shahine.com/omar/

It’s June and I’ve posted twice to this blog this year. A few years ago I posted a few times a week, Twitter and social networking status updates have really changed my desire to want to blog. It’s not that I don’t have things I want to write or say, it’s that every time I have that urge, I almost always satisfy it via a Tweet or post to Facebook. Additionally, the thought of launching a blogging application, or even going to my blog and logging in, then writing and formatting and uploading seems like to much work.

However, there are times when 140 characters doesn’t cut it. I wish Twitter was more like Tumblr because I think that would satisfy my micro-blogging and blogging needs. But Twitter is what it is, and I do enjoy using it.

Finally, one thing about blogging which I think has always been it’s shortcoming, is that there is no integrated reading / commenting system. The strengths of Twitter and social networking services is that they both act as a forum to post content, and a forum to read and comment on content. I happen to think that’s a really good model, and have found that posting and consuming from my mobile device (currently an iPhone) is pretty easy.

I do still subscribe to a few hundred blogs in Google Reader and get most of my news that way. In addition I find having Techmeme as my browser home pages gives me useful “above the fold” information without having to subscribe to sites like Techcrunch and GigaOm which annoy me more than provide me value.

So, where does that leave us? This will probably be the last post to this blog… Instead I’ve decided to use Posterous, a neat email to blog service that’s about a simple as it can be. You basically just email it stuff, and it gets posted. It’s well formatted and pretty. I can email from any device I use (let’s face it, every internet connected device can pretty much send email). It also allows for comments via Facebook or Twitter credentials which I’ve always wanted.

You won’t need to do anything to get my new blogs posts, the RSS feed for this blog will simply point to my Posterous blog shortly (via FeedBurner).

Hopefully I’ll continue to provide useful insights on tech and other things, and I hope to pick the blogging habit back up, because I do miss it.

When the iPad was announced I tweeted, “meh”.

Honestly, I would still feel that way if it weren’t for the 3rd party apps. Like a fool I dismissed what might happen months after Apple announced the iPad… hundreds of apps would be released optimized for an entirely new form factor for computing. Apps I wanted…

I was wrong. The iPad is not meh if only for all the talented developers that had apps available on day one of launch. Kudos to Apple for making sure the eco system had a reason for me to go wait in line and part with $499. I decided earlier this week to get one after reading some reviews and previews of the native apps.

And lets face it. Life is to short for this geek not to experience the entire journey of computing innovation, from beginning to end.

Having said that, the iPhone apps that I have on my iPad have no place there. They are simply stupid, out of place, ugly looking things. I’m actually horrified to use something like Facebook, and numerous others.

To make matters worse, many of the iPhone apps that are copied to the iPad on first sync have iPad native versions, but you have to go hunt and peck for them in the store (New York Times, WSJ, NPR, NetNewsWire, TweetDeck, WikiPanion, the list goes on…). Apple should have blocked those from being copied and upsold to the native iPad versions, or placed all these apps on a separate “page” on the device so you would not confuse them for iPad applications.

I also found it absurd that the demo units Apple had were loaded up with iPhone 3rd party apps and not native iPad apps. If I knew nothing about the iPad and tried it out for the first time today I would have walked out of the store without an iPad.

Apple needs a better story for iPhone / iPad co-existence. The universal application model is great if the developer chose to go that route, but many did not even naming their iPad versions differently.

So, aside with that ugly cruft…

What is there to love about the iPad?

The Kindle app… be still my beating heart. This is simply a stunning, intimate book reading experience. 

Consumption of the web with NetNewsWire, Instapaper, New York Times, NPR is just comfortable and natural.

What surprised me?

The software keyboard has many subtle changes from the iPhone. When CAPS lock is in auto mode, the arrow is highlighted blue.

Also the return button is contextual, often replaced with the action you are going to take.

 

The iPad is fast.

It is a more intimate experience for consumption on the web, reading and social networking (well when there is a Facebook app).

