Vodacom "gift" box
Vodacom wants me to use the what is left of my remaining free anytime minutes so I can get 10 gift minutes. One has to wonder how cheap service delivery is to make this worth their while on the off chance I may use some billable minutes, I suppose they make their money from the pricy contracts already. Bloody bean counters have us all figured out!
Mobile phone data projectors. Paradigm shift?
Every day on the schoolyard a familiar scenario plays out where a group of kids all huddle around someone with a cellphone, pumping out the latest and greatest MP3 over the built in speaker. These kids can also be seen on their bicycles playing the same songs, walking in the mall playing the same song (loudly, so everyone hears) etc, etc.
The next big thing that all the mobile manufacturers are scrambling for seems to be the inclusion of a teeny tiny data projector, built right into the phone. No doubt this is originally meant for photo sharing and business purposes, but I can see something else evolving out of it. Perhaps this will be what the kids on the playground latch onto next?
Marketers, keep an eye out on this one, mobile video may become the holy grail for embedded advertising in ways we never thought of. The small screen has become untethered.
Pantech releases blow-controlled cellphone
I was a suffering from caffiene withdrawal when I saw this post of a Blow Controlled mobile phone, and the following crazy scenario played through my head, this is what I would have blogged if it was all true (which it's not):
[Start of silly fictitious post here ...]
Amazing, finally someone has savvied to the idea of a blow controlled cellphone. Ever since watching fear and loathing, I knew there was more to a bit of blow than meets the eye.
Meet [insert manufacturer here] "blow-controlled" mobile.
I mean, who needs anything more than a really basic phone anyways. The coolness factor should an could always be influenced by providing the user with appropriate quantities of blow during purchase and carefully regulating the users intake when accessing features like the phonebook and looking for a "multiple recipient" feature etc.
At last, someone has now released that exact phone. Brilliant. Much in the same way as Apple may be laceing their packaging with crack so that people will continually buy their products once buying the first, no matter how bad it is, someone has realised that introducing a notable narcotic in your product offering will sweeten the deal just so much more, while simultaneously easing product development. Almost makes that 2 year Vodacom Weekender contract (with the useless weekend minutes) more bearable.
[End of silly fictitious post here ...]
Sadly:
No folks sorry to disappoint but this is fact an actual device made by Pantech as featured by engadget mobile and as crazy as it sounds, this device is really controlled by the "wind" or rather the action of you gently blowing into the microphone may be used to adjust things like brightness, and volume..
Disclaimer: The fact and opinions expressed on this blog are completely a figment of the authors distorted mind, and can in no way be traced back to anything correlating with any one entity or event in reallife ever. This is a work of fiction and is there only as a parody/bit of a joke and will be gladly removed at the request of any party directly affected by it.
FM Tech, Iphone announcement, huh?!
This little article on FMTech seems a little odd? The writer (Duncan McCleod) seems to be knowing a lot of facts saying that this and that WILL be released and that Jobs WILL be giving a tech spec on the new phone, and that Vodacom is going to be selling it here etc. Yes, this may all become true, but until that time I suggest he sticks to the news and stops tossing a log on the rumor mill. Masquerading speculation as fact is just wrong sorry ... leave that to engadget.
Are you living virtually?
Every night a strange thing happens all over the world, people get home after work, slip into a an alternate persona and go off to do their own thing, things like heading over to their multistory mansions for a bit of DIY or gardening, dancing with people they have never met before, talking to people they may or may not have ever met before, engage in a bit of shopping or selling, visit a local "adult" club or fly a chopper they designed themselves to some corner of the world they have never been in. The most amazing thing? They never have to leave the comfort of their armchair at home.
This is the wonder of Second life, one of a number of virtual worlds where you can choose to be who you want to be and do what you want to do with no social restrictions. Indeed it has many traits of a real world, there are mountains, oceans, trees, houses and a real economy. Folks often have "second" careers with fairly lucrative careers in creating virtual assets such as clothing, jewellery, buildings etc.
We are talking real money here, converted to virtual dollars. In the case of Second Life this site forecasts a expenditure of between $50 million to $100 million Linden (the name of the currency) this year. At the time of writing this the Second Life site reports $424,913 US spent in the last 24 hours between the quarter of a million active users.
Are we reaching a new internet frontier, is this the first step to a Gibson-esque future?
Still not convinced? What if I told you that Amazon's Jeff Bezos has a substantial investment in Linden and that Amazon have been exploring a Second Life presence?
