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Mongolia cracks down on online media with a list of over 700 (amusing) banned words

Mar20
by on March 20, 2014 at 5:53 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Asia, mongolia

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Asian Internet censorship isn’t just limited to China. Near-neighbour Mongolia is showing the whip to online media after releasing a new blacklist of over 700 forbidden swear words that, if found on a website, could result in censorship, prosecution or shut down. The list of terms — published on local news site Shuum — includes a mixture of Russian, Chinese and English words, ranging from vulgar terms to more amusing entries like ‘ass-hat,’ ‘hell,’ ‘drunk,’ ‘dumbass’ and other misspelled variants. While the list makes for funny reading here and there, there is a very serious side to the Mongolian government’s…

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Chat app Tango raises a $280m mega round led by Alibaba, as it reaches 70m active users

Mar20
by on March 20, 2014 at 4:00 am
Posted In: Alibaba, Around the Web, Asia, messaging, Mobile, Tango

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It seems that 2014 is shaping up to be the year of mobile messaging. Hot on the heels of Facebook’s $19 billion deal to acquire WhatsApp and Rakuten’s $900 million acquisition of Viber, Tango — a free messaging and calling app for iOS and Android — has announced a $280 million funding round led by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. Alibaba — which generates more revenue than Amazon and eBay combined — is providing $215 million towards the round in exchange for an undisclosed, “minority” stake and board seat — existing investors are covering the rest of the round. The fresh…

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Xiaomi confirms its Redmi Note phablet will start at $129, go on sale outside of China from May

Mar20
by on March 20, 2014 at 3:54 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Asia, Mobile, xiaomi

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Xiaomi last week took the wraps off its upcoming first phablet — the interestingly named Redmi Note — and now the company has revealed that the device will cost upwards of $129 and go on sale outside of its native China — initially in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore — in May. It will be available in China first, launching on March 26. The new details were communicated via a Google+ post from Xiaomi’s Hugo Barra, who says the device will retail at $129 for a 1.4GHz/1GB version, and $159 for a higher-specc’ed 1.7Ghz/2GB model. That pricing is line with the cost of its…

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Twitter’s latest experiment hints that it will remove @ replies from its service

Mar20
by on March 20, 2014 at 2:43 am
Posted In: Around the Web

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This won’t go down well with Twitter lovers. Everyone’s favorite microblogging service is experimenting with a new version of its Android app that removes @ replies entirely, hinting at the possibility that it will phase out the communications feature it has become synonymous with. BuzzFeed reports that Twitter’s Head Of News Vivian Schiller recently told an audience at a media event that hashtags and @ replies are “arcane,” and hinted that they would be reworked to provide a more ‘streamlined’ approach to the service to help new users understand the concept of Twitter. Schiller has since played down her comments, but…

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