Brett Haggard and Simon Dingle talk their way through an interesting tech news week with acquisitions, much-ados about nothing and veins of awesomeness.

• The iPhone 4 storm in a teacup.
• The flood of business news this week including MTN, Naspers and Dimension Data.
• YouTube’s partner programme going live in South Africa.
• More hints at BlackBerry 6.
• Windows Phone 7 for developers.
• Converged devices.
• Movement in the ebook space.

Our technology picks and pick-ons of the week:

• Brett Haggard – Picks:  Guacamole.
• Simon Dingle – Picks: Angry Birds.

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Jon Tullett, Toby Shapshak, Brett Haggard and Simon Dingle are the crew this week. We discuss:

• Intel IDF.
• Microsoft’s Courier tablet device.
• Livescribe Pulse Smartpens.
• 3D video.
• Will Blu-ray be the last optical disk format of its kind?
• App stores and why most are failing.

Our picks and pick-ons of the week:

• Toby Shapshak: Pick – The Big Bang Theory.
• Jon Tullett: Pick – Prototype.
• Brett Haggard: Pick – iPhone Configuration Utility.

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An experiment in cross-Atlantic podcasting ensues as Simon Dingle is in Florida this week and chats to Brett Haggard, Duncan McLeod and the guys from FNB Connect back in Johannesburg, South Africa. We discuss:

• All things FNB Connect.
• The Wireless Enterprise Symposium for Blackberry.
• The cost of roaming data.
• MTN first to market with an Android phone in South Africa.
• Cell C’s dismal results.
• Ensuring competition in telecoms in SA.
• Telkom Media has found a buyer.
• The Idols mess.
• ATI first to get certification for Windows 7 drivers.

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Three geeks gather amidst public holidays to discuss:

• Mobile broadband and then some.
• The power of Chinese manufacturing.
• Oracle to buy Sun Microsystems. What would this mean for MySQL?
• Windows 7 RC1 leaked.
• Netbooks, nettops and the operating systems that make them work.
• Chips. Again.
• Adobe pens deal to have Flash embedded in hardware.
• Symantec announces detection of a Mac botnet.
• Pirate Bay founders found guilty.
• The new Nintendo DSi is apparently selling like hotcakes.

And more…

Our choice technologies of the week:

• Brett Haggard: Live streaming IPL cricket.
• Simon Dingle: Nambu – a Twitter client.
• Jon Tullett: Nothing really, but sort of Travian.

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Simon Dingle, Brett Haggard, Duncan McLeod and Candice Jones from ITWeb feature in this week’s episode, discussing:

• MacOS X on netbooks.
• The Gears of War DRM lock-out.
• DRM fueling piracy.
• The BlackBerry Storm, launched recently in South Africa.
• Will Apple’s multi-touch patents stop the Pre?
• Laying fiber in the Johannesburg rain.
• Solar-powered traffic lights.
• Improvements in Telkom ADSL performance.
• Neotel versus Telkom.
• Mobile data prices and the possibility of price-cuts.
• The Faritec fall and Intel posting losses.
• Brett’s Nehalem platform and the processor market.
• Acer getting into the smartphone market.
• Nokia launching music service locally.
• When will the likes of Apple get real and recognise the SA market?
• The ‘Obama Worm’.
• Some of our panelists’ favourite new thingies.

And more…

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This week’s panel includes Simon Dingle, Jon Tullett from TechTarget and Saul Kropman from The Digital Edge podcast. On the cards:

• Netbook price discrepancies. Jon bought an Aspire One in the UK for next to nothing. Why are we paying through our teeth in SA?
• Tweaks and hacks for netbooks.
• Neotel’s NeoFlex Data offering being launched last week. We talk caps, prices and practical use.
• Informal collusion in South African tech pricing.
• We dive into Windows 7 Beta and Internet Explorer 8.
• Vista Service Pack 2 delayed.
• A new Worm threatens the world’s computers. Apparently.
• The Macintosh platform finally has a real virus doing the round. Again – apparently.
• MacOS X developer group CocoaHeads now has a South African chapter.
• Application roll-out on smartphones and the BlackBerry app store.
• Canonical is reaching its goal of becoming self-sustaining.
• Some of the Tech in the Obama inauguration, courtesy of CNN.

And much more…

We apologise for the cellular buzz that occurs in a section of this recording. It stops after a few minutes… we promise.

