Ged Carroll

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  • Robot nation in China factories +more

    China’s Factories Are Building a Robot Nation – Caixin – it is amazing how manual things like smartphone manufacture is. Apple moved production to China because pick and place ‘robotic’ automated machines had been used in phone manufacturer, but couldn’t handle the jewellery like manufacturing. Pick and place had been used in Japanese consumer electronics manufacturing since the early 1980s. We’ll see if the China robot nation works out in manufacturing. More related posts here

    Google and Apple may be forced to pay more tax in Russia | Gigaom – it makes sense

    Pablo by Buffer – Design engaging images for your social media posts in under 30 seconds

    Satya Nadella is cleaning up Microsoft’s ‘dirty little secret’ (MSFT) | Business Insider – the challenge is how do you give enough cloud away to encourage trial and adoption. It was easier with package software or OS where you just targeted C-suite and management consultants. I don’t think is necessarily that negative a story for Microsoft

    Vince Vaughn and Co-stars Pose for Idiotic Stock Photos You Can Have for Free | Adweek – genius collaboration with iStockPhotos

    Fund that hasn’t picked a stock in 80 years beats 98pc of peers | SCMP – Voya Corporate Leaders Trust Fund

    What Is the Future of Chinese Trade? | Yale Global – interesting analysis of the Chinese economy

    Brands must target digital strategies to local culture in Japan | Luxury Daily – great insights from L2

    China manufacturing shrinks again in Feb. | WantChinaTimes – partly down to the timing of spring festival

    Chinese shoppers are angry that their luxury Japanese toilet lids are made in China | Quartz – which says a lot about ‘brand China’ for its own consumers

    AirCloset is a subscription fashion box startup with a twist | Techinasia – interesting wear-and-return model

    Panasonic Developing ‘VR Goggles’ – Nikkei Technology Online – interesting that they can be worn as glasses implying a major reduction in weight in comparison to competitors

  • Age of Ultron + more things

    Age of Ultron

    The latest trailer for Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron looks like a CGI feast for the retinas. Age of Ultron is part of the Marvel arc planned out for the next few years. The main protagonist Ultron was originally created by Tony Stark and then went ‘Skynet’ which is where the Age of Ultron picks up the story. More on the Marvel universe here.

    Cerrone

    Amazing documentary by Pitchfork on French musician and producer Cerrone. Cerrone pioneered electronic disco, influencing electro, Italo-disco and house music. The Cerrone ‘sound’ first came together in his track Love in C Minor. Supernature saw him replace orchestra elements with electronic sounds and the rest as they say is history. Cerrone went on to sell charting disco records, film sound tracks and live shows. His records have been highly sampled in hip hop culture. You can find more culture related stuff here.

    Range Rover Evoque

    I am not particularly impressed by the Range Rover Evoque convertible but I did like this trip through the central London section of Crossrail. It has got a James Bond movie feel to the video, which is fitting given the tie in that the brand has had with the Bond franchise films featuring Daniel Craig.

    Valuation: four lessons to take away

    Aswath Damodaran, “Valuation: Four Lessons to Take Away” – on company valuations is a fascinating talk to have on in the background while you work away. 

    Learning how to learn

    A great presentation that I wish I had seen at college on the skill of learning. I had to learn a lot of these lessons by trying and working out what seemed to work for me. 

    The idea of going back and forwards in modes is very interesting in order to help learning. The neural scaffold needs to be built over time. 

  • MWC 2015 from the Sidelines: Day One

    In covering MWC 2015 yesterday I talked about the pre-event Sunday consumer product launches. These launches continued into Monday with Microsoft revealing more about Windows 10 alongside some mid-range smartphones. Sony’s press event was notable for both its style and content. Sony took a lower key approach to the show than in previous years. It hinted in interviews that this was part of a wider strategy by the company to shift Sony’s launch calendar, from being around the latest processor updates, to leading with consumer experience improvements.
    mwc day 1
    Looking at the online conversation around MWC on Monday, it unsurprisingly dominated by consumer devices. In particular hardware specifications of the devices, which shows just how much of a mountain Sony will have to climb in trying to change the event narrative away from device ‘speeds and feeds’.

    Mark Zuckerberg’s keynote at the event looked to downplay the role of internet.org rolling web access out in the developing world. In the reality his keynote was on the fault line of a chasm between telecoms providers and internet (or ‘over-the-top web’ to use Deutsche Telekom’s parlance) companies such as Google and Facebook.

    Messaging stripping away traffic from SMS, Project Loon and Internet.org have all been factors of concern. Google’s announcement that it planned to become a wireless carrier through a global set of MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) agreements hasn’t helped either. César Alierto, chief executive officer of Telefonica talked of moving the debate from net neutrality to a wider digital neutrality in order to create a level playing field for both carriers and internet companies.

    This divide between carriers and internet companies has been characterised by Bloomberg as part of a larger US/European digital divide, with large US companies having a greater market capital that they can use to buy up European rivals and push through developments in the face of carrier resistance.

    Another gap between the US and Europe was the continued importance of digital privacy at the show. Silent Circle rolled out a more polished version of the GeeksPhone-based Blackphone and a tablet companion. Finnish security company F-Secure promoted its Freedome VPN as a way of dealing with PRISM-style internet data collection.  Finnish mobile operating system company Jolla announced SailfishSecure in association with SSH Communications Security.

