Co-productions help Hong Kong's film industry grow

Hong Kong is said to be the third largest base for movies around the globe and also the second largest movie exporter. The glory days of home grown Hong Kong flicks are over -- but there’s a boom in co-produced films in the HK movie industry.

In 2013, 42 HK produced films were shown on HK movie screens, grossing over 350 million HK dollars in box office income. Among the top ten best selling HK produced films, 9 are co-produced films. Each earned an average income of 24 million HK dollars, three times as much as locally- produced films.

When it comes to Chinese mainland market, the income gap becomes wider. Take Jacky Chan’s movie "Chinese Zodiac" for example, the movie earned 10 million HK dollars in the HK market, but grossed a whopping 1 billion HK dollars in the Chinese mainland. The Chinese mainland has become the most important market for HK movies.

"If we only rely on HK local market, nobody could make a profit. In 2013, the average cost of 42 HK produced movies was 30 million HK dollars. Thanks to the Chinese mainland market, we earned our money back. Now if you want to visit any star or director, you could only find them in Beijing or Shanghai, not HK. If you insist on having your work isolated from the Chinese mainland, no one would invest in your movie." Crucind Hung, Chairman of the Federation of Motion Film Producers said.

lthough such collaborations are performing well in the box office, it is still quite clear that they can not compete against Hollywood blockbusters. Last year, the total box office income in HK was 1.6 billion HK dollars, and more than 75% of the revenue came from Hollywood movies. And it is the same case in the Chinese mainland.

Someone argues that HK movies should abandon co-production, and focus on localization to return to the gold age for HK movies in the 1980s. But some industry experts believe that the 1980’s golden age has historical elements, and can not be simply repeated.

"How could you compare HK movies with Hollywood blockbusters? I must say that at the very beginning of the HK movie history, we had never won over Hollywood. The illusion of the golden age was because we just did not know about Hollywood movies at that time." Grdon Chan, HK Movie Director said.

Gordon Chan agrees that HK produced films should respect local audience. But this kind of respect does not mean simple localization, Innovation is still key to HK films’ future success.

"When you use the word localization, it scares me. Hollywood never says I won’t produce this because this is too alien. The concept of localization in their mind is to learn from outside, and turn it in to a holly production. So we must keep this idea in mind to develop our movies." Grdon Chan said.

Look around me, mainlanders, Hong Kongers, speaking Cantonese and Mandarin. The closer ties between the city and Chinese mainland are reflected in the Hong Kong movie scene. More collaborations, more films with complex plots between the mainland, HK and Macao. It’s a case of art imitating life.

Source: CCTV

China's: Huge market potential for senior tourism

If you still believe that backpacking is only for young people, let’s prove you wrong. Many senior citizens also are passionate about travelling and the Spring Festival holiday is a peak time for people to travel with their parents. And in China, it’s not the only time seniors like to travel.

What would you like to do when you retire? Well, you could exercise in parks like this in the morning, then go buy vegetables and take care of your grandchildren. But there’s also a group of seniors that makes full use of their free time to go see the world. In Chinese, people use the expression "redness in the sunset" to describe these people.

Age can’t truly stop one from being adventurous. A few years ago, a sixty-something Chinese couple backpacked around the world and became immensely popular online. The couple posted their photos on the Internet along the way. When people saw the South Pole, the Himalaya mountains and other world-famous places through the couple’s camera lens, many jumped to the conclusion that,one is never too old to travel.

World maps used to be nothing but a decoration at home for most Chinese senior citizens. But after China’s opening up and with improvements in living standards, senior citizens now can actually make their maps come to life by travelling to their favourite places. Yu Ningning is president of China’s largest travel agency and she has a strong personal will to travel after retirement.

"Now services for elder tourists takes about 10% of our business, but for middle-aged and elder tourists takes about 50%. The large percentage that middle aged takes up makes us believe that the market for elder tourists will become more important in the future." Ms Yu Ningning, President of China Int'l Travel Service said.

But according to China’s consumer’s association, spending on tourism takes a very small part in seniors daily expenses. And only less than half of China’s seniors have actually travelled after retiring. Among those that have travelled, 87.9 percent went with travel agencies. Around 46.3 percent of the seniors went with their children or friends while 41.6 percent went with groups organized by travel agencies.

"The market for tourism for elder has a lot of potential. but now it has some problems. Seniors are easy to be attracted by false advertisements, as well as slogans of some agencies. They are also physically weaker than other groups, which means travel agencies should have higher service standard for them." Prof. Liu Junhai, Sch. of Las of Renmin Univ. said.

