You might have noticed that since I launched GeekBeat.TV, I’ve been on a regular release schedule of Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. There were many reasons for this but as I said on episode 13, I’m all about tweaking and adjusting and experimenting to make sure we’re doing everything on this end to make the show what you want to see and how you want to see it. So…

Starting this week, we’re switching to a Monday, Wednesday, Friday release schedule based on your feedback. This will give me a chance to not miss any big news each week and give your iTunes a little time to play catch up!

Keep the feedback coming. I love you guys and appreciate that you subscribe and that you’re using the embed code to share the show with your friends!

As you might (or might not) be aware, the .co domain just launched this week, and people have been going crazy buying up domain names! You better get whatever .co domains you want because people will get them first…believe me!!!

Someone grabbed calilewis.co almost immediately before I had a chance to. My friend Trey Ratcliff, who’s famous for his HDR Photography, lost out on StuckInCustoms.co, too. Shows you how quickly people move on these things!

Check out onemansblog.com/dotco for more information and make sure you use these discount codes when you register your .co domains so you can save money.

• IAPt3 = 10% off
• IAPtfif1 = 15% off $75
• IAPtft1 = $5 off $30
• IAPtdom1 = $7.49 .com
• IAPth1 = 20% off hosting

How can a video of a guy walking be an awesome video?? Here’s how…

Thanks to @dutch9 for the link!

You guys know Trey Ratcliff, right? He’s the world famous HDR photographer who travels all over the place shooting gorgeous pictures of mountains and snow monkeys and landmarks and posts his amazing HDR photography on his website.

His book, A World in HDR, quickly became #5 in the Amazon charts when it was released, and it sold out in the US, Canada, UK and Australia! We’re going to have some copies of the book at OpenCamp to giveaway, but to tide you over, Trey’s giving 3 of you a FREE copy of his HDR eBook called “Top 10 Mistakes in HDR Processing, and How to Fix Them“.  It’s 37 pages long and filled with great tips and information on how to make your photos the best they can be!

Yep, that’s it! Of course, I’d love for you to tweet about it as well, but I’m not going to twist your arm on that one…I’ll just trust you! On Monday morning the 26th I’ll announce the winners and you’ll have a book in the mail to you soon after!

Trey is coming to speak at OpenCamp too, so don’t miss your opportunity to spend some time soaking up the knowledge! Register at www.openca.mp and book your hotel room using discount code OCD so you can hang out with him Friday night and all the other speakers and attendees throughout the weekend. Don’t forget, we have the US Army Golden Knights parachute team JUMPING out of an airplane to kick off OpenCamp! Oh, and yeah…I’ll be jumping too….

UPDATE: The winners have been chosen! Congratulations to…

1) Ken Knitter

2) Angela Akers

3) Marty McPatten

Winners, please email me directly at cali at calilewis dot com with your email addresses!

Hey guys, here’s a little video I prepared after having a discussion with some friends about what we’d do if some sort of disaster were to occur like in the recent rash of movies such as 2012, The Book of Eli, or any of the other Disaster films. Check out the video AND head on over to JoinTheColony.com to participate in the fun!

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It pays to be prepared so here are my top 10 Survival Necessities:

10.) A Leatherman Multitool

These awesome all-in-one tools put the swiss army knife to shame! They have pliers, screwdrivers, saws, tweezers, and just about anything else you might need in a disaster.

9.) Potassium Iodide Tablets

If there’s a nuclear incident exposure to radioactive iodide is what’s going to get you! However, taking potassium iodide saturates your thyroid gland with safe iodide to block the radioactive stuff.

8.) Magnesium Fire Starter

Lighters run out of gas too quick so get yourself a Magnesium fire starter instead!

7.) Flexible Splint & Bandage

Flexible splints to help set and protect an injured limb. Just bend and shape it to fit the part that’s broken and wrap it to keep it immobilized.

6.) Hand Crank Radio

An emergency radio will pick up just about any frequency and operates on batteries, solar power, or even hand cranking.

