One of China’s most popular microblogging platforms, Sina Weibo, is set to introduce a new user policy which restricts free speech on the service and can be used to punish those who criticise the government. The policy, which is currently described as a ‘trial’ which will come into full effect on 28 May, has a lot of new requirements for the platform’s 300 million users. Among them is the stipulation that users cannot create or share content that harms the "unity" ...

With all the hype and drama surrounding the launch of personal finance app 22seven, it's hard to believe it's been in beta all this time. All that's about to change. That's right, the product that generated massive online buzz and was blocked, then embraced, by banks is finally opening up to the public. The company claims that in the three months since its beta launch, it's been "fixing bugs, getting feedback from users", and "gauging how much 22seven is helping ...

Some pretty impressive mobile innovations have come to the world's attention after Kenyan success. MPesa and Ushahidi come to mind immediately. Now a couple of organisations in the country want to use SMS to warn farmers about potential disasters. According to The Next Web, the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) thinks that some 7 500 coffee farmers in the Nairobi and Mount Kenya regions could be receiving SMSes from an automated warning system by the end of the ...

So GPS is great, but it has its limitations. As soon as the satellites can’t see you; your signal is lost. This is particularly true when you are trying to find your way around a shopping centre or an unfamiliar airport. Luckily for all directionally challenged shoppers out there, Fraunhofer (Europe’s largest application-oriented research organization) will allow in-store or in-mall navigation by allowing your device to communicate with small sensors scattered strategically throughout the building. The system (currently called MST-SmartSense Sensor) is ...

Twibbons, green-tinted avatars, and dare I say it, hashtagging Kony2012. Sure they make you feel great but they do they actually make a difference? Not really. Former rock 'n roll roadie and manic professional speaker Rich Mulholland has a term for anyone who engages in this kind of online behaviour: Avatard. Tinting your Twitter avatar green has about as much impact as walking around with a piece of green plastic in solidarity with the people of Iran, said Mulholland in his presentation ...

The discovery that Yahoo! CEO Scott Thompson has been claiming to have a Computer Science degree for years, and did not correct statements that identified him as an "engineer" is not surprising given the strong "cult of the engineer" that is prevalent in Silicon Valley. According to Kara Swisher at All Things D, Thompson did not deny he had a computer science degree in a 2009 interview: Moira Gunn asked him a direct question about his college degrees, specifically noting they ...

There are all sorts of tools out there for measuring social media sentiment. They're incredibly useful to brands and journalists alike. But what if you could use Twitter to map people's emotions geographically? Surely that would be even more useful A few weeks ago, I spoke at a federal agency conference in Arlington, Viriginia and one of the most interesting topics was the potential use of social media, by intelligence agencies, to map out and predict social unrest. So I ...

Tech’s going green. It has to. Hell, the world has to. The kind of action we’re seeing now with Facebook and Google’s data centres and Microsoft pledging to become Carbon neutral is just the beginning. In fact, the number of phones like the Samsung Replenish -- made from 82% recycled materials – is set to grow more than 10 times by 2017. UK-based tech analysis company Juniper Research, Juniper Research reckons that around 31-million ‘green’ handsets will ship this year. ...

So we all know Abraham Lincoln was a pretty badass president. He reunited a country torn apart by civil war, helped end slavery and invented Facebook. Yup, that’s right Mark “I’m worth more than Yahoo!” Zuckerberg, Abraham Lincoln patented the basic idea for your social network 146 years ago. Except he didn’t. The story appears to be the latest hoax to take the web by storm. The story originated as a claim made by reporter Nate St.Pierre after he ...

When First National Bank (FNB)’s GeoPayments service leaked earlier this week, we were fairly impressed. Now the banking giant has officially gone live with it we can give the full low-down. In an official press release, the company confirms that the new functionality uses location-based services. It claims that it can “locate other users, within close range, to make safe and secure cashless payments without the need of their bank account details”. Oh, it also turns out that you don’t ...