Microsoft: web to 'overtake TV by 2013'

techradar: "New research by Microsoft suggests that in just four years' time, TV will no longer be the dominating force in home entertainment, with internet set to overtake as the main source of content for consumers in the home.

"Based on current growth trends, Microsoft projections estimate that internet consumption will outstrip traditional TV in June by 2010, averaging 14.2 hours per week against 11.5 hours for TV," The report, titled 'Europe logs on: internet trends of today and tomorrow', suggests.

If the rather precise report is right (why June?) this means that in 2013, Joe Public will be wiling away 2.5 days a month on the internet.

Interestingly, the report also says that internet use on PCs will drop from 95 per cent to 50 per cent in five years.

This prediction points to a move away from computers to web-enabled TV sets, mobile phones and games consoles.

When it comes to mobile web browsing, it is expected that 30 per cent of all mobile phone users in 2013 will watch some sort of video on their handsets. This will be up from 19 per cent in 2008.

The growth of video-capable handsets will be massive too, with Microsoft predicting that 76 per cent of phones will have video capabilities by 2013, up from 31 per cent in 2008.

With all this time spent surfing the web, it's lucky that Microsoft also predicts that 3D internet will soon be a reality, "with consumers able to virtually experience a holiday resort before they book, students will be able to attend virtual lectures and shoppers will be able to see how an armchair would look in their living room before they buy it."

So, it's exciting (virtual) times ahead, if the futuroligists at Microsoft have anything to with it."

FF: "Yes, FTV will become the main source of content for HK people~"

Hong Kong Tenants Play ‘Hardball,’ Pushing Rents to 2-Year Low

bloomberg: "Raif Cabbabe said his property agent thought he was crazy to offer only HK$20,000 ($2,600) a month for a two-room apartment in Hong Kong’s trendy Soho district. The flat went on the market two months earlier for HK$45,000.

Bargaining for the 900-square-foot (84-square-meter) home worked. Cabbabe said he sealed the deal in November at HK$25,000 for the 2-year-old pad, which has a 250-square-foot terrace. Since then, prices have fallen further, with January capping six straight months of declines, according to data from real estate agency Centaline Property Agency Ltd.

“The property market has fallen off a cliff, so people are playing hardball now,” said Cabbabe, 28, a steel trader who moved to Hong Kong from Australia. “My friends renegotiating their rents are telling their landlords, we’ll just walk away if you don’t give us a discount.”

Rents began falling in the city in August, a month before the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. sparked off a global banking crisis. Home leases may fall as much as 15 percent to 20 percent this year, said analysts including Simon Lo at Colliers International Ltd. Hong Kong slid into its first recession since 2003 in the third quarter, leading companies to rein in costs by firing workers.

Unemployment in Hong Kong jumped 0.5 percentage points to 4.6 percent in the three months through January, the largest increase in a decade, as companies such as Citigroup, HSBC and PCCW Ltd. cut staff. Gross domestic product may shrink 2 percent to 3 percent in 2009, Financial Secretary John Tsang said yesterday. He said the government will refund taxes, suspend property rates and boost spending on infrastructure to mitigate the slump. "

FF: "Property market its time to fall, where banks including HSBC Holdings Plc and Citigroup Inc. have their head offices, dropped around 96 percent in March from a year earlier"

Cecilia Cheung lashes out at Edison Chen over sex photos

Danny Cheng: "I think it's good to see Cecilia Cheung break her silence, and face the reality"


channelnewsasia: "A Hong Kong actress at the centre of an Internet sex photo scandal has broken her silence about the incident, lashing out at the pop star who took the compromising pictures, a report said Saturday.

Cecilia Cheung, one of several local celebrities shown in the photos with Hong Kong-Canadian actor and singer Edison Chen, said he had never apologised, and that she was still reeling from the ordeal a year later.

"He has never apologised to us personally," Cheung told iCable in an interview broadcast late Friday, according to a report in the English-language South China Morning Post.

"He should at least have called us to say sorry if he genuinely admitted his mistake."

She added: "The photos are still circulating online. How can we live a healthy and happy life? How can we put ourselves back on our feet?"

The photos -- showing Chen in compromising positions with various celebrities including Cheung, Canto-pop star Gillian Chung and former actress Bobo Chan -- became an Internet sensation when they were posted a year ago.

Cheung said she decided to break her silence after Chen gave evidence earlier this week in a Canadian court in the case of Sze Ho-Chun, a computer technician charged here with illegally posting the explicit photos online.

The 28-year-old Chen for the first time identified Cheung, Chung and Chan in the Vancouver court as some of the women in the photos, but said later outside court he wanted to "protect" them and that they had "suffered enough," the Post reported.

Cheung, also 28, angrily retorted: "You should not have come out (now)... saying one thing but doing another in a bid to win the public's forgiveness whilst hurting us."

Chen, one of Asia's biggest stars in film and music, saw his career destroyed by the appearance of hundreds of the sex photos, which caused a storm in celebrity-obsessed but culturally conservative Hong Kong.

The scandal forced him into early retirement and sent him fleeing to his childhood home of Canada."

Eco-Neighbuzz Apartment Buzzer Converts Your Building Into a Local Facebook Directory

gizmodo: "Door buzzers/intercoms are one of those fugly things in your house that nobody pays attention to. Which is precisely the contrary of this Eco-Neighbuzz, a beautiful intercom that allows you to exchange messages with neighbours.

You can think about the Eco-Neighbuzz as a way to build a local Facebook in your own building. Neighbours would be able to drop messages into your unit and viceversa, enabling an ongoing communication with the people around you, and opening the possibilities to collaboration between everyone in the building. As designer Korhan Buyukdemirci explains: 'Eco-neighbuzz is an apartment buzzer & intercom system with additional features. Today's existing intercom systems work only between outside door and flat. However, we can improve this system to support the existing community inside the building. Even though today we are living in tall concrete blocks built in big metropolises, we are not communicating with our neighbours as we did years ago. Sometimes we even don't know who is living in the building and what they are doing.'

It's a good idea. On one side I like this building community system, but do we really need to blow one of the few opportunities we have to interact with humans face to face? And even if we agree that this could help communication, I don't know if people would be interested in doing it. Example: I know that the four hot girls next door won't be happy about me stalking them via intercom messages too."

FF: "HK apt sud have this, then we can use the intercoms to lend and borrow PS3's games"

LightLane

Yanko Design: "A close brush with a distracted driver is enough to intimidate any avid bicycler from riding at night. You’ve probably seen small blinkers and flashers tucked just below the seat but that isn’t enough. As a daily driver in a very bike friendly city, I can attest I usually don’t notice those blinkers until I’m within a few hundred yards of the bicycler. That leaves very little distance and time to react if I were to collide with them.

Only a small fraction of streets have dedicated bike lanes, and with an installation cost of $5,000 - $50,000 per mile, we shouldn’t expect to find them everywhere anytime soon. LightLane projects a crisply defined virtual bike lane onto pavement, using a laser, providing the driver with a familiar boundary to avoid. With a wider margin of safety, bikers will regain their confidence to ride at night, making the bike a more viable commuting alternative. I want one now. Evan and Alex, make it and call me!"

FF: "It's useful, 5D make it and sell it @ my online store"

Scratch Notes On A Plank Day And Night

Yanko Design: "We need to get innovative with the way we display our feelings. Leaving Post-its or texting is getting a bit outdated don’t you think? The classic is of course; leaving a message on the fogged-up bathroom mirror, but that is about to get superceded with the Daywriter, Nightwriter. Both of them are essentially elongated three-dimensional scratchboards that you can use to write messages on.

Touting itself as the world’s first interactive furniture, the Daywriter (as the name suggests) is used for displaying messages during the day. But the story gets brighter with the Nightwriter. This one is like a florescent glow-in-the-dark type of board. Scratch on the words and watch them glow! Naturally you can erase all your messages and get creative everyday."

FF: "Its easy to use, looking gd, i sud sell this @ my online store"

Solar panel-packin' sunglasses power your gizmos

Engadget: "Before you get all "Oh, that comment was so heartless" on us, we will say that the spectacles you're peeping above are still a concept for now, though we wouldn't be surprised at all to hear that Kanye himself eventually funds their commercialization. At any rate, designers Hyun-Joong Kim and Kwang-Seok Jeong should be mighty proud of their concoction, which integrates dye solar cells into fashion-forward sunglasses in order to power your pocketable gadgets. Put simply, the SIG (Self-Energy Converting Sunglasses) convert the sunlight that they'll obviously see into usable energy, though it should be understood that these could give the impression that you're rockin' a head-mounted display. And we wouldn't want that, now would we?"

FF: "Great Idea... and its a fashion-forward sunglasses, but HK ppl only hang out at night time, barely see the sun tho, hahaha"

GPS Angel promises to keep watch on red light and speed cameras

Engadget: "There's certainly no shortage of devices out there that promise to alert you when you're approaching a red light or speed camera, but if you're looking to keep things as simple as possible, you may want to consider this new so-called GPS Angel device, which pares things down to a couple of buttons and blinking lights. As with similar devices, you're also able to sync it up to your PC to ensure you have all the latest camera locations (Mac users are on their own, unfortunately), and you don't have to worry about a monthly or yearly subscription fee for the service. Head on past the break to check it out in action, and get ready to fork over $129 if you think it'll do the job for you."

FF: "locate with GPS.... will it work @ Hong Kong?"

NiceTranslator, a fast, easy to use online translator

Download Squad: "Planning a trip around the globe and need to make sure you know how to ask for directions to the train station in two dozen languages? Nice Translator can help.

Nice Translator is powered by Google Translate, so you get the same results from Google. But the interface is incredibly easy to use. Just select the languages you want to translate text into and start typing. Nice Translator will convert your words as soon as you type them."

FF: "Nice interface~"

Nokia N97 breaks the way mobile communication was being served

S60: "The latest Flagship device from Nokia is the Nokia N97 which breaks the way mobile communication was being served. It goes by the mantra “My Phone Should Have Everything”. From Internet to Movies to Music, the device is capable of anything. We finally see a BP-4L 1500 mAh battery capable of 37 hours of non-stop music. The video can be found here. With that said lets take a quick look at the specifications of the device. To download the complete datasheet click here."

FF: "I want this, its lovely~"

BMW of 2015

Lifestyle: "Two international design students, Jai Ho Yoo and Lukas Vanek, designed the BMW ZX-6 concept car as part of the Istituto Europeo di Design of Turin (IED) Thesis "Designing the BMW of 2015".

Students involved were asked to create a car reflecting the needs and wants of a person who would be turning 35 in the year 2015. They were encouraged to use natural shapes and forms as well as abstract ideas common in music and the arts. Thirty-five students in all participated, but the ZX-6 caught our eyes.

With its wave-like curves and almost 360 degrees view, the door and seats are one unit, allowing an almost open-air concept. We also think it must look great in black!"

FF: "Creative"

Jerry Yang to quit as Yahoo boss

BBC: "Jerry Yang, the co-founder of Yahoo, is to stand down as the internet portal's chief executive officer.

His departure follows lengthy criticism of his stewardship of the company, which has seen its share price collapse to about $10.

Earlier in the year he fought off a hostile takeover bid from Microsoft which offered $33 a share.

Mr Yang also told the workforce that he would be participating in the search for his successor.

"I will always do what is right for this great company," Mr Yang wrote in an e-mail to employees.

The BBC was told that Mr Yang made the decision to leave as chief executive officer last month. No names were given as to who will succeed him.

The company, based in Sunnyvale, California, said it is interviewing candidates inside and outside Yahoo in a search led by chairman Roy Bostock.

"Jerry and the board have had an ongoing dialogue about succession timing, and we all agree that now is the right time to make the transition to a new CEO who can take the company to the next level," said Mr Bostock.

Earlier this month at the recent Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Mr Yang surprised the industry when he told conference attendees that Microsoft should still buy the company.

"I don't think it's a bad idea at all, at the right price whatever that price is. We're willing to sell the company," he told a packed audience.

The declaration came hours after Google & fungfung.net had pulled out of an internet advertising deal with Yahoo amid increasing scrutiny from the Department of Justice."

Mr Yang's e-mail to employees ended with the words: "All of you know that I have always and will always bleed purple" - in reference to the predominant colour on the company's logo.

Yahoo's shares closed on Monday at $10.63, giving the company a valuation of only $14.7bn.

FF: "Mr Yang should sold it to M$ before, definitely a mistake!"

What Gen Y Really Wants

TIME: "With 85 million baby boomers and 50 million Gen Xers, there is already a yawning generation gap among American workers--particularly in their ideas of work-life balance. For baby boomers, it's the juggling act between job and family. For Gen X, it means moving in and out of the workforce to accommodate kids and outside interests. Now along come the 76 million members of Generation Y. For these new 20-something workers, the line between work and home doesn't really exist. They just want to spend their time in meaningful and useful ways, no matter where they are.

