Catherine Shu is a TechCrunch writer based in Taipei. She started her career in New York City at the Wall Street Journal Online and Barron’s Online before moving to Asia. After studying Mandarin Chinese, Catherine put her language skills to the test by covering the design industry and culture in Taiwan’s capital for the Taipei Times. Her other journalism experience includes an investigative reporting internship at the Village Voice and numerous freelance writing gigs. Catherine graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.
Disclosures: None
Canalys just published its final mobile phone shipment estimates, which show that although Samsung is still on top of the global smart phone market, three Chinese manufacturers-Huawei, ZTE and Lenovo-all climbed into the top five for the first time, thanks to domestic success as well as sales in overseas markets. → Read More
NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s leading mobile operator, has announced that it will invest in 500 Startups as it prepares to launch a 10 billion JPY ($109 million USD) venture fund in late February. The accelerator program will focus on the development of new businesses for smartphones and tablets. → Read More
At the beginning of this year, social GPS app Waze was the rumored target of an Apple acquisition. Had the linkup happened, it would have been a rare case of the Cupertino company acquiring a startup. But, as it turns out, there wasn’t a deal, even though Waze is a data partner for Apple’s mapping software. January might not have started out with as huge a bang for Waze as some people had hoped… → Read More
JFDI.Asia, the incubator program that seeks to “innovate in Asia, for Asia,” just announced the eight startups that will be part of its accelerator program. The competition, which pushes teams to take an idea to investment in 100 days, begins on Feb. 21 at JFDI.Asia’s new purpose-built facility in Singapore. → Read More
MediaTek reported lower-than-expected revenue in its fourth quarter, but the Taiwanese handset chip maker says its still poised to stand strong against rivals like Qualcomm. The company, which was founded in 1997 and entered the mobile phone business in 2004, has grown rapidly on the back of its reference designs, which are purchased and re-branded by manufacturers. MediaTek’s roster of clients… → Read More
Google won a court case in Australia on Wednesday when the country’s High Court ruled that the Internet behemoth did not violate fair trade law by allowing companies to purchase AdWords containing their competitor’s names. → Read More
Burpple, the social discovery app that seeks to connect food lovers from around the world, just released their Android app in public beta. Their iOS app was launched in December 2011. → Read More
Chinese telecoms giant Huawei launched a Windows smartphone tailored for and exclusively available in Africa. The device, a customized version of the Huawei Ascend W1, was created in partnership with Microsoft as part of its new 4Afrika initiative. → Read More
Baidu’s fourth-quarter earnings report presented a mixed bag for the company known as the “Google of China.” Though its profit jumped by 36 percent in the quarter because of an increase in advertising spending, its 41.6 percent year-on-year revenue growth was the slowest since 2009, according to Reuters. → Read More
According to multiple sources cited in a Tencent QQ Tech report (link via Google Translate, h/t Tech In Asia), Apple removed all of Qihoo’s apps from its App store last week for violating its terms of service. Qihoo said last week that it did not know the reason for the removals, which took place on January 26. In fact, the QQ Tech article claims that the apps were taken down manually, and there’s… → Read More
Speech technology company Vestec announced that it has landed $1.5 million in funding from V. Raman Kumar, the founder and former CEO of MModal, a provider of clinical transcription services and clinical documentation workflow solutions. Kumar has also joined Vestec’s board of directors as vice chairman and will oversee the development of products and services for the global market with a focus on… → Read More
BlackBerry 10′s first Superbowl commercial squeaked in right before a power outage delayed the game for 34 minutes. Instead of focusing on what the new OS can do, however, the thirty-second spot showed what it can’t do: trigger spontaneous combustion, make users disappear in a puff of colorful smoke and then magically reappear out of manholes, or turn out-of-control tanker trucks into a giant… → Read More
FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz announced on Thursday that he will resign, one month after the agency reached a settlement with Google after a 20-month investigation into the tech giant’s alleged anticompetitive behavior. The resignation had been expected by antitrust lawyers since last summer and will take effect in mid-February. Leibowitz said that he plans to move to the private sector and will… → Read More
Venture capital firm Red Dot Ventures has invested $482,000 USD in Pirate3DP, a Singapore-based startup that is developing an affordable, user-friendly 3D printer for the mass market. → Read More
In an effort to create more synergy between its products, Microsoft’s search platform Bing has announced that Office 365 Premium is now available to users. The five apps included in the add-on for the newly launched Office 365 and Office 2013 make it easier for users to insert information and images directly from Bing searches into their documents. They are: Bing Finance for Excel, Bing Maps for… → Read More
