And Animoca couldn’t be happier about that.

Co-founder Yat Siu calls them “fast food apps.” His 150-person company, a conglomerate of 12 smaller studios, has developed and published more than 350 apps, he said, currently at the rate of about four every week. Its goal is to one day crank out a new app every day as it expands its reach further into Asia and beyond.

Siu, who is also the CEO of Animoca’s parent company, Outblaze Ventures, said as much in a recent interview with AllThingsD. But he also had a lot more to say about the advantages of working outside of Silicon Valley, the maturation of Google’s Android ecosystem and why quantity is sometimes better than quality.

AllThingsD: What’s the difference between being based in Hong Kong and being based in Silicon Valley?

Yat Siu: In terms of our [Android] ecosystem, it is the dominant marketplace, whereas in the Valley, there’s a lot of focus on Apple. We don’t have that much venture capital available to us, so we have to focus on profitability and the bottom line very, very quickly. Our games aren’t all profitable, but our business is. And we’re just a small island city, so we do not have a domestic market. It’s go global or die.

How do your games fare in different regions?

When we first started [in 2011], the U.S. was our biggest market, but just because it had a larger ecosystem. That’s changing today. North America as a continent is now in second place to Asia because Japan and Korea are driving a lot of the revenues. … The people who are buying iPhones or Android phones in the U.S. today are not the first movers, whereas in Asia, a lot of the marketplace still has way under 50 percent smartphone penetration rates. In Japan, at the start of this year, it was under 30 percent.

Is Android fragmentation a problem for you? Putting most of your eggs in that basket means you’re dealing with phones that range from the very low end to the very high end, right?

Two years ago, we had a testing rack of 600 devices. Now, Samsung is outselling basically everyone else, except in China and Japan. The second thing that’s different now is that “low end” is no longer really “low end.” You used to have really poor devices with poor resolution and processing power. Even the so-called “cheap” devices that are sold in China today are quad-core or dual-core devices; they just cost $100, is all. And they’re all standardizing around Jelly Bean (the most recent version of the Android OS). The whole Android philosophy was, “Here, take the operating system. Do what you want. Good luck!” We had weird memory issues because people would be coding stuff on top. Now, with Jelly Bean, most of the stuff that’s going on in the operating system is going on in the application side.

Pretty Pet Salon is one of the more popular games Animoca has published, and started a “Pretty Pet” franchise.

Tell me about your games and how they perform. How do you evaluate success?

We look at every product as a gateway to another product. The key driver is popularity. Monetization will come, we think, once people are in there, but the ability to cross-promote to other games becomes important. We want to make sure that the user always has at least a few of our games to play, because we don’t believe that there is such a thing as a person who can play a game for years and years and years. It’s “fast-food apps.” People just want to consume quickly, move quickly and go on to the next thing. It doesn’t mean that they won’t come back to it, but they’re not prepared to invest console-style, sitting down and playing for four hours.

And if you spent $60 on a game, you’re probably going to invest a lot more time than if you spent nothing or spent 99 cents.

That’s true, too, definitely. But also, with mobile, whether it’s in trains or one-handed game time, sometimes it’s just when you’re lying in bed, the behavior that we’re seeing now is that a person is playing a game, and then after five minutes, he wants to move on to another game. He’s not necessarily playing the same game for an hour. He’s like, “I feel like something else.” It’s no different than people switching TV channels every once in a while, except they’re switching games.

So it’s not as much of a “hits-driven” business for you as it might be for others?

It’s all relative. What is a hit? Because it’s a global audience, a niche segment is pretty large. And yet, if you have a five-million-user niche, is that a hit? It’s probably a hit for an indie studio, but it’s not a hit for us because of the scale we operate in. Typically, we call anything a hit if it has over 15 million downloads, but as a franchise, as a series. We might have one app, and then if it does well and has a few million downloads and reasonable revenues, then we put sequels and additions on top of it. Out of the series, we may wind up having something like 20 or 25 apps.

For those games that aren’t sequels to existing games, how do your studios come up with new things to publish?

We have studios that are as small as six people. The producer is empowered to have his own budget and his own creative vision. There’s a weekly meeting where all the producers come together and talk about what they’re doing, and then go off and do their own thing. The advantage for the business is, if you start off with a studio of six people and it bombs, who cares? It’s not great for them, but the business can afford to do it. If they do well, they have a platform.

The independence of our studio is also attractive to our staff. They have the chance to be a startup without the startup risk. They don’t have to worry about payroll or finance, they can focus on the product and build their own team. The additional unintended advantage is that, in Hong Kong, we’re unique. So, if you want to do games and you want to publish your games, then, frankly, there’s nowhere else to go. People come to us because the other option is banking or finance — which is a good career, just not if you don’t like it. If we were in the Valley, we might end up getting slaughtered by the amount of recruitment and loss of staff. Who knows?

