The Cult of Me

How Social Technologies Will Save the Story

The Game-Changer: Netbooks v. iPad

I’m not fan of Apple design (or any technology design that substitutes centralized, corporate control for open systems). I’ve been vocal about this since my days at Wired back in 1999.
This isn’t to say that I think every company should be forced to open-ness, merely that I will fight the wide-spread adoption of such [...]

Mobile Web. We Haven’t Figure Out the Regular Web.

Image via Wikipedia

I’ve been perusing the feeds for the past week days watching news about the smart phone and mobile Web markets pile up.
It’s interesting to take a step back from the stream and just observe for awhile. I’ve been actively encouraging media companies to do just that — step away from the second-to-second chase [...]

Touch: The New Face of News Navigation

I often hear people who defend print say that computers can’t replace the feel of paper.
It’s easy to dismiss such talk as the ramblings of Luddites who staunchly refuse to enter the digital age. I’ve done it. I’m a child of the computer revolution. I’ve been reading and participating online since 1984. I had a [...]

Amazon, Borders: A Tale of Two Futures

Image via Wikipedia

Borders Books is back. Back online anyway.
Seven years after striking a deal with Amazon to merge a large portion of its online operations, the brick-and-mortar bookseller announced it would strike out on its own in an attempt to sell books the new-fashioned way: through a website.
I’d characterize the reaction online as lukewarm.
Some folks [...]

Microsoft’s Surface Touchscreen Computer

Just because I think this is the coolest thing out there and I want one. Microsoft’s table-top computer, brought to you by the Silicon Valley Insider.
Check it out here.

You Want Traffic Reports? I Got ‘Em Right Here.

One of the big drivers of traffic to news websites is traffic and weather (along with breaking news), but that may soon go the way of the classified ads thanks to Global Positioning System devices that can transmit data (uh oh, there’s that word again. The bane of all newspaper existence.) and create live, on-the-go [...]

FCC Closes Spectrum Auction

I’ve been covering the FCC Wireless Spectrum Auction on-and-off for the ECT News Network. Today, the auction closed, with four of the five main Blocks official sold. The fifth — for public safety and private partnerships — didn’t make the cut.
The $19 billion auction, though, is most significant because of Block C, which requires that [...]

The Future of Paper: E Ink

I’ve referenced — on the site, and more recently during my talks — the MIT company E-Ink, which created the technology that prints words on a digital read-out that look just like words on a page.
It’s a little freaky (and, as a side, part of a growing trend of digital technologies to re-create the analog [...]

Flash Memory

This isn’t absolutely germane to the future of news, but it’s certainly a new gadget that will make computers more efficient. Flash memory has been discussed as the new leap in technology. Here’s a review at CNet as to what that means.
“A flash memory notebook: The sounds of silence.”

Mobile Access Use Increasing

Just as newspapers are starting to get their hands around banner advertising, rich media comes along. Then Adobe Air. And now: the mobile Web is quickly becoming a daily part of life (which is why I’m so sold on the Kindle), which further throws the advertising world into a tizzy.
Our recent research shows that 62 [...]

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