For starters, CallApp lets you consign irritations like scammers, telemarketers, and those infuriating robot pests to history. And it lets you always see who’s calling, too – and even who’s been snooping at your profile too! Just these two features are already likely to solve the majority of your problems.

That’s because CallApp has the biggest database of phone numbers in the industry, as well as the most sophisticated Caller ID technology. And it also provides protection against number spoofing, which is one of the most insidious scams in existence, tripping up even the most vigilant consumers. CallApp’s number verification protocols ensure that the number you see on your smartphone is legit.

Also included among CallApp’s comprehensive list of communication features is a call recording tool, allowing you to keep an audio record of your conversations for future reference, and to settle arguments about who said what. Plus, the app comes with its own analytics feature, giving you a treasure trove of data on your phone habits.

You can check up on the number of calls you’ve made, the number of calls you’ve received, how long you’ve spent on the phone, and much more information besides to serve whatever purpose your heart desires100 million users globally have downloaded CallApp, with close to three-quarters of a million leaving reviews on the Google Play Store. It works in 22 languages, too.You can download and use CallApp for free, though the premium version gives you access to additional features and strips out the ads. This can be purchased, or earned for free through a unique referral program.

To enter the future of communication, simply download CallApp from the Play Store link below: Download: CallApp (Play Store Link)

Crescent Lifestyle’s 11th Annual Beneficiary Payout amounts to R500 930.34 only made possible through the continued support of their loyal members.

Crescent Lifestyle is South Africa’s only complete Islamic Lifestyle product available via an award winning App. Founded in 2008, Crescent Lifestyle continues to empower, unify and enhance the Muslim lifestyle by creating sustainable revenue by offering various value-added products which are relevant to the Muslim community.

Crescent Lifestyle is proud to be a business with strong social responsibilities which support and uplift Muslim communities, on behalf of their members. Since inception, they have donated R5.5 million to various organisations around the country. This is made possible only through the loyal support of the Crescent Lifestyle Members whom are provided with a choice to donate their contributions to their chosen beneficiaries which includes Masjids, schools and various Non-Profit Organisations. One of the central tenets of Islam is the giving of alms and charity to those less fortunate than ourselves, and Crescent Lifestyle aims to facilitate this aspect for their members.

Crescent Lifestyle Managing Director Al-Firnas Patel, “After 11 years in operation Crescent Lifestyle continues to fulfil our vision to unite the Muslim community to work together to help those in need. Alhamdulillah, this has only been possible through the support of our loyal members.” 

NOTABLE MENTIONS:
Gift of the Givers R35,466-00
Beitul Aman Old Age Home R32,836-97
Al-Imdaad Foundation R26,020-88
Ikageng – Orphans with HIV R25,007-68
Sultan Bahu Centre R20,540-37
Vision Child and Youth Care Centre R17,155-36
Baitul Ilm Organisation R16,257-29
Muslim Judicial Council R15,934-00
Baitul Ansaar Charitable Foundation R13,977-59
Ihata Shelter R11,237-33

For more information about Crescent Lifestyle:

Website: www.crescentlifestyle.com
Instagram: crescent_lifestyle
Facebook: @CrescentLifestyle
Download the App: http://bit.ly/CresLife

Released by AUX Studio in January, TapOff is a free mobile app that not only provides Capetonians with real-time updates on the city’s water consumption, but inspires them to make positive changes that will have a lasting impact.

While Cape Town’s ongoing drought will certainly break at some point – and with it, the current watercrisis – it’s equally certain that the amount of water available will decrease over the long term. This means residents must permanently change their water-saving behaviour.

“Information alone doesn’t drive behavioural change,” says Trevor Swart of AUX. “The key is to summarise and frame it in a way that’s meaningful for the individual.” Besides displaying the city’s overall consumption for the week, TapOff enables residents to log their own water usage and compare it with the maximum amount prescribed by city authorities. In this way, individuals see how their efforts can make areal difference to a community-wide issue.

The app goes even further to encourage participation, gamifying water-saving with suburb leaderboards where residents can ​display their consumption figures. “The response has been great so far,” says Trevor, “with growing numbers of users posting their water usage to neighbourhood leaderboards on a monthly basis.”

AUX has also produced a public API that delivers Cape Town’s latest water statistics. This has opened up opportunities to drive awareness beyond the mobile app. “In partnership with Tractor Outdoor, we’ve created digital billboards to make a clear emotional connection with the viewer about Cape Town’s overall water consumption, putting the city’s progress quite literally front and centre. It’s also a friendly reminder to keep up water-saving efforts – whether you’ve downloaded TapOff or not.”

