There is an awesome iPhone app I want to recommend to you called Stitcher Radio.
The key feature of this app is the ability to subscribe to podcasts. Avid listeners know that iTunes offers subscriptions and automatic downloads, but the iPhone doesn’t. For years we have had to individually look up our favorite shows, every day or week, and wondered when Apple would implement this feature.
Well, they haven’t and Stitcher is filling that gap.
The app works by having you create stations of your favorite shows. Search for the show you like, hit the star button to favorite, and then add it to your station. I started with one massive station but recently broke that down into specialized sections (sports, finance, culture).
Any new episode will be pulled in automatically, or you can manually do it by hitting the refresh button. A huge time saver for me because I really hate searching iTunes for the same shows over and over again.
There are only a few misses with this app. One is the auto-play feature which only plays in one direction. You cannot set repeat or keep playing this artist (great for listening to older episodes) because it only goes forward to the next artist. The other miss is the lack of an ability to listen in order of release date. If you want to find and listen to the newest shows in your station you will have to do that manually.
Regardless, this app is a great recommendation, I love it, and have listened to over 16 hours of podcasts on it!
In a way, radio is the perfect user interface. Turn it on, and It Just Works.
This week, NPR unveiled Infinite Player, a web app that mimics the simplicity of radio, but with a personalized twist. Press play to hear the latest NPR newscast, followed by a never-ending playlist of random feature stories. It doesn’t stop till you turn it off, just like the radio.
Optionally, click “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” while listening and a secret algorithm adapts to your preferences. If you like a science story, you’re likely to hear more science stories. (The developers won’t divulge the recipe.)
In the biography of Steve Jobs from Walter Isaacson, a few pages are dedicated to Steve’s habits at home. One of them was the desire to discuss and research every decision to make sure it was perfect.
This happened on everything ranging from baby names to the type of washing machine they use. When they did settle on a name or product, they loved it, and that is exactly what happened with their laundry appliances.
It turns out that the Americans make washers and dryers all wrong. The Europeans make them much better – but they take twice as long to do clothes!
It turns out that they wash them with about a quarter as much water and your clothes end up with a lot less detergent on them. Most important, they don’t trash your clothes. They use a lot less soap, a lot less water, but they come out much cleaner, much softer, and they last a lot longer.
The company that Steve found was called Miele, and is similar to Apple in many ways. They care more about quality and user experience than they do about price or convention. So it’s no wonder Steve said the following about his new washer and dryers, “I got more thrill out of them than I have out of any piece of high tech in years.”
I did some research and it appears that a Honeycomb design is the key component of these washers.
This intricate design on the inside of the washing machine allows for an “80% reduction in the number of water exit holes and the skillful development of a water channel network that provides a thin water layer that actually cushions your clothes while the drum rotates.”
An independent study found that clothes washed using this method can last up to four times longer.
From Ron Clark, named “American Teacher of the Year” by Disney and was Oprah Winfrey’s pick as her “Phenomenal Man.”
(CNN) — This summer, I met a principal who was recently named as the administrator of the year in her state. She was loved and adored by all, but she told me she was leaving the profession.
I screamed, “You can’t leave us,” and she quite bluntly replied, “Look, if I get an offer to lead a school system of orphans, I will be all over it, but I just can’t deal with parents anymore; they are killing us.”
Unfortunately, this sentiment seems to be becoming more and more prevalent. Today, new teachers remain in our profession an average of just 4.5 years, and many of them list “issues with parents” as one of their reasons for throwing in the towel.
From Ron Clark, named “American Teacher of the Year” by Disney and was Oprah Winfrey’s pick as her “Phenomenal Man.”
(CNN) — This summer, I met a principal who was recently named as the administrator of the year in her state. She was loved and adored by all, but she told me she was leaving the profession.
I screamed, “You can’t leave us,” and she quite bluntly replied, “Look, if I get an offer to lead a school system of orphans, I will be all over it, but I just can’t deal with parents anymore; they are killing us.”
Unfortunately, this sentiment seems to be becoming more and more prevalent. Today, new teachers remain in our profession an average of just 4.5 years, and many of them list “issues with parents” as one of their reasons for throwing in the towel.
After six months of living in Southern California, I’ve observed a noticeably high distribution of attractive males living here. I’m not quite sure how to attribute this hot guy clustering (if someone has an explanation for this, please share) but the phenomenon became strikingly obvious to me when I recently donated some items at Goodwill.
I walked up to the drop-off truck with my computer monitor, consumed by thoughts of things I needed to accomplish that day, when I encountered an Adonis-like buck. He smiled at me, quickly took the monitor from my grasp and I thought to myself, “Even the Goodwill volunteers are hot in Southern California.”
(Note: this infographic is based on the empirical evidence of my personal observations)
The other day I got a question submitted asking me if Pendleton shirts were actual surf fashion back in the late ’50s and early ’60s. As a matter of fact, they sorta were.
Pendleton Shirts
When I first started surfing in the mid-50s, there was no set “surf look” as far as I know. Surfwear was a long way off.
When the big surf fad started to take place, kicked into gear with the 1959 movie “Gidget,” there became certain pieces of attire that people related to as surfwear. Pendleton shirts were one of those. They were warm and felt good when you got out of the water, and you could use them in place of a jacket at night.
