13 of our hottest tech stories, lists, and features for your weekend reading

Instead of me waffling on in a summary, here’s a quote from the departed poet Maya Angelou: My mission in life is not really to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion , some compassion, some humor, and some style.

1. Xiaomi looks set to enter Indonesia in August

Xiaomi’s Hugo Barra was in Jakarta this week, doing business and prepping one of the next major new market launches for the Chinese phone-maker.

2. SoftBank unveils Pepper, an emotional robot that will be sold to consumers next February

Masayoshi Son, the CEO of Japanese wireless carrier SoftBank, this week introduced what he called the world’s first robot capable of recognizing human emotions. It’s designed to be like a member of the family.

3. Alibaba will soon be a mobile telco, close to launching Ali Telecom in coming weeks

Before Alibaba’s long-awaited IPO hits Wall Street later this summer, the ecommerce giant will have its thumb in one new pie – it’s going to be a mobile telco operator in China.

4. At the height of China’s domestic internet crackdown, LinkedIn censors politically sensitive content from its pages

LinkedIn was spotted this week censoring shared posts that contained material considered politically sensitive in China – and it’s not just users in mainland China who found their posts suppressed.

5. Twitter has close to 20 million active users in Indonesia

The number was revealed this week as Twitter’s director of political advertising is meeting presidential candidates in Indonesia to discuss how they can use Twitter more effectively in their election campaigns.

6. Man sued by Singapore’s Prime Minister crowdfunds legal fees

A relatively well-known Singaporean blogger, Roy Ngerng, has turned to crowdfunding to support his battle in a libel trial – and the money is flooding in.

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