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Geomerics
ARM Acquires Geomerics | EE Times – Geomerics isn’t a household name. Its a small software company that was spun out of Cambridge University. Geomerics specialises in software that helps designers, including games designers make digital objects seem more real. Geomerics is most famous for Enlighten, a software tool that simulates light in real time. Geomerics Enlighten has been incorporated in a number of games like Eve Online.
Business
Auto industry: Hybrid carmakers – FT.com – tangled web of alliances
Consumer behaviour
Shop Too Much? Blame the Music – Retailers are fine-tuning store playlists and putting them on mobile platforms to put their customers in the mood to shop.
Economics
Vancouver vs. Beverly Hills: what $4.89-million will buy in real estate | Vancity Buzz – driven primarily by Chinese property investment in Vancouver
Ethics
Europeans hit J&J, Novartis with fines in pay-for-delay crackdown – Europe’s antitrust crackdown in pharma marches on. Now, watchdogs are spanking Johnson & Johnson and Novartis for keeping a generic version of a powerful painkiller off the market
CCTV report on Starbucks triggered storm of internal dissent | South China Morning Post – senior editors see foreign firms as key targets for investigative reports. “It was not a cohesive theme, but was suggested at general meetings – the idea that we have to be vigilant against these foreign companies that are short-changing Chinese people. (Paywall)
Hong Kong
Google abandons its Hong Kong data centre project | South China Morning Post – speculation due to Google design focus on not using air conditioning
How to
UX Archive – great resource for thinking about mobile app design
Ideas
Innovation
Google Said to Mull Designing Chips in Threat to Intel – Bloomberg
Japan
Sato most common surname in Japan ‹ Japan Today
Luxury
What Swiss Watchmakers Are Doing To Deal With China Export Dip – Declining Swiss watch exports to China don’t mean that brands aren’t optimistic for the future.
Marketing
Chewing the fat with Norma Chu | Marketing Interactive
Airline customer loyalty programmes | fastcodesign – mission creep distorted them beyond what they were meant to do and they no longer help provide a good customer experience
McDonald’s turns the city into Monopoly | Marketing Interactive – really nice campaign idea
Media
European Copyright Laws Lead to Rare Music Releases – NYTimes.com
Agencies’ grasp of mobile improves | WARC – UK agency employees feel increasingly confident in their understanding of how best to use mobile, but this is not yet the case with their clients, a new IAB survey has revealed.
Mission ImposSERPble 2: User Intent & Click Through Rates – YouMoz – Moz
Mobile forecast to account for more than third of new ad revenue by 2016 | Media | theguardian.com
Online
After Setbacks, Online Courses Are Rethought – NYTimes.com – massive failures on early efforts
Digital Intelligence :: Twitter audience ‘getting younger than Facebook users’ – The common perception that Twitter is used by older users has come in to question this week, with new research highlighting how its users are on average younger than their Facebook counterparts via comScore
As China’s demand for domestic help grows, Ayibang gets funding – interesting application Ayibang – literally ‘maid help’
Software
KakaoTalk analysis | PixelBits
This is Nokia’s Android phone – whether this will last the Microsoft deal is another matter