Is this the beginning of the end for BlackBerry? Manufacturer, Research In Motion lost nearly two thirds of the US smartphone market share, year on year for the same period. HTC has taken a clear lead in the US smartphone market, and it’s been closely followed by Samsung, who just last week, surpassed Apple in total worldwide smartphone shipments.
In response to demand, the creators of Grindr have created a similar app that is aimed at straight people, called Blendr. However, besides the difference in target market, will there be a fundamental difference in how the two apps are used? I’ll let the Taiwanese news animators explain their not so subtle take on it:
The machine, devised by a company called the Gitanjali Group, was launched at a central Mumbai shopping mall for the annual Hindu festival of lights, Diwali, on Wednesday. Prices range anywhere from R400 to R5 000, just in case you have that lying around for some last minute gifts.
China is renowned for its seemingly ridiculous stance on freedom of speech and the proliferation of unauthorised news – a stance which has seen prominent members of society detained without legitimate explanation and popular social networks such as Facebook banned. Now, it seems, actions like that were only the beginning.
Samsung Africa has unveiled a unique initiative they are calling the Samsung Internet Schools Programme. The initial programme will span five African countries: South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan. In time it will branch out into other African countries too. The school is a mobile, solar-powered, independent classroom housed in a container.
It’s just been revealed that Sony has bought out its Swedish partner, Ericsson, for $1,5 billion. Ericsson had a 50 per cent stake in mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson, but will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony now. Sony is rather excited about the move because now it can integrate its smartphones with its consumer electronics devices.
If you’re still searching for a costume, in the hopes that you’ll win that bartab for best dressed this Halloween, you’d better hope this guy doesn’t rock up to the same party. Not only does it look like a DSLR, it’s fully functional as well. It actually snaps a photo, accompanied by a flash, and displays the image at the back.
There are other products on the market that deliver short bursts of energy, but for those that really like their coffee; there is a new way for you to ingest it, without the hassle. Harvard biomedical engineering professor, David Edwards, has invented AeroShot: caffeine delivered to your body faster than coffee. Cue the coffee inhaler.
Congratulations Cape Town! Cape Town has been named World Design Capital for the year 2014, ahead of fellow short-listed cities, Dublin and Bilbao. The sought-after accolade was awarded to the Mother City this morning at the International Design Alliance (IDA) Congress in Taipei. Executive Mayor of Cape Town, Patricia de Lille, accepted the award on […]
When reversing genetics in an attempt to create a real, live, man-eating dinosaur, it pays to know what the consequences may be. In this case, being the paleontologist who advised Steven Spielberg on the making of four Jurassic Park movies and decades of children’s nightmares about killer lizards should just about cover it.
It turns out publishing classified diplomatic files online isn’t all that lucrative! Whistle blowing site, WikiLeaks has announced that they’re pausing their publishing process to concentrate on raising funds. Julian Assange claims that the financial “blockade” mounted by Visa, MasterCard and other companies, has forced Wikileaks to “temporarily suspend its publishing operations and aggressively fundraise.”
Microsoft has been on a fancy-user-interface-technology kick this week, between the fancy touch-screen projectors and electronic fabric announcements – but the Holodesk sort of wins at the moment, at least for those of us who think 3D environments you can manipulate with your hands are cool.
Rupert Murdoch will shortly face shareholders in the News Corporation annual general meeting that’s taking place in Los Angeles today. It should prove riveting as British lawmaker Tom Watson plans to use the event to reveal new details of what he claims are hidden surveillance practices by company employees.
Breast cancer is a big deal. But recent studies show that many young women aren’t checking their breasts regularly. That is why the people behind the Rethink Breast Cancer campaign have launched a new iPhone App called “Your Man Reminder”. It gives woman regular reminders by a hot guy to check their breasts. And this advert they’ve made to promote it is an absolute must-see.
It looks like Google is getting ready to reveal a new, more polished interface for Gmail, if only to distract us from the embarrassing quietness we’re seeing on Google+; it remains to be seen whether the overhaul is part of their wider Google+ initiative or not, but visually the interfaces have a lot in common.
In what is undoubtedly the tweet of the week, here’s new MXit mogul, Alan Knott-Craig, kicking back with a pizza and a draught at Stellenbosch eatery, Ginos, having just purchased South African social media megalith, MXit. The dream. Living it. Indeed.
Okay, not quite X-Ray specs, but definitely a leap forward in covert surveillance technology. Watch these hot science geeks show off a new type of radar they’ve cooked up that can detect objects moving through 20 cm thick concrete walls.
Extravagant is a word that comes to mind when you think about this residence. Not everyone has three helipads, six floors of parking and numerous floating gardens as features built into a home they don’t even live in. Approximately valued at $1 billion, and considered one of the most expensive private residences in the world, what’s wrong with it?
When Apple released the statement announcing Steve Jobs’ death, it also set up a public email address, rememberingsteve@apple.com, where people could vent their memories and thoughts about Jobs. These have all been uploaded to Apple.com’s “Remembering Steve” page, a crowdsourced memorial to the company’s founder.
In a rare intersection of Science #FAIL and “Crap, that was close!”, scientists have re-analysed the findings of Mexican astronomer, José Bonilla, who, in 1883, spotted over 450 fuzzy looking objects passing in front of the sun. Turns out it was a trillion tonnes of comet debris!
Neuroscientists have discovered that using Facebook has a measurable impact on the size of particular areas of the brain. The results of a recent study show that the more Facebook friends you have, the bigger and denser become the three parts of your brain which are associated with the power to socialise. It’s unclear whether by ‘socialise’ they mean really, in real life. But maybe.
‘Quantum Levitation’ even sounds cool. The guys from the University of Tel-Aviv’s School of Physics Superconductivity Group recently demonstrated ‘quantum locking,’ at the Association of Science – Technology Centers Annual Conference by getting a supercooled magnet to levitate above a locked track. The science is clunky, the video looks very cool.
Being rich is hard. Especially when it comes to road trips. It’s always an issue of “The Ferrari’s too small”, or “I wish my mansion had wheels”. Enter, the Elemment Palazzo. This bad boy not only brings an element of average American retiree to your life, it also has 40” TVs, a rainfall shower and a fireplace in it.
The nice thing about initiatives like Microsoft Research is that you get to have an early gander at the things that you’re going to be spending stupid amounts of money on next year. Like the OmniTouch, for instance, which projects “touchscreen” interfaces onto pretty much whatever surface you want – desk, paper, or the back of your hand.
This month, the venerable electronic mail turns 40, with the first verified electronic message being sent in 1971. Check out this neat Infographic detailing the history of email.
This really isn’t the sort of thing you should go around admitting, even if you were disappointed with a poor refereeing decision. The Welsh coach, Warren Gatland, has publicly admitted that the Welsh coaching staff deliberated faking an injury to one of their props so as to force uncontested scrums during their semi-final clash on Saturday against France.
It seems Apple’s new iOS5 operating system for the iPhone 4S has a new surprise around every corner. The App in question uses GPS, and if your friend agrees, it allows you to see their location, give or take a few metres. Unfortunately, one poor guy on Macrumours.com found another use for it, after installing it in his wife’s new handset.
Feel free to file this one under “awesome.” Indie band, moe., who I’m sure you’ve never heard of, has performed a live version of their song “Crab Eyes” – using nothing but iPads. See this amazing video after the jump.
Sesame Street had its YouTube channel hacked yesterday. For about 30 minutes, videos of Kermit the frog and Big Bird were replaced with hardcore porn movies. Their slogan was also changed to: “Its where porn lives.” As funny as the hackers must have thought this joke was, one has to wonder about the kind of people that would deliberately expose kids to content like that.
While Mike Lazaridis, co-CEO of RIM, has already publicly apologized for last week’s three-day BlackBerry outage, the PR guys figured that that probably wasn’t enough. Which is why they’ve announced that they’re offering BlackBerry customers a bunch of free “premium apps,” in the hopes of winning back some love. Check the app list after the jump.