By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

I won't argue this to much but the Sony PSP is the original closed platform, shiny, black, movie watching, web surfing, game playing device.

It didn't have a camera when it was released or multi-tasking. The only way that the iPad has it beat is mulitouch . . . well, touch for that matter. Hell, both are even lacking a kick stand of any type that isn't an add on.

We had a first gen PSP kicking around the house until my son in a fury of play with MegaMan lost his grip and the screen shattered. It was like watching someone burn Washington's wig. Noooooooo!

But as I digress, there is something that brought these similarities to my attention today.

Sony has developed a program to live stream sporting events to attendees in the stadium for enhanced experiences via PSP.

Not only that, you can also get replays, statistics, player profiles and live results piped directly to the Sony PSP.

No one would deny that the live experience is the ultimate way to watch sport. What this new service offers is an even more immersive experience for fans, said Mark Grinyer, Head of Sports Business, Sony Professional about the new app.

The iPad does have the PSP beat in one area though if Apple of one of the developers were to hook this up using the iPad as a tray for game day beers. The PSP can slip into a pocket but the iPad can balance on the arm of your stadium chair and illuminate your beverage with the blur of color from a live playback. Fancy.

This product for the PSP is being tested at the Emirates Stadium in London. So I guess America will be up for grabs?

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Sony PSP, The Original iPad but Better is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

Having just experienced a seriously nerd hyped event in the last week that let me down, I'm sure hoping that Apple can live up to the hype.

If they can pull off a Twitter type coup they are set.

When Twitter launched even the nerds were saying things, I don't get it and What's the point of these short messages? And now, Twitter rules the communication buzz and has taken in over $100m in funding.

Apple doesn't need the funding but as a computer company that has become an electronics company with a few key products, this new tablet and its success are paramount for the growth of the company over the next 5 years. Even with their billions in the bank, the iPod and iPhone are getting tired.

The success of the tablet depends heavily on the user experience that can be created for it. The most important elements that create that experience will first be the form factor. Judging on Apple's reputation for impeccable industrial design, I would suspect they have nailed this one.

Next in that line of elements is speed. It needs to boot instant on with the ability to be used immediately. That goes for any software that is on the device, even if it is web connected. There shouldn't be any lag time in getting up an running. It's the real-time web and this needs to be the real-time tablet.

Lots of news on this today and we'll follow it diligently for you and throw in our two cents.

If you're looking for updates throughout the day check out @tabletville on Twitter.

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Apple Device Needs to be the Real-Time Tablet is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

Today, as I am sure you have noticed, I'm short on my five blog posts a day by about . . . um, five. That is until now.

I've been down with a bug all day and feeling a little better thanks to a great post from Bruno Giussani on his blog Lunch Over IP. The post is titled, Tips for Conference Bloggers, and includes an incredibly insightful and well designed PDF cheat sheet.

His post from a little over two years ago holds strong today and is resonating with me enough to crank this post out. Timing is important in this case since we are beginning a new conference season with mega events like SXSW on the horizon.

I spent nearly the entire last week at CES and had my pride handed to me by this monster trade show/conference/press extravaganza. I was ill prepared for everything that the event would throw at me and approached it like an average conference. This is a mistake I won't repeat.

What I learned at CES was that there are two types of attendees: those doing business and those covering the event. Those in the first category are more concerned with parties, sales and future business relationships. Those in the latter are analyzing, comparing and framing the event for publication.

Publishing from CES is a formidable process. Most press covering the event have teams of people dedicated to gathering information and creating media needed for a final publications. This is a smart move for an event with over 100k attendees.

In addition to the excellent PDF from Giussani's post that addresses the 95% of the concerns of a blogger in 2010 there is 5% that could be added for the here and now. There are new event realities and technologies that can enhance his original thoughts.

1. MiFi is a must have for connectivity. This is especially important for Giussani's rule of blogging an even no later that 10 minutes after it has ended. Conferences don't as often have wifi available as they did back then except in a few locations like press or blogger lounges.

2. Photo/Video lighting gear. Get used to shooting in dark to minimal light and learning your cameras settings well. Check your first few shots or reel to view the quality and make corrections as needed. Much of this can be enhanced with lighting rigs that will allow you to get the shots you need when they happen . . . not when you are ready for them with white balance or aperture settings.

3. Backup workflow. You have a machine that you love and take every where with you, right? What happens when it goes down? Before the event or during you should have a backup plan for gear failure so that it doesn't destroy your workflow. Blogging an event can be difficult in the first place, but when the workflow you went into the even is disrupted it can be detrimental to timely coverage.

4. Speak to previous attendees of the events you are going to be covering. This falls under the guidelines on page 6 of the PDF of collaboration. However, this is a proactive measure before the conference begins so that you can understand what obstacles you might be up against.

