Growing up Habbo: My so-called life in the first social network for teens | The Kernel – gen-y journeys in computing. Memories of Habbo Hotel as an online experience and social network. Habbo Hotel gets forgotten in its role as a social network.
Chinese luxury shoppers increasingly turning online: KPMG | Shanghai Daily – interesting move to online purchases for luxury products
NTT Docomo planning to increase handset prices – so it can provide discounts to users who use less data. Which begs the question is there a ‘peak data’ point’, a limit at which phone services reach in terms of consumer desire for mobile computing versus phone services? More Japan related content here
Intel Raises Tech Worries About Sales in China and the Cloud | WSJ – (paywall)
Jawbone Raises $165 Million at Half Its Last Valuation – The New York Times – Jawbone, the once-hot wearable technology start-up, said on Friday that it had raised $165 million in funding at a valuation of $1.5 billion, or roughly half the amount that the company was valued at as recently as 2014, continuing a burgeoning trend of start-ups raising money at lower values than before. (Paywall)
Apple To Start Charging For iTunes Radio – BuzzFeed News – Apple would have to pay me to listen to Zane Lowe, not the other way around
Japan business leaders urge real globalisation – FT.com – Central to a globalised psychology, he says, is an acceptance that you are in business for the customers, something missing when Japan first started spreading its sales forces across the globe
Tackling the Tiers in China – Anyone who has any interest in China will already know that hundreds of millions of Chinese people are entering the middle classes and that hitherto unknown cities in the lower tiers
Nest Thermostat Glitch Leaves Users in the Cold – The New York Times – dumb is good. Trying to buy a dumb TV at the moment