Author Archives: vanelsas
Announcing the Appsterdam Zwapp Channel
Yesterday I was invited on stage with Mike Lee where he officially kickstarted the Appsterdam movement. Instead of a product pitch I decided to talk about the things I can do to help the Appsterdam community grow and become successful. To explain, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged App Developers, Appsterdam, Appsterdam Zwapp Channel, Zwapp
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How can you help the Appsterdam movement that @bmf just kickstarted
Yesterday Mike Lee (@bmf) kicked off the Appsterdam movement in a big room full of passionate developers in Amsterdam. He spoke of his dream, to make Amsterdam the central innovation hub for App Developers. Unlike in Silicon Valley, Amsterdam and … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged App Devvelopers, Appsterdam, Appsterdam Zwapp Channel, Mike Lee, movement, Zwapp
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Help the iOS developer community to innovate on inter-app communication
The Apple iOS platform allows inter-app communication using a technology called Custom URL Schemes. A Custom URL scheme can be used to open a specific app from another app. Try typing the URL “twitter:” followed by your user name in … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Apple, Custom URL Schemes, development, free, iOS, online, resource, Zwapp
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The competitive advantage Apple holds over Google isn’t iOS5 or iCloud
I followed the Apple WWDC 2011 conference yesterday via the live blogging service of Engadget and Twitter (wasn’t in SF at the time). You can find an overview of all things announced here. The expectations were high upfront. Everyone seems to expect … Continue reading
The TechCrunch and HackerNews effect on Zwapp
I’ve been extremely quiet here the past few months. really missed the blogging, but when you are running a small startup and doing about thirty different jobs in it, it seems blogging is just not possible anymore in the 24 … Continue reading
About the open versus closed debate: Advice to Jobs and Rubin
Steve Jobs seems to be on a crusade to defend his iOS platform against Google’s Android. The Google camp is using the open versus closed argument. Steve decides to reclaim that discussion by introducing the fragmented versus integrated argument. They … Continue reading
Posted in Android Mobile OS, Apple, Google, iPad, iPhone, Mobile
Tagged Android, Andy Rubin, iOS, Steve Jobs
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The iPad is a great social computing device
I was reading a post on my iPad about the usefulness of the iPad and I thought I’d chip in some of my own experiences. For me the iPad has a couple of huge advantages and several important drawbacks. The … Continue reading
The Wired website will soon be “no longer needed”
If you are Wired and you write an article “The Web is dead. Long live the Internet”, then you are bound to get people in the technology sector to read and respond to it. It’s a crap title for a … Continue reading
On investors, competition and decency
Part of the process I’m in now with my new company (more on what we do in another post later) is that I’m always in contact with potential customers, companies, competitors and investors about our plans. I feel it’s important … Continue reading
Life can be unfair sometimes
Approximately 4 weeks ago my mom went to visit a doctor because she had an ache somewhere. Nothing too serious, annoying and it just wouldn’t go away. It took another 2 weeks before a decision was taken to get X-rays. … Continue reading
About that one fatal mistake
[disclaimer: this post is related to my job as CEO in a previous startup. It’s aim is to learn from the mistakes I made there. I’m leaving out names as I do not wish or care to point the finger … Continue reading
My new mobile venture
[disclosure: this post is about my new mobile venture, so it may be a bit subjective here and there 😉 ] Its been really quiet over here lately. Entirely my fault, I have been extremely busy starting up a new … Continue reading
Posted in Android Mobile OS, API, Facebook, iPhone, Mobile, PinkelStar, Twitter
Tagged Android, API, developers, Facebook, iPhone, mobile apps, PinkelStar, Twitter
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With privacy there is no middle ground
Lots of posts the past few days about the current Facebook privacy issues. Mark Zuckerberg is under attack. Not just for the latest Facebook update, but also personally for an alleged chat session that suggests he isn’t very respectful towards … Continue reading
The web needs to be bigger than Facebook
I’ve thought a bit about the announcements that Facebook has just made to make the entire web ‘social’. GigaOm has a good writeup about that here. On the surface their attempt at socializing the web fits a transformation of a … Continue reading
Posted in Facebook, privacy, user centric web
Tagged Facebook, identity, privacy, user centric web, web 2.0 business model
5 Comments
Apple fanboy (or not)
[disclosure: the post below contains my personal thoughts about Apple. Don’t take anything I say for granted, form your own opinion 😉 ] The past days (maybe weeks) Apple is dominating tech news with their iPad launch, their iPhone 4.0 … Continue reading
Why trying to make add block users feel guilty will never work
Ars Technica has a post up in which they argue that ad blocking software seriously hurts their main revenue stream (advertisement). A quote from that post: My argument is simple: blocking ads can be devastating to the sites you love. … Continue reading
Google Buzz: 2 years ago
2 Years ago I wrote a blog post entitled “Dear Yahoo, Microsoft and Google mail, forget Facebook, start innovating”. Facebook was coming up strong (still is), giving headaches to everyone. And it occurred to me (and other, smarter people, like … Continue reading
Posted in Facebook, Google, social networks, user centric web
Tagged Facebook, Google, Google Buzz, social networks, user centric web
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It’s time we take responsibility when it comes to a fundamental human right like privacy
[disclosure: a bit of shameless self promotion below] Last month the BBC contacted me about a feature they were preparing for their Fast Track show. They invited me over to give my opinion on a trend where people are using … Continue reading
An open letter to Mark Zuckerberg
Dear Mr. Zuckerberg, You are the CEO of one of the most fastest growing and remarkable companies in the world. You’ve created a place where 350 million people get together online and have a great time. A place where 350 … Continue reading
Posted in Alexander van Elsas, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, privacy
Tagged Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, open letter, privacy
6 Comments
@vanelsas 
Dear HN: I am not interested in your f*cking opinion
I’m increasingly annoyed by our commenting behavior on the web. There are those that take the time and effort to share thoughts, opinions, services and content with the world, and there are those, sitting on the sideline behind a screen … Continue reading →