ZA Tech Show

In this week's episode Jon Tullett, Ben Kelly, Brett Haggard, Simon Dingle and ITWeb's Candice Jones discuss Google advertising the country manager position for South Africa, Google's new Voice service, why isn't Skype tackling mobile more aggressively? The new Facebook features and layout, Twitter's amazing popularity and lack of revenue, Emoji, Chinese QQ and other Asian whatsits, Apple's big iPhone 3.0 announcement this week and order of 10" touchscreens, porting between cellular networks and service providers, MTN's results for the last financial year, and much more. Check out www.zatech.co.za

The original line-up returns to the ZA Tech Show for our one year anniversary episode. Ben Kelly, Duncan McLeod, Jon Tullett, Brett Haggard and Simon Dingle discuss country manager of Google in South Africa, Stafford Masie's resignation. Who will replace him? We also look at Google Maps updates not showing on the API. Simon gets a little confused... Safari 4 id breaking things left, right and centre and Apple has a range of new Macs. Do you need a TV license for a large monitor without a TV tuner in it? We flip through Stuff magazine's top 100 games insert and discuss our top games of all time. Other topics include optional components in Windows 7, the netbook market and Android's place in it, DRM in Windows 7, Vodacom's LTE strategy and video conferencing with Cisco TelePresence and HP Halo. Check out www.zatech.co.za

In this episode Jon Tullett, Duncan McLeod, Brett Haggard and Simon Dingle discuss Gmail's downtime, South African updates to Google Maps, Safari 4 beta, Amazon's Kindle 2 hits the market, Yourtunes.co.za, Penguin Club - the MMORPG for kids that's taking the world by storm, NASA's space exploration MMORPG, MTN's impressive performance, Our picks including Jam Legend, Last.fm and other awesomeness, do you really need an elaborate word processor? and much more. Check out www.zatech.co.za

The geeks are back from Barcelona and understandably predisposed to mobile. Brett Haggard, Duncan McLeod and Simon Dingle discuss Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona, new Nokia mobile phones we'll see this year, including the E55, N85 and E75. We also check out the universal mobile phone charger, Palm Pre, Mobile app stores, the iPhone disruption, Windows Mobile 6.5, Nokia partners with Qualcomm, LTE, WiMAX and the state-of-play for 4G, Motorola's LTE van, Solar and wind-powered cellular networks and handsets, the remake of American McGee's Alice, GTA IV gets its first expansion, Facebook's new terms of service and the outcry they started, Cell C to slash prices, Vodafone one step closer to taking over control of Vodacom and much more. Check out www.zatech.co.za

Our panel this week consists of Brett Haggard, Simon Dingle and Mike Stopforth from Cerebra. We discuss Twestival and all things Twitter, business models for new media, British Airways allowing rich people to use their cellphones on board, Google Sync for Mobile, new mobile app stores coming from Microsoft et al, the new BlackBerry Curve, Psystar wins its case against Apple - will this force an any-PC version of OS X? Youtube adds download functionality for videos. And much, much more. Check out www.zatech.co.za

The team this week consists of Jon Tullett, Duncan McLeod, Brett Haggard, Simon Dingle, Tiana Alswang and Rein Hillmann from CocoaHeads Johannesburg. We discuss the Xbox Live lag, CocoaHeads in SA, software development, get hands on with the BlackBerry Storm, Nokia's music service and 5800 launching in South Africa, some new game titles that are being released in March, gaming on the Mac platform, OpenGL versus DirectX, the $20 laptop rumour, Telkom fires its COO, GTV goes under, strengthening Multichoice in Africa, the Apple television rumoured to be in development, netbooks being helped along by the economic crisis, Seacom's progress and much, much more. Check out www.zatech.co.za

