OurielOhayon

It's not jackson, but the rhythm is just incredible

 

iPad real education battle is not ebook creation: it is attention empowerment.

Apple is a fantastic enabler. It enabled thousands of developers to create great apps. It now will enable book publishers to create great educational books.

Anyone with children around him knows the power of attraction an iPad (or tablet?) has a on them. Porting books to iPad is the best thing that can happen to education since the creation of books.

But that is not the most critical one.

I have no idea how a kid can just *focus* on reading with an iPad in his hands. There are just too many great temptations: movies, games, social networks. 1 tap away.

This is worse than computers because they will be everywhere you want to be: at home, at school, on your way to school and even during classes.

Kids are suffering more and more of attention disorder because they love to stay "on" all the time. And the iPad is a source of distraction. Yes, i know apps are full screen, but it is easy to switch to something else.

The only way an iPad can become a good education tool is by enabling it with what i call "focus features". Locking the device out of temptation is critical. But this is not possible today

Don't expect kids to self discipline themselves. this won t happen. ever.

What is missing is an administration function that can lock the access to all or most apps. For example between 6pm and 8pm only those apps or books should be used. At school there should be the equivalent or Airplane mode: the "At school" mode that only allows school related app

Unless this happens: books on iPad will be as efficient, as..the "national geographic" TV channel to teach kids what animals are all about - HBO is only one button away. They will remain only a nice add on and won t become a subtitute.

For this to happen, Apple and tablet manufacturers have to enable a new type of access mode to apps. They have to enable more than just content creation: they have to enable "focus" and "attention" 

I am certain this will happen at some point.

 

Parallel media consumption is the future

There was a time i was listening to music and only doing that. There was a time i was watching a movie and only doing that. There was a time i was reading a book and only doing that

That period is over

While i am consuming some form of media, i want, in parllel enrich my experience of consumption by adding layers of content on top of it and helping me enjoy more the primary material i am consuming

Watching a movie? i want to know the IMDB rating, who directed it, who are the actors, read maybe some of the reviews...While i am watching the movie

Listening to some music? Want to know everything about the artist, is there some transcription or chords available to play? A concert about it coming soon around me?

This has been enabled by the small connected devices we have with us. 

I believe i am far from being alone in that case and people want to optimize their consumption experience and make it optimal. 

Right now listening music on Spotify or Deezer or watching a movie on Netflix or even the TV is pretty "boring" 

There is nothing you can really add on top of it (natively). You need to run third party apps, or use an app or your iPad

Tomorrow's iTunes and Netflix will offer a 1 click access to a wide range of parallel related content.

The next step is to enable the conversation around a media (this starts to happen with media CHECK IN with services like iNTO NOW or GET GLUE) 

For that to happen, our TVs will have to be connected but also sport an experience layer no one has created to date. Not even Apple

Of course you don't need this layer to be available and on screen all the time: this should be available at ease as you need it. Probably during "pee time" or when a special moment triggers your desire to know more (the generic, scene transitions,..)

What i am dreaming of is a system that will save me the time to discover what i will really like beyond the content itself but also help me avoiding listening, watching and reading all the crap out there that is not made for me

 

 

[must have app] Airdroid

Sometimes you see an app on Android and you realize this is how things should be on iOS. This happens not so often. But device management, file management and anything that requires iTunes to manage your relation with your device is a mess

Airdroid allows you, over wifi, to manage easily and beautifully your phone (export, import files, send SMS, uninstall apps) All from your computer. I exported 50 photos on my Android Phone in a few seconds from my mac (where i could view them) to my mac (in my folders in iPhoto). I could not even find how to do it from my android device..

This app is a must have and it is free

 

Feeling the pulse

One of the thing i am obsess about when i start something new is to find the pulse of what should be measured on a daily basis to gauge the progress.

In a complex world, i believe in simple things to help you make decisions.

When i started music seriously i was measuring the number of new music standards i was able to memorize and play. I was simply counting them. The more i knew, the better i was getting at playing jazz combinations and harmonies

When i started blogging seriously i was measuring the number of comments for each blog post. That was to me the most important parameter, more than page views. 

It takes time to know what you should consider your pulse, because there are so many things you can measure

For a startup usually this is the number of users or paid customer. But how can you measure users when you don't have any at first. Or paid customers when you don t have any at first? A pulse should be meaningful to you but also to the activity you re in and the maturity of your activity.

At appsfire we started first by counting the number of clicks we were sending to the app store and android market on a daily basis. Then the amount of affiliate comissions we were getting (because it was indicating how impactful we were on the download generation).

Today we have a internal "on yammer" special signal everytime we sign a new promotion deal with an app developer.

We still count downloads and users. But the most important metric to us (and the most exciting one) is that one

Actually you should consider a pulse something that is relevant and exciting. It has to happen enough so you can have a frequent signal to be happy about

Finding it is not instant. but when you find it, it will resonate. 

Email@Linkedin : can someone create that?

Here is my problem and the simple solution

I consume most of my emails on the mobile and many times i want to invite the person i am in touch with to linkedin. I want to be able to invite people to linkedin from my email client (Mail in iPhone/iPad). 

Right now the only way to do it is: open the Linkedin App then copy/paste the email of the person i want to invite, send the invitation. Too painful

• I want a simple email adress invite@linkedin.com where i will forward the email of the person i will invite
• I will authorize once The service to use my linkedin account for forward invitations from my email
• I forward the email to the adress above. Done

I am sure it possible to create a simple web service with the linkedIN App and oAuth process to do that

 

Is Gmail losing its mojo?

