What better way to enjoy your new (or even old) tablet, than firing it up to do some reading over the break? And what better content to read than GigaOM?

GigaOM news and analysis is now available on three top-notch tablet reading services: Google Currents, Livestand from Yahoo!, and Flipboard. Here’s how to find us:

GOOGLE CURRENTS

LIVESTAND FOR YAHOO!

FLIPBOARD

Take these out for a spin and tell us what you think. What’s your favorite tablet platform? What features would you like to see added?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• Forecast: the future of the digital music industry
• Q4 Wrap-up: SOPA and the future of digital content
• NewNet Q4: Platform mania and social commerce shakeout

Getting permission from someone thousands of miles away to walk through a door three feet in front of me may seem inefficient, but broadband erases geography. For Elance President and CEO, Fabio Rosati, having a robot is win/win. He doesn’t have to hire a full-time receptionist, and his two robo-ceptionists found the part-time gig they were looking for. While this bot didn’t clean up like The Jetsons’ Rosie, Rosati thinks robots are definitely in the cards for many companies. He’ll be speaking at our upcoming Net:Work conference for a broader discussion on this very topic, but we couldn’t wait and asked him to shake his Magic 8-Ball and give us a sneak-peek in a video interview on where he thinks the future of work is headed. Some highlights from our conversation:

• Improvements in telepresence and robotics will increase the viability of remote part-time workers
• Biometrics will play a big part in making sure who you hire is who is doing the work
• Virtual workplaces will mimic real-world environments to provide structure for employers and scattered workers

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Personal tools lead to practical business
• Defining work in the digital age: an analysis by GigaOM Pro
• Millennials in the enterprise, part 1: strategies for supporting the new digital workforce

Be sure to check out our lineup for Mobilize, our mobile web conference coming up at the end of September, featuring speakers including:

• Tom Conrad – CTO and EVP of Product, Pandora
• Erick Tseng – Head of Mobile Products, Facebook
• Laura Chambers – Senior Director of PayPal Mobile, PayPal
• William Hsu – SVP and Chief Product Officer, AT&T Interactive

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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Steve Jobs Introduces the iPod:

Steve Jobs Introduces the iPhone:

Steve Jobs Introduces the iPad:

Steve Jobs Introduces the Apple Store:

Steve Jobs Presents to the Cupertino City Council about Apple’s New Campus:

Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address:

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• Connected Consumer Q2: Digital music meets the cloud; e-book growth explodes
• Millennials in the enterprise, part 1: strategies for supporting the new digital workforce

Since we’re an information company, not an ad agency, we have to create these pre-rolls a little bit differently. In the interest of avoiding big production woes (legal clearances, studio time, etc.), I committed the ultimate act of narcissism and made a commercial starring . . . myself. Specifically, a two-year version of myself (with a few shots of my dad).

Creating a “slide show” filled with actual photos (no Instagram-y faux filters here) hopefully keeps this spot moving while reinforcing the “simplified solution to market research” aspect of GigaOM Pro that we are going for. And maybe the 1970s photos will tug at your heartstrings and give you a warm feeling inside. (Bonus: I gave myself likeness rights!)

Hopefully you’ll enjoy watching these spots as much as we enjoyed creating them. We’d love your feedback below. Keep on the lookout, because we’ll be posting more of our ads in the coming weeks (no more baby photos of me, I promise).

If you missed it, check out our previous GigaOM PRO Explainer.

It’s something we all want to do, and it was the first thing that popped into my head when the boss said he wanted a series of video ads explaining our subscription research service, GigaOM Pro.

Like so many web video creators, we set out to create a high-impact ad that would catch your eye, hold your attention and entertain as well as inform.

Also like so many web video creators, we had a budget of zero dollars and zero cents.

So we asked, “WWDDD?”* and set about meeting this challenge.

We wanted to create something on the cheap without its looking cheap. None of us are professional actors, so shooting a “scene” was out of the question, and we had no budget to hire expensive animators. The answer, of course, was to simplify.

For the longer explanatory video that provides a more in-depth view of the service, we went with paper cutouts. This gives an illusion of animation without all the expensive illustration and rendering. Using basic shapes and a little help from our friends at DESIGNaboutTOWN, we could walk users through GigaOM Pro, provide a visual representation of how the service disrupts traditional research and show just how big our expert network is. Add some bouncy music created in GarageBand and voilà! A simplified solution explaining a complex product.

But we also want to showcase different elements of GigaOM Pro in a series of pre-roll ads. Future videos will tout specific features or use case scenarios that today’s information workers will come across.

