Africa itself has a unique set of challenges – and these challenges can be met head on using technology. Tech4Africa is the premier mobile, web & emerging technology conference, aiming to bring a global perspective to the our African context. The conference will bring together some of the most respected people in technology to share, teach and interact with us.

So, who should attend?

• Business people wanting to understand how Web 2.0, mobile, and emerging technology and mobile is relevant to the enterprise
• Technologists, geeks, bloggers, social media hipsters, hackers, journos, ponytails, propellorheads, and of course suits, who want to learn from the best in tech
• Everyone working in a tech startup
• Entrepreneurs interested in learning more about venture funding
• Companies wanting to expose their product or service to a focussed audience
• People looking to recruit technology people

Focus areas are:

• Emerging tech and trends for Africa
• Applications for Web 2.0 in Africa
• Mobile & wireless innovation and trends for the next 3 years
• Cloud computing and it’s relevance for business in Africa
• Startups & business opportunities in Africa
• African success stories
• The funding landscape in Africa

Johannesburg Conference:

27 – 28 October 2011

Johannesburg, South Africa. For more details visit the Tech4Africa website.

Cape Town Meetup:

If you are stuck in Cape Town however, there will be a meetup on the 27th of September, which starts at 18:00. Place – Alba Lounge.

Whether you are an individual or a startup, you are welcome to attend. Attendance is free, and there will be a bar tab and some light eats. There will be a draw for a ticket to the JHB Tech4Africa conference, and you will have the opportunity to get up to 60% of on conference tickets, provided you attend the meetup. A speaker will be confirmed soon.

Hope to see you there!

As a piece of technology the mobile device has had an incredible affect across the world. The geographical nature of Africa as a continent and the lack of previous fixed line telecommunication development has meant the mobile device’s status has multiplied compared to more emerged continents and countries. For the many citizens of the many countries that make up Africa, the mobile device is not the 6th screen but in fact the 1st screen – an illustration of its importance and its potential. This has been covered in many different articles, papers, presentations, interviews, tweets and conversations. As facts go this is right up there with ‘the world is round’.

The upcoming Mobile Entertainment Africa (23 – 24 August 2011) is about potential, it is about the technology of choice, it is about consumer behaviour, it is about monetisation, it is about what people actually do on their devices.

Consumers like to have fun, they like to play, they like to entertain, they like to be entertained, they like to be creative, they like to interact, they like to use the 10 minutes they have waiting for their friend, they like to catch up, they like to share. They like to consume (which is probably why they’re called consumers…)

As an event Mobile Entertainment Africa is going to break down the mobile entertainment market into key sections – gaming, film/broadcast/TV, football, music, big players perspectives, publishing. These will form the backbone of the conference. Selected thought and business leaders will present their views in compact presentations – they’ll discuss their experiences through case studies, how they’ve monetised the opportunity, how they’re looking to expand, the issues they’ve overcome and their thoughts on the future.

Each mini session will have a distinct subject. Presentations will be delivered. The delegation will then have the opportunity to discuss what they have heard amongst their peers. This will be followed by a traditional panel discussion. Then there’ll be some informal networking, before we do it all again – tackling another distinct subject.

It’s going to be a packed, informative and progressive two days. BandwidthBlog will be there to cover the event as well.

For more info visit the Mobile Entertainment Africa website:

http://entertainment-africa.com

For a list of the speakers:

http://entertainment-africa.com/wp/speakers/

Born out of an existing family business in 2008, GetSmarter has grown from strength to strength since its inception. The company is positioned as a high-touch online education company that works together with top universities and industry experts to deliver online short courses throughout South Africa. These short courses run for 10 weeks and include about 70 hours of comprehensive learning for their students. Having trained over 7,000 students in just a few short years, the future of online education is looking extremely bright. The company’s second year saw it grow by a massive 300%, and subsequent annual growth has been steady at 170% year on year.

It now boasts 50 employees and works with a network of 20 teachers throughout the country to teach people online. Rob Paddock, who has recently taken over from his brother Sam as Managing Director, explains, “We’ve moved offices three times in the past few years, and our latest move to 1,000-square-metre premises allows us to continue our expansion and find innovative ways of designing a vibrant company culture.” He’s adamant that the company won’t move again for at least another three years.

The space has also allowed the team to launch new projects through the newly formed GetWings incubator. “GetSmarter has allowed us to learn a lot about how people teach and learn online. Our new projects out of GetWings are all in the online education space and we’re looking forward to launching two exciting projects in the next few months,” says Sam Paddock, head of GetWings.

