Uncategorized

Asking questions in design

Janice Gervais wrote a great article about asking the right questions of your client, and understanding why it’s important to have a clear picture.

Pinterest acquires Instapaper

For you, the Instapaper end user and customer, nothing changes. The Instapaper team will be moving from betaworks in New York City to Pinterest’s headquarters in San Francisco, and we’ll continue to make Instapaper a great place to save and read articles.

I used to be a huge Instapaper user.

The top TV ads of the Olympics

To get some insights into these questions, Google evaluated the top 12 brands totaling over 3.5 billion impressions that aired ads during the NBC broadcasts of the event.

Lyft: We’re not seeking a buyer

“Lyft is not seeking a buyer,” Zimmer told Business Insider.

“Getting approached and then having it characterized as us wanting to sell the business and failing to do so is a large mischaracterization,” he said. “If the company is approached, it doesn’t mean the company is looking.”

Lyft President John Zimmer said he was approached to sell the company and the media said they had been unsuccessful in finding a buyer. If true, that’s a pretty big mistake from the media organizations.

Failure

Ben Brooks on failing:

This advice has been taken too far and confused the word ‘mistake’ with ‘failure’. A mistake is touching the hot stove and burning your hand. A failure is setting yourself on fire and dying when you touched the stove. One of those two you learn from, the other kills you.

I thought this was a really good article. I enjoyed it.

Apple’s retail store changes

Apple held all-hands meetings with retail employees this weekend to introduce major new changes, including new and renamed positions, a new credo, and new store layouts, according to multiple retail sources.

I’m glad to see Apple retail continuing to change as the company changes. For most people the stores are the first contact with Apple and they should reflect what the company is doing.

Apple announces Apple Music Festival in London

Apple Music Festival 10 returns to London in September for 10 exhilarating nights of live music. Residents of the UK can win tickets to the gigs. Apple Music members around the world can watch the performances for free. Ticket applications will be opening soon. Follow @AppleMusic on Twitter and Snapchat for up-to-the-minute information and join the #AMF10 conversation.

These festivals are truly special. I’ve attended a number of them in London over the years and loved each one. The Roundhouse is a classic music venue and shows off the best for Apple and the bands performing.

Zakk Wylde on Ozzy, Dio, and Axl

Zakk is the reason I picked up the guitar again after a few years away from playing. He is an incredible guitarist—acoustic and electric— and having met him a number of times, he is a great person. I learned how to play almost every song he released, just so I could see how he did chord progressions and timing.

Apple and Google are teaming up to kill robocalls forever

When I lived in the States, I was appalled at the ridiculously huge number of robocalls I got on a regular basis. It’s getting just as bad here in Canada. I hope these companies can band together to find an effective solution to this problem.

Lyft is said to seek a buyer, without success

While Tim Cook has said the company is looking to make major acquisitions, on the face of it, buying Lyft doesn’t seem to make sense, given their investment in Didi Chuxing. More than likely, any talent or technology they would get from a Lyft purchase is already available to them through Didi.

Evan Dunfee loses bronze on Japanese appeal in 50km race walk

When I watched the race live, I was yelling at my TV, “He pushed him out of the way!” When I heard later Dunfee had been awarded the bronze, I cheered. Now that Dunfee has had his belatedly given Bronze taken away, I’m amazed. I honestly don’t think I would have reacted as magnanimously or with as much class as Dunfee has over this.

Microsoft broke millions of webcams with Windows 10 Anniversary Update

On August 2nd, Microsoft released the Anniversary Update for Windows 10 and when the bits arrived on computers around the globe, it brought with it new features and also broke webcams for millions of consumers. If your webcam has stopped functioning since the release of the Anniversary update, you are not alone but the good news is a fix is coming, hopefully in September.

September? WTF?!

How The Associated Press uses robotic cameras to shoot the Olympics

“The need to place cameras on hanging truss over the field of play in venues with no catwalks or roof access led us to working with several companies to find a way hang a camera and then be able to pan, tilt, focus and transmit images in real-time,” said David Phillip, a photographer for The Associated Press who set up the AP’s robotic and remote cameras for the 2016 Olympics. “The process is on-going as we continue to work on improving the performance and design.”

There has been some outstanding images and video from the Olympics.

Pandora readies for on-demand streaming

Pandora has the best music algorithm in the business—the choice of the next song is almost always spot on. The app is easy to use and the service always works. I’m a paying subscriber of Pandora and I can wait for the on-demand service to hit. I’ll definitely be subscribing to that.

Apple, Google, others work on “robocall” crackdown

More than 30 major technology companies are joining the U.S. government to crack down on automated, prerecorded telephone calls that regulators have labeled a “scourge.”

Yes, please. I don’t know much about the technology with robocalls or how advanced it is. I’m just wondering if this is going to be a whack-a-mole situation.