In the post, I have a link on where to buy your iTunes vouchers, and until recently I had a link to a site called Maximus cards. They used to offer the cards at a pretty reasonable price, and offered payment using PayPal. Until this week :( They announced that from the 7th September, they would no longer be offering PayPal as a payment option.

So, I did some research. Eventually I came across a site called iTunesUSA.co.za. Yip, local guys offering iTunes vouchers at almost the same price as the other guys, AND they offer PayPal as a payment option. The other big thing that appealed to me with them, is that the delivery was instant. As soon as you made the payment using PayPal, you got the code in your email. Straight away !! I put a tweet out yesterday asking who owned the site, and within a couple of hours, I got a phonecall from the guys who run the site. After a 45 min chat, I came away with, this is someone who loves what they do. And such a cool idea.

I sat down last night, and put some figures together of all the iTunes Voucher sellers that I knew of round the net. I then compared all the prices, and slapped it into a Google doc. It turns out, iTunesUSA.co.za works out pretty reasonable.
Here is the comparison I did of all the sellers that I know of.

Lets support the local guys. I know I’m going to :)

Another awesome read by Apple boy Pete, who takes a look at last night’s Apple event with a whole whack of new stuff announced. I know I can’t wait for the AppleTV. Gonna be game changing. Would love to hear your thoughts on the event in the comments below

As one of South Africa’s number one Apple fanboys, I of course watched the live video stream of Apple’s media event on 1 September with baited breath (yes, yes, “reality distortion field” and all that).  I think that yesterday’s announcements were Apple’s second biggest of the year, after the iPad introduction.  Here is my take:

• iOS 4.1 is launching next week (Wednesday, 8 September, apparently, according to Apple’s Spanish site).  While it seems to mostly be bug fixes, it includes game centre and high dynamic range photographs.  In terms of game centre…  We’ll have to see what it means practically for gaming on the iPhone, though as a keen gamer I hope that it means that the fragmentation of iOS social gaming into a dozen or so different third party networks (Openfeint, Plus+, Scoreloop, Crystal, etc.) will come to an end.  More exciting to me right now is HDR.  While the iPhone 4 (yes, I’m one of the lucky ones!) has a vastly improved camera, it is still virtually impossible to get good photos under anything but perfect lighting conditions.  Parts of the image always seem to be either over- or underexposed.  The HDR feature will cause the iPhone to take three photos in rapid succession: one under-exposed, one normal and one over-exposed.  Through some magic, the three images then get combined into a single image with much better contrast.

• Wireless printing is coming to the iPad (and apparently iPhone too!) in November.   Multi-tasking, folders, unified inbox, threaded email and all the other features we’ve come to depend on iPhone are finally coming to iPad as part of the iOS 4.2 update in November.  Printing and multi-tasking would certainly make the iPad an even more useful device than it is today.  It’s also worth pointing out that with the release of iOS 4.2 on both iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, it will mark the first time that all iOS devices are running the same version of the operating system and that hopefully in future the iPad will always be updated simultaneously with its smaller brethren.

• Apple has massively overhauled their iPod line-up.  Seems like the iPod Classic is slowly being phased out; apparently it will remain on sale for now but it was the only model not getting a makeover today.  I suspect Apple wants people to buy an iPod Touch rather than the aging Classic.  The iPod Nano is now touch enabled and the size of two postage stamps, and the iPod Touch is getting feature parity in a lot of areas with the iPhone (retina display, processing power, etc.).  The iPod is Apple’s only product that has seen sales numbers decline over the last year or two.  I think they’re working to stem the tide to ensure that they don’t see further sales decline there.  (The iPhone has been cannibalising iPod sales, it seems.  Not a train smash for Apple, because the iPhone’s profits more than made up the difference.  But after selling a quarter billion iPods over the last decade or so, Apple will surely not want to let a product line  that was pivotal in their turnaround from nearly-insolvent dinosaur to most valuable tech company in the world just slowly die without a fight.)

• The new iPod Touch finally has front- and rear-facing cameras and a microphone.  And guess what?  You can now make FaceTime video calls.  From an iPod Touch.  Which is less than half the price of an iPhone.  With no cellular contract (and no GSM connectivity).  It’s not just Google that’s busy working towards making the telcos obsolete (in their current form) with Google Voice.  Now Apple is making it possible to call people, with very high quality video and audio, through an intuitive interface from a portable media device aimed at teens and 20-somethings, with no call charges.  AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone…  Meet the future.

• Apple made a big deal about the fact that the iPod Touch is now the BIGGEST portable gaming device in the world.  Kinda by accident, through the huge success of the app store, the iPod Touch (even without the iPhone) now has a greater market share than both Sony and Nintendo’s handhelds COMBINED with a 50+% share of both the US and global market.  Part of that success is the ease through which games can be bought and downloaded from the app store.  Part of it is the fact that high quality titles in the app store cost a fraction of what Sony and Nintendo games go for.  Seems like Apple is finally making peace with the fact that they accidentally, and with great hesitance, became the traditional gaming giants’ biggest competitor.  They demoed a game (a version of which is now available in the app store as Epic Citadel) that pretty much kicks the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS’s asses when played on an iPhone 4.  Wow.  Between Unreal Engine based games and John Carmack bringing Rage to iOS, you really don’t have to hide your iPhone gaming addiction from your PSP and DS wielding buddies.  (In fact, they’re ones deserving your pity!)

• iTunes is getting a new logo.  Now I knooooow.  ”Pete, that’s not a big deal.”  Bear with me.  Steve Jobs mentioned that seeing as iTunes will probably sell more tracks by next year than the CD retail industry does, it was time to get rid of the CD in the logo.  Apple’s transformation of the music industry, for better or for worse (depending on who you ask and whether they make a living off selling CD’s), is pretty much complete.

• Right.  So Google is trying to build a Facebook-clone called Google Me.  Guess what?  Apple launched their own social network today.  In iTunes.  A media player used by millions and millions of people.  (iTunes now has 160 million accounts with linked credit cards.)  It seems to be a hybrid of Facebook and Twitter, aimed at music discovery.  Set up your profile.  Follow people.  Follow artists.  Post video clips.  See the Top 10 songs etc. of the folks you follow.  See what they’re listening to at the moment.  See Lady Gaga’s favourite music tracks (you know, the stuff SHE likes to listen to).  Listen to those tracks.  One-click buy them.  Brilliant.  And it’s right there, in an app millions of people use every. single. day.  Unlike Google, Apple is actually playing into their strengths, solving a problem many media-afficionados have, building a social network on top of something that is already hugely popular. This isn’t a ME TOO effort.  This is something I would use (and yes, I am the target market, since I love music and other forms of content).  Oh, and of course Ping will work on iOS devices too.  More than 100 million of them. Effectively, Apple is bootstrapping their social network with more users than Twitter currently has.  (And someone made the point that Ping might just be the final nail in MySpace’s coffin, seeing as MySpace still manages to hang on to life support as a place where many bands promote their music.)

• Apple is relaunching the Apple TV.  The new model (rolling out end of this month in the US and perhaps a few other privileged countries) is a quarter of the size of the original Apple TV.  It’s a little black box, the size of your palm.  It comes with Wifi and ethernet connectivity options, and has an HDMI output for hooking up to your TV.  So essentially, to get it working is pretty much as easy as hooking up power, plugging the HDMI cable into your TV and BAM!

• The focus is all on streaming and renting.  No purchases.  Jobs said that people don’t want to have to manage storage, and I agree.  HD TV shows from Fox and ABC can now be rented for 99c / episode.  (The other studios are not yet keen.  Seems like there are limits to the “Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field.”)  New release HD movies can be rented for $4.99.  You can stream Netflix and Youtube at the push of a button.  The interface is extremely slick and efficient.  You can also stream video and music from any of the computers in your house, and make photo slideshows from your photo library.

• Once the new iOS update arrives in November, you’ll be able to stream content from your iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad to your Apple TV.  So you sit on the couch with your iPad, browse to a movie you half-watched in bed on your iPad last night, open it, tap a button to send it to your Apple TV, and BAM! it continues playing on your TV.  No wires, no fuss.  Seamless interaction between all your (Apple) media devices.

