Developed in collaboration with Microsoft, the program positions Core as a distributor of Surface devices in South Africa, offering resellers exclusive pricing, streamlined logistics, and access to the full Surface portfolio.

Program benefits and features

The Surface Reseller Program includes partner-only deals and access to Microsoft Surface products. Core provides next-day delivery on inland orders placed before midday, tailored credit terms, and a trade-in calculator for device upgrades.

A key component is the Surface Reseller Portal, a dedicated e-commerce platform where resellers can manage orders, access promotional campaigns, marketing assets, and training materials. The portal serves as a single destination for account management, promotions, and support.

“The Microsoft Surface Reseller Program represents a significant step forward for South African businesses,” said John Press, Microsoft Surface Business Unit Head at Core. “By combining access to best-in-class hardware with exclusive benefits, training, and support, we’re empowering resellers to deliver more value to their customers while growing their own businesses with confidence.”

Resellers can register at https://surfaceresellerprogram.co.za/pages/landing. After registration, a Core sales representative will contact them with details about current launch promotions and opportunities.

Faster

The new Microsoft Teams promises faster performance and a smoother user experience. According to the announcement, the new Teams app will be up to 50% faster, allowing users to quickly switch between chats, channels, and meetings. Additionally, Microsoft has made improvements to reduce latency and improve reliability, resulting in faster and more reliable video calls and screen sharing.

Simpler

One of the biggest challenges with collaboration tools is making them easy to use and understand. With the new Microsoft Teams, Microsoft has streamlined the user interface, making it simpler and more intuitive. Users will have easy access to frequently used features and a cleaner design, reducing distractions and making it easier to focus on the task at hand.

More Flexible

Microsoft Teams has always been a flexible tool, allowing users to customize their workspace and integrate with other apps and services. The new Teams takes this flexibility to the next level, with new features that allow users to personalize their experience even further. Users can now create custom templates for meetings, share channels with external guests, and integrate with more than 300 third-party apps and services.

Smarter

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are playing an increasingly important role in collaboration and communication tools, and Microsoft Teams is no exception. The new Teams features several AI-powered enhancements, such as live captions and transcripts, real-time translation, and meeting summaries. These features not only improve accessibility but also help to reduce communication barriers and improve collaboration across diverse teams and regions.

The new Microsoft Teams promises to be faster, simpler, more flexible, and smarter than ever before. With new features that improve performance, simplify the user experience, and integrate with more third-party apps and services, Microsoft Teams is poised to continue its dominance in the collaboration and communication space. If you are a Microsoft Teams user, these updates are definitely something to look forward to.

The newly added African languages include IsiXhosa, Yoruba, Somali, Kinyarwanda, Tigrinya, Hausa, Igbo, Oromo, Wolof, Amharic, Zulu, Setswana, and Sesotho. These languages are widely spoken across the continent, with some having official status in their respective countries.

This move by Microsoft is a major step towards improving communication and understanding between people from different African countries, and also between Africans and the rest of the world. The translation service allows users to translate text, speech, and even images in real-time, making it a valuable tool for businesses, travelers, and anyone looking to break down language barriers.

The addition of these languages is also a positive step towards preserving African cultures and languages, which are often at risk of being lost due to globalization and the dominance of English and other major languages.

In a statement, Microsoft stated that they are committed to making their technology accessible to everyone, regardless of language, location or cultural background. With this expansion, they hope to contribute to the development and growth of African economies and societies.

This news has been met with excitement and enthusiasm across the continent, with many celebrating the recognition and inclusion of their respective languages. It is a positive step towards a more inclusive and connected Africa, where communication barriers are broken down and diverse cultures are celebrated.

In conclusion, Microsoft Translator’s expansion into these 13 new African languages is a major achievement and a significant step towards creating a more connected and inclusive continent. It is a powerful tool for breaking down communication barriers and fostering understanding between people from different backgrounds. The addition of these languages is a positive step towards the preservation of African cultures and languages, and it has the potential to make a significant impact on the continent’s economic and social development.

Zulu joins Swahili as the latest African language to be supported, and there are plans to add more of the continent’s most widely spoken languages as part of Microsoft’s mission to build meaningful cognitive products and services that improve accessibility and local engagement.

Integrations across Microsoft’s ecosystem include Microsoft 365 for translating text and documents, the Microsoft Edge browser and Bing search engine for translating whole webpages, SwiftKey for translating messages, LinkedIn for translating user-submitted content, and the Translator app for having multilingual conversations on the move, among others.

“This support – which has been added for over 100 languages and dialects worldwide – means that more people are able to connect and that language will become a seamless feature of using technology,” says Siya Madyibi,  Executive Director: Corporate, External and Legal Affairs at Microsoft South Africa.

