Z Cloud
The final piece of Zynga’s Z Cloud revealed — Cloud Computing News – Zynga is a gaming company with the action being online rather than in the client device hence the need for Z Cloud computing platform. Z Cloud would facilitate player accounts, the sale of virtual goods and real time game play for tens of millions of game users. Given this requirement Z Cloud must be secure in nature and have extensive computing, storage and network assets.
Beauty
Chinese Cosmetic Brand BYKL Goes Traditional To Take On European Rivals « Jing Daily – surprised more Chinese luxury brands aren’t playing to strengths like this
China
A Chinese Perspective: Why Foreign Companies Fail, and How To Succeed In China | Tech in Asia
Consumer behaviour
It’s Not Me, It’s You: Consumers Breaking Up With Brands
Guitar Zero: A Neuroscientist Debunks the Myth of “Music Instinct” | Brain Pickings
Wooing the Promiscuous Chinese Consumer – Harvard Business Review
How the Next Generation Consumes Online Health (comScore Voices)
Economics
Europe can learn from Japan’s austerity endgame – FT.com – take a more Keynesian line
UK, France may lose top Moody’s rating – not terribly surprised, the increased VAT likely affected government income and the UK is inextricably linked to the EU by trade
Finance
AIG’s Benmosche: Wall Street Doesn’t Own, It Rents – WSJ – if you don’t read any other financial news this week, read Robert Benmosche’s quote
Germany
In wake of online protests, Germany refuses to sign the ACTA anti-piracy treaty | VentureBeat
Innovation
Nike Introduces Flyknit Technology | NEW YORK – TOKYO – made out of a single polyester thread woven to a shoe
How best to reduce power on future ICs – really nice article by Junko Yoshida at the EETimes
Report: CMOS in, CCD out of image focus
EU Competition Chief: Don’t Mess With Standards Essential Patents – AllThingsD
ACTA is Useless… and a Threat, Says Ex-EU Lead Negotiator – WSJ
Elpida is uncertain about its future – The Inquirer
BBC News – BAE provides details of ‘structural battery’ technology
Japan
Japan Inc. faces choppy seas
Luxury
Why Chinese Luxury Consumers Prefer to Shop Overseas | The China Observer
Savvy Chinese consumer comes of age – FT.com – want real rather than fake
China Online Luxury Market Surpasses 10 Billion Yuan For First Time « Jing Daily
Chinese Tourists Big Spenders At Singapore Airport « Jing Daily
Media
Kenny Rogers knows when to hold ’em…and sue EMI | CNET News
US Begins Process Of Forcing Extreme IP Enforcement Across Africa | Techdirt
FT and UBM built environment titles release own ‘audience’ figures | Press Gazette
The Dutch Look To Legalize Mashups | Motherboard
Piracy, the Grammys, and Why We Need to Break Up with the Entertainment Industry | Motherboard
BitTorrent piracy has no impact on U.S. box office sales, study finds
The Economist says the future of media’s in tablet form | Sub:stantial
Online
As Sure As Night Follows Day, Tencent Launches a Pinterest Clone | Tech in Asia
TelecomTV | Pride and Prejudice: Facebook’s censorship rules laid bare for all to see
Bing to embarrass: Feature lets you link Facebook friends to search results | VentureBeat – google bombing for 21st century?
Flickr Is Getting a Major Makeover | Betabeat – not sure how I feel about the view, likely to be resource hungry?
Be aware and beware Facebook rules — you could lose valuable rights | ZDNet – this could radically affect below the line tactics on Facebook
UK Minister says website blocking proposals “imminent” – welcome to a digital merchantile environment rather than a global economy
Groklaw – In Defense of Anonymous Speech ~pj – or why Facebook is wrong
Yahoo’s Talks to Sell Asian Assets Fall Apart | Business | TIME.com
CultureLab: The dark side of the personalised internet
Retailing
F-Commerce provides more proof that online traffic != customers | Excapite
Amazon planning first real-world shop: report ‹ Japan Today – potential interesting move by Amazon – kind of reverse showrooming
How Google Apps May Soon Let Salespeople Stalk You
Monocolumn – Unexpected item in bagging area [Monocle]
Online Retail Attracts Highest Number of Europeans to Date
Rise of ‘F-commerce’: Reckitt Benckiser sells new Cillit Bang product solely via Facebook (Digital Knowledge Centre – Digital Intelligence) – what is the social context that would make consumers want to buy things from Cillit Bang on Facebook?
