Category Archives: Gadgets & Apps

All posts that don’t obviously fit in one of the sub-categories go here.

Roger Gardner’s first MacBook

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My alternate headline was, “Gomer Does the Big Apple,” but the Jim Nabors reference would be either too dated or unflattering to Learfield President and Chief Operating Officer Roger Gardner, the latest Learfielder to break down and “Get A Mac.”

Like Phil and me, Roger has been flirting with the idea of buying a Mac for sometime. He’s been teetering at the precipice for weeks and finally went over the edge this week and purchased a 17″ MacBook Pro (with all the fixin’s)

In all fairness, Roger has two teenagers at home and they needed another computer and –like a lot of folks these days– couldn’t come up with a good reason not to try a Mac.

“Computers for people who believe in feng shui”

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That’s how Charlie Brooker describes Macs. He really wails on Macs, people who use them, people who associate with people who use them, etc, etc.

“I hate Macs. I have always hated Macs. I hate people who use Macs. I even hate people who don’t use Macs but sometimes wish they did. Macs are glorified Fisher-Price activity centres for adults; computers for scaredy cats too nervous to learn how proper computers work; computers for people who earnestly believe in feng shui.”

You can read his full article here and it’s worth the registration. I hope to god he never stumbles across my “Mac Lust” post from last April. [via Jeff Jarvis]

What your iPod reveals about you

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Podcasting News: Psychologists Jason Rentfrow of the University of Cambridge in England and Sam Gosling at the University of Texas at Austin, have found that strangers can accurately assess another person’s level of creativity, open-mindedness and extroversion after listening to his or her top 10 favorite songs.

While I had no data to support it, I theorized about this a year ago. Anyway, two of the conclusions in the new study caught my eye:

“Whether you can study or work efficiently while listening to music may depend on how outgoing you are. Background music can help extroverts focus but tends to torment introverts.”

I’ve always thought of myself as an extrovert but I can NOT listen to music while I’m trying to concentrate.

“Fans of energetic music like dance and soul are more likely to impulsively blurt our their thoughts, compared with fans of other styles.”

Guilty. I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut.

Love flickr. Yahoo! not so much

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This week Yahoo! announced that flickr users would have to merge their accounts with their Yahoo! account (Yahoo! bought flickr a couple of years ago). Long-time flickr users aren’t happy. I really like flickr but Yahoo!, not so much.

So I’ve been looking around for alternatives and came across Picasa (a Google service). Just started playing with it but like it a lot. I’m conducting more and more of my online life with Google services (Search, Gmail, Google Reader, Google News, etc).

A total switch would be a pain (if I go back and change links in previous posts) but I’m thinking about it.

iPods no threat to radio?

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Mark Ramsey at Hear 2.0:

“Every so often someone in the radio industry trots out a study which says iPods really aren’t that threatening to the radio industry’s long-term health and welfare. ‘Folks get tired of maintaining them,’ they will say. ‘They’re just a new form of Walkman,’ say others.”

And the radio industry has (apparently) spent a bazillion dollars promoting HD radio. Check out the Google Trends graph posted as one of the comments.

Everything might turn out roses and sunshine for Radio but it won’t be because of HD.