Tag Archives: Time Magazine

A few minutes ago, word broke out that Technologizer’s Harry McCracken, former Editor-in-Chief of PC World, was named Time’s  Editor-at-Large. For a little less than a year, McCracken had been writing weekly columns for TIME about technology and it seems to be a very good fit for the two parties. According to a distributed memo by Time’s Managing Editor, Rick Stengel, McCracken’s “expertise is matched only by his versatility: he writes long, writes short, knows the inventors and the consumers, offers the expert product review and the high altitude perspective on the forces that are changing the industry and the culture.”

In his blog post, McCracken says that while some might think he’s going to leave Technologizer for Time, you better think again. Rather, he’s going to pull a Jack Dorsey and run two successful ships. A big part of his day will be to continue writing for his site which will merge with Time and be part of the tech section. Is there any stopping McCracken? Probably not since he’s not just writing for Technologizer and Time…he’s producing content for AllBusiness and also CNET!

For a lot of the news being tech and gadget related, it’s great to see that Time is adapting to the way of the world and bringing on someone well-respected and understanding of the industry to produce some invaluable content for the publication.

Congratulations Harry!

by Michelle Lentz

Last week Time Magazine released their Top 50 Inventions of 2008. I love this list. It covers fun, unexpected, and brilliant ideas – ideas you might not think of as an invention. After all, as time changes, we’ve moved past the expectation of printing presses and cotton gins and instead, we’ve got the Orbital Internet and a moving, dynamic skyscraper.

Here are some of my favorites that were listed:

4 Hulu.com: Did you think of this as an invention? I didn’t but it certainly has changed the way I watch TV. Although I was bemoaning the other day that I couldn’t access Hulu content offline for when I’m in-flight.

15 Dr Horrible (direct-to-web supervillain): Notable for so many things, including viral marketing, the fun but silly plot, and the sheer number of legal downloads, both paid and free.

20 The Everything Game – Spore: I really need to get my hands on a copy of Spore. Everyone I talk to just raves about it. Have you evolved your creature today?

32 Facebook for Spies (A-Space): Even Spies need a social network. It’s a way for agencies such as the FBI, CIA, and NSA to actually communicate with each other instead of stepping on each other like they do in the movies.

42 Disemvoweling: I love that this is considered an invention. I would have sworn it was “invented” last year over at BoingBoing.net, but my time may be blurring. Disemvoweling is letting trolls comment on your blog, bt rmvng ll thr vwls.

Some of the inventions listed fall into the amazing category, such as the Hadron Collider, the Global Seed Vault, and smog-eating cement. Other inventions are wonderfully useful such as made-in-transit packaging for food, airborne wind power, a biomechanical energy harvester, and green crude fuel. Time even included the Obama campaign as an invention, citing their amazing use of the Web and viral marketing, using campaign funding to run a campaign for the new millenium.

Time chose, as the #1 invention, the retail DNA test. Retailing for $399, the test makes it easy – and accessible – to identify more than 90 traits for which you, or your children, may be at risk.

What are your favorite inventions of 2008?

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