Donya Blaze

When the iPad debuted in 2010, Star Trek The Next Generation‘s LeVar Burton wasn’t as surprised by the device as others. After all, characters on his show and the original series were beaming each other up, video chatting and using touch devices way before Apple.

“I believe there was some kid who watched those original episodes of Star Trek… That kid grew up, became an engineer, a designer of product, and is responsible for a piece of technology in the flip cell phone that’s more prevalent now than toasters,” Burton said in our final Media Beat interview. ”You look at Bluetooth ear devices, Star Trek. You look at Flip cell phones, Star Trek. Devices, seeing devices for the blind inspired by Geordi‘s visor? Science fiction literature and pop culture really is a main conduit for how we invent our future reality.”

Yeah, Google Glass does look a little like this.

Part 1: LeVar Burton on Bringing the ‘Reading Rainbow’ App to Silicon Valley [Video]
Part 2: Reading Rainbow’s LeVar Burton on How to Reach the Digital Generation

When Reading Rainbow was cancelled in 2009, host LeVar Burton and his business partner, Mark Wolfe, decided they had to do something to save the brand. So, they bought the rights to the name, launched a new company, RRKidz, and created the Reading Rainbow app to make literacy fun for a whole new generation.

And the experience was far from easy, says Burton.

“We really had to learn the business of starting a technology business and figure our way through that — raising money, hiring a team, talking to technologists,” he said in our Media Beat interview. “We’re showbiz guys — my business partner is a film producer and studio executive. And even though we’ve been doing this a long time — we have a combined 65 years of experience in this business — it’s in a different business. We had to put on big boy pants and go to Silicon Valley and talk to those cats and learn their game.”

Part 1: Reading Rainbow’s LeVar Burton on How to Reach the Digital Generation
Part 3: Wednesday, we discuss Burton’s role in Roots and how he achieved longevity in Hollywood.

One need only head to YouTube for proof of the impact Reading Rainbow had on countless children. The iconic 80s TV show has inspired homages, singalongs and tributes galore. But trying to reach anyone under 30 through TV today? Bad idea, says LeVar Burton.

“Television was the medium and the technology of its time in the 80s and 90s, but you know better than I do that this is the digital-native generation,” the former Reading Rainbow host explained in Mediabistro’s latest Media Beat interview. “And they consume most of their screen time on mobile devices. That’s where we wanna be. If you want to be where they are, you’ve gotta be on a mobile device.”

Watch the video for the full interview to find out how Burton got his Reading Rainbow gig and why he thinks printed books will soon be obsolete.

Part 2: LeVar Burton on Bringing the ‘Reading Rainbow’ App to Silicon Valley [Video]
Part 3: Wednesday, we discuss Burton’s role in Roots and how he achieved longevity in Hollywood.

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Exclusive: Microsoft Tie-Up, Network Sale Among RIM Options: Sources (Reuters)
Research In Motion Ltd’s board is under mounting pressure to consider unpalatable options such as selling its network business or forming an alliance with Microsoft Corp after the Blackberry maker again delayed the release of its next-generation smartphones, said three sources familiar with the situation. RIM said the launch of BlackBerry 10 mobile devices has been postponed to early 2013 — more than a year later than initially promised — because the development of its new operating system had “proven to be more time-consuming than anticipated.” CNN Money The company reported a first-quarter loss of $518 million, or 99 cents a share. Overall sales came in at $2.8 billion, down 43 percent from $4.9 billion in the same quarter a year ago and considerably lower than analysts’ expected first-quarter revenue of $3.1 billion. Gizmodo The worse news: It’s now letting 5,000 employees go, on top of the 2,000 cuts that had been previously announced. Wall Street Journal According to interviews with more than a dozen former RIM executives and industry executives who worked closely with the company, it was a blinding confidence in the basic BlackBerry product that was at the root of RIM’s current troubles. Read more

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The Best of Google I/O: Project Glass, Nexus 7 Tablet, Nexus Q Home Entertainment System, and More (Fast Company)
Google announced a slew of new products at its annual developer conference, including the long-awaited Nexus 7 tablet and Nexus Q (pictured left), a home media streamer for Android devices. Betabeat A black orb with a glowing blue stripe, the Nexus Q is not just pretty, it’s Apple-quality pretty. The Verge The Nexus Q is not intended to be a standalone device and requires one or more Android smartphones or tablets to provide access to Google Play content. Engadget Google announced it’s adding support for the purchase of movies on Google Play, as well as TV shows by episode or by season, and even magazines all available now. The New York Times On the underside of the Nexus Q is its most intriguing feature, a simple inscription: “Designed and Manufactured in the U.S.A.” The Verge The 7-inch Nexus 7 tablet will come pre-loaded with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, Google’s latest operating system. Available in black or white, an 8GB version will be priced at $199, with 16GB for $249 this July. All Things D Building the Nexus 7 tablet was no easy task, says Asus chairman Jonney Shih. First off, Google gave the company only four months to build the product. Then there was the task of building a high-end tablet that could sell for just $200. Plus, he said, Google can be kind of demanding. Wired In Jelly Bean, Google has a proper Siri fighter, but she has no fancy name a la Siri or Samsung’s S Voice. In Jelly Bean, the voice assistant simply emerges with a tap of the microphone icon in the ever-present search box on Android’s home screens. Ars Technica There’s a big question that always looms large over the announcement of any new Android version: These features look nice and all, but will my device ever be upgraded? VentureBeat Stop the dadgum presses! Googler Louis Gray just told us about a new Google+ feature that you won’t read about anywhere else. The Next Web If there’s one thing this year’s Google I/O opening keynote will be remembered for, it’s the skydiving, biking and abseiling demo of Google Glass. If you missed the epic moment, here it is. GigaOm However, when you stand back from all the announcements made by Google and increase the periphery, you start to notice that this is a company that is fighting a lot of battles on many fronts. In some places it is winning, but most places it is trench warfare. Read more

