Author Archives: rh

Federico Viticci raises some good points: There is a shared sentiment among independent writers and developers that “free” is inarguably bad as a business model. I have noticed a disturbing trend in the past months – many aren’t even trying [...] new services because they start out as free, and free is bad. These people are [...]

Zuckerberg negotiated the Instagram deal personally and “mostly” solo: Negotiating mostly on his own, Mr. Zuckerberg had fielded Instagram’s Mr. Systrom’s opening number, $2 billion, and whittled it down over several meetings at Mr. Zuckerberg’s $7 million five-bedroom home in Palo Alto. Later that Sunday, the two 20-somethings would agree on a sale valued at [...]

Nice new brand & site, but loses its “does what it says” caché.

Ikea is launching furniture with integrated TV entertainment systems later this year – LED TV, 2.1 surround sound, wireless subwoofer, Wi-Fi for smart TV, and DVD/Blu-ray player integrated into one unit. Interesting – looks impressive. Certainly a design nod to Dieter Rams. PS – I love that they left the outtakes in the video.

Translated and paraphrased: French designer Philippe Starck announced today that he is working with Apple on a “revolutionary” project: “Indeed, there is a big joint project which will be out in eight months”. Invoking Apple’s “religious cult of secrecy”, he declined further detail, except to describe the project as being “quite revolutionary (…) if not very”. He also revealed that he regularly met with Steve Jobs: “For seven years I came to see him once [...]

Hold down J. Brilliant.

Google+ gets a major redesign and apparently now has more than 170 million users. Where are they?! David Chartier: Google says it now has 170 million Google+ users. **Users**, not lurkers. But you still can’t tell from actually using the service. – @chartier I’m in 8,000 circles on Google+, but almost every single profile I [...]

Yesterday The Daily Mail published an article by the distinctly average-looking Samantha Brick, entitled “‘There are downsides to looking this pretty’: Why women hate me for being beautiful.” Throughout my adult life, I’ve regularly had bottles of bubbly or wine sent to my restaurant table by men I don’t know. Once, a well-dressed chap bought [...]