Monthly Archives: October 2013

David Pogue Leaving The New York Times

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David Pogue

By the time most of you read this, I will be in Cuba without any Internet or email. Wish me luck. This is the first time ever that I will be disconnected. I may come back with a nervous tick. In any case, I am determined to make this trip and live through the challenge of not communicating with family, friends, or the office. No one will miss me as much as I will miss them.

On top of all this, I learned from friends in the industry, as well as early morning tweets, that David Pogue, the personal tech writer for The New York Times, is leaving the paper to join Yahoo.

This is a major shift for the tech industry. Pogue was the go-to man at The Times for anything you wanted to know about technology. Along with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher of AllThingsD, published by the Wall Street Journal, Pogue is iconic for his tech reporting and has a bigger audience/fan club than several other well-known writers combined.

Last month we learned that Mossberg and Swisher will be leaving the Wall Street Journal at the end of the year. The industry is playing checkers with the best tech writers in the United States. While no one will admit it, it all has to do with money. Newspapers are bleeding and tech writers who draw big audiences want to be handsomely compensated.

Yahoo is apparently willing to do that. Yahoo’s CEO, Marissa Mayer, has been romancing Pogue for some time. She is no fool! She is bringing in the stars to make Yahoo the ultimate news source. This is a repeat performance of when she acquired Tumblr. If you want to be the biggest and the best, then hire the talent.

Pogue, who was with The New York Times for 13 years, claims that Yahoo affords him the opportunity to publish columns, blogs, and videos about innovation, the likes of which we have never seen before.

Pogue spells it all out on his personal blog, the one that uses Tumblr of course.

Mazel Tov to all!

Ghost Buster Website

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Hotel Exedra where James Gandolfini died.

I rarely think about it, but someone died many years ago in the third bedroom of my New York apartment. Of course, the bedroom at the time belonged to my elderly neighbors. I don’t know exactly what happened, but the wife wasn’t in such a rush to have her deceased husband removed. She slept beside him for a few days.

We lived next door and didn’t see, hear, or smell a thing. The wife moved away soon after. The apartment had a few renters since then, but they didn’t last. When the building went co-op thirty years ago, we bought that apartment plus ours and connected them. Death or no death, I wanted the additional space.

Usually, I would be a little skittish about it, but greed took over. The two apartments together were a New York dream. That wasn’t the case for celebrity chef, Sandra Lee, who abruptly ended her stay in the same Rome hotel room where “Sopranos” star James Gandolfini died suddenly three days earlier. The minute she found out, she fled. The girlfriend of Governor Andrew Cuomo claims she didn’t want any part of the media frenzy — but we imagine we know differently.

Just in case you also are feeling a little uneasy about your current abode, or could swear you have been hearing disturbances for a while, check out DiedInHouse.com.

DiedInHouse.com can tell you if someone once ceased existing within your walls. The site claims to have searched all fifty states for evidence of expiration. It promises something called a “certified report.”

A single search costs $11.99. There is a disclaimer on the site which absolves them of any inaccurate information. I wouldn’t let that dissuade me from using the service. Lawyers always try to protect their clients.

The Fifth Estate Standoff

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Benedict Cumberbatch
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Julian Assange

If a movie makes me think about its subject matter 24 hours after seeing it, I say that’s an excellent film. The Fifth Estate made me repeatedly think about how news is always being altered in order to please the owners of its publishing empires versus the harm that could come to people and countries if the information is distributed without any filters.

The Fifth Estate is about the controversial whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange. The critics gave the film a low rating of just one star. Variety said it would barely reach $4 million in its opening weekend and that it’s one of the worst DreamWorks debuts of all time.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays Assange. Reviewers raved about his performance but said the movie itself was a third rate The Social Network or All the President’s Men. The film features Daniel Bruhl as Assange’s right hand guy, and Laura Linney and Stanley Tucci as senior members of the State Department.

Critics also bashed director Bill Condon for producing a “snoozefest.” We saw the movie at 11 pm last night without a thought of Zzzzzzz. Not only were we wide awake watching it, but I couldn’t fall asleep later because my mind was racing thinking about how the digital revolution has impacted us in so many ways.

I am very upset that more people didn’t rush to see this movie opening weekend. Variety’s headline yesterday read, Audiences to Hollywood: We Don’t Care About WikiLeaks. “WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange may be one of the most controversial figures in the world, yet moviegoers don’t seem all that interested.”

What a shame that movie goers would rather pick some fantasy shoot-em-up rather than learn something relevant about their future.

There is no accounting for taste!

Remind Me to Watch It

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I can remember the time that I spent hours scouring through TV Guide on Fridays marking off which new and old TV shows I wanted to watch for the week ahead. Then I would make lists so I could map out when I had to be in front of the TV. Most of the time I forgot to check the lists.

