Many South Africans have been in that sucky situation where your power goes out late at night, and you have to somehow find a way to buy prepaid electricity. This usually necessitates a trip to the nearest shop or garage which requires you to pay cash…. Blah, blah blah, you know the drill.
I have recently been shown a new app called Powertime which installs on your iPhone and enables you to buy electricity at any time of day, and for any electricity meter you have registered with them. When you go to the Powertime website, you register your electricity meter (you can register more than one as well), with some of your details. You also register your credit card, and then you fax them a copy of your credit card and your ID book. And that is the only “work” from your end (this is still less work than the numerous trips to the shop and back…).
Once registered, you install the Powertime app on your phone. The Powertime app will ask your username and password everytime, for security reasons. From there, select the credit card you would like to use, and which meter you would like to pay for. The registered meters have a neat dropdown list, with their actual addresses, so its easy enough to use. Then you enter the amount, and that’s it. Within a few seconds it pops up the token code that you can enter into your meter. Great.
While these types of solutions have existed on the web for quite some time in SA, this is the first mobile implementation that I have come across that is so polished and easy to use. Where every other site is exercise in frustration, Powertime is quick and easy to use. Proof that there are some great iPhone developers in South Africa… I came across a few small bugs, and the developers (4i Software) let me know that the new version is on its way within the next month with new features (for example SMS a token to someone etc).
Highly recommended.
PS: Powertime is only available in the SA Appstore, so you have to make sure you have a SA Appstore account. If you using a US account, it is easy enough to switch between the two, even right on your iPhone. From the Appstore app, select “Featured” and scroll down to the bottom of the page. From there you can sign in and out into different iTunes accounts. When in the SA Appstore, simply search for Powertime.
So what is my opinion on the iPad? Well first off, I do like it. Despite all its shortcomings, I think it might be a game changing device.
I read somewhere that iPhone should be renamed the iPad Nano. And that might be a very apt description, seeing as the iPad is actually very similar to the iPhone. Unless Apple pulls something out of the hat (more on that later), there is not much more that a iPad can do that the iPhone cannot. And the iPhone is smaller and more portable. So why would anyone want a iPad?
I tried to think where an iPad might fit into my lifestyle. I have a smartphone and a small laptop. I take my iPhone everywhere, and I take my macbook to work and back home home again. I honestly cannot see where I would use the “third device” Apple is talking about. I really think a netbook sized macbook would have suited me better.
The iPad does not have multitasking, it doesn’t have USB ports, it only runs apps in the closed appstore and the device cannot transfer files (like documents and photos) to and fro like every other computer on the planet (unless you email them or use a tool like dropbox). It runs the iPhone OS, instead of a full fledged operating system like Mac OSX. With a list like this you start wondering what it really does?
And here we come to that magic (frustrating) Apple formula – it might leave out some functionality, but the things that it does do, it does beautifully.
The iPad makes using a computer dead easy to use. After watching all the interface videos (I recommend iLounge's) it is pretty clear that many apps we use every day has been made simpler and more easy to use than before. Even something as boring as email is a graphically rich app on the iPad. Looking at photos using the pinch gestures are brilliantly simple. The calendar app makes outlook look archaic. If you take into account what the average user does on a computer these days, it is pretty clear what the iPad is aiming to do. It is rethinking the way we use computers.
Take for example the average computer user – the person who reads emails, browses the web and types the occasional document. He might also watch movies, listen to music and want something to organize his life. All of these are functions that are perfectly controlled by the stable and mature apps we use on computers today. Then why on earth must the average user need to know about disk formatting, corrupt files, incompatible codecs, incompatible apps, defragmenting, hibernate, sleep, email server protocols, file formats, PST’s, drivers etc? Clearly what Apple is trying to do is make the computing experience as simple and elemental as possible. Perhaps the best analogy regarding the iPad’s simplicity is its similarity to modern cars. Twenty years ago, anyone with the know how could open up a car bonnet and service a car. These days, hardly anyone “tinkers” on their cars – every car is highly specialized that needs very specific proprietary equipment. True, there are always people who want to tinker, but they are quickly becoming the minority. Same with computers. People do not want to maintain their computers anymore; they just want to use their computer.
While you might not agree with this (lets face it, the average reader of this article probably has a big interest in technology and love to play around with their computer), Apple is trying to alter people’s mind-sets about computing. Everything is simpler – and the biggest change to the average consumer will be the appstore. Think about it – instead of searching for an app online, and then downloading it, and then installing it (with a possible hiccup somewhere) the user will fire up the appstore and just choose the app they want. That’s it.
So, if the iPad becomes popular, users of computers might eventually be dumbed down right? Probably not.
