One of the first pieces I wrote for the .Burn suite of websites was titled "How the Nintendo Wii is ruining gaming", an admittedly unnecessarily sensationalist title. The piece basically laid out my fears that the introduction of Microsoft's ground-breaking Kinect (and to a lesser degree Sony's Move) would follow a similar trajectory as the Wii before it. Almost a year on? I was right.Read more on Gearburn.com

Windows 8 is here, for developers (or anyone at all) to download right now. Well, a pre-release version at any rate. Microsoft launched the developer version alongside a preview of Windows 8 at BUILD, its Windows hardware and software conference. The OS aims to bring touchscreen user-friendliness to an intuitive environment.There are no limitations on who can download it, and all that stands between the user and an early build of Windows 8 is a 4.8GB file. Microsoft ...

When FNB launched its banking app in July it was a South African first. Since then, the app has gone from strength to strength, processing increasing numbers of transactions over an increasing number of devices.The South African banking giant announced that in the two months since its launch, the FNB Banking Application has been paired with close to 30 000 devices.FNB claims that the app now averages more than 500 downloads a day, although FNB expects this ...

Facebook has introduced "smart lists" -- functionality that automatically sorts your friends into categories and prioritises news from those dearest to you.The rollout of smart lists starts today and comes as rival Google+ seeks to win over users by providing sharing in "circles" that mirror real-world social groups such as family, friends, and co-workers."This is really something we have been working on for four years," says Facebook director of product management Blake Ross. "We think this is the way ...

Nintendo unveiled a string of new software titles at a highly anticipated Tokyo trade show as it attempts to boost sales and reignite interest in its struggling 3DS handheld games console.But Nintendo shares tumbled more than 5 percent on the Osaka bourse with investors underwhelmed by the videogame giant's attempt to boost the 3DS, after it slashed the console's price by up to 40 percent six months after launch.The company will also strengthen the functions of the console to enable ...

Internet giant Google has launched a flight search tool in a potential challenge to online travel services.Flight Search is the first travel product from Google since its US$700 million acquisition of ITA Software earlier this year."Since then, our engineering teams have been working closely together to build new travel tools that provide faster, more flexible, and more useful results to online travel searches," Google said in a blog post.A "Flights" link will appear on the left-hand side of the page ...

Are marketers going too far when it comes to abusing your social media profiles to try and solicit interest in their products and services? With social media meant to be about conversation where do we draw the line between being in a conversation and being broadcast to?What constitutes spam?Spam is defined as any unsolicited contact by a brand through any form of personalised communication platform in an effort to try and sell a product or a service to ...

Memeburn will on Wednesday publish a fascinating two-part interview with prominent internet commentator and Wired Magazine editor, Chris Anderson. Anderson was named by Time Magazine as one of the world's most 100 influential people.He is due to speak at Discovery's Leadership Summit in Sandton with other luminaries such as former US Deputy President and prominent environmentalist, Al Gore.The Wired editor is most known for popularising two key ideas that have helped shape internet thinking today: The Long Tail and ...

Personally, I've never liked Carol Bartz. For some reason, it is impossible for her name to be mentioned without a mental image of Sarah Palin forming in my head instead. And you don't need to know a great deal of my political views to understand that this isn't a good association.While Bartz does (presumably) know that Africa is a continent, and is highly unlikely to produce a reality TV show featuring her tackling grizzly bears in Alaska (actually, Hell, ...

Americans spend a lot of time on Facebook. We all knew that right? Well now it's official: US internet users spend more time on Facebook than any other website. That's according to the latest findings by media research house Nielsen.The research comes from Nielsen's "State of the Media" report for the third quarter of 2011. According to the research company, the report "presents a snapshot of the current social media landscape and audiences in the US and other major ...