How 12 men stole a billion passwords

How in the world did a crime ring of about a dozen Russian men hack 1.2 billion user name and password combinations - plus a half billion email addresses?

They did it by exploiting two major vulnerabilities many major online services have to hacking - 1) poorly stored usernames and passwords, and 2) something called "SQL injection".

I'm not going to pretend I know my way around these two issues. But Tom Scott, a regular contributor to the Computerphile YouTube channel, does.

The man's a genius at explaining these vulnerabilities in language that even people like me can understand.

See if your jaw doesn't drop as you start to understand how scarily easy these thefts are to engineer if you're bent on malice and know what you're doing.

Tom Scott on the right and wrong ways to store usernames and passwords.



Tom Scott on SQL injection.

Spout: Gorgeous Twitter Visualizer on the Cheap

What would you do if you were charged with getting a tweet board up for an important event, you had no budget, and it had to be something that would grab attention?

Sure, you could Google "Twitter visualization" and find a few finicky and not-so-flashy free products. You could also pay outrageous amounts of money to unlock a premium product.

Or you could pay $2 for Spout, the remarkable flexible tweet visualizer for iPad and iPhone. Spout gives you 15 highly customizable themes, modes, display times, animation controls - and more cool features than you can possibly use at one event.

Spout doesn't allow you to display multiple tweets, just one tweet at a time. But it's guaranteed attract eyeballs and draw your participants into the Twitter conversation. Hit the video below and feel your jaw drop.

Cynic tells us TED talks are American Idol, presentations junk

Benjamin Bratton has taken a lot of heat since he published a scorching piece called We Need to Talk About TED in the Guardian on December 30, 2013.

The thrust of his argument is that "so little of the future promised in TED talks actually happens." This he argues in his intelligent but astonishingly cynical op-ed which contains the entire text of the 11-minute TEDx San Diego talk below.

Listen as Bratton deflates the enthusiasm behind the reception of TED talks by the great unwashed (read us and the audience immediately in front of him) and rips presenters for not dealing with more difficult and substantive issues. Are those who take to the stage really Gladwellian, American Idol-styled sell-outs?

I can't begin to argue with Bratton point for point. But this I do know. For the longest time, TED's signature tagline has been "ideas worth spreading" - a simple promise, and in my experience, often delivered.

Would love to hear your views below.

How IBM's jaw-dropping classroom of the future will 'learn' you

IBM's vision for the classroom five years from now is wrong on so many levels. When I came across this infographic and the accompanying video today my jaw dropped.

I added the numbers to the graphic above and keyed my bullets below to them to help unpack what the good folks at International Business Machines are thinking. But you'll quickly see many more flaws than I can point out. And if you're insulted by the six copy points in the graphic, just wait till you click on the video below.

1) Yes, the classroom will "learn" you - providing you are a student lucky enough to participate in Big Blue's dream of grabbing a utopian chunk of the world's public education pie. This "classroom" of which they speak? Basically, it's a hardware/software/cloud combo IBM wants to sell your school division after its research project with Gwinnett County Public Schools, the 14th largest school district in the US, is complete.

2) Now, what Dr. Frase is really saying here is the classroom will learn about every student in your class, providing you enter copious amounts of standardized test and other data (the more numbers the better) about them and brief the software about their aptitudes and learning preferences. Notice, too, that this not-quite-human helper will actually provide you with a tailored curriculum for each student from kindergarten all the way through high school until they get their first job at McDonalds. Hmm.

3) If you thought "The classroom of the future" was some corny Popular Science / Jetsons / 1950's news reel fabrication, not so fast. Consider that this classroom will be so darn smart, it will help your kids master skills critical to meeting their goals. Not to make light of students genuine interests and desires, but it's only the kids goals that count right? Not yours, their parents or even Society's. But can hardware and software even DO that? Looks like the classroom of the future can.

