Here’s another strong case for why models should have their cellphones taken away: Tricia Evans. Not shortly after the Batman premiere shooting in Colorado, the model took to social network Twitter with the following tweet:
Social media is being used more and more creatively in efforts to drive attention toward media campaigns. The London Eye will be the next vessel to provide the basis of a new experiment.
According to a recent report, social media sites, including Facebook, monitor users’ chats and scan for criminal activity. The invasive measures are intended to “ensure the safety of public” and authorities are notified if any suspicious activity is detected.
Facebook may in the future be doing for your banking what it’s done for your online privacy in general. Who doesn’t want to be able to pay their bills while at the same time looking at photos of their friends at that braai that got a little out of hand?
That’s right folks, just when you thought you the social networking market was saturated, Lady Gaga goes launches her own one, forcing you plunge once more into the pool of superficial social integration. However LittleMonsters.com, which is a little bit Facebook and little bit Pinterest with a dash of Reddit, claims to be more than just another glorified sharing app. Click for the full breakdown.
There is nothing worse than being tagged in a Facebook photo that you don’t want to be tagged in. You know, that time at the bar, after tequila number 7, hanging off your mate Jeff? Turns out it wasn’t just a mass upload.
Have you ever heard of Doug Pitt? No, we didn’t think so. But we’ll give Doug this: he’s the second most famous Pitt in his family. Unlike his famous brother, Brad, Doug Pitt has never been the star of anything. So, Virgin Mobile have decided to make things fairer in the Pitt family. This is Doug’s first non-celebrity endorsement deal. Doug has quite a vibe going on.
Hipsters take note, there is a new smartphone personal assistant on its way: Google Now. It’s a search-centric, voice-powered digital assistant for the upcoming version of Android that launches mid-July.
Talking and texting while driving is somewhat of a cultural phenomenon in South Africa. There are those that are law abiding, but there are also those that don’t seem to care, and throw caution to the wind. But now Capetonians will face a R5 000 fine, and have their phone confiscated for a day for transgressing the law, it was reported in the Cape Times this morning.
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.
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”.
Capetonians, when last did you visit Wembley Square? If it was this weekend, you may have noticed that BOS Ice Tea has launched the world’s first Twitter-activated sampling machine there. BEV, the whirling, bleeping, buzzing BOS Ice Tea-vending robot, made her debut appearance at the 2012 Design Indaba, where she spent her time refreshing and […]
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.
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.
Greenpeace recently teamed up with activist pranksters, The Yes Men. Their goal? To rip Shell a new one over their planned Arctic oil drilling. Step inside, and watch a great (and hilarious) example of how social media and activism have become inseparable.
Sweden has been handing its Twitter account to a different citizen every week for the past seven months. Which has been great for the most part, with priests and lesbian truck drivers representing the country – except the latest @sweden handler has been catching some flack for trying to figure out “whats the fuzz with jews.”
Sir John Major has been giving testimony at the Leveson inquiry into British press ethics today. Some of his testimony appears to directly conflict that of Murdoch’s, who in April claimed: “I have never asked a prime minister for anything.” Major becomes the first ex-Prime Minister to claim Murdoch tried to get him to change government policy.
Jonathan Shapiro, more commonly known as Zapiro, has been named the 2012 recipient of the International Publishers Association (IPA) award for Freedom to Publish. He’ll receive it for his exemplary courage in upholding the freedom to publish whatever he wants, basically.
British Prime Minister, David Cameron, left his eldest daughter, Nancy, at a pub following a Sunday lunch. It happened after a mix-up with his wife Samantha, Downing Street has admitted. The couple only realised their daughter was missing when they got home.
Yesterday, Nando’s made a decision to hit back at our nation’s broadcasters. They published a summary of their pro-diversity advert in the Sunday papers in response to the SABC, DSTV, M-Net and e.tv banning the advert.
They say: “They’ve made the decision for you. Unlike our broadcasters, we’re giving you the right to choose.”
That’s how we feel too, because nobody should treat you like a child.
Click through to enjoy the ad in all its glory.
A very stimulating new book has just launched: Do Ideas. The book, curated by Don Packett, features contributions from some of South Africa’s brightest minds. They want you to embrace your ideas: “don’t be afraid”, they say. The best bit? It’s free, and online. Go on, you want to have a look.
You might have picked up in the Morning Spice headlines that the Nasdaq stock exchange said it “owe[d] the industry an apology”. It’s gone a little further now, and says it will set aside $40 million to reimburse investors that suffered losses due to technical problems on Facebook’s first day of trading.
LinkedIn has confirmed via its blog that more than 6,5 Million user passwords had been “compromised”. That is a nice way of saying a Russian hacker stole, and then downloaded them. If you have an account with LinkedIn, now would be a great time to change your password.
Right now, you could be using the new Internet, and you probably didn’t know. Essentially, the Internet got too small, and we’d have run out of addresses if they didn’t do something about it. But, we’ll let Vint Cerf, Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist, guide us through the jargon.
More details are emerging about Buffy, apparently the codename for Facebook’s HTC smartphone which may run with Android, all the Facebook trimmings and an Opera browser. Or will it? We try sort the facts from the fiction as excitement mounts over the phone that might topple Apple.
Chinese users of online Twitter-alike Weibo can expect extra restrictions to the service in the wake of complaints from several authorities that users were publishing “false rumours” on the site, namely a “points system” to track and punish offensive posts.
On Saturday, the EU Cookie Directive goes into effect. It’s a European Union law governing the opting in and out of website cookies. The law was ratified in the name of privacy, but, the impact on the digital industry will be immense and, possibly, damaging.