At the recent South African launch event for the Motorola XOOM tablet and ATRIX smartphone, the lush gadgetry on offer was actually the last thing on my mind. Just two days prior to the event, Google had announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Motorola Mobility for a hefty premium.In the middle of this electric atmosphere, I had a few minutes to sit down with Megan Nicholas, the country director for Mobility South Africa.I wanted to ...

This week I take a look at Air Display, an app that allows you to turn your iPhone, iPad or Macbook into a wireless, additional monitor.When I was younger, I used to love watching documentaries and movies involving high-tech computers and robots. I used to marvel at the innovations and brief glimpses into the future, wondering if I'd ever live to see, let alone use, some of the gadgetry that was being used in these movies. Of course, if I ...

Steve Jobs' recent departure from Apple spurred us to create a list of the best and worst tech CEOs over the years. Read, digest and enjoy the triumphs and failures of these men of industry.The game changersSteve Jobs -- Apple No-one did it better than Steve. In the 70s, Jobs designed the most marketable computer of the time, the Apple II. Jobs was fired from Apple in the 80s, formed his own company called NeXT and eventually made his way ...

Facebook has spent US$40 000 over the past three weeks rewarding the discovery of glitches in its security system.Earlier this month Facebook launched a programme called the Bug Bounty Program, which encourages security experts to help strengthen the social network against attacks.In a recent blog post Facebook's chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, revealed some information about the early days of the Bug Bounty Programme."The programme has already paid out more than US$40 000 in only three weeks and one person ...

Email turns 29 this year. That's right, the medium so few of us can do without has been around for the best part of three decades. On the 30th of August 1982 the "EMAIL" copyright was awarded to V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai.Shiva began work on his standard template system for the drafting of electronic documents in 1978 at the tender age of 14. He was later challenged by a professor from a local university to digitise an internal paper memo ...

Chris O'Brien, a columnist at the San Jose Mercury News asked: Who will be Silicon Valley's next Steve Jobs?He picked out five possible contenders and rejected a sixth.His picks: Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Marc Benioff, Elon Musk, and Reed Hastings. He rejected Jack Dorsey.On Google's Larry Page:... it's not yet clear whether Page has the ability to take the company beyond its core business of search. Yes, it has non revenue hits such as the Android mobile operating system, and ...

Technological innovation will play an important role in solving a number of the problems which are unique to Africa as a continent. In recognition of this, Tech4Africa – which bills itself as the continent's "only web and emerging technology conference" -- has launched the inaugural Tech4Africa Innovation Award.The award, which is open to individuals and companies, is designed to "recognise homegrown innovation and further inspire the industry to develop global solutions to uniquely African challenges"."The Tech4Africa Innovation Award is ...

“PC gaming is not dead.” So intones the Razer Blade, a gaming laptop due to hit the streets at the end of the year. The manufacturer pitches it as “the world’s first true gaming laptop.” Other gaming laptop makers may disagree, and at US$2800 it costs ten times as much as an Xbox or Playstation 3. Or five times the price of a capable gaming PC. What’s the fuss?The Razer Blade is 3.1kgs of blisteringly-fast gaming power combined with a ...

A global security team led by Apple came down on pirated iPhones and iPods in China, according to US Embassy documents recently released by WikiLeaks. The anti-piracy team was setup over three years ago, but details have only been discovered now.The 2008 cable said Apple had hired ex-Pfizer employees (details below) as the leaders of its anti-piracy squad. The cable was virtually hidden amongst 134 000 diplomatic messages which were recently released by WikiLeaks. The full cable can be ...

Microsoft has given the public further glimpses of what it can expect from the next generation of Windows software.According to Windows division president Steven Sinofsky, the software giant is making major improvements to a key Windows Explorer file management program. The changes are expected to improve how the program interacts with the upcoming Windows 8 operating system."Windows 8 is about reimagining Windows, so we took on the challenge to improve the most widely used desktop tool (except maybe ...