Author: CraigWilson

Telkom has revised the pricing for a range of its data products, including the data bundles for its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) offerings and the Do Bundles for its fixed-line DSL services. Telkom’s been busy of late, adding voice bundles to its mobile offerings, slashing prepaid mobile data prices and expanding the reach of it’s LTE advanced service. The new Do Bundle prices start at R399/month (down from R408) for its basic bundle that offers 2Mbit/s download speeds and a soft cap of 10GB of data, and go up to R999/month (previously R1 028) for its Elite Plus Bundle that offers a line speed of…

Yesterday Apple’s long awaited and eagerly anticipated music streaming service, Apple Music, launched in 100 countries, including South Africa. The service is available as part of an update to Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS and an update to iTunes for Mac. Android and Windows users will get the service later this year. As is Apple’s style, it’s late to the streaming game, but it’s hoping some of its unique features will be enough to woo those who’ve already subscribed to rival services. Apple Music is very competitively priced when compared to existing services in the South African market like Simfy Africa, Deezer…

Music discovery tool Shazam, which lets users look up tracks they hear using the microphone on their smartphones or tablets, has added a new feature that allows users see what select artists and bands are Shazaming (now a perfectly acceptable 21st century verb) themselves. Bands and artists that have signed on include Pitbull, Calvin Harris, Avicii, Maroon 5, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Jason Derulo, One Republic, Wiz Khalifa, Imagine Dragons and Coldplay. According to Shazam CEO Rich Riley, Shazam receives 20 million song look-up requests daily. Here at Stuff Towers we only contribute a fraction of those because our collective…

Facebook has opened its first African office in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg. The new office will be headed by Nunu Ntshingila-Njeke, who previously worked at international ad agency Ogilvy and before that at Nike and the South African Tourism board. Ntshingila-Njeke takes up her new position in September. Facebook’s active user population in Africa has grown 20% to 120 million in June 2015 from 100 million in September of last year. It’ll come as no surprise that more than 80% of these people access Facebook from mobile phones, after all, Africa isn’t just mobile first, it’s often mobile only. “We are…

Bitcoin exchange BitX has begun selling mobile airtime and data for each of South Africa’s mobile networks. For now the facility is only available via the BitX website, but the company says it’ll be adding the functionality to it’s Android and iOS apps soon. BitX was founded in February 2013 and is headquartered in Singapore. The company has offices in Cape Town and Jakarta. In addition to serving as an exchange between bitcoin and fiat currencies, BitX provides bitcoin wallet services and provides an API that developers can use to build support for bitcoin into their apps and services.The company’s…

FNB has launched a comprehensive online property tool called FNB Property Leader that offers users in-depth area and property reports, the ability to apply for and track the progress of a home loan online and provides advice for buying or selling property from start to finish. “For many people the process of buying and selling a property can be overwhelming. This tool is a way to hold the consumer’s hand throughout the entire process from before starting to look for a first house to when it is time to sell,” says Marius Marais, CEO of FNB Home Loans.Would-be home owners…

Days after announcing it’s consolidating and cutting the prices on its prepaid data bundles Telkom has introduced a range of mobile voice bundles that it says it aimed at limiting out-of-bundle expenses for its customers. Once customers are out of voice minutes they can purchase the new bundles, each of which offers in-bundle rates. “These enhancements are a result of our renewed focus to drive innovation that delivers a sustainable balance of choice, flexibility and affordability to our customers,” says Attila Vitai, Telkom’s MD for consumer and mobile services. Telkom customers can buy once-off or recurring voice bundles — all of which are…

There’s a new app for South Africa’s digitally-savvy dater. Called Lulu, the free app lets women rate the men they date using a selection of pre-defined terms that cover things like sense of humour, personal hygiene, demeanour, spending habits, manners and, umm, sexual prowess. In order to be rated men have to sign up for the app themselves. Requiring opt-in from men and the multiple-choice style rating system for woman goes a long way to reducing the odds of vengeful ex-girlfriends slandering or defaming their former partners, but we have to wonder how big an uproar there’d be if there was…

Telkom’s mobile arm has announced aggressive updates to its prepaid data packages in a move that could prompt rival operators to respond in kind. In addition to price cuts, the operator has consolidated it’s prepaid data offers, which were previously split into bundles that only worked when connected to Telkom’s own infrastructure and others that allowed for roaming on MTN’s network where Telkom doesn’t have coverage. Now all prepaid data bundles include support for roaming, which should mean a better user experience and removes potential confusion for subscribers. The operator has also reduced the price of its mobile data bundles…

UK-based company Extreme Fliers has launched an Indiegogo campaign for the third version of its Micro Drone, a compact, relatively affordable and easy-to-use drone that can capture and stream 720p video at 30 frames per second and fly in winds of up to 70km/h. Extreme Fliers launched its Indigogo campaign on Tuesday with a target of $75,000, two days later at time of writing the campaign has raised almost $200,000 from nearly 1,500 backers. For $125 (plus $20 for shipping to anywhere in the world), 250 backers will get a drone with the HD camera module and a VR headset.…