"Some travel agencies in other Asian countries can serve as examples. When they plan a tour for seniors, they live with them for some time, figure out what they truly need in their daily lives, what they really want to see..so that the service they offer during the tour is very considerable. They really put their hearts into the service. This is going to be long term trend for tourism for elders. I know in Beijing there’s a farm house that has already started to explore this business mode." Prof. Wang Qiao, Inst. of Population and Labor Economics, China Academy of Social Sciences said.

The farm house that the professor mentioned sits on the outskirts of Beijing. Winter is extremely harsh in the mountains, so the house is closed until next spring. But we managed to find the owner, who has been running the place for the past two years.

In spring and summer we send shuttle bus to different places in the city to pick up the elders. They can stay here during the week with their friends or make new friends here, and their children will drive them home on weekends. We sometimes even receive guests on wheelchairs. We offer discounts to seniors that stay here. Our customers are also our advertisements.

Agencies and experts are gaining confidence about tourism for seniors. Middle-aged people might pay more attention to travel after retirement than their parents did. But think about it, besides commercial profits, it’s also a good thing that our parents and grandparents no longer have to endlessly save money just to save money. Now, they can actually use some of their funds to explore, enjoy adventures and be happy.

Source: CCTV

WSJ: Morning MoneyBeat Asia: Market Passes a Little Test; Big One Still to Come

      The Wall Street Journal reports,"Market Snap: At the New York close: S&P 500 up 0.8% at 1755.20. DJIA up 0.5% at 15445.24. Nasdaq Comp 0.9% at 4031.52. Treasury yields up; 10-year at 2.622%. Nymex crude oil up 0.8% at $97.19. Gold down 0.7% at $1,251.70/ounce".

How We Got Here: U.S. stocks bounced back modestly on Tuesday after Monday’s rout. Already, you can hear the bulls employing their usual confidence-building mantras: That the 7% selloff in the Dow is a good thing, a needed pause to recoup and digest the huge 2013 gains.

Maybe they’re right. The Dow fell through its 200-day moving average on Monday, but bounced back above it on Tuesday. That’s an important sign of support. But the real technical test will come if  the S&P 500 reaches its 200-day moving average, around 1708.  That means more selling could be in store, because this selloff probably isn’t going away without a real test of its strength.

The Slow Recovery of the US Labor Market, Congressional Budget Office.

"The deep recession that began in December 2007, when the economy began to contract, and ended in June 2009, when the economy began to expand again, has had a lasting effect on the labor market. More than four and a half years after the end of the recession, employment has risen sluggishly—much more slowly than it grew, on average, during the four previous recoveries that lasted more than one year. At the same time, the unemployment rate has fallen only partway back to its prerecession level, and a significant part of that improvement is attributable to a decline in labor force participation that has occurred as an unusually large number of people have stopped looking for work.

To a large degree, the slow recovery of the labor market reflects the slow growth in the demand for goods and services, and hence gross domestic product (GDP). CBO estimates that GDP was 7½ percent smaller than potential (maximum sustainable) GDP at the end of the recession; by the end of 2013, less than one-half of that gap had been closed. With output growing so slowly, payrolls have increased slowly as well—and the slack in the labor market that can be seen in the elevated unemployment rate and part of the reduction in the rate of labor force participation mirrors the gap between actual and potential GDP.

To a smaller degree, the slow recovery of the labor market is the result of structural factors that stem from the recession and the slow recovery of output but that are not directly related to the economy’s current cyclical weakness. For example, an exceptionally large number of people have been unemployed for long periods, and the stigma attached to their long-term unemployment, along with a possible erosion of their job skills, has made it difficult for them to find new work.

In assessing the slow recovery of the labor market, CBO estimates the following:

• Of the roughly 2 percentage-point net increase in the rate of unemployment between the end of 2007 and the end of 2013, about 1 percentage point was the result of cyclical weakness in the demand for goods and services, and about 1 percentage point arose from structural factors; those factors are chiefly the stigma workers face and the erosion of skills that can stem from long-term unemployment (together worth about one-half of a percentage point of increase in the unemployment rate) and a decrease in the efficiency with which employers are filling vacancies (probably at least in part as a result of mismatches in skills and locations, and also worth about one-half of a percentage point of the increase in the unemployment rate).
• Of the roughly 3 percentage-point net decline in the labor force participation rate between the end of 2007 and the end of 2013, about 1½ percentage points was the result of long-term trends (primarily the aging of the population), about 1 percentage point was the result of temporary weakness in employment prospects and wages, and about one-half of a percentage point was attributable to unusual aspects of the slow recovery that led workers to become discouraged and permanently drop out of the labor force.
• Employment at the end of 2013 was about 6 million jobs short of where it would be if the unemployment rate had returned to its prerecession level and if the participation rate had risen to the level it would have attained without the current cyclical weakness. Those factors account roughly equally for the shortfall.

CBO expects that, under current laws governing federal taxes and spending, output will grow more rapidly in the next few years than it has in the recent past but recovery in the labor market will continue for some time. The agency projects that by the second half of 2017, the gap between actual and potential GDP will return to its average historical relationship—bringing the effects of cyclical conditions on unemployment and labor force participation back to their average values in 2018. However, CBO projects, the aging of the population will further reduce labor force participation during the coming decade, and the longer-lasting effects of the recession and slow recovery on unemployment and the size of the labor force will continue, albeit with diminishing magnitude, throughout the decade. All told, CBO projects that the unemployment rate will fall to 5.8 percent by the end of 2017 and to 5.5 percent by 2024 (compared with 4.8 percent at the end of 2007) and that the labor force participation rate will decline to 60.8 percent by 2024 (compared with 66.0 percent at the end of 2007)".

After A Roller-Coaster Month, Is A Bear Market On Its Way?

How To Invest During A Sideways Market
It's too soon to know if the recent market action will lead to a full-blown correction. A herd mentality could set in, and investors could rush to sell, simply because they fear that their peers will do so as well. Indeed a fresh survey of investor sentiment showed more bears than bulls for the first time in nearly six years.

If you see the percentage of bulls drop to just 25% in the American Association of Individual Investors' weekly survey, that will be a clear sign that it's time to buy stocks.

Investors Are Feeling Less Bullish Lately

Source: American Association of Individual Investors

Even as the market posts some scary dips in recent weeks, investors have become conditioned to use the pullbacks as buying opportunities. A "buy on the dips" strategy can prove quite fruitful, but as we saw this past week, a post-plunge rally on Thursday was followed by a fresh sell-off on Friday. If dip buyers get repeatedly get burned, they'll stop doing so. And that's when the market pullback could build steam.

Still, for investors who have the resources to track a wide variety of stocks they consider to be appealing, the market gyrations provide clear openings.

As the SP 500 was falling 5% from Jan. 22 through Jan. 29, a number of small and mid-cap stocks fell at twice or even three times that rate. In a market that has provided few entry points in the past few years, these pullbacks will be increasingly embraced as the indices fall farther from the 52-week high. The economy is simply too healthy to justify any major sustained market pullback.

Of course most small cap stocks have yet to deliver fourth-quarter results and issue 2014 guidance, so there's risk in pursuing any stocks that have yet to report. Instead, this is a great time to focus on stocks that have pulled back from recent highs and set up a calendar of their reporting dates. A solid outlook, paired with a still-constrained stock price, could lead to a chance for quick profits, before the market truly stabilizes and returns to these sold-off names.

So what's the short-term plan? Watch and wait. It's a good time to nibble at bargains, but there's no need to rush. If markets don't stabilize, then a steady grind lower could trigger forced selling as the levels of margin debt remain at alarming levels. As this recent Seeking Alpha article noted, margin debt rose nearly $70 billion in the last six months of 2013, to a record $444 billion.

Source: INO.COM Traders Blog

Lower treasury Yields. WSJ: Vital Signs: That Wasn’t Supposed to Happen

      The Wall Street Journal reports,"the yield on the 10-year Treasury tumbled to its lowest level since November on Monday, and is down 0.4 percentage points this year. That wasn’t supposed to happen''.

"Last year, the Federal Reserve announced that it would begin trimming its $85 billion a month bond purchases, and rates on the 10-year bond moved up, as was expected. Tighter Fed policy and an improving economy should make bonds less attractive, leading to lower prices and higher yields. Economists in the January forecasting survey expected the 10-year yield to rise to 3.24% by the end of June. It was at 2.57% Monday".

"The move higher for yields only lasted for two weeks. At the start of the year, worries began to emerge about global growth. A selloff in emerging markets accelerated last month, driving investors back into the perceived safe haven of the U.S. bond market. And then yesterday a disappointing manufacturing report raised concerns about the strength of the domestic economy, further depressing yields".

"So where do we go from here? There are multiple scenarios. It all depends on the global economy and the Fed. If the 2014 selloff turns out to be a passing storm, it’s likely that yields will continue to move up as the Fed continues to taper its purchases and tighten policy. Markets have recovered a bit today, raising hopes that this scenario will play out. But if there is a deeper weakness and China and the U.S. are faltering, all bets are off on where markets will go and how the Fed might react to it".

