Six months. That’s the time I have enjoyed (and disliked) my first foldable smartphone. I’m going back to the slab form factor. I feel disappointed and even defeated; I truly tried to make it work, but the issues I detected one month after buying the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 eventually became a dealbreaker for me.
When I started using the new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 —my first foldable device—, I was convinced that folding phones were going to be the next big thing. I thought that over the next few years most people would end up with a foldable smartphone. Now, a bit over a month into using one myself, I’m not so sure anymore.
The electrification of the car industry is still in its baby years, and yet we should already be thinking of what will happen in a few years, when millions of electric vehicles (EVs) start getting retired.
In 2021, EV sales more than doubled to 6.6 million, representing close to 9% of the global car market and more than tripling their market share from two years earlier [1]. Assuming that the average lifespan of an EV battery pack is 10 to 15 years, we will soon start seeing the first electric cars getting retired.
Facebook is now Meta and the Facebook app is now part of the metaverse. Mark Zuckerberg introduced a rebranding of the parent company that owns properties like Instagram, WhatsApp or Oculus, and at the same time introduced the world to their vision of the future, the metaverse.
Regardless of whether or not you saw Meta’s presentation video, you might be wondering what the metaverse actually is. Is it a mix of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) devices and apps? Is it a development platform where content creators can create VR/AR experiences? Is it an actual virtual place where users can go online to meet other like-minded people?
Continue reading “Unboxing the metaverse”Another year, another iPhone with minimal changes. Virtually identical to the 2017 design except for the flat edges, the iPhone 12 that Apple recently announced doesn’t surprise. It pleases, but it doesn’t dazzle. 5G and a series of back magnets, named MagSafe, complete the highlights of a device that will sell well, but that won’t do anything to push the envelope.
Is there anything else Apple can do with the iPhone of the future? Of course: a high-frequency display, more and better cameras, eliminate “the notch”, resuscitate Touch ID… all iterative improvements. Fun for some, boring for most.
Continue reading “I cannot wait for the 2027 iPhone”
Capitol Hill, Seattle. That’s the location of the most futuristic supermarket on the planet, the Amazon Go Grocery store. Today it opened its doors to the general public for the first time, and this was my experience.
Continue reading “I experienced the future of supermarkets: Amazon Go Grocery”
In the first part of the series “Time travel through 2010s technology” we looked at how operating systems, phones, tablets, smartwatches and smartglasses changed through the last decade. The 2010s changed how we interact with technology, but more importantly, how we think about the impact it has in our lives.
So what happened in the last ten years? How did we get here?
Continue reading “Time travel through 2010s technology: Part 2”We are now close to the end of an important decade for technology, a decade that started without many of the innovations that today we consider part of the norm. Artificial intelligence at home, self-driving cars, wearable devices, supercomputers in our pockets… the 2010s not only changed the technology we use, but also how we communicate and think. Privacy has never been so critical as a selling point, and information bubbles have never been so polarizing. Today, we are at a turning point in the tech industry; it’s not clear what’s going to be the next revolutionary tech segment, or how companies are going to keep convincing customers to upgrade their various devices.
So what happened in the last ten years? How did we get here? The following areas have experienced substantial changes since 2010, making our lives considerably better in some cases, while taking a few surprising turns in some others. This is the first of a series of two posts that take a look back at a decade of tech evolution.
Continue reading “Time travel through 2010s technology: Part 1”In early October 2019, Microsoft borrowed a page from Apple’s keynote playbook and gave us a “one more thing” that nobody expected: a dual-screen Android-powered smartphone. Microsoft announced its return to the smartphone market with the Surface Duo (although they officially said “it’s not a smartphone, it’s a Surface”).
The reveal was surprising given that this is the first Android device ever produced by the software giant. It is not supposed to go on sale until late 2020, but the few minutes of footage that were shown mean a big deal for Microsoft. Here’s why.
As a product manager, it is critical to have a meaningful roadmap with a backlog of work. Being able to ideate and constantly iterate makes our products better. However, it is critical that we are able to find which of our ideas are going to be the most impactful ones. Over the past year, my team has been working on refining how we approach this and found some things work better than others. The following are some of the things we found really useful.
1. Understand the goal – the first thing you must do is to really understand what is the goal you and the business are trying to achieve. If there is any misalignment you must align before continuing. It was amazing how many times we went and implemented things where the goal was not understood, or it was misaligned. Having understood this from the beginning would have saved us a lot of time and resources. Understanding the goal will take you to different paths, for example, a goal of driving adoption will lead you to do different things than driving for revenue or usage. If you do not understand this, you will cycle and leave things to chance.
Continue reading “Product management and the art of focusing on what matters”
Geek on record 