South African tech journos indulging in beer and opinion…

Episodes in which we discussed Multichoice:

ZA Tech Show: Episode 26

This week Brett’s in San Francisco and joins us via Skype. Under discussion:

  • The future of SSD and what it enables. Intel has some compelling offerings on the way.
  • Gartner Symposium 2008 - Simon and Ben look at this year’s event.
  • Duncan has the Multichoice HD PVR and gives his impressions.
  • Eyeballs mobile advertising platform.
  • Instant messaging and convergence.
  • Cell C’s improved market performance.
  • Intel’s Nehalem and Laraby processors and how they will change the game.
  • Sony confirming that the PSP Phone is on the way.
  • Microsoft’s planned responsive advertising campaign against the famous ‘I’m a Mac’ ads from Apple.

And more…

Direct file download (27MB)

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ZA Tech Show: Episode 25

This week we have a studio audience (even). And we discuss:

  • The massive changes taking place in South African television.
  • When and if we’ll ever see DVB-H in South Africa.
  • Initial impressions on the Nokia N96, now that we have one to review - and how much we love the E71.
  • Mobile phones on aeroplanes and why we can’t use them. Really.
  • Acer finally letting us know when we’ll see the Aspire One locally, with pricing.
  • Where netbooks belong and what they should cost.
  • WiMAX and Intel’s announced support for the technology.
  • Intel Centrino 2 and how it will change mobile computers.
  • USB 3.0 and Firewire 3200.
  • Cancelling cell contracts in South Africa.
  • Vodacom versus ICASA.

And Brett talks about his light saber. It makes him happy.

Direct file download (26MB)

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ZA Tech Show: Episode 22

Simon has lost his brain this week and Duncan’s attention span is missing too. Nevertheless, we attempt to compose ourselves and discuss:

  • Multichoice launching its DSTV HD service with PVR pricing and full details.
  • Nokia’s new E-series business smartphones.
  • MTN’s 7.1 billion rand investments, including fibre roll-out.
  • A former Vodacom executive being accused of perjury.
  • Papi Molotsane’s small fortune.
  • The debates at this year’s Internetix conference.
  • Jake White getting into blogging and vlogging with Youtube.
  • The “king of spam” committing suicide.

And much more…

Direct Download (29MB)

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ZA Tech Show: Episode 20

In our 20th episode of ZA Tech Show we discuss:

  • The international launch of Apple’s 3G iPhone.
  • Pieter Uys taking over from Alan Knott-Craig as Vodacom Group CEO.
  • Vodacom’s content adaption service status.
  • ASUS Eee PC 1000 and the growing netbook market.
  • Multichoice’s new DSTV dual-view offering and the approaching launch of DSTV HD.
  • Digital media distribution and licensing.
  • Musica selling counterfeit Playstation accessories.
  • ISO’s rejection of the OOXML appeal.
  • The global DNS security update.

And more…

Direct file download (35.9MB)

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ZA Tech Show: Episode 12

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.

Direct file download.

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ZA Tech Show: Episode 9

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.

Direct file download.

5 comments

ZATS: Episode 3

Jon’s away in Boston this week but Ben, Simon, Duncan and Brett spent Friday afternoon drinking beer and discussing, amongst other things:

  • Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3
  • The enigma that is Steve Ballmer
  • The Xbox 360 price-cut
  • The iPhone SDK
  • Eassy getting the green-light
  • Neotel’s consumer offerings
  • DSTV’s price-hike

Oh, you’ll also need to watch this, we discuss it in the show:

Click here for direct file download (you might have to right click and select to download the target file).

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ZATS: Episode 1


This is the first ever episode of ZA Tech Show! Simon Dingle, Ben Kelly, Brett Haggard, Jon Tullett and Duncan McLeod sit around on a Friday afternoon and discuss the death of HD DVD, the coming of high definition television to South Africa, the local broadband situation, Vista SP1 and other pressing technology issues.

We’d love to hear what you think of our first show - all criticism, praise and worship is welcome. Click here to mail us or alternatively leave a comment below…

You can use our embedded audio player (above) to stream this episode, alternatively:

- Download the audio file.
- Subscribe to podcast via RSS.
- Subscribe to ZATS via iTunes. (Using this link requires that you have iTunes installed. Seriously).

10 comments