I’ve had several opportunities to reflect on 50 years of Apple in the past week. I’ve also been reading my share or recollections by others – many of whom are friends. And I’ve noticed that the loopbacks come in two flavors – stories about bumping up against Apple, the company, in the person of executives or memorable product moments. Or, people have written personal stories about how things that Apple made changed their own lives. I didn’t know this when I wrote about my own beginnings as a Mac user. But I quickly realized that I preferred stories about users,…
Category: Podcasting
I Made A Thing! “36 Seconds that Changed Everything: How the iPhone Learned to Talk”
Posted in Access and Disability, Announcements, New Media and Tech, and Podcasting
I’m thrilled to announce the release of my audio documentary, “36 Seconds that Changed Everything: How the iPhone Learned to Talk.” It’s the story of how accessibility features came to the iPhone in 2009, how that event rocked some people’s world, and how most didn’t even notice. You can listen to the documentary or read a transcript at the web site I made (it looks remarkably like this one, I know, but an accessible theme is an accessible theme), so I thought that here, I’d write a bit about why I produced it. Oh, you can also hear the documentary…
Podcast Roundup: Parallel Gathers Steam
Posted in Announcements, and Podcasting
Lately, I’ve been obsessed with automating new processes. At work, I’ve long automated text-processing tasks, but I’m expanding that to web work, and building workflows around podcast production. What I have yet to tackle is my tendency to forget about this lovely little blog. If you wonder why I do, perhaps take a listen to some podcasts I’ve been making, and where I’ve been appearing. More of that is on the way when the book comes out in a few weeks. So yeah. Gotta automate more, and perhaps talk about it. For now, please enjoy Parallel episodes #3 through #6 and Mccessibility…
Parallel Joins Relay FM
Posted in Announcements, and Podcasting
I’m excited to announce that my podcast, Parallel, is the newest member of the Relay FM network. Read about it here, and subscribe and listen here.
Second Place Accessibility Writer
Posted in Access and Disability, New Media and Tech, and Podcasting
On the most recent episode of The Parallel, a few names in the Apple community came up in passing. So last night, I decided to check out the latest episode of The Talk Show. That’s a fairly high-profile podcast by a fairly high-profile Apple writer guy named John Gruber. He and his guest, Serenity Caldwell, were running down some of the news from last week’s Apple Worldwide Developer’s Conference. They mentioned the addition of Live Listen to Apple AirPods, and how Steven Aquino got to talk about it with Apple executive Sarah Herrlinger on the third episode of his podcast,…
See What’s in My Non-#WWDC Bag
Posted in Access and Disability, New Media and Tech, Podcasting, and Random Personal Nonsense
I won’t be at Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference, or WWDC, this week like all the cool Mac kids. I make part of my living doing something other than reporting about Apple, so this is my lot. I’m not complaining, but it’s times like this when I am forcibly reminded how different my day, and often my relationship with technology, is from those developers, writers and podcasters whose bag packing lists I see online. Yes, I said bag packing lists. If you’re not familiar with this subgenre of tech journalism, you can see examples here, here and here. Anyway, the thing I…
Dropped Names Bonk Diversity on its Head
Posted in New Media and Tech, and Podcasting
I listened to a well-known Apple-focused podcast the other day. The show is prat of a tech podcast network, and also part of a somewhat larger circle of people who, broadly speaking, cover the Apple beat. From this episode, I learned that the hosts love their iPads, their iOS apps, and their kind sponsors. I learned that they, like this week’s guest, have many friends who say things about Apple on their own tech podcasts. Actually, I knew that already, but the name dropping this week was especially heavy. The hosts’ mentions of their friends did not include a journalistic-style…
Pack Rat
Posted in General Store, New Media and Tech, Podcasting, and Random Personal Nonsense
People talk a lot about hoarding nowadays. I’m told by multiple sources that there is a reality TV show featuring people who do it to the extent that their houses and lives are destroyed. Sounds super-entertaining, huh? That’s another subject, and one on which you probably wouldn’t like my opinion. But whether it’s inspired by basic cable or not, the word “hoarder” comes up all the time when people need a word to describe their inability to unburden themselves of the objects they have accumulated. Is it a different thing when you need to carry the objects with you? Before…
App Store Pundit Reviews Apple’s Podcasts App
Posted in Announcements, General Store, Podcasting, and Pods and Presos
If you follow Apple at all, AND care about podcasts, you probably know about the new Podcasts app for iOS devices. I took it for a spin on the latest episode of App Store Pundit. Did I like it? You’ll have to listen to find out. Don’t you hate when people write promo copy like that?
Taste-Making in the Social Media Age
Posted in New Media and Tech, and Podcasting
I’m not here to offer advice to marketers about how to alter the tastes an culture consumption habits of social media users. That sort of thing makes my skin crawl, frankly. I have noticed, though, as I talk to fewer people IRL on a daily basis, and listen to less broadcast media, that my opinions, and certainly the opinions of people who consume way more media than I do, are influenced much more by the online world than they would have been even a few short years ago. As a non-regular TV watcher who reads a lot of tech blogs,…