4) This classroom is so clever, in fact, that it will substantially lighten your load by developing a syllabus based on every child's learning style and pace. Sure, you may have to push a few buttons and stuff, but that classroom computer will do the real grunt work. And you know that flipped classroom experiment? Well, this will be even better because now your students will be able to learn everything on their terms and their schedule.

5) Now, read carefully here. If there's anything getting in the way of any of your young charge's educations right now - hunger, poverty, gangs, violence, teen pregnancy, a bad home life - the system will take make these barriers less of a deal in how they do in school. Yup.

6) Finally, if you're wondering what exactly will fuel this magical helper of yours? Why, numbers of course. And don't feel too insulted when you read that last paragraph. IBM knows things like identifying kids most at risk and finding measures to overcome their challenges are really your job. But they also know you could use a hand from their version of Hal.

Ok, your thoughts? Have you ever seen a more clumsy attempt by a multinational to engineer its way into heavier profits at the expense of good pedagogy and teacher autonomy? Now, we know IBM will have to duke it out with ed behemoth Pearson and other players for market share, but can you get more disingenuous and disrespectful? Is it really a matter of sitting back, punching in the numbers and reaping the benefits of individualized machine-generated curricula for students? Is this really a vision for the future, five years out?

As you watch the video below, you'll form more impressions. Mine actually boil down to a simple question. Honestly IBM, who do you think you are?

Your thoughts, dear reader, would be most welcome.

Good Eye Instagram: Love the New DMs

Direct messages are now IG reality and I, for one, am plenty excited. Almost as much as with the roll-out of 15-sec. video this summer.

I don't care if this is a knee-jerk to keep young IG users from wandering onto Snapchat or Path, this is a feature I've been dreaming about ever since I first waded into Instagram over two years ago.

By that time, I was a Twitter junkie and although the Instagram platform was so engaging, I really missed the opportunity to contact followers directly. I wasn't about to adopt a secondary platform like Kik - as many did - just to contact my to IG friends directly.

I've sent one sorry little DM so far, so I've nowhere near explored the possibilities of this feature, but my mind is racing. I can now send a pic or 15-second video clip to one, or any combination, of my followers. That's a big deal. Why?

Here are four simple things Instagram DMs will do for me and IG users across Instaverse.

1) We can now share messages privately, rather than conversing in public under someone else's pics and vids. Hey, I love the whole watercooler thing, you know. The idea that IG conversations are convened around public images. But sometimes rather than communicating on public bulletin board, all I want to do is leave a private post-it.

(Anyway, thank you Instagram. And thank you Facebook for not messing up platform I still love, at least so far, after you horrified everyone with your $1 billion IG purchase 18 months ago.)

2) Community managers for organizational Instagram ccounts can now respond to followers privately. This gives them greater flexibility to offer guidance or deal with complaints.

3) Instagram pics and video will allow for asynchronous meetings. Sure you can do this on other platforms already. But IGers will appreciate the fact that working groups, organizational teams, and family members can now huddle privately, whenever.

4) Personalized Christmas or holiday greetings to friends, colleagues and family members will be a cinch. There's a lot to be said for warm and fuzzy video/pics targeted to people you love.

As with any new tech, IG users will respond to the DM ability by creating a tonne of new uses for the feature.

Some tech press is already hailing Instagram's DM announcement as meh, and sure it's been a long time coming.

But IG users are going to go crazy for the next few weeks.

A Better Way to Record Audio to Your iPhone or iPad

The superb iRig mic plugs right into your iPhone/iPad, costs roughly $60, and is available at your Apple store.

If you shoot video on your iPhone or iPad you know how hard it is to get good quality sound. The same holds true if you're recording for Sound Cloud or Garage Band on those same devices. The built-in microphones just weren't made to capture sound well.

 

The iRig Mic is a great way to give your video or audio productions the sound they deserve.

 

This microphone is solid but lightweight, has a built-in wind screen, and captures superb quality audio at three different settings.

 

The bottom one is perfect for recording live music that usually registers as a hot, fuzzy mess on your iOS device. This setting tamps down the sound so you can actually hear your favourite band on playback.

