By Robert Fabricant - January 10, 2012
Like many of you, I was delighted to find an Amazon Kindle Fire sitting on my desk a few weeks ago, when it was first released. My delight was heightened by the fact that I hadn't actually bought it. The Fire belonged to another Robert in frog's New York studio, Robert Curtis, who was more than happy to unbox the product with me so that we could both get a sense of the quality of that crucial "first" user experience with the product. Lest there be any doubt as to whose Fire it was, the screen immediately displayed a personal message: "Hello Robert Curtis. Welcome to Kindle Fire" (even though it was not yet connected to our Wi-Fi network).
By Robert Fabricant - December 1, 2011
Five years ago, I led frog on a journey to the hardest-hit region in the HIV crisis--South Africa. I am not talking about the South Africa of safaris and vineyards. I am not even talking about the celebrated townships like Soweto. This journey started in KwaZulu-Natal, where HIV prevalence is estimated at 30–40% of the population. What did we think we could contribute to this crisis from our studios in New York and Milan? It was a classic case of design hubris.
By Robert Fabricant - April 13, 2011
Bruce Nussbaum was right to close the book on Design Thinking. It is time to move on. Business never really got the message. What businesses continue to care about is innovation. While designers may think that innovation requires Design Thinking, that was an idea that never really stuck in the executive suite. Is “creativity” any different? Most executives will acknowledge that innovation requires some form of creativity. But creativity brings its own baggage.
By Robert Fabricant - January 18, 2011
Social networks can be fun and good for you at the same time. Coinciding with the launch of MTV’s new mini docu-series on overweight teens trying to manage their health, frog launched Tempt’d. Tempt’d is a new application from frog to help people resist everyday temptations with the support of their online social networks.
It's easy to forget the commitments you shared with family and friends in the fading hours of 2010. That's the trick with New Year's resolutions: They rarely stick for very long. We can often chalk these failures up to faults in our hard-wiring; as scientists have shown, our best intentions rarely rule the day. But over the last 12 months I've been interested in looking at how social networks might tip the balance in your favor.
By Robert Fabricant - July 15, 2010
Is the local model the only way to meaningfully engage in social-impact initatives?
By Robert Fabricant - May 25, 2010
Have "design thinking" and "social innovation" become permanently intertwined? You'd have to think so based on Tim Brown's book and the prevailing discourse at any major design/innovation conference (SXSW, PICNIC, GEL, GAIN, LIFT). There seems to be a firm belief that you can't establish any cred as a designer these days if you haven't applied design thinking to a major social issue of some sort (health, energy, education...). Similarly, it would seem that social innovation (or social entrepreneurship) is hopeless without a designer at your side.
By Robert Fabricant - April 9, 2010
By now, you are drowning in commentary on the iPad. So, let me get to the point: Don't be fooled by the fancy hardware and "magical" talk: Apple isn't really committed to tablet computing ... yet.
By Robert Fabricant - January 29, 2010
Annalee Newitz at i09 has published my favorite piece on the iPad so far, dubbing it "Crap Futurism":
"The iPad embodies, as much as possible, the mythical convergence device that technophiles have been craving for almost two decades...The iPad appeals to a very deep and longlived fantasy in the consumer electronics world: A device that does it all. At least, if all you want to do is consume media...The iPad takes us back to the 1980s, or maybe even the 1950s. It's likely to be a device that changes our future, but what that means is we're facing a tomorrow where true innovation is sidelined by a device that represents a convergence of old media and shopping."
By Robert Fabricant - January 27, 2010
Speculation is already heating up about a successor to the iPad after Apple's blockbuster announcement yesterday. If past experience is any guide the Apple team is already working feverishly to see if they can pack all of that 'magical' technology that Steve Jobs showcased on stage yesterday (multi-touch, internet browsing, fast rendering...) into a smaller form factor. While some technologists are skeptical that it can be done, others point to the evolution of the iPod and iPhone as proof that Apple will stop at nothing to make the iPad smaller and slimmer – even imagining a day when the iPad might actually fit into your pocket! These rumors are gaining steam after this image was leaked last night of secret designs for a new iPad Mini to hit the market in 2011.
By Robert Fabricant - January 25, 2010
After throwing off the mediocre display of 3-D technologies and e-books at CES, the industry is eagerly awaiting the main event on Wednesday. There truly is no spectacle that compares to the launch of a new Apple product. The formula is well-established. Everyone is hungry for the next iPhone moment and Apple's bid to squash the Kindle and reinvent the publishing business with the iPad or the iSlate tablet computer. But that is a mere sideshow. The real road kill this time will not be the Kindle. It will be handheld video gaming devices like Sony's PSP and the Nintendo DS, as Apple establishes a lock on the economics of casual gaming with its newest device.
