Back in 2008, @Boris put a tweet out looking for a replacement for one Robin Wauters, a contributor, who after a spell with The Next Web was being snapped up by Michael Arrington to join TechCrunch.

As with many things, both TNW and I were at the right place at the right time. I answered Boris’ call to replace Robin and shortly after became Editor-in-Chief of, essentially, a one person blog :) I was very proud but who could blame Robin for leaving – At the time TechCrunch was THE blog of note.

Three years later, we’ve grown, and although we have much work left to do – we’ve cemented our name and brand in the technology reporting space with: numerous scoops, a top 5 ranking on Techmeme’s Leadboard, record traffic almost month-on-month and an event we’re extremely proud of. (Have you bought your tickets yet?)

But today’s announcement is about welcoming an old friend home and officially announcing the return of Robin Wauters to The Next Web as our European Editor.

Robin has performed wonders during his time at TechCrunch, and while we’ve been working hard to get to where we are today, Robin has been doing the same and making a name for himself as a prolific tech writer, a master scoopster holding the 9th spot for the most headlines on Techmeme.

Robin brings years of experience, a vast network of relationships worldwide and great ties with EU and US investors, accelerators, incubators and co-working spaces. He’s also a mentor at Founder Institute and Seedcamp with years of hands-on experience advising and working for startups, both venture-backed and bootstrapped.

Robin is also a friend and someone the vast majority of our team has had the chance to bond with thanks to the numerous technology focused events we attend. What’s more, he is used to the daily tech blogging grind, the competition, the traveling, the stress, the fun, and knows how the game works. Above all he’s hungry and determined, a thread that spins throughout the TNW team.

Needless to say Robin is an amazing addition to the team and we’re delighted to welcome him back.

Let’s get to work.

Online activist group Anonymous has reportedly taken down a number of Greece government run websites in response to the people powered uprising in Athens. This latest attack comes just over a week after the ‘hacktivist’ group defaced the Greek Ministry of Justice website.

As you read this, buildings are being set ablaze in central Athens against the approval of an enormously unpopular bill set in place to secure a second bailout from the EU to help avoid national bankruptcy.

Lawmakers voted in favour of the bill that imposes harsh new austerity measures in return for a €130 billion ($171 billion) new bailout agreement to shave €100 billion ($132 billion) off the country’s national debt.

As far as we’re aware, Anonymous have taken down the following sites: a Major TV channel, Prime Minister’s website, National Police, Ministry of Finance and Minister of finance Evangelos Venizelos’ personal site.

This is yet another involvement by Anonymous in international politics and people-powered uprisings. Most recently we saw the organisation hack Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s email server, accessing numerous inboxes of his staffers and revealing the most commonly used password to be “12345.” A timeline of all of Anonymous’ political involvements can be found here.

Whether Anonymous’ acts have any impact outside of raising awareness online and causing some embarrassment to its victims is another discussion all together.

Update 00:08 GMT: According to comments on our Facebook page, banks sites and political parties sites have also been taken down.

I haven’t personally read the book but I can ensure you after watching this, I will. Never before have I seen or heard such detailed accounts about how the world’s most private company operates.

Sit back, grab your coffee mug, and be prepared to have everything you thought you knew about the way to do business in the 21st century, flipped on its head.

We’re looking for a full-time (maybe PT if necessary) Australia based tech writer.

You need to be incredibly passionate about technology, startups, entrepreneurship and Internet culture. You’ll be keen to immerse yourself in the Australian technology scene – or indeed already be part of it. You’ll enjoy chasing up stories and the people behind them for interviews/comment. You’ll love people, events and developing relationships. You’ll be keen to learn the background to a story, thrive on the details and above all, be passionate about being first to a story.

You should be keen to make a name for yourself within the tech circle but more importantly, interested in being part of the Internet’s fastest growing technology blog and its team of global writers.

Conditions:
Passionate about tech
Fast, confident writer.
Natural attention to detail
Natural drive to get to a news story first.

