First Week With the Apple iPad

Updated April 21, 2010.

The world probably doesn't really need another iPad review, does it?

There's a glut out of them out there.

And I'm not a tech reviewer. I'm a gadget nut, so feel free to discount my enthusiasm by the appropriate percentage. After all, I did pre-order this thing sight unseen so it could be delivered on Day One.

So this post will be impressionistic, just some notes on my first week with the device.

First: It's fast. Snappy. It makes the iPhone and the iPod Touch seem slow. It makes a Macbook seem slow.

Second: The battery life is amazing. You don't even think about the battery. I plug it it in every night, and have used it heavily many days. It has never dropped below 50 percent.

Remarkable for an Apple product: It doesn't get hot -- unlike my Macbook Air, or my iPhone, which can get uncomfortable to the touch and sluggish with heavy use. I have often thought that Steve Jobs was trying to brand me with his products. No more. A negative: At a pound a half, it's kind of heavy. Not as heavy as a MacBook Air or a Thomas Pynchon hardback, but heavier than a Kindle. The answer to this problem is the Apple case. I like it. It's simple and functional. You can hold it like a book. You can prop it at an angle. You can stand it up like a little TV, a far better experience than watching movies on a laptop or a desktop computer.

Another negative: In bright daylight, reflections can be distracting if you're trying to read or watch something. And it shows every fingerprint. I don't imagine using it in sunlight all that much.

Something I didn't expect: The photo frame function is great. I put thousands of pictures on the iPad. Then I just prop it up on the mantle and let it shuffle through them. I've never enjoyed having everyone crowd around the computer to look at pictures, and showing them on the TV involves too much rigmarole. This is more akin to paging through hard-copy photo albums.

Not entirely Apple's fault: Some apps are crashy or lack obvious features. You can't turn off Twitterrific's bird noises. Tweetdeck's beta won't let you click on links in tweets. What! (Update: This may have been fixed in recent days.) The ABC app crashed, but seems better after an update. That one has a touch of evil. You can pause and fast-forward/rewind programs, but not the commercials. I flash back to pre-TiVo days, plan my bathroom trips around them. Still, it's not as crashy as the original iPhone was after third-party apps started showing up.

Public use: I remember when I first got an iPhone, and a Kindle. I felt self-conscious taking them out on the subway. For one thing, while crime is down, you have to be a little nervous riding underground with a $700 piece of hardware. It's a bit nerve-racking to think about taking it out, feeling eyes on me. That's not my thing. I like to be left alone in public. I can't wait until everyone has one of these things, or something like it. And they will.

Mostly I expect to use this at home and on long trips. For that reason, I didn't really need the 3G version, and the lack of connectivity outside WiFi-enabled locations has not been a problem. In New York, WiFi is rarely far away.

Something else I didn't expect: I didn't think I would listen to music on the iPad, but I've surprised myself. First of all, the speaker is great, so it makes a nice little radio. I can play things for my wife without using the computer or the stereo or the Apple TV, and I'm not isolated by my headphones. So it's a great way to share NPR or Pandora or whatever I have on the device. I also listen to music or podcasts on the headphones while web surfing. It's a lot easier than juggling a second device, an iPod or an iPhone, for the music. But the lack of multitasking is a negative here: I'd like to be able to see what's playing at a glance, or pause it, without exiting my app.

About some apps: My employer's app, Editor's Choice [iTunes link], is beautiful, but it should allow link sharing through Facebook or Twitter and have more content. But reading the paper on Safari for iPad is great, so it doesn't really matter, I guess. And I do give credit to Apple for having the Amazon Kindle app on the iPad from day one. All my Kindle books, many of them untouched since my Kindle died, are there. I keep it next to the iBooks app. Amazon has the better selection and prices, and you can make notes in the app. The iBooks app and store has some cooler flourishes and feels better designed (the page-turning illusion is cool). E-book reading was my main reason for getting the iPad now as opposed to waiting for a future model.

The good news is that many iPhone apps, like iChess, work and look just fine with the pixel-doubling function.

Money grab?: It's annoying that some developers have decided to charge a second time for the iPad versions of apps I own for the iPhone. If you make a good one, I'll buy your other apps. Or give me a free trial version at least. And Time magazine -- $4.99 for a single issue, in an app that only works once? Give me a break. Another magazine app, Zinio, has a free selection, but it's a bit awkward to navigate.

An annoyance: I don't know if it's a bug or not, but I get tired of entering my iTunes password every time I open the iBooks app or the iTunes store. Other people don't report this problem, so maybe it's just me. The whole iTunes tethering business has been criticized in many reviews. Why do you need to hook the iPad up to a computer to get it started? Seems like a ploy to get iTunes downloaded onto PCs or to sell Macs. And why can't I just move documents and other user files directly from my computer or network without ramping up iTunes? (Yes, I know, there are apps for that -- I like Readdledocs, which just released an iPad version.)

A third thing I didn't expect: YouTube is back in my life. I was never one to surf around the site. I usually only go there with a link. The iPhone app was cool, but it crashed a lot, and the video was too small. The iPad is the perfect device for YouTube. The videos are just the right size. It's not as crashy as the phone. I spent an evening lost in the site. In general, it's a great device for video.

I've spent a lot of time streaming Netflix and watching TV. I've watched three shows on the ABC app, and skimmed comics on several of the comic applications. It's a cool experience, but I don't think I'll buy many comics this way. It's not the same as owning the art.

Bottom line: Is this a laptop replacement? Definitely not. Even if I get the keyboard stand or the bluetooth keyboard, it is hard to imagine writing long memos, blog posts or articles on this, or editing them. Perhaps I might get used to it, but from what I hear I expect it will be odd to have to use the screen as a touch-mouse while editing with an external keyboard. I still prefer the visibility of a larger screen for actual work.

I also like the ability to switch between a photo app, files and the document I'm writing. Even when multitasking is added in the fall with the new operating system, it is hard to imagine that being satisfactory except when I'm on the run. Having to sync Keynote or text documents through iTunes also seems like a hassle. Yes, I know there are ways to do some wireless document sharing, printing and storage on the cloud. But it seems complicated for big projects and day to day use.

Is this a phone replacement? No, it's too big, and I didn't get the 3G. There are apps that will let you make calls over the Internet, and I could imagine this as a Skype device, but there's no camera, front-facing or otherwise.

Is this a Kindle replacement? Yes. Reading on it is superior, and you don't need a booklight.

What I'm finding is that I am migrating certain functions to the iPad. Some things are simply not all that comfortable on a laptop -- watching video, playing casual games. My daughter loves the Phineas and Ferb game for the iPad, above.

It's fun to curl up on a couch or in bed with this thing. I've done that with a laptop, which is a bit awkward, and with my phone, which is a squinting experience much of the time.

I wish my laptop did email the way the mail app on the iPad does it. It's a better interface, and I don't see why it wouldn't work on a computer.

The iPad is better for using Twitter than either a laptop or a phone -- the touch interface and the size of the screen makes it an immersed experience.

The third-party developers just need to fix their apps; once Tweetdeck has links, this will be my main device for using Twitter. The large, touch-based experience is superior to the computer and the iPhone.

Ultimately, though, it's a toy, not a work device, at least for me. Do you need one? That's a bit like asking, do you need a flat-screen TV? No, you don't need a flat-screen TV, or any TV. Do you need to buy books? No, not really. You don't have to read newspapers or surf the Internet, either. And there are plenty of ways to do all of those things without owning an iPad.

But sooner or later, I suspect, you will see an iPad (or a device like it) doing something you love in a better way than you are doing it now. And it will be cheaper than it is now.

Basic Twitter Links for Journalists

In May 2009, I joined several active Twitter users at The New York Times in giving a series of presentations to the newsroom on how to use the microblogging service for journalism. This post is a basic collection of links gathered for the talk, with beginners in mind. (The gist of the rest of the presentation is here).

[Note: As of 2012, some of these links are no longer active, but I am preserving this post as a record of what was available. Feel free to add your own in the comments.]

A Few Interesting Twitter Tools

There are hundreds of Twitter tools and sites out there, and perhaps as many blogs that will list them for you. But you really only need a few, and even some of these are just curiosities.

