Kids can become more creative by playing Video games

A new study by the Michigan State University found that both boys and girls who play video games are likely to be more creative whether or not the game has a violent nature or not. The study involved five hundred 12-year-olds and showed that those who played video games were more creative in areas such as drawing pictures and writing stories.

Linda Jackson, Head Researcher and Psychology Professor said that this study will help game designers decide which part of the gaming experience is accountable for this creative effect. She added, “Once they do that, video games can be designed to optimize the development of creativity while retaining their entertainment values such that a new generation of video games will blur the distinction between education and entertainment.”

Apple overhauling products in 2012

According to Digitimes, Apple are planning to “overhaul” their major selling components the iPhone, iPad ,MacBook Air and the iMac within the next year.

This overhaul could be anything from a few specific tweaks to existing models (as they have been doing all year) to brand new designs for those products.

As far as when we will see these designs goes, leading bloggers have said that a new iPad could be out anywhere as soon as March 2012, with new versions of both the iPhone and iMac coming in the second half of 2012.

But there is the noticeable absence of the Mac Pro to consider, its absence is believed to be due to its decrease in popularity due to the demands of people to have devices that are more portable, and some have said that its future as an Apple device is uncertain.

Samsung overtakes Apple in global Smartphone shipments

Over the last few years technology has been dominated by Apple and in particular the smartphone market has been swamped with Apple's products, but now it seem peoples prefer the new Samsung models as the Apple iPhone has waned in popularity.

This claim is backed up by Apple suffering its lowest level of shipments in over two years. Global smartphone shipments have grown by 44% year on year to reach a record 117 million units and Samsung have scooped over 24% of those shipments overtaking Apple.

HP to keep hold of PC Unit

HP have announced that it will now not be selling off its PC unit. In a statement from the CEO of HP, Meg Whitman: "HP today announced that it has completed its evaluation of strategic alternatives for its Personal Systems Group (PSG) and has decided the unit will remain part of the company."

"HP objectively evaluated the strategic, financial and operational impact of spinning off PSG. It's clear after our analysis that keeping PSG within HP is right for customers and partners, right for shareholders, and right for employees,"

A third of young adults will shop this Christmas via their mobiles

This Christmas will see a third of adults aged between 18 and 24 do their shopping via their mobile phones according to research carried out by UTalkMarketing and Toluna. Thirteen hundred participants took part in the survey with the results showing that 32% of 18 to 34 year old would use their mobile devices in order to purchase goods in the festive period.

The survey shows that it is not just the younger generation that are using their mobiles as older groups are making increase purchases via their phones with 14% of those aged between 35 and 54, and 9% of those aged over 55 planning to purchase some of their Christmas shopping using this device.

Windows 7 becomes Top OS in the world

Windows 7 has become the most popular operating system in the world overtaking its predecessor, Windows XP. The figures from Stat Counter show that the latest OS release from Microsoft is on 40.21% of desktop computers throughout the world.

The usage of Windows XP came down within the first half of October as it is now used on 38.64% of computers. Windows XP was first released back in 2001 and continued to maintain its popularity when Microsoft released Vista as people held out for now more popular, Windows 7.

Why you should care about Google+

The search engine giant Google has finally created its Facebook killer Google+, which is a new social networking platform that Google hopes will rival Facebook. But what actually is Google+ and what makes Google think that it can overthrow the social networking king that is Facebook.

The first and most major thing Google has done is to improve its social networking credentials is to make this compatible with every other piece of Google software meaning that you will only need the Google+ account to access everything from Google maps to Gmail.

RIM CEO apologises to its customers

Normal service to BlackBerry devices is beginning to resume after its servers suffer an outage causing users to have limited access to emails, web browsing and BBM. The CEO of Research in Motion, Mike Lazaridis, posted a video on YouTube apologising to its customers saying that the company had let them down.

He said, "You expect better from us and I expect better for us. It is too soon to say that this issue is fully resolved but let me give you more detail on what is happening. We are now approaching normal BlackBerry service levels in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

BlackBerry continues to suffer outage

Research in Motion, the makers of BlackBerry have released a statement explaining why its users within Europe, the Middle East, Africa and other places within the world have had limited access to BBM and their emails.

RIM said, "The messaging and browsing delays being experienced by BlackBerry users in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Brazil, Chile and Argentina were caused by a core switch failure within RIM's infrastructure. Although the system is designed to failover to a back-up switch, the failover did not function as previously tested. As a result, a large backlog of data was generated and we are now working to clear that backlog and restore normal service as quickly as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience and we will continue to keep you informed."

Goodbye Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

Today the world is mourning the loss of a creative genius, as Steve Jobs, the co-founder and former chief executive of Apple has died at the age of 56. The visionary behind products such as the Macintosh, iPod and iPhone had been suffering with pancreatic cancer and had only stepped down as CEO six weeks earlier.

Jobs had said in his resignation letter that, “I believe Apple's brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role." He also said he would continue to work with Apple in role of Chairman.

Apple has since released the following statement:

"We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today.

Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.

His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts."