Yangon is suddenly a city of phablets. Nowhere in Asia, let alone Europe, have I seen so many supersized smartphones in public spaces, and with such egalitarian appeal: Pavement vendors selling early 20th century British guides to English grammar seem as transfixed by them as Yangon’s smart set playing Pokemon Go. For many in an isolated country, a 4G ...

  Conor Sen There’s no real national debate when it comes to housing policy. Journalists and pundits on one side shout: “We need more development and density so cities will be affordable and livable.” For good measure they add: “People who don’t support more development and density are heartless and just defending their own property values.” The other side … ...

  Hong Kong / AFP Energy firms sank in Asian trade on Tuesday as oil prices extended the previous day’s sharp losses due to profit-taking after a recent rally and fresh worries about a global oversupply. Even a fall in the dollar, which usually makes crude cheaper, could not stop the slide in the commodity after Iraq flagged a pick-up ...

  London / AFP Gulf stock markets continued dropping early on Tuesday after Brent crude oil fell back below $49 a barrel and short-term technicals for several indexes in the region turned negative over the past few days. The Saudi index fell 0.6 percent to 6,074 points in the first 45 minutes of trade. On Monday it confirmed a break ...

  London / AFP European stock markets rebounded on Tuesday, with some support coming from slightly improving eurozone data. The single currency’s economic activity edged higher in August with few signs that Brexit-linked dangers were yet hurting the European economy, a closely watched survey showed Tuesday. Around 1000 GMT, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 stocks index was 0.9-percent higher and the Paris ...

  Bloomberg Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has tried to shake the perception that it’s just the EBay Inc. or Amazon.com Inc. of China, by pushing into social media and entertainment and actively investing in startups like Snapchat Inc. Chairman Jack Ma’s sprawling pursuits are starting to pay off. Alibaba’s Taobao mobile app is a riot of tiny print and icons ...

  Bloomberg Some of blockchain’s biggest backers, including people with ties to IBM and JPMorgan, will gather on Wednesday to work on the biggest issue hobbling the technology behind digital currency — the absence of grown-up governance. While growth of the internet was fostered by bodies such as the Internet Engineering Task Force, the Internet Governance Forum and the Internet ...

  Bloomberg A group of Chinese investors said it’s acquiring ad-tech startup Media.net for about $900 million in cash, with plans to eventually sell the company to an obscure telecommunications firm whose shares have been suspended from trading since last year. Media.net, which is based in Dubai and New York, is touting this as the third-largest ad-tech acquisition in history. ...

  Bloomberg The imminent Hong Kong debut of Meitu Inc., whose main claim to fame is selfie touch-up apps, offers investors a rare chance to get in near the ground level of China’s nascent, booming smartphone economy. Meitu banked on China’s growing pre-occupation with ideals of comeliness, a passion that’s inspired countless internet memes and a surge in cosmetic surgery. ...

  Moscow / AFP A compass on the smartphone screen points towards Red Square. As the distance to the target narrows, the camera app pops up and zooms in on a bearded figure in a fur cloak. The routine is familiar to Pokemon hunters obsessed with the ultra-popular Pokemon Go game — but this is no Pokemon. Instead, it is ...