Geek Dad is a large parenting/geek blog. They recently opened up to a few more contributors. Given my interests, this seemed like a potentially good fit for me. My first post is on digital free-range parenting and may interest some readers.
Some random thoughts on the Apple Car
It has been a week and the Apple Car rumour hasn’t been denied by Apple. (Here’s the background in case you have been living under a rock). So what are we to make of all this? Much of what has been talked about is complete speculation. That it will be electric, autonomous, a mini-van (!) …
Demand Discovery by Cheap Talk
We have seen Kickstarter and other crowdfunding platforms emerge as a means of demand discovery. In those platforms, consumers commit to purchasing a new product and so incur some real costs. However, Mark Rober has embarked on a different route for his better microwave idea. First, take a look at that idea. It is a …
Searching for the Unreal America
There is often lots of talk in American politics about the ‘real America.’ Suffice it to say, implicit in that is that everyone wants to be real and so even an assertion to the contrary is an insult. Truth be told, however, what many regional and local governments are interested in is whether their location …
Uber versus Google: Far from self-driving competition
So what happens when on the same day, Uber announces that it is investing heavily in self-driving cars and Google is rumoured to be developing a ride sharing app? Media chaos focussing on a forthcoming robot war between Google and Uber over travellers. The media decided Uber was going to replace its drivers with robots. …
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Why BlackBerry's app neutrality is crazy
Last night, BlackBerry CEO John Chen penned a blog post on net neutrality. He was in favor of net neutrality but in the last half of his post introduced a whole new notion of neutrality: “Application Neutrality” or app neutrality for short. Suffice it to say, the Internet decided this was crazy. And, I’m going …
To provide eyes or not to provide eyes
Be My Eyes is a clever app created by Hans Jørgen Wiberg, a Danish craftsperson who is also visually impaired. I could explain it but you should really watch this video. https://player.vimeo.com/video/113872517 The design is quite clever. When asking people to contribute something voluntarily, it is always best to make people feel good about giving …
Something is wrong with Apple's International app pricing
Apple's App Store is a global platform for software developers to distribute apps to iPhones, iPads and Macs. As an institution it is phenomenal, reducing transaction costs and opening up many markets that were previously impenetrable to developers. This week Apple reported that the App Store made $15 billion for developers. But this week a problem …
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The morality of price spikes
New Years Eve has come and gone and with it the annual discussion regarding whether Uber's 'surge pricing' is justifiable (for example, here is Slate and here is an excellent set of points from Tim B. Lee at Vox. For the uninitiated, 'surge pricing' occurs when Uber's algorithms automatically raise the price of rides to …
Top Posts of 2014
As is traditional, here are Digitopoly's top posts of 2014: 10 Reasons to doubt Tim’s Vermeer The easy target that is the Theory of Disruptive Innovation Tirole and Pasteur The Giant’s Shoulders: Suzanne Scotchmer The ownership of the machines No business built on teenager demand is sustainable Amazon: it’s not the power, it’s the lost …
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