Traditionally, Southeast Asia is seen as THE place to look to as far as cool new gadgets go. Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok – these are the places where the earliest hi-tech adopters dwell, mostly because new devices are treated as status items by white-collar workers in the crowded Asian cities. Surprisingly, their newest technological fetish is no longer bearing the fruity, slightly nibbled-on logo…
A few years back Amazon wouldn’t even be considered as being in the same league as Apple, but times have changed. Nowadays, the online retail giant dabbles in consumer electronics and mobile computing, encroaching on what was previously the domain of the late Steve Jobs’ empire. Amazon’s weapon of choice in the coming war was to be its flagship product Kindle, aimed to dethrone the reigning champion, iPad. What Amazon’s Kindle lacked in comparison to its rival has been recently remedied, though, as evidenced by Amazon’s rallying of its troops: a year ago, they acquired YAP, a voice-to-text software similar to Apple’s Siri. And just yesterday, Amazon has announced the purchase of IVONA text-to-speech software company, thus firing the first shot of this war.
It’s almost New Year, so hooray for the old one, welcome to the New one! Some folks, like those in Thailand, Singapore, Australia and the-almost-never-spoken-of Myanmar have already had their big countdown and fireworks display, while we here in EU will have to wait a few more hours. Just as every year, this evening many people will find strength and will to make grand (and often unrealized) plans for the upcoming annum. If you’re as keen to turn over a new calendar leaf as we are, but not exactly sure what to strive for, read on to find out what are the most common New Year’s Resolutions this year!
It’s (almost) the end of days, everyone! The clock’s ticking away to that ominous date, 12-21-12, the day that Mayans said Earth will stand still. Though, considering how hard it is to actually match their 144.000-day calendar to the Earth’s rotation, what with the precession of the globe’s axis vis a vis the ecliptic and other scientific mumbo jumbo, it’s rather unlikely that it’s going to be any prophesied cataclysmic event or cyclical abnormality. If the world ends, I don’t think it’s going to be any solar flares or asteroids coming at us out of nowhere; it might be simply panic and fear, a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy, if you will.
With end of the year rapidly approaching, it’s common practice to weigh up what’s been accomplished throughout the year. But for many younger people it might also be an opportunity to check whether their overall career direction is actually worth it in the long haul.
