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…

As the 2011 festive season gets underway, Andy Hadfield, Ben Kelly, Brett Haggard and Simon Dingle gather at ZA Tech Show HQ to discuss;

• Intel’s “ultrabooks” – supposedly big next year.
• HP open-sourcing WebOS.
• Mobile app development and HTML 5.
• Windows 8 and Windows Phone.
• DStv is launching a new satellite.
• Local loop unbundling.
• iCloud’s backup fail.
• Absa’s NFC trial.
• Mac App store reaches 100 million downloads while Android tops 10 billion.
• The Video Game Awards.

Our technology picks of the week:

• Andy Hadfield: Mi-Fone.
• Ben Kelly: Picks on Matthew Reilly.
• Brett Haggard: Picks the iNoxCase and Tweetdeck for sucking.
• Simon Dingle: Mario Kart 7.

The show is powered by the troika of Arthur Goldstuck, Brett Haggard and Craig Wilson this week. We discuss:

• Vodacom’s data growth.
• Samsung’s Galaxy Note.
• The future of tablets and their niches.
• Amazon Kindle hits Incredible Connection.
• The 20th anniversary of the ‘net in SA.

Our technology picks of the week:

• Craig Wilson – Planetary for iOS.
• Arthur – Kodak ESP 2170.
• Brett – OpenELEC.

It’s a full house in the ZA Tech Show studio this week with Aki Anastasiou, Andy Hadfield, Samantha Beckbessinger and Simon Dingle gathering around the table to discuss:

• Vodacom’s 20GB price announcement.
• The broadband bungle.
• The coming of Windows Phone.
• Banks and technology.
• Kindle hits retail in SA.
• Microsoft Kinect hacks.
• Is Siri really a threat to Google?

Our technology picks of the week:

• Samantha Beckbessinger: Isitold.com.
• Andy Hadfield: What does the internet think?
• Aki Anastasiou: Instapaper.
• Simon Dingle: Samsung Note.

Another newcomer joins the ZA Tech Show fold this week. Craig Wilson from TechCentral makes his debut in this episode, hosted by Brett Haggard. Jon Tullett make a comeback, unleashing the hate, and the panel is topped off with Nic Callegari. We check out:

• The Kindle Fire and Amazon shaking things up.
• Telkom’s uncapped ADSL.
• Streaming video and on demand services.
• Broadband in SA.
• Nokia’s rumoured new Meltemi operating system.
• Mobile competition mounting and prospects for ‘the other guys’.

Our technology picks this week:

• Jon Tullet: The Objet 3D printer (check out his neat dinosaur head on the video version).
• Craig Wilson: The Samsung GalaxyTab 10.1.
• Nic Callegari: The Battlefield 3 beta.
• Brett: Asus EEEPad Transformer.

There’s a lot of new stuff to talk about this week. New games, operating systems and networks. It’s all fresh and ready for your listening pleasure. Ben Kelly, Brett Haggard and Simon Dingle discuss;

• Windows 8 and the Metro interface.
• Cloud storage services.
• Ecosystem-agnostic technology.
• Data roaming.
• First tests of MTN’s LTE network.
• Fixed-line progress (or the lack thereof).

Our technology picks of the week:

• Brett Haggard: Fling Joystick for iPad.
• Ben Kelly: Jetpack Joyride.
• Simon Dingle: Prey.

We’re down to two this week with Sam Beckbessinger and Simon Dingle holding down the fort. Fortunately they don’t need any help shooting their mouths off about;

• Vodacom’s BlackBerry Internet Service cap.
• Emerging Windows 8 goodness (and badness).
• User interfaces.
• Amazon tablet rumours mounting.
• The frenetic pace of the gaming industry.
• Digital publishing.
• And more…

Our technology picks this week:

• Sam Beckbessinger: Muro and the Star Wars Scanimation book.
• Simon Dingle: Klexi.

Is there still hope for BlackBerry? Can Lenovo make a dent in the tablet market? We don’t know the answers to these questions, but are willing to speculate wildly. This week Andy Hadfield, Simon Dingle and Steven Ambrose discuss;

• The Lenovo K1 tablet.
• Samsung pulling the Tab 7.7 from its stand at IFA.
• The Amazon tablet.
• App stores and operators.
• iOS 5.
• The launch of Telkom Business Mobile.
• Evernote acquiring Skitch.
• Google shutting down old projects.
• And more…

Our technology picks this week:

• Steven Ambrose: The new BlackBerry Torch 9860 and Mecer’s 4-port USB hub with Ethernet.
• Andy Hadfield: Rugby World 2011 app for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.
• Simon Dingle: Motorola Atrix.

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.