• All of this Apple TV fun costing… $99.  I think that’s a brilliant price point for a device that both Steve Jobs and I believe will go from “hobby for hardcore Apple nerds” to mainstream now, and the perfect complement to the rest of Apple’s ecosystem.  Soon, many people will be playing with three Apple devices in the living room.  iPhone in the shirt pocket, iPad on the lap, Apple TV remote in hand.  Steve Jobs really believes there is no such thing as “too much of a good thing.”

• (The caveat in all of this is of course that all this beautiful content is only available in a handful of countries.  Which won’t stop me from getting an Apple TV, naturally, but will require a bit of nerd trickery to operate here in SA, given the complete absence of the iTunes Music / Media Store in our part of the world.)

And that pretty much covers it.  Making high quality mobile calls without a phone, a social network, same content shared everywhere on any (Apple) device, an even greater gaming focus (and keep in mind that the games industry is starting to eclipse Hollywood), an improved and cheaper Apple TV… Folks, don’t sell those AAPL shares just yet!  Apple’s brilliant transformation from also-ran to front-runner in the tech space is far from over.

Now if only Steve would bring the iTunes Media Store to South Africa…

The position is a permanent position and is based in the Randburg area. Salary is highly negotiable.

Role

• Architect and build applications on the Apple iPhone SDK.
• Submit applications to the Apple App Store.

Skills

The following capabilities are critical to the position:

• ObjectiveC, Cocoa Touch, Core Data, File I/O, XCode, SQLlite, HTML and CSS, JavaScript, AJAX and JSON.
• Successfully submitted at least 1 application to the Apple iPhone App Store.
• Navigation-based and Tab-bar application development.
• OpenGL application development an advantage.
• Application architecture.
• Analytical thinking.
• User experience/information architecture.
• Quality oriented.
• Flexibility (including time flexibility).
• Service oriented.
• Performance under pressure.

I thought I would put a few thoughts down on how to ensure that when using a QR Code, be it in a campaign or personal use, making sure you get the full potential out of them.

• Use a decent QR Code generator
  I use Zing which is built on the open source Google chart API. It is fast, and offers a variety of options. Another site I came across this morning is http://www.qrstuff.com/, which also seems pretty cool. You can also use http://imagecharteditor.appspot.com/ to create QR Codes. Quickmark also has a pretty cool SDK which allows you to create your own QR codes in your applications.
• Ensure your landing page is Mobile compatible.
  This is huge. You cannot direct people to a URL using a non-mobile webpage and expect them to browse that using their phone. QR Codes are designed to open on a mobile phone screen, so make sure your site is mobile compatible. If you have a Wordpress site, install the mobilepress or WPTouch plugins which will automagically transform your normal site into a Wordpress site. If you don’t use Wordpress….um…..
• Use short URL’s
  I have written about this before, and when it comes to QR Codes, the shorter the better. Having a shorter URL ensures that your image size is smaller. Use a URL shortener like Bit.ly to make your URL’s smaller. Bit.ly also offers basic tracking stats, so you will be able to see how many times your URL has been opened.
• Use Capital letters
  This one may sound a bit silly, but a QR Code with a url of http://bit.ly/aaaa will be bigger (image size) than a QR Code with the URL of http://bit.ly/AAAA.
• Make your content relevant & valuble.
  Don’t expect people to snap a QR Code displayed in a magazine about gadgets, and then it takes them to a article about fish. Test your code before your publish it. It could lead to a potentially embarrassing situation :)  Rather link to a webpage about your product or campaign, and then on the page have a video, as opposed to linking straight through to a video.
• Tell people what QR Codes are
  Because QR codes are a relitvley new technology (outside of Japan), you need to educate your users on what they are all about. Include a link on your site, or even below the image about what QR Codes are all about and where to download a QR Code reader from. It will still be a while till people know what QR codes are all about and how to use them.
• Download a quality QR Code reader.
  I use Quickmark on the iPhone which seems to work the best and fastest. They also have apps for Nokia & Android. For Blackberry you can use BeeTagg
• Get users to “Like” your Facebook page using QR Codes.
  This isn’t a must do, but more of a useful tip. Create a QR Code that will give people a like button to like your site or URL. You can create a URL that will point straight to the Facebook Like link (http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http://marcforrest.com) or read more about it on this site

