Weekly Round Up Podcast #79: Blackberry, Motorola, Ventureburn’s Pitching Den & Twitter

History has just been made. Space X's Dragon Capsule has docked successfully with the International Space Station. It is the first privately built spacecraft in history to do so. After launching earlier this week, the spacecraft gradually made its way to the space station, eventually flying in formation with it. Before the Dragon docked, it turned its engines off, signalling that it was ready to be brought in on the space station's robotic arm. Here's the moment it happened: After the ISS' robotic arm captured the craft, Astronaut Don Pettit said, "Looks like we caught a Dragon by...

Mobile social networks have a habit of thriving in emerging markets. You only have to look at the likes of Mxit from South Africa -- with over 50-million users -- and China's Tencent QQ mobile, with over 200-million users, to see that. One relatively new contender making waves is the Lithuanian-based Eskimi, which recently went past the 7-million user mark. Bear in mind that half of those users are from Nigeria, and that it's only available on feature phones at the moment and you can see how much potential for growth it has. Eskimi claims that this makes it...

What is the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything? Don't Panic if you notice your colleagues and friends carrying towels around with them today. It's not because they've gone crazy. It's just Towel Day. And the answer to the question, the ultimate question is 42. Every 25 May fans of science fiction writer, Douglas Adams, honour his memory by celebrating Towel Day. Towel day is being celebrated around the world with various events according to TowelDay.org. The site features a list of events being held in honour of Adams such as a "Vogon Poetry Slam" session...

In swag-factor alone, Logitech's iPad Speaker Stand succeeds. The iPad (or iPhone if you're daring or stupid enough) cradles into the dock, charges and blasts music out of the ultra-loud speakers. For US$60 or so, it is a worthy purchase. Best part, the click when the iPad is rotated in place. Here, I've filmed it for posterity. Why's my arm so hairy? The speaker is stable, pumps out incredibly loud music without distortion and turns the iPad into a hot, sexy display of tech goodness. Sound is full stereo, the arm of the base is pitch adjustable and looks damn...

People tend to get excited around startups. It's probably something to do with the manic energy and will to succeed possessed by the people running them. And if the reaction to articles like this and this are anything to go by, people are really excited by African startups. In fact, people around the world are starting to talk about startups on the continent in a big way. One example of this is the Africa Gathering annual conference to be held in London in mid June. The conference, organised in collaboration with the Indigo Trust Foundation, aims to give people the opportunity...

It takes great photos that you can instantly share, comes with a range of cool-looking filters and is owned by Facebook. But it's not Instagram. The 900-million user strong social network today announced the launch its own social camera app, which it claims was built before it shelled out US$1-billion for Instagram. According to Facebook the standalone app allows you to upload multiple photos to your albums rather than having to do them one at a time. You can also add a caption, say where you were and tag friends before you share. As well as the aforementioned filters, you...

Footballing giant FC Barcelona is teaming up with non-profit company Worldreader in a campaign aimed at getting people to send one-million e-books to school children in Sub-Saharan Africa. The non-profit claims that it is already one-tenth of the way to achieving its goal, having delivered 100 000 e-books into the hands of 1 000 African children since it started operating in 2010. WorldReader claims that "digital technology sharply lowers the cost and complexity of delivering books everywhere. As we make reading easier and less expensive, the world will read more". While some are sceptical about getting books to countries...

Hi. This article is intended for mature readers. There are constant references to sex and because it’s me, I won’t be holding back and, as such, the article is most definitely NSFW. Onto the digital titillation. The idea for this article struck me after I battled the Kayran in The Witcher 2. Geralt and his on-and-off lover Trish celebrate this victory by having vigorous sex in an enchanted elven rose pool. It was pretty much the most graphic, mature and honest bit of digital intercourse I’d ever seen. Here’s the rub: I’ve been gaming for close to three decades now...

We’ve written about how large Android and iOS’ combined slice of the smartphone market is before. It doesn't look like that situation's about to change any time soon. Even in a shrinking mobile phone market, the two operating systems have managed to carve out a considerable lead for themselves. In fact, new research from tech analysis company IDC suggests that over 80% of smartphones shipped in the first quarter of 2011 rocked one of the two OS’. The company’s figures give Android slightly larger share of the market than a similar study recently conducted by fellow research company Gartner. IDC...