Some say its justice, some call it irony, whatever the case may be, a bug in the world’s largest social network caused some privacy concerns among Facebook users.

A technical bug in the Facebook inappropriate photo reporting tool, caused private photos of users to be visible to non friends. The bug allowed you to click on a profile picture of any user to report it and then brought up a screen displaying other private non public shared photos the user could browse through to report as well.

The bug meant that users could access other users’ private photos even though they were set to private. CEO and founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, was used to demonstrate the exploit and caused many of his private photographs leaked to the internet. These photos included photos of him and his long time girlfriend, his dog, him and Barack Obama and even photos of him holding up a just slaughtered chicken.

Facebook has since responded with the following statement:

“Earlier today, we discovered a bug in one of our reporting flows that allows people to report multiple instances of inappropriate content simultaneously. The bug allowed anyone to view a limited number of another user’s most recently uploaded photos irrespective of the privacy settings for these photos. This was the result of one of our recent code pushes and was live for a limited period of time.

“Upon discovering the bug, we immediately disabled the system, and will only return functionality once we can confirm the bug has been fixed.”

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.

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?

Popular local blog advertising network AdGator has closed it doors.

For long Adgator has helped the local blogging community make some money at what they do best, but all good things must come to an end. Yesterday the Afrigator team announced the termination of the Adgator service.

In the statement the Afrigator team only says that Adgator is no longer a viable business, but I tend to disagree. My personal opinion with regards to the reason why Adgator has closed down it because there was no time and effort put into the project.

As for what will be happening with the framework, I hope the guys will either sell it off or give it to someone that are willing to put effort into running such a service. I feel with the right amount of effort and time dedicated to such a project it can be a huge success.

To Justin and the guys, thanks for helping us make an extra buck every month and I believe not just me but every blogger out there are sad to hear about the closing down of Adgator. Good luck with your other ventures.

If you still have some cash left in your Adgator account you can log in here and generate an invoice.

Red Bull MOBILE is expanding their product range by adding new data products to their range.

Red Bull MOBILE has introduced two new data offerings, and through their partnership with Cell C the company is able to give their customers a great all round internet experience.

The new Red Bull MOBILE data offerings operate through Cell C’s HSPA+ network ensuring that customers will always get an enhanced internet experience. The data offerings will be bundled with customised Red Bull MOBILE USB Data Stick and will also have a custom designed user interface manager with some Red Bull flavour to it.

The Red Bull MOBILE data offerings comes available in two varieties, one on a 24 month contract and the other on a once-off package.

The 24 month contract option will cost you R249 per month and will give you 3GB of data every month and a 21Mbps capable Red Bull MOBILE branded Huawei E367 USB Data Stick, out of bundle rates are 39c per MB

The once-off data option will give you access to 6GB total of data that you can use at your own discretion and a Huawei E367 USB Data Stick, this will cost you R1499 once-off.

In addition to the new Red Bull MOBILE data offerings, the company has also introduced new top-up contracts and added the LG Optimus Android smartphone to their RMB 200 package.

For more information about the new Red Bull MOBILE products visit www.redbullMOBILE.co.za

Since the acquisition of local group buying startup Twangoo by Groupon, the local group buying scene has grown at a tremendous rate with new sites popping up each month.

Currently South Africans have access to almost 30 group buying coupon sites, with everyone from celebrities, newspaper companies to airlines trying to get a piece of the pie. However for the consumer all these group buying sites can be a nightmare, cause signing up to 30 sites could get your inbox spammed severely every day and having to visit each site could take up some time.

This is where the group buying aggregators comes into play, South Africa currently has 6 group buying deal aggregators operating and what they do is collect all the deals from all the different group buying sites and display them in one central place. But how are they making money doing this? Affiliates.

Some of these group buying sites mask links and then redirect you to the deals with their affiliate links on, I see nothing wrong with that as it costs money and allot of effort to operate a site, but according to some of the group buying sites they aggregate’s terms of use, this may be illegal.

Quoting the following point from the Groupon API TOS Non-Permitted Purposes; API Restrictions: “use the API to aggregate, consolidate or otherwise arrange, display or make available Groupon Content in combination with any third party or any Groupon competitors’ content, for any commercial purpose or in any manner that Groupon determines could diminish the value or integrity of its business or brand;”

What this basically say is that you may not aggregate Groupon deals, and you may not display it in combination with other competitors (other group buying sites) deals. And currently all the local group buying aggregators are doing this.

My question is did any of these aggregators read through the different group buying sites terms of use? And do you think its fair to have statements like that in your terms of use? I mean these aggregators are really doing these group buying sites a favour by promoting their deals.

I for one welcome these aggregators as it makes my task easy in finding great deals on a daily basis.

Check out the following group buying deal aggregators:
AllDeals
Today’s Deals
Deal Checker
DealSpade
Yadda
Deal Africa
DealTracker
DealZone

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?