5.) Shotgun

You know you want one!

4.) Water Purifier & Collapsible Water Carrier

In an emergency you are going to need water! So get one of these pumps to filter whatever water you find nearby to make it safe to drink. Just drop the filter into a nearby stream and pump to fill a container.

3.) Emergency Food Supplies

Tornados, Earthquakes, riots… whatever your fear, keep a 2 week supply of emergency food on hand just in case… Because when disaster strikes you will NOT be able to go to the grocery store!

2.) Camp Stove

But when you get really hungry and come across some quality food you’re going to want to cook it. A camp stove beats a fire any day of the week!

1.) SureFire LED Flashlight

Ok, I may have overdone it with the flashlight just a tad in my video, but you really should get a high quality LED flashlight like the SureFires. And make sure you get extra batteries as the more exotic ones will almost certainly be impossible to find after a disaster.

Do you have other suggestions for must have items in a disaster? Drop a comment below and let me know!

What the…???

Woohoo!! I’m going to be jumping out of an airplane with the Golden Knights!!!

I can’t tell you how excited I am about this! It’s an opportunity that came my way because of OpenCamp, the conference I’m helping to organize in Dallas. You can find out more about the conference at www.openca.mp. You WON’T want to miss it!

Who are the Golden Knights?

You’ve seen the US Army Golden Knights parachute team. They’re THE experts – the best of the best!!! They’re the ones who fly into events like the Indy 500 and football games…and soon, the Rangers Game, and take our Presidents on jumps. They present and demonstrate the US Army ideals, and their mission is to help increase awareness and inspire others to be “Army Strong”.

What I’m most impressed with is the team’s desire to embrace new media and social aspects of the Internet. They’re on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube, and have recently launched the brand new ArmyGK.com site on an open source platform designed to take their outreach into the next decade. OpenCamp afforded the opportunity to step up their game by learning from some of the brightest minds in the space.

These are the guys you want to jump out of an airplane with if you’re ever going to do it! Believe me, I had no interest…I mean ZERO interest in ever jumping out of a plane. That is, until they asked me. There is no fear in doing it because they know what they’re doing, and I’ll be in good hands!

Jumping at OpenCamp

OpenCamp is being held August 27-29, 2010. The Golden Knights are coming into Dallas to do an exhibition jump at the Rangers Game, then on August 26th, they’re kicking off OpenCamp by taking a bunch of our speakers and tossing them out of an airplane! Here’s who we have on that list of jumpers so far:

1. Me! (Cali Lewis)
2. Trey Ratcliff
3. Giovanni Gallucci
4. George Ruiz
5. Frederick Van Johnson
6. …and more!

There will be lots of video, both of me jumping and from cameras attached to me on the way down. You can see an example from John P.’s recent jump below. There will be one like it of me!

Although there will be video, I promise…you WON’T want to miss out on being there as we make our way down and land to kick off OpenCamp! But remember…you’ll need to be registered for OpenCamp to participate!

Pyrotechnics Demonstration

Not only are they tossing our speakers out of the plane, on Friday night, August 27th, there will be an incredible evening of skydiving demonstrations – complete with pyrotechnics!

Help the Army Embrace Social Media!

They don’t do this for anyone. I am incredibly honored that they’re doing this with us! Please show your appreciation by:

1. Following the Golden Knights on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube and read the US Army Golden Knights Website!
2. Help spread the word EVERYWHERE that the Golden Knights will be at OpenCamp!
3. Blog it like you mean it! While you’re spreading the word, how about putting your thoughts in a blog post and letting the Golden Knights know how much you appreciate their service (and all of our Soldiers). Drop a link in the comments here to your blog post and we’ll be letting them know about every single blog post. Who knows, maybe you’ll capture their attention…

I’ll be adding more people to the list soon. Get more information on our OpenCamp blog post about the jump, and make sure you register and book your hotel room now so you can join in on the fun!

