Archive for the ‘ Tools of the trade ’ Category

1
24
Jan

iPhones in the Heartland

Central Nebraskans (and other smaller cities in the country often forgotten by the Tech world) are wondering if they should get an iPhone now that it will soon be available through Verizon. Articles like this from Arstechnica and this from Shelly Palmer can be confusing to those of us still clinging to Blackberries because iPhones have never been an option for us.

My coworker, who is anxiously awaiting the Verizon iPhone and declined to get a Droid in anticipation of the Verizon iPhone, was thrown by Palmer’s blog post particularly because she talks about the cost of switching from AT&T and the fact that Apple will likely announce a spanky new phone later this year. He’s worried about tying himself to a 2-year contract for the phone now if something faster and better will be on the way in just a few months.

This is what annoys me a little about the flurry of posts touting the pros and cons of the new Verizon iPhone – no one takes into consideration the fact that things are different out here in the flyover states. Unless we live in Lincoln or Omaha, Nebraska, we’ve never had access to iPhones at all.

Thank goodness for the Droid!

So should anyone around my part of the world have the same fears about theViPhone as my coworker, I’ll tell you what I told him: If your current Verizon contract is due for an upgrade, go ahead and get the new iPhone. Yes, you’ll have to buy the phone still, but it’s pretty spiffy and you won’t regret it. As far as speed and knowing that 4G speed is becoming the norm – in more populated areas first of course – it will likely be a while before that lightning fast LTE or 4G hits Grand Island, Nebraska so to me, the 2-year contract thing isn’t a big deal. In 2 years, there will likely be an even better iPhone coming out. Besides, Verizon’s 3G network is pretty fast and unless you are a super power-user, you’re not likely to care much. But the one thing that makes getting the ViPhone worth it, in my mind, is the wi-fi hotspot capability.

That alone is pretty fantastic. I don’t have a smartphone at all – I rely on my iPod Touch 4 and the Verizon Mi-Fi. I use it for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, email, Evernote, games, paying for my mochas, texting, and with some jiggery-pokery, a phone. Rarely do I actually use it as an iPod, funnily enough. With wi-fi becoming so available, even here in the sticks, in time I don’t even think I’ll need the mi-fi anymore.

So, my recommendation based on what I know about living in the land that tech sites forgot, and based on being quite a gadget whore, I say it’s ok for you undecided Nebraskans to go ahead and get yourself the new Verizon iPhone when it’s unleashed. You’ll love it.

[For the record, I have nothing against Droids and would be perfectly happy with one if I didn't love my iPod Touch so much.]

1
15
Dec

Newsroom changes for the good

I’m really pleased right now. I will admit that for a few months, I had begun to despair because my newsroom stopped responding to change. I watched as other news services in the area clutched their smartphones with glee and began to outstrip us when it came to live tweeting news as it happens.

I won’t go into all of the red tape reasons we were dragging our heels because it doesn’t matter anymore. We no longer have a videographer. Now we have a mobile web reporter. Essentially, we turned our videographer into our reporter for the web. Do you have any idea how much I’ve wanted such a person in the newsroom? Not only that, but we worked out a way to get him a Droid X, taught him how to turn it into a wifi hotspot and now he can get out there, shoot photos and video and write a story for the web in his car, pop me a text and I can get it edited, photos/video added and have something online before any other news service around here can say, “I didn’t know about that.”

What this means for The Independent is we’ll have a fresh, regularly updated website all day long.I’m so excited I could spit.

Our new mobile web reporter has some learning to do, mind you. I want him to not rely on his expensive video camera all the time that requires a lot of editing/producing time and just grab some video with the Droid for a story that we can put in as plain old raw video. People click that stuff. They don’t need something slick and produced with transitions and title tags all the time. I want him to open up his UStream app and air it live while I embed that into a story and direct readers to it from Facebook and Twitter.

But he’s still learning how the phone works, and for now he’s doing a good job of getting out to stories we might not always cover because we’re shorthanded (like most newsrooms I know.) He needs to be able to find stories on his own now, but he’ll learn that too.  We’ll get there, and I’m so excited about this.

Not only that, I had a meeting last week regarding our direction with Social Media, which is my forté. I am not going to talk much about it just yet, but I will just say that my publisher is *extremely* taken with what the Journal Register is up to….

2
15
Sep

Playing with the New Twitter

Everyone’s playing with the new Twitter this morning after their Big Announcement last night showcasing the website’s redesign. As usual, rollout will be phased in for everyone over a period of time. Understandable and expected with something like this. Not so great for people like me who actually use the website most of the time because I never get to be one of the first to play with stuff like this.

But having access to a boatload of Twitter accounts (my own few and close to 40 I manage for the giNetwork) I thought maybe… just maybe, I’d get to play. To my eternal surprise, my professional account, @stephromanski was upgraded. DEEEEEEE-lightful! I dove in and wandered around the new digs, read all the tech blog roundups detailing the subtle and not-so-subtle toys, and enjoyed the improvements.

My only annoyance with it all is the unexpected chore I now have of having to go and redesign almost 40 Twitter backgrounds for our giNetwork partners. I watched @Scobleizer’s livestream video of Twitter’s presser last night and the live chat/social stream was lit up with people asking about their Twitter backgrounds. The wider content area means a thinner space on the right to put brand info, however, the right pane of the content area lets some of the background show through so it’s time to get creative!

We’ve been including a custom Twitter background as part of the package for the giNetwork because we link directly to a business’ Twitter page in our directory. But if a user is searching a local business on Twitter.com, it’s going to open up in their right pane with all the pertinent info and vitals, so there’s no need to even go look at their page at all.

Other than the background dilemma, I can’t really think of a way that the redesign with adversely affect what we’re doing here, and the background issue isn’t a big deal (except to me since I have to do all the extra work – Thanks Twitter! ;) ). The ways Twitter incorporates all the new info when you click a tweet that will encourage new follows – that can only be a good thing for businesses right?

Speaking as someone who does actually use the web interface on a daily basis (there’s been quite a lot of snark about that ;) ) I want to congratulate Twitter on the redesign and new features. Thank you guys!