Author: Contributor
By Staff Writer In a bid to make it easier for customers to access content in the most affordable way, Vodacom is working with YouTube to launch YouTube Smart Offline. This service allows Vodacom’s Android customers to schedule video downloads overnight (between 00:00 and 05:00). With YouTube Smart Offline, customers can save on data costs by purchasing Vodacom’s lower priced ‘Night Owl Bundles’ when downloading their favourite videos. The service is currently available to Prepaid and Hybrid customers with contract bundles expected to launch in the next couple of months. “We have always emphasised that our competitive advantage lies in…
By Vimal J. Naikeny, chief technology officer for Digital & Cloud Business at Huawei Technologies The intelligent world has three defining characteristics: All things are getting digital, gradually getting connected and some are even gaining the ability to sense, that’s how fast ICT is advancing. In an intelligent world, devices are playing the role of the “feelers”, in an all-sensing environment. Networks have started connecting everything, and the cloud is becoming the source of intelligence behind all things. These three elements form an architecture that promotes seamless interaction between devices, information pipes, and the cloud. This is the era of diversification, an…
by Anton van Heerden, MD and executive vice-president of Africa & Middle East at Sage This week (25 May) at BotCon in Cape Town, South African developers and enterprises will showcase some of the ways they’re putting the newest artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to work. Some of the latest developments are a little scary, especially for those who have grown up with rogue AIs and robots in science-fiction or have read the headlines about how we’ll lose millions of jobs worldwide to automation by 2020. What does this mean for the average business builder or entrepreneur in South Africa? My…
When Chris Mulder, head of collections at The Unlimited, wanted to automate a simple process, he hit a wall. IT’s plate was overflowing and his project ranked too low in priority to get attention any time soon. Even if there was a spot, he’d have to face the daunting bureaucratic lumbering required: “If you want a technology change, you have to go through the process of business analysis, compiling business requirement documents, have a technical spec drawn up, all with a lot of back and forth. It’s incredibly tedious and, if you aren’t technical, tough to follow.” The slow age…
By Reshaad Sha, CEO at SqwidNet Along with the rest of the world, South Africa is in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution, in which the smart use of information and technology is reshaping societies. One of the most apparent ways in which this is happening can be seen is in the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), where smart, connected devices are being deployed in cities and industries globally, to gather data and glean contextual insights which are used to achieve higher levels of efficiency, productivity and utilization of scarce and natural resources. The reach of IoT is…
By Staff Writer The fact that 80% of cellphone users keep their mobile devices within arm’s reach, coupled with growing acceptance of preteen mobile use, means parenting in the age of always-on connectivity has taken on a decidedly digital edge. That’s the word from South Africa’s Wireless Application Service Providers’ Association (WASPA) which adds that the solution and the challenge of protecting children from digital threats are two sides of the same mobile coin. “Parents cannot hope to be ‘always-on’, standing ready to guide their children as they navigate social media, over the top (OTT) messaging platforms and the mobile…
By Hans Geldenhuys, managing sales director at Intelsat Africa is projected to be one of the world’s fastest-growing television markets over the next decade. To cement that position, cable distributors are banking on population surges in some of the continent’s largest cities, and fresh, new content that resonates with the indigenous culture. It goes without saying that viewers are drawn to programming with storylines, characters and even real-life scenarios they can relate to. Intelsat has been part of the television fabric in Africa for many decades. We were the first satellite operator to provide connectivity to educational networks and to…
By Staff Writer JSE listed Capital Appreciation Limited announced on Wednesday that it has acquired 100 percent of Synthesis Software Technologies for R132.1 million. Synthesis is a specialised financial technology company that provides software development, consulting and integration services to financial institutions. Current clients include blue chip financial organisations such as Investec, Absa, Standard Bank, Capitec and Nedbank. It will remain independent, operating as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Capital Appreciation. Synthesis will continue to grow as a specialised financial technology provider with access to capital and other resources within Capital Appreciation to further invest in the business and expand its…
By David Cosgrave, Customer Intelligence Lead at SAS There are two kinds of people in the world: those who love shopping and those who would rather watch paint dry than step foot into a mall. I fall into the latter group. For me, shopping is a mission. The process usually goes like this: No, thank you. I would much rather shop online, even though it has its own drawbacks: I can’t try on anything I buy and I might have to wait a day or two to receive my order, which is not ideal in an age of instant gratification.…
By Staff Writer Internet Solutions, a pan-African telecommunications service provider, announced today the company’s roadmap to South Africa’s ‘first’ network- and tech-agnostic Internet of Things (IoT) platform to enable the vision of “Hybrid IoT”. The company owned by Dimension Data Group and part of NTT Group said on Tuesday that in partnership with Comsol Networks as the initial network connectivity solutions provider with its low-power wide area network (LoRaWAN) technology, the platform will present local businesses with a low-risk, fast-deployment means of exploring how IoT can make their operations more efficient, responsive and customer-centric. Internet Solutions’ IoT platform will offer intelligent, automated…