Happy Malaysia 50th Birthday

Malaysia is celebrating its 50 years of Independence. I m proud to be a Malaysian having borned and grew up all my life in Malaysia. Its a multi-cultural nation all supposedly to be living in harmony. Its never easy having to please so many races at any one time and uniting all of them becomes the single most important task of the nation.

Its a constant struggle for non-Malays to work against the rules that are designed to favor the local Malay communities. While on the one hand the Malay-dominated government claims that its their job to ensure all communities are treated equally and fairly, its a known fact that non-Malays always have to work the extra mile to stay equal.

With Globalization, Malaysia will need to work together regardless of their backgrounds and stay ahead. Malays are non-Malays, they have to be ready for the world stage and set their differences aside. With all the natural resources and the right people to manage those resources, I cant see why Malaysia will not be able to shine on the international stage having proven to create big brands like Air Asia and Petronas F1.

Malaysia will always be my special home and Happy Birthday to Malaysia and all fellow citizens of Malaysia and check out the best multi-lingual video clip below on Malaysia's 50th Independence.

Nokia's Branded iPhone

A Nokia branded iPhone? No, its the new nokia phone for next year. It was presented during Nokia's GoPlay event as a glimpse into the future of Nokia interface design. I m sure Steve Jobs must be laughing and feeling on top of the world.

When pressed during the Q&A about the striking similarity to the little Cupertino device, Anssi Vanjoki -- Nokia's Executive VP & General Manager of Multimedia -- said, "If there is something good in the world then we copy with pride." Well, ok then. See what we mean after the break.

Not only Microsoft is copying Apple, even Nokia is doing it too. I m sure Apple's lawyers are preparing crafty legal love letters to Nokia soon.

iPhone had certainly demostrate the recipe to the other manufacturers what features good mobile phones must have for the future. Its going to be interesting to see what new mobile models others will be releasing.

China Telecom's Q2 Earnings Flat

China Telecom reported Q2 net income of 5.68 billion yuan ($752M), unchanged over the same period last year, and short of analyst expectations of 5.90 billion yuan. China Telecom faced increased competition from mobile carriers, which offer cheaper rates than China Telecom's fixed-line access.

Revenues rose 3.8% to 44.30 billion yuan. China Telecom controls 60% of the domestic fixed-line market, but not only do mobile users outnumber fixed-line subscribers (501.7M vs. 372.7M as of June '07), China's largest mobile carriers reportedly signed up ten-times as many users as fixed-line operators in the first-half of 2007. China Telecom's net fixed-line subscriber additions fell 83% in Q2 to 1.5M. However, high-speed internet subscribers increased 27% y/y to 32.2M, for a 54% market share.

Sources: Bloomberg

The Art of the Starting up

Guy Kawasaki's rules to starting up : "Make meaning and not money".
How do you make meaning? Startups must be motivated with one of the followings:
- Increase the quality of life, changing people's life and making it better for them;
- Right a wrong, finding a problem and fixing it;
- Prevent the end of something good.

Why Facebook Is the Future

I like this article from Time about facebook and I must thank Robert Scoble for bringing my attention to it. For those of you who are not on Facebook, get yourself and your friends registered. Facebook is the best way to stay in touch with others and as for me a great way to network and the best business card application as it comes with the faces that certainly help you to remember how they look. For those of you who are new to Facebook, you may refer to my earlier blog on how to use Facebook. No rocket scientist stuff, just a few clicks and you are ready to be part of Facebook.

Why Facebook Is the Future

On Aug. 14 a computer hacker named Virgil Griffith unleashed a clever little program onto the Internet that he dubbed WikiScanner. It's a simple application that trolls through the records of Wikipedia, the publicly editable Web-based encyclopedia, and checks on who is making changes to which entries. Sometimes it's people who shouldn't be. For example, WikiScanner turned up evidence that somebody from Wal-Mart had punched up Wal-Mart's Wikipedia entry. Bad retail giant.

WikiScanner is a jolly little game of Internet gotcha, but it's really about something more: a growing popular irritation with the Internet in general. The Net has anarchy in its DNA; it's always been about anonymity, playing with your own identity and messing with other people's heads. The idea, such as it was, seems to have been that the Internet would free us of the burden of our public identities so we could be our true, authentic selves online. Except it turns out--who could've seen this coming?--that our true, authentic selves aren't that fantastic. The great experiment proved that some of us are wonderful and interesting but that a lot of us are hackers and pranksters and hucksters. Which is one way of explaining the extraordinary appeal of Facebook.

