Recently in Technology Category

I had the opportunity to speak with the journalism class at PCC yesterday, asked to talk about multimedia and where newspapers are going. We are at a seed change about we acquire news and distribute it. From the conversation I had with the students and staff, it isn't only newspapers who will have to change.

Journalism departments around the country, if their ears are to the ground and looking at newspaper Web sites, are seeing more and more online video. Newspapers, ours in particular, have quickly moved into the world of video. Interviews, game action, profiles, stories... you name it and we'll likely be there with cameras.

The surprise that I sprung on the students is that a lot of video is being shot by reporters, not just the photographers. Two reporter applicants, with equal reporting abilities will find it a lot easier to get the interest of an editor if they can shoot and edit video too. This is also true of photographers.

When I was in school, video wasn't even a consideration unless you went into broadcast journalism. We didn't have video cameras in the newsroom until a little over two years ago. Now we have quite a few of them and we're very close to putting together the ability for streaming live remote video.

Today's journalist should learn video. They should learn to shoot a story and take notes at the same time; how to edit a video and get a story written by deadline; troubleshoot when the microphone isn't working. Where should they get the experience. In school. It starts in school.

Rachel Fermi, the photography instructor at PCC is already on track with the multimedia projects she's introducing. Students are creating online slideshows using primarily photos and high-quality audio to tell a story. She agrees the next step is video.

I think gone are the days of push-back from the traditional journalist. I still hear it today that it's too difficult to balance the demands of a camera and a video camera, or a reporter saying they still have to write a story, how are they going to edit the video.

The old ways are dying hard, but they are also dying fast.

These stories are from 2006 so I'm sure a lot of you knew this already, for those who didn't, myself included, they're pretty interesting.

A friend of mine was telling me about an argument he was having with his dad who believe the FBI could track anybody using the GPS abilities on every cell phone. While it's not surprising that a cell phone can be enabled with GPS, it was surprising to me that all phones are already GPS'd and are trackable by the FBI. Check out this link.

Once I found this out by doing a simple search with Google, my friend told me about another argument he was having with his dad. His dad was telling him that any cell phone, whether it is in use or not, can be listened to, again by the FBI. What? A cell phone that is not in use can be used to listen to you and your conversations as a trasmitter device? Another Google search lead me to this.

Paranoia runs deep, doesn't it?

Nikon enthusiasts of every stripe should take a look at Nikon's newest camera. This information released on August 22 goes through the specs of the next pro digital camera the D3. The also released a bunch of new lenses. More information here.

Do you think Nikon did this in time to save themselves from the professional bailout away from Nikon to Canon. It's a tough sell at $5,000. It better be great.

I'm sure the surprise you had when was one of either, "ooh, now's my chance to get my hands on one of those things" or "dammit, why did they have to cut the price this week when I bought it last week." My response was definitely the former. I think Apple made a mistake pricing the phone so high and have come to, I'm sure, a gut-renching decision to cut the price $200. Take advantage of what you can when you can...

Photo by Paul Sakuma/Associated Press