Technology plays an important role in journalism. It enables us to witness, hear and live worldwide events between countries without being there, or putting our lives at risk. As recent events in this region have shown us, journalists play a crucial role in society. They are the impartial witnesses to war, up-risings, corruption and disasters. Without that impartial record of events a great many travesties would go unrecorded and unresolved.

The International Conference for The Protection of Journalists in Dangerous Situations took place in Doha on January 22. It was held in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and was organized by the National Commission for Human Rights under the patronage of H.E. Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al-Thani, the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs.

It is thought that as many as 550 journalists have been killed in the past five years whilst reporting from dangerous situations. That translates to roughly two journalists killed per week.  Two-thirds died in areas where there are armed conflicts or political violence, the other third were killed due to criminal activities by gangs and drug dealers.

At the event several real-life cases were presented explaining the dangers journalists faced and exploring the kinds of protection they should be afforded according to International Humanitarian law. There were many inspirational ideas; chief among them was the hotline for the International Red Cross. The hotline creates a connection between the journalists and their families as well as government institutions, enabling them to stay informed about journalists’ current locations and condition. Not only that, but it also helps in reporting news of the wounded, tracing missing people and transferring bodies should the worst have happened.

The conference also included several workshops on issues such as developing an international treaty for the protection of journalists and providing a formal channel through which investigations can be carried out. Several recommendations were made, including:

• For Governments: Agree that families of murdered journalists have the right to receive compensation either directly or through media institutions as well as the establishment of a fund for the victims.
• For News Organizations: Increase awareness of the conventions as well as legal and regional legislation
• For Journalists: Develop a culture that upholds responsibility for the safety of oneself and seek to train all journalists who travel to areas of conflict.

Journalists who stand between truth and danger saw much hope at the conference, therefore, the hope is that these recommendations won’t be merely ink on paper, but become a reality so that they gain international protection and legal immunity to safeguard their life and their dignity.

If you haven’t been introduced to these sites yet, read on!

Chill : Initially a Turntable concept for video, has become a Pinterest for video, this allows users to post, view, comment on and re-post video from people that they follow. It is set up in the same grid format as Pinterest, making it easy to navigate. Chill also supports all video formats and you can join via and import your video from Facebook and Twitter, or by simply posting a link with the Post Video Button at the top of the grid.

I liked the fact that once I had joined, all my long forgotten videos (if set on my privacy settings as viewable to Friends) became available immediately on my homepage.  If I select to Pin a video, do this when you are logged in (as pinning offline lost my video along the route of logging in), it becomes available as part of my videos.  Re-posting is fun too, you can post the video onto Facebook and Twitter, comment and give it a “Feel” thought — smile, laugh, wow, frown or love.  The bottom of each video shows the user icons of members that have watched the video and to the left all the comments and thought icons are viewable.

Although Pinterest does have a video section, Chill in comparison is open to the public and is optimized specifically for only video postings.  Users can either choose to view videos of people they’ve followed on their homepage or view videos on the Chill popular page. Best of all, if you just want to view the videos for some fun, you don’t need to sign in. Missing is a Search button to find specific videos that I may be interested in, however it is refreshing to just page through videos that I would never have come across on YouTube or other social media sites.  Initially the site helped you look for friends that were also on Chill, but if you had no friends you were left feeling rather lonely.  This week the site introduced a Friends Search, where you can invite friends to join. Now this is the type of Social Media interaction we are used to.

Welcome to Chill from Chill on Vimeo.

Pinterest : Pinterest is a virtual pinboard, which allows you to organize and share interesting things you find on the web. There are thousands of pinboards created by other people that you can discover and get inspiration from, all by sharing common interests.  A pin is an image added to Pinterest, these images can be added from a website using the Pin It button, or you can upload directly from your computer. Each pin added using the Pin It button links back to the site it came from.  Each pin can be liked, tweeted, repinned and users can comment on the images.  People use pinboards for a variety of reasons, from planning their weddings, decorating their homes, to sharing their favorite recipes, quotes, fashion designs, art or photographs.

