The Tech Dynasty

Posts written at CNET Asia’s The Tech Dynasty

italki.com brings language teaching to market

When I was visiting Shanghai-based italki.com‘s offices this past November (see post) it was mentioned that some exciting news was in the pipes for the massive language learning site.Today, after completely forgetting that such newsbait had ever chummed this blogger’s waters, I was given the lowdown: italki has just launched a Language Marketplace.

March 25, 2009
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iFakes Part II: Fake Apple netbooks?

I’m not looking to stir up the heat that took over the comments of my last post on the topic, but the crafty Chinese shanzai crew are at it again. Loathed to wait for an official release of an Apple-branded Netbook, a manufacturer in Shenzhen has come up with its own solution–the WF188.

March 20, 2009
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WordCamp China 2009 coming soon to Shanghai

As an avid WordPress user and developer, I’m not entirely sure how the fact that WordCamp China 2009 is only a couple weeks away escaped my notice. Thankfully, fellow CNET Asia blogger Victor Cheung is more on the ball and tipped me off to this once-a-year event which will feature WordPress founder (and CNET alumni) …

March 16, 2009
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The future according to Microsoft

I’ve a confession to make: I’ve always been a bit of a sci-fi realist. I was the kid who would sit around debating with his friends why ships always met on the same horizontal plane in Star Trek: TNG.I think this is why Microsoft Office Labs’ new “2019” video does well to impress me. Though …

March 4, 2009
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SXSW Shanghai lit me on fire!

I am a pretty gregarious person. I love meeting new people, catching up with old friends, and especially talking tech. So when events like last Saturday’s SXSW Shanghai @ M1NT event come around, I was on it like an Apple fanboi on a new feline-monikered OS X. Organized by The China Business Network and The …

March 2, 2009
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Thomas Crampton on social media in Asia

Thomas Crampton, sometime correspondent for the International Herald Tribune and The New York Times, is usually the one pointing the camera and reporting the wisdom of others, not gracing a lens and sharing it himself. So when he does, it’s almost always worth a listen. Such was the case with a recent short and insightful …

February 24, 2009
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The buzz about Youku Buzz

“TV? We don’t need no freakin’ TV… We got Youku!” Such is the unofficial catchphrase of Youku Buzz, an English-language blog put out by one of China’s leading (if not the leading) video-sharing sites–Youku.com. The Youku Buzz blog, and its affiliated Twitter stream, was created to act as a bridge between the mostly Chinese content …

February 20, 2009
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Beijing’s Boot Burns in Real-Time

For the last hour-and-a-half, as Chinese Lantern Festival fireworks mark the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations, Twitter has been alive with chatter about a fire at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Beijing, which upon opening this year would have been one of the city’s most exclusive and luxurious hotels. Located directly behind the …

February 9, 2009
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I’m sorry, Mac, I was wrong

Two months ago, at the end of this post, I mentioned I had bought a MacBook. I took delivery of it about a week-and-a-half ago and wanted to share my thoughts on it. I’m not exactly “new” to Macs as my college’s journalism department ran on them, but that was a decade ago and my …

February 2, 2009
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No-bull tech for the Niu Year

Chinese New Year is only a few short days away, and as China gears up to light off enough explosives to slightly shift the earth’s orbit, let’s look at what’s ahead for the country’s tech sector in the Year of the Ox. There’s little doubt that the global economic downturn (or the slightly friendlier Geddie, …

January 20, 2009
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