All the latest technology news from South Africa and around the world.
Santaco, the South African National Taxi Council, will this Thursday announce plans to provide free Wi-Fi Internet access to minibus taxi commuters and around taxi ranks The taxi council is due to launch the service at an event in Orlando West in Soweto on Thursday morning
Germany has pulled out of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Organisation, a blow to the project that plans to build the world’s largest radio telescope. But while insiders lament Germany’s withdrawal, they do not see it as a death knell for the project. With thousands of antennae spread across South Africa and Australia
Microsoft will launch its next-generation entertainment console, the Xbox One, in South Africa on 23 September. The price of the new console, which competes head-on with Sony’s PlayStation 4 – which is already on sale in South Africa – will start at R6 299,99, Microsoft said in a statement. A version with Kinect
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