But it’s worth noting that you do also maintain an office here in San Francisco for non-game development roles like partnerships and PR.

In the past, the meccas of the global gaming space used to be different. They used to be Sony, Nintendo and, at one point, Sega. But it was never centered around Silicon Valley. That changed with the smartphone. Now the new mecca is the Bay Area, because Google Play is here and Apple is here. We have an office here because we have to pay homage to the new temples. Even though we’re not in the Valley, it’s absolutely required for us to go in. Every other app company that’s international that wants to succeed must do the same.

Almost all of your revenue, about 95 percent, comes from in-app purchases. Are you looking at other business models?

Advertising will come, but it is not dominant yet. Primarily, the buyers for that now are other app companies, and we’ve got our own network. If we focus more on our cross-promotion, we get more out of that than necessarily opening up inventory to everyone else. Right now, ads are generally low-quality, and they’re also spammy, so it’s a bad user experience. But that will change. The experience is there already — think about how much time you’re spending on mobile versus PC — but [ads] have to deliver value to the user. Facebook has the right idea. People who like casual games, you should really only show them other casual games. Today, the targeting doesn’t exist.

What does your conversion rate of non-paying to paying players look like? The typical curve has a lot of people at the bottom paying nothing or almost nothing, then a long tail with a bump at the end, composed of a small number of players who pay a lot.

That is the hardcore type of model, where basically you have a very low conversion rate, something like 2 percent, and a very high consumable model where people can spend thousands of dollars. That’s not our model. If you look at games like Pretty Pet Salon, you’d be hard pressed to spend more than 20 bucks, just because of the game play. We are expecting to have more volume of titles with a larger frequency of players coming in from outside. So, for instance, Pretty Pet Salon has an 8 percent conversion rate. Now, when we start working with Forgame (Animoca recently accepted a “strategic minority investment” from the Chinese hard-core game maker), that is different. We will listen to their suggestions, and it does appear that that will be the strategy, because people are prepared to spend that kind of money. It’ll be a learning experience for us.

Topeka analyst Brian White says his checks in Hong Kong and China indicate “insatiable” demand for the iPad mini, which launched in those countries in early November and December, respectively. Nearly all models of the diminutive iPad sold out in Hong Kong and China last week, with sources at Apple’s three retail stores in Hong Kong and eight in China reporting stock-outs or significantly constrained supply.

Says White, “Similar to Hong Kong, we are being told by contacts in China that the iPad mini is already more popular than the fourth-generation iPad.”

And that’s a point well worth noting. Because it’s clear proof of three things:

• The 7.9-inch form factor Apple settled on for the iPad mini is obviously a hit with consumers.
• While the iPad mini’s price may be too heady for some cost-conscious shoppers, it’s clearly not hamstringing sales. Apple predicted that consumers would be excited about the mini at $329, and it was right. (See “Apple Doesn’t Need a $200 iPad Mini.”)
• As Apple ramps up production of the device, it will only gather more momentum in China, and other markets as well.

“Prior to the China launch, we indicated that the iPad mini would be the ‘next big thing in China,’ and we believe this phenomenon is starting to develop,” says White. “In our view, the smaller form factor and lower price point will allow Apple to sell the iPad mini in more meaningful volumes versus the regular-size iPad.”

Now, that might have some effect on sales of the iPad. But as I’ve noted here before, analysts are pretty sure that the iPad mini creates more demand than it cannibalizes. So, in China and Hong Kong, as elsewhere in the world, Apple really does appear to be plugging into a largely untapped market that has been waiting for precisely the device the company is now offering. And that obviously bodes well for the iPad business overall, particularly given the mini’s margins. They may be smaller than the full-sized iPad, but they still range from 35 percent to 56 percent.

“This one was all for cathode ray tubes,” he recalled. An engineer by trade, Mr. Lui was looking to source a small mountain of CRTs. To accomplish that, he came full circle back to his native China, where he was born 71 years ago in Sichuan province.

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Recent visitors to Hong Kong and a few longtime residents tell AllThingsD that it’s tough to find any iPhone 5 inventory in the city. “The stores are all sold out,” said one local. “Carriers like SmarTone are taking orders, but they’re not offering delivery until late October, early November. If you’ve just got to have one, your best bet is the Apple Store lottery, but that’s a total crapshoot.”

And that does seem to be the case. Reports from the Apple Store in the International Finance Center Mall (IFC) in central Hong Kong suggest that it’s no easy to feat to hit the iPhone 5 jackpot.