    Digital privacy wasn’t only a business opportunity for gadget makers, but also of concern to telco CEOs, who where concerned that a lack of consumer confidence in privacy would adversely affect business. Vodafone, Telenor, Deutsche Telekom and Telefonica all called for policy makers to provide stronger safeguards for citizens data privacy and digital security. This wasn’t solely altruistic as carriers saw a potential role to play in helping consumers securely manage their digital identity. How realistic that might be after the Gemalto data breach remains to be seen.

    Finally, the news that caused most confusion in Racepoint’s European HQ was that Ford showcase prototype MoDe electric bikes at their MWC press conference – I know we don’t get it either.

    More information
    Rory Cellan-Jones interviews Sony on whether it should walk away from mobile (BBC)
    Why Sony didn’t announce the Xperia Z4 smartphone at MWC | The Inquirer
    MWC 2015: Google Announces Wireless Carrier Plans By Becoming A ‘Mobile Virtual Network Operator’ | TechTimes
    Telcos Demand ‘Digital Neutrality’ | EETimes
    Zuckerberg in Barcelona highlights widening US-Europe gap | Bloomberg
    Security and Microsoft take center stage as Mobile World Congress 2015 opens | CNet
    Telco CEOs see urgent need for privacy, data security | TotalTelecom
    Mikko Hypponen To Talk Privacy At The Mobile World Congress | F-secure
    Ford unveils ‘MoDe’ electric bike prototypes at MWC 2015 | CNet

  • MWC 2015 from the Sidelines: Day Zero

    Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2015 in Barcelona has kicked off, though for many of my Racepoint colleagues the event started months ago. During this week we’ll see the pay-off from preparation that involved long days and late nights burning the midnight oil.

    I won’t be there this year and so have been watching the event unfold from the sidelines.

    In contrast to previous years, MWC 2015 now has a de-facto day zero as HTC, Huawei, LG and Samsung all launched consumer devices on the Sunday. Android devices are no longer lagging in industrial design with all the smartphones launched eschewing plastic in favour of a metal chassis, or glass and metal case design; in order to provide a premium-looking product.

    Secondly wearables are improving in leaps and bounds with the Android Wear devices looking more polished than the new Pebble discussed over the previous few weeks. The Apple Watch won’t have the same gap in industrial design to competitor products that the Apple iPhone enjoyed on launch.

    HTC launched an Occulus Rift rival in association with games platform Valve. However the Vive was notable more for its clunky industrial design rather than technological disruption.

    Whist there were great leaps forward being made in product design for wearables, online discussions still centred around smartphone devices, with early adopters being focused on device core hardware – at the expense of features that provide a differentiated consumer experience.
    pr

    It was immediately apparent from running analytics on online chatter was the prominence in social as a vehicle for challenger brands to get their message across, and the huge interest in MWC launches from the US.

    country by country
    Would a device launched at the US CTIA event have a similar global consumer impact?

    There is a wider question which remains to be answered regarding the efficacy of a ‘going early’ media launch strategy at MWC; particularly when one’s competitors have all adopted a similar strategy.

    It is hard to judge the answer to this question purely on the response to the Microsoft and Sony events earlier this morning. It would be unfair to compare their relatively lacklustre handset line-up in comparison to the day before. Whilst HTC, Huawei, LG and Samsung focused primarily focused on premium devices, Microsoft and Sony featured at least some mid-market handsets.

    More information
    LG launches LG Watch Urbane at MWC, but disappoints with lack of G4 flagship | The Telegraph
    MWC 2015: Huawei MediaPad X2, Watch, Talkband N1 and N2 | GSM Arena
    Live from Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event at MWC! | Engadget
    MWC 2015: HTC One M9, Grip hands-on | GSM Arena
    Pebble Time: Hands-on with the most successful Kickstarter project ever | Pocket Lint

    All the day  derived in the charts using Sysomos MAP.

  • Singapore police + more things

    The Singapore Police issued this video where a cardboard cut-out sign warning shoplifters is brought to life, hilarity ensued amongst Singaporean netizens

    Post by Singapore Police Force.
    Disclosure: Singapore Home Team is a former client. The Singapore Home Team is made up of the different services that sit under the Ministry of Home Affairs including the Singapore Police. Guns n’ Roses Welcome To The Jungle for two cellos. It sounds more of an emotional roller-coaster this way than the original version by Guns n’ Roses. In that respect it reminds me of The Nursery remake of Haunted Dancefloor, originally recorded by Sabres of Paradise. IAB on how to get consumers to actually use an app rather than just download it. A focus on putting the core focus of the app front and centre. Being able to reengage is also important. Focus on an app to do one thing really well rather than being a Swiss Army Knife type approach to app development. Like anything else, if the app doesn’t add value, it doesn’t make a difference. I surprised to hear that apps were used as a display campaign by brands. Amazing ‘flow motion’ video that showcases Dubai. It highlights the way Dubai architecture feels like a letter from the future. This is partly due because there was little in Dubai prior to the modern city being built. More on the history of Dubai can found here. The soundtrack of the week was this great tech house mix by DJ Rolando Rolando relocated from Detroit to Edinburgh, Scotland since he became famous with Jaguar. He has his own label R3 (which stands for Roland Rocha Records) The records tend to fit into the melodic side of techno, what would be later called tech house. With the move to Europe eventually came a residency at Berlin club Berghain.