Columns
E-ink reading revolution here
Later this week will bring the culmination of the worst period of my year – iPhone season. Apple is expected on Wednesday to announce the launch of the keenly awaited, much-hyped, much-over-speculated-on iPhone 5. We’ve been through weeks of breathless speculation about the supposedly larger screen, the new 19-pin dock, the whatever. Apple, which invented the art of the magical revelat...[Read More]
Apple is gunning for Google
At the heart of Apple’s now successful patent court cases against Samsung is not just its desire to protect its iPhone business but a proxy war with Google. Apple has gone after Samsung more aggressively than any other user of the Android operating system that Google gives to smartphone makers free. More than a year and about 50 court cases around the world later, the patent war between Appl...[Read More]
Telkom is a Ponzi scheme
“Telkom”, as defined by the satirical Uncyclopedia website in 2006, “is the South African word for Satan, although this is a very loose translation since Telkom would kick Satan’s ass. Telkom is just the baddest, meanest, ugliest corporation in all the world. It makes Exxon, Apple, and George Doublya Bush look like Mother Teresa”. This pretty much sums up the feeling ...[Read More]
Even tech titans must adapt or die
What do Sony, Nokia, BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM), and Yahoo have in common (apart from being tech giants who have fallen on hard times)? They have all, tragically, believed their own PR. Because of corporate arrogance and unwillingness to see how their technology was being overtaken by more agile competitors they have fallen from grace. As a result, all are in disarray, have seen the...[Read More]
Bring back the snark
It doesn’t matter how obvious it is, people will still miss sarcasm or irony on Twitter. This is the newly minted Shapshak’s First Rule of Mistaken Sarcasm, though this tragic phenomenon has been widely observed before. It’s true of almost any written communication, for that matter. Sarcasm – the highest form of wit, at least since irony – is so easily misunderstood, ...[Read More]
Don’t blame Google, we haven’t had privacy for years
We all might as well admit it, we have no privacy anymore. Well, certainly not the outdated sense of privacy from last week. This week, the latest privacy storm hit the internet when Google’s long-announced plan to consolidate its 60 separate privacy policies into one, as part of a new “single sign-on” plan for all its various services, These include YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps a...[Read More]
Apple’s unrequited love
Let’s get this out of the way: every new mobile device is always thinner, faster and has a better camera. Always. It’s the newly minted Shapshak’s First Law of Gadget Upgrades. I’ve had to coin it because, on Wednesday the new iPad will be launched. It’ll be thinner, faster and have a bigger camera. It might have the same higher resolution retina display as the iPhone...[Read More]
A brave new world of apps
ALL the little app called “Mirror” did was turn the green screen of the PalmV black, giving it enough reflectiveness to function as a mirror. It was 1999. here were many other clever “third-party apps”, as the computer industry called them at the time, but this very simple one demonstrated the innovative ware appearing on those small personal digital assistants. There were ...[Read More]
A brave new world of apps
ALL the little app called “Mirror” did was turn the green screen of the PalmV black, giving it enough reflectiveness to function as a mirror. It was 1999. here were many other clever “third-party apps”, as the computer industry called them at the time, but this very simple one demonstrated the innovative ware appearing on those small personal digital assistants. There were ...[Read More]
Mars is the next target for the Vietnam veteran who now runs Nasa
He flew combat missions in the Vietnam War, was the pilot of the first shuttle flight after the 1986 Challenger accident and deployed the Hubble telescope into space. Now Charles Bolden, 65, is trying to send a human to Mars.
OBITUARY: The day I met Steve Jobs
“No, but I did touch his iPod,” I answered when someone asked if I shook Steve Jobs hand. It happened quite by chance. Jobs was addressing a small group of journalists at the Apple Expo in Paris in September 2005 a few weeks after he had launched the latest, thinnest iPod nano. The British journalist behind me was asking about it and Jobs nonchalantly threw it into the crowd. I was sit...[Read More]
Breaking barriers to brilliance in Berlin
Last week, I stood where the Berlin Wall was. My hotel was built in mine-infested no-man’s land. Call me sentimental, but I was blown away by that.