Author: Gugu Lourie
Computers have always been good at doing fast calculations, but adapting to the emotional state of the person using the computer – now there is a grand challenge! The field is called affective computing, and soon it will be an important factor in the way people and computers communicate with each other. By David Tuffley The computer will interpret your body language to determine how you are feeling and then tailor its response intuitively, just as we do with each other. What’s more, we will like it because it is far more intuitive than the keyboard, mouse and touch screen as…
President Jacob Zuma and Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari are expected to meet in Johannesburg this week to discuss the $5.2 billion (R74 billion) fine imposed on MTN Group’s Nigerian unit for failure to register 5.1 million customers. By Staff Writer The Sunday Times newspaper said Buhari is expected to meet Zuma on the sidelines of the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation, which gets under way in Johannesburg this week. The South African government has been unwilling to confirm or deny its involvement in the MTN matter. Clayson Monyela, spokesman for the Department of International Relations, told the Sunday Times that government…
Online businesses helped spur on a 24% year-on-year revenue growth at internet and media giant Naspers. By Gareth van Zyl, NewsAgency In its interim results announcement on Friday, Naspers reported that its revenue measured on an economic interest base topped R74.3bn for the six months ended September 2015. Meanwhile, the company also said that its core headline earnings increased by 45% year on year to R8.8bn with its stake in Chinese internet giant Tencent and South African video-entertainment businesses being the main contributors. Naspers owns a 34% stake in Tencent. Breaking down its numbers further, Naspers reported that its internet segment…
Minister of Communications Faith Muthambi plans to appeal a court decision to have SABC boss Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s appointment declared unlawful and irrational. By Gareth van Zyl, NewsAgency Western Cape High Court Judge Dennis Davis handed down judgment on the matter on Friday amid a legal challenge from opposition party the Democratic Alliance (DA). The DA launched its court case against Muthambi regarding Motsoeneng’s appointment as chief operating officer following a report from Public Protector Thuli Madonsela that said Motsoeneng must be disciplined for falsely claiming to have a matric certificate. “(The) Minister has noted the judgment of the court and…
The DA won its high court application on Friday to have its appointment of SABC boss Hlaudi Motsoeneng declared unlawful and irrational. By Jenni Evans, NewsAgency The Western Cape High Court’s judge Dennis Davis handed down the judgment in a few minutes. “We won,” said Democratic Alliance lawyer Anton Katz outside the court. – News24
The American sales tradition of Black Friday should be known as Bits and Bytes Friday in South Africa following the announcement by web hosting firm Domains.co.za that it is offering an enormous 300 gigabyte ADSL package for just R499 per month. As long as potential clients sign up for this special deal between Black Friday and Cyber Monday (Friday, 27 November from 00h00 until 23h59 on Monday, 30 November), they’ll be able to enjoy this no-contract, unshaped broadband offering with a whopping six-month rollover for an unlimited time. “We’re using Black Friday to celebrate just how far South Africa’s broadband market…
Touch screens are incorporated into almost all new technologies, from smart-phones, tablet computers and personal gadgets to flat panel televisions and household appliances. This explosion of technology is reliant on a key component: a display that is both transparent and able to conduct electrical charge. By Wallace Wong With the ever increasing volume of devices, the future of such technologies faces substantial hurdles – material availability and raising costs. The most commonly used transparent conducting material comes from limited mineral resources, and despite almost a decade of research there is no clear replacement. Alternatives which are getting some traction include silver…
Absa, one of SA’s big four banks, is in a process of buying a controlling stake in an online life insurance distribution platform, Instant Life, for an undisclosed amount. By Gugu Lourie The transaction will give Absa a 75% stake in Instant Life, online life insurance distribution platform offering life, disability and critical illness cover to qualifying customers. The online insurer was established in 2008 to address a growing market for pure-risk life insurance sold online. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals (including approval from the South African Reserve Bank). “The acquisition of Instant Life will provide Absa with a scalable platform to…