Some things never change. I am great at making lists for all of my activities, but rarely refer to them. I must have a “list” phobia of some kind. I guess that is why the DVR was invented.

There are many times, however, that I want to see a TV show when it first airs. I want to be part of the “in crowd” that talks about it the next day. Now I can, without preparing a list. There is a new app that will take care of it.

Called NextGuide, the new app is from Dijit, a San Francisco-based company. Dijit is a service that adds a “Remind Me to Watch It” button to a TV show’s website. Currently Fox, BBC America, and TruTV (formerly Court TV) have the feature.

The first thing you do is download the NextGuide app on your smartphone. Then visit the websites for your favorite shows, click on the button for NextGuide (usually located on the top of the site), and then you will receive reminders via email or on the NextGuide app. You decide which way you want to be reminded when you register. You will be notified 30 minutes before air time.

Don’t worry that your favorite shows are not part of this system. Dozens are being added all the time and new networks are signing contracts now.

NextGuide is a win-win for the networks as well. TV shows need increased audiences and reminders are a good way to boost traffic. I have to go now. I am busy looking for all the “Remind Me to Watch It” buttons.

Martha Stewart Questions Blogger Validity

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I fell in love with Martha Stewart, the businesswoman, the moment I met her. I love her even more today after I heard a recent TV interview where she gave her opinion about bloggers.

Not everyone has the nerve to publicly say what’s on their mind. Martha has never been shy. She doesn’t give much merit to bloggers. A blogger is someone like me who shares thoughts about life, current events, hobbies, professions, art, movies, food, fashion, tech, and an endless number of topics. Sometimes CEO’s have blog posts where they update the world about the state of their companies.

Most bloggers do not have any journalism background yet they are quick to offer opinions, reviews, guidance on product and services. Year after year, many bloggers have gained notoriety and business respect. That really bothers Martha. She feels that most of them don’t have skills or training. They just blah, blah all the time without the benefit of a high authority guiding them.

I deal with the top 50 to 100 bloggers in the music, tech, art, politics, beauty, and fashion businesses. Many of them are self-appointed authorities that somehow managed to get a following. They police themselves.

It’s a whole new world out there. Some bloggers are now considered industry celebrities. The Internet has provided a world stage where anyone can have 15 minutes of fame

Now You Can Transfer Money Via Email

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Goodbye Western Union, Hello Square Cash. Transferring money used to be one royal pain. Western Union did their best to expedite, but there were so many steps to get this done. I used to cringe if someone asked me to send them some dough. The money wasn’t the problem. It was just a time-consuming assignment.

Now a new service, Square Cash, lets you transfer money with just a few clicks on your computer. Square Cash is an offspring of Square, Inc., the swiping device that allows merchants to accept credit cards on smartphones and tablets.

Square Cash allows you to send up to $2,500 a week to friends and family in several transactions or all at once using debit cards from Visa or MasterCard.

Square Cash is very simple to use. It’s all done by email. The following is Tech Crunch’s explanation of how it works.

“The sender simply emails the person they want to send the money to with the amount of money either in the subject or body of the email and CC’s cash@square.com. If the sender has not already added his or her debit card, then Square will instruct the sender to register a debit card on a web page with just the card number, billing ZIP code and the expiration date. The recipient will immediately get another email from Square telling them that they have received money from the sender with a link to add the recipient’s debit card, billing ZIP, and expiration date.

Once they type in their debit card information, this begins the transfer, which takes one to two business days. We’re told that the recipient has up to 14 days to enter the debit card and receive the money, and the recipient will get reminders every other day via email.”

There are other services that allow you to transfer money, but most tech writers believe this is the easiest to use.

Here are links to: AllthingsD, Tech Crunch, and USA Today with additional pertinent information about Square Cash.

Watch a video that explains it all.

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Doc Internet

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When Eliot first told me his groin area was swollen, I didn’t hesitate a minute to contact my family doctor. I simply sent Dr. Bruce Yaffe an email repeating what Eliot told me. Within 15 minutes, the good doctor sent an email back saying he wanted to see Eliot immediately. Within two hours Eliot was examined and the verdict was in: a hernia.

I did a Mexican hat dance right on the spot because my imagination had me thinking much worse. Thank goodness for email. I had a direct line to my doctor. Years ago, I waited four days for my doctor to call me back when I had stomach pains. I just couldn’t get him on the phone. The receptionist kept asking me if it was an emergency. It wasn’t, so I just kept on waiting.

