internet

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has issued a discussion document aimed at implementing a regulatory framework for Internet protocol television (IPTV).

Steven Ambrose, an analyst at World Wide Worx, says the IPTV could be a nonstarter until there is broadband access and also fibre to homes and gated areas.

“Few people in South Africa have access to high-speed Internet at home. The current high-speed Internet service is not good enough for IPTV. There should be uncapped bandwidth for IPTV,” explains Ambrose.

Aid workers, with the help of Google Earth, are uploading key information onto the web to illustrate the needs of hundreds of thousands of people left homeless by Haiti's earthquake.

The innovation, which could significantly boost the ability to respond to future disasters, can enable the United Nations and non-governmental aid officials can log onto Google Earth from makeshift settlements housing more than 600 000 people in Haiti.

It can also provide real-time details about the population and its global positioning.

Google has launched a new beta version of its Chrome browser, and Opera has launched the latest version of its Opera browser.

Google's Engineering director in Munich, Wieland Holfelder, points out that, "With the new release, we also give users even more choice and control over their own privacy while surfing the web."

Microsoft and Yahoo have received clearance from regulators in Washington and Europe to proceed with a search partnership intended to challenge Google.

The two companies announced that the partnership had been approved without restrictions by the US Justice Department and the European Commission.

Under the 10-year agreement, Microsoft's Bing search engine will process search requests and steer search-related advertisements on Yahoo.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF), in partnership with the Visual History Archive (VHA), has launched a free online archival portal to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of former president, Nelson Mandela.

The ‘Nelson Mandela 20 years of freedom’ website involves the integration of documents, photographs and audio-visual material related to Mandela’s release and allows users to explore the spatial and temporal relationships between items.

South African users of Google email service Gmail can expect to be part of the international roll-out of ‘Buzz’, the Internet giant's social networking application.

Google's Hugo Barra, director of product management for mobile, says that, "We'll be rolling out ‘Buzz’ in about a week and we're doing it carefully so we don't take down Gmail."

World Wide Worx says the number of South African Internet users has passed five million for the first time, representing a 10 percent Internet penetration for the country.

The report entitled ‘The Internet Access in South Africa 2010’, conducted by World Wide Worx and jointly sponsored by Cisco, has found that the Internet user base grew by 15 percent in 2009, from 4.6 million to 5.3 million, and is expected to grow at a similar rate in 2010.