Lifehacker Asks How You Get News, Tell ‘em PimpMyNews

I was just listening to Lifehacker with the PimpMyNews iPhone app, while relaxing on the couch, and I came across this interesting post by Jason Fitzpatrick. [audio version]
If you’re not familiar with Lifehacker, it’s a great resource on all things productivity. I listen to it several times a week in the car, or at the gym, and I frequently pop on over to read the comments section.

In the post, Jason asks, “How Do You Get Your News?” He then goes on to say, “if your great grandparents wanted to stay current on news, they had to make a conscious effort to be places where people were talking about it. Now you can have it streamed, beamed, and delivered.”

As you know, the news industry, which was dominated by traditional sources for nearly 200 years, is undergoing a massive change. We, as consumers, are now in control, and we expect the news and blogs we care about to automatically come to us, no matter where we happen to be.

We also expect it to be available in multiple formats, so we can choose the format that fits best with the situation we’re in, whether we’re driving, riding, working out, or lying on the couch.

Be sure to head on over the Lifehacker and answer Jason’s question, “How Do You Get Your News?

Hopefully, Jason will be compiling the data and sharing the findings in a future post.

Have a great, productive week!

John Atkinson
Co-founder & CEO

[Image via Digital Inspiration]

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johnatkinson, May 17th 2009 | Posted in GTD, PimpMyNews, blogs, lifehacker, native iPhone app, new media, newspaper crisis

Macworld Review of PimpMyNews iPhone App

Macworld’s Ben Boychuk recently reviewed our new iPhone & iPod touch application.

PimpMyNews received a respectable 3.5 stars out of 5. Considering Macworld’s reputation as a tough critic, and the fact that The New York Times and ABC News came in at 3 stars, we couldn’t be happier.

From the level of detail in Ben’s review, it’s obvious that he spent a few hours using PimpMyNews, customizing his playlist, listening to various news and blog posts, and composing a well thought out review.If you keep up with this blog, you know we’re diehard user feedback proponents, so any time some one takes the time to do a “deep dive” on our service, we’re all ears.

In the review, after Ben finished ribbing us about the “ear-catching” name, he turned toward the unique utility of the app. Ben summarizes the app by saying, “Very simply, the app lets you create ‘playlists’ of blog items, or news stories, from more than 1,200 sources, and reads them aloud, and on the fly, in a voice that’s almost lifelike.”

He then goes on to the core value proposition, stating that, “For people on the move, in their cars, at the gym or multitasking at work, PimpMyNews offers an innovative way to ‘read’ your favorite Web sites by listening.” Ben also cited the daily podcast feature, which plays continuous stories from your playlist for hands-free listening, as his favorite feature.

On the “suggested enhancements” side, Ben suggested that we add the following features, most of which are already in the works:

- A “select your voice” feature
- The ability to add more than 10 feeds to your playlist
- More “continuous play” features, in addition to the existing podcast feature
- The ability for users to manage their feeds on their mobile devices

Thank you Mr. Boychuk. We appreciate your feedback – and we’re acting on it.

Be sure to check out the full PimpMyNews iPhone app review on Macworld, and download the app on The App Store. Stay tuned, more time saving enhancements are on the way.

Please keep the feedback coming to Suggestions@PimpMyNews.com

John Atkinson
Co-founder & CEO

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johnatkinson, May 14th 2009 | Posted in App Store, Ben Boychuk, Macworld, PimpMyNews, iPhone, iPod touch, mobile, native iPhone app

BlogWorld Expo Radio Interviews PimpMyNews at SXSW

 

[Listen to the Interview]

We just returned from the SXSW Interactive conference last night. During our three days at the show, we reconnected with old friends, met many new ones, and brushed up on emerging trends in tech and social media.

  

 

For me, the highlight of the show was hanging out in the Techset blogger lounge and sharing stories with other entrepreneurs and bloggers, and talking with PimpMyNews users.Gracious hosts, Brian Solis, who pens the popular PR 2.0 and Bub.blicio.us blogs, Stephanie Agresta, and the Windows Mobile team treated everyone like family, regardless of your Google Page Rank.

 

While in the Techset lounge, I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Blogworld Expo Radio’s Jim Turner. To listen to the interview, click here.

We also shared the news about the new PimpMyNews iPhone application with many other bloggers and social media folks, including Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins, Derek Overbey of 100 Interviews, Jason Falls, Derek Wilmot and many others.

[Be sure to follow these folks on Twitter, using the links below: 

Jim Turner: http://twitter.com/genuine

Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins: http://twitter.com/rizzn

Derek Overbey: http://twitter.com/doverbey

Jason Falls: http://twitter.com/jasonfalls

Derek Wilmot: http://twitter.com/derekwilmot ]

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johnatkinson, March 18th 2009 | Posted in App Store, BlogTalk Radio, BlogWorld, PimpMyNews, SXSW, Techset, Twitter, iPhone

Is Voice the New "Killer App" for Mobile ?

Back when text-to-speech voice quality was “unlistenable,” and before the explosion of mobile devices, TTS seemed to be a technology looking for a market beyond applications for the visually impaired.

Now that nearly everyone has a mobile device, and we’re all looking to multitask on the go, it looks like voice could become the killer app for mobile.

Today, Apple announced a new talking iPod Shuffle. Instead of including a display on the new shuffle, Apple added a feature called “Voice Over”, which reads the artist and song name aloud to you. A couple of weeks ago, Amazon launched the Kindle 2, which includes a text-to-speech feature that drew a ruckus from the overly sensitive Author’s Guild.

Voice-to-text technology is also on the rise. Mobile services like SpinVox, Google Voice, Cha Cha, and many others have been coming out of the woodwork lately, allowing you to speak into your phone and receive transcribed text messages.

The talking iPod, the vocal Kindle, and these other cool voice-enabled services, seem to further validate the relevance of our mobile talking news & blog service.

Reading your blogs and driving don’t mix… but listening? Now there’s a benefit!

What’s next? A talking toaster? Probably.

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johnatkinson, March 12th 2009 | Posted in Amazon, Cha Cha, Google Voice, Kindle, PimpMyNews, Shuffle, SpinVox, Talking iPod, Text-to-speech, voice-to-text

New PimpMyNews iPhone App, Watch The Demo

As we mentioned in a recent blog post, the new native iPhone & iPod touch app is here!

If you’ve used the iPhone web app, you’ll love the feature-rich speed of the new native application. If you’ve never used PimpMyNews on your iPhone, now is the time!

Check out the brief demo below, then head on over to The App Store to download the new application. [Tap here to watch the iPhone version]

Please let us know what you think, by sending your feedback to Suggestions@PimpMyNews.com

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johnatkinson, February 12th 2009 | Posted in App Store, Apple, PimpMyNews, iPhone, iPod touch, native iPhone app
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