For more than twenty years, Microsoft Outlook has been the primary software tool I use for email and calendars on Windows PCs, for both business and personal uses. On New Year's Day, I switched my personal email accounts to Mailbird, a software tool that lets me manage my email and calendars on my Windows 11 PCs. Even only four days into my use, I'm already well impressed with Mailbird, how easy it was to install and set up, and the fast way I get things done that took much longer with … [Read more...] about Mailbird is a good tool for email and calendar management
Business
Volkswagen pranks its tarnished reputation on April Fool’s Day
In a time where misinformation, disinformation and outright fake news are features of our online landscapes that diminish trust, you'd think that brands (and Volkswagen in particular) would think twice - at least, think carefully - about actively doing anything that can negatively impact their brand reputation and instead do everything that promotes a sense of trust in their brand. Given that what's good, bad or ugly is often highly subjective it's hard to pinpoint a specific prank done by a … [Read more...] about Volkswagen pranks its tarnished reputation on April Fool’s Day
FIR 205: Are NFTs nifty or not?
The topic of NFTs - non-fungible tokens, to use its full name (one that confounds many people) - occupies a large part of the conversation in the March episode of For Immediate Release: The Hobson and Holtz Report that Shel and I recorded last weekend. We had a lively discussion, contributed to in part by Chip and Dan chipping in from the chat in our YouTube channel where the discussion was being streamed live, aided greatly by all the analyses, narratives and opinions by others published in … [Read more...] about FIR 205: Are NFTs nifty or not?
Subscribe or Follow a podcast: What’s in a word?
I subscribe to a lot of podcasts. Until now, I've never thought much about the word 'subscribe' and its meaning in the context of podcasts. To get a podcast, you subscribe to it. That's the way it's been since the dawn of podcasting back in the early 00s when we spoke of using a podcatcher to get your content. We needed to know about things like RSS feeds, the prime method for enabling your podcatcher to get a podcast each time one is published. While these things made it relatively easy … [Read more...] about Subscribe or Follow a podcast: What’s in a word?
FIR 204: Won’t you Join Us in our Clubhouse?
How safe is Clubhouse? asks Wired magazine in the latest critical look at the social audio service that appeared in April 2020 - less than a year ago. It's attracting huge attention globally. Alongside the hype and hyperbole that have been hallmarks of the perceived attractiveness and exclusivity of the invitation-only iOS app that passed ten million users in February - a five-fold growth since recording two million in January - there's increasing scrutiny of how the app works and how it … [Read more...] about FIR 204: Won’t you Join Us in our Clubhouse?
SDF 44: Facebook and the robber barons are at it again
Last week Facebook announced that it had decided to up the ante in its fracas with the Australian government and ban mainstream media news on its platform. The move meant that all Facebook users - not just Australians - would not be able to share or view news on Australian news Pages on Facebook. This move by Facebook was in response to the Australian government introducing a new law that would force Big Tech to pay media companies a fee to include their news in their users' news … [Read more...] about SDF 44: Facebook and the robber barons are at it again
The Internet and a brighter future
Most people would agree that what we have experienced over the past 12 months has changed - in a lasting manner - the ways in which we share information and communicate with each other, whether for business or for pleasure. Indeed, the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated far-reaching change in ways that no one could accurately have predicted in 2019. Communications technology and the Internet are central to all of this and are at the heart of discussion I had in late January with Paul … [Read more...] about The Internet and a brighter future
Tim Berners-Lee’s plan to save the Internet: give us back control of our data
Releasing his creation for free 30 years ago, the inventor of the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee, famously declared: “this is for everyone”. Today, his invention is used by billions – but it also hosts the authoritarian crackdowns of antidemocratic governments, and supports the infrastructure of the most wealthy and powerful companies on Earth. Now, in an effort to return the internet to the golden age that existed before its current incarnation as Web 2.0 – characterised by invasive data … [Read more...] about Tim Berners-Lee’s plan to save the Internet: give us back control of our data