Tech critic & fanboy, editor & writer, geek dad, skeptic. Yes, I really was born here.
Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Rafe Needleman
Power tools News, Reviews and More
Like so many of our readers, I use power tools of various sorts pretty much daily. However, I never really thought about the technology in my hands. I’ve recently come to finally trust a cordless driver to do the job, but beyond that, I thought about them as a motor, a switch, and a power […] Continue Reading
8 Great Tech Gifts for Developers
Got a software developer on your “nice” list? Or, maybe you’re the dev and need to drop some hints to people who have you on their list? Here are some gift ideas programmed to make devs happy this holiday. (Alternatively, if you’re trying to please someone in the networking realm, check out my previous guide, Great Gifts for the Network Pro Who Has Everything.) 1.
Loud Keyboard Etiquette
Don’t Type So Close to Me My first programming job was creating a database on a 1986 IBM PC — the early personal computer that used the famous (in some circles), industrial, loud-as-hell Model M keyboard. In an office filled with even-louder IBM Selectric typewriters, the clacky IBM PC keyboard fit right in. But this type of keyboard isn’t standard equipment anymore, and for good reason. IBM Model M keyboard First, it was over-engineered and expensive.
First Contact: When to Call and When to Text
What’s the right way to initiate connect with someone you don’t know? Photo by Pressmaster from Pexels You want to reach someone new to you. Should you phone? Text? Email? All the different options say something to the receiver even before you put content in your message. Let’s review. First, you have your holy trinity of main options: Email, text, and calling. Email Email is generally good for starting or following up on a businesslike interaction.
Don’t Be a Parking Space Tease
Not leaving that parking spot soon? Play it stealthy. Driving away from a parking space used to be simple. You’d get in your car, start it, put on your seatbelt, and go. It took ten seconds. Now, you get in your car, pull out your phone, check your emails, texts, and voicemails, program the GPS for your destination, find the podcast you want to listen to… and there goes ten minutes. Meanwhile, if you’re parked on a city street or in a lot, there’s a good chance somebody wants your space.
How to Blame Technology
The road to smooth interpersonal communication is filled with potholes of lies. We keep our friendships happy with fibs like, “Sorry I’m late, traffic was terrible.” We blame external forces for the small injustices we inflict on others. In exchange, we hope for the continuance of otherwise happy relationships. Is it right to tell a lie? Under most moral codes, no, it isn’t. But etiquette is not about the absolute right.
How To Give Your Parents Tech Support
Sit down with a parent who’s having a tech problem they want your help fixing, and chances are good that before the problem is resolved, you’ll be fighting. This is typical. Because as one expert in parent/child communication (my mother) explained to me, “Well, of course I push your buttons.
How to Leave a Text Message Conversation
Signing off from a text conversation gracefully is more fraught than ending either a real-time phone or video call or an email, because text messaging is an unusual communications medium. Here’s why: A text dialog can be either real-time (like a call), asynchronous (like an email), or both at once.
How to Sign Your Emails
What’s the proper way to sign off in an email? Unfortunately, there is no universally correct way. The best signature may be none at all. Because: “Sincerely,” is too formal. “Yours,” is anachronistic. “Best,” is often seen as antiseptic or rote. “Cheers,” is weird unless you’re writing your email from inside a pub. “Thanks,” can work, if you are actually asking the person for something in the email. It’s not a good all-purpose closer, though. “Love,” of course, is all you need.
Yes, It’s OK to Wave at the End of a Zoom Call
For all the ways we communicate, there are different ways to greet people, and different ways to say goodbye. These social norms evolve over time. By now we’re comfortable saying “bye” to someone at the end of a phone call. But newer technologies can still leave us feeling awkward at the transition. For example, video calls. The farewell question really comes down to one issue: Am I a dork for waving goodbye? Because, really, why do we wave?
Basics of Calendar Etiquette
Inviting someone to spend time with you in a work meeting is one of the weightiest things you can ask. Time is the only resource that absolutely cannot be recovered once it is spent. So how do we make sure we ask people to share pieces of their lives with us as respectfully as possible? Here are some tips for using work calendar invites properly: Share the Agenda Creating a meeting agenda is the ultimate sign of respect.
