Technology Report from a Not-So-Early Adopter

Lately I've been, as the kids say, "getting digi with it." Actually, we never say that because Will Smith isn't cool...unless of course it's Fresh Prince reruns. No not those, the older ones when Vivian Banks is played by Janet Hubert-Whitten. You probably like the U.S. version of The Office better. Oh man, now I'm mixing sarcastic rants and I'm pretty sure stealing from an Onion article too. Anyway, as I was saying, I've been trying out (or found) a few different sites/platforms/whatever-the-nerds-call-them over the past week and wanted to give a quick update.

1. Tumblr: I'm leading with this because it's the one about which I'm most enthusiastic...and late too the game as well! I've been "testing it out" for about a week now here. (Yes, I'm still El Gaffney.) And I have to say I've found to be ridiculously easy, fast, and fun to contribute. It allows you to post from a variety of places—from the site, a browser tab, a desktop widget, and most importantly, from your phone or BlackBerry. I love the mobility of this format for posting pictures with captions. Plus, it allows you to bring in up to five feeds from outside blogs, twitter, del.icio.us, Digg, VOX, or YouTube. While it doesn't beg for a long post like a blog (see right in front of you), it is limited in the conversational nature of Web 2.0. You can create groups and follow friends, but people cannot comment what has been tumbled. Regardless, I recommend this platform to anyone whom finds blogging appealing but daunting.

2. Seeqpod: I've been telling people about the song "Summertime in the LBC" by The Dove Shack for years now. (Basically whenever I'm talking about camp or early rap jams like Regulate.) I've even spent some time looking for it on old mix CD's (I'm certain I have it so refuse to buy it.) Not anymore, thanks to Seeqpod—a site that lets users search and find audio and video from across the Web. And, what I find really cool is how easily you can share what you find...


3. Tooble: Learned about this one from the incredible Brand Flakes for Breakfast (as well as Seesmic—a video conversation site, which I still need more time to try out but they believe is gonna be huge). Basically Tooble is a technology you download that let's you import YouTube videos into your iTunes and then onto your video iPod. As someone who doesn't have a video iPod, I was more interested in getting YouTube videos onto my hard-drive so I could then upload them into powerpoint. See how I had to hyperlink everything in my Georgetown Marketing Association presentation? Now I don't have to. I can import these videos into my pres and have them play without getting online. My only gripe is that the quality suffers a bit, which could be an issue since many YouTube videos are already a bit blurry. Yet, I can think of a handful of times I really could have used this application. So go for it, presenters!

What do you think? I mean, I'm no Tom Green, but I may need to get myself a new Web 2.0 logo pretty soon. And thanks to Matthew for the inspiration—a post on Blackberry apps. Got any other suggestions of online tech to check?

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P.S. Is anyone on Pownce anymore? It was supposed be a new great way to share files, links, messages, etc. with people (I think mostly files—music and pdf'ed articles, for example). But if my 15 friends are any indication, this place is a ghost-town.