Pinterest + more news

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Pinterest

Pinterest is an image sharing and social media service. Pinterest is designed to enable saving and discovery on the internet using images, and on a smaller scale, animated GIFs and videos. Things saved on Pinterest are organised in the form of pinboards. Pinterest feels very much like a classic web 2.0 service. Pinterest seems to have managed to sidestep IP related issues. Originally it skewed female in usage with wedding planning, fashion, hairstyles and interior design being popular. Pinterest has tried to broaden its base including Pinterest commerce integration and advertising.

The latest news seems to indicate Pinterest usage has topped out. This could be one off numbers or Pinterest seasonality.

Pinterest: An Introductory Guide for Marketers – Search Engine Watch (#SEW)

Pinterest’s Hype Bubble Has Burst, And Now It Is Actually Losing Users – Business Insider – losing the hype but probably keeping engaged audiences

Consumer behaviour

Nielsen: APAC consumers most confident | Market-interactive.com – not terribly surprising compared to the western hemisphere

The Invisible Borders That Define American Culture – The Atlantic Cities

Brand Survey Shows Economic Diversity in Asia, Affinity for Apple, Nokia | Tech in Asia

Harris Interactive: Harris Polls > Fewer Americans “Thinking Green” – interesting that green fatigue sets in. I believe that part of the problem is economic and part of it is NGO hectoring. People want solutions not relentless criticism and organisations like Greenpeace have slogans not answers

Men at Mid-Life

Monocolumn – Nation of queuers [Monocle]

Culture

French presidential candidate François Bayrou uses Konami code for awesome retro cut-scene | The Verge

Why U.S. Businesses Are Nervous About Losing Boomer Retirees | TIME.com – interesting the generations X&Y are categorised as lazy, illiterate and rude

Wong Kar-wai releases Ip Man film | SCMP.com – I can’t tell you how psyched I am that The Grandmasters is finally getting released (paywall)

Design

De’Longhi and Procter & Gamble have reached an agreement for the perpetual… – PRNewswire – DeLonghi going to make kitchen appliances under the Braun brand: this will either be the return of iconic product design or a hideous crime against quality

Economics

Rmb discontents: where’s Europe? | FT.com

Why the Wealthy Are Worried About the Economy – WSJ

What ageing Asia can do to attract talent | SCMP.com

Romano Prodi warns of European revolt over austerity – RTÉ News – sounds like Prodi expects Europe to burn

U.S. Standard of Living Has Fallen More Than 50%: Opinion – TheStreet – which explains why credit took off

Delevering in Europe Remains a Threat to World Economy | Mother Jones

CPI Conspiracy Theories Persist Even With Broad Checks – Businessweek – quality of data in US consumer price index in dispute

Finance

Millionaires More Bearish Than Their Advisors – WSJ

Dearth of Investors: Plan to Set Up European Rating Agency Under Threat – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Paying with smartphones to outpace credit cards by 2020, experts say – IDG

FMCG

Weird flavors rule: BLT chips, birthday cake Oreos, bacon milkshakes – USATODAY.com – is this more adventurous tastes or desperate product differentiation and brand extension?

In the news: General Mills launches Atari-themed cereal! | myGLOSS

Hong Kong

Retirement crisis looms for civil service | SCMP.com – two thirds of Hong Kong’s top civil servants will retire in the next decade due to a compulsory retirement age of 60 (paywall)

Harbour authority could soon become a reality | SCMP.com – looking forward to exciting architectural development in Hong Kong’s harbourside area (paywall)

Ideas

How adidas.com got designed in a user centered way | adidas Group blog

Excapite: The signal in all the noise

Innovation

Now Europe wants you to prove how old you are online — European technology news

Is Stanford Too Close to Silicon Valley? : The New Yorker

Microsoft Hires 14 Yahoo Researchers to Kickstart New NYC Research Lab – AllThingsD – its a smart move

Yole: Sony, Silex, Dalsa shine MEMS foundry ranking

Liquidmetal Inventor Atakan Peker: Apple Will Use It In A ‘Breakthrough Product’ – Business Insider

Manufacturing: The third industrial revolution | The Economist

Ireland

47 percent of Irish people have less than $130 expendable income per month | Irish News | IrishCentral – so no luxury sales there then

Japan

Japan ‘no longer a rich country’ by 2050: think tank ‹ Japan Today – due to globalisation and population change

euronews | ‘Made in Japan’ engineers find second life in China – interesting that older Japanese engineers are getting jobs with Taiwanese and domestic manufacturers in the Pearl River delta