TapOff has featured in both the Play Store and the App Store as a top app in the Free Education category. AUX is currently looking for more partners and sponsors so that they can offer real rewards to water savers and engage hundreds of thousands of residents.

Download the TapOff app at http://www.tapoff.co.za

Contact AUX Studio at www.aux.co.za

TapOff has been featured on the following websites:

MEMEBURN: https://memeburn.com/2018/01/tapoff-cape-town-water-app/

FINANCIAL MAIL: https://www.businesslive.co.za/fm/fm-fox/gimme/2018-03-01-gimme-every-single-drop/

WHAT’S ON IN CT: https://www.whatsonincapetown.com/post/waterwise-initiatives-capetonians/

ORIGINAL PRESS RELEASE:

https://www.pressportal.co.za/it-new-media-and-software/story/14326/tapoff-app-summarizes-the-latest-water-crisis-stats-for-cape-town-it-also-invites-residents-to-post-their-water-usage-leaderboard.html

Last year in March AUX conceptualized and built the TapOff app – an experiment to inspire people of Cape Town to save water. They wanted to make it easy for residents to have access to the latest and most important information, but also to promote the idea of per-person-per-day usage by household. At the time this information wasn't readily available. They also wanted to test a simple gamification idea to see if it would inspire people to take action and share ideas.  

“At the time (March 2017) we felt like the drought and cape town water crisis was a great real-world problem to tackle. It seemed like a rewarding and worthy problem to tackle with real social impact.”

Client work got in the way during the course of 2017 and the project was put on ice. Then, in November 2017, the studio decided it was still a worthwhile project and completed the first version. We officially trickled the link to social media on the 27th January. Since then the app has been featured on Memeburn.com and has also been highlighted in both the Google PlayStore and the AppStore as a top app in the Free Education category last week. 

At the moment, only residents with CoCT billls can calculate their per-person-per-day usage using the app calculator, and then post that result to their suburb leaderboard. Some people have rightly pointed out that this excludes residents without a water bill. The developers provided the following response to users in the app store:

“You've raised a great point here which we need to consider. We decided to release the product before it contained all the possible features we could build, otherwise we might never have launched at all, and we didn’t want that. We realise there are things that we have not conquered but we will get there as we gather feedback like this, learn and adapt. Plans to capture water usage in a different way are already underway.”

So far, the response has been great, and there are already hundreds of users who have posted their water use to the Cape Town leaderboard. Last week an update was released so that users per-person-per-day calculation is more visible and people can also navigate to their suburb. All users are created anonymously using a unique and creative naming system.

AUX is a product design studio based in Cape Town. They work with established businesses and start-ups providing naming, identity design, ux design and rapid-prototyping.

Link to the TAPOFF app http://www.tapoff.co.za

protel by Ankerdata launch mobile concierge and booking app with ConnectHOTEL  

The use of smartphones to book hotel rooms has increased significantly over the past few years with some statistics claiming this number to be well over the 50% mark for all hotel reservations.  With this information at hand the need for hotels to keep up with technology has become hugely important.  protel, by Ankerdata, a hospitality business solutions provider, has partnered with ConnectHOTEL to bring a customized, protel-compatible, ‘mobile concierge’ and booking application to the South African hotel industry.

The ConnectHOTEL platform, built locally in South Africa, integrates directly with protel platforms, bringing the best available rates, in real time, to guests using the app. Eben Marais, Director at Ankerdata, says, “This user-friendly, five-step booking application cuts commission fees to less than half of the major OTAs and together with a minimal set-up fee, is creating a lot of excitement in the industry.”

And, in response to the emerging chatbot demand which calls for conversation via auditory or textual methods, the platform also offers a bot named HOLLY, who is trained in the back-end to engage with guests before, during and after their stay, over a chat platform. Guests can order room service, lodge a request with housekeeping, book a taxi or arrange a later check-out time, and this is just the tip of the iceberg, ensuring a seamless, efficient and personalized experience with the hotel.

The mobile concierge and booking platform is designed based on a hotel’s requirements and internal management flows and processes, and is in keeping with its corporate identity. Jane Rosen from ConnectHOTEL says that they see this latest development in artificial intelligence as the future of guest engagement - it is a must for hotels wanting to attract and connect with a younger generation of travellers.

Matchbox is a free and innovative new app that is revolutionizing the freight industry, connecting shippers and transporters directly in real time. This Durban-based tech is cleverly named after its ability to literally match “boxes” or containers with transporters. 