I’ll be speaking at the DFW WordPress Group on Saturday, July 24th at 4:00 PM. My topic will be Extending WordPress Functionality, where we’ll take a look at great, useful and fun plugins to allow you to take full advantage of your website!

Join me there, and don’t forget to register!

The Art Institute of Dallas

8080 Park Lane
Dallas, TX 75231
214-692-8080

Sometimes you just have to come right out and support an issue when you feel it’s a good cause, and that’s what I’m going to do.

Twitter

There are some people who just don’t get or like Twitter, and I can understand why. I didn’t “get it” when it first came out. I actually publicly refused to join because I didn’t understand what good could come out of it. Eventually, I signed up, quickly became a Twitter disciple and wrote a whole series of posts on the subject. But there is just no denying the usefulness of Twitter once you’ve seen this video!

Now that we’re all in agreement on the usefulness of Twitter, I stand up and say…

Tweet! Tweet about popcorn, people! And let’s all make this robotic Twitter-powered machine do what it’s meant to do…make popcorn!

I’m looking for some people who would like to be on the GeekBeat.TV team, and contribute blog posts to the website. Here’s what we’re looking for:

1. Enthusiastic candidates who are passionate about technology.
2. Well written posts…and humor doesn’t hurt! The posts will be an average of 150-300 words with images.
3. The ability to follow what’s happening in the world of tech and jump on important stories when needed.

Now, let me be upfront with you. We’re not in a position to be able to pay at the moment, but you’ll get exposure and attention, and something that’s already successful to put on your resume. If you’re interested, here’s how you submit:

Email bloggers@geekbeat.tv with the subject line “Blogger Submission” and include the following:

• Name
• Examples of work
• Topics you’re interested in the most (gadgets, phones, social media, science, tech startups, etc)
• Availability (when can you write stories – day or night)
• Time Zone
• Contact Information

We’re excited about expanding GeekBeat.TV and we’re looking for people who have some experience blogging and who are strong writers.  If you know that we’re looking for you, please let us know! We look forward to chatting soon.

Wow. Someone pointed out to me they can’t find the last episode of Geek Brief, so I checked and it looks like Mevio took it down (embedded below). On this episode, I explained Geek Brief was over and I was moving on because an acceptable deal couldn’t be worked out. I can only think of one reason they’d do that…

I certainly hope Mevio isn’t going to try and replace me on my OWN show.

Can you think of ANY other reason to remove only the last episode?

Neal and I started Geek Brief over four years ago, on December 23rd, 2005. We had every intention of making it our full time jobs, and together with Mevio, we were able to achieve that goal very quickly. It’s been an amazing four years, ALL because of you guys, the Geek Brief family and community.

Early on in the show, we partnered with Mevio (then PodShow). It was a partnership that was beneficial to everyone involved, and I will always be thankful for the opportunities! Partnerships have their ups and downs, as did ours. Over the past several months, we’ve been trying to resolve some lingering business issues, but sometimes things just don’t work out.

I can’t even begin to express how much you guys mean to me. When I started, I had no idea what was coming, and I feel extremely lucky to have you in my life and do what I do for a living. You guys make me love my job, and I love you for that!!!

I’m NOT disappearing, though! My new show is called GeekBeat.TV at www.geekbeat.tv. I love technology and gadgets and exciting research projects from places like MIT, so don’t worry, you’ll still get your dose of tech news!

Please make sure you subscribe to the new show! I don’t usually beg you guys, but I do need every single one of you to change your subscriptions!! The first episode of GeekBeat.TV will be out very soon!

You can check out what Neal’s up to at www.nealcampbell.com.

Cali’s Twitter
Neal’s Twitter

Cali’s Facebook
Neal’s Facebook

You’ll see some changes as I play with the site. Thanks for your patience!

There’s been a TON of hype around the iPhone 4, and today Steve Jobs officially announced it at WWDC. Here’s a recap of the new features, pricing and availability:

Several of you have noticed lately that I’ve had to cut back on the number of people I’m following on Twitter. I promise you it’s nothing personal! You didn’t say or do anything wrong, it’s just a matter of practicality!

