Happiness blanket & other news

2 minutes estimated reading time

Happiness blanket

British Airways Happiness Blanket Changes Colors To Reflect Your Mood | PSFK – the happiness blanket is a nice bit of technology meets art, less sure how it works from a research point of view as being a valid output. The measurement is actually done using sensors in a headband. The blanket provides a visual cue though fibre optic fibres woven into the front of the blanket. The happiness blanket is a great cyberpunk maguffin.

Economics

Startup Incubator Economics, Revisited | Excapite – are incubators part of the problem or the solution

As China’s wages increase, so does its rich-poor gap, says study | Shanghaist – interesting challenge, explains crack down on corruption etc

Ethics

Data Science: What the Facebook Controversy is Really About | The Atlantic – the last Facebook emotional research link that I am going to post

Ideas

The Military Is About to Get New Spy Glasses – Defense One – closer to what the vision of Google Glass et al should be

A Breakthrough in the Checkered History Of Brain Hacking – Defense One – probably a little longer for the Johnny Mnemonic-style brain implants

Luxury

Why Chinese luxury consumption continues to surge | Marketing Interactive – driven by e-commerce

Marketing

Cannes 2014: PR’s Battle For Marketing Relevance | Holmes Report – interesting debate

The changing face of Facebook | iCrossing – handy infographic on Facebook

5 tips for B2B social media marketing | Marketing Interactive – nice piece for agencies

Online

Google Discontinues Q&A Services | Google System – no Yahoo! Answers competitors

Alibaba boss Jack Ma says he has never used Taobao or Alipay, and doesn’t plan to | Quartz – did Jack Ma use TaoBao or not?

Facebook Still Dominates Teens’ Social Usage | Forrester Blogs – Facebook is still important for teens with 28% saying that they use it all the time

“Buy Now” Buttons Start Appearing in Tweets. Is Twitter Shopping Here? | Re/code – Twitter follows where Weibo led

Google shuts down Orkut | Marketing Interactive – not terribly surprising. Though with all eyes on Brazil with the World Cup and Brazil having been Orkut’s lead market there is a certain amount of irony in the timing

Tencent’s SY Lau : Mobile First | Holmes Report – interesting interview with Tencent executive SY Lau on WeChat

Technology

24 million Internet-connected TV Sets Sold in China in 2013: iResearch Report – but nothing about how they are used

Web of no web

Smart Picture Technologies Turns Your Smartphone’s Camera into a Measuring Tape | TechnoBob – really nice idea

Multi-touch Haptic Display Vibrates Desired Points on Screen | Nikkei TechOn – this is exciting stuff, will change interface design