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Martin is obsessed with technology and the future. His work life includes positions at UK based Hotcourses.com, Discovery Invest and currently, Memeburn.
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Microsoft's Don Mattrick summed up the vision for the Xbox 360's successor today. It will serve as the hub "where all your entertainment comes alive in one place," and will be called Xbox One.Introduced as an “all-in-one home entertainment system” for games and entertainment, Xbox One’s shell harkens back to that of the first Xbox. The curves of the 360 have been hammered out and attributes to a rather austere and monolithic looking Xbox One. It doesn’t shout gaming console, ...
For a while, pet-related startups seemed to be a rarity. Ever since the Pets.com debacle in which the venture-backed startup went from a Nasdaq IPO to liquidation in about 9 months, entrepreneurs have given pet-ecommerce a slightly wider berth.Looking back, it was a difficult time for online startups in general. Not to mention one that spent US$1.2 million on a super bowl ad without any profitability in sight, right at the dot-com bubble’s popping point. Since then, the online economy ...
We've long lamented over how secretive Africa's startup communities are, especially South Africa and its crown jewel, Cape Town, which is supposed to be a beacon for the continent's entrepreneurial community. As an emerging market with defiant ambition we love to draw parallels between promising African innovation hubs and Silicon Valley, and yes there is promise, but we are sorely lacking openness, a cornerstone trait of successful entrepreneurial ecosystems.A lack of openness is perhaps as much a symptom of a ...
It's that time of year again. Google kicked off day one of I/O, its three day developer-oriented product and platform innovations showcase, at San Francisco's Moscone Center West on Wednesday. While there weren't any skydiving or BMX antics to marvel at this time around, the big G did deliver some news that are likely to get tongues wagging.All AccessAs has been rumoured, Google today announced a subscription music service to go up against established players like Spotify and Rdio. It's ...
An article published by The Economist earlier this year, quoted research by the pressure group, Partnership for a New American Economy, which found that some 40% of Fortune 500 firms were founded by immigrants or their children. An earlier report in 2011 entitled Immigrant Founders and Key Personnel in America’s 50 Top Venture-Funded Companies concluded that more than half of America's top 50 private venture-funded companies -- as ranked by Down Jones VentureSource -- were founded by immigrants.Read more on ...
The BlackBerry faithful and converts alike gathered in Florida today to watch BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins deliver his first keynote since the BlackBerry 10 launch back in January this year.So how has the troubled smartphone maker fared since its rebirth? "Some said last year's conference would be the last for BlackBerry. They said it would by my first and last time on stage. I'm happy to say they were wrong," said Heins. "This year feels very, very different. It's ...
People are spoiled for choice when it comes to email marketing services. For example, internationally there is MailChimp, iContact, Benchmark and Campaign Monitor, while Everlytic, and Graphic Mail have made their marks on the South African market. Dashing into the fray comes Total Send, an email marketing service from Cape Town. It's pièce de résistance? Aggressive pricing.Total Send's founder Luke Wingfield Digby believes that the pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and search engine optimisation (SEO) scenes have become too crowded and expensive. ...
In March this year, Sundar Pichai, took over Andy Rubin's position as Google's head of mobile. Since then Pichai has become the driving force behind Android while continuing to oversee his initial assignment, Chrome. In his first major interview since taking over the reins, Pichai downplayed speculation of Chrome and Android merging -- at least in the short term.Pichai also revealed to WIRED why he is comfortable with Android's monetisation strategy and gave his thoughts on Facebook Home, Samsung's hold ...
Is there a shortage of VC and angel funding in Africa? Pose the question to entrepreneurs and the answer is bound to be yes. Omidyar's latest report on African entrepreneurship found that 71% of respondents surveyed in South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania believe that there is a shortage of equity capital to start new firms. African financiers disagree, simply saying that many projects are not fundable.Whatever the case may be, the International Finance Corporation estimates that ...
The Western Cape region, which includes Stellenbosch and Cape Town is colloquially referred to as "Silicon Cape", a nod to the legendary Silicon Valley in the United States.The Western Cape is generally acknowledged as having South Africa's strongest entrepreneurial ecosystem. The Digital gateway to Africa report recently jointly published by Wesgro, City of Cape Town and PwC, shines a light on exactly why the region has become so attractive to both intrepid capital seekers and providers.Read more on Ventureburn.
