YouTube Go turns YouTube into offline video portal

I've been listening to Charles Arthur every Tuesday on the Guardian pod-cast, Tech weekly, for the past year. Arthur would mention his upcoming book whenever the tech giants of Apple, Google or Microsoft were pitched against each other in the news. Hearing Arthur in my car once a week makes me feel like I know the dude, so when he announced that his book had just been published I downloaded a copy for Kindle. The book got me thinking in pictures, so rather than review the book, I thought I'd illustrate it. Each frame is drawn from a chapter....

Wired is reporting that a group of intrepid billionaires will soon announce their new venture called Planetary Resources, Inc, “which plans to send swarms of robots to space to scout asteroids for precious metals and set up mines to bring resources back to Earth." Nope, this is not a movie, this is actually happening. “The resources of Earth pale in comparison to the wealth of the solar system," Eric Anderson who founded the commercial space tourism company Space Adventures, told Wired. Anderson is co-founder of Planetory Resources along with Peter Diamandis, who started the X Prize foundation, which offers prizes for...

At the end of last year, I wrote a few posts on measuring social media, at the time when Google Analytics had recently launched Social Engagement Reporting (SER) in order for site owners to measure the impact of social media mentions in and outside of the website, as well as “real-time” which allowed users to see what was happening on their site at that exact moment. The real glitch, however, was how we expected computers to accurately report on social media metrics like sentiment when there are complex semantic occurrences like sarcasm. Thankfully, we can park the Chinese room analogy I used, by casting...

To date, LinkedIn has been the social network of choice for business professionals. According to Socialbakers, there are 1 575 842 registered LinkedIn users in South Africa. If you compare this with the 4 745 920 registered Facebook users in South Africa, should LinkedIn take the new kid on the block, BranchOut, seriously? BranchOut is a Facebook app which enables users to present their résumé (current job, work history, summary, specialities and endorsements) and form connections with Facebook users, using name or company as search criteria. In addition, you may also request introductions through existing connections. Neal Schaffer of Windmill Networking wrote an article recently where he describes BranchOut as follows: For those of you not familiar with it, BranchOut, in essence, is a networking application that uses information from...

Google Drive. After six years of rumours, it’s finally here. The details that recently leaked out are true. The first 5GB is free. If you want more, you can upgrade to 25GB for US$2.49/month, 100GB for $4.99/month or even 1TB for $49.99/month -- your move Dropbox. When you upgrade to a paid account, your Gmail account storage will also expand to 25GB. Google Drive will permeate most of Google’s services and is "built to work seamlessly with your overall Google experience". Attach a photo from Google Drive to posts in Google+ or attach files from Google Drive directly to emails...

The titles that digital marketers are giving themselves these days are rather unbelievable. From “guru” to “specialist” to “strategist” and beyond (Buzz Light-Year would be proud). But are these titles that those who are using them, by and large, can actually live up to? In case you missed it; this is going to be more of an opinion piece about the digital industry as a whole, with a particular focus on how some individuals within it (both locally and internationally) are not necessarily doing it the biggest of favours. The scene Business executives are realizing more and more that the power of...

Possibly the coolest doodle this year, Google put a zip on its home page that allows users to unzip the front page. The impressive Doodle is in honour of Gideon Sundback, the Swedish-American electrical engineer who invented the zip, as today is his 132nd birthday. His name is trending worldwide on Twitter. The unzipped page is a collection of links with information and news reports on Sundback. Users are able to learn more about the invention of the zip. Originally, Sundback intended the zip to be a replacement for fasteners on women's boots but it soon became a regular feature on...

Umbono Alpha Beta is a Google event at which you can have as much free beer and pizza as you want, as long as you love startups. Memeburn was invited to watch as six startups -- three teams at the end of their six month Umbono program (last year's winners) and three who are just beginning -- presented their products and businesses to a packed (and we do mean packed) room. Umbono launched last year as a trial startup incubation project exclusive to Cape Town, South Africa. The Umbono programme aims to transform visions into businesses by taking successful applicants with new...

Pinterest has been on a roll recently, as pins and sign-ups grew faster than most could believe. It was the second fastest website to hit 10 million unique visits (ever) and then went on to drive more referral traffic than Twitter. But, according to some indicators, the social media site is no longer gaining users as quickly as it once did. Pinterest isn’t by any means flat lining, but the hype may be receding a bit. According to Compete, the site only gained 1.95 million unique visitors from February to March 2012.  Yes, ‘only’ 1.95 million. It still sounds pretty...

Giants like Facebook and Twitter no longer have complete monopoly of the social media realm. Although they are still dominant players, new kids on the block Google+ and Pinterest are giving them a run for their money. Generating some pretty heavy traffic, Google+ has more than 100 million users and Pinterest is now the third most-popular social network in the U.S. But how do you determine which one to use, or which one is better suited to your target market? Here are a few insights from the latest research on social to help you make the right call. The stats Pinterest 83% of Pinterest users...

As the Facebook Timeline roll out continues, more and more users are being forced to decide which image is worthy of being set as their cover photo. While you may still be flicking through your albums to find a photo where you look as good as you do in your profile pic (even at a larger size), there are cool people out there who are using the space to make Facebook more awesome. Dusty Buell With some careful cropping and clever photo editing, Dusty Buell managed to become part of the game pictured in his cover image. Mike Qsys What do you get...