One must not forget that the iPad is a secondary device. If you do not have a main computer somewhere, the iPad becomes pretty boring. You cannot put your movies, music and photo libraries on the device without a computer. True, you can buy your movies and music from iTunes, but that’s only new music you want.
This might be my biggest criticism of the iPad – it is not really a device you use on its own. It still needs a host to sync to, a mothership to use properly. It currently seems like the iPad will sync with a folder on its host machine, and this will be the primary method in which you will transfer files. No flash disks, no Bluetooth, etc. Why Apple made the iPad without a USB port is beyond me.
And therein lies the rub – you will never quite rid people from the more technical aspects of using a computer. Think about it - to use the device effectively you need to have some knowledge about things like video codecs, syncing of email servers, caldav for syncing of calendars etc. If Apple wanted to truly make computing simple, it needs to address this.
However, my biggest criticism has to go to the lack of multitasking. I want to be able to do two things at once on a computer. Lack of multitasking on my phone I can live with. But multitasking is something we have been used to for a very long time. I really hope that Apple enables multitasking on the next version of iPhone OS. Without multitasking I really cannot see how people will take this seriously as a computing device.
But what I must keep reminding myself is that this a device that will only show its true colours once developers start making great apps for it. Just like the iPhone at first, it is currently a blank canvas of potential, and knowing Apple they will probably make us all rethink the way we use computers.
While there are many innovations that people want from the next version of Windows Home Server, power consumption is a major concern (especially for South Africans these days). While HP has improved the power consumption of their own Media Smart servers, I do believe Microsoft will introduce smarter ways to conserver power in the next version of WHS, be it more aggressive sleep patterns or maybe even central administration of power devices in the home. I don’t think home automation is to far off, This is after all a Home Server.
While WHS is a very handy solution to backups and filesharing, not all of us needs it to be on 24 / 7. Luckily there is a few things you can do to make the server use less power without diminishing its utility. What you basically want is a server that uses the minimum amount of power but is readily available the moment you need to access something from it.
- First you can do is download the Lights Out add on for WHS. Lights Out is a great little app to choose what times of day your machine should be on. You can set times at which the machine will sleep, hibernate or even shut down. I recommend you set your machine to sleep at certain times that suit you. Like say 12’o clock at night.
- Set your WHS to wake on network access. This is easy enough to do - go to Control Panel -> Device Manager and then look for your network adaptor. Open it up and select the Advanced tab. Look for Wake On Lan, and enable it. From there you can set what type of network packet can switch it on. Switch it to Both.
- Set your machine to do backups (and whatever automated processes you might have set) only during hours the machine will be on.
- If you are still insisting to leave your server on for long hours, you might want to set it to sleep hard drives when not in use. This is especially important if you have multiple hard drives. If no machine is accessing the server, the hard drives in the machine does not need to be spinning along. Go into Control Panel -> Power Options. From there, set your hard drives to sleep after 15 minutes.
- While extra hard drives do add redundancy to the server, evaluate carefully what drives you use in the server. If you just added drives that were laying around like a very old 80 Gig drive, you should realize that the drive is probably not very reliable, and does use extra power to keep spinning in a server. For example, if you have 3TB of storage in your server and also add a 80 Gig drive, its probably not worth it. Also, newer drives are typically more power efficient than older models (especially if you use specific low power drives).
At the end of 2009 Apple surprised everyone with the stunning new iMac - bigger display, more horsepower, and perhaps more significantly, a new (good) mouse. Apple has never really been able to make a decent mouse up to now - true, they have always been cool looking but not very functional. Even the most recent Mighty Mouse was not great - despite interesting control schemes like squeezing buttons and a scroll ball (not button), many people still despised it.
With the Magic Mouse Apple is hoping to change this. Typical of Apple, the Magic Mouse looks awesome, and is a stark opposite of the mice that have been on our desks up to now. We all enjoy having multi-button mice, but the Magic Mouse does away with most buttons. In fact, the entire surface of the Mouse is just one button.
Made of a sleek aluminium base with a white/clear plastic top, the Magic Mouse is very slick looking, and needs a second glance to even see that it is mouse. The symetry in its design makes you forget which side is the front of the device if you do not look. However, you will quickly feel the way the button pivot moves when you click. The bottom of the mouse has two large low friction panels to make it easy to move around. This is also a laser mouse - which makes it much more capable to work on a variety of surfaces - wood, cloth etc. It does not work on glass however. It is also a bluetooth mouse, which means there is one less thing to plug in, and no need for a dongle.
What makes the Magic Mouse unique is that the top surface of the mouse is a multi-touch sensitive panel similiar to iPhones and multitouch trackpads. At any moment, the mouse is aware of where your fingers are placed on it. This means that clicking on the right side of the mouse has a different effect than on the left. The same goes for scrolling - the entire top surface functions as a scrolling pad, regardless of directions. It also ignores unintended swipes, something I was weary of when I first saw the mouse.
