SA’s brilliant tech innovations

some really cool tech innovations there.
 
Anyone who's used a pebble knows it's anything but brilliant.

A mate of mine that used one for his shop said it's the best device ever... for marketing real credit card machines :) He upgraded to a Capitec machine and it ended up being 1000x better to use, and even cheaper with the lower per-transaction charges.

And, why another "South Africans" article with no detail of Elon Musk? Last time I checked he had more innovation in his small toe than the rest of this list put together. Not that I take much time examining his toes. Not since the restraining order, anyway.
 
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elvis_presley said:
And, why another "South Africans" article with no mention of Elon Musk? Last time I checked he had more innovation in his small toe than the rest of this list put together. Not that I take much time examining his toes. Not since the restraining order, anyway.
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To be fair Elon Musk's innovations were made while he was out of the country unlike those listed in the article. I know there's something about PayPal in the article but it isn't specifically "discussed". I'm sure Musk sees himself first as an American anyway. He was only born here. Suppose Canonical is kind of in the same boat but Mark started in SA.
 
elvis_presley said:
And, why another "South Africans" article with no detail of Elon Musk? Last time I checked he had more innovation in his small toe than the rest of this list put together. Not that I take much time examining his toes. Not since the restraining order, anyway.
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First sentence: South Africa is known for producing excellent technology entrepreneurs, including Elon Musk, Mark Shuttleworth...
 
R13... said:
To be fair Elon Musk's innovations were made while he was out of the country unlike those listed in the article. I know there's something about PayPal in the article but it isn't specifically "discussed". I'm sure Musk sees himself first as an American anyway. He was only born here. Suppose Canonical is kind of in the same boat but Mark started in SA.
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Yeah, if you include Shuttleworth you have to include Musk IMO. Especially the Ubuntu phone, that's about as South African as a Huawei phone.
 
elvis_presley said:
Anyone who's used a pebble knows it's anything but brilliant.

A mate of mine that used one for his shop said it's the best device ever... for marketing real credit card machines :) He upgraded to a Capitec machine and it ended up being 1000x better to use, and even cheaper with the lower per-transaction charges.
Click to expand...
That's nice. I don't suppose he said much about why it's 1000x better to use? Now that would be useful info.


Second Ubuntu phone? I missed the first. Well I heard about it, I just never got to see it. Surprising considering the resources at Canonical's disposal.
 
elvis_presley said:
Yeah, if you include Shuttleworth you have to include Musk IMO. Especially the Ubuntu phone, that's about as South African as a Huawei phone.
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rpm said:
First sentence: South Africa is known for producing excellent technology entrepreneurs, including Elon Musk, Mark Shuttleworth...
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Come on guys ;)
We all know about Tesla and Spacex. Not so much about the tech in the article though.
 
Arietans said:
That's nice. I don't suppose he said much about why it's 1000x better to use? Now that would be useful info.
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The main gripe is the method used to input the PIN - every single time a customer has to use it, it has to be explained to them and it's SUPER clunky to use. More than one user thought my friend was trying to steal their credit card info with some dodgy app.

The pebble itself is badly engineered and top-heavy and wobbles around a lot - it killed my friend's headphone jack. After he complained they gave him one of the devices like in the article, and apart from being not at all innovative (it's literally a cheap phone + thumbzup stuffed in to a R10 shell) it has such atrocious battery life, it has to be kept on charger most its life - he can't take it to flea markets and stuff as it's guaranteed to run out of juice.

He's complained about other things over the months he had it, but that's what sprung to mind :) Oh, and the transaction fees are expensive compared to merchant machines from banks.

I don't have anything against Pebble, it's just that so many articles rave about how awesome it is but don't ever seem to have spoken to anyone that's had to use it in the real world. It's really only good for people with <R25k turnover a month that absolutely have to have a credit card machine.
 
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Hold on a minute ! "Ubuntu phone by Mark Shuttleworth" How can I get ubuntu on my Gobii, please help me?
 
The PaymentPebble is actually Martin Moshal...again.

KnowRoaming is amazing! It has made life so much easier for me.

LifeQ seem like they might become a success too
 
R13... said:
To be fair Elon Musk's innovations were made while he was out of the country unlike those listed in the article. I know there's something about PayPal in the article but it isn't specifically "discussed". I'm sure Musk sees himself first as an American anyway. He was only born here. Suppose Canonical is kind of in the same boat but Mark started in SA.
Click to expand...

Only born? Born, raised and educated
 
R13... said:
To be fair Elon Musk's innovations were made while he was out of the country unlike those listed in the article. I know there's something about PayPal in the article but it isn't specifically "discussed". I'm sure Musk sees himself first as an American anyway. He was only born here. Suppose Canonical is kind of in the same boat but Mark started in SA.
Click to expand...

Ubuntu phone is a Chinese phone with an OS created by a UK company (Canonical isn't South African). Apart from suing SARS over the money he took out the country, Shuttleworth hasn't been associated with South Africa for a looong time.
 
JStrike said:
KnowRoaming is amazing! It has made life so much easier for me.
Click to expand...

Hi, I've been looking for someone with experience of KnowRoaming.

Travelling to Eastern Europe in May and visiting 8 countries in 3 weeks. Local sims are just going to be too much hassle.

Have you had any issues with reception or billing? Anything else?

Thank you
 
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