Boris Chan
Director, Engineering @XtremeLabs and fronts @TheEatons.
email me: borisc@gmail.com
Twitter @borisc- LinkedIn
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Tweets
- Check this link instead for Google Play killing it: http://t.co/HBfFp9BaLr
- Google Play in-app purchase revs up 700% yr/yr & subs revs 2x each qtr; apps w/ latest features monetize 2.2x better http://t.co/eq12Zb0HFi
- RT @paulg: Brilliant billboard. http://t.co/LluW55hZ5Q Who knew Canadians could be so cheeky?
- RT @janamal: Twitter Apps Arrives on Google Glass - congrats @conwaychen @jle @pandemona! #TeamAwesome http://t.co/yja2inWkzX
- Heading out to SF for #io13 - say hi!
- RT @XtremeLabsEng: @Google nice backdrop http://t.co/J7ESMwDion here's what the real thing looks like http://t.co/Bdyr6azNy7 #XtremeScreen
- All these iOS 7 concept videos are killing me. It's like trying to make a better McDonald's burger by starting with the existing burger.May 11, 13 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- May 11, 13 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Society, organisations, economies reshaped by mobile: http://t.co/SvQplcoYXB -- amazing trends & data /via @tomiahonenMay 11, 13 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- RT @h4xnoodle: Book of Mormon with @borisc! (@ Princess Of Wales Theatre w/ 10 others) [pic]: http://t.co/LT4oeXQw3O
- RT @heatherpayne: Join #ladieslearningcode in #Ottawa next weekend for an Intro to Mobile with @h4xnoodle from @xtremelabs! Register: http:…
- Game 4 on the way home... #leafs @ Maple Leaf Square http://t.co/5VVEshDviL
- @zodalx we walked around the crowd. It was really busy. @h4xnoodle
- RT @fnthawar: Want to know “What It Takes to Master Mobility”? Check out our co-founder @Sundeep most recent blog post on @Wired: http://t.…
- The Hoover Dam from above. http://t.co/z8bZo3lmGu
- RT @andyyangstar: Sixty percent of our @ExtremeStartups cohort has female founders. Wasn't on purpose, just took the highest quality. http:…
- Toronto-Based Accelerator @ExtremeStartups Introduces Its Third Class http://t.co/dhNG0Nf7rV via @techcrunch
- RT @intelcanada: Intense testing from @xtremelabs. Builds go through over 400 devices for QA. #fitctoApr 22, 13 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- This is for you Landry @zodalx https://t.co/R2MBK93eOp
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Info
- Summary
Experienced in leading and growing one of the best mobile engineering teams to ship great mobile experiences for the world's most important companies. I work constantly with companies to instill foundations for great mobile design and development, especially in the consumer internet space.
Bio:
Boris Chan is a Director of Engineering at Xtreme Labs, leading their renowned and fast-growing mobile engineering team to ship great mobile experiences. His work with startups and large corporations has been featured in major publications like the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and TechCrunch. He is known as a respected expert in mobile development, innovative product development and design through working with the world's most important companies. Boris has an honours bachelor degree in software engineering from the University of Waterloo.
Experience- Aug 2012 - PresentMentor / Extreme Startups
- 2008 - PresentDirector, Engineering / Xtreme Labs Inc.
Lead and grow one of the best mobile engineering teams to ship great mobile experiences for the world's most important companies. I work constantly with companies to instill foundations for great mobile design and development, especially in the consumer internet space. I have worn a lot of hats as we grew from 6 to 200+. Led development, product managed, established our agile process, and built the practice to ship some awesome things on every mobile platform as they've been created along the way.
Education-
2003 - 2008University of Waterloo
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1999 - 2003Dr. Norman Bethune Collegiate Institute
Additional Information-
Websites:
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Honors:Developer of the Year, Nominee, Canadian New Media Awards 2010
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Posts
- Instagram's Mobile-First Design is Worth $1 Billion (or $250 million for each step for sharing removed)
If you want to add another useless metric to what Instagram is worth, they removed 3-4 steps to sharing photos on Facebook or Twitter. That’s at least $250 million per step removed for uploading photos!
But read between the lines: by creating a mobile-first social network and community where people connected through actually sharing photos and experiences by using their phones, Instagram created a better, faster-growing photo sharing experience that connected you to your friends and to people who share the same emotions as you.
-Boris
- Connected
The Well.ca team launched their virtual store in Union Station and it brought up a lot of interesting conversations about the future of shopping, and whether it would work. Canadians are pretty conservative when it comes to electronic behaviour (we still prefer paper bills).
You are reminded of how fast we can try to influence each other in this connected world of ours, but also of the time it takes to change the behaviour in different cultures. The Tesco Korea virtual store is used by commuters waiting for their trains and in a place where QR codes are much more commonly used.
- Google Accounts finally has a iOS-Friendly Login Page (Sometimes)
While Google’s made some interesting progress on giving all their products a visual refresh, logging in is still maddeningly inconsistent. Finally I see an iOS friendly version sometimes now on my iPhone:
And I don’t even see this every time I am told to sign in. Sometimes it still looks like this:
Side pet peeve: G+ also logs me out all the time on the iOS app, and I see the latter login screen. Google Accounts are complicated, but if you want to get social right, let’s get logging in right.
- It's Almost Like YouTube Knows They're The Best Music Discovery Service
- On Native and Web Apps in Mobile
Reposted from the Xtreme Labs blog.
At Xtreme Labs, we’ve developed and built some very exciting apps and we have seen the evolution of the web-enabled mobile application since the birth of the App Store. Here’s some of our thoughts on the state of native and web apps in mobile.
What Users Really Want: Web-Enabled Applications That Work
Native apps and web apps have much in common in their usefulness to a smartphone owner. The most interesting apps require access to the web, access to a user’s location and their social graph. These apps have only become possible in the recent years, due to the convergence of smartphones as: the personal computer, the hub through which sharing occurs on social networks [1] and the beacon through which we can locate ourselves in the world. For a certain class of applications, it is now possible to provide a good experience and access to the core features that users need through web applications. It is exciting to see the myriad of boundary-pushing news sites and web apps from companies like Twitter, Facebook, and Google [2]. However, there are whole classes of apps that require a native strategy to work if they require access to frameworks for features that are unavailable otherwise. Google+ on iOS through Safari is a wonderful experience, but it still doesn’t allow you to post photos. Still, the web app and the native app both deliver on a core experience that users are looking for, despite the feature gap that exists sometimes. [3]
The Native Experience
The experience that has turned apps into the selling point of smartphones comes from immersive design that transforms your device into a swiss army knife of wonders— this is the promise of apps. It’s the ability to create those magical experiences where your phone can help you find your favourite restaurant, act as your multitrack recording studio, or serve as your pocket game device all at the same time. All of this is made possible through great development platforms and tools that gives developers access to innovative hardware features and software frameworks. That’s what makes it possible to do anything from music software to game development. Developers often lament that these APIs are only on Native frameworks. [4]
HTML5 vs. Native Development: Platforms and Skill Sets Required, Distribution and Monetization Strategies
Platforms and Skill Sets
The breadth of languages and frameworks that mobile application developers need to create apps is staggering and the skills required are vastly different. This is especially true on native development, where in order to create an application on multiple platforms, a company could require developers with knowledge and experience on many different languages and development methods. As a result, maintaining codebases for multiple platforms is a challenge that small companies often do not want to tackle due to the need to maintain a lean engineering team. However, it is still nascent stage for mobile web development tools, despite the proliferation of great web frameworks. [5]
Distribution and Monetization
The App Store just announced the download of 15 billion apps. While the growth of Android is amazing at over 500,000 activations per day, its adoption of Android market is less impressive [6]. Regardless, this amount of growth and adoption from smartphone users has created an ecosystem where developers can monetize their applications very effectively. A platform’s app store provides a distribution channel that reaches the entire userbase and developers are given a myriad of new ways to acquire users and monetize. A greater concern is when owners of the platform copies your feature set and integrates it as part of the core operating system. Instapaper, a reading app that has been very popular on iOS, has been successful enough for Marco Arment to build an amazing experience around it, but even he is rethinking his strategy long-term despite his optimism from Apple creating a very similar feature integrated into Safari [7]. Certain platforms, like iOS, can have lengthy submission processes for applications, which can stall deployment and time-to-market. [8]
