Author: CraigWilson

If you’ve got a Samsung smart TV you’ll find two new apps in Samsung’s Smart Hub, one for Multichoice’s SuperSport, the other for energy drink and media company Red Bull’s Red Bull TV. Samsung’s Smart Hub lets users search for content and download apps to the company’s smart TVs and smart Blu-ray players. The SuperSport app offers users sports news, fixture listings, logs and live score updates. It also enables users to stream highlights of sporting events almost as soon as they are concluded. Red Bull TV, meanwhile, includes live extreme sport events alongside music and lifestyle programming. It also…

If the GSMA (Groupe Speciale Mobile Association), the mobile industry’s trade body, sees its predictions come to pass, by 2020 more than 80% of the anticipated nine billion mobile phone connections that will then exist will be from smartphones, and most of these will come from developing markets like those in Africa, South America and South East Asia. Late last year the GSMA found that more than 50% of smartphones being sold were smartphones, rather than feature phones. Interestingly, in reaching this figure the GSMA didn’t measure device sales or shipments, but instead actual connections to mobile networks. Also, the…

With a pilot fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) project already underway in the Johannesburg suburb of Parkhurst, fibre service provider Vumatel has announced that it’s looking to expand its rollout to 42 suburbs in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Even though Vumatel has yet to actually connect any of Parkhurst’s homes to fibre – the first homes to get online will do so by the end of next month – the project has generated massive interest not only among Parkhurst’s residents, but also among homeowners’ associations, communities and residents around South Africa. “People are fed up with expensive and poor internet services in South…

Yesterday Apple announced two new, larger iPhones (as predicted by the rumour mill), the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. In anticipation of the new devices landing in South Africa later this year – probably around December, if previous years are anything to go by, and they almost certainly are – local iStores are offering existing iPhone owners cash back for their existing handsets when they upgrade to one of the new devices. The deal applies to new contracts, renewal contracts or when purchasing one of the new iPhones outright for cash, irrespective of where the device was purchased or which…

Global electronics giant Samsung has added a business-orientated tablet computer to its already expansive line-up. Dubbed the Galaxy Tab Active, you’d be forgiven for thinking the device is aimed at outdoor enthusiasts thanks to its rugged housing. Aside from its butch protective cover, the most obvious difference between the Galaxy Tab Active and its siblings in the Galaxy Tab range is its removable 4 450mAh battery, a feature usually limited to handsets. Paulo Ferreira, Samsung Electronics SA’s head of enterprise mobility says the new tablet has been designed “specifically for professional-use”. Before designing Galaxy Tab Active, Samsung says it quizzed Fortune 500…

Hobbyists and tinkerers have used Raspberry Pi computers to build everything from weather stations and media servers to home automation systems and even robotic couches. The new model, the Raspberry Pi B+ has landed in SA, and promises even more flexibility than its predecessor. The original Raspberry Pi was created to provide those interested in learning how computers actually work with a cheap and compact computer, which would encourage users to fiddle with it without the fear of accidentally rendering it useless. While the original model only included two USB ports, that been expanded to four on the B+ model.…

“Texting is tacky. Calling is awkward. Email is old.” At least according to Miranda July, the artist and filmmaker behind a new mobile application called Somebody. When you send a message through Somebody, it doesn’t go directly to the recipient but, instead, to someone in their vicinity. This person, who’s more than likely a stranger, delivers the message to the intended recipient verbally, and if you’ve added extra instructions to the message, the message deliverer will hopefully include those, too. There’s no doubt that Somebody is not an app for the faint of heart. “I see this as far-reaching public art…

Personal financial management service 22Seven has announced that, as of 1 September 2014, there will be no monthly subscription fee to use the service. At the beginning of last year Old Mutual acquired 22Seven and, shortly thereafter, reduced the monthly subscription fee from R60 a month to R25 a month. 22Seven allows users to link the service to their online banking and track their spending, investments and other financial information. The service, which is available online or via mobile applications for Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS operating systems, presents users’ financial information in graphs and other easy-to-read formats and hopes…

From 11 to 13 September, the Goethe-Institut in Johannesburg is hosting a real-world game with online elements called “Being Faust – Enter Mephisto” at the Ithuba Arts Gallery in Braamfontein as part of next week’s Johannesburg leg of the A MAZE Festival. The game is based on German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s famous play “Faust”. In the play, the protagonist Faust makes a deal with the devil where he exchanges his soul for all knowledge and earthly pleasures. Players can register for the game here and can then attend one of the six gaming sessions taking place between 11…

Until this week, Twitter’s analytics dashboard was only available to verified users and advertisers, but now the micro-blogging platform has opened its dashboard to all registered users of the service, allowing anyone with a Twitter account to look at the performance of their 140-character missives. To get access to the service, Twitter users simply need to log in to their account and then visit the Twitter Analytics page. The dashboard shows you a variety of statistics, including information on how many people have “engaged” with your tweets by retweeting or favouriting them, and “impressions” which outlines how many people have…