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	<title type="text">Mike Isaac | Vox</title>
	<subtitle type="text">Our world has too much noise and too little context. Vox helps you understand what matters.</subtitle>

	<updated>2019-03-06T11:15:34+00:00</updated>

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		<entry>
			
			<author>
				<name>Mike Isaac</name>
			</author>
			
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Stanford Condemns Snapchat CEO&#8217;s Sexist Emails]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.vox.com/2014/5/30/11627494/stanford-condemns-snapchat-ceos-sexist-emails" />
			<id>https://www.vox.com/2014/5/30/11627494/stanford-condemns-snapchat-ceos-sexist-emails</id>
			<updated>2019-03-06T05:54:28-05:00</updated>
			<published>2014-05-30T16:46:49-04:00</published>
			<category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Snapchat" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Social Media" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Technology" />
							<summary type="html"><![CDATA[What happens on the Internet, stays on the Internet. And sometimes, years later, it catches up to haunt you. Stanford University Provost and Professor John Etchemendy sent a scathing email to the school&#8217;s student body on Friday, widely condemning a series of recently unearthed sexist, raucous emails sent years ago by Evan Spiegel, an alumnus [&#8230;]]]></summary>
			
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<p>What happens on the Internet, stays on the Internet. And sometimes, years later, it catches up to haunt you.</p>

<p>Stanford University Provost and Professor John Etchemendy sent a scathing email to the school&rsquo;s student body on Friday, widely condemning a series of recently unearthed sexist, raucous emails sent years ago by Evan Spiegel, an alumnus of the school who is now the founder of disappearing mobile messaging startup Snapchat.</p>

<p>The emails, which were <a href="http://valleywag.gawker.com/fuck-bitches-get-leid-the-sleazy-frat-emails-of-snap-1582604137">discovered by Sam Biddle of Valleywag</a>, depict Spiegel as the embodiment of the <a href="http://valleywag.gawker.com/business-insider-ctos-is-your-new-tech-bro-nightmare-1280336916">&ldquo;tech bro&rdquo; cum frat boy culture</a>, chock full of sexist rallying cries to pledge brothers on a fraternity email list.</p>

<p>&ldquo;We can choose to turn a blind eye to such statements and chalk them up to youthful indiscretion,&rdquo; Etchemendy wrote in the campus-wide email on Friday. &ldquo;Or we can be more courageous, and affirmatively reject such behavior whenever and wherever we see it, even &mdash; <em>no, especially</em> &mdash; if it comes from a friend, a classmate, or a colleague. Only if we choose the latter will we create the kind of university culture we all can be proud of, all of the time.&rdquo;</p>

<p>Etchemendy&rsquo;s words come as no surprise. Stanford prides itself not only as an engineering wellspring for tech recruiters around Silicon Valley, but also as a place to foster innovation in young, would-be entrepreneurs &mdash; much like Spiegel, who co-founded Snapchat while still attending the school. For a former student to represent the school in such an unflattering light &mdash; especially with Spiegel&rsquo;s stanford.edu extension stamped all over every email &mdash; certainly isn&rsquo;t good for the institution&rsquo;s public image.</p>

<p>The emails also surfaced at a particularly sensitive time for Silicon Valley types, given the rising tide of <a href="http://recode.net/2014/04/02/splashy-tactics-tech-shuttle-protestor-vomits-on-yahoo-bus/">anti-tech culture sentiment seen</a> in the Bay Area amid rapid increases in housing and the cost of living across the region.</p>

<p>CEO Spiegel gave a swift response shortly after Valleywag published the emails, condemning his earlier words. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sorry I wrote them at the time and I was jerk to have written them,&rdquo; he <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/snapchat-ceo-my-emails-dont-reflect-my-view-towards-women-2014-5">told Business Insider</a>. &ldquo;They in no way reflect who I am today or my views towards women.&rdquo;</p>

<p>But the damage has been done, and Spiegel&rsquo;s alma mater is working fast to distance itself and its current student body from the type of mentality depicted in the emails in question.</p>

<p>&ldquo;Members of our community should learn <em>now</em>, not many years from now, how abhorrent those attitudes are, whether real or feigned,&rdquo; Etchemendy wrote. &ldquo;Let us strive to be role models in our interactions with others.&rdquo;</p>

<p><small><em>This article originally appeared on Recode.net.</em></small></p>
						]]>
									</content>
			
