We gather in an overcast Johannesburg this week, sans Ben Kelly, to discuss the following:

• Open document formats and the SABS appealing ISO’s ratification of OOXML.
• The ultra-portable and sub-notebook market and who’s doing what in the space.
• Microsoft’s strategy for Windows on portables.
• Online operating systems, ala Jooce.
• Privacy online and why people trust Google.
• Mashing-up social networks and examples of applications that do this, like Flock.
• Instant messaging.
• Red Hat’s Mugshot.
• Vodacom’s WirelessG, iPass and other innovative wireless offerings, like Skyrove.
• Utility bandwidth.
• Final confirmation of Neotel’s consumer offerings, including uncapped solutions.

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In this week’s episode we’re giving away copies of Norton Antivirus, so take a listen for the details. We also discuss:

• The release of Windows XP Service Pack 3.
• The slow performance of Outlook in Vista.
• WINE finally releasing version 1.0.
• Mac4Lin.
• Progress of the Linux desktop.
• Pzizz - software that makes you sleep. Literally.
• The possibility of a fibre-to-home solution from Neotel. And another slow but uncapped offering too.
• World of Warcraft - and the new ZA Tech Show guild on Whisperwind, US. Send a message to ‘Rootsmanoova’ for an invite…
• InfraCo’s West Coast cable and how it fits into the bigger bandwidth picture.
• New, bigger caps coming to Telkom.
• The first DSTV channel to go HD.
• Noxious Nigel’s attack on local IT professionals and Internet privacy laws.
• Bolton Deventer.
• CNET being acquired by CBS.
• Microsoft and Yahoo! revisited.
• Jon and Google. Not a loving relationship.
• Online verification and why captures are dead.

Durban is probably the best place to live for Fibre… go figure.

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This week we take the ZATS crew back to its vanilla form. No guests, just raw chat. We discuss:

• Cell C’s (possible) introduction of EDGE 2.
• MTN’s acquisition talks.
• The announcement of Nokia’s N78 and N96.
• Microsoft PlaysForSure biting the big one.
• The iPhone going global - and heading for South Africa on Vodafone.
• Vodacom’s ridiculous water damage policy.
• Apple IMC clamping down on grey Apple imports in SA.
• Grand Theft Auto IV’s opening week earnings of half a billion dollars.
• Communication’s minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri postponing her budget speech and bungling things up, as usual.

…and probably some other stuff too

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In our tenth episode of ZA Tech Show we are joined by controversial writer David Bullard and Toby Shapshak, editor of Stuff Magazine. We trade the beer in for whisky and discuss:

• David Bullard speaks candidly about his exit from the Sunday Times.
• The future of media and how South Africa is keeping up with online trends.
• The launch of Grand Theft Auto IV (and Mr. Bullard’s experiences with Leisure Suit Larry).
• Ben and Duncan have benchmarked the Neotel consumer connection and present us with the numbers…
• The beta release of Nokia Maps 2.0 with free world maps.
• What technology we would like to see incorporated into cars… and some things that are.

Note: This episode of ZA Tech Show was posted a little later than usual to accommodate public holidays… and due to an FTP technicality. We apologise for any inconvenience!

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In this episode the gang is joined by Gerdus van Eeden, CTO of MultiChoice — our first ever guest on the show. We discuss:

• HD TV coming to DSTV, as well as DVB-H and other network features on the way. Gerdus answers all our questions.
• Ben and Duncan have Neotel handsets! We reveal the consumer offering from the SNO, with pricing.
• Ex Telkom CEO Papi Molotsane is threatening to get back into the telco market.
• Altech’s confusing WiMax situation.
• India’s Bharti Airtel rumored to be interested in MTN.
• Interest supposedly shown in GijimaAST by BT.
• Apple’s acquisition of PA Semiconducor and what this could mean for future products.
• The launch of Nintendo’s Wii Fit
• Facebook Chat
• HP launches its first global Concept Store in South Africa.

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This week we recorded the show live from Podcamp SA in Bloemfontein! A big thanks to Nico Baird and the rest of the Podcamp crew who put together a great event, even if we did miss half of it thanks to Duncan blowing out a tyre on the way to Bloem.

In this episode we discuss:

• Podcamp SA
• Fring for the iPhone
• iPhone possibly being released in India through Vodafone
• Gauteng’s planned fibre ring
• Mobile broadband and data
• Cell C supposedly becoming profitable
• The Psystar ‘Open PC’ Mac clone
• More of our investigations into WantItAll
• Apple halting its Safari for Windows stealth installs
• Telkom taking on the Competition Commission
• Seagate suing STEC
• Sun’s Richard Barrington and green computing

And probably some other stuff too…

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All the usual geeks are resident for this episode, in which we discuss:

- A German MP attempting to stop Microsoft from doing business in the EU
- Gartner’s analysis concerning Windows
- The extended OEM period for Windows XP
- Google Apps
- WantItAll
- Podcamp SA
- EMC acquiring Iomega
- Symantec acquiring AppStream
- Adobe Media Player
- The sacking of David Bullard

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We have a full-house this week on ZA Tech Show with Simon Dingle, Brett Haggard, Duncan McLeod, Jon Tullett and Ben Kelly discussing:

- ISO ratifying OOXML as a standard
- Google Gears allowing you to work on Google Docs offline
- Douglas Merrill resigning as CIO of Google and going to EMI
- Telkom Media’s troubles
- Broadcast regulation in SA
- SA Blog Awards
- Firefox 3 beta 5
- The PWN to OWN awards
- Wordpress 2.5 and web app security
- The promises of Intel Atom and mobile computing
- SA Cricket entering the blogosphere

It’s all yours for Mahala.

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Episode 5 of ZA Tech Show sees a well fed crew of Simon Dingle, Brett Haggard, Jon Tullett, Duncan McLeod and Ben Kelly discussing the following:

• The break-up of Motorola
• Seagate’s threats surrounding solid-state drives
• USB 3.0 and its rival Firewire
• Microsoft’s ‘Albany’
• Other online applications including Photoshop and Picnic
• Google Talk’s new web widget
• The next round of voting for the OOXML document format
• New search-engine Searchme.com
• The future of online search and social-bookmarking
• Sony’s optional removal of bloatware from its laptops
• The new 9″ Eee PC from Asus
• New chip technology from AMD and Intel (and Brett’s remarkable knowledge of silicon)
• Software nostalgia (Simon and Duncan can tell you all about Space Quest. Seriously)

So make with the downloads. It’s free.

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This week Simon Dingle, Ben Kelly, Brett Haggard, Jon Tullett and Duncan McLeod spend a Good Friday morning discussing:

• The passing of Arthur C. Clarke
• Windows Vista Service Pack 1
• Windows XP Service Pack 3
• The rumors surrounding Windows 7
• Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) beta
• A new virus threat surrounding zip files
• MTN’s performance in the Middle East
• Telkom’s new Metro LAN offering
• West coast versus East coast bandwidth
• The ‘all you can eat’ iTunes rumor
• How music publishing and distribution are evolving in the digital age

…and some other stuff in-between.

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