Back in July 2011 a story about a number of fake but extremely realistic Apple Stores in Kunming, China spread around the main western news outlets after an expat blogger posted photos of them online. The wide exposure of the story lead to Chinese officials shutting down a number of the offending copycats but what seems to have been missed in this story is that you can find similar fake stores all over China…
Walk into almost any shop. Regard the tacky watches, the rip-off tablets, the cheap radios, and the clothes that fall apart after the second time you wear them. Most products today have had little thought or care gone into their design, focusing on fashion over function and cost over quality. They are marketing-driven ploys which deceive the consumer into a never-ending cycle of designed obsolescence where the value of a product has become less about what it does and more about having the latest model.
South Korea has long been an interesting place to look at trends in technology and popular culture, such is the effect caused by a population mostly centered around a single city (Seoul) and having rapidly developed over the past 50 years. Every time I visit I’m always on the lookout for what’s trending and below are a few notes I made on my most recent trip:
I’ve noticed an interesting trend in recent years; when old media (tv, publishers) try to translate their wares into new media formats (smartphones, tablets) they often fail miserably because they translate the formats too literally. That is they try to make a digital newspaper look and behave like a paper newspaper, and so on, without considering the fundamental differences between the way you interact with both mediums.
As you have probably noticed Randomwire is sporting a brand new look today in what seems to have become a yearly occurrence. While I was quite happy with the previous design (from early 2010) I felt like I wanted something lighter and fresher. The theme is a customised version of Linen produced by the wonderful people at The Theme Foundry (where my past two previous themes also came from).
LinkedIn, the social network for professionals (think Facebook, but more serious), has launched a new service called InMaps that visualises your ‘connections’ to other people as a single network graph. I had a play with it earlier and here’s how my network of 163 people who I’ve connected with through work looks like:
Shenzhen is generally regarded as the epicenter of the world’s electronics industry with most of the worlds major brands manufacturing their products here. You can find virtually anything you want in the many electronic markets which can be found around the city, most of which are clustered around Hua Cheng Be (Hua Qiang Lu Metro Station, exit A).
Tokyo is often portrayed as a high-tech wonderland being run by robots and full of futuristic gadgets you can’t find anywhere else. While the truth is rather more mundane it can certainly be said that Japan is a leader in the field of robotics and a few concepts are on show at Toyota’s MEGA WEB Universal Design Showcase on Odaiba island in Tokyo Bay.
It struck me yesterday while playing with my iPhone that hardware is no longer what defines an object in much the same way that a person’s body is not what makes us who we are (even if it is a contributing factor). Technology of the past was defined by physical switches and buttons which each served a singe function but todays devices are mere windows into the software which ties all their components together. The whole is far greater than the sum of its parts.
A friend of mine, Cai Qing, was recently in Chaoyang Park (Beijing) when she noticed a group was holding open auditions for a part in an upcoming Chinese movie. She’s not an actress by profession but thought it would be fun so recorded a couple of short introductory casting videos and went on her way. For most people the story would end here but things took an intriguing twist…