BlackBerry in SA safe from spies

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There was no “backdoor pipeline” to BlackBerry South Africa’s platform, the company said on Tuesday following reports that the UK government had been monitoring e-mails and phone calls. “While we cannot comment on media reports regarding alleged government surveillance of telecommunications traffic

Cellphones with serious bling

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It seems there is a market for ­people willing to pay between R50 000 and R159 000 for a phone from luxury brand Vertu. This is a trend that is expected to grow. A case in point is the R69 000 offered on Bidorbuy, no less, for Vertu’s relatively cheap Ascent Red phone. Vertu employee Antonio Ambrosio

Eskom battles forces of darkness

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The country’s electricity reserve margin slid to a perilously low 63MW, or 0,2%, early last week, heightening concerns that South Africa is a hair’s breadth from experiencing rolling power cuts. Despite the heightened risk, Eskom has several options to manage the very tight power system, said its spokesman, Hilary Joffe

Telkom may sell assets – report

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Potential job cuts and the disposal of money-losing assets is looming at Telkom, Business Report said on Tuesday. The restructuring came at a time when the telecommunications company ramped up its bid to cut costs and position itself to compete in a cut-throat market. According

Where are SA’s next mavericks?

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Mark Shuttleworth certainly isn’t afraid of taking the proverbial bull by the horns. After selling his South African Internet security business Thawte for US$575m at the height of the dot-com bubble, spending $20m and a year in training to become the first South African in space, and launching an operating system

How the SA gov’t spies on you

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Americans are shocked and ­outraged at ­revelations that their government is vacuuming up information about their phone conversations and internet browsing habits but, compared to South Africans, they have little to worry about. According to ­exposés by the Guardian and

ZATS: Ep 262 – ‘An Apple a day’

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Brett Haggard, Steven Ambrose and Andy Hadfield can seemingly only talk about one thing when it comes to the show this week. They give their views on Apple Mac OS X 10.9 “Mavericks”, the updated Mac Pro, the updated MacBook Air, early impressions of iOS 7, the launch of iTunes Radio

Balloons: Google’s plan to connect the world

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First it was self-driving cars, then Google Glass, and now with Project Loon, Google is turning its attention to … balloons. The company has begun a pilot project in New Zealand using high-pressure balloons in the stratosphere to provide Internet connectivity “at 3G speeds” and, if it goes well, Google wants to encircle