You don’t have to use an iPhone to appreciate the things he has achieved. What inspired me the most about him was not his great vision for products, or his exacting leadership style, but that he was a comeback king.

After a leadership tussle at Apple in 1985, Steve was ousted from the company he created. Not one to sit still, he founded NeXT, which made an operating system that would become a foundation for the OS X.

He also bought over the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm, and turned it into Pixar Animation Studios, which produced such celebrated feature films like the Toy Story Series, Finding Nemo, and Up.

NeXT was purchased by Apple for US$400 million in 1996. Subsequently, Disney bought Pixar over for US$7.4 billion in 2006.

In 1997, Steve Jobs was appointed interim CEO, a position that was made permanent three years later. By then, Apple was making over US$2 billion in losses over two years.

He subsequently launched the celebrated iMac in 1998, the PowerBook and iPod in 2001, iTunes Music Store in 2003, and of course, the iPhone in 2007. His comeback was complete.

But his health started taking a toll on him. Diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer, he suffered significant weight loss in 2008, which was visible to everyone. In 2009, he took a six months leave of absence to receive a liver transplant.

Yet he still found time to get involved with the design and production of the iPad, which launched in 2010 and become the dominant product in the newly created tablet market. He was even involved in the creation of the iCloud and iOS 5.

Steve’s health never improved. He took another leave of absence in January, and handed over the reins of the company to Tim Cook in August 2011. He is survived by his wife, Laurene, and four children.

While he was a fighter, there was no more comeback left in him — death claims us all. But I shall remember him for his exploits — for having tenacity and a laser-like focus, and for not giving up as an entrepreneur despite suffering some monumental setbacks.

RIP.

Here are some interesting startup news from China, not only in its capital, Beijing, but also other startup hubs such as Shanghai, Hong Kong, Hangzhou, and many more.

(1) Chinese online-video site Tudou Holdings scored a victory by completing its initial public offering on NASDAQ last week, but the stock declined on its first day of trading. Shanghai-based Tudou, which has some similarities with YouTube, is the first Chinese company to list in the U.S. since Taomee Holdings went public in June.

(2) NeuroSky declared that Haier Group will adopt its brainwave technology in the latest Cloud smart TV. Cloud Smart TV is a new product which merges smart TV technology with a cloud service, which is a milestone in lifestyle change. This new product is scheduled to be available in October.

(3) 17startup was launched in China earlier last week, following the model of TechCrunch’s CrunchBase, a comprehensive database covering tech companies and the people behind them, from startups to giants.

(4) Crows Coming is a new game for iOS that uses the frontal camera to detect your motions. The game, released 20th August for US$0.99 on iTunes, is the first developed by Beijing-based developer Vision Hacker.

(5) San Jose-based Special Deals is opening its operation in China soon, but with some innovations to differentiate itself from Lashou, Meituan and Nuomi, all aggressive and fierce local competitors, and also to avoid all the pitfalls that Gaopeng have fallen into.

(6) Ohbaba is a simple location-based service which helps locate the public toilets around you. The idea is simple: Like other LBS apps, it detects your location and finds the closest public toilets for you. Ohbaba also allows users to submit new entries for toilets. And when you submit a new entry, there is a tick box to indicate if toilet tissue is available.

(7) Beijing-based SmarTots is a start-up that aims to help connect parents and their children through learning. They attracted a lot of attention after winning the GMIC Early Stage Start-up Competition back in April.

(8) Hong Kong based Stepcase was founded by Leon Ho in 2007. Its iPhone photo community, Steply, has over 7.5 million users. In comparison, one of the most popular Android photo app, Camera 360, has about 6 million users.

(9) Research firm IDC recently reported that Apple now has 19.1% of the smart-phone market share compared to the incumbent, Nokia with 15.7% market share.

(10) Xiu.com, a Chinese ecommerce site focusing on luxury and fashion goods, raised US$100 million in series B funding. The round was led by American private equity firm Warburg Pincus, with previous backers Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers participating. KPCB invested over US$20 million in its series A funding earlier this year.

(11) GSR Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm in China, announced that Li Yinan, the former head of China Mobile subsidiary UMessage, joined GSR Ventures as a venture partner.

