On Wednesday, January 27^th, Apple unveiled its latest creation, a tablet computer dubbed the iPad. The device is similar in functionality to the dominating iPhone, but offers the user a 10-inch screen for viewing content. While the possibilities for the iPad platform are seemingly endless with the App Store integration, the merging of print and web content might be one of the greatest. For a decade, a plethora of publishers have attempted to bridge the abyss between the paid world of print and the all-you-can-eat-for-free Internet content realm. No software company or hardware manufacturer has been able to successfully marry the two, until now. In a blog entry prior to the debut, Derek Powazek nails it:

“Tomorrow […] Apple could unleash a device that’s sexier than reading a magazine. A glossy screen like the iPhone, quality content in the iTunes store for a (hopefully) reasonable price, major publishers on board and independent publishers like me able to join in.”

From an initial look, it seems that this is precisely what Apple has done. Only time will tell if the treasured experience of print can translate to Apple’s latest and greatest.

You don’t need to subscribe to TheMediaIsDying Twitter feed to know that thousands of journalists have lost their jobs in 2009.  Publishers’ loss, however, seems to be turning into vendors’ gain.  Companies can now bypass editorial review and hire celebrity journalists to publish on their own outlets.  At the recent CES show, for example, Nvidia hired Stephen Wildstrom, formerly BusinessWeek’s Tech & You columnist, to blog from its booth.  Meanwhile, another former BusinessWeek veteran journalist Steve Hamm accepted a position at IBM.

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I honor of Blog Action Day 2009 we got everyone here at Eastwick Communications involved. Check out what our awesome and bright staff have to say about Climate Change.

I am inspired by people and companies involved in The CleanTech Open who are building businesses on green and clean ideas. – Barbara Bates

I continue to be amazed by all the great, practical applications available for the iPhone, especially the green applications.  These apps make it so easy to stay current on the best food choices to make (check out the Seafood Watch app courtesy of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, transportation options (NextTrain is a good one) or connect with other like minded folks (see Twavel, where carbon calculator meets community.)  Who said it’s not easy being green?- Elaine Cummings

Rising oil and air pollution costs have caused serious environmental and economic impact and spawned a whole industry of clean tech solutions. For new, clean energy systems to be effective, we need a practical and cost-effective way to store energy. We are privileged to work with Extreme Capacitors, a company that’s tackling this challenge by developing an innovative new technology that promises a 100X improvement over the best energy storage options available today. It’s a game changer that could pave the way for wide-scale adoption of clean energy-powered cars, homes, and more.- Melissa Neumann

Middle East, Africa get State Department Funds for Social Networking – The US State Dept recently announced grants of $500,000 to $2.5 million.  The program is sponsored by the State Department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), which provides support to the Middle East and North Africa for women’s empowerment, educational advancement, economic development, and political participation.- Mo Mahmoud

I think retailers and grocers should stop giving paper receipts. Can you imagine how much paper (i.e., trees) have been wasted from people throwing away their receipts? Companies have started to go green by encouraging paperless reports, press kits, etc, so it would be nice to have the same mentality applied to our everyday purchases. There is a lot of effort to enhance point-of-sale technology in the retail industry to make shopping more convenient for buyers, including touch screen technology. Perhaps a customer could have the receipt emailed to them via a point-of-sale (POS) kiosk and not have to worry about paper receipts ever again!!” – Elizabeth Hilton

Today’s advances with energy efficient technology and corporate social responsibility means that the large enterprises understand they need to be more eco-conscious. Given this is global concern, that’s a really good thing.- Kevin Cheng

Virtual events are sweet. Isn’t it great that you don’t even need to jump into a gas guzzler to be part of an important event? You can participate from the comfort of your own home…or desk chair. – Katie Zeiser

Technology plays both a thrilling and terrifying role in heightening awareness of climate change. Having had childhood dreams of becoming a “cloud scientist,” I’m fascinated by technology that documents unusual phenomena like noctilucent clouds, grateful for social media platforms that share that knowledge (in multimedia form, no less) to everyday people like me, and frightened that these clouds—potential harbingers of environmental change wrought by global warming—aren’t as unusual as one might hope.  – Rachel Shelton

I think what’s most exciting about working with cutting edge technology clients, especially those working to reduce carbon footprints due to computing, is the sense of passion they convey to be “green.” I get to be on the inside of how computing companies are transforming their respective industries without negatively impacting the environment – it’s a win-win situation for everyone!- Andrew Evangelista

It’s very exciting to see the promise of rapid growth in clean tech and how there is huge potential to positively impact our current economy and environment…Optimism is good!- Joanna Andrade

With the exception of David Letterman, we all know that business and pleasure don’t mix.  But the line drawn between personal and business social networking keeps getting fuzzier everyday.  We’ve all seen our outgoing co-workers’ embarrassing party pictures on the same Facebook page they promote client news on.

For this, and many other reasons, I’m not surprised by the results of a recent survey by Robert Half Technology.  According to the survey of 1,400 CIOs, 54 percent said their companies completely prohibit employees visiting social networking sites while at work.  Fair enough.  What really interested me was that 19 percent permit employees to use social networks for business purposes only.  Good luck with that.

