![A Review of the Xiaomi M1 [VIDEO]](http://www.penn-olson.com/wp-content/themes/penn2/thumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/2011/10/xiaomi-300x218.png&w=150&h=150&zc=1&q=90)
![Apple’s Siri Can’t Understand Chinese [VIDEO]](http://www.penn-olson.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Siri-Chinese-250x250.jpg)
Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) voice recognition feature Siri, which appears on the iPhone 4S, can’t understand or speak Chinese. Perhaps it’s learning. But for now, despite most users probably knowing of this limitation before purchasing, it’s a frustrating omission. That’s probably why two young Chinese nerds made the amusing video, below, about the language barrier that stands between them and their digital assistant. Even without subtitles, you can sense the comedically exaggerated frustration at not being understood by your ...
Jan 27 2012
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Japan’s NEC Cutting 10,000 Jobs – Is Apple’s iPhone to Blame?
Some startling news coming from electronics maker NEC in Japan, who reportedly said yesterday that it will be cutting 10,000 jobs from its workforce, with most of those coming from its mobile unit. A report from Reuters cites competition from foreign players in the smartphone space, including Apple’s iPhone, negatively impacting NEC’s business in Japan. The report went on to say that NEC has cut its annual projected sales by almost a quarter to five million ...
Jan 27 2012
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Why Earth and Humanity are Doomed
Normally, I'd be looking for some news to write up right now. But during Chinese New Year, there really isn't any, so instead, let's take a second to talk about how we're all doomed. Dooooomed! OK, that might be a bit of an overstatement. But maybe it's not. This morning, given the lack of news, I was browsing 17Startup looking for a new startup to check out, and was struck by just how few tech startups ...
Jan 27 2012
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Photohoku: Helping Japan’s Tohoku Rebuild Through Photos
It’s almost been a year now since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and while we don’t hear as much about the recovery efforts in the news anymore, there are still many people working to help out people in the Tohoku area. A few days ago I stumbled across a great project called Photohoku.org (the name is a portmanteau of Photo and Tohuku), which is an initiative to help families restart photo albums, ...
Jan 26 2012
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Nokia’s Sales in China Down 40% Last Year, Only Hope Rests in WP7
The final quarter of 2011 proved to be another chapter in Nokia’s (HEL:NOK1V; NYSE:NOK) horror story in China with the Finnish phone-maker reporting a drop of 40 percent in net sales compared to the same period in 2010. According to its newly-released unaudited results, the volume of devices sold in Greater China dropped 33 percent from Q4 2010 to the same quarter of 2011. It’s nothing new for Nokia, whose sales have been trending downwards in ...
Jan 26 2012
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Infinite.ly: Nice domain, Nice Design, But…
Philippines-based Infinite.ly is an application built for brands and marketing managers to track social buzz about their companies (on Facebook and Twitter) all in one page. Co-founder Luis Buenaventura describes his startup as “a central hub for everything a small business owner needs to get started with their social presence.” The functions are very basic. Businesses can add in their Facebook and Twitter links and find all related @mentions on a single page. Users can also ...
Jan 26 2012
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Air China’s Facebook Marketing Campaign Takes Off
We’re always on the lookout for creative online marketing campaigns from companies here in Asia. But we were somewhat surprised to hear that Air China (HKG:0753) was using Facebook as a promotional tool since the popular social network is blocked in China. But upon taking a closer look, this particular campaign was for Air China in Sweden, where of course Facebook is not blocked at all. The campaign was orchestrated by Swedish ad agency Rodolfo, who ...
Jan 26 2012
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Pleco: Chinese Character Recognition App Finally Comes to Android [REVIEW]
![Pleco: Chinese Character Recognition App Finally Comes to Android [REVIEW]](http://www.penn-olson.com/wp-content/themes/penn2/thumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/2012/01/pleco-android-review-02.jpg&w=250&h=250&zc=1&q=90)
After months of rigorous testing, feedback from hundreds of voluntary testers, and seven beta versions, the Android iteration of Pleco dictionary has today gone gold, and now finds a home in the Android Market. It comes with OCR abilities so that it can scan and ‘read’ Chinese characters using your smartphone’s camera, handwriting support, voice recognition, and numerous dictionary options. Its range of features means that it can be used by the most casual of tourists ...
Jan 26 2012
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Japan To Get ‘Chocolate Phone’ on Valentine’s Day
Last night we told you about our talk with Rovio, the creators of Angry Birds, who told us their plans for a Valentine’s Day launch of their game on Facebook. But it looks like they aren’t the only company scheduling a launch on that holiday, as we learned today that Sharp is planning to release its unique Q-pot smartphones (aka ‘the chocolate phone’) on February 14th in Japan. We first saw this unusual handset back ...
Jan 26 2012
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Mandarin Madness Game-ifies the Learning of Chinese Characters
Chinese characters can look like arcane codes, cryptic communiqué, that conspire to obscure the meanings of an ancient culture. But new, hi-tech tools can help anyone wrap their ears, eyes, and tongues around those swoops and shapes. The Mandarin Madness app, from the Australian startup Native Tongue, is one such tool, which aims to help total beginners grasp the simple sound and meaning behind many common characters. Plus, the app - now newly launched on ...
Jan 26 2012
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Nokia Launches Asha 300, Collaborates With Fellow Finns Rovio
At the Kempinski Ballroom in Jakarta yesterday, Nokia (HEL:NOK1V; NYSE:NOK) launched its new addition to the Asha line with the new Asha 300, together with Angry Birds creator Rovio. Asha means 'hope' in Hindi, and this handset follows its predecessors the Asha 303, 200, and 201. With this new phone, Nokia has blurred the lines between feature phone and smartphone, with smartphone features that can be used on the cheaper mobile phones like the Asha series. The ...
Jan 26 2012
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Mixi and DeNA Announce Social Commerce Partnership
Japanese social networking giant Mixi and leading social gaming platform DeNA have announced a partnership in field of social commerce. The strength of Mixi is its real life social graph that extends over 25 million users as of September 2011. According to Mixi, people in their 20s account for about 50 percent of its total users. That breaks down to 29.3 percent for users age 20-24, and 22.1 percent for users ages between 25-29 (see interactive ...
Photohoku: Helping Japan’s Tohoku Rebuild Through Photos
Jan 26, 2012
Why Earth and Humanity are Doomed
Jan 27, 2012
Nokia Launches Asha 300, Collaborates With Fellow Finns Rovio
Jan 26, 2012
Japan’s Docomo Experiences Another Network Service Disruption
Jan 25, 2012
Japanese Mobile Ad Company Mediba Continues Outward Growth With Korea Office
Jan 25, 2012