I haven’t even really tried some of the new experiences like Netflix / ABC streaming.

Many of the same old iPhone limitations are still tired on the iPad. See below.

What sucks?

• Lack of a native Facebook application
• iPhone apps
• Same crappy application management using pages. Manually organizing and managing apps is not fun. Especially when you have to triage a bunch of apps “off the island” for being lame iPhone versions.
• The iPhone doesn’t know the word iPad yet .
• iTunes… still sucks. I can’t wait for cloud sync.
• the iPad has made the promise of universal USB charging disappear. Your iPhone and iPod power adapters will not charge the iPad. Neither will your computer unless you are plugged directly into a Mac. update: the iPhone / iPod adapter will charge the iPad but only when it’s off.
• Typing in portrait mode with two thumbs is hard. It’s actually to wide and a bit to heavy to type the same way as the iPhone. Typing with the iPad in your lap is easier.
• Mail team, you need to learn about something called conversation threading.
• Can’t tether to an iPhone. If you could use your iPhone as a lifeline to the intertubes when out and about that would be phenomenal. All the bits and pieces are there, the problem is AT&T and lack of networking support from iPad to iPhone.

Final words

For me, this device is perfect for the kind of reading I do in bed. I usually check Google Reader, the NYT, my email, tweets etc. It’s really only vacations that I read on my Kindle and thus the iPad is a good replacement for that form factor device. I’ll end up using my iPhone less in bed.

. . . It’s about the apps.

More thoughts later.

This week Facebook rolled out some of the most sweeping changes to the site in recent memory. These changes revolve around their privacy settings, which were previously fairly complicated, poorly organized and in some cases just confusing.

A few months ago, ReadWriteWeb posted an article called 5 Easy Steps to Stay Safe (and Private!) on Facebook. I was hoping that some of these new privacy changes on Facebook would actually make it easy because if you read the ReadWriteWeb article referenced above you will realize that it devotes 1500 words to this topic… far too many to make some changes to protect your identity.

Unfortunately I have to say that the new Facebook privacy changes are problematic to me for a few reasons.

1. Facebook encourages you to default your information to Public (which they label Everyone). Everyone means the entire internet has access to this data. The power of defaults means that anyone who is confused or ignores the privacy wizard will likely and unknowingly leave things public.
2. More information about you is now public. This includes things like your gender, hometown, list of friends, pages you are a “Fan” of. Previously the only public data was your name. By making more information about you public and making it harder or impossible to prevent this from being public just exposes more of your information to potential risk. It can also can make things awkward, for example if I am a Fan of a page that is a result of my personal or religious beliefs I may not want this information visible to people I haven’t “friended” on facebook. To be clear, you cannot do anything about this information being public. When you go through the transition tool, this information is visible to all.
3. Granular control over what public information is visible to search engines was removed. Previously you could specify what public info was available to search engines, now you can only turn that feature on or off. Perhaps a good simplification.
4. Features called “privacy” features have nothing to do with Privacy. For example, Facebook has a feature that lets you turn off your friends list so other Facebook users cannot see who you are friends with. When this feature was hastily implemented you could sign out of Facebook and see the list of Friends. Just yesterday they updated this, and can now hide your friends list when signed out if you chose this option, however, it’s still considered public information and visible to Facebook applications. Confused? To make matters worse, this option is not listed on your privacy settings page, rather in an obscure setting page off your profile.

I could go on, but I highly recommend reading the Electronic Frontier Foundation article on the new changes.

