How creative can you be in six seconds or less? New video apps give you the opportunity to find out.
Last night I donned my “tech guru” tiara and did a short segment on 207, Maine’s evening news program.
Of course, it wasn’t as short as some of the video that is appearing on a website or mobile device near you. Thanks to mobile video apps like Vine, Lightt & SnapChat, people are creating incredibly short stories to share with friends, colleagues and even customers.
We take a look at these apps and talk about how they can be used. You can watch it at the 207 website or down below. (more…)
Failing at keeping those New Year’s resolutions? These apps can help.
The other night I was back on 207, talking about those pesky New Year’s resolutions, and difficult they are to keep.
Thankfully, there’s an app for that.
In fact, there are a few. In the segment, I talk about apps that help you quit smoking, lose weight and eat healthy, get in shape (with a zombie twist, ‘natch), and finally wrap it up with a website that helps you get things done more efficiently.
You can watch the segment on the 207 website, or check it out below.
Still looking for that perfect holiday gift? Or just want to cash in that gift card you got? Here are some gifts for the geek on your list.
The other day I put aside my inner Grinch for a few minutes to come up with some “gifts for geeks” for a segment on 207, the evening news program here in Maine.
Video game geeks, music geeks, comic geeks and technology geeks.
There are some cool stuff in here (hint, hint) which you can watch below or watch the segment at the 207 website.
Video Games:
Far Cry 3: For Xbox, PS3 and PC, this has been one of the most well reviewed games all year. It’s rated M for Mature, so it’s not for everyone.
Wii U: It’s being pitched as the next great gaming console. Basically, it’s a mashup between a table and a traditional Nintendo game console. Games can flow from the TV to the console, or for certain games you can play with both.
Music Geeks:
Sonos: “Stream all the music on earth in every room.” That’s their tagline and it’s not too far from the truth. You can purchase different sized speakers for different rooms, or buy a stereo or speaker connector, or buy a bridge to create a wifi enabled sound all over your home. What’s great is you can control every speaker individually or in sync from your iPhone or Android device.
Comic Geek:
Powers: While I still love my Marvel Digital Comics which I mentioned last year, my favorite read this year has been Powers by Brian Michael Bendis. A buddy cop story set in a world with superheroes and the cops that have to deal with powers-related homicides.
The Walking Dead: Go back to the source material with the trade paperbacks of Robert Kirkman’s Walking Dead Series.
Tech Geek:
It’s the season of the mini-tablet. The two hottest are probably the iPad mini or the Nexus 7 tablet.
Happy holidays!
Anything on your geek wish list this year? Let us know!
The topic was Halloween apps on your smart phone or tablet.
Originally I pitched something on the European debt crisis, or whether we should continue farm subsidies, but they demurred.
Anyway, I digress.
I put together a few cool apps that can make for a truly frightful Halloween, whether you’re out trick-or-treating, waiting for little kids to show up, or hosting your own Halloween bash.
Social media is a critical tool for most businesses and non-profits. Here in Maine we have the Social Media FTW conference each fall and this is a clip from 207 where we talk about who should go and what to expect.
Leading up to the 3rd annual Social Media FTW (For the Win) Fall Conference, I had an opportunity to put on my “tech guru” hat one more time and go on 207, the evening news program that runs on our local NBC affiliates here in Maine, and talk about the upcoming conference.
Kathleen Shannon interviewed me about the history of FTW, who was speaking, and who should go.
My big takeaways from the interview were, “that’s a really nice shirt,” and “I should shop at Marshall’s more often.” You can watch the interview at the WCSH 6 website or down below.
Crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter, ProFounder and Quirky can help you get your business, art show or music tour off the ground.
Let’s say you’ve got a brilliant business idea but the bank doesn’t agree with you. (Or you lack the collateral.) And your family and friends are all tapped out. Does that mean that you should give up and get back to your cubicle?
Thankfully, no. There are plenty of online resources for crowd funding; getting lots of little payments from your community, friends, colleagues and even strangers who like your idea.
In a recent segment I taped for 207, we looked at a number of sites like KickStarter, ProFounder and Quirky where creatives and entrepreneurs could turn to for seed money for their business ideas, music CDs, causes and more.
You can watch the segment below or over at the 207 website. Enjoy!
All of these services allow you to upload a certain amount of your music to the “cloud” so that you can access it from other computers and mobile devices. You can purchase additional space a gig at a time on most of these services.
To be honest, I don’t see the appeal. I can carry about 50G of music on my iPhone or 120G of music on my iPod and never have to worry about whether I’m near a wifi hot spot or whether AT&T is going to deliver my music back to me. Even that’s only a fraction of my music collection, so the idea of spending hundreds of dollars a year to access music I’ve already purchased just doesn’t work for me, and the iPod/iPhone option fits in my pocket.
One service that I really did like was rdio. Besides being able to upload your music you can access their music ($5/mo for web, $10 for web & mobile access). I’ve already discovered a bunch of great music. The interface and product search needs some serious work (genres? release dates?) but everything else is pretty solid. I’ve never been a fan of “renting” music, but I think that after my 7 day trial is up I’ll spend the $10 a month for access to a wide variety of music I wouldn’t have otherwise given a chance.
You can watch the segment over at the 207 website or down below.
Sometimes Google just isn’t the right place to get an answer on the web. Maybe you need an opinion, or the question hasn’t been asked before, or you need the wisdom of crowds.
Because of this, many question and answer sites now populate the web. In a recent segment on 207, Maine’s premiere evening new program, I talked about a few of these answer sites, including Quora, Aardvark and LinkedIn Answers.
All three sites offer unique approaches to getting your questions answered. Quora has a great sense of community, and many well known personalities ask and answer questions there. Aardvark is often a place to get an answer quickly, often in 10 minutes or less.
LinkedIn Answers is a great place to ask business questions of the LinkedIn community or answers questions yourself and establish your expertise there. I’ve often posted business questions such as “what do you charge clients for travel time?” and “how many times will you leave unreturned voicemails before giving up on a sales prospect?” Often, I’ll get dozens of great answers which I then turn into a blog post…giving credit to the best answers, of course.
What are the best gifts to get the geek in your life?
