The Vodafone Webbook is cheap, incredibly cheap (around R1 500 [US$ 184]). As such, criticising it feels a little odd. It’s a bit like taking apart a soup kitchen for not having an internationally renowned wine list or the local corner café for lacking the nuances of haute cuisine in its cooking. Here’s the thing though, the Webbook feels cheap, something designed to throw to an unwashed proletariat desperate for the democratisation of technology. I get that there’s a reason it ...

In a recent article, I pointed out that activist media, such as the posts, tweets, photos, and videos produced by the Occupy Wall Street activists, will become increasingly influential, while the establishment media, such as CNN or New York Times, will decline in influence. The reason is that the business model for establishment media is under siege and that means cutbacks in resources. There are simply fewer journalists, editors, photographers, camera operators, and there will be even fewer in the future ...

Quitting Facebook --- It’s one of those things you think about every time your mother comments on a photo of you, or a high school buddy boasts about a new business venture, or a good friend feels the need to fill your day with his newborn’s bowel movements. The first time I gave it any serious thought was when it was reported that facebook had developed face recognition technology, my initial reaction was. "So who cares? It was bound to ...

The tablet market has exploded with new devices shipping from every vendor under the sun, but most of the media focus has been directed at who can provide a real competitor to the iPad. In India, the Aakash tablet is taking an different tack. It has already picked up over 300 000 prelaunch bookings for its commercial version that goes on sale next month -- it must be doing something right. So what is so exciting about the Aakash that ...

Investigations are under way after a think tank based at the University of Toronto reported that Syrian government websites are being hosted on servers based in Canada. The report claims that 17 Syrian websites including those of the Ministries of Culture, Transport, Social Affairs and Labour, as well as Syrian television network Addounia TV, are being hosted by iWeb Technologies, a Montreal-based company, through several intermediary companies. In reaction to the report, iWeb issued a statement saying, "Canada has enacted ...

When news broke that Simon Cowell, a professional giver of opinion, and rumoured transatlantic music mogul had joined Twitter, it seemed like a match made in heaven. Bar the slight Spartacus moment at the end of the tweet, Cowell’s first was the usual Twitter fair, "It's official, I know it's taken a while. It's really me! We're live in 10 minutes. I'll keep you posted. Lots of love #iamsimon". Of course, Cowell is famous for his frankness and it was not ...

The Praekelt Foundation has been named the first South African winner of the Social Impact Category of the 2011 Mobile Marketing Awards for Innovation, Creativity and Leadership, held in Los Angeles. The foundation, which "builds open source, scalable mobile technologies and solutions to improve the health and wellbeing of people living in poverty" was honoured for its YoungAfricaLive project. The project, hosted on the Vodafone Live mobile web platform, is essentially a mobile community where people ...

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has pulled in US$775-million in sales worldwide during its short five-day release period. This puts it in line to eclipse Call of Duty: Special Ops, which managed to rake in US$1-billion in sales. Robert Kotick, CEO of Activision was über-chuffed at the success of his shooter empire saying, “Life-to-date retail sales for the Call of Duty franchise have exceeded US$6 billion worldwide, which makes Call of Duty one of the most valuable entertainment properties in the world.” Comparisons paint a ...

In the wake of claims by FIFA president Sepp Blatter that there was no racism in football, Manchester United footballer Rio Ferdinand has taken to Twitter to express his dismay, resulting in a flood of tweets from the two. Blatter has faced worldwide condemnation and calls for his resignation following the comments. When CNN asked him if racism still existed on the pitch, Blatter denied it and said such incidents should simply be settled by a handshake at the end ...

The combination of online payments and social media has hit a turning point. Online payment giant, PayPal, has released a "Send Money" application on Facebook that allows friends to send each other money. "We are bringing the largest online payments company to the world's largest social network to make it even easier to send money to your friends and family directly from Facebook," said PayPal's senior product marketing manager JB Coutinho in a blog post. "Our new Send Money application ...