'Commentary'
The Saturday Share – 10/09/16
8 OCT 2016 0
Hurricanes and corporate upheaval, it's been a heck of a week. Let's look at some of the more interesting stories to pass by our desks this week.
1. Our thoughts are with everyone on the Southern East coast as hurricane Matthew rolls in. The storm has already done extensive harm in Hati and residents across Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas have been ordered to evacuate. Stay safe if you're in the area.
2. There are a lot of ways to gauge the severity of a hurricane, Doppler radar imaging, wind speed measurements, ect. But, FEMA has one more unconventional way for telling if a storm is going to do some damage. They know that if the local Waffle Houses shut down, you're in for a dozy. Call it user research in action.
3. Google debuted their new Pixel phone this week to a mixed response. Sometimes its hard to tell exactly what consumers are looking for.
4. More bad news for Yahoo. Only a few weeks after a massive data hack that exposed more than 500 million accounts, it's been revealed that Yahoo has also been secretly working with US intelligence to scan emails for specific information. For a company already on the ropes about it's data security, this is not a good look.
5. Speaking of "not a good look,” BitTorrent has fired its top CEOs and abruptly shut down BitTorrent Now, fleeing the media streaming business. Not sure whats next for the company after walking away from such a huge investment, but it probably won't be pretty.
6. Everyone's favorite social media network, Twitter, is up for sale. But is anyone buying? Google, Disney, and other major potential buyers have quietly demurred from the sale and the pool of potential suitors that could afford the price Twitter is asking is shrinking rapidly. It's the number 1 social media property nobody wants.
7. Well, we're one step closer to having a personal holodeck in our homes. During the Oculus Connect 3 keynote, the company unveiled its new wireless, body tracking headset that allows users to get up and walk around the room with no extra hardware or set-up required.
8. What would happen if you applied design thinking to your regular everyday life? That's exactly the topic of Stanford University professor Bill Burnett's new book, How to Design Your Life.
9. LinkedIn is offering workers a new way to subtly tell recruiters they're looking for a new job without letting their boss know.
10. Apparently my desk isn't messy, it's just "creatively organized.” Good to know.