earhoox, a product that aims to solve the problem of loose and uncomfortable earbuds that just won’t stay put has launched on popular crowd funding site IndieGoGo.  With only four days remaining earhoox has raised over $8, 000 of its $18, 000 goal.  

earhoox are designed to work with standard earbuds that are included with many popular personal consumer electronics including mobile phones, tablets and MP3 players.

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Nearly 85 per cent of all flat-panel TVs produced in 2016 will be smart TVs, according to Gartner, Inc. Worldwide unit production of flat-panel smart TVs will grow from 69 million in 2012 to 198 million in 2016. Worldwide unit production of smart TVs in 2013 is expected to reach 108 million.

However, analysts said that smart TVs alone won’t spur demand in the market. TV manufacturers must recognise the need to offer some compelling reasons for consumers to choose their brand over a competitor’s.

“In the end, the choice may be all about the extra content that one TV brand offers over another. Consumers will be asking questions such as, which Internet TV services can the TV access? Are these the sites I think are valuable? Can I use my smartphone or tablet with this TV?” said Paul O’Donovan, principal research analyst at Gartner. “It is critical for the TV industry during this global economic downturn and decline in consumer confidence levels, to sustain sales and maintain or grow market share — especially in emerging markets. This is difficult when demand has slowed, so the extra functionality offered by smart TVs becomes the product differentiator — if prices are already competitive and all other variables are equal between brands.”

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According to a report by Bloomberg, Brent Thill, an analyst at UBS estimates that Microsoft’s Q2 earnings will be less than expected, having sold only half of the amount of units of what he originally projected for the Surface tablet.

The Surface went on sale in the U.S. on 26th October with a price tag of $500, $600 or $700

Thill estimates that only 1 million Surface tablets, down from 2 million, were sold during the holiday season cycle that ended in December in comparison to Apple, expected to have made iPad sales of around 20 million units.

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The BlackBerry 10 App Club has arrived and the BlackBerry Apps Lab wants you to be part of it by visiting its Bandwidth Barn location in Cape Town for an open- day.

The BlackBerry 10 App Club gives you the opportunity to get involved as much as you like by:

• Giving your BlackBerry 10 apps ideas
• Learning how to develop apps yourself
• Talking to customers about the opportunities that are available to them. 

If you’re keen to learn new skills, meet the app partners and create some apps, come and see the BlackBerry Apps Lab.

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The Bexar County satellite office is the location of the first bookless library in San Antonio

Texas will be the first state in the U.S. to open the first entirely digital public library.

The bookless library called BiblioTech will open its doors in San Antonio in Bexar County. The county made the announcement just this week, with the new system having been in the works for quite some time.

The San Antonio location is part of an entire bookless public library system planned for the entire county.

The concept of the new library has been fronted by the county’s Judge Nelson Wolff who revealed that he was inspired by Walter Isaacson’s biography of the late Steve Jobs. So it comes as no surprise then that according to Wolff the library will look like the inside of an Apple store.

Wolff told the San Antonio Express that BiblioTech is ”not a replacement for the (city) library system, it’s an enhancement. People are always going to want books, but we won’t be doing that in ours.

A recent study conducted by Kenya-based iHub Research in collaboration with local mobile advertising network, TwinPine, the results of which are illustrated in the infographic below, has revealed the growth of the African, particularly West African, mobile market.

The research which analysed mobile usage across Nigeria, Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) found that mobile subscriptions in all three countries have more than doubled between 2007 and 2011, with the combined total now standing at over 130 million.

One of the key findings is that Nigeria, Ghana and the Ivory Coast are achieving high monthly mobile advertising impressions with Nigeria recording over 3 billion mobile ad impressions per month.

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Apple has reportedly cut down on the amount of orders from component suppliers for the iPhone 5 screen as well as other screen sizes.

The order, that was made last month for Q1 of 2013 has decreased by about half of what the company originally intended to order, a source close to the matter revealed to The Wall Street Journal.

Apple has requested that Sharp, LG and Japan Display cut the supply of LCD panels down from about 65 million units.

This move could suggest a weaker than expected demand from customers for Apple’s latest iPhone and other devices.

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Apple SVP of Marketing, Phil Schiller

Earlier this week ,the internet was buzzing with the return of a rumour reported by The Wall Street Journal of Apple’s plans to produce a low-cost iPhone to expand its market share.

Now, while it comes as no surprise, Apple’s very own marketing chief has dismissed any such plans. Phil Schiller told Chinese newspaper Shanghai Evening News, in an interview that has been verified, that a cheaper iPhone will “never be the future of Apple products”.

The rumour report included details of the use of cheaper materials such as polycarbonate plastic with other phone parts remaining the same or the possible use of recycled parts from older iPhone models.

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