In this, the third of our annual ZA Tech Show holiday specials, we take a look at the year ahead and make some predictions for 2012. Your holiday crew of Andy Hadfield, Ben Kelly, Brett Haggard and Simon Dingle are onboard for a run-through of some of what’s to come…

Virtual assistants, wine and patent wars all feature on our show this week. Andy Hadfield, Craig Wilson and Simon Dingle discuss:

• The death of Dennis Ritchie.
• Apple’s iPhone 4S sales record.
• Facebook and Google Plus.
• Android Ice Cream Sandwich.
• Mobile user interfaces.
• Online backup.

Our technology picks this week:

• Craig Wilson: Zovo online backup.
• Andy Hadfield: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
• Simon Dingle: Philips Fidelio S8550 docking speakers.

In this episode you’ll hear the voices of casual wine aficionado Andy Hadfield and international man of mystery Stafford Masie who join Simon Dingle to discuss;

• HP’s new direction.
• Amazon’s rise as an ecosystem player.
• The future role of network operators.
• The information revolution.
• Motorola’s XOOM and Atrix.
• News from Gamescom.
• Kids and computing.
• The Twitter ‘walkout’.
• ‘Retweet’ and ‘sexting’ entering the dictionary.

Our technology picks this week:

• Stafford Masie: Arduino and Quantified Self.
• Andy Hadfield: Carbonite.
• Simon Dingle: Mobile Mouse.

Your crew this week consists of Ben Kelly, Brett Haggard and Simon Dingle. With lots of shiny new things to play with, we discuss;

• The launch of Apple OS X Lion.
• DStv BoxOffice bringing on-demand movies to SA pay-tv subscribers.
• The FNB smartphone app.
• Fake Apple stores in China.
• Cell C and Vodacom’s latest counter-offers in the mobile broadband war.
• RIM (BlackBerry) cutting jobs and switching to QNX.
• And much more…

Our technology picks this week:

• Ben Kelly: Does an obituary for the white MacBook.
• Brett Haggard: Picks Cinch.
• Simon Dingle: Picks Viber for Android.

Our studio is a bit of a lab this week, but we don’t want to talk about it. Sam Beckbessenger, Toby Shapshak and Simon Dingle are your panel this week. We discuss;

• The launch of DStv BoxOffice.
• Spotify launching in the USA.
• Amazon tablet rumours.
• The new music industry.
• Toshiba and glasses-less 3D – in studio.
• FNB’s mobile announcement.
• Microsoft’s prospects.
• Apple Bluetooth in the Apple TV 2
• And more!

Our technology picks of the week:

• Sam Beckbessinger: Decode JZ and iPad accessibility.
• Toby Shapshak: Sony Vaio Z Series.
• Simon Dingle: Plex.

Trying hard to focus on the serious issues facing technology this week instead of talking about foreign love interestes and wine, Andy Hadfield, Stafford Masie and Simon Dingle discuss;

• LulzSec and its fallout.
• 8ta’s new mobile broadband bundles.
• Mobile content strategies.
• The new Ster-Kinekor website’s #fail.
• Windows Phone.
• Nokia’s N9.

Our technology picks and pick-ons this week:

• Stafford Masie – Picks: Dropbox for its awesomeness.
• Andy Hadfield – Picks: Getting Wicked for its thoughtfulness.
• Simon Dingle – Picks: Nokia’s N9 for its significance.

It’s all about gaming and mobile this week as Samantha Beckbessinger, Steven Ambrose and Simon Dingle discuss;

• Apple’s iCloud announcement.
• Samsung’s Galaxy S2 and other new Android competitors.
• Nintendo’s Wii U and console gaming.
• Duke Nukem Forever.
• Tomb Raider 2012 announced at E3.
• Facebook’s controversial facial recognition tech.
• The RICA deadline approaching.
• Telkom’s profit slump and long line of kak decisions.

Our technology picks this week:

• Sam Beckbessinger – Picks: Intonow and X-MEN First Class.
• Steven Ambrose – Picks: Noom Weight Loss for Android and YoruFukurou.
• Simon Dingle – Picks: Read It Later and Evernote Premium.

Ben the USB turntable wizard returns to the show this week with Brett Haggard, Nic Callegari and Simon Dingle. We discuss;

• The rapture not happening.
• The growing tablet market and HTC’s Flyer.
• Cloud storage.
• Google’s Music beta.
• ADSL connectivity.
• YouTube’s awesomeness.
• Android Marketplace, now with paid apps for Africa.

Our technology picks and pick-ons this week:

• Nic Callegari – Picks: Onavo for saving money on iPhone data.
• Ben Kelly – Picks: ION USB turntable. Again.
• Brett Haggard – Picks: Boxer the DOS game emulator.
• Simon Dingle – Picks: YouTube Films.

The crew this week consisted of Jon Tullet, Samantha Perry, Stafford Masie and Simon Dingle who discussed;

• New laptop lines from Apple, HP and Lenovo.
• Intel’s Thunderbolt I/O technology.
• Claims of breakthroughs in battery tech.
• Smartphone cans and can’ts.
• The current spike in singularity interest.
• And much more…

Our technology picks and pick-ons this week:

• Stafford Masie – Picks: iThoughts.
• Jon Tullett – Picks-on: Kalahari.net and Amazon.
• Samantha Perry – Picks-on: spammers and picks: Dropbox.
• Simon Dingle – Picks: The Huawei E5 and Abigail De Kosnik‘s take on piracy and TV.

Gathered at a secret location Ben Kelly, Brett Haggard, Duncan McLeod and Simon Dingle talk their way through

• Apple becomming the world’s biggest phone vendor.
• Eric Schmidt stepping down as CEO of Google.
• Red Bull Mobile heading to SA.
• Announced launch dates of the Nintendo 3DS.
• HP and the tablet market.
• Mobile price wars in Kenya
• And much more.

Our technology picks and pick-ons this week: