In Matthew Weiner's 1960s-set serial - shown in the US on AMC and about to be a flagship series for the UK's Sky Atlantic - the focus is firmly on tone, mood and character development at the expense of plot-points.

BBC: Is slow TV taking over the airwaves?

NGOs, such as the World Development Movement, say this change of tone means the private sector is now on the defensive.

ECONOMIST: But it also needs to have a price

Nonetheless, one potentially significant development on the international front is the new tone in French pronouncements on Algeria.

ECONOMIST: Algeria

Consolidated applications development of the kind that 8.1 promises "sets the tone for where the world is going, " he says.

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