The Steve Rubel Stream

9 Dec 2009

How Twitter is Rewiring My Brain - and Maybe Yours

These days - perhaps a function of my lifestyle - the mobile device is becoming my primary content reading and browsing tool. This is slowly changing my habits and I wonder if this is part of a larger trend.

With the advent of Twitter lists, I find myself dipping in and out of the stream to catch up not only on news but blog posts from friends and companies whose products and services I use or have more than a passing interest. However the changes in how I interact with media go deeper than news.

I am an avid reader. Each year I read several dozen books - exclusively nonfiction (call me boring, it's ok).

Where I used to finish one book before picking up the next, nowadays, I keep a virtual shelf of books on my iPhone and dip in and out in Twitter-like bursts of time. This could never work for fiction but it suits me fine.

So Twitter is definitely reconditioning this 40-year-old toward a new way of living. How about you?

21 Oct 2009

Kindle Books Can Now Be Annotated on the iPhone

I have an Amazon Kindle but I never use it. However, I constantly use the iPhone Kindle reader - and it has me buying a lot more books. The Kindle Reader for the iPhone got a nice update last night (see the bottom of this page for details). It now lets you not only highlight and annotate your ebooks but also sync these back to the web, as you can see from the image above.

Unfortunately this is somewhat limited since you can't search your notes either on the web or on the phone. Barnes and Noble is coming on strong with their new Nook reader but I decided a few months ago to go 100% electronic and to get rid of all of my books in favor of ebooks from Amazon since they have the best selection. I am hopeful they will add support for other devices like Blackberries and also PC/Mac desktop readers as well.

The Kindle feels like it should be less a device and more of a platform. However, good search is a must and it's still missing for now from non-Amazon devices.

21 Jul 2009

Summer Reads

People ask me all the time why I haven't written a book yet. There are a few reasons: 1) I'd rather write/share online where I can collaborate, correct and remix in real-time, 2) time and 3) other people are already writing more smart things than I have time to read, let alone deviate from.

With the last point in mind, here are three books to consider for your summer reading list. I have included a cloud of common words and phrases from each in a gallery, below, from Google Books. All three are available as ebooks too.

Putting the Public Back in Public Relations by Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge

Say Everything by Scott Rosenberg

The Twitter Book by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein