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  • More ‘social television’ in China: Sina is launching a web tv service today

    By on 13 July, 2012

    Chinese online media giant Sina is set to expand the amount of multimedia content on its popular micro-blogging platform today with the launch of its own social television service. A deal with BesTV New Media will give Sina Weibo's 300 million users more reason to stay on the country's most popular social network. According to Bloomberg, the web tv service will be launched today in Shanghai and will hopefully bolster Sina's social media efforts against competitors like Tencent. Mao Taotao, a public relations manager for the company's Beijing branch, confirmed the reports, but other details are still scarce at...

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  • Digg pulls a Myspace, sells for $500 000

    By on 13 July, 2012

    Oh how the mighty have fallen. Social media news aggregator Digg is being sold for less than a tenth of what it used to be worth reports the Wall Street Journal. The company, which was founded in 2004 by entrepreneur turned angel investor Kevin Rose, was once worth US$160-million and managed to raise US$45-million from big name investors such as Facebook investor Greylock Partners, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. The site works much in the same way as Reddit does. Users post links on Digg's home page, then others vote on their choices, determining the prominence...

  • Twitter: still no plans for IPO

    By on 13 July, 2012

    You know when a tune gets so ingrained in your head that you recognise it instantly, even if you haven't heard it in years? That's what Twitter's stance on the possibility of an IPO is starting to feel like. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said the company still had no plans to go public: “We are going to remain private as long as we want. I like being private for all sorts of reasons. It allows us to think about the business and the way we want to grow it... as opposed...

  • Ever wanted to get ‘tweeps’ in the dictionary? Now’s your chance

    By on 13 July, 2012

    Depending what your feelings on language are, this story will either make you celebrate the evolving nature of English or weep into your coffee. Publishing house Harper Collins is giving people the chance to officially get their favourite social media terms into the Collins English Dictionary. Yup, that means words like "tweeps" could officially become part of the English language. The publisher says that after it saw words and acronyms (like OMG and LOL) emerging from technology and social media to become “official” in the English language, it "decided it was time for words like 'tweeps' and 'cyberstalking' to...

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  • Meet Siri’s relative Lola, she’s smarter and likes banking

    By on 13 July, 2012

    So you're an iPhone 4S user. Your love for Apple's voice assistant Siri obviously knows no bounds. You'd never cheat on her right? What if we introduced you to her more intelligent, financially savvy cousin? Her name's Lola and Spain's second largest bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) reckons she could save it a ton in staffing costs. The voice assistant was built by the team behind Siri and, according to Technology Review, she can handle some pretty complex tasks. For instance, if you ask "what's the interest on my loan?" she'll be able to give you the answer...

  • Russian parliament approves controversial web censorship bill

    By on 12 July, 2012

    The Russian parliament has approved a bill which will allow the government to shut down websites hosting content they deemed "harmful." If signed into law, it will see the creation of a system to monitor and blacklist websites. An amendment to Russia's Act for Information, bill 89417-6 was put forth by a committee concerned with internet security. They say it was designed to allow the government to remove pornography, suicide advice and content which encourages drug use, but it has drawn criticism from activists who oppose online censorship. Wikipedia shut down the Russian version of its site earlier this...

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  • Google Maps gives 44 African countries walking directions

    By on 12 July, 2012

    Google Maps is great. Even if you don't have the app on your smartphone, you can look up your destination on your PC and get turn-by-turn directions. Thing is, in most African countries those directions were limited to driving. Not ideal on a continent where large sections of the population don't drive. All that's just changed though. Google has announced that it's implementing walking directions in 44 African countries. Google does caution however that walking directions are currently in beta. Anyone new to the service should be careful because the routes may be missing sidewalks or pedestrian crossings....

  • Why you need tech to keep your customers’ trust

    By on 12 July, 2012

    Retailers don’t rush to adopt new technology. In the last century, new technologies have been instrumental in increasing both sales and customer satisfaction. Things like Sabre in the 50s (the first electronic reservation system), the introduction of the barcode in the 70s all the way to the expansion of the World Wide Web in the 90s, have been put to good use to automate tasks and try to better understand customers’ needs. The explosion of social media platforms -- which changed not only how people communicate with another but also how they research, shop and make purchasing decisions -- is...

