ZA Tech Show

Topics under discussion include Nintendo launching Wii Party website and an online gaming store in South Africa, the question of why only Playstation has an online presence in SA. Why can't Microsoft or Nintendo do it? Comparing ADSL service providers - Axxess versus Plugg more specifically. All-girl gaming team, the PMS Clan is on its way to South Africa. We'll be there. The second expansion pack for World of Warcraft, Wrath of the Lich King has been launched. Guitar Hero: World Tour is being launched next week. Google Video Chat. Skype - and why it should have an open API. Telkom's ADSL issues. Neotel's data-only product. Duncan has the new Macbook. We play. Alienware's new laptop - the M17. The new Windows Live social network. Microsoft strategy. BlackBerry Storm is being launched on November 21 in the US. Dimension Data posts annual results. Check out www.zatechshow.co.za

In this episode we discuss Barack Obama, president elect of the USA, appointing a cabinet-level chief technology officer (CTO) for his country while back at home, Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri still being as clueless as ever, continuing to pursue her case against Altech et al. We also mention Lyndall Shope-Mafole, Communications department director-general resigning from the ANC. Microsoft unveiled Windows 7 at its Professional Developers Conference 2008, and we take a closer look at the next incarnation of Microsoft's desktop OS before discussing that Windows 3.1x is no longer available, after being on the market for over 16 years. We get hands on with Gears of War 2 and Far Cry 2. A general gaming discussion ensues and we cast our predictions for when fourth-generation consoles will hit the market. The Nintendo Wii is now the number 1 console in South Africa, according to Nintendo. CNN's holographic reporter gets a mention. Epic. We also look at Google leaving Yahoo! at the altar, Vodafone's purchase of Telkom's share in Vodacom having gone through, and get a lot closer to answering questions surrounding the exclusion of Games from the iTunes App Store in SA. Last, but certainly not least, we welcome MWEB Gadget Genie, that sponsored this episode of the ZA Tech Show. Check out www.mwebgadgetgenie.co.za and www.zatechshow.co.za

In this week's episode we cover Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri's appeal against the Altech ruling being denied and what self-provisioning will mean for telecoms in South Africa, investigations into the exclusion of games and podcasts from the South African iTunes store, the banning of Opera Mini from the iTunes App Store, Gears of War 2 being launched this week, FPS games on console versus PC, Crossover's 'Lameduck' promotion, gaming in Linux and OS X using WINE, MMORPGs, Firefox's China Channel extension that simulates the Great Firewall of China, Google introduces service level agreements for its application services, OpenOffice.org extensions, the introduction of Windows Azure, and cloud services hosting in general, Windows 7 and SP2 of Vista, Sony recalling 100 000 batteries predominantly used in Toshiba and HP notebooks, but also Dell, Acer and Lenovo. And, finally, we take a look at retired hardware dumping in the developing world. Check out www.zatechshow.co.za

The whole gang is back together for Episode 35. We discuss tech stocks plummeting and the prospect of buying into the market. Yet. Telkom or MTN? Which stocks should you be looking at - or is this really not the time to be buying? There is also the coming barrage of acquisitions. Potentially. Will Sun be bought? Will Microsoft buy RIM? What will happen to Facebook and Twitter in the current market? Microsoft has a big announcement coming this week. We speculate about what this announcement, concerning a cloud operating system, could be. We also talk about cloud computing in general, Apple's reaction to Microsoft's recent (and very expensive) ad campaign, and wonder if Microsoft will stop producing Office for Mac? Mail and PIM applications and services are also discussed, along with an urgent security patch for Windows, Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex being in final testing and being launched at the end of this month. Suggestions for what Linux needs... and what it doesn't. We look at the netbook space, and the smartphone market's impact on it, more on the iTunes App Store and Apple's curious exclusion of content from the South African store, mobile application distribution, the source code for Android being released as open source. Watch out for versions coming for just about every phone out there... and with Symbian and Android being open source, what will the future hold for Windows Mobile? Neotel's new voice tariffs and other offerings on the way. Check out www.zatechshow.co.za