Future Trends
Native apps are still where the strongest experiences are, but hybrid applications are helping to bridge the gap between strong device integration and rapid iteration. The App Store on iOS uses web views embedded inside a native application, but provides a native experience for downloading and updating applications on iOS [9]. It is common to see a multi-pronged approach where a service has a website, mobile web app, and an native app to provide deeper experiences at each layer [10]. Beyond looking at a single app, the next wave of amazing mobile apps could be connected and enabled to create an integrated experience that avoids the silo effect that exists right now. Fred Wilson opines for in his blog post on The Always Logged In Experience. [11]
Footnotes
- Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that Facebook users are sharing 4 billion things a day. ↩
- Check out the web app made by Financial Times. It attempts to provide an app experience through the web browser. The Facebook, Twitter and Google+ mobile web apps all attempt to provide an app experience. ↩
- Which is why Google is still releasing an iOS app, they need to let iOS users post photos and get push notifications like on Android. ↩
- Joe Hewitt, of Facebook and Firebug-fame, is spending and dedicating his energies to bringing new tools to development in the era of mobile apps. Even he makes the analogy to trying to “squeeze blood out of the HTML stone” while Apple, Google, Microsoft and RIM all are in an arms race to bring new tools and frameworks that ease development on their native platforms. ↩
- This ACM article written by the guys at Nitobi is an interesting read on the gaps between native and web platforms. There are a host of great web frameworks that ease the development of web apps and integration to existing web services, but this is still hard. The good thing is that we’re trending towards a period of consolidation of platforms, as the market is beginning to mature. ↩
- Here’s Apple’s PR release on topping 15 billion app downloads, Andy Rubin on Android daily activations. While some developers like Rovio have figured out how to monetize through ads without driving revenue from app payments in Android Market, issues with fragmentation and payments is still being worked out. ↩
- Marco Arment discusses this in a much more elegant way than I could. ↩
- To be fair to Apple, there is a much better set of documentation and more visibility into the submission process these days. ↩
- The line between web apps, hybrid apps and native apps are getting more and more blurred as companies like Apple are deploying web approaches where it makes the most sense, and native approaches where it gets better experiences. ↩
- Tim Bray’s article on “Web” vs. “Native” and his breakdown of TripIt is a great read for this. ↩
- StartupNorth prudently points out Kik’s announcement in relation to Fred Wilson’s article on mobile “glue”. ↩
- What Tablet Manufacturers Think You Want Their Tablets To Do From The Videos They Make
Watch these videos and decide for yourself what leaves an impression on you.
Apple / iPad
“The future of computing…” “Now we can watch a newspaper… see a phone call”, focuses on the apps. You also see the device being used in real settings.
Verizon / Android Tablets / Samsung
Advertising a feature list (4G, etc.) in one, and someone trying to play an online game while standing in the Tron Legacy set in the other. People using tablets while walking outdoors.
Sidenote: I realize Verizon doesn’t manufacture tablets.
HP TouchPad
Russell Brand is funny and is actually using the device.
BlackBerry Playbook
Someone pulls a Playbook out of their pocket, and watches videos while walking. Sells multitasking even though all the tablets run multiple apps in some shape or form.
I can’t remember the last time I walked around using my iPad or Xoom or Playbook, but I do love watching videos. But again, there is the Padfone:
The videos say more than I could, but would love to see what’s else has been created.
-Boris
- Passion is Practical (My talk at TEDxYouth@Toronto)
In November last year I had the privilege to speak to some really cool high school kids from all over Toronto on Youth Day at TEDxYouth@Toronto. I wanted to tell them that it was okay if they liked things that didn’t seem sensical or practical—given my teenage years were spent divided between my love of punk rock and computers. Eventually, when I learned to embrace both, I was led down some of the interesting paths in my life, but I resisted that for the longest time. So clearly, this was something that I wish I was told when I was younger (or even better: build a time machine and go tell my teenage self this). I figure that I’d put this here now that it’s up on YouTube.
