David Lidsky's Blog, page 2805
January 25, 2016
Ikea's Latest Hack? Customizable Furniture In The Form Of A Coloring Book
Retail therapy meets art therapy.
Whether you call them lighthearted anxiety-relieving tools or regressive escapes from reality, coloring books for adults have become a full-fledged craze (and lucrative market for print publishers).
Elon Musk Wants A Tesla Factory In China This Year
Tesla CEO Elon Musk says his company is "doing reasonably well" in the country.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is hoping to have a factory in China to produce Tesla electric vehicles by the middle of this year, reports Engadget. Musk, also CEO of SpaceX, told Engadget that the company is "doing reasonably well" in mainland China, where it has 15 stores across seven of the country's major cities. Musk also said that there are currently 340 Superchargers and more than 1,600 destination chargers throughout China.
Feds Find "Serious Deficiencies" At One Of Theranos's Labs
The Silicon Valley blood-testing company has been on a rocky road since October.
"Serious deficiencies" have been found at one of Theranos's labs in Northern California, which could see its blood tests suspended from the Medicare program, reports the Wall Street Journal, citing sources.
Roku's New Plan To Stay Competitive In The Streaming Wars: On-Player Advertising
In a world of unlimited options, how can TV companies get consumers to watch a particular channel or show? Advertise it!
Traditional advertising is running into a problem: When it comes to television, more and more people are cord-cutters. According to a recent study, about 2.5% of Americans dropped their cable service in 2015, with many of them getting streaming television adapters such as the Google Chromecast, Apple TV, the Amazon Fire Stick, and Roku.
From Airbnb: The Real Value Of UX Research
UX research isn't about proving users hate carousels; it's about embracing uncertainty, Airbnb's Matt Gallivan writes.
When you spend your days studying how people use products, your intuition around such things gets pretty well-honed. You start to see patterns and themes. You reach a point where you can identity a behavior, ask "What might this mean?" and generate some great high-level and philosophical discussions with stakeholders. People start to seek you out for answers to questions about users, even when you haven't done research that could answer those questions.
Why It Pays—Sometimes Literally—To Seek Help From Those You Admire
How the founder of Framebridge stumbled across funding and mentorship from the last person she expected.
When Susan Tynan joined LivingSocial in 2011, she was struck by its CEO, Tim O'Shaughnessy. She had known him a little bit back when they worked at another startup; O'Shaughnessy, though quite young then, was rapidly rising through the ranks. But now, as O'Shaughnessy addressed hundreds of employees at the first all-staff meeting Tynan attended at LivingSocial, she was struck by what a forceful and charismatic leader he had become. He communicated the company's progress and mission with great clarity and precision. The whole staff listened, admiring and rapt.
January 24, 2016
Four Execs Abruptly Leave Twitter In Sunday Night Shakeup
The executives were reportedly "not people in whom Jack [Dorsey] has the highest faith."
Four major executives abruptly left Twitter in a surprising Sunday night shakeup. The social media giant's heads of product, media, engineering, and Vine are no longer with the company, according to Re/code and the New York Times. The move is a massive and unexpected shakeup for the social media company that was once the darling of the tech world but lately has found its stock price plummeting and its position in the world of online media on unstable footing as social media companies like Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook increasingly encroach onto Twitter's role as media messenger.
January 22, 2016
What To Expect From Apple's Earnings Report Next Week
Many investors are nervous about reports that iPhone 6s sales are softening.
Next Tuesday Apple is likely to report solid numbers for its December-ending quarter, but company execs and investors may be anxious over possible weakness in sales of the iPhone.
Google Is Offering A Free Online Class About Deep Learning
A Udacity course by Google will teach engineers and data scientists the basics of deep learning, which informs much of Google's tech.
Techies who have some background in machine learning may want to tune into Google's new course on deep learning. Available through Udacity—home to a host of open online courses—the class is expected to run about three months, assuming people put in about six hours of work per week.
Koch Brothers Accused Of Hiring Former NYPD Chief To Dig Up Dirt On Journalist
Soon after the New Yorker's Jane Mayer published an exposé, the Kochs assembled a team of operatives to target her, she claims.
The Koch brothers, who control the second-largest privately held company in the United States, hired former NYPD commissioner Howard Safir to dig up dirt on journalist Jane Mayer, she claims in a new book.
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