While covering an Occupy Wall Street planing meeting about a month ago, I learned that the professor sitting next to me was helping coordinate with protestors in other countries.
“I’d love to talk to you about that,” I said.
“Great, can you help us out?”
“Oh I can’t get involved,” I explained. “I have to stay objective.”
“I don’t understand that,” he replied.
Sure, Occupy Wall Street has students with cardboard signs and a couple of socialists. But the tenacious band of occupiers doesn’t have the tactics, demands or personalities of stereotype. Continue reading
[Fast Company]
The founder and CEO paced across the stage before a massive screen displaying the company’s achievements in recent years–skyrocketing sales of media and a heritage of innovative, beloved gadgets.
Steve Jobs? Could be. Or it could be Amazon front man Jeff Bezos.
[Read Amazon Channels Apple At Kindle Fire Launch]
[Wall Street Journal] We love our iPhones and Androids. And “we” doesn’t just mean tech geeks. Virtually all Americans (kids too) have mobile phones. And 40 percent of them have smartphones. That number keeps growing—fast. And tablets (read: iPads) are multiplying like bunnies. But there’s a problem for gadget lovers: We’re not very original. It’s like everyone wearing the same Gap khakis, except we can at least get those items in a size that fits us. Continue reading
[Fast Company]
A modest, recession-inspired demonstration grabs plenty of online attention. Is the future of activism more digital than physical? Fast Company goes inside the Sept. 17 OccupyWallStreet demonstration in New York (and follows reactions online) to find out.
[Read the rest on Fast Company]
The “Occupy Wall Street” protesters encamped in the New York financial district (currently in a square next to Ground Zero) have achieved some of their goals and missed others by a long shot.
[Fast Company]
For years, the Android smartphone operating system stood as the neglected stepsister aside the iPhone’s radiant, beloved iOS. Tens of thousands of suitors–app developers including large corporations and rising creative talents–hurried first to build something for iOS phones. Only belatedly, if at all, would they build something for Android devices.
[Read the rest of Android is Having a Cinderella Moment]
I like thoughtful documentaries, and I like mindless blockbusters – especially on a Friday night. I had expected the latter with the new film Contagion. But in fact it was a mushy mashup of both.
End of the world is a fixed theme in today’s culture. Maybe we’re working out in fiction the repressed angst of the eternal war on terror. Or maybe we’re just escaping everything in the real world. (If I’m one of the survivors of the zombie apocalypse, I won’t have to go to work. Ever. Again.)
[Fast Company]
Try explaining an e-book to a Luddite. How would you describe it? Well, it’s a book–a novel, a biography, some textbook or tome in a digital form. That definition needs a rewrite, now.
This week Apple introduced a collection of new short-form books, called Quick Reads, that are like short stories, long articles or packs of recipes, priced at just a fraction of the cost of what users pay for a full volume.
[Read the rest of Publishers Are Mining Solid-Gold]
Tame the tangle of bills, finances and frequent-flier miles by visiting only a few websites instead of 20
[WSJ] They tower ominously, mocking our lax responsibility. They are the stacks of bills, account statements and frequent-flier updates. Even going paperless doesn’t solve much. Those envelopes are simply replaced with clots of emails that co-mingle with daily deal offers and book suggestions from Amazon.