					</entry>
			<entry>
			
			<author>
				<name>Mike Isaac</name>
			</author>
			
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Zuckerberg to Donate $120 Million to Bay Area Schools]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.vox.com/2014/5/29/11627484/zuckerberg-to-donate-120-million-to-bay-area-schools" />
			<id>https://www.vox.com/2014/5/29/11627484/zuckerberg-to-donate-120-million-to-bay-area-schools</id>
			<updated>2019-03-06T05:48:19-05:00</updated>
			<published>2014-05-29T23:30:21-04:00</published>
			<category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Education" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Facebook" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Policy" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Social Media" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Technology" />
							<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan plan to give $120 million to Bay Area schools via his Startup:Education fund, which will distribute the money to start new local district and charter schools, as well as to donate resources to existing K-12 institutions. The announcement comes four years after Zuckerberg made a $100 [&#8230;]]]></summary>
			
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<p>Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan <a href="https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10101450121376931">plan to give $120 million</a> to Bay Area schools via his <a href="http://www.startupeducation.org/aboutus.html">Startup:Education fund</a>, which will distribute the money to start new local district and charter schools, as well as to donate resources to existing K-12 institutions. The announcement comes four years after Zuckerberg made a $100 million donation to Newark, New Jersey-area schools &mdash; an effort which was <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/05/19/140519fa_fact_russakoff?currentPage=all">not without its bureaucratic issues</a>.</p>

<p><small><em>This article originally appeared on Recode.net.</em></small></p>
						]]>
									</content>
			
					</entry>
			<entry>
			
			<author>
				<name>Mike Isaac</name>
			</author>
			
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Twitter Engineering SVP Chris Fry to Depart the Company]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.vox.com/2014/5/29/11627472/twitter-engineering-svp-chris-fry-to-depart-the-company" />
			<id>https://www.vox.com/2014/5/29/11627472/twitter-engineering-svp-chris-fry-to-depart-the-company</id>
			<updated>2019-03-06T05:48:18-05:00</updated>
			<published>2014-05-29T14:40:26-04:00</published>
			<category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Social Media" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Technology" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Twitter" />
							<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Chris Fry, Twitter&#8217;s senior vice president of engineering, plans to step down from his executive role at the company, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday afternoon. Fry will move into an advisory role, according to the filings. Alex Roetter, Twitter&#8217;s vice president of revenue engineering, will step into Fry&#8217;s [&#8230;]]]></summary>
			
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<img alt="" data-caption="" data-portal-copyright="Troy Holden" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15801304/chris_fry.0.1489186135.png?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" />
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<p>Chris Fry, Twitter&rsquo;s senior vice president of engineering, plans to step down from his executive role at the company, according to <a href="http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1418091/000119312514217330/d735423d8k.htm">documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission</a> on Thursday afternoon.</p>

<p>Fry will move into an advisory role, according to the filings. Alex Roetter, Twitter&rsquo;s vice president of revenue engineering, will step into Fry&rsquo;s role, overseeing all of Twitter&rsquo;s engineering organization.</p>

<p>Fry&rsquo;s departure marks another in a string of executive shuffles over the past year. Former <a href="http://recode.net/2014/01/17/twitter-product-vp-michael-sippey-to-leave-the-company/">Consumer Product VP Michael Sippey left Twitter</a> in January of this year, while <a href="http://allthingsd.com/20130830/twitter-general-counsel-alexander-macgillivray-to-leave-company/">former General Counsel Alexander Macgillivray departed</a> in August of 2013, just months before Twitter made its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange.</p>

<p>Twitter has positioned many &mdash; but not all &mdash; of these moves as transitions into advisory roles. Ruslan Belkin, for instance, said he would become an adviser after leading Twitter&rsquo;s search and relevance team for two-plus years.</p>

<p>Multiple company insiders, however, have said that some of these &ldquo;advisory roles&rdquo; are mostly for external appearances. Twitter&rsquo;s top brass is cleaning house, sources said, replacing some managers with more efficient leaders inside and outside of the company.</p>

<p>For example: As <a href="http://allthingsd.com/20131108/can-twitter-fix-its-product-problem/">I wrote in a piece last year</a>, Twitter&rsquo;s product organization had traditionally moved sluggishly in shipping new features out the door, something that often incurred the ire of many others inside the company.</p>

