Push Pop Press acquired by Facebook • Hacker News Board

Re: Push Pop Press acquired by Facebook

#31

Post by flocial » Wed, Aug 03, 2011, 1:11 AM UTC

Wow, that's just a straight up talent acquisition maybe with some patents thrown in for the impending legal meltdown. Remember the first acquisition Parakey? It was going to be a web OS of some sort so even Grandma can easily share pictures or something. Instead we got a perennially buggy Facebook iPhone app. It just goes to show how hard it is for growing companies to find good talent in the valley.

These are really brilliant people though. Must be amazing to have all those people in one building. Still, have no idea how Facebook can really bring out the best of that talent, Apple seems like a lot better place except for their old school secrecy. I guess it's hard to shine when you have two super novas like Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parakey

Re: Push Pop Press acquired by Facebook

#32

Post by startupcto » Wed, Aug 03, 2011, 1:16 AM UTC

startupcto wrote: post #26

Congrats on flipping your startup. It's pretty much what everyone is doing nowadays. Change the world... whatever.

really.. why the downvote ? can't a man be blunt on HN anymore, i have to make sure i don't hurt anyone feelings isn't this a "dipshite company" in Mike Arrington's dictionary.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/15/venture-capital-super-angel...

Re: Push Pop Press acquired by Facebook

#33

Post by statictype » Wed, Aug 03, 2011, 1:24 AM UTC

raganwald wrote: post #22

ltamake wrote: post #14

The horrible beast swallows up another good idea. :(

At least they aren’t gobbling up a generation of talented youth and putting them to work plastering optimized and personalized little text ads on everything ;-)

Well, those text ads do let us get, for free, a good mail service and an oracle that knows all and tells all.

Re: Push Pop Press acquired by Facebook

#34

Post by hboon » Wed, Aug 03, 2011, 1:26 AM UTC

flocial wrote: post #31

Wow, that's just a straight up talent acquisition maybe with some patents thrown in for the impending legal meltdown. Remember the first acquisition Parakey? It was going to be a web OS of some sort so even Grandma can easily share pictures or something. Instead we got a perennially buggy Facebook iPhone app. It just goes to show how hard it is for growing companies to find good talent in the valley. These are really…

We also got Three20. Not the best framework in the world, but it probably did more to enable iOS apps than any other non-Apple framework.

Re: Push Pop Press acquired by Facebook

#35

Post by raganwald » Wed, Aug 03, 2011, 4:50 AM UTC

statictype wrote: post #33

raganwald wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least they aren’t gobbling up a generation of talented youth and putting them to work plastering optimized and personalized little text ads on everything ;-)

Well, those text ads do let us get, for free, a good mail service and an oracle that knows all and tells all.

This "free" you speak of is something of a Faustian bargain :-)

Re: Push Pop Press acquired by Facebook

#36

Post by varenc » Wed, Aug 03, 2011, 5:55 AM UTC

flyosity wrote: post #6

Facebook is up to something really big. Awhile ago they brought on Brandon Walkin ( http://www.brandonwalkin.com/blog/ ) who is, arguably, one of the most detailed-oriented user interface designers on the planet. He's also a very talented Cocoa developer and apps that he's worked on have won Apple Design Awards. Next, they acquired Sofa, another Apple Design Award-winning design & software firm who have created some…

They also recently hired George Hotz (geohot), a well known iphone unlocker...

Re: Push Pop Press acquired by Facebook

#37

Post by varenc » Wed, Aug 03, 2011, 5:57 AM UTC

flyosity wrote: post #6

Facebook is up to something really big. Awhile ago they brought on Brandon Walkin ( http://www.brandonwalkin.com/blog/ ) who is, arguably, one of the most detailed-oriented user interface designers on the planet. He's also a very talented Cocoa developer and apps that he's worked on have won Apple Design Awards. Next, they acquired Sofa, another Apple Design Award-winning design & software firm who have created some…

They also recently hired George Hotz (geohot), a well known iphone unlocker...

Re: Push Pop Press acquired by Facebook

#38

Post by mkramlich » Wed, Aug 03, 2011, 7:26 AM UTC

americandesi333 wrote: post #5

I wonder how Mike Matas would feel after a year of being at Facebook... When I first read about them and heard his TED talk, I really believed in what he was saying, that they aspired to change the way the world reads. I believed in his revolution... So, this is definitely a let down...

It's easier to change the world after you get Bank.

Re: Push Pop Press acquired by Facebook

#39

Post by lurch_mojoff » Wed, Aug 03, 2011, 10:20 AM UTC

mkramlich wrote: post #38

americandesi333 wrote: post #5

I wonder how Mike Matas would feel after a year of being at Facebook... When I first read about them and heard his TED talk, I really believed in what he was saying, that they aspired to change the way the world reads. I believed in his revolution... So, this is definitely a let down...

It's easier to change the world after you get Bank.

Sure, it is. But Push Pop got a ton of publicity partly because of Al Gore and partly because of Mike's passionate Ted talk, so I presume they would have been able to get more than enough funding. And of course you can't change the world if someone does it before you.

Anyway, the folks at Push Pop Press, as well as Sofa and the rest of top tier design talent that Facebook have been eating up, are smart bunch and I'm sure they know what and why are they doing. Or it could be the allure of a metric buttload of money.

Re: Push Pop Press acquired by Facebook

#40

Post by americandesi333 » Thu, Aug 04, 2011, 4:52 PM UTC

lurch_mojoff wrote: post #39

mkramlich wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easier to change the world after you get Bank.

Sure, it is. But Push Pop got a ton of publicity partly because of Al Gore and partly because of Mike's passionate Ted talk, so I presume they would have been able to get more than enough funding. And of course you can't change the world if someone does it before you. Anyway, the folks at Push Pop Press, as well as Sofa and the rest of top tier design talent that Facebook have been eating up, are smart bunch and I'm…

I want to believe that its because Facebook is showing them a bigger 'vision' but this smells like $$ to me...

People can be smart but sometimes the short-term allure of happiness (in this case the payout) can harm their long-term growth and impact to the world.