Categories: Articles

The End Of Apps. The Beginning Of Bots.

Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am a guest contributor on CHOM 97.7 FM radio broadcasting out of Montreal (home base). It’s not a long segment – about 5 to 10 minutes every week – about everything that is happening in the world of technology and digital media. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly to SoundCloud, if you’re interested in hearing more of me blathering away. I’m really excited about this opportunity, because this is the radio station that I grew up on listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry and Heather B. morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.

This week we discussed:

This week is Facebook‘s big F8 conference in San Francisco. This is Facebook’s developer conference where they usually launch many big ideas and new products. The one that could be most transformative is a Messenger Bot Store. Bots are the new apps. This is a big deal! What’s a “bot,” and why are they so important?
Also, check out this KLM – Facebook Messenger bot.
We often talk about how annoyed we are with online advertising. Maybe we’re not right. Think about online ads and video games. Apparently, it works. Really, really well. “For players, 71 percent of users said watching video ads is their preferred way to ‘pay’ for in-game content, and 62 percent of players said they ‘always or sometimes’ choose to watch a video ad to receive an in-game reward if they’re given a chance.”
Should we skip school to become a tech giant? CBS Sunday Morning investigates Peter Thiel and others.
We used to have young people create interesting hacks for software. Well, hacking has certainly grown up, while the age of hackers remains (mostly) young. Consider this 26 year old hacker who built a self-driving car… in his garage!
The self-driving car hacker also just got over $3 million from Andreessen Horowitz in funding.
App of the week: The Five Minute Journal.