Today no one waits. The Internet has trained us all to expect instant gratification. That’s why most of you will be happy to hear about a new Internet service that connects consumers directly to physicians via mobile devices for advice. Now I know a number of you are rolling your eyes because you want to see a doctor face-to-face. To those people I say, there is a time and place for everything. The ability to talk to a doctor in record speed should lead to a general diagnosis and next step precautions. They even provide prescriptions. Weird I know, but this is the direction the world is going.

CNET recently did a story about the telemedicine physicians at American Well, which recently announced a $49 10-minute video chat with doctors online and via mobile phones and tablets in 44 states and Washington, D.C. To better understand how this works and how doctors are able to make diagnoses, be sure to read the story because it spells out legalities, insurances, and how it works.

The American Well app is free and available on the Apple App Store and on Google Play.

Best Prices at the Best Restaurants

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I don’t mind spending a buck. In fact, Eliot and I tend to overspend for most things we buy. By overspend, I mean that we don’t go out of our way to squeeze the seller for the best possible price on every purchase we make.

The only time I get nuts about a price is when I fly or stay at a hotel. It feels so unsettling to learn that the person sitting next to me on the airplane paid a lot less because of some deal we missed. The same thing happens when friends stay at the same hotel as we do but manage to get it at a much lower rate. I really feel cheated and it ruins my good time.

That’s why I was so excited to learn about www.savored.com, which is owned by Groupon. The site offers deep discounts on high-end restaurants across the country if you book through them. Our friends Ron and Chuck told us about this restaurant site, The last two times we went out to dinner with them, they made the reservations through the Savored website. When the check came, the tally was 30-per-cent lower than it was listed on the menu.

I was so wowed. We go out five nights a week. We could use a little help with prices. High-end restaurants love Savored because the site fills tables that would otherwise go unseated.

Savored is currently available in 10 cities: New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Atlanta, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Denver.

Happy dining — much cheaper!

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Showtime’s Homeland Offers Extended Plot Lines on Audible

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Damian Lewis

Showtime’s Homeland is about to change TV watching forever. For the first time ever, an actor, Damian Lewis, who plays Nicholas Brody, will be recording complementary material related to major plot lines that will only be available on Audible.com.

That means directly after tonight’s episode (Sunday, October 13), fans can hear a free 30-minute extended story performed by Damian Lewis. There is a lot of speculation as to what he may talk about. My sources say most of the recording will give further insight into his mysterious character.

This development is unbelievable news for everyone who loves watching TV. So many times I feel a character has not been developed enough in an hour dedicated to complex story lines. Audiences can go away frustrated and confused.

I am hoping these supplemental audios really turn out to be a true value added rather than some commercial enterprise. 20th Century Fox has teamed up with Audible.com on this new venture. No one is saying who approached whom with this idea, but other Homeland characters are said to be preparing more audio segments.

Watch for other shows as well to copy this idea. In my book, that is good news both for audiences like me and for Audible. I have been telling you all to listen to books on Audible.com for over a year. More and more people will become familiar with Audible if they take advantage of this offer. That has to be a big sales generator for the audio book app, which is owned by Amazon.

The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon

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I can’t wait until October 15. The print, Kindle, and Audible editions of “The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon” will become available. I love biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. The book is going to tell all of us who don’t know much about Bezos just how he built a $75 billion empire.

The book was written by Brad Stone, a senior writer for Bloomberg Businessweek. I know Brad from his days at The New York Times when he covered technology. He is extremely well respected and very precise, so this book is going to be as close to accurate as you can get.

Bezos was not interested in being interviewed, but he didn’t stop Stone from speaking to hundreds of his closest contacts. As I read an excerpt of the book, featured recently in Businessweek, I soon started to see some uncanny similarities between Bezos and Steve Jobs.

1) No level of tolerance and humiliate those who screw up.

2) Never met their real fathers.

3) Very peculiar. Amazon office desks are repurposed doors. Jobs lived in a house with no furniture.

Amazon will shortly be celebrating its 20th anniversary. Stone says “Amazon rivals Wal-Mart as a store, Apple as a device maker, and IBM as a data services company.”

“In the past few months, Amazon has launched a marketplace in India, opened a website to sell high-end art, introduced another Kindle reading device and three tablet computers, made plans to announce a set-top box for televisions, and funded the pilot episodes of more than a dozen TV shows. Amazon’s marketplace hosts the storefronts of countless smaller retailers; Amazon Web Services handles the computer infrastructure of thousands of technology companies, universities, and government agencies.”

Bezos, 49, surprised everyone last August when he personally bought The Washington Post. He believes he can turn the newspaper around. He also spends one day each week heading his own private rocket ship company, Blue Origin, which seeks to lower the cost of space travel.

Stone’s book is going to be a great read. I look forward to finding out more about Bezos and how he became one of the biggest successes in the digital marketplace.

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