Return of Mao
The return of Mao: a new threat to China’s politics — FT.com – interesting how it has merged with folk religion. Return of Mao is a cargo cult for people who want to return to more egalitarian times, even if everyone was poorer. The return of Mao is probably not looking for the kind of bloodshed that the Chairman had previously wrought with 40 to 70 million Chinese killed. The biggest threat is that the return of Mao delegitimatises the Communist Party of China. The return of Mao might represent a kind of Chinese populism that views the modern party and princelings as just as much of a swamp as the government of Chiang Kai-shek and feudal landlord families of old
Business
WSJ City – Brexit Torpedoes UK’s RBS Plans – Brexit left 10 billion pound hole in valuation which was still less than the government pumped into the bank in the first place
Consumer behaviour
Deloitte Mobile Consumer 2016 – peak smartphone
Economics
Government forced to release ‘secret arguments’ for triggering Article 50 ahead of legal challenge against Brexit | The Independent – individuals can have fundamental rights conferred by acts of parliament stripped away if and when the executive withdraws from the treaties on which they are based – and if this doesn’t get Labour concerned about Brexit nothing will
Five thoughts inspired by three days in Liverpool | CityMetric – all good points that explain that whilst I like Liverpool, I haven’t gone back to live there
Innovation
The web is past peak innovation: It’s all negative returns from here | The Register – so it probably won’t lift the world out of its economic funk
Fakes, Pirates, and Shanzhai Culture | ChinaFile – great podcast on shanzhai
This is the first Adidas shoe made almost entirely by robots – Recode – More than 70 percent of Adidas’ sales comes from products less than one year old. Although this is only the beginning of the company’s robot shoemaking factories, the ability to make products on demand and as needed, as opposed to creating large stockpiles of inventory, could upend and decentralize current manufacturing processes
Luxury
The Luxury Dark Web Trade of Disneyland Tickets and Dinners for Two | Motherboard – makes a change from assassinations, drugs, firearms and child porn
Auction houses lose Hong Kong watch department heads as sales collapse — FT.com – corruption crackdowns and move to vintage pieces
LVMH’s Digital Drive Takes Time Despite Apple Hire | Business of Fashion – these things take time and Ian is smart enough to do it
Media
BBC to demand logins for iPlayer in early 2017 | The Register – pulling together data that would be handy for advertising?
Snapchat’s Mysterious ‘Snap to Unlock’ Ads Start to Pop Up | Digital – AdAge – copied from LINE and WeChat with a hint of Microsoft Tag
Mark Ritson: Facebook’s erroneous video metrics show no one has a clue about digital | Marketing Week – the shadowy box of turds and spiders that is programmatic to the increasingly complex and deluded world of digital views, the idea that digital marketing is more analytical and attributable than other media is clearly horseshit
HK Magazine to close, SCMP blames ‘dire’ English language print market conditions – Mumbrella Asia – “In the past few years, HK Magazine has been subjected to very challenging market conditions, which were especially dire for English-language lifestyle print media. Furthermore, the volatile advertising landscape, diminishing profitability from display advertising and event business further thwarted the magazine’s sustainability in the foreseeable future.” – the contrarian editorial line probably hasn’t helped either. Good magazine sorry to see it go
Online
New Yorkers Can Now Get Unlimited Uber For $100 | Forbes – $200 for the full month. All rides must begin and end in Manhattan below 125th street. Interesting the way they are trying to move to a subscription model
Security
Yahoo hackers weren’t state-sponsored, a security firm says | PCWorld – this is important because it says a lot about the way that data will be used and makes Yahoo! look more culpable if true
Software
Messages on iOS 10: Better features, worse usability | Six Colors – pretty much my sentiment on it
Project Springfield | Microsoft – cloud based testing for bugs, presumably with some sort of AI / machine learning behind it; for competitors would it be wise giving this Microsoft service sight of your code?
Technology
Microsoft’s Internet Business Gets a New Kind of Processor | WIRED – FPGA computing – interesting move
Imagination 2.0 Update Ships | EE Times – interesting turnaround plans
Web of no web
Only Select Developers Can Publish Google Daydream Apps Until 2017 | Road to VR – how many Daydream handsets are there out there?
Google Car: Sense and Money Impasse | MondayNote – ins and outs of autonimous driving
Is this the creepiest use of facial recognition tech yet? | TechCrunch – feels like a law suit ready to happen
Palmer Luckey’s politics were hiding in plain sight | Fusion – is it just me or does all feel a bit ‘Ready Player One’
Wireless
Why Samsung’s recall of Galaxy smartphones threatens its universe | SCMP – it marks cultural shift, less sure about it threatening Samsung in the smartphone business yet