Tech Broiler

February 7th, 2010

iPad's iBooks: Give Us The Tools

Posted by Jason Perlow @ 8:08 am

Categories: Apple, Business, General, Mobile, Open Source, Personal Technology, Software Infrastructure, Web Technology, iPhone

Tags: Apple iBook, Apple Inc., Web Site, E-book, Tool, E-books & E-Readers, Web Site Development, Notebooks, Personal Technology, Internet

Apple’s iBooks reader and online bookstore for iPad will revolutionize the way we read electronic content. But so far, self-publishers haven’t been given any direction or tools to exploit the nascent Apple ebook ecosystem.

So the iPad was announced, and there was much rejoicing. Some of us dyed-in-the-wool Apple skeptics and “antagonists” even genuinely applauded the boldness of the device’s entry-level price point while at the same time remain cautiously optimistic despite some shortcomings that are evident in the 1.0 product release. And after the initial luster wore off, reality began to set in.

While many consumers, including myself await the general availability of the iPad and are on the e-mail list to receive notification for when the product can be purchased, there is a glaring lack of information during the product’s ramp-up period for content creators to produce books and optimized websites for the device when it launches.

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January 31st, 2010

Discovery Channel: Coolest. Promo. Kit. Ever.

Posted by Jason Perlow @ 11:10 am

Categories: Business, General, Personal Technology

Tags: Kit, Discovery Networks, Video Cards, DVD, Consumer Electronics, Corporate Communications, Hardware, Components, Personal Technology, Home Entertainment

“Life” Promo Package from Discovery Channel from Tech Broiler on Vimeo.

This weekend I was sent a neat package from the cool folks over at Discovery Networks, my source for educational and science programming.

Like many of the care packages I get from Discovery, it was marketing material with DVDs to view in advance of an upcoming broadcast. In this case, this was a promo kit for Life, a new 11-part series narrated by Oprah Winfrey that premieres on March 21.

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January 31st, 2010

Obama: The Nuclear President?

Posted by Jason Perlow @ 9:10 am

Categories: General

Tags: Nuclear Energy, Storage, Nuclear Energy Adoption, Telecom & Utilities, Jason Perlow

In his first State of the Union address, President Obama expressed his desire for America to build more nuclear power plants. But will divisive politics melt down any efforts to modernize and augment our country’s aging nuclear infrastructure and spent fuel storage capability?

Nuclear energy adoption has for the last 30 years been a problem in the United States — political wrangling and “Not in my back yard” arguments from both parties as well as the actions of special interest groups have essentially ground all new Nuclear Power research and infrastructure improvements to a halt.

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January 29th, 2010

Frugal Friday: Apple iPad and Sun/Oracle Wrap-Up

Posted by Jason Perlow @ 8:48 pm

Categories: Apple, Business, Open Source, Personal Technology, Server, Software Infrastructure

Tags: Oracle Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc., Apple Inc., Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate Law, Investment, Finance, Business Operations, Jason Perlow

Ken Hess and I discuss the new Apple iPad and the implications of Oracle completing its acquisition of Sun Microsystems.

Click Here to Listen to the January 29, 2010 Frugal Friday Podcast.

January 27th, 2010

iPad 1.0: Early Adopters Beware

Posted by Jason Perlow @ 8:34 pm

Categories: Apple, Business, Personal Technology

Tags: Steve Jobs, Battery, Apple Inc., 1.5lb, Engineering, Monitors & Displays, Hardware, Components, Jason Perlow

The iPad, now finally unveiled, is a technical marvel and will be the envy of many. But should you be the first on your block to own one?

Wow. Steve Jobs broke the Internet. I mean like, really. People REALLY wanted to hear about this thing.

A lot of New Media Weberati made a number of predictions about this device, myself included. My own biases aside, I am incredibly impressed by what Apple has been able to achieve, not so much by the technology being deployed but at the sheer gutsiness of offering such a compelling product at such an aggressive price. As someone who has often been called an Apple hater and with a (self admitted) bias against many of the company’s business practices and their supporters, even I have to acknowledge that the iPad is a game changer, for a number of reasons, most of which have been outlined by my esteemed colleagues.

All that being said about the iPad — you might not want to own the first version that hits the market.

