Initial Thoughts: Flipboard

Released earlier this week following much hype (especially by Robert Scoble), Flipboard aims to personalize your news according to your tastes as well as those of your Facebook friends and those you follow on Twitter. However, due to what it’s CEO Mike McCue described as “an explosive rush of new users”, in its current form access to these key differentiators is by invitation only and as a result it has been dismissed by some as little more than just another news aggregator with what could be regarded as a gimmick for a means of navigation.

For the brief time I have been using it “as is”, I have found it to be an extremely responsive application based around a simple premise which utilizes a novel, genuinely useful presentation style.

In a world which seems to have an increasingly low tolerance for anything less than instant gratification, whilst I can understand people’s frustration I believe we should acknowledge the doubtless many late nights/early mornings the team of 10(!) have and at least for the immediate future continue to endure and look forward to the fulfillment of their initial vision.

Blog With Integrity

Whilst looking into what was going to be happening at EMC World this week  I came across a link to the above on the blog of Len Devanna – Director of Social Strategy for EMC Corporation.

The concept behind the site is simple – encourage bloggers to pledge that they will respect their readership by being open, honest and professional at all times.

That’s why I’ve taken the pledge, I encourage you to do the same.

You can find the full text and more here.

Make The Most of Your Surroundings

Boston is well known as a major conference and exhibition hub as well as being home to a number of high tech corporations and one of the things I was looking forward to upon moving here were the opportunities for networking this might present. Two examples that came to light are events regularly hosted at the Microsoft New England Research & Development (affectionately known as the NERD) Center and the Boston Mac User Group which holds it’s meeting on the MIT campus.

Obviously not everybody is in a situation as fortunate as mine but the point is every now and then to get from behind a keyboard, engage with other people of similar interests, make contacts and enjoy yourself – you never know what it might lead to.

AppleBites and Twitter lists

I’ve been looking for a simple way to share my Apple related twitter “channel” – AppleBites, for some time and with the introduction of lists (currently in Beta) Twitter now enables this. As lists can also be made Private as opposed to Public lists however they are also a simple means of organising who you follow into specific categories for easier browsing.

As a result I’ve created the following Public lists:

• http://twitter.com/apple_bites/mainfeed
  Composed of both official and unofficial Apple news sources.
• http://twitter.com/apple_bites/enterprise
  Articles and opinions from Mac software developers and system deployment specialists.
• http://twitter.com/apple_bites/how-to
  Mac hints and tips as well as troubleshooting advice.

Although at first glance the introduction of lists may seem a small change it is likely to be hugely popular due to the enhanced follower and filtering management functionality it introduces.