The number of video-on-demand subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa will grow by one million in 2014, despite the lack of broadband infrastructure in the region, according to a new report. However, most of those subscribers will receive VOD-based services not over broadband
Despite the growing popularity of smartphone-based instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp and WeChat, the traditional text message, based on SMS, is far from dead, a new research report claims. In fact, mobile operators are expected to enjoy increasing revenues
No one in Mandla Maseko’s family has ever stepped outside South Africa, but the young township deejay is set to rocket into space next year. From the dusty streets of Mabopane, near Pretoria, 25-year-old Maseko has landed a coveted seat to fly 103km into space in 2015, after
We are living through a privacy tipping point. Technology is changing dramatically what is possible in terms of surveillance, monitoring, persistence, analysis. We are cracking open the lid of Pandora’s Box. We still don’t really know what’s in the box. Maybe the benefits of the
The cost of electronic readers and bandwidth constraints in South Africa are keeping a lid of the sale of e-books, resulting in penetration being lower here than in many other markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This is a key finding in PwC’s recent report, South African
A Durban-based company, Maslow Holdings, has developed a gizmo that promises to turn any HDMI-enabled television set into a smart TV. The R1 195 Piko “smart stick” is the size of a USB flash drive and connects to a TV through HDMI. The Piko smart stick, which is manufactured
HTC, Sony, Samsung, LG, Apple, Nokia, Huawei. The world’s big smartphone makers are all expected to unveil new flagship devices in 2014, many of them in the next few months. But what can consumers look forward to?
Biological viruses are among the most rapidly evolving organisms on our planet. The same is true of computer viruses, except that malevolent human organisations are driving this evolution, not natural selection. The most recent strains of these digital pathogens are evidence that virus
In recent weeks, I’ve been fortunate to meet a range of really smart South African entrepreneurs who are doing incredibly exciting stuff in the technology space, often with relatively few resources. Despite all the doom and gloom that is our politics, and despite the poor state of
Emerge Mobile, an ambitious start-up based in Umhlanga, north of Durban, has developed a smartphone-based mobile payments system similar to the US solution Square, and has secured certifications from international bodies. It now plans to launch
