While football (soccer to North America) fans may not, as a group apparently represent the intellectual elite,they do reflect the practical & political reality. On June 26th, 2014 when USA and Germany played each other in the World Cup, the brilliantly social reflective fans got straight to the true core of international relations. World Cup chants reveal true state of U.S.-German relations As Germany basks in its World Cup victory, it’s easy to forget that one of the most telling geopolitical moments of the tournament came during the Germany-U.S. game. As American fans chanted “U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!” the Germans countered … Continue reading As American fans chanted “U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!” the Germans countered with, “N-S-A! N-S-A! N-S-A!”

This seems like a seminal moment for Enterprise devices that to date were officially owned by Blackberry. Apple and IBM Forge Global Partnership to Transform Enterprise Mobility Continue reading Apple and IBM enter enterprise market together

I found this a thoughtful and provocative article. Even the comments are worthwhile if you ignore the Apple vs Google troll comments. There is a distinction being drawn between Apple/iOS and Google/ Android, and its one that both reflects history of computing, and their respective business models which are very different. The next phase of smartphones Hence, WWDC was all about cloud as an enabler of rich native apps, while the most interesting parts of IO were about eroding the difference between apps and websites. … … The interaction models become different. I’ve said before that Apple’s approach is about … Continue reading iOS and Android | Google and Apple strategies are clear, for now

Here is the blog post from from Richard Domingues Boscovich, Assistant General Counsel, Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit. We can expect more: Microsoft takes on global cybercrime epidemic in tenth malware disruption http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2014/06/30/microsoft-takes-on-global-cybercrime-epidemic-in-tenth-malware-disruption.aspx This is the third malware disruption by Microsoft since the November unveiling of the Microsoft Cybercrime Center—a center of excellence for advancing the global fight against cybercrime. Continue reading Update from Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit on no-ip action today

Totally of banking topic. The consternation about NSA and government surveillance displays an enormous lack of historic perspective on the topic. What Americans Need to Know About the History of Spying | The Big Picture 5,000 Years of History Shows that Mass Spying Is Always Aimed at Crushing Dissent For thousands of years, tyrants have spied on their own people in order to crush dissent. Keith Laidler – a PhD anthropologist, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a past member of the Scientific Exploration Society – explains: The rise of city states and empires … meant that each needed … Continue reading If we think about it what is the problem with security service surveillance?

BBVA who recently purchased digital only Simple Bank announce their first and the worlds first (apparently – requires validation) implementation of HCE which in practical terms is the recently uncovered method for bypassing the telco’s previous hold on payments using mobile phones. For more read my earlier review of Dave Birch’s discussion on HCE here. BBVA introduces HCE-based mobile NFC payments | Finextra Spain’s BBVA has become the first major global bank to commercially launch a host card emulation-based mobile contactless payments service. Relevance to Bankwatch: In summary from my earlier post and subsequent study, HCE (Host Card Emulation) is … Continue reading BBVA implement HCE in their wallet deployment

Every once in a while a headline pop up that makes one wonder what it could mean. Here is one – what does the future look like with a China that is significantly more automated? What happens when most robots are in China? China becomes largest buyer of industrial robots | ft.com China, once the manual labour “workshop of the world”, has become the largest buyer of industrial robots, as rising wage costs and growing competition from emerging economies have forced manufacturers to turn to technology. We have grown accustomed to the idea that wage disparity will level off and … Continue reading Industrial robots complicate inter country relative advantage

As one of the “seven” readers of Ron’s blog, he makes a good point about disruption that I would defend. Its all too easy to get caught up on the new shiny object of any one innovation, but thats hardly disruption. When we look at the big 5 banks in Canada each making well north of $1 bn – $2 bn per quarter, and having assimilated all digital/direct banks before them, there is little sign of immediate disruption. Define Disruption – Snarketing Should’ve taken a cue from Bill Clinton, and when asked about the potential for disruption, I should’ve said … Continue reading The inevitability of disruption in financial services and some reasons why