The Robert Half survey came one day after Deloitte’s 2009 Tribalization of Business Study found that 94 percent of enterprises are looking to maintain or increase investment in social media and communities.  Only 6 percent plan to make less of an investment.  The survey included more than 400 companies.

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Charles Lindbergh, his mother and President & Mrs. Coolidge

Several years before Charles Lindbergh’s famous flight across the Atlantic and before the publication of a little modern novel called “The Great Gatsby,” the American Society of Newspaper Editors met to establish some ethical guidelines in the “Canons of Journalism.”

The code of ethics states that the primary function of newspapers is “to communicate to the human race what its members do, feel and think.” In 1922, the ASNE may never have dreamed of such developments as Facebook or Twitter, but if that first sentence doesn’t scream “social media,” I don’t know what does.

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We’ve never been on the bandwagon that has declared brands are dead but we do understand why the claims are being made.  There is now a lot more that goes into buying decisions by consumers and business buyers than just brand awareness.  But to claim that brands don’t matter is naïve.  I guess Yahoo agrees based on its latest search offering.

And yet the Yahoo search filter seems to suggest that, just possibly, the idea of the brand isn’t dead after all. With branded search filtering, Yahoo is acknowledging that many searchers don’t want results from just anywhere, regardless of how algorithmically relevant those results may be. Searchers want results (from trusted Web sites) — which is to say, from trusted online brands.

Source: c__

We’ll be talking a lot more about the need for looking at communications and marketing in an entirely new light–one where search, branding and word of mouth need to coexist for companies to really take advantage of all channels to create awareness and preference for their offerings.  I get a chuckle…and some times totally annoyed…when I see dramatic claims about PR being dead, social media being free and branding irrelevant.  Glad to see that others agree.

At a time when Obama’s healthcare reform plan is the topic of conversation across the country, Aneesh Chopra, Federal Chief Technology Officer of the United States, spoke about technology’s critical role in helping our nation best address this and various other issues our country currently faces.

Tasked with the responsibility of setting the technology agenda for the United States, Mr. Chopra challenged “the academics, the private sector and government agencies to come back to me with game-changing ideas we can initiate now, in the next 90 days” during his speech at an exclusive TiE event earlier this week.

We all have some opinion of how we would like to utilize technology for the betterment of society…so we posed the question to several of the tech sector’s brightest and most progressive companies.  We asked them to think about what they would tell Mr. Chopra if they had 5 minutes to spend with him. Follow the jump to read what they had to say:

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Congratulations to client Seagate on its successful launches of the FreeAgent Theater+ and the FreeAgent DockStar this week!

Seagate’s storage solutions have gotten such a positive reception from “Today Show” and other consumer press, in addition to the hardcore gadget and IT outlets, that it got me to thinking about the evolution of consumer tech coverage over the years.

Before the days of the Internet, anything related to technology was more in the realm of enthusiast and how-to publications like Popular Mechanics or – to go all cyberpunk on you for a second – alt-culture mags like Mondo 2000.

It’s true that some of those same authors have evolved and reemerged in new roles as bloggers, like Mark Frauenfelder, who founded Boing Boing after writing for Mondo 2000 and Wired, among others. Even Mondo founder R.U. Sirius has a webzine: 10 Zen Monkeys. Nowadays, however, they are joined in their techno-coverage by blogs like HiTechMommy and Dad-o-matic.

Mommy and daddy bloggers have joined geeks and early adopters in covering consumer technology and influencing gadget purchases, just as Gizmodo and CNET do. The audiences may be slightly different, but each outlet exerts influence nonetheless.

Think about the number of electronic devices you use in any given day. Then think about where you yourself go to get insight into product performance, or who you trust to help you make wise purchases.

Technology has moved beyond the labs and the family garages of future computer legends to encroach on many aspects of our everyday lives. We consumers have turned to technology to solve problems, but we’ve adapted those inventions and technologies to match our lives and applications. It’s only fitting that our technology pundits and influencers have changed as well.

Jennifer Pahlka

This week’s podcast brings us ‘double the pleasure, double the fun’ (sorry, guys, I keep thinking Wrigley’s Doublemint gum commercials from back in the day…).

Brady Forrest

But, seriously, I could not be more pleased to welcome these two, distinguished professionals onto the program: Jennifer Pahlka and Brady Forrest, Co-Chairs of Web 2.0 Expo.

I have so many questions for them: From the genesis of Web 2.0 Expo, it’s influence in the social media and business communities around the world… along with the inevitable question, when does Web 2.0 become something else in the wake of Web 3.0 and the semantic Web.

They have experience and insights to spare and are a great pair. It’s an awesome show! Listen to the archive below.

[Listen]

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Walter Cronkite

Eastwick Communications bids a fond farewell to Walter Cronkite, the quintessential anchorman and once most-trusted person in America.

He wasn’t the first anchorman, and only time will tell if he was the best, but he, more than anyone in recent history, personified respectability.

The landmark events he covered during his 46-year career as a journalist are too numerous to list; fortunately, we have a permanent record of each and every one.

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