E-sports Services Are a Huge Startup Opportunity in 2017
Two new patents entered the e-sports space this past week, as the app developers behind Skillz launched their service for scaling mobile games to spectator-ready tournaments. (For the unfamiliar, “e-sports” means “competitive gaming.”) Skillz operates on a simple but whip-smart premise: making it simple for brands to turn any mobile game into a competitive event, […]
How to Build a Successful Startup From App Idea to IPO
When the founders of AirBnB pitched their idea to Paul Graham at Y Combinator, he wasn’t initially impressed. On top of being late, the applicants had an idea that sounded, in his Graham’s own words, “weird.” But at the last second, he decided he saw grit in the group, and offered to help them turn […]
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 […]
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 […]
What Would Happen If Capital Hill Ran the US Like a Startup?
Government is often slow and difficult to understand. Tech moves quickly and is relatively simple to comprehend. Most importantly, consumers tend to get the feeling that tech products put the user first, while government “products” could care less. Because of this difference, mobile app developers are often fond of the idea that the US should […]
What’s better for developer productivity: music or silence?
The question of what music is best for triggering app developer productivity — if any at all — is a debate that has raged on since, if not the dawn of time, at least the introduction of the iPhone. Every developer is likely to have their own answer, but there are a few trends that […]
Apple Backpedals on Self-Driving Car Operations
According to a report from Bloomberg, Apple is scaling back their plan to manufacture smart cars top-to-bottom similar to Tesla. Instead, the market-leading tech company and mobile app platform will focus on the software business they’re more known for, potentially building out software systems to be incorporated into vehicles from other manufacturers. The main source […]
Facebook Messenger Opens Native Payments to Bot Developers
There’s been a lot of chatter about the “bot revolution” the past few months, but the spread of bot app usage among mainstream mobile app users has been slow at best. Part of the reason behind that, at least on go-to messaging platform Messenger, is the limitation on payments. Specifically, in order to make a […]
What the Last.Fm Security Breach Says about Mobile Privacy
“We are currently investigating the leak of some Last.fm user passwords. This follows recent password leaks on other sites, as well as information posted online. As a precautionary measure, we’re asking all our users to change their passwords immediately.” This statement was released way back in 2012, but it’s just this week that the full […]
Could Mobile Tech Revolutionize Government?
We may not be seeing it in their actions, but at least on paper politicians are starting to come around to the idea of digitalizing government processes. In an age where everything is efficiently available at the push of a button, why should basic functions like taxes still be operating via pen and paper? (Or […]