“At Apple’s retail store, the iPhone 5 can be ordered online and a lottery process determines who is eligible for pickup at the store the next day,” Topeka analyst Brian White said after his visit to Hong Kong. “Based on our conversations, you might have a better shot at winning [an actual] lottery than getting the iPhone 5 the next day.”

White’s assessment of the current Hong Kong gadget zeitgeist: the city has “iPhone 5 fever.”

As AllThingsD reported several days ago they would, Yahoo and Alibaba Group have finally reached an agreement for the Silicon Valley Internet giant to sell back half its stake in the Chinese Web company in a $7 billion deal.

The taxable shares sale agreement, which is now being approved by both boards, is part of a larger and more complex arrangement, which will also include a multibillion-dollar stock buyback by Yahoo and an eventual IPO of Alibaba.

And, perhaps most importantly, it will bring to an end what could be the longest running global cat fight in Internet history, in which the long-time partners have bickered over the terms of their relationship for years now.

It has mostly been over how they could get to the transaction they should be announcing later tonight (or morning in Hong Kong, which it is there now). While it could fall apart at the last minute, that is highly unlikely at this point.

(Update: The Yahoo board has approved the deal unanimously, said sources, so it is done done.)

(Update 2: Yahoo and Alibaba both confirmed the deal in a joint press release, which is below.)

Thus, after many failed attempts to strike a tax-free deal — also involving Yahoo’s Japanese partner, SoftBank — collapsed, the pair have finally settled on a taxable deal, which could net Yahoo upwards of $4 billion.

The transaction values Alibaba at $35 billion and is subject to a number of funding issues that could change the value of the deal.

But here is the overall situation, as I previously reported:

Yahoo is set to sell half of its roughly 40 percent stake in Alibaba, in a taxable deal. The transaction is likely to value that portion of Yahoo’s holdings at about $7 billion — or 20 percent of Alibaba’s $35 billion enterprise valuation. Alibaba is in the midst of raising capital to fund the sale.

After taxes of upward of 35 percent are paid on the long-term gains — remember that Yahoo bought the now-lucrative Alibaba stake for just $1 billion in 2005 — the company will use the funds to buy back its own shares. That stock has been caught in the mid-teens doldrums for quite a while, so this could help boost shares significantly.

A shareholder dividend is also being considered by the Yahoo board, but it is unlikely. It’s also not clear if some of the cash will be held back for acquisitions by Yahoo, sources added, but it is also unlikely.

As part of the deal, sources said, medium-term incentives have been put in place for Alibaba to move forward with a public offering, which sources stressed is without contractual obligation or a time frame. Alibaba execs have already been publicly indicating such a direction recently, but this will put them more firmly on that path.

Although there are no plans to go public as yet, the IPO incentive revolves around several terms, including the right to buy back half the remaining stake, which expires in December of 2015. As I previously reported, Yahoo will be required to sell back half of the 20 percent remaining stake upon IPO and the other half after that if Alibaba goes public in the time frame agreed to.

Lastly, the Alibaba voting rights for both Yahoo and SoftBank are much diminished in the new deal, according to sources, to under 50 percent.

Translation: Alibaba CEO Jack Ma is now in the driver’s seat completely.

Once close, the pair have been wrangling over the large Yahoo ownership, which Ma has been trying to dislodge in a variety of nice and not-so-nice ways. It has resulted in a number of very public disagreements.

That included a nasty back-and-forth over its Alipay unit with now-fired CEO Carol Bartz, threats of takeover of Yahoo with private equity firms and, more recently, making friendly with its just-ousted CEO, Scott Thompson.

Those talks with him in recent weeks, which included a visit to China by Thompson, led to the new deal, which was negotiated primarily between Yahoo’s CFO Tim Morse and legal head Mike Callahan and Ma and Alibaba’s Joe Tsai.

The talks continued even as Thompson was suddenly engulfed in a controversy over a fake computer science degree on his resume that quickly led to his departure from Yahoo.

Ironically, the error was first discovered by activist shareholder Daniel Loeb, who is now voting on the deal as a newly named director of Yahoo, after successfully helping to oust Thompson.

He owns almost 6 percent of Yahoo.

The final decision to approve the deal was in the hands of a very new board of Yahoo, which has been drastically reshaped in recent weeks. It met to decide on the deal this weekend.

While the deal with Alibaba is finally nearing an end, Yahoo’s talks to sell its 33 percent stake in Yahoo! Japan is not part of this agreement. That’s due to what Thompson had called a “valuation gap,” which sources said is still an outstanding issue.

New interim CEO Ross Levinsohn has not been involved in the Alibaba deal in any significant way. But he certainly will benefit from its halo effect, if approved, especially given that it will likely boost Yahoo shares.

It also puts Yahoo in a unique situation, in which it must sink or swim more largely based on the value of its troubled core business.

