billpalmer.net

Some nights you stay home and work on the finishing touches on the first issue of the magazine. And some nights you set work aside for a few hours and venture out to a small club in Hollywood and you find yourself ten feet from a stage that simultaneously contains Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction, Ginger Reyes of Smashing Pumpkins, and too many other notable talented folks to mention.



And some nights Perry Farrell's wife uses your camera to take a picture of you and Perry Farrell together.



Alright, back to work on the December issue. Just a few finishing touches and this baby is out the door. Interviewing six bands in the next eight days. I guess this is for real :-)

10. Rookie quarterback John Beck didn't lose the game for them last week in his first start, and he won't lose it for them this week. Sure, they found a way to lose last week, but for once it wasn't the quarterback's fault.

9. In an NFL turned so upside-down that the undefeated Patriots can almost lose to A.J. Feeley, anything is possible.

8. Once safely eliminated from playoff contention and any shot at respectability, the Dolphins invariably win just enough meaningless games to keep them from getting a better draft pick.

7. Reigning league MVP Jason Taylor is still in a Dolphins uniform - for a few more games anyway.

6. two words: Ricky Williams

Oh, you wanted five more? Nah, sorry, I'm hedging my bets :-P

In the spirit of new media, we wanted to provide participants from the three primary industries we cover to tell each other's stories. In the end we had a podcaster interview a podcaster, and a musician interview a musician, but we didn't get to have an iPod interview an iPod. Not quite sure how that last one would have come out. I suppose the shuffle could interview the classic about what it's like to grow up in the industry and be considered a has-been.

The final tally looks like six feature stories/interviews about musicians, six about podcasters and other new media community members, six about the iPod and iPhone, on-site reports from six conferences, and six reviews of iTunes albums and iPod games. Something about the number six I suppose. Didn't even plan it that way. But here's another number: the content came from a mind-blowing twenty-eight different writers. Never, ever, ever did I expect that many people to step up to the plate for the first issue of the magazine.

Five days and this baby rolls.

Pages isn't a perfect page layout tool, but during the course of all the time I've spent with it over the past two days I'd have to say I've praised it a whole lot more than I've cursed it. It's got a way of wanting to do things, but if you learn to just get out of its way and let it make you look good, it probably will.

Oh and by the way, the December issue has crossed the hundred page mark and will feature original content by more than twenty authors. Sure, I've written about fifteen of those pages myself, but the vast majority of the content is coming from a mix of long-term staff members, homegrown talent, industry veterans, community luminaries, and performers who've picked up the pen. The range of quality content from so many quality people is what I'll walk away from the first issue the most proud of. On the other hand, once I finish giving the cover story the polishing and revision it needs, it'll be something to be proud of as well.

There comes a time in a long-term project where you feel your back is against the wall, the clock is ticking, things have gone wrong, and the grind to the deadline has commenced. But I swear, I'm just not feeling it. The articles came in on time, the scheduled interviews happened when they were supposed to, the page layout has gone quicker than expected (and to be honest, looks better than I had expected), and there's a full week left to go back and file down all the rough edges and polish things up and give it the finishing touches that make it feel like a real magazine before it's time to release it.

Frankly, if there was a good reason to do so, I think the December issue could even be released a few days early. But instead I think I'll use the extra time to continue refining it. There's always potential improvement to be made. One week to go.

almost never do I reply to people who've gone off the deep end about Apple-related products these days, so it's as much of a surprise to me as anyone that I've ended up doing so twice in a span of five hours - not a trend, I promise...

Dear XXXX,

Sorry to hear about all the problems you're having with MacOS X Leopard. If it were me, I know I'd be angry and tempted to vent to anyone who will listen.

But has it occurred to you that you might have just been among the statistically unlucky few to have something go wrong with the install? With more than a million copies of Leopard already sold, even a one percent failure rate (defined as the install resulting in an unstable system) would mean ten thousand unhappy Leopard users, all looking to gripe, and all googling for "Leopard problems" and finding each other in the process. Nevermind that the other ninety-nine percent of Leopard users are smooth sailing, those one percent are going to seek each other out and convince themselves that they're the majority and that Leopard is a miserable failure of a product.

