Western governments, notably the UK and the US, are pushing the software industry to open “backdoors” into our encrypted communications. The argument touted by government agencies for nearly 20 years is that terrorists use strong encryption to hide their communications, therefore we should ban strong
Browsing: In-depth
Economists love Uber’s surge pricing. But it is doomed, because customers hate it. Why? Surge pricing occurs when the supply and demand for Uber vehicles becomes unbalanced, for example, due to inclement weather, a public holiday such as New Year’s Eve
Ever since computers were first introduced into the retail banking system in the late 1950s, there has been the vision of a future world where cash is obsolete. The near death of personal cheques, increase in debit and credit card use, and innovations such as PayPal
Who could possibly be against free Internet access? This is the question that Mark Zuckerberg asks in a piece for the Times of India in which he claims Facebook’s Free Basics service “protects net neutrality”. Free Basics is the rebranded Internet.org, a Facebook operation where
There are as yet unconfirmed reports that Twitter plans to extend its 140-character limit to 10 000. But why would Twitter consider radically changing its most unique characteristic? Today’s media culture is one of extreme speed and ephemerality – facts and factoids, comment, claims
South Africa’s basic education minister Angie Motshekga announced on 5 January that 70,7% of the country’s matrics – learners who wrote their final grade 12 exams in 2015 – passed. Some can now
“In just over 30 years, humans will be able to upload their entire minds to computers and become digitally immortal,” said computer scientist and futurist Ray Kurzweil at the Global Futures 2045 International Congress in 2013. Without even considering the ethical
Until a few years ago, solar panels were a rare sight in South Africa, largely limited to the roofs of a few affluent households. This is changing rapidly, driven by three factors: the worldwide drive towards renewable energy, a highly strained local electricity supply, and a steady drop in solar panel prices
Huge Group, Adapt IT and Net1 UEPS Technologies top the list of the best performing technology shares on the JSE in 2015. In a difficult economic environment, the three counters have far outperformed the overall market, adding 95,2%, 58,5% and 55,5% respectively over the past 12 months
Hollywood has broken two very different records this holiday season. Star Wars: The Force Awakens has become the first movie to reach US$1bn in gross sales in just 12 days. This beats the previous record set by Jurassic World, which had the added benefit