The Mark Bao Journal

Notes: Twitter unveils ads product, Promoted Tweets

Mark Bao — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:46:27 +0000

Twitter’s business model appears as they reveal their ad product, Promoted Tweets.

Notes: Apple iPhone 4.0, iAd, and more

Mark Bao — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:08:14 +0000

Apple has released a monumental amount of new features – iPhone OS 4.0, iAds, and more. See Engadget’s coverage and Apple’s official pages.

Notes: Quora closes fundraising round at $86 million valuation

Mark Bao — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 10:38:36 +0000

Social Q&A product Quora has closed a $11 million fundraising round at an $86 million valuation, led by Benchmark Capital, reports TechCrunch. Quora was founded in June 2008 by Charlie Cheever and Adam D’Angelo, ex-Facebook employees, and recently launched in private beta in early 2010.

Notes: Breaking: Google redirects Google China to Google Hong Kong

Mark Bao — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 21:35:08 +0000

Breaking: Google is redirecting Google China to Google Hong Kong, effectively removing the filter and uncensoring mainland access to Google search results. The Government won’t like this. More soon.

Notes: EFF on the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement

Mark Bao — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:46:40 +0000

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights and freedoms organization, highlights some of the most worrisome details of Apple’s 28-page iPhone Developer Program License Agreement.

Notes: Of note: Techmeme launches Mediagazer

Mark Bao — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:38:56 +0000

Of note: Techmeme, one of the most popular technology news aggregators with human editors, has launched Mediagazer, a news aggregator for the media/journalism and distribution sector.

Notes: Cisco Wants To Rule Your Living Room – Launching New High Speed Network With Set Top Box March 9

Mark Bao — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 14:48:55 +0000

Excellent analysis piece on SiliconAngle about Cisco’s possible domination—or what Cisco calls “the future of the internet”—of consumer products, content, and delivery. Cisco Wants To Rule Your Living Room – Launching New High Speed Network With Set Top Box March 9 — more later on how Cisco can pull this off.

Sony Tries Again with Consumer Mobiles, Crosshairs on Apple

Mark Bao — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:51:32 +0000

The Wall Street Journal reported today on Sony (SNE)’s re-entry into smartphones with a new product line of mobile devices, one of them a smartphone. They’re also developing a product that will be combining a number of forms of mobile devices, as WSJ reports:

The Japanese electronics giant also has a project under way to develop a portable device that blurs distinctions among a netbook, an e-reader and a PlayStation Portable, or PSP. The device is designed to compete against multifunction products such as Apple’s coming iPad tablet, these people said.

Both the new smart phone and the multifunction device are expected to work with Sony’s online media platform, due to launch later this month in the U.S. as the company’s answer to Apple’s iTunes.

Of course, this isn’t Sony’s first foray into mobile products: Sony Ericsson develops a multitude of mobile phones, including the one mentioned in the article, the Xperia X10, an Android-based mobile phone. (In the past, Sony Ericsson has stuck to using BREW-based operating systems, as well as Windows Mobile.) Unfortunately, sales for Sony Ericsson have fell, both in dumbphones (being dominated by the likes of Nokia and Motorola) and smartphones (BlackBerry and Apple).

If anyone’s going to be challenging Apple, though—Sony is the one. Although Sony’s products have been experiencing serious flak and unpopularity, there are some reasons

The Apple Touch Bloc is Breakable

We’ve seen real competitors to the iPhone (AAPL) emerge—namely, on Google’s (GOOG) Android platform. Phones like the Motorola (MOT) Droid and the HTC Nexus One have presented themselves—and proved themselves—as good enough to compete and take market share against the iPhone. During September to December 2009, Android OS experienced a 208% market share gain (comScore), to 5.2% of the smartphone market. Apple’s Reality Distortion Field is in effect, but it isn’t clouding the public perception enough.

It’s possible to recover and be taken seriously — see Palm

Sony Ericsson has been a declining company. However, it’s possible for a company such as Sony to recover and release a brilliant product. This has happened within the reign of the iPhone: see Palm. There isn’t really any other company one can look to for an example that is as antiquated as Palm. A leader of the 90s and early 00s, Palm declined—and stayed quiet—until the release of the Palm Pre, thought of as the iPhone killer. (It wasn’t.)

Sony has the technology and expertise

Sony knows how to design excellent phones, both technically and aesthetically. The Xperia X10 is an excellent example of Sony’s ability to develop superb devices. With years of experience with Sony and Sony Ericsson, they could very well develop a groundbreaking mobile platform line.

Notes: How Google’s Algorithm Rules the Web

Mark Bao — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:00:34 +0000

Read this excellent article on Wired about Google’s algorithm and how they improve it: How Google’s Algorithm Rules the Web.

Notes: Right Side Capital Management launches seed fund

Mark Bao — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 23:02:01 +0000

Right Side Capital Management launched a new seed fund targeted towards making 100-200 investments with yes/no turnarounds in 2 weeks. This is a great move into a new kind of seed financing. They expect to begin investments Summer 2010, but in the meantime, read their research section.