Glass that bends, not breaks

In future, when you drop a glass on the floor it will bend and become slightly deformed – but it won’t break. Professor François Barthelat and his team at McGill’s Department of Mechanical Engineering have successfully taken inspiration from the mechanics of natural...

Yahoo users compromised in new security breach

User names and passwords of some Yahoo users have been stolen and their identities could be compromised. Although Yahoo has about 273-million mail accounts, it is not known how many of them are affected by the latest security breach. Jay Rossiter, senior...

Data shows causes of traffic congestion

The East Rand South of Johannesburg saw a 4% decrease in its peak time congestion levels from 22% to 18% according to the TomTom Traffic Congestion Reports for the second quarters of 2012 and 2013. This drop in percentile coincidently fell around the same time that...

MTN debuts inexpensive Android smartphone

MTN SA has launched its own affordable, simple and high-performance Android smartphone aimed at students and businesses. The MTN Steppa smartphone features a large 3,5-inch touch screen display,  FM radio, a high quality 2MP (Megapixel) camera with video recording,...

Tablets the winners in Xmas sales

Worldwide tablet shipments grew to 76,9-million units in the fourth calendar quarter of 2013 (4Q13) according to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker. The total represents 62,4% growth over the previous...

Firms look to appoint chief data officers

Organisations are creating, accessing and using more sources and types of information than ever before. This trend, combined with the increasing need to understand how data is being used within a company, is driving the need for chief data officers (CDOs). Gartner...