Technology

Telkom is planning to replace copper services with wireless 3G and LTE products in areas where the company’s exchanges are losing money. Miriam Altman, head of strategy at Telkom, told Journalists that of its 1,900 exchanges, only about 600 are really profitable. It is understood that these 600 exchanges is where users can expect Telkom to roll out its MSAN network to offer 20Mbps and 40Mbps VDSL services. The majority of Telkom’s exchanges – around 1,000 which are not particularly profitable but are also not losing money – will be maintained in their current state. The loss making exchanges, close to 300, are facing the axe. Copper based products at these exchanges are set to be replaced by 3G or LTE services. Telkom said that as part of its network modernization and transformation programme, it is continually reviewing the technology deployed in the network. “As and when required it will upgrade or replace technology which cannot be maintained ...

The production company behind the Oscar Pistorius trial channel for Carte Blanche on DStv, Combined Artists, has pulled the plug on its live stream from the courtroom. That’s the word from the head of production of Combined Artists in a general letter which explains that there were a number of problems with their live feed over the last few days. According to Combined Artists, their supplier worked ceaselessly to identify and rectify the problem. “Unfortunately, despite their best efforts, it seems that the feed will remain erratic and problematic,” the letter stated. To ensure a live feed that is consistently high quality, Combined Artists said it has decided to instead get Globecast’s live courtroom feed. Combined Artist’s online feed URL was set to be closed down from 08:00 on Wednesday, 5 March 2014. Live streams of the courtroom proceedings are available from a variety of media houses, including eNCA and SABC news: SABC Digital News YouTube channel eNCA YouTube ...

MultiChoice  announced that it will increase the subscription fees of most DStv bouquets – Premium, Extra, Compact, Family, Select – on 1 April 2014. From April 2014 DStv Premium subscribers will pay R665 per month, up from the current R625 per month. DStv Extra subscribers will pay R399 per month (up from R380 per month) and DStv Compact users will pay R295 instead of R275 per month. This is an annual price increase, and the price adjustment is typically in line with inflation figures.

Forbes has listed the 500 richest people in the world, with Microsoft founder and chairman Bill Gates, topping the list as the wealthiest man on earth . # Name Company/Industry Net Worth 1 Bill Gates Microsoft $76 billion 2 Carlos Slim Helu & family Telecoms $72 billion 5 Larry Ellison Oracle $48 billion 17 Larry Page Google $32.3 billion 18 Jeff Bezos Amazon.com $32 billion 19 Sergey Brin Google $31.8 billion 21 Mark Zuckerberg Facebook $28.5 billion 36 Steve Ballmer Microsoft $19.3 billion 42 Lee Kun-Hee Softbank $18.4 billion 48 Michael Dell Dell $17.5 billion

Whenever you search for something on Facebook, your search terms get stored in your Activity Log. Here's how to view it (and erase if, if you so desire). The Activity Log is only viewable by you, but if you want to erase any of your old searches for whatever reason—or even if you just want to view them (to find something you forgot)—it's really easy to find! Click the gear icon in the upper right-hand corner of Facebook, and head to Activity Log. From there, click the "More" button in the left sidebar to reveal the "Search" option. Click on it to view your search history. If you want to erase it, there's a button in the upper right-hand corner to do just that. I couldn't find a setting that turns this history off entirely, unfortunately, but again—the posts are only visible by you, so it shouldn't be a huge problem.

This week Incredible Connection is concluding its annual “Trade-In Upgrade & Save” promotion, with savings on printers, cameras, iPads, laptops and other computing products. Not to be outdone, Dion Wired launched its “Blue Carpet Sale”, offering big discounts on a range of tech products and household appliances. Other large retailers, including HiFi Corp and Makro have also reduced the prices on various gadgets and computing products. Some of this weekend’s best deals are listed below.

Before getting into any technology discussions/definition about Hybrid Cloud, it’s important to understand what value it potentially provides to businesses. In the most basic definition, “hybrid” means multiple things brought together to work as a unified system. For most businesses, this means that every function (Finance, Sales, Marketing, Engineering, etc.) will utilize whatever mix of resources provide them the most efficient combination of agility, cost and risk-management. IT should be not different. In fact, given the popularity of SaaS applications, most IT organizations have already deployed a variation of a “Hybrid Cloud” or at least “Hybrid IT”, where it makes sense for them to utilize outside resources for functionality that might not be core to their business (Core vs. Competency‎). From a business perspective, IT organizations that look for Hybrid Cloud solutions are seeking ways to maximize their ability to deliver technology solutions for their business, utilizing ...