Author: Gugu Lourie
Forget the Turing and Lovelace tests on artificial intelligence: I want to see a robot pass the Frampton Test. Let me explain why rock legend Peter Frampton enters the debate on AI. For many centuries, much thought was given to what distinguishes humans from animals. These days thoughts turn to what distinguishes humans from machines. By David Lovell The British code breaker and computing pioneer, Alan Turing, proposed “the imitation game” (also known as the Turing test) as a way to evaluate whether a machine can do something we humans love to do: have a good conversation. If a human judge…
In a South African first, customers can now securely and conveniently purchase apps and content from Google Play using their devices and charge it directly to their Telkom mobile bill or airtime. Staff Writer Direct Carrier Billing, an integrated carrier billing service, for Google Play for smartphones and tablets is now available on Telkom’s mobile network. The service available through the integration of Telkom’s event billing service with the Bango Payments Platform. This will enable Telkom customers to buy books, applications and in-game purchases from the Google Play Store and charge it directly to their mobile phone bill or airtime.…
Martin Benjamin is a young man from Coronation in Johannesburg. He is only 32 years old but he has many ideas and is not afraid to test them. To some, Benjamin is a smart worker in love with the new digital world. To others, especially those in the know about telcos, Benjamin is a worthy skills investment for the future at MTN, Africa and Middle East’s mobile phone powerhouse. By Gugu Lourie Benjamin joined MTN as a data contract agent three years ago and has fast become a star employee with potential for greater things. MTN is an “awesome company”, says Benjamin.…
The future for broadcasters might look bleak, but there are also some likely winners. Streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime or Apple TV spring immediately to mind, but there is also room in the market for investigative news media such as The Guardian, The Times, or The Economist. By Martin Friesl The review of the BBC’s charter overseen by culture secretary John Whittingdale doesn’t just have important implications for one of the UK’s most iconic institutions, it is also a symptom of a broader phenomenon: the disruption of television by on-demand content. The future for broadcasters might look bleak, but…
Although e-commerce is growing fast in South Africa and across the continent, the majority of the population in African markets is still excluded from buying online. This is no fault of online retailers or service providers – it is simply because many South Africans (and Africans) do not have their own bank account or a credit card. By Staff Writer Research group McKinsey have projected that around 80% of the continent’s population is not connected to formal financial services, while MasterCard says only 2% of retail transactions in Africa are electronic. Without a credit card or access to…
Cell C is adding a R5 WhatsApp bundle to its portfolio of products, giving its customers access to a month’s access to WhatsApp to a fair usage of 1GB. By Staff Writer “For close to a year, Cell C has offered Free WhatsApp to customers and now that the promotion is coming to an end, we really wanted to give customers the best possible value on this service,” says Cell C CEO Jose Dos Santos. The bundle will be available to customers from 1 September. For a R5 access fee customers will be able to send pictures, voice messages, videos…
In a move to diversify revenue streams, Massmart has clinched a deal with Apple to transform some of its DionWired shops into Apple White Stores. By Gugu Lourie Retail giant Massmart, which owns Game, Makro and Builders’ Warehouse, on Thursday announced that some of its DionWired stores will become Apple White Stores. “We are excited that nine stores (DionWired) have been selected recently to become Apple White Stores,” Massmart CEO Guy Hawyard, inform investors via the JSE. The retailer, which is owned by US Walmart, said on Thursday that DionWired’s total sales growth was 7.9% and the online offering…
MTN has signed an agreement with Liquid Telecom triggering speculation that the boss of Africa’s largest mobile phone operator Sifiso Dabengwa was finally ready to spend some of the group’s R31 billion cash pile. Dabengwa has the option of spending a small fraction of it to buy an operator with a much-needed fixed-line network footprint across the region. He could also go for the parent company. By Gugu Lourie Africa’s mobile phone powerhouse, MTN seems ready to tackle the continent’s market’s next frontier – fibre-to-the-home (FTTH), fibre-to-the-business (FTTB) and fibre-to-the-kerb (FTTx). The mobile operator, which is losing market share in…
