David Lidsky's Blog, page 2988
May 13, 2015
7 Questions For The Guy Who Designed Minority Report's Futuristic UIs
John Underkoffle believes "designing and deploying radically more capable UIs is one of the most important things we can do today."
Even if you don't know the name "John Underkoffle," you surely know his work. His gesture-based interface for Minority Report influenced the 13 years of of user interface and hardware innnovation that have followed.
Need A Break From Home, But Want To Keep Working? Take A Jobbatical
A site that matches employers and wandering gig-seekers wants to foster a new way to travel. Like everything else, it helps if you can code.
Some people can take long vacations with no end in sight. Others quickly get bored by the lack of stimulating activity.
How Citymaps Is Trying To Take On Google
These founders literally walked the streets of New York in their quest to map the city. Now they're offering their interface to developers.
In 2010, Citymaps was a fledgling idea scribbled on a cocktail napkin at a Manhattan bar. Cofounders Elliot Cohen and Aaron Rudenstine had no experience with maps, but knew they wanted to build a map app people could use on their smartphones. "Why reinvent the wheel?" most people told them. Wasn't Google Maps good enough?
May 12, 2015
Net-a-Porter Launches An App That Allows Women to Shop Together Online
No more sharing links to your new favorite shoes with your best friend via text message.
The Internet has improved many aspects of the shopping process. We can now shop in the middle of the night or in a cab, quickly survey a brand's entire inventory in a single scroll, and read other customers' reviews about how an item of clothing fits. But there's always been something missing from the digital shopping experience: the ability to shop with others. The one great pleasure of shopping at a brick-and-mortar store is the opportunity to browse the racks with a friend, discuss the relative merits of the latest fashion trend, or get her opinion about whether or not you should buy those skintight leather pants you've been eyeing.
Laws That Ban Direct Auto Sales Are Not Just Hurting Tesla, Says FTC
Three FTC directors are criticizing states whose laws prevent Tesla from directly selling to consumers—laws that cripple other carmakers.
Since it started selling its electric cars directly to consumers, Tesla Motors has faced stern opposition in several states—many outright refusing to allow Tesla to sell cars within their state borders—for being the only automaker that does not use auto dealers to sell its cars. Today, three directors of the Federal Trade Commission went to bat for Tesla in a blog post condemning states for interfering with consumer choice to buy whichever car they want.
The 2000 And 2015 AOL Merger Press Releases: Compare And Contrast
For Time Warner, merging with AOL was a $350 billion bet on a synergistic future that never panned out.
In a tech merger that only counts as a medium-sized whoop by current standards, Verizon is acquiring AOL for $4.4 billion. The news shouldn't strike anyone as an out-of-left-field stunner: Bloomberg reported that the two companies were discussing such a deal back in January.
BitTorrent Rolls Out Bleep, Its Super Private, Cloud-Free Messaging App
With no central server or personal details needed, Bleep is the peer-to-peer tech company's answer to chat app privacy concerns.
Snapchat and other ephemeral chat apps might delete messages from your phone after they're read, but as with other texting and messaging apps, that data is still sent through and stored on a central server that's vulnerable to anything servers are vulnerable to. BitTorrent, the company best known for its peer-to-peer file-sharing protocol, says it has the answer to messaging privacy concerns: Bleep, a new chat app that doesn't need to use the cloud or collect personal information to send messages to friends.
A Brief History Of AOL
Verizon just bought one of the last big tech veterans from the pre-dotcom era. Here's a timeline of its history stretching back to... 1983??
Verizon announced today that it is buying AOL for $4.4 billion, probably to help Verizon better stream video online, especially to mobile devices, says The Washington Post. AOL is one of the only other pre-dotcom veterans, alongside Yahoo, to keep chugging along despite being left in the dust by younger tech juggernauts like Google and Facebook. Here's a quick timeline of AOL's fascinating history:
May 8, 2015
210 Zappos Employees Respond To Holacracy Ultimatum: We're Out
The company is finishing its transition to a radical new organization structure. Nearly 14% of the staff has decided to leave the company.
What would you say if your boss told you wouldn't have a boss anymore? No, you're not fired. Your organization is just redistributing power, eliminating managers and job titles. Sound crazy? The concept, known as Holocracy, is gaining steam at some reputable companies.
Why Scientists Are Upset About The Facebook Filter Bubble Study
Facebook says users, not its algorithm, are responsible for the so-called filter bubble. But Facebook's own research says otherwise.
Yesterday, the journal Science released a study by Facebook employees examining what content you do (and don't) see on Facebook's news feed. Its conclusion, at first glance, was that the Facebook news feed algorithm does not keep users from seeing opinions they disagree with (a reference to the so-called filter bubble of social media, in which you assume most people agree with you because you are not exposed to other viewpoints). But after prominent media outlets covered the study's findings, data scientists began to speak up. Actually, they argued, the study has major flaws, and its conclusion suggests that the news feed algorithm does hide news stories it thinks you will disagree with.
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