5. When the authors recommend having fun, it shouldn't just be at the end of the day for parties or networking. It should be throughout the day. It is counterproductive to be worried during the day about connectivity, media fails or missed opportunities. If something happens that you're not happy with, put it in the back of your mind or write a note down for it and move on. Dwelling on something that you can't do over is to your detriment and that of your readers ro viewers.

Please head over to Bruno Giussani's blog and download the PDF that he has made available. Even if you're not blogging a conference or trade show, there is great value in these tips for any writer publishing to the web.

Image: Screen shot of the PDF cover (Bruno Giussani).

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How To: Conference Blogging is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

Chinese computer maker Coship wasn't turning heads with its netbook specs at CES.

However, with a sexy body like the beauty on the left, they're moving in the right direction to delight in the future. Other low cost netbook manufacturers like MSI and Asus should keep an eye on this competitor.

The Coship ZCULV30 is a shining example of taking the gloves off and following a design vision. In a world filled with bland silicon and plastic slices this netbook is a delightful departure.

The body is slick plastic that gave it a unique feel, it is light weight and is way hotter than the Monster Ferrari.

Limited specs below.

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Coship Netbook #CES Sexy MF ZCULV30 is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

The Tech Podcast Network team, about 7 of them, canvased CES 2010 shooting video from open to close every day.

The video below is a highlight that they shot on Saturday with Ted from RED.

If you would like to see more information about it and hear straight from Ted about the Scarlet this is the video for you.

There was a ton of video shot at CES this year from all the press and attendees. To sift through all of it would be impossible. I chose to share this from the Tech Podcast Network team because of their dogged dedication to sharing as much of the show as possible.

Sharing a coffee with them in them in the blogger lounge (which was much more comfortable and less packed than the press room) was an opportunity to pick their brains for the next booths to hit up.

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Tech Podcast Network from CES is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

Intel wanted to knock the socks of CES attendees this year with its booth and found a great way to succeed.

They created Infoscape, a massive 7 1/2 foot square double HD (4k) partial cube with custom software to pull XML feeds in real-time and display them as a series of hundreds to thousands of rotating cubes.

They didn't stop there, however. They swung for the fences by adding interactivity with the two walls by integrating touch. Anyone could come up to the wall and touch the cubes to trigger the selection of that cube's content.

The best way to describe it would be that it was like clicking a photo online and having it popup in a lightbox with a transparent background, but with many open at once.

It turns out that this was only a display element for the booth and not a real product. The intention was highlight the i7 processor. This chip has over 600 million transistors on it and is the size of a dime. One single chip powered both screens.

3D wishes it had the juice that this wall did. If this wall were the future of television I'd feel a whole lot better about what Samsung, Panasonic and Sony were shilling.

This thing just goes to show that sometimes the best products are accidents. Look for Intel to find other uses for Infoscape this year.

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Intel Touch Wall Infoscape #CES is a post from: TechStartups.com

I've started off this year actively pursuing an important part of my kings guiding words. One of my goals was to connect with more people who matter to me. At CES in Las Vegas, I spent a little time with Kris Smith, Marsha Collier, John Jantsch, Betsy Aoki, Tim Street, Steve Rubel, Bryan Rhodes, Lindsay Maines, Chris Brown, Rohit Bhargava, Alexis Rask, Ross Martin, Kenny Miller, Jeff Pulver, Jeffrey Hayzlett, and so many more.

I did this somewhat differently than usual. I worked my hardest to make time for as many people as I could who mattered to me, so that I could make some kind of personal touch to reinforce our relationship. This meant having a moment to chat comics and business with Justin and Eric from Coffeehouse. It meant watching demos with Ken Kaplan and Bryan Rhodes at Intel, and playing around with the new Bloggie video camera with Sukhjit from Sony. It meant getting into the AMEX Open booth (disclosure: I write for them), and sharing ideas on who's a big thinker with Steve Rubel.

I love meeting new people. I'm always happy to talk about social media and writing and whatever else with folks. But I skipped every party except for the Las Vegas Hilton tweetup, because I knew that it wouldn't be a value to stand around in a loud club, drinking and mostly just nodding my head while not really hearing what you were saying. Instead, I spent time learning from smart people who will fill me with ideas that I can share with you for your business goals.

I've also decided to stop using the phone as much as possible. Phones, Steve Rubel was telling me (and I forget who told him) make it so that someone else is setting your day's priorities. That's one problem. The other is, I'm in different time zones all the time. I'm on planes all the time. I have a bad memory, so things we agree about on the phone don't always get written down. I've shifted a lot of that into Google Wave ( my new love).

To deepen our networks, we have to do a few things, and some of them aren't exactly easy or simple to execute.

