Microsoft Surface and The Today Show. Yes, Again.

The Microsoft Surface launched today in New York. I filmed a short video about it for CNET TV, which you can find here. I have to say, the Surface is useful in that it can be customized to any commercial situation but it has to start working a little better. The multitouch does not respond as well as I had hoped. You have to be really purposeful in your movements, unlike the iPhone's multitouch which seems more prepared to work with your hands. I had to repeat a few functions a couple of times before it did what I wanted it to do. Also, I'm looking forward to seeing this used in more ways than just telling me how little coverage AT&T has here in New York.

Today is an especially busy day in the middle of an especially busy week. I filmed the Surface video after today's episode of Loaded and before the Spanish episode of Loaded, which isn't uploaded yet. I still have a ton to do, including preparing for my second appearance on The Today Show, which will be tomorrow. If you are home in the morning, be sure to tune into NBC to watch me talk about ways to save time online. My segment is between 8 and 8:15 a.m. One of my tips to save time online should be to just turn off your instant message client but it isn't. I should do that right now as a matter of fact.

Thanks for your comments on Monday's episode of the Today Shot. I concur that I did not get to speak enough. Our segment was cut short because of the unfortunate guy who flew a plane into a house. I also thought my hair looked a little like a helmet. In case you missed it, you can watch it here. Tomorrow I will ask the stylist to go easier on the eyeliner and hair teasing.

The Today Show

On this rainy New York day I am preparing for my upcoming appearance on The Today Show, tinkering around with my blog, and thinking about heading to the grocery store.

I will be live on The Today Show on Monday at 7:40 a.m. I have been asked to talk about ways to find coupons and discounts online. They certainly asked the right person for this segment because I am, if nothing else, a really great shopper. I will also be on The Today Show on Friday morning but I'll share more information about that piece as the date approaches.

I have rearranged my Web site a little. I added a headshots page and moved my blog posts off of the main page. For those of you you read this in an RSS feed, this won't matter to you. The rest of you will have to click over to the Natali's Blog page to read posts. I felt that my home page should have basic information about me rather than my random blog posts. I am hoping that this presents a more professional look but you're free to disagree with me.

I also have to unpack my overnight bag. I just got back from a road trip to Boston with the Loaded crew. We took a whirlwind jaunt to Beantown and even though a lot went wrong for the three of us, a lot went right too. For starters, we shot a really interesting feature piece at the University of New Hampshire. We interviewed Janis Wolak, a professor who does research about Internet predators. We also shot a feature about the new LED lights in the Old North Church in Boston. Both segments will be featured in upcoming episodes of Loaded.

On this trip, I got to see more of New England than I've ever seen before and I really enjoyed it. It is so clean compared to New York. In fact, when we drove back into Manhattan, I turned around to my crew and said, "Did one of you guys fart?" They said, "Nope, that's just New York." I guess I grew accustomed to the fresh New England air in just two short days.

Finally, I got to bond with my crew. I really love those guys. I could not have been handed a better set of people to work with than Randall Bennett and Wilson Tang. On Monday or Tuesday, the three of us will discuss both the perils and the positive things that came out of this road trip on Randall and Wilson's daily podcast, The 404. Be sure to tune in!

Grocery store time!

I Really Want This Puppy. And The iPhone Camera Really Stinks

I was walking along the Upper East Side today when I saw this Cocker Spaniel puppy in the window of a pet store. She was so pretty and it took all my willpower to walk away from her. But I work and travel too much and my apartment is too small so I know I can't offer her the best doggy lifestyle. It just would not be fair to her to take her home with me. But I really, really, really wanted to!

This photo is not great and does not do justice to this puppy's cuteness for two reasons. First of all, she wouldn't stay still for her photo shoot. Second, the iPhone's camera is just not good. At only 2 megapixels, I haven't taken any noteworthy photos with it whatsoever. For that reason, I miss my Nokia N95. And my puppy.

On The Set Of ABC World News

Last night I went to the ABC News studios here in New York to film a short news package. ABC produces these pieces for their affiliates across the country to use in their morning shows. This piece should run in your local ABC morning show sometime this week, if not today.

I do these pieces every few weeks for ABC but this was my first time filming in their studios. Usually they come to film at my office at CNET. It probably goes without saying that filming on their set is much preferable for me! I don't easily get awestruck but when I walked onto the set of ABC World News, I did get a chill of being on a major league field.



Since I featured the Flip Video as one of my gadgets, the segment producer wanted to shoot some footage with the camera for the package while we were filming. That is what you will see in this video. The sound quality is poor and you can see me fooling around between takes but nevertheless it is proof that I have played on the same field as some very impressive major leaguers! (Sorry for all the baseball metaphors. I'm excited that it is opening week!)

If you are interested in any of the products I chose for this segment, they are the Sonim XP1, the LG Scoop, the Chumby, the Sony Mylo 2, and the Flip Video.

Loaded En Español

Muchisimas gracias to everyone who wrote me encouraging sentiments about my Univision post last week. That post was somewhat of a catharsis and after I published it, I resolved to keep giving this my very best and not give the naysayers a second thought. So that's what I did!

On Thursday we taped the third weekly news show for Univision and you can find it here. I am feeling increasingly confident about the show but I do see a parallel between my learning curve hosting in English and my learning curve hosting in Spanish. For those of you who watched TeXtra in the early days, you know it wasn't always pretty. I cringe when I watch those first 20 (okay 40) episodes because I looked so serious and terrified, which to be honest, I was. In fact, I'd much rather watch myself in Spanish on Univision than watch those early deer-in-headlights episodes of TeXtra.

Anyway, onward and upward! We don't have an RSS feed for this Univision show yet but we will soon. I'll post it when it is ready. For now, I hope you are enjoying La Uniclave Tecnología with or without my videos. The site is really so great and I'm so proud of CNET and Univision for putting it together.

¡Buen fin de semana!