Amazon Suggestions Offer a Peek Into Its Psyche (or Maybe Mine)
Whenever Amazon advertises something to me on Facebook, I grab a screenshot of it. Because how else am I going to truly learn what the algorithms know about me? Now that we’re in a new year, it’s time to look back on who Amazon thought I was in the last one. Some of the suggestions make sense. But many of them are at best confusing, and at worst creepy as hell. See the images below. This is what the Amazon AI thinks I will like. Now I know what a Rorschach blot feels like: Misunderstood.
Spoiler Alert
The Etiquette of Binge-Watching Streaming media and watch-when-you-want TV shows have changed how we talk with each other about popular entertainment. Now, we have the option to binge — to watch an entire TV series all at once, like a very long movie. I remember my first binge: House of Cards. Although Netflix released the entire first season at once, I told myself I’d watch only an episode a night. But there were nights when I was weak, and I watched two in a row. Once, I did three.
12 Great Gifts for the Network Pro Who Has Everything
Struggling to find that perfect gift for the budding network admin in your life? Or maybe even the CIO? Relax, we have you covered, with gifts at all expense report levels. The Stocking Stuffer Velcro Cable Ties, about $3 for a roll of 25 This is the gateway drug to keeping an orderly network. Wrap up and route the cords behind your TV for starters, and next thing you know, you’re wiring network racks on superyachts.
How to talk to tech support about malware (and other hacks)
Who among us has never lost his composure when talking to a technical-support representative on the phone? In times of stress, it can be extremely difficult to control one’s anxiety and temper.
Seven Rules of Power – Caller Calls Back
Time was, a gentleman never left his house without a lighter. Even if he didn’t smoke, he might meet someone who did, and the proper thing to do was to offer to light their cigarette. Far fewer people smoke today, and those who don’t can be forgiven for not carrying an old Zippo. What everyone does do today, though, is use a smartphone. And there’s a Zippo equivalent for that: A battery charger. You want to be a hero to a damsel or dude in battery distress?
The Spousal Approval Factor vs. Your Home Technology Project
The Spousal Approval Factor vs. Your Home Technology Project I read, with amusement and horror, the account of a technology writer who installed enterprise-grade networking hardware in his house. Instead of using the WiFi hardware the cable guy delivered, or even buying up-leveled consumer-grade equipment like an Eero system, Lee Hutchinson selected the most difficult route to doing something most people don’t think twice about, if ever.
The Peril of the Laptop Sticker – Caller Calls Back
The Peril of the Laptop Sticker But now I’m cooked. If Sticker A guy comes around and hands out new, horrible stickers, I can’t claim that I’m not a sticker guy, because now I clearly am. Putting Sticker B guy’s sticker on my laptop opened me up to an escalation of stickers, as illustrated in this table of Sticker Expectations. This chart shows how, when you put advertising on your laptop, you also advertise that you’re open to putting more advertising on it.
Full Stop: The Period Isn’t Dead
To punctuate or not to punctuate? In my house, we end sentences with a period. The period is good for that, and that’s how I’ve used it for as long as I could write. The period, to me, is neutral. It’s informative. It carries no emotional payload, like the exclamation. But I am an old man and I use English like a codger. Apparently, kids these days see the end-of-sentence period differently, especially when it comes to their preferred mode of written communication, the text message.
Etiquette Meets Physics: Dealing with Lag – Caller Calls Back
One of the very weird differences today between talking with somebody face-to-face, and talking to somebody over a phone, is that there can be a perceptible lag between when the words come out of your mouth, and when the other person hears them. This lag changes how we perceive each other, and learning how to deal with it is a wholly new, 21st-century skill.
Open Office Headphone Etiquette
There is a lot to say about the modern open office, not much of it good. But this is the way we work now, so we might as well get used to it. And that means new rules of behavior. Case in point: Headphones. Many office workers, yours truly included, rely on headphones to keep out the din and bustle of the noise around them. But headphones serve another purpose in addition to blocking noise: They signal coworkers that we’re engaged in our work.
