MWEB launched their Free The Web initiative last year just before they stunned the market with the introduction of cheap affordable uncapped Internet, now the company is using their initiative to get to the next step in affordable Internet in South Africa.

MWEB’s Free the Web (FTW) initiative has taken up the cause of Naked ADSL, calling on South Africans to take a stand and add their vote to remove mandatory landline billing with ADSL lines. Currently if you request a ADSL line from Telkom you are required to take out a land line as well, this adds an additional fee to your account even if you are not interested in making phone calls.

“Since a landline is not required for ADSL connectivity, Naked ADSL calls for Telkom to unbundle landlines from ADSL lines, ensuring that ADSL customers who don’t want a telephone line don’t end up having to pay for one unnecessarily,” says Derek Hershaw, CEO of MWEB ISP.

Hershaw further added “The FTW initiative has therefore taken up the call for Naked ADSL. South Africans can visit theFreeTheWebSA facebook page, watch a quick video which explains the concept and campaign, and show their support for Naked ADSL via an Appeal Mosaic”

You can pledge your support for Naked ADSL by joining the Facebook Page and signing the petition.

One and a half years ago FNB started offering PayPal account users the ability to top up and withdraw PayPal funds from their FNB accounts, now FNB is opening up its PayPal withdrawal service to any user with a South African bank account.

Receiving funds and withdrawing these funds into a South African bank account was previously offered exclusively to FNB banking customers through their online banking service, and with the new PayPal withdrawal service non FNB customers will also be able to take advantage of PayPal withdrawals no matter where they bank in South Africa.

PayPal account holders from other South African banks will now be able to register their bank account on the FNB site, and then link their verified PayPal account with their bank account through the FNB internet banking portal.

Non FNB customers that make use of the PayPal withdrawal service will not incur any addition charges, and will have exactly the same service as FNB customers but only without the TopUp functionality.

To be able to receive and withdraw money from PayPal you will need a verified PayPal account, a South African bank account, and you need to register on FNB to make use of the PayPal withdrawal service.

This is just another great innovation from FNB showing that they don’t just want to offer their own customers with great service but are willing to extend it to other banks’ customers and allow entrepreneurs in South Africa to be able to make money online in any country no matter where they bank.

Everybody was waiting in anticipation for Web Africa to launch their Uncapped Internet packages for home users when the slew of other Internet Service Providers jumped onto the band wagon and introduced uncapped packages, but the company had other plans and kept a close eye on the market.

Good things comes to those who wait, and with the introduction of Web Africa’s new Uncapped Internet for home users this is the case.

In an effort to combat poor internet service delivery, Web Africa has launched a spoof political party, the WA party, which is positioning itself as the organisation that will make things happen online and provide uncapped internet to Web Africans ‘from Boksburg to Bafokeng from Benoni to Bishopscourt’.

Web Africa is planning not just to target the tech savvy with the launch of their new Uncapped Internet for home users, but want to make unlimited Internet available and affordable to the average user without any contractual obligation.

Web Africa Uncapped Internet for home users pricing below.

Pricing shows that Web Africa means business and coupled with their reliable network and excellent support one thing you can be assured of is that Web Africa has set a new benchmark in Uncapped Home Internet in South Africa.

DStv Mobile has taken the wraps off yet another device that will enable you to view DStv Mobile on the go.

The new device will be the third available DStv Mobile device covering all aspects of viewing DStv on the go. The new DStv Mobile Walka Handheld TV is just what is name implies, a handheld TV.

The DStv Mobile Walka Handheld TV opens up a whole new market for DStv Mobile, enabling consumers without fancy smartphones and tablets and even those without access to a computer to be able to watch DStv on the go.

The Walka Handheld TV is a slim, lightweight device with a 3.5” viewing screen providing digital visual and audio quality. After activating the Walka through the MultiChoice call centre it connects to the DStv Mobile DVB-H broadcast signal, giving access to 16 great DStv channels in the genres of sport, music, news, cartoons and general entertainment. The content line-up includes the two brand new channels that were recently added; magical channel M-Net Mobile and the informative Discovery channel.

The Walka Handheld TV is the third device from DStv that enables you view DStv on the go and will be available from retails outlets and MultiChoice centres from 1 December 2011. The device did leak out on Kalahari.com for just under R700 but has since been taken offline again.

At an event in Johannesburg last night, Motorola Mobility, has launched the world’s thinnest smartphone, the Motorola RAZR, in South Africa.

The South African launch comes only a mere week after Motorola announced the Motorola RAZR to the public internationally, showing that Motorola really has put more focus on marketing and bringing their latest devices to the country.

Owning the title of the world’s thinnest smartphone one would have expected Motorola to skimp on hardware power, but this is not the case with the RAZR. The Motorola RAZR features an 1.2GHZ dual-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, an 8MP camera and a gorgeous large 4.3″ AMOLED screen.

Apart from the impressive hardware features the RAZR also comes with an array of consumer experiences which Motorola considers to of high importance, seeing as they currently have more engineers working on this then on the hardware itself.

A nice consumer experience is the smart actions that learns a users habits on the phone and then automatically adjust the phone settings according to your habits to ensure longer battery life.

The RAZR is also compatible with the Lapdock and the HD Multimedia Station Motorola introduced with the Atrix.

The Motorola RAZR will be available at Vodacom from November 2011 on a 24-month Business Call contract at R269 or at a retail price of R6999, which too be honest is a bit on the steep side.

In what was suppose to be an article to showcase the latest DStv Packages and Pricing, has turned into an angry customer fueled discussion whith current DStv customers complaining about the fact that they are not able to pay for individual DStv channels.

