The New Times published an article today about the fact that party hosts and some bars are starting to request no twittering, no blogging, and no photos. I agree with their concerns.

With the capability of uploading our pictures, updating our status and to publish all the time on social network sites, we need to use judgment about what is appropriate to put online or not. As adults, we must consider others’ view on privacy; not just our own.

I love and live in social media. But I also believe that we must keep a line between our private life and our public life. It is not just for you that you must censor what you put online; it is mostly for my friends and family. Not everyone wishes to participate in social networks.

Different Events, Different Venues, Different Rules

This is a lot to take into consideration. The proper code of etiquette is still in the making. Obeying a few basic rules keeps it simple.

Social media conferences encourage video recordings of the entire session, blogging and twittering. It is a given that you can publish your content without asking. But what about when you are in a restaurant, in a bar or when you are invited at a party at a friend’s house?

It is rare to get great shots in a dark bar with a phone camera. Asking your friends if they are OK with you posting the pictures with your phone in the middle of the party is not enough. Your friends may regret it the next morning. It may just be because they may not like the idea that we see them in a bar drinking and dancing. How many of you, have friends requesting that you untag them?

When you go to a party, upload the pictures the next day. You can better judge sitting at home than in the middle of a party. My rule of thumb is to take pictures at the start of the party. Then, forget about your camera.

Family affairs and parties at a friend’s house is generally off-limits. Even a quiet brunch party can be a problem. First, the host may not want to show off their house publicly. I always keep these pictures off the grid. The same is true for a wedding or a birthday celebration, even if they are happening on a public space.

As we continue to use social network sites, the etiquette will mature, will become more universal and will evolve with what we, as a society, feel comfortable with.

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I wish to discuss today the essential tools for bloggers. The two must-have tools to start blogging are a laptop computer and a digital camera. You need a laptop because it enables you to cover live events. If you are on a market for a laptop, read why I prefer the Mac to the PC for blogging. You need a digital camera because images sell a story.

How I Use My iPhone for Blogging?

Next to these two obvious choices, I put the iPhone. Switching from a Blackberry to the iPhone last year opened up new opportunities for me as a blogger. Since I run a design blog, it is crucial that I am able to read HTML emails while I am on the run and to right away being able to click on the links. The iPhone allows me to do it. Before that, looking at 90% of my emails on the BlackBerry was useless.

Being able to connect to the Web anytime anywhere is the big plus of the iPhone. I had an iPod Touch before but I lost too much time finding and setting Wi-Fi connections to be productive. Plus, the Wi-Fi connections cost money at many places. With the iPhone, I can read my RSS feeds, research stories online, mark unwelcome comments as spams or post a comment to another blog whenever I wait in line or I eat lunch at the food court. It makes me more productive.

An added value is when I visit a shop where I wish to take pictures inside the store. More than once, being able to show the store manager what my blog looks like has triggered a positive answer. Otherwise, I would need to return to the shop after the shop owners checked out my blog. Which bring me to why I upgraded my iPhone to the 3G S model? In a word: speed.

The iPhone 3G S cuts by more than half the amount of time it takes to access my image-intensive blog. A quick test shows that it took 55 to 60 seconds with the 3G model. It takes less than 25 seconds with the 3G S. The performance gains are noticeable with all the Web applications I used.

The Camera and Video Recording

Although you can tweet and post photos on Twitter or Facebook with any smart phone, it is easier with the iPhone  due to the iPhone applications. It works as well with the 3G and the 3G S models.

A cool feature on the iPhone 3G S is the ability to specify with a simple finger touch where to put the focus when I take a picture. You can also record small videos. When I am traveling, eating out or attending an event, I often post pictures from my iPhone on Twitter. This is the fast way to stay active on social media when your agenda is too busy.

For me, the benefits of the upgrade justify the investment to get the 32 GB iPhone 3G S. I was lucky to be eligible for the best price. Plus, I already sold my old iPhone, still in perfect condition, after my husband posted a status update on Facebook. Whether you have the old and the new model, having an iPhone will help you perform more efficiently the various tasks typical to a blogger life.

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I am going to San Francisco next week. I read on PCWorld that with iPhone OS 3.0 AT&T will deliver free Wi-Fi access non-U.S. carriers who include Wi-Fi access in their plans. Naturally, I am curious to see if the plan I have with Rogers (my Canadian provider) covers me with a Wi-Fi access. Since I unable to find the information on Rogers site, I did a search.

Here are the search results I got on Rogers Web site. Totally useless since the description repeats the menu instead of highlighting some content of the page. To make matter worse, the results were not even filtered for iPhone due to the fact that their search engine considers menu items. This is what happens when you failed to implement the most basic don’ts and do’s in search engine.

