A poll conducted in June by the Associated Press found that 20% of people brought a laptop computer with them on their most recent vacation and that 80% brought a cell phone. Had I been part of that survey, I, too, would have confessed that I had both a laptop and a cell phone not just on my most recent trip but on every trip I’ve taken during the past 20 years.

Sometimes, for backup, I carry two laptops and both a cell phone and a SmartPhone. The technology has allowed me to be productive on nearly every continent. I’ve received phone calls on gondolas, filed stories from tents, done live radio interviews from fishing boats.

I once carried a handheld satellite phone with me to Peru and got a call while visiting a thatched hut on an island in the middle of the Amazon River. Locals stared in disbelief. Not only had they never seen a satellite or cell phone – many of them had never seen any type of telephone.

But if that AP pollster approached me today, I’d say no way because I just got back from eight days in Mexico where I was completely off-the-grid. I had no laptop and my cell phone didn’t work. For the first time ever, I filed my columns and recorded my daily KCBS radio segments in advance and told CBS News in New York that if technology news breaks, someone else has to fix it. › Continue reading…

There is something to be said for having data “in the cloud.” By “cloud,” I don’t mean those white pillowy things in the sky — I mean on a server somewhere, accessible via the Internet.

Data in the cloud is data that you can get your hands on whenever and wherever you have an Internet connection. It’s the difference between having your address book, calendar and e-mail on a specific PC in your home or office and having it somewhere like Yahoo, Google, AOL or MSN mail. If you have it on one of those servers you can find it even if you’re away from your PC. You could even find it if your PC, along with the rest of the house, were destroyed in a fire — not that I’d wish that on anyone.

I haven’t had any fires, but I’ve often been in a situation where I need access to information when away from home or files that have been deleted from my computer. For me, that’s easy as long as it’s something that’s arrived as an e-mail any time during the past couple of years. That’s because all my incoming e-mail is automatically forwarded to my Gmail account, and if I need access, I can get it from any Web-enabled device. Gmail also keeps track of your contact list, and Google calendar tracks your schedule.

Another Google product is Google Docs and Spreadsheets. This service gives you online access to a word processor and spreadsheet program as well as a calendar. Although the online programs are not as robust as what you get with Microsoft Office, the Google service, aside from being free, has the advantage of allowing you to share files with friend, colleagues or family members. It’s a way, for example, for a parent to proofread a child’s homework assignment, even if that “child” is a college student hundreds of miles away. It’s also a way for colleagues to collaborate on spreadsheets and documents and for any group — including families — to share a calendar. › Continue reading…

I’m in the awkward position of writing a column today that kind of contradicts the one I wrote last week.

As you may recall, I railed against the pervasiveness of advertising in our society, complaining that you can’t go anywhere without being bombarded with ads. Of course, I also admitted that my livelihood as a broadcaster and newspaper columnist depends on ads, so I obviously don’t want to see them disappear completely.

So now I read that SpiralFrog.com plans to launch an ad-supported music download service and instead of complaining, I find myself cautiously cheering.

I’m pleased that the New York company plans to give away access to about 700,000 tracks in exchange for having to look at ads while you download the music. I haven’t seen the way they plan to implement the service but if they can pull it off so that users aren’t terribly inconvenienced, I say go for it.

There are dangers but from what I have seen, I’m not too concerned. One danger would be if they embedded ads within the music or even before or after each selection. I don’t’ think people listening to music on their computers or portable players would tolerate ads. If you want that, listen to commercial radio. Another danger would be if advertisers started having more impact on music that is recorded. There is already an enormous corporate influence in the business – executives in New York, Los Angeles and London have a lot to say about the type of music that is distributed – but that’s true with broadcasting and print publishing as well.

Although I’m not one of SpiralFrog’s beta testers, I have tested out another ad-supported music service that I was pretty happy with. Ruckus.com offers free ad-supported access to more than 2 million tracks but only for college students. When I tried the service several months ago, I noticed that I only had to look at ads during the download process. Once the music was on my PC, I could listen to it in the Ruckus player or Windows Media Player without having to see or hear advertising. I could also listen to it on any PlaysforSure portable device, again without having to hear ads. › Continue reading…

The city of Palo Alto’s new Web site is very attractive, especially when you land on a page with one of its impressive looking photographs. But there is more to creating a Web site than just eye candy. It should be practical and user friendly and it shouldn’t cost a great deal to build and maintain.

One of my concerns about Palo Alto’s new site is the choice of typeface and background color. Instead of the usual black text against a white background, it has white text and green headlines against a dark grayish background. Though I don’t like it, I could live with it if it was just on the front page, but that design element carries through to every page, making the text more difficult to read. There is a reason why virtually every publication not to mention nearly every successful Web site sticks with black text and white background.

At first I was concerned about the photos. They’re lovely but they’re also quite large and I was worried they would slow down the site. But even though they take up a lot of screen real estate, they’re not all that big when it comes to bytes downloaded, typically coming in at under 60 kilobytes. I was able to get the page to load at a reasonable speed on my PC, my Mac and even my iPhone. Still, I have heard from people with dial-up modems and even some people with higher speed connections who are unable to load the site. › Continue reading…

He’s funny, articulate and generally regarded as a visionary. In this interview Guy Kawasaki talks about his latest venture, Truemors.com, but not until he tells us why “life is good” for anyone wanting to venture out on the net. Whether you watch this for the advice or the humor, you won’t be disappointed spending a few minutes with Larry and Guy.

In addition to Truemors, Guy is managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. Guy is the author of eight books including The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. He has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.

Larry Magid talks with Brandon Watson, CEO of IMSafer talks about a tool that parents can use to be alerted if their kids are doing something dangerous online. Is it parenting or spying. Watch and decide.

Tony Perkins is the head honcho of AlwaysOn which, among other things, runs an annual conference for high-tech companies, venture capitalists and other tech insiders. Larry Magid caught up with him between sessions as the annual AlwaysOn Stanford Summit was getting underway.

Is it a cell phone or a VOIP phone? It’s both. T-Mobile has a new phone that lets you talk via their regular mobile network or connect to a WiFi hotspot at home or on the go. Larry Magid takes it out for a spin.

In the unusually intimate setting of a small auditorium at its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters, Apple Inc., on Tuesday unveiled a new line of iMacs as well as new versions of its iLife and iWork software. The event, attended by perhaps a couple hundred journalists and analysts, was far more low-key than Apple’s usual high-profile announcements, but CEO Steve Jobs was as enthusiastic as ever about the company’s new products.

New PCs don’t usually get a lot of attention. But anything Apple announces these days is of interest because the company has been on a roll with record earnings — not just from iPods and iPhones, but from its Macintosh computers as well. Jobs reported a 36 percent jump in Mac sales, which he said were “more than three times the industry growth rate.”

Apple is replacing its old white plastic iMacs with a new line made from “aluminum and glass.” Aside from being lighter and having a more polished look, the new Macs, according to Jobs, are more environmentally friendly because they’re made from materials that are more valued by recyclers. › Continue reading…

Dr. Irving Wladawsky-Berger just retired from a long and decorated IBM career of 37 years. He’s doing some cutting edge research on the future of virtual works. Also interviewing him is Robert Scoble of Scobleizer and Podtech.