Is Uber’s CEO About to Go on a Forced Leave of Absence?
It does not matter that Uber is worth something like $70 billion — just about everyone in tech agrees that something has to be done to change the ride-hailing startup’s poisonous corporate culture. At this point, it’d take a whole book to recap the company’s tempestuous, controversy-laden year (and I’m sure somebody is already in […]
Mission Possible: SpaceX Launches Have a 94% Success Rate
Space travel has never been cheap, but over the past several years Android app developers have witnessed companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin work toward more economical space flight. The key is reusable rockets that can be sent back into space again and again. It’s an idea that has really caught […]
Google Lens Turns Smartphone Cameras Into Search Devices
Last year, Google CEO Sundar Pichai proclaimed, “We’re evolving in computing from a ‘mobile-first’ to an ‘AI-first’ world.” Yesterday, during the keynote address of the Google I/O developer conference, the company showed that it’s putting it’s money where it’s mouth is. Pichai made it clear Google’s goal is to incorporate AI technology into all of […]
French Election Hacks Underline the Need for Cybersecurity
When Dogtown Media was in Washington, D.C. a couple weeks ago for AppCon 2017, cybersecurity issues were one of the main topics of discussion. Along with our colleagues in ACT – The App Association, we are concerned with the use of encryption backdoors by law enforcement, the shortage of qualified cybersecurity professionals, and the general […]
Google Play and iOS App Stores Show Big Q1 Numbers
It’s a great time to be an app developer as product flies off the proverbial shelves. According to App Annie, the top analyst firm of the mobile app economy, app stores broke download and revenue records in the first quarter of 2017. There were 25 billion new app downloads this quarter alone, a truly epic […]
Huawei will Launch a Google Now AI Assistant Competitor
Huawei isn’t the new kid on the block anymore — in fact, it’s the third-largest smartphone manufacturer in the world. While not the go-to smartphone for San Fran app developers, it’s a household name worldwide thanks to their affordable, dependable hardware. The company is aggressively working towards claiming the second place in the next year, […]
Finally, A “Turk” That Works for Bootstrapped Startups
Algorithms and machine learning are pretty much a given for serious mobile startups these days. Unfortunately, machine learning takes data, and data isn’t always available — at a startup-friendly price point, anyway. A new startup out of India called Playment aims to solve that problem, and their clever solution deserves a spot in any mobile […]
Apps for Chromebook are an Underrated Opportunity in 2017
Here are a couple facts. One: Chromebooks outsold Macs in 2016. Two: every Chromebook launching in 2017 will be compatible with Android Apps. So what’s the big picture? In short, “more opportunity for Android app developers.” Bringing the full contents of the Google Play store to the Google-driven desktop experience puts the Chromebook on tier […]
Study Shows Half of App Store Growth From Chinese Users
2016 was a stellar year for app sales—especially on Google Play. Bay Area app developers saw record-breaking statistics quarter after quarter, leading into the strongest holiday sales season of all time. (Or at least, the ten years of the iPhone era.) According to a new study from analytics group App Annie, we might have a […]
FinTech Apps are Leading the Pack in AI and Chat Interfaces
Bots were the hot app development trend of 2016, but they haven’t proved to have much mainstream staying power across all app categories. One place they have, however, is FinTech — where San Francisco app developers have found a tech-friendly market of millennial users growing more interested in mobile money-management solutions. While mobile banking concepts like […]