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Port Elizabeth - Forget about SMSs. MXit is driving parents, teachers and school principals around the bend.

This cellphone chat programme, which is similar to chat rooms on the internet, is a cheap way of communicating with friends and family at a cost of only two cents a call.

MXit is available free of charge and is loaded onto cellphones via WAP settings.

According to parents and teachers, it is causing a communication nightmare.

Lucy Davids, mother of 16-year-old twins Shané and Sadé, two weeks ago confiscated her daughters' cellphones and locked them in her sister's safe.

"The twins did poorly in the June exams and I think MXit played a huge role," she said.

She said her daughters spent hardly 10 minutes a day with the rest of the family before disappearing to their room to mix with their contacts.

'I had to put my foot down'

"MXit might be innocent, but their schoolwork comes first. I had to put my foot down," she said.

Another worried parent said she also had to confiscate her son's phone.

"My 18-year-old son didn't sleep anymore. I was very worried, as it caused friction between him and my husband. We as parents don't understand what MXit is," she said.

Elton Alexander, 22, who uses MXit, admitted that the programme had taken over the lives of young people.

"My sister mixes day and night. Many children give their personal information to strangers in chatrooms on MXit.

"They are not careful and it can cause a lot of trouble."

Schoolwork is suffering

A teacher at the Greenpoint senior secondary school in East London said she didn't allow cellphones in the classroom anymore.

"Their schoolwork is suffering. They are not concentrating, they just sit there in a world of their own."

Maria de Jager, a teacher at AW Barnes primary school in East London, agreed.

"There is communication breakdown and the children are not concentrating on their studies.

"The children are also becoming very secretive."

MXit was introduced a year ago and has spread like wildfire among adults and youths.

Since then about 1.8m people have joined and this number is increasing daily.

Cellphones in schools

Donald Smiles, DA spokesperson for education in the Eastern Cape, asked Mkhangeli Matomela, MEC for education, in the legislature whether the education department had a plan to stop the abuse of cellphones in schools.

"It is worrying that pupils chat (MXit) during school time, because it takes up their academic time," said Smiles.

News source: www.news24.co.za

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Johannesburg - Despite Mango Airlines' claims that it has "ironed out booking glitches", would-be passengers trying to book themselves cheap air tickets ahead of the festive season are being frustrated by jammed call centres and an inaccessible website.

The claim was contained in a statement released to I-Net Bridge on Wednesday and run on this site on Thursday.

Fin24 has also been trying to make a booking since 08:00 on Thursday, without success.

Contacted for clarification, Hein Kaiser of PR company Marcus Brewster and speaking on behalf of Mango, said: "We told one hundred percent truth and just the truth." That was before Fin24 even put the first question to him.

No need for contact

Kaiser said the bandwidth had been increased four times and that "now things seem to be going better".

When Fin24 read some of the readers' comments to Kaiser, he asked that it be forward to him so they "could be contacted and shown where they would get help from".

Fin24 put it to him that if "things were going better" there would be no need to "contact" anybody.

Kaiser on Tuesday told Fin24 that the call centre was staffed with 130 people and that bandwidth would be increased by 23:00 that night. His statement on Wednesday vaguely claims capacity to the website has been "substantially beefed up and its call centre staff increased", without giving the actual numbers.

Green mango screen

Some would-be Mango passengers angrily contacted Fin24 questioning the validity of the story (Mango irons out booking glitches).

One reader wrote: "I tried to connect but I only get a mango green screen, so much for them upgrading their capacity to process payments if you cannot even get onto the site. Someone should explain to them how network load balancing would increase their web uptime..."

Another said "it is not true that mango has ironed out booking glitches. I have been trying since 08:00 yesterday (Wednesday) and most of the night and again this morning (Thursday). Their website falls over and their call centre is always engaged. I guess you cannot expect any better from a company that is owned by SAA. SAA has never been able to offer decent customer service all these years anyway so their offspring will be the same."

Another would-be passenger simply wrote - "It still ain't flying".

News source: www.news24.co.za

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Destination Clubs are the fastest growing segment of the luxury travel market. From jet setters to baby boomers, affluent households are increasingly buying into Destination Clubs as their primary holiday option. Fractional ownership expert S'bu Mngadi covers this aspect of fractional ownership in today's column.

High net worth families are drawn to the benefits of Destination Club membership as a cost-effective alternative to luxury hotels, villa rentals, and second home ownership. Destination Clubs secure top-end luxury holiday living at leisure properties, without the hassle of running the residence and offer a blend of privacy and intimacy well suited to families travelling with friends or children.

Manager of the Registry Collection® in Africa, Rob Kröger, says: "Owning a magnificent holiday residence in a luxury resort offering the sea, bush or golfing experience is a rising demand among the wealthy in South Africa. However, full ownership can be time-consuming, with the result that South Africans are adopting the US concept of buying into Destination Clubs."

In essence, members of a Destination Club share a portfolio of upmarket fully furnished, multi-bedroom homes. And depending on where the club's properties are located, members could find themselves holidaying locally or internationally. Be it a beach, mountain or city residence, members can schedule their holiday, paying an upfront deposit and annual dues for exclusive access and five-star service.

Adding to this, Kroger says: "Members buy their four-weeks of leisure time in a Destination Club which allows them to holiday at any one of the Club's properties at a time that is agreed to in terms of the Club's rules. This means that each member accesses high season weeks on a rotating basis. The rotation schedule usually runs for three-years before reverting to year one's dates.

