Month: February 2018

Joe Cieplinski: Here’s what I really want out of a virtual assistant: Assistance. Not trivia questions. Not timers. Utility. It needs to actually make my life significantly easier. Let me give you an example. And there’s no doubt in my mind this will be possible someday. “Alexa, book me a flight for Peers Conf.” If […]

Charles Duhigg, in a long winding post about all the ills facing our society from these massive tech companies, encapsulates the issue really well here: Put differently, if you love technology — if you always buy the latest gadgets and think scientific advances are powerful forces for good — then perhaps you ought to cheer […]

This is a brilliant follow up game. It’s absolutely sublime. I’ve seen a few reviews mention how calm it seems, and I think that’s an apt description: calm beauty. Love it.

Om Malik: That may be a very simplified version of a sequence of events, but the fact of the matter is money and obsession with growth and engagement are what makes Facebook go around. That is embedded in its psyche, its DNA, and it will never change. Good, short, read.

Nitasha Tiku: When Facebook launched Messenger Kids, an app for preteens and children as young as 6, the company stressed that it had worked closely with leading experts in order to safeguard younger users. What Facebook didn’t say is that many of those experts had received funding from Facebook. What’s notable isn’t that they paid […]

Sarah Perez: However, it’s not likely that all Onavo users understand they’re actually feeding Facebook the information that allows it to take on any challenger to its social networking empire. (That empire also includes WhatsApp and Instagram as well as smaller acquisitions like tbh and MSQRD). Noooo, whaaaaat?

Rick Wartzman writing: “It’s kind of how we progress as a species,” adds O’Reilly, the author of, most recently, WTF?: What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us. “We start out starry-eyed and optimistic with all the possibility of a new technology,” only to realize that there are shortcomings that need to be addressed—and […]

Shawn was kind enough to provide me an early look at this course and it’s really well done, and I mean it’s about the best task manager you can get — what’s not to like? Oh, and in case you’ve been longing for a podcast like think featuring me and Shawn, he recorded an interview […]

This is a great write up about a new insulation that seems pretty amazing. Yeah it’s got NASA marketing hype around it, but if what all Steve’s research says is true, it’ll change the way “warm” jackets look. And in case you want more thoughts from me on Outlier, I recently wrote another Outlier shirt […]

Amit Gawande: Dumb and powerful, now there’s the super villain from any sane person’s nightmare. The power is in the data, not the devices. Right now some of that data is mostly noise, but it won’t be long before machine learning makes that “noise” into a billion dollar industry.

Om Malik: I for one, refuse to use Alexa and Google Home in my apartment. I don’t trust them, much like I don’t trust Facebook. Apple seems to be doing a good job of keeping its nose clean, but who knows when they come under pressure from “activist” investors. So much promise, but without any […]

Kashmir Hill and Surya Mattu: I’m going to warn you against a smart home because living in it is annoying as hell. I have shockingly few smart gadgets. And what I do have, switches, are not great. They all lack “just works” factor, and that’s crucial for these devices.

John Herrman on his five year old iPad: It was, in contrast to the iPhone from which it descended, understood by its users as simply good enough — not life-changing, but handy. It was to be used until its users started noticing it, at which point it was to be replaced. It was, like the […]