South Africans can be forgiven for being confused by the release, and subsequent condemnation, of a broad-ranging policy document this week.
Author: Toby Shapshak
Toby Shapshak
Toby Shapshak is editor-in-chief and publisher of Stuff, a Forbes senior contributor and a columnist for the Financial Mail and Daily Maverick. He has been writing about technology and the internet for 28 years and his TED Global talk on innovation in Africa has over 1,5-million views. He has written about Africa's tech and start-up ecosystem for Forbes, CNN and The Guardian in London. He was named in GQ's top 30 men in media and the Mail & Guardian newspaper's influential young South Africans. He has been featured in the New York Times. GQ said he "has become the most high-profile technology journalist in the country" while the M&G wrote: "Toby Shapshak is all things tech... he reigns supreme as the major talking head for everything and anything tech."
The Collins Word of the year in 2015 was binge-watching, now not only is binging part of the dictionary but it’s part of our lives.
With new streaming services emerging as alternatives to the traditional broadcasters and an “unprecedented” splurge on making original content, television viewers have never had it this good.
Facebook’s decision to rebrand its Instagram and WhatsApp apps as part of the Facebook empire, seems ironically well-timed as the data privacy sins of the parent were revealed to be as common at the photo-sharing app. Last week it emerged that Instagram allowed its users’ personal data to be violated by an outside company which harvested large amounts of info it wasn’t supposed to have. Facebook quickly pointed out it was an unauthorised use of that data, but there’s no getting away from it: the world’s largest social network is just not as interested in its users’ privacy as its…
Telkom, which has battled copper cable theft for decades, has started transitioning its landline users to it mobile network. Instead of my 91-year-old mother’s phone using wires to connect to the network, it now uses Telkom’s mobile network. It’s been a game changer.
If you thought last week’s ransomware attack on City Power sounded like a movie script, it’s because that kind of scary possibility has been fictional fodder for years. Films have long proposed the idea of hackers taking over a computer network for their own nefarious ends.
During hearings into Facebook’s new Libra cryptocurrency, she grilled David Marcus, the head of its Calibra wallet, which is how its users will interact with Libra. “So, we are discussing a currency controlled by an undemocratically selected coalition of largely massive corporations. Do you believe currency is a public good?”
At 61, Ugandan farmer Nathan Kasendwa did not expect to be a posterchild for mobile innovation. But the rural farmer from Masaka district, about 130km south of the capital Kampala, is using mobile technology to improve his yield and get better prices for his crops. He uses his cellphone and financial tools provided by a local virtual network for farmers to buy, sell and receive payments. “It makes daily management of my business easier,” he says. “This network allows us all to learn and widen our knowledge of farming.” Despite decades of growing beans, coffee and bananas, Kasendwa had no…
Fifty years ago this week humanity landed on the moon. The moon landing was a pivotal moment in human history that has shaped our self-consciousness about humanity and our place in the universe.
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