Japan launches social network site for hooligans | Japanator.com – WTF

Luxury

Amazon Leaps Into High End of the Fashion Pool – NYTimes.com

The luxury pricing problem | FT.com – is it really surprising that Chinese consumers look for arbitrage opportunities on luxury goods? I know I do

Luxury CEOs reveal fears for future | FT.com

Digital Watch: LVMH Engages Chinese Influencers With Nowness

VW’s Audi Buys Ducati for US$1.12 Billion – Luxury Insider

Malaysia

Crisis or opportunity as factories withdraw from Shenzhen|WantChinaTimes.com – interesting that Malaysia is picked as a new site instead

Marketing

Brand Building and the Impact of Social Media

Local auto brands struggle in China: News from Warc.com – after-sales service an issue

Media

Walmart’s Vudu plans big int’l expansion – Variety

European Digital Trends – Shifting Consumption Habits – comScore, Inc

Europe’s digital chief hopes France can liberalise digital copyright — paidContent

BBC News – The Pirate Bay must be blocked by UK ISPs, court rules – and so it begins

Open source Data Journalism Handbook launched

Does “Mastered for iTunes” matter to music? Ars puts it to the test

Bing Strips Down Results Page To Make Google Look Like “Search Overload” | TechCrunch

McClureMusic.com | Japan music sales stay steady in first quarter

Hollywood Goes to China with bad results

In UK, Time Spent Reading Newspapers Online Vastly Varies by Household Income

Why Should eBooks Cost $15? | Disruption: David Pakman’s Blog

How will Chinese co-production change Iron Man 3?

Facebook Advertising: Rates Go Up as Clicks Come Down

Online

Is Facebook 2012 The Same As AOL 2001?

LinkedIn Spends $119 Million on SlideShare, the YouTube of Slideshows

Prezi zooms past 10M users, releases PowerPoint import tool | VentureBeat

bboy tracks home – download now – cool independent online music store for B-Boy breaks

CEO Scott Thompson To Cut 50 Properties: “Yahoo Has Been Doing Way Too Much” | TechCrunch

The Big Doubt Over Facebook’s IPO – WSJ.com

London Mayor Uses Sina Weibo to Win Over Voters | TechNode – going for the Chinatown vote

Revealed: How Twitter’s secret offer for Instagram made Facebook pay $1B | VentureBeat

YouTube will incorporate Google+ commenting as the company builds walls around its garden | The Wall Blog – oh the irony of Google worrying about the open web and yet trampling on it

Microsoft Touts $479M Online Loss in Q3 As Improvement

How over-reliance on social signals could ruin online recommendations | ExtremeTech

Retailing

Is F-commerce a Flop? Why Retailers Aren’t Sold on Facebook – Search Engine Watch

It’s official: Target will phase out all Kindle-branded products this spring | The Verge

Samsung Behind Apple Store Protest Telling People to ‘Wake Up’? – makes no sense to me

Starbucks China Has A Problem, Customers Won’t Leave And Often Don’t Buy Anything

Why Locals Are Lounging in the Lobby at the Ace and the Public Hotels – WSJ.com – lobbies are the new coffee shops

Security

Insanity: CISPA Just Got Way Worse, And Then Passed On Rushed Vote | Techdirt

home – help.riseup.net – some interesting technology experiments in privacy

Software

Getting started with Linux commands | ExtremeTech

Google infringed on Oracle copyrights, jury finds, but leaves key question unanswered – San Jose Mercury News

Old Software Downloads for Windows, Mac, Linux and Abandonware Games | Old Version.com

Flipboard for Android exclusive to Galaxy S III, wider availability in the ‘coming months’ (update) | The Verge – I had originally been discussing this deal on my blog because a loud-mouthed Flipboard executive I sat behind whilst I had breakfast during a stopover in Seoul. Looks like Flipboard may have not managed to do the content bundling part of the deal that they hoped to have in it

Kingsoft Network Begins Recruiting Beta Testers For Chinese Web Browser – ChinaTechNews.com

Amazon outs Cloud Drive desktop app for Windows and Mac, allows easy access to your digital wares — Engadget

OS X Mountain Lion update adds helpful ‘Do Not Disturb’ option for notifications | 9to5Mac

Google BigQuery — Google Developers

InfoCuria – SAS Institute vs World Programming Limited – software APIs cannot be protected by copyright in Europe

Report: UK open standards bungle led to U-turn – The H

LG To Pull Away From Windows Phone’s Loving Embrace, Refocus On Android | TechCrunch – thought that this had been announced a while ago?

