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 returns to the show as your host this week, joining Brett Haggard and Duncan McLeod to discuss:

• FNB launching PayPal in South Africa.
• Mobile payment systems like M-Pesa.
• The internet access price war and its move to mobile.
• Disintermediation of cellular network services.
• The 2010 Pwn2Own competition.
• The Nintendo DSi XL, now available in SA.
• 3D film and games.

Our picks and pick-ons of the week:

• Jon Tullett – Picks: His car, with USB port (a Kia Sportage).
• Brett Haggard – Picks: The TrickleStar multiplug.

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We’re in our new studio space this week, echoes, unpainted walls and all. Brett Haggard, Don Packett, Duncan McLeod and Simon Dingle are your panel this week. We discuss:

• The future of Cell C.
• Improving PC sales and analysts’ expectations for tablet computers.
• Microsoft Mix and the prospects for Windows Phone.
• Sony’s 8001050F error on the PS3.
• Apple vs. HTC in patent dispute.
• In-flight WiFi coming to Mango.
• HP’s Pavilion DM1 netbook.
• Dropped calls on Vodacom and the smartphones that apparently cause them.
• iBurst’s new iDSL service with unlimited bandwidth for gaming.
• Telkom bumping up speed on ADSL lines.

Our picks and pick-ons of the week:

• Duncan McLeod – Picks: Skype for Symbian.
• Brett Haggard – Picks: The Macheist nanoBundle 2.
• Don Packett – Picks: Mi-World and the Mi-Bar for geeks.

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The ZA Tech Show turns 100 this week and we celebrated with our first ever live broadcast and some really expensive champagne. Ben Kelly, Brett Haggard, Duncan McLeod, Jon Tullett, Toby Shapshak and Simon Dingle discuss:

• Microsoft Windows Phone Series 7.
• Development on mobile platforms.
• Google and Android at the Mobile World Congress 2010.
• Intel and Nokia’s MeeGo announcement.
• The release of Starcraft 2 beta.
• Heavy Rain for the PS3.
• Samsung’s new Bada operating system and the new Wave.
• Powermat induction charging.
• Verizon’s partnership with Skype.

Our picks and pick-ons of the week:

• Toby Shapshak – Picks: NTT Docomo’s eye-controlled phone and Motorola’s Golden Eye.
• Jon Tullett: Picks and picks-on: GConnect from WirelessG.
• Ben Kelly – Picks: The PC Museum’s Vintage PC Twitter stream.
• Brett Haggard – Picks: The Mifi, soon with app store.
• Simon Dingle – Picks: Powermat with iPhone adapter and Rogue Amoeba software.

Direct file download (35MB)

Jon Tullett returns to the ZA Tech Show this week, joining the panel with Brett Haggard, Duncan McLeod, Simon Dingle and, later, Toby Shapshak. We discuss:

• Google Buzz.
• Mashing together social networks.
• Open API’s versus closed platforms.
• The Eassy undersea cable landing in SA.
• Tumbling ADSL prices.
• The downfall of Sentech and spectrum allocation.
• A preview of Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona.
• Skype Access and Windows Mobile 7.
• Mobile roaming.

Our picks and pick-ons of the week:

• Jon Tullett – Picks: Guitar Hero 5.
• Toby Shapshak – Picks-on: Sentech and picks: the Sony Ericsson X10.
• Brett Haggard – Picks: Mobile Data Alerter for BlackBerry.
• Simon Dingle – Picks: Aerial7 Tank headphones and CSSEdit.

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Gartner analyst Will Hahn returns to the show this week, joining Brett Haggard, Duncan McLeod and Simon Dingle for a chat about:

• Telkom’s recent SAT3 troubles.
• The ongoing interconnect debacle in SA.
• The progress of mobile data.
• Microsoft’s battle against Apple and Google.
• Sane expectations of the iPad.
• Mobile Core i7 platforms.
• The migration to voice over IP in cellular.

Our picks and pick-ons of the week:

• Will Hahn – Picks: The Xbox 360 controller for Windows and Flurry’s iPad detection.
• Duncan McLeod – Picks: Nimbuzz.
• Brett Haggard – Picks: ScummVM and TrueCrypt.
• Simon Dingle – Picks: Waze.

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Steven Ambrose from WWW Strategy makes his first appearance on the ZA Tech Show this week, joining Brett Haggard, Duncan McLeod and Simon Dingle to discuss:

• Internet access stats for South Africa.
• The Apple iPad launch.
• The online services drought in South Africa.
• Progress in Android and Chrome OS.
• Microsoft falling behind in mobile.
• Cell C’s “4G” network rollout.
• Cellular networks’ data congestion problems.

Our picks and pick-ons of the week:

• Brett Haggard – Picks: the iPad (we didn’t see that one coming) and Interarchy FTP client.
• Duncan McLeod – Picks: the Zap ‘em Dead electrified fly-swatter and picks-on: Jason Calacanis for his pre-iPad launch tweets.
• Steven Ambrose – Picks: The BlackBerry Bold 9700.
• Simon Dingle – Picks: The HTC Tattoo and SkypeIn with South African numbers.

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In our first episode of the year Ben Kelly, Brett Haggard, Duncan McLeod and Simon Dingle form the panel, with Toby Shapshak dialing in from CES later on in the show. We discuss:

• Parrot’s iPhone-controlled helicopter.
• HP’s new tablet and why we need tablets at all.
• HD Skype, 3-D and other progress in television.
• Vodacom’s legal battle in the DRC.
• Google’s Nexus One. Is Android its own worst enemy?
• Toby overviews CES for us and digs into Lenovo’s new line-up.

Our picks and pick-ons of the week:

• Ben Kelly – Picks: Custom GelaSkins.
• Brett Haggard – Picks: The Speedtest.net iPhone app.
• Simon Dingle – Picks: Quake Live and World of Goo.
• Toby Shapshak – Picks: Lenovo’s new range of portables.

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As Christmas 2009 approaches, our panelists are confined to their quarters and must use Skype to converse. Ben Kelly, Brett Haggard, Duncan McLeod, Jon Tullet, Simon Dingle and Toby Shapshak discuss:

• Cell C’s network expansion and upgrade.
• Telecoms.
• Intel scrapping Larrabee and possibly cosying up to Nvidia.
• Blackberry’s Storm 2.
• Integration between Twitter and search providers.

Our picks and pick-ons of the week:

• Duncan McLeod: Picks – Google Chrome for Mac.
• Brett Haggard: Picks – Dragon Dictation for iPhone.
• Jon Tullett: Pick-on – Dragon Dictation and picks – Samsung Star.
• Toby Shapshak: Picks – Blackberry Storm 2.
• Ben Kelly: Picks – Stanza.
• Simon Dingle: Picks – Tornado Outbreak for Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii.

Direct file download (30MB)

Jon Tullett, Toby Shapshak and Simon Dingle are your panellists this week. We discuss:

• The Twitter exposé and what we now know about the business behind the scenes.
• We choose the moon.
• The freshly launched Nokia N97.
• Microsoft’s new, free, web-based Office announcement.
• Our idea to include you in future shows.

Our picks and pick-ons of the week:

• Toby Shapshak: We choose the moon.
• Jon Tullett: Mars and me.
• Simon Dingle: Time Machine.

Direct file download (27MB)