To Deepen Your Network

• Devote two hours a week to this effort. If, out of the 60 hours an average person works, you can't find two for this, reconsider how you're running your day.
• Pick small groups of like-minded people that you want to stay in touch with. List them in some way (in your contacts, on a spreadsheet, in a Twitter group maybe all of those).
• Think the following whenever thinking about this group: you are important. I care about you. I want to help you grow.
• Reach out to these people once a week, if you can. Try not to make it about nothing, but do keep in touch, even if it's in small clumps (I'm using Google Wave for that).
• Keep their names close at mind for when someone mentions they need/want some kind of help. I made two referrals in one meeting to people I think will appreciate them.
• Keep abreast of these people's news via Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter. Check in from time to time. Congratulate them on their success, and commiserate with them over their failures.
• When attending events, make SOLID plans to connect with the people attending that you want to deepen a relationship with (Jeff Pulver taught me all I know about planning my experience at events. I fail this sometimes, but he taught me well).
• When possible, find these people opportunities. Do the groundwork instead of asking how to help. (Want to know the king of this? Tim Sanders, author of Love is the Killer App).
• Remember to devote more time to these people who will enrich you than you do to less useful pursuits. You choose how you spend your time and attention. Make this an investment.
• Share the results of these rich interactions with your larger network in other one-to-many ways.
• Repeat. Always.

Both Julien and I think 2010 is the year people start paying much more attention to their networks. Part of my 3 words for 2010 is Kings, and part of how I'm describing that is to remind myself to spend more time with kings (and queens) who matter to me. Though your mileage may vary, I believe that people who work to deepen their networks instead of add numbers will find the best yield and value in coming years.

What say you?

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

Let me say, first off, that I am a huge fan of the elegant WPTouch plugin for WordPress by Brave New Code. This is one of those plugins that I would gladly pay $99 for since it creates such an amazing version of a WordPress blog for iPhones, iPod Touch and for Android devices.

Word to my peeps perform this update only if you HAVE NOT modified the theme. If you have, you will lose your changes as all of the theme files will be overwritten.

I learned the hard way that any modifications to the code or layout will be removed. Of course, once I hit the update button I thought to myself about the nature of this plugin. Then, upon refresh of Tech Startups on an iPhone and with Agent Switcher . . . my handiwork was toast.

Before you spend seconds obliterating hours of work to make changes in your WPTouch theme make sure you back up your original files (I do have mine, fortunately) and don't do the automatic update in your WP admin. Download the upgrade, unzip it, add your hacks back in to the new theme and then upload it to your server.

I have to say, it is kind of cool to have a plugin for a theme. What is important is to realize that it is a totally different animal than any other plugin.

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Hold On! WPTouch Update Available is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

You need a pile-o-data fast and you got nowhere to get it other than surf, bookmark and beg for interns to copy and paste for you. Where do you turn? Your IT department? Your hackery skills and your shared GoDaddy hosting account for bandwidth? Nah.

80Legs is ready to run a couple miles with your pile of data on their shoulders. You get to pick it up and work with it as you see fit.

Did I mention that they are now offering this as a free service? Well, up to a certain point it is free but for the many is plenty of room to get what they're looking for.

80Legs offers a unique service that will crawl the internet on your behalf and gather data from the links that you provide. They then take this unstructured data and make it available for further refinement to the customer.

Their value proposition lies in the ability to deliver this service efficiently and affordably. Like I said earlier, it would be difficult if not impossible for an individual run a service to crawl 100,000 pages quickly. 80Legs is offering this as a free service now and it's all powered by a 50,000 computer network.

The ability to put the data collection into another companies hands allows developers to think about what to do with the data. By freeing up developers more can be done with the data that is returned to them as they have time to think about new algorithms to run across the dataset.

An example of this would be simple search. Developers with more time could work on creating new layers to search that make it more valuable to the end user. Whether it is integrating advanced search functionality or returning results contextually depending on the page that a user is currently searching from.

If you're interested, the free Basic specs are below. Plus and Premium are listed on their blog.

80Legs Basic Plan:

• Free to use
• Normal crawling speed (up to 1 request/second/domain)
• Access to 80legs Web Portal
• 1 job running at a time
• Up to 100K crawled pages per job
• Low priority in 80legs job queue
• No recurring jobs allowed

[Via VentureBeat]

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80Legs, 50k Computers and a Web Crawler is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

In my search for information about the world, what matters to me and what is good, I go no farther than an application that I wrote called Filome. I've talk about it quite a bit here at Tech Startups.

It's an app that is about 85% of the way there and is relegated being updated when I have spare time. Which in the last 8 months hasn't been very often. One of the things it is brilliant at though is helping me find what is relevant to me and what I want to write about.

About 30 minutes ago it was tablet computers. But instead of writing about them and adding to the noise, I thought that I would share my filter a tablet computer group from Filome.

