Month: January 2021
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CES 2021
CES 2021 – the Consumer Electronics Show usually sets the tone at the start of the year for consumer-oriented technology. It usually fills up Las Vegas’ hotels and conference facilities. CES 2021 went online only. Like attending online conferencing the experience was lacking. Networking and informal conversations aren’t something that technology has managed to solve.…
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Fractured tech lobby + more things
The fractured tech lobby’s uphill battles – Axios – The fractured tech lobby is a sign of too many firms working at cross purposes. – The Internet Association was founded almost a decade ago to be Silicon Valley’s voice in Washington. But now its biggest members — companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon — increasingly bump heads…
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Traditional Chinese clothes & things that caught my eye this week
Making traditional Chinese clothes cool has been something attempted by multiple groups over the years. Shanghai Tang was founded by the former businessman, restauranteur and columnist Sir David Tang. More recently, there have been Han nationalists or fantasists that wanted to roll back the clock to before the Qing dynasty. This effort by a couple…
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Cummings effect
The Cummings effect was named by The Guardian after former government advisor Dominic Cummings. Now famous for his unorthodox approach to sight tests. The Cummings effect describes how consumers have been testing the rules governing lockdown, often ignoring the government’s ‘stay at home’ instruction. “What is happening is people are beginning to flout the rules,…
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Connected leadership + more
Connected Leadership Connected Leadership, Powered by Brunswick | Brunswick – worth a read during your lunchtime. 9 out of 10 financial readers cite the importance of social media communications by CEOs during a crisis. There were also findings that equate CEO social presence with employer brand. Reading about connected leadership reminded me of the oft…
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PDI
PDI or purpose driven innovation is Trendwatching’s approach to identifying and help clients act on ‘meaningful’ business opportunities. I think its interesting as it captures the aspirations of corporate responsibility professionals in businesses; a case in point being the steady changes that Unilever have made in their business over the past decade or so, like…
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Copycats + more things
Copycats everywhere: Hong Kong designers of popular Covid-19 mask holders dismayed by flood of fakes | South China Morning Post – Chinese businesses don’t just rip off the west and other countries, but are copycats even of Hong Kong Chinese products as well. In this respect the copyrights resemble the early 19th century industrialist in…
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Ikea Symfonisk speaker and other things that caught my eye this week
A great YouTube teardown of the Ikea Symfonisk bookshelf speaker. The speaker works with a Sonos equipped home and was designed in conjunction with Sonos. The Symfonisk bookshelf speaker is part of a range. They’re built for convenience rather than high fidelity. Don’t expect it to last long after its warranty is over. The Sonos…
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Frys Electronics + more things
The disappearing history of the Bay Area’s themed Frys Electronics stores | SF Gate – there couldn’t have been hardware startups without Frys electronics stores. As Frys goes, so does Silicon Valley and I don’t think that loss of hardware hacking is a good thing. Frys is odd and idiosyncratic, but that’s part of the…