This is a picture of David Pogue’s Facebook page where he announces that four of the top tech writers are coming together this Sunday to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the iPhone.
The four of them were the first reviewers to receive and test the iPhone from Apple. This was a considerable amount of time before the public got their hands on them. It’s going to be very interesting to hear their views on the whole technology world 10 years later.
David Pogue of Yahoo Tech recently promised, in a series of social media posts, that he would show us how the dead can become alive again. Watch the video from CBS’s This Morning last Sunday to see how computers can recreate a dead person.
Pogue interviewed Paul Debevec of the Institute for Creative Technologies, at the University of Southern California, who invented the Light Stage, a machine that he says “produces a series of high-resolution photos from different angles to reconstruct a 3-D model of a dead subject’s face.”
Pogue explains that “once someone has been scanned into the Light Stage, engineers can digitally recreate him or her with about 50 different facial expressions.”
This new technology may not allow dead people to stay dead. Now that’s a scary thought. People you know from the past can now show up in your future. Pogue explains in the video. Don’t miss it.
I owe this one to David Pogue. When I read his column in Yahoo, about turning the iPhone into the world’s best magnifying glass, I knew I had to get DigiDame readers this information immediately.
As Pogue points out, this is just perfect for dim restaurants, tiny type on packages, and theater programs.
All you have to do is:
“Open Settings -> General -> Accessibility -> Magnifier, and proceed as shown in the video.”
Click here to see a video demonstration.
I hope the world is a better place for you to view tomorrow night.
Enjoy this handy new gadget.
Images:33.media.tumblr.com
I go from loving the digital world, because of the technical capabilities it affords us, to the calm of tranquility.
Here I am last Monday canoeing through the beautiful mangrove tunnels of Cueva Del Manglar, Cartagena, Colombia.
Photos by Eliot Hess
Where would I rather be? The truth is, both places.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, (my workspace), I just received an email from Broadwayworld.com.
Dear Lois,
I wanted to let you know that we’ve just posted Tech Writer David Pogue to Make Guest Appearance in 39 STEPS Off-Broadway on http://www.broadwayworld.com/off-broadway at:
Nice way for a publicist to end her day.
This is what David Pogue posted on Facebook. Pogue is seated front and center.
David Pogue, a personal technology columnist for Yahoo Tech, a tech correspondent for CBS News Sunday Morning, a columnist for Scientific American, and a former technology columnist for The New York Times, has agreed to appear in “39 Steps,” a Broadway show produced by my pal Doug Denoff. The show is on 17th Street and Park Avenue South, Union Square Theatre. Pogue is also the host of NOVA ScienceNow on PBS and was the host of the NOVA specials
I’m thrilled Pogue agreed to be in the show, because I arranged it. Many people don’t know this, but Pogue has a music background. He graduated from Yale University in 1985 summa cum laude, earning a bachelor’s degree in music . He spent 10 years working in New York, some of that time in the office of Music Theatre International and as a conductor and arranger in Broadway musicals.
I knew Pogue would be a natural to join the show. I’m a matchmaker by trade. Most work days, I spend pitching my heart out to members of the media for products, services, or people my company, HWH PR, represents. My agency also networks sponsorships, promotions, contests, and partnerships between two companies or a personality and a company.
It’s mentally exhausting. The highs and lows are like being on a seesaw. However, when you score a biggie like Pogue, it makes everything else worthwhile. Pogue (along with others yet to be announced) agreed to play the part of the guest assassin. Doug and I came up with this PR stunt to gain attention for the show. It is a fun role with lots of surprises. Stay tuned.
Get your own tickets at 39stepsny.com!
I don’t want to insult anyone over 50, but I can always find the senior most person in a theater, a wedding, a lecture, and even a funeral. Their phone rings at the most inopportune time. We are all warned to turn off our cells before the official program starts. Somehow, the older person doesn’t feel this request applies to him or her.
What’s worse, when their cell rings, that person doesn’t know how to turn that phone off fast. So we are all forced to listen to the disturbing ring several times. Here is a tip from “Pogue’s Basic’s” to immediately shut that phone.
