RickyCadden.com

A New Year Begins

// December 31st, 2011 // 1 Comment » // blogging, technology

Wow, it’s hard to believe that an entire year has already passed. What a crazy one it’s been, too. In March, I started a new position as the Social Media Community Manager at RadioShack, taking the lead on all of our Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and The Shack Blog content. It’s been exciting and fun, but challenging, too. In July, I became a daddy to a beautiful little girl – what an adventure that’s been. The rest of the year has mostly been spent learning how life works with a kiddo – it’s entirely different than life before, that’s for sure.

So, what are my plans for 2012? For starters, I’m going to continue focusing on blogging more. I did a decent job of keeping this site updated through 2011, and I intend to continue that this year. I may even get crazy and go for a complete redesign, who knows. I have always wanted a hand-drawn theme for this site, so maybe I’ll finally do that. At the very least, you should expect to see more regular updates here.

Another goal for 2012 is to read a book every month. When I was a kid, I read all the time. I read all the Bluebonnet books, most of the Newberry Award winners, all that. I read a lot through high school too, and in college, by gradually drifted off. Most books will be business-oriented, with a healthy mix of Christian non-fiction and maybe something random thrown in. I’ll try to do a book review each month here, but I always hated writing book reviews in school, so maybe not.

Last, to use mobile technology more to create content. I used to do this nonstop, and I got spoiled with a laptop. So, for 2012, I’m going to try to create with my phone and iPad more. Starting with this post – it was written entirely on my iPad. More photos and videos, too. I’d like to say ill take a photo of something everyday and a video once a week, but we’ll see how that goes.

So that’s it – nothing fancy or major. What are your goals for 2012? I would challenge you to adopt the mobile technology one, personally. Most people would be astonished at what you can do with just the phone in your pocket.

Content Creation, Done Well

// August 29th, 2011 // 1 Comment » // blogging

I have many different hats that I wear in my current position as the Social Media Community Manager at RadioShack, but the biggest one is probably that of content creator. I’m responsible for the content that gets published via our social channels, including The Shack Blog, as well as our Twitter and Facebook accounts. With so many other brands/sites dominating the tech landscape, it’s vital that the content I create is unique and fresh, which is much more difficult than you would think.

That’s probably why this post from AndroidAndMe really stood out to me. It’s called ‘TouchPad mod: a wall-mounted Twitter stream. Come join us!. The HP TouchPad is a webOS-based tablet that suffered an unfortunately short life-span. HP essentially EOL’d it after a mere 6 weeks on the market. The price plummeted, and enterprising individuals began buying them as quickly as they could. There are a few projects to erase the webOS platform from the device, and instead get it to run Google’s Android platform.

None of that is really pertinent to this post, though. The impressive thing is that AndroidAndMe.com were able to take something that’s quite buzzworthy lately (the HP TouchPad) that has no connection to their core audience (it doesn’t run Android) and create a useful, entertaining post from it. I read the whole thing, and was really interested in how they accomplished this.

Even better, they integrated social media directly into the post. If you read the whole post, you’ll notice that there is a Tweet box in the middle with a pre-populated message allowing you to participate in the whole project (while tweeting all your friends about AndroidAndMe’s Twitter account, conveniently). It’s just plain brilliant.

They also integrated Ustream.tv to live-stream the whole thing, so you can participate on-the-fly and in the moment.

And all this around a discontinued product that’s not even directly related to their core readership. Brilliant. As you create content, the bar has been raised to take virtually any topic and make it interesting to your readership while also giving them plenty of ways to engage with and share your content with their friends.

What Will Be The First Computer-Free Generation?

// July 30th, 2010 // 17 Comments » // blogging, Mobile

Several years ago, I conducted an experiment on Symbian-Guru.com called PC-Free For 30 Days. My main computer had crashed and was going to be in service, so I decided to see how I could complete the tasks that I normally do on my computer using only a Symbian-powered smartphone. The conclusion at the time was that while it is possible, in most cases it wasn’t nearly as convenient to do things from my smartphone as it was to do the same task from a computer.