Having faced nasty bill shocks at month end, or struggled to get out of onerous mobile contracts, many consumers have long since made the switch to prepaid SIM cards. From high-powered executives to cash strapped students, prepaid has proved a popular option for anyone wanting to monitor their phone spend and budget accordingly. And as the cost of voice and data continues to decrease (and equals out for both contract and prepaid customers), more consumers are recognising the inherent benefits that prepaid SIMs present. By Hein Koen, cofounder of Flickswitch. Unsurprisingly, local businesses are also beginning to recognise that…
Apple is about to open a new front in the ongoing war against online advertising. The new version of its mobile operating system, iOS 9, will support ad blocking by Safari, its mobile web browser. By David Glance A study by Adobe and pro-advertising company PageFair finds that the popularity of ad blocking extensions in desktop web browsers is responsible for US$22 billion in lost revenue to the websites that host ads. They estimate that there are now 198 million users worldwide actively blocking ads. Amongst 400 users surveyed by the report’s authors, the main reasons cited for using ad…
The latest furore to emerge in the world of Bitcoin concerns a fork. Forking – where two distinct block chains briefly co-exist – may take on two forms: an accidental fork (typically caused by a bug) or, as in this case, a hard fork, when cryptocurrency developers decide that changes must be made to the programming of the coin that will create incompatibilities between the older and newer versions. By Windsor Holden The hard fork that is currently the cause of sound and fury in Bitcoin forums is known as the Bitcoin XT Fork. Essentially, the fork has been created…
Webfluential, the online platform – which already has a cumulative site reach of more than 80-million people across the globe designed to provide influencers on social platforms with a means of quantifying their influence so that they can generate a new revenue stream off the media that they have created – is targeting growth in East and West Africa. By Gugu Lourie Webfluential announced on Wednesday that it is investing in its growth in Africa by introducing an agency partner programme and Cape Town based office. It added that the agency partner programme is in the process of being rolled-out…
Are you frustrated by data that depletes faster? Is your smartphone emptying your wallet and you can’t account for depleted data bundles which you don’t recall using? By MTN Despair no more, the depleting data could be explained by the settings you have on your shiny new handset. LTE compliant handsets Many modern smartphones are configured for heavy data usage and are compliant with new generation networks such as Long Term Evolution, otherwise known as LTE or 4G. This super-fast network is capable of high download speeds and heavy data consumption which ensures that users can seamlessly undertake a…
All shareholders of Welkom Yizani, the black economic empowerment (BEE) shares of Media24, will be receiving a net special dividend of 18c/share for the 2015 financial year to benefit from the listing of Novus Holdings. By Gugu Lourie Welkom Yizani holds 15% stake in Media24, a print media dominated operation within the Naspers stable. The board of Media24 will recommend that a R100 million special dividend be pay to shareholders, including Welkom Yizani, of the media firm at the annual general meeting to be held on Monday. Welkom Yizani investors will receive a dividend of R3 million, resulting in each…
ERP is for most, a daunting and overwhelming consideration – more so for the mid-market or medium sized organisation. By Heath Huxtable, head of consulting and software integration at Vox Telecom The reality is that it is difficult to get right and unless you are dealing with experienced consultants, it is not only a costly undertaking, but brings a layer of complexity that is often grossly under-estimated. The complexity of an ERP deployment and implementation is due largely to the fact that you’re dealing with the entire business operation – sales, procurement, marketing, stock management and everything in between. …
DUBAI-based Oger Telecom has received numerous offers from SA and international companies for its 75% stake in Cell C, the country’s third mobile phone operator, according to Business Day. “Six groups approached us with interest in acquiring our stake in Cell C,” Oger Telecom’s chief legal officer and deputy CEO Mazen Abou Chakra told Business Day this week. “No decision has been taken. We are very happy with the good performance of Cell C over the past 12 to 18 months and we remain fully committed to the business until a decision to sell our stake is taken.” Saudi Telecom…
The latest Vehicle Price Index figures released by TransUnion has indicated that the demand for used vehicles continues to increase, with one new vehicle financed for every 1.78 used. New car price inflation has also softened, while the price inflation of used cars is accelerating with increasing speed. By Jeff Osborne, Head of Gumtree Automotive It is not unusual when considered against the backdrop of lower consumer confidence and increasing financial pressure. Fuel and electricity costs, the rising cost of new vehicle imports, uncertainty about the economic outlook – all have an impact – and because the gap in pricing…
Vodacom has pioneered a new way to watch video via mobile. Video Play is an app that utilises spare network capacity to download and cache selected video content at a reduced cost. Users pre-select their content, which is then downloaded during low-demand periods (typically overnight). By Staff Writer Vodacom announced on Tuesday Vodacom Video play app that lets you browse through its catalogue of videos and tag those you want to download on to your device. When installed on a mobile device the app offers access to a selection of mobile videos from content producers like eNCA, eTV, Urban Brew and MobiTV.…
Print is far from dead: Contrary to popular belief the digital revolution has not killed the print industry. According to a report by global research house, Ovum, the printed product is proving resilient in many countries, including mature markets such as Japan and Norway and growth markets such as South Africa and India. By Staff Writer At a recent MyWorld of Tomorrow roundtable hosted by Business Connexion and Ovum it emerged that print currently accounts for 86% of annual revenues and this figure is only expected to drop to 76% by 2020. Nick Thomas, practice leader in digital media…
South Africa’s Net1 UEPS Technologies, which facilitates payments between institutions and individuals without easy access to banking services, announced on Tuesday that it has been ranked on Fortune’s 100 Fastest-Growing Companies list for 2015. By Staff Writer The Fortune magazine’s annual list of 100 Fastest-Growing Companies focuses on public companies with the most stellar three-year profit, revenue, and stock growth. “I am very proud of our maiden inclusion in Fortune’s 100 Fastest Growing Companies list,” said Serge Belamant, chairman and CEO of Net1. “Our ranking in the top 100 affirms the efforts of the Net1 global team over the last three…
“It’s Law Just Made Simple” by LexNove, an online legal platform that seeks to strip away inefficiencies of the big law environment and facilitates access to those who need it most – at fixed, transparent, free market prices – without compromising on the quality of the legal service being rendered. By Gugu Lourie LexNove is a South African-first online legal platform for clients to find a “perfect” lawyer online. Co-founders of LexNove – Andrew Taylor and Kyle Torrington – with six and five years of respective legal practice experience believe that their start-up “is a revolutionary concept which seeks to…
It’s clear Google does not like the right to be forgotten, and it has from early on sent notifications to publishers of de-listed links in the hope they will cry “censorship”. Certainly BBC journalist Robert Peston felt “cast into oblivion” because his blog no longer appeared in search results for one particular commenter’s name. By Eerke Boiten The UK’s data privacy watchdog has waded into the debate over the enforcement of the right to be forgotten in Europe. The Information Commissioner’s Office issued a notice to Google to remove from its search results newspaper articles that discussed details from older articles…
Gartner’s “Hype Cycle for ICT in Africa, 2015″ report identifies over 30 key technologies and describes how they will impact business performance during the next 10 years. By Gartner “The Hype Cycle (see Figure 1) aims to help global strategic officers and domestic CIOs from the private and public sectors take account of the current state of important technologies across Africa, including their maturity, adoption and traction,” said Mbula Schoen, senior research analyst at Gartner. “It will help them make informed decisions about where to invest and how to advance their operations locally.” Figure 1. Hype Cycle for ICT in…
Whether you are traveling for business or for pleasure, mobile connectivity is now a must-have. Ensuring that you will have reliable Internet access on your travels – anytime, anywhere – is arguably now as important as getting your visa and passport ready. Yet for any traveler today, relying on static Wi-Fi at a hotel, coffee shop or branch office simply doesn’t cut it. Given our increasing reliance on mobile apps such as Google Maps, Uber and WhatsApp, connectivity when mobile has become essential. By Craig Lowe, Managing Director at execMobile Take the business traveler, for example. On arrival, he…
The South African premium tablet market, has stagnated over the past five quarters, hit by tough economic conditions. By Gugu Lourie The International Data Corporation (IDC) reported on Monday that the South African premium brands tablet market has stagnated over the past five quarters. The global technology research and consulting firm said this was due to shrinking consumer disposable income, high levels of unemployment, the weak rand, and the growing shift of consumers towards smartphones that now typically sport larger screens. The other trend shaping the market is that end users are delaying their renewals in an effort to gain extra…