Browsing: News

All the latest technology news from South Africa and around the world.

Is the PC market set for a comeback or is it a case of a dead cat bouncing? New research from International Data Corp (IDC) suggests that PC sales in the Middle East and Africa (including Turkey) will end a “dismal run” of seven consecutive quarters of year-on-year declines in the second quarter of 2014. According to IDC, PC sales

Spare a thought for Google. In the wake of a ruling by the European court of justice, the Internet search giant has to set up extensive new machinery to deal with requests to take down embarrassing material. It all began when a Spanish man, Mario Costeja González, tried to force the website of the newspaper

Researchers at Ford and Heinz are collaborating to develop a bioplastic using … tomatoes. They’re investigating the use of tomato fibres in developing sustainable, composite materials for use in vehicle manufacturing. Specifically, dried tomato skins could become the wiring brackets

Savannah Fund, a seed capital fund specialising in US$25 000 to $500 000 investments in sub-Saharan Africa, has made its first move into South Africa, buying into two Cape Town-based start-ups. The fund, which already has investments in East Africa and West Africa, has invested in e-commerce site

Germany has announced it will withdraw from the Square Kilometre Array organisation (SKA) in June next year, the science & technology ministry has said. “According to the SKA website, Germany informed the SKA on Thursday about its intention to leave the organisation,” spokesman Lunga Ngqengelele said

“You’ll need two dozen purple-scented candles and a goat suitable for ritual slaughter. Oh, and about a kilo of salt to draw a pentagram on the floor (blackboard chalk doesn’t work),” read a response to a frustrated consumer on an online forum asking for advice on how to unsubscribe from unwanted mobile

As a fourth-generation clan chief of a village in rural Cameroon, Gaston Donnat Bappa’s daily life is steeped in tradition.The 200 residents of the village have little if any access to electric power, phones, TV or radio – but the IT engineer, consultant and specialist has been immersed in the world of technology

Vodacom in South Africa has sought to play down startling revelations on Friday that its parent, Vodafone, has secret wiretaps that allow government agencies to listen into and record live telephone conversations, a practice that is reportedly commonplace in many of the 29 countries in which the group

Nearly 7m South Africans tap into Facebook on a daily basis, new research by Ipsos shows. Of the 6,7m daily active users in South Africa, 6,2m use the social network website from their mobile phones. This research, which was commissioned by Facebook, shows there are 1mm monthly active users in South Africa

Newly appointed Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane has appointed Marian Shinn as the party’s spokesman on telecommunications and postal services. Shinn had been shadow communications minister before President Jacob Zuma split the