So how is it to use then? Pretty great. At first I had some trouble getting used to the low profile of the mouse - it is quite a jump from typical mice that fit almost like a ball in your hand. This thing you work with your fingertips. Not just scrolling and clicking, but the actual movement of the mouse. It is so light, it moves effortlessly around on your desk. Now I have to admit this is not everyone’s cup of tea. If you are someone who like big heavy mice, this is not the mouse for you.
Despite the ergonomic issues I had at first, I quickly started the “light - fingered” approach to mousing around. Why? Because once you start using multitouch on a mouse, you wont go back. You start to appreciate simple things - for example, scrolling has a momentum effect (like the iPhone) meaning you can quickly flick your finger to make it scroll all the way to the end of a document. Simple yes, but you miss it once you start playing around with another mouse.
Tracking performance was faultless, and the mouse did not loose connection with my Macbook Pro ever. For kicks I hooked it up to my Lenovo S10 netbook running Windows 7 as well. I found some unofficial drivers, but soon it worked a treat. Talking about laptops, the magic mouse is also a pretty decent travelling mouse, but I do recommend you protect it. I put mine inside a sunglass bag inside my computer bag - the mouse does look susceptible to scratches.
So would I recommend the Magic Mouse? Yes, but not if you have big hands or really prefer big mice. The multitouch feature is just so effective that it is hard to go back to anything else.
The Magic Mouse currently goes for R850 at iStores, and for more at Incredible Connection. If you can have a buddy bring you one form overseas, consider it. It goes for about 55 pounds in the UK, so about R660 at the time of writing. Yes Core, we are watching your prices.
Overall I give it 8 out of 10.
Pros:
Multitouch
Great tracking performance
Good battery life
Looks
Cons:
Very flat profile - try before you buy
Tad expensive
Standard Apple System Prefs on doesn't give much customization - get MagicPrefs
PS: If you did go and buy the Magic Mouse, you NEED to download MagicPrefs. It goes way beyond the standard swipes, flicks and clicks that Apple enables with the Magic Mouse.
Once in a while a game changing product comes along that makes you rethink conventions which are pretty much hardwired into our routines. This is immediately apparent in the consumption of media – be it music, movies or print. With the dawn of the internet our consumption of these have been altered dramatically. Take for example music – 20 years ago, music was a much more valued form of media. People purchased albums, with beautiful album artwork, and there was a much more grandiose feeling to buying an album from your favourite band. These days, the feeling is somewhat cheapened, and the average consumer is very much aware they are paying royalties for the music, rather than for the actual physical product which we like to own. After all, many people buy CD’s and almost immediately rip the disc for use on their media player of choice. Movies are going a similar route – with the ease of use iTunes, and the advent of cheap broadband, the idea of having to buy a DVD is also very quickly becoming old news. Its only natural to imagine this mindset changing idea to books and print media.
About two weeks ago Amazon sent me a review unit of the Kindle International Edition and I have to agree it is definitely a game changing device. Instead of rambling on about the bigger picture – I will stick to explain the hardware, and also how it fits in with everyday life of someone who does read enough to warrant the purchase of a Kindle.
About two weeks ago Amazon sent me a review unit of the Kindle International Edition and I have to agree it is definitely a game changing device. Instead of rambling on about the bigger picture – I will stick to explain the hardware, and also how it fits in with everyday life of someone who does read enough to warrant the purchase of a Kindle.
The Kindle arrives in cardboard box, but still manages to exude some class. Amazon packages the Kindle in packaging that in no way looks cheap (its almost like they want to remind you where books come from). There is quite a good unboxing experience. Inside the box you will find the Kindle, its short introductory manual, and its USB cable with a US plug on one end. Why Amazon chose to ship the international edition with the US plug is beyond me. This is the first of many reminders that the International Kindle is primarily focused on the US market, despite what the name might tell you.
The Kindle itself is quite a handsome device. The front of the device is bright white plastic (which I thought would get dirty, but it did not), with a small keyboard at the bottom. The rear of the device is covered by brushed aluminium. It is a quite a sleek device, solid and easy to hold in your hand. You can see the designers worked hard at the ergonomics – the weighting of the device is perfect – even holding it at weird angles while reading is easy.
At first glance when unboxing the Kindle you tend to think that there is some type of sticker on the display to tell you the device needs to be charged before use. Welcome to the e-ink display – even when the device is off, the display is still showing content. In fact, the only time this screen uses power is when it changes pages. Although the display is only black and white, it is great to use. Text is crisp, with great contrast. The great part is that your eyes never tire from reading on the device like with a computer or cellphone screen. It should be mentioned that the e-ink display has no form of backlighting, and one needs to use a bedlamp to read at night. Greyscale images look great as well – I loaded up some textbook PDF’s with colour rich images, and the Kindle renders them in greyscale very clearly.
