Amazon's latest gadget, the Kindle Fire
I'm a fat guy. I used to be fatter. I used to be thinner. At the moment I'm trying to get back to that thinner place. One thing I've been doing to achieve this is cutting carbs almost entirely out of my diet.
One of my favorite low carb dishes is often called fauxtatoes: pureed cauliflower with some stock and cheese mixed it. While it does kind of look like mashed potatoes, if you eat a pile of pureed cauliflower expecting it to taste like mashed potatoes you're going to be disappointed. There's no way around it, even though pureed cauliflower is just as tasty as mashed potatoes (honestly, it is really good).
They look a like on the surface, but they are very different vegetables.
That's the way I think of the Kindle Fire vs. the iPad. If you look at it as an iPad the Fire just doesn't measure up. If you think of it as a fancy Kindle (which is what Marisa calls it) well it is pretty damned fantastic.
What do I think of it? I really like it. I haven't seen any of the super slow response times others complained about. When I tap on things they respond. Video is great on it.
I love, as always, that when I enter my Amazon account info into the Fire all my stuff is just there. It streams my 17,000 songs on my Cloud Drive without a problem, and books and magazines are fine on it (though I still hate reading on a backlit screen, which is why I also bought the Kindle Touch and the Kindle… though Marisa is getting one of those to replace her Kindle 3). The app selection isn't great, but honestly the Fire isn't about apps it is about buying and consuming stuff from Amazon.
I should mention that I am writing a book about the Kindle Fire (pre-order it now
I've been asked to speak at the Wharton Web Conference (I also happen to be on the content committee of said conference, funny how that works out!) about WordPress.
I've been struggling with writing a bio for the Web site, but now I think I've got it. What do you all think of this:
Scott McNulty has been blogging for over 10 years. Over the course of that time he’s taken countless pictures of cats, met his wife at a blogger meetup, and written a couple of blogging books (“Building a WordPress Blog People Want to Read” and “Building a TypePad Blog People Want to Read”).In addition to being crazy about blogging, Scott has an unhealthy interest in eReaders, Hawaiian shirts, Macs, and Diet Pepsi.
When not hard at work as a member of Wharton Computing, Scott pounds the keyboard stringing words together for his next tech book (coming soon to a bookstore near you).
Also, I'm thinking of using the crop of this picture, taken by Marisa, as my headshot.Thoughts?
During my PANMA presentation the other day I made the bold statement that HP's WebOS is the best mobile OS no one is using. I stand by that statement, and I would also apply it to Textpattern.
Textpattern is a CMS (content management system) and blogging tool. It is elegant, well designed, and no one uses it (well, very few people). I like it, but I have discovered they've updated their logo. Call me old fashioned, but I liked the old one better.
I will admit that the newer logo is bolder, and probably easier to print on T-shirts and the like.. but the old one just resonates with me.
As you can see from the above image, Peachpit books are now available on the iBook store. If you're into eBooks from Apple, and a fan of Scott McNulty this is your lucky day. That's right, Peachpit is my publisher which means:
You can buy my books on your iPhone/iPad. Neat, huh? And here's my author's page (which is kind of lame... I can't change anything about it unlike Amazon's author pages):
Just search for Scott McNulty on iBooks and you're all set.
Get to buying, people! I need to pay for all the stuff I bought this month somehow!
At the start of this month I told Marisa that I wasn't going to buy anything that we didn't need.
I'm lucky enough to have a little bit of disposable income, and I enjoy being able to buy whatever bauble might catch my fancy at any given time (within reason). This isn't a problem, but as I looked around the apartment I realized I didn't really need any more stuff.
My resolve didn't last long, though. As you know I bought a fancy vacuum (which really sucks... get it?), but I thought that would be it!
Fast forward to today and I made a couple more purchases. To the right you can see the new graphics card for my Mac Pro I purchased today. I know what you're thinking, "Scott, why do you need a new graphics card?" So I can power this fancy new monitor
I also bought today:
Clearly, I have a problem.
As a tech blogger, and tech author, I often have to take screenshots for a variety of reasons (for the second edition
You PC users out there might recognize Snagit, from TechSmith the makers of Camtasia, because it has been out for Windows for awhile. The Mac version is now available, and I decided to download it and take it for a spin.
First off, Snagit isn't as lightweight as Skitch. Skitch makes taking and editing snaps super easy. Snagit includes a beefier image editor which offers more power, the price of which is complexity.
Complexity aside, Snagit has one super awesome change my life feature: Capture Vertical Scrolling area. What the hell does that mean? Often I want to take a grab of a screen that doesn't fit on my monitor. That isn't a problem during the course of computer usage because I can just scroll down (or up) and see the sections that aren't displayed.
In order to caputre the entire window I used to have to take a grab, scroll down, take another grab, open an editor, align the two images, and export it.
Capture Vertical Scrolling area takes a screen grab of the window, scrolls down and grabs another image (and so on) and then combines them all into one image automatically. Which allows you to do things like screen grab all the tweets in Tweetie with one click and produce an annoying image like this (this is an cropped version because the full image is a little over 48,000 pixels tall):
The other day Marisa and I decided to take the plunge and pony up for a Dyson vacuum.