First there is the feed for those that want to get right to it - http://www.filome.com/group/ksmith/1/tablet%20computers.rss

Below are the latest 25 posts regarding tablet computing. All linking to the original posts. Find one and follow it down the rabbit hole. Enjoy! (Remember: If you want to stay updated subscribe to the feed link above)

1. You Can Take It With You: Future Trends in Media
2. Who needs tablet computers anyway?
3. Can Android Tablets Find a Market?
4. Why I Hate Ereaders, And Doubt They'll Ever Hit the Mainstream [Ebooks]
5. Why Google Should Make a Tablet [Opinion]
6. Apple to Launch iTunes on the Web
7. Analyst noise: Apple tablet in March for $1k, publishers on-board, Verizon iPhone coming too
8. Apple Tablet Release Date Gets Narrowed Down, Prices Get Estimated
9. Which Companies Will Win The Battle For The E-Book Consumer?
10. A New, Now Netbook You Can Actually Buy: PsiXpda
11. Analysts Predict 1 Billion+ Mobile Web Users by 2010
12. Time Inc. shows off magazine tablet demo, plans future anger about 70/30 profit split
13. Apple tablet rumored to be 'shockingly' inexpensive
14. Apple Registers TabletMac Trademark After Dueling Axiotron MacBook Modders [AppleTablet]
15. Using the Apple LP and Extras format for learning?
16. NVIDIA Tegra tablet prototype hands-on
17. What If Steve Jobs Hadn't Returned To Apple In 1997?
18. Hearst, Time, Conde iTunes For Magazines Only A Few Weeks Away
19. DigiTimes Claims Apple Tablet Delayed for OLED Upgrade [Rumor]
20. Apple tablet(s) in 2H 2010 with OLED screen and tailored content in tow?
21. Cond Nast Gets Wired Ready For Apple Tablet (In Case There Is One)
22. Adobe Air hits 2.0 this is powerful stuff
23. The death of the URL
24. Apple tablet speculation: high-end graphics, several models
25. Bookmark Away: Instapaper Comes Up With A New Way To Work With The Kindle

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Tablets, tablets, tablets The Next Devices is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

If you're just starting out or a WordPress hack from way back, the new book from Chris Coyier and Jeff Starr titled Digging Into WordPress could be a good addition to your shelf.

Coyier and Starr have been plugging away on WordPress installs for a few years and now sharing their intimate knowledge of the blogging platform.

The book comes in two versions spiral bound and PDF. The spiral version looks beautiful and the PDF, if anything like the sample, should please with its colors and page layout.

The real question about this book is the $67 price tag for the spiral bound version. Is it worth it?

Yes, slices of tree with pretty ink aesthetically pleasing. Yes, it will lay completely flat on a surface next to a computer, unlike traditionally bound computer books. No, it won't every question you have about WordPress. I'm not sure anyone or any book could do that.

If I were in the market for a WordPress book I would take a different approach to justify spending the money on this book consulting. Not that I would buy it and become an instant WordPress consultant. Nor should you, unless you're already a Social Media Expert and have it all figured out.

I mean consulting in the sense that you are getting the best that Coyier and Starr have to offer because their names are on the line with this publication. If the content is not good or they don't add value to solve your WordPress conundrums their names will be mud.

This book should be viewed as an insanely cheap consulting session with two guys that really know their stuff and can prove it with their client work. At $67, you're already halving the rate for most WordPress gurus worth the money and getting two for the price of one 24 hours a day.

They're also offering an affiliate program for those interested in helping sell some copies and to put some extra bucks under that mattress. Check it out if you're into that whole affiliate thing.

I have no material connection with the publishers of this book or am a part of their affiliate program. All links are to standard pages. I am basing my opinion on a sample chapter (PDF) that is available from their sales page.

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Ready to Dig WordPress? is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

Take heed of that title and start thinking of the business you will build now and what shape it will take in the future.

Flurry , the mobile analytics folks, have released some Holiday 2009 data about iPhone and iPod Touch app downloads. And their estimates regarding the number of apps downloaded onto iPods it should come as not surprise that they believe most of them ended up in the hands of pre-teens and teens.

Couple this with their analysis of the iPod Touch exceeding iPhone app downloads by 172% and the next set of consumer habits is born.

I've seen this in my own home with my 9 year old son. He has downloaded every app that catches his eye and comes to me at least once a day asking to buy an upgrade from the free version. He's not allowed to purchase apps even though he's figured out my app store password.

His habits, once the device is in his hands, change. His demeanor becomes focused as he plays games, gets bored and then finds his way to begin searching the app store. In his actions are the seeds of what Flurry is now tracking.

Flurry doesn't get specific about the type of apps that these teens are downloading for their iPod Touches but one would imagine that they are mostly games. I have a hard time believing that they are downloading tons of location, banking, bar code scanning or public transportation apps.

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Teens Download Lots of iPod Touch Apps is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

In Flickr's App Garden it must be mating season as they are crushing hard on mobile apps today in their blog.

Mobile's now arrived, I guess. And it is so hot that Flickr is okay with public displays of affection now.

That, my friends, is awesome.

Flickr sits on mountains of EXIF meta data from images and right now the most important set is the rise of mobile devices shuttering away and uploading to the photo service.