The Kindle has a small qwerty keyboard which is primarily used to make notes within your books, and also to enter things like URL’s into the web browser, or to search for books in the Kindle store. You switch the Kindle on with a small slider switch on the top which is also right next to a headphone port. You use the headphone port for listening to text to speech in books (which sounds remarkably good) and also for listening to mp3’s, should you choose to do that.
Seeing as it is a reading device, you want to first see what books are available in the Kindle store. While there are a massive catalogue, there are many books missing from the South African version of the store – this can obviously be blamed on licensing issues, but it is still not great news (however it did improve somewhat in the time I had the Kindle). Still, the books that you do find in the store are substantially cheaper than buying them at the bookstore. Just looking at the top 20 books, most are about 30% cheaper than Exclusive Books prices. For example, Freakonomics is $9 on the Kindle, and about R140 at Exclusive Books. Some books are even cheaper, for example books from the Twilight Saga which go for $7, which go for R150+ in at Exclusive books (no I did not buy, just compared prices...). So financially some books do make sense to buy on the Kindle. In fact, this past Christmas day, Amazon sold more e-books than real books, so clearly there is some success in this model.
Should you choose to load up your own PDF’s, you can simply plug in your Kindle to your USB port, and drag the PDF file to the documents folder. I tested it with some more complex textbook PDF’s, and it rendered perfectly on the screen. Text was somewhat small with the PDF, but you can change orientation of the screen and read the text in landscape form for an easier read.
The other major complaint for the international edition is the lack of proper web browsing on the device. Currently the International Kindle can only browse the Kindle store, and the fountain of knowledge, Wikipedia. While its nice to read books, I would think that a major portion of Kindle users want to browse sites (although you can pay for Kindle editions of magazines and newspapers). So far, the international edition does not support this. It is pretty easy to understand why – the cost of data. Amazon had to go and make deals with a lot of international wireless GSM providers, and needless to say it can get very expensive if you allow everyone to browse whatever they want on the device. After all, you do not pay data costs on the Kindle (although it might be included in the book prices).
And herein lies the biggest problem with the Kindle – it has so much potential, but only if you live in the US. First off, international users pay a slight premium, and then we also have to pay import duties, and then it is limited once we receive it. This is not on. Sure, there exists hacks to make the International edition fully featured, but not every Kindle user will be aware of this (you basically change your billing address to a US address on Amazon’s site, and low and behold, you can browse what you want on the device…). The one piece of solace I do find is that all its major problems are software based – Amazon can easily change all these policies with a software update.
Physically the device is almost perfect – for frequent readers the device is compact, the screen is easy to read and battery life is wonderful.
However, over time you learn to look past the limitations I mentioned, the device becomes a great companion. As someone who likes to read, I churned through books at a amazing pace with the Kindle. The ease of quickly choosing a book, and downloading it right on the spot is pretty great. The books are quite a bit cheaper, and they become more of a impulse buy. All in all Kindle is almost like a anti-convergence device – you realize it does only a few things, but those few things it does very well.
So would I recommend the Kindle? Yes, but to certain people. The device is ideal for people who travel a lot, and yes (obviously) people who read. But obviously anyone who has kept up with the internet in the last few weeks would know there is shadow being cast by a device we haven’t even seen – the Apple Tablet/iSlate etc. We have to see what Apple comes up with – and if the Kindle does stand a chance…
The Kindle
is available directly from Amazon for $259.
The Kindle
is available directly from Amazon for $259. 
So you are new to a mac, but you still need to cling to Windows every now and then. Then I can recommend you get hold of VMWare Fusion. If you want to build a Windows virtual machine, it is easy enough. However, if you want to make the machine run well, there is a few things you can do.
- If you are running Windows 7 and a older version of VMWare Fusion, consider upgrading to Fusion 3. It really does improve performance a lot.
- Get more RAM. If you have less than 4GB memory, you should really get more. It is the most bang for the buck upgrade you can do for your machine.
- First up, switch off visual effects. Open up Control Panel -> System. From there select Advanced System Settings. Under performance, select Settings. Then choose "Adjust for best performance". True, you lose some of Windows 7's eye candy, but it becomes a lot speedier. If you cannot live without Aero Peek (which is great), you can at least switch off unnecessary animations.
- If you are using Windows on your Mac just for productivity software, you might want to consider switching off the sound. Easy enough - at the bottom of the VM window, right click the speaker icon and select "Disconnect Sound Card". Its easy to enable again as well.
- If you are installing Windows 7, try going for the 64 bit version. The 64 bit version of Windows 7 will enable the use of Intel's VT instruction sets which will make the VM run faster.
