Kevin Rose was just backstage at TechCrunch Disrupt and gave me a brief preview of his first app, called Tiiny, from his new development company North Technologies. He said it’s going through the app review process now and should be released shortly.
Image is terrible but this is his story to tell when he’s ready. Website describes it as “Share tiny little photos that disappear after 24 hours” but it’s more than that. Pretty slick though.
Every once in a while someone asks me who I think the best tech bloggers are and why. It happened today, in fact, back stage at TechCrunch Disrupt.
I also have blogging on the mind in general after reading Jason Kincaid’s new book today.
Here’s my short answer – A great tech blogger needs to be exceptionally good at (1) breaking big stories, (2) writing powerful thought pieces, and (3) doing live interviews.
In my mind, there are just three or four great tech bloggers in the world.
The average tech blogger, which is just a commodity, probably isn’t good at any of these things.
They’ll muddle through a story that’s been handed to them, often leaving readers confused and bored. They won’t try to write thought pieces about the state of (or future of) the industry (although they’ll occasionally write outrage articles and think they’re adding to a discussion). And if they’re ever in a position to do a live interview they’ll be nervous, possibly sycophantic and definitely boring.
A good tech blogger, which is someone who’ll develop an independent following on social media and be an asset at any publication, will usually excel at one of the first two categories – either they have enough sources and reporting skills to break stories (you need both), or they’re smart and articulate enough to write interesting columns about technology. But not both. Those people can usually become passably good interviewers, too, once they overcome stage fright and learn to listen.
Then there are the great tech bloggers. These are the bloggers who attract others to them, and are able to build teams and companies around their personalities.
They break big stories without even pausing to watch as everyone else tries to catch up. On a slow news day, or just because they’re feeling it, they’ll write about something that shakes the industry, or focuses everyone’s attention for a time, or from which new companies are born. And they are naturally ferocious interviewers.
Sometimes someone is extremely good at just one category, so good that they rise to the very top of their profession. But for whatever reason they can’t crack the other category. It almost seems like having the skills needed for one category mean it’s much less likely they’ll have the skills for the other.
So when people ask me who the best of the best are, I talk in these terms. This person breaks stories but isn’t a thought leader at all. That person writes fascinating, thoughtful stories but has never broken news. Or they haven’t figured out how to maestro an interview yet.
So who are the legends in the industry today? I’m not going to say, but I’m happy to listen to your thoughts, below.
I had the pleasure of reviewing former TechCrunch writer Jason Kincaid’s new book The Burned-Out Blogger’s Guide To PR today for Techcrunch. It’s a must-have book for entrepreneurs, and laugh-out-loud funny. Read my review here, and buy the book here. Kindle only for now, but you can get a printed version in a couple of weeks.
Alexia Tsotsis, the editor of TechCrunch, interviewed Peter Thiel yesterday at TechCrunch Disrupt. Pando editor Paul Carr has this to say:
Alexia is the editor of TechCrunch. And that means she’s a competitor to the sites that regularly call out sexism, subtle or overt, that pops up in our industry. So she goes without defense.
Not only does she go without defense from her peers in the industry, it’s actually one of her peers calling her stupid.
Which is fine, she’s very tough. But if you see her today, let her know how much you respect her. She won’t show it, but comments like these might even be somewhat more ego-shattering than that time Jessica Livingston had someone hit on her at a bar.
And for Paul – if he takes a moment to think about it – he might even agree that some comments should be out of bounds.
Apple has a very large problem right now.
I’m not talking about legal liability over the nude celebrity photos and videos being posted all over the internet right now (dubbed “The Fappening”), although I think that’s also an issue. Celebrities tend to have aggressive attorneys, and the damages here are extreme – some celebrities have had careers ended from leaked photos (while others have benefited)
But a much larger crisis looms – everyone, and I mean everyone, now knows that everything private they’ve done with their iPhone, if they use iCloud, is not only vulnerable, but extremely vulnerable.
The Next Web says that a tool that allows brute force attacks against the Find My iPhone service gives hackers a way in to iCloud.
That may or may not be what’s actually going on. Hacker Nik Cubrilovic, for example, says it isn’t slowing people down from accessing new accounts:
Apple patching FindMyPhone API isn't slowing down the celeb pic groups – watching them attempt to break new accounts right now on a forum.
— nik cubrilovic (@nikcub) September 2, 2014
And it doesn’t really matter. Even if Apple fixes the problem, or has fixed the problem with the patch they just released, or even if all of this was caused by something else entirely, they’re still screwed. The damage, the massive damage, has already been done, and people associate it with Apple.
Because everyone now understands that their phones aren’t secure. Even things they thought they deleted are vulnerable. That’s something that will haunt Apple for a decade.
I’m not talking about people who trade their iPhones for Android devices. That isn’t a big issue, and Android isn’t any more secure than Apple anyway.
I’m talking about the fact that people won’t feel the same way about their phones after this. Your phone is no longer a part of you. It’s a weapon, pointed at you.
@stuartdredge @arrington My guess is Tim Cook’s script is being radically re-written for next week.
— Mike Butcher (@mikebutcher) September 2, 2014
Uncrunched 