It looks like iPhone 4 might be their Vista, and I’m OK with that. That’s another mantle they’re welcome to take. I actually read that headline last week, and I just sort of had to […]
Category: Storytelling

The Old Man and the 3G
Who says that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks or that older people can’t adapt and change? Not me, or at least not any longer. This afternoon, I got the most amazing shock from my father-in-law, who turned 88 in December. He wants to make some changes, by going all 3G wireless.
Protecting Legacies
Cash cows are wonderful things to have. But you have to use the revenue to invest in the future, not to protect the legacies. Steve Wildstrom That one statement assesses everything that is wrong about […]
Coffee Shop Newsrooms
My fantasy newsroom is one where the public comes and goes (within reason, of course) and story ideas flow freely in all directions. In England in the 1600s, news grew out of coffeehouses this way. Decades later in the U.S. colonies, the venue of choice switched to pubs. (I like that journalism in America is tied up with drinking. Explains a lot.)
Here’s a big shout-out to the Freehold, New Jersey initiative above. I’m rooting for (literal) conversational journalism par excellence.
Doreen Marchionni

What’s in a Name?
Nick Santilli asks the right question: iPhone OS Got a New Name, So When Will iTunes?. Synchronization is the killer application for the connected world, but Apple’s major sync tool is strangely placed: iTunes, which long […]
All-Purpose Media
Until the Net arrived, the history of media had been a tale of fragmentation. Different technologies progressed down different paths, leading to a proliferation of special-purpose tools. Books and newspapers could present text and images, […]
Trashed iPad/iPhone
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPJSjnizxu4] Storytelling is an art form, but it isn’t solely the purview of artists. Video “Trashed iPhone and iPad!” is good example. The video isn’t the most sophisticated filmmaking, but the story is compelling: […]
From the Depths of 'The Shallows'
It is our intellectual technologies that have the greatest and most lasting power over what and how we think. They are our most intimate tools, the ones we use for self-expression, for shaping personal and […]

Internet Attention Deficit Disorder
Nicholas Carr’s book, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, may be the defining manuscript of the World Wide Web era; so far. I haven’t read the book yet, but I have followed Nicholas’ writings leading up to The Shallows. I get his point, because I’ve experienced it. He merely wraps research around the experience. The point: Interaction with the Web changes how we think, in part by rewiring how we consume information. Attention spans are shorter and tasks like reading a long magazine article or book are harder.
In June 2008, I read a short post by Nicholas linking to his Atlantic story “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”

Be a Man, John Gruber
If John Gruber allowed comments on his blog, I wouldn’t need to write this post, and it has been long-time coming. I considered writing it every time I read something outrageous at Daring Fireball but couldn’t directly respond because John doesn’t allow comments. Finally, this morning, I had enough.

Tweet If You See a Tooting Llama
Mark Arm’s Tumblr post—photo of a Central Park animal—reminds me of a story. Summer 1980, I had just turned 21 and lived in a group house on New York’s Upper West Side. The Democratic National Convention convened at Madison Square Garden for about four days of mayhem.

Turbo Charge AT&T Internet
AT&T is keeping secrets. I called to change my U-verse service and discovered 24Mbps Internet is available in my area for same price as 18Mbps. That was a brainless upgrade. AT&T calls the 24Mbps service […]