- If you are running Windows Vista inside a VM, you should upgrade to Windows 7. Vista is terrible inside a VM.
- You do not typically have to give Windows more than one processor. Also, it does not need more than 1 gig RAM, or 2 gig if you do more heavy duty stuff.
- If you have the option, run the virtual machine from a second disk. All the better if that disk is Firewire instead of USB. This will make everything more responsive.
- Defragment your virtual machine. Using a tool like Defraggler, defragment your VM. Then, shut down the virtual machine and clean up your VM disk. In VMWare, go to settings -> Disk and then choose "Clean Up". Do this every few weeks if possible.
There are obviously more complex methods to improve performance as well, but these are the things I found that makes the biggest improvement.
In the last year I have switched over to the world of Mac – not that I believe Windows is not worth using. I have used a Thinkpad for Windows 7 (which is a great OS), and of course a Mac for the OS X duties. Steadily over time I have switched more and more of my day to day use to the Mac, but my email archive stayed with Outlook. Why? Because the Macbook is such a great machine to carry around. Unfortunately Outlook is not available for Mac (yet).
Now some of you might tell me to stop and just use Entourage. I am sorry, but Office for Mac is one sorry excuse for an Office suite. It lacks most of the cool features of Office 2007 on PC, and to boot, Microsoft has the balls to go and ask a similar price for it. Why Microsoft would not make the functionality of a import tool from Outlook to Entourage is beyond me. Don’t worry the next version looks a lot better, for one it will have the ribbon interface. The next version of Office for Mac will also bring back Outlook to the Mac.
But enough with the rant – you want to know how to switch Outlook to Apple Mail. It is not super easy, but if you know what to use, it is quite straightforward. Most of the tips I give are based on the idea that you have a lot of email to transfer, I had a 2 gigabyte PST file with a few years of email in there.
1) Clean up your Outlook mailboxes. Why? Because the more mail you have, the longer it will take to transfer. Do you really need to keep that kitten video that is 9 megs? Also, remember to empty your recycle bin / deleted items folder.
2) In Outlook, go to File -> Data File Management. From there, go to each PST file and do the following. Click on the PST file, click settings, and then select Compact Now.
3) Next up you have to go and download Mozillla Thunderbird, and install it on your PC. Yes, I know it’s a pain, but unless you want to spend money on silly little utilities, Thunderbird is your only choice. (You might even find that you like it). I used Thunderbird version 3.
4) Once Thunderbird is installed, fire it up. At first it will ask you to define email login settings, cancel this. Go to the Tools -> and select Import. From here select what you want to transfer. For the purposes of this guide I simply used Mail. It will then ask you which client to import form, select Outlook.
5) If you have a lot of email to transfer, this might take some time. It took me about 15 minutes. Be patient.
6) Once this is complete, you need to transfer all the email over to your other machine. In Thunderbird, go to Tools -> Account Settings. Go to Local folder on the left directory, and then under Message Storage look where your “profile” is being stored. Using Explorer, go find that file. You might find that you need to switch off Hide Files and Folders to get to it. Mine was stored at: C:\Users\Minnaar Pieters\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\y9e76tao.default
7) Once you find the folder (it typically has a cryptic name and ends with a “default” extension), copy it to some external storage that you can open on your mac. A network folder will do as well. (Its even easier if you are running Windows inside a VM, just share to your host Mac’s drive).
8) Once you have stored the profile folder (that one ending in “default) on your Mac somewhere, its time to fire up Mail. In Mail, go to File -> Import Mailboxes. This will bring up a box where you must select “Thunderbird”. Click Next, and then it will ask you to feed it that “default” file you saved somewhere on your Mac. Using the finder window that pops up, go and select that folder.
9) Now the Import will start. Again, be prepared to wait a while, especially if it is a lot of email.
And there you have it. Now you can enjoy all your heaps of emails on your Mac. If you want to import your email on Entourage, it is quite easy from here as well. Here are the steps:
If you are really someone who enjoys Entourage, go ahead and use it. If however, you have issues with it, you might be happy to know that Snow Leopard has Exchange support built in. So if you have been using Entourage only for the Exchange support, you might want to try to use the built in tools in Mail.
Happy emailing.
I have recently got hold of a Amazon Kindle International Edition (review coming in the next few weeks), and I have to agree, it is a very impressive little piece of hardware. While its basic hardware is not really all that incredible (except maybe the e-ink screen), the device is significant in that it might shake up the entire publishing industry, from books to magazines to newspapers. As a bit of gadget obsessed society, we sometimes to tend to become obsessed more with the hardware than the actual facts. Case in point - Sun newspaper in the UK made this excellent ad that just makes us think twice about e-readers, iPhones, "iSlates" etc.
Makes you think eh?
