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danie10@squeet.me
Danie

Google Maps will dodge South Africa’s crime hotspots: Sadly it is needed as tourists have been misdirected

A car with Google street map green and while colours, with a camera mounted on the roof. Behind it in the distance the sea can be seen.
Google Maps will avoid directing motorists through crime hotspots, Pretoria FM reports.

This comes after tourism minister Patricia de Lille and Google country director Alistair Mokoena signed a memorandum of understanding at Parliament on Monday.

Just this last week, a US tourist (thankfully without his family) was directed off the N2 freeway to avoid traffic congestion. The problem is he was directed into an area that is notorious for muggings and attacks. He was shot in the face (without any prior warning) and thankfully he is alive and well. But only a month or two ago, a UK doctor also took a wrong turn off the same freeway and was killed. Locals obviously avoid these off ramps if they can.

It should be noted that this recent case was with an iPhone and there is NO mention of what navigation app was actually used. Google has been the first to respond to take action, and I’ve raised this with Waze last week (still no reply). There is a fair chance it was actually Apple Maps being used, but we don’t know right now.

This stretch of N2 freeway is especially dangerous and a Provincial Traffic patrol, and also a temporary police station, was set up there years ago (not sure if it is still there). Generally, during daylight hours the stretch from the airport to the city is fairly safe, as long as you don’t take any of the turn-offs between the airport and the Jan Smuts Drive turn off. I’d really expect too that any car rental company, at the airport, would thoroughly brief any foreigners before letting them drive off.

So, although we’ve seen warnings for isolated crime hot spots before, they have not actually been routed around crime hot spots properly.

See https://mybroadband.co.za/news/security/515099-google-maps-will-dodge-south-africas-crime-hotspots.html
#Blog, #capetown, #navigation, #southafrica, #technology

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danie10@squeet.me
Danie

Fitbit is pulling out of South Africa

Square faced Fitbit Versa fitness device showing time of 12:58 with step count of 14,291, heart rate 79, calories 1,603 and date as Wed 28.
Fitness device manufacturer Fitbit is withdrawing from the South African market in line with parent Google’s decision not to sell consumer hardware products in the country.

In a terse statement in response to questions from TechCentral about the development, a Google spokesman said the company has decided to stop selling Fitbit and Nest products (both owned by the company) in select countries “to align our hardware portfolio to map closer to Pixel’s regional availability”.

Well, we’ve never had the Pixel phones officially on sale in South Africa, and I’ve had so many issues the last few months with my Fitbit Aria scale that I don’t really feel like buying any more Fitbit devices. I’d already stopped buying Fitbit fitness trackers about 5 years ago due to strap issues. So, I for one, won’t be missing them. Ever since the buyout by Google it seemed like Fitbit was anyway no longer what it used to be.

See https://techcentral.co.za/fitbit-is-pulling-out-of-south-africa/234830/
#Blog, #Fitbit, #southafrica, #technology

aljazeera@squeet.me
Al Jazeera (unofficial)

South Africa recalls diplomats from Israel over Gaza war | AJ #shorts

South Africa has become the latest country to recall its diplomats from Israel to express concern over what it says is collective punishment of Palestinians ...#AlJazeera #AlJazeeraEnglish #alJazeera #aljazeeraEnglish #aljazeeralive #aljazeeravideo #aljazeeraEnglish #aljazeeralatest #aljazeeralive #aljazeeralivenews #hamas #israel-gazawar #latestnews #naledipandor #newsheadlines #southafrica
South Africa recalls diplomats from Israel over Gaza war | AJ #shorts

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