Namesake : Namesake is community built around real-time conversations. Members can post comments, photos or videos for conversations to follow on topics like news, best practices, questions, events, videos and ideas.   These conversations are by default available to everyone in the community and therefore it is easy to find the people and topics that make life interesting.  If you want to, you can also hold conversations that are private or by invitation only, which allows only selected community members to participate.  On joining Namesake, you add in ten areas of your own expertise and so does everyone else in the community, so it is easy to find people with whom to hold a good conversation with similar interests.  Experts are also listed on topic pages, this is where all conversations and endorsed community members for that topic are listed.

Having all the areas of content filtered into different websites felt a bit like having to sift through different search engines for information, instead of just using one.  Also missing from the mix were more definitive Security Settings on who could view your stream of comments and videos.  However, all these websites have a strong following and rather than being stuck on only Facebook or Twitter alone, they allow for immediate social interaction on topics or videos you are interested in. Giving new meaning to chilling!

Education 2.0 will be a digital affair

Many Internet savvy teachers in Qatar may already be familiar with the late Steve Jobs’ vision for education, which is to Applize it. iTunes U led the way with online seminars and free courses in subjects as diverse as art to heart surgery. These are undertaken much like an Open University course but come with better digital features as you might expect.
Now, last week in fact, Apple announced the launch of iBooks 2.0, which may well have the ability to completely revolutionise the school textbook market.  Apple fans will already be familiar with Apple iBooks, the online bookstore to rival Amazon, iBooks 2.0 will fit nicely into this existing facility and naturally be a completely interactive learning experience.
Textbooks in iBooks 2.0 will be fully optimized for iPads, giving students access to videos within chapters, interactive study notes and 3D graphics, enhancing the whole learning experience. No matter what continent you live in, this makes good sense – saving the trees, easy to update content, no lugging heavy books about – it wins on so many levels.

The world leaders in educational publishing are on board, such as Pearson Publishing and McGraw Hill and there are some handy complimentary apps to help ensure absorption into the school curriculum such as iBooks Author, which provides templates for producing textbooks compatible with the iPad.
Speaking at an education event in New York last Thursday, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, Phil Schiller said, “We want to reinvent the textbook. Current textbooks cannot compete. They aren’t portable, searchable, current, or interactive.” He pointed out that there are over 20,000 educational apps already available for the iPad and that more than a million iPads are already used in education. International universities in Qatar’s Education City already embrace the iPad, utilizing its features for workshops and as a library resource.
Yes – but what about the cost, I hear you ask? A basic iPad2 costs in excess of QR 2000, potentially making it a pricey investment for a student. Well – the really good news is that the price of the textbooks will be capped at a meagre $14.99, quite a coup considering that a typical medical or legal textbook could set a student back $100, therefore potentially making the iPad a prudent, money-saving investment.

Now an apple a day for the teacher is not what it used to be – and for that, I’m sure Steve Jobs is eternally grateful.

Everyone I know has been approached by X who has a fortune that she will share with you if you just help her by giving out your banking details; I am also a millionaire many times over with the amount of money that I have won, and my bank is forever losing my personal details.

Stats show that up to 14.5 billion spam emails get sent out on a daily basis, the point is no matter what you do you are going to get spam. So how can you alleviate the pain that is spam?

We all know the basics to protect our email: don’t open or reply to spam messages, delete them immediately, don’t click on links that could be viruses, don’t send your personal details to anyone, don’t trust anyone you don’t know, and so on.

There are reliable methods we can use to minimize spam.

