Weekly Round Up Podcast #79: Blackberry, Motorola, Ventureburn’s Pitching Den & Twitter

Just days after Greek triple jumper Voula Papachristou was cut from her country's Olympic team for posting a racist tweet, another athlete has been expelled from the Games for the same reason. After his team lost 2-1 to South Korea yesterday, Swiss footballer Michel Morganella picked up his iPad and posted an offensive tweet about Koreans on the social network. The 23 year old's Twitter account has since been deleted, but Swiss website Le Matin managed to capture a screen grab of the tweet. According to a translation by The Next Web, the tweet reads: "I f*** all Koreans,...

This is very cool. It's a representation of the internet that maps each site according to its relative size, with the distances between them determined by the strength or frequency of the link created when people move from one site to another. The map's makers claim that it encompasses over 350 thousand websites from 196 countries and all domain zones. "Information about more than two-million links between the websites has joined some of them together into topical clusters," they say. They minds behind it were apparently inspired by the sheer size and complexity of the net. "The Internet...

Wow. It looks like Apple owners are really keen on upgrading their operating systems. The Cupertino-based tech giant says that downloads of its latest OS Mountain Lion have topped three million in the first four days its been available. According to the folks down at 1 Infinite Loop, this makes is the most successful iteration of OS X in history. “Just a year after the incredibly successful introduction of Lion, customers have downloaded Mountain Lion over three million times in just four days, making it our most successful release ever,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of...

It’s safe to say that we have all heard the phrases “UX” and “user experience” being used in conversation. Although people are beginning understand the value of providing a good user experience, they don’t necessarily understand what it is or how it works. In a nutshell, user experience is a concept or approach that is applied at all interaction points with your customer. It’s all about putting the user first, understanding their needs, and building a positive relationship with them. So why is this important? The benefits are infinite; some are immediate and some are indirect, only realised after...

In the 1700s radical French journalist Jean-Paul Marat used the power of his pen and his influence in the media as a vessel to channel his political passion and to rally the masses, in effect contributing greatly to the French revolution. Today, 'Marat-figures' take on different forms. When social networks aren't used as leverage to topple governments or to keep valuable relationships intact, they also serve as an everyday repository of information. Social networks have been cursed by a degree of responsibility towards the flow of information. To complicate matters even more, questions about anonymity, freedom of speech and hate-speech...

Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have fundamentally changed the nature of political discussion. They allow the common person to add his or her voice to the issues that are important to them and to connect with important decision-makers that might otherwise be out of their reach. Twitter has had a particularly profound effect on political discourse, even in emerging market countries like South Africa. In that country, this has been especially true for opposition leader Helen Zille, who has used Twitter to connect with her supporters and to clearly articulate her stance on contentious issues. Following in...

Batman’s toys haven’t always been well advised. Who remembers the infamous credit card from Batman and Robin? Or the ridiculous ice skates that miraculously appear during an encounter with Mr Freeze? Hell, let’s not dwell on the nipples the Batsuit sports during Joel Schumacher’s films. With Christopher Nolan at the helm however, Batman was became an icon we could actually believe in: a trained samurai who adopts theatricality and disguise to defeat his foes. His gadgets were similarly immersed in the real world. Read more on Gearburn.com var vglnk={key:"cc324b6567a9637aa0ff15bc9564b2a5"};!function(e,a){var t=e.createElement(a);t.type="text/javascript",t.async=!0,t.src="//cdn.viglink.com/api/vglnk.js";var n=e.getElementsByTagName(a);n.parentNode.insertBefore(t,n)}(document,"script");

Earnings calls underscore some of the strategies being deployed in the tech industry. Take Zynga's Q2 earnings for example: announcing that it lost US$22.8-million, or three cents per share. In the same Quarter last year, it earned US$1.4-million a year ago. At one stage, shares were down a whopping 38%. These numbers are hardly surprising, seeing as Zynga is notorious for copying competitor games and generally being unethical in the industry. It also went rather gung-ho into acquiring OMGPOP, the maker of Draw Something. When last did you play that? One of the worst things to happen to Facebook...

We’ve already brought you our pick of historic Olympic moments that will make you cringe and cry, now here are some great Olympic advertising moments that will inspire and excite you instead. Olympic rules regarding sponsorships and brand associations with the event are very strict, so the official sponsors have, by and large, produced the best campaigns we've seen and you’ll probably see a lot more of them in the coming weeks all over the world. A few cheeky competitors have also cashed in on the spirit. Bring on London 2012! Philip is here (again). 1. P&G -- Best Job Proctor & Gamble...