Leaving Facebook? Just Ghost – Caller Calls Back
Here’s how modern etiquette says you should leave a party: with stealth and cunning. Don’t bother with the tedious goodbyes. There’s not a lot to be gained by harshing the vibe of a buzzy gathering with farewells. Just skedaddle. This is even better advice when leaving a social network. Especially today, when so many Facebook feeds are awash in messages from people who are leaving the platform. That makes for a pretty lame party. Of course, there are good reasons to leave a social platform.
Tip #221: What do you do again?
I get about one of these a week: This is Suzie from UltraCorp. I’ve noticed that you haven’t been using UltraApp lately. We would really like to make UltraApp more useful for you, and it would help a great deal if you could tell us what went wrong. [Etc., with more whining. Also, I changed the names.] The problem with this email, other than the fact that it’s sad and desperate, is this: I don’t know what went wrong, because I forgot what the product is and what it does.
How to Back-Channel – Caller Calls Back
In any communication involving more than two people, there is more than one conversation happening. In a group meeting or in a conference, even though the focus is supposed to be on one person at a time, every individual is potentially communicating at the same time with other people in the group. Back in the old days, we’d do this by trading knowing glances with our compatriots. In the classroom, kids used to pass notes (on paper). Today, we back-channel electronically.
Ducking Autocorrect – Caller Calls Back
I used to work for a man who, I once thought, was missing his pinky fingers. none of his emails used capital letters. all his sentences started in the lower case. it was disconcerting to a grammar nerd like me. but he was the boss, so i got used to it, as did everyone else in the office. I now realize that this email affectation was a power trip, although likely an unconscious one.
How to Give a Tech Gift – Caller Calls Back
To give a gift is to accept a responsibility. When you give something, you take another person’s heart into your hands for a moment. The idea is to brighten it and polish it up a little bit, and then put it back where it came from. For a tech gift, the gift-giver’s responsibility includes a few technical check-off items that will improve the reaction to the gift. Not to mention the immediate and possibly the long-term enjoyment of it.
10 Tech Products I Retired in 2017 – Rafe Needleman – Medium
For most of my career, I have written and edited technology product reviews. I have always known that these reviews had a flaw. None of them told you what using a product was like for more than a few hours, to say nothing of living with it for months or years. For both editorial and business reasons, it doesn’t really work to hold on to a product for an extended period and cover it again down the line. There are only a few exceptions. People will read anything about iPhones, for example.
Tip #191: Would it kill you to use words?
I know, you think your email pitches look better if you put big, fancy graphics in them. But they don’t look so hot if your recipient has images blocked by default, or worse, is reading their messages on a smartphone with a slow data link. Or even worse, on an airplane with no connectivity. Do you want your message to be pretty, or do want it to be read? At the very least, put the actual content of the message in text up at the top of the message. That way, your recipient can read it regardless.
New MOSS Robots Satisfying to Build, but Too Easy to Crush
Since I am the father of an 8-year-old nerd, and since I am a nerd myself, for the past three years I have been buying toy robot kits. For the kid, of course. Each birthday the kits are a little more advanced — more programmable, more intricate. But a few days ago I received a new robot construction system from Modular Robotics that I don’t think I’d consider for my son. A magnetic MOSS scooper robot, from the big ($480) kit. Its Bluetooth module makes it steerable from a smartphone.
Bring Jet-Fighter Tech to Your Car with Navdy
Many new cars are available today with a piece of jet-fighter technology called a “heads-up display,” a projector that shoots key data, like your speed or navigation data, onto your windshield, right in your line of sight. Fighter (and some airline) pilots use HUDs so they can keep their eyes on the world outside while still monitoring their instruments.
Your Gadget’s Battery Is Swelling Up. Should You Panic?
