INTERNET

The world was caught by surprise when Pope Benedict XVI decided to step down as the Catholic Church leader. User from social media such as Facebook and Twitter were stunned by this unexpected move from the Pope which he announced on Monday.

Ubuntu will bring its smartphones to the table, but the question is: can it hold its ground in a nearly-saturated market of smartphones?

Bianca Giaever, from Middlebury in Vermont, is a member of the social video sharing site Vimeo. She talked to a 6-year-old boy about a movie he may have in mind. And the boy dished more than just a concept. What follows is a delightfully fascinating story that paints a smile on, and leaves a warm feeling to the viewers.

Responsible parenting stories are truly inspiring. Take the example of a father named Paul Baier who offered his 14-year-old daughter, Rachel, a $200 worth of contract to deactivate her “Facebook” account.

Meet German student Phillip Luepke. Apple credited him as responsible for iTunes’ 25 billion music downloads as of Wednesday this week.

Giovanna Plowman's Twitter account is followed by over 156,000 users. It is not clear whether these are all unique users, but it is clear Plowman wants to enjoy her fame with them. To Plowman, she has fans and she is more relevant than other celebrities. One thing is clear in the infamous Plowman's tampon-sucking state of mind: the more haters you have, the more "words to live by" you need to shout out.

Alyssa Rosales (Dog Girl), Giovanna Plowman (Tampon Girl) and Dino Bruscia (Poop-Ice Cream Guy) are today's internet celebrities for reasons you parents will probably not believe. Then again, what haven't you seen online?

Riding on the popularity of Psy's Gangnam Style which continues to gain more hits, the world-famous Philippine dancing inmates from Cebu Province made a video performing the dance before 2012 and it has garnered so far more than 6.4 million hits in just four months.

Details of the groundwork within North Korea is finally visible thanks to the efforts of crowdsourcing and the power of Google Map Maker.

Google Maps have recently released an update containing a detailed map of the isolated country, North Korea. The update was released three weeks after the visit of Google's executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, to Pyongyang.

The social networking site Twitter said that worldwide data requests from government offices have risen by almost 20 per cent. In the July to December period, information requested government offices went up from 849 to 1,009.

Real estate agents who have been avoiding Facebook now have even less excuse to avoid the social network behemoth. The company's recent announcement that they would be setting up a "graph search" on the website - meaning that the search function will become more accurate and allow more specific requests - could lead to Facebook users utilising the site more often in their hunt for new property.

Twitter launched its first video service client to iPhone and iPod touch users that currently have issues about inappropriate content. The app is called Vine which can be used to search pornographic video clips. Vine allows a user to shoot and upload high quality videos with a run time of 60 seconds, which also loops.

The Java 7 Update 10 on December 2012 was exposed to vulnerabilities against hackers and cyber criminals. The new update on Jan 13, 2013 has two new flaws which also makes it susceptible to digital attacks.

Analysis of social media use could give therapists more complete view of patients' health

Temple Run's success led to the release of its sequel, Temple Run 2, in the Apple App Store. The game has been downloaded more than 20 million times since its initial release. It became the number 1 Free App within six hours and third-highest grossing app.

A report from the Centre for Internet Safety of the University of Canberra said that Australians are among the world's heaviest Internet users, which makes them the most vulnerable to virtual stalkers.

Java fault-finder Adam Gowdiak found a vulnerability to the Java 7 update 11 and claims that Oracle should "bring security research to the new level." The Oracle's most recent patch shows vulnerability to hackers which may affect users without their knowledge that their computers or mobile devices are being hacked or penetrated by another individual.

Facebook recently got an update and it features Voice Messaging in its app for Android. The users can expect full support for voice messages and faster image rendering. Facebook users can also share their friends' stories directly on their own timelines which before was exclusive to the desktop version.

To mark the first year anniversary of police storming into the Auckland mansion and arrest of former Megaupload owner Kim Dotcom over online piracy, Mr Dotcom launched on Sunday a new portal - mega.co.nz.

A U.S. software developer lost his high-paying job when his employer inadvertently discovered that works turned in by the ‘prized employee’ for a considerable amount of time were all made in China.

An IT company investigation over apparent hack attempts from China uncovered a thriving and secret outsourcing operation by the firm's top software developer. The probe found that the employee, identified as Bob, spent the whole day watching cat videos while paying Chinese developers one-fifth of his salary or about $850 a month.

A video blooper caused a slight embarrassment to the federal government which launched a new cyber-safety campaign on Wednesday. The video mistakenly named former magazine queen Ita Buttrose as the 2013 Australian of the Year.

A dad who was not too keen on getting his kids another puppy after they lost a dog to cancer challenged his kids: Get 1 million likes, you'll get a puppy. They did it in only seven hours.

The popular online information Web site Wikipedia just opened a site for travelers. The interface and link locations of the Web site are similar to Wikipedia, therefore, there is no need among visitors for any adjustment when browsing the site.

Facebook revealed a new exciting feature for the social networking site’s millions of users on Tuesday. CEO Mark Zuckerberg together with engineer Lars Rasmussen and Tom Stocky, director of product management, introduced the new search engine tool called “Graph Search” at a conference in Menlo Park, California.

The New York medical examiner confirmed Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz committed suicide at his Brooklyn apartment on Friday night. Family of the 26-year-old technology genius is now blaming the prosecutors because Swartz’s tragic death happened before his scheduled trial next month with the US fraud charges filed against him.

Tweets from number one microblogging site Twitter could reach outer space. This was proven by tweet exchanges between American actor William Shatner, who portrayed Captain Kirk in Star Trek, and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield.

Popular torrent site The Pirate Bay reportedly went offline for some hours beginning Sunday, sparking fears among torrent fans that the free download site is next to go following the demise of Demonoid and BT Junkie in 2012.