Perry

Hewitt

Tag: virtual reality

  • Friday 5 — 6.12.15

    Friday 5 — 6.12.15

    What is code?

    1. Cancel all your meetings today and read: “What is code?“
    2. Finished with item number 1? Then turn your attention to the Nieman Lab’s elegant explanation of Apple’s news initiatives announced this week at WWDC.
    3. Here’s why we should stop designing for millennials as if they were an entirely homogeneous generation, alien to the ones that preceded it. Instead, design for personas that represent attitudinal and behavioral traits, and then combine these with social, market, and emerging technology trends.
    4. Many recent changes affect how we use Twitter and are designed to entice newcomers, including abandoning the 140 character limit for direct messages and making conversations on the tweet age easier to follow. In an effort to cut down on harassment, Twitter enabled sharing of block lists.
    5. VR is here: Microsoft is releasing a real live consumer Oculus Rift headset with Xbox One controller. Gaming may be the first use case for virtual reality, but it’s certain that broader, transformative applications from health/wellness to education will soon follow.

    Weekend fun: We send about 42 texts a day, and receive what feels like a million, some of which are inevitably personal and awkward. Now there’s a way to crowdsource suggestions how to respond.

    Every Friday, find five, highly subjective pointers to compelling technologies, emerging trends, and interesting ideas that affect how we live and work digitally. Try out the Friday 5 archive, or sign up for a weekly email.

     

  • Friday 5 — 3.28.2014

    Friday 5 — 3.28.2014

    1. facebook rift This week, Facebook acquired virtual reality purveyor Oculus Rift for $2B in cash and stock. This purchase gives the social networking company, which was only two years ago struggling to get its arms around mobile, a leg up in virtual reality hardware. What will they use it for? Gaming’s an obvious first use case, but there’s a big vision opportunity. Semil Shah penned a terrific, if pun-laden piece on Facebook’s strategy and direction.
    2. In an effort to boost Google Wallet, Google enables friction-free money transfer for Gmail users. The simple user interface — as easy as adding an attachment — is sure to attract entice more people into signing up for Google Wallet.
    3. What’s content marketing, again? This piece breaks down this generic term, and explains why companies like NewsCred and Percolate are closing significant financing rounds.
    4. From the Something Useful Now department, the Starbucks app has added a couple of handy features. The app now enables shake-to-pay, which uses your mobile’s native accelerometer to pull up the scannable barcode, and a feature than enables tipping for up to two hours after your visit.
    5. Nieman Lab runs an extensive review of NY Times Now, a mobile product launching in the app stores on April 2. The launch is a step forward into current digital news best practices (mobile-first approach, briefs, curation of third party content). But will it lure more subscribers with this new app, or introduce product confusion with too many similar offerings?

    Weekend fun: Are you still immersed in March Madness this weekend? Then check out @NailbiterBot, which will tweet to you when games are close in the second half. Follow the account now, so you can quietly excuse yourself from your in-laws and tune in.

     

    Every Friday, find five, highly subjective links about compelling technologies, emerging trends, and interesting ideas that affect how we live and work digitally.