 

The middle setting is good for recording sound within a a foot of the source. This is good for streeters or video interviews with people where you pose a question, then hold the mic close to your subject to get their thoughts.

 

Finally, the top setting puts the mic in ultra-sensitive mode. This is perfect for events where you're either far away from the source or the source audio is weak and you need all the boost you can get.

 

I've tested this ultra-sensitive setting in situations where I was about 15' away from speakers at a press conference and the difference in sound quality between the iRig and the built-in iPhone mic was incredible. The iPhone's mic's sound was weak and frankly compromised the viewability of the video, whereas the iRig-recorded sound was bright and clear.

 

I've also used this mic in a noisy construction site where I need decent quality sound on a subject's voice. Placing the mic about 2 ft away from the subject - again on the top setting - cut through the din and gave me decent quality sound. A little hot, but perfectly listenable.

 

My son has used this ultra-sensitive setting to record voice and guitar in our sunroom, positioning the mic on a low table about 3-4 ft. away and it worked well.

 

The iRig mic also lets you monitor sound quality by letting you plug a set of headphones.

 

Check out this great, inexpensive microphone at your local Apple or music store.

 



3 Knockout Instagram Vids for Inspiring Movement

Since Instagram added the ability to shoot 15-second video, you've likely been experimenting with this new medium. It's perfect for giving people a taste of what you're experiencing, from a brilliant sunset, concert or festival, to a skateboard move, a newborn - or even the fish that didn't get away.

While scanning the hashtags I came upon three videos that really got me thinking about movement. Hope these will inspire you, too.

1) Choreographed one-shot video. Most of us build our Instagram videos and Vines with quick cuts and the occasional pan. But what if you eliminated the cuts entirely and shot in one take? Look at the flow - and great choreography - evident in this work from Sarah Vickers who blogs at classygirlswearpearls.com. Note how the fashion is almost incidental to the setting. There are more fluid one-shot videos in her Instagram gallery to inspire you. Click here to see them.


2) Falling out of frame. This visually surprising work comes from Miklas Manneke from South Africa who used the hashtag #tiltvidgram to describe the action. It came out on top in @Instagram's recent #whpmyfavoriteplace challenge. Creative motion requires some deliberate out-of-box thinking - and Miklas and collaborator @garethpon rocked the muse on this one. Go to Miklas' gallery here.


3) Urban stop-motion. New York Times columnist and author Nick Bilton created this brain-tickling video that entertains your eyes by showing stop-motion vehicular and pedestrian traffic on a busy city street. Click here to check out the awesome stills in his Instagram gallery, too.

Stand and Talk 2: Why You'll Love Instagram Video

Upstart platform Vine has had a tremendous impact on the social media landscape with its easy-to-shoot, six-second video format. But Instagram struck back brilliantly this week by introducing video to its uber-popular photo-sharing site. As of July 20, 2013, you can now record and post 15-second videos to your Instagram account.

This isn't simply a great competitive countermove, but a handy new tool for educators for all the reasons I cite in the video above. I know you'll find your own reasons to love Instagram video. If you're a teacher without an IG account yet, consider opening one and start contributing to this tremendously supportive and  creative community. It's a great way to share what the world looks like through your eyes and the eyes of your students (if you have social media releases for them, of course).

Make Your Own RSAnimate Videos with Videoscriber

Ok, so you have seen those RSAnimate videos where a disembodied hand draws and writes to a voice-over of Sir Ken Robinson or another famous TED talker. You can actually do something very close to this with Videoscriber from Sparkol - without even knowing how to draw.

Invest a few minutes in this video and do not be put off by slightly poor sound. What you see once the demo starts will floor you. Check out the second and third tutorial and some of the promotional vids as well.

Imagine the possibilities for yourself or project work for your students. I am not sure if there is a an educational discount, but there is a pricing scale you can check out - and a seven-day free trial.