These days a lot of virusses and worms spread through the use of USB devices like Flash disks and external harddrives. I would go so far as to say that most viruses I encounter these days use this method.
Seeing as you cannot really avoid them, somehow you need to protect your Windows machine against these threats. These virusses are pretty smart in that they exploit the autorun functionality within Windows - that same little window that pops up when you insert a CD or connect a hard drive - and then installs the virus right there and then.
The best tool to avoid these autorun viruses is called Panda USB Vaccine. First it will "vaccinate" your computer, preventing autorun code being run. From there you can configure it to remove autorun files from devices that you insert into your computer, which neautralizes their threat as well. The great thing about installing Panda Vaccine is that you are actually helping everyone out. Most people are not even aware that they are spreading virusses, and keep on using their flash disks on all their friends and colleugues computers.
I installed this on all my windows computers at home and work (desktops, laptops and servers), and I have started carrying around a copy on my flash disk, just to spread the word. It is that good.
Get it here, Take note their is a earlier version doing the rounds - go for the latest one which runs in the background on your PC and automatically vaccinates all inserted disks. Oh yeah, and its free.
Seeing as I am changing jobs in 2010, I had to go ahead and buy myself a new Macbook Pro (ouch), which will replace my year old Macbook Unibody. To be honest, I have loved the Macbook since the moment I got it, but I have to give it back to my old place of work. Upgrading to the Macbook Pro is a strange experience, to the untrained eye the two machines look almost exactly the same. I went for the higher end 2.53 GHz model, and upgraded the hard drive to a 7200 rpm model just for a little more zip. But boy do you feel the difference once you start playing around. The biggest difference can be felt in VMware Fusion, which is probably down to double the RAM. Here you can see the two brothers side by side:
Recently I decided to give my dedicated Garmin GPS to my girlfriend, seeing as she would use it a lot more than me, but I still needed to have sort of navigation system for myself, so I decided to start looking what the appstore has to offer. There are quite a decent number of GPS titles available, but NDrive was the most popular navigation app in the SA appstore. I got hold of a review copy and here are my impressions.
At $69 it is slightly cheaper than equivalant products from TomTom and Navigon, and so far I am very impressed. The interface is decent, and the routing is accurate. I have been driving with it for the past few weeks and the maps seem pretty up to date. Have to say, being a mapping company in SA cannot be easy at the moment - with all the construction going on for the World Cup, roads changes are very frequent. Luckily, NDrive worked fine everywhere I drove, and I only once drove on a road that it did not know of. Much better than the latest Garmin mapsets.
Graphics within the app is very decent, with a nice frame rate while you are driving (I was used to Garmin GPS's which only updated frames once a second, and that was a high end unit). The app also functions perfectly in both landscape or portrait orientation. My guess is most people will prefer the landscape orientation - it just suits the display of routes better.
While the accuracy of the GPS was a little off at first, it became better once I put it underneath the windscreen - I guess the iPhone does not have the most powerful GPS chip. Talking about power - I was surprised that the battery did last a bit longer than I expected, especially compared to using Google Maps on your phone. The major difference of course is that with Google Maps the phone is constantly downloading map info. For longer journeys I do recommend getting a car charger however, and maybe a cradle as well.
Driving instructions were slightly more frequent than on the Garmin - it keeps on making sure that you "keep left" or "keep right" even if the highway clearly has a turnoff, and you are heading straight. While some might find it annoying, I found it handy on a recent trip to Gauteng, where I had no idea where I was.
Finding addresses or POI's is easy enough on the app. It functions similiar to other apps - I found that it was pretty up to date, and I could easily find restaurants, banks, etc. Route calculation is quick as well. What I did like is that route deviations can be easily entered - by clicking the green button on the left, you can inform the app of roadblocks, and it it will quickly recalculate. "Safety" camera warnings are also given clearly - it also prominently displays the speed limit on the screen. The user can also enter a speed at which it should give a warning beep. So if you have a heavy foot, that might come in handy.
One point of criticisim I have for the app is the use of its own keybaord, instead of the iPhone keyboard. While it is perfectly functional, I do prefer having some consistency in apps. I spoke to the guys at NDrive, and supposedly they are working on integrating the iPhone keyboard in a future update. NDrive is also a much better product when used on a iPhone 3GS - the extra RAM makes everything a lot smoother. If you are using it on a iPhone 3G I recommend you use a memory management tool to first clear the device RAM, then it is quick as well.
Music that you want to play through your iPhone has to be selected beforehand, and tracks will then need to be changed with the "double click the home button" method. If you need to change the playlist, you need to exit NDrive, change the music, then reopen NDrive. NDrive will then give you the option to just resume your previous navigation. This is more of limitation of the platform rather than the app however.
