Stellenbosch-based e-commerce startup Affordable Choice has launched a competition to promote the opening of its online shop where a tablet PC to the value of R3000 can be won.

In addition, the company has created a coupon especially for Bandwidth Blog that entitles readers to a 20% discount on checkout.

Affordable Choice sources a variety of quality products including smartphones, tablets, torches and laser pointers directly from suppliers to provide consumers with the best prices available.

Affordable Choice originated primarily as a result of an observation that founder Ryan Blake made while speaking to friends about how expensive products seem to be in South Africa, especially electronics.

“If you go anywhere else in the world then most electronic items are way cheaper than what they are here,” says Blake. “So I came up with a plan to get quality goods to consumers in South Africa by allowing them to bypass the big overheads required to run retail outlets and so allowing them to save.”

Affordable Choice sources products from companies that might not be as well known by consumers but yet still produce quality products and then brings these products directly to the consumers at an affordable price.

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FNB has opened the doors of its 7th dotFNB branch, in the Johannesburg CBD at the FNB Bank City Precinct.

After the first dotFNB branch opened in April 2012, the expansion of the dotFNB national footprint rolled out 6 branches since, the latest of which is located in Cavendish Square, Cape Town (take a look inside that store here).

The opening of the branch forms part of the ongoing development of the CBD which has taken place over the past few years and among several other projects has attracted new businesses and a growing resident population.

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By Stefan de Klerk, moneysmart research

The latest smartphone offering from Samsung, the Samsung Galaxy S4, is now available from the 5 major mobile network providers in South Africa.

While Samsung smartphones may not have been as popular in this country as other devices (think BlackBerry), the popularity of Samsung smartphones is certainly increasing.

Samsung’s flagship device is the company’s attempt to compete directly with the iPhone 5 and BlackBerry Z10.

When choosing the best smartphone contract for your individual circumstances, it’s always a good idea to compare similar offerings from the different networks.

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Bandwidth Blog was invited to be part of Samsung’s latest social responsibility program: the Samsung Solar School. As Samsung does best, they use technology to improve people’s lives and the Solar School does just that.

The school is designed inside a ship-container and equipped to such a level that you can literally put it anywhere and use it as a fully functional teaching facility. The solar panels at the top of the school, create enough electricity to power twenty-one notebooks, lights, a large touch screen and a server.

The Samsung Solar School created specifically for Africa was first shared by the company in late 2012. The educational content is changed according to a countries’ curriculum to keep on track with all other schools. The windows have strong burglar bars to keep the equipment safe and the walls are insulated to regulate the heat inside the ship-container.

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Microsoft South Africa today kicked off a partnership with Government’s Jobs Fund that will train more than 3000 unemployed graduates to get permanent jobs in the technology sector in the next three years.

Launching the initiative in Newtown today, Jean-Phillippe Courtois, the president of Microsoft International, said the initiative would dramatically expand Microsoft’s existing skills development programmes through funding from the Jobs Fund and the company’s own 4Afrika initiative.

“The Government’s top priority is to get young South Africans working. As a company, we have long invested in South Africa and understand the need for us all to continue to develop solutions to this challenge. We remain committed to helping address the issue of youth unemployment, as we cannot let an entire generation of young people become long-term unemployed,” said Courtois.

Patrick Dlamini, chief executive of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), which administers the Jobs Fund, hailed the partnership with Microsoft as a major breakthrough in creating jobs in South Africa’s IT sector.

“We’ve been extremely encouraged by the way the private sector has risen to the challenge of helping create jobs in South Africa. Indeed, these types of partnerships between the private and public sector will be significant contributors to the more than 100 524 new permanent jobs which our current portfolio of approved projects aims to create by 2015. These projects will also place another 56 194 unemployed people in vacant positions,” he said. (more…)

BlackBerry has opened its third Apps Lab in SA following two already located at Bandwidth Barn in Woodstock, Cape Town and the University of Pretoria’s Information Technology Department.

The Apps Lab now open at the JoziHub, joins those in Cape Town and Pretoria to boost the development of mobile applications in SA as well as create new job opportunities in the local mobile space with its available resources for students, developers and entrepreneurs.

Annie Lopes, community manager at JoziHub, said, “We look forward to working with BlackBerry to mobilise our resident developer community, including students, researchers and faculties adjacent to our premises, the universities of Johannesburg and Witwatersrand.”

As part of the smartphone maker’s extensive developer program more than 1,600 individuals have already benefited to date.

Source: HumanIPO

Local social innovation startup, HumanWrit.es has recently delivered on its promise by handing over 20, 000 exercise books to underprivileged children.

Launched in June 2012 by its founders Adrian Myburgh, Jason Bagley and Richard Mulholland, HumanWrit.es designed and launched its very own 192 page hard cover notebook called a Writable. For every one that is sold, the company donates 10 exercise books to classrooms of school children in need.

The give-away exercise books include tools for reading and writing in both Xhosa and English, drawing and colouring-in, some basic maths and dotted pages for free thinking, writing and drawing.

The most recent donation of 20, 000 exercise books were delivered to over 200 pre-schools that form part of the Ithemba Labantwana community forum, operated under the umbrella of Ikamva Labantu, HumanWrit.es’s partner organization.

Watch the handover in the video below:

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Asus has launched its 7-inch Android Fonepad tablet in South Africa.

Running Android 4.1 and powered by a 1.2Ghz Intel Atom processor the Fonepad, that doubles as a phone – all 7-inches of it –  also features a microSD card reader, 1.2 megapixel front facing camera and 3 megapixel rear-facing camera available in 8GB, 16GB and 32GB models.

Videsha Proothveerajh, Territory Manager for South and Sub-Saharan Africa in Intel Corporation said that ”Extending our long history of collaboration, including most recently on the Ultrabook and Intel-based tablets, we are very excited to be partnering with Asus again.”

The Asus Fonepad is available now for a recommended retail price starting at R3499.

Source: iAfrica