Fear and Greed Index for US Markets

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Last updated Feb 4 at 5:05pm

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Updated Feb 4 at 4:00pm

 

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A little rebound for US equity markets

The U.S. markets were able to shave some of yesterday's solid declines, with stronger-than-expected profit reports from Yum Brands and Michael Kors lending a hand. However, gains were held in check as yesterday's much larger-than-forecasted decline in U.S. manufacturing activity that soured global economic sentiment remained present. In other news on the equity front, shares of J.C. Penney Co came under pressure as the Street didn't appear to be impressed with its first quarterly same-store sales gain since 2011, while Dow member Microsoft announced its new Chief Executive Officer. Treasuries finished lower amid the rebound for stocks, while the lone report on today's economic calendar showed a smaller-than-expected decline in factory orders for December and an upward revision to durable goods orders. Gold was lower, while the U.S. dollar was higher and crude oil prices were mixed.

Source: Schwab

Senate passes five-year farm bill

 The Senate on Tuesday passed a $956 billion, five-year farm bill. The legislation, already passed by the House, now goes to President Barack Obama for signature. It eliminates so-called direct payments for farmers, which are given whether they farm or not, but continues to subsidize corn, soybeans and other crops. It cuts about $8 billion in food stamp funding over 10 years, less than Republicans wanted to. The bill passed 68-32. 

Source: marketwatch

Travel Climbing Mountains in Perú.

Travel Ancash Peru: Climbing the Alpamayo

 
                                            Ascención al Alpamayo

Travel Cuzco Peru Choquequirao Ruins, Welcome!

                                            El "último refugio Inca"

WSJ: Global Weakness Threatens Japan Recovery

            The Wall Street Journal reports: "the sharp drop in Japanese stocks underscores a vulnerability of the "Abenomics" recovery: Weakness in overseas economies may undermine the success of measures to jump-start growth at home".

"Economies are all connected, and we're really worried about how far the impact will reach" from the recent emerging-market turbulence, Toyoaki Nakamura, chief financial officer of Hitachi Ltd.  , said Tuesday, even as the electronics giant raised its earnings forecast for the fiscal year ending next month, predicting a record profit.

Much of the boom engineered by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2013 was driven by a big expansion in monetary stimulus from his handpicked Bank of Japan governor, which pushed down the value of the yen against the dollar and other major currencies. That gave the country's manufacturers a lift in global markets by lowering the relative price of their goods. It also helped bring about higher profits and a stock market rally, which in turn boosted domestic spending.

"But one month into the new year, Japan's stock market and the yen are moving in the On Tuesday, the yen rose to its highest level in more than two months versus the dollar, with investors viewing the Japanese currency as a safe investment at times of economic turbulence, casting a new shadow over exports. With the yen strengthening and worries spreading about growth abroad, the Nikkei Stock Average dropped sharply; it's down 14% so far this year".

"The market reversal and signs of fragility in overseas demand pose challenges to Japan's economy, which is just about to become more dependent on exports and the weak currency for growth. In April this year, the government plans to raise the national sales tax by three percentage

points to 8%, a move expected to sap strength off consumption given lackluster growth in wages.

"The Japanese public has until now supported economic reforms because of rising stock prices and the falling yen," which have worked favorably for the nation's economy, said Ryutaro Kono, chief Japan economist at BNP Paribas. 

But structural overhauls—such as loosening rigid labor rules and reducing red tape—have made little progress. And with the market now turning unstable, "it could become politically more challenging" to carry out such reforms, which often involve painful changes,Mr Kono said".

Hands On With Facebook Paper, the "New Facebook" by Josh Constine

This ain’t your mama’s Facebook. Paper is almost too modern, or maybe it’s just years ahead of its time. The free new iOS app released yesterday in the U.S. lets you browse your News Feed plus curated sections of articles and memes through full-screen cards, new gestures, and delightful animations. Paper is equipped to be a full-fledged Facebook client, but the question is whether we’re progressive and curious enough to adapt to Paper.

From the second you open Paper, it strives to forge an identity distinct from Facebook. First it plays you a quick teaser video that looks like the intro to an indie film. A Siri-meets-Facebook robotic-yet-sensual female voice then begins walking you through Paper’s features.

Temptingly Tactile

Beyond a reimagined version of the News Feed, you can select from sections like Headlines (world news), Tech, Exposure (photography), Ideas (long-form takes on a different topic each day), and meme channels like Cute and LOL. Each is filled with stories shared publicly to Facebook from big publishers, public figures, and emerging content creators.

In the top half of the screen you’ll see a cover image for your currently viewed section, and while a horizontal row of stories fills the bottom. Swipe up on a story and you’ll see it magically grow into a full-screen summary card. Swipe up again and the story unfolds into a mobile web view of the story on its original website. The double up-swipe gesture is oddly satisfying, like picking up a newspaper, then bringing it closer to your face for reading. Swipe down to fold an article back up and return to your Paper feed.

It takes wagging your finger back and forth over Paper’s home screen to see just how responsive the app is. The Facebook Creative Labs squad that’s worked on Paper for over a year is basically an iOS dream team, including acquired Push Pop co-founder Mike Matas, who helped design the Nest thermostat and iPhone interfaces for Apple; Loren Brichter, who invented “pull-down-to-refresh” and other UI mainstays while building Tweetie and Letterpress; Michael Reckhow, who product-managed the Kindle app for Amazon; and Jason Prado, who Facebook poached from Google’s Hangouts team.

Paper’s take on the News Feed is refreshing, as it makes every post as readable as possible, expanding the text size of status updates while laying out photo albums into vertical columns so there’s no click required. Oh, and there are no ads. The Paper team tells me that, like a startup, its sole focus now is growth. If it becomes popular enough to cannibalize Facebook for iOS or becomes a big enough revenue opportunity, that’s “a good problem to have,” and it will figure out how to inject ads or otherwise monetize.

One-Size-Fits-Some Content

The vertical content “sections” are where Paper could use the most work. I’ll cut it some slack, though, as along with algorithmic aggregation, Paper uses a team of human editors to pick what people see — a first for Facebook. Some of the news content feels a bit fuddy-duddy and mundane. It certainly doesn’t help that by the evening, most of the posts in a section are from five to eight hours ago. Compared to Twitter’s real-time news, it feels painfully behind, and there’s no way to manually refresh.

Meanwhile the Cute and LOL sections are cloying. They quickly delve into mediocre drivel out of fear of offending anyone with edgy humor. Hopefully the content immediacy improves, and the Paper team builds personalization into the Sections like it said it’s considering. Otherwise you’ll need pretty mainstream tastes for Paper’s sections to drag you away from Flipboard, Prismatic, Circa, Zite, Pulse, or another news reader.

One thing I did enjoy was how some big publishers’ Paper summary cards are customized and they retain their article formatting. For example, The New York Times headlines have their iconic font, and BuzzFeed floats buttons for Tweeting, sharing via email, and commenting at the bottom of its Paper stories just like on its mobile site.

What You See Is What You Share

A true “wow” feature, Paper lets you tilt or pan your phone side-to-side to view the edges of a panoramic photo. In most apps including old Facebook, panoramas are squished down to fit on the screen at once, obliterating their detail. Paper lets those wide angles shine. Similarly, videos auto-play, but in portrait mode by default.

Matas, who is Facebook’s product designer, tells me “Not that many people shoot portrait videos. But I would argue the reason for that is because not many people display portrait videos in a good way…just by giving people a way to share portrait videos in a good way…there’s lots of really interesting stuff that could be videoed in portrait like a person’s face.” By providing a beautiful outlet for them, Paper could get more people shooting and sharing panoramas or portrait videos.

Paper buries its own sharing button in the pull-down menu so you’ll have to remember to share, unlike Facebook’s web and mobile app that keep status composers at the ready. But Paper’s composer gives you real previews of how your content will look to others so there’s no guessing about whether a blurb or your text will be truncated. That lets you share with confidence.

Is This The New Facebook?

Though Facebook set out to make Paper extremely focused on content, it actually built a working replacement for its multi-featured main app. You can search, and view a mobile-first full-screen card version of profiles and Pages. Friend requests notifications, and Chat Heads messages are all in there and can be opened in little pop-overs on top of your currently viewed content. You can even change your settings in Paper to open notifications from Facebook within Paper instead of Facebook for iOS. The only critical feature missing is your full Events calendar, which Mark Zuckerberg hinted could become one of Facebook’s next standalone apps.

This all means you can stay current and communicate with Paper, and shove your old Facebook app in a folder with minimal functionality loss.

Facebook’s Creative Labs launched Paper to explore how content delivery could be reimagined if there weren’t a billion users to worry about shocking. It’s purposefully built for open-minded, style-conscious users willing to embrace change in exchange for a cutting-edge experience. You could almost say that makes Paper “Hipster Facebook.”

But Paper’s radically innovative design is its biggest liability as well as its greatest asset. Facebook learned from “Students Against Facebook News Feed” way back in 2006 that many people are resistant to change. That’s why it typically tweaks its website and main app conservatively, and when it does execute a major redesign or product launch, it often rolls it out slowly.

For the mainstream American, for Grandma, for people around the world still new to Facebook, Paper may be too different to fit into their daily lives right now. And there are a lot of those people. By launching Paper as a standalone app rather than a redesign of the News Feed, Facebook avoided giving a sizable percentage of the planet a heart attack.

There will surely be some people who use Facebook most of the time, and Paper when they’re in the mood to discover some new content. Others will try to remember to use Paper, but unless they replace Facebook with it on their homescreen, digital muscle memory will kick in and they’ll gravitate back to their old app. That’s why to gain traction, the Paper team needs an elegant way to convince people to make this switcheroo.

