Category Archives: Science & Technology

Podcasts on your BlackBerry

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A company called QuickPlay has come up with a way to stream podcasts directly from a central server, instead of downloading and storing on space-limited memory cards. They say they have lined up some high-profile content providers, ranging from ABC News to the Wall Street Journal. The service is available immediately for $8 per month and requires an existing BlackBerry connected to a cellular provider’s data plan.

It’s going to get easier and easier to watch/listen stuff on portable devices. Once that happens, I think we’ll stop using the term podcast.

But will they have a radio?

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iPods are helping to drive increased demand for premium audio options in new cars. According to Telematics Research, 80% of 2007 models for sale in the U.S. will offer branded premium audio options from the likes of Bose and Harman/Kardon as optional or standard equipment up from 67% during the ’06 model year.

The most sought after feature in cars is support for Apple’s iPod. Last year, only 12% of vehicles for sale supported true iPod integration, while nearly 50% of the ’07 models support iPods. Meanwhile, auxiliary input is supported by nearly 60% of ’07 models. [Podcasting News]

Movie computers

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Computer usability expert Jakob Nielsen has compiled a top 10 list of the most egregious mistakes made by moviemakers. My favorites are:

The Hero Can Immediately Use Any UI
Break into a company — possibly in a foreign country or on an alien planet — and step up to the computer. How long does it take you to figure out the UI and use the new applications for the first time? Less than a minute if you’re a movie star.

Integration is Easy, Data Interoperates
In the show 24, Jack Bauer calls his office to get plans and schematics for various buildings. Once these files have been transferred from outside sources to the agency’s mainframe, Jack asks to have them downloaded to his PDA. And — miracle of miracles — the files are readable without any workarounds.

Remote Manipulators
In Tomorrow Never Dies, James Bond drives his BMW from the back seat with an Ericsson mobile phone that works as the car’s remote control. And 007 drives fast, while also evading bad guys.

You’ve Got Mail is Always Good News
In the movies, checking your mail is a matter of picking out the one or two messages that are important to the plot. No information pollution or swamp of spam.

“This is Unix, It’s Easy”
In the film Jurassic Park, a 12-year-old girl has to use the park’s security system to keep everyone from being eaten by dinosaurs. She walks up to the control terminal and utters the immortal words, “This is a Unix system. I know this.” And proceeds to (temporarily) save the day.

BlackBerry Orphans

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Interesting story at WSJ.com about how hand-held email devices (BlackBerry, Treo, etc) are cutting into quality time at home. I’m never far from a computer so I have no stones to throw, but there seems to be something even more addictive about these devices. They are just so easy to use. So handy. And Barb’s Treo makes this insidious little tone when a new email comes in (“Check me! Check me!).

BlackBerryOne ninth-grader (in the WSJ story) says she has caught her parents typing emails on their Treos during her eighth-grade awards ceremony, at dinner and in darkened movie theaters. “During my dance recital, I’m 99% sure they were emailing except while I was on stage,” she says. “I think that’s kind of rude.”

Most of the senior managers in our company have BlackBerry’s and I’ll bet you a hot oil back rub on Oprah they’re using the little buggers right up until bedtime.

Update: NPR interview with the reporter that did the story and some of the people she interviewed.

Mayo Clinic developing “Treadmill Workstation”

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“Instead of sitting in chairs, workers stand in front of a raised workstation and slowly walk on a treadmill. Normally Levine keeps to a one-mile-per-hour pace, which requires little effort or concentration, allowing him to focus his attention on work. But the speed is fast enough to do some good, burning an extra 100 calories an hour – 8,000 calories over a 40 hour work week.”

“The researcher behind the project, Dr. James Levine, says his recent research shows that thin people tend to be on their feet an average of two and a half hours a day more than people who are overweight. Getting office workers up out of their chairs led him to build a prototype ‘treadmill workstation’.”

[ConsumerAffairs.com]

Gannett “Information Centers”

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The Des Moines Register is not a newspaper anymore, it’s an “information center.” Excerpts from a Gannett memo:

“What is it? The Information Center is a way to gather and disseminate news and information across all platforms, 24/7. The Information Center will let us gather the very local news and information that customers want, then distribute it when, where and how our customers seek it.

“The Information Center, frankly, is the newsroom of the future. It will fulfill today’s needs for a more flexible, broader-based approach to the information gathering process. And it will be platform agnostic: News and information will be delivered to the right media — be it newspapers, online, mobile, video or ones not yet invented — at the right time. Our customers will decide which they prefer.”

This caught my attention because one of our networks (Radio Iowa) is headquartered in Des Moines and I’ve had some dealings (nothing recent) over the years with the paper. The Register is a big deal in Iowa.

If I learn anything about how this new concept is playing in the newsroom… er, the “information center,” I’ll let you know.

Anyone have thoughts on what the radio “newsroom of the future” should look like? [E-Media Tidbits]

When your company screws up, don’t hide it. Blog it.

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In one of Clyde Lear’s early blog posts, he talks about a mistake our company made some years ago. No weasly words, just “we shouldn’t have done that.”

I flashed on Clyde’s post as I read this article by David H. Freedman at Inc.com:

Many corporate blogs are sanitized, public-relations-oriented affairs intended to create bonds with existing and potential customers. Others serve as internal message boards to keep employees up to date. But I’m proposing something else: a blog that encourages employees and managers to tell their peers what they themselves have done wrong. It’s an easy step that could quickly effect a large, positive change in your corporate culture.

iPods replacing huge 3-ring binders?

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Kevin O’Keefe (Real Lawyers Have Blogs) points to an interesting article about benefit managers putting content, such as benefits and wellness updates and bonus guidelines, online without always going through IT. The benefits department can easily become a news publisher of compensation and benefits information.

Pleased to say that we’ve been doing that at Learfield for some time now.

Kevin also reports at least one of his clients giving iPods to employees so as to keep employees abreast of company human resources matters and training materials. The iPods come preloaded with relevant content with updates streamed to employees via the net.

Now, that is a wired company.

“There is no online department. It has ceased to exist.”

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Jeff Jarvis points to examples of how some newspapers are trying to survive in the online world:

DelawareOnline is reorganizing the paper’s newsroom to be platform agnostic. A few years ago, only four people could post on the web but now 50 can and the number of web updates skyrocketed. They are a small paper and so they are not throwing staff at this; they are throwing simplicity at it: They are using iMovie and GarageBand to produce multimedia. He said that they have had four people leave because multimedia is not for them. I see that as a very good thing. Welcome to the future, newsroom. Says Paul: “There is no online department. It has ceased to exist. We are the online department. The newsroom is the online department.”

News organizations that are unable or unwilling to grasp this and make the transition will die.