Reports this week reveal the number of text messages sent between mobile phones has fallen into decline for the first time since the service was introduced. According to figures from Deloitte, the number…
Geologists are using drones to help extract more resources from the North Sea, using the latest visual technologies to identify oil-bearing rocks. Using an eight-rotor, camera-equipped “octocopter” drone…
Nargono-Karabakh. They’ve got landmarks but no domain name.
Blackwych
What is the quickest route to international recognition? Aspiring states may try to ally themselves with a great power, lobby national governments, or even try to enlist the support of celebrities, which…
Caroline Criado Perez has spoken out about her experiences with trolls.
Canadian Pacific
As someone who researches online behaviours such as trolling, cyberbullying, and cyberstalking, I have, from time to time, ended up on the receiving end of abusive online behaviour myself. Out of a wide…
The search for Steve Ballmer’s replacement at Microsoft is hampered by the fact he will remain on the board.
EPA/Michaelâ Kappeler
Microsoft is hunting for a new CEO, and five months after Steve Ballmer agreed to retire, the search continues. There are some key reasons why potential CEOs being considered for the post may think twice…
Just hold still while I check your back story.
NameTag
An app on offer in the US says it can determine whether the person you are dating has anything to hide, using facial recognition to see if they are on the sex offenders register. This should make us question…
Cyber-security takes more than cautious laptop ownership.
sridgway
To my amazement, the latest Eurobarometer survey on Cyber Security across Europe received very little attention in the UK, despite its quite revealing findings. The report shows in no uncertain terms that…
Went to CES, couldn’t decide, so bought the lot.
Robert Scoble
This week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas has offered up a veritable smörgåsbord of wearable technology. We’ve seen devices of all kinds to tempt us into this new age. So now is the time to decide…
Australian technology firms are being lured overseas, to list on stock exchanges in the US and in London.
Elias Gayles/Flickr
When Australian online labour market company Freelancer decided to list publicly on the Australian Stock Exchange last year, they did so in part to spur investment in the local technology industry. That…
Curved TV: the future. Using glam girls to advertise tech? Not so much.
samsungtomorrow
There has been a lot of hype and misinformation in the press over the last few weeks about the future of television. At the CES Electronics Showin Las Vegas, curved screens and 4K TV are being touted as…
Beating computers is hard, and it’s going to get harder.
George Widman/AP
Deep Blue gained world-wide attention in 1997 when it defeated the then chess world champion Garry Kasparov. But playing chess was all that Deep Blue could do. Ask it to play another game, even a simpler…
The shoulder pads are gone but the IT infrastructure remains.
Phagan photos
A KPMG report warned last year that the next systemic shock to UK banking could come from an as yet unforeseen event, such as a massive payment outage or a cyber attack. Since the IT systems in most banks…
We’re all living in a bubble these days.
The Infatuated
The term “bubble” is now part of everyday conversation, particularly since the financial crisis of 2008. But bubbles are not just a problem in the world of banking. They can affect the choices you make…
Make the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns known and we’ll all be better off.
David Shankbone
Privacy – in our bedrooms, at work, on the street and on the internet – is important to everyone. But every week brings another story demonstrating the ongoing shredding of privacy that undermines those…
I knew I had a problem when, in the five seconds before the lift arrived, I found myself checking newsfeeds on my iPhone. The constant, restless fingering of the phone’s shiny surface, this filling of…
Not exactly where you’d imagine e-commerce to be booming, but rural China has embraced online retail platforms for cheaper supplies and extra income.
EPA/Micahel Reynolds
Every year, for the foreseeable future, another 30 million Chinese will go online to shop, according to a new Boston Consulting Group report. Pushed by a government-subsidised rollout of internet – and…
Facebook deals with what’s acceptable and what isn’t through surveillance, community monitoring and self-regulation.
Xomiele/Flickr
Stories of Facebook allowing beheading videos but removing breastfeeding images, and then reversing the decision to allow graphic violence after public uproar, has led many to question how Facebook should…
High growth enterprises, or ‘gazelles’, are a growing source of global employment.
Smithsonian's National Zoo/Flickr
Do you know someone who has lost their job in the last few years working in IT, media, finance or retail? These industries and many others are already feeling the pinch of “online gravity” - a special…
So meme, such Doge. This guy ruled the internet in 2013.
In the world of internet memes, 2013 was without doubt the Year of the Doge. Participants on Twitter, Tumblr and reddit created and circulated their own narrations of this Shiba’s fragmented internal monologue…
Caroline Criado-Perez learnt the hard way about internet trolls in 2013.
Chris Ratcliffe/PA Wire/Press Association Images
It was an extraordinary year for social media. We saw sites such as Twitter shift from being a fun pastime to a fundamental part of life. The change might not have been unexpected but each time a new incident…