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A small group of geeks gathers for episode 45 of the ZA Tech Show in which we discuss:

• MTN and Neotel’s shared network deal.
• Steve Jobs taking a break as CEO of Apple.
• Windows 7.
• The netbook market. Is there one?
• Updates on legal matters at SITA.
• VANS license conversions taking place.
• Computer sales figures for 2008.
• Neotel’s NeoFlex Data is now available.
• Losses and cut-backs, including Google and Sony Ericsson.
• Picasa now available for Mac.

And much more…

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The unit provided to ZA Tech for testing shipped with Windows XP Home Edition, one gigabyte of RAM, Intel Atom processor running at 1.6GHz, 120 gigabyte hard drive and extended battery pack. Like its predecessor, the new Aspire One also includes built-in webcam and microphone, and a carry pouch.

The internal 3G modem performed as promised and connecting to Vodacom’s 3G network using the included GlobeTrotter Connect software was as easy as falling over a log. Simply insert the SIM card, clip the battery on, turn on the Aspire One, load Connect and click on ‘connect’ after a network has been detected. The Aspire One also includes a handy switch on the front of the device for enabling and disabling the WiFi adapter and 3G modem – handy for saving battery life or making sure you don’t run up a huge bandwidth bill with your mobile provider by accident.

The extended battery pack increases the battery life of the Aspire One to five hours in my experience, but this decreases drastically with the 3G modem in use. The Aspire One also retains battery charge very well, losing about 10 percent per day while hibernating.

The combination of tiny form-factor, Windows XP and included 3G modem makes this a serious road-warrior of a netbook with the ability to run virtually any office application and keep you connected just about anywhere. The keyboard is rather cramped however, as is the trackpad with mouse buttons on either side – but I’m sure one would get used to that quickly. Less easy to adjust to is the 7″ screen with 1024×600 resolution, but one has to pay for the tiny footprint somewhere.

Intel’s Atom processor also deserves a mention here offering impressive performance and multi-tasking on the tiny Aspire One platform. Obviously you’re not going to play Crysis on this platform, but flicking through office applications and browser windows is seamless. Application load times are also snappy.

All in all the Aspire One is a robust netbook solution and the addition of internal 3G modem makes it one of the most appealing offerings in the space. But with a recommended retail price of R8499 the new Aspire One is priced out of the league of netbook and you could buy an entry level laptop with money to spare on financing a revolution, for the same price.

In this week’s episode we cover:

• Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri’s appeal against the Altech ruling being denied. Cry me a river.
• What self-provisioning will mean for telecoms in South Africa.
• We investigate the exclusion of games and podcasts from the South African iTunes store.
• The banning of Opera Mini from the iTunes App Store.
• Gears of War 2 being launched this week.
• FPS games on console versus PC.
• Crossover’s ‘Lameduck’ promotion.
• Gaming in Linux and OS X using WINE.
• MMORPGs. Bear with us.
• Firefox’s China Channel extension that simulates the Great Firewall of China.
• Google introduces service level agreements for its application services.
• OpenOffice.org extensions.
• The introduction of Windows Azure, and cloud services hosting in general.
• Windows 7 and SP2 of Vista.
• Sony recalls 100 000 batteries predominantly used in Toshiba and HP notebooks, but also Dell, Acer and Lenovo.
• Retired hardware dumping in the developing world.

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Acer South Africa has announced the local availability of the Aspire 8930G and Aspire 6935G – two new notebooks that it claims deliver a high-definition entertainment experience.

Equipped with 18.4″ or 16″ CineCrystal panels that rock out with a full-HD resolution of 1920×1080, it’s a claim we’re willing to believe – that is of course until we’ve been able to test the machines for ourselves.

Other standard refinements in the Aspire line, like Dolby sound (this time CineSurrond, Tuba CineBass

booster, and True 5.1 output) and Acer’s new Gemstone blue design add the other touches that make these new notebooks great for enjoying Hi-Def content.

The notebooks also have specifications that look promising for things like gaming.

The 8930G and 6935G are equipped with an Intel Centrino 2 chip, Intel’s PM45 Express Chipset (with Wi-Fi), NVIDIA GeForce graphics, 4GB of dual-channel DDR3 and two 320GB hard disks.

The Hi-Def experience would obviously not be complete without a Blu-ray drive – so it’s probably a good thing Acer included one, as well a handy 6-in-1 card reader.

The 8930G is available for a retail price of about R30k, while the 6935G will set you back about R20k.

These prices are scary, but then again, we are talking about some serious gear.