Month: November 2011

‘High-tech camping’ session slated for Macworld|iWorld

November 10, 2011 /

I’ll be speaking at Macworld|iWorld again this year, with a session I’m very excited about. “Camping Tech: The Great Geek Outdoors” will feature ways to use your high tech devices to get more out of your next camping trip.

From the session description:

Can high adventure and high tech coincide? This fun and lively session will show you how to integrate technology to make camping easier, safer, more convenient and even more fun. You’ll learn about useful iOS apps that can be even better than the traditional ones they replace (or enhance); how to find and stay on the trail; how to show the outside world what a great time you’re having; how to identify all those extra stars you see in the country; impress friends with your knot-tying skills; find a Geocache; perform First Aid; call for help even when reception is poor; make sure your iPhone lasts throughout your whole adventure and more.

I’ve written about the subject from the opposite side, but I do a lot more camping with my gadgets than without, and it’s a subject near and dear to my heart. The session will on Friday, January 27th from 10:00-10:45 Pacific Time in the “Tech Talks” track. You can register on the Macworld|iWorld site, and if get any discount offers, I’ll be sure to post them here.

As if a million crappy restaurant websites cried out and were silenced

November 9, 2011 /

Adobe has announced it will cease development on Mobile Flash. Arguments about proprietary technologies vs. open standards aside (but still valid), Adobe is finally admitting what Apple and other critics have been saying all along: Flash just doesn’t work well on mobile devices.

The end result of this will be the marginalization of Flash on the desktop/laptop as well — it simply won’t make sense for most developers to create two versions of their offerings, especially as mobile devices increase as a percentage of web traffic. The converse was true, too. Had Apple relented and supported Flash on iOS, there would have been no incentive for developers to offer standards-based versions of their sites and we’d all be enduring a much poorer experience.

You can read about the decision on Adobe’s blog, but good luck finding the facts in the obfuscated marketing speak that passes for a post. Instead, read ZDNet’s Jason Perlow, who broke the story earlier today.

In the future, everything will look like an infographic

November 1, 2011 /

“Visionary” video from Microsoft. I don’t hate these in general as much as Gruber does, but this one is just soulless. Unlike AT&T’s “You will” ads that showed specific ways new technology would enrich our lives (send a fax from the beach, kiss your kid goodnight via video chat, pay your toll without stopping), this video is little more than a coat of futuristic paint over things we can already do — mainly centered around sharing data (OK, the cloud), along with some UI effects left over from “Minority Report.” There’s nothing new here, but Microsoft is presenting it all as something they are in the process of inventing. In the meantime, as I watched the video (or tried to), I was doing many of the things it promised on my iPhone.

Today.

Productivity Future Vision Video