Twitter, as a company, has made its share of mistakes over the years. These include implementing its own retweeting system that makes it significantly more difficult to see how many people retweeted you and who they are (not to mention the fact that when I use the Twitter retweet, I can’t add my two cents to the original tweet, it all kind of defeats the purpose), the Twitter URL shortening service, which seems to break more links than it shortens, or many others. But the good news was that with all these issues, I always had Tweetdeck to fall back on. Then Twitter bought Tweetdeck.
It has been quite a crazy month in and out of the tech industry and while I usually try to post these articles on a weekly basis, clearly, that did not work too well in the last couple of week. But since many (many) people seem to depend on these posts to get up to date, I am forcing myself to get back into the swing of things.
It is that time of the week again, time to sum up all the tech news of the previous week in one easy-to-read blog post. This edition of Above the Fuld is a little shorter than usual, as I was on vacation for three days this week. That means no coverage of the Amazon announcement for example, among other things.
Google+ for iOS gets a major update: Finally, the Google+ iOS app is on par with the site and its competitors. Especially the mobile hangouts, which bring video chatting to a whole new level.
Boom! My interview with Dennis Crowley, founder of Foursquare: Took me over a year to land this interview but it was well worth it. Whether you are an entrepreneur, a mobile fanatic, or just a plain old geek, you will find some gems in this interview.
By now, we all know that “Geek” is the new “Cool”, and I have met my share of geeks in my time, but David Pogue is on a whole new level. David has been writing a weekly personal technology column for the New York times since November, 2000. He also writes a monthly tech column for Scientific American. In addition, David is a featured guest on various TV shows including his CNBC appearances every Thursday, CBS Sunday Morning, and his show “Making Stuff” on PBS.
Toshiba announced the release of the Libretto W100 for their 25th Anniversary. The exact details are a bit vague, but what we do know is that there will be a limited number of these sold and they will be on the market in August. So what is so great about the Libretto that possibly revolutionizes the notebook computer?
While the mobile industry is busy talking about and comparing the Nexus One and the iPhone, there is one phone that really gives a clear perspective of the entire market and sums up the industry in a nutshell. It was not long ago when I first laid hand on the famous Motorola RAZR. “Wow, what a phone”, I thought, but what was it about the RAZR that so impressed people. What did the phone really being to the table that made people by the RAZR by the millions? Let’s be honest, was it the features that the phone offered or was it simply a pure case of style over substance? Did the RAZR revolutionize the mobile phone in that it offered better wireless broadband? Did it offer a better camera? Was its user experience superior to its predecessors?
Before I start, let me wish all of you, my loyal readers, a happy 2010. I know it has become so cliche for bloggers to thank their readers, but I am going to do it anyway. When I started writing for Tech N’ Marketing, I never imagined how fast it would take off and how popular it would become. I really have you to thank for that, and so, at the risk of sounding corny and predictable, let me say, that it is greatly appreciated. Really.
I have been meaning to review Xobni (“Inbox” backwards – it took me forever to figure that out) for a while now. The delay can be blamed on the fact that I have been using Xobni so much, I haven’t had the time. This is one of the only pieces of software that I shelled out cash to get the premium version, because it is just that good.
HP is in a lot of trouble lately if I am judging by the amount of bad press the video below brought the company. To make a long story short, a man by the name of Desi was playing around with his new HP laptop that is supposed to include Facial Tracking capabilities. That means, when you move, the webcam tracks you and moves with you. One slight problem it wasn’t working. Well, to Desi’s surprise, when he conducted the same test with his white friend, all of a sudden, the facial tracking worked. Everyone is pointing fingers at HP and half jokinky calling them racists.
So out of all the topics I generally write about, rarely will I discuss Web browsers. However, this week, the way I access the Web, both on my home PC, and on my work Mac, has completely changed for the better. The way I had my desktop set up until this week was that Chrome was my default browser on my PC and Safari was on my Mac. In both cases, I had Firefox installed and ready to launch whether it was on my quick launch bar or in my Mac’s dock. On my PC, I also had Internet Explorer at hand’s reach, just in case I come across one of those few leftover web pages that are displayed correctly in IE only. This week, all that changes.
OK, before I begin, let me apologize if the title is a little misleading…What I mean to say is that I found a tool through Twitter that is one of the most productive and efficient tools I have come across in years. A friend of mine on Twitter is the developer, so that is what I mean when I say Twitter increased my productivity. Now, let me ask you this, how you ever come across a concept that made you ask yourself “How did I not think of this?” or better yet “How did no one think of this?” This is one of those moments.
