Hasta La Gadget!

In this year’s Bloomberg’s Innovation Index Korea was ranked 2nd, whilst Japan came in at 6th place. Given the fact that Korean firms have made inroads in the industries that Japanese companies used to dominate such as consumer electronics, communications hardware and automobiles it is probably no surprise that Korea was ranked ahead of Japan.

Image via Osen

However in a separate, more in-depth report compiled by INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization, the Global Innovation Index ranks Korea at 21st place, yet still ahead of Japan at 25th.

Singapore was also ranked competitively at 7th place by Bloomberg and 3rd by INSEAD.

When discussing the innovation of countries in contrast to companies it is necessary to go beyond the overall rankings and scrutinize the criteria since innovation is difficult to quantify without subjective results.

Bloomberg’s study examines data from 96 countries or regions and ranks them based on a scale of 0 to 100% on seven factors:

1- R&D intensity (20%), 2- Productivity (20%), 3- High-tech density (20%), 4- Researcher concentration (20%), 5- Manufacturing capability (10%), 6- Tertiary efficiency (5%), 7- Patent activity (5%).

Image via seoulrythm.com

Based on these criteria Korea came out well on R&D intensity (5th), high-tech density (3rd), manufacturing capability (3rd) tertiary efficiency (4th) and was ranked number one for patent activity. Although productivity was ranked 32nd which is not surprising considering the extremely long working hours endured by most Koreans as it is hard to perform well when you are always exhausted.

 

Japan came in second place for patent activity, 4th for R&D intensity and 6th for researcher concentration but much lower on the other criteria compared to Korea.

INSEAD’s Global Innovation Index was compiled from 141 economies and analysed five input pillars that represent aspects of the economy  which enable innovation: (1) Institutions, (2) Human capital and research, (3) Infrastructure, (4) Market sophistication, and (5) Business sophistication. In addition to two pillars which capture actual evidence of innovation outputs: (6) Knowledge and technology outputs and (7) Creative outputs.

One of the tools on the Global Innovation Index website allows you to compare the results of two countries. Bellow is a graph depicting a comparison of Japan and Korea based on the criteria I selected:

The chart above supports the rankings of the Bloomberg and INSEAD reports which shows that Korea is ahead of Japan on many competitive aspects of its economy. But does this really translate into overall innovation since so much of Korea’s economy is controlled by the Chaebol or mega-corporations such as Samsung, LG and Hyundai?

Of course these companies have been successful in developing products to sell in global markets in contrast to Japanese corporations which relied for too long on the strength of a shrinking domestic market and the competitiveness of the yen.

Now that Twitter has very tentatively launched Music integration, Bloomberg is reporting its next media target is TV. According to unnamed sources, Twitter is “close” to cutting deals to integrate video clips into the timeline, and sell advertising next to them. As we’ve seen with the new Cards it revealed earlier this month, bringing in more content about what users are discussing is key to its new strategy, and short TV clips fits into that idea perfectly. The report claims the first deal could be struck as soon as next month, with the possibility of other networks following afterward. Also playing into the strategy is its purchase of Bluefin Labs in February. Bluefin’s focus is tracking how much users talk about particular TV shows, and Twitter claimed at the time that it sought to “create innovative new ad products and consumer experiences in the exciting intersection of Twitter and TV.” Think that fits?

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD

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Source: Bloomberg

Twitter recently introduced some changes to their micro blogging site, in the form of Twitter Cards, and here we are with another update on what else Twitter has been up to. Apparently, Bloomberg has just announced that they will be integrating Twitter feeds into its terminals. These are no ordinary terminals, as they deliver real-time, financial data to the desks of Wall Street traders. This announcement was in line with the SEC’s decision which was made earlier this week, touting that social media has finally made the jump to being a valid platform for corporate disclosures, although it goes without saying that both companies should have begun integration work a whole lot earlier before the official announcement.

This move would see Twitter grow up by another notch, where it underlines the growing importance of Twitter to function as a distribution platform when it comes to breaking, market-moving news. Jean-Paul Zammitt, head of sales and product development for Bloomberg Professional, explained in a statement, “When important news is shared on Twitter, traders and investors need to be able to access it, and validate its importance in order to incorporate that information into their decision-making process.” Tweetdeck definitely looks as though they are going to “suffer” from this latest Bloomberg integration.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: New Chrome Beta Is Faster…By 5%, Twitter Assisted In Missing Mum Search,

The payphone. Despite how connected our world has gotten in the last decade or so, the majority of the 11,000 payphones in NYC stem from a 1999 contract. Due to expire and renew in October 2014, the city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) has been actively figuring out how and what type of modern solution it wants to replace roughly all 11,000 of them with. You’ve heard about a small number being retrofitted with WiFi hotspots and SmartScreen information portals, but those have essentially been tests.

Last night at Quirky’s offices, the city picked out finalists for five categories that could possibly help “Reinvent Payphones” here in the Big Apple: “connectivity, creativity, visual design, functionality and community impact.” Well over 120 entries were submitted since this design challenge kicked off last December at the NY Tech Meetup, with a total of 11 semifinalists having gotten the chance to present their ideas last night for judging. As it turns out, there was a tie for community impact, leaving six finalists overall. Better yet, out of those six, the public can take to Facebook from now until March 14th to select a “popular vote” winner. Curious for more insight? We got to chat with the city’s Director of External Affairs at the Department of Information, Nicholas Sbordone, about the project and he talked about how it went down and what it means for the future of payphones in NYC.

Filed under: Misc

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Source: Reinvent Payphones (Facebook Popular Vote), Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge, NYC Digital

Apple’s often-rumored iWatch has been the topic of discussion for tech enthusiasts for years now, but it seems we’re closer to hearing about an actual product than we originally anticipated as Bloomberg is reporting we could see it debut by the end of 2013.

Bloomberg’s sources, which happen to be the same sources that leaked Apple’s iWatch team stands at around 100 people, has informed them Apple hopes to have it available “as soon as this year.”

The news organization also notes Apple has filed for a total of 79 patents that include the word “wrist” in them, the most recent patent being for a “wearable accessory device” which would display video. Some of these patents even show off an illustrated iWatch-like device, which has also been adding fuel to the rumor fire. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Apple executive reportedly denies that the “iTV” will be launching in the near future, Apple’s iTV rumored to be in full production and could be made available through AT&T and Verizon, according to Jefferies analyst,