Weekly Round Up Podcast #79: Blackberry, Motorola, Ventureburn’s Pitching Den & Twitter

The internet is a big place and companies like Facebook are dominating major parts of it. The concept of regulation has been floating about for a few years now and, more recently, Google and Facebook have found themselves in front of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) following privacy violations. What regulators are doing now isn't a very accurate approach according to Matthew Howett, Ovum's regulations and policy practice leader. At this year's Korea Communications Conference, Howett explored the new disruptive technological space and what it means for regulators and the need for them adapt by stepping away from the...

Sony Pictures has signed off on a big screen adaptation of Apple co-founder and visionary Steve Job's authorised biography. Aaron Sorkin, the man tasked with with translating Walter Isaacson's best-selling book into celluloid is no stranger to tech stories either. He wrote the screenplay for The Social Network, for which the Hollywood veteran picked up an Oscar. In a statement to the press, Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chairman Amy Pascal explained why Sorkin had been picked: “Steve Jobs’ story is unique: he was one of the most revolutionary and influential men not just of our time but of all time....

China’s wildly popular Sina Weibo has hit the 300-million registered user mark. That’s according to news published on the microblog’s site and translated by Tech in Asia. Thing is, the graphs published by the social network actually show it hitting 300-million users sometime in February.That’s significant, because it predates the real-name rules that had Sina Weibo’s bosses worried that their ad revenue would sink through the floor. That might be one reason the microblog didn’t publish its active user numbers, which are likely much lower. In fact, it doesn’t even provide a definition of what it considers an active...

Online classified sites are big business these days. There's a reason have been accused of killing the newspaper industry. Now one of the biggest of them all is making a new play in the app world. Global classifieds giant OLX has launched a free iPad app, which it claims is a first for the South African market. According to Simon Berger-Perrin, Vice President of Mobile at OLX, the app offers classifieds for properties, jobs, second-hand goods, pets, and more. "We are excited to release this new universal app to address the booming iPad market,” he says. “Now iPad owners...

This is interesting. The more successful a company is, the more likely it is to be using social media. That’s according to a new report from research company Millward-Brown in partnership with Google. The study, which gathered opinions from over 2 700 professionals in Europe found that: 59% of professionals in high growth organisations are using social tools to improve business outcomes such as increasing sales and attracting and retaining clients 81% of these ‘dynamic’ businesses that are using social tools report a significant impact on growth/expansion 80% of high growth companies are using social tools to improve ‘connectivity’ (such as collaboration...

When you ask Siri "What is the best smartphone ever?", you'd expect it to spout some pro-Apple response like "the iPhone 4S, duh." So when Apple's personal assistant responded with "The Nokia Lumia 900", it was actually quite funny. Alas, the joke is over. If you ask the same question now, you'll be met with a response like "You're kidding, right?" or "The one you're holding." The Gearburn editor tried it out -- Siri refused to name a phone or brand, preferring instead to mock our question, even when we varied the words slightly. The change in Siri's tune has...

When online auction site Smokoo shut down, we told you that its South African-based founders were working on a new project. Memeburn can now reveal what that new project is: an online dating site. The site, called Adopt Him, claims to offer a slightly different take on the online dating phenomenon, calling itself “South Africa’s first online dating site that lets the ladies call the shots”. Here’s how it works. The site lets women decide who they want to chat to them. It says they can do so by browsing or searching through the database until they find someone...

Time was, getting a loan was a pain in the arse. You had a whole of load of checks to go through before you could even think of getting your hands on any cash. Now all you need is a mobile phone or an internet connection. The reason that’s possible is because of companies like the UK-based Wonga, which today announced South Africa as its first stab at international expansion. The award-winning company can lay claim to a couple of innovations in the tech-finance including being the first to use fully automated risk processing technology. Wonga claims that its...

The latest trends in mobile are leading the "gigabyte revolution" which will take us to the one gigabyte per user per day by 2020, says CEO of Nokia Networks Rajeev Suri. The evolution of mobile technology will lend itself to an era where connectivity will be a human right and download speeds will be 10 times what they are now. Suri was speaking at the Korea Communications Conference, which explores the journey of mobility and its future potential. "Connectivity will be a human right, and it will be about personal context and a family of devices on the same platform....

Technological evolution has brought about many changes to human life and has served as a "big momentum for growth" for emerging market economies. That's according Suk-Chae Lee who was speaking at the Korea Communications Conference about our connected natures, the future of smart convergence and the new opportunities they provide. Lee is the CEO of KT Corporation, a South Korean integrated wired/wireless telecommunication service provider. "People are now living in world where they can be connected wherever they are with introduction of smart devices -- the smart era," says Lee. He reckons that this new era, which is the third...

Look, we all know tablets are selling in their droves. What you might not know though is that they’re about to eclipse smartphones as a means of connecting to the web. According to the latest report from Adobe’s Digital Index, tablets will generate more web traffic than smartphones by 2013. In fact, web usage on tablets has grown nearly 10 times faster since they were introduced a couple of years ago than it did when smartphones first came out. This growth is apparently being driven by both higher rates of tablet shipments and a disproportionately higher number of website visits...

The latest feature being touted by Twitter comes in the form of a staple of traditional online media: the weekly newsletter. Yup that’s right, if you feel like you don’t get enough emails from the social network, you can now get a weekly summary of what went down. You know, just in case there was something you missed in the five seconds you averted your eyes from it. Twitter claims that the newsletter “features the most relevant Tweets and stories shared by the people you’re connected to”. The new feature borrows heavily from the recently updated Discover tab, “emphasising...