I owe this one to Steve Snider, formerly of the NEA and now with Integrated Media. Thank you so much, Steve. You can bet I will be checking out Videoscriber this summer.

Stand and Talk 1: Boost Your iPhone Audio

Getting good quality sound - or sound that is simply loud enough - on your iPhone or iPad videos is a real challenge. For anything farther away than your arm, the built-in mic just does not cut it. A good option in some circumstances is the RODE SmartLav mic. This basic lapel mic lets you isolate your voice from the ambient sound around you and substantially boosts the pick up on your voice.

My mistake in this video was to position it about 6 inches from my collar - the recommended distance. After I reviewed the video, I realized that was much too close. You can hear the sound running a bit hot and clipping after I plug the mic in. Because the SmartLav is so sensitive, a better distance would have been perhaps 10 inches down.

Still a good product, though - and one way to deal with the frustration of poor on-camera sound. In a future post I will tell you about the iRig mic - a real premium product, more flexible than this, and at the same price.

Happy recording.

12 Reasons to Love the Boogie Board

Why in the world would you need a Boogie Board?

Okay so you have this brand-new stylus for your iPad – and you're frustrated. The writing experience isn't what you thought it would be. It feels like a big fat crayon. And there's no way you can replicate the feeling of pen on paper - no matter what note-taking app you use. The amount of words you can squeeze onto a Penultimate page is drastically fewer than you can get with paper and your writing is blockish and ugly.

In the vernacular, you're not a happy camper.

So you buy yourself a $30 Jott Pro stylus - you know, the glamorous one with the flat round disc hugging the nib. It's a great conversation piece, but that same disc that used to glide over your glossy pad for the first week or two seems to skip now. And you find out you need to buy thermal compound from the Source and apply it between the nib and the disc to fix the problem. (Can you tell this is autobiographical?)

Enter the Boogie Board - no not the surfing kind. I'm talking about the $49 London Drugs special - the Boogie Board Jot 8.5 - quite simply the dumbest writing tablet in the world. It's single function, feature poor - and absolutely brilliant.

The only thing you can do on this tablet is write and erase. I've had mine for about 2 months and I'm loving it. You cannot save, export, buy apps for it, choose fancy paper or even start a new page.

But it has plenty of features to love:

1. It's perfect for making lists, brainstorming, drawing.
2. Kids love being able to draw, scribble and pass notes. 
3. It's super light-weight and thin.
4. You can quickly scribble down impromptu presentation notes and use as a oversized 3x5 card. 
5. The low-energy screen is always on and it will be for months - power for the earlier versions lasted 10 years.
6. You are always zero clicks away from your note. 
7. It has much better wrist suppression than the Penultimate app. 
8. Viewing is excellent in bright sunlight.
9. Built-in magnets let you slap it onto the fridge or metal filing cabinet.
10. The screen is pressure-sensitive so you can make fat or thin strokes.
11. There's a holder for the stylus, unlike previous versions. 
12. The writing experience is perfect - a pleasure - frustration-free. 

Frankly, there are many situations where pulling out your tablet is a much better choice than using the Boogie Board. But that's why you have a tablet, right? And for about $100 you can buy the Boogie Board Rip which does let you save notes and export them to Evernote. 

But this inexpensive little writing tablet wins hands down in certain situations. I attend plenty of pressers and special events where the Boogie Board is perfect. When working my way around a venue taking pictures - indoors or out - it's so easy for me to ask kids and adults to write their names down on the board, then keep shooting and use that information in tweets or Facebook posts later.

If I need a second page, I just snap a pic of the board with my iPhone, erase and reuse. 

Awkward? I've become quite used to it. And, horror of horrors, if I were ever to leave the board behind at an event, I'm out $50, not $700 as would be the case with my iPad. 

Drawbacks? Plenty. Besides those mentioned already, the low-contrast screen takes getting used to - you certainly can't use it in the dark - but is good enough for most applications. There are plenty of other limitations. Again, all you can do is write and erase.

