Category: Tech Column

palm Palm Phone Smartphones Tech Tech Column

Why the Palm phone might be the perfect tech product for 2018

sudshr47 October 17, 2018

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Phones are bad for us. But don’t worry — phones are here to save us. From phones.

That appears to be the message behind the new Palm phone, a tiny smartphone that functions as a kind of smartphone lite, intended as a companion to your main phone, which, if we’re being real, isn’t a phone anymore and hasn’t been for a while. It’s a portable device that sucks you into its world like nothing that came before, not even TV. Turns out Newt Gingrich was right about smartphones — we really need a new word for them.

The idea of a buddy for your phone that’s also a phone sounds ridiculous at first, but it actually becomes more credible the more you think about it. Because chances are you’re thinking something else every time you unlock your phone when you didn’t mean to, every time you catch yourself “zombie scrolling” in an app, every time a bubble pops down from the top of your screen that you didn’t need or want: “I’ve gotta stop this.” Read more…

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Email Other Tech Tech Column

How to functionally abandon email

sudshr47 October 11, 2018

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Let’s face it: Email is a drag. 

Whatever shine unsolicited links and messages once had back in the early days of the internet is long gone. Today, the contents of your inbox are likely closely aligned with that of your cellphone’s voicemail — unwanted and unchecked. 

It doesn’t have to be this way. It’s within your power to functionally give up email. It is surprisingly easy, and feels so, so good.  

First off, let’s all agree that writing and replying to emails is a pain. Even the companies that provide the service know it’s unbearably tedious. Google has tried to make things less burdensome on the senders’ end with Gmail’s Smart Reply and Smart Compose features, and on the receivers’ end with Nudges, but those are just annoying Band-Aids on the festering wound of obligation.   Read more…

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Apple Macbook Macbook Pro Tech Tech Column

Apple missed another chance to make the MacBook Pro great again

sudshr47 July 12, 2018

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Apple finally updated its MacBook Pros after over a year (a lifetime in the computer world) without changes.

But as attractive as some of the new features are — faster processors, more RAM and storage configurations, and, err, a quieter keyboard — none of them really leap off Apple’s website and make me want to yell, “SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!“

This isn’t a full review of the new MacBook Pros — I haven’t seen or used them in person and we’ll have one soon enough — but my honest opinion on what Apple’s announced. See, although I review consumer tech for a living, I’m still a consumer and vote with my own money. Read more…

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Apple Google Google Drive iCloud Tech Column

I finally caved and bought more storage on Google Drive, iCloud

sudshr47 March 31, 2018

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I held out for as long as I could. 

I transferred music files to flash drives, deleted massive photo files, and purged outdated email newsletters clogging my storage. Every email from Groupon went into the trash and was permanently deleted. No more chances to go back and “soak up savings.” I was on top of it. The trash button became my friend; archiving the enemy. This is what using Google’s free email service in 2018 looked like for me.

But I couldn’t win — a red banner above my Gmail inbox threatened to cut off my inbound emails and I was tired of constantly deleting everything. The whole point of my personal email was to have a record of everything. I might have a newsletter addiction, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be able to use my email archive. Read more…

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Jack Dorsey Social Media Companies Tech Tech Column Twitter

Jack Dorsey’s verifications-for-all plan is bad news for Twitter

sudshr47 March 12, 2018

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If there’s one thing unambiguously good about Twitter it’s that it’s not Facebook — a fact that CEO Jack Dorsey seems hell-bent on changing. 

The latest assault on the very DNA of the social media platform is insidious in its seemingly good intentions: making verifications open to all.

The proposal, discussed by Dorsey on Thursday, is to make the verification process streamlined and automated, thus allowing the hordes of presently unverified users easy access to Twitter’s coveted blue check mark. 

“The intention is to open verification to everyone,” Dorsey explained over Periscope. “And to do it in a way that’s scalable, where we’re not in the way and people can verify more facts about themselves, and we don’t have to be the judge or imply any bias on our part.”  Read more…

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Facebook Reddit Tech Column Twitter Youtube

The problem with human moderators

sudshr47 January 18, 2018

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If Big Tech in 2018 already has a theme, it’s that social networks are passive platforms no longer. Since the new year, both Facebook and YouTube have stepped up with new guidelines and processes to manage — and in some cases police — content on their networks.

All of this started well before the new year, of courseTwitter has been following through on a lengthy project to both clarify its content policies and take a more active role in saying who and what is allowed on its platform, most recently with its so-called “Nazi purge.” The current trend arguably started with Reddit, when then-CEO Ellen Pao pushed for tighter control of harassment and revenge porn on the site. Read more…

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3d Movies Star Wars Tech Column the last jedi

Whatever you do, don’t watch ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ in 3D

sudshr47 December 15, 2017

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“Let the past die. Kill it!”

Kylo Ren’s calm, yet threatening monologue from Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi (this isn’t a spoiler — it’s in the trailer) couldn’t be more apt for the 3D version of the movie. It sucks. It’s the worst way to watch Rian Johnson’s flick.

3D movies — as a format in movie theaters — need to die. Movie studios should kill them. But they won’t unless we, moviegoers, grab Ren’s tri-bladed lightsaber and stab this technology in the heart and twist it until 3D’s lifeless body falls off the catwalk and into the abyss.

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David Foster Wallace Infinite Jest Tech Tech Column Tesla Motors

We need to lay off the overzealous hero-worship of Elon Musk

sudshr47 December 15, 2017

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After a year of making headlines for groundbreaking achievements and troubling controversies, it’s become nearly impossible to avoid the cult of personality surrounding Elon Musk. 

The multi-hyphenate CEO billionaire is undeniably one of the most visible figures in the modern world. He leads multiple companies that could potentially shape society’s future; he’s a prime example of capitalism’s potential after building his own fortune by betting on his hard work and genius; and he maintains a (seemingly) open public persona, interacting with fans and shareholders alike on Twitter in a cool, relatable voice fluent in the eccentric vocabulary of the internet.  Read more…

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Apps And Software Facebook News Feed Tech Tech Column

Facebook killed the Ticker and that’s a bad sign for News Feed

sudshr47 December 12, 2017

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When it comes to your News Feed, Facebook knows best. 

That’s the message the social network has been broadcasting pretty much since it introduced the first version of its News Feed algorithm in 2011.

Six years later, and the company has only doubled and tripled down on that message — data rules all and Facebook certainly has more of that than anyone else. So who better to understand your exact preferences — right?

Unfortunately for Facebook, though, many of its 2 billion users would like a little more choice in the matter. (Just look at the number of people who still complain about the News Feed algorithm showing old posts.) Read more…

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Apps And Software Bible Books Tech Tech Column

When smartphones come to church, you know nowhere is safe

sudshr47 December 9, 2017

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I’ve attended church with my family for my entire life, but I’ve noticed a stark change in the last few visits to our non-denominational Christian congregation: A startling number of people around me spent the sermons glued to smartphones and tablets.

Even my dad, a classic Midwestern disciplinarian, pulled out his iPhone and put it on his lap for easy access right as I was turning mine off for the first time that week. He and the others that I spotted through some good old-fashioned pew snooping weren’t using their gadgets to scroll through Twitter or play Candy Crush, though — they were following along with the pastor in the pulpit as he read passages in the Bible, which happens often in non-denominational services focused on interpreting and applying scripture to daily life.   Read more…

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