chrome brand. The new store is pretty large and a perfect location. In the heart of SoMa with their full selection of bags on display, the new store is located at 580 4th Street. After being there for an hour after opening, over 100 people were there and I purchased my bag just before the line exceeded 40 people waiting to check out. The buzz was that all bags were 25% off so my $140 dollar bag was only $105 after tax. I purchased the SoMa bag which is a bag with an over the shoulder style but still remains a square backpack. It doesn't fully fit my 15" MacBook Pro but I have to say that after using the bag for a day, it's growing on me. This is an extremely well made and comfortable bag. It holds everything I need for the...

iPhoneDevcCamp 2 is This Weekend

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:11:02 GMT
Today at 5PM, iPhoneDevCamp 2 kicks off in San Francisco. It's a 3 day barcamp and takes place at Adobe's San Francisco offices. Nearly 300 are expected to arrive. Between now and sunday, teams will create applications and awards will be given out in various categories. Some apps will be submitted to the App Store. There are TONS of giveaways and anyone participating will get a raffle ticket. If you show up and participate, the odds are pretty good that you'll win something. Personally, I don't know anything about development. I'm going to install Xcode today and hopefully pick up some iPhone development tricks over the weekend. Here are some of the giveaways: # MacBook Pro 17″ w/ 4GB RAM (ngmoco) # MacBook (White) 2.1 GHz (doubleTwist) # $500 Apple Store Gift Certificate (Tapulous) # Apple Store Gift Certificate for a new iPhone 3G (Apple Phone Show) # Apple Store Gift Certificate for a new iPhone 3G (Viewzi) # $2,000 in JBL speakers for iPhone and...

DailyTechTalk: 900 Posts & Counting [UPDATE]

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:02:07 GMT
Last night, I published the 900th article to DailyTechTalk. That's quite an impressive number. I launched DailyTechTalk under a different name back in 2003 and the 900 number reflects the number of "open" entries and not content that was closed or deleted from our system. Back in 2006, I removed about 250 news entries when we moved to an editorial / reviews format and moved away from a news blog. Thanks to all of the guest bloggers, readers and fans of DTT. We're going to have a huge meetup party at Macworld 2009 and I hope all of you can make it. DTT is close to hitting the 1 millionth unique visitor to the site. Don't miss any of the action by subscribing to the RSS Feed. Added Stat Graph:

Unsubscribing from TUAW and Engadget

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 07:54:04 GMT
I posted earlier this week that some summer RSS cleanup was being performed. This was to help me take control of the amount of stories I read each day. Well, I am announcing that both Engadget and The Unofficial Apple Weblog will no longer have a place in my NetNewsWire. The reason is simple. Weblogs, Inc. has been cutting pay of bloggers or not paying them at all according to whispers around the net. I've noticed less posts, lower quality posts and boring posts from both blogs in the past couple of weeks. The departure of Ryan Block from Engadget was the last strike for me because that means I won't be able to read his fantastic open letters, editorials and follow his kick ass coverage of CES and Macworld. The same goes for the extremely talented Scott McNulty. His words and presence will live on at other blogs that he operates himself but the Apple-centric posts of yesterday will...

iPhone 3G Cracking

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:19:53 GMT
The cracking of iPhone 3G cases are definitely not an isolated case. I was scouring the Apple discussion forums for help with my pitiful iPhone 3G battery (-10% per hour on avg) and stumbled upon a, very active, forum on people's iPhone 3G's cracking. I first read of the problem over at Gizmodo and thought to myself that maybe it is just a few people and not a huge issue. Boy was I wrong. If you head over to the Apple Discussion Forums, you'll find a few threads with people complaining about the issue. Luckily, most of them are getting their iPhone 3G's replaced free of charge. I'm really glad to hear that Apple is replacing the units and not just saying that we're out of luck or up the proverbial creek. My iPhone 3G hasn't crack yet (knock on...

List of Device Bandwidths

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 22:48:18 GMT
This is a great tool for anyone in IT. The Wikipedia article breaks down everything from computer connections, memory, hard drive connections, wireless data rates and more into one page. It's pretty awesome! List of device bandwidths