Fast forward to the present, and I’m honestly convinced that if I didn’t run a blog, I wouldn’t need a computer at all. In the past 6 months, I’ve used smartphones powered by Android, Symbian, and BlackBerry – some of the leading smartphone operating systems.

As I use these smartphone platforms more and more, I’m growing less and less dependent on my laptop for pretty much anything and more dependent on my smartphones to pick up the slack. Aside from the physical aspects (bigger screen, keyboard, etc) there’s really nothing my laptop offers me that my smartphone doesn’t. In fact, my smartphone has a few physical aspects that put it a step ahead my laptop.

1. Better battery life – sure, today’s netbooks can go several hours on a single charge, but the majority of laptops on the market today, barely eek out 2-3 hours of continuous use, much less 6-8. My smartphone – particularly the BlackBerry Bold 9700, can easily go through one, sometimes 2 full days of use before I have to charge it. Impressive.

2. Much more mobile – there’s a difference in mobility and portability. Mobility is the ability to use something while mobile – while moving. Portability is how easy it is to move something from place to place. Portability requires stops to really use something, while mobility doesn’t. My smartphone is a handheld object – I can use it with one hand easily. Even my netbook can’t do that.

3. Connectivity – my smartphone is connected via the cellular network all the time. I get notified of new updates this way, and I don’t have to hunt down a Wi-Fi hotspot to use it. I realize a few netbooks have this built-in now, but the vast majority do not come with this feature built-in.

As the younger generations grow up and get to high school, college, and beyond, how many will opt to have computers – even laptops and netbooks – versus just a smartphone? Even the most high-end smartphone is a few hundred dollars cheaper than the cheapest netbooks, and is just as capable. How many of the generations after them will opt for a full-on computer?

In fact, if I didn’t blog, I’d probably never open my laptop or netbook. Of course, there are WordPress apps for Symbian, BlackBerry, and Android, but it’s not really a great solution. What about you? Do you really need a computer, or have you started to depend more and more on your smartphone for everything? Are there any tasks that you simply need a computer to accomplish?

A Return To Mobile Blogging

// July 4th, 2010 // 14 Comments » // android, blogging, Mobile

A long while ago, I was really obsessed with mobile blogging – that is, blogging from a mobile device. I kept trying from my Symbian-powered smartphones, but kept coming up short. Unfortunately, software was the main limiting factor. There simply are not any great solutions for blogging from a Symbian-powered smartphone, in my experience. Yes, there’s an official WordPress app, but due to the small storage, I was unable to use it on my Nokia N97. My new Nexus One, however, runs the official Android WordPress app like a champ, so here I am.

I hope to start blogging from my phone more going forward. It’s incredibly convenient, since I always have it with me and I don’t have to wait for it to boot up or anything. I’ll also be exploring other things that I can do from my phone. I believe that we’re incredibly close to having an entire generation of humans who are connected, but have never used a computer – they’ve always relied solely on their smartphone. I’m anxious to try to see what their experience might be with today’s technology, to see areas in which it could be improved.

Are you one of those? Do you still use your computer primarily, or has your phone yet taken over as your primary connected device?

Exploring Ubuntu Blogging Solutions

// December 17th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // blogging

Since I don’t have a valid Windows 7 license for my Asus 1000HE, I’ve decided to use Ubuntu Netbook Remix on this netbook, and I’m starting to really enjoy it. Of course, there are a few applications that I’m sorely missing, especially Windows Live Writer, but overall it’s been an enjoyable little experiment.

As such, I’m checking out different Ubuntu blogging clients for offline blogging. Of course I could just use my browser, but I find that offline clients are often a much better approach, specifically for a netbook. I previously gave Bilbo a shot, but unfortunately, it doesn’t completely fill the gap. For starters, Bilbo has formatting issues that cause lists and other special spacing to get all messed up when you transfer from it to WordPress, and that’s not going to work for me.

Today I’m trying out a new one – Lekhonee for Gnome. Thus far, it seems decent, though I have already noticed that I can only be logged into a single blog at a time. I normally manage 3 different WordPress blogs, so that will take a bit of getting-used-to. Aside from that, this seems to be a nice client, with category and tag support, as well as images and other niceties.

What other blogging clients do you recommend for Ubuntu systems?

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