Sure, it costs a pretty penny but I've always wanted one (shiney gadget!). That being said, I couldn't justify it... but once Marisa let me know she also would like one, that sealed the deal.
We ended up with the Dyson DC23 TurbineHead
The Dyson has taught me one thing, so far: we've been living in FILTH! How could we live like this?!
I am one of the biggest Amazon Kindle fans you'll find (heck, I wrote a book
July 19th, 2000. I remember one thing I did that day: ordered a new computer. How can I recall such a mundane detail? Because that's the day Apple introduced the G4 Cube.
When I saw it, I had to order it. I knew, intellectually, that it was over-priced, under-powered (despite being capable of giga-flops) and not in the least user expandable... but goodness. I had never seen a computer like it (and still really haven't).
The G4 Cube is a work of art (sadly, many Cube owners were shocked to find that the manufacturing process left tiny cracks in the clear plastic of their Cubes... which they weren't fond off) and a computer.
I used my Cube as my main computer (attached to a 17 inch Apple Studio Display, which itself was a stunning piece of industrial design) for a good long while. When the time came to replace it I couldn't bring myself to give it away... so I packed it up in a box and moved it from Yonkers to my first apartment in Philadelphia to my second apartment and finally along with me when I moved in with Marisa.
It took awhile, but finally we purchased a piece of furniture worthy of displaying this work of art in the manner in which it deserves (pictured above).
This trip down memory lane brought to you by Benj Edwards' dueling G4 Cube pieces for Macworld (read 'em here and here).
I've been thinking about getting a Canon EOS Rebel T2i
I should have it by Friday, and I'll be able to use it to snap some pictures from the Apple Store opening.
Mac fans are nothing if not obsessive (much like the company they love), and so I've been reading Apple press releases for years.
For as long as I can remember they have all included a boiler plate paragraph at the end that starts with, "Apple ignited the personal computer revolution with the Apple II, then reinvented the personal computer with the Macintosh." The sentences after that vary from release to release but they always started with that sentence. Take, for example, the press release announcing the iPhone 4. Here's the boiler plate:
Apple ignited the personal computer revolution with the Apple II, then reinvented the personal computer with the Macintosh. Apple continues to lead the industry with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system, and iLife, iWork and professional applications. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store, has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.
I noticed today, while reading the press release about the new 27-inch LED Cinema Display, that Apple has nixed the computer revolution. Here's the new closer:
Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple is reinventing the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.
The first press release to use this boiler plate trumpeted iPhone 4 sales in late June.
Since I work in corporate communications, I know changes like these are never done lightly. It is interesting that the revolution has shifted from the computer to the mobile space, even within Apple's PR boiler plate, no?
Just a couple years ago I had never written a book, fast forward to the present and my third book is winging its way to a finer bookstore near you. The world is a crazy place, I tells ya.
My first book was all about WordPress, to which many a wag said, "If you love WordPress so much why is Blankbaby hosted on TypePad?" This was often accompanied with a sneer, as if the questioner had caught me doing something particularly nasty. I would calmly explain that one man can love more than one blogging platform (I'm like a blogging Mormon).
The truth is, I'm a big fan of both WordPress and TypePad. This clearly explains why my second book was all about, you guessed it: Amazon's Kindle. When no one bought that book I was fairly certain my writing career was at an end.
I wouldn't let something like a career ending book stop me from pitching my editor a third book about TypePad (OMG!). Shockingly my editor, Cliff, thought about it for a little while, checked with some business-type folks, and in a matter of a few weeks I had a contract in hand. That just left it up to me to write the thing (An aside: I find the process of getting the contract signed and receiving the first advance check to be quite exciting. Starting the writing process is something I find quite vexing [just ask anyone who has worked with me on one of my books. I'm slow to start], but once I get going I'm like a writing train barreling down the paragraph rails... or something).
The kind people at Peachpit sent me 25 copies of my new book, called Building a TypePad Blog People Want to Read, and I did what any normal person would do: laid them all out on our dining room table and took a picture of me making a face in front of them:
Here's the real point of this post: buy a darned copy of the book. I know you'll like it.
Oh, and if anyone out there works for TypePad (or SixApart), contact me! I'd be happy to have a little contest/promotion with ya. I need to do something with all these books, so I might as well give some away!
I'm sort of an eReader junkie. I love 'em, for some odd reason. I have seven of the suckers, and the newest member of the McNulty eReader family is the Kindle DX, second gen
What makes the new DX different than the old DX? It is cheaper (hurrah!), the case is graphite, and Amazon claims that the eInk (that's the screen technology used in the Kindle) has 50% better contrast.
Is it true? What better way to find out than taking some pictures that compare and contrast (I'm so funny) the two. Check out the whole Flickr set, and read on for the highlights.
At first glance, the new DX is much crisper. I'll write a full review after spending a little more time with the DX.