For years if you were shooting mobile images and wanted to get them on Flickr the easiest way was to send them as an email attachment. Rudementary, but a very effective way of getting it done with low overhead . . . like apps.

The mobile apps come in handy to access phone features and override them. For instance if you are on a Windows Mobile phone and send an image it will be capped at a certain file size even if you have an unlimited data plan and most apps allow you to send full size images.

Another nice feature of the mobile apps is that many come with an ability to do some post work on the photos. It might be blur reduction, lighting, exposure, b&w conversion, etc. That was never going to happen with Treo 650 back in the day.

What might help Flickr more in these PDA moments with mobile would be to organize a tour of the App Garden. Because right now it is like a monsoon of slightly curated applications that are desktop and mobile commingled together. Not that cross pollination should be a concern but being able to find a certain variety of app without having to sift all the species could help out on the uptake.

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Flickr PDA for Mobile is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

I am making this my first New Year's Resolution and I will stick to it. I will. I will.

The resolution is to be an advocate for structured data on the web. I will sing it from the mountain tops and whisper it from the valleys. Well, I might yodel it in both places but I certainly will be vocal.

In the great quest for efficiency online it is time we move beyond the 19% of websites that have XML feeds that structure the sites data to a full onslaught of education for web publishers. The semantic web is depending on it.

The semantic web is in a gestational state and no where near reaching its potential to revolutionize the way that we interact with information. The tech certainly isn't there yet in the capacity of computing and the redundancy and review that needs to be applied to content for fully actualized linking.

What is apparent however, is that about 81% percent of the web is missing its opportunity to hop on this dog pile of ever growing linked data with information from the publisher and not just the bots that are crawling it. There is much information that can be gleaned from microformats within certain publishing platforms but there is still a mass of information that goes without inclusion into the structured whole.

As part of this resolution I will continue to push for RSS feeds since they are the simplest technology to get up and running when it comes to websites. There are tons of tools available to the put feeds on any site and every blogging platform today offers something in the way of feeds either with Atom, RSS or custom XML.

The time has come to bring data together and prepare for the long tail that awaits in a decade from now. Consider adding structured data to your site now like adding it to a time capsule. And instead of it being an 8-track requiring a special player it is more like a stone tablet with the language of the people or the machine.

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My First New Year's Resolution is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

Are you the sum of your thoughts? It's a hard question to answer, right? I'm trying to sort this out and would like your help.

The dissonance between the physical and ethereal nature of disembodied communication like the internet is a minefield for human interaction. Primarily because we rely heavily on physical cues and environmental variables to base our levels of connection with a person. We rely on their actions, not just words.

My assertion is that social networks exacerbate this inability to fully understand the people we are linked with in these networks due to experiencing their random thoughts.

Sure it is interesting to read what someone is doing throughout their day, but the only value is what the reader places on that thought to make it a reality in their own mind. Maybe that is the nature of connection?

What I am really trying to understand is that if a person can create real bonds simply through sharing their thoughts in social media?

I've personally been at what turned into social media for over 7 years. I've become many things to many people based on the types of content that I was producing. Much of that content was dependent on what I was interested in or experiencing at that time. Like this piece.

The sum of interactions in social media are related to those fleeting thoughts. When shared repeatedly with networks of people a notion of who that individual is are created. This give us the ability to create baselines for who we think a person is. A baseline for example being, they're nice or they are a jerk.

Again, we are only dealing with thoughts to create these notions. They are assumptions as to the true nature of a person that most have yet to meet. I would posit that what happens in social media and across social networks is the connecting of thoughts. If you like someone, you like their thoughts. If you dislike someone, you dislike their thoughts. Any judgments are based on these and most likely very little on physical actions. So, if you met them in the real world you would need to attempt to ascertain all over again who that individual in front of you is.

Maybe we're connecting thoughts first and then people with social media?

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Social Media: Connecting Thoughts Not People is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

Quite possibly in popular vernacular or in the agency world, yes. I'm not sure that people have meant to do it but it is happening.

comScore released a small set of data from a survey that they performed about holiday this year online. Not surprisingly, it is up compared to previous years. The surprise comes in the form of how this data is displayed in a Social Media Influence table.

I think somebody pulled up in a semi truck loaded with hype.

Or, maybe, it is that the respondents now identify social media simply as talking with friends. Have a look at the table:

At face value, 28% of online Holiday shopping being influenced by social media is believable and insanely large number. Good for all those social media experts out there! But looking a the rest of the data in the chart, which covers every major form of social media Twitter, Facebook, Facebook Fan Pages, Blogs and generic status updates, something is missing.

Did the respondents want to feel cool by responding yes to this? Were all the respondents extremely dialed in to social media? Does standing around the water cooler talking about Lego sets equate as social media?

I raise these questions because the subsequent percentages that have taken this type of action based on social media doesn't add up to me. I fancy myself a stats guy but these numbers sound like they are missing something from this public release. It sounds like a lot of hype.