At minimal, a search engine eliminates menu items and only considers the content of the page to deliver relevant results. At least if they were providing me with the content of the page instead of repeating the menu items in the short text highlights I may be able, with patience, to get a clue of where to find what I was looking for.

Basic Wordpress Search Engine

To reassure bloggers on Wordpress, the basic search engine used by default on Wordpress blogs limit the search to the content of the page. It is far from perfect, but at least it does that.

Search Engine is the Last Resort

A well-designed site should give me easy and obvious access to the information I need. A good navigation system and gathering related links are a must. If the Rogers site was better structured, I could have find the information I was looking for without using the search engine. In doubt, ask yourself these questions:

• Is it too complicated to navigate your Web site or blog?
• What I can do to make it simple to understand?
• Do I need a portal page easy to navigate that contains absolutely ALL the links relevant to the single product, its options and accessories and latest news?

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New devices and natural user interfaces will be invented to make our life easier. Just things of all the progress we did over the last 40 years where we passed from a typewriter to digital cameras, MacBook Air and the iPhone. Using everyday objects like our key chains to carry and update information will simplify our life.

The biggest advantage will be than we will enjoy true mobile technology. By truly mobile technology, I mean equipments that are small, weightless and are powerful to have everything we need at our fingertips. No more needs for laptops to carry around.

iPhone users already have a taste of it. So imagine if that freedom extent to our entire computer needs both at home and at the office. I cannot wait for the next 10 years. We live in exciting time.

Take for example, the interactive electronic newspaper. Imagine all the carbon emission we will save in distribution, not counting the trees. For comfort, we need bigger screen than the iPhone and more mobility than the laptop. Electronic paper will become a reality at some point. Many attempts of inventing the electronic paper have already been tried.

Watch a short version here. You can watch the 5-minute video (the second one) at I started something by Long Zheng, a 21 years old Chinese-born who now lives in Australia. The 5 -minute video put things into context. A Powerpoint presentation by Stephen Elop, President of Microsoft Business Division, covers the technology showcased in the video.

It is not just the devices but mostly the ease of use that is impressive. From an interior design viewpoint, we will recover at some point the sleek look of our house as the devices will be less intrusive and will serve multi-purpose. The flat screen TV will be our computer screen and computer.

User interface based on natural movements will revolution the use of computer. The best application today is the iPhone (I know I love my iPhone). From a transparent wall screen between two classrooms miles away to animated drawings, surface displays a la Minority Report, digital wallets, electronic flight boarding cards, way way smarter phones, and mini projectors to guide you in the airport.

The future looks bright.

+ Via I started something

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The game play is simple. You make points by catching any insects except the bees. The bees will kill you. You jump to catch and eat the bug. You cannot catch more than one insect per jump.

The interface is easy to maneuver. Gently hit the screen to trigger a jump. Move your iPhone horizontally in the desired directions to direct your frog in the air and on the ground.

A lovable element of the game are the frog expressions. If it failed to catch an insect, it looks disappointed. The frog smiles after eating an insect. The frog shouts in pain when it gets stunned by a bee. I often shout with it.

Lima Sky has already created 26 iPhone applications. Crazy Frog is a fun and addictive game. At 99 cents, it is money well spent.

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Then, the iPhone becomes a simple cell phone with a contact book. Nothing smart about it. I felt naked. It is easy to forget the technological advancement as we get used to technology. The first thing we did when we arrived at the hotel was to open our computer to get Rogers phone number. We called to inquiry if there was a plan we could subscribe to reduce our costs. They now do!

Instead of paying $6 CAD per meg, you pay a monthly fee of $10 + $1 per meg. I used about 14 meg on my trip. I save $60 (=$84-$24). Since my husband also have an iPhone, our savings pay off the Custo Barcelona dress I got on sale.

Important Steps to Take to Reduce your Costs

1. Turn off the data roaming as you board your departure flight even if you subscribed to a US data rooming  plan.
2. Close off the Fetch New Data – this means that you control when you are downloading new data.
3. Reset the usage statistics (Settings -> General -> Usage). The idea is that you can track your usage and adapt your behavior.
4. Once you landed you can put back on the data roaming.
5. Try to limit browsing the Web, reading your RSS feeds (especially if you read a lot of graphic blog) and even checking your email too often. These actions raise your bill.
6. Uploading pictures on Twitter do not consume too much; after all they are part of the fun of Twitter. I sent a little bit more than 1 meg for uploads versus receiving 13 meg.
7. If you do not plan to go to the United States the next month, cancel the US data roaming plan at Rogers to save the $10 monthly fee

As soon as we landed in Montreal, I return to reading my RSS feeds while I was waiting to pass the customs. It felt great to use the full capability of my iPhone whenever I want.

Little note: My husband Jerome Paradis, the other half of the we in this post, wrote a post on the same topic. We did not consult before. If you are curious you can check his version of the story.

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