There is no shortage of entrepreneurial energy in SA, with many talented people with great business ideas jostling for attention. Yet very few of the country’s technology start-ups manage to grow into sustainable businesses. Against that backdrop, it is worth taking a closer
Browsing: Opinion
The Economist recently commented on the US$12,5bn bid by Google to acquire Motorola Mobility, the search giant’s biggest-ever deal. The magazine noted that the attraction for Google is not principally Motorola’s 19 000 employees, or even its 11% share of the US
To most of us, the Internet is pretty close to magic. Type in a search, click a link, and the info just arrives on our screens. There isn’t any visible evidence that actual work is needed to make this happen; no grinding gears or roaring burners, and there
Vodacom provoked an online backlash from consumers this week when it said it would throttle bandwidth for heavy users of the popular BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS). It says it’s protecting its users, but are the limitations it’s imposing too harsh? When Vodacom announced
I have often warned people about free classified websites like Gumtree because they are a breeding ground for scams and fraudsters out to deprive you of your money and your possessions. I’ve never been successfully scammed on
The Universal Service and Access Fund was established to bankroll projects that ensure universal access to communications technology for all SA citizens. Instead, a large part of it — if not all of it — is being earmarked for keeping the public watching television
It’s a bit of a daft argument for a largely online journalist to make, you might say. Why would I fly my flag under a banner which we are supposed to treat with scorn and derision, akin to the helium dirigibles of yore? Such is the hubris of online. All that talk of disrupting old models
The rules airlines impose on the use of electronic gadgetry on their aircraft are incoherent and in many cases downright silly. It is time the industry applied consistent guidelines on the use of cellphones, e-readers and tablets on their flights. I’ve been travelling extensively around
Michael Arrington may not be a household name outside of the technology sector, but if you run a tech start-up anywhere in the world, he might as well be a god. Coverage in his six-year-old blog, TechCrunch, has become the gold standard for getting noticed by both investors and
The saga of the Sunday Times Facebook racist story has taught us one thing: we don’t need a media tribunal when we have Twitter. Whatever the merits of the case – and the Sunday Times has argued vociferously to its detractors that there were several merits to publishing a