Buying and selling online from South Africa has become sort of a risk in this day and age, specially if you want to buy from places like e-bay. This will hopefully not be the case for long anymore as PayPal is currently in talks with FNB and the South African Reserve Bank.

What is PayPal you ask? PayPal is the safer, easier way to pay and get paid online. The service allows anyone to pay in any way they prefer, including through credit cards, bank accounts, buyer credit or account balances, without sharing financial information. Gone are the days of entering your credit card details to buy something online, you will just buy with your PayPal account and PayPal will ensure that the transaction goes smooth.

About two weeks back news has gone viral on social networking site Twitter where it was divulged that FNB is currently in talks with PayPal to allow transactions from South Africa. Later on head of corporate communications at FNB released an official statement that First National Bank is indeed in discussions with PayPal and the South African Reserve Bank.

Upon entering the FNB website users are now also greeted with a pop-up window with the statement that it is confirmed that FNB is in talks with PayPal and that further information will be released in due course.

This is a really exciting announcement by PayPal and FNB as the introduction of PayPal in South Africa will open up so many new potential opportunities and bring a huge influx of cash into South Africa through online purchases.

What do you think? Will you be using PayPal when it is confirmed that it will be available in South Africa?

MyScoop the latest addition to the South African blog aggregation and social bookmarking arena has again amazed me with its latest feature.

Nick Duncan the man behind MyScoop is constantly working on new features to make MyScoop South Africa’s best social bookmarking and blog aggregation tool, and its latest feature is site statistics straight to your inbox.

According to Nick there will be a setting in your MyScoop profile where you will be able to enable or disable the new feature as well as an option to receive statistics monthly or weekly.

The statistics mail contains stats such as your monthly rank overall and in your category, referrals sent through MyScoop to your blog, traffic statistics like visits and page views and a detailed view of how much traffic got sent through to what article on your blog.

Personally I think MyScoop is starting to give Afrigator and slowly dying Amatomu a run for their money when it comes to blog aggregation and social bookmarking. MyScoop already packs more features and nice to haves that Afrigator does not cater for, and every day I see more and more local bloggers joining MyScoop, even the big boys in South African blogging is starting to give it a try.

Whats your take on MyScoop?

One of the biggest music festivals every year with great international and local lineups will not happen this year. The Coke Zero Fest is probably the most anticipated rock music event every year, but fans will have to anticipate extra longer this year.

Although there has not been an officially released statement by Coca-Cola South Africa, Dionne Domyan from Penny Stein Promotions confirmed that the Coca Zero Fest will not happen this year.

“The sad news is that there is no Coke Zero Fest this year as Coca-Cola are one of the major sponsors of the Fifa World Cup so all their energy (and resources) have been channeled to this event,” Domyan told Entertainment Africa.

“We are however hoping for an official statement from Coca-Cola in the next few days regarding this,” Domyan continued.

Facebook has been flooded by the news on various groups by fans expressing their disappointment, while some groups have already started suggesting what bands they want to see in the 2011 line up. The list include Paramore, Linkin Park and Red Hot Chili Peppers, right through to Green Day, My Chemical Romance and Slipknot.

Some good news though is that if you were looking forward to one hell of a rock show you can always go rock away at Ramfest IV. Ramfest will be taking place February 26 – 27 at Worcester and for the first time in Gauteng on the 6th of March.

Some of the local bands you will be able to see at Ramfest include Fokofpolisiekar, The Narrow, The Dirty Skirts, Jack Parow, Die Heuwles Fantasties and Taxi Violence just to name a few. This years international act is Pendulum from Australia & UK

For long DSTV has been the only Pay TV operator in South Africa and been milking their customers for every cent they have, but this is about to change very soon with the launch of On Digital Media (ODM).

On Digital Media has revealed in an exclusive interview with Fin24 their details about the service they plan to launch in May 2010. ODM’s Pay TV channels bouquets pricing will range from R99 to R249 per month.

The content ODM will be providing will range from local to international with the likes of Fox Entertainment and MGM.

Bad news for the rugby and cricket lovers is that they will have to stick with DSTV for now as ODM will not provide rugby, cricket or PSL football at launch, but would gain rights to niche sporting content such as martial arts. Good news is that ODM would also pursue rights for other sports as the contracts with Multichoice expire and become available.

CEO of ODM Vino Govender, also revealed the following:

• ODM will provide Fox Entertainment, MGM and other international channels for the first time in SA.
• Packages will begin at R99 for a basic package with 30 channels and range up to R249 for a premium package with a full range of channels grouped by genre.
• ODM is in discussions with Multichoice to explore the possibility of acquiring content from DStv.
• Customers will be able to use existing DStv satellite dishes with the ODM service, but the dish will have to be repositioned.
• ODM recommends a 75cm dish and the ODM service has been designed to be more stable in bad weather than DStv.
• ODM’s satellite footprint runs from northern Nigeria to Cape Town.
• ODM decoders are being provided by UEC, a division of the Altech Group.
• ODM plans to launch a PVR decoder within 12 months from launch.
• The electronic programme guide (EPG) for ODM has been designed by the NDS Group, a division of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and is more sophisticated than what is used by Multichoice, according to Govender.

