Apple CEO Tim Cook visited Washington last week for a series of sit-downs with Congressional leaders. The meetings -- with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) -- were largely introductory, Fortune reports. But they may signal that Apple is adopting a new, more engaged approach to Washington and the policymaking process.
Markets are difficult to measure. Mainly because the information is not easy to obtain and that which is obtained is not made public. Collecting, analyzing and filling in the gaps is big business w…
Why design isn’t just the responsibility of designers [Video]
At the recent The Next Web Conference in Amsterdam, Dave Wiskus, designer and Creative Officer at application developer and design house Black Pixel, took to the stage to discuss the importance of understanding your user when it comes to technology design.
Confessions of a recovering lifehacker « John Pavlus
I used to be a lifehacking addict, and in some ways I still am. I have a perverse love of systems and efficiency: analyzing, configuring, optmizing, categorizing, defining, and parameter-setting. (…
This blog often focuses on the bits and features and less on the “philosophy” or “context” of the product. Given the level of brand new innovations in Windows 8, however, we think it is worth putting Windows 8 in the context in which we approached the design. As with any significant change to a broadly...
Four Years of App Store: Developers Weigh In On Search, Discovery, and Curation
“The App Store is a grand slam, with a staggering 10 million applications downloaded in just three days”. That’s how Apple co-founder and late CEO Steve Jobs saluted the launch of the company’s new storefront for iOS (née iPhone OS) applications on July 14, 2008. Almost four years and over 25 billion downloads later, the
Social media? For too many brands, it might feel more like anti-social media.It’s no secret that the rush of consumers and advertisers to Facebook and Twitter has made it ever easier for the masses to be heard—and for brands to mess up.
Web startups are made out of two things: people and code. The people make the code, and the code makes the people rich. Code is like a poem; it has to follow certain structural requirements, and yet out of that structure can come art. But code is art that does something. It is the assembly of something brand new from nothing but an idea.
I’m sure someone somewhere has done a breakdown of how many episodes per season devolve into “what if the crewmembers ended up in X?” I mean, we have the Robin Hood episode, the Three Musketeers episode, so an episode from the Wild West couldn’t have been far off.
Elijah Wood Cast In 'Speed... at a Piano'
Did you ever think to yourself, what if Keanu Reeves in Speed wasn’t on a bus careening through Santa Monica at the behest of a madman but sitting at a piano giving the concert of his life un…
A few days ago Apple quietly modified its ‘App Store Review Guidelines’, and it has significantly reduced the requirements that apps, which deliver content, must abide by, effectively stepping down on their previous demands. In February this year it was revealed that Apple had imposed a deadline of June 30 for all publishers of iOS
Why you can't trust tech press to teach you about the tech industry
If there were one lesson I’d want to impress upon people who are interested in succeeding in the technology industry, it would be, as I’ve said before, know your shit. Know the discipline you’re in, know the history of those who’ve done your kind of work
Individual UI Simplification - Collective Confusion Success and failure of recent operating systems (mobile or desktop) are quite often attributed to the user interface and the "experience" it...
Facebook, Google Must Adapt as Users Embrace 'Unsocial' Networks
When Facebook bought the photo-sharing app Instagram for $1 billion, theories flew as to what it might mean. Was Mark Zuckerberg defensive, worried that his 850 million Facebook users might stop uploading 250 million photos a day? Or was he making a proactive move into mobile, where Instagram’s friendly interface makes Facebook look clunky on iPhones?