"Destination Clubs differ from fractional developments and Private Residence Clubs (PRCs) in that clubs offer members more than one destination, which means the purchaser has more choice in annual holidays. Moreover, if the Destination Club is affiliated to The Registry Collection® the club can offer its members the opportunity to exchange their weeks for time at any one of its 110 top international destinations or to a network of 140 luxury villas and châteauxs in France and Italy."

In South Africa, there are three such Clubs – Legacy Private Residencies, Platinum Private Residences of the World, and Stonebridge Leisure Group.

"Destination Clubs are exclusive with limited membership, and because 20% of the stock is set aside as a buffer reserved for maintenance and exchanges, being able to utilise holiday time is guaranteed. Added services, run by professional hospitality operators, include a concierge, butler, full service, chauffeur, airport transfers, or other personalised services to complete that indefinable feeling of sumptuousness," adds Kroger.

Recognised property developers build or develop luxury furnished apartments, which can be stand-alone or within a resort or hotel. A once-off outlay of between R300 000 - R 600 000 provides life membership in a magnificent holiday residence. A management company looks after the owners' interests from maintenance and insurance to bookings and guest services. Annual levies of between R10 000 - R16 000, which usually increase at the CPI rate, ensure that the quality remains at the zenith of owner's expectations.

"The industry is still in its infancy and business models are constantly evolving. Currently in SA equity and non-equity models of ownership are available. Locally, the ROI is not only calculated on the rise of property values but also on the escalating costs of top-end holidays at equally luxurious resorts, and at 2006 hotel rates, membership pays itself off in five-to-eight-years. An added benefit is that this Club membership can be used by family, friends or business colleagues, is transferable and can be bequeathed.

"As consumer awareness increase, the Destination Club model will attract a significant share of the holiday budget of the affluent household, of that we are certain," concludes Kroger.

News source: www.news24.co.za

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Edinburgh, Scotland - The rise of the internet is as revolutionary as the invention of the printing press, a senior Google Inc executive said on Saturday - but old media like television should not fear it.

Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products and user experience, told an audience at the Edinburgh International Television Festival that the internet innovator was television's friend, not its rival.

"We're computer scientists," she said. "We're not brilliant storytellers or content creators."

Many in the television industry fear the inexorable growth of Google, and the internet in general, will spell the end of traditional media like television.

Producers have looked with particular alarm at the rapid rise of user-generated video. Stunts, spoofs and other clips posted on video-sharing sites like YouTube or Google Video can attract millions of viewers - viewers who might otherwise be watching television.

User-generated content has spread to television through stations like MTV Flux, which broadcasts viewer-selected and viewer-created video clips.

Mayer said Google had failed to foresee the huge popularity of user-generated content - its original model for online video emphasised "premium content" which viewers would pay a small fee to access. The success of YouTube over the past year - rapidly eclipsing Google Video in popularity - took many by surprise.

User empowerment

Mayer said the growth of Google and the internet were both user-driven - and that's what makes them so revolutionary.

"There is a huge amount of user empowerment," Mayer said.

"I think we are seeing something that is the equivalent of the printing press in our day and age."

But she said that did not mean the end of traditional storytelling and information-sharing through television. Mayer said Google saw the two media as complementary.

"I don't think what is happening online will replace what is happening offline," she said.

"I think both the offline and the online media will continue to have very successful, rich user experiences for some time.

"On the whole, I think the experience of using a television and using the internet are so different ... there are social reasons that will cause both mediums to survive."

Both, she said, had a common interest in finding ways to convert the popularity of online video into revenue.

Mayer said the challenge for television-makers was to take their content to new, and rapidly evolving, delivery formats - and Google wants to be "one of the players providing that platform".

News source: www.news24.co.za

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Johannesburg - On Survivor South Africa: Panama, the power struggle is becoming intense as tribe members are beginning to make room for the final few.

On Sunday night, the latest person to be voted off was Mzi Tyhokolo, the food provider.

According to the M-Net publicity team, Mzi left the island after one of the most-moving tribal councils to date.

While the majority of Burba members might come from the former Rana tribe, there was fervent disagreement about who should be voted off next.

The guys wanted to get rid of Vanessa; but the girls chose Mzi - and got their way.

First, an emotional Zayn broke down, explaining to host Mark Bayly that he felt "like a Judas", but that he would stick to previous promises made and thus not "vote with his heart".

Then a teary-eyed Vanessa, in a last resort to save Mzi's life on the island, asked if she could lay down her torch.

Four ballots against

Mark Bayly told Vanessa such a move would be followed by another vote and that she would thereby eliminate two members from the game, which made her change her mind.

Finally, Mzi got four ballots against his name, while Lezel received two votes - from Mzi and Vanessa.

Even though Gareth told Mzi that he would note vote for him, and Zayn thought it would be more honourable to keep a stronger player in the game, they were swayed by the possibility of a three-way split, which could make them lose a former Rana member.

That would have happened if Mzi and Vanessa voted for Lezel, the guys for Vanessa and the girls for Mzi.

The tribe, of course, don't know this, but Mzi will now secretly join Brigitte on Dead Man's Island and, at an opportune time in the future, they will get the opportunity to fight their way back into the game.

Bayly revealed this week that two outcasts from Dead Man's Island will be brought back later to have a final crack at the one million rand.

For the second week in a row, Gareth clinched the immunity challenge.

Next week, there's turmoil at camp Burba, as the gender fight continues and Vanessa gets fed-up with the rest.

News source: www.news24.co.za

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