Facebook is, in Silicon Vall--ese, a "social network": a website for keeping track of your friends and sending them messages and sharing photos and doing all those other things that a good little Web 2.0 company is supposed to help you do. It was started by Harvard students in 2004 as a tool for meeting-- or at least discreetly ogling--other Harvard students, and it still has a reputation as a hangout for teenagers and the teenaged-at-heart. Which is ironic because Facebook is really about making the Web grow up.

Whereas Google is a brilliant technological hack, Facebook is primarily a feat of social engineering. (It wouldn't be a bad idea for Google to acquire Facebook, the way it snaffled YouTube, but it's almost certainly too late in the day for that. Yahoo! offered a billion for Facebook last year and was rebuffed.) Facebook's appeal is both obvious and rather subtle. It's a website, but in a sense, it's another version of the Internet itself: a Net within the Net, one that's everything the larger Net is not. Facebook is cleanly designed and has a classy, upmarket feel to it--a whiff of the Ivy League still clings. People tend to use their real names on Facebook. They also declare their sex, age, whereabouts, romantic status and institutional affiliations. Identity is not a performance or a toy on Facebook; it is a fixed and orderly fact. Nobody does anything secretly: a news feed constantly updates your friends on your activities. On Facebook, everybody knows you're a dog.

Maybe that's why Facebook's fastest-growing demographic consists of people 35 or older: they're refugees from the uncouth wider Web. Every community must negotiate the imperatives of individual freedom and collective social order, and Facebook constitutes a critical rebalancing of the Internet's founding vision of unfettered electronic liberty. Of course, it is possible to misbehave on Facebook--it's just self-defeating. Unlike the Internet, Facebook is structured around an opt-in philosophy; people have to consent to have contact with or even see others on the network. If you're annoying folks, you'll essentially cease to exist, as those you annoy drop you off the grid.

Facebook has taken steps this year to expand its functionality by allowing outside developers to create applications that integrate with its pages, which brings with it expanded opportunities for abuse. (No doubt Griffith is hard at work on FacebookScanner.) But it has also hung on doggedly to its core insight: that the most important function of a social network is connecting people and that its second most important function is keeping them apart.

By LEV GROSSMAN

10 steps to unlock the iPhone

One smart 17 year old kid 10 steps One iPhone unlocked! And this is why walled gardens will never work! They are way too many good hackers out there ever ready to break any codes. Awesome stuff!

There goes the exclusive deal AT&T signed with Apple. I wonder how will this affect the exclusive European deals that the mobile operators had signed with Apple. Don't think it will have much impact as Apple's iPhone is too big a brand to miss. It will definitely help to draw new subscribers to them.

Below is a video clip of the smart New Jersey teen, George Hotz, who has shot to stardom by setting up a blog post and video about how he'd become the first to hack into Apple's iPhone, unlock it from AT&T's network, and use it on T-Mobile's GSM network -- which also means it could be used on any GSM network worldwide. It will be fascinating to see what happens to Hotz next.

Wouldnt this be a great way to fly?

With Virgin America launching its all new cabin that looks a little like iPod and prodiving state of the art communication, other airlines would need to work harder to compete. Check out the video below and it might just be the new way to for them to compete with Virgin. I would rate Lynx the best airline in the world if it ever existed.

ZunePhone from Microsoft to be released soon

Caught this video at YouTube... taking a piss at Microsoft Zune Phone. Doubt if they will ever make a phone as sexy as the iPhone.

Great Shadow Puppetry

This has to be the finest Shadow Puppetry i have ever seen with Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" song playing on the background. You are guaranteed to love it. Check out the video clip below.

China's Mobile Phone User Population Tops 500 Million

The latest statistics from China's Ministry of Information Industry shows that by the end of July 2007, the mobile phone users had surpassed 508 million.

The growth had been complemented by the mobile operators' drive to improve coverage in rural market and the adoption of the one-way charging. Up to end of July 2007, there had been an increase of 47.482 million mobile phone users in comparison to end of last year, increasing by 6.783 million monthly. There seems to be no stopping on the growth of mobile users in China.

iPhone Secures 3 Major Operators in Europe

The exclusive contract was signed by T-Mobile of Germany, Orange of France and O2 in the UK. Whats unique about this deal is that manufacturer of handset has been given for the first time a direct share of the revenues a mobile phone operator makes from calls and data transfers, marking a shift in the relationship between the parties. Until now, mobile operators have campaigned fiercely against such an approach, but industry experts expect that Apple’s success in securing the deals could spur other handset manufacturers to try to secure similar terms.