Translator aims to break the language barrier between people and cultures all over the world. “To achieve this, we have continuously added languages and dialects to this service while ensuring the translation quality of the supported languages by using the latest neural machine translation (NMT) techniques,” Madyibi says.

The company, through its Microsoft Research unit, first developed machine translation systems more than a decade ago – and has consistently built on and improved these systems and techniques, adopting NMT technology as Artificial Intelligence (AI) evolved and migrating all machine translation systems to neural models to improve translation fluency and accuracy.

“As the benefits and value of translation support become more evident, particularly for African languages, we will see capabilities being rolled out for more of the continent’s languages – ultimately helping break down language barriers and helping more people connect with each other and technology in a way that empowers them to do and achieve more,” says Madyibi.

According to Colleen Larsen, Chief Executive at Business Engage Association NPC, the academy is aimed at bridging the representation gap of women in the technology sector by educating the female voice in the technology worlds and increasing the number of female speakers at tech conferences.

Over the course of six virtual sessions with professional lecturers and TEDx speakers, participants will be trained on: personal branding, the art of storytelling, selecting a topic and becoming a skilled speech writer, reading the audience, handling fear and stage craft, presentation aids, speaking on camera, impromptu speaking, handling questions and post-presentation steps for maximum impact.

“We know how difficult the past 20 months have been for small businesses. They’ve had to demonstrate extreme flexibility to adapt, often with limited access to tools and technology,” said Jared Spataro, corporate vice president of Modern Work at Microsoft. “Teams Essentials is built specifically to meet the unique needs of small businesses, enabling them to thrive in this new era of work.”

Teams Essentials provides expansive limits and features for hosting professional meetings and collaborating in one place:

• Unlimited group meetings for up to 30 hours
• Meetings with up to 300 people
• 10 GB of cloud storage per user

Teams Essentials also includes existing and new capabilities available in the free version of Teams to meet the needs of small businesses:

• Simple, easy invitations require only anemail address. Users are not required to sign up, sign in or install Teams to participate in a meeting.
• In addition to Outlook Calendar integration, new Google Calendar integration makes it easy to schedule meetings in Microsoft Teams. *Coming soon
• Professional meeting tools and capabilities like meeting lobby, virtual backgrounds, Together mode, live closed captions and live reactions.
• Never lose context or continuity with always-available chats in Microsoft Teams.
• Quickly start a group project and host meetings with anyone, assign tasks to teammates, and create polls to receive feedback quickly all in one hub with the new small-business group chat template. *Coming soon to desktop and web

To find out more about Teams Essentials, check here.

Those looking to order either an Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S will definitely want to write that down, because we’re guessing that pre-orders will sell out quickly. Microsoft has also shared a comprehensive list of retailers that will be offering Xbox Series X/S pre-orders, covering a number of regions around the world.

The list of retailers can be found below:

• AVO (Nedbank)
• BT Games
• Esquire
• Game
• Game 4 U
• HI
• Hi-Fi Corp
• Incredible Connection
• Loot.co.za
• Makro
• Nexus Retail
• PnP
• Raru
• Sportscene
• Takealot
• Total Sports
• ZAPA

The Surface Pro 7 and Surface Laptop 3 continue the brand’s tradition of best-in-class productivity, security, mobility and speed, and introduce new processors and modern connectivity options in a world of remote work and learning.

The Surface Pro 7 takes Microsoft’s iconic 2-in-1 design to the next level, with a faster and more versatile device for professionals on the go. Powered by a 10^th Generation Intel® Core processor, Fast Charging, all-day battery¹ and Instant On, the Surface Pro 7 provides modern connectivity with USB-C and USB-A ports. 

Businesses and consumers across South Africa will also have access to the latest edition of Microsoft’s most beloved laptop series. The new Surface Laptop 3 makes a statement though a thin, light, and elegant design, offering rich tone-on-tone colour options and new metal keyboard finishes. Surface Laptop 3 is now available in two sizes – 13.5-inch and 15-inch and features a vibrant PixelSense Display touchscreen. The device delivers improved speed and performance with the latest 10^th Generation Intel® Core processor, up to 11.5 hours battery life², and Instant On. The Surface Laptop 3 15-inch consumer offering is powered by the AMD Ryzen Surface Edition processor. 

The recommended retail pricing for the Surface Pro 7 starts at R17 999.00, and for the Surface Laptop 3 starts at R22 999.00.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUw8jZl1hX0&feature=emb_title

The device (Surface) has many fans in South Africa (us included) who are eager to start using the products personally as well purchase for business purposes. In addition, it’s also interesting to note, unsurprisingly, that Surface has a large number of Enterprise customers who do business globally. These global companies have been pushing Microsoft to expand into Mzansi and that seems to have worked. This forms part of a move from Microsoft to expand their global coverage and serve customers in critical markets. Built with Windows 10 and Microsoft 365, Surface is described as providing what you need to transition between work life, home life and everything in between no matter where you are.

