Versatile Amphibian

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. This week: I’m sad for Facebook and Onlive, Sony move mobile, Samsung launch dozens of products but lose out to Apple and retro nukes over Vegas Digital media I feel sorry for Onlive – the cloud-based console – in that they have great technology but have hit the market too soon to make much of an impact. Now Sony and Gaikai are together the writing is rather on the wall. To the detriment of early investors, such as HTC. http://www.zdnet.com/htc-loses-40m-in-onlive-restructuring-7000002856/ I also feel sorry for Facebook. Their earlier swagger is really being knocked out of them post-IPO. Here’s an article slating their Android app. http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-android-app-employees-2012-8 2/3 of the top grossing mobile applications are free to...

I’ve just returned from a week in Tokyo. Having just recovered from the jet lag, I thought I’d share some experiences and impressions about media and technology landscape. The first thing to say is that Tokyo is a beautiful city. It’s very clean and for the most part rather peaceful. This is helped by the nature of the traffic. Besides the ubiquitous Toyota Crown taxis, almost every other car was either a hybrid or a tiny Kei car – a glimpse into the future of European cities as fuel prices rise and taxes on gas guzzlers become ever more punitive. Beautiful or not, this year’s earthquake has had significant effects on life in the city. Since the well publicised issues with their generation capacity began, Japan has suffered with undersupply of electricity and this is manifest in the fact that none of the offices I went to were using their air conditioning. Something I hadn’t really appreciated is that modern office blocks are so well insulated that even the body heat of those inside cr...