Firstly, find an effective filter to use, you may need to buy one or you can download a free version. Overall they are effective but do tend to miss craftily worded spam or alternatively can send some important messages to the trash box so be careful in how you set them up and what keywords you select as spam, but overall they can be up to 95% accurate in filtering those unwanted messages. Here are some spam filters to compare:

Spam Blocker Services:

Symantec

myTrashMail

mailexpire

Mailinator

Spamgourmet

SneakEmail

Free Spam Filter Software

http://www.spampal.org/

http://www.keir.net/k9.html

http://getpopfile.org/docs/doku.php

http://www.spamihilator.com/

These filters often do not work for domain email clients, so if you are trying to clean up Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail, these may not be the best options to use. However, most online email services such as the ones mentioned above, have built in spam filters which do a good job at filtering unwanted email into your Junk Mail Folder.  They also have built in features where the user can report spam that has filtered through into the Inbox, look for a “Report as Spam” button or a “Not Spam” button to correct false positives. You can also create your own spam filters to get the best results, by creating filters for incoming mail that flag or delete emails containing lewd content or common spam keywords. This strategy can backfire though if a friend sends a message  with your spam filter keywords in it. To help, Google has a “test” feature that lets you test-run a filter before you apply it so you can better fine tune your results.  This will further help to identify emails that might get past the spam filters.

You can also try setting up a nondescript email account used simply to accrue and therefore identify spam email. These are known as Spamtraps and will work if the address isn’t used or given to contacts. That way, any emails sent to the account can be reasonably called spam and filtered. This is one way — among others — that many professional services identify spam for their clients.

Use a dummy email for online deals, social networking, downloads or if stores ask for an email address at point of purchase. Having this type of email can divert a lot of unwanted spam away from your real account. Then keep a separate email address for your private emails, keeping your information confidential.

When you create your email addresses, make them difficult for bots (which spammers use to find email addresses) to find or recreate. Consider using more than one word, word segments or pieces, numbers and non-letter symbols and underscores_are_good, e.g.  great_scott_#2468@xxx.com.  But don’t make it too easy that bots can find it or too difficult so that no one can remember it.

Further more, when joining a network, gaming services, magazines, etc. DO NOT CHECK THE EMAIL BOX for future deals, updates, or news about the company, unless you really want to receive these types of emails. They tend to clutter your Inbox making it difficult to manage. If you have subscribed and they are becoming an issue, every email with marketing or news information on it will have an Unsubsribe button.

Finally, Ensure that the automatic update service on your PC is turned on and configured to automatically download the latest software updates.  It is not a spam fighter, but it does help to protect your PC from unwanted viruses and ensure you have the latest software on your machine.

Personally I use Gmail and the Spam Filters that they provide and try to report as many spammers as I can for my personal email, while for my fake email address I use www.myTrashMail.com.

Yes, initially it is a lot of work to set this all up, but long term the time saved by not having to delete and check thousands of emails is immeasurable.

The excitement of what was on show was palpable, the buzz of new products and upgraded old versions impressive and a couple of celebs dazzled attendees with their presence. Mashable described the show as the beginning of the end of planned obsolescence.

These are some of the quirky gadgets and appliances presented at CES, amongst thousands of others:

Alternative power sources for your gadgets, such as ETON’s solar powered, blue tooth speaker system.

The iPad radio quality microphone from Blue Spark.

Karotz, the world’s smartest rabbit that updates your Twitter and Facebook status from anywhere, sends emails and reads texts fully integrating them into social networks, very cute.

Behringer iNuke’s boom sounder at 8 feet tall with 10 000 watts of sound, unbelievable.

Swivl your personal iphone hands free cameraman accessory.

Samsung’s Digital Appliances certainly impressed from the latest washer-dryer with a Smart Control system, allowing users to stay connected to the washer without having to manually control it at the machine, to their smart Refrigerators and Smart TVs.  I love the concept of having all our home devices talking to each other and being able to remotely control them all. And lets not forget LG and its smart appliances, the best part is their smart fridge with its shopping list feature.

And where does that leave the Google TV, well take a look here.

MakerBot showed off its latest 3D printer, the Replicator. It can print creations as big as a loaf of bread and is capable of printing more than one color at a time.