Mobile operators are said to be hoping for a significant boost in their image from the exclusive deal with Apple, as well as a pool of attractive customers with high rates of spending on calls and data transfers. iPhone had certainly played a significant role in increasing the sign up rates for AT&T in the US and had also uplifted their inferior image too.

iPhone is a class above the rest as its a device that had no subsidy from the operator from day 1. AT&T had bundled it with a 2 years contract in the US and I m sure its almost risk free for the 3 operators as they will be following similar strategy in Europe. iPhone sells by itself! The deal in Asia should be inked soon too as the wait for me seems to be forever.

Facebook on iPhone

Facebook apps on iPhone. Pretty cool and nice and I m sure you will agree with me once you check out the video clip below. Those Facebook's guys had definitely came out with killer app for iPhone. More reason for me to get hold of an iPhone when its released in China. I had almost no excuse not having an iPhone having seen this clip myself.

It is intuitive, has simple navigation, and was just a dream to play with. I am quite impressed with the simplicity of design and overall performance of the application. These are not easy things to accomplish when taking a website and making it available on a mobile device.

With the iPhone facebook application you can access the following: News Feed, Events, Friend Requests, Profile, Info, Walls, Photos, Friends, email (sent, delete, send), Friend status, friends online, friends photos, search for friends, etc. You can quickly drill down into almost every area effortlessly. This is a dream to use and is very efficient. Have Fun!

You can get to the facebook iPhone application at: http://iphone.facebook.com/



Video Courtesy of Rodney Rumford

YouTube - In-Video Advertising

Given that in video advertising is the hot topic these days, this video clip is interesting and shows how Google had nicely incorporated the ad on YouTube. Someone spotted what seems to be a test ad format - which was swiftly removed. A recent WSJ article (reg req.) covers this topic in more detail.

Guy Kawasaki 10-20-30 Rule for making a Powerpoint Presentation

Simple guidelines for preparing good presentation :

1. No more than 10 slides for each presentation;

2. Speak no longer than 20 minutes even if you are given a longer time to speak; and

3. Make sure the font size is 30 points.

71 million mobile phones sold in China in 1st half of 2007

Nokia, Motorola and Samsung accounted for 61.4% of the overall mobile phone market in the first half of 2007, up almost 9% year-on-year, according to figures from CCID Consulting.

Nokia and Motorola both saw a notable rise in their market shares -- their combined share rose almost 10% and this is due to the two companies focus in the low-end mobile phone market in the first half of 2007. Lenovo, in fourth place, is the leading homegrown brand with a 5.7% share, slightly ahead of Sony Ericsson's 4.9% share.

Nokia and Motorola accounted for 57% of the market of mobile phones priced between RMB 500-700. Their share of the market of mobile phones priced under RMB 500 reached as high as 70%.

More than 71 million mobile phone sets were sold in China in the first half of 2007, a 25% rise on the year-earlier first half. Revenues rose just 5.5% year-on-year to RMB 85 billion in the first half of 2007.

World Largest Mobile Operator China Mobile Increases 22% of Revenue

China Mobile today posted a sizeable hike in its operating revenue in the first half of 2007, to RMB166,580 billion ($22 billion) an increase of 21.6 percent over the same period last year. EBITDA and profit attributable to shareholders reached RMB89,814 billion and RMB37,907 billion respectively, representing an increase of 14.6 per cent. and 25.7 per cent. Total subscribers as of June 30, 2007 are 332,378,000,000, as the company shifted its focus to more growth in rural markets.

--Boost in non-voice products: Value-added services revenue grew by 35.5 percent to RMB41,915 billion ($5,516,220,306). In total VAS makes up 25.2 percent of China Mobile’s total operating revenue.

--Even if ringtone revenues are leveling off in some markets, there is no sign of this happening yet in China, as the VAS that saw the most growth was China Mobiles “Color Ring” ringtone service, which went up to RMB5.027 billion ($661,708,569)—a whopping growth off 90.3 percent of the first half of last year. WAP revenue was up by 45.8 percent to RMB4.435 billion ($583,781,535); MMS was up by 76 percent to RMB713 million ($93.8 million).

--Mobile music also saw huge growth: In a market rife with piracy, China Mobile and other operators are being wooed big-time by record labels who believe they may be the one last outpost against their ongoing copyright infringement wars. It looks to be paying off for now: CHL’s mobile music service picked up 31 million customers in the last six months, bringing the total number of subs to 48 million. Premium subscribers now total 22 million.

China already has the world's largest number of mobile phone users and the market is expected to grow rapidly in coming years as incomes rise. Chinese mobile phone subscribers should reach 520 million this year, up from 460 million in 2006 and it should exceed 600 million by 2010.

Source : China Mobile's Presentation and Press release on its Interim Results

Headline News : iPhone 100% Unlocked

As predicted, some genious geeks had finally managed to find the complete hack to unlock the Apple's iPhone. It surely had taken longer than expected but we are all in for a real treat from now onwards. It was previously unlocked as a camera and MP3 player, but now it can be completely unlocked and used as a phone on any network.