Hopefully you’ll have as much fun watching these spots as we did creating them. We’d love to hear your feedback below.

* What Would Don Draper Do? The answer, of course, is light up a smoke and down a whiskey, but that’s not very helpful here.

[Dharmaraj] recently sat down with us and discussed the State of SaaS, cloud investments, and the big impact of Amazon on startup economics. He puts on his futurist hats and talks about the impact of mobility on SaaS, big trends in cloud computing and the changes coming to the cloud in the next three years. Watch the video, and see Satish unplugged!

Check out the full interview:

You can also see Dharmaraj in action at our recent Structure conference, where he sat on a VC panel discussing the potential cloud bubble:

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The Case for Increased M&A in 2011: Actions and Outlooks
• The Structure 50: The Top 50 Cloud Innovators

While there was no blue screen of death, this particular kind of televised crash was equally frustrating. Here’s what happened, why I returned it and the potential problem with these Internet-enabled TVs.

Setting the Scene

The Vizio TV uses the Yahoo Widget platform to provide web access to video services like Amazon VOD, Vudu, Netflix and more general apps like Twitter, Facebook and more. The TV was hardwired to a beefy 50 Mbps connection, so bandwidth wasn’t an issue.

The beauty of the smart television set is the ability to use one remote to control the TV and cable, as well as renting movies over-the-top. No more switching inputs; no more using three different remotes.

That beauty turned ugly real quick.

First, navigating through the apps was slow. Then scrolling through the individual apps — like searching through Amazon’s catalog or my Netflix queue — was even slower. It was much slower sifting through those catalogs on the Roku.

Crash Into Me

The first crash(es) happened on the very first night. The aforementioned lag when searching through Amazon’s catalog froze the TV and then made the screen go dark. I had to power-cycle the TV to get the picture back. This happened again the very same night.

To its credit, Vizio’s customer support is top-notch. I tweeted about the issues and the company sent me a note, hooking me up with its online chat. The suggestion at the time was to uninstall and re-install the app. Okay, perhaps that was just a bum install of Amazon at the factory or whatever. I did as they said. This didn’t get rid of the lag, but Amazon didn’t crash again.

The third crash happened a few days later when my wife was trying to rent a movie through Vudu.

The TV was one week old at this point.

Once again, I contacted Vizio customer support, this time by phone. Once again they were very nice, and this time they instructed me to basically wipe the TV and restore all the factory settings. While it was a hassle to go through and re-register the TV, and to re-set up all of the settings, perhaps this was the silver bullet. I was also told at the time that this was the only fix to keep apps from crashing.

So let’s hit pause for a moment. If the apps, which had crashed on me three times across two different services already, continued to break, I had to do a factory reset each time?

Patience was wearing thin.

Camel’s Back Broken

Cautious, I gave the TV one last chance. I’d fired up Netflix and started watching The Larry Sanders Show when the TV froze the video but kept the audio going and proceeded to crash. For those keeping score, that’s four crashes across three apps in one week.

So, back in the box to be returned it goes.

Perhaps I just got a bum set and no one else has these issues (if you have, leave a comment below), but this is a problem with turning a TV into something more like a computer. If my Roku crashes, I can still watch TV. But when the TV crashes, I have to resort to something like (shudder) reading.

I’m on the hunt for another TV now (again, any suggestions, leave below), and while I still like the idea of the smart TV, buying another one before the technology is more mature might just be dumb.

Related Content from GigaOM Pro: (subscription required)

• TV Apps Market to Hit $1.9B by 2015
• TV Apps: Evolution from Novelty to Mainstream
• Here Come the Social TV Apps

So, in no particular order, here are the best GigaOM videos of 2010 (and be on the lookout for even better videos in 2011!):

Green Overdrive Visits Jay Leno’s Garage
Not only was it a coup for our fledgling green auto show to land a big celeb like Leno, but it was amazing to see just how knowledgeable The Tonight Show host was about eco-friendly technology. It’s no secret Leno had a pretty rough year when it comes to public opinion, but we defy you to watch this video and not be swayed by his car smarts and dedication.

Cord Cutters – Holiday Gift Guide
Cord Cutters is a little ahead of the curve (NewTeeVee predicts cutting the cable cord won’t go mainstream in 2011), but that made it the perfect time to launch this how-to guide for people wanting to take full advantage of over-the-top video technologies (and save money). This holiday guide gives you just a sampling of how many options are out there right now for consumers wanting to live cable-free.

