Mark Zuckerberg, David Kirkpatrick, and Guy Raz:The Facebook Effect
The old press is still having the same conversation about the new press: objectivity!
Here’s the latest by the L.A. Times, titled Are Silicon Valley tech bloggers truly objective?
This can (and has) gone on and on and on. I argue that there’s no such thing as objectivity, and that transparency is a much higher standard to aspire to.
The rise of social messaging apps on smart phones has led to a decline in text messaging activity. It’s costing mobile providers an estimated $13.9 billion in potential revenues, a figure that’s jumped 60% in the last year, according to a new study. But that $13.9 billion isn’t disappearing into thin air–it’s going straight into data plans.
Apple spoof of Microsoft leaves audience in stitches
ince the dawn of capitalism and the industrial revolution, the balance of power has overwhelmingly favored those who controlled the capital. Labor, and all talent associated with it, was beholden to those who owned the factories. The introduction of venture capital essentially reversed these roles with capital now chasing talent. It is difficult to understate what a dramatic change this was.
It's "Think Different" Not "Think Same"
John Gruber on the ridiculous assertions that Apple should be worried about Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 strategy for tablets and Amazon’s strategy for the Kindle Fire:
This is a recurring theme. Someone does something different than Apple, has some success with it, and pundits like Kingsley-Hughes start arguing that Apple needs to change course and do what the other guys are doing. Exhibit A: the Kindle Fire. It’s selling well — nowhere near as well as the iPad, mind you, but it’s not collecting dust in warehouses like most other tablets are — prompting some to argue that Apple “must” release a $250 7-inch tablet too.
See also: netbooks. Remember, Apple absolutely had to make a netbook or they would be toast.
Apple didn’t, the market for netbooks collapsed, and Apple looked like geniuses for not doing what the pundits said they needed to do just months earlier.
And Then, Suddenly, It Works
Chris Dixon:
An idea getting tried over and over tends to be a positive signal (which is one reason that competition is overrated). It’s very easy when you spend lots of time around startups to get cynical. You could tweet and blog predictions that every new startup will fail and how the ideas are derivative and you’d be right 95% of the time. The hard part – and what matters for founders and investors – is figuring out the right mix of timing and execution to finally get it right.
This is exactly right. Once you’ve been deeply embedded in the technology scene for years, the easiest thing in the world to be is cynical. But that’s a mistake. So often, great ideas don’t take off simply do to a mixture small imperfections in execution and mostly, timing.
But great ideas are still great ideas. They always find a way. If not today, then tomorrow.
