If us Ice Age Homo sapiens use the same spears and clubs (iSpear and iClub?), then together we can send those Neanderthals the way of the dinosaur. "For early Homo sapiens colonising Ice Age Europe, a new shared and flashy-looking technology might serve as one form of social glue by which larger social networks were bonded," said Metin Eren, an experimental archaeologist from the University of Exeter in England. ... Read full entry

If you'd pay $175 for a hamburger, then it stands to reason you'd pay $1000 for an iPhone app that does next to nothing... doesn't it? Let's face it, you'd need to have serious amounts of cash to burn before forking out $1000 for the functionless I Am Rich app, which simply displays a red gem, and is effectively only a status symbol unto itself. That point seems to ... Read full entry

IT consultancy ThoughtWorks Australia has launched a new initiative aimed at encouraging more girls and young women to pursue careers in technology, Girls in IT. The pivotal questions are, why are girls not interested in studying technology subjects at school, and, what can be done to motivate them to do so? Women account for less than 15% of the people working in technology in Australia, and 52% of the ... Read full entry

We saw The Dark Knight last night, and marvelled at some of the Bat-equipment. Far from being movie high-fiction though, some of his gear does actually exist, in one form or another... Batman is just a gadget geek at heart. A very, very wealthy gadget geek. But until recently, he's employed some tech that's, well, pretty unbelievable. Ice skates popping out of boots? Come on! Not in The ... Read full entry

While there's a certain romance in owning and driving a classic car, the reality of the experience does not always match the dream. Not that I'm trying to deter you or anything. The fact I won't be joining the classic car owners club anytime soon also has nothing to do with me posting this link. In 30 years the automotive landscape has changed dramatically. In a modern driving environment, with ... Read full entry

Email, instant messaging, mobile phones, and social networks, are all responsible for impacting on attention spans and disrupting workplace productivity, according to a recent study which confirms what many of us have known for sometime... A typical information worker who sits at a computer all day turns to his e-mail program more than 50 times and uses instant messaging 77 times, according to one measure by RescueTime, a company ... Read full entry

Stephen Hutcheon stole the gag that I'd been patiently devising for weeks... For a place that sells only Macs, there are a lot of windows in the new $15 million Sydney Apple Store. Apparently people are already queuing up for the opening tomorrow night. The fact I'll also be in Sydney's CBD tomorrow night is a complete coincidence. Update: some photos of the new Apple store, and ... Read full entry

Not sure how I missed this, but Tasmanian web designer Jason Carter has, sometime recently, relaunched conduit to all things cool, TheNews. I've also secretly subscribed to the view that Australia is the world's largest island for many years (largest island sounds way cooler than smallest continent), a point-of-view TheNews also seems to support. TheNews.com.au is a daily update on ideas, products and emerging trends in the intersection of art, ... Read full entry

The next BarCampSydney gathering takes at the Roundhouse Bar on the UNSW campus on over the weekend of April 5 & 6. "BarCamp is an ad-hoc unconference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment". BarCamp is an intense community event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees. Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and ... Read full entry

Scouta has been named winner of the inaugural Australian Startups Carnival. Scouta is a "recommendation engine" that allows members to bookmark, rate, and recommend, online videos and podcasts. The carnival, which attracted approximately 30 submissions from Australian entrepreneurs and startup owners, makes for a great repository of business startup information and advice.