Reading List for the Weekend [20th October 2013]

While the festive season of Diwali gets nearer, gadget companies are making a scramble to catch the attention span of busy shoppers. Google has Android stores opened in India, Apple will be unveiling a new iPad (worldwide) in a couple of days. The festive season got be thinking and searching about new gadgets expected and e-commerce retailers in general. So those thoughts have influenced my curated list of 4 articles you might enjoy reading over the weekend.

1. Nexus 7 2013 – In-depth Review – While Nexus 7 (2013 version) is not available in India as yet, it probably should be released here soon. I am interested in this one and hence looked for the most indepth review of it online. AnandTech does a good job and also suggests that Google is moving from just innovative pricing to innovative excellence, a line often used to describe the products and service associated with Google.
2. TED Talks is Lying to You – Though this article on Salon is not exactly critical of TED Talks but is critical of the familiar marketing and packaging of books, talks and conferences which not just sell the idea of “creativity” but also try to sell us tips and seemingly profound discussions on “how to become creative”. The whole point of the article being there seems more literature on understanding creativity than actual literature that is creative.
3. Fasten Your Seatbelts: Google’s Driverless Car is Worth Trillions – Staying with the whole theme of Google being innovative, I looked up a good article that took a overall view of one of its most innovative experiments called driverless cars. This Forbes articles, reels of potential stats and theories on how millions of lives will be saved, better usage of land will be done, billions of dollars saved in accidents, insurance claims and fuel costs and billions of hours collectively saved on commuting if driverless cars became reality.
4. I want it today! – While the Indian e-commerce retailer Flipkart faces interesting times ahead with Amazon India becoming its competitor, it is interesting to see how innovative Amazon is as a e-commerce retailer. They have a service that makes delivery on the same day in certain US cities. Amazon is buying companies that make picking robots to become more efficient with their deliveries.

Hope you enjoy reading these posts and drop in your comments any in-depth articles you want to read next week.