For searches, Twitter Search, Tweetgrid, Twitscoop, and Twitterfall are useful for finding trending topics: http://search.twitter.com/ http://tweetgrid.com/ http://www.twitscoop.com/ http://twitterfall.com/

You can chart trends against each other (examples): http//twist.flaptor.com

URL-shortening: Twitter and third-party applications will usually do this for you, but I recommend bit.ly in particular because it allows you to see how many people clicked on the link (just add a + after the shortened URL in your browser address bar). You can tweet from the bit.ly browser page if you set up an account. Another nice thing about bit.ly is the short URLs it produces. If you keep your tweets under 120 characters, it is easier for others to retweet you. http://bit.ly.com

Here's a list of Twitter account rankings and stats; you can also search by location: http://twitterholic.com/

This tool tells you who you are following who isn't following you, who is following you that you are not following, and mutual follows. Unlike some tools, you don't have to give your Twitter password. http://friendorfollow.com/

Once you have been on Twitter a while, give MrTweet a whirl & it will suggest people to follow in your network who have similar interests (follow and tweet a while before you try it): http://mrtweet.net/

See the history of how your following is growing, or the growth of others: http://twittercounter.com/

Look at a graph of how often you Twitter and when you tweet the most: http://tweetstats.com/

This will tell you your "Twinfluence" -- theoretical reach of your Twitter followers' followers: http://twinfluence.com/

This offers more statistics analyzing a user's Twitter style: http://www.twitteranalyzer.com/

And here's another of the same flavor, the Twitalyzer: http://www.twitalyzer.com/

Who is getting retweeted? http://retweetist.com/

Track and see the links that are being twittered (also track by user): http://twitturly.com

Follow @Twitter_tips on Twitter for daily links to posts about how to use Twitter and other news: http://twitter.com/Twitter_Tips

For search purposes, Twitter does not save updates going back much longer than a month. If you want to save yours, here's an archiving service (I don't bother) http://tweetake.com/

Confused by the terminology? Here is a Twitter glossary: http://www.susanmernit.com/blog/2009/03/the-twitter-glossary-what-do.html

David Pogue, the NYT technology writer, swears by this site, Twitoaster, which shows threaded Twitter converations and statistics: http://twitoaster.com/quick-guide/

Interesting Accounts to Follow

During the recent newsroom talks, I suggested some accounts that people could follow when they are just starting out. For journalists, Twitter tends to be boring if you're not following people who are linking and thinking -- "mindcasters." Follow about 100 or so to get started. Don't feel obligated to read every tweet. Don't feel bad about unfollowing people if they are boring you or tweeting too much.

Our main feed, the home page headlines and breaking news alerts http://twitter.com/nytimes

The CNN breaking news feed, which was started by a CNN fan (@imajes) http://twitter.com/cnnbrk

Breaking News online, a news alert service: http://twitter.com/BreakingNews

Nieman Journalism Lab's curated journalism and new media links http://twitter.com/NiemanLab

Digg 2000, all articles that get more than 2000 diggs http://twitter.com/digg_2000

Long Reads -- links to long form journalism http://twitter.com/longreads

Matthew Ingram, communities editor of the Toronto Globe and Mail http://twitter.com/mathewi

Colonel Tribune, imaginary figurehead of Chicago Tribune http://twitter.com/coloneltribune

Twendly, Tweets about trending topics on Twitter http://twitter.com/twendly

Kevin Sablan, blogger & web team person at Orange County Register http://twitter.com/ksablan

Bill Romanos, lawyer, media fan, prolific linker http://twitter.com/BILL_ROMANOS

Romenesko feed http://twitter.com/romenesko

The very chatty Washington Post http://twitter.com/washingtonpost

Howard Kurtz, the media critic http://twitter.com/howardkurtz

Andrew Nystrom, social media editor at the LA Times http://twitter.com/LATimesNystrom

LA Times official feed http://twitter.com/LATimes

Foodimentary - daily food facts http://twitter.com/Foodimentary

Peter Kafka, AllThingsD blogger for The Wall Street Journal http://twitter.com/pkafka

Tim Siedell, aka Badbanana, a master of funny Twitter one-liners http://twitter.com/badbanana

Steve Rubel, PR social media guy, Microtrends blog, linker http://twitter.com/steverubel

Chris Krewson, executive editor online news, Philadelphia Inquirer http://twitter.com/ckrewson

Jim MacMillan, pulitzer-winning journalist, professor, consultant, linker http://twitter.com/JimMacMillan

Jay Rosen, NYU journalism professor and "mindcaster" on news http://twitter.com/jayrosen_nyu

Dave Winer, the father of RSS feeds, blogger and media critic http://twitter.com/davewiner

Kathy Riordan of Florida, one of my favorite news-obsessives on Twitter: http://twitter.com/katriord

Guy Kawasaki, tweeting/linking machine (with two ghost assistants) http://twitter.com/guykawasaki

Pete Cashmore/Mashable -- leading social media news blog http://twitter.com/mashable

John A. Byrne, editor in chief of Business Week http://twitter.com/JohnAByrne

Bill Keller, NYT http://twitter.com/nytkeller

Also worth following: My NYT colleagues who joined the newsroom presentations, Jennifer 8. Lee, Jeremy Zilar, Brian Stelter and Jacob Harris, as well as the new social media editor, Jennifer Preston, Sewell Chan, bureau chief of City Room, and Tim O'Brien, editor of Sunday Business. The full list of Times people on Twitter is too long and growing too quickly to put here; please consult Muckrack or the accounts followed by Jennifer or @nytimes on Twitter.

There are many blogs that offer more lists of interesting people to follow. Here's a recent example. Do not feel obligated to follow everyone back, and don't feel bad if they don't follow you back, especially if you are new.

Follower Networks

Muckrack (find more journalists) Mr Tweet (find influential people in your network)

Third-Party Twitter Applications

The Twitter Web site is fine for most people who are starting out. It's simple. But if you want to follow a lot of people, group different accounts, set up a variety of searches or manage multiple accounts (a personal account, a blog, etc.), then you might want to try a third-party application.

For a long time I used Tweetdeck, an Adobe Air app, and many people still swear by it. The NYT news technology department warned against Tweetdeck after it was found to cause performance and memory problems on some older newsroom computers. The software has since been upgraded, which may have fixed the issue.

Two other Air apps seem to work better (but they have different sets of features): Destroy Twitter and Seesmic Desktop.

Lately I have been testing the upgraded Peoplbrowser, an impressive Web browser-based dashboard with many bells and whistles (perhaps too many). Another full-featured browser-based app is Twitterfall, which is also useful for searching trending topics.

On my iPhone I use Twitterfon, but Tweetie is also quite good (and there is a desktop app as well).

Blackberry users might want to check out Twitterberry.

And, of course, Twitter itself has a mobile site for use with a cellphone Web browser.

Last Updated Aug. 30, 2009.

Podcast Zeitgeist, Jan. 26

This week's installment is the Podcast Zeitgeist of second chances, and probably the last such post for a good long while. I'll continue to listen to a few favorites, but a hiatus is in order. This started as an effort to make some notes about what worked for me as a listener. But it became an exhausting and time-consuming exercise, particularly since I sampled many more hours than I ever wrote about. It was cutting into my Twittering time. At some point I may summarize what I have learned, or not.[See all lists.]

  • Cranky Geeks 150: Big Wig Bailouts As tech podcasts go, this is one of the best, hosted by John C. Dvorak, with Sebastian Rupley of PC Magazine, Chris DiBonaof Google and Jason Cross of Extreme.com. Topics: Steve Jobs, Bernie Madoff, the fake Belkin reviews scam, disruptive technology like location apps and more. Dvorak keeps it moving. Good stuff. Running time: 31:40 minutes including several ads. Released: Jan. 21.