It may not be, and I am not doubting that comScore performed a valuable and accurate survey. I'm just not sure that this data is being represented to its fullest due to missing information. Or a cultural shift to think of word-of-mouth as social media.

Does this sound accurate to you?

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Is Social Media Taking Over Word of Mouth? is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a Nokia N900 today for a little while. After the Wired Store NYC debacle I thought I owed it to you to at least do something techy cool.

So I cut my trip home short and went over to the Nokia New York Flagship store on E. 57th Street in search of a the elusive N900.

Turns out in a Nokia store, it isn't so elusive.

Once inside the store it is the first phone that is on display. Right behind the N900 was the previous big dog, the N97 and the puppy, the N85.

I made my way to the back of the store near the cash wrap, grabbed a blue stool and squared myself up with one of the two N900's available for customer hands on testing. Well, available for a blogger's hands on testing, one could say.

The phone is much lighter than I expected it to be for its size. The phone is thicker than an iPhone but weighs nearly the same. It doesn't feel cheap. I have to say, the Droid, feels kind of cheap compared to the Nokia smart phone.

Something that came as a surprise was how responsive the phone was to switching between applications. It was seamless. Which is a good thing because the phone has two levels of app nagivation one for inside the application you are using and a root level.

Take for instance you are using the web browser and have a couple of sites open. The first click of the menu will display all of your open pages as thumbnails on one screen (take that iPhone weird tri-page display). A second click will take you back to the root menu system.

The root menu system of the Nokia N900 like most devices is prescribed by Nokia's developers as what they deem to be the most important applications. However, you can modify this menu like you would on most other handsets. Say, you wanted to move the feed subscription app to the root because you're an RSS nut you could do that.

Browsing on the phone was a great experience. Pages loaded quickly on T-mobile and scrolling was a breeze. What did take me a second to get a handle on was the zooming in of the content. My first instinct was to put my iPhone knowledge in place and go multi-touch in an attempt to pinch release. That failed. The N900 reacts to the not so multi-touch double tap to zoom.

The QWERTY keyboard experience was better than I expected. I fired up the note taking application and tried my best to write up stuff that made me sound smart so that the next person to pick up the phone in the store would know that a genius had just been there. It's like random phone note graffiti and a keyboard test all in one. Back to reality . . . the keyboard was very responsive and I was able to type reasonably fast. Much quicker than an iPhone or Droid with its off center keypad.

I don't know what the battery life of this phone is like or whether T-mobile outside of the store location is as good as in it. But what I do know is that this phone, unlocked, wants to fill the smart phone void in my life.

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Nokia N900 Hands On is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

I'm not one to post often about gadgets or their pricing. But this is a really good deal for a pre-order phone from Nokia that can fill the iPhone void for AT&T haters.

I've had my eye on the N900 since the N97 arrived and fell flat on its screen. I've seen prices go below $500 for the device unlocked on Amazon but they are not back up over $700. Dell has the Nokia N900 for $489 until Dec. 10th.

That at price comes from a 10% discount (not an affiliate link) on the $599 price tag and a $50 mail-in-rebate. The phone specs and video after the jump.

Nokia is calling this thing an internet tablet, but that is going to be short lived, I hope. The rumor mill is producing much talk of larger devices that should start arriving in the next few months. I'll post on this later. The N900 is really a smart phone (with out of the box tethering!).

Let's roll this is what this Nokia smartphone is packing:

• Up to 32 GB internal storage
• Total available application memory up to 1 GB (256 MB RAM, 768 MB virtual memory)
• Supported protocols: Mail for Exchange, IMAP, POP3, SMTP
• SMS and instant messages organized as conversations
• Multiple number, email and Instant Messaging details per contact, contacts with images
• Integrated hands-free stereo speakers
• Logging of dialed, received and missed calls
• Ring tones: .wav, .mp3, .AAC, .eAAC, .wma
• Wi-Fi networking (802.11b/g) with WEP, WPA, WPA2 security; designed for continuous TCP/IP connectivity
• Capability to serve as data modem via USB connection
• Music playback file formats: .mp3, .wma, .aac, .m4a, .wav
• Video playback file formats: .mp4, .avi, .wmv, .3gp; codecs: H.264, MPEG-4, Xvid, WMV, H.263
• Video streaming: H.264, MPEG-4, Xvid, WMV, H.263 in .avi, .mp4, .wmv, .asf and .3gp containers
• TV out (NTSC/PAL) with Nokia Video Connectivity Cable (CA-75U, included)
• FM radio (requires headset to be attached) and FM transmitter

This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

As for size this thing weighs 6.38 ounces and measures 4.37 x 2.35 x 0.77 inches. Which comes in 1.5 ounces heavier than an iPhone. Height and width differences are negligible but depth is not at a difference of at a skosh over a quarter of an inch.