But I'll put this cheap little tablet up against any other electronic "analogue" writing experience. 

Because of the subtle drag on the stylus, it feels like the closest thing to pen and paper you'll find. My handwriting is not big and blockish, but fine and well-formed and I can fit more words length-wise than on many note-taking apps. I throw this pad in the case with my other equipment wherever I'm shooting or live tweeting. 

I mulled buying this Boogie Board for a half hour in the store before I sprung for it because it seemed like such a redundant purchase. Such a dumb idea for an iPad owner. 

Then again, the tech world is full of brilliant dumb ideas. 

Just ask Jack Dorsey.

Happy Camping - A Personal Look at #EdCampWPG

How much social exhaust do you generate?

How much exhaust should you be generating in your social media interactions? Is it an inevitable part of building a Personal Learning Network or should you be looking at paring down some of the unnecessary banter in your online relationships. Watch this two-minute "walk and talk" I captured with the Socialcam app on my iPhone. It's not meant to be pretty, just to convey some quick thoughts and ask for feedback.

More bloggers who are pressed for time are opting turning to Socialcam as a short-form way of getting their thoughts out, rather than meticulously crafting a blog post. A master of the thinking person's walk and talk is Winnipeg teacher Darren Kuropatwa. Always thought-provoking, Darren has produced 80-plus short videos for his #whilewalking series - all while walking between his home and the bus stop.

Want to challenge your thinking? Check out Darren's insights and questions. I'm pretty sure you'll find some new ideas to love.

Simple slide creation with Haiku Deck

Haiku Deck is the best application for creating presentations on iPad
Not sure why I hadn't heard of Haiku Deck before, but I've been playing with it for a few days now and quite like it. I was going to say it's a great app for quick and dirty presentation builds, but I've learned it's not so quick (I tend to tinker quite a bit) and it's not that dirty (limited functionality compared to Keynote, but fairly decent results).

I loved putting together this little biographical deck above. It's something I can adapt to kick off a workshop. All but one of the pictures are mine, and I found being able to pull down a Creative Commons image right from within the app itself very handy. Take the time to explore Haiku Deck. You're bound to find a use for it somewhere.
 

Authentic voice: Is there enough you in your blog?

Catherine Connors rocked MBlog 2012. Her Bad Mother, Connors' much-fêted mom blog, was one of TIME magazine's 25 best. Here she is on break during Winnipeg's first dedicated blogging conference at the University of Winnipeg.

Ok, it's New Year's Eve day and the big question on my mind is "what does authentic voice really mean?" Yeah, seriously. I had the chance to mull this over in relation to this blog on the last Saturday of November, and I've been thinking of it ever since.

See, the good folks at New Media Manitoba scoured the 'Peg for bloggers who knew their stuff plus brought in some special guests for MBlog 2012: Blogging in the Big Time. Chief among those guests was Catherine Connors, editor of Babble (Disney Interactive) and author of HerBadMother.com - one of TIME’s Top 25 Blogs of 2012.

Catherine was a delight. And there were a few ideas she clearly unpacked during her preso and the subsequent Q&A. 

1) You're not going to get rich from your precious blog. Live with that.

2) If you don't occasionally feel fear after you post, you're not doing it right.

3) Use your authentic voice or your blog won't be sustainable.

Motivation is the key on that third point, she said. You simply won't want to blog if there's not enough you in your posts. And that's what I've been wrestling with.

How much of me does come through in these posts? Is the writing process here a catalyst for generating and floating ideas or simply reviewing ed-related apps and the thoughts of others? Add to that the time crunch nearly every blogger feels and other questions surface. Is this space the best vehicle for my own self-expression? Would a short form blog like a Tumblr or Posterous be easier to update? Does every post need to gift wrapped with a bow?

What about the possibility of embedding quick and more frequent Social Cam videos to bypass a sometimes tedious writing process?

