Instagram Archives

Winter in the Western Cape: Instagram laced with weekend snow pictures
By Staff Reporter on 12 June, 2017
Last week's cold front brought some extreme weather to South Africa's Western Cape. Along with driving rain and gale-force winds in Cape Town, it also drove hot berg winds to the Garden Route, which fuelled the catastrophic Knysna fire. While the latter is now largely under control, there was another weather phenomenon that some took the time to capture with their smartphones and upload online -- snow. People are uploading their weekend snow adventure pictures in the Western Cape on Instagram The Western Cape's higher peaks this weekend -- including the Matroosberg, the Hottentots-Holland and the Hex River Mountains -- were laced...
Tornadoes and Katrina: the totally fake news from Cape Town’s storm
By Andy Walker: Editor on 7 June, 2017
If you're reading this piece, good for you. It means that you're actively searching for the truth among the steaming pile of manure that is "fact" on social media. There have been a number of fake images and videos circulating on social media during the intense cold front currently lashing Cape Town and surrounds. Thanks to swelling public interactions, they've also gone viral. And that's not a good thing. Considering the severity of the storm -- the fact that people are now homeless in the likes of Imizamo Yethu, Khayelitsha and Mfuleni -- should be more than enough reason for people...

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Instagram copies Snapchat again, internet doesn’t let it go quietly
By Andy Walker: Editor on 16 May, 2017
Snapcha... sorry, I mean Instagram today announced a brand new feature coming to its Stories feature -- face filters. "Today, we’re introducing face filters in the camera, an easy way to turn an ordinary selfie into something fun and entertaining," the company announced on its blog. Users posting pics or videos of themselves to Instagram Stories can now adorn themselves with furry koala ears, nerd glasses, ice-queen crowns and other things deemed to be "dope af". Today, we’re introducing face filters, an easy way to turn an ordinary selfie into something fun and entertaining. Whether you’re sitting on the couch at home...

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Michael Bay-like motorcycle explosion from China caught on tape, goes viral
By Staff Reporter on 11 May, 2017
Usually its Russia that's on the receiving end of bad driving memes and videos, but last Saturday it was a Chinese motorcyclist who made all the wrong headlines. In Nanchang, China, a motorcyclist collided with a truck attempting to turn into a three-lane road. The bike, caught between the truck's cockpit and dump tray, then exploded, setting the motorcyclist on fire. It all looked a lot like a set-piece in a Michael Bay movie. A motorcyclist in China escaped with his life, and a few more Instagram views, after his fiery crash went viral Remarkably, the motorcyclist didn't sustain any "life-threatening injuries" after...
Sorry Cape Town, the Kruger National Park is SA’s most Instagrammed destination
By Andy Walker: Editor on 11 May, 2017
Here's a turn up for the books. If you were expecting Cape Town's Table Mountain, V&A Waterfront or Johannesburg's Sandton City to be the most Instagrammed place in the land, you've got it all wrong. According to Dutch travel company TravelBird, the Kruger National Park takes the honour of South Africa's most Instagram-famous destination. In fact, the country's largest national park is the only South African venue to feature in the world's top 400, ranking at number 49 in TravelBird's survey, and beating the likes of Boston's Fenway Park, Stonehenge and Mount Rushmore. As for the most Instagrammed place on the planet,...

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‘Disaster’ Fyre Festival likened to ‘that alien movie in South Africa’ on social media
By Andy Walker: Editor on 28 April, 2017
If you pay US$12 000 for a ticket to a music festival, you'd probably expect... well, a music festival, right? That's not what attendees to Ja Rule's Fyre Festival experienced this weekend. The new luxury music extravaganza, which was supposed to kick off in the Bahamas this weekend, was met with a cascading comedy of errors. According to reports by attendees on Twitter and Instagram, festival goers arrived in the island country to find a "a disaster tent city". "So Fyre Fest is a complete disaster. Mass chaos. No organization. No one knows where to go," tweets William N. Finley, who's documenting...
Instagram now has a 700-million-strong user army
By Andy Walker: Editor on 26 April, 2017
Not letting Twitter get all the positive news today, Facebook-owned Instagram announced on its blog that it has reached a new milestone of its own. "We’re thrilled to announce that our community has grown to more than 700 million Instagrammers. And the last 100 million of you joined faster than ever," the company exclaims in a thank you note to users. And yeah, those 100-million monthly active users did join faster than ever. After it's 2010 launch, it took over three years to gain its first 100-million users. And considering that the company announced that it reached the 600-million user mark in...
[Update] Cape Town’s Twitter and Insta users celebrate the stormy weather
By Staff Reporter on 26 April, 2017
Update #2: 1.40pm: Because Cape Town is, well, Cape Town, #rain is now among the top trending hashtags in the city and the country at present. Update #1, 1.15pm: Although today's weather is a welcome respite from the heat wave experienced last week, lightning and driving rain has been wreaking havoc across the peninsula. In West Beach, a palm tree was set alight by lightning. Cape Town - #STORM Lightning Strike in West Beach pic.twitter.com/InHD0Xc725 — TrafficSA (@TrafficSA) April 26, 2017 Areas in the Cape's northern suburbs and western coastline are experiencing mild floods. Neil Williams - Brackenfell Cape Town @venter_annette @huisgenoot @eNCAWeather @JoelGuy_ pic.twitter.com/XCKWyK0CWc —...

