Popular smartphone app WhatsApp, which allows you to message other users on different platforms running the same app at the fraction of the cost of an SMS, has denied sending out any messages stating that it is about to start charging users.

The message reads as follows:

WhatsApp is going to cost us money soon. The only way that it will stay free is if you are a frequent user i.e. you have at least 10 people you are chatting with. To become a frequent user send this message to 10 people who receive it (2 ticks) and your WhatsApp logo should turn Red to indicate a frequent user.

WhatsApp has responded on their blog after they got numerous emails from users of the smartphone app about hoax message doing the round on the instant message application, stating that this is a hoax and there is no truth to it.

Another hoax message has now also started doing the rounds, this time stating that WhatsApp will be shutting down on 28 Jan and if you do not forward the message to your contacts you will be deemed inactive and your account will be deleted withing 48 hours.

WhatsApp will not be shutting down any time soon, nor will they start charging you if you do not forwards messages to your contacts, if they really wanted to contact other WhatsApp users don’t you think they can just simply message you directly?

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.

It’s no secret that FNB, First National Bank, is at the forefront of innovation at banking in South Africa, and actions are pointing at another first for South African banking from them.

FNB was the first bank that embraced social media, and since then has seen great success with its twitter consultant account, RBJacobs (FNB Guy), that helps FNB customers with quick solutions to problems they are experiencing as well as providing them with advice when they need it.

The last couple of weeks allot of FNB customers started asking about dedicated smartphone apps for the internet banking service, even though FNB gives customers access to mobile banking through their fnb.mobi site and through a USSD service, the company seems to have listened to their customers’ request and yesterday on twitter started asking around at what mobile platforms users would like apps for.

Shortly after users responded, FNB changed their profile picture by adding Apple, Android and BlackBerry logos to it, making it even more obvious that they will be launching smartphone apps. The FNB twitter account also mentioned that they will be announcing something today and questions answered by the account hinted that it may relate to dedicated smartphone apps for internet banking. This morning RBJacobs confirmed that today today they will be talking about the FNB App launch, confirming all the rumours.

Would you make use of a dedicated FNB smartphone app to do you internet banking? If so what platform would you prefer?

A while ago at a Facebook mobile event, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, told the public that the iPad is not a mobile device and that they do not have any plans to offer an app for the tablet in the near future.

It seems like the young billionaire has had a change of heart, or so the New York Times have reported. According to the New York Times, people briefed on Facebook’s plans say that in coming weeks the company plans to introduce a free iPad application that has been carefully designed and optimized for the tablet.

According to these people the Facebook iPad application has been in development for almost a year now and is currently in it’s final testing stages.

The question now remains will Facebook’s official iPad application be a hit, seeing as it has to compete with two already popular Facebook applications for the iPad namely MyPad and Friendly for Facebook, the first mimicking the popular Twitter for iPad layout and flow.

HTC, manufacturer of Android smartphones, have announced some good news for Android users wanting to root their phones and load custom operating systems on them.

The company confirmed in an announcement on the official HTC Facebook page that they are saying goodbye to their locked bootloader policy, and from now on will no longer lock the bootloaders on it’s phones.

‎”There has been overwhelmingly customer feedback that people want access to open bootloaders on HTC phones. I want you to know that we’ve listened. Today, I’m confirming we will no longer be locking the bootloaders on our devices. Thanks for your passion, support and patience,” Peter Chou, CEO of HTC

The move by HTC could see the smartphone brand rise to the top of the Android platform, with die hard techies already saying that they will be moving over to HTC because of this announcement.

Opensource communities will also welcome this announcement and I think we should see more of them supporting HTC and developing custom ROMS for the devices.

Twitter has rolled out new functionality, starting today Twitter users will now also receive email notification when someone mentions them, retweets or favourites a tweet.

Twitter for long has already sent out email notifications notifying users of new followers and direct message, but with this new feature one can’t help but wonder how many people will actually welcome this new email notification addition.

Although it might sound like it’s convenient to receive email notifications when someone mentions or retweets you, this can become quite spammy for some users, luckily you can opt out to not receive email notifications by clicking unsubscribe on your first email notification. The options to opt out are yet to be added to your Twitter Settings page it seems.

A while back Leaf the local distributor of HTC phones in South Africa announced that South Africa will be getting access to Paid Android Apps, Google last night confirmed this by announcing at their I/O conference that full Android Market access will be coming to South Africa and an additional 98 other countries.

As of last night some South African users have reported to already have access to paid applications on the Android Market, I however checked and could only find one paid application namely QuickOffice Pro that is going for R68.73. I also tried buying apps through the online Android web store, but this did not work either.

In the mean time while we wait for the service to roll out fully to all South Africa users you can set up a Google Checkout Account, as that will be used to pay for your applications.

So quite a few people contacted me with regards to a Invalid Address error they are getting when trying to buy apps on iTunes with an account created using this method, it seems that Apple has introduced address validation and because in that tutorial you make use of Fakenamegenerator the address does not actually exist.

You can however fix the Invalid Address error by just going to your iTunes account, logging in by clicking Account Info and then by clicking on the Edit Payment Information and updating it with a valid address, I suggest you search Google Maps for a valid address, or just use a restaurant’s address that are situated in the US.

You will also need the correct telephone number, or at least the area code must match the location of the address you chose, but this can all be obtained through Google Maps.

QR Codes are one of the most used 2D barcode platforms in the world, first used in Japan in 1994 the barcode platform has seen significant usage specially in countries like Japan and South Korea.

Initially used for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing the technology has since made its way into marketing with allot of companies running ad campaigns with these QR Codes in them.

South African uptake has been slow but it seems more and more local companies are starting to make use of QR codes in their advertising campaigns, the latest to do so is Soft Drink giant Coca Cola, Woolworth also recently ran a window promotion using QR Codes, but it’s not only the big guys making use of the technology, smaller businesses like iThemba Computers for example are also making use of them in their flyers and advertisements.

How QR Codes work is by embedding links or text inside a series black squares and then users can use their cellphone with a barcode reader app to translate the barcode and show them either the webpage or text embeded inside the barcode which either gives users more details about the promotion of could provide discount through coupon codes.

What are your favourite local QR Code campaigns?

South Africans are really starting to see that social and mobile gaming are hotting up, and latest company to release a mobile game is Naspers owned MIHSwat in Cape Town.

MIHSwat has released their new iPhone game called Naval Strike, Naval Strike is based on the popular Battle Ship game where you strategically place you fleet of boats and then on turn based against your opponent try to bomb their ships. The player that bombs all their opponents ships first are declared the winner.

Naval Strike adds some nice addition to the classic Battle Ship game by introducing multiplayer functionality through bluetooth or via Game Center.

You can grab the Naval Strike iPhone App from iTunes for free or for more information about the game and how it works check out http://www.mihswat.com/naval-strike-iphone-app/