Universal access to the internet in South Africa is no longer being held back by high prices or a lack of education, but by government and regulatory inefficiency. Smartphones and mobile computing devices are getting cheaper and broadband far more affordable. But the spectrum needed to deliver high-speed bandwidth is still clogged up by the government’s frustrating delay in switching TV broadcasts from analogue to more efficient digital signals, says Mark Taylor, CEO for Nashua Mobile.

“We are at a juncture where technology developments have outpaced our regulations. The freeing up of spectrum through the digitisation of TV signals is lagging behind, and has serious implications for our operators remaining on the forefront of offering the latest technologies to South Africa.” Network operators are introducing the latest LTE wireless technology for high-speed, high-capacity data, but they cannot set up national LTE networks because spectrum is not available. “It’s critical that we see the delivery of additional spectrum quickly to remain globally competitive, otherwise South Africa will fall further behind in the broadband divide,” Taylor warns. “Universal access to broadband is starting to border on a human right. We can’t deliver that because TV channels are still using the spectrum, so digital migration must be finalised.” (more…)

South Africa needs to actively encourage young girls to consider technology as a career option if the country is going to address key issues like the current skills shortage in the IT sector and spiralling levels of youth unemployment.

That’s the word from Thuli Sibeko, the organiser of the South African Girls in ICT event, being held on International Girls in ICT day on 25 April 2013. Now in its fourth year, the event aims to inspire girls to consider a future in technology, with more than 130 schoolgirls expected to attend a conference with leading women in the local ICT sector.

Ms Sibeko, the managing director of Anglo African Events, says the technology sector offers “an extraordinary opportunity” for girls and young women to forge successful careers in a field where there are expected to be two million more ICT jobs than there are professionals to fill them in the next 10 years.

“In a country where there are millions of unemployed young people, it’s important to break the existing stereotypes that technology careers are ‘too hard’ for girls, or ‘unfeminine’ or even ‘boring’,” said Ms Sibeko. “Education and skills training – and a change in attitudes – are vital to ensure women are not left behind.” (more…)

The big news from today at TechEd Africa 2013 is that Microsoft SA can finally confirm that the Surface tablet will indeed come to South Africa.

Until now Microsoft’s first PC has not actually reached our shores, and there is quite a following of fans who want these machines in SA. The Surface comes in two flavours – a ARM based Windows RT version, and a “Pro” version running Intel Core i5 hardware.

The Surface has been praised for forward thinking design, but so far has not set any records in terms of sales. During a session on Consumerization of IT in Enterprise, Colin Erasmus mentioned that the Surface tablet will “hopefully” reach SA within the next few months.

Just after this presentation, SA’s Microsoft MD, Mteto Nyati, confirmed it:

@microsoftsa will launch Surface in the 2nd half of 2013 – responding to our customers.

— Mteto Nyati (@mteton) April 17, 2013

BlackBerry has left their fans without a premium phone since the Bold 9900, and instead focussed their efforts on the new BlackBerry 10 operating system. The day has finally come that we can spend some hands on time with their new Z10 handset, which is major shift for BlackBerry. Gone are services like BIS and BES, but BlackBerry has finally caught up with its competitors with decent software and a great new gesture based user interface.

So is a BlackBerry without BIS and the lack of a physical keyboard still retain what makes BlackBerry a great device? (more…)

MWEB Gaming has launched local Dota 2 servers into the test build with the Valve Corporation. MWEB is awaiting confirmation from Valve as to when it will be deployed into the full build, which could be as early as tomorrow. As well as figuratively putting African gaming on the gaming map, a “South Africa” region will be added to the game, literally putting our continent on the map alongside Europe, North America and Asia.

Dota 2 is one of the biggest online titles internationally, with occasions of up to 297,000 players online at the same time in spite of the fact that it is still in Beta. Proving it has an equally impressive South African following, 29 teams competed in the MWEB Dota 2 Inaugural Cup held last year in July. It is a highly team-oriented multiplayer online battle arena game, where players must coordinate with their teams in order to achieve victory. Reaction speed is a priority and the local servers will mean that finally SA gamers will be able to show off their agility and reflexes.

“This is another level reached in our ongoing mission to improve the online gaming experience for local players,” says Desmond Kurz, Online Gaming Manager at MWEB. “Local Dota 2 players will now have the opportunity to create new play strategies that are not apparent at the high pings that they are used to playing with on EU and US servers.” (more…)

Barely a month after unveiling its new Office and Office 365 Home Premium for consumers, Microsoft has launched a major update to its Microsoft Office 365 services for business.

The release has new collaboration features and offerings specifically tailored to the needs and budgets of small, medium and large organisations. In addition to updated email, video-conferencing, instant messaging and calendaring services, business users can now get the Office applications they are familiar with on up to five devices, delivered as an always up-to-date cloud service. It is for this reason that many stores are pushing users to rather opt for Office 365 instead of the previous packaged versions of Office.

Major new features in Office 365 include enhanced enterprise social capabilities with SharePoint and Yammer, and by June, it will include Lync-Skype connectivity for presence, IM, and voice.

“With Office 365, everyone from large enterprises to small businesses to individual consumers can now benefit from the power of Office and the connectivity of the cloud,” said Uriel Rootshtain, Office lead at Microsoft South Africa. “This release unlocks new scenarios and delivers capabilities that far surpass anything available in browser-only solutions.”

Rootshtain is particularly excited about the local potential of the Office 365 Small Business Premium offering, which is designed for businesses with 1 to 10 employees. In addition to the complete set of Office applications, this service includes business-grade email, shared calendars, website tools and HD video conferencing in an easy-to-manage service that doesn’t require IT expertise. (more…)

We live in South Africa, a country where labour is cheap and readily available. We also routinely complain about poor service in South Africa. The connection here is that since labour is so cheap it’s easier to constantly hire people, give them minimal training and then set them loose on the hordes that will enter your stores.

You’re essentially stocking your store with cattle that are unable to answer any questions but will work for the lowest common denominator salary.

A perfect example is almost any technical store. I’m not exactly expecting a salesperson to know the manufacturer of a motherboard but I do want them to avoid telling gullible customers that the iPad Mini has a retina display. I also find it fairly amusing that most iStore employees have Blackberry’s.

This isn’t a fringe case though; most store attendee’s have little care of empathy for their customers. They’re doing a job and they only care about a paycheck at the end of the month. That said, is it the fault of the store attendants or is this an issue that stems from the top? (more…)

HP at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, announced the HP Slate7, an affordable Android Jelly Bean consumer tablet that provides customers with easy access to Google Mobile services.

The Slate7 will have a 7 inch screen and weigh 368 grams (13 ounces) – putting it up against the current king of Android 7 inch tablets – the Nexus 7. The HP Slate7 features a stainless-steel frame and soft black paint in gray or red on the back. It also is the industry’s first tablet to offer embedded Beats Audio, for the best-sounding, richest audio experience available on a tablet.

The HP Slate7 delivers the Google experience with services like Google Now, Google Search, Gmail, YouTube, Google Drive and Google+ Hangouts for multiperson video chat as well as access to apps and digital content through Google Play. (more…)