There were a ton of amazing stories on TechCrunch from 7/26 to 8/1, but here are the 11 best.
- Matt Burns wrote a piece about Xiaomi being in copycat mode. If Xiaomi is to expand outside of China, it must stop ripping off other products.
- Outrage hit the web when everyone found out about Facebook’s plan to no longer allow messaging in its main iPhone and Android apps. Users are being forced to download the standalone Messenger app. Facebook owned Instagram also launched a messaging app called Bolt that prides itself on speed, but do we really need another messaging app?
- This is the story of the first trillion-dollar startup.
- Some people think Yo is the dumbest idea ever. Others argue that it’s pure genius. This is why a stupid app like Yo may have billion-dollar platform potential.
- BMW’s new electric i3 is an ongoing case study of a legacy manufacturer facing an innovator’s dilemma in the face of Tesla.
- Ryan Lawler examines the return of the desktop productivity app. He argues that, “as connections between desktop, web, and mobile development platforms continue to converge, we’re likely to see even more mobile developers bringing their applications to the desktop.”
- The Amazon Fire Phone is the latest case of a team falling victim to group think and rationalizing their own bad projects. Every team needs a devil’s advocate to avoid falling prey to group think.
- Ron Miller investigates the most important factor for startup success. Most people tend to think startup success is all about the quality of the product idea or the founders, but the team is far more important.
- Sarah Perez argues that one of the many fallouts from our linkbait addiction is a culture too overwhelmed with content to read anything at length.
- Catherine Shu reached out to founders who have coped with depression and ask them to share their experiences and advice with their peers.
- Sarah Buhr wrote a fascinating piece about how a blue-collar town became patient zero for Google’s Baseline.
There were a number of other features that didn’t quite make the list. We reviewed the Surface Pro 3, Sony RX-100 Mark III, and the LG G3. Some of our readers were impressed by this homemade version of Google Glass, while others raved about the “Lego add-on,” SBrick. This smart shoe from India received a lot of attention, possibly because it’s going to be nightmare for the TSA. We also fell in love with this ultimate urban utility bike. To wrap things up, it will be interesting to see what happens with Internet.org‘s app launch in Zambia before coming to other developing countries (it features free access to Facebook, Google, Wikipedia, and local information). This could be an important stepping stone towards widespread adoption of the app in developing nations, and it might eventually lead to new business via data plans.
What stories didn’t make the list that you enjoyed? Do we need to start making the weekly list longer?