A Steam account and an HTC Vive headset will get you free access to Google Earth in virtual reality. Try out the experience on your laptop with locations like the Hoover Dam and Hong Kong Stadium at Google Earth VR. As someone who has stayed up far too late writing marketing copy for an app release, I’ll vouch for …
Friday 5 — 11.11.2016
Gmail just got way faster (and prettier) on your iPhone with their new app release. Download for features like the critical undo send, a better swiping experience, and spell-corrected search. A great push notification is three things: timely, personal, and actionable. Apps are competing for our attention, and push notifications are a means to a touchpoint …
Friday 5 — 11.4.2016
LinkedIn is putting user data to work with a new Salary tool, now included with Premium membership. LinkedIn Salary provides filters like industry, location, and title, as well additional compensation elements like signing bonus. If you’re convinced you’re underpaid, use this newfound information symmetry to make the case. Harvard Business School profs figured out why you dropped your iPhone 6 in the toilet the week …
Friday 5 — 10.28.2016
The microcopy in a user interface — the words that go on the buttons, appear in error messages, and guide you through wizards — is too often neglected or left for the developer to fill in. Nick Babich provides guidance on effective writing for your user interface. No more shopping for snake oil: the best search …
Friday 5 — 10.21.2016
The Harvard Business Review launched a Slack bot to deliver insights from more than 200 best-practice articles, neatly chunked into do’s and don’ts (an editorial feat I don’t envy.) The bot will send you daily articles, and serves up related case and article links. What are the ethics around creating ever more addictive new digital experiences? The Atlantic explores …
Friday 5 — 10.14.2016
Amazon is taking another swing at streaming music, but this time with Alexa as its not-so-secret weapon. Will the hardware that’s insinuating itself into our home lives (and turning our tots into tyrants) make the difference? Alexa’s already done a good job making Siri seem dumb. No one ever sits you down to teach you how …
Friday 5 — 10.7.2016
Chatbots still have a long way to go, but Duolingo has identified a great application: bots for language learning. You might be embarrassed to try a new French word with a colleague, but a robot won’t judge. Not yet, anyway. A recent release of the Facebook Messenger app has enabled end-to-end encryption, which is a fancy way …
Friday 5 — 9.30.2016
Black, teal, and coral: those are your color options for Snap Inc.’s new product, Spectacles—sunglasses with a pair of cameras. Your questions about how to use them are answered here. Will this be the breakthrough wearable device? Ben Thompson concludes that our wearable future isn’t here, and it’s probably not even close. I’ve often wondered how content gets into …
Friday 5 — 9.23.2016
As we perform more of our work collaboratively online — suddenly, nothing seems as antiquated as a corporate “shared drive” — there’s a lot of value in knowing the range of features available. These 18 Google docs tips, like the ability to search images by color, can help you keep up with recent improvements. Is a …
Friday 5 — 9.16.2016
Rather than say, “I think users want this feature,” a product manager should ask, “What outcome do you predict this feature will have?” Read more insights from co-VPs of Product (!) at Reddit. There’s a lot of information elegantly packed into the mobile screenshot above: this approach provides an outcome-focused frame for feature decisions. Instagram …