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CBS announced today that a totally new Star Trek series is being planned for launch in 2017. The most interesting part of the news release is that you'll have to buy CBS' streaming service for $5.99/month to gain access to it. It's a bold move for CBS to go to a subscription-only model for a traditionally broadcast-only TV network. I think they would be better off spending the time partnering with one of the streaming providers out there like Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime. I can't see spending a separate charge for potentially a single show every week. ...

Candy Pumpkins. Barf.

IBM announced earlier this week that they're buying the Weather Channel's business to business, mobile, and cloud-based properties. One of these is my favorite place to find weather forecasts - Weather Underground. I've been a user of Weather Underground and also uploading my house's weather station data to the site for over 13 years. I'm not sure what this news ultimately means for WU. NBC dumped money into the site a while back and modernized the user experience - although I'm not sure how much usefulness was added. I'm hoping that IBM buying the properties means a continued interest in open and crowd-sourced weather data source. ...

neologism |nēˈäləˌjizəm| noun a newly coined word or expression.the coining or use of new words.

While updating a few apps today, the Apple App Store is giving me this super helpful error message. Temporarily Unavailable - This feature is temporarily unavailable. Try again later.I hadn't realized updating/installing apps was a feature!

WiFi on Apple Watch!?It's not completely obvious but the Apple Watch supports WiFi networks starting in Watch OS 2.0. How does one configure WiFi to work with the Watch? It's not terribly obvious so I threw this guide together. My SituationMy Apple Watch was not configured to work with WiFi. I have both 5GHz and 2.4GHz networks in my home. I normally do not join the 2.4GHz network because it doesn't work as well as the 5GHz. I looked at the Apple Support page on WiFi for the Apple Watch and realized my situation. Apple Watch only supports 2.4GHz networks. ...

I've been noodling some ideas lately and I sort of rediscovered an idea I remembered I had from the past. Most mobile app interactions are 20-30 seconds in length (at most!). It makes a lot of sense to design an experience around these types/lengths of interactions. Some interactions go beyond that length and their design should be completely different. You know you're hitting the right area in the users' brains when you find your app is the first thing they use in the morning and/or the last thing they use before sleep. This is an incredibly powerful place to exist in someone's life.

I work for Automattic, a 100% distributed company. We rely upon meetups with our teammates to power the social aspect of our jobs and to work on short-duration high-velocity projects. Every year we also partake in a Grand Meetup where everyone gets together in one place to work and socialize. This year we were back in Park City Utah at the Canyons Resort. Here's a wrap-up of what I did during the eight days there. ...

I had a user write in to get some help clarifying a behavior with the Migraine Diary app I wrote on iOS 9. The user explained that every morning she turns on her phone and Migraine Diary shows on the screen and when she opens it, it tells her Good Morning. The little icon sounded like Continuation or App Suggestions neither of which Migraine Diary supports. I asked for a screenshot and got this: ...