Intel has announced that it will showcase Android devices running a new dual core, dual graphics platform at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from February 25 to 28. “Specifically, Intel will showcase its latest smartphone technologies and devices running the Android* platform, including a new dual core, dual graphics platform, as well as OEM- and service provider-supported devices based… → Read More
The U.S. International Trade Commission announced that it is launching a Section 337 investigation into wireless devices with 3G and 4G capabilities and components by Samsung, Nokia, Huawei and ZTE. These include the Samsung ATIV S, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note II, Galaxy Note 10.1, Galaxy S III, Galaxy Stellar, Galaxy Tab II (10.1), SCH-LC11, and 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot; the Nokia Lumia 820, Lumia 822… → Read More
Apple’s iPad led the charge as total worldwide tablet shipments hit a record of 52.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to IDC’s preliminary data from its Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker, but its market share continued to slide due to competition from Samsung. Meanwhile, PC shipments declined during the quarter for the first time in more than five years. The tablet market… → Read More
The New York Times has revealed that over the last four months, it was repeatedly attacked by Chinese hackers using methods that have been linked to the Chinese military in the past. The timing of the attacks coincided with reporting for an investigative article published on October 24 that revealed Wen Jiabao, China’s prime minister, had tried to hide a massive family fortune. → Read More
Love them or hate them, infographics are a potent marketing tool, especially on visually-oriented Web sites like Pinterest or Facebook. But using an image to present information often means losing out on SEO opportunities. Malaysia-based startup Piktochart seeks to bridge that gap with the launch today of its retooled Web-based app, which now allows users to create interactive, search-friendly… → Read More
In the latest development in a long and complicated series of ongoing lawsuits between the two companies, Judge Lucy Koh has found that Samsung did not willfully infringe Apple patents. Last August, a jury ruled in favor of Apple, awarding the Cupertino company $1.05 billion in damages after it found Samsung guilty of infringing on patents for features including the ’380 “bounce back” scrolling… → Read More
According to a report in the China Business News (link via Google Translate), the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce has confirmed that Apple will open an R&D and procurement management facility in the city this summer. Apple has been emailed for comment. → Read More
Another key member of Zynga’s team has left the beleaguered social game maker. This time it’s chief game designer Brian Reynolds, as reported on Bloomberg. The company confirmed Reynolds’ departure, but did not offer any details about why Reynolds is leaving or his last day. → Read More
Qihoo 360 shares slipped after it disclosed today that its iOS apps had been removed from the iTunes stores without warning, reports Bloomberg. The Chinese security software maker also received an unfair competition warning from the Chinese government, according to the Beijing Industrial and Commercial Administration Bureau’s microblog. But Qihoo didn’t let its no good, very bad day keep it from… → Read More
Samsung announced that it has acquired medical imaging company NeuroLogica, part of the multinational conglomerate’s plans to build a leading medical technology business. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. → Read More
Facebook is back online for everyone, according to Downrightnow and the company. A spokesperson said:
Earlier today we experienced a DNS issue that briefly prevented people who typed ‘facebook.com’ into their browsers from reaching the site. People who accessed the site using a mobile app, typed ‘www.facebook.com’ into their browsers, or used a bookmark or a search engine to navigate to the… → Read More
VMWare plans to cut about 900 jobs, or 7 percent of its workforce, as part of a restructuring. The company also issued cautious 2013 forecast, due to a decline in U.S. federal government bookings and continuing concerns about the sluggish economy in Europe. → Read More
Lenovo has denied reports that the company plans to buy Research In Motion, saying that it is instead looking at acquisition opportunities in general, reports Sina Tech (link via Google Translate). → Read More
Twitter announced yesterday that it has started selling advertising services in the Middle East and North Africa after users in the region tripled over the past year. The microblogging platform will work with Cairo-based agency Connect Ads to market its sales products across the region. → Read More
As anyone who has ever studied Chinese knows, it’s an onerous language to learn–especially on an empty stomach. That’s where Waygo comes in. The translation iOS app makes life easier for travelers by using optical character recognition to read menu items written in Chinese characters. → Read More
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