Why I don't blog here these days
I am sure that everyone reading this is on edge ;) wondering if I've disappeared into the wilderness of the internet. Well the truth is I have. Most of my time is spent developing curriculum for courses and workshops at BCIT. I am currently teaching two classes and a workshop that runs two Mondays November 1st and 8th at BCIT's Downtown campus from 1pm to 5pm. There are still a few seats available and it's an incredible value. If your curious about the classes I am teaching here they are:
MDIA1045 - Intro to Social Networking - Course Blog - Starts again in January
MDIA2045 - Social Media for Web Dev - Course Blog - Currently available in the full-time program
I am volunteering with the The Violence Stops Here, a campaign engaging men to help stop violence. We need your help as we are currently attempting to secure funding from the Aviva Fund. We need you to vote today so please take a few moments to VOTE. Please know that you can vote each day so we need you to return daily after 9:01 PST and vote again. Together we CAN make things better.
Check back in November for some new content. Also watch for a new blog about Social Media Education I am writing with Capilano University's Jess Sloss: @thattallguy. I am also developing a podcast and radio show with @SmuttySteff of Blog fame for UBC's CiTR radio!
Now for a treat... This is my American Television debut! Can you spot me? HINT: It's early on.
True North Strong and Free
True North Media House is virtual initiative which started at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics by media makers, enthusiasts and leaders from Vancouver's grassroots technology community. The idea was to aid media makers and documentarians with information, assistance and community events. When I heard about it I had to be a part. My greatest regret of these games was not taking the two weeks off work to enjoy the festivities and create more media! I did alright and was able to enjoy my time but my advice to others interested in documenting any great human event is to drop everything and soak it up.
Two of the leaders of True North Media House are heading to London to present about outsiders, online and social media. They will specifically be highlighting True North Media House, something that helped me stay in touch with the awesomeness of Vancouver's Olympics and allowed me to be part of something from wherever I was taking in the festivities. I wrote a few posts and put up a bunch of photos during the Olympics. Here is a wrap-up:
- The Olympic Torch Relay hits is Target a Photo Set
- Athletes Confused by the "Twitter Olympics"
- VANOC's Greatest Oversight at the 2010 Winter Olympics
- Exciting and inspiring Crowd-sourced Olympic Videos
- BONUS: Thanks to the Olympics I was able to test drive the Chevy Volt!
The Essential Apps for iPad & iPhone
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| Apple due for a correction but going strong |
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| Apple Fanboy Since '91 still seeing PC |
The best thing I have found with my iPad is that because I cannot open tons of windows and tabs and programs I am more able to concentrate on the work at hand and get it done. Although most of us love to think that doing 10 things at once on a computer makes us more productive the reality is that all of this switching from one application and task to another ends up making things take significantly longer than they should.For now I will go with what works best and the convergence of some features is making working on multiple platforms nearly seamless. Here is my list of apps that make my iPad, iPhone, MacBook Pro world work together. I could link to these through iTunes and get some resi
Information
Good Reader - This is a great tool for collecting and downloading PDFs to your iPhone or iPad. You can easily download any PDf if you have the URL you can also import PDFs from emails and from the safari browser.
Instapaper - Read things later saves links to a cloud bookmark system with an app for iPad and iPhone as well as an online version this is a great way to save stories from your day for reading at a more convenient time.NewsRack - RSS Reader
Amazon Kindle: still kicking iBooks butt
Free news apps: NYT, Globe and Mail, etc.
Productivity
iThoughtsHD - Mind Mapping made easier. Still not totally simple.
ToDo: Currently $5 for iPad + $5 for iphone (originally $10 for iphone)
Pages, Keynote, Numbers
Screenshot: Hold home and press power. Grab any image from any tool (video, web, etc.) Then trim it for use in Pages or Keynote
There are better apps for trimming screenshots but CropforFree is free and works.
Social
Twitter - Choose your poison:
Twitter: It's now a native iPad app but it performs well and feels kitchy blown up on iPad.
Twitterific: Native good free for one user and has ads.
Tweetdeck: Native, Unstable but awesome looking and good for devotes\es
Facebook - iPhone is ok but there are only sad alternatives for iPad
Facebook hasn't released a native iPad app although the imitators are hitting the app store hard right now
Entertainment
Netflix - For $8/month and a nice, not huge selection of on demand movies, tv and documentaries it's perfect for me. Requires either or all of: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, PS3, Wii, AppleTV and soon Xbox360.
AirVideo - watch video from your computer on your iPhone or iPad.
Games - that's a whole other post!
I missed tons of great apps and I want to know what you love using on your iPhone or iPad. Please drop me a comment with your favourite apps!
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