At WWDC this year Apple essentially killed the IDFA, the identifier for advertisers. It’s not completely gone … but it’s now opt-in with a big scary warning. Now we’re wondering … will this kill modern mobile marketing as we know it? In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, we chat with Eric Seufert former VP of User Acquisition for Rovio. He runs Mobile Dev Memo, QuantMar.com, and is a consultant. What we chat about: Is this a mobile marketing apocalypse? Attribution Look-alike audiences AEO and VO: Facebook tROAS: Google Retargeting Ad-based monetization Segmentation & cohorts LTV modeling Fingerprinting Facebook & Google Ad networks SSPs DSPs

Need offbeat growth tactics for uncertain times? These are definitely uncertain times. COVID would have been enough, with its massive health and economic consequences. Add George Floyd’s murder as a flashpoint to decades of simmering racial inequities, and we’ve got a perfect storm. In the middle of all this, we’ve got people trying to do their startups afloat in one of most challenging times ever. In this episode of TechFirst, we chat with Michele Romanow, who co-founded Clearbanc, helped raised over $300 million, serves as its President, and is a star on Canada's Shark Tank: Dragon's Den. We chat about: Customer acquisition tactics Keeping your customers happy Business models Raising money while preserving your equity Hiring and team building Product development Growth (yes, even now) And much more …

Can virtual reality make your home gym less boring ... and maybe improve your workouts? In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier we chat with Eric Malafeew, former chief architect of Guitar Hero. He's worked on Mars landers and the Xbox Kinect, among other things, and now has VZfit, a VR app that makes workouts feel like a game I’ve been using Beat Saber to get a bit of a workout at home in VR. But according to Malafeew, VZfit can make your workouts better … longer … more frequent ... and more intense without you even really feeling like you're working out. The idea is that you bike on your stationary bike and, thanks to VR, go anywhere in the world … fight tanks … drive Formula 1 ... face off at the OK Corral ... and much more.

Can we really decentralize the internet with blockchain? The internet was originally designed to be decentralized ... and that’s how it was supposed to work for emergencies and disasters. Lately, it's been getting more and more centralized controlled by major corporations, as well as countries like Russia and China. One company thinks it has a solution.  In this episode of TechFirst, we chat with the cofounder and CEO of ThreeFold, Kristof de Spiegeleer, who thinks the internet should be like electricity: available and almost-free everywhere. But with a key difference: enabled by all, in a sort of mesh networking scenario. His not-so-secret weapon? "Technically we have 18,000 CPU cores and 90 million gigabytes, which is a lot of capacity. It's probably between five and ten times more than all of the capacity of all the blockchain projects together."

What are the top reasons you want to keep working from home after Coronavirus? Here's what about 150,000 people said in a survey. Time with family (34%) No commute (29%) Flexible schedule (17%) Saving money (11%) More productive (5%) Less office politics (4%) Listen to the show for the full story, or check it out in my Forbes column.

Why games are making record revenues in a recession, with Unity VP Julie Shumaker. In a recession revenues generally go down. That’s not been the case in 2020, at least for games. Games have been seeing record-high revenues over the past few months ... we'll chat about what's hot and why ... What we talk about:  - First off, what happened with games over the past 3-5 months?  - What kind of games grew the most?  - Weekends and weekdays kinda flipped. Why?  - Revenue was up … how?  - What’s different about “pandemic gamers?”  - Could you basically track COVID-19 across the world in game downloads and sessions?  - Are games recession-proof? And … the world-famous TechFirst 10 in 5 … 10 questions, 5 minutes  - Favorite piece of tech gear in your house  - Can’t-do-without-it tech that you wear  - Android or iOS?  - EV or gas?  - Mac or Windows?  - GIF or JIF?  - Favorite tech news source?  - Do you want a self-driving car or do you want to drive yourself, forever?  - Elon Musk offers you a trip to Mars. In or out?  - Alexa or Hey Google or Hey Siri?

Switzerland is the safest country in the world right now for COVID-19. South Sudan is, according to a massive 250-page report, the most dangerous nation. The United States? It ranks number 58, just behind Romania, and two places ahead of Russia. The Forbes story I reference in this episode is available here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/06/05/the-100-safest-countries-in-the-world-for-covid-19/ The full report, with methodology, is here: https://www.dkv.global/covid-safety-assesment-200-regions 

Glasses haven’t changed much in 500 years: Take glass, grind it to a shape, refract the angle of light impacting your eye … see better, hopefully. But a new Apple patent, however, seems to indicate that Apple is working on glasses that will change as your prescription changes. And just maybe … do even more. In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, we’re joined by Robert Scoble, now former Chief strategy officer, Infinite Retina, and co-author of "The Infinite Retina: Spatial Computing, Augmented Reality, and how a collision of new technologies are bringing about the next tech revolution."

Everyone in my family uses a Mac, most of them on laptops. That includes my two sons, one in university and one in high school, both of whom are doing school from home these days. So I didn’t think when I ordered a new MacBook Pro recently I’d have to return it almost immediately. And I didn’t think Apple would completely and utterly ignore the meaning of the word “Pro.” Unfortunately ... both are true.

Is 5G safe or is it dangerous to humans, animals, and the environment?  There are a lot of concerns and worries about 5G. Pictures of dead birds near cell towers. Even snake oil products to protect you … USB sticks with a "bio shield." In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, we’re going to get the facts by talking to a research scientist in Belgium. What we'll talk about:  - is 5G dangerous  - what is the difference between ionizing and non-ionizing radiation?  - how much RF radiation does 5G expose you to?  - is that dangerous, over time? How much would be required to be dangerous?  - does 5G give users more radiation than non-users?  - should we stop the 5G roll-out?  - how are you testing the effects and impact of 5G?