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What I've been reading this week


I’m of the belief that participants in the TMT industry need to read widely in order to understand the present and future dynamics of the market. To that end, this post is a collection of the articles that have caught my eye – a late posting this week as I was on holiday. Lucky me!

This week: Apple and Amazon beat Microsoft on Black Friday, Volvo goes self-drive but Cambridge warns of robogeddon

Digital media

ITN launch a citizen journalism on Youtube. Perhaps one of the aforementioned citizens can post a story about why ITN would do that. http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/itn-production-s-citizen-journalism-youtube-channel-launches/s2/a551300/

Technology

Jawbone were one of the first companies to launch a wristband activity monitoring product. Seems like they’re still learning. http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671325/jawbone-up-20-ambitious-beautiful-and-still-fatally-flawed#1

Tiresome tech wannabe Will.i.am launches an add on gadget that turns the iPhone into a camera. Unless it’s super-cheap I don’t see the point, although I’ll doubtless now be proved wrong by the power of celebrity. http://gizmodo.com/5962866/william-plans-to-turn-your-iphone-into-a-14+megapixel-super-camera

Amazon’s “Black Friday” sale in the UK yielded record sales of Kindle tablets and eReaders. These categories will be the tech’ gift of Christmas 2012 and a force for change in publishing in 2013. http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=251199&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1761390&highlight=

Nokia has re-introduced “Facebook” buttons on phones. I think this might be a good idea – it’s still faster to press a single button to jump to a function than navigate a menu. Good for Facebook too, provided it is the default setting. Most users won’t bother to customise. http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/26/the-facebook-button-is-back-on-phones-nokia-puts-social-networking-knobs-on-62-series-40-asha-205-205-dual-sim-qwerty-handsets/

The revamped Asha looks like it could be a real winner for Nokia. Here’s more details about some of the device’s features – aimed at catering for multi-SIM users and social sharers. http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2012/11/26/nokia-targets-emerging-markets-with-the-new-205-asha-205-and-slam-sharing-feature/

Intel has reduced forecasts for sales of its education tablets. Intel not a consumer brand? Who’d have guessed? http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20121121PD215.html

Galaxy Note was one of the unexpected tech successes of 2012. Samsung have managed to sell 5 million of the sub-tablets/ super-smartphones worldwide. http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/samsung-galaxy-note-ii-passes-5-million-sales-worldwide-video-26-11-2012/

Inrix is an interesting company that provides real time traffic data. The article shows Black Friday congestion – a barometer for retail sales, but I’m more interested in the increase in points of presence, all of which are collecting data that will be useful for self-driving cars. http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/26/inrix/

Breakthrough technology

On the topic of self-drivers, Volvo are launching their own in 2014. My prediction is already coming true J. http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/03/volvo-self-driving-cars-2014/

Bionics are another super-growth area. Here’s some information on different types of bionic leg. http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/11/features/giant-steps

Cambridge University are investigating whether robots will one day try to overthrow us. Glad we’re funding that out of the UK Government research budget. http://phys.org/news/2012-11-cambridge-technology-humans.html

Emerging markets

African innovators are benefiting from the reduced infrastructure in their countries according to Ethan Zuckerman. I can’t agree. It’s much better to have all the infrastructure and brilliant access to information and capital. Necessity is the mother of invention, but how innovative is your mother? http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/11/ideas-bank/africas-hackers-are-todays-world-class-tech-innovators

An excellent blog post about the divergence of sub-Saharan African economies. http://africanarguments.org/2012/11/26/emerging-or-diverging-a-framework-for-discussing

Superpower politics

Sigh. Just when you thought the Patent Wars were on the wane, Apple takes aim at Samsung once more. http://allthingsd.com/20121126/apple-would-like-to-sue-the-hell-out-of-six-more-samsung-devices/

Apple comfortably outsold Microsoft on Black Friday according to exit polls conducted in the US. http://www.slashgear.com/apple-averaged-11-ipads-sold-per-hour-on-black-friday-26258315/
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