TomCworld Blog

Jerry Yang discuss the negative coverage Yahoo has been hit with in the last couple of months and the future of the portal/search giant at the Web 2.0 Conference.

Microsoft Research Asia Innovation Forum conducts the most cutting-edge fundamental research in computer science. It is Microsoft’s premier research lab in Asia Pacific and it aims to drive the usage of computers and the Internet to foster more healthy knowledge economies in the Asia Pacific region.

The heavily sought after tickets for the “Microsoft Research Asia 10th Anniversary Innovation Forum” celebrated the lab’s efforts on “turning ideas into reality” for the past decade. More importantly, it brought together some of the best visionaries in our time to explore new avenues for us to make a contribution to the world.

I was on hand last night at the HK Convention & Exhibition Center for Bill Gates keynote speech. He spoke very little about what Microsoft Research Asia Labs was doing, instead he gave a motivational speech encouraging the students within Hong Kong to embrace innovation, think outside the box, and challenge traditional procedures to create more green, efficent, and effective lifestyle centered around technology.

In addition to Bill Gates keynote, there was panel discussion that consisted of Bill Gates and three of Hong Kong’s top University Presidents, Professor Paul Ching-Wu Chu, President of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Professor Lawrence J. Lau, Vice-Chancellor and President, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; and Professor Lap-Chee Tsui, Vice-Chancellor and President, The University of Hong Kong. Dr. Hsiao-Wuen Hon, Managing Director, Microsoft Research Asia served as the moderator to their discussion.

The discussion amongst the panelist was very much centered around education and was fueled by very generic questions, nothing that you may not have heard answered by Mr.Gates already; however, I still felt  the forum was a success. The presence of Mr. Gates and our fellow University Presidents has inspired me (and possibly my fellow classmates) to innovate and not give up on what we want to achieve.

For more pictures from the event click here

View a clip from the event as well as my comments click here

VB’s new secret project as been announced to the world: Qore, an interactive program on the Playstation Network. The premier episode includes in-depth exclusive and never-before released content on upcoming PlayStation titles such as SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Secret Agent Clank, Soul Calibur 4 and Afro Samurai, as well as the latest Blu-ray Disc trailers, an exclusive SOCOM: Confrontation theme with an invitation to the SOCOM: Confrontation beta, art galleries and other surprises.

To get Qore, simply log onto PSN and go to the PLAYSTATION Store, as you would purchase any other form of downloadable content. Once the single Episode or annual subscription is purchased, that month’s episode will be downloaded under the “Game” heading on the Cross Media Bar (XMB). Users who purchase the “Qore Annual Subscription” will notice only that month’s episode is available to download. The following month, the new episode will automatically appear in your download list. The introductory price for Qore is $2.99 for a single episode and $24.99 for an annual subscription of 13 episodes, using your PLAYSTATION Network wallet.

I found this Do-It-Yourself Resignation Letter that Wired contributing editor Mat Honan created on TechCrunch. This is a great tool to have given the madness surrounding Yahoo. I am guessing it is not much an environment anyone wants to work in at the moment.

Jake: I think its time to put this to use and get the hell out of there.

MixWit is analog mix tapes reborn for the web generation. It scours the web for freely accessible tunes which users then can use to build playlists. These playlists are dressed up to mimic an old fashion analog cassette tape and can be freely embed in your blog or shared across the net. Check out my MixWit below.

Apple’s .Mac service is offering 10x storage increase for individual accounts from 1GB total for .Mac mail, iDisk and websites to a whopping 10GB. The total monthly bandwidth transfer was previously at 25GB, Apple has increase that to 100GB per month. The attachment size limit on inbound/outbound .Mac email messages has doubled from 10MB to 20, bringing it up to par with Gmail, Yahoo and other services. The service is expected to be rolled out by the 14th of August; however, current .mac users have confirmed that their accounts have been updated with the new features.

Zoho, an online office suite provider has launched a Zoho Facebook application.

Zoho for Facebook will allow users to create documents, spreadsheets and presentations from within Facebook. However, Zoho is not fully integrate with the Facebook’s user/ login system thus all Facebook users will still need a Zoho account (which is free).

Source: TechCrunch

Google has confirmed that they have now acquired Grand Central, a company that lets you keep one telephone number as you move from home to home or job to job. The cost of the acquisition have not been released, but it has is believe to be in the $50 million range. Google will be moving the service over to Google’s network. A limited number of invitations for GrandCentral beta accounts will still be available. All Current GrandCentral customers will continue to have uninterrupted access to the service.

Source: TechCrunch

The Lending Club is a Facebook exclusive person-to-person lending service that launched with F8 on May 24. “Since its inception it has closed 28 loans for a total of $101,250. An additional $212,650 in loans will close in the next 12 days. More than $180,000 is currently available from 271 lenders with around 10-15 new lenders transferring money to Lending Club every day.” “The Facebook platform has allows Lending Club to enabling lenders to find borrowers within shared networks. Lending Club uses technology to pair the two parties based on shared connections without giving lenders direct access to the borrowers Facebook profile.” “P2P lending is a rapidly growing market. Lending Club faces stiff competition from companies such as Zopa, CircleLending and Prosper. Although it may not be the market leader in terms of volume, Lending Club’s growing success demonstrates the potential of Facebook as a sales and finance platform.”

Source: TechCruch

Eroshare is to Flickr what PornoTube is to YouTube - user generated porn. This site encourages users to upload their home made erotic photos. It gives users 2 GB of free storage with every account and has all the standard photo site features (albums, tags, etc.).

Porn obviously continues to be a lucrative Internet business, and user generated stuff is apparently a healthy category if PornoTube’s growth is any indication. Eroshare is only weeks old but, the content is quickly growing…