Furious DStv customers has taken to the comments to express their anger about the fact that they are not able to pay for DStv channels they want. With DStv Premium subscription now amounting to over R600 if you include PVR access and Extra View functionality, it has just become too expensive for some customers.

Most DStv customers are complaining that they just can not afford to pay the premium subscription to get access to latest sporting events and series. Currently the only way to gain access to these channels is to either buy a premium DStv subscription or be able to get your hands on a old MNet Analog decoder.

Asked why DStv don’t offer customers the opportunity to pay per channels, the company simply responded that there would be a significant cost associated with the development, implementation and administration of the broadcast and backend systems required to deliver customized channel packages, in addition customer also wanted to know why DStv does not provide pensioners with discounted rates and the company responded with that they have not yet found a sustainable method to manage pensioner discounts that is not open to abuse.

It seems that DStv customers are not the only ones wanting to pay per channels, earlier this weeks all Pay TV operators in South Africa have been issued with compliance notices from the National Consumer Commission (NCC). The NCC wants DStv and Top TV to unbundle their channel bouquets and allow subscribers to select which channels they want.

Apparently grouping channels into bouquets falls under the section in the new Consumer Protection Act that prohibits the bundling of services. The CPA states that consumers may not be forced to buy goods or services that do not want or require.

DStv has since responded to the notice saying that they have indeed received it and that they are considering it.

Motorola has taken the wraps of its new Android flagship phone the Motorola Droid Razr. Motorola teased us for a few weeks with its Motorola Next campaign where it gave four reason to get excited.

The new Droid Razr is the worlds thinnest smartphone and it packs a punch. Coming in at 7.1mm thick the Razr takes the place as the worlds thinnest smartphone, previously held by the Sony Ericsson Experia Arc.

Being the worlds thinnest phone doesn’t mean Motorola skimmed when it came to specs, the Razr features a 1.2Ghz dual core CPU, 1GB of RAM and 32GB or storage, a massive 4.3″ Super AMOLED screen, oh and did I mention it runs Android?

The slimness of the Motorola Razr was made possible by the use Kevlar, usually used to stop bullets, and the use of gorilla glass combined with the Kevlar makes the Razr also very strong and durable.

What do you think about the Droid Razr? Would you want to own one?

At an event in Hong Kong this morning, Google in conjunction with Samsung, has unveiled the long awaited Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS and Google Nexus Prime smartphone.

Android Ice Cream Sandwich or Android 4.0 is the latest version of the ever popular smartphone OS from Google, the new version will be compatible with both phones and tablets and features a whole new interface.

Google has also added new virtual buttons in the system bar, eliminating the need for hardware buttons altogether and making more space for valuable screen real estate. One of the strong aspects of Android has always been its multitasking capabilities, with Ice Cream Sandwich Google has made multitasking even more easier and visual. The recent Apps button enables users to jump easily between running Apps but popping up a visual list of current running Apps with thumbnails and allow users to simply switch by the tap of a thumbnail.

Android 4.0 now has new home screen folders, users can now simply drag apps or shortcuts onto one another to create to group their Apps logically, in addition to that uninstalling or getting more information about Apps also got allot easier. From the App Launcher users can drag an App to get more information from it or uninstall it.

A nice new feature added in Ice Cream Sandwich is the resizable widget functionality. Users can now resize widgets on home screens to enable them to show more content should they wish.

In addition to the above features, Android 4.0 also features a new voice engine, better control over network users, users can now actually see how many bytes each App uses, new screen lock actions like facial recognition, improved text input and spell-checking.

The camera has also seen some significant improvements, users now have continuous focus and zero shutter lag, meaning your shots will be taken instantly, something that got me quite irritated in Android 2.3. There is also new panoramic functionality that will stitch fotos for you and new face detection technology. You can also now edit photos after you took them and add live effects to videos.

Functionality that Android lacked for a few years now was the ability to take screenshots, you could get it done but then you had to root your phone or use a USB cable and Android SDK, but users can now take screenshot by pressing hardware buttons.

This is just a few of the new features that makes Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich so great, I for one can’t wait to give it test, it just looks good and its easy to see that this will be the best version of Android to date.

Getting a job at Google is a dream of almost any Geek, I mean who wouldn’t want to work at Google? Google does not operate like any conventional company out there, infact they never intend to either.

At Google they focus on the needs of the employee and does whatever it takes to make you happy, whether is be that you work more productive with your poodle lying on its mattress next to you, or just dishing up some awesome gourmet food from their cafeteria. I mean what other company out there gives a man one month maternity leave when his son or daughter is born?

The kind folk over at JobVine has put together this infographic showing just what it takes to get a job at Google and the average salary different positions inside the company earn.

Ever since the average Joe got familiar with the phrase “Group Buying”, Group Buying sites have been popping up left and right in South Africa.

At first only a hand full of Group Buying sites operated in South Africa and then with the acquisition of Twangoo by the world leader in Group Buying, Groupon, sites have been popping up with the hopes of maybe also having the same luck.

Currently South Africans have access to over 28 Group Buying sites, but its seems the market has reached a tipping point. While I have seen a incline the amount and types of deals Groupon South Africa is offering now a days, for one company it seems like its just not worth it anymore.

Dealio, a Cape Town based Group Buying site this morning sent out a notice that they will be closing down at the end of this week. Dealio which started out just offering deals in Cape Town, and later expanded to other major South Africa cities, did not disclose why they are closing down but just said that it was due to circumstances beyond their control.

Dealio lasted just over eight month, which I would say is decent in a sector where you have over 28 competitors. The question now is how long before another one or two closes their doors?

Do you know of any other Group Buying sites that have recently closed down?