Vein verification + more things

2 minutes estimated reading time

Hackers Make a Fake Hand to Beat Vein Verification | Motherboard – another biometric standard weakens. The big question is the cost of the hand versus the benefit gained fooling vein verification. I am quite impressed by the vein verification hack. More on biometric authentication here.

9 Chinese Fashion Labels to Watch in 2019 | RADII Media – there are also legion of domestic streetwear brands to keep an eye on due to the popularity of hip-hop culture in China

Apple’s “Color Flood”: like Picasso said | Ken Segall – interesting analysis on the influences on Apple’s iPhone X/XR/XS advertising. All I can say is thank goodness Qualcomm aren’t in the ad business or Apple would be screwed

Can Luxury Brands Tap Into China’s ‘Virtual Avatar’ Fever? | Jing Daily – reminds me of the Adidas promotion Yahoo! did as a tie into to the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Yahoo! was a FIFA sponsor (for online sports content, part of the bigger Terry Semel – ‘lets build a media company’ ethos along with ‘Kevin Sites in The Hot Zone’ – a proto-Vice TV documentary series. Often ideas have to come around a number of times before they have their day…

Geoffrey Hinton and Demis Hassabis: AGI is nowhere close to being a reality | VentureBeat – general AI is nowhere near reality, but the amount of people who talk as if it is are legion

Chinese regime ‘intimidates critics in intellectual war against Britain’ | News | The Times – you can feel a Cold War brewing – the key difference in Chinese and western influence operations is that they lack subtlety and go harder. Which makes sense when they are used to getting their way at home

China restarts video game approvals after months-long freeze | Reuters – what’s more interesting is the degree of flexing going on by the Chinese government against Tencent. No Tencent games were in the batch of 80 approved titles

Japan’s Prisons Are a Haven for Elderly Women – Bloomberg – prisons are taking up the slack of community care

QR Codes are dead — long live Bluetooth beacons! – YNAP Tech – Medium – not convinced:

  • QRcodes are now supposed in the core OS of iOS
  • Support and familiarity in Asian apps (WeChat, LINE etc) and even the hand off between WhatsApp mobile and desktop clients
  • Bluetooth beacons size and broadcasting nature vs print materials and European privacy regulations