That could mean a lot of things, including the eventual sale of the company, whose most lucrative asset recently — its Alibaba holding — will matter much less.

As soon as I get the press release, I will post it here, but no one is commenting, despite the inevitable happy ending to this long-running story.

And here’s the press release, finally:

Yahoo! and Alibaba Reach Agreement on Comprehensive Plan for Alibaba Stake Agreement Realizes Significant Value, Immediate Liquidity and Path to Future Monetization

Yahoo! Board Increases Share Repurchase Plan by US$5 Billion

May 20, 2012 — Sunnyvale, California and Hangzhou, China – Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Alibaba Group Holding Limited today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement for a staged and comprehensive value realization plan for Yahoo!’s stake in Alibaba.

The first step is the repurchase by Alibaba of up to one-half of Yahoo!’s stake, or approximately 20% of Alibaba’s fully-diluted shares. The purchase price will be based on a valuation of Alibaba to be established through equity financings that Alibaba intends to undertake to finance the transaction, subject to a floor valuation of approximately US$35 billion. The agreement includes substantial financial incentives for Alibaba to raise the additional equity at a valuation higher than US$35 billion. At the minimum price and assuming the initial repurchase of the full 20% stake, Yahoo! would receive from Alibaba consideration of approximately US$7.1 billion, composed of at least US$6.3 billion in cash proceeds and up to US$800 million in newly-issued Alibaba preferred stock.

The agreement also establishes a framework for Yahoo! to monetize its remaining interest in Alibaba in stages. First, at the time of an initial public offering (IPO) of Alibaba in the future, Alibaba will be required either to repurchase one-quarter of Yahoo!’s current stake at the IPO price or allow Yahoo! to sell those shares in the IPO. Second, following such an IPO, Yahoo! has registration rights and rights to marketing support from Alibaba to enable Yahoo! to dispose of its remaining shares, at times of Yahoo!’s choosing following a customary lock-up period.

This agreement is a result of extensive discussions between the two parties and a comprehensive review of both taxable and tax-efficient alternatives. Yahoo! and Alibaba believe this agreement to be the best path to align incentives and maximize value for shareholders of both companies and it paves the way for Alibaba to achieve future public market liquidity for all of Alibaba’s shareholders. For Yahoo!, the agreement provides for a staged exit over time, balancing near-term liquidity and return of cash to shareholders with the opportunity to participate in future value appreciation of Alibaba.

“Today’s agreement provides clarity for our shareholders on a substantial component of Yahoo!’s value and reaffirms the significance of our relationship with Alibaba,” said Ross Levinsohn, Interim CEO of Yahoo!. “We look forward to continued collaboration with the Alibaba team on business initiatives as we explore joint opportunities for growth and benefit from Alibaba’s future. I want to thank Jack Ma, Joe Tsai and the Alibaba team, as well as Tim Morse, Michael Callahan and our Yahoo! team for their dedication in achieving this successful outcome.”

“This transaction opens a new chapter in our relationship with Yahoo!,” said Jack Ma, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Alibaba Group. “I look forward to working with Ross Levinsohn and the Yahoo! team as Alibaba builds China’s leading e-commerce company. Yahoo!’s global audience reach will provide attractive partnership opportunities for Alibaba to explore markets outside of China. The transaction will establish a balanced ownership structure that enables Alibaba to take our business to the next level as a public company in the future.”

“We look forward to delivering the proceeds of the near-term transaction to our shareholders, and to the further enhancement of value and the additional monetization in the future that this agreement enables,” said Timothy R. Morse, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Yahoo!.

In addition to the share repurchase, the companies have also agreed to amend their existing technology and intellectual property licensing agreement. Among other things, this amendment will result in Yahoo! granting Alibaba a transitional license to continue to operate Yahoo! China under the Yahoo! brand for up to four years, while restrictions on Yahoo!’s ability to make other investments in China will be terminated. Alibaba will make an upfront lump sum royalty payment of US$550 million to Yahoo! and continuing royalty payments for up to four years. In addition, Alibaba will license certain patents to Yahoo!. Upon closing of the repurchase transaction, the Alibaba shareholders’ agreement will be amended so that the parties’ respective rights will be commensurate with the parties’ post-closing level of ownership in Alibaba. Yahoo! will continue to be represented on Alibaba’s board of directors with the right to appoint one of four existing directors.

Yahoo! intends to return substantially all of the after-tax cash proceeds to shareholders following the closing of the transaction. While the form of the return of capital to shareholders has not yet been finalized, Yahoo!’s board has increased Yahoo!’s share buyback authorization by US $5 billion concurrently with this transaction.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. Alibaba will be required to close the repurchase with respect to at least one-quarter of Yahoo!’s current stake in Alibaba regardless of the amount of financing raised, and up to one-half of Yahoo!’s current stake if it obtains the requisite financing. Alibaba intends to finance the repurchase through a combination of its own cash resources, debt, equity and equity-linked financing. The transaction is expected to close within approximately six months.