My friend Darren Kuropatwa (@dkuropatwa) uses Social Cam vids brilliantly as a way to float his thoughts about his teaching practice. Check out his While Walking series. It looks like Ontario educator Rodd Lucier @thecleversheep is starting down the same road - sharing short thoughts and impressions more frequently.

So, where does that leave me?

Well, I'm grateful to New Media Manitoba for the excellent event this past November. It was great professional development in a sweet venue with some great networking opportunities - plus I got to meet Winnipeg's bona fide social media guru Erica Glasier (@ericaglasier).

While I haven't found any easy answers to the questions of voice and posting convenience yet, the questions themselves are good ones and deserve attention in the new year.

And that's where my head is right now. What questions will you be be asking yourself this year?

Shyness and Self-expression

Been thinking a lot about the need for self-expression lately. What makes people want to create and share?

When in college learning to write for a living, we sometimes talked about why people write in the first place. Having been an introvert for much of my life to that point, my own pet theory went like this.

Shy people are keen observers of human nature. They may not appear to crave attention, but they learn a lot from the sidelines. They also file away plenty of honest detail. Through years of life off the mainstage, their need to create, express and share - kept in abeyance for so long - can become very strong. And if they find a medium that allows them some facility of expression, they have a pretty incredible stockpile of feelings to surface and stories to tell. They begin to risk and share - often with the flair and precision that take even their extroverted peers by surprise.


My son Ryan and I with Kina Grannis in Minneapolis

One of my favourite examples of this is Kina Grannis - one of the most prolific and creative artists on YouTube. Earlier this year, she completed an comprehensive tour of Europe, Australia, Southeast Asia, Japan and North America.

Her concerts are filled with more good vibes than you can imagine, and her "In Your Arms" jelly bean stop motion video is one of the most killer creative vids you've ever seen. The behind-the-scenes video tells the fascinating story of the year-long shoot.

Most importantly, watch the video above as Kina talks about a moment of epiphany when she knew she had to share.

Q: When did you know your need to share was bigger than your fear - or are you just realizing that now?

Gordon's desk - a thoughtful touch of warmth at Selkirk boy's funeral

Seven-year-old Gordon Anderson was killed in a car accident while driving with his mom last week. I went to his funeral yesterday.

He came from a good Mormon family. One that believes that families can be together forever. Hope and faith in Jesus Christ anchor them through tough times. This is their biggest test.

His grandpa gave a moving eulogy of a boy who lighted up a room and filled his world with hugs, questions and energy - tons of energy. His grandma sang "Goin' Home." His four siblings, mom, dad, and 20 other members of his extended family sang "We Can Be Together" and "Love One Another" through their tears. And one of his uncles put together a video tribute that left 450 people wiping their eyes and scrambling for tissues.

While Gordon's death near Lockport, Manitoba, was tragic, his funeral was anything but bleak.

Love filled the chapel. Admiration and anecdotes of the little guy filled the post-service air in the foyer. And gratitude toward Gordon's principal filled our hearts.

Yes, his principal.

He had arranged something none of us had seen before. A moving tribute to the boy, Gordon's desk, signed by his teacher and classmates, was placed discreetly along one of the walls of the foyer. Underneath it, his family had tucked his gym bag and a pair of his runners.

The desk had a powerful effect on the many knots of people who gathered around it. It provoked pictures and questions and somehow made the boy more real - even to those who had never met him.

It was a loving gesture on the part of his school administrator, teacher and classmates - and it left a huge impression on everyone. What a thoughtful touch of warmth it added to the celebration of Gordon's remarkable short life.

Five reasons to love the new YouTube app

Ok, it's up. A day after the launch of the new YouTube app, you can actually download it in the Canadian app store.

Here are a few reasons I love it.

1) Subscribe to new channels. This just wasn't an option in the native YouTube app built by Apple. This functionality saves you a trip through Safari to the YouTube site.

2) More ways to share. The new app gives you six options instead of three - and they include Facebook and Google+.

3) Shorter URL's. That long URL you had to steal from the "email link" option on the old app was unwieldy and wouldn't render a thumbnail if you copied it into Facebook. The new URL is short, clean and works.

