United Nations to launch its first space mission

Twitter is changing the way its trending topics work. Right now you can see topics as a worldwide list, or select one of more than 150 locations. But in the future it'll all depend on who you follow on what your interests are. According to Twitter product manager Sara Mauskopf, "Trends lists are tailored for you by default on twitter.com and mobile apps like Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android." If you're a journalist who uses trends as a valuable reporting tool, don't panic. If you don’t wish to see tailored Trends, but instead want to see a...

Last night, Apple's WWDC kicked off with three major announcements. Firstly, Apple's MacBook line has been significantly upgraded. Next, Mountain Lion received a few nice touches and finally, iOS 6 is launching this fall. It's not the UI upgrade everyone wanted, but it's filled with tweaks and new features iOS was gagging for. Let's delve into ten hot new features and updates planned for iOS 6. Siri Everyone's favourite, 2001 AD -voiced digital assistant gets a slew of updates. Siri's vocab has grown, its sport knowladge is bumped up, Yelp is more deeply integrated into the search queries, and Siri can...

Google has announced a series of updates to its Hot Search function in Google Trends. Hot Searches allows you to see a list of the fastest rising search terms for a snapshot of what’s on the public’s collective mind. Now Hot Searches has gotten a refresh that makes the list of searches more visual, groups related rising search terms together and lets people see more information about those searches. According Nimrod Tamir of the Google Trends Team the "rich images and links to related news articles" mean that you can "glance at the list and instantly get an idea of...

What? You thought you'd heard the last of hacker collective Lulzsec when its ringleader turned out to be an FBI mole? Sorry pal, you thought wrong. Lulzsec Reborn -- a splinter group formed from the remnants of the now defunct Lulzsec -- has claimed responsibility for leaking 10 000 passwords from a Twitter-based app called TweetGif. The app, which allows people to share GIFs, required its users to share their names, passwords, and locations. The group has yet to give any reason for the hack, although it may just have been "for the lulz". That is, it may have...

People have been promising us The internet of things for some time now (the term dates back all the way to 1999). Things were pretty slow to get off the ground but now it seems that it is big enough to need a search engine. The term "internet of things" essentially refers to uniquely identifiable objects (things) and their virtual representations in an internet-like structure. A group of Scottish academics has developed a search engine that uses the connected sensors on these real-world objects to provide answers to search queries. According to Tech World, the scientists at the University...

If you’re one of those people with a good memory or like to read my articles over and over (anybody?), you’ll remember how I went absolutely crazy over MoneyWiz for iOS a few weeks back. Calling it "the best on the market" and saying that "I no longer use any other finance apps on either device and that I’ve never been happier with an app before"...well five weeks on and I still feel this way, and as of today, even better, I've just received my copy of the brand new Mac version of MoneyWiz. Here’s a quick review of...

The world is blue, Facebook blue to be precise. The 900-million strong social network is predominant in all but a few of the world's countries. The latest world map of social networks, which charts social network popularity by country, shows that the last real bastions of resistance to Facebook dominance are Russia, China, Iran, Vietnam, and Latvia. In those countries, the social networking giant is held at bay by local efforts V Kontakte and Odnoklassniki in Russia, Zing in Vietnam, and Draugiem in Latvia. Thing is, it could well be on its way to dominance in these territories. Vietnam...

We recently told you about how online advertising is killing the traditional media model. As it turns out, it's breaking records along the way. The Interactive Advertising Bureau today announced that internet ad revenues for the first quarter of 2012 totaled around US$8.4-billion. That represents a 15% increase–over the US$7.3-billion figure reported in the first quarter 2011. According to David Silverman, a partner at PwC US, that increase is a "solid affirmation the internet is delivering on its promise to attract consumers and the advertising dollars that follow.” “More online consumers than ever are taking to the internet to inform and...

The ties between Microsoft and Nokia run deep. But apparently not deep enough for the Redmond-based giant to consider buying the Finnish phone maker. According to a report from UK-based tech news site The Register, Microsoft had the opportunity to buy out Nokia in 2011 but ran screaming when it got a glimpse at the former phone giant's books. As the report's author Andrew Orlowski notes however, a buyout may have been in neither company's best interests: Nokia still has time and cash with which to mount a fight back. Microsoft has time to generate an "ecosystem", the clunky technology...

Nando's has hit back at the decision by all of South Africa's national broadcasters to ban its pro-diversity ad in the only way it knows how: big and with tongue placed firmly in cheek. The SABC, DStv, and eTV all refused to flight the ad last week citing fears that it would provoke xenophobic attacks. In response, the fast-food franchise took out advertising space in the country's largest newspapers detailing the advert scene by scene. Full size The online version of the ad now has just under 400 000 views and Nando's has a lot more publicity than it would...