The new method of unlocking does require you to purchase a TurboSIM card from Bladox for about $80 but surprise, surprise they are now out of stock!!

Nintendo Wii inching on Xbox 360

Latest stats from VG Chartz which provides a broad overview of the console and handheld market in Japan, North America and the rest of the world.

The most important finding is that the Nintendo Wii is just inches away from overtaking the Xbox 360. Microsoft’s next gen console has been in the market much longer than the Wii and can’t seem to penetrate the Japanese market. “fun” is certainly beating out “graphics” by long shot.

I m a big fan of the PS 1, 2 and of course the PSP but somehow it just stopped there after trying out the Wii, its just awesome, simple and fun to play with unlike the more complicated PS 3 games. After a long day at work, what you need is a console that the whole family can play and Wii is surely the choice for me.

And if you want fun and mobile together, you can’t go wrong with the Nintendo DS. Thats why Nintendo is doing amazingly well and the stats above confirm it.

China has the highest online book-purchasing rate in the world

On-line shopping is growing rapidly in China, and more and more Chinese are buying books on the net.

About 63 percent of Chinese Internet users had made online purchases and 56 percent of the purchasers had bought reading materials, the highest ratio in the world, said the report issued by AC Nielsen Consulting Group, a leading world marketing information company in late 2005.

"The figure hasn't been updated yet, but the rate is definitely going higher," said Li Guoqing, CEO of Dangdang.com, China's biggest online bookseller.

Many chinese are buying online simply because its much cheaper than buying from the traditional retail bookshops. Many would go to these shops and check out the books and later order it online as its usually 20-25% cheaper. Furthermore online stores usually have more choices than the traditional ones.

A fierce "price war" is taking shape between traditional bookstores and their online counterparts. Faced with the low-cost advantage of online bookstores, traditional ones can do nothing but lower the prices.

"It is still too early to tell whether online bookstores will win the war,"Huang Yuhai, the chairman of 99read.com said. "The total sales volume of three online bookstores including Dangdang.com, Joyo.com and 99read.com reached 500 million yuan (about 66.7 million U.S. dollars), taking up only 2 percent of the book market in China while Amazon.com alone holds 40 percent to 50 percent of the American market.

"Established in 1999 and 2000 respectively, Dangdang.com and Joyo.com are China's leading online shopping platforms. Though Dangdang claimed its clients increased more than 100 percent in each of the past six years, it still remains unprofitable. Its main rival Joyo, which has been acquired by Amazon .com, is also operating in the red.

14 years old Prodigy, Daniel Brusilovsky interviewed Twitter's CEO

My good friend, a 14 years old prodigy Daniel Brusilovsky had recently interviewed Twitter's CEO, Biz Stone at Apple Universe. A terrific podcast done by a really young and dynamic Daniel. He had asked several good questions and I m sure it must had caught Biz by surprise too. That should keep Biz thinking about how to make Twitter better for all of us. This is the link to Daniel's Apple Universe Podcast with Twitter.

They both had touched on several areas including how Biz got started with Twitter and what Twitter would be in 5-10 years from now. Biz has a good take on how Twitter is mashing up with both online and mobile social networks. Check it out and do comment on Daniel's podcast. Daniel was also recently interviewed by Robert Scobble and just in case if you havent seen it yet, check out the video clip below. This young man is definitely on my radar. Keep up the good work Daniel.

Nokia is No. 1, Motorola slipped to No. 3

Nokia is No 1 with Motorola slipping to third place in the handset manufacturer world rankings during Q2 2007 and, according to PMN’s Handset Industry Insight service and it risks falling to fourth in Q3. Samsung has already surpassed Motorola as the world’s second largest manufacturer by unit shipments, moving 37.4m handsets in Q207, up 48.4% on the same period last year. In contrast, Motorola recorded a 31.6% decline YoY (year-on-year) to 35.5m units.
Now Sony Ericsson is rapidly gaining on the beleaguered US manufacturer, posting a 58.6% YoY jump in handset numbers to 24.9m in Q207. Definitely more bad news for Motorola who pioneered mobile handset.

They had recently launched Razr 2 in the US and I m not too sure that this will help to regain their No.2 ranking as Samsung and Sony Ericsson are surging ahead with better handsets.

Nokia was the primary beneficiary of Motorola’s market share implosion, recording a 12.9% your-on-year (YOY) increase in unit shipments during Q207, compared with a 2.8% YoY increase in Q107. The Finnish manufacturer’s device volumes reached 100.8m in Q207, only the second time in its history it has surpassed the psychologically significant 100m mark (the seasonally strong Q406 period was the only other time this was achieved). Nokia shipped more handsets in Q207 than all 3 of its closest competitors combined.

