Last year, Google announced something extraordinary: it was working on a wearable computer. Geeks around the world immediately began salivating at the very thought. Earlier this year, the company began sending early versions of the device to developers and technology commentators. Reactions have ranged
TopTV has had not an auspicious start to life. Although it was the only one of five new pay-TV operators licensed five years ago by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa to take on MultiChoice and DStv to actually launch, it was always going to be uphill. The troubled telecaster “celebrated” the end
Parliament’s joint committee on ethics and members’ interests has begun a behind-closed-doors probe into allegations that the communications minister’s alleged boyfriend, Phosane Mngqibisa, benefited financially from the sponsorship of 2012’s ICT Indaba in Cape Town. The committee
Last week, Yahoo released new applications for mobile phones and tablets. Android tablet and iPad users got an e-mail application, while iPhone users received a weather app that makes Apple’s equivalent look rudimentary and crude by comparison. These are just
Laying fibre-optic cabling isn’t normally considered a dangerous job — difficult, time consuming and labour intensive, yes, but not physically dangerous. Except in Johannesburg, where gangs of thugs have begun threatening contractors with guns. Why on earth are these gangs terrorising
Six months after Sprint announced it was in talks to sell 70% of its equity to Japan’s SoftBank for US$20bn, Dish Network Corp, a US direct-to-home satellite pay-TV operator with 14m subscribers, has put in a bid of $25,5bn to buy the wireless communications firm. It’s a move
At barely 15 years old, Google enjoys the kind of market dominance in web search that would have made the oil barons of the 19th century envious. Its market share in most countries is 90% or higher. Even in its competitive home market Google accounts for 70% of all web searches, despite rivals like Microsoft spending
A revised version of government’s national broadband plan, published in the Government Gazette last week, makes all of the right noises about bridging the digital divide, making connectivity affordable and reducing duplication of infrastructure but, like a previous incarnation, it fails to offer concrete direction
The under-resourced and often ineffective Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has a reputation for lacking teeth when it comes to enforcing order in the telecommunications sector it regulates. For example, there’s still no clear outcome in the case of the alleged unlawful use by wireless Internet
For a company with a billion customers, Facebook can be quite stealthy. Its latest product, Facebook Home, could convert tens of millions of Android-powered phones into Facebook portals constantly connected to its services simply by encouraging users to install a piece of software. By doing so, Facebook has wheeled a