Naval Ravikant on Being an Entrepreneur
Ravikant has plenty of experience as a successful entrepreneur and angel investor. He was kind enough to pop into the GigaOM TV studios to share some of his knowledge for those looking to follow in his footsteps.

Pandora’s Tim Westergren
Westergren was a man on a musical mission. Through his passion and dedication, he was able to build Pandora, one of the most popular music recommendation/streaming services out there. His story of perseverance is inspiration for anyone with a dream to create something revolutionary.

Be sure to check out part 2 of the interview.

Flash 10.1 is Sluggish on Android
Our audience loves demos, and this one did not disappoint. One of our most popular videos of the year, we showcased the Flash player running on the Android mobile platform.

Max Levchin Opens Up
You may think you know Levchin from his PayPal and Slide notoriety, but the key to this interview is just how personal he gets. One of my favorite anecdotes from any interview we did this year, Levchin tells of how as a young immigrant to this country, he worked with a singular focus on speaking without an accent. A must-watch for anyone looking to see the other side of entrepreneurship.

Green Overdrive Tests Out the Tesla 2.5 Roadster
I’m not sure if it’s the lesson for short-skirted celebrities on how to get in and out of the car all ladylike or the unbridled smile that breaks across Katie’s face as she hits the accelerator on the L.A. freeway. But more than anything, this episode shows how technology can make motoring fun (oh, and eco-friendly too).

Mapping the Human Brain
This one’s not for the weak of heart or weak-minded. This is a deep, big-think-y interview Stacey did with Dharmendra Modha, manager of cognitive computing at IBM. Modha’s ideas are gigantic and deal with mimicking the human brain through computers. It’s a beefy discussion, sure, but it’ll leave you full of ideas after you’re done.

Kevin Checks Out Kinect
Here’s what I like about my colleague, Kevin Tofel: his sincerity. He’s not hung up on appearances or preoccupied with being cool. He’s just a dude who loves his gadgets and his family. And in this demo, he got to combine them both as he took on his son at a game on the Kinect. Sure, you’ve seen the Kinect in action before, but have you seen a tech reporter having that much fun?

BBQ&A with Auditude
When I first pitched the notion of a show where we bring Silicon Valley execs out to cook for us, it was met with no small amount of skepticism, but three words helped ease those concerns: cheese. filled. sausage. Auditude’s CRO Mike Gaffney was the first to get grilled and he was a good sport. This show won’t help you spot the next big tech trend, but it will give you an appetite for more.

IBM’s Jeff Jonas: What can tech companies learn from Vegas casinos? Understanding data in real-time is REAL important.

What does famed VC Fred Wilson like? “The intersection between reputation, identity and knowledge.” Find out why.

Ditch your car. The Electric Onya Cycle carries you, plus 100 lbs, for those short trips around town.

Netflix on Google TV, Apple TV and Roku. Which one is the best?

Stanford Prof. Clifford Nass: Multi-tasking makes your brain mushy. (You are not the exception.)

Tune into GigaOM TV all next month for even more awesome videos.

It’s intuitive to think that handling so many tasks at once makes us better at handling many tasks. But that’s wrong, according to Stanford professor Clifford Nass. According to Nass, the more you multi-task, the worse you get at it, and it adversely impacts your ability to do all kinds of things a brain should do (like, you know, think). He’s just written a book called The Man Who Lied to His Laptop, which explores how as computers have become more human-like, we as users have started treating them as such. Additionally, Nass writes, we can study how people interact with computers to see how we’ll act with each other.

Nass stopped by GigaOM HQ last week and told us about some of the findings from his research like:

• What computers and T-shirts can teach us about team building.
• How his team got people to actually like Microsoft’s Clippy (I know! Impossible, right?).
• The dangers of multi-tasking and what is the optimal method for modern day workers.

Watch the video and see if you could adopt Nass’ unit-tasking office universe. Have a better idea? Leave us your thoughts in the comments.

I’ll admit, I’m not normally an eggplant fan, but Tzuo’s simple preparation and grill technique made me a believer in the oblong veggie, which paired nicely with his bulgogi beef (and a little red wine to wash it all down). Check out how easy it all is to make here:

Thanks again to The Private Bank of the Peninsula for letting us use their grill set up in Palo Alto.

http://player.ooyala.com/player.swf?embedCode=t1NzZwMTqm6Bv01H_iUc07jLqqJEt4Oa&version=2

(Video editor’s note: It was a scorching hot, cloudless day in Palo Alto, Calif. and this supernova-like illumination created harsh shadows, made us squint to save our eyes, and caused some serious sweat.)