With time, though, I’d bet we find Paper to be pretty polarizing. For some, it will feel over-designed and overwhelming. Too unfamiliar. Too new. And they’ll keep using Facebook for iOS.

But for an influential minority of progressives and power-users, Paper could be the Facebook of the future. They’ll see it as setting a new bar for mobile user interfaces. They’ll be patient as its human-curated content gets up to speed. They’ll say seven years of vertically scrolling feeds of chrome and whitespace were enough. They’ll pick up Paper, and never put it down.

Source: TechCruch

Apple Said To Be Focusing On Health With iOS 8 And iWatch, Following Exec Meeting With FDA

Apple’s plans for iOS 8 focus on redefining health tracking via mobile devices, according to a new report from 9to5Mac, which has a terrific track record when it comes to rumors it has sourced itself. The report details a new marquee application coming in iOS 8 called “Healthbook” that monitors all aspects of health, fitness and workout information, including vitals monitored via the new iWatch, which is said to pack a bevy of sensors and to be “well into development” according to 9to5Mac’s sources.

The health monitoring app called “Healthbook” will come pre-installed on iOS 8, which, if true, would be a huge blow to third-party apps including those made by Fitbit, Nike, Runkeeper and Withings just to name a few. It would track and report steps, calories burned, distance walked and more, including weight fluctuations, and blood pressure, hydration levels, heart rate and more.

Apple’s focus on health in iOS 8 is given credence by a number of new reports from this week, including the news from the New York Times earlier today that Apple execs met with the FDA late last year to discuss mobile medical applications. Apple also reportedly hired Michael O’Reilly, M.D. away from a position as Chief Medical Officer of Masimo Corporation in July 2013. O’Reilly is an expert in pulse oximetry among other things, which is used to non-invasively take key vitals from a user via optical sensors.

9to5Mac’s report details functionality of the proposed “Healthbook” app, which, as its name suggests, takes a lot of cues from Passbook. It’ll offer swipeable cards for each vital stat it tracks, letting users page through their medical and health information. The report cautions that this functionality could be taken out prior to the final release of iOS 8: With the FDA’s involvement, one concern might be getting the necessary approvals to market the software as a potential medical aid.

As for the iWatch, the new report doesn’t add much in terms of firm details, but it does suggest we could see a release before year’s end, and offers that it could feature sensors that provide data to Healthbook. That app could also use existing third-party monitors and devices designed for iOS to source data, however. One more tidbit about the iWatch suggests that maps will be a central feature of the device, and navigation on the wrist is actually a prime potential advantage of smartwatch devices that has yet to be properly explored.

We’ve reached out to Apple for comment on these developments, and will update if we learn anything more.

Source:  TechCrunch

4.8 million WeChat Users Participated in the Lucky Money Game on Chinese New Year Eve

   4.82 million WeChat users took part in the Lucky Money gameon 2014 Chinese New Year eve, as disclosed by WeChat’s parent company Tencent. Launched several days before, the feature that adds gamification elements to giving and receiving digital Lucky Money became an immediate hit among WeChat users. Kingsoft even developed a plugin that automatically harvests lucky money for WeChat users.

The game reached a peak around 0:00 am on the new year’s eve that 25,000 packets were opened in one minute. The average value of lucky money packets given away is 10.7 yuan (a little more than USD 1.5), so it’s more for fun as a serious lucky money packet to a kid must contain more money.

4.82 million doesn’t seem a big number to some people who expected a large number of participants to be converted to WeChat Payment users. The rumor that WeChat Payment has gained some 100 million accounts after the launch of the lucky money feature isn’t likely to be true as the time for redeeming packets, also for some users the time for activating WeChat Payment accounts, hasn’t arrived yet, for the Chinese New Year holiday has just passed one third that users cannot be in a hurry to redeem the packets.

Anyway, WeChat Payment must be one of the products Tencent will be focusing on this year — the two commercials Tencent made for this year’s Spring Festival Gala (as eye-catching as Super Bowl in the U.S.) on the new year’s eve featured WeChat Payment and QQ Mobile Assistant while last year’s was WeChat as a messaging app. With over 600 registered accounts and some 270 million monthly active users, WeChat’s natural next step is having as many user accounts with payment capability as possible to consume paid offerings, games, mobile shopping, stickers and more that will come.

Source: TechNode

SparkProfit invites everyone to make predictions on financial markets and rewards good ones with cash

    Spark Profit is a platform for users, being professionals or not,  to make predictions on financial markets and earn cash rewards. Those who are good at making predictions will receive weekly incomes.