Further the ACLU has posted the following article which brings to light some of the problems with Facebook’s new privacy tool:

We have three primary privacy concerns with the new system:

1. There's more "publicly available information" that you can't control: Before the recent changes, you had the option of exposing only a "limited" profile, consisting of as little as your name and networks, to other Facebook users—and nothing at all to Internet users at large. Now your profile picture, current city, friends list, gender, and fan pages are "publicly available information," which means you have no way to prevent any other Facebook user from viewing this information on your profile, and you can only prevent Internet users from viewing this information by disabling search entirely (which you can't do through the Transition Tool).
2. Facebook is "recommending" that you loosen your privacy settings: For most users, including those who have never changed their Facebook privacy settings, the recommended settings make information less protected and more widely available than the previous default settings. For example, as of last Friday, sensitive information like relationship status and gender preference was available only to your friends by default; now Facebook encourages users to make this information available to "everyone!"
3. The "Transition Tool" does not allow most users to strengthen privacy settings: Facebook's Transition Tool gives you only two choices: keep your current settings or switch to Facebook's recommendations. And since Facebook's recommendations are less private than the previous default settings, most users have to click through to another page of privacy controls in order to strengthen their settings.

This problem is bigger now because Facebook has become such a mainstream part of life for so many people. I’m connected to so many folks on Facebook and genuinely value the experience they provide… allowing me to stay in touch with people and broadcast information to them as well as serendipitously discover information and life events happening in my social circle. However, I also feel a responsibility to ensure that the people I know on Facebook are making informed choices about their privacy settings when Facebook is making such significant changes in an important area.

The remainder of this post is really just some simple instructions for how you can keep your information private in light of these new changes, and something I wrote so that I could instruct my non technical friends and family members on how to stay safe and secure on Facebook. This does not necessarily reflect how my settings are configured, but rather things you should evaluate yourself to make an informed decision.

1. Old settings are safer when you see the Privacy tool

Generally your old settings are not set to Everyone and are more restrictive than what Facebook wants, so on this screen set your choice to Old Settings if Everyone is the only other choice. Later on make sure to take a look at the privacy settings page to ensure that the settings reflect what you want.

 

2. Public search

If you don’t want your public Facebook info to appear in search engines (including all the new public information they make available) then disable this option. In the previous version of Facebook there was much more control about what information was provided to search engines (like your picture, list of friends, pages etc). These options are now gone and there is a single setting to control if all your Facebook public info is provided to search engines.

From your Settings –> Privacy select Search and unchceck the Allow Indexing option.

You can also optionally prevent Everyone on Facebook from finding you. What you do here is up to you. I don’t mind letting Facebook users find and friend me since that’s how folks ultimately look you up, but I’m strongly considering setting this option to Friends and Network or Friend of Friends.

3. Unfriend any Pages you would not want a stranger or some one you have not “friended” to know about.

By default all the Pages you are a Fan of are now public domain. Depending on the kinds of pages you might friend this could be a really tricky and difficult thing. For example, potential employers could use this data, anyone really can make a specific judgment about you with what was once fairly private information. So just be aware, that fanning a page is like putting a sticker on your forehead with that company / brand / cause for the world to see.  

4. Don’t let your friends share your personal Info

You know all those games your friends play that constantly spam your Feed? Well guess what, all your Friends are giving away your info and you probably didn’t know that.

Go to Privacy Settings –> Applications and Websites.

I honestly have no idea how these settings affect things like what my friends will see if they use a Facebook Connect application to get their Activity Stream. I just unchecked everything and hit save. till Facebook can explain this better, it’s a waste of time to try and figure it out.

Should I let my friends be able to take my private info and give it away to any web site that they use? From the sounds of it, no.

5. Check the permissions on your photo albums

Go to Privacy –> Photos

Check and see how your albums are permissioned. If you see an Album that is set to Everyone it means the internet has access to it.

Bottom Line

I joined Facebook so that I could connect with real people that I know, and have a private place to share status, photos, links, videos etc and have a conversation with them, and stay informed about what they were doing. With more information being public and more users defaulted to public, Facebook becomes less intimate, private and understandable for sharing this kind of information (I already use Twitter to share publicly). I’ve tried to set up the privacy settings to keep things the way they were, but this will be an ongoing struggle I imagine since Facebook will continue to evolve and they will continue to push things to be public since it’s in their best interests (but not mine).

I imagine this story will continue over the coming months as Facebook reacts to user feedback. Making sweeping changes like this is not easy, but my main issue here is that what they did is non consistent with what they said they would do.

