Author: Gugu Lourie

Apple today announced that Apple Watch, its most personal device yet and the newest innovative addition to Apple’s ecosystem, will be available on Friday, April 24 to customers. Apple Watch brings an entirely new way to receive information at a glance and interact with the world through third-party app experiences designed specifically for the wrist. “Apple Watch begins a new chapter in the way we relate to technology and we think our customers are going to love it,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We can’t wait for people to start wearing Apple Watch to easily access information that matters, to…

By Staff writer The Interactive Advertising Bureau South Africa (IAB), representing the country’s online media and marketing industry, has entered into discussions with the South African Press Council to explore the viability of a cross-platform news media code of ethics and voluntary editorial content regulatory system. The envisaged code shall apply to news content across both print and online publications. As a result of media convergence, with traditional and new media outlets all operating in the digital space, various news media industry bodies, including the South African National Editor’s Forum (Sanef), the Press Council, the IAB and broadcast role players…

By Gugu Lourie Invenfin, a business unit of Stellenbosch-based investment conglomerate Remgro, has bought 20% stake in SA’s cloud-based enterprise software company Wyzetalk for an undisclosed amount. This deal makes Invenfin the largest investor in Wyzetalk. Wyzetalk, which has grown to 30,000 paying users on its platforms, has added a new Professional Services division focused on advisory services, social business strategy consulting and ongoing community management services to ensure successful implementations. “Most recently Invenfin, the early stage venture investment arm of Remgro Limited, has become our largest investor with the acquisition of a 20% equity stake. It means that we…

By Tony Smith, CEO of Oxygen8 “Imagine walking past your pharmacy in a shopping mall and receiving a notification that you’re running out of asthma medication, and if you press one button to complete payment, your package will be ready for collection in the next 5 minutes”. “Whether you’re a retailer or a customer, isn’t this win-win situation the perfect way to transact business?” This type of customer engagement is not futuristic. Many organisations are now using mobile solutions, big data, the cloud alongside mobile payment gateways to gain the competitive edge by understanding their customers’ needs and providing goods…

By Ujuh MTN is set to run with stricter credit criteria in South Africa after the mobile phone giant suffered significant increase in bad debt in the country of its birth. This is reflected in MTN Group’s results for the year ended December which showed the business losing some profit margin partly due to increased bad debt. MTN generates a significant portion of its revenue from a credit based business model. This is the so-called contract arrangement with customers. The arrangement where customers use air time and pay later is also called post-paid segment of the market and stand alongside…

Staff Writer BMW Group SA announced today its first BMW i3 customer, Nicky Oppenheimer, one of South Africa’s leading philanthropists and businessmen. The BMW i3 battery electric vehicle (BEV) offers a range of up to 160 kilometres, while the BMW i3 with the REX offers a range of up to 300 kilometres. The BMW maker handed over the keys of a Solar Orange BMW i3 with a range extender (REX) to Oppenheimer at BMW Group SA’s Head Office in Midrand. Oppenheimer, who describes himself as a technology enthusiast, says the BMW i3‘s originality and technological advancements are what appealed to…

The South African cabinet has ordered the country to proceed into the digital television era with set top boxes (STBs) that have a control mechanism. Details are scanty but yesterday’s announcement signals that the disagreement over the design of STBs has been resolved. The disagreement as to whether the STBs must have a control mechanism or not has delayed South Africa’s process of migrating into digital terrestrial television (DTT) by about three years. Cabinet announced yesterday that it has “approved the Broadcasting Digital Migration Amendment Policy with the inclusion of the control system in the STB, which will be clearly…

By Staff writer UCS Technology Services (UCS TS), which offers the supply, installation and support of solutions to over 1 450 service stations in Southern Africa, announced on Friday it has bought 100% of the shares of Joint Venture Pumps Services (JVPS), effective 1 March 2015. UCS TS is a wholly owned subsidiary Business Connexion, which is being bought by Telkom. “This merger provides us with a unique opportunity to extend the value that we can offer to fuel retailers. We can now deliver an end-to-end service from the fuel tank, through to Head Office,” said Saul Gorin, CEO of…

