Thursday, 11 September 2014

Yahoo prodigy Nick D'Aloisio weighs up education and work

Nick D'Aloisio

The British teenager who sold his news summary app to Yahoo for millions is facing a major life choice as he weighs education and business opportunities.
Nick D'Aloisio told the BBC he was currently deciding between working full-time for the California-based company or going to university.
The 18-year-old has just released an iPad edition of Yahoo's News Digest, for which he acts as project manager.
He is also developing an Apple Watch version, among other projects.
"For the lightweight news consumption that we have, [News] Digest is absolutely suited for this device," he said.
"Because of the summarisation element to this app, it just inherently makes sense when you have a constrained screen.
"We've been thinking about designing the concept of taking Digest to wearables for a while now, and we're going to jump at the opportunity."
Yahoo News DigestThe purple Yahoo News Digest icon features in promotional videos for the Apple Watch
The app's icon briefly features during the Watch promotional video on Apple's site.
Mr D'Aloisio said his team had already begun work on the software before the launch event, but had been kept "in the dark" about how the device functioned.
He added that he also intended to bring the app to Android Wear smartwatches.
News Digest has already been downloaded to about 1.3 million iPhones and 623,000 Android handsets, according to analytics provider Xyo.
Yahoo would not confirm those numbers, but said that it believed:
  • 65% of those who download the app became monthly active users
  • 40% of those who download the app became daily active users

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