Some recent saved favorites from Pocket:
How I deal with users who steal: It costs $19.99/yr for musicians to use, or is free if you refer 5 new users. The referral system works well, and is responsible for about 30% of daily new users. Some users fake it though. They “refer” 5 people by making 5 bogus DistroKid accounts using the referral link we give them. – by Philip Kaplan – https://medium.com/product-design/416b0841dbf1
Teenagers Are Driving Less, But Why?: Are teens really done caring about cars and driving, or is data showing fewer teens applying for drivers’ licenses more a reflection of the lousy current job market than a long term cultural trend? – by JOSEPH B. WHITE – http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2013/10/24/teenagers-are-driving-less-but-why/
The New Economy Is Indentured TaskRabbits: It’s not exactly news that in the absence of a solution to the unemployment crisis, Americans have learned to cobble together various odd jobs to replace the full-time, benefits-included positions they once had. What’s surprising is how permanent the so-called gig economy is turning out to be. – by Kevin Roose – http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/10/new-economy-is-indentured-taskrabbits.html
Why Apple’s first retail store in Brazil is actually a really big deal: Apple is about to take its much-awaited leap into Latin America. According to Apple news site 9to5Mac, Apple is aiming to launch its first retail store in Brazil by March 2014. The store, which has been under construction since last year, will be located in Rio de Janeiro. – by Roberto A. Ferdman – http://qz.com/140467/why-apples-first-retail-store-in-brazil-is-actually-a-really-big-deal/
Motorola reveals ambitious plan to build modular smartphones: Motorola has unveiled Project Ara, an open-source initiative for modular smartphones with the goal to “do for hardware what the Android platform has done for software. – by Sam Byford – http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/29/5041336/motorola-project-ara-modular-smartphones
Can Wearable Computers Revolutionize How We Learn To Code? ? Co.Labs ? code + community: Programming is an abstract and often private pursuit. But wearable computing projects–made with purpose-built microcontrollers like the Adafruit FLORA–have the potential to change all that, catapulting coding into a vastly more mainstream hobby. – http://www.fastcolabs.com/3018374/can-wearable-computers-revolutionize-how-we-learn-to-code
How Google Ventures-backed Play-i plans to use robots to help kids learn to code — Tech News and Analysis: Learning the basics of programming doesn’t have to involve staring at a computer screen, stringing together lines of code. If Play-i has its way, kids as young as five years old could learn the concepts behind by coding by playing with a simple spherical robot and an iPad. – by Ki Mae Heussner – Tags: internet of things,mobile technology,sensor technology – http://gigaom.com/2013/10/28/how-google-ventures-backed-play-i-plans-to-use-robots-to-inspire-kids-to-code/
Should Your Product Connect To The Internet Of Things?: Thanks to widespread Internet adoption and over 10 billion connected devices around the world, companies today are more excited than ever about the Internet of Things. – http://www.fastcodesign.com/3020678/should-your-product-connect-to-the-internet-of-things
Nielsen’s New SDK Adds Mobile Viewing To Its Traditional TV Ratings, Uses Data From Facebook To Match Demographics: After months of trials, Nielsen today is announcing an SDK that will give it the ability to measure how people view TV on mobile apps and other digital formats. – by Ingrid Lunden – http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/27/nielsen-sdk-mobile-ratings/
Samsung Pursues Developers, Seeking Orbit of Apps: This week, Samsung Electronics Co. 005930.SE -0. – by Jonathan Cheng – http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/SB10001424052702304470504579160863095029246-lMyQjAxMTAzMDIwNzEyNDcyWj
A clever way to buy Facebook ads based on what your users like (Guest post): My friend Gagan Biyani wrote up a great piece how to analyze what your Facebook audience is interested in, and using that to buy ads. He’s generously shared it, below. Gagan is CEO and co-founder at Sprig, and before that was at Lyft and started up Udemy. – http://andrewchen.co/2013/10/28/a-clever-way-to-buy-facebook-ads-based-on-what-your-users-like-guest-post/
Why is broadband more expensive in the US?: Home broadband in the US costs far more than elsewhere. At high speeds, it costs nearly three times as much as in the UK and France, and more than five times as much as in South Korea. Why? Men’s haircuts, loaves of bread… – by Tom Geoghegan, Kevin Kim, Rory Cellan-Jones, Sarah Virginia White – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24528383
Kroger Knows Your Shopping Patterns Better Than You Do: Kroger Kroger, the Cincinnati-based grocery store chain, calls the 11 million pieces of direct mail it sends to customers each quarter “snowflakes” — because if any two are the same, it is a fluke. The redemption rate is over 70 percent within six weeks of the mailing. – by Tom Groenfeldt – http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomgroenfeldt/2013/10/28/kroger-knows-your-shopping-patterns-better-than-you-do/