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What Stalin learned about incentives (and how most companies are still doing it wrong)
In the 1930’s, in the very early days of the Soviet Union under Stalin, the communist leaders knew they had a problem. The process of Stalinist Industrialisation forced the majority of the Russian population, most of whom had lived in the countryside, into newly constructed settlements based around factories and industry. People were dispossessed of…
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Device fatigue and the next connected device form factor
Photo: Wikimedia I suffer from device fatigue. Not just the kind where I cannot deal with the sheer number of connected devices, gadgets and gizmos being released every day – but the kind where I am overwhelmed with the number of devices that I actually already own. I have a Macbook Air, a Sony Vaio…
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Quick low-light comparison: Nokia Lumia 920 vs the iPad mini
While playing around with an iPad mini I tried out the camera, and was not too impressed with the result. These photos below were taken at the same time of day in a relatively dark room with no flash and no additional lighting. There was no post processing of the photos at all – this…
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The road to Robocop: how connected devices and sensors are the bionic enhancements that are evolving us
Detroit City is about to erect a gigantic statue of their three-time hero Robocop – the part man, part machine crime-enforcing cyborg. As fantastic as the story is, every day there is more and more science in the fiction. Peter Weller’s character had to die before being packed into the giant metal suit and coming…
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Windows 8.1 will evolve… and respond to consumer feedback
The Financial Times reported today: “Microsoft is preparing to reverse course over key elements of its Windows 8 operating system, marking one of the most prominent admissions of failure for a new mass-market consumer product since Coca-Cola’s New Coke fiasco nearly 30 years ago.” One of the most prominent admissions of failure since New Coke? What gratuitous hyperbole.…
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A FlashBuild – the Flash Mob for product development
Customer involvement and user feedback is at the core of building great software experiences that people want and love. It’s a bit old now, but I just stumbled on this impressive way to build an app with customer feedback at the core. Nordstrom innovation lab built an iPad app in just one week to help…
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Whose line is it anyway? (Don’t block your colleagues)
In improvisation theatre (yes, I was a theatre nerd in high school) there is a concept called blocking. Essentially, whenever you have an interaction with someone on the stage in improv, your interaction should allow the next person to pick up the thread and run with it to continue the scene. In other words, you…
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The users lose
When the giants of the tech world play the game of thrones, it’s the users who pay the blood price. About two weeks ago Twitter removed the Instagram inline preview of Instagram photos, meaning Twitter users can no longer see Instagram photos their friends have posted directly in the twitter stream: users now need to…
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The stand-in Lumia 920
Can’t wait for your Nokia Lumia 920? Although shipments have started, not everyone has been able to get their hands on one yet. But here’s an inventive solution constructed by my friend Geoff to “get a feel for the Lumia”. Almost as good as the real thing!
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Inspiration from Tennyson (and Bond)
Inspiration is oft revealed in the unlikeliest of places. Such as, for example, the latest Bond film Skyfall, where M quotes the marvellous Alfred Lord Tennyson and his amazing work, ‘Ulysses‘: Though much is taken, much abides; and though We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven; that which…