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Launching this month, the app Teedot aims to give people an intuitive sense of understanding about what’s important in their big data. This automatically creates opportunities for collaboration in strategy around that data’s use. Something which the app is geared towards facilitating.

The software is self-learning, building on what it knows not only about the data being considered, but the users themselves. It learns to predict outcomes and even make recommendations based on the input you’re giving it over time. This could mean anything for your data, from advice on tailored marketing plans to budgets for acquisitions.

The idea is not to create a HAL 9000 for computing data and giving corporate-level advice, but instead to create a gateway for professional collaboration. The recommendations can be used as agenda talking points or discussions in-app between users.

Business leaders, Teedot’s founders contend, cannot yet manage data at the speed they want to, but with the intelligence level of applications and software getting higher every day, there’s no reason we cannot do it with apps.

They say you should view the app as a trusted assistant who can give advice you may or may not want to follow and make connections for you to set up meetings or quick decision-making confabs without.  In short, it takes the huge amounts of data often dropped onto decision-makers and cuts through the parrafin to find the wick and help get things done.

A pretty cool idea and one that, frankly, was a long time coming. The project is self-funded by its founders, Matt Johnston and Bradley Farrell, and it launched on November 3rd.

Over the past years, the reach of social media has extended into areas such as technology, business and almost every aspect of daily life.

Social media has even found its way into the busy schedules of physicians, who use it to provide awareness and education about new advances and technologies within a particular specialty. The rising trend of FOAM (free open access “meducation”) has greatly transformed the way in which medical information is shared among emergency medicine physicians.

Dr. Hitesh Shah and Dr. Kenar Jhaveri, physicians at the North Shore-LIJ Health System, developed a gaming model involving Twitter and various blogs to revive interest in the medical sub-specialty of nephrology.

Dubbed “NephMadness”, the initiative featured an online educational tournament inspired by the NCAA’s men’s Division 1 Basketball tournament. It consisted of 64 nephrology achievements that were organised into eight groups. On its first day, educational materials as well as description of the achievements were divided among eight blog posts.

The field of 64 was eventually trimmed down until a winner was proclaimed. Although editors scripted the first two rounds, the field was subsequently narrowed by users via online voting. The initiative saw 34 separate blog posts, of which 40 per cent were posted in blogs other than eAJKD.

Twitter, for its part, served as the main source of interactivity with 77 individuals tweeting about NephMadness 437 times, generating 519,323 impressions with the hashtag, #NephMadness.

As the biggest educational social media campaign made in organised medicine to date, NephMadness performed well in raising awareness of nephrology, with online traffic on the original blog setting a record.

Apple is under investigation in Italy for allegedly concealing one billion euros from tax authorities, according to two judicial sources with knowledge of the matter.

Milan prosecutors have accused the California-based firm of hiding 206 million euros in 2010 and 853 million euros in 2011 from tax authorities, said one of the sources, confirming Italian magazine L’Espresso’s report.

“Checks on the size of the tax are under way,” added the source.

The source further revealed that Apple’s Italian subsidiary booked some of its profits via Irish-based unit Apple Sales International (ASI). The move effectively reduced the firm’s taxable income in Italy.

In a statement, the iPhone and iPad maker said: “Apple pays every dollar and euro it owes in taxes and we are continuously audited by governments around the world.”

“The Italian tax authorities already audited Apple Italy in 2007, 2008 and 2009 and confirmed that we were in full compliance with the OECD documentation and transparency requirements. We are confident the current review will reach the same conclusion.”

Apple is the latest corporation to be targeted by a tax inquiry in Italy, following a global crackdown on preventing large firms such as Amazon, Google and others from evading taxes, said Reuters.

With revenues decreasing, tax authorities in Italy have become aggressive with multinational as well as domestic companies.

A tax source in Italy noted that a global process is underway, and the Italian tax authority is among the most active in the world.

Generally, the focus is on multi-national companies that are able to reduce their tax base via their international operations, added the source.

If 2013 is known for anything, it will probably be known as “The Year of the Selfie.” Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and every other feed with photos in it is replete with selfies – photos taken by people of themselves. These photos include classic poses like the “standing in front of the bathroom mirror” shot, the “hold the camera out and up” shot, and the classic “hold it over my head for maximum cleavage while making a duck face” shot.

Well, now you can take more sophisticated and less angular selfies thanks to this cool product from GabbaGoods. TheSelfie is a shutter remote for your iPhone, iPad, etc. If you own an Apple product with iOS and a camera, this gadget will likely work with it.

It plugs into the device and simply allows you to press a button from afar to snap photos. Its four and a half foot cord is plenty of length to allow you to pose in front of various things, take group shots, and more. Add a nice little tripod and you’ve got a great setup for self-photo taking!

TheSelfie plugs into the headphone jack and takes over shutter control in the camera, no matter what photo-taking app you might be using. There’s no requirement to install or change anything on your device to use TheSelfie. So long as the gadget is made by Apple, this shutter controller will work.

Pretty cool! You can get one for about $20 at GabbaGoods.

Mothers with children younger than five are more active on social media compared to the general public, revealed a new study by integrated consumer insights provider Experian Marketing Services.

The study found that these mothers were twice as likely to visit social networking sites as members of the general public, accessing them three or more times per day.

A spokesperson for Experian Marketing Services, Suzanne Blackburn, said: “We found in the analysis that Facebook is overwhelmingly the preferred social media network for moms with young kids.”

The Experian data was gathered from a Simmons National Consumer Study survey, which looked into the offline and online habits of 25,000 American adults. The firm also combined data from Hitwise as well as other research reports.

“Over half of moms with young kids from this study were between 25 to 34 years old; the [median] age is 32.5 years of age,” said Blackburn.

The report noted that the age of the children significantly affected the mothers’ online behaviour. Mothers of children aged between six and ten were less active on social media than mothers with younger children. As the children get older, their mothers’ social media activity level decreases.

In addition, the study found that women in this group were also more likely to engage in online shopping using their mobile devices, with the iPad as their preferred device.

These findings seem to corroborate another study, which showed that 38 per cent of children younger than two use mobile media.

Both reports imply that mothers provide an example for their children via their mobile device usage habits.

Twitter has updated its S-1 document to reveal that IBM has accused the company of infringing at least three of its US patents.

The complaint specifically mentions patents regarding the way they present advertising, discover shared contacts, and retrieve URLs.

The accusation was made in the form of a letter instead of a lawsuit, with IBM inviting Twitter “to negotiate a business resolution of the allegations.” It also comes at a time when Twitter increased its IPO estimate from US$17 to US$20 per share to US$23 to US$25, an indication that Twitter expects a strong turnout despite the note from IBM.

While the S-1 filing shows that IBM is eyeing a settlement, Twitter also appears to be ready to defend itself, stating that “we have meritorious defenses to IBM’s allegations, although there can be no assurance that we will be successful in defending against these allegations or reaching a business resolution that is satisfactory to us.”

IBM is known for turning its patents into a huge licensing machine. The company is not afraid to utilise patents gained during pre-internet research to browbeat various internet firms. In 2006, for example, IBM filed a lawsuit against Amazon, which was settled the following year.

Twitter has said that it will only use its patents for defensive purposes. In fact, the company only owns nine patents, which is a stark contrast to the thousands held by IBM.