On the eve of the World Cup 2010 kickoff in South Africa Leo Laporte and I discussed technology at the tournament and how South Africa has been upgraded for the biggest event in human history. We talked about 3D television, stadium bandwidth, Google StreetView, social media and gigapixel image technology, amongst other things. Check out the video above for our full discussion.

CNN says the app is part of its ‘My South Africa’ brand campaign that was launched two years ago to raise the profile of South Africa to business and leisure travellers in the lead up to World Cup 2010.

The app allows users to view South African city guides, maps, travel tips and World Cup information and view photographs, send messages to friends, find weather and financial information and a range of other things. It’s clearly geared for tourists but should be useful for local users too.

Rani R Raad, senior vice president for advertising sales at CNN International said that the release of the app signified a change in how CNN engages with advertisers and their audience.

“As an in-house commercial team, it’s great to be able to take on the most creative of agencies and capitalise on harnessing the My South Africa concept into a highly relevant application around the biggest football event in the world. We look forward to seeing this App take the brand engagement potential to new heights,” said Raad.

William Prince, global manager of e-marketing for South African Tourism said, “This new iPhone application allows South African Tourism  to offer rich, engaging content that is very specific to the users and presented in a new and dynamic way. The content is fresh, accurate and appropriate for those traveling to South Africa for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, and allows the users to share all their stories and experiences straight from the iPhone.”

“The City Guide, the FIFA information and all of the additional functionality that the application offers, takes our brand to a whole new level. We’re very pleased and excited about the opportunity to do this with CNN Ad Sales and to extend the campaign into the pockets of our consumers,” he added.

The CNN iPhone app was created in conjunction with Turner Commercial Productions and Creative Spark Interactive in South Africa.

The app is linked to the My South Africa website, where there is a link to the free download.

Sitting back and reflecting over the past two years makes me realise how lucky we are to have enjoyed the support that we have from our families, friends and fans. The show owes its survival to the support of a group of the most awesome people I’ve met – but more about them later.

Since we intend to broadcast every one of our shows live from now on we are committed to starting on time at our usual 4pm (UTC+2) slot every Friday. This is not an ideal time, but is the only point at which we can get most of our regular panel together. We are looking at other potential broadcast slots and might announce a scheduling change soon.

On the technical side we had to work on a shoestring budget as the podcast is yet to make any profit. We’re planning to change that soon, and the intention was always to grow this slowly and make it scalable for when the economies of the local market align with our vision for broadcasting online in it.

That in mind, we chose to broadcast the audio-only version of the show using an Icecast server that runs out of the data centre of our bandwidth sponsors, Internet Solutions.

Icecast is an awesome piece of software and ideal for our needs, providing a standardised stream that is widely supported and enables us to cater for thousands of concurrent listeners while providing the audio on local (South African) bandwidth.

To get the audio from our “studio” to the Icecast server we use an excellent piece of software from Rogue Amoeba called Nicecast. I’m a big fan of Rogue Amoeba’s software in general, and we use Audio Hijack Pro to do complex recordings of the show that require Skype calls to be supported.

Using Nicecast in conjunction with Audio Hijack Pro also has the advantage of us being able to stream and record audio on the same computer. And by now you would probably have realised that we run Macs end-to-end in our makeshift studio, although we will likely use a PC to drive our video setup in the future and we are experimenting with software solutions for live video mixing since we can’t afford to get something like a Tricaster just yet.

The rest of our setup is standard stuff. We use Shure microphones and a simple 8-channel Behringer mixer. Our live video is streamed using Ustream and the built-in webcam on a Mabook Pro. This suffices given the limit on bandwidth that we face, both for our upstream and the average downstream of our viewers. The audio for the video stream is provided from our main mixer, allowing us to bring in Skype callers.

So video is on international bandwidth and audio on local, which we feel is a good enough solution for now.

The first broadcast went relatively well and raised some good ideas for how we could make it better in the future.

We also have some new office and studio space, thanks to the awesomeness of Don Packett and Richard Mulholland at Thunk! Perspective Lab, and we will be kitting this out over the next few weeks using clever tech to get around our tiny budget.

We made fun of that fact that we don’t have a studio at the moment by packing heaps of boxes around an old coffee table that we broadcast from last Friday, pretending that we were at Brett’s mom’s house, in her storeroom. Apparently some of live viewers took us seriously on that.

The ZA Tech Show started as a group of technology journalists drinking beer and talking about technology on a Friday afternoon and we plan to keep it that way, preserving the camaraderie and raw, honest discussion that has made the show as popular as it is.