  • This Week in Media 123: Guns, Drugs and DVDs</a>. Daisy Whitney, Alex Lindsay and Dr. Kiki Sanford in a meaty discussion of new media technologies like Microsoft's Silverlight and CNN's Photosynth experiment for the Obama inauguration. YouTube music takedown notices. Do you stream or download Web video? Dr. Kiki: Streaming is getting easier, but buffering is still annoying, on the road. Whitney can't be bothered to download and sync video to a device. Beware: Even without DRM, iTunes songs contain your e-mail address. Depressing news from the old media business. Running time: 1 hour 7 minutes. Released: Jan. 20.
  • MacBreak Weekly 124: The Warmth and Saturation of Analog. Scott Bourne plugs his hard-to-remember photo critique site URL. Andy Ihnatko makes the funny. Frederick Van Johnson talks about getting laid off from Adobe. They are also joined by Alex Lindsay and Lisa Bettany. Twit site show notes are getting better. The health of Steve Jobs, again. Record iPhone app downloads (or are those just updates?) See the week's hardware and software picks here, including the very cool-sounding $200 2-gig Livescribe Pen. Running time: 1 hour 54 minutes. Released: Jan. 20.
  • This Week in Tech 179: Retail Therapy Laporte again, with Dr. Kiki, John C. Dvorak, Wil Harris of Channelflip, and Andrew Horowitz. Links discussed are bookmarked on Delicious. Good show, including a discussion of how Monty Python DVD sales shot up after the creation of an official, and free, YouTube channel. (Rathole: Military recruiting ads in movies and direct mail. Laporte says his teenage son gets junk mail: "Have you thought about what you're going to do when you drop out of high school?" Dvorak: "Let's get to some of these news stories.") Twitter raising cash. Foul-mouthed Carol Bartz, new Yahoo CEO, says she will drop-kick anyone who leaks, and then the leaking starts, inculding her breezy memo about "retail therapy." She is mocked. Health of Steve Jobs, again. The story behind Microsoft Songsmith, oy. CNN Photosynth, again. Various Obama tech stories, from Barackberry to Whitehouse.gov and the federal government's tech dark age. Huge traffic at Facebook. Dvorak on how to TiVo the Super Bowl properly and Horowitz on shorting the U.S. economy. Running time: 1 hour, 42 minutes. Released: Jan. 26.
  • Geek Loves Nerd 34: In-Laws The main segment is up front, an improvement over the last time I listened. This married Missouri couple gives advice to listeners about children, relationships and more. As the cute opening song explains, James is the geek and Jenn is the nerd. This week, they give advice about in-laws that I completely endorse as a married person with a child. Best example: Don't discuss your marital problems with your parents. They will naturally side with their own child and carry the grudge long after you have forgiven your spouse and forgotten about it. This is a clean podcast, but a warning: The views of sex roles are a bit stereotypical (men = breadwinners etc.) though perhaps that is intended humorously. Running time: 53:26 minutes. Released: Jan. 23.
  • The 40-Year-Old Boy: Episode 44. O.K., so much for the clean stuff. Here's a second listen from the world of blue podcast humor. Last week, the comedian Mike Schmidt depressed his listeners with an hourlong rant about his weight problems and stomach surgery. Listeners complained. That gives him a launching pad for a funny routine that range from "anonymous artless snark" on the Internet, Kevin Bacon losing his life savings to Bernie Madoff, people who sell meat door to door and more. The three-card monte story is worth hearing. So this is funny. And it's free. But the language is explicit. Running time: 1 hour, 17 minutes. Released: Jan. 14.
  • The Futile Podcast: "And the first word was Jesus" "Deconstructing 80’s & 90’s action movies. Relating them to comics, TV, and cartoons from then and now." Well, not quite. They review the first "Dirty Harry" movie, from 1971. Clint Eastwood as Callahan. He's no cartoon Rambo. He's a 70's antihero. It's seven minutes before any dialogue is spoken. The hosts attempt to decipher the politics of the 60s and 70s, with unintentionally humorous results for old people like me. Running time: 52:16 minutes. Released: Jan. 17. "Turns out he was 15 when they shot it." A review of the recent release "The Reader," based on the book. "This movie is about German guilt." What German movie isn't? Not an action film, unless you count sex scenes. I had to tune out at the spoiler alert. Running time: 29:42 minutes. Released: Jan. 21. "That ain't no cop gun Frank." Dirty Harry II: Magnum Force (1973). The franchise goes downhill (I think) but they like it. Nice dialogue on the nature of sequels. The nice thing about the "Dirty Harry" franchise is that it made Clint Eastwood rich enough to make good movies later in his career. Running time: 27:06 minutes. Released: Jan. 21.
  • Vomitus Prime 89: C'Mere and 90: Lovin' Nancyful Another reconsideration. I listened to this podcast back in November, and I was turned off by something or other, which drew some reaction in e-mails and on blogs from fans. Hey, it was my opinion. No accounting for taste. Perhaps I have been influenced by the hours of mediocre podcasts I've scanned -- I haven't even written about most of them -- but I'm ready to revise my opinion. It is foul-mouthed, gross, sick and frequently disgusting, but also funny. The regular hosts, Bill and Will, are entertaining storytellers who remind me of people from my own misspent youth. I say this knowing that they will respect me even less for changing my mind. Oh, well. Explicit language, obviously. They aim to shock. Running times: 1 hour, 26 minutes to 1 hour, 30 minutes. Release Dates: Jan. 17 and 25.
  • Sick and Wrong Podcasts 157 and 158 So after that, I figured I might as well turn to a podcast that bills itself as the No. 1 Source for Anti-Social Commentary. The first one marks the three-year anniversary of this podcast from Dee Simon and Lance Wackerle, which may be pseudonyms. A lengthy discussion of the police shooting caught on video in the BART and subsequent protests in Wackerle's neighborhood. Phone calls from drunk Australians. They also try to answer the question, why make an amateur podcast that makes no money? Apparently, they hoped to impress women, which has failed. They also interview the host of the fromtheville podcast, which stopped for no apparent reason one day. He doesn't seem to have been doing much. In the more recent episode, Wackerle explains why he bought a gun on inauguration day. And there's something about a kangaroo in Los Angeles. Running times: 1 hour 59 minutes and 1 hour 31 minutes. Released: Jan. 14 and 21.
  • Idiotboxradio 227: My Dad, The Baby! Speaking of Australians, here's one, a really weird and funny one, with a story told in stitched-together recordings of his children saying words and phrases. It's strange. But funny. And strange. The host says: "I think that my kids don't view me as an adult. Looking at it, that belief would have merit. (And before anyone thinks I got my kids to cuss, listen to the editing please...). I have to thank my beautiful girls Ella and Chloe for helping out on this one." Not for children. Running Time: 7:14 minutes. Released: Jan. 19.
  • Uhh Yeah Dude, Episodes 150 and 151 Like their counterparts at "Sick and Wrong," Jonathan Larroquette and Seth Romatelli are also celebrating nearly three years and 150+ hours of podcasting (I have been listening to the old shows and have about 30 hours left to go). The highlights of this one: chicken pox parties for children ("worst party ever"), the usual freakish true crime and medical tales, and Seth's story about getting an (unjust) ticket for -- shocking -- not wearing a seatbelt. The big news: They have finally revamped the long-inoperative UhhYeahDude.com, with show notes and listener forums. There's even a Wiki. Good on them. And as good a reason as any to quit reviewing podcasts. If most podcasters would put up some show notes or blog posts, and allow for reader discussion, they might be surprised by what happens. I have nothing to say about episode 151, which just dropped, but I am hitting publish and listening now. Looking forward to the part about the dog. Update: the story about rescuing the dog on a fixed-gear bike was great. Running time: 1 hour, 9 minutes. Released: Jan. 19.

    • Podcast Zeitgeist, Jan. 19

    Welcome to the Podcast Zeitgeist list: presented in apparently random order, at inconsistent intervals, its purpose obscure, its usefulness in doubt, its taste questionable, its methods and motives suspect. [See all lists.]

  • This Week in Tech 177: There's a Little Shatner in All of Us and 178: Call of Doody. I'm catching up here with two episodes. A special guest on the first of these was Star Trek's Geordi LaForge (Levar Burton). Burton held his own as a geek on a panel with Leo Laporte, John C. Dvorak, Ryan Block, and Lisa Bettany. A lot of talk about TVs. (Block: "Plasma TVs are on the way out.") Reviews of the "disappointing" MacWorld Expo and the Consumer Electronics Show. Whether the Palm Pre phone can save Palm (Dvorak: "They're done.") They end with the prospects for another Star Trek movie and a discussion of Geordi's visor. The latest episode, recorded Sunday night, devotes 20 minutes to the news that Steve Jobs is taking a temporary leave from Apple for health reasons, with a focus on news coverage, from Ron Goldman of CNBC to this profanity-laden Gizmodo post. Dvorak predicts that Apple will go into decline in two years. This is followed bya discussion of the Downadup/Conficker worm that infected 9 million Windows computers in four days (download the security updates, people). Laporte is wiggy on this episode ("Conficker? I hardly knew her!"), perhaps because he and panelist Tom Merritt attended a concert the night before by the geek troubadour Jonathan Coulton and the improv duo Paul & Storm. (The "doody" in the podcast title refers to panelist Patrick Norton, who has to change his son's diaper during the show and never returns.) The liquidation of Circuit City. A discussion of digital TV up-converters (Dvorak recommends a model.) Laporte recommends an audiobook: "Predictably Irrational." United Kingdom porn filters are blocking Wikipedia and the Wayback Machine. Are Are Google layoffs and the killing of <a href="">features like Jaiku and Dodgeball a sign of a market bottom? The episode ends with a clip of Coulton's "Mandelbrot Set." Running times: Both 1 hour 20 minutes, give or take a minute. Released: Jan. 11 and 18.

