The continent is being hailed as a global cellphone banking and payments innovation hub, but it seems the sector will be coming under increasing regulatory scrutiny as the relationships between cellphone operators and banks are placed under the spotlight. A survey of players in the African
Director Rian Johnson is keenly aware that the mechanics of time travel in movies don’t make much sense – and that they make less sense the more you think about them. In Looper, he cheekily dismisses the physics with a wave of his hand and tells you to think about the metaphysics instead
A hacker is claiming responsibility for disrupting three South African government websites. The social development department’s website opened to a black page with a window containing the animated graphic “Website hacked by H4ksniper” and a graphic depicting
Stellenbosch-based mobile social network Mxit is retrenching as much as 27% of its workforce, company insiders say. This comes just months after the exit of CEO Alan Knott-Craig, who also formerly headed up the investment vehicle World of Avatar of which Mxit is part. TechCentral has learnt
Your hosts Duncan McLeod and Craig Wilson are back with the another episode of the fresh-look TalkCentral podcast. It’s also our second-last podcast of 2012. In this week’s show, we look at the top three news stories of the last seven days and pick our winner and loser of the week – this week it’s Microsoft and Apple
Despite Johannesburg’s position as South Africa’s economic hub, Cape Town is often considered the country’s technology start-up capital. A new technology hub in the city of gold, called JoziHub, may help in starting to change that. JoziHub, which will be launched in the first quarter of next
Proposed amendments to the Icasa Act, which governs the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, have come under heavy fire, with critics warning the changes hand too much power to communications minister Dina Pule. After two years of inaction, government has revived the Icasa
Apple’s smaller, 7,9-inch iPad has landed on South African shores, along with the new full-sized, fourth-generation iPad. The iPad mini, as the smaller variant is called, starts at just R3 399, which is particularly well priced given the product costs $329 in the US and the rand has weakened substantially against
Standard Bank will begin including contactless payment technology in new credit and cheque cards, allowing customers to make payments using the “tap-and-go” method, rather than them having to have their cards swiped or inserted into a chip reader. All new gold and titanium credit and
Pretoria and Cape Town are home to two of the most advanced forensic laboratories in the world, but the biggest limitation to their efficacy is the lack of a national and standardised DNA database. Major-general Adeline Shezi of the South African Police Service’s forensic services division says the country has