And I also left this as a message at the event:
“You will be told that following your dreams is impractical and impossible and that finding your passion is unimportant. But now, more than ever, you need to find your passion and follow your dreams because it is the most important step to take in your life. Focus on this. It is crucial because we as a society are reliant on your unique passions to solve the great problems of our time through discipline, energy and creative thinking. Our most innovative work arises from the empathy and experience of things we truly care about.”
P.S. lots and lots of love to everyone involved… and of course, the youth that made it there — showing up is half the battle.
P.P.S. talk is now on ted.com
- Spam on my mind... #TheFutureOfTheInternet
Was reading an article about Twitter and spam in the Guardian the other day and it made me think how much energy is wasted on fighting spam on the internet.
Spam degrades the signal quality on what connects all of us on the net, and is a battle that all the big companies have to fight. Zittrain talks about how the increase of spam, viruses and attacks were one of the indicators that could curb the generativity of the internet. It’s interesting that spam can affect the price of the penny stocks that they tout.
It’s hard to visualize the spam volume in my email since I use Gmail, and my email is a generic one that may end up on a lot of random lists. But my spam folder hovers at around 600-1000 messages at all times. Try to visualize 100 trillion emails and think about this: 89% of the 100+ trillion emails sent in 2010 were spam.
Even on Facebook, even with platform spam down 95% in 2010, just now I still had a friend that posted a spam story on my wall through a 3rd-party app (the good thing is that it is easy to revoke these permissions).
Mmm… spam.
- Apple and Microsoft: a microcosm of WP7 and iOS via URLs
- Partying, Partying WOOOOO - The KLF is alive and well (thanks to Rebecca Black and Ark Music Factory)
Since this blog was started in honour of The KLF and The Manual, I really have to say that it makes me secretly happy that a song went viral for being stupid and bad. And everyone that listens to it has to point out why it’s bad (even though in terms of pop music, it’s not that bad — just ridiculous… see the rap cameo after the bridge).
From The Manual on the “Chorus and Title”:
Do not attempt writing chorus lyrics that deal in regret, jealousy, hatred or any other negative emotions. These require a vocal performer of great depth to put it over well: the epic Euro balladeers or the kings of Country, the great soul men or the crown prince of hate - Johnny Rotten. You should stick to nonsense, pleasure, good times, “I wanna dance all night long, love you forever, or at least until the morning comes”, but nothing too sensual; that too requires too much performance talent. Just remember there is a difference between bland cliche and cliche and only you can tell the difference in the context of the song you are constructing.
So make sure you find a title that can be used as the opening line in your chorus and that the chorus is no longer than eight bars.
Her Lyrics:
Friday, Friday, Gettin’ down on Friday,
Everybody’s looking forward to the weekend
Partying, Partying WOOOOOOOO
Partying, Partying WOOOOOOOO
Fun Fun Fun Fun - looking forward to the weekend.
It’s genius.
- Our Interactions on the Web are Channeled Through Fewer Sources
The Department of Justice sent a court order to Twitter for account information for activists involved with Wikileaks. And Wikileaks had demanded that Google and Facebook unseal their subpoenas. It’s important to keep in mind that increasingly, all our communications and interactions on the web are channeled through fewer and fewer sources. (Here’s Zittrain on “Web 2.0 and the End of Generativity”).
- Thoughts on the Mac App StoreThe Mac App Store has launched but with a few issues. After using it, I think this will be very good for Mac OS X users.
Frustrating problems with desktop software:
- Discovering: going to an application’s website and clicking through the hoops to download (and the behaviour of not having .dmg files auto-mount when you’re not on Safari can be confusing)
- Installing: look at all the installers that have been written all over the years and weep. Even when an Mac OS X app doesn’t require one, dragging an app to the Applications folder can be a nightmare.
- Updating: since every application handles its own updating, you get things like the Microsoft AutoUpdater popping up every other time you want to use Word (at least Mac OS X has Sparkle)
Those things are enough to stop people from having the latest on their computers. On a side note,not having to worry about payments, support for installation and upgrades as a developer means more time spent on the application. And some developers, like Pixelmator, have already made the App Store their exclusive distribution channel. Will be interesting to see how this turns out on the next OS X release. - You Can Begin Any Sunday Evening...