  • MacBreak Weekly 123: The Great London Fire The title is a metaphor from panelist Andy Ihnato. Laporte is also joined by Alex Lindsay. The three agree that MacWorld Expo turnout was low, and the show lacked drama. Could Apple's decision to pull out of the convention anger fans and hurt the company? Can MacWorld survive? David Pogue will give next year's keynote. Ihnatko on what organizer IDG should do: "They should treat this like the Great London Fire.It's not the result that one would have wanted, but when you wipe the slate clean, you get to rebuild this city in the world that exists today... If you were to build a really big conference today, you wouldn't do it like a 1985 trade show." Focus on public areas and community. In another blow, CES is looking to have an Apple-centric area. The big announcement at MacWorld, it turns out, was the end of DRM at the iTunes store, but Leo points out a big drawback to the 30-cent upgrade offer: You have to upgrade ALL your songs, even the lame ones you don't like anymore. Discussion of the iPhone and the Palm Pre. There's agreement that no company will dominate the cellphone market. Politicians switching to Mac: the latest, Mike Huckabee. Hacking PC Netbooks to run Mac OS (in violation of the Mac user agreement, it should be noted). BoingBoing has a chart. Apple seems to be (cracking down, apparently irked by a how-to video on Wired Gadget Lab. Leo mentions that the MacWorld Expo swag bag for presenters included $1,800 worth of gifts. They end with some a robust list of weekly picks. Laporte suggests this external battery solution for iPhone. I'm happy with the APC universal, which doesn't have be attached directly to the phone (it charges iPods and other devices too). Lindsay picks the rubber-covered Rugged LaCie portable hard drive, which I also use, for music. It's versatile, carries a lot of data and takes a pounding. The panel also reviews some portable document scanners. And there is a zen moment from Lindsay, talking about how multiple users burn out Firewire ports: "Computers tend to like to have monogamous relationships. You have a lot of people using them, they tend to fall apart." Running TIme: 1 hour, 10 minutes. Released: Jan. 13
  • "This Week in Media 122: Planned Viewerhood" This week, an interesting discussion about how digital video recorders, video on the Web and similar technology are changing how we watch. Watching a series all at once. Watching sports after the game is over, with fake suspense. No more competing for specific time slots. The viewer chooses. This is all good, but I offer three numbers to consider, the totals in my iTunes podcast subscriptions window: 463 items, 15.8 days, 19.32 gigabytes. That's not counting the regular shows stacked up on the TiVo, and the movies in my Netflix queue. Giving me control over content might mean I never get around to actually consuming it. Another topic: Should online video have closed-captioning for the hearing impaired? Speculation that Apple pulling out of MacWorld was the result of a Steve Jobs tantrum. More MacWorld/CES stuff. I feel like I'm hearing the same conversations over and over on these tech podcasts. May have to cut back. Running time: 58:47 minutes. Released: Jan. 13.

  • The Dinner Party Download, Episode 14 I'm glad these guys are back. The concept: Win your next dinner party. The Icebreaker is another animals-in-a-bar joke. Small talk: President-elect Obama's old car is on eBay, a Chrysler. Burger King PR stunt: Drop 10 Facebook friends, get a free burger. A Sundance-nominated history lesson with booze. Dr. James Bedford is super-cool. He was the first person to be frozen after death. The cocktail is "Death on the Rocks": Champagne, absinthe and ice cubs of fresh blood orange juice. The interview is Lamont Mozier, the Motown songwriter; don't ask him which was his favorite song. The food segment is about Kogi Korean barbecue tacos. It is sold off a truck that broadcasts its location on its blog and on Twitter. Outro song is A.C. Newman's "There Are Maybe 10 or 12..." A big sound, but interesting. Running time: 15:49 minutes. Released: Jan. 16.
  • Christian Comedy Podcast: January Week One With more than 160,00 subscribers, the host Mike Williams says, this is the most-listened-to Christian comedy podcast on iTunes. He starts with a squeaky-voiced imitation of that annoying YouTube kid FredThen we hear a few jokes from the "Stephen Wright of Christian comedy," Pastor Tim Jones, with his "weird mental mind." For example: "Remember, if you're standing next to Dracula in a group photo and you try to give him bunny ears, when the film develops it will just look like you're giving the peace sign... I asked her if she was a model and she smiled, thinking it was because of her beauty. But it was actually because she smelled like plastic and glue." I kind of like that one. There's a comedy song about a fiancee with a bad attitude from the new CD by the duo Bean and Bailey: "Who peed in your cheerios? Only heaven knows... Who got your panties in such a wad?" Ahem. You can fast-forward through the hunting bow ads in the middle. Robert G. Lee, a comedy writer for the kid show "Veggie Tales." tells jokes about rasising kids. For example: "If the Apostle Paul had had teenagers, Christianity would have been nipped in the bud! 'We're going to Corinth again? ...Everywhere you go, you're beaten, you're robbed, you're stoned. Do you have any idea embarrassing that is? Why don't you just write these people?' 'That's not a bad idea, young lady.'" Running time: 17:59 minutes. Released: Jan. 4.
  • Geek Loves Nerd: Teaching Gratefulness James is the geek. Jenn is the nerd. They're married. Their podcast took a holiday hiatus, but now it's back. He also does the Nobody's Listening Podcast, billed as "a clean comedy podcast." He has grown a beard. She thinks it is attractive but the beard sticks in her face when they kiss. They did nine minutes on the beard. Then I started skipping ahead. There was a lengthy discussion about their 11-month-old, their second. I had to bail, and never did hear how to teach a child gratefulness, an important topic. These seem like very nice people. I am not interested in listening to them on a regular basis. This is, no doubt, my own character flaw. Running time: 53:35 minutes. Released: Jan. 9.

  • Uhh Yeah Dude, Episode 149 This is not a clean comedy podcast. This is the pee in the Cheerios. It grows increasingly impossible to summarize what Jonathan Larroquette and Seth Romatelli are up to here. There are the usual offbeat topics -- lame celebrities at liveautographs.com (Hulk Hogan, Danica Patrick), that Amish heater infomercial, the drunk woman who called 911 on herself, some tots in trouble, an F.B.I. warning about cybergeddon, and a promising ABC hidden-camera show that outs racists, a belated appreciation for George Carlin and disgust with Adam Sandler. But the highlights are the personal rants and anecdotes: Seth about his experiences waiting in a line for a $14 juice, and several items from Jonathan: women who go out with jerks, a true story of martial arts justice from his school days, and a weird encounter in a guitar store. The promised "Uhh Yeah Dude" Web site is not yet online. Length: 1 hour, 11 minutes. Released: Jan. 13, 2009.
  • Smodcast: Smod Bless Us Everyone (70), Way of the Master (71), Hello Dere! (72). So, now that their movie has tanked, the director Kevin Smith and producer Scott Mosier are suddenly back with several episodes of this explicit humor podcast. In the first one they riff on Christmas and how people have trouble remembering their movies. "Making moves only seen in Belize." In "Way of the Master," they discuss the sexual possibilities and risks of staying abroad in youth hostels. The title refers to Kirk Cameron's Christian evangelical Web site, "The Way of the Master," which has a test of how good a person you are. Kevin and Scott take the test, and the discussion gets mighty dark. They also brainstorm a science fiction, the "slaptrack," in which everyone has the godlike power -- once -- to banish another person from this reality. And it's pretty weird. For the most recent, third episode, Mosier is traveling in Vietnam, so Smith is joined by another pal, and they spend a lot of time ragging on a third friend who isn't there and talking about breasts. As always, I enjoy the background soundtrack that is added post-production. I skipped two earlier episodes that were basically the DVD discussion tracks for the film, which I haven't seen yet. Running times: 52 minutes to 1 hour, 5 minutes; released Dec. 24, Jan. 9 and Jan. 16.
  • The Futile Podcast: "It Worked in Cuffs," "It Became Cobra," "It was an Academy Award winning training montage" I'm catching up on this action-movie discussion podcast. First up, "The Spirit." I've been a longtime collector of Will Eisner and his art, and I've been a Spirit fan since I was a kid reading the Warren reprints in the 70s. I've been looking ahead to this movie with dread and anticipation. Now I may just wait for the video. It doesn't sound like the film did a good job capturing Eisner's gloomy comedic world, or perhaps that world just doesn't translate to the screen. The podcasters compare it to the Tim Burton "Batman," "House of Games," and "Rocky and Bullwinkle." A bad trip. "This movie was just strange." Tonal inconsistency and acting problems. There's consensus that the movie failed to pull off breaking of the fourth wall, which they say "worked in 'Kuffs." (I'm pretty sure Eisner invented that technique in comics back in the 40s, but it was a technique he used sparingly.) The futile podcasters digress into a long discussion of sex roles, which was entertaining. The next, short episode is billed as a review of "Beverly Hills Cop," but is mostly a discussion of comedians with a quick recap of Eddie Murphy's career. The third of these podcasts is about Scorsese's "Color of Money," which I probably can't bear to watch again because of Tom Cruise, though this discussion reminded me it wasn't bad. And it made me want to watch "The Hustler" again. Running times: 31 minutes, 11 minutes and 33 minutes. Released: Jan. 4, 8 and 11.
  • The 40-Year-Old Boy: Episode 43. I dropped into this podcast cold, and perhaps earlier episodes wehre better. The Chicago comedian Mike Schmidt (now in L.A.) talks about ... stuff .. while his producer laughs in the background. (She's like a laugh track. I started to suspect she was a recording.) His Web site explains: "While friends his age are taking care of their kids, it’s all Mike can do just to take care of himself. Come listen to the stream-of-consciousness ramblings of a modern day Peter Pan: awkward, angry…basically, the kind of guy who would punch you in the face for referring to him as a 'modern day Peter Pan.'" In this episode, Schmidt says he used to weigh "500 pounds" and he got stomach surgery to fix it. He describes some medical particulars in excruciating detail then he tells how he got around the limitations of his surgically altered stomach and gained the weight back. The outro song, "Don't Give Up," by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush, lays it on thick and underscores how sad this story is. Great song, though. Running time: 1 hour, 17 minutes. Released: Jan. 14.

