Powerpoint Books for Dummies

The rare, endangered analog fail whale.

(Credit:

Twitter: @gilest)

On the way to our digital world, a strange thing happened–analog became cool again. How else can you explain something like Twitter-by-post?

The idea is simple, the execution not so much. Freelance writer Giles Turnbull decided to take his tweets offline by responding to his Twitter feed using physical postcards. He laid out the mechanics of the experiment–done with the help of about 15 “volunteers” from among his Twitter followers–in The Morning News:

It worked like this: everyone involved sent me their postal address, while I headed down to the local Post Office and bought a job lot of stamps. Most of my helpers were here in the UK, but some were in the U.S., one in Australia, and one in New Zealand…
The mechanics of it took a while to work out. Most difficult was replicating my personal Twitter timeline–how could I post the same thing to everyone? Well, by writing it out lots of times.
For those “public” tweets, I wrote the same thing out 15 times, on 15 cards, and sent them to 15 different people. This took every moment as long as you might think; possibly a little longer.
Other tweets were easier to do. The analogue of sending an @reply or a DM is simply sending one card to one p… [Read more]

Related Links:
Twitter Fail Robot heralds an outage for some users
Charlie Sheen Twitter fail: He tweets his phone number
Wayne Gretzky closes daughter’s Twitter feed twice?
Juror’s bad-coffee tweets get death row inmate new trial
Twitter remembers the top stories of 2011

(Credit:
Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich software update is hardly truckin’ it.

The Android 4.0 release, which the company promised last week would roll out to Samsung Nexus S owners, has hit a snag. Frustrated users on Google’s Android forum and elsewhere, have complained of over-the-air downloads failing to correctly install, leaving them with the previous software version, Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

“Mine downloaded to like 20% then just disappeared! And it says my device is up to date!” said one user by the name of Matt Mitchell.

“Mine did reach 100% and then it even asked me if I wanted to Install it and I pressed yes and that was all nothing happened after that,” Fozan wrote on the forum.

Responses flowed in from Pakistan, Canada, the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand.

A Google employee and forums moderator named Paul posted that Google paused the update in order to “monitor feedback,” adding that phone owners would receive another notification when Google is ready to give their quad-band Nexus S device a second pass.

Updates to the Nex… [Read more]

Related Links:
Flash not coming to Ice Cream Sandwich–yet
Google tests Android update on employees’ Nexus S
Living with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, three weeks later
Feeling bold? First Cyanogen builds of Android 4.0 arrive
First-generation phone runs fourth-generation Android

When iOS 5 was released alongside the iPhone 4S earlier this fall, iMessage was introduced as a new, all-encompassing messaging service that would connect all iOS device users for free using their unique Apple IDs. iMessage, however, may have a critical downfall when it comes to securely erasing access if you lose your device.

(Credit:
Apple)

Since Apple released the Find My iPhone app, users cruising out and about have had a backup plan to keep their minds at ease should they accidentally leave their iPhone at a bar or come across the misfortune of being robbed.

Find My iPhone allows you to remote-wipe your iPhone, leaving no trace of your information, should you not be able to recover it. That should be enough to keep users safe, but readers of Ars Technica have reported that despite deactivating their phone with their carrier, remote wiping their iPhone 4S, and changing their Apple ID password after the device was stolen from their home, iMessages from a new user were still being sent and received as the original owner.

According to iOS security expert Jonathan Zdziarski, “iMessage registers with the subscriber’s phone number from the SIM, so let’s say you restore the phone, it will still read the phone number from the SIM. I suppose if you change the SIM out after the phone… [Read more]

Related Links:
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Get an Epson MegaPlex MG-850HD iDevice projector for $645
How to fix 95 percent of iOS app crashes
What to do when your smartphone craps out before the contract ends

Check it out! A dinosaur riding a shark! It's the hottest rumor of 2011!

(Credit:
F*** yeah T-Rex Riding Sharks Tumblr page)

It’s the end of the year show! And we celebrate that, and Hanukkah, with a very special Rumor Has It today.

Instead of rounding up the week’s hottest rumors, we’ve rounded up the year’s hottest rumors. Bam! And we bet you can guess what’s on our list.

We cover the ones that did come true, the ones that didn’t, and the ones that were so annoying, we wanted to scream. Why won’t some of these rumors ever die? At least they keep us in business.

What was your top rumor that did come true, didn’t come true, or annoyed you to death? Let us know in the comments.

We don’t have a show next week, but tune back in January 3, 2012 (!), for the first Humiliation Day of the year. Augh!

EPISODE 13

Ep. 13: Year-end rumor roundup extravaganza!

Subscribe: RSS (MP3) | RSS (320×180) | RSS (640×360) | … [Read more]

Related Links:
Rumor Has It, Ep. 12: Samsung to release Retuna Deesplay tablet (podcast)
Buzz Out Loud 1570: The Galaxy Nexus has landed in America (Podcast)
Rumor Has It, Ep. 9: iPad 3 is the loneliest number (podcast)
Rumor Has It, Ep. 11: Is Google the Internet’s next pimp? (podcast)
Rumor Has It, Ep. 10: Hey HTC! We’ll be your flagship phone (podcast)

If you are still a huge fan of ILT or believe a blended learning approach is necessary, why stick only to PowerPoint , handouts and long talks? Every year, I identify five trends that I am seeing in the industry as a whole, and forecast on where they will be heading throughout the year. In 2011, I saw quite a few items that resonated. Boring.

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January 11: Training Magazine (free webinar): Learn to Use PowerPoint for More Than Boring Presentations. ll be doing a session on PowerPoint and we’ll have two Build-A-Course sessions. 23: PowerPoint Doesn’t Have to Be Boring. There are three core questions that help guide the development of an elearning course. Black desk.

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