Give thanks, for once, to the law of unintended consequences. Too often, it seems, the secondary effects of policy decisions turn out to be at least perverse, if not downright detrimental. But in the case of last week’s congressional vote to extend America’s emergency payroll tax-cuts, the knock-on effects look
Sony unveiled two new smartphones on Sunday night at Mobile World Congress, the Xperia P and Xperia U, which will sit alongside the company’s previously announced Xperia S phone. Altogether, the phones make up Sony’s new “Xperia NXT” brand. More than just being the next
Samsung kicked off its Mobile World Congress presence by revealing two new devices on Sunday morning: a larger, 10,1-inch version of the Galaxy Tab 2 Android tablet, and the intriguing (and baffling) Galaxy Beam, an Android smartphone with a built-in projector. Given Samsung’s propensity for delivering tablets
Samsung’s Galaxy S III is beginning to feel like the next iPhone, at least when it comes to rumours. The latest report pegs the phone with a 4,8-inch screen — 0,2 inches larger than Google’s Galaxy Nexus — and a luxurious ceramic back, sources tell the mobile site Boy Genius Report. The large screen size wouldn’t
Just how much does your smartphone’s camera matter to you? With its latest flagship Android line, dubbed HTC One, Taiwanese phone manufacturer HTC is hoping that a killer camera is just enough to sway you over to its phones. Those killer features include the ability to take video and photos without switching modes
If you worked for five years on one project and had little to show for your efforts, would your boss fire you? The government has been plugging away at the digital terrestrial television migration now for half a decade and the broadcasting sector says the building blocks are still not in place. So what went wrong? And, why
Foreigners visiting America are taken aback by how lax locals are when using credit or debit cards to make purchases. Allowing a sales clerk to swipe a card at a check-out — instead of doing it personally on a shielded terminal while keying in a PIN number — is the first surprise. Handing over a credit card to a
Standard Bank caused a bit of a furore on Twitter on Thursday when it tweeted that it had lodged a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority over an advertisement competitor First National Bank placed in weekend newspapers. It accused its rival of “misleading advertising”. Although the bank says filing the complaint
There are countless iDevice docks on the market, and Philips has a full range of offerings from budget to bank-balance bending. The Fidelio DS9000 falls squarely into the latter category. Priced at R3 999 and weighing 6,5kg, it’s heavy in many senses, including on the eyes, but is it worthy of the space it
Earlier this week, Blue Label Telecoms, the largest distributor of prepaid vouchers airtime in SA, revealed that 8ta accounts for well under 1% of its airtime revenues. Vodacom, MTN and Cell C contribute 53%, 34% and 10% respectively. There was little doubt 8ta, which was launched in 2010 after Telkom disposed of