UBS Investment Bank acted as lead financial advisor to Yahoo! and Allen & Company LLC and Goldman Sachs & Co. also served as financial advisors. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP acted as lead legal counsel to Yahoo! and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP also acted as legal counsel. Munger, Tolles, & Olson LLP acted as legal counsel to the Yahoo! Board of Directors. Credit Suisse acted as lead financial advisor to Alibaba and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz acted as lead legal counsel to Alibaba. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP acted as counsel to Alibaba on certain financing and Hong Kong legal matters and Fenwick & West LLP acted as counsel to Alibaba on intellectual property matters.

According to sources close to the situation, the discussions between Yahoo and its Asian partners have hit a potentially deal-breaking impasse over the efficacy of the centerpiece of the complex negotiations — a cash-rich split-off — and several other issues.

Sources said talks have halted for now over an arrangement with China’s Alibaba Group and Japan’s SoftBank, designed to save the Silicon Valley Internet giant over $4 billion in U.S. taxes. The deal values Yahoo’s lucrative stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan at around $17 billion.

Of course, such volatility is part of any complicated negotiation. This one is a doozy, and on a global scale.

Thus, progress could resume at any time and could manifest itself in a different manner, such as a taxable transaction.

Teams from all sides were just in Hong Kong this week in the latest round of discussions, which seems to have spurred the new issues, which include over-valuation.

“Getting to the promised land has been very hard,” said one person close to the situation, noting that there have been several increasingly challenging parts of the deal.

That includes all the frantic machinations around the talks, which have — to be fair — broken down significantly before, including around the holidays.

Those have gotten back on track, but sources on all sides noted there has been a toll as the agreements have gotten more advanced.

“The cumulative effect of all the disagreements of a deal already on the edge has not helped matters,” said one person.

In addition, as I have previously noted, time is brain, and circumstances at Yahoo and in Asian have shifted a great deal since the talks began in the Fall. Yahoo has a new CEO, Scott Thompson, and has just had an important board shake-up, even as the value of its Asian stake has increased.

It is also not clear if the problems are limited to just the part of the deal with Alibaba, or with both partners. But several sources on the Asian side said that Alibaba and SoftBank are aligned closely on completing a joint deal, for which Alibaba has been negotiating loans to complete.

Now, those sources are characterizing the talks as completely stopped, blaming Yahoo negotiators for suddenly shifting course on what they want from the arrangement.

“The cash-rich deal seems dead now,” said one source.

For its part, sources close to Yahoo said that it has not walked away from discussions, noting this might be a ploy on the part of its Asian partners, although they did acknowledge that there have been increasing difficulties coming to an agreement.

Still, they stressed that Yahoo was committed to trying to do some sort of deal, and the latest problems might only signal a temporary retrenchment. Yahoo is likely to make some sort of statement on the issue soon.

The collapse of talks is still sudden, since negotiations had been moving forward, if glacially, with definitive agreements in draft and contemplation of possible properties to include in the deal. That’s because the cash-rich split-off requires part of the agreement be made up of operating assets.

As you can see here, in a Wall Street Journal chart, it’s a pretty complicated deal:

And, in his goodbye letter upon announcing his pending departure as chairman of Yahoo, while publicly acknowledging them, Roy Bostock did note the possibility of the talks not working out because of that.

“We are also in active discussions with our partners in Asia regarding the possibility of restructuring our holdings in Alibaba Group and Yahoo! Japan. The complexity and unique nature of these transactions is significant. While we continue to devote significant resources to these discussions, we are not in a position at this time to provide further detail or to provide assurance that any transaction will be achieved.”

That will likely be a disappointment to investors, who have bid up shares in anticipation of such a deal occurring. Yahoo’s stock is now trading in the $16 range, well up from earlier this year.

(Update: Yahoo shares dropped significantly since my report, down more than 5 percent now, with Wall Street giving any end to the talks a thumbs-down.)

The situation could now land on the already heavy plate of Yahoo’s new leader, Thompson, who has been dealing with a number of pressing issues at the company since he arrived last month.

Welcome to the dollhouse, Scott!

More to come, of course.

And, for the record, no comments all around. (But I tried!)

I love talking points as much as the next person, but there’s a striking similarity between recent statements by Yahoo’s co-founder and former CEO Jerry Yang and its new CEO Scott Thompson, who was just hired after a stint running eBay’s PayPal unit.

