Africa has a lot of conflict minerals, from blood diamonds to tantalum and tin. Pretty much all electronic devices require minerals such as gold, tantalum, tin, or tungsten and not all of them are conflict-free. Many big name tech companies have begun sourcing conflict-free minerals in the making of their products.Intel has been tracking the sources of the minerals it uses in its products and ensuring that those minerals are conflict-free. The chip-maker has also decided to spread awareness ...

If I had a sheep for every time someone's described microblogging service Sina Weibo as China's answer to Twitter, I'd need a farm the size of Belgium to keep them on. It is, admittedly, a fairly apt analogy. There are, after all, a lot of features that the two services share. In at least one important respect though the two are radically different.You see, while Twitter pretty much had a dream IPO (although its shares have performed less spectacularly ...

I’ve been a happy Logitech customer for a while now. Seven years in fact. Its ever popular X-530s are still in my company, tickling my inner ears with its gorgeous sound delivery. But, the speakers are a hassle to keep organised. Some customers desire quality sound without the complications of a 5.1 setup. Essentially, a compact yet stylish pair of table toppers.This is where the company’s new entry-level Z200 comes into play. The tall, twin-driver desk-standing set is available in ...

In the early 2000s, online retail threatened the "bricks and mortar" stores with extinction. The talk was of being “Amazoned,” meaning Amazon.com would add your product line to its ever-expanding inventory and render you redundant.A lot changes in 15 years -- and equally, a lot does not change. Bricks and mortar retail extinction has been overstated and the concept of substitution of certain physical channels has given way to providing a complimentary experience that blends the digital and real world ...

With a Chinese-language site and WeChat integration, professional social network LinkedIn is going after China’s young up-and-comers. Many people were skeptical that a Western social network would be allowed over the country’s Great Firewall, but LinkedIn so far has been able to stay on the censors’ good side.“LinkedIn and maybe Snapchat are the only ones that can get regulatory approval here in China,” said Youku CEO Victor Koo in response to an audience question at last week’s China 2.0 ...

If you're in government, ignoring or cracking down on tech can come at a massive cost. While some have questioned the idea that social media was vital to the success of the Arab Spring, there can be no doubt that it was an important organising tool. In the Ukraine meanwhile, the one of the first things the protesters who recently overthrew the government did was set up Wi-Fi so that they could continue communicating with the outside world.Used properly ...

It's been a story that's grabbed headline after headline, tweet after tweet, status update after status update... but as Oscar Pistorius' murder trial continues into its sixth week, it's also a story which is hard to avoid if you're not the kind who is interested in examinations of doors and cricket bats. So how do you de-Oscarify your web experience? We have a few suggestions:Mute the over-sharersGot a friend on Facebook who posts hourly round ups of everything Oscar? Perhaps ...