Google Maps debuts group planning feature for friends

According to the City of Cape Town's latest dam report published on Tuesday, the city's supply reservoirs are now a combined 74% full. That's an overall increase of 4% over the previous week. At present, five of the six large dams that supply Cape Town with water are above the 90% full mark. This includes two of the city's three largest dams, the Voëlvlei and Berg River. The latter last week breached the 100% full mark, but its waters have subsided to 99.9% according to this week's report. The Voëlvlei smashed past the 90% barrier this week, gaining 7.7% over the...

This year googlegle celebrated its 20 year milestone. Now it seems to be looking forward to the next 20 in the form of Google Search. “As Google marks our 20th anniversary, I wanted to share a first look at the next chapter of Search, and how we’re working to make information more accessible and useful for people everywhere,” says the company’s Search, News and Assistant Vice President, Ben Gomes in a blog post. According to him, there are three core shifts to what comes next. More than an answer Google won’t just provide you with answers for what you search anymore, but also...

Make sure you have data on your account this evening, because MTN's free Twitter service is coming to an abrupt end at midnight tonight. "It’s been over four years. #FreeTwitter will be laid to rest on Tuesday midnight, 25 September," the company tweeted on Saturday, suggesting that its Free Twitter service was becoming unfeasible. "Its last wishes were for you to make the most of it this weekend. May its soul live forever in your memes and GIFs." It’s been over four years. #FreeTwitter will be laid to rest on Tuesday midnight, 25 September. Its last wishes were for you to make...

Communities across Cape Town's gang-ridden areas are today shutting down their suburbs. Residents of Bonteheuvel, Kensington and Manenberg -- suburbs on Cape Town's Cape Flats -- on Tuesday engaged in protests against gangsterism and gang-related violence. More than 808 of the recorded 973 gang-related murders in South Africa occurred in the Western Cape between April 2017 and March 2018. Calling for intervention from law enforcement and police, #cptshutdown and #wcshutdown began trending on Twitter early Tuesday morning as residents took to the streets. Protesters were met with tear gas and stun grenades. This video of police firing tear gas into a crowd of protesters...

Apple on Monday announced that it has acquired music recognition service Shazam for an undisclosed amount. The service, which was founded in 1999, allows users to identify the details of a playing track by using a phone's microphone. More recently, the service has also offered more integrated music discovery features, fitting in perfectly with Apple's growing content distribution ambitions. "Shazam has been downloaded over one billion times around the world, and users identify songs using the Shazam app over 20-million times each day," Apple explains in its release. Additionally, Apple has also confirmed that the service will be offered "ad-free for all users". Feature...

Remember the early days of President Cyril Ramaphosa rise to power? He was loved across South Africa, and especially on social media. But that love affair, that "ramaphoria" as it was known, has largely abated. At the Union Buildings on Friday morning, Ramaphosa announced a R400-billion stimulus package that he and his administration hopes will reignite the smouldering South African economy. President Ramaphosa: The #StimulusPackage has four broad parts: 1 implementation of growth enhancing economic reforms 2 reprioritisation of public spending to support job creation 3 the establishment of an Infrastructure Fund 4 addressing urgent matters in education & health — South African Government (@GovernmentZA) September 21,...

Cape Town's third largest and youngest dam, the Berg River Dam, is the first of the city's large dams to hit the 100% mark. After a week of cold weather and rain, the dam gained 2.8% putting it over its specified capacity of 130 000 megalitres. It now joins its northerly Western Cape neighbour, the Clanwilliam Dam, in breaching the 100% mark this week. Interestingly, based on percentage of capacity, the Misverstrand Dam is currently the Western Cape's most bountiful dam, holding 113.6% of its designed capacity. It's commonly used for water sport and recreation. View this post on Instagram So awesome to see...

