Warren Buffett Quote on Selling « Chris McCann's Personal Blog. The real reason Facebook should worry. (Hint: It’s not privacy, Wall Street, or terms of service) The 22 rules of storytelling, according to Pixar. The Web in 2013: Already old, or forever young? By Kevin Kelleher On January 1, 2013 New Year’s Day has long been one of my favorite holidays. It caps a week of year-in-review stories that underscores how ghastly the past year has been – fiscal cliffs, mass shootings, super storms – and then for a few glorious minutes you’re in a crowd of ecstatic people screaming, embracing, giddy again about the possibility, however sketchy, that great things are about to happen.
There is a fine line between delusion and optimism, but Silicon Valley has often had reasons to expect great things – especially in recent years as fertile areas like social networking and the mobile Web offered new opportunity for those willing to work for it. The Web remained a bright spot in a dim economy, and so looking back often meant recounting success stories. As we exit 2012, something feels different. If anything changed in 2012, it was that Silicon Valley in general and the Web sector in particular began to resemble other, older industries. New Year’s Resolutions, Internet-Style. It’s that time of the year again: it’s time to promise to go on diets we won’t stick to, miles we won’t run, and projects we won’t complete. Maybe, this year, it’s time for a change? For 2013, I’m making a list of New Year’s resolutions that I actually might be able to keep. This time around, my resolutions will be internet and technology-focused – things I actually care about and enjoy – which betters the chance that I’ll be able to stick to my goals…well, at least until March.
Throughout the year, our lives become so busy that a lot things fall through the cracks. For me, it’s been about taking action following big (tech) decisions: to adopt or abandon a service, to transfer data, to upload files, to fix a problem using an online tool, to engage more, to read more, to clean up and clean out. I doubt I’m alone in some of these things I plan to do this year, so I’m sharing my New Year’s resolutions with you – and the tools I’ll use in 2013 to get these things done. Why I’m just not buying the obsession with One Key Metric. By Sarah Lacy On December 27, 2012 Since the Web has existed, three things have happened over and over again: Industry king-makers and wannabes have obsessed about a metric. The obsession gets pushed too far as the metric is gamed. And then the industry rejects the metric. Hits, page views, uniques, time spent, Diggs, Likes, RTs, comments, downloads — there are plenty of examples.
But many remain industry standards despite the criticism that inflation has ruined them, because it’s what investors and advertisers reward, as much as they may claim to hate them. The new sexiness in the Valley is to have One Key Metric. The advantage is supposedly focus: One thing you’re driving at, a number you’d bet your business on. Why can’t creating a great product be enough of a North Star? Maybe we’re alone as a weird, content-oriented startup operating amid a tech world. I find it ironic that VCs refuse to give OKM by which they would govern their own investments.
But life and business is messy. The Top 25 TechCrunch Posts From 2012. Your Smartphone Will Replace Your Car Keys by 2015 | Autopia. Your smartphone has the potential to replace nearly everything else in your pockets, so why not your car keys? Hyundai is working to do just that, with an embedded NFC tag that allows you to open your car, start the engine and link up to the touchscreen with a simple swipe. Hyundai outfitted its i30 compact hatch (aka the Elantra in the States) with NFC technology in its “Connectivity Concept” recently shown at its European headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany.
The idea is simple: Nix the key fob and let your smartphone handle it all. According to the Korean automaker, the driver can swipe their phone across an embedded NFC chip to unlock the car, and once inside, the place the phone in the center console, allowing the car to start, while an inductive charging plate keeps the juice flowing without needing to plug in. But unlocking and starting the car is only part of a wider connectivity solution for Hyundai. All photos: Hyundai. SDN Startups That Could Become Acquisition Targets In 2013.
Light & Wonder has announced a new Executive Vice President (EVP) and Global Chief Corporate Affairs Officer amidst a “pivotal moment” for the company. The cross-platform games company announced the appointment of Rohan Gallagher as Executive Vice President (EVP) and Global Chief Corporate Affairs Officer on September 25. The newly-created role will be based in Sydney and will be responsible for Investor Relations, Environmental, Social, and Governance, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Global Communications. “As Light & Wonder transitions to a sole listing on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), having Rohan’s wealth of experience and leadership in Corporate Affairs will be instrumental for us, both in the Australian market and across the world,” said Oliver Chow, Chief Financial Officer at Light & Wonder.
“I’ve worked with Rohan for many years in different capacities, and his knowledge of the gaming industry, and what it takes to succeed, are unparalleled.” Legimi Wants To Be The ‘Spotify For Ebooks’ With A Business Model That Relies On You Reading Less. Every app is an island and that’s just the way Apple wants it. By Nathaniel Mott On December 27, 2012 Every app is an island. The iOS home screen’s grid layout makes this clear – this app goes over here, that app goes over there, and goddamn if they’re ever going to overlap.
