Today’s Recommended Reads

Some recent saved favorites from Pocket:

20 minutes at Rucker Park: Thomas “TJ” Webster Jr. waits impatiently for the ball to be tossed in the air. The only white player on the court, he can sense the eyes of the few dozen spectators lounging around the steel and plastic bleachers. – by Flinder Boyd – http://www.sbnation.com/longform/2013/10/15/4837064/rucker-park-basketball-new-york-city-cross-country-journey

How virtual cable and CableWiFi may have killed the Verizon Wireless: By deciding to shutter their joint innovation lab, Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and cable partners Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA), Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) and Bright House signaled they believe it’d be more profitable in the long run to pursue their own multiscreen distribution products than to share their – by Steve Donohue – Tags: Advertising and marketing,Business,Cablevision,CableWiFi,Comcast,Time Warner Cable,Verizon – http://www.fiercecable.com/story/how-virtual-cable-and-cablewifi-may-have-killed-verizon-wireless-comcast-jo/2013-10-18

Confessions of a Windows Phone User: Hello. My name is Ashlee Vance, and I have a Windows phone. To own a Windows smartphone in Silicon Valley is to invite ridicule and pity. Every day I pull out the bright yellow Nokia (NOK) Lumia 920, and every day iPhone and Android types look at me with dismay. – by Ashlee Vance – http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-14/confessions-of-a-windows-phone-user

Never Shop in October and Other Secrets From a Retail Guru: Mark Ellwood, a journalist and former travel guide author, has a simple shopping mandate: Never pay full price. There’s simply no need, a point Ellwood illustrates at length in his new book, Bargain Fever: How to Shop in a Discounted World. – by Kyle Stock – http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-16/never-shop-in-october-and-other-secrets-from-a-retail-guru

Eight miles of water: underground with Manhattan’s new aquatic lifeline: New Yorkers will proudly tell you that the city has some of the finest tap water that you can find. But for nearly a century, all of Manhattan has been served by a single water tunnel that hasn’t been shut down for maintenance since it first opened in 1917. That’s no longer the case. – by Dante D’Orazio – http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/19/4853636/underground-with-manhattans-new-water-tunnel-three-photo-essay

The future of gyms: If you thought gyms were a recent phenomenon, tethered to the trend of self-conscious fashionistas and the scourge of obesity, well, you’d be wrong. – by Paul Sawers – http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/10/19/the-future-of-gyms/

40% Of YouTube Traffic Now Mobile, Up From 25% In 2012, 6% In 2011: It’s hard to get people to concentrate long on anything on their phones and tablets, yet YouTube seems to be the exception. The video service is quickly going mobile, with small screens making up 40% of its traffic now compared to 25% last year, Google said on its earnings call today. – by Josh Constine – http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/17/youtube-goes-mobile/

Google AI Team Lets You Build Quantum Computing Traps in Minecraft: You hack your way through vines into the ziggurat and then follow dark passageways until arriving in a stone-block room. There’s a sign on the wall. “Look up!” it reads. “Totally not a trap.” You look up and then plunge into blackness. This isn’t just a trap. It’s a quantum trap. – by Robert McMillan – http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/10/minecraft_quantum/

Today’s Recommended Reads

Some recent saved favorites from Pocket:

The Internet Owes Its Sense of Humor to This Man: There are many forms of fuck at Bob Odenkirk’s disposal: the anguished, slow-motion version he emits while watching bad comedy (“It’s just a fffuckin’ mess!”), the whispered yet still damnably loud variant he uses when remembering one of his own terrible sketches (“The first draft of – by Brian Raftery – http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/10/bob-odenkirk/

The untold history of Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte: The pumpkin spice latte, Starbucks’ most iconic and popular seasonal drink, almost didn’t happen. – by Christopher Mims – http://qz.com/136781/psl-untold-history-of-starbucks-pumpkin-spice-latte/;

Jeff Bezos’s League of Shadows
Amazon can be a uniquely challenging place to work, with its question-mark emergencies and the occasionally volcanic outburst from the visionary chief executive. It’s a place where promotions are hard-fought and sometimes painfully public. But there is also a job at Amazon (AMZN)that is highly coveted throughout the company and that nearly anyone in business would kill for.  http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-17/jeff-bezos-s-league-of-shadows;