4) Category menu. Borrowing from the menu style you find on the excellent Twitter and Pinterest apps, the new YouTube app allows you to parse your surfing into smaller albeit still broad chunks. Just don't bother rummaging around in the Education category--you'll be extremely disappointed.

5) Fast full screen transition. Clicking on full screen immediately rotates the view from vertical to horizontal. Nice touch.

Modest changes? Sure.

But it looks like the growing estrangement between Google and Apple holds the promise of useful--and likely more frequent--improvements. Changes many of us will appreciate.

Cool stuff I learned on social media this summer

Instagram lets you share so many of the amazing places, people and moments that enrich your life. You'll stop your car on the way to Safeway just to grab a sunset. Your family will question your IG obsession. It's all good.

With the luxury of a month off, I experimented with social media a fair bit over the summer--between long walks on knock-out gorgeous evenings, playing ukulele and singing with my son, and over-indulging at crazy good summer barbeques. 

Here are a few of the things I learned while playing with pixels.

Instagram
This is my go-to creative outlet. The community is overwhelmingly supportive. The IG app has undergone three updates since being bought by Facebook. The latest incarnation has brought many cosmetic changes, plus photomaps--ostensibly a way for you to browse and display geo-tagged photos. The mid-August launch saw a rush of people loading their pics to these maps.

I don't geotag--ever--and that makes me an odd person out. But I keep wondering what's in this geo-tagging frenzy for Facebook as it inevitably merges IG with its timeline sometime down the road. While I enjoy FB, I don't want to be any more an accomplice than I already am in its marketing plans.

A few weeks ago, I discovered that the daily forum by @joshjohnson (175K followers) is a great way to find great mobile photographers and to get followed by same.

The daily forum is somewhat reminiscent of an #edchat. Not nearly as intense but a superb way to make connections. The rules are usually something along the lines of "like three pics and comment on two for every image you post." I shot this pic at the Mennonite Village Museum in Steinbach, Manitoba. It was one of four winners out of over 6,000 posts on the nightly challenge.

Many serious IGers were looking for the death of the "popular page", because it can be gamed by people who sometimes post vanity shots. But it's still alive, just tucked under the Explore page's now more nuanced search box. And whereas you used to be able to search without getting exposed to suggestive content, alas, not anymore.

In spite of that, the IG creative process and associated apps are such a rush. You can't help but have fun. I'll make a point of reviewing some of my favourite apps in a future post.

If you're already on Twitter, take the plunge and download Instagram. A few weeks on IG and you'll begin to see the world in a different way--to actually look at the sky, appreciate the sunsets, slow down and record the beautiful people and places in your world.

Facebook
The latest mobile update to FB is snappier, prettier, and lets you like comments--something you couldn't do before. Esthetically it's a substantial improvement.

If you're have a corporate fan page, the Facebook Pages app is a must because it will let you manage it right from your mobile device. While you can post pictures right from the iPhone or iPad to your page on the standard Facebook app, Facebook Pages also lets you perform a few other functions like checking your stats plus sending and receiving messages. In order to do that, though, you'll have to be logged into both your FB and FB Pages apps.

There's also a new Facebook Camera app that let's you take, view and post nothing but pictures. When it first came out, many asked, "why buy Instagram and then come out with your own photo-sharing app?!" But Facebook Camera is a different beast, developed before the IG purchase. I use it only to do a quick review of the snaps I've already posted. It's handy if you're looking for a pic and don't want to scroll forever down your, or someone else's, timeline.

tumblr
When it comes to firing off quick, short blog posts, tumblr is incredible for ease of use and for its gorgeous free templates. This site is definitely the extemely visual, colourful, and sometimes seedy underbelly of the blogging world. Its versatility is crazy, its users are legion--and it skews younger than other blogging platforms.