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The Next Web Today, developers will flock to downtown San Francisco for Google’s yearly event, I/O. The two big areas of interest this year are mobile and social, and the underlying story is how Google goes about fostering relationships with developers for all of its APIs, of which there are many. The New York Times At the conference, Electronic Arts will demonstrate Strike Force, a sophisticated multiplayer video game, complete with three-dimensional graphics and rich illustration, written in an Internet standard called HTML5 that enables the game to be played entirely through a Web browser. Reuters Google will soon unveil a tablet co-branded with Taiwan’s Asustek Computer Inc and priced to compete with Amazon’s Kindle Fire device, an Asustek executive said on Wednesday. Bloomberg Though Android has grabbed more than half of the smartphone market, tablets with the software have won less than half the iPad’s share, and will face new pressure from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), which unveiled its own tablet last week. The Next Web A recent scan of a JavaScript file hosted on the Google Play marketplace by Reddit user ‘derpodactyl’ reveals that users will be able to download magazines and TV shows (and seasons) via the store, bringing more content to mobile device owners but more importantly, Google TV owners. Mobile Syrup Google is almost certainly going to show off its newest version of Android, Jellybean, tomorrow during the keynote address. Gizmodo Pictured left is the new Android Jelly Bean mascot just installed at Google’s headquarters. Read more

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Microsoft Buys Yammer for $1.2B (SocialTimes)
Microsoft has agreed to purchase Yammer for $1.2 billion in cash. Yammer is one of the largest providers of enterprise social networks, allowing companies to implement their own Twitter-like service for their employees. Guardian The purchase of Yammer, dubbed “Facebook for the workplace,” is the latest installment in Microsoft’s bid to protect its dominant Office products from a challenge by Google. The service claims to have more than 5 million corporate users at groups including Ford, Shell, Deloitte and Ebay. Microsoft News Center “The acquisition of Yammer underscores our commitment to deliver technology that businesses need and people love,” said Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft. “Yammer adds a best-in-class enterprise social networking service to Microsoft’s growing portfolio of complementary cloud services.” Yammer “When Adam Pisoni and I started Yammer, we set out to do something big,” Yammer founder David Sacks said. “When most people thought social networking was for kids, we had a vision for how it could change the way we work. Four years ago, we started paddling out to catch the wave that we’re riding today.” Techcrunch At first, actually, Yammer was not intended to be a company at all. It was built as an internal feature within a genealogy startup called Geni, to let Geni employees communicate with each other about work. Business Insider We couldn’t help but notice how frighteningly similar that $1.2 billion number is to the current valuation of Jive, another social networking app for the enterprise — also worth $1.2 billion. Read more

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Report: RIM May Be Selling Handset Business To Facebook Or Amazon (Business Insider)
According to a report in the British paper The Sunday Times, Facebook and Amazon are two potential buyers for RIM’s handset business. RIM would keep its enterprise services if such a deal went through, according to the report. Fair warning though, the report does not cite any sources, so treat the news with some skepticism. The Verge As part of this plan, RIM could keep its enterprise-friendly messaging and data network (including BBM, BIS, and BES) in-house and license them out — a move championed by former co-CEO Jim Balsillie prior to his departure from the company. Alternatively, RIM may sell the network services division, too. Another option, short of splitting the company in two, would be to sell a large stake to a corporation like Microsoft. GigaOm On the surface that may not sound like a bad play, since RIM’s hardware sales growth has lagged the competition as both iPhones and Android devices have invaded the enterprise. The problem is: Selling off the hardware unit will also rid RIM of the majority of its revenue stream. AllThingsD Such a consideration is said to be part of an overall strategic review by the beleaguered Canadian company that will be concluded in July. Before that, though, expect financial news — likely bad — this week when RIM announces its first-quarter earnings. 9to5 Mac Any way you look at it, on the fifth anniversary of iPhone, Blackberry — as we knew it — is almost over. Read more

When matching search terms to articles, Google looks more closely at headlines than the rest of the text, so it’s important to know how to make your headline more noticeable.

First, make sure your keywords are in the headline — and as close to the beginning as possible. ”The importance of a keyword exponentially decays the further to the right it shows up in a title,” said David Wolf, an SEO expert and CEO of InBusiness, Inc.

Next, make sure your headlines and subheads are specific and on-point. “Headlines that are not specific enough do not come up in searches,” said Lisa Hickey, publisher of The Good Men Project, an online men’s magazine. “You want your headline to communicate one simple idea, specific enough so that people know what the post is about. This will not only help SEO, but will also help make the article more sharable. And the more it’s shared, the more search engines will see it as a post worthy of showing up in searches.”

Get more tips in 5 Ways to Improve Your Article’s SEO. [subscription required]

Remember when everyone’s New Year’s resolution was to learn how to code in 2012?Suddenly, #codeyear was everywhere. (Apparently, even New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is HTML-deficient.)

Well, Codecademy co-founder Zach Sims says his company’s success was truly a viral phenomenon — his team did no marketing behind it.

“We were lucky enough that our users got the word out for us,” he told Mediabistro. “They were the ones that put it on Facebook and Twitter; they were the ones who shared it with other people. We never did any advertising or anything; it was all user-driven.

And, thanks to that Twitter push, he hopes that coding will be just as easy as surfing the Web. “I think coding is 21st century literacy. Traditionally, there are the 3 R’s of literacy: It was just reading, writing and arithmetic. And we think the fourth should be algorithms.”

To find out how Sims got funding for his startup, read Hey, How’d You Get Everyone Buzzing About #codeyear, Zach Simms? [subscription required]