Well done Nokia and I look forward to see how Nokia will reposition itself next year with a whole new organization and how it take on the high end market with the entry of Apple's iPhone.

This an extract from PMN’s Handset Industry Insight service, a premium subscription product tracking the quarterly performance of the four largest handset manufacturers (Nokia, Samsung, Motorola and Sony Ericsson) in several areas, including revenues, profits, margins, average selling price, market share and unit shipments. It is published 4 times a year and is available direct from PMN as a premium digital subscription product, priced at GBP 795 per year or GBP 395 to purchase a single issue. (+ VAT @ 17.5% where applicable). You can order on-line here.

Mobile Ads on iPhone

Pretty awesome mobile Ad on iPhone. AdMob just launched a new type of mobile ad for the iPhone. The video above shows how the mobile ad works. Instead of directing you to another page when you click on the Starbucks' banner, it immediately brings up a Google Map or pop-up that gives you the location of the stores around the area that you are located.

This new mobile ad feature takes full advantage of the iPhone environment with dynamic sizing, incorporation of google maps, graphics capabilities, etc. Currently the ads are iPhone-specific and will only show up on the iPhone. Admob had just given us a glimpse of what the future is for mobile advertising. Brilliant execution ain't from the world's largest mobile advertising company, Admob. Well done Admob.

Introducing the iPhone Shuffle

Another spoof on iPhone, this time on the Shuffle. The Shuffle practically can do anything from making voice calls, 3 ways calling, and even has mobile internet. Brilliant parody.

China's Internet market hits RMB 10.18 billion

iResearch reports that the Internet market size of China increased around 35% year-over-year and just hit RMB 10.18 billion in the first quarter of 2007. According to the research center mobile-value added services, online gaming and online advertising make up the biggest market share and contributed significantly to the rapid growth. However other industries such as e-commerce and search engine are also main contributors to growth

06Q1 - 07Q1 Market Share of China Internet Industries

The above graph shows that mobile value-added services market share had dropped about 10% since 06Q1 where as online games market share had increased to 29.8% and based on the current trend, iResearch reckoned online game market share is likely to exceed mobile value-added services and becomes the largest internet industry in China very soon.

iPhone vs Mobile Web

Forrester : iPhone Has Better Usability and Content

In the report, Forrester analyst Vidya Lakshmipathy starts off by identifying three primary barriers to the mobile Web’s success: 1) poor usability; 2) hard-to-find content; and 3) costly access. Forrester's contention is that the iPhone knocks down the first two barriers, by "bringing full-featured Web sites to a device that can handle them".

Where Forrester's view seems to diverge from Dave Winer's (and others) is that Forrester sees the zooming, "finger taps and gestures", and scrolling as a perfectly usable way of surfing the Web on a mobile device. Dave Winer regards that as "extra work".

On the content front, Forrester says that "users can input the URL of any Web site (not just “mobile” sites) into an address bar similar to those found on the desktop Web browsers they use today." That's because the iPhone uses the Safari website and also there's a Google toolbar integrated.

Here's a good pictorial illustration from Forrester of the differences between a Mobile Web experience (left) and an iPhone one (right):

Conclusion
Forrester's report concludes that companies should get an iphone, to explore the usability and content factors. But Forrester has a bob each way, because they also urge companies to "keep experimenting" with the traditional Mobile Web. They note that mobile Web content should be "timely, location-aware, and actionable" - in other words it is different to Web content optimized for the PC.

So iPhone vs Mobile Web - which is the 'winner'? As with everything, it depends on the context. If a website is nicely optimized for Mobile devices, then it will generally mean less work for the user. So the Mobile Web wins there. But taking the long view, if web designers no longer have to create different types of sites for different devices - then that is optimal for them. You could also argue that over time, it is better for users to have a consistent Web browsing experience - which the iPhone attempts to give them by using a Safari web browser. Also the "no walled garden" factor is a huge plus for iPhone. So iPhone wins on those fronts.

All in all, the iPhone has more going for it than the Mobile Web - but I think both Forrester and Dave Winer would agree that the iPhone isn't quite a Mobile Web killer just yet. Not to mention that the iPhone is only a limited release currently (it's not available where I live).

Source: Read/Write Web. An interesting article summarised by Richard MacManus from the recent Forrester Report.

Amazing Chinese Farmer builds Robots

You know, I always thought the life of a farmer would be pretty routine. Get up early in the morning and farm. Life is good and peaceful far away from the urban rat race and heck cares whats happening with technology.

