In case you missed it.... a Tweeps Talking Tech roundup!

• I had to run the radio controls because Mike was running late and called in from his mobile phone
• We talked about Geolocation
• Foursquare
• Gowalla
• Twitter
• Yelp.  With the monocle!  "Shake it like a baby!"
• Facebook
• MailChimp
• The iPad
• What happened to Google Wave
• The Tweetup is this Monday, follow @lvtweetup
• Be The Bee Seminar coming up February 23rd
• We heard from @RayAttisano, @hosfeldinsuranc, and @bearboy1964
• Make sure you vote for LVTweetup on the Shorty Awards
• @TheJennC won #LVtweetoftheWeek with this gem

Listen to the official show recording now by by going here!

Tweet of the week? #LVTweetoftheWeek

We all work hard on our tweets.  When you take quality time away from work to tell your followers a random fact about boobs or how Pink did not lip sync - YOU DESERVE RECOGNITION, DAMN IT!

Some more than others... but you know who you are.

Can you start looking for candidates for the Lehigh Valley Tweet of the Week and RT the URL with #LVTweetoftheWeek hash tag?  Can you do it, Lassie?

Any good ones this week??

Join us on Blog Talk Radio tomorrow at 6 PM for: Tweeps Talking Tech

Tomorrow, Thursday at 6 PM - make sure you tune in for my debut on Tweeps Talking Tech on Blog Talk Radio with Mike Andreano of Be The Bee Social Media and Coaching & Seminars.
We'll be talking about the iPad, Geo Location, Foursquare, Gowalla, What Happened to Google Wave?, and more!
We'd love to have you contribute if you want to call in, the number is (646) 727-1346.

Hitler's angry reaction to the iPad

I'm certain this is wrong on many levels.  But - it IS funny!

The original iPad from Apple

Upload any document to Google Docs (Now ready)

It looks like Dropbox has it's hands full now that Google is in the file storage business starting today.  If you have a Gmail account, you already have a Google Docs account.

You can upload files up to 100 MB each with a total free storage of 1 GB and the ability to purchase more at these rates:

• 20 GB - $5/yr
• 80 GB - $20/yr
• 200 GB - $50/yr
• 400 GB - $100/yr

 What's really nice about this new set up is that you don't have to convert your documents to Google Docs, you can keep them in their native format.  From Docs help:

You can simply store the uploaded file in Google Docs, or convert it to Google Docs format so you can later edit it online. To store the file without converting it, make sure you deselect the option to convert the file. If you'd like to convert your document, presentation or spreadsheet to Google Docs format, you don't need to take any extra steps.

It's your voice... as a band.

If you don't know about the IBM 305 RAMAC, then you must watch this video.  If you do know about it - you already know that it was truly an amazing machine and it cost $160,000 in 1956.  Oh, it had 5 a megabyte disk.

Today I hold in my hand a 14 gigabyte iPhone that costs about $200.00.  To compare:
-The iPhone has 14,000 MB more storage than the IBM RAMAC
-The iPhone costs .1% (POINT ONE) percent of the IBM RAMAC cost (in 1956 dollars)

You wonder why people are nuts over the iPhone and Andriod?  Because you can do this with it in your hand (not that you would want to necessarily) - but that you could:

Brett Favre sings.... wait for it.... PANTS ON THE GROUND.

In case you have no idea what the hell this means, it's from American Idol:





Have you got into my Super Bowl pool yet? Check it out. Proceeds are going to Haiti victims.

Yeah, that about explains it all.

1959 Chevrolet Bel Air vs 2009 Chevrolet Malibu Crash Test

Go here, now. (NSFW)

This is my favorite blog on the planet right now.  (after about 25 others, but still)

It's not safe for work, the weak hearted, people who don't like swearing, open Facebook profiles, or people from Easton.  Go ahead, I'll still be here when you're done.  Scooty.

December pictures

all of these shots and more are here.

How I'm getting free Twitter push notifications on my iPhone

I've been asking around for a few months about having "@replys" pushed to my iPhone from Twitter and the only thing I could find for free was Echofon (but that was only when the other person also used it).  I wasn't all that impressed with Echofon and now exclusively use Twitteriffic.

However a few days ago, I read an article on TechCrunch that talked about Boxcar push notifications and BAM, it's free and it works perfectly.

Download Boxcar from the app store and make sure to set up Twitter as the only service.  See, the first service is free - the rest (Gmail, Facebook) range from $0.99 to $1.99.  Once you set up twitter, you will start to get the same push notifications you see above.

As you can see here, you can also select your Twitter Timeline, Mentions, DM's, and RT's to be pushed to you.  All for free.  Other settings include sounds, badges, and Private Alerts.  Private Alerts just let you know you have a notification without the detail.



Let me know if you were able to get this set up and what you think about it.

I (re) introduce you to... The Awkward Pause® - A Video Project

What is the Awkward Pause? It's the pause that occurs when you tell someone to pose for a picture but you are just recording a little movie while they wait for you to take the photo.  Is it good for you? No. Does it taste good? Oh, yes.