There are loads of uses for QR Codes. I can think of a few off the top of my head. Code in a magazine pointing to more info about a specific gadget and video of how it works. Or, a QR Code in a menu in a restaurant that links to a webcam in the kitchen or video of how the food is made. What about a QR Code on the flyer of an event or band that gives your more info about them or the full line up of a festival, and offer calendar events & a free song of the band which you can download. The possibilities are endless. If you wanna chat more about QR Codes, drop me a line on my contact page, and I would love to chat more about it.

Have you got any QR Code tips & tricks to get the most of these awesome codes ? Share them in the comments below.

Techcentral reported earlier today that MTN would also be offering the iPhone 4 on contracts, when it (finally) launches in South Africa towards the end of September. We all know the iPhone 4 is going to be big in South Africa, I have already had over 3500 views on my iPhone 4 in South Africa post I did a while back. But I still have a pertinent question, which is really bothering me about the iPhone in South Africa.

Which operator, be it MTN, Vodacom or Cell C, will be able to provide the best support for the phone ?

Support, not just being hardware support, but also software and iPhone support. My biggest “gripe” with the iPhone in South Africa, is that people are spending up to 10K on a phone,  without knowing their full capabilities.
The fact that it is so much more than just a phone, and you can install applications and use it for push email, amongst a whole whack of other things, makes me believe that the network operators have to play some part in promoting the phone, instead of just “selling it”.

Vodacom have been selling the iPhone for just short on 2 years, and have already sold around 110k iPhones in South Africa. They have the upper hand I think, with the knowledge and expertise gained, as well as offering services such as Visual Voicemail & dedicated iPhone packages. But yet daily, I get emails from people who need assistance with their iPhones, that’s why I setup SA iPhone Help to try and help people with posing questions about the iPhone.

At the end of the day, for me, it isn’t about the price, or about the best data bundle, which ever cellular network wants to be want to be the market leaders in the iPhone 4 race, they are going to have offer better support & education on the iPhone which will educate the users about the phone and it’s capabilities.

Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below :)

Starting today they will be selling Vodacom Branded “Smartphones” at entry level prices. Starting at R399 for the basic model, to R599 for the fully fledged model that includes a camera and QWERTY keyboard.

I think this will be interesting to see and allow everyone access to high level phones.

Here is the press release from MyBroadband:

Vodacom unveils its new smartphone range with prices starting at R399; ‘Up to 50% off’ sale launched

Vodacom today announced that it is bringing a range of new handsets to South Africa that promise to ‘revolutionise access to communications at affordable prices’.

According to Vodacom these devices give those on a budget the opportunity to experience the benefits of full communications including web access and email along with some of the gadgets like cameras and MP3 players.

Vodacom is launching three new Vodafone branded smartphones priced between R399 and R599 per month:

The VF340, priced at R399, comes equipped with Opera Mini, an FM radio, an MP3/ACC player as well as a built-in camera and changeable covers.
The VF543, priced at R499, features a touchscreen and supports email and web applications like Facebook and Twitter. It also features an FM radio, Bluetooth 2.0, and video recording capabilities.
The VF546, priced at R599, features a full QWERTY keyboard for optimised internet browsing, email, SMS, chat and a 2MP camera. The 546 is distinctive in that it offers both Zulu and Xhosa language options.
“Providing access to communications has been a key focus for Vodacom over many years, and we’re excited to be able to use our relationship with Vodafone to bring in these new handsets which really do provide revolutionary functionality at an affordable price,” said Mark Taylor, Managing Executive: Terminals, Financials and Online Services for Vodacom SA.