Guess what, here’s one Chinese farmer who doesn’t quite fit the bill. The man learned how to build robots all on his own without any prior training or education! He uses scraps and turns them into robots.

Warren Buffett's secrets of success for Investors

Warren Buffett, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, is arguably the world's greatest investor and the third richest man with a net worth exceeding $52 billion. He is also a great philanthropist: last year he declared plans to give away over $37 billion in charity, to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Here are some of his gems of advice for investors who look at the stock market to make a fortune, culled from various publications, his speeches and writings:

• 'Never invest in a business you cannot understand.'
• 'Always invest for the long term.'
• 'Remember that the stock market is manic-depressive.'
• 'Buy a business, don't rent stocks.'
• 'Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.'
• 'Stop trying to predict the direction of the stock market, the economy, interest rates, or elections.'
• 'I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.'
• 'Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls-Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.'
• 'Buy companies with strong histories of profitability and with a dominant business franchise.'
• 'It is optimism that is the enemy of the rational buyer.'
• 'As far as you are concerned, the stock market does not exist. Ignore it.'
• 'The ability to say 'no' is a tremendous advantage for an investor.'
• 'If you're doing something you love, you're more likely to put your all into it, and that generally equates to making money.'

$4 million for 3 nights stay in the galaxy most expensive hotel

The construction of the galaxy most expensive hotel, Galactic Suite, the 1st hotel planned in space will be ready by 2012 and would allow guests to travel around the world in 80 minutes. Guests would see the sun rise 15 times a day and use Velcro suits to crawl around their pod rooms by sticking themselves to the walls like Spiderman.

The price for 3 nights stay is $4 million. The price included not only three nights in space. Guests will also get an eight weeks of intensive training at a James Bond-style space camp on a tropical island. Anybody has extra $4 million to spare??

China's stock market value tops last year's GDP

China's stock market capitalization topped the country's gross domestic product (GDP) for the first time on thursday (9th August 2007) as the key stock index hit a fresh high.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.95 percent to close at 4754.09 points, the foreign-currency denominated B-share index climbed 1.45 percent to close at 320.41 and the Shenzhen Composite Index went up 1.51 percent to 1,348.87.

That made the overall value of the two bourses surpass the 21.087 trillion yuan (US$2.77 trillion) in GDP last year, according to data from the China Securities Journal.

In the Shanghai market, 534 out of 901 stocks closed higher with turnover amounting to 138.09 billion yuan, a slide of 20 billion yuan from the day before.

Geely cars and CEO Li Shufu

China Car Times has posted a series of videos profiling the Geely automobile company and its charismatic founder Li Shufu.

Geely, a chinese auto-manufacturer has a huge ambition of rivaling manufacturers from Japan, Europe and US. Their cars are not in the US market as it could not pass the safety test yet but in China, Li Shufu, is an auto-legend and Geely is one of the largest car manufacturer here and guess what they even have their own University.

China is the world's 2nd largest automobile industry and at the pace its growing, the automobile industry will surpass US as the largest market very soon.

The above is the first installment; watch the rest of it here, where there are links to other stories about Geely.

Top Ten Most Popular Olympic Sponsor's Released

The Paris-based survey company, Ipsos Group, released the top 10 Olympic Sponsors.
Chinese people were asked which company they think is the most popular Olympic sponsor for the Beijing 2008 games.

1. Coca-Cola - 22.1%
2. Lenovo = 21.5%
3. Haier - 21.4%
4. Yili
5. China Mobile
6. Bank of China
7. Tsingtao Beer
8. Mendniu
9. Li Ning
10. Sohu

Surprisingly and interestingly, Mengniu, (dairy company) and Li Ning (a sports clothing company) are NOT sponsors at all and Adidas who is a sponsor only ranked 17th.

When the Games logo appears on a product, purchases have grown by 13.65%. Tsingtao Beer for example has seen sales climb 21.6%. The two non-sponsors saw their sales climb 13.21%. No wonder sponsorship is big business in China and it does make a huge difference.

5 billion Mobile Impressions served

Largest by impression mobile advertising marketplace AdMob has revealed that it has served more than 5 billion targeted mobile ads since its launch in December 2006. The 5 billionth ad served was on 1 August for Electronic Arts’ ‘NCAA Football’ game.

The AdMob Marketplace has grown, the company says, with the addition of new mobile websites and new advertisers and the organic growth in usage of the mobile Internet. AdMob adds that it served over 1 billion ads in July alone.

The company says the top markets by ads served are the US (45% of all impressions), followed by South Africa, the UK, India, Germany, Australia, and Israel. The top handsets used to access the ads are Nokia (33%), Motorola (14%), Samsung (12%), Sony Ericsson (12%), and Sanyo (5%).