Further I am mainly concerned with what my friends and family do or don’t do regarding this new privacy rollout. If anything this is a reminder to go and visit your social networks and re-evaluate what info you have there, what information is public and if you are OK with that. Generally as some one who started out as a blogger many yeas ago, I’m generally more comfortable with some of my information and activity to be public, but I did pay the ultimate price for that once, so now I tend to think more about my online safety and privacy.

Today I noticed something I hadn’t seen before in the Chrome dev channel. When I typed “amazon.com” and then hit space, it turned into a search feature and then did a site specific search on amazon using the phrase I typed after.

Pretty cool and subtle feature.

For one reason or another I have managed to end up in a situation where I use 3 browsers on a regular basis. It really comes down to the following:

Internet Explorer 8 – this is what I use to browse all intranet sites, since AUTH just works. Also sites like Sharepoint really work best in IE not to mention all the Line of Business apps that require IE.

I would love to use IE more, but due to stability issues with browser toolbars, and the Firefox extensions I have come to rely on, I use this less than 100% of the time.

Firefox 3.5 – I use this browser a fair amount, mainly because of the following addons: Lastpass, Better Amazon, Grease Monkey. Other than that, I could care less about this browser. I don’t find it’s any more stable than IE, and it’s performance not noticeably better. I also find that it has a habit of updating itself about as often as I use it. I would prefer a “just update the dammed browser and leave me alone” feature.

Chrome – A year ago I questioned why the world needed another browser (I still do, which is why I don’t even bother with Safari). However, what I have found is that Chrome is fast and stable. It’s also clean and simple, about as minimal as you can get which is a breath of fresh air these days. I just sort of keep it hanging around all the time. It’s fast like my SSD drive in my laptop, or my iPhone 3GS. I only notice how fast it is when I’m not using it. The problem with Chrome is of course, I can’t replace Firefox with it since it lacks many extensions I rely on, namely Lastpass, XMarks and Grease Monkey.

Another neat feature of Chrome is “Application mode” where you can turn certain web pages into Applications. I do this for Facebook and Google Reader for example. Each has their own entry in the Windows 7 Taskbar and operates a lot like a windowed app.

So, my biggest frustration with this situation is what happens when I click a link in a program. I often find that the default browser that I normally use (Internet Explorer on my laptop, and Firefox on my home computer) is not the one I actually wanted to launch when a link was clicked. It often depends what I want to happen.

Well bless the Windows ecosystem, “There’s An App for That” .

Brower Chooser acts as a proxy by intercepting all URL clicks outside of the browser you are using. It does this by registering itself as the default Browser on your machine and then giving you big icons to chose from. You can then just type 1, 2 or 3 to launch that browser.

Really useful. I only wish that this app auto detected what browsers were installed rather than making me add them manually.

I did a Google search for “Facebook birthday notifications” and clicked the first link, which was this:

http://blog.facebook.jp/blog.php?post=38780477130

You know what happens when you click that link? Your Facebook UI is now all in Japanese. Usability FAIL. Now how do I fix that since I can’t read Japanese?

Do another Google search for “Facebook change language” and got this page:

http://www.facebook.com/editaccount.php?language

and I found this in there:

How is this useful?

Note: if you do a Bing search for “Facebook birthday notifications” you get an English page. Yay Bing.

Interesting that Facebook is now sending out HTML emails. For the past few years they have sent plain text emails only. This made the Birthday reminder emails they send out look particularly bad. However, this morning I was greeted with this:

I wonder if this is a sign of things to come.

When we moved to Seattle one of the purchases we needed to make was a new TV. I happen to love buying new TVs because it’s not something I do often, and the technology changes that occur in that time span are staggering.

The first TV I purchased was a 27 inch tube Sony. I then got a 34 inch 16:9 Toshiba CRT that was about 200 lbs but the first HD set I owned. It was stunning watching “progressive scan” DVDs.

