David Pogue

David Pogue grew up in Shaker Heights, OH, a suburb of Cleveland. (Mom's the Welcome Wagon lady; dad's a lawyer.) He was a music/theatre geek from Day 1, starring in, composing, playing piano for, or conducting musicals and choirs from elementary school through high school. He was also a language jock, winning the Ohio Spelling Bee in 1977, and a magician, performing over 400 magic shows during his teen years.

He studied music, English, and computer science at Yale. He graduated summa cum laude in 1985, with Distinction in Music, having continued to write and conduct musicals each year. (In 2007, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in music from the Shenandoah Conservatory. So that's "Dr. Pogue" to you, bud.)

After college, Pogue moved to New York City, with aspirations to compose Broadway shows. He worked as conductor, synthesizer programmer, arranger, or assistant on several Broadway shows (Carrie, Welcome to the Club, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Anything Goes at Lincoln Center) and a few Off-Broadway ones (Pajama Game, Godspell, and Flora, the Red Menace, which he also orchestrated).

In the interests of hedging his bets, he also founded and taught, for several years, the beginning magic courses at the New School for Social Research and New York's Learning Annex. He also codesigned and wrote the manuals for music software programs like Finale, from Coda Music Technology.

Unfortunately, the demand for new young composers on Broadway is about zero these days, and Pogue saw the writing on the wall; through this time, his computer-teaching skills were turning out to be in more demand than his musical ones. So he started teaching the Broadway community how to use their Macs -- first composers such as Stephen Sondheim, John Kander, Jerry Bock, David Shire, and Cy Coleman, and then later Hollywood and literary celebrities, from Mia Farrow to Harry Connick, Jr.

He began writing for Macworld magazine in 1988. His triple-award-winning column, "The Desktop Critic," appeared on the back page until November 2000, when he joined The Times.

In 1992, IDG Books asked Pogue to write Macs for Dummies. (This was back when there was only one Dummies book -- DOS for Dummies.) The book quickly became the #1 bestselling Macintosh book, and remained so, month after month, ever since -- in all of its 17 languages and six editions.

He wound up becoming a ridiculously prolific author, writing or co-writing 7 books in the “for Dummies” series (including Opera, Classical Music, and Magic), six editions of the 1,300-page bestseller Macworld Mac Secrets (co-authored with former Yale roommate Joe Schorr) and a novel, Hard Drive (a New York Times "notable book of the year"). In 1998, his PalmPilot: The Ultimate Guide became the #1 bestselling Palm book.

In 2000, Pogue created the Missing Manual series: a line of superbly written, printed manuals for computer products that don't come with any--in other words, "the book that should have been in the box." The series, published in collaboration with O'Reilly & Associates, now includes over 100 titles, includes bestsellers on topics like Mac OS X, the iPhone, Windows XP and Vista, Dreamweaver, iMovie, iPhoto, Microsoft Office, and others.

In November 2000, Pogue became the personal-technology columnist for the New York Times. (His Times column, "State of the Art," appears every Thursday on the front page of the Business section.) Soon thereafter, he began writing his daily Times blog, "Pogue's Posts," authoring a weekly e-mail Times newsletter, "From the Desk of David Pogue," and shooting his double-award-winning, very silly Times Web videos.

Pogue appears frequently on radio and TV. For several years, he was a regular technology guest on Martha Stewart's pre-jail TV show and on NPR's "Morning Edition"; today, he appears weekly on CNBC's "Power Lunch," monthly on CNBC's "On the Money," and about six times a year on "CBS News Sunday Morning." In 2004, his "Sunday Morning" segments on Google and the spam problem won a 2004 Business Emmy.

In February 2011 David will hosts the four-part PBS NOVA miniseries Making Stuff about the latest in cutting-edge materials science.

Pogue lives with his family in Connecticut, where he entertains them with magic tricks, piano playing, and a lifelong stream of appalling puns.

SPEECH TOPICS

David concludes most speeches with a few of his trademark hilarious tech parody songs.

Disruptive Tech:

What’s New, What’s Coming, and How It Will Change Everything

As the New York Times' tech reviewer, David Pogue has a front-row seat for observing the blazing-fast torrent of new inventions. Hundreds of gadgets and technologies come down the pike every year, and plenty get lots of press--but most of it’s junk.

But in this fast, funny presentation, Pogue will stick his neck out to predict which will actually cause major, disruptive changes. He’ll display, discuss, and even demonstrate the technological advances--in personal entertainment, cellular tech, Web 2.0, and more--that will have the most impact on society in the coming years.

Web 2.0, Social Media, and Other Buzzwords

What do YouTube, MySpace, eBay, and Craigslist have in common? They're all part of "Web 2.0," in which a Web site's material is supplied by its visitors.

