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Announcement

This blog hasn't been updated for quite a while. As the New Year resolution, I'll make myself to write more. Until then, you can follow me on Twitter.

Follow @nikitakorotaev

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Apple should have acquired Instagram

Big news today. Instagram was acquired by Facebook for $1B in cash and shares. Price was definitely driven by the amount of different bidders, Google probably was one of them. I'm a huge Instagram fan, at the moment I can't see what would be the value this acquisition will bring to the end users, other than a stronger Facebook integration. I doubt I need it.

I would more likely wanted Apple to acquire Instagram. Apple actually needed Instagram much more than Facebook and Google. With a few Apple's failed attempts to go social(remember Ping), that could actually worked. Instagram has 29M iPhone users. Most of them are very engaged with the application. The combination of Photo Stream + Instagram could be super powerful. I can see myself using it(a lot). Also, by purchasing Instagram Apple could have keept it iOS-only. That would be much appreciated by current iPhone users and for some people might be a reason to switch to iPhone. I know that might sound silly, but seeing the Android community response, that could be true.

Also think about the talent that might have joined Apple. @kevin and @mikeyk are visionary guys. I think Apple has missed a great opportunity. Now all we left is to wait for a native Facebook integration in iOS.  

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Ad

I've watched this ad a hundred times. And will do a thousand more. Annotated by Steve Jobs himself.

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Big teams on Startup Weekends

Last weekend I've participated in the Startup Weekend London EDU. Idea is to form a small team and to create a startup in 54 hours. This is a great working concept, many companies have emerged from these weekend events.

We had a team of 11 people, which I think is considered as Startup Weekend record. Not a usual startup capacity. This situation requires much more management as usual. What I've learned working in a such team:

Choose a leader. It doesn't need to be person with original idea. It could be anyone with the vision for the business and the product. And this person should be good at managing people and keeping them busy.

Divide into smaller teams. Make teams of 2-3 people to solve different tasks. If you have many devs in a team, make two different MVP to test different assumptions.

Leader should participate in everything. In a big team you would have people doing market reach, monetization strategy, customer acquisition, branding, UX design, coding... Leader should have opinion about everything and make sure teams is on the right track.

Focus on a MVP. We had a lot of business people who were saying to a product team smth like "We need that page as this would be good for SEO". Ignore. If you are a big team, that doesn't mean you should built more than a MVP.

Different level of excitement. After some time in event, some people will lose interest in the project, while others would be still excited. However uninterested people will still produce some impact, as not to disappoint the rest of the team. If such people are spotted, I would assign excited people to work with them, to be aware of the quality of the work.

Big teams are slow. Many people have many opinions, that leads to longer discussions. Unless a team has a leader who can make bold decisions.

Conclusion is you don't want to form a big teams of such events. And end up in a startup with 11 co-founders. 

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Steve Jobs Videos

Did you caught yourself eagerly waiting for the next Apple WWDC or any other Apple presentations? I did. Not only to see Apple updates, but also to watch Steve Jobs. Those are rare events where we could saw Steve in action. Those presentations are art. It was incredible to see how Steve was selling his work to the worldwide audience.

After his death, I've started to re-watch those presentations. I urge everyone to see them. As well as some of his rare video apperencses. Here are some that I was able to find: 

Introduction of Macintosh 1984. Part1. Part 2.

WWDC 1997 after Steves return to Apple

Music Event 2001 - The First iPod

WWDC 2002 - The Death of Mac OS 9

I'm sure many people have seen incredible Steve Stanford commencement speech in 2005

Steves multiple appearances on the All ThingsD conferences. Including interesting talk with Bill Gates.

All Apple events from 2007

But the most amazing presentation for me is the presentation of the first iPhone. Imagine the world before iPhone, and then watch this: 

[UPDATE] Apple has released a video of "A celebration of Steve's life" ceremony held at Apple Campus for its employees. I love Jony Ive speech.

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EARonic iphone case by Daniela Gilsanz

This is great! Goes well with my concept of naked swimming-suit.

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Devices and timezones

It might be a very specific problem, but I think some people did encounter this issue. I’ve been traveling a lot recently, going back and forth between four different timezones: UK (GMT 0), France/Swiss/Germany (GMT +1), Finland (GMT +2) and Russia (GMT +3). I have with me four sources of the time: iPhone, iPad, Macbook and hand watch. iPhone for me is a primary source. As the data roaming was switched on most of the time, iPhone supposes to change timezones automatically. However sometimes I just don’t know if iPhone has changed the timezone or not. Either because it might take some time to connect to 3G or EDGE, or I’ve just forgot to switch on the data roaming. iPad changes timezones only when it is connected to the wi-fi, so as Macbook but the latter fails most of the time. The hand watch doesn’t change automatically and I don’t remember in which country I did set the time.

At some point I've ended up with four different times on my devices. Something like: 

11.10 - hand watch

12.10 - iPhone

13.10 - iPad

14.10 - Macbook

Forget the world clock screen on the iPhone for a sec(as I did). How do I calculate the right time? In order to do that I need to take the Max time and deduct the GMT of the country I’m in. So if I’m in Finland it would be: 14:10 - 2hours = 12:10. Isn’t it stupid? Sometimes it gets that far.

I need an option in the settings to show the current timezone on the Home screen. It would be also good to get a notification when the device has change the time. Not only while switching timezones, but also for the summer/winter time change. This little change would be really handy. Open the world clock screen doesn't work for me.

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Do we need paper business cards?

Recently I’ve visited several networking events in London. The purpose was to get a few contacts in particular areas and to get to know other entrepreneurs. When it was time to exchange contacts, I was given lots of business cards. Are they really necessary today to exchange contact info? A few ways how can we do it:

Business Cards. I’m definitely not a fan of these small things. Usually business cards are ended up somewhere in my pocket, bag, office space and retrieving the contact’s info when I need one is very painful. Search on LinkedIn straight after a card is given doesn't work most of the time.

Mobile apps to connect to social networks. I like the idea behind Bump or LinkedIn app for iPhone. When you are near each other you can “bump” your phones, and app automatically adds one another to your networks. The problem is that many people do not use those apps, or at least is not aware that the other person is using it. 

Mobile apps to distribute business cards. What I was using recently is online business card service - CardCloud(there are probably other services like this). You create your business card online and list there your LinkedIn, Twitter, or any other services that describe you as professional. When you meet your contact, you send email via CardCloud app. Your contact receives your business card with the time and location where you met. I believe this information helps you better identify person, when you've met many people in different places. As business cards are stored digitally in this case, retrieval of contact's info is much faster. Now this person has access to your profiles, and can easily connect with you.  

I like to see more people using apps like these. As I don’t see a point why should we be using paper business cards nowadays. I don't want to store these cards. I don't want all these extra paper on me. All I want is to add a person to my LinkedIn or Twitter. I don't need paper for this.

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It’s simple until you make it complicated.

- Jason Fried

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FaceTime + iMessage = Skype?

After WWDC 2011 many people were saying that iMessage is a great replacement for Blackberry messaging service, as well as group-messaging apps like GroupMe, Kik and WhatsApp. I think iMessage release could also partially replace Skype. Skype messages are quite dumb. Is impossible to attach pictures or videos. But the worst part, as Skype is based on a peer-to-peer technology, when you sending a message to a contact who is offline, he will get it only if you are also online. All existing group messaging apps and iMessage send you a push notification when you are not using the app. I'm sure you know how better it is.

Skype was always great for a video chat. It is still. Apple has FaceTime, which works at the moment only with wi-fi. With the release of iOS5, we probably will get 3G support, that will make it much more attractive. You see where it is going. Apple has two separate services(iMessage&FaceTime) that serve as Skype's foundation. Apple has a potential to compete directly with Skype. As you know Skype is now owned by Microsoft, so we are back to basics: Apple vs. Microsoft.

Of course, at the moment Apple is nowhere near competition with Skype. What might be Apple's next move? We could see a desktop client for iMessage, a group video chat for FaceTime, and later a merge of iMessage and FaceTime into one product. Isn't it looks like a Skype for Apple ecosystem. I think that's exactly what it is.

Still, Skype is a cross-platform app, and they have got a great service for calling international landline phones. So far it is irreplaceable. But remember that Steve Jobs was saying that he wants FaceTime to be an open standard. I think FaceTime apps on other platforms is just a matter of time.

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Startups need to stop saying which country they originate from

Recently I stumble across random tweet from Mike Butcher, editor of Techcrunch Europe.

I think this is an interesting topic. What should be stoping you from saying where are you from? Well, there is a reason. When I read my news feed, and there are headlines like "XXXXX, SF-based startup, raised another funding round" or "XXXXX has launched in Bay Area", I'll definitely check out the startup. I can't say that news about unknown startups will interest me more if any other city is mentioned… well, may be except London, as I'm interested in a local scene by default. 

Everyone knows that most of the world's best startups are from Silicon Valley. I think if a startup is from Silicon Valley, it gives them some credits by default. I want to believe that NYC and London are close to this recognizability. But for any other region/city/country that's not true, whether it is Skolkovo, Stockholm, Paris or Chicago… you don't get these credits.

That doesn't mean that they don't have quality startups by any means! There are definitely companies that have better products that companies from Silicon Valley. But when a customer is choosing between products that looks more or less the same, and one is from SF and the other from Paris, I bet he will go for one from SF.

Same story in education. If you graduate from Ivy league, Cambridge or Oxford universities, you get more attention from recruiters(again, that doesn't mean that you are smarter that the others :) ). And you see in the news that graduates from those universities are always mentioned along side with titles like "Stanford-grad" or "former MIT student". That gives reader some understanding regarding person's abilities.

