There are two ways of taking out your competition: offer a similar, yet superior and/or cheaper product than your opponent. Or simply buy the entire rival business and start offering its service as your own. The latter happened yesterday when Mark Zuckerberg announcd that Facebook is about to buy Instagram for $1 billion.
A juvenile mammoth – nicknamed “Yuka” – was found entombed in Siberian ice near the shores of the Arctic Ocean, and shows signs of being cut open by ancient people. The frozen carcass is believed to be at least 10 000 years old – and could prove to be the first mammoth carcass revealing signs of human interaction in the region.
Have you ever wondered what the universe would look like on a single photo? You did!? Well, what a coincidence, because NASA has just released this infrared map of the entire universe. This serves as a capstone for a bigger cosmic map – containing 18 000 images and 560 million different objects. It took NASA fourteen years of preparation and three years of data collection.
Mobile messaging platform WhatsApp poses “no threat” to phone carriers who rely on SMS revenue. Given the popularity of the service, that statement seems pretty hard to believe at first glance. Who chooses to send paid-for SMSes anymore when you can WhatsApp your buddies to your heart’s content (or until your thumbs malfunction) for free?
Microsoft wants you to notice them too – which is why they’ve rolled out a Ford Mustang fitted with Kinect sensors, two Windows 8 tablets, projection screens, and a couple of other neat toys as a proof-of concept to inspire developers to build applications and automotive technologies with Microsoft in mind.
Either side of New Year is quite loose when it comes to time at the office. Your boss will either be on holiday, or glad-handling some clients on the golf course, or something else as equally ridiculous. Instead of being in the office while the cat’s away, you’d rather be in bed, watching the test, […]
Instagram for Andriod has been downloaded at least a million times in less than 24 hours. The iOS version – used on the iPhone – has been available since October 2010. But the two apps aren’t exactly alike – read what the differences are inside.
In case you thought the Dutch were only good at making cheese, think again. A car that can fly for up to 500 kilometers at speeds of 177 km/h, has been produced in the Netherlands. Check out the video after the jump.
A new once-click payment system focused on social media is currently being tested in Belgium. Paycento enables internet users to pay to read a single article or download a piece of music without having to fill out forms or enter their credit card details on the website. More details inside.
Fellow South Africans, the word is in! Don’t think that people being jailed for hate speech online is something that only happens overseas. According to a South African legal expert, we too can be prosecuted for “cyber smearing,” which can mean fines or even jail should you be caught. More on minding your netiquette, after the jump!
Computer viruses are mostly a headache reserved for PC and Windows users. But with Apple becoming more popular globally in recent years, so has the numbers of hackers with wet dreams of corrupting its operating system. Read more about a new pair of Trojan viruses – with the ability to infiltrate Macs – after the jump.
Greg has done it. He is now earning more than he would have been earning if he hadn’t exposed the rotten core of ethical detachment at Goldman Sachs. There was a bidding war for the rights to publish Greg’s memoir, and a division of the Hachette Book Group, Grand Central, outbid Penguin to get them.
Well, this doesn’t look good: Turkcell is suing MTN for $4,2 billion. Turkcell has decided to act on its claims that MTN bribed officials, arranged meetings between Iranian and South African leaders, and promised Iran weapons as well as UN votes, all in exchange for a licence to offer cellphone services in Iran.
Last month we told you about Nevada legalising self-driving cars. But how do they work exactly? Check out this video of Google’s self-driving Toyota Prius being “driven” by a guy that is 95% blind.
There’s nothing worse than the sickening feeling you get, when your phone slips out of your grasp and splashes into the pool, or a puddle, or God forbid, the toilet bowl. The good news is, it doesn’t have to be the end for your vital appendage. In this episode Seth shows you that if you […]
While the public protector, Thuli Madonsela, wouldn’t outwardly say that the current tabulation of the Protection of Information Bill was unconstitutional, she did say MP’s could be spared the embarrassment of having it declared invalid by the courts if they rethought certain aspects of the bill.
Still don’t get why the iPad is the best tablet out there? Then check out this presentation by two Swedish magicians – their use of seven iPads, along with some old-fashioned trickery, should clear things up for you. Bucket loads of amazing are waiting for you – after the jump.
The City of New York’s Education Department has issued a list of about 50 English words and topics that will no longer appear on standardised tests for fear of offending students’ sensibilities. Unfortunately for them, when you accommodate an entire world of cultures in a single city, students’ sensibilities become a very broad category to cover indeed! Full list of this insanity inside!
This is a pretty cool feat by James Cameron, who just returned from the bottom of the Marianas Trench – the deepest place in the world. To put it in perspective for you, if you took Mount Everest, and turned it upside down, it still wouldn’t be able to touch the bottom, not even by a kilometer. Video inside. It’s incredible.
The Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory has partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to launch what will arguably become the most extensive online archive of Nelson Mandela’s life. The free global access to photos, videos, letters and personal documents about his life and times will continue to expand as people across the world add their memorabilia to the archive.
This gem popped up in our social media feed yesterday, courtesy of one humorous individual. It is a billboard that’s been displayed in London Underground stations, and it advertises cheap travel to France’s northern coast. But it’s clearly an image of Llandudno beach in Cape Town.
The City of Cape Town could host a Formula One Grand Prix as early as 2014, if Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula would just agree to a meeting with the Cape Town Grand Prix SA organising committee.
Greg Smith, the South African-born ex-Goldman Sachs executive who resigned this month, and went on to launch a scathing attack on Goldman’s culture in the New York Times, is seeking a deal to write a book about his experiences there.
Justice always took mental pictures but it wasn’t until recently that he picked up the camera and started exploring the craft of photography. It was the co-existence of beauty and ugliness in his hometown Soweto that inspired him to tell stories in a single frame. To people who only see the ugliness of life, Justice’s […]
Rael Levitt is apparently readying himself to expose widespread corruption across the auctioneering industry in an attempt to save himself, but there’s still little word on exactly where he is. All the while, other skeletons seem to be freely emerging from the cupboard too.
An 11-year-old schoolboy from Constantia, Cape Town, has endured a three-hour chess match against the man widely known as the greatest chess player ever. The match ended in a draw, and was part of the Cape Town launch of the Kasparov Chess Foundation in Africa. But, we have little doubt Daniel Barrish wouldn’t be claiming this one at break-time today.
So! Nokia filed a patent for the world’s first vibrating tattoo, to alert users about call, text message or email alerts. Because that’s something people would want. The idea being that Nokia’s haptic tattoo would transmit “a perceivable impulse” through the skin whenever it receives magnetic signals from a phone. The future is gross.
A series of violent photographs claiming to be leaked from a gangster’s mobile phone have become an online sensation. Attracting nearly 5million hits, the pics show a young (but portly) Chinese man showing off his love for stacks of cash, German sports cars, parading around topless and dishing out savage beatings. Full gallery inside.
In a first-of-its-kind initiative, Samsung has partnered with SES satellite services to drive digitalisation in Africa. The free service will be available on selected Samsung LED TV’s, and will provide access to 60 free-to-air TV channels that do not require a separate decoder.
Electronics companies don’t have it as easy as they used to, especially since Apple came along. They have to make you really want their products – especially in the field of cellphones and computers. SONY has enlisted the help of Wes Anderson, to help them out with a new 60-second stop-motion ad. Click ‘continue’ to see the spot.