Category Archives: Podcasting

The Steve Jobs Retirement-palooza

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In case you missed the news last week, Apple’s long time CEO and rock star, Steve Jobs, turned in his executive restroom key and retired. Despite the way so many people reacted, no, he didn’t die. He just called it quits for the full-time Apple thing — and since I can’t shut my mouth, I had plenty to say about the whole thing.

Jobs and Jeff

If you need to get up to speed on what went down, Bryan Chaffin covered Steve’s retirement announcement at The Mac Observer, and followed up with Apple giving the CEO title to Tim Cook, the man that’s been running the company for the past few months.

Turns out a couple news outlets wanted to chat with me about Steve’s retirement. Here’s a list of the interviews and podcasts I did. For your viewing pleasure, of course:

  • Forbes This is an Associated Press article, so you can find it other places, too.
  • The Huffington Post Want to see how Trip Chowdry from Global Equities Research and I have very different views of Apple’s ability to perform without Steve? Here you go.
  • MacJury Along with Chuck Joiner, Katie Floyd and Bryan Chaffin, we talk about what to expect now that Steve has dropped the CEO title and taken up his new role as Chairman of the Board.
  • Reuters Insider Me, live, on Reuters TV. Guess who’s on with me? Yeah, Trip Chowdry. Just in case you don’t get how different our views on Apple post-Jobs are, you totally need to check this out.

There’s a good chance I missed something because the day of and day after Steve’s resignation were crazy busy. If there’s something I need to add to the list, just let me know and I’ll take care of it.

And my opinion in a nutshell: Don’t worry about Apple. It’s still business as usual, and we’ll still see awesome products for years to come. And thanks for all the hard work, Steve.

Grab Your Mic! I’ll Teach You How to Podcast

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I’m pretty sure it’s no surprise that I talk a lot. Really. Luckily, I’ve been able to turn that into something that works well for me, and hopefully brings a little something into your life, too: podcasting. And now I’m hoping to bring a little more into your life by teaching you how to podcast, too.

Yeah, this is what podcasting is really like.

Here’s the scoop: If you’re near Boulder, Colorado, on Wednesday, March 30, I’m teaching my Getting Started with Podcasting class at Boulder Digital Arts. The class runs from 6PM to 9PM and costs $69 for BDA members, or $89 for non-members.

I’ll talk about deciding what you want to share in your podcast, how to choose the right microphone and headphones, sorting out the software you’ll need, how to get your podcast in front of your listeners, and more.

Want to get a little head start? No problem. I have some tips on picking out a microphone at the BDA Web site ready for your viewing pleasure. And to answer one of the questions I get all the time: My mic of choice is the Rode Podcaster.

See you Wednesday! You know, because I love to talk.

Fill ‘em if You Got ‘em

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I record the We Have Communicators podcast pretty much every week with Michael Johnston and Adam Christianson, and it’s no secret that I tend to draw on my iPad during the show. Those drawings end up in the podcast show notes, and somehow the whole deal evolved into me agreeing to put our faces on a mug. I’m pretty sure it’s all Michael’s fault.

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So here’s the deal: I drew amazingly life like interpretations of Adam, Michael and me — and by “amazingly life like,” I mean “my usual style, thanks for humoring me, everyone.” Once we were all happy with the design, I slapped our mugs on a mug at Zazzle.

In case you’re interested, I used ArtStudio on my iPad, a Pogo Sketch stylus, and my homemade artist hand puck to avoid accidental gestures showing up as unwanted lines. Next, I exported the drawings as Photoshop files and dropped them into Illustrator so I could make vector versions of our faces. Finally, I uploaded the finished file to Zazzle and lovingly placed it on a mug for your drinking pleasure.

Now that my part is done, it’s your turn. Head on over to Zazzle and order your mug. I made sure there are plenty of mug styles to choose from because I know just how picky you are. Yeah, you’re welcome.

Holiday Gift Guides: 2009

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It’s the holiday season again, so that means it’s time for the most sacred of rituals: Tech holiday gift guides. So far, I’ve offered up some ideas on two episodes of the MacJury podcast, and part 1 of The Mac Observer’s holiday gift guide is ready for your reading pleasure, too.

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The MacJury podcast episodes (Part 1 and Part 2) were loads of fun thanks Chuck Joiner’s ability to throw together just the right mix of people to ensure an, um, eclectic mix of gift ideas. I was lucky enough to get to rub virtual elbows with author Joe Kissell, Jean MacDonald from SmileOnMyMac, TUAW’s Steve Sande, Pat Fauquet from MacMouseCalls, Julio Ojeda-Zapata from the Pioneer Press, and TMO’s own Nancy Gravley.

The holiday gift guide over at TMO includes staff picks for the Mac, iPod and iPhone lover in your life — and it’s only part 1, so there’s more to come.

Even if you don’t celebrate any gift giving holidays, the lists still include some fun ideas for tech stuff you can pick up for yourself. And if anyone is keeping track, I don’t have a TARDIS USB hub of my own yet. *Cough*

Jeff Does the WWDC ’09 Podcast Circuit

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Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference keynote was chock full of chewy morsels this year, and apparently I had plenty to say on all the big announcements. iPhone 3G S, iPhone OS 3.0, new MacBook Pros, and more — and I spent plenty of time gabbing about all of that on the iPhone Alley, MacJury and Apple Weekly Report podcasts.

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I’m lucky enough to work in an industry that’s loaded with talent, and I had the chance to talk about Apple’s announcements with a crazy-long list of pros that includes Chris Breen, Michael Johnston, Chuck Joiner, John F. Braun, Terry White, and Bryan Chaffin. We talked about the good and bad with the new iPhone, gave AT&T the smack-down for fumbling on MMS and tethering, and got all worked up in anticipation of Mac OS X 10.6.

It was a true uber geek-fest, and a great reminder that I really do have the best job in the world.

Behind the scenes true fact: I was completely hopped up on Codeine when I did the iPhone Alley podcast thanks to a nasty little gum infection. End result… I’m not that different when I’m drugged or sober. Go figure.