50% discount sale

Vodacom also recently launched its ‘up to 50% off’ sale which slashes the price of its 300 MB data bundle contracts and various mobile phones on prepaid and 24 month contracts.

Some of the deals include:

300 MB data bundle and 3G capable Linkbook netbook at R99 per month on a 24 month contract
300 MB of data and a Huawei K3565 3.6 Mbps HSDPA modem for R99 per month on a 24 month contract
A Sony Ericsson W995 for R1499 on prepaid – a saving of R2400
An LG KT610 phone on a Top Up 135 package for R69 per month on a 24 month contract (saving R1440)
These ‘50% off’ deals are valid from 7 August until 6 September

I am sitting at the Vida in Sandton after being blown away by the Gautrain. That was amazing !!!! Airport to Sandton in like 15 mins. I honestly felt like i was in London :)

So, I have decided that for the 2 days of Tech4Africa conference I am gong to only use the iPad. I left the macbook at home, and all note taking, blog posting and tweeting will be done between a combination the iPhone, iPad and MiFi. I think the biggest challenges will be the iPhone battery life as well as getting used to the iPad keyboard. I think it should be ok :)

I am thinking of using Evernote on the iPad to take notes, and TwitBirdPro for tweeting on the iPad. The ever faithful Tweetie on the iPhone will suffice there.

I will writing a couple of blog posts on the Tech4Africa blog, about the conference in general and 1 or 2 of the sessions. There is also a live Twitter stream on the site, which you can follow if you missing out. All in all, I am really looking forward to the next couple of days, and if you at the conf, please come say howdy :)

I came across this very cool offer the other day, for a piece of software called iSkysoft iPhone Video Converter, which allows you to convert most video format’s into videos specifically for the iPhone. The software scales the video’s to the correct size, and then allows you to add them to iTunes, which can then be synced to your iPhone or iPad

From the iSkysoft site:

iSkysoft iPhone Video Converter for Mac converts all popular video and audio formats such as AVI, MPEG, MOV, OGG, WAV to iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 4 supported formats including MP4, MP3, etc. This Mac iPhone Video Converter software provides a series of practical settings such as video crop, file trim, video brightness, contrast and saturation, and merging multiple files into one outputfile.

The free offer is only valid till the 26th of July, and they will send you a key to use the full functionality. It usually costs $29

To download the software you can go to the iSkySoft site - http://www.iskysoft.com/iphone-video-converter-mac.html for Mac’s or http://www.iskysoft.com/iphone-movie-converter-windows.html

Well, that was until this morning. Enter Flipboard (iTunes Link). A free app for your iPad from the iTunes app store. Flipboard will revolutionise the way we will use the iPad. It puts the news you WANT to read and is relevent to you, in an awesome looking magazine format.

Here is a video on how the app works:

You simply “swipe” through to the next page, pinch & zoom into an article, and read your news. But for me, the big seller in Flipboard is the fact that it integrates with your social networks. So, it links into Twitter & Facebook and shows you content that has been retweeted or shared by your friends. So for example if someone shares a link on Twitter from any website, it will present it on your Flipboard.

Here is an example. Here is a page from my Flipboard which shows images & stories shared by friends on Facebook.

You can also add specific catgories, like tech & photos etc, which will show you the best of the web. I also love the way page turns and the “animation” it uses.

This is by far one of the best mobile or desktop applications I have used in a long long time. If you have an iPad I highly recommend you download Flipboard, and if you don’t have an iPad, I suggest you download the app, and go and buy one :)

The response to the app has been phenomenal and really exceeded all our expectations. In fact, almost every single comment or feedback we received about the app, has been positive. To give you some idea of how many downloads we have had, we have had close on 1,000 downloads of the app already, with about 80% of these coming from the SA iTunes store. What it also means though, and proves my previous point, is that the iPhone market in South Africa is still pretty uneducated about downloading and using iPhone apps.

Thanks to everyone who has downloaded the app and the positive feedback. We working busy working on ver 2.0, which will be filled with loads of new and exciting features. Also, once again, I just want to say a big big thanks to Juliaan who put so much time into this app, without him, none of this would have been possible :)