Google AI Team Lets You Build Quantum Computing Traps in Minecraft
You hack your way through vines into the ziggurat and then follow dark passageways until arriving in a stone-block room. There’s a sign on the wall. “Look up!” it reads. “Totally not a trap.” You look up and then plunge into blackness.
This isn’t just a trap. It’s a quantum trap. Brought to you by Google. http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/10/minecraft_quantum/

Android Co-Founder Rich Miner on How He Is Spending Google’s Money
Rich Miner set out a year ago to make sure that Google Ventures had its hand in more mobile deals.  And it’s fair to say that is happening. Among its recent mobile deals, Google’s venture arm has invested in Appurify, Apportable, Cluster, MessageMe, Osito, Sold and Uber. In that last one, Google Ventures wrote a check for $258 million.  http://allthingsd.com/20131018/android-co-founder-rich-miner-on-how-he-is-spending-googles-money/

Underwater wi-fi given test run to create ‘deep-sea internet’: Researchers have tested an “underwater wi-fi” network in a lake in an attempt to make a “deep-sea internet”. The team, from the University of Buffalo, New York, said the technology could help detect tsunamis, offering more reliable warning systems. – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24550015

sharing links

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so a week in and I’ve shared a pretty large number of links as daily reads.  It’s not everything I’m reading daily, but the shares I’d typically just blast out via social.  I’ve got a pretty solid system courtesy of Pocket and a WordPress plugin called WP Stacker.  While I haven’t seen any comments or direct responses per se, I do see some traffic coming in to check out what I’m sharing … plenty more coming.

 

 

Today’s Recommended Reads

Some recent saved favorites from Pocket:

Sleep helps brain stay fit by clearing waste: AFP – Like a janitor sweeping the halls after the lights go out, major changes occur in the brain during sleep to flush out waste and ward off disease, researchers said Thursday. – by REPORTAGES – http://www.france24.com/en/20131017-sleep-helps-brain-stay-fit-clearing-waste; http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/15/wearables-are-about-to-blow-up-industry-sales-to-hit-19-billion-by-2018/

‘Bionic man’ makes debut at Washington’s Air and Space Museum: WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A first-ever walking, talking “bionic man” built entirely out of synthetic body parts made his Washington debut on Thursday. – by Lacey Johnson – Tags: Ukraine, United States, Bertold Meyer, John Daley, Joshua Roberts, Paul Arcand, Robert Warburton, Steve Austin – http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/10/17/usa-bionicman-idINDEE99G0EV20131017

Robotic petting zoo : Storified by CBC News Community Like an elephant’s long trunk, or a jellyfish’s glowing tentacles, the “animals” at this zoo have long, swaying body parts. Except they’re not alive — they’re robotic. – by Jennifer Dunning – Tags: Petting Zoo, FRAC Centre, France, Minimaforms, Theodore Spyropoulos, Stephen Spyropoulos, animals, art – http://www.cbc.ca/newsblogs/yourcommunity/2013/10/robotic-petting-zoo-animals-touch-you-back.html

Nike CEO Hints At Collaborative Future For FuelBand: For the development of the FuelBand, Nike partnered with a slew of outside companies. CEO Mark Parker hints that more partnerships could be in the device’s future. The Nike FuelBand is one of the more promising products in wearable computing. – http://m.fastcompany.com/3019901/nike-ceo-hints-at-collaborative-future-for-fuelband

Amaze project aims to take 3D printing ‘into metal age’: The European Space Agency has unveiled plans to “take 3D printing into the metal age” by building parts for jets, spacecraft and fusion projects. The Amaze project brings together 28 institutions to develop new metal components which are lighter, stronger and cheaper than conventional parts. – by James Morgan – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24528306

Automated Bike Fit Measurement App Review: Bike Fast Fit: I want to start off by first noting just how rare it is that I write an entire post specifically about a single app.  I could probably count the number of times I’ve done that in 6 years on one hand. – by Rainmaker – Tags: app reviews,apps,iphone – http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2013/10/automated-measurement-review.html

Nokia’s multi-display smartwatch concept revealed in patent application: Nokia appears to be experimenting with its own smartwatch concepts. In a patent application submitted in August last year, the company details a “multi-segment wearable accessory.” According to the description, and some related diagrams, it’s a plan for a modular watch than can be worn on the wrist. – by Tom Warren – http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/17/4848050/nokia-smartwatch-patent-multiple-displays