By Staff writer Saudi Oger Telecom may sell its strategic stake in South Africa’s third-biggest cellular opertaor, Cell C, the chairman of the Middle Eastern firm told Reuters on Thursday in an interview in Dubai. “All options are open. If we get a good price, we will sell,” Hariri said, adding it had been approached by several interested parties but no firm decisions had been made. He declined to name the parties. For us, if we get a proper value, we’d rather not continue. If the termination rates were honoured as original, we would have stayed easily,” Mohammed Hariri, Chairman…

By Staff writer Telkom, which is undergoing a series of interventions to fix the ailing business, is turning to outsourcing to cut fat in the company as part of its turnaround strategy and on Thursday named its partners to take over the running of the non-core assets. They include Barloworld Logistics, Bidvest and WNS. The company has been engaging with organised labour on the outsourcing of various business elements, as announced in February. Telkom revealed on Thursday that it has identified a series of actions to unlock further cost efficiencies and improve customer service, in line with the company’s multi-year…

By Gugu Lourie If you have ever wish that you can have a wallet that you will never lose. Help is on its way. A Kickstarter project called Woolet is planning to create a smart wallet that protects your valuable cash and cards in every situation. Woolet is a next generation wallet that keeps your cash and cards safe. Ultra slim, bluetooth-powered, self-charging and handcrafted to perfection. Woolet acts as your smart wallet sidekick. It looks out for your valuables so you can worry less, and focus on the important things instead. The Kickstarter project was started early in February…

By Gugu Lourie Zazoo, a new division of the JSE and Nasdaq-listed company Net1 UEPS Technologies Inc, has teamed up with UBER, the innovative smartphone technology that connects riders with drivers, in SA. Zazoo’s VCpayTM mobile application enables people who do not own credit cards to create virtual MasterCards that can be used to pay for the UBER service. VCpayTM is a mobile application that utilizes Net1’s patented Mobile Virtual Card (“MVC”) technology, which enables mobile devices to generate virtual MasterCard payment cards completely offline and without access to a mobile phone network. Users can activate VCpayTM by following a…

By Gugu Lourie MTN, Africa and Middle East’s largest mobile operator, overcame stiff competition and sharp decline in the oil price that impacted its large assets to post a 8.9% rise in 2014 full-year headline earnings per share (South Africa’s main profit gauge), boosted by a surge in mobile data growth. The company, which is valued at more than R385 billion, said headline earnings per share rose 8.9% to 1 536 cents per share in the year to end-December 2014. “The group continued to benefit from encouraging growth in non-voice revenue, driven by various data initiatives (including the Mobile Money…

By Gugu Lourie What a festive season quarter has it been for MTN SA’s performance? The second half of the year, which includes the busy festive months, was stronger, pushing MTN’s fourth quarter up 28.1% quarter on quarter. The company, which has been facing stiff competition and regulatory pressure, claims it has finally turn the corner despite revenues dropping by 3.9%. The company said it ‘delivered clear evidence of a turnaround’ in the second half of 2014. As a result, MTN today announced that it has activated 2.7m new customers on its network in the second half of 2014 versus…

By Gugu Lourie MTN announced its 2014 full year earnings today and revealed that smartphones in its network rose by 17.8% to 5.9m in the period. MTN, SA’s second largest mobile phone operator, added that the number of data customers jumped 201% to 17.1m. “To drive long-term sustainable growth across the Group, we will increase data revenue by encouraging uptake through increased smartphone penetration, competitive pricing, bundled services and increased speeds,” the company said on Wednesday. MTN and Vodacom are bringing out their own-branded devices, including tablets and smartphones, as part of their ambitious plans to accelerate Internet uptake in…

By Martin Walshaw, senior engineer at F5 Networks It’s conceivable that one day biometrics may replace passwords completely, across many different services The more news that trickled in about last year’s Sony hack, the more depressing the situation appeared to get. At one point, it was revealed that the entertainment giant was keeping passwords to internal systems as well as social network accounts in plain text. Not only that, but they were kept in a folder called ‘Password’. Here’s how Buzzfeed described it: “Included in the newest data dump is a file directory titled ‘Password’, which includes 139 Word documents,…

