February 2012
6 posts
3 tags
TV is broken →
“Why did you turn the movie off, Daddy?”, Beatrix worriedly asks, as if she has done something wrong and is being punished by having her entertainment interrupted. She thinks that’s what I was doing by rushing for the remote.
“I didn’t turn it off, honey. This is just a commercial. I was turning the volume down because it was so loud. Shrek will come back on in a few minutes” I say.
...
4 tags
Rrroll Up Roulette →
It’s Rrroll Up the Rim to Win season once again, and this year Tim Hortons has added something new: Rrroll Up Roulette.
7 tags
2 tags
1 tag
TILT
Yes, this blog is a bit stale. Watch this space for an update, coming this week.
4 tags
Super Bowl planning →
Game Day with Google
January 2012
2 posts
2 tags
Google introduces personalized search →
Search, plus Your World
3 tags
Friday fun: new text adventure →
Key Features is a game by Andrew Plotkin made for MakerBot Industries.
You really shouldn’t have wandered away from your tour guide. The gleam of glass in a deserted room caught your eye for just a moment… but with that mob of chattering tourists out of sight, the MakerBot facility doesn’t seem quite as friendly as it did a moment ago.
Servos hiss behind you — but...
December 2011
33 posts
1 tag
Samoa can't wait for New Year's Eve →
The Pacific island nation of Samoa and its even tinier neighbor Tokelau are skipping Friday this week, jumping westward in time across the international date line and into the shifting economic balance of the 21st century.
5 tags
Apps for iPad, iPhone, and Android
Did Santa bring you a new iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, or Android device? Check out my contributions to the Globe and Mail Tech Gift Guide:
Got a new iPad? Try these 9 starter apps
Got a new iPhone? 9 apps worth downloading
10 awesome games for Android phones
10 apps to add to your new Android phone
10 apps for your new (or old) Android tablet
New iPad? Have fun with 12 addicting...
3 tags
3 tags
WatchJust got back from my surprise Christmas present: a great night of music by Ali Matthews and guitarist Rick Francis, Jacob Moon, and Mike Janzen at Hugh’s Room in Toronto.
As you can see, we had amazing seats right by the stage.
This song is Go Tell It On The Mountain - the last song before the encore. That’s Jacob on lead vocals and guitar, Mike on piano, Ali singing backup, and...
3 tags
No work email during home hours →
Under an agreement with labour representatives, staff at Europe’s biggest automaker will receive e-mails via BlackBerry from half an hour before they start work until half an hour after they finish, and will be in blackout-mode the rest of the time, a spokesman for VW said.
A small victory for work-life balance, courtesy of collective bargaining. Merry Christmas!
2 tags
2 tags
“Missed calls are being incorporated into mobile apps and services as a standard...”
– Fascinating. Businesses in India support callers who ring once then hang up to get product information. Callers do this because it’s free (as opposed to actual calls, texts, etc.).
Read more here.
6 tags
5 tags
Feel It Gloves →
Did you know there are winter gloves designed for your touch screen devices? No more taking off your gloves and freezing your hands while waiting for the bus, train, or walking through downtown.
This is a neat idea, but sausages are cheaper.
2 tags
“Google products are machine-driven. They’re created by machines. And that is...”
– Marissa Mayer, quoted in Steven Levy’s In The Plex (according to Buzz)
Whatever you do, don’t read too much into this quote from a Google executive.
2 tags
7 tags
Fun with Google rumours →
Google chairman Eric Schmidt announced in an interview today that the company was looking to launch its own tablet within the next six months.
This quote is from a post on venturebeat.com. The source of the “announcement” is an interview published in the Italian publication Carriere Della Sera.
It appears that Schmidt gave an interview in English that was translated and...
5 tags
“It’s going to run for a hundred years.”
– One animator commenting on A Charlie Brown Christmas.
Before its first airing, network executives and many involved in the production were sure it would be a flop.
“We kind of agreed with the network,” said producer Lee Mendelson, “One of the animators stood up in the back of the...
2 tags
A personal apology →
Johnson & Johnson did not expect an uproar when they discontinued the o.b. ultra brand of tampons, but that’s what they got. In response, the company announced plans to bring the product back, and launched a clever web site.
Enter your name at obtampons.ca/apology to see a personal apology video in which a handsome man will sing to you and tell you they’re very, very sorry.
3 tags
Apps for Water
On Tuesday, December 20, proceeds from the sale of some software will go to charity : water.
Apps for Water gives app developers a chance to donate one day of their sales to a very worthy cause: providing clean water for developing nations. It seems like a simple thing, turn on a faucet and clean water pours out. Unfortunately, there are almost 1 billion people in the world who don’t have...
4 tags
Texting generation gap
Teens are not focused on making calls via their mobile phones. Voice usage has declined the most among this group, from an average of 685 minutes to 572 minutes. When surveyed, the top three reasons teens said that they prefer messaging to calling was because it is faster (22 percent), easier (21 percent), and more fun (18 percent).
source: Nielsen
3 tags
Snow falls on Google search →
Go to Google.com and search for “let it snow”. Fun!