Developers have created workarounds to circumvent this restriction, but they’re often clunky, imperfect, and inherently limited. A lot of this probably has to do with iOS limiting itself to just one application at a time. This is fine for simple tasks, but most actions use more than one app or service to get the job done. Or maybe someone wants to save an article to the read-later service of their choice. Some intrepid developers have found ways of bypassing this workflow. So far as problems go this probably falls somewhere between “I hate swiping through the app-switcher to find an app I used last week” and “Ugh, why won’t Apple let me designate default apps?” [Illustration by Hallie Bateman] Everything is in real-time: Media in the age of conversation.
By Kirk McDonald On December 27, 2012 If one long sentence could sum up what 2012 means to me, it would be this: We are living at the intersection of advertising and publishing at a time of hyper growth and innovation, which separately and together present us with both formidable challenges but also game-changing possibilities. Put another way, everything today is in real-time: not just content but mobile and bidding on media. I call it “Media in the Age of Conversation.” The concept of SoLoMo – the convergence of Social, Local, and Mobile – is the activation point for the connections occurring between consumers and content in a specific place in time.
Just as media is being created in real time, it’s being sold in real-time: a perfect pairing, which succinctly and simply describes the sudden rise of ad-tech. Here’s some of what I learned this past year: The traditional ways of doing business are crumbling faster than we think. Welcome to the world of real-time bidding: Think algorithms. The shifting definition of the Web browser.
By Nathaniel Mott On December 31, 2012 The Web comes in all shapes and sizes. Designers and developers are tasked with building sites capable of shifting from 3-inch smartphone displays to 92-inch (yes, really) “smart” television sets and everywhere in between. Yet supporting an ever-expanding array of screen sizes is only half the battle.
Developers also have to account for all kinds of Web browsers — and there are more of them than you might think. Most people probably think of Safari, Google Chrome, or Internet Explorer when they think “Web browser.” First, why all of these apps have embedded browsers in the first place: They want users to stay within that app. Twitterrific, a Windows Phone -styled Twitter client for the iPhone and iPad, offers a prime example. This sizing problem is common across other embedded browsers, though not to the same extent. Then there are browsers that just don’t want to cooperate with websites. So, what’s the solution? Probably not. Who Are The Savviest Mobile Users? Generation Y.
If you are an American between the ages of 24 and 32, there is a fairly high probability you own a smartphone. In fact, you probably have a laptop and a tablet to go with it. You have an average of 268 Facebook friends and own a high-definition television. At least, that is the way research firm Forrester profiles you in its sixth annual State Of Consumers And Technology Benchmark report. The report finds that Generation Y (defined as 24-32 years old) are at the pinnacle of Internet adoption and activity, are the most likely to own multiple connected devices (like smartphones, tablets and PCs) and are increasingly mobile. Generation Y has a 72% adoption rate for smartphones and uses them for all varieties of interaction with information and communication and commerce.
About a quarter of the denizens of Generation Y have tablet computers, like iPads or Android slates. Overall, the United States has a 19% adoption rate of tablets. Gen Y Likes The iPhone Gen Y The Most Savvy Mobile Users. Online identity is changing, but engagement is still key. By Philip Cortes On December 31, 2012 How did LinkedIn get its growth? By SEO optimizing your online resume. And to this day, LinkedIn remains the king of online professional identity. However, that may be changing as our use of online identity is evolving, thanks to services like About.me and Vizify. Our identity today is about telling a story of what we’ve done, not just stating it.
The new need for online identity The line between professional and social is blurring. That’s where services like About.me and Vizify come in — they’ve done a phenomenal job of enabling you to tell a story about who you are from both of those perspectives. Engagement is still the answer However, where LinkedIn still succeeds is at engagement. The key to services like Vizify, Flavors.me, and About.me, is giving me a reason to return, which neither has quite done yet.
The future of online identity LinkedIn’s use case is extremely targeted and niche: sales, job seekers, recruiters, and the occasional networker. Adafruit to Teach Electronics Through Puppets in New Kids' Show | Wired Design. The Circuit Playground crew. Image: Adafruit Adafruit, the kit-based electronics retailer and promoter of hobbyist engineering, is aiming to teach electronics to a younger demographic.
So young that they’re enlisting the help of puppets. Their new online show, titled Circuit Playground, will teach the essentials of electronics and circuitry to children through kid-friendly dolls with names like Cappy the Capacitor and Hans the 555 Timer Chip. Limor “Ladyada” Fried, Adafruit’s founder and chief engineer (and 2012 Entrepreneur of the Year), will host the episodes, with her team assisting with onscreen and puppeteering duties. “We’ll have each component have a story, a song and something to do,” Fried says.
