The design wars between Apple and Samsung are the stuff of legend. The two tech giants have fought battles in courtrooms across the globe, with each accusing the other of copying unique designs and infringing on valuable design rights. The culmination of those battles saw Samsung ordered to pay US$1-billion to Apple following a lengthy trial in a California court. On the surface much of the conflict seemed to be around rectangles with rounded corners. As Professor Charles Gielen of Groningen University in the Netherlands notes however there were a number of factors that made it a hell of...
If you go over to Google+ today, you're in for a surprise: things have changed. The platform is rolling out a number of design tweaks, changed its cover photo option yet again and inserted some cards reminiscent of the look of its virtual assistant, Google Now. Google+ Product Manager Sara McKinley said that the changes were inspired after feedback from users who asked for changes in profile and business pages. But Google decided to implement them a day before Facebook announces its redesigned News Feed. Interesting. The most noticeable alteration on Google+ is the giant cover photo space, which can...
If you know Google, you know that the company isn't averse to building a few neat little tricks into its products. Now it looks like it's taken the same kind of attitude into the site for its annual I/O developers' conference. If you click on the images of an "I" and an "O" on the site, you'll find yourself escorted to a new page, each of which is themed to play a sound effect. It's a neat little bit of fun, although cracking the various codes can get a little frustrating at times. The ones we have managed...
Google today announced that it had expanded its European Street View imagery in what is says is a bid to make it "easier than ever" to explore Europe. For the first time people will be able to see images of imagery of Bulgaria, Europe's 14th largest country. Perhaps the most impactful part of the update though comes from the fact that people using Street View now have access to panoramas of almost 200 new towns and cities in Russia. Search in the BRIC giant is dominated by local company Yandex, so an extensive Street View presence sends...
Reeva Steenkamp’s death is an absolute tragedy, and that can never be minimised. No matter what the outcome of the complex trial that is unfolding, the international public has united in mutual sympathy and compassion for the Steenkamp family, with condolences and kind words overtaking the public spaces created to honour the memory of a young and talented woman. The purpose of this piece is not to judge the trial or the situation, but to engage in a commentary about the effect that social media has had on bereavement as a whole. These new online spaces dedicated to Steenkamp...
At the end of 2012, Joshua Topolsky wrote an editorial for The Verge entitled "Reasons to be excited". In the piece, Topolsky stated that while we’ve spent the past few years getting used to things like social networks, smartphones and tablets, 2013 will be the year where we will begin to understand the impact that these new technologies will have on our lives. Make no mistake. If you are in digital, it is definitely the time to be excited. We’ve all heard the proverbial promises of what will be possible “one day”. Well “one day” is almost here...
A zombie apocalypse is imminent, and as the Boy Scouts say, “be prepared.” Not zombies per say but it could be anything mindless and undead. Bored hipsters, frustrated iPhone users pushed to the brink, even a mass mobile phone infection as seen in Stephan King’s excellent book, Cell. It doesn’t matter, something can happen. That’s what our tech survivor's guide to a zombie apocalypse is about. Not all of these will be long-term solutions of course, especially since gadgetry relies on the fact that existing systems need to be maintained, unless the zombies are more conscientious than we've come to believe....
Picture this: you're a fruity tech company (no, not BlackBerry), which is suing its competitor, Samsung, for patent infringement in courts around the globe. You win a case in the US, requiring Samsung to pay you more than a billion dollars in damages, but the judge fails to grant you a sales ban to stop the company from selling its gadgets and eating up your marketshare. You file an appeal, asking the court to reconsider. And who should step in to help you out? Another competitor: Nokia. Ok, so it's not exactly that simple, but Nokia has indeed filed an...
Ahh, the future. That mystical place filled with robots and flying cars... and hopefully your businesses. Things are moving incredibly fast when it comes to technology, as trends which never existed before (think BYOD and that thing called social media) are increasingly becoming just another part of every day life. Think about it: ten years ago Facebook didn't exist -- now there are legions of postings for social media strategists, managers and gurus populating jobs boards. You can log into work from the other side of the globe and give presentations from your smartphone. What will be possible in...
Innovation in healthcare is becoming a key trend in many emerging market countries as well as developed markets. It makes sense too: it's a quick and easy way to access medical information, provide education for patients and give doctors the opportunity to collaborate on challenging medical cases. A panel at the MENA ICT conference in Jordan, which describes itself as the premier tech event in the region, explained that in the last few years health care innovation has grown in five key areas. "There has been great adoption which has great demand for cutting edge technology to be developed in...
In light of the recent ban on working from home imposed by Yahoo's newest CEO, Marissa Mayer, it's got the debate up and running once again: is it better to work from home or at the office? When thinking about startups, I'd like to add my two cents and argue that running a young company remotely is a very real and attractive option for many an entrepreneur. Not only because the technological tools exist to share and collaborate on documents, communicate in real time (even face-to-face) and meet those all important deadlines, but also because there are practical advantages to...
Data is a big deal. We digitise more data in a day than we have ever done before, as social media and quick tech have given us access to the ability to collect more information than we would ever have thought possible a few years ago. In the world of data, mobility is playing a crucial role. Eighty percent of the world's population will have access to mobile devices by 2020. Compounding this, the cloud gives us the opportunity to store this data and access it from remote devices. It is an emerging trend that comes with serious opportunities....
This is clever. Anyone reading about the R140-million a South African provincial government spent on its website was probably left wondering how it could possibly justify doling out so much for something whose only real cost appeared to a be US$40 WordPress theme. Well a digital studio has come up with a nifty quote suggesting exactly what would be required were the site to be worth its R140-million label. The South African-based company, called Quick. The company says it "uses the digital environment to help businesses grow". We've pasted the brief below as well as the quote. We like the...
We know Google's big in mobile. If it wasn't Android probably wouldn't be the most widely distributed smartphone OS on the planet and the internet giant certainly wouldn't have doled out what it did for Motorola's mobile division. We also know that Google's making money from mobile. It wouldn't have the number if mobile products it does if it weren't. CEO Larry Page wouldn't be saying things like "I expect mobile to revolutionize how people do marketing. So we’ll be able to make a lot more money than we do now,” either. What you might not know however is...
Tell people that you've got a Windows Phone and, if they're of the right kind of bent, they'll wince and say something along the lines of "ooh you can't get Instagram on that can you?" No, you can't and it's seriously annoying. So annoying in fact that Nokia has been moved to create a campaign with a companion app, in a bid to get Instagram to build an app for the platform. Called #2Instawithlove, the campaign urges Windows Phone users to download the app of the same name, which comes with a selection of Polaroid photos. The idea is...
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