What do blogs, vlogs, and podcasts have in common? They're all new ways for individuals--and even corporations--to express themselves online.

In this head-spinning talk, David Pogue, the New York Times' most popular blogger (and first video blogger), helps to make sense of the explosively expanding realm of Web 2.0 and all kinds of 'casting. He'll advise both individuals and companies on how to exploit these live-wire technologies, supply some horrifying and hilarious real-world stories, and hint at the future, the pitfalls, and the rewards of these revolutionary new channels.

Dave’s Mobile Show-and-Tell

David Pogue reviews over 200 products a year for the New York Times. If anyone can identify the breakthroughs, he can.

In this lively presentation--half talk, half magic show--David will present and actually demonstrate the latest and most amazing mobile gadgets, and offer his mini-critiques of each. The assortment changes monthly, of course, but past presentations have included the cellphone that offers unlimited free calls via Wi-Fi; the pocket camera that beams photos instantly onto Flickr (the photo-sharing Web site); the music player that downloads wirelessly from a catalog of 2 million songs; a folding memory card for cameras that eliminates the need for wires or card readers; the secret of getting Directory Assistance for free on your cellphone (rather than $2 per call from your carrier); the latest breakthroughs in speech recognition; and, of course, the iPhone.

Prepare to have your mind blown--and your credit card stressed.
 
The Power of Simplicity

Why are consumers so fed up with their computers? “Software rage” has become an epidemic, help lines are flooded, and people are flinging their machines out the window in frustration.

More often than not, the problem is the software design itself--the interface. The design of programs and Web sites grows in importance every day. Getting it right--packing a lot of features, the right way, into a small screen area--is extremely difficult, and the masters of the art are few and far between. But David Pogue, who analyzes software design each week in his New York Times column, has found some fascinating real-world examples that illustrate both clever solutions and horrifying failures. He’ll also look forward to interface design of the future--speech, animation, and other innovations--as we move into an era of both much bigger and much smaller screens.

The Digital Generation Comes Of Age

For the last 20 years, computers and technology have been part of the everyday curriculum for a generation or two of digitally privileged kids--and, as they become the majority, it's showtime.

As computer-literate children become America's new leaders, visionaries, and designers, how will their digital upbringing affect society and culture? New York Times technology columnist David Pogue takes a thoughtful, funny look at how the tidal wave will hit as the digital generation enters prime time--what we'll gain, what we'll lose, and what beliefs and approaches will shift into something we've never seen before.

Blogs vs. Journalism

It’s been said, over and over again, that blogs unleash the power of the citizen journalist. A new day has dawned, when news can hit the Web instantly, long before the mainstream media gets around to it. That, after all, is how so many of the great scandal stories have broken in the last few years.

But is blogger journalism actually journalism? David Pogue, who writes a column for the New York Times, obviously has an opinion--but it might not be the one you expect. In this funny, thought-provoking talk, he tries to pin down the pros and the cons of the blogger as journalist, as well as the journalist as blogger--and offers a few suggestions that might give the public the best of both worlds.
 
PR and Web 2.0

I'm the press. I’m one of the guys public-relations people work with, or maybe I should say work on. I get about 50 pitch emails a day.

This talk, geared for PR professionals, also offers a few of the most hilariously bad, and impressively good, pitches I've seen in my days at the Times.

The Megapixel Challenge

If you believe the marketing, the quality of a digital camera is determined by the number of megapixels it has. 10 megapixels must be better than 5, right?

In this hilarious talk, David Pogue relives his four-month quest to determine, once and for all, just how important megapixels are in a digital camera. His adventure wound up involving the Discovery Channel, the New York Times, the technical director of Professional Photography magazine, 100 passersby in Times Square, the way, and over 500 angry bloggers. You’ll walk away with a new understanding of how cameras work--and the unpublicized measurement that REALLY determines the photo quality you’ll get.

Digital Photography: No "Negatives"?

Anyone who already knows photography has a huge advantage when it comes to digital cameras--a familiarity with principles of light and composition, for example. At the same time, the “digital” part is a whole new world, entailing a new set of skills. In this entertaining presentation, New York Times columnist (and digital-camera reviewer) David Pogue offers a concise, meaty, funny crash course for the photographer who wants to exploit the digital possibilities without going quietly mad. Includes an updated glimpse at what’s new and what’s coming in digicams, plus workarounds for the ever-shorter list of digital drawbacks.

Breakout Sessions

David is also happy to teach master classes, seminars, or “breakout sessions” on topics he knows and loves:
    * Mac OS X Leopard
    * iPhone
    * Google Secrets
    * Windows Vista
    * iPhoto
    * Digital Photography