WiMM Watch, the Android 2.1-based watch offers a 160×160 touch screen and other than a watch, it is essentially a tiny Android computer running what WiMM lab calls Micro Apps.

Ion’s Apprentice Guitar, for those who want to rock, it transforms an iPad into a full-sized guitar to help teach new players how to play.

Tri Cascade introduced its smart home energy system with a smart thermostat that allows you to monitor and control your house’s energy consumption even when you’re not at home via the iPhone app.

Murata Boy is a 50 cm tall, 5 kilogram bot that balances and rides (forwards and backwards) on his fully functional bicycle and has everything from Bluetooth, to gyro-, ultrasonic- and shock sensors. Just for fun!

Miveu camera, this lens attaches to the iPhone with a custom ruggedized case, which incorporates a simple tactile shutter button allowing easy operation to snap away.

Worth a mention was Intel’s Social Cockpit Center, imagine an impressive space station control center, it had an Adobe-Air based desktop application that collected CES buzz on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogs and forums.  The Social Cockpit tracked not only hashtags, but specific topics, products and brands being discussed online. The data was updated each hour to give a sense of who was on top throughout the day, as well as a daily report to sum up social conversations.

These examples are just some of thousands that were presented, with so much to see, so much to do and so little time. Check everything that was on display at CES this year here.

The show centered around social aspects on almost all spheres. Consumers no longer just want to consume products, they want to be able to upgrade easily, have instant gratification and share their experiences. A music gadget, for example, isn’t just about playing an instrument — it’s about creating a new piece of music, learning how to play properly, sharing your progress with friends and doing it all in a way that makes you feel good about yourself.

The consumer electronics that will succeed in today’s market are the ones that stay in tune with the social needs and trends of its users, thereby empowering their experience.

To see the Best of CES 2012 Award Winners go here.

On Tuesday, Google officially unveiled its plans for making Google+ a more focal part of its core search business. Essentially, through the main Google search function, you will not only receive the standard search results, but also personalized results based on your network on Google+. For example, if you search “Ancient Greece,” you will still get the Wikipedia background and various website dedicated to all those great myths, fables and gods, but you would also get photos that you or your friends took while visiting Athens that were shared on Google+. Check out Google’s video to see how their social search works.

I’m actually quite excited about the possibilities for making search more social. Like many, I rely quite a bit on my social media networks – mostly Twitter and Facebook – for interesting news items, quirky stories or useful tidbits. Unfortunately, once these items pass, they are often difficult to find again, especially if they were on a friend’s wall or just a tweet that you didn’t retweet. Of course, Google will be making content from only its Google+ product available to users of social search, so if you or your friends or people with public profiles – aren’t posting interesting content there, it’s pretty worthless. Could this be the nudge that people need to really start making Google+ one of their primary social networks? Maybe!

There are certainly people that will raise privacy complaints about this, but Google seems to have taken a fairly proactive approach to ensuring privacy on this one. It will definitely be interesting to see how other social networks respond, especially Facebook. I don’t imagine Google has plans to make Facebook posts show up in its search results!

Take a look at Google’s announcement for more details about their launch of a more social search, and let us know what you think. This really could be a huge change in the way we search!

1. LEGO Digital Box

The Lego AR kiosk called “DIGITAL BOX” has been developed by LEGO Digital Systems and Metaio.  It allows the consumer to visibly see what the Lego product being sold can be built into. The kiosks are out in LEGO brand stores worldwide and are widely seen as one of the best examples of augmented reality in marketing.

2. Rihanna and Nivea Cream
As a sponsor of Rihanna’s US and European Loud Tour, Nivea created a few digital advertising experiences with Rihanna. One of these was an AR experience by buying a tin of Nivea Creme or printing one out from Nivea’s website, you could hold either up to your computer’s webcam. Then, voila, Rihanna appears.