The Dawn of Haiku OS – IEEE Spectrum – attempt to reincarnate BeOS with an OS built around handling multiple processors

Skype Reveals Remote and Local IP Address Of All Online Users

Flashing: Where the real money is in China’s phone market|WantChinaTimes.com – software installation on phones is more lucrative than making phones – think of it as kind of like affiliate marketing by services for customer acquisition

Conflict of interest forces Open Standards consultation extension – The H

Sources: current Windows Phone devices will not get ‘Apollo’ upgrade | The Verge

App Store – SayHi Translate: Use Your Voice to Speak a New Language like a Pro

Windows Phone marketing manager quits after five months | The Verge

Technology

Apple puts quality before commodity | guardian.co.uk

Pivoting’ Pays Off for Tech Entrepreneurs – WSJ.com – changing direction and fast failure

When Investors Decide It’s Time to Take Profits on Apple, Everyone in the Market Feels It | TIME.com

Foxconn to give employees chance to work close to home: Gou|WantChinaTimes.com – part of move inland by industry

I, Cringely » Blog Archive By 2015 IBM will look like Oracle – more in IBM’s business. Moving from services and consultancy to self-service and the cloud

Into The Wild: Lost Conversations From Steve Jobs’ Best Years | Fast Company

Apple: Greenpeace’s Cloud Math is Busted » Data Center Knowledge – Greenpeace picking the wrong fights

Telecoms

Watch out Cisco. Huawei’s coming! — Cloud Computing News

John Lewis touts own-brand broadband • The Register – if it has John Lewis’ attention to quality and customer service it could be a viable alternative for freelancers and small companies to business ISPs

Web of no web

Opinion: The Problem with the Tupac Hologram – The Juice | Billboard.com – seems to have hit uncanny alley

Microsoft forges ahead with new home-automation OS | CNET News – not necessarily Windows for coffee machines

Monocolumn – Are wellness and technology a healthy mix? [Monocle]

Wireless

Do Kids Care If Their Robot Friend Gets Stuffed Into a Closet? – IEEE Spectrum

Communities Dominate Brands: Are We Ready for the Numbers? Nokia Smartphone Market Share Projection 2012 ends year at 3%

Down, Not Out: Nokia Goes On The Offensive With 11 Lawsuits Against HTC, RIM And ViewSonic Covering 45 Patents | TechCrunch

Communities Dominate Brands: Big Bloated Billions Blog – The Preview to Mobile Stats in Year 2012 (plus freebie gift) – 7 billion mobile subscriptions this year

TelecomTV | News | Nokia’s outlook is BB+. Bloody and bleak with worse to come

Update: Is RIM behind the embarrassing Wake Up stunt? – Macworld Australia

Quantenna raises astounding $79M round so you can have wire-like wireless networks | VentureBeat

FOSS Patents: Google to court: Galaxy Nexus code is closed just like that of the iPhone

Nokia’s Windows Phone “bear hug” is choking the Mighty Finn | CNET UK – former Nokia employee analysis on the company

S.&P. Cuts Nokia Rating to Junk – NYTimes.com

RIM turnaround could take up to 5 years, Watsa says | Reuters

Mobile operators unconvinced by Nokia’s revival bid | Reuters – interesting looks as much about negotiating a better deal by the carriers

China Mobile Internet User Age Distribution | China Internet Watch

Moody’s lowers Nokia to brink of junk level on lower phone sales  – Moody’s also said Nokia has maintained a strong liquidity position and capital structure.

China at heart of Nokia’s miserable first quarter – Rethink Wireless

iPhone Again Represents Over Half of Verizon’s Smartphone Sales in 1Q 2012 – Mac Rumors

Google CEO: Android Not a Critical Asset – Search Engine Watch (#SEW)

Conflcting economic issues in China: inflation and economic contraction – the contraction mentioned is relative and part of it is structural as low margin businesses move inland or move offshore

Analog Still Rules: An Interview With Record Store Day Co-Founder Michael Kurtz | Motherboard – The digital experience is insular and individual. The record is more a communal thing

Hong Kong’s Breath of the Dragon « Flickr Blog – great pictures of Hong Kong

Google Seeks Billions by Boosting Mobile Internet Speeds – Bloomberg

Android Is Suddenly In A Lot Of Trouble – Business Insider – the title is overly dramatic but the article is a good analysis of the challenges that Android faces

Communities Dominate Brands: In Bloodbath News: Nokia Q1 Results: Market Share Crashes to 7% yes, one fourth of what it was before Elop Effect

Megaupload Trial May Never Happen, Judge Says | TorrentFreak

Facebook, Google Could be Told to Set up India Servers

General purpose technologies: The revolution to come | The Economist

Foxconn to produce low-priced Baidu smartphones|WantChinaTimes.com – the interesting thing about this is the impact it will have feature phone sales