“We’ll have live feeds in our factory on how things are made. Adafruit is familiar with online broadcasts, hosting weekly “Show-and-Tell” and “Ask an Engineer” shows on Google+ and Ustream for over three years. One of the first episodes will focus on robots. All plushed out. 7 Bold Predictions Of What The Mobile Industry Will Do In 2013. It seems like every year, that darned rodent in Punxsutawney, Pa., predicts six more weeks of winter. Never mind the fact that Groundhog Day is technically six weeks before the official start of spring. We hail Punxsutawney Phil as the seer of seers, prognosticator of prognosticators. How can you not trust a psychic rodent? We like to think that Punxsutawney Phil is just giving his best educated guess.
Well, when it comes to predicting what will happen in the tech industry over the course of the next year, we too are making our best educated guesses. But, in the end, our predictions are just about as meaningful as those of the famous groundhog. But, just like Punxsutawney Phil, sometimes we get things right. For instance, some of my predictions for the mobile industry in 2012 were spot on. Yet, I also said we would not see a new iPhone in 2012.
All in all, my predictions from last year were not horribly inaccurate. 1. I learned my lesson. 2. 3. The Droid Razr M 4. 5. Nokia Lumia 920 6. 7. Let’s focus on the really hard stuff in 2013. By Scott Tobin On December 27, 2012 The year 2012 will go down in the record books as one of the strongest years the venture industry has seen in some time. Even as Wall Street can be tough on Facebook, Groupon, and other graduates of venture, when the IPO and M&A windows are open and working in tandem, as they did for a big part of this year, it’s a great environment for venture returns and for realizing just how good this asset class can be. While the macro-global economy is still trying to shift out of neutral, the venture industry, and all of its participants can share some collective pride that young companies are still pushing the limits of innovation and are a big driver of overall economic development around the world.
We VCs are a notoriously impatient, ambitious, and future-looking bunch, justifiably focused on bottom line return. Yet ‘tis the season to be contemplative, and here are my key takeaways from 2012, along with wishes for the coming year. [Image courtesy daily sunny] The best online ads of 2012 weren’t ads. By Kirk Cheyfitz On December 25, 2012 It was a hell of a year for the online ad biz: “Native” became a famous kind of advertising. We began measuring the multiplied marketing power of shared media. We vilified Facebook mercilessly for not being old-fashioned enough (i.e., not running enough “ads” to satisfy Wall Street), and we watched unsurprised as online ad spending became a sure bet to beat print ad spending in the US and, soon, globally.
So it seemed appropriate when Adam Penenberg, PandoDaily’s editor, asked me for nominations for best online ads of the year. It seemed similarly appropriate when Adam’s email added: “I’d do it myself, but I don’t even see online ads.” Frankly, I don’t either. This is true even though advertisers will have spent roughly $38 billion for online ad space by the time we ring out 2012. The “something else” isn’t usually counted in that $38 billion. So here are my picks for the best online non-ads of 2012: 1. The fans’ involvement is the “ad.” 2. 3. 4. 5. Cheap Tech And Offices Mean Startups Need Less Funding [Infographic] Entrepreneurs: This is the time to disrupt a market. Those holding out for a better market conditions are bypassing the opportunity of a lifetime. Granted, two countervailing trends –- a slowly recovering national economy and a pull-back in later early-stage funding -- are keeping things interesting for entrepreneurs. But at the same time, stubborn recession conditions like cheap office space and tech trends like cloud computing temper the need for big piles of outside money to get new companies off the ground.
This infographic comes from Bob Rizika, CEO of cloud computing, Infrastructure-as-a Service (IaaS) firm ProfitBricks USA, who obviously hopes lean startups see an advantage in operating in the cloud. The key points are that creating a startup now is cheaper than ever before, there are new sources of funding available, and the lingering economic issues can reduce competition: With A Flick Of The Wrist, Facebook Could Destroy Current Advertising Models. 2013, the year of storytelling. Unicornfree. On the Breadth of the Human Psyche - Shady Acres. Ben Kamens. Founder Mistakes, Part 1: "Launch Day" Is Not A Strategy | Paul Finn. Grow like Facebook: onboarding and activation.
Advice on Attracting Good Developers - Samuel Mullen. What You Really Need Is A Market, Not An Idea | Paul Finn. Seven lessons from the worst social media fails of 2012. The FTC's New Kid Privacy Rules (COPPA) Are a Big Mess (Forbes Cross-Post) When I first heard the name “Safari” Questions to Ask Potential Cofounders: The Master List. The Best Way to Learn How to Build Your MVP. You don't have to be local.