This just makes a ton of sense for home WiFi

What if the places in your home that have "dead spots" could be injected with WiFi for $39 and a single plug in an outlet. Yes, please. [Currently in Pre-Order]. Link.

Apple builds game to learn code.

I'm looking forward to "playing" with this and learning Swift. Link. 

A dollar amount in your profile?

As I read this article in TechCrunch about Snapchat, I wondered how interesting it'd be to see the amount of money a service has made selling your attention on a monthly basis in a similar way that we can see how many megabytes of data we've used on our mobile phones monthly (per application and really easily on Android especially).

So, with 150M active monthly users and a target of $300M in revenue for 2016, Snapchat is aiming to sell each user account ad placements of an average of 17 cents a month. That seems really reasonable. I'd pay 17 cents to use it monthly. It's like $2 a year. Sure. But, how much higher can it go? Link. 

Uber and Lyft exit Austin. Residents use Facebook to keep ride-sharing going.

It's a closed group called Arcade City Austin. 35k people are current members. There are no fixed prices for rides. However, drivers are making roughly what they did before. Fascinating. Link. 

Line More, Be Closer

Twenty Million a month. That's what LINE makes on digital stickers. Link. The stickers account for 9% of messages on the platform with 218 Million active users. They are purchased by from just 4% of the user base. Link.

ComScore Says People Prefer Ads in Podcasts Over Any Other Digital Medium

"Many said they felt more "connected, intelligent and energized" after listening." What a fantastic place to put your ad. Add that to the list of reasons Podcasts are growing. Link. 

Rent Artificial Intelligence

Google will give you 10k predictions per day and charge you $.50 for every 1000 thereafter. Seems reasonable! Now, what are you going to make? Link. 

The Most Anticipated Deck of The Year?

Many of you have already clicked & swiped through this a few times and need no introduction. However, not all of you. Mary Meeker presented her Internet Trends Report this week. Read it. All 213 pages. Wait a few days. Read it again. At anytime, hit reply and call out which slides impact your thinking the most and why. Link.

Ad Blockers Are Crazy Popular In Some Countries

Whoa. Check out that chart. This makes some sense in that blockers reduce load times and data use. It also occurs to me that as this happens simultaneously with growing Facebook use (where there are no blockers) $FB becomes more valuable. Link.

Corporate Carpooling Double Take

I recently became aware that Waze is running tests in support of Google employees finding each other inapp and coordinating their daily commutes as carpools. Check these guys out. A whole startup focused on just that. Scoop. Link.

It seems the Echo would have sold way more than the best research suggests.

3 Million is the most public estimate of number of Alexa access units sold to-date. Link. Seems really small. You're going to have "voice activated assistants" in your home and then want them in your office sooner than later. If it's not an Amazon device it'll be a Google (Google Home is built on Chromecast not Android?) or an Apple device. 

BTW, the Echo Dot (plug it into other speakers) is on backorder. Should ship again in June. Get one and learn. The Amazon Tap (a smaller, portable Echo) requires you to tap a button to talk to Alexa. No thanks. 

Interested in trying out Echo's Voice assistant for $5? Try Lexi on iOS. Link. Interested in developing with an Alexa in a browser? Link.

Forget IOT for the home. Let's use it in Hospitals first.

With some tuning and well crafted APIs to integrate systems, the Hospital will go voice controlled. Wahoo. Anywhere both of your hands are stuck doing something that needs to get logged thereafter shows an opportunity for voice initiated systems. Think Mechanics, Manufacturing, etc. Link.

What Other Things Could You Use This For?

It's only mildly interesting to me that this is embedded in a watch form factor. But, what if it were on your desk, dashboard, countertop? Link. 

Phone "Applications" That Don't Require The Download.

This is a major advancement to my mind. Google is preparing to provide Mobile Application experiences from browsers on the fly, no App Store or Play Store needed. This removes a ton of friction in buying and engagement. I'm excited to use and likely design for these "later this year." Link.

Ridesharing Inside Your Map

Waze, a 2013 Google acquisition, is supporting basic ride sharing tools for Google employees commuting to and from work. It's an Uber like tool right inside an existing community based transit tool. Competition can come from anywhere. I'm curious where this one goes. Link.

85% of Adults In The US

What? Only 15% of Adults in The US HAVE used a ride sharing service. 89% of Adults are unfamiliar with the term “gig economy.” It's early times. Eh? Link.

How Private Tech Really Stacks Up

I found this a crisp re-framing of the size of private technology companies. The "Unicorns" (i.e. those with multibillion-dollar valuations) in tech are actually quite small relative to other private companies by revenue. With so much emphasis on the tech firms in media and elsewhere, there is a stark contrast to the quiet behemoth on the shores of Lake Minnetonka. Link.

Origami meat robot can rescue rubbish from your stomach.

MIT is at it again - as we'd expect. This time it's a robot intended to be swallowed. Yum. It's currently controlled using an external magnetic field and intended to be used in the removal of ingested button batteries. Cool. Link.

Apple Shortens App Review Times in Push to Boost Service Sales

Cycle time on Apple's App Store application review process is getting shorter. Wahoo. It's frustrating to wait ~9 days every time you submit. Link.

The Startup Zeitgeist

Take all the applications to Y Combinator and shake them in a data box. Upon reassembling the like pieces, trends emerge. I found this post worth reading. Messaging is going to replace email in the minds of those looking to build services for communications. Link.