David Lidsky's Blog, page 3402
November 15, 2013
Burgernomics 101: Big Data Is More Fun When Applied To Burgers
Locu finds it's the skinniest counties that have the largest per-capita burger offerings.
Some people have a hard time wrapping their heads around big data, but it's considerably more approachable when applied to burgers. Locu, a merchant finder service recently acquired by GoDaddy, has crunched the numbers--specifically 176,356 burgers--to give consumers the skinny on America's favorite food.
Google Reportedly Offered Snapchat More Money Than Facebook
Do you know what's cool? Sheesh...
It seems that Facebook may not be the only Silicon Valley giant that has been beguiled by the gone-in-several-seconds photo app Snapchat. Following rumors that Facebook offered to acquire the app for $3 billion, a report from Valleywag says Google made an even bigger offer.
8 Ways PlayStation 4 and Xbox One Are Changing The Game
With the PlayStation 4 launch today and the Xbox One coming next week, you may be asking yourself, "What can these game consoles do that is truly new?" Let's find out.
Today is launch day for Sony's latest weapon in the war to win living rooms, the PlayStation 4. Microsoft will return fire next Friday with the Xbox One and its improved Kinect camera. Both companies are offering powerful machines that can play graphically impressive games, but what else can they do? What is the newness that makes spending hundreds of dollars worth it?
How Flipboard Keeps You Glued To The Page
The new Flipboard app, released this week, looks similar to previous iterations. And for good reason.
Several years ago, Flipboard CEO Mike McCue was searching for the company's soul. He and cofounder Evan Doll had been playing with the idea of a magazine app for the age of the iPad, but they hadn't yet stumbled on the concept of making it personalized and social. The pair wasn't even set on the service's name, which they considered calling Gravity. But by then, the company's small team had started experimenting with promising app designs, inspired by the split-flap displays common in train stations.
How To Recognize "Big A**" Opportunities
Entrepreneurs have one thing in common: the ability to see and seize opportunities when others don't.
I write this from one of Asia's largest cities--Dhaka in Bangladesh--with street sounds making their way up to my 20th floor hotel window. Though still one of the poorest areas of the world, the city has advanced beyond recognition since the times I visited here as a child. Concrete laid over dirt, single-story buildings replaced by towers, bare feet now in shoes, and the beggars that I remember crowding every yard of sidewalk are now working for salaries.
November 14, 2013
Under Armour Acquires MapMyFitness With Big Plans For Wearable Fitness
The sports apparel and gear maker is entering the increasingly crowded market for fitness trackers with its acquisition of MapMyFitness for $150 million.
Under Armour is entering the increasingly crowded fitness-tracker market with its $150 million acquisition of MapMyFitness, a GPS-based social fitness tracking app that maps your routes, tracks your workouts, and logs your meals.
JPMorgan Cancels Twitter Q&A After Flood Of Negative Tweets
The bank got flooded by abusive tweets in response to a call for submissions for a Twitter Q&A session.
There are good corporate Twitter strategies, and there are bad corporate Twitter strategies.
Backed By Silicon Valley, Newtown Group Launches Safety Campaign For Parents--And Gun Owners
Today, Newtown nonprofit Sandy Hook Promise is launching Parent Together. The child welfare initiative is backed by Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, AOL, and others and targets gun owners, non-owners, Republicans, and Democrats.
Time, Nicole Hockley fears, is running out. A month from today is the one-year anniversary of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. For a day, maybe a week, the nation will look back and remember that 20 first graders and six teachers were gunned down by a mentally disturbed 20-year-old armed with an assault rifle. They'll remember the national shock that followed ... the sorrow ... the outrage.
Facebook Offered To Buy Snapchat For $3 Billion, And Snapchat Said No
Evan Siegel, the founder of Snapchat, just turned down a reported $3 billion from Facebook to buy his app.
Snapchat, the blink-and-you'll-miss-it photo-messaging service, turned down a $3 billion offer from Facebook, rumored earlier this year to be developing its own version of the ephemeral app. Facebook's logic behind the bid is clear: Photo and video sharing may be on the up, but the younger demographic are not doing it via Facebook--Snapchat, WhatsApp, and Pheed are the preferred mediums.
Udacity's Sebastian Thrun, Godfather Of Free Online Education, Changes Course
He captivated the world with visions of self-driving cars and Google Glass and has signed up 1.6 million students for online classes. So why is he pivoting away from MOOCs? "We don't educate people as others wished, or as I wished," Thrun says.
There's a story going around college campuses--whispered about over coffee in faculty lounges, held up with great fanfare in business-school sections, and debated nervously by chain-smoking teaching assistants.
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