For this price and the ability to shoot video, tether, take photos with a Flash and carry it as an FM boombox on your shoulder as you walk down the street it is a no brainer if you've got the loot.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Nokia N900 Cheap at $489 from Dell is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

Reading glasses are for old folks and big type is for kids that don't know how to read. Well, that used to be true.

For those that believe that the web is now looking like itself and no longer doing a mimetic dance with it's first cousin, print, you should be down with this: Bigger font sizes, better kerning, wider line height and plenty of negative space make for a better user experience. Especially when reading thousands of words online everyday.

What got me going down this path was a link that someone shared today through their Google Reader shared feed to an article in Rolling Stone by Matt Taibbi. The link, as you can see, is a link to a printable version of the piece. I was rate this as great for print and poor for readability.

The post content font size is super for saving printer paper and thus trees, but it is a killer on the eyes. Reading the post at that size even in the the early paragraphs was causing me strain and fatigue. I was tired of reading the dense blocks of text without even forming half and opinion about writing. I was more concerned with the design and the inability to read it quickly because the type was packed so tight letters like sardines.

To read this article and make it not about the squished fonts and tiny words I had to throw the Readability plugin at it. Once activated it gave me plenty of white space, larger font and the ability to scan the words with ease. It performed the duty of making the web look like itself.

This got me thinking about what the best size for type readability on screens is. Turns out that after reading a couple of studies that say that is someplace between a 12pt or 14pt sans-serif typeface with a setting of 120% height in CSS. Readers also typically prefer serifed fonts for legibility but sans-serifed for actually reading blocks of text.

The major irony of course is that this blog and both of the posts that I linked to don't follow any of these guidelines for creating and optimal reading experience! Tech Startups will be heading there in the not so distant future but I fear that the those two poasts are going to be stuck in the internet dark ages.

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No Shame In Readability is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

In one day less than two months I have managed to write 200 blog posts.

This one, being the 200th.

I know this because after writing about 50 posts I thought to myself, What else am I going to write about?

Turns out, at this many, right now, you write about writing and how to build blog traffic.

So how did I get to this magic number in roughly two months of blogging?

It's my job. My number one duty is to write 5 posts a day.

If being senior editor of this blog were not my job I wouldn't have written 99% of these posts. The remaining 1% I would have posted on my personal blog.

If I were starting a blog today on my own I would follow this pattern of writing posts. I might find it harder to find topics to write about now but writing itself is much easier to do.

Why post so much?

Traffic, traffic, traffic. With my posts and the posts of John and Boonsri we've increased unique visitors, indexed pages, page views and keywords over 1500%. We've got a long way to go with this blog but by producing regular content that has interesting angles on technology we're growing steadily.

Where do we go from here?

We keep on cranking out the posts on the topics that keep you coming here or subscribed. You can expect to see a fresh new design in the New Year, more video, more local startup news and other fun stuff we're keeping under wraps.

Thank you guys for sticking around and helping us to grow Tech Startups! And thanks to the Network Media Holdings honchos for having us!

How to Build Blog Traffic In 60 Days is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

If you are, then WordHustler is for you! If you don't know what a word hustler is, then listen up!

Similar to pixel pushers and glyph tossing typophiles a word hustler is trying to make it in this world with the written word. And that is where WordHustler comes in.

WordHustler was started by two word hustlers writers, John L. Singleton and Anne Walls, out of their frustration for the costs and time of submitting their works in an analog world. In short, the hustle took to much time away from being able to write.

Sure, there are always elements of every hustle, job or hobby that are tedious and simply part of the process. When someone chooses to be a writer they're not making that decision based on the amount of time they're going to spend at OfficeMax buying envelopes and the right paper. The choice is made because they love hardship have a voice that needs to be heard.

With this in mind the founders of WordHustler brought the hustle into the digital age by creating a hybrid CMS that doesn't display a writer's work online but submits it to traditional publishers.

WordHustler is one of those impressive web services that is focused on serving a niche market and was developed by people in that niche. By solving their own problems first they were able to take the code and create a service for anyone like them.

No more printing, stamping, less formatting and no more paper cuts as WordHustler automates this process for their users. There's also no more searching for contests or publishers that might want to review your work. It is all here inside WordHustler.

Beyond the obvious benefits to writers in easing their submission pains there is the additional benefit of a powerful, easy to use interface. WordHustler has one of the best search landing pages I have ever seen. It elegantly integrates a standard search box, results, rankings, standard filtering and my favorite, elements of advanced search visually.

What I mean by advanced search visually' is the ability to begin filtering content at an advanced level without presenting it that way. Typically this is done through an advanced' search form with 10+ text input boxes with labels like all these words,some of these words, or none of these words.'

WordHustler presents filtering tools like an AJAX slider to limit the amount of description to display and words, tags' to filter results on the page. At this time tools like this are often used in backend administration interfaces or like this one, only available on this site. Developers and designers would do well to look at this model and tinker with it to create solutions for users to filter at an advanced level with beginner skills.