3. Arm Tatoo
A fun AR app, where a simple barcode marker is tattooed onto someone’s arm which when viewed through a camera transforms into a three dimensional animation of a flying dragon, this App was created by ThinkAnApp.

4. Tesco’s Online Shopping

Online shopping made easy with British retailer Tesco launching an AR program for consumers to see 3D images of some of their products online. Users merely hold up images from the catalog to their computer’s webcam to see the 3D version of the product. Hide those credit cards quickly.

5. BMW and Ray Ban

I love the way advertisers are using AR to market products, and was torn between two marketing campaigns so I have added both of them.  The zooty little BMW Z4 racing around the desk and Ray Ban Sunglasses where you can see how they will look on your face, perhaps the only downfall is you cannot feel how the products will handle or feel.

Z4 Campaign

Ray Ban Campaign

6. Axe

On 5 March this year, Unilever owned brand, Axe deodorant took there “Angels falling to earth” campaign a bit further by adding a sign in the Victoria Railway Station telling travelers to look up to a giant video screen. When looking up, they saw an image of themselves plus one of the angels, who were featured in the US and English ad campaigns. This video shows the reactions.

7. AR Apps that we have found useful include some of the following:

• Car Finder, not that any of us need it but if you know of someone that may this nifty little app helps you find your lost car.

• Pocket Universe: Virtual Sky Astronomy, ever looked up at the sky and wondered what you were looking at? This app helps to decipher the stars, planets and constellations for you. Once the app is downloaded you don’t need connectivity, this clever app contains data on 10,000 stars, 88 constellations and lunar phases, while the “tonight’s sky” feature shows meteor showers and visible planets based on your location.

• TwittARound, this app uses the GPS, compass and camera to show where Tweets are coming from, cool when you want to see who is twittering what at an event or just generally around you.

• Nearest Tube, this app will help you to find the nearest subway station in the UK, no reason to ask for directions, get lost or be late.

• Wikitude AR Travel Guide, this app allows you to just hold up your phone and it will display Wikipedia information on the site you are looking at, allowing you to learn everything about anything. This is just one of many of the Wikitude apps, take a look here at the others.

8. Business Cards

Finally some innovative AR business cards, just for fun. These cards can provide a wealth of information when done correctly, including additional text, images and even video just by holding the card up to a webcam.

9. AR In Reality

Want your world to come to life? Autonomy, a leading enterprise infrastructure company, has a new technology that can change the way we look at and interact with physical objects.  Called Aurasmsa, it works with smart phone and tablets in real time, turning static images or even objects into videos, games and interactive experiences. You can aim your phone at a building and see a video about that building, aim it at a picture in a newspaper, magazine or bus stand and launch an interactive experience.

This video was supplied by Autonomy.

10. Augmented ID

Augmented ID is a TAT concept that visualizes the digital identities of people you meet in real life. With a mobile device and face recognition software from Polar Rose, Augmented ID enables you to discover selected information about people around you. All users control their own augmented appearance, by selecting the content and social network links they want to show to others. Modifying your augmented ID is easier than saying 1 2 3!

Watch Mickey Mouse celebrating turning 83 in Times Square in true Disney AR style. Enjoy!

What Augmented Reality apps have you come across lately? Share these with us here!

The Big Apple

2011 saw Apple continue its market dominance and passed Exxon Mobil as the world’s most valuable corporation, even with the death of its enigmatic leader. Everywhere you looked this year, Apple seemed to have the golden touch.

From the mobile market where Apple launched the new iPhone 4S with Siri, the voice controlled feature that everyone wanted, pulling in 40 percent of smartphone revenues, nearly 65 percent of the sector’s profits.

