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

Mass media conglomerate Comcast has officially announced the completion of its purchase of DreamWorks Animation studios. Costing a cool US$3.8-billion, the studio "will become part of the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, which includes Universal Pictures, Fandango, and NBCUniversal Brand Development," Comcast explains in a presser. DreamWorks Animation was founded in 1994 by film director Steven Spielberg, current CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg and media mogul David Geffen, and is responsible for some 32 major feature films. Its first, Antz, debuted back in 1998, and set the tone for movies like its latest production, Kung Fu Panda 3. DreamWorks Animation, founded in 1994, will likely...

Artificial intelligence is impressing us more everyday, as the technology demonstrates amazing learning capabilities and flexibility. It's not just the likes of Google, Apple and Microsoft working on AI though, as South African firm CLEVVA has a rather innovative application for the technology. The company, founded in 2011, has crafted virtual advisors, powered by AI and used in sales fields (among others) to train and guide sales representatives. Just how does this service work? Could the average SME easily get to grips with it? What will future of AI look like? Will it take our jobs? We interviewed CLEVVA CEO Ryan Falkenberg... A 'GPS'...

It's taken about four years, but Instagram has this week hit the one billion downloads mark on Google's Play Store. Instagram, an app which allows its users to share and interact with user-posted images, is now the fourth Facebook-owned app that has hit that figure (after Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp). According to Android Police, it's the 19th app on the Play Store to reach this figure. To put those numbers into rough  perspective, around one-in-seven people on the planet have downloaded the app on an Android smartphone. Considering only about a billion-and-a-half devices run a version of Google's operating system, that's massively...

The Olympic Games have come and gone, and Rio will once again fall quiet. But that doesn't mean it's over for us data lovers. In fact, the real fun is only just beginning. Thanks to modern technology, we have access to a slew of data sets from practically all sports, and all parameters. Although the Games didn't go without incident, it was a largely successful tournament for host Brazil, and medal dominator United States. It was also a triumph for South African athletics, with two gold medals won in two feature races. But what about the other numbers behind the games? Take...

In the battle for the Johannesburg Metro that took place on Monday, the DA's Vasco da Gama was elected as the City Council speaker. It's a huge change of power for the once-ANC stronghold, and the result itself sent the Johannesburg City Hall into a bit of a frenzy. Elsewhere, the move also sent Twitter into chaos, as people tweeted their views and funny jokes thanks in part to the speaker's rather historical name. But perhaps one Twitter user making particularly good use of the news is the owner of the da Gama parody Twitter account. Yes, I know what you're...

How pissed off do you get if Android's Google Now or iOS's Siri mispronounces your name? Not as upset as Barbra Streisand we imagine. At least we wouldn't phone Tim Cook to rectify the situation, but Streisand did. The recording artist, in a recent interview with NPR's Scott Simon, made known her annoyance of Apple's Siri getting the pronunciation of her name wrong every time, and unveiled a few choice titbits on the release date of iOS 10 in the process. "Streisand with a soft S, like sand on the beach," Streisand corrects Siri, after Simon asked the virtual assistant a...

According to report by Fast Company, Cupertino-based mobile and services giant Apple has acquired personal health startup Gliimpse for an undisclosed amount. The niche startup is the brainchild of Anil Sethi who previously worked at Apple in the 1980s. He founded the company in 2013. As for what Apple actually bought, Gliimpse aims to make healthcare record collation easier for patients. "A Gliimpse is your health story. We help you collect your medical data from web portals, then help organize it into an easily shared and understood health story," the company explains on its about page. Apple's new acquisition Gliimpse 'is healthcare’s platform...

News moves at the speed of social media in today’s world, and that’s especially the case on the weekend. Take a look at the world news you might’ve missed this weekend through the 140-character lens of Twitter. Welcome to the Weekend News on Twitter (19 August – 21 August). Caster Semenya won gold in the women's 800m race in Rio Saturday. Semenya, who has been called out by fellow competitors for boasting an unfair advantage, romped to victory with Burundi's Francine Niyonsaba and Kenya's Margaret Wambui rounding up an all-African podium. Semenya's time of 1.55.29 is her personal best, and a...

