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FlashChat: Easy, fast, anonymous chat with the people around you

Dec23
by on December 23, 2014 at 3:00 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web

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This article is brought to you by FlashChat: chat freely with anyone on the same Wi-Fi network

Anonymous chat apps are all well and good, but without some way to make sure you have something in common, chatting with strangers quickly loses its appeal. That’s where FlashChat comes in. It lets you communicate with people on the same Wi-Fi network as you, anonymously. Whether you’re in an office, university campus, stadium, shop, airport, or anywhere else, you can have fun talking to new people who are close by. Getting set up is a breeze – you just open the app, choose a username and chat right away to other people on the same network. FlashChat is all…

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Plague, the ‘Tinder for information’, is addictive and its founders are onto something

Dec23
by on December 23, 2014 at 2:41 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Insider, Profiles and Interviews, Social Media

Plague
Over the weekend I spent a bit of time with Plague, an app that our own Owen Williams recently described as a gamified version of Reddit, and I’m sure the developers have hit on something noteworthy here. It looks like others agree, as its user base is growing rapidly. Despite only a small amount of press coverage, Plague, which comes from a Lithuanian startup, is growing as virally as its unusual name would suggest. Deep Sea Marketing, which has previously developed a messaging app called Hipe and a photo-sharing app called We Heart Pics, tells us that Plague has acquired 50,000 users in three weeks, apparently growing now at…

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Why success in African e-commerce is all about scale and biding your time

Dec23
by on December 23, 2014 at 11:26 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider, Investigations

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It is widely agreed that the African e-commerce market presents a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs and investors alike. Frost & Sullivan estimates the market will be worth $50 billion by 2018, compared to $8 billion in 2013. E-commerce businesses of various persuasions and sizes are springing up across the continent, and investment money is flowing into the sector. Yet the truth is more nuanced. Though e-commerce is undoubtedly a long-term opportunity, and investors have not been slow to spot this, at the moment the market faces severe limitations. The primary issue is that the market is just too small. Only…

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TripAdvisor has been fined in Italy over misleading reviews

Dec23
by on December 23, 2014 at 11:14 am
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, fine, Italian Competition Authority, Product Reviews, tripadvisor

TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor has been fined $611,842 (€500,000) by Italy’s competition watchdog for publishing misleading information in reviews. The Italian Competition Authority conducted a seven-month investigation following complaints from a consumer group and hotel owners. The regulator said that TripAdvisor failed to implement controls to prevent false reviews and promoted the site as “authentic and genuine.” It has given the company a 90-day deadline to propose a solution. TripAdvisor disputes the ruling and will appeal. It said in a statement: “Our systems and procedures are extremely efficient in protecting consumers from a small minority of people who try to con our system.” In…

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Apple pushes first automatic OS X update to fix critical flaw

Dec23
by on December 23, 2014 at 9:00 am
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Mac, os x, Product Updates

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Apple has pushed out its first automatic security update for OS X to deal with newly identified bugs that researchers warned could allow hackers to remotely control machines. The company pushed the software fix to deal with critical security vulnerabilities affecting Unix-based systems including OS X. The issue was with the network time protocol (NTP), which is used to synchronize computer system clocks. The bugs were flagged in security bulletins from the US Department of Homeland Security and the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute late last week. Apple previously released security patches through its regular software update system, which usually requires…

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