What “Anti-Smartphone” Products Have To Teach Developers
App fatigue is an epidemic, and smartphone users feel more overwhelmed by technology than every before. The proof is in the market — and KickStarter has demonstrated widespread public interest in a series of unique “anti-smartphone” products that strip down the phone until it’s basically a flip phone in a smartphone shape. Case in point: the […]
Facebook Eyes LinkedIn with New Recruitment Features
Facebook’s app development team has been in the news lately for their “memorial page” banner error, but there’s something much more meaningful that tech pundits should be focussed on: new features that promote job-hunting on the platform. As LinkedIn adjusts to life under Microsoft, Facebook is seizing the moment to start an unexpected race with […]
Mobile App Industry Reacts to Trump Presidency
Reactions from the tech sector have been particularly charged since the final votes were tallied in this year’s presidential election. While Trump’s campaign platform made promises that worried most tech leaders, others hoped that laxer regulations under a Republican administration could hold equally large opportunities for iOS app developers, particularly those in the financial sector […]
Dogtown Media and Congressman Ed Royce Present 2016 App Challenge Winners
Dogtown Media’s commitment to tech education continues, as CEO Marc Fischer spoke on a panel alongside California Congressman Ed Royce at the awards ceremony for this year’s Congressional App Challenge. The presentation featured incredible app designs from some of the brightest elementary, middle- and high-school students in the 39th district of California. This isn’t the […]
How a French Startup Is Re-making Privacy-first Ai Tech
When techies think of artificial intelligence, they usually think of big venture capital projects in the US and app developers in London. But there’s another player on the AI field, and it’s actually bigger than you might think. There are about 180 AI startups in France, mostly in Paris, and a thriving scene that’s unfortunately […]
Mobile Forecast: Upcoming Sharing Economy App Opportunities
Twenty years have passed since eBay democratized auctions and seven since the first Uber rolled onto the highway, but the “sharing economy” is showing no signs of stalling. If anything, the trend seems to be gathering steam, with local app developers launching more disruptive sharing economy apps every week. Startup founders looking for bright app […]
Facebook Messenger Launches In-App Games to Take on Apple
It sometimes seems like Facebook gets a cut of virtually every market these days, from media to communication. One market they’ve had trouble breaking into, however, is the mobile gaming industry — particularly ironic, for anybody that’s tired of getting Farmville requests from vague acquaintances. With the launch of “Instant Games” within the Messenger app, the […]
What Happens to Workers in an AI Economy?
If you were in Pittsburgh in the past couple months, you might have spotted one of Uber’s self-driving cars — or even had one stop to give you a ride. The opt-in program, conducted under the careful watch of trained real-person driving assistants, was for many NYC app developers a glimpse of the future. Futurologists […]
App Developer Challenges: Writing Helpful Bot Dialogue
The chatbot trend has been burning for a while now, and one of the biggest challenges facing app developers who jump into the fray isn’t entirely a question or programming. Instead, it’s a question of writing. Dialogue isn’t simple, and the trope of the anti-social hoodie-and-flip-flops San Francisco app developer doesn’t exactly lend itself to […]
Instagram Introduces In-App Shopping for Brands
If Twitter is the poster child of angry users and poor monetization attempts, Instagram is the opposite — a massive mobile app startup that’s somehow perfectly balanced monetization and user experience. That balance in on display currently as the company just launched “shoppable tags,” which allow select brands to display purchase information embedded within tags […]