The week in review

Wednesday, 09 February 2011 00:00 Written by Staff Reporter

Jacob ZumaJacob Zuma

AT HOME

RYAN SILBERMAN, chief operating officer of Popimedia, says local consumers are spending more time and effort to take their lives onto social platforms, while businesses are taking the plunge, as they start to understand social media marketing possibilities. "We believe that the rapid pace of technology innovation is feeding the social media frenzy and it is becoming easier for people to have real-time conversations with their networks on any platform." - ITWeb

SA`S FASTEST texters Olivia Burton and Wilbur Hough have been placed 8th out of the 16 countries that competed in the 2011 second annual LG Mobile World Cup Championships, in New York. The 2011 LG Mobile World Cup winners are the sister duo, Cristina Sales Ancines (20), and Jennifer Sales Ancines (15) from Panama. The team was awarded $100 000 and was given the title of the fastest and most accurate text team in the world. - ITWeb

APPLE`S IPAD tablet computer has finally reached SA`s shores. The Core Group, Apple`s South African distributor, says the device will be available at Apple iStores, as well as Incredible Connection and Dion Wired stores. Both the WiFi and WiFi + 3G versions will be available, with a starting retail price of R4 399 and R5 599, respectively. - ITWeb

LISTED outsourcing company has bought specialist company Belay for an undisclosed amount, to add it to its skills set. , `s group development director, says Belay adds a depth of skills to `s existing offerings. He explains that the acquisition will aid in becoming `s top local partner. - ITWeb

DIGITAL marketing agency Aquaonline has merged with marketing network Wunderman, to create what the companies are calling SA`s "first truly integrated digital and direct agency". Although Wunderman acquired Aquaonline in 2007, their operations had not been fully integrated in SA until now. Aquaonline CEO Brent Shahim will head the new entity in Johannesburg. - ITWeb

SA WILL SOON have its second virtual operator, as and energy drink giant Red Bull have confirmed they will officially announce a partnership next month. Dubbed Red Bull Mobile, the new entrant will unveil its offering at an event to be held in Johannesburg, in February. Details such as pricing and device range have yet to be disclosed. - ITWeb

SOUTH AFRICAN citizens, who until now struggled to contact authorities through national call centres in emergency situations, can now call top officials directly on their cellphones. Focus has been taken off the implementation of 112 as the single national emergency number, as other alternatives are being considered. Releasing cellphone numbers of individual police officers and generals may be the new route taken in terms of community safety, according to the ministry of police. - ITWeb

THE PRESIDENCY was trending on Twitter following a tweet from the president`s office calling for suggestions and comments in the run-up to this year`s State of the Nation Address (SONA). Using the Twitter name @PresidencyZA, the Presidency tweeted: "#SONA2011 The president wants our Twitter family`s views, ideas and comments for his State of the Nation Address." - ITWeb

INTO AFRICA

THE REPUBLIC of China (Taiwan), through its Banjul embassy, donated 60 Asus Seashell laptops to the National Assembly in Gambia. The laptops have Windows 7 and 160GB hard drives. The donation came after the visit of the Taiwanese National Assembly speaker to The Gambia last year. The Taiwanese speaker had observed that Gambian National Assembly members needed to improve their IT. - The Daily Observer

ZIMBABWE`S Barnfords Financial Services has partnered with UK-based WorldRemit to launch a new award-winning Internet-based money transfer service for Zimbabweans living abroad. A statement from WorldRemit`s public relations consultants says the partnership would offer a convenient way to make transfers to Harare, Mutare and Bulawayo. - Financial Gazette

ONLINE marketplace www.guhaha.com was recently launched in Rwanda. The site is a project from two university students, Peter Ntigurirwa and Joseph Hategekimana. At the launch, ICT minister Ignace Gatare spoke, urging university students to always be innovative. "We are confident that this kind of private innovation will create more job opportunities while facilitating trade and business transactions at regional and international level," he said. - The New Times

THE NIGERIA Communication Commission (NCC) says plans to commence number portability across all networks must wait until Nigeria completes its SIM registration and obtain a national database for the country. NCC has committed to taking over SIM registration from telecom operators who had collectively registered 11 million subscribers, out of the 80 million subscribers recorded so far. - Daily Independent

STIONS on Zimbabwe from the United States and the European Union, along with the country`s continued reliance on expensive satellite systems, is pushing up the cost of Internet services on the market, communications firm ZOL has said. Zimbabwe is ranked among the most expensive data and voice service markets in Africa. - Financial Gazette

ABROAD

GOOGLE`S Android overtook long-time market leader, `s Symbian, as the most popular smartphone platform in the fourth quarter of last year, says research firm Canalys. All phone makers sold a total of 32.9 million Android phones in the last quarter, compared with Symbian`s total sales of 31 million in the quarter, the researcher says. - Reuters

VERIZON Communications has signed a deal to acquire Terremark, which provides cloud services and data centre hosting. The $1.4 billion price tag for Terremark works out to be $19 a share in cash. With the move, Verizon said it will accelerate its "everything-as-a-service cloud strategy". Terremark has 13 data centres in the US, Europe, and Latin America. - Cnet News

INVESTORS are closely examining the financial details disclosed in Corp`s IPO filing, trying to determine how much the company is worth. , which filed on Thursday to raise up to $175 million in an IPO, is attracting significant interest as the first social networking company to start the process of becoming publicly traded. -  Reuters

TOSHIBA`S quarterly profit more than doubled, driven by a boom in sales of NAND flash memory chips and liquid-crystal displays used in tablets and smartphones, but it stuck with its full-year outlook. South Korean rival Samsung Electronics, which last week reported its weakest profit in six quarters, is also expected to benefit this year from booming demand for smartphones and tablets. - Reuters

ACCORDING TO a new report from Strategy Analytics, global smartphone shipments grew an impressive 75% annually to reach a record 94 million units in the fourth quarter of 2010. Apple maintained its small lead over RIM, while continued to underperform. "Global smartphone shipments reached 293 million units during 2010, almost doubling from 151 million in 2008 and 175 million in 2009," says Neil Mawston, director at Strategy Analytics. - GPS Business News

US LAWYERS are trying to mine the private zones of Facebook and other social media sites for photos, comments, status updates and other tidbits that might contradict what their opponents are saying in court. And increasingly, judges in civil cases are granting access to online caches that had formerly been considered off-limits. Defence lawyers in personal-injury cases, in particular, are finding social networks to be a rich source of potentially exculpatory evidence. - Reuters

SALES of `s Windows software fell short of expectations, rekindling fears that the spread of mobile gadgets will erode its main PC-focused business. surprised Wall Street with a better-than-expected profit, helped by resurgent corporate spending after the belt-tightening of past years. But its shares stayed flat as investors expressed concern about the weakness of overall computer sales amid a faltering US recovery. - Reuters

wants to dislodge `s desktop-bound business software by touting an update of its Lotus programs designed to harness the mobility and collaboration possible with cloud computing. The computing giant invited BlackBerry maker Research In Motion`s co-Chief Executive to the stage of Lotusphere, an conference in Orlando, to display `s newest wares on RIM`s unreleased PlayBook tablet. - Reuters



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