Within the past few days, two large car manufacturers have announced significant investments into companies that may, if successful, reduce actual car ownership. General Motors has invested in ridesharing startup Lyft, and Audi has put money into premium car rental service Silvercar. GM announced that it was putting $500 million into Lyft, valuing the company at $5.5 … Continue reading Looking Down the Road
My wife and I are moving into a new apartment, and so we’ve been busy doing all sorts of new apartment things: finding a painter and handyman, purchasing appliances, choosing an Internet provider, hiring a mover, and so on. At almost every step, we’ve used our iPhones – and more specifically, Facebook – to do … Continue reading Local E-Commerce
December 2015 was a record month for Ben and me, in terms of page views on Silicon Spatula. We leveraged Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, word-of-mouth, and sympathy clicks from our parents to grow our monthly hits from just a few dozen a month to something much larger. However, as I’ve written, metrics remove, to a certain … Continue reading Page Views
In 2003, my father used the CD-RW burner on his computer to make me an MP3 disc of all 217 songs in The Beatles formal canon. “That’s right,” I remember telling my friends, “200 songs, one CD.” I took a distinct pride in my amalgamated collection of the Fab Four’s recordings, scoffing at those who only … Continue reading The Fab Four, Now Streaming
There’s an article in this week’s Economist about the cult of the hard-charging, emailing-from-the-treadmill-at-4am CEO. The article also describes the investments that companies have made in on-site fitness centers and coaches: This cult of hyper-performance is nurtured by a growing army of personal trainers and yoga coaches who make their living by fine-tuning and de-stressing business … Continue reading The High End of Fitness
The other day, Spotify sent me my annual year-end recap, where it tallied up the time I spent listening to music (17,000 minutes), and the number of individual tracks I’d listened to: 1,307. Spotify tells me that I’m a big fan of the Rolling Stones (1,038 plays) and Punch Brothers (458). I compared notes with … Continue reading Metrics
It’s sad to see an app shut down, especially one as popular as Mailbox, the email app that pioneered the idea of an app waiting list “swipe to snooze” functionality. On to Outlook, I suppose. Continue reading Swipe Right to Delete
As I’ve written, Yahoo!’s future is murky, it may be acquired, and it exists in a sort of funny kind of limbo. It’s a phenomenally popular site with hundreds of millions of visitors, and yet, most of its value is locked up in its partial stake in Alibaba, and to a lesser extent, Tumblr and … Continue reading No Second Acts
Carmakers have announced the list of 2016 models that will feature dashboard displays that are compatible with iPhones. Given how much I use my iPhone for navigation, music and podcasts in the car, I feel as though CarPlay may well factor into my decision the next time I’m in the market for a new set of … Continue reading CarPlay in ’16
Starbucks is ramping up its coffee delivery service. Recode reports: The national coffee chain will start offering a delivery option through its app in select Seattle neighborhoods on Wednesday, though the service will come with a $5.99 delivery fee, plus tip. The high cost is likely too steep for most sane people ordering a single … Continue reading Chai Latte, on Demand
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