Available on the Web, Android and iOS, Spark Profit is designed to fit into users’ spare time, according to Justin Short, CEO of Nous.net — the Tokyo-based startup behind the service.

It’s risk free to make any predictions on Spark Profit. But the founders of the startup will take risks to keep the platform running and make profits. They will trade, with their own money, based on predictions made by users and reward good predictors with returns.

This business model is called ”crowd-sourced alpha” by the founders. Justin Short came up with this idea 4 years ago and has applied for a patent.

With 16-year experience in building automated trading systems for investment banks, Short and his four co-founders, who are also finance and IT professionals, are confident that they are able to “find the trading signal in the noise of the crowd”.

Currently only major currency prices, including Bitcoin prices, are available for users to make predictions on. More types of financial products will be added later. The service has attracted players from more than 70 countries in a trial period last year.

Incorporated in 2012, Nonus. net has been self-funded so far and is looking for angel investment.

Source:TechNode

WSJ: Merkel Says Turkey's Bid to Join EU is Open

           The Wall Street Journal reports,"It is no secret that I'm skeptical about full membership," Ms. Merkel said after meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Berlin. "There's no deadline for talks," she added.

The chancellor and other German conservatives have long opposed EU membership for Turkey, a mostly Muslim country of 74 million, mainly because of its size—it would be second in population only to Germany—and doubts about its democratic credentials.

Polls show a large majority of German voters also reject Turkish membership and support for it has also waned in other parties.

At the news conference, Ms. Merkel praised Turkey's contribution to dealing with the refugee crisis stemming from neighboring Syria.

Earlier, he gave a speech at the German Council on Foreign Relations highlighting the importance of granting Turkey EU membership. Events such as the Arab Spring and the crises in Egypt and Syria "showed us that Turkey doesn't need the EU, but the EU needs Turkey," he said.

"We expect and hope that we get support on our of EU accession from Germany.

Apple without a Super Bowl 2014 ad.

Apple didn’t do a Super Bowl ad, as some had suggested it might, but today it debuted a video designed to capture the spotlight all its own. The spot, which is a little over a minute long, is shot entirely on iPhone devices during one 24 hour period, by 15 camera crews. It was then edited on Macs back in LA, paring down over 70 hours of video into the final spot you see above.

The point? To demonstrate that you can do in one day using Apple’s iPhone devices what it once took months and millions of dollars’ worth of equipment to create. It also captures tons of people doing lots of creative things with Apple products, including building fully articulate robotic prosthetics controlled by an iPod touch, to a symphonic performance analyzed and monitored using an iMac.

The spot was edited by Angus Wall, a Hollywood editor who worked on Fight Club, Zodiac, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and The Social Network to name a few, and longtime Apple ad man Lee Clow served as creative director. 

Source: TechCrunch

Apple Patents Induction Charging With Orientation-Based Action Triggers

Apple has received a patent from the USPTO (via AppleInsider) for a method of wireless induction charging that can perform different actions based on the orientation of the device as it’s laid on the charing mat or pad. The patent application was originally published back in September, 2012, and we covered it then, but it’s interesting to revisit in light of recent reports about Apple using induction tech in iWatch prototypes.

The New York Times said earlier this week that Apple is working on versions of the iWatch that use induction charging to power up, so that users won’t have to plug them in. The idea is likely that charging yet another digital device has to be as easy as possible for consumers, who already have to deal with keeping their phones, tablets and computers juiced up and ready to go.

Apple has a number of patents related to this tech, which is already in use among various Android OEMs as well as Nokia in its Lumia line. Apple has yet to release a device that makes use of the tech, however. An iWatch is a good candidate because of its specific battery challenges, and this positional function switching could potentially apply to a smartwatch, too. You could see triggering an alarm or sleep mode by docking an iWatch in a certain way for overnight charging, for instance, or maintaining an active state for mounting when you’re at your desk and working.

Induction charging is far from a lock for a wearable for Apple (nor is the Apple wearable itself, in fact), but Apple is definitely investing in R&D around the tech. And however it addresses it, power management will be a key differentiating factor for any Apple smartwatch, I’d guess, so turning it into a value-add feature with orientation-based actions is an idea with a lot of potential.

Source: TechCrunch

Apple’s CDN Plans Would Give It Greater Control Over Streaming For Expanded Offerings

Apple is said to be working on a content delivery network (CDN) all its own, according to new information reported last night by the Wall Street Journal. Cupertino wants to build a large network capable of driving more data to its customers, for the purposes of providing improved streaming offerings for its television products.

Apple is making its way down a path that has already been walked by other major Internet content players including Google, Facebook and Netflix, each of which has invested heavily in network infrastructure in order to support the vast amount of media being streamed via their online portals and products.

