Blogging the Aloha State and Beyond
This week’s “Geek Beat” segment was a mixed plate of tech news, including Amazon’s new brick-and-mortar “Go” concept store, Twitter’s live video offering, and the latest batch of new emoji… and I don’t care what the Unicode standard says, it’s a “shaka.”
With many still reeling from the results of the U.S. presidential election, our friends at Hawaii News Now called an audible, setting aside the gadgets to tackle the intersection of tech and politics. After a quick mannequin challenge. There’s “fake news” on Facebook, real harassment on Twitter, and big question marks under a Trump administration.
On the latest Geek Beat, we cover a couple of new apps from Google: Allo, a “smart messaging app,” and Trips, a travel guide that helps track your itinerary and even works offline. Finally, a small update from Twitter, allowing more media (photos, videos, quoted tweets) without burning valuable characters.
On the latest Geek Beat, we cover the introduction of Instagram Stories (a shot across the bow of Snapchat), the expanding of Twitter Moments, and an update to Pokemon Go to help players find the Pokemon they seek.
For this morning’s “Geek Beat” segment on the Hawaii News Now Sunrise morning news show, we tackled a trio of tech stories: The ability to applied for “Verified” status on Twitter: I’ve coveted the “blue checkmark” since they first showed up, but up until now there was no way to...
Yesterday, I streamed live video of my drive home from work while a dozen or so people watched. It was pretty mundane, while at the same time, pretty remarkable. I was checking out a new app for iOS called Meerkat, which marries the wide potential of livestreaming with the instant and social strengths...
There was stormy weather over Hawaii on Friday night, which is unremarkable in the winter months. And living in Mililani, in central Oʻahu, we’re usually far removed from many of the most common natural disasters. But Mother Nature can surprise you, and this time our neighborhood saw some of the weekend’s stronger...
A little over a week ago, I complained about Twitter on Twitter, annoyed that the company was starting to insert stuff into users’ newsfeeds that users didn’t ask for. While the appearance of ads and other content designed to “increase engagement” was inevitable, it was still disappointing to see on...
When I first signed up for Twitter in November 2006, it was even harder to explain than it is today. Twitter was born as a group SMS messaging service (a side project of a now defunct podcasting company), evolved into a “microblogging” platform, and eventually grew into a social network...
Last updated 12:32 p.m. HST on May 2, 2011. See end of post. Ryan Suenaga, “Hawai’i’s best known Apple II Geek and social worker.” A Blogger. A Twitter user and Facebook friend to many. He’s shared hundreds of personal stories, from his job as a social worker to his love...
Once again, social media played a key role in reporting and distributing information during a crisis. In the wake of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake off Japan, communities around the Pacific Rim braced themselves for the inevitable tsunami waves. In Hawaii, the “#hitsunami” hashtag aggregated thousands of posts from news media,...
Hawaii voters approved the change from an elected board last year, but it will take legislative action to determine how the new system will work. On Friday, Sen. Jill Tokuda, chair of the Senate Education Committee, is hosting a “Twitter Town Hall,” or “Twitterview.” She’ll be taking comments and answering...
The race for Hawaii governor between Democrat and former U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie and Republican Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona has been a contentious one. A stream of dueling press releases has dominated the headlines, political ads have blanketed the airwaves, and hordes of signwavers have lined nearly every street. But...
To island democratic voters, “Abercrombie & Schatz” sounds like the ticket to a brighter future for Hawaii. But for many people, “Abercrombie & Schatz” also sounds like a clothing line. On Saturday night, as it became obvious that former U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie was going to trounce former Honolulu mayor...
Local businesses that want to better understand the benefits and potential risks of social media now have two new resources available to them. Companies that need a basic primer can now turn to a new guide released last week by a Honolulu staffing firm. And those who’d like to explore...
KGMB9, the local CBS affiliate, launched a bold (and technologically tricky) initiative tonight during its 5 p.m. newscast. Called ‘i9News,’ it carved out a significant portion of the half-hour broadcast to share feedback from viewers. Sure, any newscast worth its salt pimps its e-mail address these days, and “picture of...
From the heady, shaky days of Howard Dean to the triumphant ascent of Pres. Barack Obama, there’s no question that the web is a vital tool for organizing and fundraising. Social networks have turned the grassroots into netroots. If you’re running for office today, you need to have “presence.” You...
Hawaii Rep. Neil Abercrombie is hoping to move from Washington D.C. to Washington Place in Honolulu, today making official his long-anticipated run for governor. True, it was the worst-kept secret in local politics (I blogged it as a sure-thing in November, and I was late then!), and every media outlet...
The Honolulu Twestival was yesterday. I was one of the organizers. It figures that after I implored everyone to help publicize it, the event is over by the time I mention it for the first time here. But where I fell short, many others excelled, and the evening was a...
This afternoon, the state Council on Revenues is giving a briefing on the state economy at the Hawaii State Capitol. And at least two people are Twittering from the briefing as it unfolds: Ian Lind (independent investigative journalist and blogger) and Georgette Deemer (Communications Director for the Hawaii House of...
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