FNB was recently recognised for being the “Most Innovative MVNO” in the Telecoms.com Awards that conferred in London. By Staff Writer “We are extremely proud of this achievement, and it is a testament to our culture of innovation and commitment to providing the best products and services to our customers,” say Shadrack Palmer, Chief Commercial Officer of FNB Connect. In June 2015 FNB became the first bank in South Africa to launch a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO). The take up of the service has been nothing short of extraordinary and at the beginning of November, FNB announced that…
IT entrepreneur Patrick Palmi is encouraging South Africans to make a free calls on their mobile phones in exchange for listening to an advertisement from a consumer brand. By Gugu Lourie The owner of justpalm.com has created a platform called Chichi Sponsored Call Marketing that enables brands to give away instant airtime for free in exchange for listening to a promotion. The platform will help brands to reach new people. The airtime giveaways may also assist brands to build loyalty with customers, who cannot afford airtime and relies on free WhatsApp calls and SMS to communicate with friends and loved…
by Gugu Lourie Instead of waiting to see a cashier at a glass booth, Absa customers at selected branches will be greeted at the door by staff armed with iPads and other devices, who will answer questions and help them perform banking operations that were previously confined to teller-based services. The new service is being piloted in seventeen of the bank’s branches across Gauteng including the newly opened Verdi Centre branch in Northcliff, Johannesburg as well as Irene branch in Pretoria. The bank said the iPad offering brings four stand-alone insurance products that make legal, life and funeral cover accessible…
For companies who have come to rely on SIM cards for machine-to-machine communication and other enterprise-level solutions, fraud can be crippling. Fortunately, there are several preventative measures decision-makers can take to minimise the risk. By Hein Koen, co-founder of Flickswitch Any company with a sizeable SIM base has experienced fraud in some way – it is one of those things that often gets hidden in the plethora of bills a company receives. We have seen a few cases each totalling well over a R1-million. To say that SIM fraud can put a small company out of business is not an…
Cell C is pleased to announce that 1 December brings the commercial launch of its LTE service to customers in the Western Cape, in time for the festive season. By Staff Writer “I am exceptionally proud of the team for getting the Western Cape up and running so quickly. The first phase of 280 sites across the Western Cape is now complete and ready for customers to enjoy,” says Cell C CEO Jose Dos Santos. Western Cape LTE customers will also be treated to the same launch offer that those in Gauteng and KwaZulu Natal received. The first 1000 customers…
Ahead of the festive season, Incredible Connection has introduced a new range of tablets – Click – exclusive to the retailer. By Staff Writer What’s more, the retailer will also be introducing a 3G enabled tablet aimed at children between ages 3 and 10 with a custom software interface that specifically caters to children – the new ClickTab Kids 7. “As consumers become more reliant on mobile devices for their digital lifestyle and business requirements, the ClickTab range delivers on our promise and commitment to providing consumers with a variety of options to meet their diverse needs – all…
From 2003, the South African government has been engaged in an interesting dance with FOSS – free open source software. By Phehello Mofokeng, director of Geko Labs, a Johannesburg-based ERP integration and implementation firm In 2007, after a range of consultative meetings and other forms of flirtation with industry experts, Chief Information Officers and other members of the public, a formal policy – to the effect that South African government will adopt open source software wherever possible – was officially adopted. The idea behind this policy was that, where possible government should avoid expensive proprietary software licensing and the collusive…
Traditional retailers and online stores are gearing up for Black Friday, which is likely to give the SA retail sector a pre-Christmas boost. By Dane McDonald, NewsAgency Black Friday originated in the US and is the Friday after the American Thanksgiving when retailers sell their merchandise at massive discounts. The term is historically known in the American retail industry as the day on which business began to turn a profit (in the black) after having operated at a loss (in the red) since January. It is also regarded as the official start of the Christmas shopping season. Checkers was the first…
South African companies can now optimise their IT team’s value delivery, with the recently-released IT4IT™ Reference Architecture Version 2.0, launched by The Open Group in October 2015. The IT4IT™ Standard was created by members of The Open Group: the global vendor-neutral IT consortium aimed at furthering adoption of open architecture, as well as creating standards such as TOGAF®, an Open Group standard. It is essentially a blueprint for a vendor-neutral reference architecture and value chain-based operating model. It provides the structure and tools for organisations to manage their IT function as if it were a business in…
