How to be a tech sleuth

You may not know (or care) that this blog originally started out as a “Breaking News” tech site. Unfortunately, I realized two things after a few early posts. First, hearing and posting some tidbit of news every five minutes is really laborious. Second, I discovered that I’m a painfully slow and meticulous writer. An average article will usually consist of 5 or 10 drafts before I feel it’s polished enough to publish. I decided to leave the news to the people that were good at it, and to focus on something else. Lucky for me, I soon discovered the joy of writing eye-glazing length rants that criticize Multi-Billion dollar tech companies.

While I might not write about about the current news, I certainly keep up with the latest developments. One never knows when they’ll have to school some punk on the subway when he claims that clock for clock a Snapdragon is faster than an Omap 3630. (Pfft, those crazy kids these days!) Information is knowledge, and we should fill our heads with it until they become throbbing migraines of omniscience. So, with this segue sentence, we’re going to transition into our post topic.

Arm yourself to the teeth

You hear that tired cliche “information is knowledge” all the time (damn, I used it above didn’t I?), but it really lives up to the analogy. No matter what your interests, situational awareness of the tech world will provide a competitive edge. It goes without saying that if you run a blog/tweet about tech, you need to be in the know. Unless you’re a lotto winner, your livelihood probably depends on it. If you trade stocks, having your finger on the pulse of the industry can influence your overall strategy. Even if you just like having the latest toy, you’ll be able to keep up with the hot ones on the horizon.

Since my three airtight examples have slammed any debate shut on the importance of staying informed, the question is what do we do next?

Here’s my suggested multipoint approach…..

Mainstream websites

Most of these sites regurgitate information that was available hours earlier via other sources (don’t we all though). When they’re not crossposting each other’s articles however, they do provide their fair share of breaking news. The Boygeniusreport is a good source for Blackberry/Apple leaks, Gizmodo broke the whole iPhone 4 thing, Engadget just ran a nice exclusive on the Droid X, and I’m sure you can guess what type of news Crackberry deals with. I’ll usually gloss over the headlines of the “big four” in a round-robin style throughout the day. Android Central is also a great place to regularly check out.

KEEP IN MIND that when reading an article you should ALWAYS read through the comments at the end! You never know when you’ll stumble across a little nugget, such as a correction or a link to other related info. (Seriously, it happens)

The tech periphery

We all have interests, and while they may lead us to different areas of the tech world, they’re all still interrelated. Take some time to catch up on aspects of tech you wouldn’t normally consider important. You may not be familiar with Palo Alto Semiconductor or Agnilux, but if you appreciated the context behind their recent acquisitions by Apple and Google (respectively), you’d perk up in a second.

1) Apple buys PA Semi, a top rate manufacturer of chips
2) PA Semi manufactures the iPad’s A4
3) Some PA Semi workers split and form Agnilux
4) Google buys Agnilux
5) Hmmm, Google making a tablet?
Months later
6) Verizon CEO confirms tablet
7) Nice sleuthing! You started paying attention after #4, while most people started after #6

Here are two websites that will help flesh out your knowledge of all things tech.

Techcrunch does a wonderful job of keeping you apprised of the business end of tech. Acquisitions, upstarts, who’s getting venture capital funding, what’s new, what’s old, etc

Mashable covers the fun world of social media. All the trends, hot apps, new media start ups, etc. (warning, social media companies have crazy names like BoomBah and Trah-LALA)

Twitter

Despite the insane signal to noise ratio, if you follow the right people, you’ll always remain a tech step ahead of the crowd. The only annoying part is the “echo chamber” effect of news when you’re following a lot of people. If you’ve ever seen someone retweet “ThiS JUsT INN!! iPHOne4 LEFT aT BAR!!!” 3 weeks after the fact, you know what I’m talking about. Here’s a minuscule slice of people I’d suggest checking out. Check out my Twitter page if you want a few hundred other people to get information from.

Note: I’m only recommending these people as a starting point. I believe they’re all good sources of information, but if they’ve since switched to posting about their marble collections, don’t hold it against me.

Blackberry related
@Crucial_Xtreme
@BlackBerrySith (a.k.a Sith_Apprentice)
@Salomondrin (When he talks BB, he knows his stuff)
@berryreview

Android related
@Androidcentral
@phandroid
@Droid-life

HTC related
@conflipper

Don’t forget to check their friend lists as well. When a person has ten thousand followers but only follows 23 people, I’ll wager those 23 might be upstream in the information food chain. ALWAYS pay attention to YOUR source’s sources.

Straight from the tap

What’s the most tedious but ultimately rewarding way to glean information? Digging through the endless pages of web forums of course! While there are a million of them, I’ll go ahead and list a few that I’ve found to generate solid info. Always keep in mind that each typically consists of 70% idiots, 29% tech savvy people, and 1% “on the inside”. (i.e. there will be a ton of metric garbage to sift through, but it’s totally worth it)

Howardforums.com is hands down THE place to get information. Since I’ve switched to Android, my attention has been primarily focused on the VZW Android forums, but whatever your interest, you’ll find some good leaks. (For all you Moto Android people, any comment from Bill23, Winston25, Aixelsyd, or Matrix2004 can be taken TO THE BANK)

The Crackberry forums are obviously an amazing resource to discover all the latest in the world of RIM.

Other notable places are the Android Forums and Blackberry forums

Learn from history

The tech world is one that’s equally as dynamic as it is routine. The devices are just a variable, but the process of bringing it to market are a predictable number of steps. For example…

Blackberry 8520 clears FCC on June 30th, 2009, and is released August 5 2009
GSM Nexus 1 clears FCC on Dec 14, 2009, and is released on January 5, 2010
AT&T Palm Pre Plus clears FCC on April 1, and is released May 16th, 2010

So we can deduce that generally, there’s about a month between clearance and release. There are always exceptions, such as the Blackberry Tour that cleared FCC on May 3rd, 2009 and was released three months later on August 5 2009. That said, the next time you see a device get the FCC’s blessing, you (or your readers) can be confident it’ll be in their hands in a mere 4 to 5 weeks.

The same could be said for when a device “hits inventory”. If I remember correctly, there’s a 40 to 60 day delay. If you want to get extra crazy, you can sleuth out the nuances between the carriers. T-Mob is usually 45 days, Verizon is 60 days (perhaps a result of their infamously strict testing policy), AT&T is…., etc. (All those made up)

There are also seasonal considerations. While it’s possible that an iPhone could drop in December, and a Blackberry Storm could drop in June, in several iterations of both, it’s never happened. If we hear a rumor otherwise, your intuition should tell you to take this “news” with a grain of salt.

If you pay attention to a company’s past, you’ll find it will be a helpful tool for predicting their future.

And that’s pretty much it

By now it’s become clear that this is serious work, which is probably why I don’t want to do it. (I’m a slow and steady wins the race type of person). I’d did think this topic (and info) would make an interesting post, and would be helpful to pass it along. So go forth you next generation tech bloggers! Use these suggestions, hone new techniques, and you’ll be in the Caribbean on a solid gold yacht in no time! Just remember me when you hit the big time, maybe even post a link on your site.

In the meantime, I’ll be here doing my thing, complaining about Multi-Billion dollar tech companies and enjoying a frosty beer!