Expert and noob grillers alike should definitely try out Swart’s salmon recipe. Not only is it delectable, but it’s easy to make, taking just 20 mins to cook. (I made it on my own last weekend.)

We want to also give a big thank you to The Private Bank of the Peninsula for letting us use their fantastic rooftop patio. If you’re a tech exec who likes to cook and wants to be a guest on our show, email my first name at gigaom dot com.

Cedar plank salmon

1 cedar plank
2 pound salmon fillet
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 tablespoons Dijon mustard
6 tablespoons brown sugar

Soak cedar plank in salted water for 2 hours. Remove skin and any remaining bones from salmon fillet. Rinse under cold running water and pat dry with clean paper towels. Place the salmon on the cedar plank and generously salt and pepper, carefully spread the mustard over the top and sides and sprinkle brown sugar on top over the mustard.

Set grill to medium high and place the cedar plank in the center of the hot grate, away from the heat. Cover the grill and cook salmon through, around 20 to 30 minutes to an internal temperature to 135 degrees. Transfer the salmon and plank to a platter and serve right off the plank.

Corn Salad

6 ears of sweet white corn, shucked
1 cup diced red onion (1 medium onion)
1 cup red pepper (1-1/2 peppers)
1 large diced mango
1 large diced & seeded cucumber
5 tablespoons cider vinegar
5 tablespoons good olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1/8 cup chopped mint

In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the corn for 3 to 4 minutes, just until the starchiness is gone. Drain and place the cobs in ice water to stop the cooking process. Once the corn is cool, cut the kernels off close to the cob.

In a large bowl, mix the corn, onion, peppers, cucumber, vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, cilantro and mint. Just before serving add the diced mango (to avoid the mango getting too soggy). Taste for seasonings and serve cold or at room temperature. Salad can be made the night before to let the ingredients marinate.

Teriyaki Tri Tip

1 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup Japanese sweet rice wine
4 1/2 teaspoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/4 cup white sugar
5 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 dash red pepper flakes
black pepper to taste
ground black pepper to taste
4 pounds beef tri tip, cut into 1 inch slices

Bring rice wine to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Add in the soy sauce, olive oil, sesame oil, sugar, garlic, ginger, pepper flakes, and pepper. Reduce heat and let simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let the marinade cool. Marinade can be made the night before and stored in the refrigerator to cool. Note: there are some decent commercial teriyaki sauces that you can buy to reduce prep time on this dish.

Once the marinade is cooled in the refrigerator, place the beef tri tip in the marinade, being sure to cover as much of the meat as possible. Cover, and marinate in the refrigerator at least 4 hours.

Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat, and lightly oil grate. Grill the beef 3 to 6 minutes per side, or to desired temperature. Discard the remaining marinade.

I had the pleasure of working for Salmi at AtomFilms and knew he’d have great advice for aspiring entrepreneurs out there, so I sat down with him earlier this year to find out what makes him tick. Learn about Salmi’s own habits when creating a business idea, the lessons he learned and the common mistakes he sees other entrepreneurs make. We got into a comprehensive and lengthy discussion, so we’ve broken down the interview into snackable chunks (perfect for the busy business builder who is short on time).

But more than just another guy with an opinion and a platform, Pell is also an early-stage investor and entrepreneur. He’s helped fund more than 30 companies, including OpenTable, GrubHub and Marin Software, and has started his own web products like Rollyo and Addict-o-matic (he’s also still an active writer on his site, Tweetage Wasteland).

Pell came into our studio earlier this year to talk about his many entrepreneurial hats and proved to be as insightful in person as he is with a (digital) pen. He talks about what lessons he learned from being a public high school teacher (passion), the difference between startups during the boom/bust and, now, how building a business is not a meritocracy.

With the Fourth of July literally right around the corner, we thought it would be fun to kick off an “irregular” summer web video series we’ve been working on at GigaOM TV called BBQ&A. The name pretty much says it all. We bring tech execs out of the boardroom and into the backyard where they show us some of their favorite grill recipes.

On today’s episode, we fire up the Weber with Mike Gaffney, CRO of online video management platform Auditude, to learn how he makes homemade BBQ sauce slathered over chicken as well as three words that are sure to make you meat and dairy lovers salivate: cheese, filled, sausage.

Check it out and get inspired for your own holiday BBQs this weekend. And if you’re a tech exec/killer griller and want to strut your skills, send an email to chris at gigaom dot com.