A "mortified" Google has issued an apology to Kenyan mobile listings site Mocality over customers and data that was allegedly pilfered from the startup's database. Mocality CEO Stefan Magdalinski in a blog post on Friday accused Google of "telling untruths" and a "human-powered, systematic, months-long, fraudulent... attempt to undermine our business". The story hit the internet like wildfire on Friday afternoon, with major international sites and techblogs like The Register, Techcrunch, Boing Boing, The NextWeb, PaidContent and Slashgear all reporting on it. ...

An international brouhaha is brewing over alleged "fraudulent" behaviour by Google in Kenya. Mocality, Kenya’s "largest" business directory, has accused Google of knowingly engaging in deceptive behaviour and telling "untruths". The Kenyan company is a three-year-old startup owned by South African-based emerging market internet giant, Naspers -- an US$18-billion company that has stakes in Facebook, Tencent and mail.ru -- and many other emerging market internet properties dotted around the world. Mocality says that Google illegally used the Kenyan site's database to boost its ...

Just because you're a tech-savvy Memeburn reader doesn’t mean you don’t like classic films. Sure you might not be a theatre purist, yearning for a near-mythical golden age of film, but that doesn’t mean you’re ignorant to the comic charms of Charlie Chaplin, the directorial brilliance of Sergei Eisenstein or the beguiling beauty of Rita Hayworth. Luckily for you, Memeburn reader, you don’t have to go to specialist theatres or obscure video stores to get your fix of classic celluloid. ...

Fragmentation is busy killing Google’s OS, as Apple comes close to outselling Android for the first time. Sales of Apple iOS and Android smartphones are now neck and neck in the US. According to research outfit NPD Group, iOS phones accounted for 43% of smartphones sold in the US in October and November. Android’s share? 47%. That's the closest Apple’s operating system has ever been to Google’s “juggernaut”. But, "Android is winning". Yes, Apple’s share of sales in those months ...

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey expressed his annoyance over the blocking of his popular service in China with a tweet saying "Hello, Shanghai. Twitter is blocked here in China so I can't read any tweets," after arriving in the country on Thursday. Hello, Shanghai. Twitter is blocked here in China so I can't read any tweets.— Jack Dorsey (@jack) January 12, 2012 Controversial Chinese artist Ai Weiwei who equally condemns these kinds of restrictions put in place by the Chinese government responded ...

While tablets have dominated tech news ever since the launch of the first iPad, it seems likely that the frenzy will begin to die down in 2012. Crucial questions such as “What is it for?”, “Will they find a market?” and “Do I need one?” have slowly faded away. Now, you either want one or you don’t. Apart from the media firestorm which will greet the release of the next generation iPad sometime in 2012, most tablets will simply arrive on ...

Email marketing has had to deal with its fair share of industry rumours (a.k.a. myths) during its many (largely successful) years of existence. Thankfully most of them never actually materialize, and those that do are promptly dealt with, which is how we end up with an increasing set of ‘best practices and standards’. Standards that are constantly evolving and refining themselves alongside the technology and client specs they feed off. Then there are those rumours that just don’t seem to go ...

At CES International 2012, there seems to be a general certainty in the notion that the future of video entertainment lies on the web. It seems natural, therefore, that the show should play host to the inaugural International Academy of Web Television (IAWTV) Awards. The award show is sort of like an Emmy Awards for web TV series. The fact that it took place in the famous Venetian hotel, just down the hall from where the technical Emmys taking place ...

An idiot thief busted by an iPhone? Thank you, Apple. In Pretoria, South Africa, a part-time cleaner who stole an iPhone has been tracked and arrested thanks to iCloud, and Find My Phone. The phone's owner, Sean Dunn, tracked the thief on his iPad, locating him to within two meters of his last known location. With iPad in hand, the thief was easily tracked, as Find My Phone displays a satellite map, with fairly accurate coordinates. The thief was found 60km ...

The human world is unprepared for emotive robots. Japanese robots with human-like faces which smile, cry and shout only create a larger gap in the uncanny valley. Enter Mimbo, a cardboard creation which more gently resembles human expression thanks to an emotive iPhone as its visage. Mimbo is a simple cardboard design wrapped around an iPhone. Anyone can cut it out, prop an iPhone inside and turn it on. Eyes, eyelids and a mouth are cartoon-like in nature, but easy enough ...