Other notable happenings are the recent setup of Podshow Island where you can go and visit the apartment of your favorite show and interact with the podcasters on a different level, also host to interesting events like virtual weddings. Dawn & Drew have setup a virtual farm and there fans have bought up the land all around it, Cali Lewis from Geekbrief TV also has a lot of great interaction with her audience in the second life.
The opportunity's are literally endless!
Keep an eye on this space, and give it a try - a basic account is free - but beware the time monster!
Technorati Tags: Second Life
Speedtest Prettyness
Who has ever said that speedtests have to be boring and ugly?
Bring some style to your life with this blinged out speedtest from Speedtest.net
Technorati Tags: Speedtest.net, Speedtest
Netlife reviews IS 1mbit (DSL-over-fibre)
There is an interesting review of the IS 1024 kbps DSL over fibre solution (as opposed to satelite) over on Netlife.
I quote:
Pros:
1) Uncapped & Unshapped
2) Reliable
3) Great service desk
4) Far cheaper than Diginet based solutionsCons:
1) Cost, its far from affordable for end users
2) IS retains ownership of the router.
3) Telkom is still in the loop for the last mile
4) Only 1mbitIn conclusion; this is what a DSL experience should be like, at a 10th of the price.
Bill Gates talks Wireless
Bill Gates,during today's Cape Town presentation, says that Microsoft are moving at introducing wireless technologies into Africa "so that internet can be delivered cheaply". Hey, I am all for that, but it is the article on Reuters that is dissappointing, seems that MS is teaming up with MTN (Africas biggest mobile carrier) to provide a bandwidth solution packaged with a low-end PC running a stripped down version of Windows. Why am I disappointent? Well if cost is the problem, where are the solutions using exciting initiatives like Ubuntu and Edubuntu? Where is the South African version of the Municator? Africa does not need a strip downed low-end PC, we need an appliance that can operate with minimal support.
Investors, take note! Why should we have an international company come and set down its proprietary fortress in our back yard now that their stock prices are crashing in back yard. I don't know about you, but I am tired of this continent becoming the dumping ground for the rest of the worlds old news!
At least Gates is right about one thing, Wireless is the only forward for us in this country.
Vodafone using SA as a testing ground?
I see over on The Register that Vodafone UK are only now starting to publicly over the HSDPA data cards offered over here via Vodacom partnership for a couple months already.
Interesting, does this mean that SA could be seen as a valuable testing ground for such new technologies by the international telecoms players?
Yahoo Local rolls out Microformats
Yahoo! Local has rolled out a microformat implementation that includes hCalendar, hCard, and hReview microformats on almost all business listings, search results, events, and reviews.
This is pretty big news for the Microformats community at large as this signals a paradigm shift where we will see more and more big players starting to take notice and will encourage developers of consumption tools to up there pace. Finally microformats can start the transition of a geek toy into the daily consumption of Joe Average.
Other examples of significant uFormat rollout are:
Yahoo! Tech with hReview,
Flickr with hCard on profile pages,
Upcoming.org with hCalender,
and recently Technorari Kitchen with their hCard, hCalender and hReview search.
For those that are unfamiliar with what microformats are:
Microformats are a group of set standards that allow web content publishers to publish data like contact details, calendar events etc in an easy to style (using CSS) XHMTL compliant fashion that is both easy to consume by human readers and machines and avoids duplications by not having to publish seperate vCard data etc (for example) as well.
Start consuming Microformats today by installing the Tails extension for Firefox!
Read more on Yahoo! Local Blog.
Tags: microformats
About me
Web Engineer, lover of technology, tearer down of walls.
Recent Tweets
- Winter is a funny beast, looking out the window I feel pleased that I'm at work so early (dark outside) then I realize its already 7AM!
- @elanlohmann lol, the hottie is always in the row behind you :)
- I've had enough of this day, calling it quits. Churned out a record amount of graft though.
- Wondering how the market will respond to the telkom price cut, I am pretty chuffed with my new 9Gb cap.
- Pushed hard for important progress demo today, feeling knackered! But nice to see a project come together.
- Looks like I am on accidental Helkom uncapped this month - lolz
- It was awfully dark this morning when I got up *groan*
- Not sure if Morgan Freeman was expecting the tough questions from Lee-Ann on Morning live this morning, but he didn't do to badly imho.
- @mikestopforth Ok if its something that person truly believes it. If he's a glorified version of a glomail salesperson, not so much.
- I favorited a YouTube video -- Ableton LIve - Preparing your set for the APC40 / Launchpad http://youtu.be/76WvQNJB1bk?a