Technology

Should phone calls have subject lines?

From the Department of Why the Heck Didn’t I Think of That? comes SayWhat, a new Android app that “lets 
you introduce the subject of your call, set 
the mood and check the availability of the 
person you’re calling before or while placing
 the call.” Check out the 1-minute video below. Then spend at least […]


Yes, smart phones are actually underhyped

Last month, toward the end of an on-stage conversation at Wired’s Disruptive by Design Conference, Mark Andreessen (he of the Mosaic browser, giant venture fund, and shiny, egg-shaped pate), unleashed a corker. The smart phone revolution, he said, is under-hyped. “We have never lived in a time with the opportunity to put a computer in […]


Tomorrow’s classroom excuse: SOPA ate my homework

In case you haven’t heard, several large websites have blacked themselves out today to protest two pieces of anti-piracy legislation now before the U.S. Congress. Leaving aside the merits of their arguments, which I think outweigh the merits of the legislation’s advocates’ arguments, I’ve got two questions. 1. Will Wikipedia’s 24-hour disappearance have a material […]


How do you sign an e-book?

That’s a question that writers, and others with plenty of time on their hands, have been pondering since the intelligentsia realized that electronic books are a force rather than a fad. It’s easy to ink a signature across the title page of a paper book. It’s cool, too. (As it happens, I collect autographed books […]


My 5 favorite iPhone apps

One of the strange rituals of life in 2010 is what I call the “Shootout at iPhone Corral.” It’s the moment in a conversation when two people who aren’t normally given to gun-slinging unholster their iPhones for a showdown over who has the coolest apps. To spare you that encounter, herewith are 5 apps that […]


There’s an app for, uh, anything

Okay. I’ve done it. I’ve created my own iPhone app. With the help of the amazing folks at Mobile Roadie, we’ve launched the official (sic) Daniel Pink app. You can download it — it’s free! — from iTunes. What’s cool about apps in general, and this one in particular, is that they feel like web sites […]


Where are the dang outlets?

That’s the question that power-mad (in the electrical sense) travelers ask when they arrive at an airport with their phones and laptops screaming “battery low.”The search can quickly lead an upstanding citizen down the low road. I’ll cop to: scouring every baseboard in a terminal in a mouse-like quest for a power hole; pinching the […]


Let the record show: I do *not* endorse this product

Just in from the Wall Street Journal . . . Microsoft, Verizon in Talks to Launch iPhone RivalBy AMOL SHARMA and NICK WINGFIELDMicrosoft Corp. is in discussions with Verizon Wireless to launch a touch-screen multimedia cellphone on the carrier’s network early next year, in a bid to compete with Apple Inc.’s iPhone, people familiar with […]


Web 2.0 meets Music Appreciation 101

Late last year, YouTube issued a musical casting call. The web video titan asked “professional and amateur musicians of all ages, locations and instruments to audition for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra by submitting a video performance of a new piece written for the occasion by the renowned Chinese composer Tan Dun.” A panel of first-class […]

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