The idea for Matchbox was conceived in April 2016 by a team with over 40 years’ combined experience in logistics in Africa. 

“We’re industry insiders and could clearly see the gap in the market. We started Matchbox to simplify the current process to find, book, track and pay for road transport in Africa,” said Anton Potgieter, Founder of Matchbox. “There is similar tech successfully operating in the US and Asia that can clearly work here in South Africa that will bring transparency and efficiency to road transport and reduce the cost of logistics in Africa.” 

Both transporters and shippers stand to benefit tremendously from this new mobile app as it aims to assist owner-operators, local, and regional fleets to increase their loads and expand business. Transporters can look forward to “no more wasted space” by signing up for alerts to nearby jobs being auctioned to the best bidder while in turn typically offering shippers a lower rate than current industry standards.  

Thus far the response to Matchbox has been incredibly positive. Tommy van Deventer, owner of Euroblitz, shares, “I found a load on Matchbox for one of my trucks that needed a return load from Durban. I quoted on the load and my quote was accepted by the cargo owner, all of this was done within 30 minutes, online and without one phone call.” 

The app has the added benefit of its Transport Management System (TMS) which helps transporters manage their fleet and assign drivers to respond to jobs. Local driver, David Moghatla, confirms: “I downloaded the Matchbox app on my phone and my manager could send me all the load details straight on the phone, it was easy.” 

Development was finalized in January 2017 and post a robust and thorough beta testing period Matchbox launches publicly in August 2017.  

Key innovations to move the industry forward

The innovative advantages of MATCHBOX include:

• Allows shippers to choose their transporters from a verified database that lists their ratings from customers as well as their ongoing performance.
  
  
• Live tracking is available on each load with free Transport Management Service for each transporterTransporters bid on each load, which ensures shippers get the best rates and transporters increase productivity.
  
  
• Fast pay is enabled via electronic pod’s and options for payment on pod
  
  
• MATCHBOX vet and verify all transporters on the platform with goods in transit insurance in place. 

“Matchbox is set to be a success in South Africa, and our immediate future plan is to target deployment in East Africa next year,” says Potgieter.   

Whether you are a shipper or a transporter, logistics are made easier and more efficient via the online support and live chat. Matchbox gives you end-to-end control of all your shipments through one compact portal.

Matchbox is available for Android and currently operates in the South African market.

Visit the website, Matchbox.bid, for more information.

With the help of a simple FREE app, South Africans can now choose healthier meals when eating out, AND be rewarded for it.  Leading nutritional solutions company, CHOW offers a restaurant programme available in over 300 restaurant outlets nationwide, that makes choosing healthier meals easy for consumers, this festive season.      

The serious side

South Africa is a nation in transition with people increasingly looking for convenience meals, fast foods and out-of-home dining, one of the consequences of rapid urbanisation.  In the most recent national population health survey, almost half of adult South Africans reported that they eat outside of the home with almost a third doing so on a weekly basis.1 This trend is not confined to adults, with 1 in 3 South African adolescents eating out 2 – 3 times per week.2    Increasing intakes of fat, sugar and salt, accompanied by a decline in fruit, vegetables and fibre-rich foods have played a part in the rising obesity, diabetes and hypertension rates in South Africa.  A multi-strategy approach is required to curb the rising prevalence of these non-communicable diseases in South Africa.  The National Department of Health’s (NDoH) Strategy for the prevention and control of obesity in South Africa acknowledges that no stand-alone approach is likely to succeed and recommends action through policy and environmental change.3 The obesity strategy recognises CHOW as a cog in the wheel to create an enabling environment where healthy food choices are accessible and available when dining out.  

Introducing the CHOW solution

CHOW owner and registered dietitian, Mr Stefan van der Merwe, recognised the need to provide the public with an exciting and innovative solution to eating out, without compromising on health.  “We have to be realistic – in today’s fast-paced world, people want convenience and eating out, is here to stay.  Through the CHOW programme we aim to take the guesswork out of choosing a healthy meal and aim to make eating out a possibility that can fit within everyday healthy habits. We further aim to play our part in driving restaurants and fast food establishments to provide healthier meal options”, explains Mr van der Merwe. The CHOW programme accredits healthy meals in restaurants, based on a range of guidelines and criteria developed and administered by a team of registered dietitians.  Once a meal has been accredited, it is allowed to showcase the CHOW mark, an official endorsement approved by the NDoH.  Meals showcasing the CHOW mark has to include beneficial food groups such as vegetables, wholegrain carbohydrates, healthy fats, lean or plant protein or dairy.  In addition, limits are set for certain nutrients including total kilojoules, saturated fat and sugar. The CHOW programme is further integrated with a mobile application, free for download, which essentially acts as a national healthy eating directory.  Making use of GPS tracking, when opening the app, nearby CHOW accredited restaurants, meals and full nutritional information is just a tap or a click away.   

