A source has revealed that Amazon.com Inc. will be launching new versions of its Kindle that includes a monochrome e-reader with front lighting, reports Reuters. 

The source also revealed that with Amazon increasing the production of the new Kindle, it is expected to be available in stores in July and is set to compete with the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight launched in April.

The new e-reader will run on E Ink’s display with its new design solving the problem of users having to buy an external light to attach to the device when reading in the dark that will be available in both the touch 3G and touch wi-fi versions.

Jennifer Colegrove, Vice President of Emerging Display Technologies at DisplaySearch, an NPD Group company, which monitors trends in the display sector said that ”I do see demand for a front-lit Kindle.” However, Colegrove acknowledges that it is a trade-off as the front light will consume more battery power causing it to run out quicker than Kindle models without the light.

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Twitter’s official blog has announced that it will be introducing a new email service to users with “a weekly email digest delivered to your inbox”, writes Othman Laraki, Director for Growth and International.

The email will include a summary of some of the most relevant Tweets and stories shared by those you are following on Twitter.

The stories will feature a design that is similar to that of the Discover tab, “emphasizing who shared each story beneath summaries to help you decide which ones matter most to you.” You can then click on any of the headlines to finish reading the story, tweeting about it directly from the email and view related tweets from other users.

Laraki also states that “this new email digest also features the most engaging Tweets seen by the people you follow, even if you don’t follow those who wrote them”. You will then be able to see who from your network liked or retweeted the tweet.

The new feature will be rolling out to all users over the coming weeks which you will be informed about in an email from Twitter.

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The Third Integrated Marketing Communication Conference (IMC) will be coming to Cape Town in June this year.

The conference will host some of the top marketing minds in the country, showcasing the new trends of the various communication disciplines available including Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations.  From this delegates will be able to select the tools that will best suit their marketing communication needs.

The conference format is divided into two sections:

1. Keynotes: local and international speakers will decipher their communication field through inspiring presentations.

2. Workshops: Throughout both days of the conference, delegates will attend pre-selected workshops which are hosted by top communication companies. Each workshop will host smaller groups of attendees, and last 30 minutes.

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We have repeatedly covered Rocket Internet’s operations in SA as they aggressively go after ecommerce market share. We have now learned that they have also started targeting another one of Africa’s biggest economies, Nigeria.

TechLoy has reported that Internet giant Rocket Internet has confirmed that it will be launching an Amazon clone in Nigeria this month. The company has already launched an Amazon-clone called Lazada in Indonesia, Egypt, the Philippines and Thailand recently.

Rocket Internet has a track record for cloning existing popular web companies across the Middle East, Asia, Africa and South America including Airbnb and Zappos. In February, Rocket Internet launched Zando in South Africa, selling popular clothing brands in the local market. While the name of the new clone-site still remains uknown, it will sell items similarly found on Amazon including DVDs, books, electronics and games.

As part of its preparations for the Nigerian launch, Rocket Internet are reportedly recruiting local staff for its operations based in Lagos and are likely to take on some of the former employees of Kalahari Nigeria that was shut down last October by parent company MIH Internet Africa.

If you’re a fan of the fictional Transformers characters in the popular cartoon and block buster movie trilogy that followed, you’ll really enjoy this!

Student Kenji Ishida and JS Robotics in Japan have together invented and produced a working transformer that begins as a remote controlled car and unfolds itself into a full motion robot with arms, legs and a head. The robot is the 29-year-old designer’s eighth attempt at creating the RC Autobot.

Calling it the ‘Brave Robot’, Ishida says that the invention has 22 servo motors to control its almost fluid transition from car to robot and back again.

Posted by Ishida on YouTube on 7 May, the video of the transformer in action has already received over 340, 000 hits.

Watch the video also uploaded by plasticpals1 after the jump…

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In a Mashable exclusive, the site has reported that Facebook will enable groups to share files which will initially roll-out to a small percentage of groups on Thursday.

The feature, will then become available to all groups over the next few days and if you don’t have it yet, the social network has said that you will have it “soon”.

A spokesperson for Facebook said that with 380 million people using Facebook Groups, a file sharing feature was one of the most popular requests among users.

Users with access to the new feature will be able to share files up to 25MB. However, there are a few exceptions including music files and executable files. With the the same file size limit as Gmail, Facebook will allow the sharing of music videos, e-books and small movies.

To avoid the spread of copyrighted or malicious content, the spokesperson said that as with other content of that nature, users will be able to report files too.

In October 2010, Facebook acquired file sharing service drop.io where users could simply upload a file, create a “drop” with links to files and share it without having to actually register with the service.

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Instagram’s popular tilt-shift feature has now been added to the photo sharing service for Android, five weeks after its arrival.

When Instagram for Android was launched in early April, among the many features available, tilt-shift was not included, remaining only on the iPhone version of the app.

The popular feature allows users to focus on a specific area of a photo while the rest remains out of focus, creating a miniature effect.

“Tilt-shift within mobile photography applications is often the process of selective focus in order to simulate a miniature scene, also known as miniature faking,” Instagram said in an official blog post.

“Selective focus can also be used to give the appearance of a shallow depth of field (DoF), or placing the focus on a subject in the background while blurring out the foreground and vice versa.”

The blog post also included tips on how to maximise the feature, explaining what the feature is and how it works with step-by-step instructions.

The inclusion of the feature came with the roll-out of the Instagram Android version 1.1.0 update that is now available to download in the Google Play Store.

Source: Mashable

Pretoria based global events startup Whenpages has launched today in public beta version, as of 8am this morning.

Whenpages is a global time based platform for creating, sharing and discovering events in the past present and future. The site aims to publicise (live or recorded) events around the world and focuses on user-generated content that can then be shared on leading social networks like Facebook and Twitter for additional exposure and reach.

While anyone can create an event for free, primary content contributors include artists, event planners, venue owners and marketing and PR companies who can choose from a selection of 18 categories in which to place their content.

Whenpages founder Tendai Joe, a prolific social media user and consultant says of the motivation behind Whenpages that “I wanted to develop an events site that would take people off their computers and mobile phones and into real meet-ups.” Originally Tendai wanted to buy the domain when.com but when he discovered that it had already been taken, he came upon whenpages.com. “I then had the challenge of coming up with a concept that would work for that name and the creative process started”, adds Tendai.

Tendai noticed a gap in the market having officially endorsed and covered a number of events in real time for Vodacom, The Gautrain and The Nelson Mandela Foundation to name a few.

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