With one of the most controversial and important presidential elections in our country’s history –- of which issues important to diverse communities are especially front and center –- it’s imperative we encourage millennials to vote.
It is safe to say either their participation or inaction will shape this country for decades and influence future generations of Americans. Read More
The rise and fall of Pokémon GO begs us to ask many questions regarding how to launch a game to position it for success. One specific question it raises is whether branded intellectual property is something game makers should consider prior to launch. Branded IP is one of the most time-tested ways to launch games that go on to become immensely popular. Read More
It seems DJI is about to announce the next generation of the Inspire drone. The company recently sent invites for a November 15 event in LA with the tagline of Control / Create, clearly a nod to the Inspire’s dual-controller capability and target market of Hollywood creators. The event would be two years and one day after DJI announced the original Inspire drone. The first Inspire was… Read More
At its MAX conference, Adobe today previewed Project Nimbus, a new cloud-native, Lightroom-like photo editor that takes away a lot of the complexity of Adobe’s flagship photo-managing and editing application and replaces it with simpler, smarter tools. For now, Adobe is sadly not releasing this tool to the public, but you can expect a beta next year. In recent years, Adobe focused… Read More
Some clever researchers — perhaps too clever — have created a printable, self-healing conductive material that repeatedly fixes itself after being snipped in half. Perhaps this will lead to cut-resistant hunter-killer robots, but more likely it’ll just be used for smart jeans. Read More
Kathryn Minshew and Alex Cavoulacos are proud of their careers, and no wonder. They’re co-founders of the New York-based career site The Muse, which offers job opportunities, skill-building courses, coaching and video profiles meant to show what it’s like to work at different companies. They’ve beefed up their own executive ranks with several new hires: Sharon Feder as… Read More
Setting up a connected home is a piecemeal proposition at the moment. Apple, Google and Amazon all working to push out their respective frameworks as quickly as humanly possible, but for the time being, actually automating the process is a matter of picking up devices here and there. Elgato is offering an interesting take on the space with its Eve series of outlets, switches and sensors,… Read More
Facebook’s recent workaround for Adblock Plus and other ad blockers is already earning it money. On today’s blockbuster Q3 earnings call, the company said desktop ad revenue grew 18 percent year-over-year this quarter compared to around 9 percent in previous quarters, and that thwarting ad blockers was largely the cause for that boost. While Adblock Plus announced it would… Read More
In an interview with The Independent, Apple’s SVP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller looked back at last week’s Apple event and justified some of the decisions behind the new MacBook Pro. Let’s go through the new information in this interview. Schiller is saying that the MacBook Pro is the fastest selling pro laptop from Apple. “And we are proud to tell you that so… Read More
Today on Facebook’s blockbuster Q3 earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg said Internet.org has helped 40 million people get online. Indeed, 0.5% percent of the world’s population is now connected to the internet thanks to Facebook’s accessibility initiatives. The company even said Internet.org contributed to monthly user growth, which accelerated from 3.63 percent to 4.67… Read More
Hardware reporter and reviewer Stefan Etienne joins me this week to share first-person impressions of the new entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro, and we discuss ports — or the lack thereof. Is a dongle-filled future really going to impact the ability of professionals to get work done with the latest MBP? Stefan has some thoughts on the issue. We also survey the field of recent Windows… Read More
Microsoft impressed a lot of people last week with its announcement of the Surface Studio, a desktop-tablet hybrid with a clever and elegant dial interface. Apparently Dell has been thinking along the same lines, because they just teased something very, very similar — right down to the dial. Read More
Another day, another lawsuit against Uber. This time it’s coming from DeSoto Cab, the oldest cab company in San Francisco. DeSoto, which recently rebranded as Flywheel Taxi, has accused Uber of things like monopolization, illegal and unfair practices and predatory pricing, according to a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District court of Northern California today. “In reality, Uber… Read More
Since the dawn of consumer history, tickets have been a product defined by scarcity and lack of accessibility. The result is an abysmal category user experience that’s most often talked about with undertones of anger, skepticism and distrust. For evidence of scarcity in action, look no further than the World Series between the Cubs and Indians, which is the most expensive we’ve… Read More
Microsoft introduced Microsoft Teams today to much fanfare and hoopla — as only Microsoft can seem to do these days. But when you take a close look at today’s announcement, what have you really got here — a 10-year-old idea on how to communicate and collaborate in the enterprise with a distinctly Microsoft twist. As I wrote previously about Slack and more recently Workplace… Read More
Now that the insane, oh-my-god-it’s-everywhere hype cycle has tapered off a bit for Pokémon GO, Niantic gets to crack the classic startup conundrum: How the heck do they keep people coming back? The company is about to take its first swing at the problem by way of daily bonuses. The more regularly you play, the more you’re rewarded. Read More
Facebook had a wildly successful Q3, earning $7.01 billion in revenue and $1.09 EPS. That’s off of from 1.79 billion monthly users, up 16% year-over-year, and growing 4.67% this quarter, speeding up from 3.63% last quarter. Daily active users rose to 1.18 from 1.13 billion last quarter, and up 17% year-over-year. Facebook now has 1.66 billion mobile MAUs up 5.7% from 1.57 billion in… Read More
Apple released a new video ad just in time for Game 7 of the World Series (that’s baseball, and it’s not really a “world” cup). And this is a good one.
Like previous ads, Apple is focusing on just one new feature in the iPhone 7. All of my friends have been asking me what’s new in the iPhone 7. After so many iterations, it’s hard to keep up with new… Read More
The Kenyan software company Ushahidi has launched a campaign to observe the upcoming U.S. elections. The operation, called USA Election Monitor, will track voting irregularities reported via website, email, Twitter and SMS and post accounts to an online interactive map. “It’s a citizen-inspired, citizen-led election deployment,” Ushahidi’s Executive Director Daudi… Read More
The global video game industry is exploding in popularity. Companies such as ESPN, Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts have formed their own e-sports divisions in recent months, and the gaming market exceeds $90 billion, up 9 percent in the last year. It is bigger than the movie industry and predicted to expand with new emerging platforms like VR. Greylock investment partner Josh Elman… Read More