The next TV was a Samsung Plasma and since then I’ve decided all my future TVs would be Samsung. This was for 2 reasons. 1) Their service is amazing and 2) they make great, well priced, quality products that are pc/media center friendly. Since my TV is mostly driven by a Media Center TV, things like DVI/HDMI support are important.

So on moving to Seattle I decided on getting a Samsung LED TV. These TVs are 1.2 inches thick. I can’t describe how cool this is. They also look awesome and come in giant sizes (55 inches) an weigh practically nothing. In fact, Samsung makes a wall mount that is more similar to hanging a heavy picture to a wall than a TV.

Figuring out where to buy this TV from was a challenge. Good old Brick and Mortar wanted about $400 more than online, but I was also pretty sketched out about buying such a big ticket and heavy item from an online etailer. Also most of the good prices were from “grey market” dealers.

Luckily Microsoft had a special going with a company called Intech out in New York that was an authorized Samsung dealer. The prices were better than any online deal I saw and they included a free media center extender. Shipping was also free.

I pulled the trigger and ordered the TV. it arrived in 5 days from the east coast. I set the TV and all seemed well, but then I noticed that the TV was actually bent! yes, the TV is so thin that at some point the TV had received concealed damage in the box and had a nice big dent in the top middle. I never noticed because you could only see this by looking at the profile, and the picture was otherwise perfect.

I pretty much assumed I was out of luck, but working with the fine folks at Intech they worked tirelessly over the course of the next week to work with Samsung to issue a replacement TV. This required that I document the damage by sending them a bunch of photos to document the damage, and they were fantastic in working with me through this. I shudder to think what might have happened had I purchased from a great market etailer.

Anyway, I’m writing this because I love to point out when companies go above and beyond to make things right. Thanks Intech and Samsung!

You can view Intech’s webiste here: http://www.thehighdefinitionstore.com/

Apparently this is news to people. Well, here is the deal. When you buy an application from the Apple App Store, you are allowed to install that application on multiple authorized iPhone and iPods. This is controlled by Apple’s FairPlay. Before the App Store the same was true for DRM’ed music.

My wife and I both have iPhone. Whey I paid $99 for TomTom Navigator, I installed it on both our phones. Actually, Apple did that automatically for me since we both use the same account (my iTunes account) for all our purchases. Try that with a Garmin GPS device. Go buy 1 and then see how you can turn it into two devices. You can’t. So a $99 purchase is effectively spread across all the iPhone/iPod devices you own.

I’m not sure how many devices this is supported for, but basically, this becomes a cost effective way to buy and share programs with your family in a legit way. For once DRM is not total FAIL.

So there you go. More info here.

I’m a pretty big fan of convergence when it’s done well. Having fewer gadgets, cables, and power supplies to carry around is all good. This is especially true since we had our daughter and are looking to shed stuff that gets cumbersome to carry, pack and deal with.

The iPhone has turned out to be a pretty decent convergence device. Specifically it combined a smartphone with a music / video / podcast player that was just as good as a stand alone iPod. This was a huge selling point for me.

However, the original iPhone 3G had a pretty lousy camera and so it was never in the running to really replace a real camera. Furthermore the maps program while cool, was no replacement when you needed voice and turn by turn navigation. So for that I had a Garmin nuvi device that I used faithfully for the past 2 years. Otherwise the iPhone is an excellent “I am here, tell me what is near me device”.

Since getting the iPhone 3GS I’m frankly surprised at how many photos and videos I take with the thing (including close ups now that it can do Macro). The iPhone is actually “good enough” for many scenarios that my camera was previously required. For one thing, I carry my iPhone everywhere with me, so the likelihood that I will have it when I want to capture a video is extremely high… like when we were driving around in our car and our 2 year old said she wanted to listen to Lady Gaga and Madonna. Pretty funny, and no camera with us at the time, but we got it on video and were able to upload it to Facebook directly from the iPhone.