We believe that the future holds big things for the show and we look forward to sharing that with our listeners, and now viewers, live =)

Brett Haggard, Ben Kelly, Duncan McLeod and Jon Tullett are the crazy f*#kers that started this thing with me and it was great to have them all back on the show for episode 100. Since then Toby Shapshak has become a regular on the show and deserves a special mention.

Since starting the show we’ve also added Candice Jones, Samantha Perry and Aki Anastasiou to our list of occasional guests, along with Will Hahn who dials in from the USA every now and then and who has offered us amazing support.

Mark Shuttleworth, Stafford Masie, Mike Stopforth, Dwayne Bailey, Saul Kropman and other guests have appeared on the show over the last two years and added massive value for our listeners. And, away from the mic, we’ve been blown away by the awesomeness of the guys at Thunk! (mentioned above), Emerging Media Communications, Lenovo, Tribeca, Puruma, Text 100, Microsoft, Nokia and other companies that have come out in support of the podcast in various ways.

We also owe a serious debt of gratitude to the guys at Internet Solutions who have offered amazing support and who sponsor our local bandwidth. Jason Bronkhorst and Charl Malherbe at Infiltrate Media have also been legendary and designed both the ZA Tech Show and ZA Car Show logos.

I’d also like to thank our friends at the TWiT Network in Petaluma CA, especially Dane Golden and Leo Laporte who I consider mentors in the game of online broadcasting. Without knowing it they’ve provided inspiration and know-how for our show via their online knowledge-base and, more recently, they allowed us to broadcast over their wildly popular channel from the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Finally, I must thank my business partner and friend Craig Rodney who glues this whole thing together from a business perspective.

It’s been a wild ride and it ain’t over yet. Here’s to the next 100!

When Apple announced the iPad in January I watched live coverage of the event on my favourite online channel – TWiT. Presenter Leo Laporte and a group of US-based journalists did a better job of covering the occasion via online streaming video than any of the conventional news channels. It was raw, on-demand journalism and a clear indication of things to come.

Watching the stream in South Africa was painful at first. The standard quality stream from TWiT requires 1000Kbps for smooth viewing, and while my Telkom 4Mpbs ADSL line is capable of four times the minimum requirement I still had to switch to a 400Kbps stream to avoid buffering delays.

My ADSL line is also not the norm in South Africa where most people have to contend with choppy wireless connectivity or slower DSL speeds starting at 384kbps. At those speeds, and with the latency and packet loss of wireless, accessing Youtube is a challenge, never mind streaming live video. Whereas in most of the developed world a 1000kbps stream is peanuts – you could watch it smoothly while running bitorrent and speaking to your mother on Skype.

So while South Africa sits in the dark ages, so to speak, the rest of the world forges ahead, binging on online video. In the USA users stream movies via Netflix on their Xboxes and other devices, or watch television on online services like Hulu. Youtube now accommodates high definition video, and if you live in South Korea or Sweden you’ll be able to watch those massive, high resolution files without any buffering.

For most South Africans even a short, low resolution video file requires minutes of buffering before it can be enjoyed without hiccups.

Local video services like Zoopy have gone someway to bringing us video services on local bandwidth – which does make a positive difference. What we need is more local content producers and aggregators to make services available domestically, and to fill the gap until our bandwidth catches up with the rest of the world. But even if we did have the equivalent of a local Netflix, it would still be challenging to watch a feature film over local bandwidth, because our domestic networks are an even bigger problem than the lack of international pipes.

In January I watched high definition video streaming wirelessly to a car connected via LTE in Paris – something I can’t do with my desktop computer at home. When you experience online video or IPTV in a developed country it makes you realise just how far behind the curve we are in South Africa.

This is especially sad given the possibilities that video holds for developing countries. Video bridges the gaps created by literacy and travel constraints, allowing teachers to show pupils things without the latter having to read. The teacher can also be anywhere in the world and the content can be prepared ahead of time. It isn’t the solution to the puzzle of education in Africa, but it could be a prominent part of it.

The light at the end of the tunnel is that we are making progress in the race to catch up with the globe when it comes to broadband – and perhaps even leapfrog most of the developed world when we get there.

At the moment, however, we are falling behind even our African counterparts, like Nigeria and Kenya where domestic networks and regulations are fast progressing to unlock international bandwidth in a meaningful way.

In South Africa we still face regulatory hurdles and a hybrid industry where old meets new in a unique way, and within a chaotic, deregulated market.