Over the years, I accumulated about 4,400 people I was following. I get hundreds of DMs a day and it’s difficult to keep up with them. In fact, mobile Twitter apps can’t handle that number either! Every time I opened any of my mobile apps, they would get so bogged down with trying to load 4,400 people’s updates and all the DMs, that my apps became completely useless. I’ve been shaking my phone in frustration for months, and all that does is try to undo the last thing I typed. Not helpful!

A lot of you follow me for tech news updates throughout the day. The sources I have who are trying to feed me information are getting buried in the mix of all the DMs, and it’s preventing me from doing my job effectively. Unfortunately, I had to start cutting back the people I was following drastically.

Thanks for understanding and please don’t be mad at me for unfollowing! You can always send me an email or @reply me. I am watching and listening, and replying. I love the conversation with you! The DMs just have to be controlled a little more.

When I got my hands on the Droid for the first time, I fell in love. The Android OS was heaven to me. I love the iPhone OS, but the one thing it lacks is Google Apps integration. I use Google services heavily and I know a lot of people do. We live our lives on Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, etc. While you can do all these things on the iPhone, it’s so much simpler (and oh, so much better) on Android devices.

I reviewed the Droid when it was released almost 100 episodes ago, and I just reviewed the HTC Incredible. It’s been a while since I had the Droid in my hands, so in a couple weeks, I’ll be getting BOTH the Droid and the Incredible so I can do a side by side comparison.

One of the most popular questions I get about the Incredible is “How does it compare to the Droid and iPhone”. I’ll have all the details laid out soon, so be sure to submit any questions you have by leaving a comment below!

There’s no way to say this easily, so I’m just coming right out and saying it. Around the beginning of the year, Neal and I separated, and are in the process of a divorce. At this time, details are not important. Unfortunately, some marriages just don’t work out, and I’ll leave it at that.

We have still been working together to produce GeekBrief.TV, and I hope that can continue throughout the process. Obviously, this isn’t a happy time for either of us, but compared to what I hear of other divorces, it’s been on the more pleasant side of things.

I won’t be answering any questions of a personal nature, please understand. This is challenging both from an emotional and professional perspective for both of us, especially given the public nature of our jobs and marriage. I hope we can continue to count on everyone’s support and kindness as we get through this process.

Professionally speaking, I am incredibly amazed at the last four years. You guys are fantastic. You’ve always been there for us, and I’m looking forward to the years ahead with you. It’s my intention to always bring you shiny, happy tech news, and no matter what, I’ll always be the same Cali you’ve come to know on the show.

Cali / Luria

I got my iPad Saturday morning, played with it until I felt I had enough experience with it to do a review on GeekBrief.TV, then on Sunday, I put the battery to the test. At noon on Sunday, my iPad battery was fully charged. With the exception of about 30 minutes throughout the day, I didn’t put the iPad down. Either I was playing with it or someone else was playing with it, doing exactly what you would do in a normal day…email, browsing the web, playing games, tweeting, using a variety of productivity apps, and I watched one movie on the Netflix app. Actually, it was Part 1 in a miniseries I’d never heard about called Tin Man with Zooey Deschanel. I loved the reinvented Wizard of Oz story! But, I digress.

Back the iPad battery test. At noon, it was 100% full. At 9:16 PM, I got the 20% battery warning, at 10:16 PM, I got the 10% battery warning, and at 11:35 PM, my iPad battery was completely dead.

That’s 11 hours and 35 minutes of battery on the iPad. Of course, what you do on your iPad will cause the battery life to fluctuate. Apple claims a 10 hour battery life for the iPad on their website. It’s rare that the product maker claims a battery life that’s LESS than what you get in real life, and I’m not the only one. Most people are seeing fantastic results. It makes it that much more attractive when considering it as a replacement to carrying around your laptop while you’re out and about.

