Twitter presents special challenges to us all. Its 140 characters require a certain amount of thought and crafting, but what about when it comes to novelists, the ultimate in long form writing?

Some writers are entirely dismissive of Twitter. Will Self recently called it “a waste of time and talent” while Jonathan Franzen has said “Twitter is unspeakably irritating…the ultimate irresponsible medium”. He has no time for Facebook either although the New Yorker did use Facebook to give fans exclusive access to one of Franzen’s stories.

The disdain held by some hasn’t stopped others and pullitzer prize-winning author Jennifer Egan has released an 8,500 short story on Twitter, called ‘Black Box’, in a serialisation experiment with the New Yorker’s fiction Twitter account @NYerFiction. Read More »

You might remember a few months ago we wrote about Google glasses giving us all that essential The Terminator technology we all crave.

Well Google are not the only ones working on glasses. Apparently Microsoft too has some in the works…. Read More »

Facebook haven’t had much news coverage recently, so you can understand why they are doing little to quash rumours that they are going to release a phone. Back in November, Gordon Macmillan wrote on this site about the project, codenamed Buffy, and Emily Tan rightly highlighted much of the scepticism around the project.

Like the increasingly infamous Apple TV, this story periodically reappears and causes a flurry of excitement. Like the Apple TV, there is always someone supposedly in the know prepared to dish the dirt. Like the Apple TV, the Facebook phone has never emerged.

It’s not clear that it ever should. Read More »

Technology brands including Microsoft, Apple, Google and China Mobile are among the top ten most valuable brands globally many of which have lost lost value.

According to Millward Brown, brands last declined this broadly during the depths of the 2009 global recession, but financial performance, not brand, was the more critical determinant for 35 of the 49 brands that declined.

Brand Contribution—the measurement of brand strength exclusive of financials or any other factors—generally remained stable or increased for most brands and provided the buoyancy to navigate the year’s turbulence. Read More »

The huge growth in mobile is having a major impact on our high streets. But it‘s not all bad. Brands that embrace the medium are finding innovative ways of engaging customers both in store and online.

To click or to wander? Last month, Boston Consulting Group published findings stating that the UK has the largest internet economy of the G20. Mobile is an integral part of this. The joy of m-commerce – the freedom to purchase items from anywhere with a phone signal, allows you to shop around for the best deal without having to trudge around the high street. This preference is particularly acute in Britain, having gone from what, in 1776, Adam Smith called “a nation of shopkeepers”, to last year, when mobile shopping saw a 187% increase, according to analysis by IBM. Today, it’s not a case of one or the other though; online commerce (be it PC or mobile) is both helping and hindering the high street. Read More »