Everyday objects with network connections that can collect and share data or be remotely controlled – the Internet of things – promise to transform the way we interact with the world around us by fusing the physical and digital into what is gradually being referred to
A medical application that allows healthcare professionals to share photos of patient cases and get input from their colleagues around the world has been launched in South Africa. Figure 1 is like Instagram for doctors and is already used by more than 150 000 healthcare professionals worldwide
According to TechRepublic, Google produced two of the five worst technology products of 2009 – Android 1.0 and Google Wave. The fact that Google remains dominant suggests that, while not infallible, it’s rich enough to take risks and weather occasional failures. If you are as rich as Google, it’s not extravagant to allow
Facebook’s Instagram has launched a new one-to-one visual messaging application for iOS and Android called Bolt – and it’s launched the product first in South Africa, New Zealand and Singapore. The Bolt app, which appears to be a response to the wildly popular Snapchat, lets users “capture and send photos and videos to friends with just
Start-up 250gram, based in Cape Town, which lets Instagram users print images from their picture feed in a Polaroid-type format, has been launched, hoping to tap into the growing interest in the social image-sharing service. The company requires a minimum of 15 Instagram prints to be
An Instagram account that showcases the very best photos from around the country, and managed by a fan of the popular image-sharing service, is fast indirectly becoming the service’s unofficial South African marketing presence. The account invites anyone to use the hashtag
It emerged this week, in an article in the Wall Street Journal, that Snapchat, a Californian start-up that develops a smartphone app of the same name popular among teens, recently spurned a US$3bn-plus all-cash offer from Facebook to buy it out. The offer value was at least three times the already
Until now the largest social network in South Africa, Mxit, which claims to have 7,4m active monthly users, has been knocked from the top spot by Facebook, with an estimated 9,4m active users, a number the researchers say may actually be on the conservative side
“It’s all about the ecosystem.” That’s a catchphrase much bandied about these days. For mobile device manufacturers, having a range of quality software is as important as the hardware. Perhaps even more important. Two companies, Finland’s Nokia and Canada’s
PicPlz, a competitor to photo-sharing service Instagram, has told users it will be shutting down its service at the beginning of next month and deleting all images off its servers. Users can download their images before 3 July. In a post on its website, PicPlz says a decision has been taken “to move on