    • Podcast Zeitgeist, Jan. 1

    There has been a lot of chatter about the podcasting business model, and whether it has been a failure. That talk intensified when a major commercial podcaster, Podango, warned recently that its death seemed to be near. None of this is of concern to me: I leave business models to the money people. My interest is content.I had more free time than usual this week, so the list is longer than usual (in the order I listened). [See all lists.]

  • Grammar Girl 149: Top Five Pet Peeves of 2008 Grammar Girl (Mignon Fogarty) has a business model, or, at least, some regular advertisers and a dedicated audience of grammar enforcers. The top peeves suggested by her listeners: carelessness with language, misuse of "myself," overuse of the word "tapped," the phrase "baby bump," and the use of "slay" as a noun, particularly in New York Daily News headlines. It's an idiosyncratic list, to be sure, but all these targets are worthy of scorn. (I also listened to the slightly less interesting Episode 150, about podcasting a book. I doubt I would ever listen to a book in serialized podcast form.) Length: 8:33 minutes. Released: Dec. 19.
  • Make-It-Green Girl 34: The Story of Stuff A sister podcast to the one from Grammar Girl, with the same "quick and dirty" preaching to the converted. Anna Elzeftaway suggests you stop buying so much stuff and suggests holiday gifts that require no products, packaging or other waste. "Make it special without making a footprint." The smug message grates a bit. Length: 5:06 minutes. Released: Dec. 24.

  • The Futile Podcast: "It's Christmas!" and 2008 in Review Part 1 and Part 2 Some guys sitting around talking about action movies. The Christmas episode focused on the original "Lethal Weapon," with Mel Gibson as a grieving cop with a death wish. I gather it hasn't aged well. What set it apart from the other buddy cop movies of the 1980s was its nihilism. The Gibson character had nothing to lose, while his partner, Danny Glover, close to retirement with a big family, had everything to lose and was indeed "too old for this shit." The sequel was OK but later installments drove this franchise into the ground. Movie buffs may find the two year-in-review episodes of entertaining, with discussions of "Speed Racer," Heath Ledger's final performance in "Dark Knight," "Wall-E"'s sci-fi failures and some picks for best and worst. Lengths: 32 minutes to an hour each. Released: Dec. 23, 27 and 30.
  • Buddhist Geeks 101: Hollow Bones Zen "Seriously Buddhist, Seriously Geeky." The podcast is part of the Personal Life Media family, whichcame up in an earlier installment that touched on podcast ads.. The episode opens with an ad for a meditation gong, an Audible.com pitch and a request for donations, but then gets down to business with part 2 of a good interview with Jun Po Roshi, a teacher in the Rinzai zen tradition who is the first dharma heir of Eido Shimano Roshi. Part 1 is here. Buddhism is not necessarily a religion, nor is it Japanese, or Chinese or Indian, and translating its practice into western culture is tricky. Key question: what's in your fridge? With a Buddhist knock-knock joke that is amusing if not a knee-slapper. Length: 19:50. Released: Dec. 22.
  • David's Coffee Stains: Crybaby I downloaded a bunch of podcasts with "coffee" in the title this week, given my interest in that particular addiction. It turns out that "coffee" is a fairly popular word in podcast titles for religious and music shows. So I found myself listening to this one from David Porter, an evangelist (yes, the slash seems to be part of the title). He started out with some interesting observations about the economic crisis that could have been mistaken for a Buddhist explanation of compassion and karma, or a liberal critique of the western economy, but it turned into a more traditional sermon with asides about abortion, same-sex marriage and sin. Length: 18:22 minutes. Released: Dec. 13.
  • Your Psychic Connection with Jorianne the Coffee Psychic This is also a radio show, apparently. Jorianne uses coffee and cream to divine the future, as her Web site explains: “My connection to reading coffee psychically began early in my paranormal explorations. I was discussing different methods of divination with my sister-in-law’s cousin, who is Hispanic, and she introduced me to the use of reading coffee this way – which is traditional in Hispanic cultures. Being a ‘coffeeholic’ myself, this seemed a natural for me and was my first attempt at learning how to access information psychically.” Listeners call in for readings. The audio quality is not great. The first caller is Wendy, who has several questions. Jorianne: "When I'm looking the coffee here, Wendy, on the question of your marriage, has it been a little stressful? Because the coffee's going backwards here..." Wendy: "Very." Oh my. Gift certificates available. Length: 55:21 minutes. Released: Dec. 17.
  • Urban Coffee 100: Homecoming Dave and Seth are back. I didn't know they were gone. After taking a year off, this discussion of politics, technology, music and other topics is getting a fresh start on live video and live audio as well as this podcast. I was looking for an actual coffee podcast so I only sampled a bit of this episode and a little of #101, released on Dec. 29. More inside jokes about people I don't know, though the account of identity theft held my interest for a bit. I'll check back on this one. Length: 1 hour, 7 minutes. Released: Dec. 10.
  • Hot Coffee Show, Episode 6: We're Under Attack! "An improv comedy show roller skating through your neurons." They seem to be having a good time, but I didn't find it particularly funny. Maybe it was the material: Hugh Jackman hosting the oscars, the losing Detroit Lions and some kind of musical about cafeteria bullies. There was a lot of hard-to-follow cross-talk. Maybe I'll check back when they get some more episodes under their belts. Length: 21:37 minutes. Released: Dec. 17.
  • WFMU's Coffee 2 Go With Noah An underground podcast of hip-hop demos. I'm not a big hip-hop fan but this isn't half-bad. Also hard to summarize. There was an interesting one from Datin called "Man Vs. Machine" that sampled Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine." Points for originality. Nothing to do with actual coffee. More info at the links from WFMU and Noah Zark. Length: 39:57. Released: Dec 3.
  • Audio Coffee Podcast "The following show may contain traces of nuts." An electronic music mix that started out mostly upbeat, fast-paced, unrecognizable (to me, at least). I shut it off around 1:10 when the music got slow and dreary. Not my thing. Some might enjoy it. Length: 2 hours, 27 minutes. Released: Dec. 7.
  • Bellissimo Coffee Podcast: Barista Exchange Actual podcasts about actual coffee seem to be dying off, (see the CoffeeGeek podcast review last week), and here's another example. Just one episode this year -- this one in March -- after a burst of activity in 2007. This episode promotes the newish Web site, Barista Exchange, discussion forums for professional baristas. I would just go check out that site and skip this episode. Length: 20:09 minutes. Released: March 31, 2008.
  • Coffee Now Podcast This coffee news podcast one started up in a brief burst, came out every two weeks for six episodes, then vanished in June. In this final episode, the host, Jezza Hardin, reveals some "disappointing news" -- that he has lost a piece of his coffee machine. "You realize we are now two podcasters about coffee that do not have coffee machines at home." His friend and co-host Craig replies: "We've got them, but they just don't work." Followed by a discussion of bad baristas and six-month-old headlines (people who roast their own beans at home -- who knew?). Length: 51:36 minutes. Released: June 20, 2008.
  • Coffee Convo 48: Reloaded! Another death in the coffee podcast family. After a year of podcasting, Tony Gettig signed off in November: "What started as a joyful expression of my love for coffee has turned into a taskmaster that I simply cannot live with anymore... Go hop on Barista Exchange or CoffeeGeek. There is more happening on those sites than the Convo could ever provide. Go on, try it, you’ll like it. :) You might even see me on one of those sites. Better still, start your own show." Too bad; this was a fairly well-produced podcast with some knowledgeable discussions and anecdotes by coffee professionals. At this point, I got a little down about the state of coffee podcasts, but I did sample these other defunct ones: the Portafilter.net podcast, which ended a long run in March, the Morning Brewcast, an intermittent one with poor audio quality, and something billed as "the Starbucks Podcast" on iTunes that was entirely in German. Length: 1 hour, 25 minutes. Released: Nov. 30.
  • MacBreak Weekly 120 & 121: "And One Less Thing" & "WWPD" If anyone has a business model for podcasting, it is Leo Laporte, and this is a flagship in his tech talk empire. While Laporte has an outside radio gig for income, he has also built a professional, multimedia webcasting operation that attracts advertisers as diverse as Visa, Audible, Drobo, Cachefly and various software makers. I missed listening to the first of these MacBreak shows last week because I was traveling. Alex Lindsay of Pixelcorps took the helm again, from Japan, joined by the tech journalist Andy Ihnatko near Boston, Scott Bourne (who left Podango earlier this year) from Gig Harbor, and the video podcaster Don McAllister from England, all through the miracle of Skype. Much of the discussion focused on Steve Jobs's decision to skip MacWorld this year, and plans by Apple to pull out of the convention altogether starting in 2010. Jobs and Apple no longer want product announcements to be held hostage by the convention schedule, and its artificial deadlines, Ihnatko argues (expanding on this Sun-Times piece.). There's talk of the Jobs succession as well. For episode #121 this week, Laporte returned from France and the host's seat, with the same lineup of panelists. There's more MacWorld advance talk, where MacBreak will be a live podcast. More about Steve Jobs and the ill health rumors. Consensus on the panel is a) skepticism about the rumors, b) none of this is good for MacWorld's future but c) the show is still a good educational program (of course, all these panelists are MacWorld speakers who get free tickets, loaded swag bags or speaking fees). A lengthy discussion of iFart Mobile, the No. 1 iPhone app. The iPhone Nano rumors. Some of the panel's product picks are listed here, including a cool translator iPhone app, Lingolook, pitched by Lindsay in #120. Length: Ranging from a tidy 52:55 minutes then back to Leo's expansive 1 hour, 20 minutes. Released: Dec. 24 and Dec. 30.
  • This Week in Tech 175: Highlights and Lowlifes 2008 More from Leo Laporte. Is podcasting ready for clip shows? I'm not sure it works for something as ephemeral as a tech news show, but that's what this is. I wouldn't really recommend this for anyone not familiar with the topics or the hosts. Leo is clownish, John C. Dvorak is grumpy, Jason Calacanis is full of know-it-all bravado. And so forth. Length: 1 hour, 31 minutes. Released: Dec. 28.