<p>CEO Dick Costolo, too, has grown less willing to tolerate a slow pace of innovation, <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeIsaac/status/471779366536765441">having said as much publicly</a> at the inaugural <a href="https://recode.net/events/code-conference/"><strong>Code Conference</strong></a> earlier this week.</p>

<p>Thus, I&rsquo;d expect more changes and departures to come in the weeks ahead, according to rumblings I&rsquo;ve heard from sources familiar with the matter.</p>

<p><small><em>This article originally appeared on Recode.net.</em></small></p>
						]]>
									</content>
			
					</entry>
			<entry>
			
			<author>
				<name>Mike Isaac</name>
			</author>
			
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Foursquare&#8217;s COO, Biz Dev Head Are Leaving]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.vox.com/2014/5/29/11627466/foursquare-faces-executive-shuffle-amid-big-changes" />
			<id>https://www.vox.com/2014/5/29/11627466/foursquare-faces-executive-shuffle-amid-big-changes</id>
			<updated>2019-03-06T05:48:17-05:00</updated>
			<published>2014-05-29T14:00:52-04:00</published>
			<category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Technology" />
							<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Foursquare has undergone major changes to its entire product lineup. Now it faces an executive shuffle. Current Chief Operating Officer Evan Cohen will leave the company in the coming weeks, after spending the past four and a half years at the company. Also departing is long-time business development head Holger Luedorf. The departures come at [&#8230;]]]></summary>
			
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<img alt="" data-caption="" data-portal-copyright="" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15801303/foursquare-logo.0.1489186135.png?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" />
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<p>Foursquare has undergone major changes to its entire product lineup. Now it faces an executive shuffle.</p>

<p>Current Chief Operating Officer Evan Cohen will leave the company in the coming weeks, after spending the past four and a half years at the company. Also departing is long-time business development head Holger Luedorf.</p>

<p>The departures come at a vulnerable moment at Foursquare, which has made big changes to its core mobile functions. Earlier this month, Foursquare <a href="http://blog.foursquare.com/post/84422758243/a-look-into-the-future-of-foursquare-including-a-new">split its app in half</a> to move away from its roots in game-like check-ins without losing the functionality entirely. The new Foursquare is focused on local discovery, a major change in direction for the company that has been in the works for the past year.</p>

<p>Observers wonder how well Foursquare can make its transition from one type of check-in app to local discovery software for smartphones, and whether the company has peaked in popularity. Foursquare has said it serves 50 million registered users, but it has not shared the number of people actively using its Web and mobile properties on a regular monthly basis.</p>

<p>Cohen, who built and managed Foursquare teams including business development, human relations and corporate development inside the company, said he was leaving for personal reasons.</p>

<p>&ldquo;I was running low on gas, frankly, and it made sense for me to hand the baton off to a fresh new executive,&rdquo; Cohen said in an interview. Cohen spent 2013 putting together some of Foursquare&rsquo;s biggest deals, including a <a href="http://allthingsd.com/20130411/foursquare-gets-its-money/">$41 million debt round</a> led by Silver Lake Partners and a strategic <a href="https://recode.net/2014/02/04/foursquare-finds-itself-a-microsoft-deal-investment-plus-a-commercial-pact/">investment and licensing deal with Microsoft</a>.</p>

<p>Foursquare plans to appoint former Matrix Partners entrepreneur-in-residence Jeffrey Glueck as its new COO, starting June 16. Cohen will remain an adviser to the company.</p>

<p>Before joining Matrix, Glueck was an EVP of Operator Solutions at Opera Software, a position he moved into after the browser company acquired his company, Skyfire, in February of last year. As was the case under Cohen, Foursquare&rsquo;s finance, HR, marketing, biz dev and legal departments will report to Glueck.</p>

<p>Luedorf, who is also leaving the company, will hand over the reins to Mike Harkey, who has worked on the biz dev team since October of 2012. Luedorf plans to join Postmates, the San Francisco-based delivery service startup, where he will again lead business development for the 56 person company.</p>

<p>Despite the executive shuffle, CEO Dennis Crowley maintains that Foursquare is doing just fine. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re really excited about the direction and the momentum that we have right now, and Foursquare would not have gotten here without the contributions that Evan has made,&rdquo; Crowley said in an interview.</p>