A somber group of geeks gather this week to talk about the Rand-Dollar exchange rate and what it means for prices of technology in South Africa. We also discuss Vodafone's purchase of Telkom's share in Vodacom in the face of the current economic crisis, Apple's new range of Macbook portables that will arrive locally at massive prices, new graphics technology and how the ATI and Nvidias of the world are taking things to the next level, Lenovo's new Thinkpad models with extended battery-life, OpenOffice.org 3 and the vast improvements it introduces to everyone's favourite free office suite, the power of Outlook, IBM Lotus and how the brand has progressed, the iPhone App Store and how Android's approach will stack up, along with mobile device management for corporates, and some of Duncan and Brett's favourite applications on the iPhone. We also look at Games and other applications excluded from the South African iPhone App store, Zune availability and how Microsoft has addressed the media player market, the new iPod Nano's shake function, and what we think of the new range, having had some time to play with them. Finally, we pay tribute to the awesomeness of Gmail and its mobile site and discuss Barack Obama's online campaign and how it has bolstered his success and how Pandora, Last.fm and other services that use the Music Genome Project are being reinvented on the iPhone. Check out www.zatechshow.co.za

Episode 33 was recorded in Holland at Symantec Vision + Manage Fusion 2008 in The Hague. But not in its entirety, thanks to dodgy technology. So we re-recorded it in South Africa. And apologise profusely for it being late. We discuss open document standards as the OXML committee suggests alignment and interaction with ODF, OpenOffice.org 3.0 is out, BlackBerry entering the touch-phone market with the announcement of the ‘Storm’, the migration to mobile, a new directive in the EU requiring vendors to have easily removable and recyclable batteries, battery technology in general including maximising battery times on laptops and why batteries will continue to suck for some time still, Nintendo’s new DSi and announcement that an HD Wii is in production, console gaming in general - why not? We also look at Mail Goggles and other things we’re not entirely sure about, things we learned and discussed at Symantec Vision + Manage Fusion and Google putting in local servers… or are they? Check out www.zatechshow.co.za

This week we recorded live at rAge 2008, thanks to Toshiba. Dimitri Tserpis, CTO for Mustek also dropped by for a chat, joining Duncan McLeod, Brett Haggard, Ben Kelly and Simon Dingle. Topics covered include exhibitions growing in South Africa while they scale down everywhere else, Nokia launching the 5800 iPhone competitor and the HTC Dream G1 coming to South Africa. Simon is probably in trouble for giving out the details of the latter. Brett reckons the 3G iPhone establishes a connection quicker on MTN than Vodacom, and Telkom is about to launch its HSDPA network. This sparks a discussion surrounding the changing broadband landscape. We also look at Google's 'Search 2001', iBurst's strange WiMAX offering, Qualcomm's Gobi chipset that connects to anything, anywhere and rising power consumption on the upper end of the PC spectrum. Some self indulgence creeps into the show as we discuss retro computing. Bear with us. Multichoice's competition is coming from the strangest places... and Duncan has the details. The DSTV HD PVR's software bugs have also not been sorted out yet, but will be soon. And Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri is still going at Altech. Surpised? Check out www.zatechshow.co.za

Our special guest on episode 31 of the ZA Tech Show is Chris Ross, managing executive for sales at Vodacom, and the man responsible for bringing the iPhone to the South African market. Chris answers all of our questions surrounding the Jesus phone coming to South Africa before we move onto a discussion about the HTC Dream G1, the first phone to market that is based on Google's Android operating system. Minister of Communications, Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri was president for a day, thanks to the political turmoil in South Africa. And we survived, surprisingly. But Alec Erwin is gone, so perhaps we'll get through the next year with power for our gadgets. We then move back to technology proper with news of the Cisco website being hacked. Vox Telecom lost a lot of money this week, and a new service called E was launched. None of this impresses Jon, however - and we discuss his hate for... well... everything. Brett would switch to Windows for Digsby - which now supports LinkedIn. Hey, he said it. And some clever developers have put together Iron - a streamlined browser based on Chrome, that improves browser security and adds support for the new WebKit. We also touch on Internet Explorer 8. Brett told us that Vista only boots on a single processor, unless you tell it not too. This conversation presented the perfect point at which to end the show... Check out www.zatechshow.co.za

We're all about mobile and gaming this week as the ZA Tech Show crew is scaled down to three, plus some input from Trevor van de Ven of ZA Car Show fame. Under discussion is the new Microsoft Ad featuring Eva Longoria, Deepak Chopra and others. Jerry Seinfeld is nowhere in sight. Also Apple's arrogance and walled approach to the iTunes Music and App store and Nokia lining up its next range of phones, hot on the heels of recent releases from the vendor. Clearly the competitive landscape is hotting up. The Apple iPhone arrives in South Africa this week, on 23 September. Other browsers are getting Chrome-like javascript support with SquirrelFish, and Chrome has been third-party ported to Mac and Linux. Warhammer Online is finally available as yet another attempt at competing with World of Warcraft. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was released this week, with major media attention. More gaming news with the release of Guitar Hero: On Tour for the Nintendo DS, Acer's Predator range of PC gaming hardware, the launch of Life with Playstation for the PS3, and the approach of Guitar Hero: World Tour to compete with Rock Band. Twitter has a new interface, and Jon still doesn't have an account. Our esteemed minister of communications, Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri has decided to appeal the recent Altech ruling in the high court. And more... Check out www.zatechshow.co.za