(12) A new start-up called Wokaishi, currently in closed beta, is aiming to make fitness available to everyone, anywhere and anytime. The goal is to teach people how to take care of their bodies until they are comfortable enough to go to a gym or a professional health practitioner to gain maximum benefits.

(13) Youku.com, listed on the NASDAQ as YOKU, got a nice 13% spike in their share price to $27.01, after speculation that they are in talks with Tencent to buy a piece of them. Tencent, the 3rd largest internet company by market cap in the world, is believed to be looking to invest in Youku to manage their online video business.

(14) Tuita, another rich-blogging service in China by online gaming and entertaining powerhouse Shanda, disclosed that the service is about to raise US$ tens of millions in Series A funding. According to Tuita, all its executives and rank and file employees will receive stock options.

We thank nordicfactory for the flag image.

A while back, we reported that a tech blogger discovered some NFC functionality on the Google+ mobile app. Google has also been actively implementing the technology for its Google Wallet and Google Places services.

With our favorite search company placing bets on NFC, it’s no surprise Sony Ericsson wants in on the action. According to Steve Walker, global head of marketing at Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, mobile payments will be the “first and most obvious” use for his company’s implementation of NFC. Don’t be surprised to see the technology come to life in gaming and entertainment applications either, since that’s how Sony Ericsson differentiates its phone from others.

He adds: “NFC should be universally adopted across all industries. It requires somebody to take the lead. We saw it happening in Japan where mobile payment and ticketing technology was adopted quickly when the government took the lead. Train companies, banks and retailers followed suit. Mobile phone companies are waiting to make the plunge.”

Looks like Steve found his leading man.

Alongside Google, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications is also a principal member of the NFC forum, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing NFC technology. The forum boasts sponsor members like MasterCard and Microsoft, and principal members like Intel, PayPal, and American Express (more on membership schemes here).

With other major mobile players like HTC, Samsung, Motorola, and Nokia already producing or about to release NFC-enabled phones (see list of phones), Sony Ericsson is late on arrival, although their arrival at the hot tub party will certainly be welcomed by NFC proponents.

The only party-pooper? Apple. GigaOM has a nice article that documents the rumor mill surrounding whether iPhone 5 will be NFC-enabled, although the author also said that it “makes sense” for iPhone 6, set for launch in 2012, to be the first Apple phone with NFC capabilities. That will put it behind the competition though.

Here you can find interesting startup news from Japan, not only from its capital, Tokyo, but also other startup hubs like Fukuoka, Kyoto, Osaka, and many more.

(1) Japanese mobile gaming pioneer DeNA and Twitter will be the first recipients of the Japan-US “World Changer” Award at Stanford University on July 15th, award organizer Japan Society of Northern California announced today.

(2) Japanese telecom operator NTT DoCoMo Inc. said Friday it has agreed with Chinese Internet search operator Baidu Inc. to set up a joint venture in China to distribute games and other mobile phone content in the mainland in a move that could help them cash in on the expected growth of smartphone users.

(3) Japanese Yen has been staying high against US dollars, especially last year. Apple finally thinks its 115 yen(US$1.45) is too much for $0.99 apps.

(4) Official Japanese Twitter blog announced that Twitter is now capable of Japanese character hashtags.

(5) Jonny Li, a Tokyo-based British start-up curator and also known as a partner for the Startup Weekend organization, announced he would hold its 54-hour weekend events in Tokyo, Kyoto and Fukuoka.

(6) Two huge Japanese social gaming networks, DeNA and GREE, who are working on oversea expansion showed a new move to utilize their accumulated assets — flash-based games for Japanese feature phones.

(7) Dentsu has struck another exclusivity deal, this time with Skype. The deal is intended to generate 1 billion yen of revenue (US$12.4 million) through exclusive display space on the Skype start up screen.

(8) Alarm Everyone is a new iPhone alarm application which let you and your friends share the same morning alarm.

(9) Last week, a false rumor telling that you will need to pay to tweet on Twitter from July 1 was widely circulated in Japanese twittersphere.

(10) Facebook Spot Information is becoming popular in Japan after Facebook had started Check-in Coupon (Check-in Deals) in Japan. But a problem arose when Recruit, Japan’s largest coupon business player, registered spot information of restaurants on behalf of restaurant owners without enough notification.

