Friday fact: where surfing's not so hot

Reporters sans frontières has out out this amazing map showing the places where the Internet is pretty much dark as far as the free flow of news is concerned. I'm happy to say I'm not going to one of the countries devoid of light on the map tomorrow... I just might not be able to access the 'net all that frequently! Have a great Labor Day weekend for my US readers... and a great week if I don't get to find much to say from Costa Rica!


Thanks to Valleywag for the original source...

Emergency response to a wet iPhone

Podshow/Daily Source Code's Adam Curry dropped his iPhone in a place you flat out don't want to drop an iPhone. Pre-flush. He's now apparently resorting to a kitty litter moisture absorption rescue mission (see left).

Word to the wise out there... if you drop your precious iPod, phone, PSP, etc. in the drink (or toilet), get it out... turn it off... remove the battery (if you can). Let it dry out completely. You have a shot at getting it back. Last March a buddy of mine pushed me in the pool at a resort in Tobago... pretty funny, except for the nice digital camera in my pocket! A couple of days drying out in the tropical breezes, and my camera was up and running again.

Which reminds me... I'm going to Costa Rica for a week starting on Saturday, which means it's entirely possible the blog will be dark from September 1st to the 9th. Well, not dark I guess... just stuck on whatever wackiness I find on the Internets this Friday.

Voiceover tips

I just ran across an interesting article on voiceover tips... complete with embedded audio examples of course... I'd say I agree with most of what the author suggests. Here's one I don't:

Practice your voice-over technique and don’t be afraid to sound a little weird and “over the top”- everyone does it.

No... no... a thousand times no! Well, the practice part is fine... but the over the top technique is not. If you want to sound like a whacky morning DJ, follow that advice. If you want a professional sound, just be yourself. Slow down and have fun. Never worry about making a mistake... that's what post production is for!

Beware movie pirates!

A hard-core Linux user who was busted for pirating Star Wars Episode III (the least objectionable of the painfully bad second set of Star Wars flicks) was smacked upside the head by his sentencing judge. Because he will have his computer use monitored as a part of his probation, and because the monitoring software doesn't run on Linux... yes, he is being forced to use Windows for all computing needs. Open Source users are proud of their lack of affiliation with Apple or Microsoft... now this guy is being fored to turn to the Dark Side. Cue the irony alert!

Friday funny: The Inappropriate Yoga Guy

I have several clients in the yoga industry (Hello öm time and Hip Tranquil Chick!)... this short on Ogden, the Inappropriate Yoga Guy is simply genius, whether you've hit the mat before or not. Have a great weekend!

iPhone unlocked?

Some 17 year old in Jersey apparently has his iPhone running on T-Mobile... the significance is that it's supposed to be locked in a way that only works on AT&T's wireless network. Some are suggesting this will open up the phone for use around the world. I think it will just cause el-Jobso to press the "release the hounds" button on this kid. Fake Steve Jobs has already got his people on it.

Duck and cover, my friend... the lawyers are coming...

UPDATE - seems like the whole world now claims to have unlocked the phone. Meanwhile, Apple continues to get trillions of dollars in free media coverage of their phone...

New media gaining on old media

An IBM study states what a lot of us already knew... new media is starting to replace old media in the hearts and minds of the public. Here are some of the findings:

• TV is increasingly taking a back seat to the cell phone and the personal computer among consumers age 18 to 34
• 19 percent of survey respondents reported spending six hours or more per day on personal Internet usage, versus nine percent of respondents who reported the same levels of TV viewing
• Consumers are demonstrating their desire for both wired and wireless access to content: an average of 81 percent of consumers surveyed globally indicated they’ve watched or want to watch PC video, and an average of 42 percent indicated they’ve watched or want to watch mobile video

This trend impacts everything... media delivery, advertising, the works. If you've got a product or a point of view, this is the time to start strategizing a new media plan.

Conventional Wisdom turned

Not to make this an all Apple blog, but I read a terrific piece today on Mac applications for business. As most of you have figured out by now, I run Nineball Media largely on Apple computers... although I certainly use Windows when clients need it, and I'm by no means anti-Windows. It's been a truism for many years that Windows is better for business and Macs are better on the creative side... I think that conventional wisdom is starting to shift a bit, and many of the applications listed in this post help me tremendously.

Downtime averted

Nineball Media has been good enough to upgrade equipment to the new iMacs... while the PowerBook was making nice with the new iMac, I realized that I would be without a computer for over an hour during my most productive time of the day. iPhone to the rescue... it's amazing how technology can at once be the cause and solution of downtime. In any event, we're all up and running now. For the speed freaks out there, I threw in 4 GB of RAM into the new computer... a podcast that took 7 minutes to crunch into an MP3 on the PowerBook took less than a minute on the new gear. Niiiiice.

