Isn’t it a sad indictment on everyone involved in the tech/mobile/start-up industry in South Africa that the most exciting mobile business to emerge from the country is roughly a decade old (in its current incarnation as messaging app)? A decade?!I look at list after list of startups to watch and there’s nothing that stands out as ‘wow’.There’s the inevitable grouping of half-baked clones of services and products that exist in foreign markets. Is copying and pasting an idea from the ...

Right now the guys behind the Oculus Rift virtual reality gaming headset are probably at the tail-end of an epic celebration. Think about it, if you were bought out by Facebook for US$2-billion would you mark the day with a mug of hot chocolate in front of the TV? No? Us neither.Facebook's probably feeling pretty chuffed with itself too. It's managed to nab a company that's been grabbing all kinds of headlines over the past few months. Sure, it ...

A little bizarrely, your car is right now (don’t look!) quietly morphing into something resembling an oversized wearable gadget.Yes, the latest in in-car technology allows us to can make and receive calls, send messages (voice-to-text, of course – no texting-and-driving here), stream music and even receive turn-by-turn navigation in the voices of the most obscure pseudo-celebrities. All pretty much without taking our hands off the steering wheel.Of course, this and other imminent technological innovations – as well as the ...

Nokia has released some great smartphones in the past couple of years -- at least hardware wise. Devices like Lumia 1020 and Lumia 1520 taught everyone else how to make smartphones with image quality rivalling that of dedicated digital cameras.When there were rumours of Nokia testing some Android smartphones, heartbeats quickened. But after a couple of leaks, it was evident that Nokia would be releasing an entry-level hardware device with Android.Read more on Gearburn.

Following the blocking of Twitter in Turkey, startups and tech giants including Twitter found alternative ways for Turks to access the social network -- but it seems the government will not have it."Twitter has been used as a means to carry out systematic character assassinations by circulating illegally acquired recordings, fake and fabricated records of wiretapping," said the Turkish government this weekend.What began as a failed banning of Twitter seems to have turned into a major social media lockout as ...

The paid, earned and owned (PEO) media model has proven to be a fairly adaptable one. It allows people to identify the nature of the different communications tools at their disposal and conceptualise the best combination of them for achieving results.The model suggests for example, that the easily controlled product page on a website (owned) can be brought to a larger audience through the use of targeted advertising (paid) or coverage by a respected publication (earned).The model highlights ...

Built in Africa focuses on entrepreneurs, startups and technologies that are affecting the continent and empowering the African people.When you look at the supposed "dark" continent, its social and economic problems are abundantly clear. But it seems that Africa's entrepreneurs are stepping up and trying to find ways to solve some of these challenges.There is a global energy crisis, and Africa in particular suffers from a shortage of power and alternative clean energy sources. In this first installment of our ...

Ever sit through an ad break, then reach the end and wonder exactly what the brand was trying to say? You're not alone.In between shots of viral goodness and touchy feely clips, you're likely to spot an ad which uses abstract terms, a mix of attractive people, some artistic representations of research and some nice stop motion night shots, complete with trailing headlamp lines. It's a generic way to represent ideas and craft an image of a progressive, inspiring ...

Do you put yourself out there, ask people to link up with you via LinkedIn, and then all you hear is... crickets? There could be one very blatant reason why no one is interested in your LinkedIn profile (yet), and the good news is that it's relatively easy to fix.Journey with me to a recently networking event I attended.There were a variety of entrepreneurs at the event. As I was surveying the crowd… I noticed that some were better presented ...

With all the technological advancements being made to cars both on the driver-facing and internal ends, it's easy forget that the stuff we drive on is still a pretty low tech with the choices pretty much limited to asphalt or concrete.Except that's not quite true.Read more on Motorburn.