Put simply, the recent success of Zendesk and MobileIron indicate that the investing public appear willing to accept short- to medium-term GAAP losses on the promise of quickly advancing revenues in the medium term.
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“If Google Now became more integrated into Android, the OS might function more like one of those contextual homescreen/launchers, like Aviate (acquired by Yahoo) or Cover, which place relevant apps on Android’s lockscreen.
The difference is that Google Now would not be just a layer on top of the OS, but a deeper part of the OS that’s capable of gathering data from the apps that run upon it and using that data to provide users with relevant, timely information and intelligent suggestions.”
“A Sneak Peak into the future of Android” via TechCrunch
Interesting news about the direction of the Android platform. The deep integration of Google Now is both exciting and scary.
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And a year ago, OCP announced plans to build a network switch. And not just any network switch, but one designed as a software-defined networking (SDN) device. SDN is a radically new way to build networks that threatens Cisco, or at least Cisco’s 60+% profit margins.
“Facebook Just Fired A Huge Shot at Cisco” via BusinessInsider.
It’s easy to forget how big Cisco’s dominance is over the hardware that powers the internet.
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As participation in sports declines, and is displaced by the fitness industry – the infomercial devices, the ellipticals, the gyms that profit because members don’t show up – intensity is leached out of athletics. Ritual becomes habit. Sport becomes exercise. What was meaningful, vivid and shared becomes mindless, boring and socially isolated (Bowling Alone at Bally’s). This is why most people think of physical exertion as a chore.
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The Internet is a psychology experiment.
Building a product for the Internet is now the easy part. Getting people to understand the product and use it is the hard part. And the only way to make the hard part work is by testing one psychological hypothesis after another.
Great article by Scott Adams entitled “The Pivot” on his blog.
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The numbers raise a basic question about the ability of the new tech giants to launch small experimental projects — and how quickly they’ll pull the plug on a product that they love if it isn’t catching on.
“Paper Isn’t Catching On, And Facebook Has To Decide What To Do About It” via BuzzFeed
It’s amazing to see how big Facebook has grown across so many dimensions. The description of their innovation group (which sounds very similar to a team I once worked on at Microsoft) is a good example of how they have evolved into a mature tech company. Their primary businesses have become so large and established (read = depended on, like Facebook Login), that it becomes hard and sometimes dangerous to innovate directly inside them any more.
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After a weekend spent using devices tailored to them, enterprise users are rolling their eyes at the clunky interface that greets them Monday morning.
“The tech and pizza promise: Why your product must deliver more in less” via TheNextWeb
A great article that summarizes the news goals for building apps and experiences for enterprise users: they must be as tailored and desirable to use – if not more so – than the apps those users engage with for their own personal productivity and fun.
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Employees are vastly more satisfied and productive, it turns out, when four of their core needs are met: physical, through opportunities to regularly renew and recharge at work; emotional, by feeling valued and appreciated for their contributions; mental, when they have the opportunity to focus in an absorbed way on their most important tasks and define when and where they get their work done; and spiritual, by doing more of what they do best and enjoy most, and by feeling connected to a higher purpose at work.
This was in the Times last Sunday and is an awesome summary of how to think about motivating and retaining great employees. It highlights simple but critical points like taking breaks to avoid burnout, helping employees gain a feeling of mastery by providing specific and customized challenges, and maintaining a constant feedback loop.
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AT&T and ChallengePost are announcing the Connected Intersections Challenge, a three-month-long competition aimed at designers and software and hardware engineers. Entrants to the challenge are tasked with “[re-imagining] software and hardware technology to keep pedestrians in NYC safe and alert while remaining connected on their smartphones.”
“AT&T Is Offering $50K To Engineers To Make New York City Safer For Pedestrians” via TechCrunch
One experience I would love to see is route mapping based on the quality and accessibility of the bike lanes. When Google Maps puts together a Bike route between two points in NYC, half the time I follow it most of the bike lanes are closed and/or inaccessible due to construction.
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Is ephemeral going to be Messaging 3.0? What about anonymous? It is too early to tell, but one thing is certain: we are primed to witness the next war in Messaging 2.0.
http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/26/messaging-2-0-is-now-over/
I have to admit that I’m a Secret voyeur; I rarely post but love reading the updates. I don’t see it as messaging so much as just an anonymous blog. It is, regardless, very engaging and sticky. Reminds me of a popular site many years ago called Group Hug (they even made a book).
Do any of you use Secret or any of the others?
#neato 