Much has been written about Bitcoin in the last few days: the demise of Mt.Gox triggered a wave of doubts about the cryptocurrency and the current ways of exchange. However, there are several initiatives trying to improve this situation and today we are interviewing Ximo Guanter, Co-Founder of Coinffeine, a peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange platform.
You’re probably tired of reading about Flappy Bird, right? Nobody blames you. The game became the #1 free app on the iOS App Store with 50 million downloads. Dong Nguyen, the developer, reportedly earned $50,000 per day through banner ads. In fact, it was so popular that the developer got apparently overwhelmed and removed it from the App Store.
The situation is specially interesting given that there isn’t any big game corporation behind; it’s just an indie developer that created a simple and addictive game. These are the 3 key lessons we can learn from it.
Continue reading “3 lessons to learn from Flappy Bird’s success”
Tell me, do you find interesting a watch that monitors your blood glucose levels or your heartbeats? I don’t. Sure, I’d be interested in knowing how it works but, would I buy one just because of that? No.
Since all the rumors of the iWatch started, I got really excited about the possibilities. I imagined a light wristband that I could use to talk to Siri and check my phone notifications without taking it out of my pocket. Now all I hear about is sleep patterns, glucose levels and heartbeats. Not my cup of tea.
Don’t get me wrong, I like activity trackers, I own a Fitbit One after all. But its gamification factor is what actually caught my attention. If it was all about accounting for my daily steps, I would have already stopped using it, but competing with my friends makes the whole experience a new one each day. I completely agree with Alvaro that smart sensors are the future: little gadgets making our lives easier, more productive or even more fun, is the next big thing.
Today, Satya Nadella was named the 3rd CEO of Microsoft’s history. He was welcomed by former CEOs Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. This great picture captures the important moment:
Image via Microsoft
Facebook announced yesterday a new standalone app: Paper. I’ll admit that I was skeptical at first: another reading app? what can Paper provide that Flipboard or Pulse don’t already? But then I looked at all the possibilities that Paper actually has and, well, now I think that Facebook could be on the verge of cannibalizing its main app.
Continue reading “Will Paper kill the original Facebook app?”
After watching Her last night (the Golden Globe winner for the Best Screenplay category) I was captivated by its amazing performances and its delightfully depicted technology. What motivated me the most to watch the movie was this article from Wired: why Her will dominate UI design even more than Minority Report.
In the movie, technology is almost completely transparent for the user: most of the interactions between Theodore, the main character, and his “smartphone” happen through the earpiece and the virtual assistant, and he only touches the little screen when he wants to watch a picture. This is what his gadgets look like:
Visual user interfaces are almost nowhere to be seen, and that’s the message: human interactions are the future of personal computing.
Continue reading “Why we will never fall in love with our smartphone’s virtual assistant”
Last week I bought a new TV for my parents. It turns out, salesmen give you weird looks when you tell them that a Smart TV is not as powerful as a simple laptop connected through HDMI.
Nonetheless, the TV I got has integrated Wi-Fi and yes, is a Smart TV. All in all, I kept telling my mom (the techie of the family) that by having the Surface next to the TV, they wouldn’t use the “smart” part.
I’ve had the pleasure of using a new Kindle Fire HD for a week, and I have no doubt: it’s an awesome deal for just $139. There are a lot of reviews of the 7″ tablet, so I’ll simply focus on my thoughts on the product and Amazon itself.
This is a follow-up post to a comparison between the Lumia 920 and the iPhone 5s and you can also find a similar list of opinions about the iPhone 5s and the iOS ecosystem here.
Windows Phone 8 is a great product, there is no doubt; unfortunately, there are several issues that might drive people like me to try other mobile environments. The following list is a compilation of personal opinions about what things I’d change from the Windows Phone 8 ecosystem.
Some of my beloved friends at Microsoft mentioned that the comparison of the Nokia Lumia 920 and the iPhone 5s wasn’t fair because I compared a 2012 device with a 2013 device.
Well, I disagree. The 920 happens to win and loose in exactly the same categories that the Lumia 1020, which is a 2013 device: it’s still bulkier and heavier than the 5s and it still has a much better camera than the 5s.
However, I’ll go a step further and expand the comparison with a list of things I’d change from the iPhone 5s and the iOS ecosystem.
Geek on record 