Both Rob and Sam believe that their businesses are built and supported by great people. It is in line with this philosophy that their new offices include a personal training studio run by a Biokineticist, who also looks after the team’s health and wellness, and a full-time chef who serves breakfast, lunch and afternoon snacks. The company has designed themed break-away rooms to stimulate focused team work. Did we mention the 150-square-metre balcony and 270-degree views of Cape Town?

Here’s the new office in pictures:

Priscilla, the Director of First Impressions, directs calls and visitors from her desk, which is where the subway-like map begins. Each colour directs visitors to a different department.

While the team rarely sees students, as all study is conducted online, there is a need to have comfortable waiting space for GetSmarter's visitors.

ChalkStar is another one of the company's new projects. Its team gets to look down this road in southern Namibia when they need a little inspiration.

Pictured here is the space for the company's new Kwiksta project. Also pictured is the 12-seater boardroom and a few guitars... just for fun.

Take a look at some of the other pics of this great office environment. My favourite – the blue sky room, with astroturf floors…

A few weeks ago we promised you that we would follow up our review of the Cell C Speedstick with some real world speed tests, and here you go. I ran these tests during different times, and also at a few different locations. Overall the speeds are very quick, but there is a definite spike in network speed at off peak hours, a few times my connection reached above 10Mbps, which is great considering SA still has a maximum of 10Mbps of ADSL lines…

In terms of reception I was pretty lucky – I used it in quite a few areas in the Cape Town / Bellville / Stellenbosch areas, and also to a trip to Pretoria, and not once did I have reception problems. I did however once get only EDGE reception in Durbanville (or D’Urbanvale to be precise), despite Cell C’s map indicating full HSPA reception where I was standing – maybe I should tell Trevor eh?

I also found that the reception can be very sensitive – for example at work I found that connecting the modem to a laptop above my table gave me full HSPA speed, whereas connecting to a desktop below my table gave only a WCDMA connection. Maybe your experience would be different. But to be honest – in 90% of my use I had full HSPA+ speeds.

At present I am sharing a PDF file with my Speedtest.net results so far, based on connections to Johannesburg and London. Information includes download and upload speeds, and ping times. I also check how long Youtube videos had to buffer before playing (using standard definition videos). You will also find my signal strength and location info.

• You can find my Cell C Speedstick speedtest results here (PDF).

Once again I will try to keep this updated over time…

The 20th Cape Town GeekDinner will be taking place on Thursday 27 May at Da Capo (52 Shortmarket Street, Greenmarket Square).

As always, talks will be finalised just before the dinner, but talks that have been offered at this stage include:

• The Open and Distributed social network wave, why it’s not an easy problem to solve (by Joe Botha)
• 5 Life Changing Moments (by Jonathan Endersby)

Anyone is welcome to offer a talk for GeekDinner, so if you have something you’d like to share, add it to the wiki. But do take note of the following pointers from the GeekDinner organisers:
“We want short, interactive talks – a quick overview of a cool idea, or an interesting way of looking at things. We prefer to stay away from the how, and the technical nitty-gritty, and get an idea of the what or maybe the why. We like to keep the talks short – about five minutes, plus questions. Bring your slides on a USB stick if you have any, we will provide a laptop and a projector.”

The main list is full at this stage, but if you’d like to attend, add your name to the waiting list and keep checking whether you’ve been bumped up – there are always cancellations, right up until the evening of the dinner itself.

You can also sign up to the announcement list or follow CTGeekDinner on Twitter to be notified about the next dinner as soon as the date and venue have been confirmed.

Google has announced that street view’s latest destination will be South Africa. Soon, Toyota Prius models mounted with cameras will start their journey across cities of South Africa, taking pictures along the way. Cities to be included in the Google Maps Street View are Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth and Durban.

Google’s Street View is a very popular service that currently includes a number of major metropolitan areas across the globe, where cars fit with directional cameras did the job of capturing the 360 degrees view from the street. In some locations, Google also used a trike to capture images, though it is not immediately clear if they will be used in South Africa as well.

Where available, Street View can be accessed by zooming-in to the lowest level, or by using the “Pegman” icon on a highlighted street. Also, roaming about in the environmentally friendly hybrid Prius helps to give Google’s image a boost, while bringing good PR for the Prius as well. Once the images have been collected, they go through a process of being “stitched” together, and may only be available on street view after several months.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Google and supplying our fuel efficient and environmental friendly Prius for this groundbreaking project in South Africa. South Africans and international visitors alike will benefit tremendously from Street View, which is both fun and practical. We hope that people across South Africa’s major cities keep their eyes peeled for the Street View cars, and feel part of a major new initiative,” said Toyota’s Senior Vice President for Sales and Marketing, Andrew Kirby.