I’m very excited to announce something I’ve been working on over the last couple months!! As most of you know, last year I helped John P. from One Man’s Blog and Woopra organize WordCamp Dallas, and it was a big success! It was one of the biggest WordCamps in the world. Regardless of how many people were there, though, it was a success in my book because the people who were there reported they learned a ton, made great new contacts and had an awesomely fun time (their words, not mine!).

This year, we’re expecting it to be double or triple the size, we’re going to increase the amount of fun and learning, AND were changing it up quite a bit with what we call OpenCamp. OpenCamp will bring together everyone, regardless of the blogging or CMS platform you use. Those of us on WordPress have common interests with those of you who use Drupal or Joomla, and there’s no reason we can’t all learn from each other.

At OpenCamp, you’ll quickly find out which platform really is the best one for you, then dive deeper into that platform and unlock the hidden treasures to make your site stand out! Learn how to promote your website, how to make money with your website, how to analyze your traffic and what to do with that information to increase your traffic. We’ll have great, engaging speakers, and some of the names you’re very familiar with! Meet other like-minded people, as well as people who think completely different than you! Network, learn, and have fun!

Registration is now open! Attendees will be listed on the OpenCamp website, but it’s on a first come, first serve basis, so the quicker you act, the more prominent your information will be. I’ll be providing more details in the coming days, and you can find out more at www.OpenCa.mp. See you there August 27th-29th!

Follow Opencamp on Twitter and Facebook

Early this morning at about 1:00 AM, I started going iPad app crazy! My plan on Saturday is to get in line, wait for my reserved iPad and spend a couple hours with the device before shooting a review Brief. Here are the apps I’ve downloaded. Let me know in comments below what apps you’re downloading in anticipation of the release of the iPad. Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom for Words With Friends! Yes, I’m addicted.

ABC: Very interested to see how networks are handling TV shows on the iPad.

AIM for iPad: It’s AIM. Gotta be connected!

AP News: News app for iPad

Backgrounds HD: We’ll see if background apps are worth it!

BBC News: iPad news app

Doodle Army Boot Camp: Just for fun.

Dragon Dictation: Speech to text app (updated)

Draw for iPad: I don’t draw, therefore I have no idea why I got this app, but I couldn’t resist.

The Elements: I hear this is an AMAZING iPad app! Get a visual and interactive representation of the elements.

Epicurious Recipes: I don’t know how often I’ll actually use this, but I hear it’s done really well.

Go Daddy: Must have the ability to look up a domain when the mood strikes!

iBooks: Apple’s eBook reader

IDW Comics: To compare with other comic apps

IMDb: I tend to have no clue about what’s going on in pop culture. When someone mentions a movie playing currently, I find IMDb useful in helping me at least sound like I know what I’m talking about!

Instapaper Pro: Save articles and web pages for later, when you don’t have an internet connection.

iPDF Reader: View PDFs

iVerse Comics: To compare with other comic apps

Kayak Flights: Search for flights

Keynote: Part of the iWork suite of applications for the iPad

Kindle for iPad: Will be comparing this with iBooks (updated)

Marvel Comics: This is apparently THE comic app to get!

Netflix: I’ve always been a Blockbuster customer, but Netflix offers a lot these days and I can definitely see myself watching entertainment on the iPad.

NPR: Don’t miss any of the great NPR shows!

Numbers: Part of the iWork suite of applications for the iPad

NYT Editors Choice: New York Times on the iPad

Pages: Part of the iWork suite of applications for the iPad

Pandora: You know how much I love my Pandora! I just hate that I won’t be able to listen to it in the background while working on other things.

Popular Science: We got a sneak peak at this earlier, supposed to be fantastic on the iPad! (updated)

Tell Me Where: A location based service offering recommendations for places nearby.

TweetDeck for iPad: I use TweetDeck and Tweetie on the iPhone currently. Here’s a video of what TweetDeck on iPad looks like.

