Imagine for a moment that you’ve decided to spend your money on… something, anything really. A car, a cellphone, an iPad, a haircut, pay TV service, whatever. Now imagine for a second that an intrinsic part of that transaction gives whoever you are trading with the right to enter your home and rummage through your personal belongings and those of your kids. And they can do this with impunity.Furthermore, not only would they be able to do that, they would ...

Former Naspers executive Kim Reid is the man behind Takealot. This South African online retail site is looking to gain significant market share in a sector where Naspers-backed Kalahari.net is the country's predominant force.Memeburn sat down for an exclusive interview with Reid, tackling his views on emerging markets, entrepreneurship and the shift from corporate -- alongside his perspective on the future of eCommerce and what his latest venture seeks to achieve.Emerging Markets to Watch When it comes to BRICS ...

Review: Sony Ericsson Xperia X8. A big name for a candybar-sized smartphone that will barely register in your hands (note: have gorilla-sized paws, but even so). This teeny, tiny Android phone is a ‘starter’ smartphone – it comes with all the features you would expect from its grownup counterparts (like the Xperia X10), but at a lower price-point. It comes with a selection of colourful back-plates, clearly marking it a phone for the “fun” side of the market.Getting around With a ...

Today, mobile marketing is the fastest and most effective way to reach your audience and is an area of intense fascination for marketers and advertisers and users alike.The mobile revolution is happening and mCommerce is changing consumer behaviour in much the same way eCommerce has. With its high level of consumer acceptance, mobile marketing provides instant communication, since the mobile phone is always on person and always active. There are now far more people in the world who connect through ...

I've been writing about Google's Panda algorithm change and the huge amount of pain that it's caused for content websites since it was introduced in late February.Before the launch of Panda, Google spent months bad-mouthing "content farms" and boasting about how the new algorithm would weed out the bad content. The first version was called "Farmer" as a reference to "content farms" -- sites that scrape or produce low quality content just to game search rankings.Who could argue with such ...

As the world's eyes fix on Libya and the capture of its infamous leader, the country’s mobile networks are beginning to operate again. This according to figures released by mobile advertising network, Buzzcity.In the last few months, Libya has been in headlines over the refusal of its controversial leader Muammar Gaddafi to step down from the office he has held since 1969. On Wednesday, however, Gaddafi lost control of Tripoli when rebel forces captured his Bab al-Azizia compound.Libyan ...

Black and blocky – you’re not going to get a much bigger screen this side of a tablet, and it’s got some pretty serious innards to power its Androidy goodness. Gearburn weighs up the iffy build quality against the sheer value for money.For more see Gearburn.com

One of South Africa's top four banks, First National Bank (FNB), has announced that its successful mobile banking application is now available for download on the majority of BlackBerry smartphones.Users of the popular BlackBerry Curve and Bold series will also be able to download the app which was featured as app of the week on Gearburn.com. Farren Roper Head of Products and Markets at FNB Connect says "we launched our App with touchscreen BlackBerry smartphones and had an overwhelming ...

From tech leaders to lovers of Apple products, the shock resignation of Apple magnate Steve Jobs triggered an outpouring of praise. For some Chinese web users, however, Jobs is something far greater.For these users, the visionary co-founder of Apple is in fact, a "god".Just as on Western social networks, Jobs' shock decision to step down as Apple CEO ranked as the most discussed topic on Chinese social networks, particularly on the Twitter like microblogging sites.Some web users said his ...

Google has announced that it will be shutting down Slide, the social gaming company it bought for around US$200 million less than a year ago. Slide produces social gaming apps for Facebook and MySpace such as SuperPoke! Pets and Top Fish.Max Levchin, CEO of Slide is to leave Google for personal reasons, according to a spokesperson for the search engine giant:“Max has decided to leave Slide and Google to pursue other opportunities, and we wish him the best. ...