A highly embarrassed Dutch architectural firm has had to apologise for its design of twin skyscrapers in central Seoul, South Korea, because they look pretty much like freeze frames of New York’s late World Trade Center, as both towers exploded. The design for the luxury apartment buildings has enraged families of the victims of the September 11 attacks.
Ryan chats to Rob Paddock, the MD of GetSmarter.co.za, about trading in the daunting exam hall for online education. He also reviews a budget friendly tablet, the WindPad Enjoy 7. And as always, the latest tech news.
Not only are the beds about 77 000 years old, but it appears they were also designed to ward off insects like mosquitoes. The fossilized material has been found at an ancient cliff shelter known as Sibudu, which is near to Durban on our east coast, and continues to fuel the debate that modern man evolved out of Africa.
Pulling a sickie for work or school might soon be a thing of the past as a pair of Korean researchers are trying to integrate advanced bio-detection software into a smartphone app.
US officials previously confirmed that an RQ-170 Sentinel, otherwise known as a drone, did, in fact, crash land somewhere in Iran. They however weren’t keen to confirm that the footage Iran broadcast on state television yesterday was in fact real. In other news, Russia and China want to inspect the US craft.
What do you do with R240 000? You order yourself the Harley Davidson powered mini speed boat from St. Martin Mini Speed Boats, of course. As you’d expect, it comes complete with a Harley Davidson V-twin engine, and that authentic Harley sound. And then you hit the water like a boss.
There’s a Red Cross committee presently debating whether or not people playing war video games should be subject to the same humanitarian laws as people involved in real wars with real people and real weapons. So far as I can tell they’re doing this entirely seriously.
A few months ago Apple announced their plans for their new headquarters in the Silicon Valley, and submitted plans to the Cupertino City Council. The late Steve Jobs claimed the spaceship-like structure would be “the best office building in the world”, and judging by these recently released documents, he wasn’t kidding.
Old Spice is at it again. This time, Isaiah Mustafa is MANta Claus, and he’s on a mission to give the world’s seven billion residents gifts before the festive season ends. His mantra is, “One Man, Seven Billion Gifts.”
Apple will be opening it’s new retail store tomorrow at the iconic Grand Central Station in New York City. Here are some pics. It’s rather nice.
The DA, and Helen Zille in particular, is furious about a letter they received from Independent Newspapers, inviting the them to advertise in a special feature on the ANC’s centenary celebrations. The proposition for advertising in the supplement appeared on a letter with the Independent Newspapers letterhead alongside an ANC logo, and may be perceived as endorsement, according to Zille.
Facebook yesterday released a big ol’ lump of data about the most shared content of 2011, both globally and for specific countries. Osama Bin Laden’s death was far and away the most popular status update topic, followed distantly by the Super Bowl results and and the Casey Anthony trial for second and third most popular, respectively.
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) was put on hold for six months due to lack of funds – but, following donations from the public and the US Airforce, SETI’s Allen Telescope Array in northern California is operational again. So man, we’re going to feel pretty stupid if aliens called at some point during those six months.
The Democratic Alliance today launched an aggressive campaign to protest the current form of the draft Protection of Information Bill. The political party is calling on all South Africans to join forces and show their support against the legislation, while also planning more protests.
Prepare yourself for the end of the year folks, we’re about to start receiving the Top 10 lists from all the various self-proclaimed authorities. This includes top ten cakes, top ten storms, top ten albums, etc, etc. One list that has some authority, is the Yahoo! Top Ten Searches of 2011. At the top? The iPhone.
Office Christmas party time is in full swing again, and those trigger-happy camera folk will be out in full force snapping and sharing photos with total disregard for the consequences. That’s what Norte beer’s Photoblocker is for: when a sensor built into this beer chiller detects a flash, it emits its own flash in order to overexpose any photograph.
Hello, future. A group of autonomous flying robots – “quadcopters”- have been used in an installation by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology to construct a six metre tall tower out of 1 500 foam bricks. The robots are completely autonomous, with a networked computer vision system directing the placement of the bricks.
Scientists have thus far cloned sheep, mice, cats, horses and even a water buffalo, but now they want to clone a woolly mammoth. They also think they’ll be able to clone said mammoth within five years, all owing to a recovered thigh bone that has well-preserved bone marrow from permafrost soil in Siberia.
Astra 4A satellite, the same satellite used by TopTV, will launch Porn Satellite TV, or PSat, across the country in January 2012. The 24-hour adult entertainment channel will be broadcast from outside of South Africa’s jurisdiction, which means South African authorities can do little to prevent it from traversing the airwaves.
In the wake of a worrying shift towards censorship of the internet, this is sort of comforting. A recent study conducted by the Swiss government has found that illegal downloading doesn’t necessarily negatively impact copyright holders, as many downloaders end up purchasing the products anyway – and “illegal” downloading is therefore remaining legal in Switzerland.
The problem of pedestrians actually being hit/almost hit by oncoming traffic, because they were buried in some app or another on their phone whilst crossing the road is apparently so serious, that app developers have collaborated on a new smartphone app that helps you get across the street in one piece.
YouTube is launching what they’re calling their biggest redesign in history today – and, granted, every time a website changes they tend to say that, but the differences here are pretty striking, with sweeping changes to the homepage and channel pages, strongly emphasising social media integration.
Chris Rawlinson gives us the low-down on the SA Blog Awards, and why certain categories had to take the chop. Ryan also reviews the HELO TC Remote Control Helicopter, and gives us the latest tech news.
Julian Assange, our go-to-source for feeling concerned about privacy, was at a panel with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism yesterday. He informed the audience that iPhone, Blackberry and Gmail users are all “screwed” – that “the reality is that intelligence operations are selling right now mass surveillance systems for all those products.”
Back in the day, people used to send each other messages using something they called the telegram. For the singing telegram, a real person actually used to call you up or come to your home and sing to you. Money transfer giant, Western Union, is bringing the singing telegram back and plans to get users involved: karaoke-style.
In a worrying move for people who like their internet uncensored, a federal judge in Nevada has ruled that Chanel has the right seize 700 domain names that have been peddling fake Chanel products – and that search engines and social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Bing, and Google, are to “de-index” the domains.
Nelson Mandela is awesome. The whole world knows that. Upon pushing through the Protection of Information Bill in Parliament just over a week ago, a number of South African MP’s seemed to momentarily forget that.
Here’s something they should put in their cars, to remind them of how good Nelson Mandela smells.
Police in riot gear are moving in on anti-Wall Street activists in Los Angeles right now. They’re enforcing the mayor’s order to evict protesters who have camped outside City Hall for the past eight weeks. Supporters are streaming into the area in a show of solidarity as the protesters seek to defy the order and risk arrest.
Last month, Google Maps’ Street View functionality started displaying photos of retail spaces’ interiors; now Google Maps itself is headed indoors, too, with a proposed Google Maps Floor Plans feature. This would mean Google maps of airports, shopping malls, and other buildings that you might somehow be able to get lost in.
In a blow to those with shy bladders, a UK company has piloted a new urinal entertainment system that allows the pee-er to play a video game on a LCD screen positioned above the urinal, using their pee stream to control the game play.