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week on web

Weird wide web: Google Camel View, prototype iPhone 6s, and nostalgia trips

All of your essential tech and social media news for the week in one byte-sized portion.

WELCOME TO THE Weird Wide Web – where we take a look at the week’s best offerings in tech and social media news.

GIF development of the week

Having been around since 1989, the humble GIF has come a long way, but their large size means it can be testing to view one when you’re on a mobile connection.

Now Imgur, one of the most popular places for GIFs, announced a new service where GIFs will be converted into MP4 (or GIFV as it’s calling it). In layman’s terms: smaller files to load and higher quality images. Win-win.

imgur: the simple image sharer Imgur Imgur

Google Camel View of the week

Google Street view has covered a lot of ground since it was launched back in 2008. Now after covering the Amazon and the Arctic circle, it’s now captured the Arabic desert by mounting its 360-degree camera onto a camel.

Google Arabia / YouTube

Prototype deal of the week

Ever wanted to get your hands on a prototype iPhone 6? Earlier this week, it was a possibility as one eBay user put it up for sale online. It was shortly taken down after the bids went over $100,000.

_57-10-630x354 eBay eBay

Sign language android of the week

As part of CEATAC, Japan’s biggest consumer electronics show, Toshiba unveiled a ‘communications android’, which goes by the name of Aiko Chihira, is able to perform (Japanese) sign language while lip syncing to a recorded message. The android was developed with Tokyo engineering company Alab and a number of Japanese universities.

Japan CEATEC Robots AP Photo / Koji Sasahara AP Photo / Koji Sasahara / Koji Sasahara

Nostalgia trip of the week

Nobody has to mention just how iconic the original Game Boy was, the monochrome device made numerous trips and boring moments pass that little bit faster. Now you can think back to a simpler time by seeing the intros for almost every game in alphabetical order. Sure, what else would you be doing for the next two and a half hours?

NicksplosionFX / YouTube

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