As the world and people’s routines change, Microsoft is meeting customers where they are now and helping them get to where they want to be in the future. With over one billion active Windows 10 devices across 200 countries, there has never been a more important time for a secure, reliable platform, such as Windows 10, that can empower people to create, educate and communicate wherever they are. We couldn’t agree more with that.

The company confirmed that their intention is to bring their current Surface portfolio to South Africa by the end of the year. More info to come in the coming months so continue keeping it locked here for all the latest.

Both laptops are designed to meet the needs of SMBs, offering up to 10th-gen Intel Core i7 processors as well as long battery life, rapid charging support, privacy and security features, and more.

The ThinkBook 14 and 15 laptops feature aluminium materials, a stylish design that maintains a professional appearance while deviating from the common ThinkPad aesthetic, as well as a smart power button with a built-in fingerprint sensor, ThinkShutter webcam privacy cover, a hidden USB port, hotkeys for Skype for Business, and a USB-C Gen2 port.

ThinkBook 14

The ThinkBook 14 is offered with up to the 10th-gen Intel Core i7 processors, 4GB DDR4 Intel Optane memory, up to 1TB SSD storage and a 2TB HDD dual drive, and an optional backlit keyboard. In addition to the aforementioned smart power button, ThinkShutter, and Skype hotkeys, the ThinkBook 14 offers up to 12 hours of battery life with a 57Wh battery — or, alternatively, users can get a 45Wh battery with Rapid Charge support.

As the name suggests, this model features a 14-inch display with a Full HD resolution and 6mm bezels. The ThinkBook 14 is available starting at R16 299

ThinkBook 15

The ThinkBook 15 is similar to its smaller counterpart, offering a 15-inch Full HD display with 7mm bezels, up to the 10th-gen Intel Core i7 processors, up to a 1TB SSD plus 2TB HDD dual drive, and 4GB DDR4 Intel Optane memory.

As with the other model, the ThinkBook 15 features up to 12 hours of battery life with a 57Wh battery or Rapid Charge with a 45Wh battery, an optional backlit keyboard with Skype for Business hotkeys, the smart power button with a fingerprint sensor, ThinkShutter privacy cover, plus there’s a numpad on the keyboard.

The ThinkBook 15 is available starting at R12 499.

On the ThinkBook 13s, users can use hot keys to answer or hang up when making Skype calls. Music can be played while the system is still in standby mode, resuming to full working capacity in less than 0.5 seconds. Its pricing starts at R14 999

Microsoft isn’t the first well known company to add support for Vodacom DCB payments. Vodacom already has an extensive list of global video, music and gaming content partners.

In order to use the Vodacom  DCB for the aforementioned Microsoft services, users will need to add funds to their Microsoft account. This is done by signing into the account and then heading into Billing. From there, users will see an option under  Add a Payment Option -> Mobile Phone payment option and then by selecting Vodacom.

Support for Vodacom is pretty much unlimited to buying mobile content like apps and games from the Windows Store and Windows Phone Store, as well as content for the Xbox from Xbox Music, Xbox Video, and Xbox Games. Transactions are immediate, as long as your Vodacom account has a positive balance.

As part of a nationwide initiative, AI in Townships initiative is aimed at girls aged 15 to 18 years old in previously disadvantaged communities to create purposeful, high impact solutions that tackle challenges ranging from community safety to unemployment and education. These girls-only bootcamps attempt to address the systematic exclusion of youth in a variety of 21st century careers by offering a powerful platform to acquire new tools and knowledge, bettering their prospects at female digital inclusion and subsequently, socio-economic forecast.

DigiGirlz, a Microsoft YouthSpark program, gives middle and high school girls opportunities to learn about careers in technology, connect with Microsoft employees, and participate in hands-on computer and technology workshops. The initiative aims to transform the future workforce and level the playing field for girls.

To date, Microsoft has trained approximately 100,000 teachers (reaching approximately 5 million learners) with digital literacy skills, but more importantly how to leverage this knowledge to teach critical skills for the modern workplace, including creativity, collaboration and coding.
The possibilities that AI promises to bring in education specifically are exciting. Microsoft is committed to empowering students to achieve their best, it works closely with schools throughout the entire transformation journey – from research and planning to creating tailored solutions and implementing the technology.

As the world moves into the digital era it is imperative that South Africa equips its citizens with the necessary skills that will allow them to become more self-reliant, more socially cohesive, and better trained in addressing the fundamental issues of education, health and safety through AI.