Friday craziness: the 300 page iPhone bill

Little did any of us iPhone switchers know that AT&T sends you a bill with every call, text, and data use printed out on our monthly bill. I'm an e-bill guy myself, but apparently this woman gets her iPhone bill in old school paper by way of the post office. Her bill was three... hundred... pages. Yiiiiikes. Something tells me this video might be partially responsible for AT&T to alter their billing info policy... the trees will thank them.

Have a good weekend!

Rural wifi

It's amazing how much one relies on being wired... I've had a maddening amount of access here in rural New York the last few days and I've never been more grateful for my iPhone for giving me just a taste of access over the past few days. Mental note: don't think about doing work on a working vacation if there's no wifi.

Mental note #2: McDonalds wifi is not worth the Filet o' Fish. Ever.

Friday funny: Paint

Last week, we had members of KISS promoting... um, something. Projectors I think. This week, a parody on the wonders of everyone's favorite bundled Windows application: Paint.

Have a great weekend!

Wizzard snatches up some talent

Wizzard Media (owner of Libsyn, etc.) has scored a couple of coups this week... first, they hired Podcast 411's Rob Walch as VP of Podcaster Relations... a great hire. Rob's got great instincts on podcasting on the micro and macro level, plus he has a lot of credibility in the community. Check out Podcast 411's Item 209 for the announcement. Congrats Rob!

Second, Wizzard has scored two exclusive advertising deals with two of the biggest shows out there... Keith and the Girl and Tiki Bar TV. Considering the former is arguably the number one podcast and the latter is among the top two or three video podcasts, this was a big score.

This is great news for the entire podcasting community.

The podcast recipe

While I was waiting for the Apple announcements yesterday I discovered a pretty compelling podcast tutorial on Apple's website. The Podcast Recipe seminar is a free online tutorial that, while painfully corny in a few spots, actually gives some nice information on microphones, mixers and the scope of Garageband's podcasting capabilities. If you're a beginner, it's not a bad place to start... if you're a more seasoned podcast creator, but haven't used Garageband before, it showed some of its basic capabilities.

Apple's Mac announcement rumors

The last minute rumors floating about regarding today's Apple announcement... brand new iMacs (including a price drop on the high end 24")... new Mac Minis... a revamped iLife 08 and .Mac. All of these are great news for podcasters who are ready to upgrade their equipment. I'm not anti-Windows at all, but I've been using Macs at Nineball for the majority of my work. Depending on what gets announced today, there just might be some new gear on the way.

The announcements begin at 11 AM PDT... I'm not sure if there is any liveblogging of the event, but MacWorld is liveblogging the announcements... I'll post the scoop as soon as I find out.

UPDATE: New iMacs... iLife 08... it's a party. Details here.

Fake Steve Jobs outed

If you read this blog, I hope you've also been reading Fake Steve Jobs. He's been very funny and has a spot on take on what we all think (or wish) el Jobso has going on in his head. For the last year or so, his true identity has been a secret... until the intrepid New York Times figured out the ruse. Fake Steve Jobs has been outed.

We'll see how this impacts FSJ's rants... now that we know he's Daniel Lyons, an editor at Forbes.com, will that put a damper on the content?

KISS on technology

I present to you, your Friday ridiculousness. Cisco hired KISS to come and speak to their khaki clad crowd. Unfortunately, they also thought it would be prudent to get the band's take on technology.

Memo to Cisco: Script... the... aging... rock... stars. I'm with Paul Stanley... we need mini projectors on handhelds.

Huh? Wha? Enjoy the weekend everyone...

RSS feed spiffied up

Since we're getting more readers here (welcome!) I just spiffied up the RSS feed... feel free to grab the feed via the Feedburner icon in the right sidebar, or right here.

Cool free app: Jing

I've just been lead to a great new app called Jing... it's a free application that makes image capturing and screen videos a snap to make. Coolest part? It's cross platform and includes free hosting for all of your images and screencasts. Now if you need to show your mom how to do something on the computer, make a simple 5 minute video on Jing and send her the link. She can play it like any other video. No more typing out instructions! Also, since it's cross platform there are no worries if you're a PC owner sending to a Mac person, or vice versa. There's even a Linux version in the works... very cool.

Check out the overview video here... it explains it better than I can in a paragraph, which is kind of the whole point of Jing, isn't it?

Apple announces something non-iPhone related

Red alert! Looks like Apple is announcing long-awaited upgrades to some part of their hardware line. The rumor mill has been jamming the system with thoughts on new iMacs. If you believe Fake Steve Jobs (and who wouldn't for fake Mac news?) then you know what's coming. My venerable PowerBook has put in to go from full-time to part-time... 3 years and it wants a pension and a gold watch! Still, with the amount of audio and video it's processed, it deserves to let some new beastie to come along and handle the processing load...