<p>Crowley said that Luedorf&rsquo;s and Cohen&rsquo;s simultaneous departures were coincidental, and that Foursquare had been conducting a confidential executive search for a replacement for Cohen over the past six months. &ldquo;This wasn&rsquo;t a decision that just happened overnight,&rdquo; Crowley said.</p>

<p><small><em>This article originally appeared on Recode.net.</em></small></p>
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									</content>
			
					</entry>
			<entry>
			
			<author>
				<name>Mike Isaac</name>
			</author>
			
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Post-Apple Buy, Beats Music Will Still Be on Android, Windows Phone]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.vox.com/2014/5/28/11627424/post-apple-buy-beats-music-will-still-be-on-android-windows-phone" />
			<id>https://www.vox.com/2014/5/28/11627424/post-apple-buy-beats-music-will-still-be-on-android-windows-phone</id>
			<updated>2019-03-06T05:48:14-05:00</updated>
			<published>2014-05-28T22:19:59-04:00</published>
			<category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Apple" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Big Tech" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Business &amp; Finance" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Code Conference" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Media" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Money" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Technology" />
							<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Usually when Apple buys a new company, you can kiss any Android apps goodbye. Not so with Beats Music. After announcing its plans to buy the company for $3 billion, Apple said it plans to keep the Beats Music streaming music service app available on Android and Windows Phone. &#8220;It&#8217;s on Android now, and we [&#8230;]]]></summary>
			
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<figure>

<img alt="" data-caption="" data-portal-copyright="Asa Mathat" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15801285/code-20140528-203245-9154.0.1489186135.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" />
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<p>Usually when Apple buys a new company, you can kiss any Android apps goodbye.</p>

<p>Not so with Beats Music. After announcing <a href="http://recode.net/2014/05/28/apple-buys-beats-for-3-billion/">its plans to buy the company for $3 billion</a>, Apple said it plans to keep the Beats Music streaming music service app available on Android and Windows Phone.</p>

<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s on Android now, and we want to keep it that way,&rdquo; Apple SVP of Internet Software and Services <a href="http://recode.net/2014/05/28/meet-apples-latest-hire-and-apples-media-boss-jimmy-iovine-and-eddy-cue-come-to-code-liveblog/">Eddy Cue said</a> at the inaugural <strong>Code Conference</strong> on Wednesday.</p>

<p>That&rsquo;s in stark contrast to Apple&rsquo;s modus operandi, including a purchase as <a href="http://recode.net/2014/02/21/apple-confirms-burstly-buy/">recent as app testing service Burstly</a>, which shuttered its Android offering in March. And as <strong>Re/code&rsquo;s</strong> Walt Mossberg noted, most of Apple&rsquo;s software and services &mdash; like iMessage or Apple TV &mdash; are meant to be used on <em>Apple hardware</em>, not on others&rsquo; devices.</p>

<p>It&rsquo;s not likely that Apple is just feeling benevolent. As my colleague Peter Kafka notes, Apple would almost certainly be wary of regulatory issues in closing the Beats deal if the company took Beats Music off of the Android platform. (Oh, and it&rsquo;ll stick around on Windows Phone, too.)</p>

<p>But of course, Apple still has its favorites. &ldquo;Everything is better on iOS,&rdquo; Cue said.</p>

<p><small><em>This article originally appeared on Recode.net.</em></small></p>
						]]>
									</content>
			
					</entry>
			<entry>
			
			<author>
				<name>Mike Isaac</name>
			</author>
			
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Nest&#8217;s Tony Fadell on the Internet of Things and Apple (Video)]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.vox.com/2014/5/28/11627422/nests-tony-fadell-on-the-internet-of-things-and-apple-video" />
			<id>https://www.vox.com/2014/5/28/11627422/nests-tony-fadell-on-the-internet-of-things-and-apple-video</id>
			<updated>2019-03-06T05:54:22-05:00</updated>
			<published>2014-05-28T22:09:58-04:00</published>
			<category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Big Tech" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Code Conference" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Google" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Technology" />
							<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Tony Fadell hates the term &#8220;Internet of Things.&#8221; And yet that&#8217;s the exact stock in trade of Nest, the smart thermostat maker and one of the most closely watched companies in the &#8220;things&#8221; space. Fadell gave his thoughts on the current status of the company at the inaugural Code Conference, just three months after the [&#8230;]]]></summary>
			