Today’s Recommended Reads

Some recent saved favorites from Pocket:

Latest Google Glass Firmware Gives A Tantalizing Glimpse At A Ton Of Future Features: Last weekend, I finally got my own Google Glass unit. Since then I’ve been trying to adapt to using it and all its features, but as always there are a few things no Explorer can do just yet. With the update to XE10, the list of hidden or unimplemented features has changed dramatically. – by Liam Spradlin – http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/10/16/apk-teardown-latest-google-glass-firmware-gives-a-tantalizing-glimpse-at-a-ton-of-future-features/

The Elusive British Artist Banksy Joins the Social Web: If you live in New York City, be sure to smile as you wander the streets during the month of October. There’s a good chance you’re part of an elaborate art installation by the elusive British artist, Banksy. – by NICK BILTON – http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/16/elusive-british-artist-banksy-joins-social-web/

Facebook ad profit a staggering 1,790% more on iPhone than Android: A study of more than 200 billion ads on Facebook says that mobile ads on iPhone generate 1,790 percent more return on investment than ads on Android. Even worse, advertising on Android actually costs more than it returns. – by John Koetsier – http://venturebeat.com/2013/10/16/facebook-ad-profit-a-staggering-1790-more-on-iphone-than-android/#YqAck9ZaSlBWhBtC.99

Limits Approved for Genetically Modified Crops in Kauai, Hawaii: Legislators on the island of Kauai in Hawaii have approved a bill that would restrict the use of pesticides by companies developing genetically modified crops there. The 6-to-1 vote by the Kauai County Council came just after 3:30 a.m. – by ANDREW POLLACK – http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/17/business/limits-approved-for-genetically-modified-crops-in-kauai-hawaii.html

They Look Like Toy Cars, But They’re The : This looks like something you’d find in the Hot Wheels aisle at Walmart, but it’s much more than that. It’s a character from Anki Drive, an iOS-powered tech toy coming to Apple Stores and Apple.com on October 23. Its creators call it “the future of consumer electronics.” – by Mike Fahey – http://kotaku.com/they-look-like-toy-cars-but-theyre-the-future-of-con-1446802125/@matthardigree

The Lost Art Of The Group Ride: Every so often, I’ll ride a recreational group ride. I love the camaraderie of cyclists, the talk, the last minute pumps of air, the clicking in, and the easy drifting out as a peloton. “I miss riding in a group,” I’ll think to myself. The magic ends by mile 10. – by Peter Wilborn – http://cyclingtips.com.au/2011/09/the-lost-art-of-the-group-ride-2/

Lance Armstrong, Antihero: The man stashes contraband in designated hiding spots in his home and, on repeated occasions, narrowly avoids getting caught by the authorities. – by Ashley Fetters – Tags: The Atlantic, The Atlantic Magazine, TheAtlantic.com, Atlantic, news, opinion, breaking news, analysis, commentary, business, politics, culture, international, science, technology, national and life – http://m.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/10/lance-armstrong-antihero/280556/

Today’s Recommended Reads

Some recent saved favorites from Pocket:

Meet the Man Behind the World’s Best Ad Agency Twitter Feed @RGA’s Chapin Clark explains how not to be boring: Ad agency Twitter feeds are, as a rule, about as interesting as a couple at Home Depot debating which paint chip would best match their duvet. One consistent exception has been R/GA, which serves up fun links and clever insights with a biting wit. – by David Griner – http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/meet-man-behind-worlds-best-ad-agency-twitter-feed-153141

It’s stronger than steel and paper thin but graphene isn’t living up to its promise: If the film classic The Graduate were being made today, it’s likely that, in delivering his iconic line, Walter Brooke would lean into Dustin Hoffman’s ear and offer a new career path: “graphene,” instead of “plastics. – by Search results – http://qz.com/135380/its-stronger-than-steel-and-paper-thin-but-graphene-isnt-living-up-to-its-promise/

Square Cash lets anyone with a debit card send money instantly over email: What if sending money was as simple as sending an email? That’s the premise of Square Cash, launching today for all debit card users in the US, using any email service. – by Ellis Hamburger – http://theverge.com/2013/10/15/4842518/square-cash-send-money-over-email-iphone-android

