Seriously, give it a try. I’m going on a limb and risk saying you won’t regret it. In fact, if you are on places like Twitter, chances are that you are just as informed as your RSS-powered buddies. Before you label me as a nutcase (and hypocritical at that, because I am publishing several feeds myself), allow me to explain.

Drinking from the fire-hose

RSS was fine for a few years. It was manageable because there weren’t that many blogs you were interested in reading. Those things pile up, though. Suddenly you get unread-item anxiety because you see the red notification saying “5000 unread items” and you think “sh*t”. And you go at it, reading all you can read, like a buffet of information. Is this story ringing any bells?

Me, I’ve declared feed bankruptcy. Over 1000+ items are produced in the blogs I subscribe to a day. Unsubscribing a bunch didn’t really help. Also, most of the things I was reading in the feed reader that caught my eye were either featured on Techmeme (which I still have as my homepage on Firefox) or Hackernews. Those that didn’t get to any of these two, would come to me via Twitter. So I just stopped opening the reader. Now I don’t even have one installed and to be honest, I don’t miss it one bit.

Things come to you

We’re living in a pubsub world. I have people I subscribe to on Twitter, and there’s people who subscribe to me. This creates a conversation channel that removes the need for RSS. The conversation becomes the news mediator. Yesterday I heard about Joshua Schachter’s move to Google through Twitter before it was on Techcrunch. Today, I knew about the new Yahoo CEO before it was “all over Techmeme”. Because I subscribe to people whose interests are similar to my own, I hear about things as they happen.

Some might argue that Twitter is more attention-intensive than an RSS feed reader is, but I would disagree. While the feed reader gives you anxiety because you know something is piling up for you to read (much like email), Twitter is a river of news/updates (hat tip to Dave Winer) you can just choose to pay attention to whenever you have time for it. It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely closer.

So in conclusion: take my word for it even if only for a few days. Go reader-less for a while and see how much of a difference it makes. Chances are you’re going to be both okay and with a lot more free time to do great work.

Photo credit: Wizardhat on Flickr.

My iPhone goes with me everywhere I go – I believe it is one of the most disruptive devices (or systems^[1]) built in the last few decades, and I couldn’t love it more. With that out of the way, I’ll make the case that Apple needed the Palm Pre (announced today at CES) to exist in order to actually get serious about their product again. Here’s why:

The last few weeks we’ve been hearing all sorts of speculation and rumors about Apple considering the iPhone the ultimate gaming device, and how it’s set to revolutionize the mobile gaming industry by pushing the hardware in that direction. A quick google search for “iphone gaming” will tell you how hyped up this idea is, and I’m pretty sure you’ll find quite a lot of people excited about that idea. Personally, I hate it. And I hate it to the point that I’m happy that Palm came out with a competitor worthy of that title so that Apple can get back to thinking about the “Phone” in “iPhone”.

The iPhone is a brilliant platform, and has pushed the boundaries of mobile device innovation at a deep level. Regardless of whether it is the best phone to use everyday or not (although I would say it is), it has set a new mark for what defines a phone’s user experience. This is what Apple does right. Personally, I don’t really care if the iPhone lets me play 3D games. Games are not a part of the original vision for the device (“A Phone, an iPod, an internet communicator”), and would only be spreading that vision too thin. Why lose two battles (the phone battle and the gaming battle) when you can blow everyone else out of the water by doing one thing right at a time? I can think of several companies that tried to do that too many times and ended up down in the dumps.

For more information on the Palm Pre check out its official product page or the coverage and hands-on video that Crunchgear and Engadget have of the device.

^[1]: Because the iPhone is really the full package of phone + software to manage it + App Store experience. By building the whole system Apple not only controls all your experience (ultimately a good thing for you) and keeps you under their grasp (ultimately, a good thing for them). More on building products systems in a post in the near future.

I hate the term “PR”. Whenever I hear about it, the word fake pops to mind. The PR industry is changing at a rapid pace though, much due to the influence of people like Gary Vaynerchuck (of Wine Library TV) or Tara Hunt. I would gladly write a full post about how social media is changing the way companies (should) interact with their customers, but I think you’ll get it if you see this. Keep in mind the video below is Gary’s response to one of his websites (Corkd) being hacked:

As an exercise, think about what you just saw and how it compares to the normal reaction to similar situations. It’s not about using video, or using twitter, or communicating instantly. It’s about using the platforms on which your audience engages with you (whatever those might be), and being authentic. Gary sure was.