 | David Pogue, technology columnist for The New York Times, entertained students at a master's tea with songs that he composed, to the tunes of popular hits, about the latest technological innovations. |
In the not-too-distant future, landline phone service will be entirely free,
and the Internet-based telephone service most of us will use will ensure that
wherever in the world we may travel, our phone calls will reach us. — By Susan Gonzalez
T H I S
Once a ‘musical theater guy,’
writer is now a ‘gadget freak’
That, at least, is the prediction of David Pogue, the technology columnist for
The New York Times and a 1985 graduate of Yale College, who spoke about the future
of technology during his Sept. 18 visit to campus as a Poynter Fellow in Journalism.
During his one-and-a-half hour multimedia “Mobile Gadget Show-and-Tell” in
the Law School’s Levinson Auditorium, Pogue demonstrated new gadgetry or
software that, he believes, “might be the wave of the future.” These
include Skype, a software program that allows people to make telephone calls
anywhere in the world using their computer and Internet connection; the Google-owned
GrandCentral.com, a service through which subscribers can have one telephone
number for all their phones (allowing landline, mobile and office phones to all
ring at once, for example, and voicemail messages to be left simultaneously on
each); and a Nikon camera that sends images to the photographer’s e-mail
address and Flikr photo-sharing account, making the use of memory cards unnecessary.
Pogue writes the weekly “State of the Art” column featuring reviews
of current technology for The New York Times. He told his audience that he became
a reviewer of these and other technological innovations quite by accident.
“I was not a gadget freak at Yale; I was just a musical theater guy,” said
the columnist, who worked as a conductor, synthesizer programmer, arranger or
assistant on several Broadway shows after graduating from the University. He
described how, after teaching the Broadway community how to use Mac computers,
he began writing for computer magazines before joining The New York Times staff
in 2000 as a technology columnist. He is also an Emmy Award-winning technology
correspondent for CBS News and an author of numerous resource books on technology.
The fun part of his job, Pogue commented, is that he gets to try out brand-new
gadgets, the accumulation of which makes his Connecticut home “look like Circuit
City.” The downside, he noted, is that “it all has to get sent back.”
Pogue put his musical training to use in his Yale presentation, during which
he amused the audience with songs he composed — to the tunes of popular
hits —about current technology. He began his “Mobile Gadget Show-and-Tell” showing
a musical video he had created about lusting for the new Apple iPhone, which
shows him walking New York City streets en route to an Apple store on the day
the phone became available. In the video, Pogue sings to the melody of the Frank
Sinatra-made-popular classic “My Way,” belting out “For what
is a man, what has he got/If not iPhone, then he’s got squat,” while
also acknowledging that the new gadget has some “flaws.” He ended
his Yale talk with a comedic complaint about voicemail sung to the tune of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sounds
of Silence” and a song about the ever-expanding availability of online
music and videos to the tune of Billy Joel’s “The Piano Man,” among
other musical pieces.
The newspaper columnist also entertained his audience with a demonstration of
a service called “Popularity Dialer,” with which one can request
to receive a “fake” call at a specific time from a “boss,” an
interested male or female, or a “cousin in need,” among other options. “It’s
a way to get yourself out of a bad meeting or a bad date,” quipped Pogue.
When asked by an audience member how often he buys any of the gadgets he tests,
Pogue answered, “Probably three a year,” noting that one of this
year’s personal purchases was Tivo HD. He said he is “torn” about
whether to buy the iPhone.
In his presentation, Pogue noted how easily some technological innovations of
the past were misjudged, pointing out — to the laughter of his audience — that
in 1876 Western Union described the telephone as a “waste” and that
in 1949 Popular Mechanics magazine predicted that the computers of the future
may weigh “no more than 1.5 tons.” He said he revealed these facts
as a sort of disclaimer, acknowledging, “It’s risky to make predictions
about technology.”
A video recording of Pogue’s Poynter Lecture at Yale can be found at www.yale.edu/opa/media.
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United Way Days of Caring brings out volunteers from the Yale community
Campus Notes
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