The Strava Files: No matter what else you might say about Kim Flint, you can’t claim that he was stupid. – by David Darlington – http://m.bicycling.com/news/featured-stories/strava-files

When people use their smartphones and tablets, in charts: You might think people use their smartphones and tablets most when they’re out of the house: in the morning on their commute, or during the day at work. Probably not in the evening, when they’re at home with their TVs and computers. This is exactly wrong. – by Ritchie King – http://qz.com/134810/when-people-use-their-smartphones-and-tablets-in-charts/

Steve Blank explains why accelerators should mimic “Moneyball”: Steve Blank has given a lot of presentations in his day. But he says he’s never experienced anything quite like what happened a few weeks ago in New York, when he presented his ideas around his Lean Launchpad to an audience. – by Erin Griffith – http://pandodaily.com/2013/10/15/steve-blank-explains-why-accelerators-should-mimic-moneyball/

How Qualcomm Is Trying to Make the Leap to Consumer Brand: Ad Age is committed to providing you with industry news and information you need to succeed. That’s why we are pleased to offer our readers 7 free articles and blogs at no charge. You have reached your 8th article. – Tags: Qualcomm – http://adage.com/article/digital/qualcomm-make-leap-consumer-brand/244701/

Strategy, in reverse: Our current strategy process follows an old-school waterfall. We can’t develop ideas until we have a strategy. And we can’t write strategy until we have insights. And we don’t have insights until we immerse ourselves in the landscape. – by matthew_daniels – https://medium.com/p/364b10aa64fb

Today’s Recommended Reads

Some recent saved favorites from Pocket:

Inside 23andMe founder Anne Wojcicki’s $99 DNA Revolution: The $126 million genetic-testing company can tell you how to live smarter, better, and longer. It can also tell you what might kill you–or the ones you love. There’s a lot you can do for your child with 99 dollars. – by Elizabeth Murphy – http://m.fastcompany.com/3018598/for-99-this-ceo-can-tell-you-what-might-kill-you-inside-23andme-founder-anne-wojcickis-dna-r

Forget Big Data: The future is Small Data, and Facebook just bought it: This morning, Onavo, an Israeli start-up, announced it was being acquired by Facebook. Onavo’s flagship product is a data compressor. – by Leo Mirani – http://qz.com/135038/forget-big-data-the-future-is-small-data-and-facebook-just-bought-it/

Soap Opera: Amazon Moves In With P&G: TUNKHANNOCK, Pa.—Atop a hill at the end of a road called P&G Warehouse Way sits a warehouse stocked with Pampers diapers, Bounty paper towels and other items made by Procter & Gamble Co. It also houses an ambitious experiment by Amazon.com Inc. – by Serena Ng – http://m.us.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052702304330904579135840230674458-lMyQjAxMTAzMDEwMzExNDMyWj

Google Wallet’s In-Store Payment Feature All But Dead: Google has made a last-ditch attempt to save its floundering mobile wallet by opening it up to more consumers and incentivizing them to use the product, but it is unlikely that even these changes will save the in-store payment component from fading into mobile payments folklore.   – by Michelle Evans – Tags: Payments, Finance, Google Wallet, Iphone, Android, bundle, google, apple, samsung, NFC, – http://blog.euromonitor.com/2013/10/google-wallets-in-store-payment-feature-all-but-dead.html

Product Managers: Who are these ‘mini-CEOs’ and what do they do?: In the world of technology, it’s often the engineers and designers that are among the most celebrated. They are the people who literally build amazing products that we enjoy, such as Instagram, Gmail, Twitter, Android, iOS, and other software, hardware, and services. – by Ken Yeung – http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/10/12/product-managers-mini-ceos/

The South Korea Report: Device and App Trends in The First Saturated Device Market: In August of this year Flurry Analytics measured 33,527,534 active smartphones and tablets in South Korea. While that was only 2.8% of the entire worldwide connected device installed base Flurry measures, South Korea is an important market for connected devices for several reasons. – by Mary Ellen Gordon – Tags: South Korea, phablet, Samsung,T Store,SK Planet – http://blog.flurry.com//bid/101499/the-south-korea-report-device-and-app-trends-in-the-first-saturated-device-market