It seems from the pair that the exploitation of Yahoo’s troves of data might take center stage from the “premier digital media company” moniker that the Silicon Valley Internet giant has been using of late.

Premier consumer data mining and usage company just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? (And it’s also usually called Google!)

Here’s Yang from an interview with Walt Mossberg at our AsiaD conference in Hong Kong this past October (this is a liveblog with quotes and paraphrasing of quotes).

Q: As you look at what Yahoo could be, what are the one or two key areas that it could go after to truly transform itself?

Jerry: We’re really focused on trying to “turn Yahoo inside out.” We do a huge amount of services internally: Data, content, personalization. Lots of other people on the Web around the world could use that.

And, from my liveblogging, here’s Thompson last week on his aspirations, which were much less focused on Yahoo’s longtime — and, ahem, bill-paying — advertising business (which the new leader keeps saying he knows nothing about) than on exploiting its consumer data businesses (which he certainly does know about from running the online payments giant).

The data these Internet businesses create, the ability to use analytical technology to build a better businesses for your customers. … I feel certain that wealth of data is going to be exploitable for next generation products, next generation experiences. … My instinct says down in that data we’re going to be able to find ways to compete and innovate that the world hasn’t seen yet.

Data it is, then!

The data center, which is slated for completion in early 2013, will be the third of its kind in Asia, joining two others that will be built in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Google has pledged an investment of $300 million in its Hong Kong data center and more than $100 million in Taiwan.

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Here’s a recent speech I gave at the TEDx BayArea Global Women Entrepreneurs event, in which I somehow compared my recent stroke in Hong Kong with innovation at Apple, weird street graffiti, women in tech and, um, sparkly vampires.

You might not agree with my contention that life-changing health events engender the feeling that one has to work even harder, but that’s my little lesson from my recent brain scare.

Thus, it’s titled “More,” and here’s the video of the speech, as well as the deck I was referencing in the talk, so you can follow along:

Presentation 1

We are now posting the full videos from the recent AsiaD conference, which took place in Hong Kong in October.

We’re following the schedule of the actual event. Up now: iKnow, billed as a “personal learning assistant.”

That would be because it calculates an individualized study schedule based on a user’s learning and retention patterns. Now aimed at English-learners in Japan, there is more to come.

Watch the demo, especially if you want to know what “Swisher English” is:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111123/the-iknow-it-all-the-full-asiad-demo-video/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111122/nvidia%e2%80%99s-jen-hsun-huang-on-superman-quad-core-chip-microsoft-and-apple-the-full-asiad-interview-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20111122/nvidia%e2%80%99s-jen-hsun-huang-on-superman-quad-core-chip-microsoft-and-apple-the-full-asiad-interview-video/#comments Tue, 22 Nov 2011 20:12:15 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=146698

We are now posting the full videos from the recent AsiaD conference, which took place in Hong Kong in October.

We’re following the schedule of the actual event. Up now: Nvidia’s CEO Jen-Hsun Huang.

An early pioneer in graphics chips, the tech company is now aiming at the market for processors driving smartphones, tablets and, soon, PCs. Nvidia’s latest effort is a quad-core chip code named Kal-El, which is the Krypton moniker of Superman.

Is Huang the Man of Steel? Or, at least, can he steal some of major rival Qualcomm’s thunder?

Here’s the video of his onstage interview with Walt Mossberg:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111122/nvidia%e2%80%99s-jen-hsun-huang-on-superman-quad-core-chip-microsoft-and-apple-the-full-asiad-interview-video/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111121/huaweis-john-roese-on-the-telecom-giant-that-wants-to-roar-the-full-asiad-interview-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20111121/huaweis-john-roese-on-the-telecom-giant-that-wants-to-roar-the-full-asiad-interview-video/#comments Mon, 21 Nov 2011 21:08:50 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=146191

We are now posting the full videos from the recent AsiaD conference, which took place in Hong Kong in October.

We’re following the schedule of the actual event. Up now: John Roese, head of Huawei’s North American R&D team.

While not as well known as others, the Chinese company is the world’s second-largest maker of telecommunications and networking gear. You might hear more about it soon, though, since Huawei aims to increase its annual revenue to more than $100 billion per year within the next decade, by expanding its business beyond communications service providers.

Roese is one of the execs charged with making it so by expanding in the U.S. and focusing on research.

