Inside Forbes: We're Ready For A Different Kind Of News App -- And Our Audience Is, Too

I have this technology artifact near my desk. It was called the AOL Mobile Communicator, a small blue plastic device for instant messaging and email that was made by Research in Motion (now Blackberry). AOLers, as we called ourselves in the 00s, played with them incessantly. I often made colleagues toss them into an in-box hanging near my office door before a meeting could begin. AOL's 20 million members never had much use for them, so the handheld unit withered away. As FORBES goes about the business of product development, the communicator remains my daily reminder to avoid chasing bright shiny objects.