Back on the Bright Side: Silicon Valley in Vermont: Why did this company end up on the shores of Lake Champlain, rather than on the San Francisco Bay or Puget Sound? Before I got derailed with the modern nullification follies, my wife and I were describing some of the surprising successes of people, ideas, and organizations in Burlington, Vermont. – by James Fallows – Tags: The Atlantic, The Atlantic Magazine, TheAtlantic.com, Atlantic, news, opinion, analysis, commentary, Society, national affairs, domestic policy, education, religion, race, transportation – http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/10/back-on-the-bright-side-silicon-valley-in-vermont/280313/

The Amount of Questionable Online Traffic Will Blow Your Mind: A few weeks ago, Lindsay Buescher, senior manager, analytics at Carat, read an article on Adweek.com about a company called FreeStreams.com that was pumping up its traffic by enticing Web users into accidentally visiting via hidden links on sites that house pirated content. – by Mike Shields – http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/amount-questionable-online-traffic-will-blow-your-mind-153083

Two-Hit Wonder: Jack Dorsey, the tech entrepreneur, takes the No. 1 bus to work, and he likes to catch the 7:06. It carries him nearly from one side of San Francisco to the other—down California Street almost to Market. – by D. T. Max – Tags: Jack Dorsey, Tech Entrepreneurs, Square, Technology, Twitter, San Francisco, California, Steve Jobs, Buses, iPad Mini, techpages – http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/10/21/131021fa_fact_max

Today’s Recommended Reads

From my Pocket to yours …

The Precise Art Of Mobile Push Notifications: Editor’s Note: Semil Shah works on product for Swell, is a TechCrunch columnist, and an investor – as a disclaimer for this post, he is an advisor to one of the companies mentioned here, Refresh. He blogs at Haywire, and you can follow him on Twitter at @semil. – by Semil Shah – Tags: mobile, push notices, habit loops – http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/13/the-precise-art-of-mobile-push-notifications/

Macaw, the Web design tool for programmers, hits Kickstarter. Here’s an overview of why it’s different: Web designing is more than just slapping visually attractive images on a page. To make those elements come to life, meticulous amounts of HTML are needed to add front end functionality. – by Amber Leigh Turner – http://thenextweb.com/dd/2013/10/12/macaw-web-design-tool-programmers-hits-kickstarter/

Four Executives on Succeeding in Business as a Woman: How do you answer the question of whether women lead differently than men? I also think women are better at team dynamics, because they don’t have to be the alpha all the time. – by Adam Bryant – http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/10/13/business/women-corner-office.html

7 Bucket List Bike Destinations: Simply put, this region of Italy is bicycling heaven. – http://m.bicycling.com/ride-maps/featured-rides/7-bucket-list-bike-destinations

The Accelerators: DAVID COHEN: There’s a massive gender imbalance in the tech startup community. That imbalance perpetuates the biases we all carry, whether intentional or not. – http://blogs.wsj.com/accelerators/2013/10/10/david-cohen-we-all-need-to-make-female-startup-heroes-visible/

TouchMarks II: Touchscreen Latencies in Flagship Tablets: In our last TouchMarks report, we looked at the touchscreen latencies of the flagship smartphones from different manufacturers. – by Rohan Relan – http://appglimpse.com/blog/touchmarks-ii-touchscreen-latencies-in-flagship-tablets/

Anticipatory Computing: The Next Big Thing Is Enabling Laziness: Control4’s IPO last week and Nest’s massive success mark the beginning of mainstream, useful connected devices. In the decade to come, the most successful will be united by one common characteristic. They will anticipate our needs and make us lazier. Living is hard work. – http://tomtunguz.com/iot-and-laziness

Recommended Reads: Sunday October 13, 2013

Some recent saved favorites from Pocket:

 

The Soaring Cost of a Simple Breath: OAKLAND, Calif. – by ELISABETH ROSENTHAL – http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/us/the-soaring-cost-of-a-simple-breath.html

How Twitter’s Leadership Drama Explains its Success: One founder pushed aside in the early days of the company, his name scrubbed from its founding story. Another ousted from the CEO role by a co-founder, former boss, and seed investor. – by Walter Frick, Walter Frick | 1:58 PM October 11, 2013 – Tags: business resources books articles case studies, business management articles resources, communication, finance, accounting, leadership, managing people, international global business strategy, execution, technology, operations, organizational development, innovation, entrepreneurship, HBSP, HBP, HBO, HBR, Harvard Business School Publishing – http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/10/how-twitters-leadership-drama-explains-its-success/