Simon Dingle, Brett Haggard, Duncan McLeod and Candice Jones from ITWeb feature in this week's episode, discussing MacOS X on netbooks, the Gears of War DRM lock-out, DRM fueling piracy, the BlackBerry Storm that was launched recently in South Africa and wonder if Apple's multi-touch patents stop the Pre? We also look at laying fiber in the Johannesburg rain, solar-powered traffic lights, improvements in Telkom ADSL performance, Neotel versus Telkom, mobile data prices and the possibility of price-cuts, the Faritec fall and Intel posting losses, Brett's Nehalem platform and the processor market, Acer getting into the smartphone market, Nokia launching music service locally and when will the likes of Apple get real and recognise the SA market? We wrap up with the 'Obama Worm' and some of our panelists' favourite new thingies. And more... Check out www.zatech.co.za

This week's panel includes Simon Dingle, Jon Tullett from TechTarget and Saul Kropman from The Digital Edge podcast. On the cards are netbook price discrepancies. Jon bought an Aspire One in the UK for next to nothing. Why are we paying through our teeth in SA? We also look at tweaks and hacks for netbooks and Neotel's NeoFlex Data offering being launched last week - we talk caps, prices and practical use. Discussions include informal collusion in South African tech pricing, dive into Windows 7 Beta and Internet Explorer 8, Vista Service Pack 2 delayed, a new Worm threatens the world's computers. Apparently. The Macintosh platform finally has a real virus doing the round. Again - apparently. MacOS X developer group CocoaHeads now has a South African chapter. Application roll-out on smartphones and the BlackBerry app store. Canonical is reaching its goal of becoming self-sustaining and some of the Tech in the Obama inauguration, courtesy of CNN. Check out www.zatech.co.za

A small group of geeks gathers for episode 45 of the ZA Tech Show in which we discuss MTN and Neotel's shared network deal, Steve Jobs taking a break as CEO of Apple, Windows 7, the netbook market - is there one? Updates on legal matters at SITA, VANS license conversions taking place, computer sales figures for 2008, Neotel's NeoFlex Data is now available, losses and cut-backs, including Google and Sony Ericsson and Picasa now available for Mac. Check out www.zatech.co.za

In our first episode of 2009 the ZA Tech Show recorded live at the MTN domestic game between the Cobras and Titans at Supersport park. We also welcome Candice Jones from ITWeb - a new voice on the show. We discuss console sales in 2008, Twitter and other social network hackers, the Apple keynote at Macworld and hacks of live blogging streams from the event, the criminal banking system in South Africa, operating system wars heat up with the arrival of Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex, Windows 7 and OS X Snow Leopard in 2009, some of the changes coming in Windows 7, is Linux lagging in terms of user interfaces? Palm is back with a new smartphone - the ‘Pre’ - and operating system called webOS, and MTN’s acquisition of Verizon South Africa is going ahead. Plus much more. Check out www.zatech.co.za

In our final show of the year we discuss Apple's decision to cancel the Jobs keynote at Macworld and how vital Steve Jobs is to Apple's success (it's really a question, not a statement of fact), Novell BrainShare being cancelled, conferences - are their days numbered? Toshiba unveils the first 512GB SSD hard drive, Simon has played with the BlackBerry Storm and reports back, is it possible we're wrong about Windows Mobile 6? More speculation on possible acquisitions. Will Sun go? The pain of Yahoo! and the awesomeness of IBM, Telkom's cellular transformation, what makes some users' experience on a cellular network differ from others. The possibility of Roy Padayachi becoming South Africa's next minister of communications, and more. Checkout www.zatech.co.za

Simon Dingle, Brett Haggard, Jon Tullett and Tiana Alswang get about as festive as four geeks who are still working in the middle of December can and discuss Google's Chrome browser coming out of beta and the state of the browser nation, Google's plans for global domination, Gmail's new features from the lab, integration of social networks and forced interoperability from technology vendors, Japanese scientists getting images from the human brain, Johannesburg's CCTV system in the CBD that can scan vehicle numberplates through eNaTIS, Left 4 Dead and its awesomeness, and EA's acquisition of Tim Schafer's genius. We also take a look at Little Big Planet, Call of Duty: World at War, Fallout 3, Guitar Hero: World Tour and other titles getting attention this Christmas. Jon says Far Cry 2 is boring, we mention Sony's 14 million Playstation Network users, discuss the rebirth of Nokia N-Gage as a rounded gaming service and the evolution of mobile gaming, and much more. Checkout www.zatech.co.za

