Two first-timers join the ZA Tech Show panel this week – stand-up comedian and co-founder of Thunk! Perspective Lab, Don Packett and CTO of the Johannesburg Area Wireless Users Group, Kieran Murphy join Duncan McLeod and Simon Dingle to discuss:

• Duncan’s experiences with the Nokia Booklet 3G.
• Wireless users groups.
• Rumours of Multichoice preparing transactional video-on-demand services via DStv, as well as the possibility of a porn channel.
• The 10 billionth iTunes Music Store download.
• Sony’s 3D broadcasts of the 2010 Fifa World Cup and 3D TV in general.
• Heavy Rain, new-school Mario and gaming in general.
• The Nokia E72.
• Mobile Linux distributions.
• Exclusive Books getting into the ebooks game.

Our picks and pick-ons of the week:

• Duncan McLeod – Picks: The Opera 10.5 beta web browser.
• Kieran Murphy – Picks: Thesixtyone music adventure.
• Simon Dingle – Picks: Plants vs. Zombies.
• Don Packett – Picks: Fitness Builder for iPhone.

Direct file download (25MB)

Easing their way into 2010, our panel of geeks this week consists of Duncan McLeod, Simon Dingle and Toby Shapshak. They discuss

• On Digital Media (ODM) – South Africa’s second pay TV operator.
• Google’s intention to stop filtering information in China.
• Microsoft’s focus on Xbox and progress with Windows 7.
• Mobile gaming moving to phones.
• The local launch of the BlackBerry Bold 9700.
• Internet filtering in Australia and China.

Our picks of the week:

• Duncan McLeod – Vlingo.
• Toby Shapshak – Blue Lounge Studio Desk and CableDrop.
• Simon Dingle – N.O.V.A., BlackBerry OS 5.0 and GodMode in Windows 7.

Direct file download (24MB)

Ben Kelly, Duncan McLeod, Toby Shapshak and Simon Dingle are lazy this week. In a shorter-than-usual episode of the show they tackle:

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and online gaming.
• Kindle apps, ebooks and tablet PCs.
• The interconnect agreement.
• The looming broadband colloquium.
• Apple’s massive operating profits in mobile.

Our picks and pick-ons of the week:

• Ben Kelly: Pick – BusyCal.
• Toby Shapshak: Pick – Nokia Booklet 3G.

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An experiment in LAN recording produces interesting results this week as Brett Haggard, Jon Tullett, Duncan McLeod and Simon Dingle connect to discuss:

• Duncan’s new undertaking and plans for world dominance.
• Reduced pricing for gaming consoles.
• The case against Apple.
• Snow Leopard.
• Nokia’s Booklet 3G.
• Cellular network termination rates.

Our picks and pick-ons of the week:

• Jon Tullett: Neverwinter Nights bundle at Incredible Connection.
• Brett Haggard: Windows Home Server and Nokia Comes with Music.

Direct file download (23MB)

In this episode our geeks are spread out across SA. Simon Dingle, Jon Tullett and Will Hahn are in Cape Town for Gartner Symposium 2009, Brett Haggard is in Durban for Microsoft TechEd and Duncan McLeod is at home with his bulldogs in Johannesburg. They hook up on Skype to discuss:

• Gartner Symposium.
• Microsoft TechEd – Windows 7, Live Mesh and all things MS.
• Screens and the rumoured Apple tablet.
• The Nikon S1000pj camera with built-in projector.
• The evolution of interfaces.
• Mobile broadband.
• Eric Schmid leaving the Apple board.

And more…

Our pick and pick-ons for the week:

• Brett Haggard: Picks – Microsoft Live Mesh and VMWare Fusion 2.
• Duncan McLeod: Pick – Microsoft Windows 7 RTM.
• Jon Tullett: Grooveshark.
• Will Hahn: Pick-on – Telkom. Pick – Nintendo Wii.