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January 21st, 2010

Frugal Friday: David Gewirtz, author of How to Save Jobs

Posted by Jason Perlow @ 8:03 pm

Categories: Business, General, Podcast

Tags: Job, Author, Recruitment & Staffing, Corporate Governance, Workforce Management, Business Operations, Corporate Law, Jason Perlow

In this special episode of Frugal Friday, Ken Hess and I interview David Gewirtz, founder/publisher of ZATZ Pure Internet Publishing, Executive Director of the US Strategic Perspective Institute and author of How To Save Jobs. Gewirtz was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in Letters for his previous book, Where Have all the E-Mails Gone? and is a contributing author for CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 web site.

Click Here to Listen to the January 22, 2010 Frugal Friday Podcast.

Click Here to download your free PDF copy of How to Save Jobs.

Disclaimer: I serve as an advisor on the board of directors for the US Strategic Perspective Institute, a 501(c)3 Not-For-Profit Organization (status pending) which publishes Gewirtz’s book.

January 21st, 2010

Kindle Apps: You're No Apple Tablet

Posted by Jason Perlow @ 1:06 pm

Categories: Apple, Business, Google, Linux, Mobile, Personal Technology, Web Technology, Wireless, iPhone

Tags: Google Android, Mobile, Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Tablet, E-book, Mobile Operating Systems, E-books & E-Readers, Smart Phones, Software Development

Amazon announced the pending availability of a Kindle Development Kit (KDK) that will allow developers to exploit the Kindle’s 3G wireless with light, text oriented mobile data applications suitable for e-Ink, such as Twitter, ZAGAT restaurant listings, stock quotes and email. But with other more versatile MID platforms on the horizon, such as the Apple Tablet and new form factor Android devices, is Amazon two years too late?

So, Bezos, lemme get this straight. You waited TWO YEARS to launch a Kindle developer program, a week before Jobs launches iPad/iSlate/Jesus Tablet?

Talk about too little, too late.

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January 20th, 2010

Independent Consultants: Rest in Peace?

Posted by Jason Perlow @ 2:30 pm

Categories: Business, General

Tags: Consultant, Industry, Consulting, Consulting Business, Outsourcing, Professional Development, Strategy, It Operations, Business Operations, Outsourcing & Subcontracting

The Independent Computer Consultants Association (ICCA) a professional organization that assisted small computer consulting businesses in the United States for over 30 years shut its doors at the end of 2009. Under the current economic climate, Is the independent consultant itself also living on borrowed time?

Do you ever get that email or phone call when someone tells you that a mutual friend or a colleague had passed away some time ago? And then you get that sad feeling in your chest about being out of the loop and utter disbelief about what happened? That’s what happened to me today.

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January 18th, 2010

We Want Protection, Google!

Posted by Jason Perlow @ 10:17 am

Categories: Business, Desktop, Linux, Microsoft, Security, Server, Software Infrastructure, Web Technology

Tags: Google Inc., E-mail Providers, Cloud Computing, Backups, Hacking, Storage, Security, Internet, Hardware, Jason Perlow

With Google’s customer data now a prime target for sophisticated cyber attacks, do we now need some peace of mind in the form of free anti-malware software and services from the company in order to protect us?

The fallout from Google’s recent Chinese cyber-attacks which may cause them to cut their ties with the communist nation raises a number of questions as to what sort of data protection and security the company should provide to its huge customer base of GMail and Google Office applications.

I don’t know about how everyone else is feeling, but as a GMail and Google Apps user I’m starting to get that creepy feeling that the front door of my house is wide open and the bad guys are waiting to walk in and grab all of my stuff while I’m away.

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January 13th, 2010

Conan vs. Leno: The Last Great TV Scheduling War

Posted by Jason Perlow @ 6:51 pm

Categories: Business, General, Hardware Infrastructure, Networking, Personal Technology, Server, Software Infrastructure, Web Technology

Tags: On-demand, Digital Video Recorder, Satellite, Programming, DVR, Digital Video, TVs, Tv & Home Theater, Personal Technology, Home Entertainment

The TV Network scheduling conflicts, ratings wars and analysis methods of the last five decades will be made obsolete by DVR ubiquity and On-Demand viewing technology.

With one of the worst natural disasters in modern history claiming untold amounts of human lives unfolding in front of us all over the media, it seems trivial if not completely callous to talk about the petty time slot scheduling differences between late-night television hosts as determined by network programming executives. But I promise, by the end of this blog entry, you’ll understand why I chose this subject today.

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