Through to the PC and iPad markets, with PC’s selling up to 13 percent of the market share and iPads a whopping 75 percent, nearly 50 million units by the end of the year. The pace didn’t slow down either with the launch of iCloud making device interconnectivity easier for the user, the iPhone and iPad’s increasingly downloaded Apps, with October seeing the 60 billionth song sold on iTunes, never mind opening more and more Apple stores worldwide.  Even in death Steve Jobs sells with his book being the number one best seller on Amazon for 2011. While the company is at the top of its game, one wonders whether this will carry through into 2012 with the loss of their charismatic, volatile, mercurial, creative genius? Jobs was driven to seek perfection in his company’s products through simplicity, and ease of use through elegant design both inside and out, will Apple manage to continue this trend?

The Android Phenomenon

August 2011 saw Google’s Android capturing 48 percent of the smartphone market, according to the Canalys Report.  Successful Android-based products include vendors such as Samsung, HTC, LG, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, ZTE and Huawei, as catalysts for the platform’s growth. The market gap between the Apple and Android tablets is slowly closing, in 2010 the market share was 83.9 to 14.2 percent respectively, while a small percentage sat with other vendors. However in 2011 this gap is now 68.7 to 19.9 percent, respectively. Will Android begin to dominate the market share in 2012? Projections from Gartner show that by 2015 the market share will be 47.1 to 38.6 percent, so watch this space.

The Social Networking Boom

Wikileaks began the year with revelations about the US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, then the information on what American Diplomats had been writing home about was revealed. The Arab Spring made the world aware of just how powerful, on the political front, social networking and mobile devices could actually be. With demonstrators holding up placards with Twitter hashtags in Tahrir Square starting the online media frenzy of information, then came the Tunisian conflict, with the government initially not realizing the significance of Facebook or Twitter and Mubarak’s complete internet shut down once they did. With some hackers setting up a “phone to tweet” system enabling Eygptian’s to dial an international number and record a message that was then broadcast as a tweet.  But every disconnected day meant a loss of millions of dollars in revenue for those running businesses there, with most just happening to be some of Mubarak’s Generals, so the country hastily rejoined the networked world.  Lybia saw similar media frenzies with ordinary people on the street sending through messages, videos and blogging about their ordeals, with Gadhaffi’s final moments being recorded and broadcast with a mobile phone. The Syrian conflict continues and moments in history are being broadcast live across the world via social media streaming. When we think back to wars lost and won and how initially media correspondents would put themselves in harms way bringing us broadcasts via satellite phones, then we would watch in horror at live broadcasts via satellite and now we are witnessing, not via the press, but the everyday people on the streets involved in these conflicts “then and there” via modern communication tools. Our perspective on war, on the people (not the soldiers or politicians), on the destruction, has changed and the truths behind these events can no longer be hidden as in the past.

The Facebook phenomenon continues, starting the year with 500 million users and finishing with over 800 million, it is the worlds largest social

network. Every day, Facebook users comment or press the “like” button more than 2 billion times and upload more than 250 million photos. Analysts estimate that the network’s users post 30 billion pieces of content every month. However, it has brought to the forefront the issue of privacy and just how much information users do not know is out there about themselves.  Facebook’s policies, more than any others, seem to be driving the discussion of privacy in this new age. And so it should be, with new features such as the Timeline, where all your information will be available from birth to date, to sharing exactly what you are doing at a specific moment in time with your friends, very little will be left to the imagination about your life. As Facebook prepares for a much-anticipated public offering, which could come in the spring of 2012, the company is eager to show off its momentum by building on its huge membership.

The Paperless eBooks

eBooks have certainly also introduced us to a paperless more environmentally friendly format to reading books.  Many are not fans yet, but when you think of just how many trees can be saved along the way with the Amazon Kindle or downloadable books for the iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab and other tablet devices, then not paging through a book makes a lot of sense. With smaller thinner versions of these in design, the idea of carrying a small light weight device is much more appealing than a big hefty book which will be discarded or gather shelf dust. Easy to download, read what you want when you want, add audio recordings, visuals and the movie of the book, the idea of eBooks becomes extremely appealing.

