Garrison Keillor Announces Retirement
Carol Kaufmann at the AARP Bulletin:
Radio host Garrison Keillor, 68, told the AARP Bulletin that he’s planning to retire in the spring of 2013. But the host of A Prairie Home Companion says that he must find his replacement first. Keillor created his show in 1974 in Minnesota. It is now broadcast on 590 public radio stations across the country and is heard by over 4 million people each week.
Keillor is an icon of public radio. I will miss his voice on Sunday afternoon, when our family enjoys A Prairie Home Companion.
New York Times Announces Metered Paywall
The Times has embraced what’s called a metered approach — readers can click on as many as 20 different articles, slideshows, or videos a month without paying a cent. A page click through a Google search or a friend’s referral via Facebook or Twitter won’t count against you.
But as of March 28, the paper will charge digital readers who view more than 20 pages per month $15 dollars each month for web access and an iPhone application; $20 for access on the web, iPad and other tablets; or $35 for access on all three platforms. The model does not yet incorporate e-readers such as the Kindle, for which the Times has ongoing subscription plans.
It’s obvious that newspapers have to be able to make money online to survive. As print continues to die, the web will become the main outlet for journalistic content.
The reality is that journalism costs money.
I think the Times model is pretty great. It doesn’t penalize or discourage users who just show up every once in a while. People who use the site as a main news source, however, will have to pay. That seems totally fair.
Update: Be sure to check Federico’s post at MacStories for more info on what the Times is doing with iOS subscriptions.
iOS WordPress App Updated
The main focus of this release is to improve the app’s performance and reliability. The app has been moved to Core Data, which is a much improved way of managing information locally on the device. Also, the methods used to communicate over XML-RPC have been updated to better handle communication issues and increase reliability of the app. In total there have been 117 changes in this release.
We’ve cleaned up the Post Editor interface to make it easier to write and edit posts and pages. Simply select the icons along the bottom of the post editor to edit post settings, view attachments and add media. You can also now upload multiple media objects at once!
One big reason I ditched my iPad was because posting to a WordPress-powered site was such a pain. For me, writing on a computer is just a far better solution.
While I’m anxious to test the new app, I’d love to see something like MarsEdit come to iOS. Lots of people rely on things like custom fields that this app just doesn’t deal with.
Yours Truly, on The Bro Show
I was lucky enough to be asked to join Myke and Terry on episode 49 of The Bro Show.[1. And yes, the joke on my last name has been done a thousand times.] We chatted about Apple stores, Twitter, iPad 2 and the iPhone 5.
I had a ton of fun recording this, and recommend you toss their feed into your favorite podcast catcher. Every episode is just great.
On Limbaugh and Japan
On the Next iPhone
Stephen and I have been going back and forth about the next iPhone for a couple of weeks now. I tried to convince him to hold off on the Verizon iPhone 4 until Apple announced the new iPhone, and he argued that the iPhone 5 would be similar to the iPhone 3G to iPhone 3GS update. Neither of us have any inside information on what to expect, but he may have just scored the first point in our ongoing battle.
According to Hardmac, an iPhone 5 case has leaked online, and the case specs hint that the iPhone 5 may have a similar build to the iPhone 4. There doesn’t seem to be any significant changes to button location, or SIM card slot.
So at this point it’s 1– 0 for Stephen. I think I’m going to keep a running score as we head towards the iPhone 5 announcement. It could be fun to see how this plays out.
Boom. I fully expect a prize when I win, Josh.
Donate an iPad to Teach for America
Donate your old iPad at an Apple Retail Store, and Teach For America will give it to a teacher in a low-income community.
TFA is a wonderful program. I have several friends doing it here in Memphis, and they really are on the front lines in some rough parts of town. This is great.
‘The Fragility of Free’
Ben knocked this one out of the park. I can’t even decide what to blockquote, so just go read it.
On Great Tech Writing
If you run a tech-centric website, then, so far as I see it, there are two paces of posting schedule that your site can take: (a) the breaking news, real-time schedule; or (b) the schedule and pace that you set on your own. Most tech-centric sites opt for the former.
[…]
By making an intentional decision to not pursue a real-time schedule with my site it allows me the space to think and breathe and therefore write things which are more thought related than they are time-sensitive.
I’d rather write stories than break them.
I totally agree with Shawn here, and I wish more people would.
I’m not saying (and I don’t think Shawn is) that there isn’t a place for breaking stories. There is. In the fast-paced world where Twitter has overtaken RSS for many, hitting the publish button first means more income. I get that.
But it’s not for me. I prefer using a little common sense, and a lot of polish before I hit publish.
I think this sentiment is growing, at least in this corner of the Internet. Which is great.
Apple Seeds Another 10.6.7 Build to Developers
It is really starting to feel like 10.6.7 will be the last version of Snow Leopard.
Sebastiaan de With’s Vaio UX
Well, this is the smallest Hackintosh I’ve ever seen.