Something is happening with Gmail. Ever since they introduced Google+ the service has consistently underperformed. 

it just drives me nuts.

It is slower, loads much slower, specially when this is a first time load. Recently they failed in launching their iPhone app. Their android app is one of the worse email client i have ever seen (it requires 2 clicks just to compose an email!)

What's going on? this used to be the Rolls Royce of emails

It still offers an impressive panel of features for a free service. But something is going on and it does not smell right

Do you also feel something is not right with Gmail lately? Maybe it should have stayed in Beta after all.

Is there an alternative? a better one i mean?

Free idea. A Price comparison engine for travelers

Code name: TravelShopping.com

Every once in a while I post what i believe can be a real business idea that I would do myself if I had the time to run it (but too busy to switch the on button). Here is one I am convinced is a good one 

People travel for holidays or business and people want to shop. There is one thing I do every single time I travel and I am convinced I am not alone. I look on the web for products I would buy in my country and try to find if I can get it cheaper abroad during my trip. 

It can be cheaper because of currency rate, because it is sold cheaper, because special promotions apply or simply because the product is not taxed in the same way. There are many reasons why you would want to buy abroad [limitation: warranties may be void, and product specs like electricity might not always be friendly...]

I have learned how to do that over time. But this is not for every one. Because you need to know the language of the country you are traveling to but you also need to know where to search for your product. You need to know either what are the best local shops and also the local comparison price comparison search engine 

For example if you come from Germany you need to know cdiscount is a cool low price ecommerce site in France or that Twenga is the place to look for prices.

Sometimes you need to know the equivalent name of the same product reference 

And no one is addressing that big niche.

What you need Is a price comparison search engine that compares the best deal you can get in your country with the best deals you can get in the country you are traveling to and this in the native language of the traveller. In other words shopping.com in your language compare shops from all over places not just one country.

Experience: Pick your language. Pick the country you travel too. Pick your travel dates and location. Search products, compare prices. 

Done. 

Technically there is no limitation (that i know of). There is one trick. You need to handle right the way delivery delay is handled to make sure that if you order the product before you travel you get it on time when you arrive..most hotels will agree to receive it in your name if you book a room

You probably need to pay a premium because of credit card international transaction commissions but overall this is a real deal. Also by buying on the internet you will not be entitled to a Tax Refund, but it still may be worth buying on the web.

For example in Israel it is not worth at all buying anything electronics in the duty free at the airport. Anything is price 30 to 40% more than what you can find in the USA 

This site is condemned to success. and it's easy to bootstrap

Start with easy destinations France/USA or Germany/France. 

So any one up for it? 

 

Good entrepreneurs stay frustrated

i recently spoke in an event and was asked at the end "how do you keep yourself motivated as an entrepreneur?" 

It is easy to be motivated and passionate at launch. But how do you keep the fire going on on a ride of a few years with many ups and downs?

To which i answered "stay frustrated with your own work"

The biggest danger is, in my opinion, being satisfied with your work. Satisfaction cools down the temperature and the energy you need to move on. 

I don't know any good entrepreneur that is really happy with the current status of their business: not enough customers, not enough revenues, not enough feedbacks, product not good enough...They are always frustated and want more.

You need to feel what's wrong and where it's wrong. And many times you are the only one to be able to detect that. It does not matter. As long as you feel something is missing.

Transforming frustration in positive energy is the next important stuff. And the only way it can happen is when you have happy users or customers (or at least enough)

Happy users is what matters most. More than the features you dreamt of in your last release. 

This is why getting attention to feedback is so important. And that is why any developer should dedicate all his energy to collect, as efficiently as possible, the impression from their users

Specifically in the app world this is very difficult because apps are little piece of software with no real user interaction with the developer

In our case we spent an important part of our time building the necessary bricks to collect in real time users' feedback. Believe me. IT IS AWESOME

Every notification you get is a drop of fuel in the motivation tank.

Bottom line: don't settle, find what's wrong, get feedback and stay motivated to iterate.

PS: if you want to know how we do it reach out...

Mike Arrington's legacy

Mike Arrington is leaving techcrunch. I knew that would happen at some point but not like that. 

i worked 3 years with him building Techcrunch France from scratch and contributing sometimes to Techcrunch.com. I experienced everything from real enjoyment to frustration. This experience created a (amazing) pivot in my career. A boost i could have never gotten otherwise. And somehow i keep very good memories of working with him. He trusted an unknown french guy he never met to create the second (or third) blog of his network. And i think this is something that he did consistently: hire guys that know that take things a step further in the right direction without him.

I am sure Techcrunch will still be successful but still will be different. since inception i read every single of his post. sometimes many times. he's a terrific writer. i hope he keeps blogging (what happened to crunchnotes.com? )

I have little comments on this BS "ethic as a blogger/VC" story. the only part i can testify is that even my own stories (post Techcrunch France or as a VC) never got a special treatment in any ways. Many times they even got ignored. Many times my competitors are treated way better than my own company. Read also Loic's post about how things happen.

I am fine with that. I know Mike has managed to create a "clear in the game" publication creating rules readers respect. and that startups respect.

This game is not over. With or without mike, Techcrunch will remain the spicy tech publication that no other network has managed to create. Precisely because of the rules Mike has created and that penetrated Techcrunch DNA. 

PS: congrats Erick on the new Job :)

disclosure: i own techcrunch stock and could be perceived as a biassed teller. if have the right to think so. that's fine...