  • Uhh, Yeah Dude, Episode 147 In the comedy news category, it's back to my old standbys, Seth Romatelli and Jonathan Larroquette, who were working overtime before Christmas to get episodes out through the end of the year. This is the last episode of 2008. High points include Jonathan's account of getting a ticket for driving while holding a cellphone, the human nose as a sex organ, a discussion of modern pinball technology, PETA's person of the year and Doc Ellis's no-hitter on LSD. They have 150 more episodes to go before the world ends under the 2012 Mayan prophecy. I saw it in my coffee cup. Seatbelts. Length: 1 hour, 7 minutes. Released: Dec. 29.

    • What My Smart Playlists Showed Me (3)

    Name of iTunes Playlist: The Older Faves Rules: Rating is greater than *** (3 stars). Last played is in the last 12 months. Last played is not in the last 6 months. Date added is in the last 24 months. Play count is greater than 5 times. Skip count is zero. [See all lists.]

    Top 10 From the List

    1. "Sirena" by Calexico on "Convict Pool" Playcount: 8.

    2. "Summersong" by The Decemberists on "The Crane Wife." Playcount: 8.

    3. "Story of an Artist" performed by M. Ward on "The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered." Playcount: 8. 4. "Yawny At the Apocalypse" by Andrew Bird on "Armchair Apocrypha." Playcount: 7.

    5. "Modern Age" by Eric Hutchinson on "...Before I Sold Out." Playcount: 7. 6. "Carballo" by The Essex Green on "Everything Is Green." Playcount: 7.

    7. "Leisure Suite" by Feist on "Let It Die." Playcount: 7.

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2N72kXHppE&hl=en&fs=1]

    8. "The Angels Hung Around" by Rilo Kiley on "Under the Blacklight." Playcount: 7.

    9. "My Body Is a Cage" by Arcade Fire on "Neon Bible." Playcount: 6.

    10. "Click Click Click Click" by Bishop Allen on "The Broken String." Playcount: 6.

    Annotation

    The purpose of this list is to identify newish songs that were in heavy rotation on my musical devices about six to eight months ago, but which I no longer play -- songs that I might want to reconsider. I was still in the heart of a Calexico phase, apparently, but it's a different album than has popped up on other lists. This track has a lilting country Grateful Dead-like feel, with a haunting chorus of women singing in Spanish near the end, followed by the inevitable end in the Greek myth of the sirens:

    To save this sad, tragic soul Sorrow's worse than the tide's pull Sinking deeper, gasping for love Till desire navigates you Into the arms of sirena... Caught in the rip tide, smashed on the reef Joining the mass of bones underneath

    Follow that up with The Decemberists, and phrases like "..slip into a watery grave," and I have to wonder what's up with the morbid nautical theme. "...swallowed by a wave." I was thinking about heading to the beach last spring. Whatever the words, both of these songs sound beautiful. A lot of Decemberist tunes are too otherworldly for repeated listening, but this is one of the exceptions, with some interesting instruments in the background. No idea what they are, but I like them.

    I went through a serious M. Ward phase in 2006, bleeding into 2007. I bought everything I could find. No. 3 was a cover tune off a Daniel Johnston tribute album. Back in 1997 or 1998, I saw the schizophrenic Johnston perform live twice in Manhattan in separate clubs. For the second show, about 10 of us were in a circle around him about two feet away. He was obviously a painfully disturbed man. It was hard to watch, and while he writes beautiful songs, I have a hard time listening to him. Ward teases the beauty out of Johnston's song and his pain in this cover, the best on the album of covers. I recommend the 2005 documentary on Johnston, who, despite the title of this tribute, is still alive. And I also recommend you buy anything M. Ward does.

    The Andrew Bird track is an instrumental off his followup to 2005's "The Mysterious Production of Eggs," and I am surprised to see it here. It's a great song, though, haunting and mysterious.

    I don't know much about Eric Hutchinson. I think I downloaded his album on impulse one night on iTunes. There were songs I liked more than this one, but there's no arguing with the list. The track is live and ends with some chatter at the audience that grows old with repeated listens. His lyrics are a little political and funny:

    How did we every get by before data was sent? I can’t believe I got around without electrical cars

    The Essex Green, a Brooklyn-based neo-psychedelic pop band, has a sweet sound, and I like a lot of their songs, including this one. I would recommend the album "Cannibal Sea" over this one, but they're all great.

    Feist, of course, had a breakout moment when her song "1 2 3 4" was featured in iPod ads in 2007. I had a few of her songs from somewhere before that, and I downloaded more after that. I like this earlier album from 2005 more than her breakout, and while I thought liked other songs on it, like "Mushaboom," I guess there's no arguing with the playlist.

    I bought a bunch of Rilo Kiley albums in 2006 and 2007, and bought "Under the Blacklight" hoping it would be as good, but I'm not sure it was. Still, this was a pretty good song. Watch the video. Jenny Lewis is definitely the talented half of the duo, though her first solo effort struck me as a wee too precious.

    Arcade Fire is another band that I started listening to a few years ago in my Canadian music phase, having no idea what they were about or who followed them. They had a breakout moment with "Neon Bible," which is indeed an awesome album. If you asked me to name a favorite track, I would say "No Cars Go," but the list thinks I like the far more emo "My Body Is a Cage." So be it. My body is a cage that keeps me dancing with the one I love? Untrue, but moving. I still remember what that used to feel like, to be so out of place:

    I'm living in an age That calls darkness light Though my language is dead Still the shapes fill my head

    I'm living in an age Whose name I don't know Though the fear keeps me moving Still my heart beats so slow

    Oh, young Arcade Fire fans, your pain will never again be this sweet. But the old people might prefer "Funeral" (2004).