I have an urge to blog again. Sometimes 140 characters just aren’t enough for what I’ve found or read. Recently there’s way more moments with friends that lead to “I really should be writing this down” and so this is what I’m doing.
What am I going to write about?
- observations about phones and how we interact with them
- commentary on stories about startups and on the music industry
- my life of being in a startup and being in a band
- things that point to Zittrain’s future of the internet
- occasional design and code nerdery, etc.
I want to frame my writing around doing it right vs. doing it wrong — so I’m using The Manual as a starting point. So looking forward to it!
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Posts
Go home bird, you’re drunk.
Drunk? Naw, just proving how smart as fuck they are!
Playful behavior
In recent years, biologists have recognized that birds engage in play. Juvenile Common Ravens are among the most playful of bird species. They have been observed to slide down snowbanks, apparently purely for fun. They even engage in games with other species, such as playing catch-me-if-you-can with wolves, otters and dogs.[77] Common Ravens are known for spectacular aerobatic displays, such as flying in loops or interlocking talons with each other in flight.[78][79]
They are also one of only a few wild animals who make their own toys. They have been observed breaking off twigs to play with socially.[80]
;_;
After watching that crow documentary on PBS, I’m obsessed with bird behaviours
The new Silversun Pickups album kicks ass.
Silversun Pickups - Bloody Mary (Nerve Endings)
Blur - This is a Low (live at the Brit Awards)
Love this song still… also some seriously underrated bass playing on here.
Bruce Munro’s installation Field of Light in the grounds of the Holbourne Museum, Bath
Wilco - Tiny Desk Concert
Armed with acoustic guitars, tiny amps, a desktop percussion unit and a ton of grace, Wilco plays three new songs from The Whole Love and an old favorite in a stripped-down but powerful set at the NPR Music offices.
Set List:
“Dawned On Me”
“Whole Love”
“Born Alone”
“War On War”The Beatles getting ready to take their infamous walk across Abbey Road…
Happy birthday, John Lennon!
Bob Dylan and George Harrison playing tennis together in 1969.
Most fantastic images of the day.
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Checkins
- Czehoski678 Queen St W
- Scotiabank Theatre259 Richmond St. W
- San Francisco International Airport (SFO)N McDonnell Rd.
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- The County General936 Queen Street West
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- McCarran International Airport (LAS)5757 Wayne Newton Blvd
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- Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ)3111 Convair Dr.
- Pho Tien Thanh57 Ossington Ave.
- The Wine Butler100 Bridgeland Ave.
- Casa-Imperial Fine Chinese Cuisine 名門金宴4125 Steeles Ave.
- Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ)3111 Convair Dr.
- Maple Leaf Lounge (Domestic)Vancouver International Airport
- Vancouver International Airport (YVR)3211 Grant McConachie Way
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Posts
- May 16, 13
http://m.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/05/intel-may-have-lost-the-iphone-battle-but-it-could-still-win-the-mobile-war/275825/
- May 14, 13
http://m.pitchfork.com/features/cover-story/reader/daft-punk/
- May 12, 13
http://m.techcrunch.com/2013/05/09/because-the-best-never-apply/
- May 11, 13
http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2012/08/here-are-the-things-that-are-proven-to-make-y/
- May 11, 13
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/07/30/speed-reading-and-accelerated-learning/
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Posts
Bat For Lashes - Daniel (Rx Remix)
Our favourite song of the year.
Also one of our favourite things that we’ve remixed, so far.
Lady GaGa + Spoon = Lady Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
(Don’t You Evah Just Dance)a.k.a. how a joke turns into an idea
- What we're up to...
Working on a Bat For Lashes remix. And stay tuned for some announcements!
- What is the sound of all the neurons in your brain firing off at once?
The Rx is another name for the production work of Boris and Seb from The Eatons. We started making remixes awhile back and put up a remix of Ayo Technology on YouTube awhile back. Since then, there’s been hundreds of thousands of listens, tons and tons of amazing compliments, and playback in clubs on multiple continents of this stuff that you can check out.
Enjoy! –BC & Tron
- 7032 plays
- 301 plays
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Photos