Amazon Is Said to Have Fewer Prime Members Than Estimated – Bloomberg
Security
Wi-Fi Passpoint standard could end hotspot sign-on hassles
Going to China? Look at the anti-hacking precautions the pros take before traveling | The Verge – smart list that enhance information security in general
NoobProof firewall configuration tool
Software
China’s Shanda Unveils Smartphone Operating System – ChinaTechNews.com
An Exodus to iOS Awaits Android Market Collapse | SiliconANGLE
Windows Phone Facebook numbers hint at less than stellar progress | guardian.co.uk
HP rolls out more open webOS components, new Isis browser and some organization — Engadget
Epic’s Tim Sweeney predicts the next 20 years in gaming technology | VentureBeat – interesting take on gaming and reality from a technological standpoint
Download bots were the “well-known secret” of the app ecosystem
Technology
Apple finally talks, says Proview refuses to honor agreement to transfer iPad trademark | 9to5Mac
Google has intriguing plans at the Googleplex – San Jose Mercury News – points to more hardware products and customer group / partner targets
Semiconductor blues: Samsung may sell LCD business, Elpida faces uncertainty | ExtremeTech
When Will Apple Peak? – some interesting charts pulled together by ReadWriteWeb
U.S. Consumer Electronics Sales Reach $144 Billion in 2011 | NPD – down 1 per cent year on year
Smartphones and Tablets Fuel the Rise of the Digital Omnivore
Analyst ranks chip markets by 2012 growth prediction – surprised the DSPs (digital signal processors) are declining as much as these numbers suggest
Telecoms
MIIT Says Telecom Growth Outpaced GDP Growth Last Year | Tech in Asia – in China
Light Reading – Metcalfe to Unveil ‘New Ethernet’
Cisco: mobile connections will hit 10 billion by 2016, helped by tablet boom — Engadget
Vietnam
Taking Vietnam’s economy to the next level – McKinsey Quarterly
Web of no web
Lumus’ OE-31 optical engine turns motorcycle helmets, other eyewear into wearable displays — Engadget
Hands-on with Immersion HD Integrator hi-fi haptics — Engadget
Remember ‘If Microsoft made cars…’ jokes? – great piece on poor user experience in car design
Wireless
Qualcomm just announced the chip that would be a one-stop shop for Apple’s mobile needs | 9to5Mac
ISSCC: Intel focuses on low power, digital RF
Communities Dominate Brands: This is Delusion – Nokia CEO Elop today in interview
Google: 46% of Holiday Shoppers Used Smartphone for Research Before Buying Offline | Internet2Go – shows importance of multi-channel marketing
Communities Dominate Brands: Smartphone Final Numbers 2011 – All the stats including Q4 by handset brands, operating systems and installed bases
MediaTek moves upmarket with Android/HSPA chip – Rethink Wireless
TI packs seven radios into one chip – Rethink Wireless
Proposal for E.U. Roaming Fees Includes Global Cap – NYTimes.com
. Unlike Peter Mandelson this wasn’t the Westminster equivalent of a sordid kiss-and-tell exposé or a Tony Blair-esque sales brochure to secure speaking engagements. Instead Brown set out to do what he does best, putting on page deep thought and analysis about the knotty problem of global finances. He did an excellent job of marshaling ideas and sources in the book. His grasp on Asian economics and China in particular is very good. There is a whole section on the Asian crisis of 1998 which is well worth reading on its own.