Jim interviews Nate Cooper, a former Apple employee that is now teaching technology in New York, and his use of kickstarter to fund his webcomic, skillshare and meetup classes, coworking spaces, and the startup bus.
The following are some excerpts from my awesome interview with Nate Cooper. Check out the entire podcast to hear the whole interview.
Nate’s background
After moving to New York City from California without a job, this ‘independent academic’ worked his way up from being a seasonal hire at Apple, to full time employee to event trainer. Jim asks what is it really like to work at Apple, and what was his greatest experience there. Nate talks about the fact that since the Apple brand can attract such a quality, creative workforce, the type of people he got to work with were really amazing. Many went on to some really high profile jobs.
The conversation moves to how Nate made the transition from working the floor at Apple to running their events and training, and the reason he decided to leave.
Every geek worth their salt has a checklist of their favorite gadgets, and I am no different. It’s just always good to review the obvious (laptop, smartphone), the often forgotten (earplugs, adapter to back up SD cards), and the gadgets that aren’t even gadgets (mini moleskin notebook and travel pen).
There’s no doubt smartphones have changed the lives of millions. We put up with the costs and hassles of the carriers because we pretty much now have a computer that we can carry around in our pocket, giving us access to a phone (do people still use those?), texting for quick messages, maps when we get lost, music to make us happy, games to kill the time, photos and videos to share, and the entire web at our fingertips.
But if there is one area of confusion and fear that most smartphone owners have, it is what happens when you take that phone across international borders. This article by Caty Kobe on outrageous cell phone bills gives several examples:
A British news site reportedthat an iPhone user had gone on a Mediterranean cruise and returned to England to find a 54-page phone bill totaling $4,800. The iPhone didn’t know it was cruising through foreign waters, so it was checking for new emails every five minutes – even when the phone was off – racking up hefty charges by the hour.
A NY Times article where San Francisco man whose European vacation cost him an additional $852 because he didn’t deactivate the iPhone’s automatic email-checker, which looked for new messages more than 500 times on his trip through Italy, Croatia and Malta.
What can I say? Some people spend their extra income on clothes or shoes or golf or Vegas. I like technology.
Now that I had a killer desktop for my home base, I wanted a lightweight laptop for travel, working remotely, and basically anywhere I needed it around town… co-working spaces, lunch meetings in a cafe, or speaking presentations. I see it as an investment. So as soon as I started my own business, I got the 11″ Macbook Air.
Hey everyone! Want to be “location independent” and work from exotic places but don’t know where to start? Today I am going to do an epic, 2,000+ word post AND have several sub-posts with photos and videos as a way to go way overboard and over-deliver on the amount of content you’re going to get.
I always strive to deliver “walk the walk” content to my readers, so after years of hinting at working remotely from a foreign country, I put my money where my mouth was and after leaving my full time job in November 2011, booked a 12-day trip to South America from Dec 29, 2011 – Jan 12, 2012. Where did YOU spend New Year’s Eve?
Below, I detail everything you need to know about working remotely from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Learn the safest neighborhood, best hotel, closest co-working space, 9 ways to generate income, the tech gadgets you’ll need and what to do for fun.
So the first question you may be asking is, why work remotely? Well, there are plenty of resources out there such as books like The 4-Hour Workweek or The Art of Nonconformity and other blogs that promote the virtues of location independence, so I won’t go into it too deeply.
But it falls into what I’m seeing as the workplace trends that I spoke about in Episode 176, and what this new blog is all about.
Staying at your job and working from an office from 9 to 5 forever and taking the rare 3 day weekend here and there is no way to live. Similarly, the ability to take several weeks off away from the office on a stress-free vacation also isn’t an option for most people.
Face it, the concept of a singular workplace is blurring.
For the majority of people I know, 1-2 hours a day are spent physically at work, yet doing personal things like being active on social media, answering email with friends, and surfing the web. However, 1-2 hours a day are spent outside of the office on their free time, checking on business email or catching up on work projects.
Being able to balance fun and international travel while keeping the bills paid can be a great option in the new economy.
When it comes to working out, there are questions that come up time and time again:
- We all know we SHOULD work out, what can be done to make sure I DO work out?
- How can I find the time to work out on a crazy schedule?
- How do I keep from getting bored with my workouts?
