Final thought after wrapping #BlackBerry10 from NYC? Apple’s #iOS is looking very old. Thanks for following me today! twitter.com/hainsworthtv/s…

— Michael Hainsworth (@hainsworthtv) January 30, 2013

Don’t forget to answer the online poll at the end of this story!

1Time Shift Camera

Time Shift is a must-have camera feature for anyone with kids. It’s also great for taking large group shots.

The BlackBerry camera has three modes: still, video and Time Shift. Time Shift will take multiple shots over about a half-second. If anyone blinks — or looks off-camera — within that half second, you simply tap their face and “rewind” the image until the blink is gone. But what makes this particularly useful is you can use it for multiple people, and the BlackBerry 10 OS will blend all the faces into a single blink-free image. Great for Christmas gatherings, the office party, or the first day of school, it’s the kind of feature you would have expected from Apple.

2BlackBerry Hub

To “peek” into your BlackBerry Hub, swipe from the logo up halfway, then to the right.

The BlackBerry Hub is at the heart of the BB10 OS philosophy: you shouldn’t have to keep switching from app to app to keep up to date on everything and everyone. In the olden days, you knew that blinking red BlackBerry light was an email. Now it could be a Facebook notification, a Tweet mention, a LinkedIn request or a BBM conversation. Responding to a Facebook post doesn’t require launching the Facebook app. You can swipe up and to the right to “peek” into your hub when the red light blinks so you know if it’s worth dealing with right away.

3Contact Manager

The BlackBerry Contact Manager

All the activity associated with your contact is shown here.

Your contact’s recent Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn activities are all visible from within their contact file.

Apple’s iOS contact manager is a joke. BlackBerry 10 has integrated social media and all your communications into Contacts. Then the magic happens: it cross-references your contacts and gives you the ability to Connect via LinkedIn to a Facebook friend, follow on Twitter that LinkedIn colleague, etcetera. Like iOS, birthdays are automatically pulled into the Calendar. And the “Activity” button reveals your contact’s actions on social — and with you.

4Alarm Clock

BlackBerry clearly hasn’t lost sight of it’s early adopters: the suits. An alarm clock is a simple feature, but it’s elegantly designed. The “Bed Side Mode” can disable notifications while enabling the alarm. And after a few moments, the screen dims to keep the clock from becoming a night light. This is going to be a business traveler’s best friend and one of those “soft” reasons why fans of BlackBerry 10 are going to love their devices.

5Backside

Forget anodized aluminum, the rubberized backing on the Z10 makes the device comfortable to hold. I live in constant fear of dropping my iPhone 5. I’ve deliberately dropped the Z10 on concrete and wood floors, and even had it skid down the ice at my neighbourhood rink. But all because I’ve deliberately dropped it. The backing described by critics as “cheap” beats the smooth and slippery surface of my iPhone any day.

COMING SOON!

Five Features I Hate About the New BlackBerry Z10

Photos from the BlackBerry 10 Launch

View my behind the scenes photos of the big launch in New York City on my Facebook Page.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Listen Now

TEAC LP-U200 USB Vinyl to MP3 Recorder

If you’re like me, and I know I am, you’ve got someone in your life who has stacks of wax sitting in boxes in the basement. For about $200 and the time, you can convert your vinyl to MP3 using the TEAC LP-U200. Pop a blank CD (or CD-rewritable) into the drive, drop the needle, and hit record. It automagically recognizes songs and creates new tracks on the CD. Once you’re done, pop it into your PC to import and label.

Lifeproof iPhone Case

This was recommended by a family member who dropped her iPhone in the toilet, leading to a costly (and gross) replacement. It’s waterproof. Shock proof. Drop things a lot? Get this.

iPad Mini

This is for people who already have an iPad but the spouse keeps stealing it. It’s far more portable, too, so it’s the go-to tablet for anyone who’s on the go.

Native Union Bluetooth iPhone Desk Phone

Smartphones are so damned small these days, they’re uncomfortable for long conversations. Not only does this charge your iPhone (and output the music via 1/8th jack), it’s a wireless handset that will certainly please Chatty Cathys.