“Just press any physical button on the side or top of the cell. Press the power button, for example, or one of the volume keys. Often, just wrapping your fingers around the phone and squeezing hard does the trick; you’ll hit one of the buttons in the process. And the phone will stop ringing. Your caller will still hear the phone-ringing sound, but the call will go to voice mail.”
I hope that finally cures embarrassing senior moments.
On a lighter note, here are some photos that will take you down memory lane. Thank you, Sheri Lesser, my LA friend, for sharing.
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Digidame’s blog platform, WordPress, has been cranky for the last few days. Email blasts have not be distributed to you in the usual manner. We hope this one gets to you on time. I urge you to read the last two posts about XY Find It and Ozobot. All you have to do now is scroll down.
Now for today’s topic. I have mentioned David Pogue’s new book, “Pogue’s Basics,” a few times over the several months. It reveals tech secrets that we should all know.
For example, if you are in a hurry to charge your smart phone, Pogue said, “The fastest possible is to plug it into the wall, using the little prong adapter that came with it. That’ll charge it 30 minutes sooner than using your computer’s USB jack.” He also recommends putting your phone on Airplane Mode. “It will charge nearly twice as quickly. All the electricity is coming into the battery, but none is going out; the phone isn’t wasting power hunting for a signal, checking e- mail, and so on.”
Either buy his book, or wait for me to post all of the nifty tips he has for us. I plan to learn as many of them as possible and pass them along to you. Hang in there.
David Pogue
Courtesy of Yahoo
Available December 9th.
I’m always afraid that my cell phone is going to ring at the most inopportune time. Even when I completely shut it off during a play or movie, I get panic-stricken that it will ring anyway and I will not be able to turn it off.
Eliot is unaware of this, but I actually map out my get away if my phone should ring. I comfort myself by memorizing where the exit is and how many people I will have to jump over for my escape. Sometimes I hold my powerless cell on my lap during a show just so I don’t have to spend a second more looking for it when the impossible happens.
I absolutely get giddy when someone else’s phone rings. I laugh out of nerves. Eliot and I were at a wedding in New Jersey last September when the Rabbi asked the entire congregation to shut off their phones. We sat silently waiting for the Rabbi to begin the ceremony. He was in no hurry. He asked us all several times if we were ready. Everyone nodded yes.
It wasn’t five minutes later that a cell phone started ringing. Unfortunately, it belonged to an elderly woman behind me. I could hear her fumbling for her phone. After three rings, she managed to stop it. It happened two more times.
By the third set of rings, her husband very calmly asked her if she knew how to shut off her phone? Without a care in the world she answered, “No!” Everyone, in rows around them, were ready to knock the two of them out. The offending couple, on the other hand, sat there totally unfazed that they disturbed and interrupted the ceremony.
Tech journalist David Pogue recently explained how to turn your phone off on-the-spot if it should start ringing. It doesn’t matter whether it’s your fault. Shut the damn thing off.
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!
I am usually on an airplane once a month, sometimes more often. I have been flying since I was eighteen years old. If you do the math, you’ll figure out I have flown hundreds of times.
Yet, each flight is as scary to me as my first flight in 1966 when my cousin Debbie had to fly across the United States from Los Angeles to get me so I could go back with her to spend time with my West Coast family. I refused to fly alone.
Now I prefer to fly alone so I can concentrate on every little detail. There have been times when I’ve thought the engines had stopped or I’ve smelled a fire. If the flight attendants congregate in one area, I want to eavesdrop to know what’s going on. I also examine every person who enters the plane. If a person looks suspicious to me, I watch their every move. The worst for me is when someone gets up in flight to get something from a piece of luggage from the overhead. I worry about what they are reaching for and does it have a trigger.
I was very surprised when I saw a recent article in The New York Times from columnist David Pogue that talked about the mysteries of air travel. At first I wondered why a personal tech writer was covering air travel, but then Pogue carefully explained that technology and the travel industry are getting more and more intertwined. Find out why air turbulence and lightening won’t crash a plane, and whether or not your mobile devices really interfere with navigation. There are lots of other areas covered. Here is your chance to learn more.
DigiDame 
