I’m trying to expand my reporter’s rolodex and find out about more Canadian technology companies and people for both my national CBC Radio reports. If you’re with a tech company or just a geek doing cool things, I’d like to know about it.

Generally speaking, the stories I cover are “end-user” stories (my listeners are average consumers) — so, for instance, I’m much more likely to cover a successful and innovative web site than the developers who programmed it, or a cool gadget than the new chemicals used in its battery pack.

Specifically, I’m interested in companies or people doing REVolutionary things with technology, not EVolutionary. (i.e. If your company has made a digital camera with one more megapixels than everyone else’s, I’m not interested. On the other hand, if your company has put EVDO wireless and a Flickr uploader app into a camera, I’m totally interested.)

My CBC Radio pieces are podcast and available for download here.

• If you’d like to pitch me, please email me at tod@todmaffin.com with the words “tech pitch” in your subject line. Send as much info as you’d like, but please write a short paragraph summary of what your technology, gadget, software, or widget does.

• If you have a demo unit or software you’d like to send me, please courier it to: Tod Maffin, c/o 610 Granville Street, Vancouver BC, V6C 3T3. If you require it back, please include a self-addressed collect/pre-paid FedEx shipping form.

	2 Comments »	See also: Personalities, Tod's Tech Beat
	Email this	Posted at 12:09 pm (07 Jun 2007)

It’s not as easy as it used to be to buy a television set. Here’s everything you need to know to know about buying a TV in these days of flat-screen, ED, and power-filter converters. This is the piece that aired on regional morning shows across the country.

	1 Comment »	See also: Tod's Tech Beat
	Email this	Posted at 1:36 pm (07 Dec 2006)

It’s funny how many people think I live in their city. I’ve had conversations with people in Regina, St. John’s, Edmonton, Yellowknife, and Sudbury who are convinced that every Thursday morning I’m sitting in studio with the host of their morning show talking about technology. It’s easy to see why. It certainly sounds like I’m sitting next to their morning show host. But how is that possible? After all, I’m on the air live with 12 different morning shows across the country — all within just three hours.
     Here’s the secret.
     First, I pitch the story I want to do to my producer on Monday. Meanwhile, in Toronto, the folks at Radio Syndication line up morning shows who want me to be on their program. Usually there’s more shows than I can do, so for those overflow shows, they get a “pack” — a three- to four-minute piece about the same topic. Shows that get the pack one week get me live the following week. They kind of go in that alternating schedule week-to-week.
     On Tuesday, I research, collect tape, and write the pack and the “q-line” — the list of questions I suggest the host asks me.
     Then, very early Wednesday morning, I sit in a tiny broadcast booth in the basement of the CBC Broadcast Centre in Vancouver. The morning shows who signed up for my live hits are scheduled back-to-back in 15-minute blocks. They “dial up” master control in Vancouver and connect to my booth via a dedicated broadcast-quality line.
     It’s actually rather weird, sitting in this booth for three hours and every 15 minutes a voice pops into my headphones: “Hello Tod, this is Moncton.” Then it’s mostly the same questions each time (most hosts follow the q-line; some follow their own curiosity and I actually have more fun with the latter).
     This is where performance comes into play a bit. It’s hard to sound interested in DLP televisions the tenth time you’ve explained it in the last two hours. But strangely, I find the challenge of that fun. Much of radio is performance, after all.
     Usually the shows come at me from the east coast and move west, because they are recording the segment for air Thursday and the shows usually want to tape it right when their host comes off the air. We don’t even bother with the introduction. Usually, we start with me just saying “Hello!” and go from there. So when you hear the host introduce me, they’re reading that live. The second you hear me say “Hello” is the moment they secretly pressed Play on the tape recording. The host probably takes a bathroom break then. Sneaky, eh?
     At 10:00 a.m. I’m done and I head upstairs to produce the pack for the other group of shows. Thursday morning, it all goes to air.
     Now you know. Radio magic. I love it.

	4 Comments »	See also: How Shows Work, Tod's Tech Beat
	Email this	Posted at 6:00 pm (06 Dec 2006)

I’m working with the folks at CBC.ca to set up a technology blog which will also contain shownotes for my yet-unnamed technology column, but in the meantime if you’d like to get an advance read of the script (and maybe add your own suggestions before I record it), you can read Zune: The iPod Killer? on my temporary site.
     Once the real site is up and running, I’ll be posting my scripts earlier on, and will incorporate your suggestions into the final piece. Call it “radio by wiki” (sort of). And, of course, I will post the audio there.

	6 Comments »	See also: Tod's Tech Beat
	Email this	Posted at 7:58 pm (14 Nov 2006)

My technology column launches this Thursday on regional morning shows (topic: Is Zune the iPod Killer?) and I need a name for the column. Somehow “Tod’s technology report” doesn’t quite have the right radio zing. Plus, I need something that would make an easy-to-remember domain name. Any ideas?
     The person who comes up with the “winning” name will get a brand new Live!Motion Web Cam from Creative Labs!
     But time is short, so add your suggestion in the comments right now.

SCHEDULE: I’ll be live with the morning show host in the following cities Thursday morning: Regina, Fredericton, Ottawa, Goose Bay, Halifax, Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, Kelowna, Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary.
     Other cities (Montreal, Saint John, Moncton, Corner Brook, Charlottetown, Quebec City, Windsor, Yellowknife and Whitehorse) will get a short documentary from me on the same topic.

	39 Comments »	See also: Tod's Tech Beat
	Email this	Posted at 10:24 am (14 Nov 2006)

I get a lot of news releases. And a lot of them are like this — some company hires a polling firm to find out that Canadians want… wait for it… more products from that company!! Amazing!
     But this one from HP in particular seemed nearly laughable.

Canadians want to turn on the fun in their living rooms. A recent Ipsos Reid survey sponsored by HP Canada, suggests that Canadians want more out of their television set….
     Sixty per cent of Canadians surveyed indicated that they’d like their television to do more and become what’s being called a media hub - a way to access, manage and enjoy digital photos, music, TV, videos and movies from the comfort of your couch….
     HP has been working to deliver a superior and easier to use entertainment experience. We were the first PC manufacturer to offer Media Center PCs and now we offer Media Smart TVs that allow consumers to access digital content from PCs anywhere in your home.”

My own thoughts:

• Yawn.
• Ipsos Reid: I had no idea your soul could be bought so easily.

I mean, seriously. Maybe I’m the oddball here. But what I want out of my TV is just a nice TV that works reliably and has an easy-to-use remote control. That’s it!
     I don’t want to “access, manage, and enjoy” any digital assets, photos, music backups, or anything like that.
     Does anyone reading this blog really buy this study — that three out of five Canadians want a “media hub” instead of a good TV? C’mon.

In what I’m sure is a complete coincidence, Father’s Day is Sunday. And big-screen TVs are a big-purchase items. I’m sure HP wouldn’t commission some dubious survey just to get media attention, would they? Nooooooo, that just wouldn’t be ethical….

	Comments Off	See also: Tod's Tech Beat
	Email this	Posted at 8:30 am (13 Jun 2006)