The service has a very reasonable price tag for users when compared to the cost of going analog and creating the number of submissions that WordHustler will allow for writers. It is extremely reasonable when compared to the price of building ones own platform to do the same. That is, if you are the enterprising type.

Now that you know about WordHustler and have decided that you are a word hustler or maybe want to submit that long stowed screenplay you wrote right after college, you have no excuse not to give it a try.

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Are You A WordHustler? is a post from: TechStartups.com

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Kris Smith | Cheeky Geeky | DC

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

Friend, smart dude and all-around good guy Micah Baldwin wrote up a post yesterday that hurt me a little bit quite a bit, if I must be honest. It bothers me because he's right.

On every account of where the failure to find funding comes from us, me, you he's right. Whether it's not searching in the right spot, pitching the wrong story, a flawed product or the inability to get over ones self-importance, the blame can go to one person, you.

Let's break this down . . .

I want to focus on one section from the post and give it a bit more fleshing out for those that might need it. This is especially important for those that are preparing to go out for funding the first time.

If you are struggling to raise money, look back at the decision points:

1. Does your idea excite the people you are talking to;
2. Do you excite the people you are talking to;
3. Are you talking to the right' people (not the easy' or big name' people)?

Three

I'd like to speak to them in a new order with number 3 being first. This is the hardest one to get right and the most important. Being enamored by the big name' will only lead to heart break and misery when the big name' investors tell you no. That no could be for one of a million reasons but most likely number 1 or 2.

The right people are those that don't already have portfolio of companies that can do what you are looking to do, they could be someone that you strike up a conversation with at a conference or the seat next to you on a plane.

Believe me on this from when I went through it, the people I should have focused on pitching were right in front of my face and asked for more of my time. I was too enamored with big names and brands to see these opportunities.

The right people also don't have to be early investors in other up and coming startups. There are plenty of investors in the fringe that might be able to help even more. It is a matter of finding them.

One

On the account of number 1, Does your idea excite the people your are talking to? It must if you've gotten your foot through the door. If you haven't haven't, don't be disheartened with a quick no from a potential investor. They are respecting your time by not wasting it.

To maintain this excitement, prepare like you have never prepared before. Take the time to analyze your business, role play your presentation and be certain to understand the investor you are pitching. If a friend helped to put you in this position, ask them for some advice. Cover your bases.

Two

On the account of number 2, Do you excite the people you are talking to? The answer is really up to you. If you get number one right and convey the passion that you have for the startup then the answer is yes. If you get elements of number one right but not all of them, you'll definitely lose points. Those points could cost you the funding and more importantly a future relationship with the potential investor.

Conclusion

Micah's post is brilliant. Any entrepreneur that is looking to raise capital should study, answer all of the questions he asks and fill in any other missing components that they see fit. It is a blue print for how to be a digital hustler and mean it.

Now that I think about it, there is another set of guidelines that combined with Micah's thoughts could be the ultimate startup cocktail Mike Dunn's Tech Due Diligence. That is a cocktail worth whipping up.

Photo credit: (cc) Kenneth Yeung www.thelettertwo.com

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

The Right Investor and You is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Editor Kris Smith (@croncast)

Thanks to a soft launch from an iPhone app, thingd, is now open to the public. You can begin to add your things!

The app arrived earlier this week and I've been playing with it for a couple of days. I wanted to give it, the site and the overall model of thingd a longer review, but time is of the essence. I'll stick with the iPhone app for now.

This way if you install it and start using it you'll be able to provide feedback to the thingd team. Wouldn't it be cool if your idea makes it into production?

And wouldn't be especially timely so that you can add your new Black Friday goodies!

What is thingd?

It is a massive collection of things that are linked together first by you, then by the data known about them and then by your thingd network. Thingd facilitates commerce, commenting and sentiment about particular things. It is also a discovery tool for new things.

How can I use the iPhone app?

First you need to get a thingd account. Once you have acquired that you'll need to begin by taking photos of things, preferably, those in your own possession. If the item is popular it will be tagged by thingd and as you to verify the right information. If the item isn't so popular or old you can add a model number and your own specs.

Once the photo of the thing leaves your phone it will head to the thingd website for inclusion into the data pool and be added to your My Things' list. It is here where the multiple levels of metadata can be added to a thing. Think of it as a semantic engine for things that is equally machine and human powered.

What do I do with thingd iPhone app?

The first step is add your things. The second is to look to it for creating structure around your items. Most likely the items you photograph first will be the ones that you like the most. Think of thingd as the expanding catalog of things and the iPhone app as the best way to make additions to the catalog.

For now, you can push your photos and things to thingd and test the out the site. At this early stage give the site and the iPhone app a thoughtful review and pass on those thoughts to the team that developed it.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

thingd iPhone App Is Here is a post from: TechStartups.com