Direct file download (27MB)

A tripartite gathering of geeks, consisting of Candice Jones from ITWeb, Ben Kelly from Ungeeked and Simon Dingle, make up our panel this week and discuss:

• iPhone 3.0.
• The Iranian elections on Twitter and mobile.
• What massive bandwidth pipes mean for media.
• Keeping people honest using online crowd dynamics.
• Windows 7, Bing, Project Natal and all things Microsoft.
• Is Sony the new Microsoft?
• The new competitive environment in online.

And more…

Our choice technologies of the week:

• Simon Dingle: Bing, and Tomtom for iPhone.
• Ben Kelly: DVDFab.
• Candice Jones: Sims 3 and Project Natal.

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Jon Tullett leads our group of intrepid geeks this week, as Simon was away. Jon joins Duncan McLeod, Ben Kelly and Brett Haggard to discuss:

• The post-Vodacom debacle fallout.
• Cellular network reliability.
• More iPhone app blocking.
• Swine flu: the online story.
• Google Chrome 2 and the browser scene.
• 3d cinema tech.
• Microsoft’s Magic Wand patent.
• The Apple tablet. There appears to be more to the rumour.

And much more…

Our choice technologies of the week:

• Brett Haggard: Sun VirtualBox – free virtualisation platform.
• Ben Kelly: Stellarium – free open source planetarium for your computer and Moviestar – the iPhone app.
• Duncan McLeod: The new Star Trek movie.
• Jon Tullett: Kensington wireless mouse with nano receiver.

Direct file download (25MB)

Jon Tullett, Candice Jones and Simon Dingle talk their way through:

• Telecommunications in South Africa post Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri.
• Will South Africa’s electric car, the Joule, ever hit the road?
• The digital music price war.
• DRM, piracy and bandwidth dynamics.
• Telkom’s mobile offering and restructuring.
• 97% of all email is spam, according to Microsoft.
• The ups and downs of BlackBerry.
• ARM-based netbooks.
• The netbook conundrum.
• Wii production costs go down, but prices hold fast.

And more…

Our choice technologies this week:

• Candice Jones: PinPoint from Leaf.
• Jon Tullett: Battle for Wesnoth and Maximum PC’s DIY multi-touch computer.
• Simon Dingle: Seesmic Desktop and Posterous.

Direct file download (33MB)

The team this week consists of Jon Tullett, Duncan McLeod, Brett Haggard, Simon Dingle, Tiana Alswang and Rein Hillmann from CocoaHeads Johannesburg.

We discuss:

• The Xbox Live lag.
• CocoaHeads in SA – Rein tells us more.
• Software development in South Africa.
• Hands on with the BlackBerry Storm.
• Nokia’s music service and 5800 launching in South Africa.
• Some new game titles that are being released in March.
• Gaming on the Mac platform.
• OpenGL versus DirectX.
• The $20 laptop rumour.
• Telkom fires its COO.
• GTV goes under, strengthening Multichoice in Africa.
• The Apple television rumoured to be in development.
• Netbooks being helped along by the economic crisis.
• Seacom’s progress.

And much more…

Direct file download (33Mb)

In our first episode of 2009 the ZA Tech Show recorded live at the MTN domestic game between the Cobras and Titans at Supersport park. We also welcome Candice Jones from ITWeb – a new voice on the show. We discuss:

• Console sales in 2008.
• Twitter and other social network hackers.
• The Apple keynote at Macworld and hacks of live blogging streams from the event.
• The criminal banking system in South Africa.
• Operating system wars heat up with the arrival of Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex, Windows 7 and OS X Snow Leopard in 2009.
• Some of the changes coming in Windows 7.
• Is Linux lagging in terms of user interfaces?
• Palm is back with a new smartphone – the ‘Pre’ – and operating system called webOS.
• MTN’s acquisition of Verizon South Africa is going ahead.

And much more…

Direct download (26.6MB)