2011 can be defined as one of the most interesting technological years, will 2012 hold as many new advancements for us?  I don’t think the pace is going to slow down, if anything it will grow more frenzied, with more to watch, read and participate in.

What defined 2011 for you in our ever changing ICT world?

1.  Are you a musician in the making, then you will want to look at the ultra-compact device that connects any MIDI compatible device to the iPhone®, iPod touch® and iPad®?  Then the iRig MIDI should be on your list. It is a standard Core MIDI interface for iOS and connects MIDI keyboards, drum machines, drum pads, pedal boards and more to an iOS device to control a world of MIDI-compatible apps such as GarageBand®. Included is the SampleTank for FREE* and added to this you can also use iOS apps to control external MIDI equipment such as sound modules, DAWs or lighting systems right from the mobile device.

2. The iPhone 4S or the Samsung Galaxy S2, when you are torn between Apple and Android. When you have all the Apple toys, logic tells you to stay with all the i products for consistency, the problem being that you are then locked into Apple apps. The thought of breaking loose is highly tempting and may just be what sways you when you see all the android apps that are available to download.

3. If you don’t own a tablet, then this is the time to go out there and take the plunge. Once you have one, you will never look back. It is convenient to carry around, has wifi and mobile connectivity, with access to the internet, email and social media accounts, you can get work done quickly and efficiently, never mind all the apps you can download to play games, read books, newspapers and they all come in a variety of sizes. For some tablet comparisons go here.

4. So how about a watch that not only tells the time, but also receives calls, sms’ and emails right to your wrist. Not only that you can surf the net, watch the news and look at your photos via a tool which connects design and technology together. This is like having your smartphone on your wrist. Perhaps a bit bulky for tiny wrists (I am sure they will eventually come up with a better more elegant design) but convenient for sure, i’m smartwatch, the complete interconnection of all digital devices.

5. Apple TV “Now there’s always something good on TV”, blockbuster movies, TV Shows, your music and movies, even news and sport.  You can choose what you want to watch when you want to watch, have a look at Apples TV Instant Entertainment here.

6. Kindle Fire, with 8 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books, thousands of popular apps and games, including Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Pandora. The Kindle has ultra-fast web browsing with Amazon Silk, free cloud storage for all your Amazon content, vibrant color touchscreen with extra-wide viewing angle, a fast, and a powerful dual-core processor to view all your favorite children’s books, graphic novels, and magazines in rich color. Why would this not be on your list?

7. The Aldebaran Robotics Nao Robot

This is one of those games that once you start playing it, you just cannot put it down. Angry Birds is a puzzle video game developed by Rovio Mobile, a Finnish computer game developer. The game was inspired by a sketch of stylized wingless birds, initially designed for Apples iOS. And with increasing purchases the company designed versions for other touchscreen-based smartphones.

The game has players use a slingshot to launch birds at pigs stationed on or within various structures, with the intent of destroying all them on the playfield. As players advance through the game, new birds appear, some with special abilities that can be activated by the player. Rovio Mobile have supported the game further with numerous free updates that add additional game content, with stand-alone holiday and promotional versions, such as Angry Birds Rio, of the game on offer.

December last year saw these little winged characters hitting a remarkable 42 million free and paid downloads after only launching in December 2009 and in November this year, they reached half a billion.

And the cult following grows by the day, with these birds becoming more than just downloadable games. Angry Birds is pretty much taking over the world with a TV series being planned, Games for the PC, Wii, XBox and PS3, and Mattel adapting it into a board game. Add promotional gifts, such as their plush toys, t-shirts, bags,  games, the cookbook and accessories, from their online shop or their new shop in Helsinki Finland, to the mix and you have a sure winner.

Follow Angry Birds on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or their Blog for the most up to date games and Birdy news.

If you are addicted to Angry Birds, then join the Doha Tweetup Games to play life size angry birds tomorrow night 14 December at the Qtel #Fanzone in Aspire Park. Go to the Tweetup Facebook page to register and for more information.