I was at my mother’s house, doing some good-son maintenance on her MacBook, when I noticed that the battery door was a little popped out from the case and the lid wasn’t fully closed. So I picked up the machine for a closer look. And I nearly jumped out of my skin. The battery in her MacBook had swollen. So much that it popped the battery door off under the computer and pressed up against the trackpad at the top, making it inoperable. It even warped the aluminum casing right below the keyboard.
Tip #192: You can’t be serious
January 6, 2012 · 8:43 am Just because you take yourself seriously, it doesn’t mean I have to. This tip is for everyone who’s pitching me to cover their smartphone case or revolutionary screen cleaning product at CES next week. You’ve been warned. Hat tip: Paul Sloan Like this:Like Loading... Related
Apple's 'Continuity' Project Blends Use of Mac and iPhone
SAN FRANCISCO — At its Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, Apple announced “Continuity,” a collection of features that make it easy to switch between using a Mac and an iPhone. AirDrop First up: AirDrop will work between iOS and OS X devices. Any Apple device will be able to drop a file to any other device, assuming that it has the latest operating system. AirDrop was introduced last year and is a method for sharing files like photos and videos between devices over WiFi or Bluetooth.
Tip #185: I can handle the truth
October 25, 2011 · 10:53 am "As seen in" element on a marketing site. Just graphics, no links. Big mistake. If, on the marketing site you want me to see, you have “As seen in…” graphics pointing to other coverage you’ve gotten, make sure you link to the coverage you seem to be so proud of. Otherwise, for all I know, the coverage was glancing, negative, or perhaps nonexistent. But also keep in mind: Tip #49: How not to pitch. Like this:Like Loading... Related
Quiz: 5 Ways to Practice Proper Headphone Etiquette
If you work in an office with no walls between the desks, you probably have headphones for those times when you need a little acoustic privacy. But how do you manage the new etiquette of being physically present in a space but studiously not available — which is what wearing headphones often indicates? Try our little etiquette quiz: 1. Getting attention. When you want to talk to someone wearing headphones, the correct way to get his attention is to: a) Tap him on the shoulder. b) Yell at him.
Tip #214: When PR stunts go wrong
I love PR stunts. Especially when they go wrong. It’s like… justice. What’s a PR stunt? It’s an event or made-up news item that’s about itself, not a product and not a company. Sometimes PR stunts can go incredibly well, especially when they’re attached to a well-loved brand. If they are awesome unto themselves, they can actually make the brand stronger. I’m looking at you, Red Bull Flugtag. Or sometimes they can go horribly wrong. Like today’s study in PR stunt flops: Skittles.
Tip #193: The play’s the thing
Why go to a trade show if you’re not going to take advantage of peoples’ interest there? Or the possible widespread press attention? I found out about a cool gadget that was going to be shown at one of this year’s CES ancillary events. I emailed the company asking if they would send the CEO to come on stage with me at the CNET Live video booth to demo the product and discuss the market it’s in. Three days later, I get this reply: I am the only person there who will be manning the booth.
Evernote Launches New Features, Apps
Evernote, which makes a note-keeping product I rely on so much that I went to work for the company for a period between 2012 and 2013, today announced a new mobile scanning app, Scannable; a major revision of its handwriting/sketching app, Penultimate; and several new features for the main Evernote note-taking client apps. The company also put into public beta a completely new version of its Web interface.
Pogue Discovers SxSW Interactive
AUSTIN — It was David Pogue’s first time ever going to the South by Southwest festival, the big annual nerdfest and culture crucible where technologists, filmmakers and musicians come together. The festival is actually several slightly overlapping conferences, but Pogue and I went with only the geek badges: SXSW Interactive. The show is overwhelming.
Ten Terrible Tech Annoyances That Should Be Illegal
Today’s technology is astonishing, magical, and delightful. It can also be annoying beyond belief. How many times have you yelled, “There oughta be a law!” at a product or website, wondering who in their right mind could have released a certain “feature” into the world? And you’re right. There oughta. Someday, the editors of Yahoo Tech will rule the world. And we will work swiftly to enact laws that fix the most annoying things in technology: 1.
Tip #215: Stickers for notes
At TechCrunch Disrupt, during a quick stand-up meeting with one of the “demo pit” companies, the startup CEO I was talking with tried to stick a big logo sticker onto the page of the notebook I was writing in. As you can imagine, I didn’t take kindly to this action. But after a moment of reflection, it came to me: Notepad stickers are a great idea. If you do them right. Here’s what I mean by doing it right: Get some stickers printed up. Logo, company name, your name, email, phone.
GoTenna Makes Smartphones into Walkie-Talkies, Sort Of
Remember walkie-talkies? When some of us were kids, we had actual handheld voice radios. They sent signals over the air that were picked up directly by their mates. There was no middleman technology: No cell towers. No infrastructure to get overloaded. Nothing extra to pay for. Now we all have smartphones, and when they don’t work on the cell network, for whatever reason, we can’t communicate. What we need are walkie-talkie iPhones. That’s what goTenna is building.
Tip #199: What kind of circus is this?
I don’t usually write Pro PR Tips about stories that carry my own byline, but man, I had to hold my nose when I pasted this bit into today’s story about the Yahoo/Facebook patent battle resolution.
Apple’s Big iPhone Announcement: The Liveblog
Our team (including David Pogue, Alyssa Bereznak, and me) will be live, in person, at Apple’s big show in Cupertino, California. We’ll be reporting and commenting on the news from the stage in real time, complete with pictures, videos, and instant reactions from Twitter. We’ll also respond to as many of your questions as we can (use the Comments box on this page). Ready?
Tip #194: Don’t bury the embargo
Embargoes and NDAs are bad enough. The presumptive embargo is worse: where you send embargoed information along with the embargo notice, without first making sure your recipient will agree to honor the embargo at all. But look! Here’s a new way to screw up: Burying the presumptive embargo way down in in the email signature. And not having a time on it, either.
We Need a National Change Your Passwords Day
Heartbleed, the major flaw that left passwords and other user information vulnerable to hackers this week, wasn’t the first security flaw to affect the Internet. And it won’t be the last. Security failures, hacks, leaks, and vulnerability discoveries are inevitable. As is the typical reaction: When news of a hack surfaces, we worry, and then some of us spring to action, generally changing passwords on affected accounts — especially if the affected sites force us to.
Tip #213: Know your audience
Understanding jargon is a big part of covering technology. But no one reporter knows all the buzzwords. So saying that “everyone is talking about” acronyms you can be sure that most people have never heard before (except the geeks in your particular industry subset) is a waste of an opportunity to connect. Everyone is talking about SDN and NFV. But at Mobile World Congress 2014, [[company]] will go beyond the buzzwords and conduct the first public live demo of its Distributed NFV (D-NFV) solution.
Google Shows Off Smartwatch Operating System
Sundar Pichai, Senior VP at Google, teased the audience at Google I/O by showing up on stage sporting what appeared to be the Motorola smartwatch. (Yahoo Tech) Google announced its operating system for smartwatches a little more than three months ago. Today at its big Google I/O conference, the company extended on the promise of the “Android Wear” OS by showing a rich demo on an LG G watch.
Tip #212: This Pitch Will Amaze You!
It’s come to this, has it? Pitches are taking style hints from Buzzfeed and Upworthy? While it may work to get pass-along readership from the jamokes surfing Facebook, when you’re trying to pitch a writer, maybe focus on substance. Or not. What do I know? This might be the way we all communicate now. “Kids! Get ready for school. What you’re going to learn about fractions will blow your mind!” Subject: This woman went to the Mac App Store for personal finance software. What happened next will amaze you.
Coming Soon: Coolest-Ever 360-Degree Video Camera
A lot of people with action cams like GoPros use them mostly to take videos of themselves. Action selfies, as it were. This is because if you have to choose between a shot of what you’re seeing vs. a shot of yourself, narcissism has a good chance of winning out. But with a new and dazzling portable video camera, the 360Cam from Giroptic, you’ll never have to choose again.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Rafe
Contact Rafe, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack