Geekonomics

• 23Sep

  Friendster to launch music and games portals in Asia

  Asia Tech, Developers, Digital music, Gaming, Internet, Press Release, Youth Culture, m&a, news 3 Comments

  More announcements from Friendster today. Is anybody still interested in Friendster? Maybe in S.E. Asia since MOL is more familiar with these markets. The numbers will show over time I guess. If this geek was running Friendster, I’d probably try to take on more niche but fast growing markets like mobile social networking, or privacy-enhanced social networking, basically hitting areas where Facebook will find hard to move into quickly for their sheer size and corporate direction.

  This announcement seems to coincide with Group CEO for MOL Global and Friendster Ganesh Kumar Bangah’s opening keynote presentation this morning at Singapore’s largest social media event: the Social Media World Forum Asia (This geek moderated the social gaming panel with RockYou, Zynga, CyWorld, and Plus8Star yesterday), in exactly an hour from now. Not at the conference? You can follow the tweets for more on his presentation which starts in about an hour from now.

  

  SINGAPORE, 23 September, 2010 – Friendster, a leading social networking site for young Asians, today announced that it is launching social media portals for music and social gaming fans in Asia.

  The portals are the latest ventures from Friendster which was acquired in December last year by MOL Global (www.molglobal.net), one of Asia’s leading online payment companies.

  “As a social networking site, Friendster has tremendous experience to make the Friendster Music and Friendster Games as socially connected portals for developers, artists and their fans. Friendster has a strong physical presence in Asia and now that it is part of MOL Global, we see huge opportunities to partner with developers and independent musicians to aid them in new ways of delivering and monetising their content to their fans,” said Ganesh Kumar Bangah, Friendster’s CEO and Group CEO for MOL Global.

  Friendster Music

  Read more…

  

• 22Sep

  MOL to invest US$2MM to drive monetisation of social and gaming applications in Asia

  Asia Tech, Enterprise Tech, Gaming, Internet, Press Release, Social Media, news No Comments

  This geek used to cover friendster’s progress a fair bit, but less so when they got bought over by MOL. MOL has cleverly monetized their investment in friendster with a patent licensing deal with Facebook in exchange for a deal with Facebook Credits. Now let’s see how they get the ROI on this US$2MM investment!

  Campaign will drive consumers’ use of virtual currency for online goods

  SINGAPORE, 22 September, 2010 – MOL Global (www.molglobal.net), one of Asia’s biggest Internet companies, today announced that it will invest US$2 million to drive monetisation of social and gaming applications in Asia.

  Read more…

  

• 10Sep

  Forecast calls for a little snow and serious fun!

  Asia Tech, Gaming, Internet Safety, Parental Control, Press Release, Singapore Tech, news, toys No Comments

  Club Penguin arrived in Singapore this week. This geek has always heard about Club Penguin making millions of dollars getting kids to dress up Penguins but never understood the reason behind their wild success until now. While I’m working on a story on my CNET Blog now, you can read the full press release after the break.

  

  Singapore: 8th September 2010:

  Read more…

  

• 07Sep

  Customisable user interface for Sony Ericsson Vivaz™ and Vivaz pro™

  Asia Tech, Press Release, gadgets, mobile, news No Comments

  For a geek who has not touched a Sony Ericsson phone in a long long while, I tried the Xperia X10 Mini with QWERTY and found the Andriod implementation pretty decent and the keyboard extremely good for such a small form factor. Has changed my mind about Sony Ericsson phones for sure. Have not tried the Vivaz but here’s an update for those of you who own one here in Asia Pacific.

  Highlights:

  • New customisable user interface available in the Asia Pacific region from September 2010
  • Exclusively optimised, with 3D carousel on the Vivaz™ and Vivaz pro™
  • Touch-friendly menus, multiple desktop screens and widgets offer high level of user personalisation

  Full press release:

  Read more…

  

• 26Aug

  Parallels APAC Summit to Explore Cloud Services Growth in Asia

  Asia Tech, Enterprise Tech, Internet, Press Release, SaaS, Singapore Tech, news No Comments

  Speaker Line-up and Key Topics Confirmed Ahead of Asia’s Largest Public Cloud Services Event

  Singapore – 25th August, 2010 – Parallels, the global leader in Cloud enablement software will bring together some of the biggest names in the Cloud services industry to discuss the future and profitability of the cloud computing in Asia at the Parallels APAC Summit on 24^th – 26^th September.

  Speakers at the Summit include executives from Microsoft, Go Daddy, VeriSign and Open Xchange who will address critical issues surrounding the adoption of public Cloud services in the region, including security, bandwidth costs, service availability and reliability, vendor viability and maturity.

  Read more…

  

• 05Aug

  Motorola Launches QUENCH™XT3 in Singapore, Exclusively with M1

  Android, Asia Tech, Press Release, Singapore Tech, gadgets, mobile, news No Comments

  Since Motorola did a pretty decent job with the Milestone, according to some of my friends who are users, hopefully this latest Andriod model from Motorola, which is supposed to be sleek and featherweight, will be good too. See the press release for more information:

  

  - Trackball allows you to browse menus and web pages without obstructing your screen

  - Expanded search function helps you keep track of all data on the phone, including bookmarks, browsing history and contacts

  Singapore – 5 August, 2010 – Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT), a global leader in mobile communications, today announced the launch of the QUENCH™ XT3 in Singapore, exclusively with leading integrated communications service provider, M1. With a winning combination of power, usability and style, the QUENCH™ XT3 is designed to bring to you the power of Android™ and an easy and fun touch screen mobile Internet experience at a price you can’t resist. (more after the break)

  Read more…

  

• 26Jul

  HTC introduces SLCD display technology to its portfolio

  Asia Tech, Press Release, gadgets, mobile, news 1 Comment

  It’s not easy to explain how good new displays are until you see/try them for yourself. Well, it seems like battery performance is a plus with this new display. We can only find out when we test it for ourselves, won’t we? You can find out more about why HTC decided to go for SLCD from John’s article on CNET Asia. HTC’s press release as follows:

  New Displays to be integrated into HTC Desire and Nexus One

  SINGAPORE – July 26, 2010 – HTC Corporation, a global designer of smartphones, today introduced Super LCD display (SLCD) technology into a variety of HTC phones including the HTC Desire and global Nexus One later this summer. The SLCD display offers an exceptional natural balanced color, clear contrast, broad viewing angles and improved power efficiency. (more after the break)

  Read more…

  

• 26Jul

  Western Digital announces Q4 revenue of US$2.4 billion and net income of US$265 million

  Asia Tech, Enterprise, Finance, Press Release, news No Comments

  Looks like the storage business is doing well, probably boosted by increasingly mobile devices the likes of iPhone, iPad, netbooks, in vehicle entertainment, etc. See below for the full announcement:

  Full-Year Revenue Totals US$9.8 Billion, Up 32 Percent, Net Income of US$5.93 Per Share, Up 185 Percent

  Kuala Lumpur – 26 July 2010 — Western Digital Corp. (NYSE: WDC) today reported financial results for its fiscal year 2010 and fourth quarter ended July 2, 2010. For the quarter, revenue totaled US$2.4 billion, hard drive unit shipments were 49.7 million and net income was US$265 million, or US$1.13 per share. The quarterly results included US$27 million of expense related to litigation settlements. In the year-ago quarter, the company posted revenue of US$1.9 billion, shipped 40.0 million hard drives, and reported net income and earnings per share of US$196 million and US$0.86, respectively. This included US$5 million of income from the resolution of restructuring accruals and an US$18 million gain on the sale of the company’s substrate manufacturing facility in Sarawak, Malaysia.

  Read more…

  

• 25Jul

  Starcraft II South East Asia Allows North American Server Access

  Asia Tech, Gaming, Singapore Tech, World, news 1 Comment

  Friends and I were arguing over whether SC2 South East Asia players will be allowed access into North American Servers. I was pretty sure Blizzard and IAHgames would be smart enough to do so, while quite a few of my mates were not convinced. Well, it’s now official, according to GameAxis. Are you going for the launch this coming 27th?

  

• 09Jun

  Chinese internet addicts stage mutiny at boot camp

  Asia Tech, Internet, Internet Safety, Parental Control, Thoughts, World, Youth Culture, geeked, news 1 Comment

  This is interesting. First of all, to have boot camps sprout out all over China for “internet addicts”. I’ve seen TV reports of these addicts given jabs daily but nobody knows what is contained in the jabs. And now this mutiny. Makes me wonder if these boot camps will ever open in countries like Singapore and Korea?

  

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