Google CIO Ben Fried on How Google Works: It was the former Google employee’s first day out in the real world. He removed the enterprise security settings from his iPhone, and installed the apps he wasn’t allowed to use at the mothership: Dropbox for storage, Fantastical for his mobile calendar. – by Liz Gannes – Tags: enterprise, general, news, android, ben fried, cio, dropbox, featured post, google, google drive, google+ hangouts, morgan stanley, videoconferencing – http://allthingsd.com/20131010/google-cio-ben-fried-on-how-google-works/

Grand Theft Afghanistan: On Sunday, the German newspaper Welt Am Sonntag reported that West German spies had operated covertly in Afghanistan in the 1980s, buying captured Soviet technology that could be used if the Soviet Union ever attacked NATO. – by Kyle Mizokami – https://medium.com/editors-picks/e94ee6a9cfad

Bilton Book: Twitter’s Dick Costolo Was Fired (And Rehired) in 2010: Twitter’s founding tale keeps getting more and more complicated. Twitter CEO Dick Costolo was briefly fired from the company by an advisor to the board in 2010, according to a new book detailing the early, tumultuous days of the microblogging service. – by Mike Isaac – Tags: general, media, news, social, bill campbell, ceo, dick costolo, hatching twitter, nick bilton, twitter – http://allthingsd.com/20131012/bilton-book-twitters-dick-costolo-was-fired-and-re-hired-in-2010/

Why US government IT fails so hard, so often: The rocky launch of the Department of Health and Human Services’ HealthCare.gov is the most visible evidence at the moment of how hard it is for the federal government to execute major technology projects. – by Sean Gallagher – http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/10/why-us-government-it-fails-so-hard-so-often/

Polemic: how readers will discover books in future: In the future, readers will not go in search of books to read. Feral books will stalk readers, sneak into their ebook libraries, and leap out to ambush them. – by Charlie Stross – http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/10/polemic-how-readers-will-disco.html

The Firehose Of Certainty: I recently finished a gig which entailed looking at and writing about the well-appointed homes of various New Yorkers, which made me eager to do something to make my own home more well-appointed. – by Rumaan Alam – http://www.theawl.com/2013/10/the-firehose-of-taste

A Twitter Account After One’s Own Tweets: Joe Toscano is programmer who works at TigerText, a company that is best known for providing a secure messaging system for health-care organizations. – by Betsy Morais – Tags: Twitter, elements, techpages – http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/10/tofu-a-twitter-account-after-ones-own-tweets.html

Who Made That Android Logo?: Irina Blok may have drawn one of the most recognized logos in the world, but her association with the green Android has not made her famous. Blok can think of only one incident when she garnered the public’s attention for designing it. – by PAGAN KENNEDY – http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/magazine/who-made-that-android-logo.html

Taskmasters: how Israeli intelligence officers helped inspire the look of iOS 7: In October 2009, at an Israeli sports training facility called the Wingate Institute, Eden Shochat walked the floor of GeekCon admiring the projects. Each year at Shochat’s long-running, invite-only creative gathering, attendees are tasked with making things that are both amazing and useless. – by Casey Newton – http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/9/4817146/taskmasters-how-israeli-intelligence-officers-helped-inspire-the-look-of-ios-7

In-Store Tracking Isn’t Going Anywhere: Nomi Close to Landing Around $10 Million Series B Investment: Nomi, a New York City-based startup that tracks shoppers’ mobile phones to help retail shops gather data on customer activity in their stores, is close to landing a Series B investment, sources told AllThingsD. Accel Partners is expected to be a new investor in the round. – by Jason Del Rey – Tags: commerce, general, news, accel partners, euclid, first round capital, forerunner ventures, nomi, retail, retail stores, retailnext, sv angel, tracking, web analytics – http://allthingsd.com/20131011/in-store-tracking-isnt-going-anywhere-nomi-close-to-landing-around-10-million-series-b-investment/

How High Can Fab Climb?: Bradford Shellhammer’s affection for people mirrors his feelings for his vast accumulation of inanimate objects, which include sunglasses, sneakers, and glass birds. “I collect things. People are just another thing I collect,” he says, describing his Warholian approach to life. – by Christian LaBrooy – http://www.fastcodesign.com/3016269/how-high-can-fab-climb

Awesome Photos of NASA Equipment Tests: There’s no hardware as cool as space hardware. And there’s nothing cooler than watching astronauts and scientists testing out equipment to take us off-world — even equipment that was never used. Here are our favorite images of NASA testing its equipment on Earth. – by Vincze Miklós – http://io9.com/awesome-photos-of-nasa-equipment-tests-1443979987

How High Can Fab Climb?