Responsibilities:
Watching out and reporting breaking news stories, anywhere on the planet – but especially within Australia.
Reviewing startups from across the planet – but particularly within Australia
Writing thoughtful discussion posts about the International technology scene; the companies involved, influencers and everything in between.
Attending events and conferences.
Interviewing influencers and companies involved in the headline.

Salary: Industry standard but negotiable.

Image Credit:  Neerav Bhatt / Flickr

The website of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the world’s most popular martial arts organisation, has been hacked and visitors redirected to the hacker group’s site at Ugnazi.com.

The motives behind the attack are unconfirmed (now confirmed, see update below) but likely to be due to the UFC’s unwavering support of SOPA, a bill introduced to fight online trafficking of copyrighted content.

The UFC is notoriously ambitious with its attempts at pursuing sites who post streams to its live events; taking popular online streaming sites such as Justin.tv to court.

The UFC has always made clear it strongly supported the hotly debated SOPA bill. Most recently, a piece written by Lawrence Epstein, Executive Vice-President and General Counsel for Zuffa (the UFC’s parent company), once again defended his company’s position.

Dana White, the UFC’s current President and the face of the company, gave this response to the hacking on Twitter.

The image below is what US visitors of the UFC’s website will have seen at time of writing.

Update:

An email from the hacking group, also on Twitter, confirms the motivations behind the hacking:

“They happened to be vulnerable and we were lead to believe they are for SOPA.”

The Next Web is on the look out for a Web & UI/UX designer with a passion for design and usability, a natural attention to detail, an appreciation for digital publishing and a hunger for success.

You will be lead designer of The Next Web’s media and events business, putting your work in front of millions.

The ideal candidate will be a strategic thinker, able to understand business goals and product requirements, and translate those ideas into creative, innovative, functional, design concepts.

Required Skills:

A portfolio with your web, UI, UX and branding work
Clean, fresh design aesthetic and strong eye for layout, color and typography
An appreciation and understanding of web standards
Excellent HTML and CSS skills a BIG bonus but not completely necessary.
Expert Photoshop (and ideally Indesign) skills
Pixel-perfect attention to detail.
Self driven desire to improve and fix things

Character:

You should be driven, honest and ambitious but have a sense of humor and a time for both work and play.
You’ll have an entrepreneurial spirit, a passion for design, attention to detail and a desire for success.
We need someone with infectious enthusiasm, self-drive and ability to work efficiently and thoroughly.

Location
Anywhere, but Amsterdam Netherlands would be a bonus.

Salary
TBC

Image Credit: David Salafia / Flickr

Designed by Milos Paripovic, the iPoo concept is a mockery with a finger pointed directly at you… Yes you… You Apple ifan you.

I do think Paripovic is missing a trick though.

No Apple scented air freshener immediately after you’re ‘done’? How about Steve Jobs yelling”boom”! after you’ve landed a floater? :) TMI?

If we’re honest, this has been a long time coming, but finally TNW for iPad is available for download.

Whilst we’ve been trying to keep things hush hush until the new year, some of you seem to have already picked it up from the app store – your super early adoption makes us so very proud. :)

The app is developed by the team at ShoutEm, who we’ve written about before. We’re delighted with the result and while there’s still much to be done, I think you’ll find it a very pleasurable reading experience if you prefer to read via native apps over the website.

Stay tuned for a lot more to come on this front! Android, Windows, and a new iPhone app is on the way.

➤ TNW for iPad | App Store

Two ads, both featuring the same little girl with seemingly equal passions for both the iPhone 4S and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab. Each to their own I suppose…

OR

Did Samsung intentionally plot this to mock Apple? Samsung’s ad is unashamedly similar to your typical Apple ad.

Watch for yourself, coincidence? (Thanks Cheryl Lindo Jones)

Apple:

Samsung:

What was your first computing experience?

Texomatube via Retronaught (Thanks @Atul)