At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Vegas, Research in Motion (RIM) unveiled a new device called the BlackBerry Presenter, which is a way for users to wirelessly present Microsoft PowerPoint, PDF, and other image files right from their BlackBerry smartphone. Pretty cool.

"BlackBerry Presenter helps simplify the presentation experience by allowing professionals to lighten their travel load and leave their laptops back at the office," says RIM's Douglas Soltys.

The device includes a loop mode, which lets you set the time between slides and leave it running as you deliver a presentation. It also has a Freeze mode, which will freeze a slide on-screen while you browse through the rest of your presentation on your smartphone. It supports PowerPoint effects, Bluetooth connection, and is compatible with multiple online video formats.

Here's what it looks like:

RIM lists the following as system requirements for the device:

1. Video output device and a VGA cable or an S-Video cable.

2. BlackBerry Presenter is not supported by the BlackBerry Curve 8300 Series and/or BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8200 Series smartphones.

3. Upgrading BlackBerry Presenter firmware requires (a) an Intel compatible computer with an available USB port that is compliant with USB 1.1 or higher and that is running the Microsoft Windows XP or later operating system and (b) BlackBerry Device Software v4.6 or later.

Lots of bloggers and online reporters have experienced this at one time or another. We've certainly had it happen to us here at WebProNews more than a few times. You break a story, then it's all over the web, but you don't get the credit.

Or maybe it's not as dramatic as that. Maybe you cover an event that others are covering simultaneously, but later coverage uses a particular spin, image, or assessment that was unique to yours until that later piece, but no credit is given. Sure, there is the occasional coincidental instance, but often that is clearly not the case. It happens all the time on the web. We can whine about it, or we can carry on with our lives. We usually go the latter route.

Mainstream news publications have pointed the finger at "bloggers" many times in the past, claiming that they are "stealing" their content, but as Search Engine Land Editor-in-Chief Danny Sullivan illustrates in a post on his personal blog Daggle, it goes both ways. We spoke with him about how the "traditional media" engages in some of the same practices it has accused blogs of engaging in.

For all intents and purposes, Search Engine Land is a blog. While to many of us, blogs can be considered just as reputable (if not more so) than mainstream news outlets, the site is generally looked upon as a blog (Google News, for example, has it listed as such). If you ask me, the lines between blogs and other news sources are anything but black and white, but some traditional media agencies clearly look down upon blogs. Internally, maybe it's a different story.

This past Friday, Sullivan posted an article about a Utah woman suing Google after getting hit by a ve/> [...]

Wed Jun 02, 2010 08:55 am

I have intent on the brain. So does Tim Sanders, it turns out. During my speech at the first ever GR2L event (get ready to live), I talked about shifting from connections into intent. I was talking about networking at that juncture. I want to expand. And I have a comparison/analogy to light this up.

The difference between talking about human business and social media and doing it is the difference between having recipes and running a restaurant.

We go to events and network. We collect business cards. Why? Because we don’t know what else to do. We know we’re supposed to network. We talk about why it’s important. The thing is, what do we DO with these? Jon Swanson wrote about switching back to a dumb phone when he realized that he didn’t really have to check email and Twitter every waking hour.

Jon’s restaurant doesn’t need an always-on recipe. See it?

Intent and Execution are the gold standard

My friend (I’m calling us friends) Tom Peters has spent decades on the variation of the theme that “execution is everything.” He pushes us over and over again to DO. Because again, Tom knows that having a box of recipes is nothing compared to executing on them and putting food down in front of people. Tom urges us to look at the buying trends in the world and realize that Baby Boomers and Women should be our main mark/> [...]

Wed Mar 17, 2010 08:15 am