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New smartphone extension helps you find your lost cat or grandma

“Inventors and manufacturers at the world’s biggest mobile fair in Barcelona showed off new inventions to make the ubiquitous mobile even dearer to owners’ hearts. You don’t have to be human to benefit. If you buy a GPS pet-tracking device from Tractive, you can attach it to your dog’s or cat’s collar and get an immediate alarm on your smartphone the moment he or she leaves from the garden, or any other area you have defined. Your pet’s hopes of escape can be quickly squashed with the help of your iPhone or Android-powered mobile. Forgetful grandparents can be traced easily, too.” Continue reading →

Government investigating whether free app games target children for commercial gains

“A watchdog has launched an investigation into whether children face ‘unfair pressure’ to spend money on apparently free web and app-based games, it said Friday. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is asking parents to get in touch with any examples of possible ‘commercially aggressive’ practices which encourage children to buy virtual currency like coins, gems or fruit, or upgraded membership. It is unlawful to make a ‘direct exhortation’ to children to make a purchase or persuade their parents to do so under consumer protection regulations.” Continue reading →

Yahoo buys mobile newsreader app Summly from 17-year-old London kid for a seven-figure sum

“Yahoo! announced plans Monday to buy mobile news reader app Summly from the London teenager who invented it, likely transforming him into one of the world’s youngest self-made multimillionaires. The company did not disclose the terms of the deal it struck with 17-year-old Nick D’Aloisio, but the London Evening Standard said Yahoo! would pay between £20 million and £40 million ($30 to $60 million). The Wimbledon youth, who would become one of the world’s youngest technology millionaires, claims to have created the app as a hobby. ‘I didn’t realize it was possible to make money out of it,’ he was quoted as saying.” Continue reading →

Microsoft and Oracle ask European Union to ‘protect competition’ against Google Android

“Google was in the firing line again on Tuesday after a group of major companies, including Microsoft and Oracle, complained to the European Commission over Google’s offerings for Android-powered mobile phones. ‘We are asking the Commission to move quickly and decisively to protect competition and innovation in this critical market,’ said Thomas Vinje, Brussels-based counsel for FairSearch, which groups 17 high-tech companies, including also Nokia, Expedia and TripAdvisor. FairSearch said it had filed a complaint with the Commission, charging that the Internet giant wanted Android operators to use its leading applications such as Maps or YouTube.” Continue reading →

These Startups Are Betting Everything on Bitcoin

“BitInstant is just one of several Bitcoin startups attracting funding from established venture firms and investors at a valuation in the millions. Coinsetter, a New York startup working on a foreign exchange trading platform for Bitcoins, recently raised $500,000 led by Tribeca Venture Partners and SecondMarket at a valuation that we hear is in the ‘low single-digit millions.’ Coinbase, a startup that provides a digital wallet for Bitcoin transactions, has raised $600,000 to date from Y Combinator, IDG Ventures and others. (Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the twins who had a disputed role in the founding of Facebook, are also big Bitcoin investors.)” Continue reading →

Scientists discover earthquakes can create new ‘economic-grade gold deposits’

“Solid gold can be deposited in Earth’s crust ‘almost instantaneously’ during earthquakes, said a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience. The gold is formed when a tremor splits open a fluid-filled cavity in the Earth’s crust, causing a sudden drop in pressure. This, in turn, causes the fluid to expand rapidly and evaporate, and any gold particles that had been dissolved in it to ‘precipitate almost immediately’, said a Nature press release. The researchers said much of the world’s known gold was derived from quarts veins that were formed during geological periods of mountain building as long as three billion years ago.” Continue reading →

Mining your iPhone: ‘More gold in 1 pound of electronics than 1 pound of gold ore’

“Engineering experts over at 911 Metallurgist, with some help from the designers at Neomammalian Studios, break down the innards of smartphones and how much the raw metals are worth.” Continue reading →

Entrepreneurs crowdsource traffic tips to help drivers out of jams in newly car-dense cities

“If you own a mobile phone and spend sunup to sundown watching the traffic pass in Ghana’s capital, then Iddrisu Mohammed wants you to be his spy. With an iPad in his hands and two phones in his pants pockets, Mohammed crisscrosses Accra on foot, looking for people to become informants for Jamless, a recently launched traffic information service that hopes to restore a little sanity to the capital’s hectic commute. ‘What Jamless will do is give you the traffic situation in any part of Accra that you are and give you alternate routes to use if the place is jammed,’ said Mohammed, who is the company’s informant manager.” Continue reading →