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?

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?

Wired has reported that gaming company Activision will be closing down their music game division that was responsible for the Guitar Hero games.

Activision said that the decline of the genre, plus the high cost of licensing music and producing the games, led it to close the business.

“There was nothing that Activision or anybody could have done to save Guitar Hero,” said Jesse Divnich, vice president of analyst services for Electronic Entertainment Design and Research, in an interview with Wired.com. Divnich said that Activision realizes the “opportunity cost” of continuing to make Hero games when it could instead be putting those resources towards more profitable games.

I for one was a big fan of Guitar Hero, almost having all the title so this comes as really sad news to me. Luckily we still have Rock Band to help us live the dream of being a rock star, also with Kinect now being popular I think we will see more music games heading over to the motion controller platform, although it won’t beat jamming away on a mini guitar or drum kit.

Some of you may remember that a while back I wrote about the consistent errors Amatomu is giving allot of us. Well after I wanted to rant again yesterday about how I now get greeted with the silly database error everytime I visit the site, I have seen that Amatomu finnaly confessed.

After visiting Amatomu just a while ago, the smerky database error page that made you the end user thought that you broke the site has now been replaced with a message stating that amatomu has reached its end at the Mail & Gardian.

Firstly, apologies for not communicating sooner about the site’s downtime. We were hoping to fix it sooner.

Amatomu has become too expensive for us to maintain and run, as it brings very little revenue, and bears a prohibitive cost for a company whose main product is news.

However, it’s obviously a great little product, and one that deserves to survive. To this end, we’ve offered it to a couple of interested parties. If we have no joy there, we’ll be offering it to the community to run as a community-based service.

Please bear with us as we fix it, and as we go through the process of transferring ownership. We will have clarity within the next five days.

Jason

Technical Manager

Mail & Guardian

Good luck to whoever buys Amatomu, I personaly think that it is a great service and can be changed to become profitable, specialy since there is so much interest in the site. Take Afrigator as an example, surely they are not running their blog aggregator at a los. I will be a firm supporter of Amatomu as soon as all the bugs get ironed out again and is stable enough.

Maybe a few of us web junkies should try and further Amatomu as a Community Project.