The new Kindle DX is on the left, the old on the right:
Here both Kindles are displaying the first page of John Scalzi's The God Engines
A chapter heading, new DX on left and the old on the right:
Amazon also change the labels on the Kindle DX buttons. The fonts are smaller and the Prev/Next buttons are now labelled with arrows which make the Kindle a little more international:
I mentioned back in April that I was starting a new blog called Scott Explains. And then I didn't really post to it. I was in the midst of putting the final touches on my new book (which I will blog about once it is available), so I neglected my new baby.
Now I'm once again posting to Scott Explains, so you should check out how to delete email from your Gmail account using iOS 4 and how to add a folder of apps to your iPhone's Dock (I even shot a quick video for that last one).
Last night AT&T published a release that re-jiggers their data plans for smartphones (which on AT&T basically means: iPhones) and iPads. The new plans replace some existing unlimited plans (the unlimited iPhone data plan actually has a limit of 5 gigs a month, while the unlimited iPad plan was truly unlimited). The new plans are:
Existing customers can keep their old unlimited plans, but new customers will have to choose one of these two new plans starting on June 7th. Oh, and AT&T will also finally offer tethering (starting on the 7th as well) for an extra $20 a month above and beyond any data plans you might have.
For iPad users this is a little bit of a raw deal, if you ask me. The truly unlimited data plan that AT&T offered was a fantastic deal, and now not so much. However, for iPhone users I think these new plans will work out quite nicely.
I have an iPhone unlimited data plan for which I pay $30 a month. That got me to thinking, can I switch to one of the new plans and save a little money? Here's my data usage on my iPhone for the last few months:
I have no idea what I was doing in February, which is the shortest month of the year, but clearly I required LOTS of data. But even than I didn't even break a gig.
Looks like I'll be switching to the DataPro plan to save a couple bucks.
Now, what I'd really like to see is a lower voice plan. At the moment I pay $39.99 a month for which gives me 450 anytime minutes and 5000 night and weekend minutes. That's the cheapest plan I can get and 16 days into the month I've used 23 out of 450 anytime minutes and 27 out of 5000 night and weekend minutes. Plus I have 4,162 rollover minutes to use.
I'd love to pay $20 for half the talk minutes. How about that, AT&T?
Those who are close to me know one thing, above all else, about me: my name isn't Dick Michael Michaels. And yet, according to this Facebook profile Mr. Michaels (if that is your real name, and it probably isn't) looks almost exactly like me.
Here's the picture he nabbed from me (it is from this blog post about stepping out of your comfort zone).
For some reason Mr. Michaels is impersonating me on Facebook, and harassing people (mostly Yankees Fans.. if Gruber were on Facebook no doubt my social media doppelgänger would be harassing him as well).
Thanks to Jon for sending me a link to this dude's Facebook profile (you have to be logged into Facebook to see it). I've reported him as an impersonator so we'll see how long it takes Facebook to realize that I'm the One True Scott McNulty.
Accept no substitutes.
On Twitter my bio is "I'm almost Internet famous." I think this incident nudged me a little closer to full on Internet fame.
When my lovely wife Marisa decided to part ways with Slashfood I assured her it was a good idea. I said, "Now is your chance to build something of your own! No longer do you need to be a slave to a giant corporation telling you what you need to blog about!"
She took my advice and started a very successful canning blog called Food in Jars (go ahead and visit it, and subscribe to the feed. I'll wait).
Of course, Food in Jars didn't take off right away. Marisa worked hard on it, posted lots of great stuff, and people took notice (she was even nominated for a fancy pants foodblogging award).
All the while I was thinking, "Hey, if Marisa can do it, why can't I?!" I've been blogging about technology for a good long while for other people.. so why not launch my very own Mac news blog?
I pondered that very question for a few moments and quickly realized that the world doesn't need yet another Mac news blog. That market is more saturated than something very saturated indeed.
I went back to the drawing board. I thought about what the people I admire in the independent blog publishing world all had in common: passion. That's the ticket! But what am I passionate about?
Over the last couple of years I've written a couple of books, and they haven't sold too badly (well, I wouldn't mind it if a few more people bought my Kindle book, but what can you do?). These books are all technical books, you know the sort. They teach folks how to use a piece of software or a gizmo or some such. That's when it hit me: I enjoy writing tutorials.
Why not launch a blog dedicated to teach people how to use the technology they already have? Brilliant (if I do say so myself!). And so I present to you, uncaring Internet, Scott Explains.
At the moment there is only one post up, detailing how to turn off that dumb 'Send from my iPad' email signature that is on by default on Apple's latest and greatest geegaw, but there will soon be more.
Why launch now? Over the years I've had many a great idea but I've always been flummoxed by my uncanny ability to over-think things to death. I figured the only way I would actually ever do Scott Explains was by actually launching it.
Blankbaby is known to his friends as Scott McNulty (though he is @blankbaby on Twitter). He writes this blog, co-hosts (with Marisa) Fork You, is a senior contributor to MacUser, frequent contributor to Macworld, and author of "Building a WordPress Blog People Want to Read."
Everything on this blog is Scott's opinion, and his opinion alone. It in no way reflects the opinions of his employers, friends, concerned passers-by, or anyone else for that matter. But you're smart, you knew that already.
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