The Journo Grill: Adam Hartley, Freelancer
This month we're talking to Adam Hartley, freelance technology journalist and writer of the "The Tech Report", MSN’s Tech & Gadgets newly launched weekly tech news round up.
1. Describe your typical working day.
Fall out of bed when Samuel, my 7-month-old sleeping in the cot right next to me, decides it is time to laugh, shout and repeatedly throw his rattle, or anything else that makes a decent enough noise, at the wall. This can be anything from 4am to 7am, as he likes to keep us on our toes. After at least one large strong coffee, I'll spend the first hour or so of my working day going through hundreds of consumer tech and games industry related RSS and Twitter feeds, in an attempt to ascertain what stories I might be working on that day (and to develop ideas for news-related features to pitch before editors get to their desks that morning). Then, unless I have a reason to leave the house for meetings, interviews or PR-related events, the rest of the day is mainly spent dealing with researching and writing news and features, while attempting to keep on top of the email and Twitter flow until my brain shuts down at some point later that evening.
2. What's the best tech story you've ever read?
I read hundreds of (mainly tech-related) news stories every working day of the week. I probably remember less than one per cent of them a day later. Tech news, by its very nature, is almost instantly forgettable.
3. What's the next big news in tech?
People are finally getting over the novelty of having smartphones that are always connected to the internet, which will hopefully mean that users will start to develop better quality filters and, as a result, app development might start to grow up a little. This would mean developers concentrating more on quality content and well-designed user interfaces instead of, for example, trying to figure out how to make your phone make fart noises in yet another different way.
4. How important is social media in sourcing stories?
It's more important than TV, the radio, print newspapers and fax machines.
5. Are you addicted to your iPad?
Yes. But it's better than being addicted to a BlackBerry PlayBook, isn't it?