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<img alt="" data-caption="" data-portal-copyright="Asa Mathat" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15802859/code-20140528-174549-8295.0.1489186135.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" />
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<p>Tony Fadell hates the term &ldquo;Internet of Things.&rdquo; And yet that&rsquo;s the exact stock in trade of Nest, the smart thermostat maker and one of the most closely watched companies in the &ldquo;things&rdquo; space.</p>

<p>Fadell gave his thoughts on the current status of the company at the inaugural <strong>Code Conference</strong>, just three months after the company was acquired by Google for more than $3 billion. He spoke about how Nest is run as a separate entity independent of Google, his thoughts on Apple&rsquo;s Beats acquisition and what it means to be truly innovative in hardware. (Hint: Don&rsquo;t focus on the hardware.)</p>

<p>Check out the highlights in the video below.</p>
<div class="video-container"><iframe src="https://volume.vox-cdn.com/embed/b2a26461f?player_type=chorus&#038;loop=1&#038;placement=article&#038;tracking=article:rss" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" allow=""></iframe></div>
<p><small><em>This article originally appeared on Recode.net.</em></small></p>
						]]>
									</content>
			
					</entry>
			<entry>
			
			<author>
				<name>Mike Isaac</name>
			</author>
			
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[At Four Months Old, Beats Music Has 250,000 Paying Customers]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.vox.com/2014/5/28/11627426/at-3-months-old-beats-music-has-250000-paying-customers" />
			<id>https://www.vox.com/2014/5/28/11627426/at-3-months-old-beats-music-has-250000-paying-customers</id>
			<updated>2019-03-06T06:15:34-05:00</updated>
			<published>2014-05-28T21:50:58-04:00</published>
			<category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Apple" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Big Tech" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Business &amp; Finance" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Code Conference" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Media" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Money" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Technology" />
							<summary type="html"><![CDATA[There&#8217;s been lots of speculation on the state of how Jimmy Iovine&#8217;s Beats Music has fared since it hit the market. Now we&#8217;ve got a better idea. The streaming music service has 250,000 paying subscribers to the service after launching more than three months ago, Iovine said in conversation with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher [&#8230;]]]></summary>
			
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<img alt="" data-caption="" data-portal-copyright="Asa Mathat" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15808207/code-20140528-202459-9007.0.1489186135.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" />
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<p>There&rsquo;s been lots of speculation on the state of how Jimmy Iovine&rsquo;s Beats Music has fared since it hit the market. Now we&rsquo;ve got a better idea.</p>

<p>The streaming music service has 250,000 paying subscribers to the service after <a href="https://recode.net/2014/01/21/beats-music-streams-with-a-human-touch/">launching more than three months ago</a>, Iovine said in conversation with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at the inaugural Code Conference on Wednesday.</p>

<p>That&rsquo;s up against the five million people who have given the service a seven-day free trial spin &mdash; a five percent conversion rate in the short time on the market.</p>

<p>Compare that to Spotify&rsquo;s 40 million active users, ten million of which are paying subscribers.</p>

<p>But Beats is not Spotify. Spotify supports its free service by serving customers ads, while Beats essentially has a paywall; pay up, or your free Beats Music trial ends just as fast as it began. Spotify also has almost a decade head start.</p>

<p>It&rsquo;s the first glimpse into Beats Music&rsquo;s health since Iovine launched the service this year. And as you may have heard by now, <a href="http://recode.net/2014/05/28/apple-buys-beats-for-3-billion/">Apple announced that it will buy Beats </a>&mdash; headphones, music service and all &mdash; for $3 billion.</p>

<p>Now it&rsquo;s time to watch what Apple &mdash; who by SVP Eddy Cue&rsquo;s own admission is wrestling with the future of iTunes music and downloads leveling off &mdash; will do with that early subscriber traction.</p>

<p>Watch my colleague Peter Kafka&rsquo;s <a href="http://recode.net/2014/05/28/meet-apples-latest-hire-and-apples-media-boss-jimmy-iovine-and-eddy-cue-come-to-code-liveblog/">liveblog</a> for more of Iovine and Cue at the Code Conference.</p>

<p><small><em>This article originally appeared on Recode.net.</em></small></p>
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									</content>
			