Overall I am very impressed by NDrive - despite the limitations that the iPhone platform presents, the app is well rounded and easy to use. As a primary GPS device I think the iPhone has become powerful enough to replace the dedicated GPS unit - yes there are caveats, but nothing beats the conveniance of have having of not having to carry another device with you. As Richard Mulholland puts it - the cellphone has truly become the perfect predator - it just keeps on eating dedicated devices...
PS: I have one copy of NDrive to give away. Valued at $69 it is worth quite a bit as well. What I want from you is to give your best single tip for a South African iPhone user. It can be anything - accessories, apps to download, tips and tricks. It should only be one single tip... As long as it has a specific use for a South African... (also, dont copy other people's tips, it wont fly. So if you have a good tip, and you are first to post it, then you are eligible) Competition ends 21 November at 12:00.
Update: Well done edwinwatson - you win the app. Thanks for the tip!
After my recent iPhone failure, I have realized that keeping your iPhone in a decent case is almost mandatory. Vodacom scruntinizes every phone that has problems – even the smallest scratch can result in them refusing to repair your phone. The fact of the matter is that a iPhone is still a phone – I do think that Vodacom might perhaps be a bit stringent on some cases. Having a scratch on the back of an iPhone is not abuse in my opinion.
Well, rather safe than sorry right? The best cases for iPhone I have come across include the following:
Speck Candyshell: Yes, this is the best iPhone case bar none. It uses a clever enclosure that has semi hardshell on the outside, and a soft silicone inside. It fits the iPhone very tightly, and the best part is that it looks really good on the phone. The older generation Candyshell came in some silly colours which was not really my style (Watermelon pink en white?), but the new generation ones do look a little more neutral which come in plain white or black amongst other. Call me boring, but I like my phone in a neutral colour. Only one downside to the Candyshell – the headphone hole can be slightly small, which gives problems with some headphones. Not a biggy, but it could not fit my car audio system's aux in plug.
Bone Cases: KNR Flatrock have now started importing these cases as an alternative to iSkin cases, which are quite expensive. These Bone cases are much better priced than iSkin, and they are of very good quality. While it does not ooze the quality of the iSkin cases, it does look like very good value. One of the cases I reviewed is called the Wrap, which have a integrated clip for coiling your headphones on. Not really my cup of tea (I don’t carry headphones everywhere), but you might find something like that handy. They make a few other cool cases as well - like the Wave. What I like about Bone cases are that they are slightly thinner - so if you are bothered by cases that make your phone too big, these are the ones to go for.
They go for about R199 at Look and Listen.]
OSIR Carbon case: This is one strange case. These cases are made by the same people who make actual carbon fibre aftermarket parts for cars, and yeah, the case is pricey. $59 in fact. The case is beautiful, light, and made very well. It clips onto the back of the phone, very firmly. When on the phone, it looks like the iPhone has a carbon rear. And therein lies its biggest problem – it has no protection for the front of the phone. And that is a deal breaker. The case is more form than function. (Image: jabella)
On Wednesday morning I headed over to the Nokia The Way we Live Next event in Cape Town. Richard Mulholland did an excellent job of explaining the current mobile landscape. During the presentation a few things were highlighted that really did make me think. Needless to say, the topic soon shifted to that other company who has a fruity name. No, not the Canadian guys.
Nokia was started many years ago, but only stepped into the cellular business in the last 2 decades, with a simple mission. They wanted to put phone in every person's hand. They went about this is by creating specialized handsets for every person's needs. For example, one person might want a big screen, another might need a qwerty keyboard. And this has evidently worked out very well for them.
What has however happened in the last 3 years is that the era of the very powerful hardware with custom software is fading away quickly. We are seeing a shift towards the phone as a platform, more than a focus on hardware (when is the last time you worried about how many megapixels your phone has?). People are interested not only in what the phone can do, but more significantly, what the phone might be able to do in future.
Buyers of the future do not want to be bombarded with 50 different phone models in a cellphone brochure. They want the phone that has the most potential. Case in point - in 2007 the two most notable phones that were released on the market was the Nokia N95 and the original, non 3G, iPhone. At that point in time, the N95 was streets ahead in terms of hardware (except maybe for the screen). Take a look at this 2 years later. The N95 has lost the attention of Nokia, and you are pretty much expected to have upgraded to something newer by this point. Not so much the case with the iPhone. Apple has continually upgraded the phone up until today. True, it might not have the features of the newer iPhones, but its value has increased over time, and the device is much, much more powerful than the day you might have bought it. Before the iPhone, this idea of a phone as a continually upgrading platform was unheard of. Now why would Apple keep updating the software of phones it has stopped making?