The WSJ report also notes that building its own CDN will help Apple manage its growing iCloud service usage, as well as hosting and delivering content from the iTunes and App Stores, both streamed and downloaded. Apple has managed to accumulate enough bandwidth from web providers to allow it to move “hundreds of gigabits per second,” however, according to Bill Norton, CSO for the International Internet Exchange, speaking to the WSJ, and that likely means they’re laying the groundwork for much bigger plans beyond existing needs.

The biggest advantage for Apple in building its own CDN might come from improved quality and reliability of services. Apps, movies and music would all potentially download faster if Apple controlled the entire chain, for instance, since it has to spend less time dealing with third-party players outside of its corporate domain, which invariably add delays, miscommunications and possible points of failure into the mix.

WSJ also notes that Apple has been on a bit of a hiring spree when it comes to adding talent specializing in both TV content and CDN tech: Lauren Provo, a Comcast exec came on board in September; Jean-François Mulé, a former VP at a TV research and dev company is another recent hire; the company is also building a roster of CDN specialists, the report suggests.

Netflix’s decision to do the same, which was detailed by GigaOM back in June 2012, was cited as a key factor in the company’s evolution as its streaming volumes increased. It gave Netflix a more direct relationship to the Internet service providers who were the ones tasked with getting their shows to their audience, and Netflix cited YouTube as the archetypical example of how at a certain point of volume, the economic case for doing it yourself becomes overwhelming.

Apple continues to add new content channels to the Apple TV with fair frequency, which adds to its streaming media load, and recent reports suggest that there’s even more coming on the horizon, with a potential SDK for new Apple TV hardware. This WSJ report suggests that’s a very real, very immediate possibility, and offers one more hint that TV may soon be something more akin to a core product line at Apple
Source: TechCrunch

IMF Survey, Africa's Economic Growth.

Africa’s economic growth should be more inclusive, and the middle class has a strong role to play in strengthening this growth, says economist Mthuli Ncube.

In an interview with IMF Survey, the Chief Economist and Vice-President of the African Development Bank gave his thoughts on the African middle class, the state of data in Africa and the continent’s stellar economic performance.

IMF Survey: Can you tell us more about Africa’s growth over recent years?

Ncube: Africa is rising. The continent is still showing that robust growth, which we expect to hover around 5 percent and higher for some countries. But this growth needs to be more inclusive. I think that is the message that we should take away.

IMF Survey: Many commentators have argued that Africa is rising because it is led by a growing pool of middle class consumers. But other critics argue that the traditional concept of middle class does not exist in Africa. What do you respond to that?

Ncube: There is a middle class in Africa, and it has been growing at a rate of 3.2 percent per annum since 1983. You have over 300 million people who are sitting in the middle of the pyramid as I like to call it. But there is a distinction. Out of those 300 million people in Africa, half are what you call the floating middle class. They could revert into poverty very easily because of a death in the family, or some other shock. At any given time, there is always a floating middle class. Then there is the more stable part of the middle class—about 150 million people, and they are ones who provide robust growth.

I think one element that is stimulating consumption from this middle class is the African diaspora. The diaspora now transmits more money into Africa than foreign direct investment, aid to Africa, and portfolio investment in stock market and bond markets. That supplemental income from the diaspora is enabling that floating middle class to consume more.

IMF Survey: What reforms should be implemented to ease the poorer population’s access to this growing prosperity?

Ncube: The best way to reduce poverty is to create jobs. However, for people to be job ready, they must have the right skills. You have to invest in the right type of education which gives you job readiness.

Young Africans should be given the option to go full academia, but also have the option at the right level of high school to switch to a vocational education. I think a concerted effort in this area is required for this to happen. Job creation is really the key to reducing poverty.

In the interim, social safety nets, aid flows, and assistance are critical for dealing with poverty in the short term, but long term it’s about jobs.

IMF Survey: You were in Washington to attend a seminar on the state of data in Africa. How is the quality of data in Africa?

Ncube: Because of the large informal sector in Africa—approximately 25 percent in most countries of sub-Saharan Africa—much of the economic activity goes unmeasured, and the data is deemed unreliable.

African countries—on their own and in collaboration with the African Development Bank—have done a lot to improve the quality of statistics in the last 10 years. We have invested $100 million in the last 10 years on African statistics. But to improve the quality of statistics to the level of Asia or other regions, we will need approximately $70 million a year invested in Africa.

Our main challenge at the moment is to harmonize the data, so that it is comparable across countries. To this end, we have set up a program across sub-Saharan Africa. We are connecting each African country to a hub—a portal in the, so they can enter their data live. This exercise is happening much better and faster than we anticipated, but much more remains to be done.