3 tags
WatchThe Oona is a phone stand and camera mount. Very slick.
3 tags
Online booking for Aakash tablet starts →
DataWind, the Canadian company that is manufacturing Aakash, has started the online booking and pre-booking of the much anticipated low cost Android tablet. Online booking is for students’ version of the tablet and pre booking is for UbiSlate 7, the upgraded version of Aakash.
The students’ version is already sold out.
4 tags
The Internet Justice League →
This link is for all my friends and family who understand and enjoy both nerdy stuff and comic books. (So, basically, this is for my son Alex.)
2 tags
2 tags
4 tags
Waffles from Heaven →
CBC Toronto launched its Sounds of the Season fund-raising campaign today, in support of local and Greater Toronto Area food banks. By mid-morning they had raised over $130,000 and collected 13,000 lbs of food. The latest tally is here. People can donate food or money until January 3rd.
This got me thinking about Waffles from Heaven - my family’s story of love and mercy, grace and daily...
2 tags
2 tags
Find your lost Facebook messages →
Click the Messages tab on the left side of your Facebook screen. “Other” will then appear beneath it. Click on Other and you will unearth months of messages you probably missed. (Blogger Erika Napoletano has great, annotated screengrabs to guide you through this process.)
Oh dear. Until I read this article on Slate, I didn’t know about the “Other” category for Facebook...
How to find the best checkout line →
This article, from the Wall Street Journal, is worth reading before you go shopping this weekend. Or you could print out a copy now to read later when you’re standing in line.
1 tag
2 tags
Rogers launches daily deals site
RDeals.ca is your chance to save up to 90% on your favourite finds. We offer local and national deals on can’t-miss products, services and experiences…
RDeals is a new daily deal site from Rogers Digital Media.
The idea is not new, but the execution is interesting: the deals include offers from partners and advertisers as well as Rogers own products (e.g. Flare and Chatelaine...
3 tags
4 tags
Recommended: Doro phone
I’ve been using this phone for nearly two weeks now, and I really like it. The PhoneEasy 410gsm from Doro is marketed as a phone for seniors, but it’s perfect for anyone who wants a phone that is just a phone.
It’s lightweight but solidly build, with big chunky buttons and a clear, easy-to-read screen. It’s not a music player or a camera. It does not have apps. It does...
3 tags
2 tags
99 cent Mac App Store sale →
Great apps usually priced around $9.99 are available for
one day only for $0.99, exclusively from the Mac App Store!
See zeroninetynine.com on December 1.
3 tags
Holiday films advent calendar
Here’s an interesting idea for an iPad app: an advent calendar.
The National Film Board of Canada, famous for animated film classics like The Sweater, The Cat Came Back, and Noël Noël, has launched an advent calendar app for iPad.
Each day in December, the app will reveal a holiday-themed film. The NFB iPad app promises a mix of Oscar winners, classics, and new films. Check it out.
November 2011
39 posts
2 tags
Facebook commits to privacy
I was impressed by this clear and direct statement about privacy, posted today by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Facebook’s deal with the FTC looks like the start of something new: an improved focus on privacy and on putting the control back in the hands of Facebook users.
Today’s announcement formalizes our commitment to providing you with control over your privacy and...
3 tags
You should use whatever works for you →
I enjoyed reading this little story by Marco Arment.
My experience working full-time in IT helped me to stop pushing my technology preferences as the right or the best solutions for other people’s problems. I love my MacBook Air and my iPhone, but they’re not the best thing for everyone.
You should use whatever works for you.
2 tags
Black Friday sales
Most Canadian retailers have not embraced the competitive shopping madness known as Black Friday, but there are some good deals available online today.
People often ask me where they can get the best deal on an iPad, iPod, or Mac computer. Today only, you can get 10% off or more on select products at the Apple Store online.
2 tags
Galaxy Tab 10.1
My thanks to Samsung, who loaned me a Galaxy Tab 10.1 so I could test Android apps for the Tech Gift Guide.
Overall, I was impressed by Tab 10.1 and by the Android system software. I’ll say more in a future post.
7 tags
Gift guide - apps for kids
I contributed several articles to this year’s Tech Gift Guide in the Globe & Mail. My topic was apps — little programs that run on iPad, iPhone, and Android-based devices.
We divided the apps into several categories. The first list of apps, published today, is the best apps for kids for iOS devices (iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch).
2 tags
Google search, verbatim →
In the past, we provided users with the “+” operator to help you search for specific terms. However, we found that users typed the “+” operator in less than half a percent of all searches, and two thirds of the time, it was used incorrectly. A couple of weeks ago we removed the “+” operator, encouraging the use of the double quotes, which are more likely to be used correctly.
The...
2 tags
“To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier....”
– 2005 quote from Derek Sivers (via Daring Fireball, natch)
4 tags
CRTC compromise on UBB
Canada’s telecom regulator has cut down the middle on the controversial topic of usage-based billing for Internet services, handing down a compromise on an issue that has divided the telecom industry.
source: Iain Marlow, reporting for The Globe and Mail
The CRTC threw out the usage-based billing model favoured by Bell but did not endorse the “95th percentile” solution put...