There’s something going on over at LG. First the crazy looking Optimus Vu and now the innovative Optimus LTE Tag, announced yesterday, with its NFC stickers. Similar to Sony’s Smart Tags, LG’s Tag Plus system uses NFC tags/stickers to change your phone’s settings. For example, place a pre-defined NFC tag on your car’s dashboard and swipe it to launch your phone’s GPS and Bluetooth app. When you get to the office, swipe another tag to mute your phone and turn on ...

People have been promising us The Internet of Things for some time now (the term dates back all the way to 1999). But so far we don’t seem to have moved much further than TVs and domestic appliances. A UK and Switzerland-based company called Evrythng wants to change all that and take the Internet of Things to well...everything. The term essentially refers uniquely identifiable objects (things) and their virtual representations in an internet-like structure. As its name ...

I worryingly read a slew of articles over the weekend about the shuttering of numerous big-brand F-commerce sites. My issue with most of these closing is that few had good KVP (key value propositions) for the user and now the entire ecosystem is getting painted a very ugly colour. In light of Open Graph just coming onto the scene I’m surprised at these big brands’ quick plug-pulling behaviour. Let’s review history: be honest, most of these companies put up ...

You have ideas for killer apps all the time, but where do you begin? Apple’s new “Start Developing iOS Apps Today” guide will help you get your feet wet. Aimed at giving prospective developers an overview of what iOS developing is all about, the guide starts with an introduction and then goes on to explain which applications you need to install. To get you familiarised with the development environment, a simple tutorial shows you how to write the most basic rite ...

So you have a Facebook page and you have spent a great deal of time crafting the landing area on your page. You have had it specially designed and made it -- well, you have made it beautiful. Users begin engaging with your page and because it is so beautifully done, they start liking it and before you know it, you have gone from 0 likes to 1 000 likes. Excellent! Or is it? How loyal are those “likers” (lurkers) ...

Pinterest is the latest social media craze and seems to have the web all aflutter. It is currently the web's second fastest growing site -- of any kind, having gone past the ten-million user mark just a month after launching. This latest social media platform goes far beyond simply just sharing or liking things of interest. It allows users to collaborate on various projects or topics of interest. From creating a mood board for your home renovations to keeping tabs on ...

Search engines get you the results you want 80% of the time. That's according to a South African startup called Gatfol (pronounced Gat fole, not like the Afrikaans Gatvol) which will soon be launching its first product to help you get closer to 100%. Gatfol may seem like an odd name for a startup, but its US patented semantic search algorithm certainly isn’t. Rooted in natural language processing or NLP, the free Gatfol browser plug-in will attempt to optimise your search ...

This week I take a look at Clear, an amazing app that is setting the net on fire with its simple, unique approach to creating, using and interacting with lists. Being in the position that I am right now, writing this column every week for such an amazing site, I constantly strive to build my app of the week posts around apps that I know people will love as much as I do. I see it as a showcase for apps ...

Farhad Manjoo makes a compelling argument for why the real winners of the payments revolution are the same players we already know, the credit card companies and the banks, in in an article entitled "Don’t mess with credit: Why the future of payments is already in your pocket." “Nearly every start-up working in payments is simply creating a new front end for your credit card. That’s not a small thing; we need new ways to use our credit cards. But we ...

Apple has been ordered to stop selling iPads in Huizhou, a city in southern China. This after a court ruled that sales of the device by local manufacturers violated the rights of Proview -- a manufacturer engaged in an increasingly wide-ranging dispute with the tech giant. According to the Associated Press, Proview has asked regulators to seize iPads and may demand a pay-out from Apple. The dispute arose after Proview claimed that it held the rights to the iPad name, ...