Only the original can be original
It has been very entertaining to follow the news around the infamous Samwer brothers – the German trio that set the standard for copying successful businesses. Like them or not, they were able to outrun a giant like Groupon and even snatch some cake from Amazon.
Test on mobile devices during development
I’m currently working on making Nestoria more friendly to users on mobile devices and one of the biggest challenges was easily testing on real mobile devices. This is important, because there is no such thing as mobile WebKit. Apple provides a pretty decent simulator for the iPhone and there are AVDs for nearly every Android device on the market, but there is only so much testing you can do on an emulator. On a real device, things tend to be ever so subtly different and more importantly, you get to see things on a real device in the real scale and in a real context, which happens to matter a lot.
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The Magical 7 inch
Amazon finally released its long awaited Android-based tablet today: The Kindle Fire. It’s a true tablet, with a gorgeous IPS colour touch screen and enough power to run apps and play movies. This in itself is interesting enough, but what I find truly interesting is the form factor Amazon chose for its newest baby: 7 inch.
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The Importance and Problems of Autoupdate
Silently autoupdating software is amazingly powerful, but also incredibly difficult to pull off without either stifling innovation or estranging users.
I was reading this post by Paul Irish on browser market pollution, or how IEx will be the new IE6. What shocked me was how different the life cycle (or “half-life”) of each browser is.
The deep reach of Google
Google has ceased to be a search company years ago. It is now an advertising agency, a “bank” a app hosting, email and intranet provider, with their own office suite. The list goes on, but what it all boils down to is this: Google is a web company. Continue reading
Seedbomb your neighborhood
I always kind of liked the idea of guerilla gardening; reclaiming the dull gray spaces that surround us. While I presently don’t really live in a place that is devoid of green and nature, I certainly appreciate playful ways of introducing life in otherwise dead places. These seedbombs take that to a new level:
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Tablets for Toddlers
It’s hard to deny tablets are fun and ever since the original iPad was so successfully released and a whole market evolved around tablet computers, it is pretty safe to say they are here to stay. With that in mind, it is interesting to see new ways tablets can be used. One of the most notable roles for this new class of personal computer is as a toy for toddlers. It is amazing how well an iPad, inviting to be picked up and touched, fits into the world of a child, even one that is just two and a half years old:
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Simplicity, or why Japan kicks Dutch rail’s ass
One of the most awesome things I experienced during my study tour through Japan in 2008 was taking the train. Although the shiny Shinkansen “bullet trains” are certainly not cheap, they easily compete with domestic flights in terms of price, speed, comfort and reliability (97% of trains are within 5 minutes of schedule). Being Dutch, I of course like to complain about the reliability of our own national railways. Me and my friends joked a lot about how Dutch trains would surely be more punctual if train drivers felt obligated to commit Seppuku if they were late. As it turns out, Japan’s impeccable record for railway performance can not be dismissed as the result of some uniquely Japanese cultural values. In a report from a task-force of ProRail (the Dutch railway infrastructure organisation), they find that the efficiency of the Japanese railways can be explained much more easily by a different Japanese value: simplicity.
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Waarom ik niet nominaal gestudeerd heb
Ik begon dit stuk als een inzending voor de verhalen pagina van de actie “minimaal nominaal”, maar aangezien ik deze ervaringen nooit eerder op papier heb gezet, besloot ik het ook hier te posten.
Toen ik mijn studie begon, dacht ik: ik ben hier vijf jaar en dan zoek ik zo snel mogelijk een echte baan. Wat een slecht idee was dat. Continue reading