					</entry>
			<entry>
			
			<author>
				<name>Mike Isaac</name>
			</author>
			
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Tony Fadell&#8217;s Advice to Hardware Startups: Focus on the Problem (Video)]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.vox.com/2014/5/28/11627386/tony-fadells-advice-to-hardware-startups-focus-on-the-problem" />
			<id>https://www.vox.com/2014/5/28/11627386/tony-fadells-advice-to-hardware-startups-focus-on-the-problem</id>
			<updated>2019-03-06T05:54:18-05:00</updated>
			<published>2014-05-28T19:30:44-04:00</published>
			<category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Big Tech" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Code Conference" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Google" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Technology" />
							<summary type="html"><![CDATA[It seems contradictory when a hardware specialist tells techies to stop obsessing over hardware. And yet that&#8217;s exactly what Tony Fadell, CEO of smart thermostat-maker Nest, believes &#8212; in the beginning, at least. &#8220;Most people focus so much on the hardware,&#8221; Fadell said in conversation with Walt Mossberg at the inaugural Code Conference, speaking about [&#8230;]]]></summary>
			
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<img alt="" data-caption="" data-portal-copyright="Asa Mathat" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15802843/code-20140528-180731-8625.0.1489186135.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" />
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<p>It seems contradictory when a hardware specialist tells techies to stop obsessing over hardware.</p>

<p>And yet that&rsquo;s exactly what Tony Fadell, CEO of smart thermostat-maker Nest, believes &mdash; in the beginning, at least.</p>

<p>&ldquo;Most people focus so much on the hardware,&rdquo; Fadell said in conversation with Walt Mossberg at the inaugural <strong>Code Conference</strong>, speaking about the growing wave of young hardware startups that have appeared in Silicon Valley in recent years. &ldquo;So I say, don&rsquo;t focus on the hardware. Focus on the problem you&rsquo;re solving, and <em>then</em> go make the hardware.&rdquo;</p>

<p>Fadell suggested going through the idea of marketing the product, making software mockups, working through how it works in conjunction with the iPad &mdash; essentially figuring out every aspect of how the product will work before committing to building the hardware itself.</p>
<div class="video-container"><iframe src="https://volume.vox-cdn.com/embed/533c41f83?player_type=chorus&#038;loop=1&#038;placement=article&#038;tracking=article:rss" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" allow=""></iframe></div>
<p>That may sound backwards for a hardware company. But it smacks of how Apple thinks through product problems: How can a company integrate the device and its construction into every other part of how an organization works, and the companion products that may complement it?</p>

<p>&ldquo;The first step is solving the problem, and to do that through quick iteration,&rdquo; Fadell said. &ldquo;The only way you can do that is when it&rsquo;s at the virtual level.&rdquo;</p>

<p>&ldquo;Stop looking at the shiny bits,&rdquo; he said.</p>

<p><small><em>This article originally appeared on Recode.net.</em></small></p>
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									</content>
			
					</entry>
			<entry>
			
			<author>
				<name>Mike Isaac</name>
			</author>
			
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[Can Twitter&#8217;s Media Love-Fest Translate to Growth?]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.vox.com/2014/5/28/11627384/can-twitters-media-love-fest-translate-to-growth" />
			<id>https://www.vox.com/2014/5/28/11627384/can-twitters-media-love-fest-translate-to-growth</id>
			<updated>2019-03-06T06:15:30-05:00</updated>
			<published>2014-05-28T17:52:44-04:00</published>
			<category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Business &amp; Finance" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Code Conference" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Culture" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Media" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Money" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Social Media" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Technology" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="TV" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Twitter" />
							<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Twitter has made it clear it wants to be big media&#8217;s best friend. And thus far, media companies seem to be cool with Twitter&#8217;s companion pitch, too. But how valuable is that relationship to Twitter? Can a first-time user who stumbles into Twitter from a celebrity tweet embedded on a random website turn into a [&#8230;]]]></summary>
			
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<img alt="" data-caption="" data-portal-copyright="Asa Mathat" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15808190/code-20140528-150102-7329.0.1489186135.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" />
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<p>Twitter has made it clear it wants to be big media&rsquo;s best friend. And thus far, media companies seem to be <a href="http://allthingsd.com/20130826/tune-in-was-big-for-mtvs-vmas-whats-twitter-got-to-do-with-it/">cool with Twitter&rsquo;s companion pitch</a>, too.</p>