This edition of the Olympic Games saw its fair share of off- and on-track issues. From swimmers purportedly getting robbed at gun point, to pools turning rainforest green, to a number of athletes suffering horrendous injuries... it's definitely been an interesting ride. But one particular name that stood out for some this weekend was Lynsey Sharp. After South African middle-distance runner Caster Semenya stormed away from the field to win her 800m event with a personal best, 6th place finisher Sharp had a few words to say about the race and her competitors. #LynseySharp began trending Sunday after Caster Semenya's 800m...

Social networking giant Facebook this past weekend announced an all new social networking app for teenagers. Dubbed Lifestage, the app is made for 21-year-olds and younger, and allows teens to share and view bio videos. "Lifestage makes it easy and fun to share a visual profile of who you are with your school network. Simply capture into a field on your profile, then post it on your profile," reads the app description page. The app also aims to make use of secondary and tertiary education networks, a lot like Facebook in its early years. "Once your school is unlocked, you can access...

Telkom has revealed more details on what it calls wide-scale sabotage of its network, saying that 13 200 customers were affected by the outages. On Friday, Telkom announced a R500 000 reward for information related to "a series of acts of sabotage" across its network. At the time, it said that facilities in Midrand, Silverton, Pretoria West, Pinetown, Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Makhado and Messina were all affected. Related: Telkom offering R500k reward after countrywide ‘senseless sabotage’ The network has issued an update on the matter, revealing the scale of damage and repairs. "A total of 85 street distribution cabinets (SDCs) have been damaged in...

Welcome to a new feature at Memeburn, where we take a look at videos worth watching this past week. Whether they’re viral, funny, amazing or just plain interesting, we’ve got you covered. Looking for some entertaining videos? We've scoured the internet for this week's stand-out clips -- check them out below. Personally, I enjoyed the Legend of Zelda clip as well as the trailer for sci-fi movie Arrival. That 360 swing gets a motor What happens if you add a motor to an already terrifying 360 swing? Bring fresh underwear if you have a fear of heights... A chicken wearing pants Why would a chicken...

World Photo Day is a fun holiday celebrated on 19 August each year. First established in 2010, the day celebrates each and every one of us who've ever clicked a shutter button, and the results thereafter. And you know, most of what we produce are pretty important to those enormous, multi-billion dollar internet companies. Some rely almost squarely on uploaded images in their daily running and prosperity, and the numbers behind those snaps (rather than the snaps itself), are probably worth a thousand words themselves. For a peek at just how important a role images play on the internet, have a...

Elon Musk's private space company, SpaceX, has been making waves in recent years -- and for good reason. The company has successfully delivered supplies to the International Space Station, landed several first stage boosters and is currently fighting Boeing to win NASA's astronaut contract. But we're just a few months away from another significant milestone in the company's lifespan, as it readies a beast of a rocket, dubbed the Falcon Heavy. The most powerful rocket in operation The rocket is set to carry a bigger payload to orbit than the Space Shuttle. That's 54.4 tonnes as opposed to the Shuttle's 24 tonnes. Only the Apollo-era Saturn V...

Welcome to Weekly Roundup, our podcast discussing the latest tech trends, innovation, and news from the last few days. This week, Hadlee Simons plays host and talks to Matthew Alexander and Andy Walker. The team discusses Univision buying Gawker Media and what that means for Gawker.com. Hadlee explains how you can spot a hoax story. We also discuss the latest patch issued for No Man's Sky on PC and PlayStation 4, and sticking with gaming, we take a look at the new announcements at Gamescom 2016. What are we watching, reading, playing: Andy and Matt are playing No Man's Sky, while Hadlee's...