It’s going to take time for the dust to settle, the regulator to process the likes of local loop unbundling and spectrum allocation, and older networks to be consolidated with up-and-coming competitors. We also need the additional international capacity, and accompanying economies of scale that will come from undersea cables like WACS and Eassy, to bolster what has begun with Seacom.

It’s happening, but not fast enough for impatient geeks like me. In the meantime I’ll have to stick to more conventional means of obtaining video, and be thankful for my 4Mbps DSL connection, limited as it is.

The Daily Maverick and TechCentral are driven by content – everything else is secondary. And the content rocks. What was traditionally the domain of print is becoming embodied online with solid writing and quality photography being the staple of both these new online publications. Design is a secondary concern, unlike many other websites that use flashy layout as a disguise for slipshod content – not that there is anything wrong with the design of either The Daily Maverick or TechCentral.

And what separates these two sites from their chief competitors is that they are independent, not representative of or directly affiliated with print publications. Their content is developed for online first and foremost. And they aren’t blogs. They are online publications in the truest sense.

TechCentral is the brainchild of respected technology journalist Duncan McLeod, previously of the Financial Mail (FM). The site offers in-depth technology news focused on the South African market with multiple daily updates and a quality of journalism and writing that is rare on the ‘net.

Duncan is a master in his field and has attracted a diverse array of columnists and journalists to the TechCentral fold, including the controversial former CEO and founder of Vodacom Alan Knott-Craig, politician Patricia de Lille and internet executive Justin Spratt of Internet Solutions (IS). Lance Harris handles gaming content for the site and must be the most talented reviewer in the field. Lance can review even the most mundane of video games and have me hanging onto every word with sheer quality of prose.

The Daily Maverick, still in beta at time of writing, is the latest product from Branko Brkic, a seasoned publisher and entrepreneur who was responsible for Maverick magazine that unfortunately closed its doors last year. Maverick did not die, it formed a chrysalis to be reborn as the irreverent and intellectually sharp Daily Maverick, carrying the provocative slogan, “Still for people with brains and money”.

On the Mavrick’s roster of writers is former senior online editor at Reuters, Mark Allix along with Maverick stalwart Phillip de Wet  and Captain Controversial himself – Ivo Vegter, amongst others. The Daily Maverick presents the news right in your face. No holds barred, and nothing short of refreshing.

Whereas I used to consume online reportage and other writing in the same way I do newspapers – by glancing over headlines, blurbs and the odd paragraph – both The Daily Maverick and TechCentral have me actually reading again, and in a way that few print publications manage.

The Daily Maverick and TechCentral are pioneering a new form of publishing that makes their online counterparts look destitute. I applaud both Duncan McLeod and Branko Brkic on boldly risking it all on the ‘net and raising the bar on publishing. Period.

The media plays an integral role in any democratic society and media freedom is a right that many have devoted, and in some cases given, their lives for. It is vitally important that we celebrate and protect our media freedom while fighting for the freedom of the press in countries like Zimbabwe where the state has crippled the media.

World Press Freedom day is on 3 May and also doesn’t receive the attention it deserves, in my opinion. In South Africa we celebrate media freedom on 19 October in memory of Black Wednesday on the same day in 1977 when the apartheid government in South Africa banned publications The World , Pro Veritate and Weekend World along with 19 black-rights organisations.

As the media I think we need to get off our intellectual high horses and plan something big for Media Freedom Day in 2010. As thinking people who see media freedom as obvious in importance we tend to forget that the public is largely apathetic to rights that are taken for granted, such as media freedom. Perhaps we should introduce a practice that takes place on the day, or at least there should be a celebratory concert of some sort with the intention of keeping media freedom front of mind.

Let us remember the events of Black Wednesday with more energy in the future and ensure that media freedom in South Africa continues to be protected. More importantly, let’s use the occasion to do more to fight for media freedom in countries where the press is oppressed.

We have a year in which to plan for Media Freedom Day in 2010. I look forward to suggestions of what could be done to celebrate it more convincingly.

• Gartner Symposium.
• Microsoft TechEd – Windows 7, Live Mesh and all things MS.
• Screens and the rumoured Apple tablet.
• The Nikon S1000pj camera with built-in projector.
• The evolution of interfaces.
• Mobile broadband.
• Eric Schmid leaving the Apple board.

And more…

Grab the episode from the ZA Tech Show website, or subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

The correct answers were: touch, widgets, QWERTY, 32GB and Ovi Store. Anthony’s answers are good enough to take it. Enjoy your N97 dude =)

Thank you to everyone who entered. I wish I had something to give all of you.