Here’s his onstage interview with Ina Fried:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111121/huaweis-john-roese-on-the-telecom-giant-that-wants-to-roar-the-full-asiad-interview-video/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111121/iphone-4s-moves-closer-to-mainland-china-debut/ http://allthingsd.com/20111121/iphone-4s-moves-closer-to-mainland-china-debut/#comments Mon, 21 Nov 2011 16:14:33 +0000 John Paczkowski http://allthingsd.com/?p=146244 Though Apple’s new iPhone 4S has been launched in Hong Kong, it isn’t yet available in mainland China. But it’s looking like that’s about to change. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has reportedly finished testing the device, and passed it through to the final phase of the certification process. Barring any unforseen obstacles, the MIIT should grant Apple the network access license it needs to begin selling the 4S in China in a matter of weeks.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111121/iphone-4s-moves-closer-to-mainland-china-debut/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111118/former-vp-and-apple-director-al-gore-on-steve-jobs-and-more-the-full-asiad-interview-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20111118/former-vp-and-apple-director-al-gore-on-steve-jobs-and-more-the-full-asiad-interview-video/#comments Fri, 18 Nov 2011 19:53:47 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=145617

We are now posting the full videos from the recent AsiaD conference, which took place in Hong Kong in October.

We’re following the schedule of the actual event. Up now: Al Gore, former Vice President, Nobel Prize winner, environmental activist, sometime VC, occasional entrepreneur and all-around busy dude.

Of course, Gore talked about a wide range of issues, from the legacy of Apple’s Steve Jobs (Gore is on the company’s board), to being an adviser to Google, to the “broken” U.S. political system, to alternative energy.

Here’s his onstage interview with Walt Mossberg:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111118/former-vp-and-apple-director-al-gore-on-steve-jobs-and-more-the-full-asiad-interview-video/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111117/peter-chernin-on-hollywood-asia-growth-and-not-yahoo-the-full-asiad-interview-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20111117/peter-chernin-on-hollywood-asia-growth-and-not-yahoo-the-full-asiad-interview-video/#comments Thu, 17 Nov 2011 22:34:20 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=145420

We are now posting the full videos from the recent AsiaD conference, which took place in Hong Kong in October.

We’re following the schedule of the actual event. Up now: Hollywood mogul Peter Chernin.

The much-respected entertainment exec, who was the longtime president of News Corp. (which owns this Web site), now runs his own production company in Santa Monica, Calif.

Chernin Entertainment has had some big early successes, including the hit movie “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” and the adorkable television show “New Girl.”

But Chernin has always been much more Internet-curious than the average Hollywood mogul. He was deeply involved in the creation of the Hulu premium video service, and now serves on the board of the Pandora online music site. He’s also been giving the troubled situation at Yahoo a look-see with some private equity firms.

Chernin declined to talk about this deal in an onstage interview with Peter Kafka, but he does discuss the prospects for the old media world in the digital age, and the giant opportunities in Asia:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111117/peter-chernin-on-hollywood-asia-growth-and-not-yahoo-the-full-asiad-interview-video/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111115/sonys-kazuo-hirai-on-reviving-the-iconic-ce-brand-and-more-the-full-asiad-interview-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20111115/sonys-kazuo-hirai-on-reviving-the-iconic-ce-brand-and-more-the-full-asiad-interview-video/#comments Tue, 15 Nov 2011 19:45:28 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=144165

We are now posting the full videos from the recent AsiaD conference, which took place in Hong Kong in October.

We’ve been following the schedule of the actual event. Up now: Sony’s Kazuo Hirai.

Hirai is a key figure at the Japanese consumer electronics giant, which has been struggling to revive itself after dominance turned to years of decline; he is widely considered the second in line to CEO Howard Stringer.

In an onstage interview with Walt Mossberg, the elegant exec, who was a longtime gaming exec at Sony, talked about the next-generation (but delayed) Vita game player, smartphones and Sony’s first Google Android tablets, which are now launching.

Here’s the video:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111115/sonys-kazuo-hirai-on-reviving-the-iconic-ce-brand-and-more-the-full-asiad-interview-video/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111114/googles-bradley-horowitz-talks-facebook-social-networking-and-that-memo-the-full-asiad-interview-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20111114/googles-bradley-horowitz-talks-facebook-social-networking-and-that-memo-the-full-asiad-interview-video/#comments Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:39:10 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=143649 We are now posting the full videos from the recent AsiaD conference, which took place in Hong Kong in October.

Over the next week or so, we’re going to follow the schedule of the actual event. Up now: Google+ exec Bradley Horowitz.

In an onstage interview with Peter Kafka, Horowitz talks about the progress being made in the search giant’s attempts to compete against social networking giant Facebook, the concept behind its organization and also the recent controversial internal memo by a Google engineer dissing the company.

Here’s the video:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111114/googles-bradley-horowitz-talks-facebook-social-networking-and-that-memo-the-full-asiad-interview-video/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111111/samsungs-won-pyo-hong-on-the-mobile-phone-wars-the-full-asiad-interview-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20111111/samsungs-won-pyo-hong-on-the-mobile-phone-wars-the-full-asiad-interview-video/#comments Fri, 11 Nov 2011 21:35:07 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=143248

We are now posting the full videos from the recent AsiaD conference, which took place in Hong Kong in October.