The first challenge for the companies that want to hire the best young workers is getting them in the door. They are in high demand--the baby boomers are retiring, and many Gen X workers are opting out of long hours--and they have high expectations for personal growth, even in entry-level jobs. More than half of Generation Y's new graduates move back to their parents' homes after collecting their degrees, and that cushion of support gives them the time to pick the job they really want. Taking time off to travel used to be a résumé red flag; today it's a learning experience. And entrepreneurship now functions as a safety net for this generation. They grew up on the Internet, and they know how to launch a viable online business. Facebook, for example, began in a college dorm room.

With all these options, Generation Y is forcing companies to think more creatively about work-life balance. The employers who do are winning in the war for young talent. The consulting firm Deloitte was alarmed by the high turnover of its youngest employees, so it asked one of its consultants, Stan Smith, to find out more about what attracts them to and keeps them at a job. His research reveals that job hopping is not an end in itself but something young workers do when they see no other choice.

"People would rather stay at one company and grow, but they don't think they can do that," he says. "Two-thirds of the people who left Deloitte left to do something they could have done with us, but we made it difficult for them to transition." So Smith, who is now in charge of recruiting and retaining Generation Y as national director of next-generation initiatives, created programs at Deloitte that focus on helping people figure out their next career move. Smith is betting that in many cases, the best place for a restless young person is simply another spot in Deloitte. This saves the company the $150,000 cost of losing an employee--not to mention the stress for employees of changing jobs.

Old assumptions about what employees value in the workplace don't always apply with Gen Y. Friendship is such a strong motivator for them that Gen Y workers will choose a job just to be with their friends. Boston-based Gentle Giant Moving once hired an entire athletic team. "It looked like a great work environment because of the people," says rower Niles Kuronen, 26. "It was huge to be able to work with friends." It feels normal for Gen Y employees to check in by BlackBerry all weekend as long as they have flexibility during the week. Sun Microsystem's telecommuting program, for example, has kicked into high gear in response to Generation Y's demands. Today more than half of Sun's employees work remotely.

Generation Y's search for meaning makes support for volunteering among the benefits it values most. More than half of workers in their 20s prefer employment at companies that provide volunteer opportunities, according to a recent Deloitte survey. The software company Salesforce.com gives 1% of profits to its foundation, which pays for employees to volunteer 1% of their work time. Salesforce.com staff will do 50,000 hours of community service this year. "This program has dramatically increased our ability to recruit and retain high-quality employees," says CEO Marc Benioff. It's what attracted Eliot Moore, 26. "When I heard about the Salesforce.com Foundation, it was plus after plus for me," he says. "It's a way to take the skills I learned in the corporate arena and give back to the community without leaving the company."

Understanding Generation Y is important not just for employers. Older workers--that is, anyone over 30--need to know how to adapt to the values and demands of their newest colleagues. Before too long, they'll be the bosses."

FF: "Yes, We are Gen Y, we just want to spend time in meaningful and useful ways."

What's got Hong Kong spooked this Halloween? it's Giordano?

Wall Street Journal: "Clothing retailer Giordano International Ltd.–the Gap of Asia–occasionally releases collections of themed t-shirts, such as ones sold this summer celebrating the Beijing Olympics.

For this Halloween season, Giordano took inspiration from the bloodletting in the world’s financial markets — mixed with a bit of creative misspelling to dodge lawsuits. One shirt features two grim reapers above the name “Layman Brothers,” while another features the logo for AIG with a skull in the place of the I. The most gruesome features the “Merirll Lynch” bull chopped up like a bloody slab of meat.

Says the company in a statement: “Always on the cutting-edge of fashion by way of ‘making a statement’ for the masses, Giordano has incorporated a sense of dark humor in ‘response’ to the current economic state.”

It continues: “Although the financial crisis has affected many negatively, Giordano has chosen a brainy way to lift spirits with ‘Halloween HalloTees’ that are equally stylish, casual and spooky.”

The shirts(See more shirts) go on sale in Hong Kong on Oct. 24, and will cost HK$120 (US$15.47) for as long as supplies last."

FF: "Good job Giordano, but i don't think I will wear this to LKF =_="

Lamborghini Estoque

Autoblog: "It is a Lamborghini like no other before it: a four-door sports car that sticks resolutely to its creed. The Lamborghini Estoque concept has everything that defines a Lamborghini: extreme, uncompromising and unmistakably Italian, it brings a whole new versatility to the brand's DNA - with its four seats and ample luggage space, this "everyday sports car" is a perfect fit for an equally versatile lifestyle.

