...A case in point is the new Chinese social media app PengYou - 朋友 - which is a clone of the social media dashboard-cum-diary Path.

OK, so it's absolutely fine - and most welcome - that PengYou has made a localized kind of social media diary app that plugs into Sina Weibo, Douban, et al. In fact, I want to sign-up and try it out. But it crosses the line when it also so shamelessly copies Path's entire website too. Compare upeng.me and path.com (pictured side-by-side in the above image) and see the exact same design elements at the exact same heights, with a distinctive (and cool-looking) blurry photo of a girl offset by a close up of the app on an iPhone 4.

That's taking it too far, and makes you wonder whether the start-up knows how to run itself, or just how to hit Ctrl-C and then Ctrl-V.

Domestic websites work fine; overseas sites appear to be blocked. Spooky.

Here are a bunch of photos comparing my own Nexus S (model number i9020) to that of my gf’s (i9023) - hers is identical except for the swapping out of SuperAMOLED (pictured, left) for SuperLCD (pictured, right).

Some countries/territories get the SuperLCD screen because of supply constraints of SuperAMOLED - even though Samsung manufactures the most, I believe - which caused some consternation amongst international users.

However, what is perceived as the older tech, the LCD-based screen, generally looks nicer, I’d say: it has clearer text and works better in the sun’s glare.

SuperAMOLED’s pro-point is its amazingly deep, true blacks (which LCD can’t do).

The Android 2.3.3 update has confused matters (though we’re both on 2.3.4 now) by making some people’s screens a bit too ‘warm’ - yellowish - which seems a bit apparent on mine; on my gf’s it appears to be a bit too cold - blue - and a bit harshly colored. That might well be down to firmware, not the screen tech.

So, I’d rate the battle of the two screens as a draw - or, if pushed, a small win for Samsung’s new SuperLCD (pictured, below, in a nice close-up)…

So many local “Instagram-clones” (not my moniker) to choose from, all of which syndicate to Sina Weibo and RenRen.com, and a bunch of other sites (some even to Twitter or Facebook), that’s it’s hard to know which to go for.

Harder still to choose in that they all seem to require an additional registration (and throw in their own social network to boot) - still no “Login with Sina Weibo” API to match “Facebook Connect”.

Some of the best choices seem to be: Lomokr, TuDing, YouTu (also known as PhotoSola), DingZai (also dubbed AirCamera), and SuiPai (shown in screenshot). I started using PhotoSola a while back - pretty good, but limited filters (too many simple colour tints).

...and keen on sitting in any conceivable place.

Now aged 6 months, in May 2011.

It's nice being a cat owner again - for the first time since I was about 8 years old - and with it the unique experience of it being, this time around, a pedigree cat: a Siamese.

Mingtown - named 明堂咖啡馆 in Chinese - has one of the best of these buildings, over one large ground floor place. The most unique feature? A full-sized pool table, and a small outdoor cove at the back, enough for four people in the summer.

Coffees range from 15 to 28 RMB, and a small selection of cakes - mostly cheesecakes - for 15 RMB. Plus, there's a bunch of never-before-seen tea or juice mash-ups. The pool table is free to use, as is the pretty speedy wifi.

Oh, and there's a cute and especially friendly tabby cat, who obliges with some lap-sitting and stroking, before padding off to stare intently at the goldfish (as seen in the pic, below).

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Check out my check-ins at Mingtown over on Gowalla - http://gowalla.com/spots/6429973 - and on Jiepang - http://jiepang.com/venue/DE6E57EF21935FB0

It's located at 23 PingJiang Lu; the closest main road is Gan Jiang Dong Lu. There are maps in the check-ins, above.

The Shanghai World Expo wraps-up at the end of this month, so I was leaving it pretty late to get there; I went last Sunday, along with a reported three-quarters of a million other peeps - thankfully avoiding the record-breaking one million (see that on Shanghaiist blog) who attended the day before.

I'd figured that the Expo would be minutes of entertainment jammed in-between hours of queuing, but I'll admit it was nicer than I'd expected - however I suspect that's because I wasn't at all bothered about getting into any of the pavilions (a task which required between three or five hours of queuing to achieve), and went there just for the sights, sounds, gift shops, exotics snacks, and funky architecture.

Thankfully, Expo policy allows people to get into their native land's pavilion without lining-up, by just flashing your passport, so that's what I did to enjoy a leisurely hour or so in the environs of the UK's impressive 'Seed Cathedral' pavilion. Alas, I didn't really have the time - or, actually, the patience or enthusiasm - to properly wait to get into any other country's pavilion, so my girlfriend and I went around afterwards, merrily munching Belgian waffles and fries, and Indonesian BBQ'd seafood, and snapping the best-looking buildings (though a lot of countries seem to have just bought a warehouse and painted it brightly - I'm looking at you, Belarus).

Here are two vids: a fairly detailed look inside and out of the Seed Cathedral (there was not much to see inside, you'll note); and a strained, slightly distant glimpse of the China pavilion, which is all that most people got.

Just spotted this bizarre Q&A in a local lifestyle/events magazine, with the title, "Sheldon Royce: Kind of a Douche". It questions, and then begins to ridicule and lambast, a young foreigner in China who, during the course of his backpacking journeys warns locals of the dangers and evils of Amway, the direct-selling company.

China loves its strong CEOs and billionaires, so I suppose I should be too puzzled or surprised by this magazine covers I spotted earlier this afternoon, featuring Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, dancing on stage with a fairy godmother (which, I realise, has been... ummm... borrowed from some vitamin company's ad campaign).