Why don't you contribute too?  Click here.

Some of my beautiful work: 




This one has the F bomb in it! (NSFW)

Foursquare vs. Gowalla, who wins?

I have been a big fan of location/GPS based apps since I got my iPhone a few months back and I strongly believe the next big trend will involve location whether it's through Twitter, Facebook, or a third party - location brings the internet and social media to the next dimension. It also brings more advertising options so we can expect the big players to want a piece of this action. (ala Google, Bing, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)

Two mobile players I'll compare today are Foursquare and Gowalla.


Foursquare marks your stops by "checking-in" at venues and getting points and badges along the way. If you have the most check ins at a location, you are the mayor. The service works by simply firing it up on your iPhone and pressing "Check-in here". When you do, it can ping Twitter or Facebook with your location and a map plus any notes or tips you have added. When another user is already checked in at that location - Foursquare knows this and tells you so like that or like this.


Here are the negatives with Foursquare as I see them in Lehigh Valley:


I do not live in a "Foursquare city". I am always getting messages saying "we'll just pretend you are in Philly." Um, let's not pretend, we're in Philly because we're in the Lehigh Valley, mkay? This feature actually succeeds to alienate new users. This has already turned off new/ potential users and they've "checked out" on Foursquare. Yes, I'm talkin' to you @Mike0616, and you @poppet77.


The second issue is that there are hardly any venues existing in FS when I check in. I get that the new restaurant won't be there right away, but adding a venue in FS is a PITA because in order to do it properly, you need to get an exact address and 99% of the time, I have to look it up.


The last issue I have with FS, is the terrible job it does when I ask it to look up a location that I know is there. I tried to check in at a local mall that I know is on FS and it couldn't find it by GPS OR by searching "mall" near me. Come on!


Foursquare Score: 7/10


Gowalla has very similar features to Foursquare, except as @mandreano noted, it has a better interface. The design, colors, usability (@Usabilityarts - you with me?), icons, and layout are all superior to it's competitor.


Gowalla is used to "Check In" at a locations and can ping Twitter and Facebook (if you have geolocation turned on in Twitter settings it will include that in your tweet). When a location is not in Gowalla you can easily add it using GPS address (read: not typing out the address). When you create a location, you become the Creator and Founder of a Spot.


In the Nearby Spots section, you will see spots created by other GW users with a check mark next to those you've visited. You can visit the Nearby Spots or search by category where GW displays a map (that can be enlarged) of the location with your GPS displayed as well. Cool.


Other features include trips (ala tours) and a friend section to see what your buddy's are up to. For those of you without iPhones, you can use Gowalla at http://m.gowalla.com/


Gowalla Score 9/10


UPDATE 1/8/10, looks like Foursquare woke up and decided it would fix almost all the issues I didn't like. Oh boy - we got a fight on our hands!

Celebration FAIL

HAHAHAHAHAHHAAAAAAAA

Christmas Tree Cutting

The first snow

Rest of the photos are here

Hot Potato, a Collective Storytelling Location Based Service (wheew)

Sticking with the location based theme of late on this blog, I'd like to introduce you to a hot new start-up called Hot Potato.

Hot Potato CEO Justin Shaffer refers to their service as "collective storytelling." While Twitter and Facebook allow you to do that through posts and updates, Hot Potato is about storytelling with group of friends that is specifically tied to an event. The event could be a Tweetup, a sports event, concert, holiday party, app launch party, etc. Think of the service as a mini website that is created in just seconds where users connect, add content through posts, comments, and photos.

The service can be accessed through their website or iPhone app, and a feature I love is that you exclusively login through Facebook connect. That way your friends are already connected to you - no need to invite people and have yet another username/password.

When you create an even or post to an even on Hot Potato, you have the option of tweeting the URL and posting to Facebook as a status update. This is a quick and easy way to get a large group of friends together where they can access the event on the web or on their mobile device.

Due to the ease of the service, the simplicity of creating an event, and the simple Facebook connect login, I predict Hot Potato will be very big.
 

iTunes link to app here, Blackberry and Andriod apps are in the works as well.

You need to use Dropbox. Seriously.

Dropbox has surpassed 3 million (pinky to the corner of my lip) users this week and topped that off with a $6M round of series A funding.

What is Dropbox?

A single secure place for file storage across all your devices (PC, Mac, iPhone, and Linux).

Why use it?

If you are the average computer user, you use multiple computers and have files scattered all over them. Has there ever been a time when you were at computer A and the file you needed was at computer B? Well, if you had Dropbox, then any file you placed inside the Dropbox file folder would have been automatically synced and on computer B already. Not to mention - on your iPhone too.

How much?

So, like totally free man. (for 2GB, which is a LOT of freaking files).

iPhone App?

It's awesome! You will have full access to files, pictures, videos, spreadsheets, and presentations all from within the Dropbox App. The files are not editable, mind you - but you can email a link to a file from within the app that can download/edited.

Trust me, you'll love it.