After experimenting quite a bit, I've found a place to fit tumblr into my life--but it's very esoteric. I use it almost exclusively to look up ukulele song covers and it never fails to disappoint. It's so easy to ferret out YouTube content from the scads of posts that hit every day. And these are so fresh they often don't turn up in typical YouTube search. I made this contribution to the ukulele hashtag on a day I was feeling brave.



There is a also a vigorous education community built around tumblr blogs as attested to by @coolcatteacher--the extraordinaryVicki Davis--who celebrated the year anniversary of her Tumblr blog this summer. To wit:

I’ve learned so much from so many of you and now I’m in Tumblr daily. Just looked and have no idea where all these tumblr folks come from. It blows my mind that since March or so, over 10,000 people have chosen to follow this little blog that I just messed around with on the side.

Just wanted to stop and say thank you but also to comment on the awe of what Tumblr is becoming. I love Twitter and Facebook and my first blog at coolcatteacher. Pinterest is cool but Tumblr is action packed and intense. It definitely has a place in anyone’s social media experience.

YouTube
Clarence Fisher aka @glassbeed tweeted that YouTube is the most popular way for kids to listen to and discover new music.* This is so true of my 16-year-old and I. Sure I still hang on to my Mott the Hoople, T-Rex and Bowie albums. But there is so much good music being created, covered and written by young musicians these days, it would be a shame to stay stuck in the past.

How could you ever discover hyperactively fun melodies like this one from We Were Evergreen? Have a quick watch.

Of course, it's not enough to simply use YouTube as a video search engine. Its full value is only evident once you start creating and posting content - and subscribing to other channels. Don't let your account go to waste. Start to create and connect.

And I can't mention YouTube without including a plug for...

iCab Mobile
Sure downloading videos from YouTube is verboten according to YouTube's TOS. But say you're giving a keynote and want to show a couple of clips. Are you really going to trust your brilliant tee-up with the hotel's wi-fi? Exactly.

iCab Mobile is an alternative browser to Safari which also let's you download video to your iPad beautifully. It will take you a few minutes to figure out how to navigate through, save and display videos. But once you do, you'll never be at the mercy of wimpy wireless again. Here's some help.



Bump
Okay, that once-upon-a-time fun app you downloaded a few tech conference ago to swap contact information is now capable of performing something really useful.

You can transfer photos by tapping iPhone or iPad against the space bar of your desktop keyboard. It works...instantly. So give it a go at https://bu.mp.

Cut already!

Ok, long post, and there's a lot more to tell. But I'd love to hear about your summer on social media. So, tell me, what did you play with and learn?



*Besides being an awesome educator, Clarence is also the mayor of the town of Snow Lake, Manitoba.

Why Snapguide Could Be The Next Big Thing

Snapguide is a free, simple and very slick iPhone/iPad application for creating and sharing step-by-step "how-to" guides. Even though it only made its App Store debut on March 27, it's easy to see why Snapguide could be big - maybe even Instagram big.

You create attractive guides right from the app taking advantage of your iPhone or iPad's camera and some sweet Snapguide creation tools. Text, photos and video clips are combined in a step-by-step sideways swipe format and each guide features your name and pic plus like, comment and share buttons on the front cover. The results can be stunning.

You'll recognize the social components as being highly reminiscent of Instagram - simple and workable. The explore buttons will let you search for any category of guide you'd like instead of relying on app-generated suggestions.

Now, initially, the range of guides isn't as wide as you'd like to see, but the app is in its infancy and topics will certainly broaden in the coming weeks and months. For now, titles include everything from "How to Roast Your Own Coffee" to "How to Keep a Parrot as a Companion Bird."

Face it, everyone knows how to do something, but doesn't necessarily have the venue to easily share it. Sure there are DIY sites on the web, and YouTube videos are useful for learning new tricks, but this particular mobile format lends itself so well to easy creation and consumption. There is a Snapguide website as well, but the creative fun is definitely in the mobile app.

So, have fun with this one, kick out a few guides of your own and see how Snapguide grows. Looks like a winner.