AR. Drone 2.0 Parrot Quadricopter

This is the toy I really want but can’t justify the $300 price tag, particularly since I know it costs $250 to get a cherry picker to remove it from a tree. But if money was no object, the HD camera and iPhone cockpit-view controls make this a great gift. There’s even an augmented reality game that makes you a virtual laser gunner chasing other drones.

Paul & Michael Hainsworth, spring 1980

680 CFTR, St. Patrick’s Day, March 16, 1980

After that less than stellar on-air debut, Dan surely understood the meaning of “never work with children or animals.” He got out of that chat pretty quickly. It wasn’t until we were out of the booth and the pressure was off that my kid brother Paul pulled a $1 bill out of his pocket and exclaimed, “I did have some green on me!” Comedy gold from a 5 year old.

8 years later I would shadow Dan as he made his rounds as one of Toronto’s most successful voice over artists and disk jockeys. We spent much of the morning at recording sessions in dark padded rooms. One was in a house recording the voice over for an industrial video.

1You lose all credibility if you can’t pronounce the word.

“Is it PRO’-pane or pro-PANE’?” he asked the director. The director didn’t know. Neither did the sound engineer, the copywriter or the suit whose job it was to occupy space and consume the room’s oxygen. Nobody knew the answer.

2Unless you’re calling the shots, nobody wants to know what you think.

As Dan was excused for a smoke break while the suit telephoned his boss for a decision, we spoke about the script. I noted it boasted of propane’s use in aerosols. It was the late 80s and we were quickly learning of the impact hair spray was having on the ozone layer — and I asked if Dan thought it was a good idea to be promoting something the public knew to be bad.

“It’s not my nickel,” was Dan’s simple reply. It was one of the many lessons my uncle taught me that day.

3Broadcasting is a mistress who will never love you as much as you love her.

I sat in on Dan’s drive show in a densely packed control room at CKFM 99.9 (“Playing Toronto’s Favourites”) while he operated the audio board, played carts (think 8 track tapes) and filed commercials.

“Are you sure this is what you want to do?” Dan repeatedly asked me over the course of my job shadow day. It would be about 3 years into my own radio career before I truly understood why he was discretely suggesting another field of work. The boss will always tell you they’ve got a stack of resumes on their desk and that you’re replaceable. After almost 25 years in the business, I’ve never once seen that stack put to use. When someone is shown the door or quits, it’s weeks and months before replacements are hired. And on a good day, the boss will even admit it’s tough to find good on-air talent.

4Leave your personal life at the door, you’ve got a job to do.

At one point in the shift, Dan was arguing into the telephone. I had no idea what it was about, but I knew Dan was frustrated. At the height of that frustration, it was time to go back on-air. As Dan filled his lungs (“bottom-up, like you’re pushing the air from your belly”) and turned on the microphone, it was as if a switch had been flipped. Listeners didn’t have any idea Dan just spent the last 3 minutes in a shouting match. Regardless of whatever was going on in his personal life, all that mattered was what went to air.

It wasn’t long after that Dan pulled a few strings. The next thing I knew I was sitting in the office of the unflappably amiable Wayne Webster, the music director at CKFM. “We’ll get you running voice tracks,” he said. I expressed enthusiasm despite having no clue what that meant. I reported for training at 11:30pm that Friday night.

Voice tracks allow the DJ to show up in the middle of the afternoon, record introductions to songs, backsell them (“that was…”) and tease music going into commercial breaks. That reel to reel tape would end up in my mail bunk and I’d do all the work except turn on the microphone. It was a total blast. I may have had as much fun in my first year of radio as the 10 more that followed.

A year into my weekend overnight gig through high school, CKFM had been slapped on the wrist by the CRTC for not abiding by its Promise of Performance. As penance, the station went “commercial free” all Christmas week. As a professional courtesy, it’s the prior DJ’s job to pull at least the first hour of commercial carts off the wall in the control room for the next guy, so he doesn’t spend his shift scrambling to keep up. But December 25th, 11:30pm I reported for my overnight shift and not a single commercial was pulled. The DJ extolled the joys of not having to file commercials, due to the CRTC ruling. I assumed the absence of pulled commercials meant I didn’t have commercials either — even though the next day was Boxing Day. By 5:30am, the audio operator for the morning show noted I hadn’t pulled his spots, and politely reminded me of the professional courtesy.

“But it’s commercial free Christmas!” I exclaimed. The op waved the commercial log file at me and pointed out, “Christmas ended yesterday.”

I didn’t run a single commercial all night. I felt like I was going to throw up.  I had to file a “fault report” to that effect — one that would be distributed to all the big shots in all the departments. I was the talk of the station the next day. The people who schedule commercials had to scramble to find space for “make-goods”, the sales department needed to inform clients, and Wayne Webster needed to be told the new kid had screwed up. I was convinced I was going to be fired.

Wayne was surprisingly level about the whole thing.

5You don’t need to kick garbage cans to gain respect or admiration.

A month later I found myself pushing the buttons for Dan. Sleeman’s Brewery often bought 60 second commercial slots and would fill them with two 30 second commercials back to back. In the stress of working when people were actually listening — including the man who got me the job — I accidentally fired another commercial while the Sleeman’s spot was half way through.

Dan hit the talk-back button from the DJ booth to point out my mistake, “Michael, you can’t make up for not running spots by running two at the same time.”

It was the only time he acknowledged my supreme screw-up from a month before, and he did it with class and humour. Another lesson learned from my Uncle Dan.

6A Dan Williamson Bonus Lesson for Non-Radio Types, Too

I moved to Own Sound for my first on-air job 14 years after Dan first mentioned my name on the radio.

AM560 CFOS, February 16th, 1994

When I moved north to be a news anchor and reporter at AM560 CFOS, Dan’s housewarming gift to me was a toolbox. The note inside read, “a job is always easier when you use the right tools.”

I still have that tool box, and every time I open it, I think of Dan and that note, and dig for the right tool.

Here’s the startup test.

May I suggest that you have your callers just say: “H-U-L” rather than: “I’ll hang up and listen to your guest’s answer.”

Over the course of one show, I believe that the time savings generated would add up. I really enjoy both afternoon and evening shows.

All The Best,
DW
Orillia ON

Hey, D,

Thanks for writing. I understand where you’re coming from. Viewers in the past have taken issue with everything from “thanks for taking my call” to “how are you? Great, thanks, and you?”

You might be surprised to learn how little time is spent on these pleasantries.

“I’ll hang up and listen to your guest’s answer” consumes approximately 3 seconds per call. Market Call at 1:30PM ET handles about 8 combined calls and email messages, and MCT at 6PM ET about twice that. Eliminating pointless references to hanging up (after all, we’ll hang up on them to clear the line if they don’t hang up on us!) saves less than 30 seconds of the 30 minute show and about a minute for the night programme.

Note the yellow paper on the wall. It’s our list of “frequent callers”. BNN Market Call screener Michael Chu politely requests viewers who have repeatedly gotten through to wait a week or two before calling back to give other viewers a chance to ask a question.

We already urge them to get straight to the question. The savings on a per-show basis simply aren’t substantial enough to pressure the callers further, and the cumulative effect over the course of a year isn’t an accurate assessment since we can’t squeeze in another topic in the 24 seconds saved, anyway.

I’m a firm believer in quality over quantity, so eliminating my follow-up questions to squeeze in another call or two degrades the value of the program over time.

In an effort to get more content on-air, you may have noticed some changes I made when I returned to the show. The past picks segment focuses exclusively on the weakest of the picks, and promotions for other guests and shows have been shortened or eliminated.

Partial panoramic image of the BNN control room

In speaking with viewers, I’ve found they get a big charge out of saying the “hang up” phrase they hear all the time, so I’m reluctant to push for its elimination.

Thanks so much for watching – and for taking the time to offer your thoughts on improving the show.

I wanted to reply personally so you know your suggestion has been seriously considered.

Michael

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Poll expires October 23rd at 1pm ET.

Sources:

http://ukrainianiphone.com/02/10/2012/87016

http://gizmodo.com/5948203/ipad-mini-rumor-roundup-everything-we-think-we-know
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/10/08/buzz-building-for-smaller-apple-tablet/