By Siyabonga Cwele, Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services “The private sector too has a role to play in bridging the digital divide. We’ll continue to engage it and discuss areas where it should direct its investment. These consultations will also consider possible incentives for investing in under serviced areas. We are positive that access to broadband provides us with modern building blocks as the country continuously strives to create sustainable jobs for the future, especially for our youth. This is why ICTs have been identified as catalytic sectors that President Zuma also announced that Government has decided to designate Telkom…

A new survey of the high-tech habits of SA’s students reveals that Facebook has become the default social network among students, with no less than 97% of respondents saying they use the social network. Twitter came in second at 67%, followed in third place by YouTube, with 44%. The most recent entrant into the social arena, WeChat, has already reached 22% of the student market. These are among the key findings of the 2015 Student Tech Survey, conducted across South African tertiary education institutions by World Wide Worx and Student Brands, with the support of Standard Bank. More than 2300…

Samsung Electronics today announced its entirely redefined smartphones, the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge. Creating a new standard for design, craftsmanship and performance, the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge seamlessly blend premium materials with the most advanced Samsung technology to offer consumers an unmatched mobile experience. By Staff writer “With the all new Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge, Samsung is offering what’s next in mobility, along with a new standard to drive the global mobile agenda,” said JK Shin, CEO and Head of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics. “By listening to our customers, and…

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In the couple of weeks since Santander’s chairman, Ana Botín, told the Financial Times that Santander has plans to lease out its datacenter facilities to corporate customers, I have been struggling to think of a precedent. By Lawrence Freeborn, Senior Research Analyst, IDC Financial Insights After years in which the discussion has been about how banks are bound to be displaced by tech companies, here is a rare example of the opposite happening, or at least the opposite possibility being held out by one prominent lender. “As I think how I am going to compete with all these new technology players,…

Zazoo, a new division of the JSE and Nasdaq-listed company Net1 UEPS Technologies Inc, is hoping that its payment solutions for the mobile industry will enable it to conquer global markets. The firm is eyeing speedy global expansion focusing on the UK and other parts of Europe, US, India and other developed and emerging markets. The company has seen Zazoo’s global footprint expanding into 12 African countries, and it also has a presence in Colombia, India, Spain, South Korea, the Philippines, the UK and the US. Zazoo plans to take Net1’s patented technology, such as mobile virtual card (MVC) payment…

by Gugu Lourie The days of answering questions (like for example, “What is your cellphone number?” to verify your identity before accessing a bank account may soon be gone forever. Well, that is if you are a client of Investec Private Bank, which plans to revolutionise South Africa’s banking industry by introducing a verification system that uses voice biometrics. The bank will be the first financial institution in the southern hemisphere to launch such a solution. The voice biometrics verification system will be launched on the 25 February 2015 in SA. It will, however, also service customers in the UK…

ProSiebenSat.1, a German mass media company operating commercial television, premium pay channels, radio stations and related print businesses, has announced the launch of a video-on-demand mobile app and website that allows German expats based in South Africa and 15 other countries to view German produced shows around the clock. By Staff writer Content on these platforms is available in high definition, is fast and easy to access and has Chromecast and AirPlay support for usage via TV. The app can be found directly through the AppStore and the GooglePlay store. The first month for monthly subscriptions will be free followed…

Joburgers loves to complain. If it’s not about load shedding or traffic, it’s about the potholes or city billing issues. Well, here’s your chance to do something about the city’s problems. The #Hack.Jozi Challenge wants to pay you for your ideas that will turn Jozi into the city that we all want to live in. Zolani Matebese, the head of broadband at the City of Johannesburg, said: “Your digital solution to a problem in Jozi could be the ticket to launching your start-up. With prizes valued at R5 million at stake, the #Hack.Jozi Challenge wants to find the most innovative…