Investment in information technology will be a key focus area for US retailing giant Wal-Mart if it proceeds with its nonbinding offer to buy SA retail group Massmart in a R30bn deal. Massmart, which owns Makro and other discount stores, told shareholders on Monday morning that Wal-Mart Stores had made a preliminary, nonbinding proposal, which could lead to the world’s largest retailer acquiring the JSE-listed group for R148/share.

Amid the madness of the iPhone 4 launching in SA, Simon Dingle, Brett Haggard, Candice Jones and Steven Ambrose gather to discuss how touch-phone competitors are stacking up against Apple, Pirate Bay, digital photography and much, much more

Ben Kelly, Brett Haggard and Simon Dingle are your panelists this week as we discuss Nokia’s new aggression, Windows Phone 7, Internet Explorer 9, MTN’s new green base station, Cell C launching 3G in Bloemfontein, and, as always, much, much more

Brett Haggard and Candice Jones kick off the show this week, joined later by Duncan McLeod. They discuss Cell C’s 4Gs naming debate, broadband pricing, Google Instant Search, Xbox Live and Xbox Kinect, Windows Phone 7, new undersea cables, and much more besides

Episode 127 of this fantabulous tech podcast is manned by Ben Kelly and Simon Dingle. They discuss Sentech getting hoofed out of parliament, Cell C’s 3G network expansion, Apple’s new products, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, and much more

Sony has fired an important salvo in the motion controller moves with the September launch of the PlayStation Move controller for the PlayStation 3. This control scheme is Sony’s bid to capture some of the casual gaming market that Nintendo currently dominates and that Microsoft will also target with its Kinect motion-sensing camera.

Sparks are expected to fly at the department of communications on Monday when ousted director-general Mamodupi Mohlala is set to return to work. Mohlala says she is determined to reclaim her old job after department of public service & administration apparently failed to find her an equivalent position in another government department.

Police and governments around the world need to collaborate more closely to develop the security legislation and training needed to combat a growing tide of cybercrime. That’s according to Microsoft’s global chief security advisor, Roger Halbheer.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has apologised for its statement criticising the functionality of SA’s satellite SumbandilaSAt. Last week, the DA’s shadow minister for science and technology, Marian Shinn, lambasted the department of science & technology for its proposed investment in SumbandilaSat’s builder, Sunspace, which was approved by cabinet earlier this year.

Falling mobile termination rates and slow recovery of the economy are dampening the growth of SA’s telecommunications market. That’s according to a new report from BMI-TechKnowledge (BMI-T). The report forecasts that the industry will grow only 5% over the next five years, with most of that growth coming from data services.