Amazon just announced a new product called the Dash button. Basically, it is a button with a label like Tide or Cottonelle, connected to the internet and available only to Amazon Prime members (you know, the subscription that gives you free shipping). When you need to buy the thing associated with the button, you press …
How important is broadband competition? For some, really important
For many readers of this blog, this story in the Consumerist is a harrowing account. Only months after moving into his new home in Washington state, Consumerist reader Seth is already looking to sell his house. He didn’t lose his job or discover that the property is haunted. No, Seth can’t stay much longer because …
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What Meerkat v Periscope battle means for live mobile streaming
If you have been on Twitter this past month, you have heard of Meerkat. This is an app that allows you to stream video from your mobile phone. It’s barely a month old and already it seems there’s a “Meerkat killer.” Apparently everyone has suddenly realized there might be value in live mobile streaming. More …
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Hosting Content on Facebook is about Ad Tracking
News came through recently that Facebook will host news sites’ content. Apparently, Buzzfeed and the New York Times are first off the block for this. While we don’t know precisely what it will mean, there is much consternation about news sites losing their distinctive brand and eventually being beholdent to Facebook. John Gruber even invoked …
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What happens with Disney's Magic Band System goes down?
https://static.medium.com/embed.jsAn insight into the future: What happens when Disney’s Magic Band system goes down?
A quick remark on the Apple Watch Edition (the $10k one)
https://static.medium.com/embed.jsA quick remark on the Apple Watch Edition (the $10K+ one) A lot has been said about the Apple Watch Edition which costs more than $10,000. I initially thought it wouldn’t be priced like that as it would be out of character for Apple whose identity was more mass market — with technology being widely available. To …
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Can competition fix net non-neutrality?
Short answer: it isn’t obvious that it can. Let me back up a second and explain why I am revisiting this issue again. Tim Harford published an article a few days ago that took his masterful econsplaining skills to the issue of net neutrality. But in providing his characteristically clear exposition, he crystallised where many …
The Organisational Choice of PowerPoint versus Excel
It turns out that it can tell you a lot. This is what I took away from a very interesting talk given by Princeton sociologist, Janet Vertesi, on “the social life of robots.” As it turns out, it is not about the robots but about the people that control them — as opposed to the opposite that …
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Why the iPhone confounds disruption theorists
Nokia, Motorola, Sony-Ericsson and BlackBerry were all victims of disruption. During the 1990s and 2000s, they led the cell phone during its period of take-off into ubiquity. Then in the last five years, they have lost their leadership and are on the verge of irrelevance. The common culprit was the 2007 launch of Apple’s iPhone. …
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Net neutrality should apply to mobile networks
As Internet service providers – both wired and wireless – continue to lose ground in the net neutrality debate, they have retreated to engineering requirements rather than economic arguments. Where previously it was all about incentives to invest in infrastructure – arguments that don’t hold up by the way – or the sufficiency of competition – for which …
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Digitopoly 