Our special guest in episode 41 is Rudolph Muller from MyBroadband. We discuss all things online and broadband, from deregulation to the subtleties of EV-DO and expectations for the coming year. We also cover: Internet Solutions' wireless university hotspots being rolled out next year, the University of South Africa (UNISA)'s strange email policy and Microsoft's involvement therein, Microsoft Imagine Cup, Nokia's N97 and the evolving market for mobile phones, including the BlackBerry Storm and Nokia in the Japanese market, Alan Knott-Craig's sympathy for Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, our experiences with Garmin Mobile XT and other mobile phone GPS solutions, the astronomical (and increasing) prices of console game titles and how the model differs from PC gaming and Facebook and Google launching single sign-on services with Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect. Check out www.zatechshow.co.za

The big four-oh! This week we are joined by Tiana Alswang, editor of G.E.A.R. magazine, and Athena Twin, along with members of her PMS Clan of professional female gamers from the USA and Canada. We cover girls in gaming and the Plugg event recently held in Johannesburg, South Africa, where the PMS Clan took on a top team of local dudes in Counterstrike. We also look at gaming in South Africa and the growth thereof, some of the best new titles on the block - what are the PMS Clan playing? The addiction of World of Warcraft, and why it is banned for many professional gamers, multiplayer gaming - it's more social than you think, local servers, bandwidth and the other bits and pieces we need to improve the gaming scene in South Africa, Alienware is still around and kicking arse, Intel's Core i7 'Nehalem' processor has landed and Brett has benchmarked it - he even has some memory tips. We opine on why Halo 3 didn't quite cut it and look at Rock Band versus Guitar Hero - the competition gets thick with Guitar Hero: World Tour. We also talk about kids and games. Can you really keep them away from violent games they may be too young for? The big game titles to look out for this Christmas, console versus PC gaming, a review of Duncan's panel discussion on telecommunications that took place at the MyBroadband conference 2008 and the promise of WiMAX, and whether or not it can deliver thereon. A big congratulations to Duncan McLeod for winning MyBroadband's SA IT Journalist of the Year award. Well deserved! By the way... the SA guys beat the PMS Clan at the Plugg event... Check out www.zatechshow.co.za

Gartner Analyst Will Hahn joins the gang on this week's episode as part of his visit to South Africa - you don't want to miss this one. We discuss Will's take on the South African telecommunication's space. What is the state of play of our market and what are his predictions for the future? We also look at the maturity of the technology market in South Africa and trends that are shaping the way we do things down here, the move to IP telephony and market expectations in this regard, review Neotel NeoFlex Data as Brett and Duncan have been putting the offering through its paces. How fast is it? What latency are they seeing? Can you stay connected in a power outage? All answers within... Other bits of news include Jerry Yang stepping down as CEO of Yahoo!, PC Magazine halting print and going online only. What is happening to print publishing? Net Neutrality in the USA, the Obama government and how the landscape is changing state-side, is email dead?, Gmail introduces themes, Duncan has a Nokia 5800. It's poop... but if you think the 5800 sucks, wait until you use a Samsung Omnia. We discuss the touch phone market. It's all iPhone for now. News on the arrival of a local Google data centre, our predictions surrounding Google Maps - and some general GPS discussion. Guitar Hero: World Tour is now available in South Africa. How off-line games make the transition to online. Wrath of the Lich King breaks a record. We're not sure which one exactly. Microsoft South Africa says it is lobbying for a local Xbox Live service and Afrigator has a new revenue scheme for bloggers. Check out www.zatechshow.co.za