5 Memeburn posts you loved this week

Plenty can happen in a week, and keeping up with it all can be terrifyingly difficult.

In between the piles of work sitting in your inbox, the demands of modern life, and other cliches around being busy, trying to keep up with what’s going on the world can seem overwhelming.

We don’t doubt that you do everything in your power to read your favourite technology news site (that would be us), but we totally understand if things have been particularly busy at work — or if you’ve been relaxing on island with no internet connectivity.

In fact, we’re here to help with a new weekly series that you won’t be left pretending nodding silently, a blank look slowly spreading across your face, while your colleagues chat around the water-cooler (people still do that right?).

Here are the five most read Memeburn articles from the past seven days:

5. Apple’s new iPhone ad is a snarky swipe at its competitors

iPhone apps ad

Apple has released a new iPhone ad and it is properly passive aggressive.

The 30 second spot, released on Sunday, shows off the millions of apps available on the app store, claiming that they turn your iPhone “into just about anything”.

It’s an interesting move, but hardly unexpected given the recent attention Apple’s been heaping on the app store. In the wake of WWDC for instance it released a video claiming that its app store is more important than the industrial revolution.

Read more…

4. Connecting the Karoo: how the internet is changing South Africa’s semi-desert heartland

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Back in the Victorian era of the late 1800s, farm life in the Karoo was hard and isolated.

There were great distances between farmsteads, and the families saw each only on special market days and when they held nagmaal gatherings in the local dorpie.

So imagine, if you will, sitting on such a farm in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but the same-old-same-old spouse, kids and household help for company.

Read more…

3. Virtual Reality event to tap into South Africa’s creative community 29 July

Oculus Rift

The virtual reality (VR) space is heating up fast. Around the globe, developers and animators alike are putting their heads together (and into things) to experiment with this exciting, immersive medium. Come 29 July, the South African Virtual Reality Event plans to vitalise the local community.

Read more…

2. Aussie surfer Mick Fanning fends off shark in epic clash of species

Mick Fanning Shark Attack

When surfers take on sharks in their natural habitat, it’s usually the wave riders who come off second best. Apparently though no one told Australian surfer Mick Fanning that.

While Fanning was competing at the JBay Open today, a shark suddenly attacked the surfer, dragging him underwater.

Read more…

1. The hashtag is dead

Hashtags

Remember when the internet first became a place for businesses to explore? All the excitement of a new space to operate coupled with all the novel questions. “Do we need a website? How about a Facebook page, a Twitter account, an Instagram, and a blog?” And all agencies would scream in unison, “Definitely!” Then as time went on, the cringe worthy question became, “Can you make us go viral?” The latest question that keeps cropping up scares me almost as much…

“What hashtag will we use?”

Read more…

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