Twitter's response to popular singer Whitney Houston’s death has been overwhelming, with RIP Whitney taking the global top trending spot. The 48-year-old Houston was reportedly found dead in the bath tub of her room in the Beverly Hilton hotel, where she was staying prior to tonight’s Grammy Awards. According to TMZ, the singer and a group of friends had "partied heavily" in the hotel and had "stood out because they were so boisterous". Fellow singer Rihanna sent out a string of ...

Last year, the EU updated its directives for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), in an effort to step up recycling and the safe disposal of outdated and malfunctioning equipment. In the US, the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act was introduced as a bill in June last year. India is also taking governmental steps to control how E-Waste is handled. That sounds like good news; after all, old electronics goods are full of good things that can often be re-used. And, ...

From the world’s cheapest car to the world’s cheapest tablet, India has emerged as a hub of "Jugaad", a Hindi term which closely translates as "frugal innovation". Owing to its booming economy, growing middle class and a talent pool of highly skilled engineers, India has a thriving tech startup ecosystem. While there are thousands of startups across the country, we bring you a compilation of tech startups that have risen above the rest to be the talking points in the ...

In 2011, popular radio personality Gareth Cliff utilised Twitter, and particularly the hashtag #JZSOTNDrinks -- a drinking game mechanism -- to encourage the South African man on the street to become involved in the country's State of the Nation Address. It was a hit online. This year, he evolved the concept and took it to a new level -- #SOTNUndress or State of the Nation Undress. Almost a year ago to the day, we were reporting on South African shock-jock Cliff's ...

Social media is playing an increasingly prominent role for political leaders, especially when it comes time for their annual State of the Nation address. US president Barack Obama hosted a hangout on Google+ in the wake of his recent State of the Union address and South African president Jacob Zuma invited the people of his country to send in their questions via Twitter and Facebook ahead of his annual address. Social media isn’t, however, only useful before a major ...

The gloves have finally come off and Google is beginning to reveal the strategy behind its purchase of Motorola Mobility in 2011 for $12.5-billion. On Wednesday Google informed the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers by letter that it intends to enforce its rights to a maximum of 2.25% of all mobile equipment that uses Motorola Technology. This would include the Apple iPhone 4S. The iPhone 4S has already sold well over 37-million units and at an average price of US$500 a ...

Chinese social giant Tencent now has 200-million registered users on its mobile gaming platform Mobile QQ Game Hall. Accroding to Marbridge Consulting, the Shenzen-based tech companysome 13-million of those users log onto the platform on a daily basis. At times there are up to a million people on the network at the same time. A large part of Mobile QQ Game’s success comes from the fact that it caters for China’s largely fragmented mobile ecosystem. Users can access Symbian, KJava, Android, ...

I tend to think of LinkedIn as "Facebook for Grownups". Now I know this isn't "technically" correct but it's what springs to mind. For me at least. Undoubtedly, LinkedIn is an extremely powerful networking and business tool, yet it’s astounding how many LinkedIn rookies there are roaming around social cyber space. I’m certain a thought running through many people’s minds is Linkedintowhat? Or who? Or How? Maybe this will help. Unlike Facebook LinkedIn is slightly more awkward to navigate. Although ...

I have been following the use of social media, Twitter in particular, by television viewers and programmes in South Africa with a keen eye. Considering that there are now approximately 3.4-million South Africans active on Facebook and Twitter it is no surprise that ‘social television’ is growing. When broadband first became widely available, the techie crowd unanimously threw down their TV remotes, vowing never to sit through another advert or wait a whole week for the next installment of ...

The Uncharted series has wrapped up; Nathan Drake has cracked his last crack, a wise one nonetheless. Naughty Dog fans whispered the world over, a quiver in their voices: "what will we do without Uncharted? Where will our next block-buster action game come from? What does life mean?" To those fans: get a life... and then get on board the hype-train for The Last of Us -- Naughty Dog’s upcoming third-person survival-horror action-adventure title. What a mouthful, kinda like Nathan Drake’s wisecracks.