According to a bold, but accurate claim made by vice president for Chrome and apps Sundar Pichai, chances are you’re using Google Chrome to view this page. This is what Pichai announced yesterday at Google’s I/O, and in celebration of launching the most popular browser in the world, Google created and posted a commemorative video tracking their rise. Click through for the fun, informative video.
Liu Yang, China’s first-ever female astronaut, had a night shift on Shenzhou 9 a couple of days ago – which is apparently sort of dull in space too, because she entertained herself by going through some Tai Chi exercises. In space. And since the spacecraft returned to earth today, we get to see what that looks like.
A reduction in the number of provinces is something the ANC led government has often toyed with, but it appears this policy has gained increasing support among party delegates at the ANC policy conference in Midrand this year. The biggest change would see the Northern Cape, Western Cape, and some parts of Eastern Cape merge.
Well this is terribly worrying. Yesterday, Barclays bank – one of the biggest banks in the world – was fined a record £290 million for attempting to manipulate the world’s benchmark borrowing rate – the Libor. This is a huge blow to the bank’s reputation and raises questions over the future of chief executive Bob Diamond. Up to 40 other global banks face being named and shamed too.
So hey, we’ve had a pretty cool look at the future thanks to Google’s I/O Keynote yesterday – where they covered the new Nexus 7 tablet, the Nexus Q media orb, and the awesome, skydiving-filled Project Glass demonstration that you’re really, really going to want to watch, after the jump.
This episode is for all the corporate grunts out there. Have you ever left a business meeting with the feeling that crucially important details weren’t absorbed by the already drenched sponge that is your brain? You bet your sweet little corporate bum you have. Ever had a follow-up meeting and embarrassed yourself because you couldn’t […]
Google had it’s big developer conference recently, and with the rise of the technology giant, it’s exciting to see what’s coming in the future. The two most exciting technologies on display were most certainly Google Glass, a pair of wearable internet glasses. Google has also launched its own tablet, the Nexus 7, which may just give the iPad a run for its money.
In my opinion this is a far more exciting countdown than the Olympics; in 40 days, NASA’s nuclear powered Curiosity rover will enter the Martian atmosphere, and the landing is the most nerve-racking part for the engineers.
The Department of Environmental Affairs (read: the South African government) has welcomed (obviously?) the Council of the Global Environment Facility’s approval of R25 million worth of funding aimed at strengthening the current wildlife forensic capabilities in South Africa. The donation will help combat wildlife crimes like rhino poaching.
I don’t really care how fast it is, I just want to own something that uses an infinite-capacity wireless vortex beam. Though it sounds like a death-ray, it describes what American and Israeli researchers have used to create the fastest ever wireless network: twisted beams of light that transfer data at 2,56 terabits per second.
The internet is obsessed with cats. Completely and utterly obsessed. In Google’s secretive X labratory, scientists have developed one of the largest neural networks for machine learning by connecting 16,000 computer processors. What did it do? Watched Youtube, and worked out what a cat is.
The European Commission is drawing pretty widespread condemnation for releasing a video — ostensibly aimed at getting girls into science — which pretty much depicts female scientists as sexy models in short skirts who hang around bunsen burners, giggling. Take a look at what lady scientists apparently look like in Europe after the jump.
You know that thing where you post a comment on Facebook and immediately regret your decision? Well, Facebook sure does. Which is why they’re rolling out a comment-editing functionality over the next few days. Rest easy, people whose grammar falls apart whenever they get excited.
Chad’s father passed away last year. He had suffered from Alzheimer’s, and his deterioration into dementia was quick and incredibly painful. Chad’s father spent the last six weeks of his life in hospital, and Chad spent every one of those days at his side. In the end, he suffered more than any person deserved. Chad’s […]
Fruit and Veg City has been taking a social media lambasting from irate consumers that caught the fresh food retailer selling endangered fish species in a few of their stores. Debate was intense, with both customers and Fruit and Veg City getting in on the action. The retailer has since issued an official statement detailing how they plan to handle the situation of endangered fish “slipping through their nets”.
We sometimes underestimate the importance of language, especially when swimming in the ubiquitous sea of English. Language is bound tightly with identity, and when you imagine a language going the way of the Dodo, it is scary to think what else is lost with it. Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org, has launched the Endangered Language project, a website devoted to preserving languages that are close to dying out.
The internet is a bizarre place, filled with dancing robots singing Bohemian Rhapsody, crazy lawyers suing charities and cartoonists for no good reason, pages and pages of tentacle porn, and gigs and gigs worth of hate-filled YouTube comments. But every now and then the internet dons a cape and becomes a super hero.
A few days ago Microsoft unveiled what many are calling its “iPad killer”, the brand new Surface tablet. Unfortunately for them however, things went horribly, horribly wrong at a live product demonstration. Click for for a laugh at their expense.
As Google becomes more and more a part of our daily life, they add features that are actually very useful. Like real-time traffic overlay on Google Maps for instance. Seven new countries, including South Africa, received access to the new service as of today. Click through to find out how it works.
Finally mankind has used it technological prowess to create something that is actually useful and will change lives, a bed that will make itself! That’s right folks, a European manufacturer has designed a Smart Bed that can make itself in less than a minute, eureka!
2oceansVibe reported yesterday that Microsoft was to unveil a tablet it thought could “rival the iPad”. Microsoft did in fact unveil a tablet overnight that it’s called the Surface. The world’s largest software maker will now also launch its touch-friendly new Windows operating system later this year as a standard on the tablet. It hopes to make a big impact with its new device.
Celestica, the Toronto-based manufacturer that produces hardware for Research In Motion, have announced that they’ll be stopping production of BlackBerry hardware over the next three months, and charging the company $1 billion for unsold BlackBerry inventory. Between the BlackBerry 10 smartphone getting pushed back to late 2012, and new iPhone rumours, this could sort of be RIP RIM.
At the beginning of this year, it was announced that Korean Air would be launching the first nonstop flights from Northeast Asia to East Africa: specifically, from Incheon International Airport, South Korea, to Nairobi, Kenya. Derogatory seems a modest way to describe some of the advertising used for the new route.
Microsoft might be about to launch a tablet device it would hope would compete with the Apple iPad. Its new Windows software, to be launched later this year, is designed to be used on a tablet as well as a desktop PC. It also said: “This will be a major Microsoft announcement – you will not want to miss it.”
Since Monday’s announcement of the ultra sexy new MacBook Pro, you know, the one with the insane Retina display, everyone has been wanting to know – when is it coming to SA, and what will it cost? I’m gonna be honest, it ain’t cheap. Not by a long shot.
Things have been less than fun with respect to freedom of speech and freedom of expression in the landlocked central African country of Ethiopia in recent years. And they just got worse. Because now a simple 30-second Skype call could land you in jail.
Within the next few days, every single Facebook user will be met with a request for a verified phone number, which will apparently help users “stay in control” of their accounts. This is partially a response to security breaches at LinkedIn, Last.fm and eHarmony, but it’s also because Facebook wants to know more stuff about you.
Skype have just introduced a new ‘feature’ called Conversation Ads, which displays advertisements during audio calls. Which sucks. To nobody’s surprise they’re trying to spin the feature as somehow good for users – apparently the ads “could spark additional topics of conversation that are relevant to Skype users and highlight unique and local brand experiences.”
Yesterday, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the international body that regulates the Internet, released its list of applicants for new .com alternatives. There are obvious ones like .amazon and .hsbc, but less obvious ones like .ninja have also crept in. A few South African companies also got involved.
Yahoo has been criticised in the past for neglecting its original core business of being a search engine, and it may experience more of that with its latest exapnsion into content publishing. However, it has described its latest partnership with CNBC as a key strategy to becoming a “premium media network.”