Richard made an excellent point - up to now, cellphone manufacturers considered buyers of the phone as the most important part of a successful business strategy. What has now happened is that buyers are still important, but there is a certain group of people who makes or breaks your phone these days - developers. If your phone is OS is difficult to develop for, there will be a lack of apps, which will lead to a lack of sales, seeing as the cellphone as a platform is what is important to buyers these days. If the platform is easy to develop for, developers will rush to be part of it. Phone manufacturers of the future must start looking at other forms of revenue - true, smaller, better, cooler looking phones will always sell, but the revenue models for manufacturers will now change. They will make their money by sharing the income generated by applications. It is for this very reason that Apple has now officially taken over Nokia in terms of handset profits.
While I dont expect Nokia to shift away from Symbian, I do see Maemo becoming their more sacred OS. If they can keep the number of devices running Maemo low, while making it affordable as well, they might very well have a real chance at giving the iPhone a go. Developers might like to develop for the iPhone, but the backlash in terms of Apple's padlock is starting to happen. The developer of Facebook for iPhone (which is arguably the most popular app on the phone) has publicly stated he has given up his efforts with the iPhone. These developers that have grown tired of Apple will want to develop for something else - so far it looks like Maemo and Android will be the eager candidates. Android already has the slight disadvantage in that soon there will be too many variations of models that run the OS out there. While the "openness" of Android is great, every manufacturer of Android phones want to create a differentiator in their product line, which leads to more variations that developers have to cater for. Hopefully Nokia will keep the Maemo OS on only a few devices, with a hopefully generic hardware set (same resolutions, relatively similiar capabilities).
At the recent Nokia "The Way We Live Next" event, I got the chance to play around with some new models that are coming. Here are some of my impressions:
Nokia N900:
Nokia N97 Mini:
Just a smaller version of the N97. Nothing to write home about - I never really thought the N97 was oversized, so its difficult to understand why this model was made.
Nokia X6:
Nokia E72:
Nokia Booklet 3G:
iPhone repair/replacement in South Africa is shocking (Updated 4 November)
02 Nov 2009
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Lets face it - we live in a Beta culture where we are used to things not working, and we have almost become content with it. No matter what advertising tells us, the gadgets we use are designed to have a functional life of only a few years, after which we will inevitably replace it. Sometime however, duds fall into the production line of modern devices, and then we as buyers have to go through the entire process of getting a replacement unit. The fact of the matter is that it should be as much effort as it is.
Recently my iPhone 3GS has started to show some weird symptoms - the phone would suddenly become slow, after which it will become very warm to touch. After becoming unresponsive I had to reboot the phone, only to realise that it only reboots after around ten reboots. Something was clearly wrong. So then I did the recommended full restore of the phone, which made the phone work for another day. However, its music library did not index its files, and again, the phone overheated and froze up.
So Saturday 24 October I took the phone to Vodacare Canal Walk, and they booked the phone in. They checked for marks and damage (there was luckily absolutely none) and gave me my job number. Here is my first problem - I had a Invisible Shield on the phone (which costs around R200 at Vodashops) and obviously I cannot remove the film on the device. They said they will reimburse me for the film - but I have a feeling they wont hold up their end of the deal. Their policy is to return / replace the phone within 7 workdays. They also had no loaner phones.
After a technician looked at the phone, I got an SMS on Monday 26 October to tell me the phone is being sent to Vodacom head office. Since then I have not heard anything. Nothing. I had to phone them to enquire what is going on today, and they had not ETA for when my phone will be back. They could not confirm that the phone is being replaced - in fact they did not know what is going on with my phone, or where it is in their system. If I buy a very expensive phone on which I rely every day, I expect Vodacom to at least communicate to me where the phone is, and know what is happening with the phone.
The reason why I am writing this post is that I believe we deserve better service. In the rest of the world, iPhones get replaced on the spot, no questions asked. No reason to send it away, no possible repair. As someone who spends a lot of money with Vodacom, I believe the way they handle these iPhone repairs are poor. Part of the reason people pay more for Apple products is the improved after sales service. Once again, this is only true outside of South Africa.
Update: I posted this on HelloPeter as well. So far Vodacom has replied with a generic "thanks for your feedback" message. Lets see if they come back to me.
Update 4 Nov: Today I got an SMS from Vodacom telling me the phone has been repaired and is back at Vodacare Canal Walk. I phoned them asking what they repaired - they said they updated the software. Just to clarify - the phone was running the latest software when I sent it in. I also explicitly asked Vodacare to contact me when a technician has the phone - I wanted to explain to him that a firmware restore works, but the phone stops functioning a while later. Needless to say, they did NOT phone me, and simply did a firmware restore (just like I did) and sent it back.
I will now have to pick up the phone again, and if I have the same problem send it again. Then I will have to wait another ten days for another repaired/replacement phone.
Vodacom - you clearly do not have support structures in place for the iPhone. If you have to send a iPhone up to head office, just to do a software update (which I have done already), you might want to look at getting better technicians.
