March 17, 2008
So, I just tried posting something, and got back the error message, “No! No! No!” and then the blog sat on the floor, threw a huge tantrum and said it wanted a lollipop.
It’s been a fun year. Awards were won. Readership is growing. Twitter updates are allowing even more granular commentary. There are other things in the works, but the imminent release of WordPress 2.5 has provided a procrastination excuse window for measured consideration. Thanks for reading.
February 24, 2008
Thanks again to Jonny Bentwood at Technobabble 2.0 for naming Out of the Box a Top 100 Analyst Blog. This marks the second consecutive time the blog has made the list even though the methodology has changed a bit from the last time.
While Out of the Box did relatively well in Jonny’s subjective ratings, its overall ranking would be higher if we had more inbound links — which would help Google PageRank and Technorati numbers — and Google Reader subscribers, so if you like what you read here, please link and subscribe. Thanks.
Tags: Technobabble 2.0, top 100 analyst blogsOctober 7, 2007
Many thanks to Technobabble 2.0 for naming Out of the Box a global Top 100 Analyst Blog! The ranking is a mix of Google PageRank, Bloglines subscriptions, Diggs, Technorati ranking and a Technobabble subjective assessment based on post quality and quanitity.
Out of the Box debuted at #75. Many of the others so ranked have been around quite a bit longer, are team efforts or can take advantage of several colleagues cross-linking to each other, so I am truly honored.
Tags: awards, blogs, Top 100July 11, 2007
I intentionally don’t spend too much time talking about people here at The Box, but just picked up from NewTeeVee that Jm Louderback will be leaving PC Magazine and Ziff Davis to rejoin former TechTV colleague Kevin Rose at Revision3. I’m sure Jim will be happy to be more fully back in the video space.
Jim brought me to Ziff Davis in a freelance role in 2003 to launch and run Ziff Davis’s Wireless Supersite (eventually folded into eWEEK) and is a one-of-a-kind fusion of consumer technology expertise and marketing savvy. This is a great loss for Ziff Davis. That said, I congratulate Lance Ulanoff, who is taking over the helm at the venerable PC publication, and wish him well in his new role.
Finally, congratulations to Veronica Belmont, whom I had the pleasure of meeting at CTIA, on her new host post at Mahalo. She’s going to bring a great level of excitement and value to the human-powered search site.
June 4, 2007
Hey, stealth startups, I’ll be in the Valley on the afternoon of June 18th and may have time for a meeting or two. If you have a product that really has to be seen up close and personal under NDA to be appreciated and you’re not planning to visit New York any time soon, please feel free to drop me an e-mail (see the About page, I’ll check my spam filters) or submit a comment noting that it’s not for publication. Thanks.
May 17, 2007
It’s my pleasure to welcome my colleagues at DisplaySearch to the blogosphere. These world-class experts on the display market and its supply chain have already put up a number of illuminating posts and they’re responding to comments, so if you have any interest in displays (which drive practically all consumer technology), you should definitely check it out.
April 13, 2007
I extend a hearty congratulations to my friend and editor Ryan Block on passing the 5,000-post mark and, perhaps more incredibly, the million-word mark blogging for Engadget. Jeremy Toeman totally shows me I’m not his BFF by letting Dave Zatz but not me contribute to what may be the closest thing to This Is Your Life in a blog post honoring the achievement, noting that he’s only written about 290 in the same amount of time. Cheer up, Jeremy. They go a lot slower when they’re multimedia extravaganzas.
Peter Rojas brought me to Engadget in its first year and Ryan has been one of the key reasons writing for the site has been such a delight. He is a “writer’s editor” who always provides the highest levels of support and stands for the highest standards of professionalism and one of the finest people with whom I’ve ever had the pleasure of working. Anyone I meet who knows Ryan loves him, even his robot clone from the future that’s been sent back in time to kill him. Oooh, sorry Ryan, guess I should have told you about that earlier. My bad.
In preparing this week’s Switched On column on Soda Club, I had a blast collaborating with him on the text in the lead graphic, which parodies the nearly subliminal warning on the Fight Club DVD. Thanks, Ryan.
Speaking of Switched On, I should note the column will be moving to Monday starting next week.
March 17, 2007
A year ago, I wrote my first Out of the Box post on Sony’s HDRadio-free, XM-Sirius-free, and stereo-free table radio — a simple device befitting a simple medium. Now I’m close to my 150th post here. That works out to about one post every two and a half days in the blog’s first year (although it didn’t really go public until about January). I’m a bit surprised by that since I didn’t think there was that much I wanted to comment on publicly outside of my two columns.
In fact, my affinity for the column format is so deeply rooted from my college newspaper days that I wasn’t even sure I would like writing shorter posts. Even though I’m also approaching my 150th Switched On column for Engadget, I’ve written only one “typical” post. Yet, writing OOTB, as it’s known here around OOTB HQ (see?) has indeed been a lot of fun and has even proven useful for developing a few longer pieces that became columns.
Because it had an intentionally under-the-radar start, Out of the Box was never treated the chorus of welcomes to the blogosphere that sometimes greet new bloggers, so if any of you loyal readers with traffic wouldn’t mind passing along the kinds of presents measured by Google Analytics, the birthday blog would be most appreciative.
I’ve tried to stay on-topic in terms of consumer technology, not chiming in on every juicy bit of comment-bait out there in the blogosphere, yet I really admire how some bloggers, such as Jeremy and Scoble, have mastered the art of seamlessly and often humorously blending original content, archival references, blogosphere retort and personal updates. One habit that would certainly help would be becoming a more diligent and efficient feed reader.
Special thanks go to Eileen for helping me with hosting and technical configuration. So, what will the second year bring? A redesign? (I hope at some point.) Funnier tag line? Burnt feeds? Futile ads? Guest bloggers? Podcasts? A companion blog? Pimping out with every blotchke covered by TechCrunch? Acquisiiton by Federated Media? Late presidential bid on a national free Wi-Fi platform? My being mistaken for some other Ross? Who can say?
You can. After all, comments are on.
March 2, 2007
Out of the Box had a day or two of downtime due to some plug-incompatibilities with a WordPress upgrade. We have found and terminated those responsible (the plug-ins, not the people) and apologize for any inconvenience.
October 26, 2006
Today, Engadget posted my 102nd Switched On column on how Microsoft would benefit from its own retail showcase, which arrived on the second anniversary of my writing for the phenomenally successful gadget blog. Ryan Block was kind enough to write a congratulatory post listing all my previous columns. I think the experiment we tried has worked really well, and working with Peter Rojas and Ryan has been a great experience. I’m also grateful to NPD for allowing me the flexibility to contribute to Engadget.
