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[YEAR IN REVIEW] What happened in March 2014?

Between Oscar and the elections there wasn’t an awful lot of room for tech headlines in March. But we found some none-the-less.

March was fairly uneventful in terms of new announcements and tech coming into the scene. However, conversations around public events kept may people glued to Twitter and the news to keep track of scandals like the Oscar Pistorius trial and the release of the Nkandla report.

The Oscar Pistorius Trial

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Millions of people around the world turned to TV, social media and live streaming to watch the start of the trial of fallen sports star Oscar Pistorius. The trial was widely considered to be the biggest involving a sportsperson since the OJ Simpson trial in the 1990s because of the similarities around the two cases. South African viewers followed proceddings and were kept glued to their screens on special channels dedicated to the trial on DStv, OpenView HD and eNCA.

The Oscar selfie that became the world’s most retweeted tweet

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A star-studded selfie including celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres, Bradley Cooper, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Lupita N’Yongo and Angelina Jolie, among others, taken at this year’s Oscars and posted on DeGeneres’ Twitter account smashed the record set for the most retweeted tweet set by President Barack Obama in 2012.

Bitcoin, I am your father

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US journalist Leah McGrath introduced the world to a man named Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency, who reportedly never wanted his claim to fame to be known in the first place, leaving many people with doubts about whether he really is the “father of Bitcoin”.

Hello, Tech Made Easy

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March was fairly uneventful in terms of new announcements and tech coming into the scene. However, conversations around public events kept may people glued to Twitter and the news to keep track of scandals like the Oscar Pistorius trial and the release of the Nkandla report.

Galaxy S4-powered robot breaks Rubik’s Cube world record

The Cubestormer 3, a LEGO robot with an octa-core ARM powered Samsung Galaxy S4, beat the previous Rubik’sCube solving record set by the Cubestormer 2, taking a mere 3.253 seconds to solve the cube.

Standard Bank gets #appy

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Standard Bank went back to the drawing board, made a few tweaks and re-launched its banking apps for iOS and Android tablets. including new features such as the ability to see both on-shore and off-shore investments and new personal finance management features that allows for, what Standard Bank called, “impulse saving”.

Google unveils Android Wear

Google’s launched its much-anticipated Android Wear software created for all Android-powered wearables such as the Moto 360 smart watch.

Political manifestos showdown

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As election day drew closer, South Africa’s political continued to battle it out when the released their party manifestos, detailing its promises and plans, should they be voted in as the ruling party. We managed to skim through the official documents and find out what each party promised for science and technology in the country.

Xbox South African release date announced

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Xbox fans in South African learnt that they would be one of 26 countries able to get their hands on Microsoft’s gaming console in September.

Six million PS4 sold

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Speaking of gaming consoles, Sony announced that the PS4 had officially sold over six million units worldwide since launch, one million more than their fiscal year-end target of five million sales.

Nkandla report released

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South Africa waited in suspense as public protector Thuli Madonsela held a live press conference to reveal the findings of her more than 400 page report on the Nkandla scandal involving president Jacob Zuma. The report was made available for public access on the public protector’s website.

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