Now, with TomTom for the iPhone, another piece of technology that I would schlep around on vacations and around Seattle when I’m trying to navigate to Home Depot or Best Buy is no longer necessary.

So now we have a device that can do:

• Phone
• Email and Calendar
• Photos
• Video capture
• Music
• Turn by Turn navigation
• Games
• etc

And you get the point. This thing can replace at least 3 or 4 independent device and do the same job 80% as good as dedicated gadget.

I call that progress.

If you car has an integrated iPod kit, chances are when Apple removed the ability for Firewire to charge through the iPod adapter, your iPhone 3G and iPod don’t charge any longer.

In the past few months a few options have emerged that basically allow a firewire powered iPod connector to charge the iPhone or iPod using USB.

I had luck with an adapter that Apple sells called Scosche passPORT. It works great in one of my cars that has an aftermarket Blitzsafe adapter, but it doesn’t work at all in my new car, a Mercedes with a Media Interface (which is basically a killer interface that allows control of the iPod or iPhone via the system’s COMMAND interface, steering wheel etc).

Anyhow, even though automakers have had about 3 years to adapt to this change, the bottom line is that many of them have yet to release anything that allows their kits to charge a modern iPhone or iPod. Silly really.

So these adapters are great. Griffin makes one now called the Griffin Charge Converter however it states very clearly on their web site:

Our Charge Converter is not compatible with Pioneer head units that use the CD-iB100 or CD-i200 iPod to IP-Bus adapter. The Pioneer units send proprietary data as well as FireWire power. Although the cable will continue to pass the audio, iPods that charge via USB-only will not charge, remote commands may be limited, and the head unit may display an error message. iPods that charge via USB-only include the 4th generation iPod nano and 2nd generation iPod touch, as well as iPhone 3G.

This may also apply to the Mercedes Media Interface Cable.

Bummer. Mercedes released a service bulletin S-B-82.60/643a in January that says:

If you receive customer reports in the above model vehicles (equipped with any of the two options below) that their Apple product (refer to below list) is not charging but music/telephone communication functions are operational, this maybe due to a change in the charging circuit design by the Apple Corporation.

Apple Product:  iPhone 3G, iPod Nano 4th Generation, iPod Touch 2nd Generation and iPod Classic  120 Gigabyte (GB) storage capacity, as well as all iPod/iPhone products superseding the ones  referenced in this Bulletin.

For vehicles equipped with the Accessory Media Interface Option, a customer-pay remedy is forthcoming. This bulletin will be updated accordingly when available.

For iPod Interface Kits (part numbers listed on Page 1), a new iPod data cable connecting the iPod Interface Module and the iPod/iPhone, the part number is B6 782 45 31. 

This is a customer-pay remedy.

This technical change (change in charging circuit in newer Apple Products) is applied by the Apple Corporation; MBUSA is not responsible for diagnostics, parts and labor costs.

So basically what they are doing is blaming Apple for this when they had a few years to address the problem while also saying they have no solution for 2009 cars with their brand new Media Interface.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I found an adapter that does work made by a nice fellow in Sweden. I PayPal’ed him last week and received my adapter today. The best part is, IT WORKS.

You can get the Small iPhone 3G Charge Converter for $29.90 plus $9 shipping.

Note: Mercedes has fixed this problem with a new cable for the iPhone. Part number is A 001 827 84 04 and the cost is about $70.

Last week I was hanging out in Kepler’s books, one of the best bookstores I have ever found. I came across this wallet called the Tyvek Mighty Wallets. I was intrigued, initially by the cool NYC Subway Map design that was used to make it. Being from NYC, there is something about the subway map that I love. In fact the line I used to take all the time is right on the front (4, 5, 6).

So I started to play with this wallet. I immediately recognized the paper like material used since you have felt this if you’ve ever received a FedEx envelope. It’s called Tyvek and it’s one of those amazing inventions made by accident at DuPont. God I love DuPont. They make such cool stuff out of fossil fuels and recycled crap.

