In technology, 2007 was the year of the iPhone. All that hype followed by all those sales. No wonder Time magazine declared the iPhone the invention of the year.
In technology writing and video performing, 2007 had to be the year of the ubiquitous David Pogue, a self-proclaimed “card-carrying nerd” with the ability to translate techno speak into plain English.
“The NY Times tech guru is a playful geek whose love and passion for all things gadgety shines through with every over-the-top video he makes,” wrote the people at gizmodo.com.
Pogue, whose title at the Times is “personal technology columnist” writes a Thursday column for the paper. He also puts together videos and blogs for the paper’s website.
No other Times writer, with the possible exception of Will Shortz, the crossword and Sudoku guru, would seem to have so much going on.
Like Shortz, Pogue is a publishing juggernaut. Right now, he has over 3 million books in print. Pogue also appears on NBC, CBC and NPR.
He devoted much of his time in the middle of this year to the iPhone, Apple’s combination MP3 player, cell phone and Internet device.
In a pre-release video in June for the Times that has drawn over 1 million viewers on You Tube, Pogue plays a blessed and cursed reviewer. He gets an early look at the iPhone, only to be chased and nearly attacked by colleagues who want to get their hands on the device.
Pogue’s July video at the time of the product release also works to both parody and celebrate the frenzy over the phone.
In a satire sung by Pogue to the tune of “I Did it My Way,” the critic seems to throw his old cell phone into a river and then goes off and buys an iPhone. At the end, real iPhone purchasers or would-be purchasers join Pogue in song.
Pogue, 44, grew up in Ohio, where he was the 1977 state spelling bee champion. He graduated from Yale University in 1985 with distinction in music.
According to his website, Pogue then worked on several Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, including Kiss of the Spider Woman and Godspell.
Pogue had fallen in love with Apple computers at Yale, and in New York City, he advised musicians and composers, including Stephen Sondheim, about using the new technology.
In 1988, he started writing for MacWorld Magazine, and four years later, he produced his first book, Mac for Dummies.
Since then, he was done several books in the Dummies series, including one on magic, another of his passions. Pogue also started a series of “Missing Manual” books that show consumers how to work computers and other devices that come with scant or confused instructions.
Pogue’s technology column started at the Times in 2000, taking on for that newspaper what Walter S. Mossberg had been doing so well for the Wall Street Journal since 1991.
At least one time, the prolific Pogue may have spread himself too thin.
In 2005, he reported for the Times on a California company that rescues data on damaged hard drives. As part of that review, Pogue had the company retrieve some information on one of his hard drives that went bad. He made clear that he had not paid for the service.
Pogue repeated the piece on NPR, but did not refer to the free nature of the service. NPR’s ombudsman took him to task. Pogue defended himself but added that he should not have done the radio segment without “connecting the dots.”
Judging by the comments his reviews prompt, Pogue has retained the respect of the highly opinionated world of computer and techno buffs.
“David Pogue is cool!,” wrote one on You Tube. “He is slightly Apple-brainwashed (i.e., not Micro$oft-brainwashed), but I like and trust his reviews.”
(Note: Pogue blogged yesterday that CNBC has begun to air his video segments.)
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