I have no idea how to respond to your comparison of Leopard to OS X beta. As a user of the beta myself, I can recall that it would mount a zip disk as a CD image, it lacked a lot of basic interface functionality and it didn't seem to know the difference between a gigabyte and a megabyte in certain Get Info panels, to name a few "alpha" issues. And those were issues that we all had to deal with, not a statistically unlucky handful.

I'm sure you're not one of those types who buys their first iPod, has it die on them, runs into one other person whose iPod died at some point, and then assumes that all iPods are defective and that a worldwide recall is in order, but that's the same logic you're using with your Leopard argument. There's no such thing as a high-tech product with a zero percent failure rate, and it's a given that those in the unlucky minority are going to seek each other out and make a disproportionately large amount of noise. I feel bad that you've been unlucky enough to be a part of that group. But your use of the word "plethora" doesn't add anything to your argument unless you can present us with hard numbers when it comes to users who've had problems, numbers that are anything more than a rounding error in the face of the million-plus Leopard installs.

Again, my condolences on the fact that you're having so much trouble with it.

Much thanks,
Bill Palmer
Publisher of iProng Magazine and iProng.com

I love this game. I know, it's what I do for a living, it's my job, and I take it very seriously as such. I spend more hours a week doing what I do for a living than most people do. But on days like this I have a really hard time referring to what I do as work.

Last night I was informed that I would have the opportunity to interview Olympic gold medalist swimmer Natalie Coughlin, a fellow iPod fanatic, in person at her hotel today. After a late evening of writing interview questions, I headed over to her hotel today, conducted the interview poolside, and headed home. Not two hours later, not only had I posted the pictures of Natalie from the interview on Facebook, people were voting on which ones should be used in the magazine!

Sure, posting the interview photos in advance draws interest toward iProng Magazine. But the thing is, it makes the magazine better. I've got four good photos, it'll probably only end up being appropriate to use two of them for the length of article I'll be writing, and I don't know which two photos people will want to see. So why not ask people what they want to see? Why not ask for advice from anyone and everyone who cares to offer it?

I'm not doing anything radical here. I'm just employing some of the ideas I've learned from the new media folks who've made such a big impact on my professional life lately. Anyway, go vote while I work on my questions for Monday's interview with Silverchair :-)

Oh, and did I mention that the December is going to include content from twenty-four different writers? I think I'm more proud of that than anything...

my reply to someone who said I sounded like an AT&T apologist on the most recent episode of iProng Radio when I pointed out that AT&T reception on my iPhone has been fantastic. He apparently bought an iPhone, had reception troubles, and returned it to the store a week later...

Hello XXXX,

You're certainly entitled to your opinion. Why am I not entitled to mine? I've had a grand total of one dropped call in five months with my iPhone. Should I pretend I'm having more problems than that just to appease the fact that others dislike AT&T?

AT&T's coverage has in fact been excellent now that I have an iPhone. That's a fact for the city I live in (Los Angeles) and appears to be the case in the other cities I've traveled to since I've had my iPhone (Chicago, San Francisco). All these iPhones in LA and I can't find anyone else here who's had reception issues either. Have you considered the very real possibility that the iPhone you bought was defective, or did you just assume that it was the AT&T network because you already decided you didn't like the company going into it?

My five months with AT&T on the iPhone, in terms of reception, have been an A-minus at worst. I'm not going to pretend my AT&T experience on the iPhone has sucked just because that's the "cool kids" opinion to have. And if I had a dollar for every time someone from various parts of the country has told me that their AT&T reception improved drastically once they moved from a moto phone to an iPhone, I'd be a rich man, because it's the prevailing trend that I see. It turns out AT&T has been unfairly taking the heat (from myself and others) for the crappy antennas in RAZR cell phones for years.