Get rewarded for making healthy choices

An important step in changing consumer behaviour towards the healthy, is being rewarded for it.  At CHOW, incentivising healthy choices is a key strategy to keep individuals engaged in the process in order to entrench healthy eating as a daily habit. When consumers order a CHOW accredited meal they will earn CHOW bucks which can be used in exchange for vouchers from participating healthy partners as well as earn loyalty points from leading loyalty programmes. 

Driving change and transparency in the food industry 

CHOW is on a mission to change the way consumers choose meals when eating out, hoping to increase consumer demand for healthier options and inevitably driving change within the food industry.  Spur Marketing Manager, Mr Etienne Ralphs, is proud to be a part of this changing dynamic: “We were one of the first restaurants to offer and showcase healthier menu options to our customers.  We are a family restaurant and one of the biggest national franchises in South Africa, so we feel a strong commitment to play our part in offering healthy choices – CHOW has made this process easy, accessible and appealing”.  CHOW strives towards a collaborative approach with participating retailers, with CHOW dietitians appointed to each and every restaurant to support with meal analyses and accreditation, menu development and auditing as well as general nutrition and health support.   Now more than ever, it is vitally important to find innovative ways to meet consumers where they are, providing solutions rather than restrictions, utilising technology to drive healthy behaviours and to take action to support the health of South Africans.

For more information and to download the CHOW mobile app visit www.chowsolutions.com

Shisana O, Labadarios D, Rehle T, Simbayi L, Zuma K, Dhansay A, Reddy P, Parker W, Hoosain E, Naidoo P, Hongoro C, Mchiza Z, Steyn NP, Dwane N, Makoae M, Maluleke T, Ramlagan S, Zungu N, Evans MG, Jacobs L, Faber M, & the SANHANES-1 Team (2014) South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (SANHANES-1): 2014 Edition. Cape Town: HSRC Press Feeley A, Musenge E, Pettifor JM, Norris SA. Investigation into longitudinal dietary behaviours and household socio-economic indicators and their association with BMI Z-score and fat mass in South African adolescents: The Birth to Twenty (Bt20) cohort. Public Health Nutrition: 2012; 16(4): 693–703.  National Department of Health. Strategy for the prevention and control of obesity in South Africa. 2015. https://www.health-e.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/National-Strategy-for-prevention-and-Control-of-Obesity-4-August-latest.pdf        

For more information or to arrange interviews contact: Chow Nutritional Solutions Stefan van der Merwe This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 031 564 1001 078 271 3747                       

About CHOW (Choose Healthy Options Wisely)
CHOW Nutritional Solutions Pty (Ltd) is a specialist nutrition solutions and nutrition technology company. CHOW is run & managed by experts in the field of nutrition and dietetics. The focus at CHOW is to provide South Africans with practical approaches to make healthy choices easier and to modify dietary behaviour in the process. CHOW offers accreditation and nutritional solutions services to restaurants and restaurant groups, corporate canteens, retailers, school and work canteens and government organisations.

Brand new dating app Wan’Go® has appointed South African based PR agency 4Elements Media as its public relations firm, as the app launches in Cape Town this summer.  

Wan’Go® is the first and only dating app designed from a woman’s perspective with a unique gentleman’s touch. This finally gives ladies the opportunity to browse for the man of their dreams while men adhere to a Gentleman’s Code of Conduct.        

One of Wan’Go®’s strongest features is that it takes the worry and anxiety out of small talk by providing unique icebreakers to matches. This makes it easy and natural to start a friendly, respectful conversation. It also suggests a mutually convenient date venue based on the geo-location of both matches. Never before has dating been so safe, simple and stress free.

CEO & Founder of 4EM, Lorinda Voges says: “It’s a fantastic product and with our strong network within the F&B and entertainment industries, we aim to create awareness and engagement way beyond traditional media.”

Find Wan’Go® on Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wangoapp

Twitter: https://twitter.com/wangoapp

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wangoapp

For more info on Wan’Go® email Press@4elementsmedia.  

For high res images, click here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/789kbb0lwnoeirt/AADxMy2Q2UiEberC4-2NWK6Ya?dl=0