Author: Staff Writer

Pick n Pay’s Smart Shopper loyalty programme continues to grow beyond its 9 million membership base, and increased participation has seen the total of unredeemed points climb to R245 million. This is up from R200-million in unredeemed points the retailer reported a few months ago, and says this is because more customers are swiping their cards more often to get savings. “Increased popularity means we now have more Smart Shoppers than ever before,” says Andrew Mills, Group Executive: Marketing at Pick n Pay. “For 10 years, customers have enjoyed the benefits of our loyalty programme but it is evident that…

Collective Benefits, an insurance and benefits marketplace for independent workers, today announced a $10 million or R154 million investment from Prosus Ventures, the venture investing arm of Prosus, one of the largest technology investors in the world. Collective Benefits offers much-needed insurance and benefits for independent workers across sectors. This includes sick pay, accident and injury insurance, wellness, financial and education support, as well as a perks marketplace. This new funding will allow Collective Benefits to expand its suite of products and services for independent workers, as well as continue to expand its presence as the market leader across Europe…

The countdown to summer is here. As the weather heats up, so does the chance of winning a share of R250 million worth of cash and prizes, plus a share of 1 Billion VodaBucks with the launch of Vodacom’s UnlockSummer campaign! 2021 has been a challenging year for South Africans, filled with difficulties in the wake  of the COVID-19 pandemic. Which is why Vodacom has upped the ante this summer to give back to its loyal customers, who stand a chance of unlocking prizes like one of three Kia Rio cars, one of 50 Honda Ace Scooters, Huawei laptops, grocery…

Facebook announced today that it is shutting down face recognition as part of a company-wide move to limit the use of facial recognition in its products. This change will represent one of the largest shifts in facial recognition usage in the technology’s history. “More than a third of Facebook’s daily active users have opted in to our Face Recognition setting and are able to be recognized, and its removal will result in the deletion of more than a billion people’s individual facial recognition templates,” said Jerome Pesenti, VP of Artificial Intelligence at Facebook. Making this change required careful consideration, because…

Streaming service giant Netflix announced Tuesday that it is taking first steps in launching games on mobile to the world. Starting today, members everywhere can play five mobile games: Stranger Things: 1984 (BonusXP), Stranger Things 3: The Game (BonusXP), Shooting Hoops (Frosty Pop), Card Blast (Amuzo & Rogue Games), and Teeter Up (Frosty Pop).  “Whether you’re craving a casual game you can start from scratch or an immersive experience that lets you dig deeper into your favorite stories, we want to begin to build a library of games that offers something for everyone,” said Mike Verdu, Netflix  VP, Game Development. “We’re in the early days of creating…

The shifting demands of electricity consumption, driven by the need to balance growing consumption with long-term environmental sustainability necessitates a rethink of how and from where we consume electricity. The importance of this rethink was underlined by the speakers at Huawei’s Digital Power summit in Johannesburg, attended by key delegates in the country’s energy sector. “Electricity drives economies, facilitates development and enriches our lives. But, in South Africa we have two issues that we need to solve when it comes to energy. First is the worsening loadshedding situation. And, the second is the rising cost of electricity,” said Huawei Southern…

Over the past two years, the oil and gas sector has faced immense challenges. The collapse in demand and price thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and the growing imperative for environmental and climate sustainability in particular have underlined how much the sector needs to change if it is to survive and thrive going forward. That was among the key takeaways from Huawei Connect’s Intelligent Oil and Gas Summit, which took place virtually last week. “Global organisations are facing systemic challenges,” said David Sun, Vice President of Huawei Enterprise BG and President of the Global Energy Business Unit, Huawei. These challenges,…

BT and OneWeb have agreed terms for a new Distribution Partner Agreement, with OneWeb to provide Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communication services across BT Group. This builds on an initial Memorandum of Understanding signed in July and means BT is testing how LEO satellite technology integrates with its existing terrestrial capabilities to meet the communications needs of customers. On successful completion, BT will commence the first live trials with customers from early next year. “The agreement between OneWeb and BT will help bring fast and reliable global connectivity, from the Highlands to the Himalayas,” Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries said.…

South Africa’s mining industry has made substantial progress in its journey towards digital transformation in the last decade, but to truly shift the mining sector into the Fourth Industrial Revolution, partnership and collaboration will be key. The role of collaboration in driving mining modernisation was explored by esteemed industry delegates at Huawei’s Mining Summit in Johannesburg on 28 October 2021. “Innovation doesn’t happen in a siloed space. It’s enabled by collaboration. It’s facilitated when people talk to one another and when they share ideas with one another. And, that’s why we have built and strengthened our partnerships with partners like…

Cisco and Makwa-IT have today come together to tackle the grassroot development challenges faced in South Africa through the announcement of their support of the Wot-if? Trust who manage and initiate a number of programmes and projects based on expressed community needs with a focus on CSI, Socio-Economic, Enterprise and Supplier Development programmes in Diepsloot. At a launch event at the Wot-if? premises, the program will see Makwa-IT donating resources to deploy networking technologies to the non-profit organisation (NPO), which will help them realise significant gains in productivity, scalability, and cost-efficiency, exclusively using Cisco solutions. Wot-if? enables platforms, programs and…