“Bradford Shellhammer’s affection for people mirrors his feelings for his vast accumulation of inanimate objects, which include sunglasses, sneakers, and glass birds. “I collect things. People are just another thing I collect,” he says, describing his Warholian approach to life.”

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Awesome Photos of NASA Equipment Tests

“There’s no hardware as cool as space hardware. And there’s nothing cooler than watching astronauts and scientists testing out equipment to take us off-world — even equipment that was never used. Here are our favorite images of NASA testing its equipment on Earth.”

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Is Mobile Hurting Attention?

There’s some magic peace that comes over me when I’m not constantly looking at my iPhone. I really noticed it after two weeks of not doing it. After a few days of withdrawal, the calm appears. My brain is no longer jangly, the dopamine effect of “hey – another email, another tweet” goes away, and I actually am much faster at processing whatever I’ve got on a 27? screen than on a little tiny thing that my v47 eyes are struggling to read.  My Smart Phone Is No Longer Working For Me – Feld Thoughts.

Mobile is so good, yet also so far from fully delivering the right contextual relevance to avoid being a continuous distraction rather than assistant. Part of this is our own weakness with regard to notifications, but part of it is technology and that will hopefully be solved soon enough. I think this is beyond mobile as well but since that’s what stays in-hand all the time it’s the most important.

Is Google about to offer sync’d SMS?

googlehangoutssms

I’m a multi-phone user. I carry two active phones (business / personal) and it’s difficult to manage the flow of messages via SMS across the two particularly if I leave my personal device on silent at the office or only take one for a particular time (like on my bike). A bigger issue is iMessage which was active on my (dormant) iPhone and until I deactivated it was the main channel for my family to text. Since I’m working multiple Androids currently iMessage is out and there’s no method to forward SMS effectively. Sure there are plenty of OTT services like WhatsApp, Line and countless others. I’ve been successful with a few people on Facebook and a few more on Hangouts, but if the screenshot above is accurate it seems Google might be looking to route SMS via Hangouts which would instantly solve this problem.

I know I’m not alone in looking for what seems like an edge case solution … there’s even an international code for forwarding SMS, but no carrier seems to use it. This cannot arrive soon enough!

via gigaom.

Disney Research re-imagines the pop-up book #maker style and it’s awesome

Disney Research has pioneered a method to create new interactive experiences with paper, some simple electronics and some conductive ink. The result is really, really cool. With three kids we’ve worked our way through many books together many of which have had some interactive components through flaps and folds and even sound or simple lights. Eventually they all kinda wear out … a kid is too rough and they tear or the battery simply dies and the book loses its extra fun. With this technique, we could pretty easily print and rebuild. We could probably remix the book as well which is where things could really start to get creative.

Batteries not included … and not required!

via FastCo

copsinbikelanes: Multiple submissions from Joanna Oltman Smith….

copsinbikelanes:

Multiple submissions from Joanna Oltman Smith.  The first one is at 2nd Ave and 16th in Manhattan.  The second is at 1st Ave and 44th.  The last two are at every cop’s favorite bike lane: Hoyt and Schermerhorn.  Both of these cars are repeat offenders.  The bottom car, number 2242, is a multiple-time offender.  Seriously dude, this is NOT YOUR PERSONAL PARKING SPACE!

Joanna is involved with StreetsPAC, a political organization dedicated to increasing the livability of NYC’s streets.  Check them out.

To serve and protect.  Stay safe!
via Tumblr http://atmasphere.tumblr.com/post/63110870548

Unapologetically plastic.

