The M&G's Faranaaz Parker rounds up five quirky things you may have missed over the last week.

Fridges just got cooler
New Scientist reports that a United Kingdom firm has developed a fridge that can stay cool for up to 10 days without any power.

The fridge was originally designed to help store vaccines at optimum temperatures in developing countries where electricity supplies are unpredictable.

The magic in this super-fridge is part good insulation, part "phase-change material". Such materials are solid at room temperature but if they become too warm, they liquefy, begin to store and absorb heat and in turn provide cooling. If the material cools too much, it solidifies and instead gives off heat.

Although not widely used, phase-change materials have been mooted for use in home insulation. Its use in vaccine fridges was given the green light by the World Health Organisation last year. Now companies are scrambling to use it in domestic appliances.

With Eskom CEO Brian Dames warning about winter power cuts I have to ask, where do I get one of these?

Rise and fall of a Mandela death hoax
It appears news of Nelson Mandela's death has been greatly exaggerated. Twitter-fuelled rumours that the country's first democratically elected president had expired over the weekend proved to be false.

Following the 144-character hysteria, during which Mandela's name trended as a topic around the world, family members and spokespersons revealed that the great man was well, though frail, and on holiday.

And just when we were done chiding the African National Congress Youth League and the Congress of South African Trade Unions for trying to take Twitter to task over "impersonations" of their members, the ANC itself announced that it plans to ask Twitter to take action against the person who started the rumour.

This is not the first time rumours of Mandela's death have done the rounds, nor is it the first time a death hoax has been seen on Twitter. Maybe the ANC needs to satisfy itself with a little less indignation and little more communication.

Apple's big score
The business and tech world were abuzz this week, first with news that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had taken a medical leave of absence and then with news of Apple's first-quarter results.

Apple shares took a 2% dip after the company announced that Jobs, who has battled pancreatic cancer in the past, was taking medical leave. But shares climbed once again after the company announced a record first-quarter profit of $6-billion, leading analysts to conclude that the market is becoming less dependent on Jobs's health as an indicator of the company's health.

The company has shipped 16,2-million iPhones and 7,3-million iPads in the last three months alone. Analysts say they expect the share price to pip the $425 mark.

The instabank app
In South Africa, Starbucks may be little more than a counter in some hotel but in the US it is the epitome of coffee culture. Until now coffee-lovers have had to make do with cash, card or a Starbucks Card pre-loaded with credit. But no more. As of this week, BlackBerry and iPhone users in the US can pay for their coffee with their cellphones. (Users of Android phones will have to wait a while for the technology to catch on.)

The idea of making micro-payments with a cellphone has been around for years. The technology is particularly popular in the Far East and usually it involves RFID (radio-frequency identification). The technology Starbucks is using is both simpler and a bit closer to home. It's a free app that you download to your phone, then pre-load with credit using either PayPal or your credit card.

Essentially, it's a digital version of the preloaded Starbucks Card. When you want to buy a drink at the coffee bar, you load up the app, which displays a bar code. The barista scans the bar code and voila, the cost of your drink is subtracted from your preloaded balance.

I for one would jump at the chance to get rid of some of the hefty loyalty cards taking up space in my wallet.

Bubble Ball boy unseats Angry Birds
There's nothing netizens love more than a little David and Goliath story. Also, child geniuses. This week, web-watchers got a bit of both as a 14-year old programmer burst on to the app-scene with a simplistic new puzzle game called Bubble Ball.

The game, which this week unseated the ever-popular Angry Birds app at the top of the iTunes free games pile, has already been downloaded more than two million times.

It may have taken a team of 17 programmers to crack the code for Angry Birds but Bubble Ball had much humbler beginnings. According to the Guardian, 14-year-old creator Robert Nay developed the game with little more than a library book and some nudging from his mum.

Faranaaz's interests span science, technology and development. Read her weekly wrap every weekend on the M&G and follow her on Twitter here