- How can I keep better track of my results?
- Why do personal trainers cost so much?
- How do I see results once I’ve reached a plateau?
And for the Apple fans out there…
- My iPhone can do just about everything, but can it make me look better naked?
On this week’s podcast, I spoke with Nick Gammell, the CEO and Founder of Gain Fitness in his attempt to answer all of those questions.
He comes from a good pedigree of brains and brawn… a lifelong athlete and former college football player to address the workout side of things, and an analytical brain with experience at Deloitte consulting and a little tech company named Google to fuel the technology side.
After chatting for just a few minutes, it became clear that I was the perfect demographic for his product.
- I enjoy working out but don’t have a lot of time
- I generally do the same workouts so need variety to get out of a rut
- I like to track my progress and see results
[Disclaimer: If you despise Apple products, you may want to skip this post. But there should be something in here for everyone.]
Oh man, it’s like Christmas. I can’t contain my excitement. After weeks and weeks of deliberation and research, I just bought a new computer. And since I’m the guy that many people turn to for advice, I’m going to give you every piece of knowledge that I have.
Why should you trust me? It’s in my blood. I’m a geek. I used to buy and read something called The Computer Shopper. Do you know what that is? It’s a magazine that lived from 1979-2009 — with a peak in the 80s and 90s — that advertised computers. That’s it.
To call it a magazine is an understatement. It regularly topped 800 pages! There were probably 5 articles. It was the size of a phone book and just page after page after page of ads. Glorious ads for the latest and greatest computer parts and peripherals. This article by Jason Scott tells more.
So I urge you to listen to my advice – but then make sure you are making the right decision for you. Two reasons. In February 2009 I wrote a curious blog post about buying a netbook and was just as excited, although reading it again now, you can tell right from the title that I was caught up in the hype, not making an informed decision.
Secondly, I decided to buy a desktop. A guy at work that I trust that talks computers with me bought a powerful desktop awhile fairly recently and says he rarely uses it and now regrets it. Apple says that more than 70% of their sales are laptops. Am I living too much in the past? We’ll get to that.
Today I tackle a new change at Apple that could affect you in several ways.
Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:
A great off-the-cuff podcast today looking at the changes to Apple’s subscription policy.
First, I do two quick points:
1) I learned a new buzzword via Forrester Research on AdAge: T-commerce
- There is E-commerce on the web
- Then M-commerce on the phone (good for research, but not big enough to shop)
- T-commerce is now happening on the tablet
- Many retailers report that over 50% of their mobile traffic is now coming from the iPad
- These are not incremental sales, says Forrester, but T-commerce will largely grow by capturing and cannibalizing traditional PC-based retail traffic
2) Turbo Tax: Love ‘em or hate ‘em?
- I’ve talked before how they should not be on Twitter
- Just 4,600 fans
- Not the best place for complicated private questions, and who loves doing taxes?
Sample tweet: Filing your taxes tonight? Take a look at these awesome videos on tax basics we’ve got going on.
Today I interview the amazing Rana Sobhany, and we talk about her new book and how to market iPhone and iPad apps.
Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:
Trying to keep up with Rana Sobhany is sort of like trying to gather up a handful of ball bearings after you’ve dropped them down a steep hill. While wearing mittens. And rollerblades. We were introduced at the opening party of the 2007 Wired Store, and since then there are many words I’ve used to describe her:
- Friend
- Former podcast guest (Episode 38)
- Guest speaker in my NYU class
- Entrepreneur
- Former tennis star
- iPad DJ
- World Traveler
- Speaker
And now Author.
And in fact, fellow author. In the podcast I do a quick reveal that I have signed a book deal and will be developing my own iPad app. But more on that in a future episode.
In this super fun and energetic podcast, we focus the first part on how she got the book deal, and the rest answering specific answers to the question: How do I market my iPhone or iPad app?
There’s no doubt smartphones have changed the lives of millions. We put up with the costs and hassles of the carriers because we pretty much now have a computer that we can carry around in our pocket, giving us access to a phone (do people still use those?), texting for quick messages, maps when we get lost, music to make us happy, games to kill the time, photos and videos to share, and the entire web at our fingertips.
On this week’s podcast, I spoke with Nick Gammell, the CEO and Founder of 
