Amazon.com Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos stopped by the 37signals office yesterday and offered some wise thoughts about strategy. His views are especially refreshing in a time when people who change their views often get portrayed as weak and lacking confidence.
37signals Founder Jason Fried shared what Bezos said in a blog post he published this morning. After talking for 90-minutes about product strategy, Bezos impressed Fried with his observations about people who are "right a lot."
It's long been said that "I agree to the terms of service" is the biggest lie on the internet. And even if you do read them, many TOS are so ridden with legalese that you practically need to be a lawyer to understand them. Also, as I wrote in a gloomy post last weekend, users have no choice but either agree to the terms offered by a web app or simply not use the service at all.
UPDATED. A lot of people like to complain about their experiences on major web platforms such as Facebook, but most of them stick around as users, feeling that the pros outweigh the cons. But Limited Run, a startup that makes a software platform for musicians and labels to sell physical products like vinyl records, says it has reached the final straw with its experience as a small business advertising on Facebook -- and as a result is completely withdrawing its presence on the social networking platform.
Siluria Technologies, the San Francisco-based cleantech company that is developing a technology to turn natural gas into transportation fuels and industrial chemicals, announced it has raised $30 million in investment for its third founding round.
With over $63 million in funding poured into Siluria to date, the company is under pressure to bring its product to market. Siluria said in a statement that it will use the funds for two pilot-scale reactors and a commercial plant, in an effort to scale the technology.
Analysts have been sharply divided in providing estimates for Apple's third quarter earnings report. And it would appear that this time, predictions of a mild third quarter were correct. Apple saw a bit of a plateau in Mac sales, with 4 million Macs, 26 million iPhones, and 17 million iPads sold in Q3 2012. That's compared to last quarter's sales…
An aspiring hardware hacker at Twilio has used his company's own telephony APIs as well as Node.js and Arduino to build the charming robot you see in the clip above.
We just about overloaded on developer buzzwords there, so let's back it up a bit.
The bot was built by Twilio developer evangelist Jonathan Gottfried, to whom we say, nice work, Jon!
Nobody likes to admit it, but if you're a working professional, there's a good chance you're familiar with sweat stains. The commute to work, the stress of meeting a deadline, the faulty air conditioning in the boardroom, cotton weaves -- all of these things and many more have been known to conspire against you, the working professional. Luckily, Ministry of Supply…
Google has a lot to prove with the Nexus 7: Does it finally understand tablets, after so much bumbling over the last few years? Can it take back tablet market share from Amazon, which has managed to create the only successful Android tablet with the Kindle Fire? And how can a cheap device take on the high-end iPad?
All of those thoughts were rushing through my head as I tore open my Nexus 7 review unit this morning (Google wasted no time shipping units out after…
Although gigantic ships are relatively efficient -- compared to, say, transporting massive amounts of stuff by airplane -- they do use an astounding amount of fuel. The shipping industry is working on this problem. In particular, a Norwegian shipping company and a marine energy company are partnering to work on a hybrid ship, the Viking Lady.
The Viking Lady…
Reblogged from Fortune Tech: Technology blogs, news and analysis from Fortune Magazine:
FORTUNE -- On Tuesday, a U.S. district court in San Jose, Calif., granted Apple's (AAPL) request for a preliminary injunction against Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 -- the tablet computer that most closely resembles Apple's iPad.
"Although Samsung has a right to compete, it does not have a right to compete unfairly, by flooding the market with infringing products," Judge Lucy Koh wrote.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gz5OoTFxD8
In this taste of TEDGlobal, Massimo Banzi, the inventor of Arduino, offers an inspiring word on open-source creativity: "You don't need anyone's permission to create something great."
Watch Massimo's TEDTalk >>
London and Paris have had a competitive relationship for a little while now. So perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise that just a few weeks after London announced the rollout of free wireless access on the Tube, the French have made a similar move.
News coming from Paris tells of a fresh initiative to bring free wireless access to public transport, bringing the city's offering more in line with its cross-channel rival.
The robot’s decision is triggered after waiting a fraction of a second to observe the movement of the human hand.
Yesterday, Artnet closed its online magazine, which was almost certainly the first and longest-running art publication on the Internet. Walter Robinson had run the periodical for its entire existence, after leaving Art in America, where he served as a writer and editor for years. Below, a few of the responses that have come in from various members of the art world.
Need to share your location for a limited amount of time and just with a single person? I don't think I've seen an easier method than Mapfia, a new mobile app for iOS (s aapl) and Android (s goog). Springwise highlighted the software on Tuesday and I took a closer look. All you have to do is call someone and Mapfia shares the location of both people in the phone conversation for the length of the call.
The Samsung Galaxy S III is the phone you've been waiting for (per our review), and you may be waiting a bit longer due to some slight shortages on GSIII supply, but luckily this extended version of the ad can coddle us through this very difficult period.
This is the most emotional portrayal of gadgetry I've ever seen out of Samsung.
Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's four-year chief operating officer, has a new position -- and one many people thought she should have gotten long ago. She's now the first woman on the company's board of directors.
She'll have her own vote in all company matters, Facebook confirms with us. Board members of the public company are elected by the existing board or by shareholders (in this case she was elected by the other members).
To head off any allegations of inter-blog rivalry, let me start off by saying that Sarah loves Business Insider. Clicks for hours, she does. Adores every preposterous headline and asinine slideshow. She explains as much in this episode of "Why Isn't This News."
I, as any of my Twitter followers will testify, do not care for Business Insider. I hate those headlines and slideshows for the same reason as Sarah loves them.
When asked what is the biggest difference between Los Angeles and Silicon Valley accelerators, five from LA told me they're more focused on startups that don't take years to start monetizing. Leaders from Amplify, Launchpad LA, MuckerLab, Start Engine, and Originate Labs convened at this weekend's Silicon Beach Festival in Venice, California. They explained that since there's less capital down South, they're less concentrated on long-term plays, even ones that could return bigger multiples down the line.
On Wednesday, we all gathered around to watch the latest PandoMonthly fireside chat, this time between Sarah Lacy and Ben Horowitz. You've been asking for it, and we've now got you covered, with the full video embedded below. There's glitter!
Along with about 500 other people, we watch as Horowitz discussed his early years in SIlicon Valley, the Loudcloud "IPO from Hell,"
Facebook has created a new feature that lets users find friends and potential friends nearby. Currently Initially called "Friendshake" and also accessible through a URL that is the abbreviation of "find friends nearby" (http://fb.com/ffn), it's another step in Facebook furthering its reach into mobile, and creating services to meet new people -- rather than building up more connectivity with the ones you already know.
This promo for BMW M5, the world’s fastest sedan, utilize slow-motion bullet effects synchronized with Beethoven’s divine 5th Piano Concerto to manifest power and elegance.
And now we come to the end of our CEO dinner, when the wine kicks in, and I lose complete control of the interview.
We start by asking everyone for their mediocre super powers...and.... I'll just let you watch the rest.
Here are our previous segments on Phablets, consolidation, fundraising, whether software companies still need salesforces, what companies…
Given that coding lessons are the new Baby Mozart, we are in no way surprised at the existence of Code Club, the latest educational initiative launched across the pond. We are, however, quite amused at this promotional video, in which a sassy panel of children considers the Internet's biggest names for open advisory positions. Most do not meet their exacting standards.
Photos are a massive part of the Facebook experience. Every day, users upload 250 million photos to Facebook. And photo status updates typically get far more engagement than any other type of post.
So why does the Facebook photo posting experience suck so much?
I compared posting a photo on Facebook to posting a photo on Google+ just this morning. The difference is frankly startling.
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