LINE offering

ICYMI–Time to Pay Attention to the Rest of the World (and Sorry for the Delay)

LINE offering

In the wake of Facebook’s acquisition of WhatApps, Mobile World Congress in in Barcelona continued with major news for those of us who gone on ignoring what’s happening outside the U.S. And lots and lots of other major developments in a generally surprising week.

LINE re-invents itself at LINE 2014 ShowcaseWhile looking at WhatsApp, we should also be paying a lot of attention to WeChat in China and Vietnam and, especially, LINE’s approach in Japan. LINE is up to a lot of things, from video to manga communications and it’s long past up time for us to be checking out the expansions.

Why Your Next Ford Car May Be Running on BlackBerry Sidewalk: Ford’s Sync in-car communications has been a Microsoft-based system from the beginning. But the company, looking for better service may, be moving toward a replacement based on BlackBerry’s QNX operating system. It probably won’t do much to salvage BlackBerry’s troubled phones, but the top-quality QNX real-time OS, acquired in 2010 and the basis of the still struggling BB 10 software, could be a winner.

Netflix and Net Neutrality: I’ll say it again this week. Whatever else you are reading, it’s a mistake not to keep up with Ben Thompson’s first-rate Stratechery efforts. This week, Ben offers a deep big into the complex and important relationship between Netflix and Comcast and the future relationship of their important distribution. The details being worked out by the carriers and the distributors may end up being a lot more important than whatever the government is up to.

What’s Not Being Said About BitCoin: When all’s said and done, the collapse of the Mt. Gox exchange may be good news for a serious future for BitCoin as a means of payment exchange. Before time is over, BitCoin may be a big , international deal.

Mobile Trends that Matter Tomorrow – Kantar Worldpanel: The press release from Kantar Worldpanel really isn’t very interesting. At least until you find a link labeled “Click here to download the report” that offers a PDF document that includes some fascinating information, especially on international preferences for larger and smaller phone screens. Well worth a read.

The Future of the News Business: A Monumental Twitter Stream All in One Place: What is the impact of Twitter on the news business? Some deep and important ideas from March Andreesen (now a big tweeter himself as @pmarka).

Scaling Windows Phone, Evolving Windows 8: For those interested in where Microsoft’s plans for the future of phones, tablets, and PCs should be paying attention to Joe Belfiore, a major contributor to Windows going designed to Windows XP and before. (Anyone remember Neptune?) Keep up with Joe on the windows blog.

Late breaking: Not tech news but the scary and increasingly Russian militaristic moves toward the Ukraine and the increasing pressure on Germany and the European Union seems like a return sort of struggle we have all but forgotten about. This is a big and very dangerous situation that we should be following closely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Steve Wildstrom

Steve Wildstrom is veteran technology reporter, writer, and analyst based in the Washington, D.C. area. He created and wrote BusinessWeek’s Technology & You column for 15 years. Since leaving BusinessWeek in the fall of 2009, he has written his own blog, Wildstrom on Tech and has contributed to corporate blogs, including those of Cisco and AMD and also consults for major technology companies.

3 thoughts on “ICYMI–Time to Pay Attention to the Rest of the World (and Sorry for the Delay)”

    1. Thanks. I’d just fallen so badly behind reading the news this week. There was lots going on–I still missed plenty.

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