This week Alastair Otter from Tectonic drops by and lends us his insights into the Linux environment. Duncan spoke to Dark Fibre Africa and gives us the low-down on capacity, clients and why your car's rims are being destroyed in the name of bandwidth. MTN is taking on Telkom in the consumer broadband space with the launch of an HSPA router. Google partnering with O3B to bring more satellite bandwidth to South Africa. Will it amount to anything? Mark Shuttleworth is ploughing resources into changing desktop environments on Linux. Simon spoke to the Google project manager of Chrome and provides more information on where Google is going in the browser space. We discuss Internet Explorer 8, Chrome, Microsoft Silverlight, Flash and other technologies impacting on your experience of the Web. The second Microsoft advertisement featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. Apple's September announcements including new iPods and iTunes 8 with the Genius feature. Much anticipated game Spore has been released, but tight DRM is harming online sentiment. Piracy as a distribution model; steal This Movie and other players are investigating the space. Lenovo and Acer are pulling back on their offerings of laptops with Linux; what do Linux users want from portables and modern distributions? And more... Check out www.zatechshow.co.za

In this episode we get our hands on the Acer Aspire One, both in Linux and Windows, and discuss The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 netbook, Apple's September 9 announcement and the possibility of an Apple netbook-slash-tablet, Sony's massive Vaio recall, Google's Chrome browser, where operating systems are going, the first Microsoft ad with Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates, the big Xbox 360 price cut, cross-platform gaming, online console services and how better bandwidth will bring it all home and the new deal signed by MTN, Vodacom, Neotel, Telkom and Infraco to get going on the west coast cable. Check out www.zatechshow.co.za

This week we are joined by Jason Norwood-Young from the Mail and Guardian and Altech Autopage Celular's CEO Craig Venter. We discuss the high court's industry-changing decision regarding Altech Autopage Cellular and the VANS industry, Comcast in the USA enforcing bandwidth caps at 250 gigabytes and the state of limited access in South Africa, Mobile data routing, Jason's dodgy tips for hackers, Mozilla Ubiquity - stitching Web content together has never been this easy or awesome, Microsoft Silverlight, Adobe Flash, AIR and the future of Web apps, Mark Surman leaving the Shuttleworth Foundation and joining the Mozilla Foundation as executive director, Britons unhappy with the iPhone's lack of Flash; apparently the casing on the 3G iPhone cracks too, the introduction of 802.11s and wireless mesh networks, the legality of wireless user groups, boosting wireless signals, and the perceived danger of cellular waves. Check out www.zatechshow.co.za

In this episode we discuss the future of SSD and what it enables - Intel has some compelling offerings on the way, Gartner Symposium 2008 - Simon and Ben look at this year's event, Duncan has the Multichoice HD PVR and gives his impressions, Eyeballs mobile advertising platform, instant messaging and convergence, Cell C's improved market performance, Intel's Nehalem and Laraby processors and how they will change the game, Sony confirming that the PSP Phone is on the way, Microsoft's planned responsive advertising campaign against the famous 'I'm a Mac' ads from Apple, and more. Check out www.zatechshow.co.za

This week we look at the massive changes taking place in South African television, when and if we'll ever see DVB-H in South Africa, initial impressions on the Nokia N96 (now that we have one to review) - and how much we love the E71, and mobile phones on aeroplanes and why we can't use them. Really. We also discuss Acer finally letting us know when we'll see the Aspire One locally, with pricing, where netbooks belong and what they should cost, WiMAX and Intel's announced support for the technology, Intel Centrino 2 and how it will change mobile computers, USB 3.0 and Firewire 3200, canceling cell contracts in South Africa, Vodafone versus ICASA and more. Check out www.zatechshow.co.za

In this episode we discuss the launch of Getmo.com, a new media download service, Zane CellTel's possible entrance into the SA market, Microsoft's Tech Ed conference, Red Hat setting up office in South Africa, the IBM Microsoft-free desktop, Ubuntu's MID edition for portable internet devices, MWEB becoming a reseller for Vodacom Service Provider, ABSA and Telkom's deal, Neotel's first television advert, the state of spam and much more. Check out www.zatechshow.co.za