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The past few days I’ve been using a blue iPhone 5C courtesy of work. It’s just a loaner and it’s been an interesting return to iOS after quite a few months of being entirely on Android. Some thoughts …

  • Solid. Plastic or not the 5C feels great in your hand.
  • Size matters. One one hand the iPhone is quite small in comparison to any recent top end android device. Typing feels a bit cramped by comparison though you get used to it. The iPhone is still largely focused on and delivers a single hand experience.
  • Responsiveness. More than general speed the iPhone has a responsive gestalt and it’s a pleasure to use in most circumstances. I found myself wanting to use it more often than my other devices. Time will tell as it’s far from perfect but really such a well considered and designed device. My last active iPhone was the 4S for reference … It’s sitting in my briefcase – updated to iOS 7 but essentially gathering dust.
  • Flow. I’m really acclimated to the android way and find the lack of app addressability beyond what apple dictates to suck. That I can’t share content to any number of apps beyond apple’s very short list hurts. Intents are an amazingly powerful function of android and it’s hard to operate without them.
  • Camera. Damn this is a nice little shooter. I can easily flick the camera open from behind the screen lock- something android makes impossible with exchange security on! One hand use really comes into play as it’s super simple to grab a shot on the go. I snapped a few pics while biking yesterday in a reasonably safe manner and would have not considered this on android without first removing my exchange account or working through a more complex root based hack. Pictures look great of course and the gallery is super fast and a visible from the usual photo apps. I do miss being able to send via a reviewed pic … Again intents are amazing with android.
  • typing. While the keyboard is a bit cramped at first the screen is so damned responsive and the auto correct generally friendly that you can sweep through longer email, note or post (like this) very easily. I read over the weekend that the scene response time on iPhone is substantially greater than the current crop of android devices and typing – something I do constantly receives a huge boost!
  • battery. The battery is terrible on this phone though sadly I have such low expectations at this point. I’m at 60% now at 9:10am. Going to be impossible for this to last a full day without some intervention.

I got a fresh start on iOS 7 with the 5C and have to say it works great. There are many improvements though largely it’s just iOS. I like it.

I’m not really in the market for a new phone but see the 5C selling a zillion. My pic would be the 5S without even seeing it as I would want the extra power, better camera and I’m very interested in the motion sensor.

When the cloud fails

As much as I enjoy open access to my data and content of interest there have actually been a few recent circumstances where the cloud could simply not deliver. For the average person living in a well connected market with limited travel needs, streaming your data works great. What I’ve encountered though has made me consider a more aggressive local plan as well.

I just got back from vacation on the Adirondacks where connectivity is poor at best. During the drive up we lost connectivity briefly and then on arrival to our rental home, found ourselves on edge… And slow edge as well. The rental home has satellite connectivity from a company called Wild Blue so there was WiFi in the house but the inbound speed was mainly slower than the edge connection as well. Having such a slow connection requires you to make decisions about what you might want to do online as everything takes time which we essentially take for granted living the land of high speed broadband and 4G.

Using AppleTV for streaming Netflix … Not an option. Spotify … Not so much. Even downloading or trying to steam podcasts was a tricky or delayed affair. For the most part the lack of connectivity wasn’t horrible … In fact forcing the change can be quite nice. There are definitely times though when the connection posed an issue… Driving in the car lately I’ve been enjoying Waze. The realtime map data is awesome and quite helpful. When your connection drops however the app can not only be unreliable but the lost connection can actually make navigation impossible. Google Maps allows for pre-loading the area you want but without any real speed in your connection that’s also quite a challenge.

If you follow me on any of the social services you know I share a lot. At this point sharing is habitual and just part of my information flow. When your connection barely works though you have to make pretty regular decisions rather than more seamlessly flow things back out. My pictures backup to Facebook and Google+ but on edge the process takes hours (yes hours) to happen and then you need to have a much more restrained view if you want to share a gallery vs one or two pics at a time.

Even in more connected environments… Like Westchester where I live the connection can also pose a challenge. Just this morning, I fired up Waze while driving my kids to school. Because the signal was poor my location never activated and instead of a helpful look around, I got a floating look at the area because the phone could not lock things in. Up in the Adirondacks if the signal dropped long enough Waze would actually crash and even though it would want to restart my navigation without a network lock, it was rendered pretty useless as the map never loaded. The car nav BTW worked without any fuss… As did Sirius radio.

Back at home and commuting back and forth to NYC, I’m regularly in range of LTE and stream content, update my apps on the go and basically use my devices as they were designed.

Future trips are going to require me advanced planning so I can cache things I might need or want …