Where did the @ Symbol come from? We use it everyday but have you thought of where it came from? Turns out that it has several possible origins from a medieval Monk shorthand in Latin transcriptions to French penmanship to Florentine merchants setting pricing per unit measurement. However it was Ray Tomlinson in 1971 that made it into the…
History of the Remote Control Fascinating evolution from just a few buttons 60 years ago to nearly a hundred as told by Slate. I sure hope we as an industry are quickly headed back down to a lot less plus maybe a Siri-like microphone.
Know any Great Product Managers?
I’m now leading a new team at the Comcast Silicon Valley Innovation Center to develop apps across Xfinity’s mobile and TV platforms. This is a chance to reach over 30 million households with the next generation ways of interacting and consuming media content. If you or someone you know has a passion for building great…
Ave # of Facebook Friends Pew reports the average number of Facebook friends to be 229 (May 2012) which lines up with analysis on the Facebook S1 which pegs it at 234. This huge rise from the numbers Facebook’s shared previously: 130 (2010) and 100 (2008). However the greater story is in how the numbers…
http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/microPlayer.swf Mary Meeker – 2012 Internet Trends Kara Swisher of the WSJ posted the video footage (17 min) today of Mary Meeker’s (KPCB) D10 presentation on Internet Trends (5/30/12). My top three takeaways: 1. 10% of time on Mobile but only 1% of advertising dollars (lots of upside) BUT eCPMs are 5X lower on mobile vs. desktop. HOWEVER Japan…
What was missing in the 1st iPhone? (5 years later)
This week Apple will share their latest innovations at WWDC. However, I think its time we reflect back on what Steve Job’s announced 5 1/2 years ago at Macworld 2007: the 1st iPhone (worth another watch). Steve Jobs pitched it under the backdrop other historic Apple products: Macintosh (1984) – which changed the computer industry iPod…
My First Lean Startup – In Brief
At last night’s Lean Startup meetup (video), Eric Ries inspired us to share stories of how we’re applying various techniques, so here goes… In January, I had the the idea to build a new app which would enable us to make more meaningful birthday wishes to our friends in the form of something called a BirthdayGram. However I was…
Facebook as “King Maker” thru its Newsfeed and Open Graph Above shows how pivotal Facebook’s algorithms are in driving awareness and adoption of new apps can be which can be magnified by Apple’s own model for promoting apps that are suddenly being downloaded at high rates. It bodes well for the power Facebook’s new App Center could…
How to miss a childhood
As a father of three, I was deeply moved by this mother’s reflection on a note she got from this day care provider… I can recall a time when you were out with your children you were really with them. You engaged in a back and forth dialog even if they were pre-verbal. You said,…
Kids Online Privacy I attended an app privacy summit yesterday at Stanford and one of the most insightful things I heard was from Lorraine Akemann with “Moms with Apps”. They are driving forward an initiative called playnicewithdata.org to create a kind of nutrition label for parents making decisions about which apps to let their children use. There…