A new Kickstarter project from a team of Kenyans wanting to build a piece of ruggedised communications hardware called BRCK has attracted more than 830 backers since it was launched on 5 May. Ushahidi, the company behind BRCK, had hoped to raise US$125 000. It reached this target on Monday night
MTN expects to sign up its 200 millionth active subscriber before the middle of the year, its CEO, Sifiso Dabengwa, told shareholders at the group’s annual general meeting in Roodepoort on Tuesday. By the end of April, MTN had signed up 197,4m subscribers in the 22 markets in Africa and
Those critical of Apple suggest iOS, its operating system for the iPhone and the iPad, has fallen behind Google’s Android and even Microsoft’s Windows Phone. I’m inclined to agree — and I’m an iPhone user. Though much of the speculation around the upcoming iOS 7 has dealt
The primary obstacle to providing world-class connectivity to South Africans is the lack of sufficient inland infrastructure. Overcoming this will require a coordinated effort. This is according to undersea cable company Seacom’s CEO Mark Simpson, who was speaking at the Satcom conference in Sandton
Google may be planning to use blimps, balloons and other “high-altitude platforms” over developing markets in Africa and Asia to provide wireless Internet access to areas that are currently not well served. High-altitude platforms, or Haps, can be manned or unmanned aircraft, balloons or blimps that operate between 17km
Is it 1999 again? The heady days of the dot-com boom are long past and yet Yahoo’s sudden binge of acquisitions – some of them of dubious value – betray the same irrational exuberance and hope. This year so far, Yahoo has snapped up 10 companies. This is not that
Newspaper publishing and printing group Caxton has agreed to buy the 32,7% of FoneWorx held by a trust controlled by the Kirsh family, ending a dispute between the trust and management of the JSE-listed fax-to-e-mail specialist. The Kirsh family trust – led by
The high cost of broadband Internet access, low Internet penetration and slow Internet connectivity is holding South Africa back, according to Stanlib chief economist Kevin Lings. In a research note released this week, Lings says several global studies have found compelling links
In January, in the flurry of resolution that accompanies the new year, Dino Maloko (not his real name), 40, decided to bite the bullet and pay off his credit card. He was over R40 000 in the red, and he wanted to start the year off right. So he made a large payment into his bank credit card account and got his card debt
Just as the music industry was getting used to the idea of another shift in formats – from compact discs as the distribution mechanism to digital downloads over the Internet – another huge change in the way people listen to music looks set to shake the business to its foundations. A decade after Steve Jobs