We thank nordicfactory for the flag image.

That’s if predictions by US-based market research company International Data Corp are correct.

The amount is about ten times more than the two million tablet computers shipped in 2010.

“Over the next five years, Apple Inc. will set the pace for the tablet category. Competitors to iPad must find innovate ways to differentiate their products, lest consumer interest wanes in favor of the next tech gadget,” says Melissa Chau, research manager for client devices research, IDC.

The report also mentioned that while developed countries like Australia, Korea, and Taiwan are showing high interests in tablets, emerging economies like Malaysia and Indonesia still prefer mini-notebooks over tablets.

When: Tuesday 8th March 2011
Time: 02.00 PM – 04.30 PM
Where: One Marina Boulevard, NTUC Centre, Seminar Room 801
Fees: S$225 (U.P $250) S$112.50 (after UTAP Grant)

View Larger Map

Our friends at Tech65 starts off this week with their weekly podcast on the following issues that dominated the tech landscape with their thoughts [1] Official: HTC rolling out Android 2.2, 720p video, iTunes sync to unlocked Euro Desires this weekend, [2] HP Won’t Make Any Windows Phone 7 Devices, [3] Apple starts patenting mobile app ideas, [4] StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty – 12 Years of Wait – StarCraft II : Wings of Liberty, [5] iPhone 4 and 3 Mid-night Launches, [6] RSVP to Tech65 Party 2010. Note that the Tech65 are catching up with editing and publishing new episodes for listeners and do bear with them. Do click and check out their latest podcast here (and they jump forward 3 episodes this time). You can now also listen to the Tech65 podcast here as well by coming to the blog post directly.

• Google not blocked in China & Yahoo using Google Search in Japan: So, Google and China have come to terms and Yahoo Japan is using Google instead of Bing. Well, what’s going on with Google these days in East Asia? Why are they having difficulties in getting the market share in those regions?
• ComScore’s report on the State of Internet in Asia Pacific: How does these numbers tell us about the web and mobile scene in our region? The crew takes a cut on the issues involved.
• Google vs Baidu now in Mobile Search: With the Android platform being adopted by more Chinese handset vendors, developers and even telcos, Baidu is now seeking to turn Android on its head to Google. Will Google get a big market share for Android in China but not make enough money with the Chinese mobile-web scene making modifications to the Android OS and leaving Google out?
• Zynga gets US$150M from Japan’s Softbank: Yes, SoftBank in Japan has invested into Zynga and no guesses needed on social gaming. How does that impact Japan’s social games market and the strategy for Softbank overall?
• Long Queues for iPad, Starcraft II & iPhone 4: The crew talks about how Southeast Asians get their phones similar to the long queues in US for iPhones. We chatted about the scene in Indonesia, Malaysia & Singapore and the psychology of the consumers in waiting for the product launch that they are willing to pay for.
• TenCube to be acquired by McAfee: The next big news since Yahoo acquired Koprol in southeast Asia, TenCube, a mobile security start-up in Singapore has made the news with an acquisition from McAfee. The crew discuss the history, trials & tribulations and milestones for TenCube in the past few years and as usual, make their own educated guess on the valuation to how much the company is sold with thoughts on the acquisition from James Chan, Neoteny Labs.
• Everyone is talking about where Smithy is these days: Seems that the tech blogs in Singapore and Indonesia is interested in where Smithy is checking in. We get some updates on Koprol and how it is like to be “stalked” by tech pundits
• Foound is officially released in Singapore iTunes Store for now: We look forward to be able to download in other parts of the world, like US and UK. You can download via this link.

Our friends at Tech65 starts off this week with their weekly podcast on the following issues that dominated the tech landscape with their thoughts [1] Nintento 3DS, [2] Playstation Move (Check out Episode 160 too), [3] Microsoft Kinect, [4] Apple relaxes iOS SDK terms to allow Lua but block Flash and [5] ‘G’ mail for all govt e-mail. Note that the Tech65 are catching up with editing and publishing new episodes for listeners and do bear with them. Do click and check out their latest podcast here. You can now also listen to the Tech65 podcast here as well by coming to the blog post directly.