Skyfall - Empire Review

Skyfall is pretty much all you could want from a 21st Century Bond: cool but not camp, respectful of tradition but up to the moment, serious in its thrills and relatively complex in its characters but with the sense of fun that hasn’t always been evident lately. One thing’s certain: James Bond will return…

Social media adverts turf war heats up

As competition grows, a once-collaborative energy among the top social networks is fizzling out as they each compete to maintain their own slice of the internet landscape.

“It's more expensive to get followers on Twitter than it is to get likes on Facebook,” says Simon Mansell, chief executive of TBG Digital, a social media agency, adding that the cost-per-click on Twitter also tends to be higher.

Yet at an estimated $288m this year, according to eMarketer, Twitter’s advertising revenue is far smaller than Facebook's projected $4.23bn. Under pressure to narrow that gap, observers say Twitter is closing more and more doors in its previously wide-open system.

Top 25 Biggest Product Flops of All Time

Sometimes good companies make very bad decisions. We highlight over two dozen of our favorite examples in our list of the Top 25 Biggest Product Flops of All Time. From New Coke to Ben-Gay aspirin, we take a look at product launches that we bet these companies wish never happened.

YouTube takes on TV with launch of 60 new channels

The Google-owned video website has linked up with media companies including Hat Trick, All3Media and ITN for the UK channels, which include the Jamie Oliver Food Channel, BBC Worldwide's On Earth and Mixmag TV.

YouTube claimed last month that 20 of those channels now generate more than 1m views each week; the most popular by some way is currently music channel The Warner Sound, which generated more than 9m views last week.

Looper's unprecedented Chinese box office down to accounting error

Thriller lauded as first film to take more on debut in China than the US. In fact, analysts mixed up dollars and yuan

It was supposed to be the moment the Chinese box office raised its head above the parapet and began its climb towards replacing the US as the world's largest cinemagoing audience. In reality, it appears to have been a basic accounting mistake: the Rian Johnson science fiction film Looper did not, after all, post a higher figure in China than in north America when it debuted in multiplexes at the weekend.

List of Global Brands Keeps Coke on Top

The report ranks what it deems the 100 most valuable brands on criteria that include financial performance, the role the brand plays in influencing the choices made by consumers and the brand’s ability to help its parent’s earnings. 

“We remain very humble that we’re in that top spot,” said Joseph V. Tripodi, executive vice president and chief marketing and commercial officer at the Coca-Cola Company. Mr. Tripodi has spoken frequently about how increasing the effectiveness of ads will help the company increase its revenue to $200 billion in 2020, from $95 billion in 2008. 

Ikea under fire for airbrushing women out of Saudi catalogue

Swedish ministers criticise 'medieval' decision to alter images featuring women in annual booklet

The furniture retailer said it regretted removing the women from pictures in the annual booklet, which otherwise looks roughly the same in all its markets. The pictures included one of a woman in pyjamas in front of a bathroom mirror, and one of Ikea's female designers.

News consumption has gone mobile

New research released today by The Economist Group and the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism confirms that Americans are increasingly consuming news through their mobile devices. “The Future of Mobile News: The Explosion in Mobile Audience and a Close Look at What It Means for News” details the growing role that digital devices, such as smartphones and tablets, are playing in how we find and read the news.

Sci-fi blockbuster Looper achieves Chinese box office first

It's easy to sum up what sort of film goes down well in China, "Action, number one. Action, number two – and action, number three."

This weekend Looper became the first new Hollywood film to make more money in its opening weekend in China than the US.

With a potential 1.34 billion cinemagoers, China this year overtook Japan to become the biggest foreign market for Hollywood films. Twenty-five thousand screens are set to be installed in the country over the next five years, many with the latest 4k digital technology. China has also become the fastest growing IMAX market in the world, already home to 78 IMAX cinemas, six times as many as the number in the early 2010.

How Kate Middleton topless photos make fortune for porn sites

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Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg meets excited Russian prime minister

Tech-loving Dmitry Medvedev barely able to contain delight at meeting, which prompted anger from Russian bloggers

Zuckerberg was in Moscow to boost Facebook's presence in Russia, where it competes with local social networking sites. He was also due to attend a programming symposium in a bid to attract Russians to work for his firm.

Zuckerberg did not meet Vladimir Putin, Russia's powerful president, who claims he does not use the internet.