BradBerens.com
Thoughts about where our real and digital worlds collide.

  • From the Bizarre Question Department: Voice Page Turning for iPad?

    I love reading while on the elliptical machine at the gym, and it’s a handy time to plough through reports and PDFs using the iPad (gen 1).  However, if I’m tracking my heartrate I have to take my hands OFF the paddles in order to go to the next page on the document, book, PDF…

  • Sat AM Quick Updates on Urban Outfitters

    Quick updates: Urban Outfitters finally spoke out both via Twitter and on the blog to which they link: Hey everyone, please read our statement regarding the I Heart Destination Necklace. http://urbout.co/kqdecK Why the company waited until the Saturday morning of a holiday weekend is beyond me. Note also that my friend Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb found…

  • Urban Outfitters’ Massive Social Media FAIL

    Please check out my latest post over at iMedia Connection about how Urban Outfitters is following in the dubious footsteps of Domino’s Pizza back in 2009 in their failure to address a massively negative social media campaign. Domino’s learned this lesson the hard way — and is now doing social media right — so let’s…

  • Interesting Tidbits for May 26th

    Things worth reading for May 19th through May 26th: Edge Perspectives with John Hagel: The Pull of Narrative – In Search of Persistent Context – Interesting piece by John Hagel on the difference between story and narrative. When Ideas Have Sex | WhatTheFuture.tv – Really nice piece of gem cutting from WhatTheFutureTV. 20+ Awesome &…

  • Simile Search: Please Help This Writer!

    I’m looking for evocative comparisons that talk about how one thing so automatically comes with another that we take the pairing for granted. Like, “the juice comes with the meat” (except it often doesn’t) or “the warmth that comes with the fire” but preferably less flabby.  Something taste or smell related (for its Proustian oomph)…

  • Short Post: There’s More to the Amazon story than Fast Company conveys

    Kit Eaton over at Fast Company (a must read in general) blogged today about Amazon’s announcement that it now sells more e-Books than physical books.  Here’s a relevant snippet including a link to the Amazon press release: Since April the first, for every 100 print-and-paper books Amazon has sold, it’s also sold 105 e-books, according…

  • Interesting Tidbits for May 18th

    Things worth reading for May 15th through May 18th: It is alive! The Death of Email Has Been Severely Exaggerated – Nice piece by Rapleaf CEO Auren Hoffman– finally a defense of email! Netflix Owns The Evening Web | Fast Company – Interesting data– note, though, that Netflix owns the DATA part of the evening’s…

  • Super Storytelling Smackdown: “Smallville” vs. “Thor”

    This is a post about the difference between experiencing a story and remembering it later, a distinction that we pay too little attention to in the media world.  I’ll talk about theater, movies, TV, Superman, Thor and Shakespeare, and there will be spoilers… lots of ’em about the “Smallville” series finale, but I’ll be careful…

  • Missed Advertiser Opportunity: Fortune Mag’s “Kindle” Strategy

    The May 9th issue of Fortune Magazine contains a terrific 22 page article by Adam Lashinsky called “Inside Apple.” As has been much reported, Fortune withheld the article from its website. To read Lashinsky’s article, you have to subscribe (magazine subscribers get free iPad access), haul yourself to a newsstand or pay 99 cents at…

  • Interesting Tidbits for May 10th

    Things worth reading for May 10th: YouTube – SURPRISE MUSICAL – Gotta Share! – Must see! Media Firms Become More Willing to Work With Netflix – WSJ.com – Interesting take on the turning tide for IP based VOD. Fortune Keeps Apple Story Off Web, On iPad and Kindle | Peter Kafka | MediaMemo | AllThingsD…