There was to have been a conference in Malaysia last week called Love and Sex with Robots but it was cancelled. Malaysian police branded it “illegal” and “ridiculous”. “There is nothing scientific about sex with robots,” said a police chief. By Sean Welsh However, others believe there are many interesting and important aspects of intimate robot partners that are worth researching and discussing. There is a lot of science in Ava and Kyoko, the sexually capable robots in the movie Ex Machina, for example. Concepts raised in the film include the Turing Test and the Mary’s room thought experiment of…
Human beings inherit many genetic traits directly from their parents. However, cultural traits – tools, beliefs and behaviors that are transmitted by learning – can be passed on not only by parents but also teachers and peers. By Nicole Creanza and Oren Kolodny Many animals have learned behaviors, but people are uniquely good at building on existing knowledge to innovate further. This capacity, known as cumulative culture, was captured by Sir Isaac Newton when he said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” We can see evidence of this cumulative culture in the archaeological…
EXL, a Nasdaq listed business process solutions company, celebrated the opening of its new call centre in Cape Town on Tuesday. By Carin Smith, NewsAgency The centre will support all regions that have customer relationships or processes conducted in English, particularly relevant to companies in the UK and Europe given cultural similarity and time zone advantages, according to Rohit Kapoor, vice chair and CEO of EXL. The centre, situated in Cape Town’s tallest building, the Portside Tower, currently employs 60 people, but this is expected to increase up to 3 000 jobs over the next three years. “We’re committed to growing…
The HP Elite x2 is an incredibly versatile tablet that offers the productivity of a full notebook with the convenience of a tablet perfectly designed for the mobile professional. “We designed the HP Elite x2 to be thin, light and powerful in a way that captures the simplicity and elegance users will love while also delivering the durability, serviceability, security and manageability IT departments need to enable true mobile productivity,” said Frank Brassart, director, commercial mobility, personal systems EMEA, HP Inc. New level of design and performance The Elite x2 is a premium design from HP, crafted from milled…
Trade union Solidarity on Tuesday accused pay-TV channel M-Net of discriminating unfairly against white people. The allegation comes after M-Net has indicated in a recent advertisement that only black, Indian and coloured candidates may apply for a paid internship programme offered by M-Net’s Magic in Motion Academy. According to the advertisement up to 20 individuals can be accommodated in the programme. Dirk Groenewald, head of Solidarity’s centre for fair labour practices, said the advertisement does not comply with the provisions of the Employment Equity Act. “The said advertisement boils down to nothing but the total exclusion of white people and…
Merck is planning to launch its Muse Auto CD4/CD4% System, a portable instrument for monitoring the progression of the HIV/AIDS virus, throughout Africa. By Staff Writer The portable device has received regulatory approval in Nigeria, Cote d’lvoire, Cameroon and Angola, and is pending in South Africa. Of the more than 35 million people infected with HIV worldwide, 25 million live in Africa alone – and only 19 million are aware of their status, according to a 2014 UNAIDS report. Many patients in this part of the world, particularly those in rural areas, lack access to regular medical care. Treatment is often hindered by…
Global leading sexual wellbeing brand, Durex launched an international campaign calling for the creation of the world’s first official safe sex emoji, ahead of World AIDS Day on 1 December 2015. Research conducted by Durex reveals emojis play a vital role in young people’s conversation around sex with 80% of 16-25 year olds finding it easier to express themselves using emojis and over half of respondents regularly using emojis when discussing sex. 84% of 16-25 year olds said they feel more comfortable talking about sex using emojis. More worrying is the rise in apathy towards engaging in safer sexual practices…
The technology industry’s love affair with the so-called ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) continues unabated. Technologists in almost every industry are touting the future of connected sensors, devices, components, and actuators – all pumping information into a sprawling network of cloud services. By Michael Frans, head of business operations: Automotive at T-Systems South Africa The automotive industry is regarded as one of the verticals most perfectly primed to capitalise on The IoT, and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication advancements. In recent years, high-tech companies like Tesla, Apple and Uber have raced into leading positions in the automotive and transportation arenas. New technology has…