The Story Behind Germany's Scant E-Book Sales
businessweek.comA 2011 Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz study found virtually no difference in reading speed or retention when test subjects read from paper vs. digital screens. Nevertheless, the German test subjects insisted that they were better at reading from paper.
Estimated reading time: 4 min
Facebook's 'Next Billion': A Q&A With Mark Zuckerberg
businessweek.comWe get the honor of building things that a billion people use. I mean, there’s no core need. It isn’t a core human need to use Facebook. It’s a core human need to stay connected with the people you care about. The need to open up and connect is such a deep part of what makes us human. Being in a position where we are the company—or one of the companies—that can play a role in delivering that service is just this … it’s an honor.
Estimated reading time: 8 min
Steve Ballmer Reboots
businessweek.comNow we’ve got battles where we’re big and strong and powerful, and we’ve got battles where other guys are moving, and it’s fun to work both from the front of the pack and from the back of the pack sometimes. They’re different kinds of competition, but they both drive you, push you.
Estimated reading time: 18 min
Rejection Therapy: A Hundred Days of 'No'
businessweek.com“Physical pain acts as an alarm system to alert you to a threat,” she says. “We think the pain system was co-opted to highlight the danger of being separated from others, which is also a threat to our survival.” That’s why we sometimes shy away from emotionally painful situations, just as we might avoid a hot pan. To build up resistance, Jiang thought, he’d force himself to get burned.
Estimated reading time: 7 min
Snapchat and the Erasable Future of Social Media
businessweek.comSpiegel and Murphy’s timing was excellent. As they worked on a prototype over the summer, then-Congressman Anthony Weiner was in the news because of some indiscreet photo-sharing with women he met on Twitter, and career-immolation-by-selfie was on everyone’s mind.
Estimated reading time: 14 min
In the Fight Against Plastics, Mushrooms Become an Unlikely Weapon
businessweek.comIt starts with a mash of corn stalks and vegetable husks impregnated with mushroom spores. The fungus eats the plant nutrients, then grows a complex root network that fills the shapes of the molds. The final product is a foam that looks something like a big wafer of nougat candy. It is placed in an oven to stop the spores from growing and to give the material the proper texture, hardness, and elasticity.
Estimated reading time: 3 min
Meet Apple's Favorite Blogger
businessweek.comWhile Gizmodo remains on the non-grata list, Apple has opened its inner circle to select bloggers, Gruber chief among them. His bare-bones site consists mainly of links to other articles with a few sentences of commentary, along with the occasional lengthier analysis on topics such as screen resolution.
Estimated reading time: 4 min
Can Phil Schiller Keep Apple Cool?
businessweek.comOffstage, Schiller wasn’t a clown but one of Jobs’s most trusted, influential lieutenants. He helped Apple’s late CEO work through the meat-and-potatoes of creating new products: Defining target markets, determining technical specs, setting prices. It was Schiller who came up with the spin-wheel interface on the original iPod, and he was a champion of the iPad when other executives questioned its potential.
Estimated reading time: 5 min
Why We Work on the Weekend
businessweek.combut it’s harder to know when you’re working and when you’re not working,
Estimated reading time: 4 min
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