  • How tech could help Africa develop a knowledge-based economy

    By on 12 July, 2012

    According to the World Economic Forum Competitiveness Report 2011 – 2012 there are three stages of economic development by which one can classify the world’s economies: Factor-­driven economies: Compete primarily on the basis of natural resources and unskilled labour Efficiency-­driven economies: Where the key is to create efficiencies in the production processes Innovation-­driven economies: Compete on differentiated and sophisticated products and production processes The most advanced economies tend to be those in the third stage -- innovation-driven economies. These are also economies that have placed a premium on knowledge as a key factor for economic growth, they are ‘Knowledge Economies’. In Africa, most nations lag...

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  • Counting the costs: how PCs left on at night are killing your green credentials

    By on 12 July, 2012

    More often than not, when companies are asked how they are reducing their electricity bills or even carbon emissions, they’ll mention their lighting retrofits, their recycling initiatives, their partnerships with other organisations or their logistics’ department. The IT department rarely, if ever, features -- despite being a significant contributor to energy costs. How PCs are wasting energy In some companies, nearly 90% of PCs are being left on overnight. Sometimes this is legitimate, The IT department, for instance, might conduct security patching after hours and instruct staff to leave their PCs on for that specific purpose. Most of the time, it's...

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  • Acer Aspire M3 Ultrabook – the middle child of laptops

    By on 12 July, 2012

    A little over a week ago I was given the Acer Aspire Timeline U M3 (581T) to put through its paces. The good-looking, 15-inch “ultrabook” is Acer’s first proper foray into the ‘ultra’ arena and, unlike many of its competitors, it’s not a straight clone of the MacBook Air. It boasts stylish design, a compact body, great start-up times, good battery life and a few more specs that set it apart from the pack. Read on for the full breakdown. Read more on Gearburn.comvar 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");

  • SlideShare gets the ‘Great Firewall’ treatment in China

    By on 12 July, 2012

    LinkedIn is one of the few major Western social networks not blocked in China. It's slide-hosting service SlideShare may not be as fortunate. A screenshot from watch group China Internet Watch's Facebook page shows that the site is not loading for users trying to access it directly via the web: It isn't exactly clear how long the site's been down or what might have caused it to be blocked, especially considering what LinkedIn managed to do when it was briefly taken down in 2011. At the time, it released a statement explaining the situation: The government of the People’s...

  • Hackers hit Yahoo Voices, 450k logins posted online

    By on 12 July, 2012

    Attention Yahoo! Voices users, now would probably be a good time to change your password. The plaintext logins for around 450 000 user accounts for the voice-calling service have been posted online. According to security site Trusted Sec, the service was seriously vulnerable to attack: The most alarming part to the entire story was the fact that the passwords were stored completely unencrypted and the full 400,000+ usernames and passwords are now public. The method for the compromise was apparently a SQL Injection attack to extract the sensitive information from the database. According to Ars Technica, the attack was...

  • Panasonic PT RZ470: look ma, no lamp

    By on 12 July, 2012

    Every few years in the projector market, something innovative comes along and benchmarks the next few generations of machines. The latest innovation is from Panasonic and has pushed a major shift into the thinking of projector manufacturers. Now you can buy a projector (the Panasonic PT RZ47), or at least in January 2013 you will be able to, and never have to replace the goddamn lamp, because it doesn’t have one. Thanks to the development of Panasonic’s LED/laser combination light source, this latest beauty, using its DLP optic engine, will give you an admirable 3 000 ANSI lumen image and...

  • China-only smartphone from Phillips rocks 13-hour battery life

    By on 12 July, 2012

    Who is Phillips again? The company that cranks out stereo systems and microwave ovens? Not so, Phillips is a still a player in the mobile phone race, albeit sticking to the Chinese market for its top-end smartphones. The latest such device is the Philips W732, a cantankerous 4.3-inch mobile phone with a frankly astonishing battery life of 10-hours and more. Read more on Gearburn.comvar 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");