Avner Ronen and his friends turned an interest in the XBMC media centre into the headline-making, TV-transforming media centre Boxee. We rung him up to talk about streaming media, software development, gadgets, and Boxee’s future. More »
Funny guy Chris Hardwick reviews gadgets, writes for Wired, does stand-up, acts in TV and movies, writes comedy songs, blogs, Twitters, and makes it all work. Here’s how he does it. More »
He travels the world, dances on TV, tinkers with hardware—oh, and designed the Apple I & II personal computers. Steve Wozniak answers our questions and shares his hacker-ish means of getting things done. More »
If Michael Ruhlman’s done his job, your favourite cookbooks might go the way of the printed encyclopedia—at least for everyday cooking. Here’s what the food writer said over email about ratios, the foundation of all your food. More »
Gmail turns five today, so we sat down with Gmail’s Senior Product Manager Keith Coleman (virtually via Gmail, naturally) to discuss where it’s been, where it’s going, and that five-year-old beta tag. More »
When he’s not blowing things up, making models, or otherwise holding the job you wish you had, Adam Savage is serious about personal projects. We chatted with him about MythBusters, managing time, and other geeky stuff. Photo by ensceptico. More »
Author of new book The Power of Less Leo Babauta advises readers to simplify and focus only on the essential. Today he stopped by to tell us more about his timely message.
Accidental music mogul Dave Brown helped launch the careers of Death Cab for Cutie, Bright Eyes and The Album Leaf, among others. These days his record label turned consulting company, Holiday Matinee, beefs up the resumes of dot-coms and other merchants of cool. I got a chance to talk to Brown about the details of his journey from music enthusiast to a record label founder. Illustration by Dave Brown.
Web-based task manager Remember the Milk is one of our Lifehacker readers’ favourites, and for good reason. The web-centered service has expanded since its inception in 2005 to work with tons of platforms, apps, and interfaces, yet it’s remained focused on doing what it does best—telling you what needs to happen next, no matter where you are. We wanted to learn more about how Remember the Milk was born, gets upgraded, and where it wants to go in the future, so we traded a few emails with Emily Boyd, one of the webapp’s co-founders, who is based in Sydney. Read on to hear Boyd’s answers to our burning questions about RTM. Thanks to Jason F. for the photo illustration!
In a fast-paced business culture of “get everything done yesterday,” it’s easy to admire and reward those busybusy people who always seem to be juggling 14 things at once. But business coach Dave Crenshaw argues that the most common kind of multitasking doesn’t boost productivity—it slows you down. In his new book, The Myth of Multitasking: How “Doing It All” Gets Nothing Done, Crenshaw explains the difference between “background tasking”—like watching TV while exercising—and “switchtasking,” juggling two tasks by refocusing your attention back and forth between them, and losing time and progress in the switch. Crenshaw’s on a mission to reduce distractions, interruptions, and fire-fighting at work, and create environments that let employees see through tasks with their full attention before moving onto the next thing. Here’s what Crenshaw had to say when I asked him a few questions about changing perceptions and habits around multitasking. Photo by Elsie esq..
