If you haven’t heard of Snapplify, it’s a solution that enables publishers, authors and content providers to convert their books, magazines and brochures into digital publications. If the concept sounds compelling to you and you happen to be in London between 16 and 18 April this year, Snapplify will be on hand at the London Book Fair to launch its new Android platform. Its iOS version currently supports publishers such as iMaverick, Random House Struik, New Holland Publishing and Fiell ...

The Guardian newspaper’s plans to offer courses in digital media production is an important development and one that should be followed by newspapers around the world. It would provide much-needed revenues to many struggling media businesses. I've written many times that the future of journalism is in helping communities, which includes businesses, to tell their stories. Media literacy is important but that’s just one side of the coin: knowing how to produce and publish digital media is just as important, maybe ...

Wow. Giant fast food chains just can’t seem to get social media right. First McDonald's had its nightmare badtag run and now KFC is in hot water over post it put up on its Thai Facebook page. As tsunami warnings were issued to countries around the Indian Ocean yesterday the fried chicken giant told Thai citizens to evacuate to their homes, but to order a bucket of chicken on the way. Classy. According to the Associated Press, the post said: ...

Every found yourself asking: "Why is Google trying to be so evil to the developer community?" You are not alone. Following the search giant's recent unveiling of the new Google+, a Google Plus developer has come forward with a rather ranty blog post on how Google broke all his "apps and extensions". The developer in question, Mohamed Mansour, posted extensive details of his issues under the title "Thank you Google for breaking all my apps and extensions without warning!" on ...

Half a billion internet users and an economy which, although not immune to international economic pressures, is still on the up means that China is poised to experience a massive ecommerce boost. Add in an anticipated 200-million more users and the Asian superpower could become the world’s biggest ecommerce market by 2015. According to the Boston Consulting Group(BCG), the country’s online market could be worth as much as US$350-billion by then. China already has more online shoppers than any other ...

It’s not easy to get excited about wine if you have been living under the notion that US$2 box wine is the best of the best. It takes a smartly designed website, and an online wine-ordering system to bring wooded cabernet sauvignons to the masses. That website is WineConnected. WineConnected wants you to become a member of its family. It’s not simply a matter of logging on, ordering a case of bubbly and drinking till dawn. No sir, WineConnected gets you ...

An 8.7 magnitude earthquake has hit the off the coast of the Indonesian island Sumatera in the Indian Ocean. At first details were scant and there was fear that there may be a repeat of the tsunami which devastated the region in 2004. Those fears have, for now, been allayed to some extent. Twitter has, nonetheless gone into overdrive. At one stage, #PrayforSumatera, US Geological Survey, #Sumatera, Indian Ocean, and Earthquake in Indonesia were all globally trending topics. As ...

By now you've probably heard of "Texts from Hillary Clinton" -- the tumblr blog that has the former first lady and current secretary of state sending and replying to texts while sitting in a G6 or a space shuttle, you decide. The spoof site has various well known figures sending Clinton texts messages and her replying with witty and funny remarks. In less than a week the blog has become an online sensation, boosting Clinton's public image in the process ...

Using Facebook likes to make a billboard’s beard is one thing, but using them to make a model strip? Well that’s a whole new kettle of social media fish. The Dutch division of clothing brand Stüssy is trying to get Facebook users to like its photos with the promise of an incentive. That incentive comes in the form of an item of clothing coming off the model as the likes for it increase. It’s not yet clear how far Stüssy ...

Data about Pinterest is sparse because it's been slow to release its API, but I was able to utilise search engine APIs to pull some data about the trendy new social site. I gathered information on over 11 000 pinned images and did some analysis to create the infographic below. This data should be useful for Pinterest users who’d like to get more repins on the images they’ve pinned, as well as content producers who want their content pinned and repinned ...