Over the next week or so, we’re going to follow the schedule of the actual event. Up now: Samsung mobile head Won-Pyo Hong.

Samsung is the largest seller of Google Android handsets globally and will soon surpass Nokia as the world’s largest maker of cellphones.

And then there’s Apple, the world’s largest smartphone vendor, which is engaged with the South Korean giant in an increasingly nasty legal battle over intellectual property.

By the way, Samsung is a key vendor partner of Apple’s, too.

Obviously, these are high (and complex) stakes for Hong, who heads global product strategy for Samsung’s mobile business.

He talks about that and more in this onstage interview with Walt Mossberg:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111111/samsungs-won-pyo-hong-on-the-mobile-phone-wars-the-full-asiad-interview-video/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111111/iphone-4s-already-sold-out-in-hong-kong/ http://allthingsd.com/20111111/iphone-4s-already-sold-out-in-hong-kong/#comments Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:50:41 +0000 John Paczkowski http://allthingsd.com/?p=143197 Apple’s iPhone 4S launched in Hong Kong at 7 am local time today and was sold out by morning’s end.

According to Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White, by lunchtime there was not a 4S to be had in the Hong Kong Apple Store. Other reports say the device sold out in about three hours. Not a surprise, really, given that preorders sold out in just 10 minutes. Before its doors opened this morning, crowds had been lining up for more than 24 hours outside Hong Kong’s flagship Apple store. Below, video of that enormous queue.

[Image credit: M.I.C. Gadget]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111111/iphone-4s-already-sold-out-in-hong-kong/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111110/htc-chairwoman-cher-wang-talks-android-smartphones-and-more-the-full-asiad-interview-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20111110/htc-chairwoman-cher-wang-talks-android-smartphones-and-more-the-full-asiad-interview-video/#comments Thu, 10 Nov 2011 22:10:11 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=142896

We are now posting the full videos from the recent AsiaD conference, which took place in Hong Kong in October.

Over the next week or so, we’re going to follow the schedule of the actual event. Up now: HTC Chairwoman Cher Wang.

When Cher Wang co-founded the Taiwan-based company in the late 1990s, it made notebook computers. Now, HTC is all about smartphones and tablets — two of the fastest-growing consumer electronic segments in the world — in a close relationship with Google’s Android unit.

But HTC has also been considering using its own mobile operating system, and faces challenges from a myriad of competitors.

Here’s Wang, in an onstage interview with Walt Mossberg, talking about all this and more:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111110/htc-chairwoman-cher-wang-talks-android-smartphones-and-more-the-full-asiad-interview-video/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111109/the-livingsocial-trio-talk-asian-expansion-groupon-and-more-the-full-asiad-interview-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20111109/the-livingsocial-trio-talk-asian-expansion-groupon-and-more-the-full-asiad-interview-video/#comments Wed, 09 Nov 2011 18:37:15 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=142168

We are now posting the full videos from the recent AsiaD conference, which took place in Hong Kong in October.

Over the next week or so, we’re going to follow the schedule of the actual event. Up now: LivingSocial CEO Tim O’Shaughnessy, along with the head of the daily deals site’s two recent acquisitions in Asia, Daniel Shin of South Korea’s TicketMonster and Paul Srivorakul of Indonesia’s Ensogo Group.

The panel, interviewed onstage by Ina Fried, talked about a range of topics, from its Asian expansion to thoughts about rival Groupon to the future of the social buying space.

Here’s the video:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111109/the-livingsocial-trio-talk-asian-expansion-groupon-and-more-the-full-asiad-interview-video/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111107/twitter-and-square-guru-jack-dorsey-on-steve-jobs-china-and-more-the-full-asiad-interview-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20111107/twitter-and-square-guru-jack-dorsey-on-steve-jobs-china-and-more-the-full-asiad-interview-video/#comments Mon, 07 Nov 2011 21:39:09 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=141156

We are now posting the full videos from the recent AsiaD conference, which took place in Hong Kong in October.

Over the next week or so, we’re going to follow the schedule of the actual event. Up now: Twitter and Square inventor Jack Dorsey.

The busy entrepreneur has a lot going on, working both to change the online payments space and also to make money from his social communications service.

One of Dorsey’s major inspirations was the late Steve Jobs of Apple, especially in his knack for simplifying products to an essential minimalism.

He talked about this in an onstage interview with Walt Mossberg, as well as the challenges Twitter faces in China and more:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111107/twitter-and-square-guru-jack-dorsey-on-steve-jobs-china-and-more-the-full-asiad-interview-video/feed/ 0