    Bishop Allen first came to my attention in the so-called mumblecore films of Andrew Bujalski, "Funny Ha Ha" and "Mutual Appreciation."

    Rent them now. Watch them. I'll wait. Then read the latest N+1. Harvard was cool for 20 minutes around the turn of the decade, so what? It's already over.

    I saw "Mutual Appreciation" with my friends Teresa and Brett in a small theater in the Village. Bujalski was there and answered questions from the audience about the kind of film stock he used and how he got non-actors (including his Harvard pals like Justin Rice, the lead singer of Bishop Allen).

    Fast forward to August 2007. Teresa, Brett and I were on our way to a show featuring a number of bands including Bishop Allen, which was touring to promote "The Broken String." We had spent the afternoon at a barbecue. My boss called me about a fire at the the former Deutsche Bank Building downtown. Brett and Teresa went on to the show, as I stepped out of the cab in Times Square and walked to work and worked on live-blog coverage of the fire, which killed two firefighters.

    By 11 p.m., we had put the first print edition to bed and there was nothing more to say on the blog. I hopped into a cab and reached the club just as Bishop Allen was taking the stage at midnight. It was a good show. I flipped a switch in my head and felt nothing about the sad story I had just been covered, because that is what I have learned to do.

    The rest of the list after #10 is dominated by Bishop Allen tracks from the monthly EPs they were putting out in 2007, songs from Radiohead's "In Rainbows," (I paid $5 to download it) and more from the Decemberists and Feist albums, a snapshot of a year that now seems distant, another era.

    The only anomaly lower on the list is R.E.M.'s 1987 hit "The End of the World as We Know It," which I listened to several times as I turned it into a ringtone on my then-new iPhone. It is the song that plays as my wake-up alarm. It is the song that plays when the newsroom calls. The choice is sardonic. This was only one day in my career that felt like the world ending, and nobody called. I just went.

    Third-Party iPhone Apps Update 2

    {Update! New List! New Post! See the new list of iPhone applications I actually still use in this post, from September 2009.]

    I've added some new updates to the post "third-party iPhone apps I actually use," including MightyDocs, which displays Google docs offline (now with spreadsheet support); SayWho, a free voice-activated dialer; Amazon, which lets you shop and compare prices and even experiment with looking up products via iPhone photographs (it worked for me with a pretty bad photo of an obscure book); and Twitterific, which even in ad-supported free mode is overtaking my earlier favorite Twitter client, Twinkle.

    Podcast Zeitgeist, Dec. 12

    I'm mixing it up a little this week, adding some new podcasts from the iTunes Best of 2008 lists [iTunes Store Link], including a few with video under 10 minutes.

  • "Grammar Girl Video: Irony" Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips are usually audio, but this six minutes of video is worth watching for its excellent explanation of the frequently misused words "irony" and "ironic," using to good effect the infamous Sarah Palin turkey-pardon video. Here's the gist: Irony is all about incongruity and always in the eye of the beholder. Palin and her critics both might have thought the event was ironic, but for different and legitimate reasons. Writing that something is "ironic" says more about you, the observer, than the events themselves, and it is open to misinterpretation. Watch, understand, then use these words properly, or not at all, especially if you are a journalist trying to be fair. Length: 6:29 minutes. Released: Dec. 5.

  • "60-Second Earth: I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas (Tree)" From Scientific American, another short gem (though longer than 60 seconds). When it comes to Christmas trees, which is more green, wood or plastic? The answer is complicated, but seems to be a live tree in a pot. The strategy in our mixed unfaith household: Thirty years ago, my aunt made a porcelain Christmas tree that stands about a foot tall. We put it on an end table at a respectable distance from the menorah. This represents our own ambiguous connection to a holiday that my wife only observed as an outsider and a religion I no longer observe. The kid is probably confused. So be it. Length: 1 minute, 29 seconds. Released: Dec. 4, 2008.
  • "Keith and the Girl 860: Turn It Down" This podcast by a Queens couple is consistently rated among the top 10 comedy podcasts at Podcast Alley. Keith Malley was raised Catholic. The "girl" (Chemda Kallili) is Jewish. The schedule is erratic but frequent. This is one of the shorter episodes, and not as funny as the previous, "Get Over Yerself." They do nearly 10 minutes on religion, the holidays and their families. The new Guns N Roses record. The strange gay humor on "Three's Company." The end of Polaroid film. They dream of making millions and moving to Manhattan, which they call, quaintly, "The City." And more. Length: 59:23 minutes. Released: Dec. 8.
  • "This Week in Tech: Zunegate"http://twit.tv/172 Twitter, Twitter, Twitter. This is the podcast that first got me thinking too much about Twitter this week. It is also the podcast that got me to join Twitter way back in April 2007, mostly as a lurker. Leo Laporte is joined by John C. Dvorak, Bwana McCall, and Julio Ojeda-Zapata, author of a book on using Twitter for business. Dvorak likes Twitter but says it has problems. His comments lead me to think these tech celebrities with thousands of followers have a different experience than people with mutual followers in the dozens or hundreds. They are more like performers or broadcasters than members of the community. They toss out a question and hundreds of fans answer. Sometimes, Dvorak says, they keep answering long after he wishes they would stop. Claims are made that Twitter skews to an older crowd, that it's lazy blogging, that younger people prefer Facebook and IM on Skype. The rest of the tech talk feels recycled: Mac viruses, Obama's Zune, Leo's story (told on last week's MacBreak Weekly) about getting irritated at a brick-and-mortar bookstore. Then they plug their stuff. Length: 1 hour, 33 minutes. Released: Dec. 7.
  • "Uhh Yeah Dude, Episode 144" Intro is Stereolab. Outro is Lorn. The episode gets off to a meandering start but picks up. The show's T-shirts are late. Libraries and video stores ripping off Netflix. More brocabulary. More obscure fast food. A riff on the 9-year-old pickup artist. "Comb your hair, and don't wear sweats... Just say hi." Top Yahoo search terms. When Seth met search term No. 1. Crazy science: A killer fungus reproduces sexually in your nose and the babies record podcasts. Riffing on the money-saving tips of Andy Rooney of "60 Minutes," who steals dinner rolls from restaurants, mixes gasoline of different octanes, complains about paying $1.50 for a cup of coffee etc. (Rooney has a podcast, too.) A Rastafarian, Bobby Brown, is suing Jiffy Lube for discrimination. Seth recounts how he nearly killed himself and Jonathan with a gas leak in his furnace. Seth claims to be dating the oldest person in the world, a woman they visited at the nursing home in an earlier episode. Removing bear gall bladders. Dreading the holidays. (Seth and Jonathan have done a new interview. ) Length: 1 hour, 3 minutes. Released: Dec. 8.
  • Attack of the Show's Daily Video Podcast: "The Wired Holiday Store" An iTunes 2008 pick. I actually watched a couple of episodes, which were short and well-produced, seemingly excerpts from the TV show on the obscure G4 cable network. The first one featured a tour of the temporary brick-and-mortar store version of the print magazine that ought to be just a Web site. Lots of gadgets flash by. The store's at 15 West 18th Street through Dec. 28. I'll have to check it out in person. The episode after this, "Batman's New Voice-Over Career," riffs on the terrible raspy Batman voice from the "Dark Knight" movie, which is, not coincidentally, out on DVD. Entertaining, but it has the main drawback of video: You can't enjoy it while walking to work, or you'll run into people. Length: 2:25 minutes to 3:26 minutes. Released: Dec. 10 and 11.
  • "Buzz Out Loud: Baba-Boo! Scareware!" C-Net's "podcast of indeterminate length." This show starts out with fast talking and sound effects by Molly Wood, Tom Merritt and Jason Howell. Some chatter about Playstation Home and Amazon's Unboxed service. Praise for TiVo, the service/hardware with a terrible business model that everyone loves. Merritt disagrees with Corey Doctorow's views on copyright right of first sale. "There's no such thing as 'used' in the digital world." Gratuitous reference to the Brooklyn musician Jonathan Coulton. Learned something: The term for the propensity of people to find faces in things like toast and the moon is paradolia. A couple of the hosts have apparently never heard of Tumblr (or was that a joke?). It is one of the few companies doing well in these troubled times. Howell does not understand the phrase, "throwing the baby out with the bathwater," pleads youth. A Web-based no-hack copy-and-paste method for the iPhone between Safari and Mail. A good idea that calls attention to a continuing, pathetic Apple lapse. Vast expansion of Google Street View. The blank areas seem to be mountains. Now go listen to "All My Internet Friends" by Amanda French, a musical tip that earns this podcast major points. Length: 37:38 minutes. Released: Dec. 11.
  • "You Look Nice Today: Nickelpuss It's back to the original three hosts. Secular bands. Nerd jokes about Unix command lines. Merlin Mann's childhood room. A lengthy discussion of automobile horns. Youthful ninja fascinations and experiences by Adam Lisagor. How has this movie not been made? Good question. Discussing his teenage musical career in a church band and his secular band, Scott Simpson reveals he grew up near York, Pa., where I worked for eight years, and mentions the nearly forgotten York band Live. Still popular in Europe and parts of New Zealand! True story of the early Web of the mid-90s: I once hand-coded a Live fan page for the local newspaper's pioneering Web site. Ooh, frames -- lovely. It got dozens of hits, which we deemed a success. The site itself was born in a 1996 blizzard that stopped the newspaper delivery trucks. It's hard to remember how primitive the Web was just 12 years ago. This was in a time when people predicted that average readers would never have computers at home and certainly not read news on them at home. Which is kind of true: Now they mostly click around the Web at the office when they should be working. Podcasts were barely imagined. Video was unthinkable on dialup. Twitter? Forget about it. Email was hard enough. Anyway, it's great to see these fellows back on track with their jazzy, meandering nostalgic conversations, much of it about that weird, lost dawn-of-the-Web past. I'll leave it there. Length: 38:48 minutes. Released: Dec. 10.
  • "Macbreak Weekly 118: Macs in the Mist" Leo Laporte with his regulars, Alex Lindsay, Scott Bourne, Andy Ihnatko. Perhaps Leo watched Grammar Girl's podcast this week (see above) because he asked Bourne if it was ironic that he ate a freshly slain turkey at a Thanksgiving dinner with his fellow bird-watching photographers at a bird refuge. "You don't see any irony in that.. " Bourne: "I do not." Later, Leo: "It's ironic that all four of us are camera bugs..." Ok, maybe he didn't watch Grammar Girl. After about 10 minutes, down to business. Any truth to the rumor that Apple will remove DRM from iTunes for the holidays with unlimited downloads in Europe? Consensus is no. What about $99 iPhones at Wal-Mart? Consensus is no. Discussion of DRM: Only hurts honest people, doesn't deter thieves. True. A five-minute ad for Drobo, ends at 24:20. Big vendors dropping out of MacWorld Expo. Are convention expenses worth it, especially in a layoff environment? More discussion of pulled Apple advisory on antivirus software. Do Mac users need the software? Consensus is no. Santa Claus iPhone app gets run over by a reindeer. Brief discussion of Information Week's Top 10 Apple Stories of 2008. Consensus: Bad list. "We lost interest at the same time the author lost interest." Around item 3 or 4. Ouch. Six-minute conversation/ad about Audible.com ends at 1:01 mark. Then it's time for the picks. Length: 1 hour, 27:56 minutes. Released: Dec. 9. Update added 12/13.

