Posted Monday, June 27, 2005

My Virtual Trip to Cleveland, P&P and the Supreme Court, eBay Live Reporting, and Other News

Happy Monday, if that isn't a contradiction in terms.

Another virtual user group appearance. On Saturday, I awoke at 6 am. One hour later, I was in front of a user group a couple of thousand miles away.

Yes, it was another iChat AV-based user group appearance, this one with the Northeast Ohio Apple Corps. We had a great time: I gave attendees a tour of my studio, carrying my iSight around and pointing out things of interest: my soundproof computer cabinet, dual Cinema HD displays, and other toys, not to mention Sophie the standard poodle. For the next hour or so, I answered questions on topics ranging from the Apple/Intel deal to digital cameras to iPhoto and more.

I even managed to "shoot" what might just be the first-ever panoramic photo created with iChat AV. (For the complete story, click the photo.)

I do declare, these virtual MUG appearances are, in some ways, even more fun than appearing in meatspace. There's the added geek factor of using videoconferencing, and the ability to give folks a tour of the studio where I spend 27 hours a day. And iChat AV just works so darn well that it fades into the background. As far as I'm concerned, I am standing in front of a large group of people.

User groups: contact me about scheduling one of these.

Watch Out, File Sharing Vendors
This Associated Press story is just in (and I learned it through the always-updated headlines on my iTunes resource page): "Internet file-sharing services will be held responsible if they intend for their customers to use software primarily to swap songs and movies illegally, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, rejecting warnings that the lawsuits will stunt growth of cool tech gadgets such as the next iPod.

The unanimous decision sends the case back to lower court, which had ruled in favor of file-sharing services Grokster Ltd. and StreamCast Networks Inc. on the grounds that the companies couldn't be sued. The justices said there was enough evidence of unlawful intent for the case to go to trial."

Read the full story.

Blogging eBay Live
Toby Malina, my coauthor on Sell It on eBay, has done a stellar job of covering eBay Live, the massive convention of eBay users that took place last week in San Jose, California.

Check out our book's companion blog and get the scoop on the latest eBay selling developments.

More Nine Inch Nails Remixing "Fun"
Attention, Nine Inch Nails fans! (And I'm not one of them.) The band has posted another of their songs in multitrack format for us to pick apart, remix, and perhaps make listenable. The song Only is available for not only GarageBand, but also Ableton Live and a couple of Windows-based music products.

Macworld remixed my book. Get Macworld? The July 2005 issue contains an excerpt from my book. The excerpt deals with creating disc images and ensuring more reliable burns in iDVD 5. Check it out, then buy the world's best-selling iLife book—345 full-color pages and a two-hour, 43-minute instructional DVD—for just $23.09 on Amazon.com.