Trump’s New Executive Order Aims to Re-examine H-1B Program
President Trump signed his “Buy American, Hire American” executive order on Tuesday, which will put the H-1B visa system under review. The order is designed to ensure that tech jobs that could be going to Americans are not being taken by cheaper foreign labor and to tighten restrictions on foreign contractors bidding on government projects, […]
New Universal Music Group Deal Moves Spotify Closer to IPO
All the hype about the resurgence of vinyl and cassettes aside, the majority of revenues in the music industry now come from streaming. Since the early days of Napster, iOS app developers have heard the American music industry discussed as if it were on death’s doorstep, but streaming revenues have given it something of a […]
Lyft Leans Into “Woke” Image In an Attempt to Unseat Uber
As Uber struggles to shake the bad press that has come to define its year so far, its primary competitor Lyft is seizing its moment and trying to move out of a distant second place in the rideshare market. Ever since the #DeleteUber commotion in January, Lyft’s strategy seems to be to present itself as […]
Self-Driving Car Crash Adds to the Pile-Up of Bad Uber News
Uber has spent the early months of 2017 in crisis, and from the look of things, that’s not changing anytime soon. App developers who once found inspiration in the unicorn’s impressive ascent now look on with a blend of horror and fascination as the controversies multiply. From the #DeleteUber controversy to the shocking revelations about […]
Amazon Aims to Conquer New Markets with Physical Stores
Last week, one of Amazon Prime Air’s drones dropped off a small box of sunscreen at an exclusive robotics conference in Palm Springs. The package was small, but the shipment itself was huge: it was the company’s first public drone delivery on U.S. soil. We are now well on our way to a future where […]
Why Aren’t Developers Chasing the iMessage App Boom?
Messaging apps — which is to say, apps that existing within messaging platforms like iMessage, Line, Messenger, and etc. — have been a huge growth area in the mobile tech industry. Sticker sets alone drove over $250 million in revenue for Line, and Western chat apps have seen similar success stories adding-on services to their […]
Is Airbnb Going Public After Its Massive Funding Round?
In the wake of Snapchat’s IPO earlier this month, the big question for mobile app developers is what unicorn will go public next. Airbnb always seems to come up in these conversations, and after a SEC filing last week revealed that the company raised $1 billion in a funding round that began last summer, many […]
Looking Back on Looking Forward: Ray and Amy Kurzweil at SXSW
In the business of predicting future trends, there are few who can touch Ray Kurzweil. Among all the panels on offer at this year’s SXSW Interactive, we at Dogtown Media knew this was one we couldn’t afford to miss. Beyond his groundbreaking work as the primary inventor of technologies as disparate as the charge-coupled device […]
Twitter Moves to Tackle Trolls with Marked Accounts
Twitter and trolls are a love story that goes back as far as Twitter itself. Even for diehard users, dealing with abuse and offensive content on the platform has been a turnoff, and it’s something that Twitter has struggled to fix even as competitors like Facebook and Instagram take hardline approaches that seem to please […]
Must-See Products and Events at SXSW Interactive 2017
SXSW is upon us again, and app developers from San Diego to London have flown in to Austin for the year’s best tech networking event. For techies, 2017’s lineup is an absolute feast for the senses. Here are some of our favorite events and products on offer: Mark Cuban Tackles Government Regulation vs Tech Business […]