So I just finished reading the biography of Steve Jobs and to say I loved every word of it would be an understatement. I wrote a review of the book and if you can only read one post, this one or that one, read my review. Of course, what made the book so amazing was not just my love for technology or Apple products, nor was it my admiration for Steve Jobs, it was the story of a man filled with contradictions who ended up revolutionizing anywhere between seven and nine industries, depending who you ask.
It has been quite a crazy month in and out of the tech industry and while I usually try to post these articles on a weekly basis, clearly, that did not work too well in the last couple of week. But since many (many) people seem to depend on these posts to get up to date, I am forcing myself to get back into the swing of things.
This week will most definitely go down in the books as the most monumental week in its effect on the tech industry. Except, I mean that in the worst possible way. We lost the father of tech, the legendary Steve Jobs, and many industries will never be the same.
It is that time of the week again, time to sum up all the tech news of the previous week in one easy-to-read blog post. This edition of Above the Fuld is a little shorter than usual, as I was on vacation for three days this week. That means no coverage of the Amazon announcement for example, among other things.
Google+ for iOS gets a major update: Finally, the Google+ iOS app is on par with the site and its competitors. Especially the mobile hangouts, which bring video chatting to a whole new level.
Boom! My interview with Dennis Crowley, founder of Foursquare: Took me over a year to land this interview but it was well worth it. Whether you are an entrepreneur, a mobile fanatic, or just a plain old geek, you will find some gems in this interview.
If you have been paying attention, you have probably noticed that I have been using this blog to write summaries of all the posts I write on other sites. I will also continue to conduct interviews on this site and I have a few seriously awesome ones lined up. Think Foursquare, the Wall Street Journal, and Mashable…
One year ago, almost to the day, I wrote The First 99 People to Follow on Twitter. Now, with over 2,300 retweets of that post that I continue to see even today, I figured it was time for a sequel. Unlike the movie industry, in which sequels usually suck, this is a list of people I have met, engaged with, learned from, and was inspired by over the past year.
I attended a presentation the other day given by someone who I think might be the only individual on the planet deserving of the title “social media expert”. I am referring to Gary Vaynerchuk. If you are not familiar, you can read about him here, order his fantastic books here, or read my interview with him here.
By now, we all know that “Geek” is the new “Cool”, and I have met my share of geeks in my time, but David Pogue is on a whole new level. David has been writing a weekly personal technology column for the New York times since November, 2000. He also writes a monthly tech column for Scientific American. In addition, David is a featured guest on various TV shows including his CNBC appearances every Thursday, CBS Sunday Morning, and his show “Making Stuff” on PBS.
Twitter, with all its shortcomings, is truly a revolutionary platform. Why do I say that? Not because of the the active role it played in the world’s most recent revolutions. I am also not saying it because of the major world events for which the news first broke on Twitter. I am talking from a personal perspective. The people I have had the chance to meet and even interview, are people I would never ever have had the opportunity to connect with, had it not been for this platform.
I used to blog about Twitter a lot. In fact, I am pretty sure I wrote the Web’s most comprehensive guide on what to do and what not to do on Twitter. It has been a while since my last Twitter post, and there is a reason for that. The Twitter talk annoys me. The people who call themselves social media experts/ninjas/gurus/etc. are the farthest thing from being one. In fact, when I used to write about Twitter, there were always people who responded with the “stop telling us how to tweet” tweets, and you know what? They were right, to some extent.
There are many speculations regarding the cause of the recent global economic recession, but we all know the truth. It was the Angry Birds and their affect on the productivity of the work force. Angry Birds is a true mobile wonder with over 50 million downloads, 80% of users keeping the app installed, and as Peter Verterbacka, the “Mighty Eagle” of Rovio, makers of Angry Birds puts it, that number is without the holiday stats, which broke a record of a million downloads a day.