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Snapchat takes big step towards protecting its ‘Geofilters’ from Facebook
By Andy Walker: Editor on 21 April, 2017
Snapchat has taken a large step in its war against Facebook's encroachment. The company's owner Snap Inc, has reportedly bought a patent that covers its geofilters system. This according to a TechCrunch screen grab of an internal company email, explaining the nature and valuation of the deal with internal staff. The patent was previously filed by Mobli in 2012, an Israeli company that attracted investment from the likes of Serena Williams, and was the initial brainchild of the geofilters system. Snapchat's sponsored geofilters is a key revenue stream for the service's owner, Snap Inc "In continuation with our email below," the mail reads,...

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Wondering where winter is, Cape Town? Ask this city in Poland
By Andy Walker: Editor on 19 April, 2017
For those who are sick of summer in Cape Town, this week won't bring much comfort. Temperatures peaking in the upper thirties are forecast for the remainder of the week, as the city desperately scrambles to save water and keep its cool. But it really shouldn't be this hot, at least traditionally. It's April, and that largely signals the onset of autumn, and more comfortable weather for humans who appreciate a good evening coat. But nope. If you're wanting to flaunt your winter wares, Poland is probably your best bet right now. The southern city of Częstochowa looks like the latest Frozen attraction at...
10 Instagram snaps of people living life at Splashy Fen 2017
By Andy Walker: Editor on 18 April, 2017
So how did you spend your long Easter weekend, South Africa? If you were at Splashy Fen, you probably had quite the time... at least judging by my Instagram feed. #Splashy was the hashtag of choice for the festival this year, racking up over 20 000 images according to the social networking site. Not all of these were snapped by people enjoying themselves in the green, green Underberg though, but a vast majority were. Splashy Fen first took place in South Africa back in 1990, a full four years before OppiKoppi made its mark The oldest annual music festival in the country...
The most Instagram-famous world leader isn’t who you think
By Julia Breakey on 12 April, 2017
When considering world leaders on social media, it's usually Twitter or Facebook that first comes to mind. US President Donald Trump has made waves with his sweeping tweets about foreign policy, and New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English caused an uproar when he put spaghetti and pineapple on his pizza. But over the past five years, world leaders have increasingly decided that Instagram is as worthy a contender for politics as any other platform. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words. A recent study by Burson-Marsteller looked at the way politicians around the world communicate via the photo- and video-sharing platform, and the results aren't as predictable...

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Updating: Everything you need to know about South Africa’s #AntiZumaMarches
By Staff Reporter on 7 April, 2017
Today is a big day for South Africa. Whether you support the protests against President Jacob Zuma or not, many across the country will partake in a number of demonstrations. We've put together a list of essential information, from where these protests will take place, the social media accounts and hashtags you should follow on Twitter and other networks, and the apps you should download if you're interested in joining the demonstrations. Memeburn's 7 April Protests coverage: #ZumaMarch: 30+ pictures of today's anti-Zuma protests across South Africa 15 South African politicians worth following on Twitter #HandsOffZuma vs #ZilleMustGo: a hashtag war...

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Instagram for Windows 10 just got a small, but welcome feature buff
By Staff Reporter on 6 April, 2017
Oh, Instagram users. You still can't upload images directly from your PC to the social network, but at least you can now send images to others as direct messages. Yay! The universal Windows 10 app allows anyone with an Instagram account to log into the social network and engage with it on PC. And although you can't quite upload snaps just yet, you can treat the social network like a messenger. According to Windows Central, the Windows 10 app now lets users add images from their hard drive to a direct message. Whether you actually use Instagram to send direct messages, let alone...
9 depressingly beautiful pictures of Cape Town’s biggest dam
By Staff Reporter on 4 April, 2017
It's getting desperate, Cape Town. The City of Cape Town announced the latest dam levels, and it's not positive. As it stands, the Western Cape dam storage system has just over 25% capacity left. The largest dam in the system, the Theewaterskloof, is just 21% full. Calling this situation a "glass half empty" is being generous. We've seen a number of videos from vloggers and drone pilots in the past few weeks documenting the drought from the air, but sometimes, a still image from the ground is so much more shocking than a moving picture. With that in mind, we took to Instagram...