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. …
Continue reading "Uber versus Google: Far from self-driving competition"
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 …
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 …
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 …
Continue reading "Something is wrong with Apple's International app pricing"
The integrity of sales rankings matters. It’s pretty well documented that bestseller rankings have direct effects on sales. In a world awash in titles, it’s hard to figure out what to read, so rationally lazy people rely on bestseller lists to learn what to read. Until recently, the Amazon top 100 was a meaningful ranking …
Continue reading "Is Kindle Unlimited Distorting Amazon Sales Ranks?"
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 …
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 …
It is time again for the best technology events of the year. We have quite a lineup this year, including Sony, Aereo, net neutrality, Home Depot, and a few surprise guest stars. As with prior years, the winner had to do something in the calendar year. The action had to involve information and communications technology. It had to …
In a very interesting talk, music producer, Steve Albini, reviewed the impact of the internet on the music industry’s woes. I can’t do it justice in any summary but he basically said that, for bands, things were not very good prior to the internet. The reason for this is that recording was expensive, distribution was …
Continue reading "Digitised Products: How about just giving up?"
Like many this past week I have found myself extremely impressed by Vi Hart and Nicky Case’s “Parable of the Polygons.” It is basically an interactive simulation that introduces students to an old game from Thomas Schelling that demonstrates how small biases individually can aggregate up into much larger biases overall. If you have not …
Digitopoly 