    • It was a busy week, so I missed a few favorites (in the case of This Week in Media, the Skype interference was so bad in some cases, I couldn't stand to listen. Reportedly, the problem has been fixed and the episode was reposted). [See earlier roundups.]

    Podcast Zeitgeist, Nov. 20

    In a continuation of my peculiar hobby, here they are, in the order I listened this week, reports on a few of the podcasts of the geeks, nerds, freaks and boy-men of the Interweb:

    • Never Not Funny: The Jimmy Pardo Podcast, Episode 407 The name is a misnomer. This podcast is often not funny. The comedian Jimmy Pardo (who?) and a group of friends manage to make the lives of Los Angeles comedians sound boring. Jokes about Woodstock and the Who ("You saw who?" Nyuk nyuk). Airport humor. Industry chatter. L.A. freeway jokes. They're having fun, though, and obviously enjoy each others' company. The free 30-minute show is available on iTunes; maybe the other 30 minutes in the $ premium podcast are the funny bits. I listened to a couple of episodes, and this was the funniest of the three. By which I mean, not very. Update: I may give it another chance; Episode 409 features the actually funny comic Jen Kirkman. Length: 30 minutes. Release date: Nov. 12.

    • Vomitus Prime 82: Vombodies This effort at first reminded me of Five Tacos and a Taco, the podcast I had to obliterate from all devices last week. The first five minutes include explicit discussions of stomach flu symptoms. Not to everyone's taste. I would say not to anyone's taste, but they seem to have a following for their shockpod routine, a more explicit and meanspirited version of "Uhh, Yeah Dude" (below), only from the Midwest. The high point are the calls from apparently drunk listeners for what seem to be regular segments. There's a good riff on The Yellow Pages -- a humongous waste of paper that no one uses. This riffing is, unfortunately, marred by misogyny and explicit profanity deployed for the shock value. It's not just edgy; it falls off the edge. Just because you're not on terrestrial radio and can say whatever you want, doesn't mean you should. Length: 1 hour, 22 minutes. Released: Nov. 16.
    • "Uhh, Yeah Dude, Episode 141." One thing I like about this podcast, which is still my reigning favorite, is that each episode features a fresh song at the start and the end, often a cut I would like to own. And while they do get scatological, famous son Jonathan Laroquette and bit-actor Seth Romatelli are not misognyist or angry. They seem like Oxford scholars compared to some of the other nitwits recording podcasts these days. This week, they are back on their game. They mock "Brocabulary: The Man-ifesto book on Dude-talk." Examples: Wintercourse, Testoster-zones, fellobrating, brocrastination, prebauchery, guybernate, broverdose etc. Ugh. Then they move on to the 10 most irritating expressions in the English language. At this moment in time. Another traffic altercation from Jonathan. Hating on racists. Secret Service code names for the Obama family. The "Quantam of Solace" catch-phrase: Fuggehdaboudit. Nebraska feral child total reaches 30. Police traffic stop of 55-year-old man in a 1994 Thunderbird yields 250,000 hits of Ecstasy. Same-sex Koala bear orgies in captivity upset Australia. Man sues classmates.com for false claim old friends were looking for him. Jonathan's crazy gun dude story: Live round in the chamber. Released: Nov. 14. Length: 1 hour, 4 minutes, with 10-minute supplement..
    • "TWIT 169: The Donkey of the Week" After those three, it was refreshing to listen to some clean and useful from Leo Laporte's crew. This podcast is back on track after some meandering. After a two-year wait, Jason Calacanis finally gets his Tesla electric car and justifies its exorbitant cost because its a good example of green consumption. He also hints that he's working on a "big deal." Disclosure form will discourage tech-savvy applicants to Obama's White House. The president-elect's blackberry and email problems. What about Twitter? "Going into a meeting with Putin." Patrick Norton is back doesn't think Twitter is presidential. Calacanis says Obama should have a Facebook presence but not use the zombie app. He needs a social media secretary. The fellow endorse the idea of a massive Depression-style government project, a la rural electrification, to wire the country for broadband Internet with data speeds comparable to the rest of the world. A six-minute Audible ad; Calacanis picks a "Star Wars" novelization. Some extended chatter about weird stuff in Japan. An Argentine soccer star (Diego Maradona) sues to block Google searches on his name. The Classmates.com lawsuit again, more favorably received: They think the guy has a point about false advertising. Your old classmates are not looking for you. Layoff news from tech companies; an office killing spree. Will tech industry be spared? Consensus: No. Patrick Norton bails out without discussing his take on "Anathem," as promised (I'm in the 200s, and it's getting better). More from Calacanis about how the Tesla works. Lengthy economic discussion. No pity for bankers. An obsession with growth. Innovation is the cure. Productivity lost to video games. "Ender's Game" spoiler at the end; turn off the podcast if you haven't read the book. Length: 1 hour, 46 minutes. Released: Nov. 16.
    • "MacBreak Weekly 115: MacBroke Apparently, not much Mac news this week. "This is our license to do a shorter show." "No, we'll just talk longer about less." Playing around with the voice function on Google Mobile App for iPhone. Force an update through iTunes if you already have the app. Jerry Yang steps down @Yahoo. "This is not really a Mac story, but we use Yahoo." "Do you?" "No." MacBook Air updated. Rare negative notes: Why doesn't Mac ship all the cables you need? Why are their products so expensive? A lost Beatles track. Whatever happened to getting the Beatles on iTunes? Personally, I no longer care. Various software updates discussed. Audible ad, just over 4 minutes: "Team of Rivals" is book pick. MacBook Pro battery bloat. "Copy protection's a bag of hurt." The picks: new iPhone games (Touch Physics, JellyCar), Adobe Photoshop CS4. Scott Bourne's new blog: consumervideotips.com. Length: A delightfully short 57:06 minutes. Released: Nov. 18.