Instagram has introduced a feature everyone has wanted since the dawn of the company. No. It's not chronological feeds. Instead the company now lets users send your friends GIFs via Direct Messages. "From 'LOL' to 'I love you,' you can express yourself in countless visual ways when you’re messaging your friends," the company wrote in an update. Users stick of words and emoji can now insert moving images into their direct messages to friends. Tap the GIF button in the message composer bar to access the GIF library. It's not clear if it's the same library you find on Stories -- yes,...

Customer communication is evolving faster than ever. Where paper-based communications sent through the mail were once the norm, almost everything is now done electronically across a range of channels. Two technologies that are set to have a particularly big impact going forward are chatbots and machine learning. That makes a great deal of sense. Both of these technologies allow for communications that are far more immediate and personalised, at a much lower cost than many of the current alternatives. As with all forms of customer communication, however, it’s vital that both the organisation and customers can use these technologies safely. Evolving chatbots Chatbots are,...

The Clanwilliam Dam, north of Cape Town, is an unlikely social media star this week, after the reservoir's sluice gates were opened and dramatic videos were the result. The dam, which holds 121 000 megalitres used for irrigation, was 99.4% full as of 17 September according to the Western Cape Government. However, it's likely that recent rains have pushed the dam's level beyond the 100% mark, because it's now releasing water back into the Olifants River. Videos and pictures on Twitter and Instagram have been posted of the dam's improved state this week. For comparison, it was just 38.4% in September 2017. This video...

It's official: Cape Town's next mayor will be former mayor Dan Plato, the DA confirmed on Tuesday. He will take over the reins from outgoing mayor Patricia De Lille from 1 November. This week the party also announced that Alan Winde will be the DA's candidate for Premier of the Western Cape, and confirmed that Mmusi Maimane -- who was running against Winde -- will remain the party leader. But while Winde is active on social media, De Lille boasts a big online following, and Maimane has an undoubted and established presence on Twitter, Dan Plato is the outlier. His personal...

After launching YouTube Gaming in 2015, YouTube is now reintegrating it into the proper YouTube experience in the form of a channel. Simply called Gaming, the new channel also spells the end of the old YouTube Gaming hub, which is set to join Google Inbox shuttering next March. “We have a strong and vibrant audience on the YouTube Gaming app, but the amount of gamers we are able to reach is far bigger on YouTube,”the company revealed. Moving the Gaming channel into YouTube proper does have its merits though. “YouTube is where the world watches gaming. More than 200-million of you come to...

When was the last time you saw non-pirate Nick Fury? Is Captain Marvel auditioning for the next Spider-Man movie? How on Earth is Captain Marvel going to fit into the larger cinematic universe? All this and more was answered in Marvel's first Captain Marvel trailer, which debuted on Tuesday. The trailer, which provides little backstory and lots of hype, largely explores the notion that Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) thinks she had a life on Earth. The trailer's framed around this idea, with Danvers seemingly exploring her own origin story in the upcoming flick. This, for all intents and purposes, would be...

Well, here's something you don't see often, let alone in September. On Wednesday morning, the Table Mountain Cableway on Instagram reported that snow had begun falling at the Upper Station near the mountain's summit. A video was also included for non-believers, and those experiencing immense FOMO. "Christmas has come early at the #Cableway ... it's 2 degrees at the summit of #tablemountain and it's snowing," the company wrote in the post, published around 11am Wednesday. View this post on Instagram Christmas has come early at the #Cableway ... it's 2 degrees at the summit of #tablemountain and it's snowing 😎 A post shared by...

There are a wide range of smartphones available at a mid-range price, but it's difficult choosing one among them. But now that Nokia Android smartphones are available in South Africa, this decision has been made a whole lot easier. At R3999, here's six reasons why the Nokia 6.1 should be your next smartphone. Hardy but beautiful Scratch-resistant glass was a feature consumers could only dream of in the lower smartphone tiers, but the Nokia 6.1 is bringing this flagship feature to this affordable price bracket. This means the Nokia 6.1's screen can brush off taps and scrapes from errant keys or the...