On 9 September, U2 released their new album, Songs of Innocence, but not quite in the normal style: they are offering it as a free download to all 500m iTunes users. Lead singer Bono described the release as “kind of mind blowing”. He said: “The most personal album we’ve
How the Internet is governed is no longer a matter seen fit to be left to mere technical committees. With the extent of online surveillance, so dramatically revealed by the Snowden files, increased content filtering and blocking, and the issue of net neutrality, which would allow
Facebook has reached a significant milestone in Africa, announcing that as of June 2014, 100m people are connecting to the social network at least once a month. And showing that Africa truly is a “mobile first” continent, Facebook has revealed that 80% of users are
In another major cellular tower deal in Africa, Eaton Towers has acquired 3 500 base stations in six countries belonging to Indian-headquartered mobile network operator Bharti Airtel. In terms of the deal, Airtel will have a 10-year lease contract on the towers. Eaton already owns
The Internet is a vast series of tubes, computers and devices, networked together sharing the same information. But where do all those pieces of hardware reside? Shodan founder John Matherly found out when he pinged all the
Many countries are playing catch up by allowing plane passengers to keep their mobile phones switched on – albeit in flight mode only – during take off and landing. But many have probably already done this. A study in the US found almost
President George W Bush is reported to have said: “When I take action, I’m not going to fire a US$2m missile at a US$10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt. It’s going to be decisive.” As the quote suggests, when it comes to national defence, enemies are unlikely to be deterred by an
Wikipedia is often seen as a great equaliser. Every day, hundreds of thousands of people collaborate on a seemingly endless range of topics by writing, editing and discussing articles, and uploading images and video content. But it’s starting to look like global coverage on Wikipedia is far
The message arrives on my “clean machine”, a MacBook Air loaded only with a sophisticated encryption package. “Change in plans,” my contact says. “Be in the lobby of the Hotel ______ by 1 pm. Bring a book and wait for ES
Anyone who reads the technology news can’t have failed to notice a certain preoccupation in the past couple of years on the part of developers to bring viewers close to the action of TV, films and computer games through virtual reality. Every other day, it seems, we hear of yet another allegedly ground-breaking solution in the quest for
