So today Google announced that they will pay US$3.2B for Nest Labs. Surely the intention here is to have the staff of Nest help Google with home automation, the larger Internet of Things (IoT) direction, and user interfaces. All three of these are, frankly, trouble spots for Google, and if they nurture the Nest team and let them thrive, it’ll be a good addition to Google. Otherwise, they will have wound up paying a premium to buy out a good company…
It’s the season for predictions, so I thought I’d offer you my predictions about wearables in 2014. Wearables will continue to be nerd porn in 2014 (in other words, when you say “wearable devices”, most normal people will respond, “what?”) Many wearable devices will be proposed by vendors. Too many of those will actually make it to market. A few of those will be useful. A handful of those will be aesthetically pleasing. A minute number (possibly 0) of those…
I want you to think for a second about the key you use most. Whether it’s for your house, your apartment, your car, or your office, just think about it for a moment. Now, this key you’re thinking of is going to have a few basic properties. It consists of metal, has a blade extending out of it that has grooves along one or both sides, and either a single set of teeth cut into the bottom, or two sets…
“I said that the two great complaints were that the national debt was unnecessarily increased, that it had furnished the means of corrupting both branches of the legislature. That he must know everybody knew there was a considerable squadron in both whose votes were devoted to the paper stock-jobbing interest, that the names of a weighty number were known several others suspected on good grounds. That on examining the votes of these men they would be found uniformly for every…
In general, the 60 Minutes interview of Jeff Bezos felt largely like a marketing piece. But what Bezos says at 13:30 is great. “Companies have short lifespans… And Amazon will be disrupted one day… I don’t worry about it because I know it is inevitable. Companies come and go. And the companies that are the shiniest and most important of any era, you wait a few decades and they’re gone.” – Jeff Bezos on 60 Minutes, Dec. 1, 2013 …
The vocal minority. You’ve heard of them, but who are they? Companies often seek to change their status quo by modifying how they do business. Generally, this is a nice way of saying just they want more. More what, you ask? Traditionally, it would have meant they simply want more money, as in raising the cost of the goods they are selling (or lowering the cost that they will pay to suppliers or partners). These of course are done to…
Have you recently updated an app your computer or your smartphone (or accessed your favorite Web app), and been faced with the arrival of: New features out of the blue Changed behavior for existing features A release that removes or breaks a feature you frequently use A user interface change that completely modifies the way the app works? If so, you might be a victim of mutually assured distraction (MAD). MAD can also alternatively be referred to as competitive cheese moving. Once…
“Let me tell you why my TV series in the ’90’s was so good. Besides an inordinate amount of just pure good fortune. In most TV series, 50% of the time is spent working on the show. 50% of the time is spent dealing with personality, political, and hierarchical issues of making something. We spent 99% of our time writing. Me and Larry. The door was closed. Somebody calls? We’re not taking the call. We’re gonna make this scene funny….
I’ve been tidying up my media subscriptions of late. Although I’ve subscribed to many paper and online publications over the years, I’ve found that there are only a few which give me an adequate mix of content to the price they’re willing to charge and the time I have available to give to consuming them. I know it costs a lot to create a publication, but it’s astonishing to see how much some media companies value their product – more…
“You’re always fighting things that are opposed to each other…So as an example, let’s take the PlayStation Portable, alright? Great game machine, but it’s not such a great music player, and there’s many reasons for that, but the main reason is that it doesn’t fit in your pocket, right? So your games want nice big screens, music players want to fit in your pocket. You have to pick one, and optimize for it, and the second thing you do will…