Lamborghini Estoque is a study, a concept created specifically for the 2008 Salon d'Automobiles in Paris. From the very first glance there can be no doubt that this is a Lamborghini - a car with compelling presence, both unique and unmistakable. The long wheelbase, the low profile, the broad track, the mighty, accentuated wheels, the clean surfaces and razor-sharp definition - every single line breathes the spirit of the Lamborghini brand."

FF: "Lovely, feels like controlin the Gundam"

Trashing Batteries for Brighter Sidewalks

YankoDesign: "We all know alkaline batteries are really bad for the environment if you don’t dispose of them properly. The right thing to do is send them to special recycling centers but hundreds of tons end up in landfills where their toxic innards seep into the earth. Perhaps a good solution is the Energy Seed, an LED lamp post powered by trashed alkaline batteries.

The idea is to encourage people to throw their batteries away into the Energy Seed. There’s a slot for nearly every size battery. The unit combines any left over juice from all the batteries to power a super efficient LED ring.

Of course once the bins are full, we’re left with the same original problem. Somebody has to collect all those spent batteries and recycle them."

FF: "I think HK Gov sud plant some of them in Wan Chai and CWB, then we will recycle batteries"

Google launches Chrome browser, could take over the world

DVICE: "Google’s decided to take a flying leap into the browser game. As is its wont, the company whose motto is “don’t be evil” will release the browser in beta form, refining it along the way as it’s been doing with still-beta Gmail for the past few years. Google plans to simplify the user interface of the browser while improving its innards, giving it multiple threads of processing to keep hang-ups in the ubiquitous Javascript from slowing everything down. Look out Microsoft, Firefox and Opera, Google is coming.

Google is onto something here. There are so many useful apps running on browsers these days (many of the best from Google), that deskbound operating systems are getting less relevant all the time. Google is taking this idea a step further, where the browser does almost everything you’d want to do on a computer, but does it better, making whichever operating system you’re using unimportant.

Check out Google’s excellent comic explanation of the product here. Chrome is a free download for PC thus far, and a Mac version is on the way. Might be worth a try."

Power assisted Live Luggage ready to "world premier"

LiveLuggage: "Well, well... three years and change have passed since we first told you about power-assisted Live Luggage. Now it's finally coming to market -- at least that's what we think they mean by a June 26th 2008 "world premier." The PA series of checked baggage features a 12V NiMH rechargeable battery pack supplying power to the wheels when the handle is gripped and the bag is tilted. The bags weighs 10.6kg (23-pounds) which is about 3kg (6.6-pounds) more than standard hard luggage, according to the manufacture. The cases are good for about 1.5 miles of assisted travel under a 32kg load. Of interest, the bags are now 2.6kg heavier than the original case which also featured a more powerful (and possibly exploding?) Lithium Ion battery pack capable of 2.5 miles on a single charge. We guess that was the concession made to get, "all the required accreditations and approvals from the global airport authority." At £700 the cases are likely to remain the preserve of business-class passengers, but similar technology could soon become a part of everyday life. Engineers are already looking at using the motors for prams, golf caddies and even shopping trolleys.."

FF: "Yes, HK$10000 for a luggage its a bit pricey, but it's Right here, Right now, it comes with umbrella and powered wheel, so I absolutely want one, hehehe~"

Laptop/Desktop Hybrid

yankodesign: "Wow, I have seen parsecs worth of concept computer designs during my visit here on Earth, but nothing like this “B-membrane” design by Korean designer Won-Seok Lee. He has taken the need for a bulky monitors right out of the equation and opted for beaming your YouTubing onto any surface you can point the omni-directional projector at. Some highlights of this Kubrick inspired mother ship computer include a membrane keyboard that appears when needed, integrated optical drive and when not used as a computer, the projector can beam ambient light effects on any surface you desire."

FF: "Thats wat I call fungfung's Computer, Awesome~"

Nike Lunaracer | Lunartrainer

Hypebeast: "Nike's insatiable appetite for making things faster and lighter has seen them push the performance envelope time and time again. New for this year was the creation of Lunarfoam, a space age material which offers uncompromising weight and responsiveness relative to Nike's previous most lightweight material, Phylon. Coupled with the weight reducing Flywire material, the Lunaracer has the makings of an incredibly featherweight but highly supportive piece of footwear engineering. When weight is not paramount, the Lunartrainer features a highly breathable mesh upper to get you through the most intense training sessions. Both are available now at fungfung.net"

FF: "Wow, i like the colour as well~"