“AdMob’s growth is a testament to the growth of the mobile Internet and proof that advertising business models are viable in mobile,” says AdMob CEO Omar Hamoui. Well done to the team at Admob and its a sign of approval that mobile advertising is definitely heading for big time sooner that expected. 1 billion ads in one month is a great testament and I m certain that they will achieve the next billion in lesser time.

iPhone New Copy and Paste feature

here's a mockup of what it might look like to Copy and Paste on iPhone, using the magnifying loupe and a second-finger tap. It's a spoof on the official Apple iPhone demo. Great user generated content and I m sure Apple will love you too.

"Black-Market Phone" dominates 25% China's mobile phone market

From January to June of this year, 23.43 million "black-market phones or illicit phones" were sold in China according to a Beijing-based Research firm. During that same time, 71.47 million licensed mobile phones were sold according to CCID Consulting, a research firm under the Ministry of Information Industry.

In Shenzhen, there is a complete and organised industry chain of black-market phones and black-market phones can be categorised into three types :-
1. Smuggled phones which evaded customs duties;
2. knockoffs of famous brands;
3. off-brand phones that use chipsets and high-tech parts without paying patent fees which such fees typically add up 20% to the cost of a phone.

Lenovo, Bird and TCL as well as other mid- and low-end makers have been hit hard. Legitimate domestic handset makers have seen their market share drop from 50% to 30% in just a few years and Chinese companies are learning what it means when someone steals their IP.

Even the foreign giants such as Nokia say they've suffered a loss of market share to the "black-market phones" in south China, especially in the 1,000 yuan to 1,500 yuan (US$197) model segment.

Apple's iPhone was sold on domestic websites only two days after its debut despite the fact that it can't be used in China as its locked exclusively to the AT&T network in the USA.

The Ministry of Information Industry, in cooperation with the State Administration for Industry & Commerce and other bureaus, has launched an investigation into the "black-market phone" in an effort to track down manufacturing, distribution and retail facilities.

Web 3.0 as defined by Google's Eric Schmidt

While many are still trying to piece together whats Web 2.0 and Google's CEO Eric Sdhmidt had launched into defining whats Web 3.0 at the recent Seoul Digital Forum . While Web 3.0 is not too far away, its still relatively hard to define whats Web 3.0. Eric's definition may not be too far out though.

Eric said that while Web 2.0 was based on Ajax, Web 3.0 will be "applications that are pieced together" - with the characteristics that the apps are relatively small, the data is in the cloud, the apps can run on any device (PC or mobile), the apps are very fast and very customizable, and are distributed virally (social networks, email, etc).

Any take on this?

Social Bookmarking in Plain English

Thanks to our two passionate people at Common Craft as they had once again came out with an easy to understand video for social bookmarking. Watch it and realise the power of social bookmarking.

If you missed them, their previous videos covering Social Networking, RSS and Wikis are worth checking out as well.

Award Winning Classified Ad in China

This article was aggregated from Shanghaiist and found this ad in the latest copy of Enjoy Classifieds. Ingenious! They seriously need an English Editor preferably fulltime too. hahaha.

iPhone changes the mobile landscape

According to ChangeWave's July consumer cell phone survey -- completed less than four weeks after the iPhone's release -- Apple's newest electronic device is changing the mobile landscape. ChangeWave had done us all a favor by boiling the results down to a series of easy-to-read charts which shows that less than a month after it was introduced, the iPhone has leaped to top of the phones most likely to be purchased by ChangeWave Alliance members.

The release of iPhone had further caused more bad news for Motorola (MOT), which has seen its share of what ChangeWave calls its "future market share" rise and fall over the past two years. The fall-off has been particularly steep since the iPhone was announced in January, as the following chart shows that Motorala future market share had dropped from 24% t0 14% in just a matter of 6 months from a high of 34% a year ago. Its really more and more trouble at Motorola and they really need to do something drastic to make up the sharp fall.

The ChangeWave survey also asked consumers how satisfied they were with their current phone, and found the iPhone registering the highest satisfaction levels of any device. An extraordinary 77 percent of iPhone owners said they were "Very Satisfied" with their device. The RIM Blackberry also received a relatively high rating, with one-in-two owners reporting they were "Very Satisfied."

The ChangeWave survey also showed that Apple's exclusive deal with AT&T seems likely to erode the market share of other mobile networks. 30 percent of survey respondents who said they plan to switch networks in the coming months plan to move to AT&T.

