April Fools’ Day Tech Pranks

April Fools’ Day marks a long-standing tradition of practical jokes, hoaxes and good, old-fashioned tomfoolery. So, naturally, it’s one of my favorite holidays! With everything from “kick me” signs taped to people’s backs and flour poured into hairdryers, to toothpaste-filled Oreo cookies and Saran Wrap on the toilet seat, April 1st is a day when many are constantly looking over their shoulder … and the tech world is no different! Just try putting a Post-it note over your coworker’s mouse trackball, or pressing Ctrl+Alt+↑on their computer keyboard, and watch them go nuts (note: Ctrl+Alt+↓ is the fix for the second trick).

What Are Your Favorite #FailedTechBands?

Last week, my Twitter feed was buzzing with a lot of misspelled musical groups. Typos like WAN Halen, Wiki Minaj, Johnny Cache, and The Red Hat Chili Peppers were seemingly everywhere I looked… oh, wait, that was the #FailedTechBands hashtag craze.

Started by Mashable, tech gurus, nerds and geeks everywhere (myself included) flocked to Twitter to chime in with clever puns that combined technology brands and gadgets with popular band names and singers to see who could come up with the cleverest failed tech band.

Women in Tech; Saving Grace for the IT Staff Shortage?

As predicted, we are now in the midst of a skilled IT staff shortage. In fact, IT staff now ranks third in ManPower’s annual talent shortage survey as one of the hardest positions to fill, up from sixth place in 2011. But, as companies look to fill these critical tech roles across various industries, will women be their saving grace? Historically, women have not held a prominent role in the technology sector; however, recent research shows women are making promising strides.

Three Useful Trade Show Apps

Last week, while at NAB in Las Vegas, the trade show floor was bustling with the usual hype around new trends, announcements and innovations. With more than 90,000 attendees, NAB is often regarded as one of the largest trade shows in the world, and certainly the largest for the digital media sector. With so much to see and do, such a large trade show can quickly become exhausting and a bit overwhelming. To make the experience easier, however, there are a few handy apps that help take care of some of the more tedious trade show tasks and leave you free to focus on networking, business development and lead generation.

Texting by Touch on a Touchscreen

If you’re anything like me, scary movies can be absolutely paralyzing. One of the few rays of hope though in any hostage or terrorist scene is when the daring young character pulls out his or her cell phone and feels around on the buttons to call 911 or text for help. But, with the advent of touch screen phones, performing this feat becomes all but impossible. And, I have to admit that when I first got a touch screen phone, this thought was one of the first to cross my mind.

Modernizing Business Cards

Everything from paperback novels and newspapers to roadmaps and phonebooks seems to have found a new home as a modern, electronic version of its former self. Yet, in our increasingly paperless world, there’s one thing that still seems archaic and hasn’t moved to an electronic form: business cards.

At conferences, trade shows and networking events, it’s almost inevitable that you’ll run out of business cards – or room in your pocket from collecting so many other cards! So, wouldn’t it be great if business cards caught up to our modern, electronic world? Well, we seem to be getting closer each day, especially with the advent of several pretty cool smartphone apps, some of which I saw being used a couple of weeks ago at Cloud Expo West.

Can You Predict What’s Going to Go Viral Online?

When something goes viral, it usually only takes a matter of a couple days, or even hours, before a friend will send me a link via email, Gchat, Facebook, IM, Twitter, or some other social networking site I’m a member of. More often than not, the viral content is a funny video, photo or website, but, no matter what it is, I’m usually not the first one to have seen it. I have often thought, ‘wouldn’t it be cool if I were the one to know about or share this for the first time?’ But, how can you predict what’s going to go viral online? Well, Bit.ly thinks it has the answer.

The Internet in One Minute

The digital world often feels like it’s spiraling out of control with new content being generated every second and new platforms for disseminating that content cropping up left and right. We all know the world moves fast, but have you ever wondered just how much happens online in one minute? This infographic summarizes some pretty amazing facts and figures, which you might as well double, since that will probably be more accurate by the time you’ve finished reading this!

Sharing Insight on the Business of Tech PR

Yesterday evening, I had the opportunity to speak on the Boston University PRSSA tech PR panel along with Melanie Ensign of Fleishman-Hillard and Cheryl Gale of March Communications. While everyone in the audience was interested in some aspect of PR, the concept of specifically tech PR was new to some. By the end of the panel, though, I like to think we made a strong impression with some interesting insight into the field.

Spotify Spots the U.S. Market for Growth

The rumors are true; Spotify has come to the States! The steady growth and launch into the U.S. market shows the increasing demand for a more musically interconnected, sharing-based culture. And that’s exactly what Spotify aims to achieve, giving U.S. music fanatics the chance to discover, play and share a variety of musical genres all in one place.