<p>But how valuable is that relationship to Twitter? Can a first-time user who stumbles into Twitter from a celebrity tweet embedded on a random website turn into a repeat user?</p>

<p>CEO Dick Costolo certainly thinks so.</p>

<p>&ldquo;When there&rsquo;s unique global content coming in &hellip; that&rsquo;s conducive to bringing new users onto the platform,&rdquo; Costolo said, in conversation with Kara Swisher at the inaugural <a href="http://recode.net/event-coverage/code-conference-2014/"><strong>Code Conference</strong></a> in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s one of the axes that we&rsquo;re investing in to continue to drive growth.&rdquo;</p>

<p>That description is a little murky, but picture this: Ellen DeGeneres <a href="https://recode.net/2014/03/02/ellen-degeneres-selfie-ishness-at-the-oscars/">takes an Oscar-night selfie</a> with a bunch of celebrities and posts it to Twitter. It gets picked up by virtually every major media site, all of which embed the tweet onto their Web pages. And that exposes Twitter to tons of new people who may not use the service.</p>

<p>That&rsquo;s good for Twitter, and it&rsquo;s good for celebrities like Ryan Seacrest, whose tweets also regularly appear embedded in websites.</p>

<p>&ldquo;Conversation about your show is important,&rdquo; Seacrest said at the conference on Wednesday. &ldquo;Whether that translates into a rating point &hellip; I don&rsquo;t know. But it certainly has upside to it.&rdquo;</p>

<p>Twitter is trying to improve the chances that a person who sees a tweet for the first time will sign up and start using the service.</p>

<p>It is crucial. Twitter&rsquo;s <a href="https://recode.net/2014/02/05/twitter-beats-first-earnings-but-growth-slows-at-241-million-users/">user growth numbers are moving too slow</a> for Wall Street&rsquo;s liking. The company&rsquo;s <a href="http://recode.net/2014/04/18/what-does-the-recent-tech-stock-downturn-mean-the-truth-is-nobody-knows/">stock price since the beginning of the year</a> has reflected as much.</p>

<p><small><em>This article originally appeared on Recode.net.</em></small></p>
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									</content>
			
					</entry>
			<entry>
			
			<author>
				<name>Mike Isaac</name>
			</author>
			
			<title type="html"><![CDATA[CEO Satya Nadella Talks the Future of Microsoft (Video)]]></title>
			<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.vox.com/2014/5/27/11627318/ceo-satya-nadella-talks-the-future-of-microsoft-video" />
			<id>https://www.vox.com/2014/5/27/11627318/ceo-satya-nadella-talks-the-future-of-microsoft-video</id>
			<updated>2019-03-06T06:15:24-05:00</updated>
			<published>2014-05-27T23:55:25-04:00</published>
			<category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Big Tech" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Code Conference" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Microsoft" /><category scheme="https://www.vox.com" term="Technology" />
							<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Newly crowned Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has big plans for Microsoft. We&#8217;ll just have to wait a little bit longer to see them materialize. Kicking off the inaugural Code Conference, Nadella spoke to what he saw as the future of Microsoft, including a more unified vision of the sprawling technology company, which employs tens of [&#8230;]]]></summary>
			
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<img alt="" data-caption="" data-portal-copyright="" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.vox.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/15808160/code-20140527-172956-0628.0.1489186135.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" />
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<p>Newly crowned Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has big plans for Microsoft. We&rsquo;ll just have to wait a little bit longer to see them materialize.</p>

<p>Kicking off the inaugural <a href="https://recode.net/events/code-conference/">Code Conference</a>, Nadella spoke to what he saw as the future of Microsoft, including a more unified vision of the sprawling technology company, which employs tens of thousands of people around the world. That includes the availability of Microsoft&rsquo;s services on every device, the future of the company&rsquo;s Xbox unit, and <a href="http://recode.net/2014/05/27/microsofts-skype-star-trek-language-translator-takes-on-tower-of-babel/">a new version of Skype that translates between languages</a> over video conferencing.</p>

<p>Check out the highlights from Nadella&rsquo;s conversation with Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg in the video below:</p>
<div class="video-container"><iframe src="https://volume.vox-cdn.com/embed/4f4bcd861?player_type=chorus&#038;loop=1&#038;placement=article&#038;tracking=article:rss" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" allow=""></iframe></div>
<p><small><em>This article originally appeared on Recode.net.</em></small></p>
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