Even though dwarfed by the number of units shipped in comparison to what other mobile manufacturers are shipping , the iPhone is likely to have a disproportionately large impact on mobile landspcape. For one, it has pushed the envelope on industrial design and user interfaces for all vendors. For another, it could forever alter the structural relationship between device vendors and mobile operators who have traditionally controlled the mobile environment, especially in the US.

Apple has certainly altered the mobile landscape with iPhone and the onus now is on the other mobile manufacturers to make drastic improvements. Its going to be interesting to see how the others are going to retaliate. As consumers, we are all definitely in for good time as I m sure we will have access to better mobile devices with good industrial design and great user experience.

Playboy Ad in Germany

Check out the creative playboy ad below. Look out for the before and after rain effect. This billboard ad was printed on special paper, with special ink that reacts to rain.

Before the rain-effect
After the rain-effect

Skateboarder Miraculously Survived 40-Foot Fall

The slam of the skateboarder's body against the ramp caused a collective shudder among X Games spectators and had Web video watchers gasping yesterday morning.

Jake Brown fell helpless for about 40 feet on the Skateboard Big Air mega ramp during his fifth and final run in Los Angeles on Thursday night.After pulling off a difficult 720 over the ramp's 70-foot gap, he launched up the adjacent quarterpipe and immediately lost control. Plunging face first, his legs pedaling wildly, Brown turned over in the air and landed on his tailbone, with his head and limbs hitting soon after.

He was lying motionless for nearly five minutes before he got up and walked away with minor with only a slight concussion.

China Blog Awards 2007

The results for the The China Blog Awards hosted by Chinalyst are :

- Best China Business & Law Blog: China Law Blog (584 votes)
- Best General China Blog: Sinocidal (289 votes)
- Best China News Blog: The Opposite End of China (201 votes)
- Best Personal China Blog: Beijing Boyce (198 votes)
- Best Technology China Blog: Mobinode (108 votes)
- Best Travel China Blog: China Travel News (49 votes)

The China Blog Awards Best Post results are:

Best Political Post: Ill-informed Chicago columnist scares the hell out of China
Best Humour Post: Classics and a beer and the best cabbie ever
Best Advice Post: How to Find (and watch) Stolen Media
Best Language Post: Learn a Language by Taking Advantage of “Hidden Moments”
Best Feel Good Post: First day at the Barbershop
Best Rant: Why is the Confucius Institute Online Stealing Content?

Congrats to all winners.

Inspiring and Impressive 14 years old Daniel Brusilovsky

I have just watched this video interview that was done by Robert Scoble and i had to blog this inspiring and impressive 14 years old Daniel Brusilovsky. At such young age, he has demonstrated extensive technology and internet knowledge which most adults wont even understand what Daniel is talking about. Daniel had used whatever little resources and had turned himself into a Apple's evangelist and spent a great deal of time delivering Apple-focused podcast at AppleUniverse. Who said that we needed all the computing power and the best in class of PCs and network to be smart and knowledgeable, Daniel had certainly proven that all you need are lots of initiatives and passion.

Keep up the good work Daniel and you had certainly inspired me. Its a MUST WATCH video clip for everybody.

Crazy Japanese Hot Tub Game

This is a crazy japanese game. You dont have to understand japanese to know what these guys are saying as its self explanatory. The objective is to get into the tub of hot water and get the girl's boobs to jiggle. Its so funny. Enjoy the clip.

Shift Happens - Updated version

This is the updated version of Shift Happens. It was really mind boggling when I saw the 1st version and even as i watched through this updated version, it kept me pondering what the future would be like. The questions asked were very thought-provoking.

The world is moving so fast that its really almost impossible to predict what its like in 10 years from now. Its just getting faster and faster by the day. Believe me, if you were to watch this video clip again in 1 month from now, those stats that you see on the video would had changed dramatically. Enjoy the clip.

China's Alibaba confirms plan to list in Hong Kong

Alibaba is a member of the Alibaba Group, the umbrella company for Alibaba.com, Taobao.com, Alipay.com, Yahoo! China and Alisoft.com. The feisty Jack Ma confirmed that the company is planning going public in Hong Kong, though the exact date has not been set.

If the market listing succeeds, the total equity of the group is expected to exceed $10 billion, allowing the company to overtake its rivals Tencent, Baidu and Netease in value. A successful IPO is also expected to create a number of millionaires.

Alibaba's three largest shareholders are Yahoo! Inc (40%), Jack Ma and his management team (28%) and Softbank (16%). Jack Ma calls going public "like refueling a truck so it can reach its destination - to create a great enterprise."

"Making money is not the objective, building a great company is and the money will follow." Interesting philosophy of Jack Ma.

Alibaba is the world's leading B2B marketplace wth more than 3 million members from 200 countries built in just nine years.