American politicos both Republican and Democrat agreed that something had to be done about patents, and the costly, innovation-choking mess they were making of American success. The new America Invents Act represents the most sweeping changes to the US' law in decades, but the bill is not expected to end the courtroom wrangling between technology giants. Experts rated it as pretty good tinkering, but not game-changing."My feeling is that it won't change the dynamics much of the ongoing patent wars," ...

Hackers very briefly gained control of the official NBC News Twitter feed over the weekend. Their aim: To send false messages preceding the 9/11 anniversary.The hacking group Script Kiddies released these messages during Friday evening on Twitter:NBC quickly moved in to quell any concerns and instantly condemned the attack. The tweets were sent in quick succession before any action could be taken. On Saturday morning, the account was back in the control of NBC news and Vivian Schiller, NBC's ...

Laptops can be divided into three rough and ready categories: casual, business and gaming. Casual laptops are often fragile and sometimes barely as powerful as a tablet. Business models are often tough and fast, but lack the meatier graphics processors to satisfy the hungry gaming market. So the niche of gaming laptops was born -- and is taking off.Buyers are starting to cotton on to the potential of gaming laptops, and bigger markets means less expensive models are emerging. Today ...

The latest call to intercept messages on the Blackberry Messenger (BBM) platform, by South African Deputy-Communications minister, Obed Bapela, threw the veritable cat amongst the pigeons with regard to freedom of speech and privacy. This call resonated globally, with TechCrunch and other media houses worldwide commenting on the statement.South Africa's own level-headed communications minister Roy Padayachie was quick to clear the air. He has stated categorically that there is no current plan to intercept or regulate BBM specifically, but ...

With the recent departure of the foul-mouthed, gun-slinging Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz, the resignation of ex Google CEO Eric Schmidt and the stepping down of Apple's CEO Steve Jobs -- a new era in Silicon Valley has dawned.Apart from the old guard at Microsoft, all of the Valley's major technology companies are under 'new' management.Seasoned veteran Bartz, who had a distinguished career including being the CEO of Autodesk and being on the boards of both Cisco and Intel, ...

When it was revealed that South African DJ Darren Scott had used the "K-word" after losing his temper with a colleague, it became a globally trending topic on Twitter. A large portion of the anger on the social network was, however, directed at the wrong Darren Scott.According to South African news site, News 24, much of the venom surrounding the incident was directed at @darren_scott, a British citizen and editor of Gay Times magazine.According to the report, Scott ...

When the last Rugby World Cup kicked off in 2007, Twitter was barely a year old. As the current tournament kicks off in New Zealand, the situation is very different. The social network has more than 200-miilion users and a number of the players at the tournament will be tweeting voraciously (The notable exception to this being hosts New Zealand, who have been banned from tweeting).In celebration of the world's most prestigious rugby tournament, Memeburn decided to take a look ...

The hype surrounding the Rugby World Cup has set off a series of 419 scammers says Symantec Intelligence. A new scam claims that the recipient has been awarded US$2.5-millon in a lottery connected with the 2011 Rugby World Cup has spread around the internet.The global software security firm also reports that 419 or advance fee fraud scammers are highly skilled at using current events to their advantage."Recently we have seen scams taking advantage of unrest in Libya, the devastating ...

The Motorola EX225 marks the mobile giant’s latest foray into social gadgets. Motorola is seemingly forgetting the mistakes it made with the Motoblur and instead emulating mobile phones such as the HTC ChaCha and the recently launched Vodafone Blu 555 by adding in a dedicated Facebook button.This has come to light after UnwiredView dicovered the new mobile phone within the Bluetooth SIG database.The phone will be socially connected, with Facebook features deeply integrated into the handset. For those who ...

Anybody with even the slightest knowledge about the recently axed CEO of Yahoo!, Carol Bartz, knew that sooner or later her tough-as-nails attitude would come to the fore, and in an explosive interview with Fortune it did.A source speaking with Fortune also informed the magazine that Bartz had a non-disparagement clause, a promise to not speak ill of the company, and that by giving this interview she forfeited US$10-million of her severance packageThe interview, Bartz's first since her dismissal, ...