At Home

Jan O’Sullivan

Local search engine Ananzi has partnered with Norwegian-based company Rubrikk to rebrand and revamp its service offerings.

Rubrikk created and operates one of Norway’s top aggregator sites, and has been working with Ananzi on an enhancement project since early last year. The Norwegian company has developed the necessary software and platforms for Ananzi and its new section, Ananzi Ads. – ITWeb

South Africa and Ireland have boosted their trade relationship following a visit from the Irish Trade Mission to SA and the opening of the Johannesburg office of Enterprise Ireland, an Irish trade and technology agency. Jan O’Sullivan, Ireland’s minister of trade and development, said Ireland considers SA to be the gateway into the southern African markets, as well as into Africa as a whole. – ITWeb

Dimension Data subsidiary Internet Solutions (IS) aims to speed up its growth beyond SA’s borders and has created IS International to facilitate the expansion. The new unit will provide additional support and investment to the group’s existing operations in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Mozambique, it says in a statement. – ITWeb

Kaspersky Lab" rel=tag>Kaspersky Lab has unveiled an online store for consumers in Africa. The store is available on its African Web site: www.kaspersky.co.za. Stephan van der Merwe, head of operations for sub-Saharan Africa at Kaspersky Lab Africa, says the online store will allow customers across Africa to browse content and purchase products in their national currency. – ITWeb

SA’s second-largest mobile operator, MTN, is trialling long-term evolution (LTE) technology in Cape Town, which it claims is a first for the city. The trial was announced at the 2011 AfricaCom Conference, which is said to be the continent’s largest annual telecommunications conference, attracting more than 5 000 delegates from across the world. The deployment at the International Convention Centre, in Cape Town, follows a large-scale LTE pilot covering more than 100 sites in Gauteng. – ITWeb

Vodacom will improve M-Pesa systems to aid the mobile money transfer tool gain traction in SA. Vodacom and Nedbank unveiled M-Pesa in SA in September 2010. At the time of the release, the company expected to sign up 10 million subscribers within three years. However, take-up of the service had been disappointing, as there were less than 100 000 customers registered at the end of March, it said in its latest annual report. – ITWeb

In light of seasonable heavy rains and electrical storm activity expected across SA during the annual rainy season, Telkom is gearing up to minimise network-related faults. According to the company, thunderstorms are most prevalent at this time of year, especially in the interior regions of the country, with the greater Gauteng and Free State areas being most affected. – ITWeb

With a total of 4.9 million users, SA ranks 29th in the world when it comes to the number of Facebook users per country. This is according to the 2011 International Telecommunication Union’s “Measuring the Information Society Report”, which also placed SA at number 97 on its “ICT Development Index”. However, a recent study by World Wide Worx found that the country has approximately 4.2 million Facebook users.
– ITWeb

The core of the Johannesburg Broadband Network Project – an initiative to connect the City of Johannesburg – is almost complete, and is anticipated to be switched on before the end of the year. So said Andy Martin, head of customer service, industry and government at Ericsson, during a recent workshop the company hosted on the socio-economic impacts of improving broadband speeds. – ITWeb

The television market in SA is in transition, considering the current technological climate, and the development of pay-TV has played a bigger role in the past year than before. Last year saw pay-TV subscription households increase by about 600 000, the largest single-year increase in South African history. The overall TV market grew by 18.8% over this period, the largest increase SA has seen over the last five years.
– ITWeb

Into Africa

David Coltart

Altech has pulled out of talks to buy a Kenyan IT firm Symphony. “Altech has informed the Da Gama Rose Group [which owns Symphony] that it will not progress with further discussions,” it says. Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Altech was looking to buy Symphony for as much as $60 million. – ITWeb

Apple and the government of Zimbabwe have entered into a joint venture to distribute solar-powered iPads to rural schools in the country. The announcement was made by Zimbabwean minister of education, sport, arts and culture David Coltart. Coltart mentioned that the first pilot programmes could start early in 2012. – TUAW

The Central Bank of Nigeria has said that fraud on ATMs has reduced by 98.5%. Director of banking and payment systems at Central Bank of Nigeria, Gaius Emokpae, explained that the migration from magnetic stripe electronic card to a chip and PIN card in 2010 has boosted ATM security. – Afrique en Ligne

The Kenya ICT Board has signed a contract with Carnegie Mellon University to design a definitive examination for Kenyan software developers. The new exam, which will be piloted in the next 15 months and go into full production within two years, will test graduating software developers on their practical capabilities to enter the job market. – ITWeb

Ecobank Zambia is investing more than $1 million in the upgrade of a core banking software application, Flexcube, to help combat fraud and cyber crime. The changeover to Flexcube comes into effect on 31 October, according to Charity Lumpa, Ecobank Zambia MD, speaking at a media briefing. “The technology and telecommunications platform is supported by three data centres – in Accra, Lome and London – which provide real-time disaster recovery capabilities,” said Lumpa.
– ITWeb

Africa is the second most connected region in terms of mobile subscription count, according to research by Informa Telecoms and Media. The firm says Africa jumped from fourth place at the end of 2010. However, despite the number of mobile subscriptions in Africa, the continent is forecast to have a mobile penetration rate of 86.92% by the end of 2016, still lower than in other regions. – ITWeb

Abroad

Iran said it had detected the Duqu computer virus that experts say is based on Stuxnet, the “cyber weapon” discovered last year. The head of Iran’s civil defence organisation told the official IRNA news agency that computers at all main sites at risk were being checked and that Iran had developed software to combat the virus. – Reuters

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Regulators are investigating the safety of batteries used to power electric vehicles after a General Motors Volt caught fire following a crash test. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it does not believe the Volt and other electric vehicles are at greater risk for fire than those with gasoline-powered engines, but said it has asked automakers for information on lithium-ion batteries and recommendations for minimising fire risk. – Reuters

Activision Blizzard’s “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” video game racked up more than $400 million in sales on its first day in stores in the United States and the United Kingdom. Activision said in a statement its biggest holiday title had sold 6.5 million units, which breaks last year’s record of 5.6 million units, or $360 million in sales.
– Reuters

Facebook is finalising a settlement with federal regulators over changes to its privacy policies enacted two years ago, the Wall Street Journal reported. The proposed settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission would resolve charges by privacy advocates that Facebook engaged in deceptive behaviour. The settlement, which is awaiting final approval by commissioners, would require Facebook to obtain consent from its users for “material retroactive changes”. – Reuters

The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) told the operator of a Web site which represented the “State Securities Commission” to cease operations and to shut down the site. The site was using content from NASAA’s Web site, possibly for unlawful purposes. The mock site is one of several fake regulator Web sites that have surfaced in recent years. – Reuters

Nvidia’s third-quarter results beat estimates as the chipmaker refocused on smartphones and tablets in a tepid personal computer market, although its revenue forecast was a bit lower than expected. Shares of Nvidia, which unveiled its newest mobile processor this week, jumped over 5% following the report. – Reuters