Towards the end of the Gulf war in 1991, an American armoured scout unit in Iraq’s southern desert stumbled upon a much larger elite force of dug-in Iraqi armour. Rather than retreating, the nine American tanks and 12 Bradley fighting vehicles attacked. When the battle ended about 25 minutes later, the Americans

We have more gadgets than panellists in the studio this week. Arthur Goldstuck, Ben Kelly, Nafisa Akabor and Simon Dingle unpack their backpacks and discuss news from the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the BlackBerry PlayBook 2.0, Nokia’s 41-megapixel camera phone, and much more

Imagine yourself with a thousand small crates that must be moved from A to B along roadways. Inside each is part of an intricate construction that cannot be complete until every piece has arrived. You have options. One is an oversized lorry that may pass only along the largest motorways, but can carry all

Convergence Partners, the technology investment vehicle controlled by Dimension Data Africa chairman Andile Ngcaba, wants to work with partners to build a multibillion-rand national wholesale mobile broadband network using long-term evolution (LTE) technology. TechCentral has learnt exclusively that Convergence Partners

What a news week! In the latest edition of TechCentral’s TalkCentral podcast, your hosts Duncan McLeod and Craig Wilson unpack the news that Convergence Partners, the technology investment vehicle of Dimension Data Africa chairman Andile Ngcaba, wants to work with partners to build a wholesale, open-access

MultiChoice flexed its legal muscle this week to keep the National Consumer ­Commission at bay, using a technicality in an attempt to squash the commission’s case against it. The pay-TV broadcaster was before the Consumer Tribunal this week because the commission believes that its subscriber contract violates the

Cellular operator MTN has warned that the Independent Communications Authority of SA’s (Icasa’s) draft proposals for licensing of spectrum in high-demand spectrum bands have the “high risk” of leading to “regulatory failure”. Efficient licensing of spectrum in the two bands in question

Described by its founder, Gerhard van der Westhuizen, as a “social publishing network”, Pretoria-based Internet start-up Snaglur has managed more than 50 000 sign-ups and generates about 15 000 unique visits a day just two months since launch. Similar to US social platforms Tumblr and Posterous

The Intelsat New Dawn satellite, partly funded by SA’s Convergence Partners, has had a troubled birth. Launched on Good Friday last year, the satellite ran into serious problems when its “west antenna reflector” failed to deploy. Engineers have been unable to correct the problem. A number of attempts were

“Ideas are like rabbits,” said John Steinbeck. “You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.” The same could be said of ideas fora, whose population expanded again in February with the birth of Solve For X, an experimental Google-sponsored conference where entrepreneurs