Startups from Silicon Valley have location advantage. They can use it how they like. I think the rest should ignore mentioning where they are from. When you focus on a global market, customers don't really care where you are from, they care about your product.  So unless you are local player, or you are from SF, don't say where you are form. Hope that will help you to get some additional customers.

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Merging Gmail, MobileMe and iCloud accounts as one AppleID

I've register my AppleID several years ago. At first, it was my school e-mail, and after graduation I've easily switched to the Gmail account. All my music and apps are linked to that account. 1.5 years ago I've purchased a MobileMe account. Despite all the buzz, I was quite happy with it. I've started to use it as a primary e-mail, and I loved a wireless sync of contacts and bookmarks across all iOS devices. I was willing to pay even only for that service. 

And then I've decided to lock myself entirely to Apple ecosystem. I wanted my MobileMe account to become my AppleID instead of Gmail. It turned out to be impossible. MobileMe is already an AppleID by default. About a week I was having an email conversation with the customer support, asking to merge those accounts or to move my previously purchased apps from one to another. Well, they failed to do both and was unable to find another solution. As the "Sorry", I was given 5 iTunes song credits.

So for the last 1.5 years I use my old Gmail as my AppleID, and MobileMe as primary email. That has worked fine so far. But with the introduction of iCloud this merging problem will come up again. Recently all MobileMe users have received the email:

When you sign up for iCloud, you'll be able to keep your MobileMe email address and move your mail, contacts, calendars, and bookmarks to the new service. Your MobileMe subscription will be automatically extended through June 30, 2012, at no additional charge. After that date, MobileMe will no longer be available.

For MobileMe customers that means that all their data will be available under new service/platform. And such thing as MobileMe will no longer exists, but xxx@me.com email will.

Since Apple will make registration of xxx@me.com emails free of charge. I think many iOS owners would like to have one. As the result they will get a new AppleID linked to the iCloud service.

My concern is that many people will have music and apps being linked to their old AppleID. Since iCloud syncs not olny bookmarks and contacts, but apps and music as well. Will customers be able to move already purchased apps to iCloud account in order to sync them? How this merge/transfer will be handled?

I hope Apple will not leave customers without proper solution, as that was the case for former MobileMe customers. 

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iPad vs. TV in your living room

During Lint Conference in Moscow, there was one interesting topic to discuss. TV. TV experience is now not limited to the 42inch plasma in your living room. Same video content is available on your laptop. Media corporations, like BBC, SKY, CNN, RT and etc., are facing global competition on the Internet, not only from other networks, but also from independent video-content producers. And they are definitely behind them. Youtube star RayWilliamJohnson are getting 4-6M views for every video, which is very impressive(I don't understand why he is still youtube-only). While your plasma is still dominated by BBC and co, your laptop is full of "independent TV". 

And here comes the iPad. Which is all about apps. This is another distribution platform for video producers/publishers. While videos from guys like Ray are accessible through the Youtube app, there are guys like CraneTV, who produce high-quality videos about art and fashion, and have their own app. Media giants don't want to lose this platform, so we see CNN and SKY great news apps, nice BBC iPlayer app and others. 

I have Youtube, CraneTV, iPlayer apps next to each other on my iPad. I think iPad is the first platform where the competition among three is explicit. It's like clicking through channels on your plasma, but in this case it is apps, where you get more interactive and relevant video content on demand. 

AppleTV, GoogleTV and Boxee will make your plasma look more like the iPad(by adding on-demand videos). Independent video producers, will get another distribution platform and a chance to reach a broader audience. But the point here is that iPad is competing with plasma for audience now. You can watch video content anywhere with the iPad. And once you have viewed the video there, you are unlikely to re-view it on your plasma. 

iPads capabilities for steaming videos, even with 3G, make it TV's another form-factor, and let you consume more video than usual.  So next time be truthful when you are saying, that you do not watch TV anymore. 

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Not a Blog Introduction

I hate introductions, as most of the time they have no value. So let's get started with introduction!

You've might seen the show on the CW Network called "Nikita". This show is about sexy, tall girl with long black hair who fights like Bruce Lee. Unfortunately, this is not me. Nikita is considered as a male name in Eastern-Europe, especially in Russia.  Sorry for disappointing you once again, but I'm a boy.

I live somewhere in between St.Petersburg, Russia and London, UK. So if you are between those cities as well, I would like to meet you; you know, I'm very curious who are the readers of this blog.

At the moment I'm in a process of starting my first business. That is going to be a Cloud-based service for schools and universities. It will help them to enhance the sharing of their educational assets among students' as well as to track students' results and attendance. More posts on this coming soon. So far you can leave your e-mail at Lectrio.com to get updates about our development progress.

You will see stripes all around the blog, that was designed by Paul Smith, famous British designer. Hope to write a post later about how they motivate me each day!  

Keep in touch! I'll be happy to answer your questions!