GOOGLE’s latest feature, Google Buzz, is a social networking coup d’etat, and looks set to snatch the cheese right out of Facebook’s mouth. Launched on February 9, 2010, Buzz is designed to integrate with Gmail and provide a platform for Gmail users to share media content, links and make status updates.
Apple has reinvented the wheel with the iPad, arguably a middle of the road hybrid of the iPhone and Macbook. The iPad is neither a notebook nor a smartphone, but a sort of mule that combines the functionality of the two, and does more. Aesthetically, it takes advantage of the Kindle market, which has softened users to devices larger than smartphones but still smaller than netbooks, and it remains to be see what exactly the iPad will carve out as its niche.
The African Development Bank (ADB) has said Zimbabwe must clear its arrears with international lending institutions before it can benefit from available funds. ADB deputy president Aloysius Ordu told journalists in Harare Monday that Zimbabwe’s debt of about US$6 billion was “too huge” and should be cleared before the troubled southern African country could access new money.
Google has gone beyond being just another search engine or corporation with its distinctly independent stance on global issues. From its recent public squabble with China over the hacking of email accounts belonging to rights activists in China and India, to its active role in assisting the search for missing persons in the wake of the earthquake in Haiti, Google has managed set itself far apart from from its peers, still caught in the corporate web of apathy.
Namibia is in the dark about a reported decision by Zimbabwe to stop the export of electricity to Namibia, maintaining “it is business as usual” and that the export arrangement between the two countries remains in place. NamPower’s Managing Director, Paulinus Shilamba, got a New Year surprise from Zimbabwe when that country’s independent online news agency, Zim Online, reported that the Zimbabwean Minister of Energy, Elias Mudzuri, has ordered the Zimbabwean Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) to stop exporting power to Namibia because the Hwange power station is not working properly.
It now looks for sure that China, in 2009, overtook India as the world’s largest gold consumer. The ‘Middle Kingdom’ had already surpassed South Africa and the U.S. as the world’s largest gold miner a year earlier. Latest figures out of Beijing suggest that gold demand in China grew by an estimated 13.8% to around 450 tonnes in 2009, while India’s estimated consumption last year is put at only around 210 tonnes – about half its consumption level in 2008. Much of the disparity last year was due to a decline in Indian buying as purchasers were put off by higher prices.
Avatar, the latest Hollywood blockbuster to hit the market, is not just another 3D picture. It is in every respect a cleverly composed and unrelenting feat of political satire, criticizing use of the military industrial complex as an instrument of global power and manipulation and the insatiable corporate greed that drives global affairs.
The new Google Nexus One smartphone has been touted as an “iPhone killer” with impressive specs backed by the Android Mobile Technology Platform 2.1 (Eclair) Operating System.
THE Zimbabwe government has drafted a comprehensive five-year recovery plan aimed at stimulating the country’s economy and restoring human rights and the rule of law. The 2010-2015 Medium Term Plan (MTP), submitted to the World Bank, United Nations and other high profile international governmental organisations recently, details
Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) is a graphic marvel, but an architectural failure. It runs seamlessly with sleek applications but is dogged by the same driver issues that plagued its predecessors (likely to be unusable after each update as it keeps missing key drivers).