I'd think you'd know me well enough by now to know that I'm not going to fake an opinion just so I can gain entrance to the cool kids club. I know you're only allowed to be a true "Apple geek" if you use Firefox, Gmail, and Adium, and you think the iMac isn't a real computer and the Mac mini is the only Mac anyone should buy, and you think AT&T sucks. Sorry, but none of that conformist nonsense impresses me. And it's funny how nearly every time one of my "radical" opinions gets me shunned by the Apple geeks, it turns out the other 99% of the Apple user base agrees with me on that issue. Wonder why that is.

Have you even considered the possibility that your reception experiences with AT&T on the iPhone were atypical? Or were you too blinded by the drumbeat of Apple geeks who have spent the past ten months chanting "AT&T sucks" to see that you may have simply had a defective unit?

Much thanks,
Bill

Listen to iProng Radio #58 right now or subscribe for free!



On this week's show:


On iProng Radio #58, Bill Palmer is joined by Tim Robertson of MyMac, who will be co-hosting once every six weeks. Bill and Tim discuss the iPhone launch in the UK and Germany, the mystery behind the 1.1.2 update for the iPhone and iPod touch, iPod earbud quality, future iPhone features, and more.



In addition to Tim from MyMac, iProng Radio's other rotating co-hosts include Ken Ray from Mac OS Ken, Cali Lewis from GeekBrief.tv, Victor Cajiao from Typical Mac User, and Adam Christianson from MacCast.


- Listen to iProng Radio #58 right now in your browser

- Subscribe to iProng Radio for free and get each episode delivered to your iTunes automatically

- Check out the website and podcast at MyMac.com to hear more from Tim Robertson

- Reader feedback: radio@iprong.com

- Miss us between episodes? Visit iProng.com, the Publication for iPod and iPhone usersª

So about four years ago my front tooth cracks pretty close to the nerve and my dentist offers to put a filling in it, but tells me that "this won't last five years." I went ahead and told him to put the filling in, figuring I'd pay the root canal piper down the road. The filling cracked loose in a hairline fashion last week. I knew this day was coming.

You know, you'd like the stars to align such that the month you decide is going to be the busiest and most important of your career ends up not being occupied by mundane distractions like dental work. The thought of wasting one of my twenty-four days remaining until iProng Magazine launches with a drill in my mouth is altogether repulsive, and I haven't yet found myself a dentist in this town anyway. So I'll push forward with the minor discomfort, and in the mean time I'll hunt down a reputable dentist just in case it gets worse.

But oh well, what are you gonna do? Lousy timing, but I'm not going to let it slow me down. The musician interviews begin tomorrow, and things are just starting to get really exciting. I don't want my obituary to read "Never got around to launching iProng Magazine due to a toothache" :-)

You're invited to join us for the iProng Magazine launch party at Barbara's at the Brewery in downtown Los Angeles from 7-10pm on Monday, December 3rd (presented by LA Podcasters).

We'll be giving away hundreds of dollars of iPod and iPhone accessories, copies of the new Silverchair album (the band on the cover of our December issue), and more. A full menu is available at Barbara's so come for dinner and stay for the festivities.

The iProng Magazine launch party will also serve as the December meeting of LA Podcasters, the long-time regional group for podcasters and new media types in the Los Angeles area.

Attending? Please RSVP via email or via Facebook

Maps and directions to the Brewery in Los Angeles

Learn more about LA Podcasters

Learn more about iProng Magazine

Breaking news: Silverchair, the alternative rock band who've sold more than six million albums, have agreed to appear on the cover of the inaugural December 1st issue of iProng Magazine. The full band will be sitting down face to face with iProng staff for an in-depth interview when their current world tour passes through Los Angeles later this month. We'll be discussing their big U.S. comeback, why their latest single is getting so much airplay, and a whole lot more.

iProng Magazine is coming your way on December 1st, featuring the latest news, reviews, and interviews each month from the iPod/iPhone, podcasting, and music industries.

To celebrate the inaugural December 2007 issue we're giving away five Altec Lansing iM600 speaker systems for your iPod! One has already been awarded to Scott J., who correctly guessed that Silverchair is on the December cover, but the other four are still up for grabs. Just let us know who you'd like to see on a future cover of iProng Magazine by visiting our launch page.