Twilight, The Graphic Novel: A graphic novel based on Twilight (that was kind of obvious, huh?)

Twitepad: Added to the list, thanks to Aaron Hockley (updated)

Twitterific: It’s been a while since I used Twitterific. Will compare with other Twitter applications for iPad.

USA Today: USA Today on the iPad

Voice Memos for iPad: Recording app

Wikipad: Wikipedia on the iPad

Wikipanion: Another Wikipedia on iPad (updated)

WordPress: It’s been a while since I tried the WordPress app, but I’m looking forward to it on the larger screen size.

Words With Friends HD: Oh, yeah!!! SO looking forward to this one!

I’ll add more to the list as I find more and start to play with them tomorrow. Be sure to let me know what you’re into by leaving a comment below.

The OWLE is a cradle for your iPhone that gives you interchangeable lenses, a mic and a cold shoe.

I met Josh Williams, the co founder of Gowalla in Austin, where we were both winning Austin Statesman awards. After I interviewed him, he went on to win the big daddy Austin Statesman award, and Gowalla won the Web Award at SXSW. Josh filled me in on the newest Gowalla update for iPhone and Android.

A couple years ago, we bought a Mac Pro for editing GeekBrief.TV. It’s a configuration that Apple stopped selling pretty immediately. It’s always given us trouble, and this is the latest bout of trouble, from Neal’s blog:

My system disk is almost full according to a warning I received earlier today. It’s a 300GB drive and I don’t store many files on it. It’s primarily applications and system files. iTunes has a handful of songs. iPhoto is empty. All the apps that store files are empty. My Final Cut scratch disk is on a Drobo. There is no reason this drive should be even half full, but if I Get Info on the system disk it says I’m using 297.87GB of 300GB.

I ran OmniDiskSweeper and it only found that I was using 146.71GB of disk space. I ran Filelight and it showed me using 140GBs.

If you have any thoughts as to what it could be, please leave a comment below!

NOTE: Video of what I talk about is at GeekBrief.TV.

We’ve all poked fun at Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer, for running across the stage at an event screaming (video) what I imagine are meant to be motivational words. The last such event was the CES Keynote, where Ballmer talked about the success of Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, and said something to the effect of “We Bing! And we Bing! We Bing! Bing! Bing!” While most people I know think his tactics are silly and goofy, and a bit embarrassing, you have to admit…they’re memorable.

I tried Bing when it first came out, and I liked it. But that was it for me. Most of us are in the habit of Googling. “Google it” is the default phrase when talking about a search engine. I use the Google Chrome web browser, and googling something is as easy as typing in a web address. Before Chrome, I was using Firefox, where Google is the default search engine. Firefox offers users a choice of search engines by clicking on a drop down box, but Bing doesn’t even show up in those options. You have to choose “Manage Search Engines”, scroll through four pages of search engines you’ve never heard of in order to find and install Bing. It’s not easy to use Bing, and habits are hard to break. Bing’s biggest challenge to overcome is converting those habits.

This week, I went to a dinner at Central 214 in Dallas hosted by Bing to find out what they’re up to and where they’re headed. It’s part of my job, but I must say, I love my job when it involves delicious food! I learned a couple things about Bing, and got a better understanding of why someone would want to use it. Bing is all about discovery. I’ve heard that sales pitch before from Microsoft, but I didn’t quite get it. Let me explain.

If you go to Bing.com, you’ll see a different background picture every day. Think of this like Google’s changing logo, but with Bing, you can hover over parts of the photo to get more information. One day it was a picture of an Olympic snow skier, and Bing was sharing information about why skiers wear the pants they do…how the pants make them faster and better. Today, the picture is a line up of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Hovering over parts of the photo, I discovered videos of past Olympic events and got 2 minutes, 29 seconds of smile-on-my-face entertainment with the video below, called Canadian, Please.

Visual Search was the thing that stood out to the most when I tried Bing originally, and I was struck again at how useful it could be when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for. Imagine you saw someone using a camera while you were out shopping, and you were interested in buying it yourself, but you had no idea what it was. Bing’s visual search engine is intended to help you search for it by browsing photos of it, then clicking for more information. I gave it a try with a search for a dog I saw when I was in Atlanta last week. It was the cutest dog I’d ever seen (with the exception of my own, of course!), but I can’t remember what breed it is. Unfortunately, Bing left me hanging in this particular search.

While I was at the event, I asked you guys on Twitter for questions, and had Melissa Powell from the Bing team answer them on video. (Please forgive the background noise!) These are the questions you had:

• Will Bing app be any different on the coming iPad? –@alainbosse
• How can I set up a network for kids so they can use Bing but get safe results? Can it be done with a domain black/white list? –@MichaelAskew
• What is Bing’s social search strategy? –@bceverly
• Ask them about how they handle their users search results and how long they keep them? –@robbmcmahan
• How will they integrate Bing, Windows Mobile 7, Hotmail search on the phone & web all at the same time/same search? –@mbl4889
• Are the rumors true about Bing being the default on the iPhone?
• Do they like puppies? –@RadioConelrad

Will I use Bing? I will from time to time, when I want to discover, but I can’t see it replacing my daily habits on Google. What about you? Do you Bing? Do you Bing, Bing, Bing?

I’ve written about Trey Ratcliff and the HDR technique before. Trey is an HDR photographer who travels quite a bit. He posts a new photo on his blog, StuckInCustoms.com, every day. I was having lunch with him before he headed off to New Zealand, and since he had his travel bags there ready to go, I wanted to take a peek! I love knowing what gadgets other people take with them. Perhaps it’s a bit selfish….I figure I might learn a thing or two! Check out the video below, and if you’re not familiar with HDR photography, take a look at his tutorial.

Thanks to John P. for shooting this!

How many free desktop and mobile applications do you download and use on a regular basis? I know I use a lot. We all love free applications that improve our lives and make certain tasks simpler. But we also need to think about the developers who came up with the idea and put the effort into creating these applications. It takes a LOT of work to develop and support them. I try to always remember this and donate to the apps that I love.

My friend Scott Ellis is taking the idea of supporting developers of the apps you love and applying it to WordPress, which I know lots and lots of you use! WordPress developers put so much effort into creating and maintaining plugins and themes that make your website appealing for your visitors, and many of them don’t charge for their services. Scott is declaring March 1st “Support a WordPress Developer Day”. Well, I don’t think he’s actually calling it that, but he should! He’s issued a challenge to everyone to donate $5 to your favorite WordPress plugin developer. I’m going to take it a step further and suggest that if you can do more than $5, do it! And, why not support WordPress Theme Developers as well?

If you decide to participate,  leave a comment. You don’t have to say how much you’re contributing, but active and open participation in something encourages others to join in.

I’ll update this post on March 1st with which plugins and/or themes I’m supporting!

If you’re not aware, I do an audio podcast called Wealth Nation with John P. from One Man’s Blog and Woopra. It’s a show that focuses on getting the most out of life. John is very experienced in the corporate world and as an entrepreneur. I’ve built GeekBrief.TV with Neal from the ground up and know the online world and new media very well. We cover a range of topics, from finance and wealth, to marketing and SEO, to business strategies and relationships, and personal happiness.

I wanted to share this episode of Wealth Nation with you guys because it applies to you. John spoke at the DFW WordPress Group in Dallas, Texas. His topic was Make More Money with WordPress, Social Media and Analytics. He spent an hour and a half giving tips and tricks to increase your blog’s visibility and revenue, and we used the topic for this episode of Wealth Nation. Giovanni Gallucci (pictured on the right) joined us for the conversation and Giovanni had to call John out on a couple issues. You gotta love Gio! Watch the video below for ALL of John’s tips! You can listen to Wealth Nation here, and subscribe on iTunes.

The Dallas WordPress Group is the largest WordPress group in the nation. If you’re in the Dallas area, definitely come join the fun!