Every 2 years I go on the hunt for the minimalist wallet. I want something small and light than can hold some dead tree money, some credit cards, and receipts and such. The Tyvek Mighty Wallet weighs close to nothing and is pretty indestructible. It’s also cheap at $15 and can be recycled when done.

Of course I tweeted this find last week. Jeff Atwood managed to reply immediately and I knew a blog post was forthcoming . He seemed to latch on to the dotmatrix version of the wallet which has Pi printed out on it.

Here it is if you want to peruse the interesting comments, of which one is from the designer of the Tyvek wallet (Terrence Kelleman). He placed a link to a video that does a great job of giving you the skinny on this amazing wallet.

The company, Dynomighty design, has a bunch of neat stuff. I’m thinking custom wallets would be cool as would the Luggage Tags.

In fact, Jeff, how about a Codinghorror Wallet?

Also if you are into it, you can make your own wallet from a FedEx envelope.

Wow, this is exciting news. No longer to you have to carry around a security dongle or pay money to get one. VeriSign created an application for the iPhone that does everything that one of their devices does and that I blogged about a few months ago.

Now you really have no excuse… if you have a PayPal or eBay account and an iPhone protect it from hackers with two factor authentication.

If you use VeriSign’s OpenID system, PIP… then this is a natural way to log into that service.

My hope is that more and more services will support two factor authentication via cell phones. VeriSign clearly has a leg up here, but I suspect RSA won’t be far behind in getting an RSA SecurID app out there.

Big Kudos to the VeriSign folks.

I hate newspapers. I hate the way they feel, I hate reading 2 paragraphs and then hunting around for the rest of the article. I hate folding those huge pages. I just never ever liked reading the paper. But I do like the cover page. I look at the paper when I see it.

Online never really did it for me either. I disliked the way that most newspaper websites layout their pages. Perhaps the Wall Street Journal online does the best job.

But, I love the New York Times iPhone app. It’s easily skimmable and glanceable. Of course it’s slow and buggy and crashes pretty much all the time. In fact I launched it over an hour ago on my iPhone and it’s still Updating… but when it works it’s great.

The other day I saw a link to a new New York Times Prototype called the Article Skimmer. It’s simply fantastic. It’s entirely designed for some one like me. I just want to glance at the news every day, and drill into the articles I might find interesting. You can read about it here.

They have done a really good job at actually bringing the best aspects of the analog paper including sections and a new “most emailed” feature, and they have awesome keyboard shortcuts. They also seem to be using the little square photo that the iPhone also uses to make the articles pop.

This is my new Homepage, the Article Skimmer

Compare this to the current New York Times web page.

 

The Skimmer is just better in every way.

I refresh a bunch of my gadgets almost yearly. This includes things like iPods, Cameras, Phones etc. Selling these items through eBay can be tedious. Selling them through Craigslist usually has some one on my doorstep negotiating a different price with me. Both are annoying.

In fact, I just just sold something on eBay yesterday and eBay decided to “hold” my money for 21 days. That is just lame. Actually this is PayPal, but whatever, same company.

So for the past few months I’ve used a service called Gazelle. I love this service because they tell you up front how much they will pay you for something. They will also ship you a postage paid box to send the item to them. When they receive the item, they inspect it and then pay you via PayPal, Amazon Gift Card, check, or you can donate to charity.

Gazelle is super easy to use… and you get money without any hassles.

My only complaint is that they don’t buy all forms of Gadgets, but if you have a camera, digital music player, mobile phone or anything listed below, it’s a bit easier than eBay or Craigslist IMHO.

• Cell Phones
• Digital Cameras
• MP3 Players
• PDAs
• Laptops
• GPS Devices
• Gaming Consoles
• Camcorders
• Satellite Radios
• External Hard Drives
• Video Games
• Movies
• LCD Monitors

Another great thing is that they will recycle anything of no value for you.

Give them a try next time you need to sell a gadget.

Get Cash For Your Gadgets at gazelle.com!