The Right Thing, The Right, The Thing Fast
elproducto #9
Welcome to the latest edition of elproducto 👉 a weekly round-up of Tech and Product goodness.
📚 Good reads
State of Dev by Yvo Schaap. Fascinating collection of data visualizations on the current state of Developement topics. Explanation and background info here.
Figuring out Hotel Laundry’s Job To Be Done. How hotel chain Dorchester Collection used data and research to excel on what their customers cared more about.
UX best practices for Search Results by Nick Babich. Nick walks us through a series of ideas to enhance Search experience by focusing on natural behaviour and smooth interactions.
Humanizing the algorithm. Pamela Pavliscak reflects on how our algorithmic alter-egos (the power behind your Facebook feed) evolve and how we can game them to humanize our experience with the platform they empower.
The economics of design by Nathan Kinch. Can you quantify the commercial outcomes of your design decisions? Nathan gives us some tips on how to put a $ on the impact of design.
📰 Seen on the news
Back to the moon (at least around it). SpaceX to fly two private citizens around the moon late next year; Dragon spacecraft will by launched by the Falcon Heavy rocket, which is slated for its first test flight this summer.
A peek into the future of VR work collaboration. Collaborative VR company Bigscreen announces $3M seed led by Andreessen Horowitz; app places 2D computer desktops (and detachable windows) in a 3D space, enabling shared work and entertainment in VR; available for Vive and Rift.
Apple looking at enterprise opportunities for iOS after partnership with SAP. Plans to launch a tool for creating enterprise apps for iOS; will enable simple integration of data from SAP systems; applications include signing into desktop business apps with the iPhone’s fingerprint scanner and replacing inventory scanners with iPhones.
YouTube announces YouTube TV in US: a $35-per-month subscription service providing live, recordable programming from broadcast and cable networks; family plan supports up to six accounts and offers roughly 40 channels, including NBC Sports, ESPN and USA. Announcement comes after reaching 1 billion hours per day of video consumption milestone.
Sony announces $1.6k Xperia Touch projector which turns surfaces into a touch display; the device makes use of a camera and infrared sensors to interpret gestures; offers a range of functions, including playing a digital piano, a web browser and more; available in Europe this spring.
Spotify hit 50 million paid subscribers. Reported it grew 25% in less than six months, extending its lead over its closest rival Apple Music, which had about 20 million subscribers in December. Stockholm-based Spotify remains unprofitable, but its rapid growth provides some hope for the music industry.
Nintendo launches its hybrid Switch console. The highly anticipated mobile gaming platform — the company’s biggest bet in years — is expected to be in short supply. But it may be better to wait before buying one: Early reviewers have found some bugs, and there are relatively few titles available.
Snap popped on its first day of trading, with shares up 44%. The company’s 200 million shares changed hands furiously, accounting for 10% of trading by volume on the New York Stock Exchange. The shares closed at about $24, suggesting a $33 billion valuation and a $1.5 billion payday for CEO Evan Spiegel.
More on Snap, as they may launch a 360-degree camera; the firm met with an unnamed third-party to discuss possible hardware options; follows a report the firm is developing a camera drone.
Medium introduces Series for iOS and Android; presents stories in a card-based UI, and allows writers to create ongoing stories, with support for individual photo posts.
Facebook launches an app for Apple TV; Facebook Video auto-plays in fullscreen mode, and includes clips by friends along with top live videos, recommended videos and more.
Facebook also looks into travel sector opportunities by rolling out city guides to select users; the feature suggests nearby attractions, and displays friends attending events; it also shows friends who have previously visited the area.
Messenger now allows developers to replace the keyboard with persistent menus, aiming to ease bot interactions. And a dislike button is finally here. The emoji is part of Facebook’s Messenger reactions.
Google updates Allo for Android with GIF search, random emotion-based GIF selection, animated emojis, and a shortcut to Google Assistant; Assistant can bring weather reports, movie showtimes and more into the chat; update coming soon to iOS.
Google Home getting international. Google Home is set to launch in the UK before the end of June, according to the BBC; an exact date and price remain unclear.
Wearable shipments reached 33.9M in Q4, according to IDC; up 16.9 percent year over year; Fitbit led with 6.5M units and 19.2 percent market share (down from 29 percent in Q4 2015); Xiaomi followed, with 5.2M shipments; Apple rounded out the top three with 4.6M units and 13.6 percent market share.
Amazon says this week’s significant AWS outage was the result of human error; the Simple Storage Service (S3) team was troubleshooting a billing system problem; an incorrect command disabled a larger set of servers than planned; Amazon has modified the relevant tool to limit the amount of capacity that can be removed at one time.
Amazon plans Alexa-powered products that make phone calls and function as intercoms; Amazon is reportedly beta testing internally and an announcement is expected in coming months; also working on an Alexa device with camera.
China’s on-demand taxi wars. Ride-hailing service Ucar is raising $1B; the Didi Chuxing rival (who acquired Uber China) has so far raised $670M. While Didi relies on private cars and crowd-sourced drivers, UCAR offers its services via an in-house fleet and licensed drivers.
Doctors on-demand. Dispatch (iOS, Android) lets users request a healthcare visit to their home or workplace; the service is covered by numerous insurers, and covers a range of common maladies.
Welcome to the 21st century, Gmail. Gmail doubles the capacity for received attachments to 50MB; outgoing messages are still limited to 25MB, although larger files can be sent via Google Drive.
🎧 Something to listen
Business Podcasts. Neville Medhora (the man behind KopywritingKourseand a newsletter full of business resources and growth hacks) has made a selection of the Best Business Podcasts in 2017 so far. I endorse the list as I personally listen most of the ones he lists, and if only, I’m missing Freakonomics Radio.
👨🏫 Quote of the week
“Every great startup starts as a side project that isn’t anybody’s main priority. AirBed & Breakfast was a way to pay our rent. It was a way to pay rent and buy us time and help us get to the big idea.” — Brian Chesky (Airbnb co-founder), seen at The Upstarts.
👨🔬 Things I’m experimenting with
A couple of quick notes for an upcoming blog post following Make Products Great Again thoughts on “Build the Right Thing, Build the Thing Right, Build it Fast”:
Disclaimer: this piece of art wasn't commissioned to a 5-year old.
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And more important, free to reply for any feedback. It will be greatly appreciated.
Angel
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elprodcuto 2017 - angl.me