For more in depth details visit Fin24

Is Tiger Woods hiding out in South Africa? It was reported earlier this week in Die Burger that sources close to Tiger Woods said that he left the media glare in America and headed off to a friends estate in Africa.

What better place to kick it back away from the paparazzi than at a wine estate in Stellenbosch, South Africa considering that golfer friends Ernie Else and Johann Rupert both have wine estates in the region. To further reinforce the rumors that Tiger Woods was spotted in Stellenbosch, South Africa is student and part time waitron Dinkle Verwey.

“I am sure it could have been Tiger Woods sitting in the corner the other day eating a muffin and drinking rooibos tea,” Dinkle said. “He had a cap on his head and was wearing a T-shirt that read ’14 Down, More to Go’, but at first I did not think it could be him. But when he looked up at me to ask for the bill, there was something about him. At first I thought he was just a normal Cape Coloured as his lips were big. But then I saw his eyes, which were a bit skew. I Googled when I got home, and yes, I am sure it was him. He paid cash, so I did not get chance to see his credit card.”

Expect to see papz cruising the winelands town in search for Tiger Woods.

Schools will be closing this week and the holiday is upon us all. This holiday I’m sure most of us will be going away for a while to take some time away from our busy schedules.

Today I saw a number of bloggers posting about their holiday plans and when they will be going away and for how long, this made me think, is it wise to divulge all your holiday plans online?

The internet is an great way to express your views on things and share stories of your live with fellow internet users, but it also make certain information freely available to crooks. What better way is it for a burglar to go search the web for posts about peoples holiday plans and then have enough time to burgle your house or office while you are away.

So please if you are going to tell us about your holiday plans keep it simple, do not give away exact dates and information that could be useful to criminals.

I know chances are slim that house burglars are really tech savvy, but you never know. What do you guys think about giving away such information on your sites?

Christopher Mills the man behind the famous iMod blog has gone and shown local geeks how a real geek should ask for hand in marriage.

Christopher Mills or Chris M as he is know in the local cyber arena wrote a blog post  with the heading Will you marry me and posted it online before asking his girl to go and check his site for some important information he needed.

Well done Chris and congrats, hope you two have a wonderful life together.

You can have a look at how he planned everything here. Nice way of doing it, because they will have this moment forever on his website.

The official beginning of the 2010 soccer world cup kicks off this Friday (4 December 2009) with the Final Draw, being held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. Before, during and after the group draw at 7pm, festivities will be held on Long Street in Cape Town, where more than 15 000 people are expected to celebrate with music and fanfare.

Please note that Long Street and the adjoining streets would be closed to traffic and transformed into a pedestrian zone from Wale Street to the Long Street baths for the day.

Local artists including Freshlyground, Jimmy Dludlu and TKZee are expected to entertain party-goers.

If you are free this weekend why not head on over to Long Street this Saturday and partake in the World Cup 2010 Draw festivities.

This Friday the 27th of November 27dinner will be taking place in Cape Town at the Knead Bakery, Wembley Square.

Join in for the last 27 dinner of 2009 in Cape Town. An evening of inspiring talks and superb conversation with smart and talented web, mobile, media and marketing people.

The Talks

• Justin Hartman: Founder / CEO of Afrigator. Justin will be giving us some exiting news about Afrigator (South Africa’s largest blog aggregator)
• Raymond De Villiers, CEO of Wisdom Games: Raymond will be talking about Serious Play: Using computer games for corporate learning
• Dave Duarte: Founder of Huddlemind will MC

Remember that there is only 100 places available so head on over to 27dinner to book your place.

By now every body have heard of, or signed up to the limited R29 per GB ADSL offer from Afrihost.

This offer by Afrihost, known for its hosting, has set the wheel rolling to drive broadband prices down in South Africa. Although Afrihost is only offering it as a limited promotion, if you sign up during the promotion you will always be charged R29 per GB for as long as you are a customer.

Now Afrihost has again disrupted the local internet market by slashing their price by another 50% if you top up. If you are a Afrihost customer you can now top up at R14.50 per GB. This is the cheapest per GB price for international bandwidth South Africa has ever seen, it even comes close to what other ISP charge for 1 GB local only bandwidth.

If you haven’t by now signed up to the cheapest ADSL in South Africa, what are you waiting for? Sign up here for cheap international ADSL bandwidth, or if you are looking to host a website why not visit Afrhost site to sign up for one of their great hosting packages.

PS. I dropped my long time ISP WebAfrica and switched over to Afrihost about 2 month ago and haven’t looked back since, saving me a total of 50% on my 5GB cap at home.