Twitter is like the coffee machine in the newsroom. Get a shot of caffeine, chat with colleagues, exchange useful information, but also get the latest gossip and rumours. The difference is that you probably won’t publish what you hear at the coffee machine. Twitter works differently: gossip, rumours, and other unverified information are published and sometimes cause a hoax. A tweet about the suspension of the famous CNN talk show host Piers Morgan over the phone hacking scandal is ...

I have mad love for BlackBerry. In a world of beige, it is black. Much as I want the company to succeed, like you, I’ve been watching the slow motion car crash that is RIM. Thorsten Heins has his work cut out for him, and I want nothing more than to see the company make a Lazarus-esque comeback. Until that happens, developers will continue to have little confidence in the platform. There’s a lot of trash talking about this topic, ...

iOS users have fun, Android users get down to business, according to mobile app search company, Chomp. In its first ever annual app search analytics report, Chomp has revealed search data from the one-million-plus app searches per month which outline what the top apps are, what the trends are in apps and what the average price per app is. Chomp begins with the category share trend. Gaming, it seems, is on a downturn in the Android market. For iOS though, gaming is ...

Founded late last year in Berlin, Wifis.org aims to help neighbours get in touch. The free service connects people through a unique URL that replaces your current Wi-Fi network name (SSID). Wi-Fi network names have been used in a number of creative ways: Read more on Gearburn.com

Facebook's long-awaited initial public offer (IPO) may come as early as this week, if media reports are to be believed. Reports that the world’s largest social network was readying itself to go public first surfaced in the Wall Street Journal. The offering is widely anticipated to raise around $10-billion for Facebook, giving it a valuation of between $75-billion and $100-billion -- a record for a company in the internet sector. By comparison, Google’s 2004 IPO raised $1.9-billion, giving it a ...

Sony has unveiled three new CyberShots. The TX200V, WX70, and the WX50. Price-wise, the TX200V is the dearest at US$500. The WX70 and WX50 cost US$200 and US$230 respectively. The TX200V is priced close to a high-end smartphone for a simple reason. It looks exactly like a high-end smartphone. Somehow, Sony has made the TX200V mirror the iPhone as much as legally possible. Read more on Gearburn.com

The high-profile launch of new financial management startup 22seven has faced some early criticism, from the very institutions it relies on: The banks. Prolific tweeter and CEO of First National Bank (FNB) Michael Jordaan tweeted yesterday that he thought 22seven was a "cool concept", but warned "against disclosing password(s) to any 3rd party". He ended his tweet with this ominous warning: "Risk all yours". Getting tweets re 22seven. Cool concept but have to advise against disclosing password to any 3rd party. Risk ...

When one mentions gaming, your mind is generally flooded with images of washed-out nerdy white guys, sitting in a darkened room, hunched over their computers for days on end. But if recent research is anything to go by, the stereotype is changing, as more and more female gamers enter the fray. A recent study conducted by PopCap Games (most famous for Plants vs Zombies and Bejeweled) found that women were the most active gamers on social networking sites, making ...

I recently came across an online rewards programme called Daily Feats. It got me thinking about how being rewarded for completing a task makes us feel as human beings and how that experience translates into the online space. Most people like being rewarded when they do something good. Whether it is performing well at work, in sports, helping a friend, academic or just doing a good deed, it boosts our confidence and makes us feel damn good ...

Twitter announced on Thursday that it would be implementing the ability to withhold content from users in a specific country. Before the announcement, Twitter’s only option was to remove the content globally. Despite being held by critics to its lofty ideals, the manner in which Twitter is implementing its geographic censorship is rather elegant. For a start the company is being honest and open about the change. While some argue that Twitter should draw a line in the sand, the ...