MarcForrest.com

Month: April 2010

  • World Cup iPhone apps: The hot and not

    This is my 2nd article from MemeBurn

    With the FIFA 2010 World Cup around the corner, I decided to take a look at a couple of the iPhone apps on offer for our international visitors.

    Browsing through the iTunes app store I came across a few really fantastic apps on the one hand and a few, um… shall we say, interesting apps on the other hand. ? ?When judging the apps, I looked mostly at functionality, how they promote our beautiful country, and how they assist visitors with World Cup information and tourist information such as local restaurants, “must sees” and various travel tips.

    Here are the must-have apps:

    ESPN 2010 World Cup – Free
    A fantastic app that focuses primarily on the World Cup with news and information on teams. There is also a section dedicated to venue information which gives you info on the stadiums in the host cities, as well as some ideas on what to do in and around the host venues. Also included in the app is detailed team information and up-to-date ESPN news on the teams.

    My South Africa Essentials – Free
    Developed on behalf of South African Tourism, this is a must-have for the World Cup. The app not only gives you information about the actual games and stadiums in each of the host cities, but also gives you tips and ideas of what to do and see in South Africa on non-match days, which is great for tourists.

    Mahango World Cup Schedule – $0.99
    The Mahngo app allows you to check the World Cup schedule in a very neatly presented format. You can also search for specific games using the calender function, as well as read updates on team profiles as well as detailed information on the venues. The app is however lacking on the tourism info, which would make this app even better.

    Supersport – Free
    The great bonus with the Supersport app will be the live scoring feature during the World Cup, meaning that if you find yourself stuck in traffic, you still won’t miss a moment.

    World Cup 2010 – National Anthems & Chants – $0.99
    If you going to be attending any of the World Cup games, it is probably a good idea to learn the words to the national anthems just to get in the spirit of things. Along with all the anthems, this app also includes 11 football chants should you get stuck amongst the English supporters.

    The not-so-hot apps:

    South Africa safety 2010 World Cup – $0.99
    Now this app makes no sense. For $0.99 you have FULL access to the ALL emergency services numbers in South Africa. What happened to the global GSM emergency number 112? The latest update also includes a great selection of “unusual roadsigns”. To me, this sounds like a good $0.99 wasted

    Pocket Vuvuzela – Free
    So the hot item to have this year at the World Cup will be a plastic moulded horn-shaped instrument, and of course you can also have it as an iPhone app! Yes, you can annoy all your friends and family by pressing a button on your iPhone that makes that annoying noise. Charming!

    World Cup Countdown – Free
    This app does one thing and one thing only. It shows you the number of days, hours, minutes and seconds to the start of the World Cup, while going through a slide show of stock photos of South Africa. Ingenious and a MUST have – not!

    South Africa 2010 tracker – Free with in-app purchase to upgrade
    The app allows you to see fixtures and that’s about it. By purchasing the “upgrade” for $1.99, you then get access to the second stage of the competition with team predictors – what a good deal!

    2010 World Cup News – Free
    This app is a pretty useless app in the sense, all it does is offer soccer news from around the world, and has no relevance to the World Cup. The apps user interface is very badly designed and offers no extra World Cup related information at all.

    All in all, the apps that I found during my research pretty much did the same thing and there were only two that offered any real value – ESPN and MySA Essentials. Hopefully as we get closer and closer to kick-off, we’ll be seeing some new and interesting apps in the app store.

  • Supersport Live Streaming Video

    I came across a very cool service offered by SuperSport.com today, where I can actually the rugby at work (sneaky sneaky).

    To sign up for the service you need to be a DSTV Subscriber, and you need your smartcard number to sign up. The registration process is quick quick, and you can watch your favorite game as soon as you have signed up.

    The streaming of the video was pretty smooth, and I didn’t have to buffer once. Although this is at work, I have yet to try this on an ADSL line, but I’m pretty sure it should be pretty smooth on a 4MB line. The service is offered 7am and 5pm, Monday to Friday.

    To get a full line up of upcoming live games that are being streamed, click here

  • Free Internet Marketing Course

    I came across this very cool looking FREE internet marketing course by online marketing guru, John Shoemoney.
    The course covers a whole bung of topics on internet marketing, and you get sent a PDF every week on a different topic.
    The topics included in the course are:

    • Week 1 – The Beginner’s Guide To Internet Marketing
    • Week 2 – Affiliate Marketing 101: Everything You Need To Know To Start Promoting Products
    • Week 3 – Market Research: How To Crush Your Competitors And Discover Hot Niches
    • Week 4 – Introduction to Pay Per Click
    • Week 5 – Advanced Pay Per Click
    • Week 6 – SEO Tips, Tricks, and Tactics
    • Week 7 – Content Creation: How To Create Articles That Attract Users And Increase Sales
    • Week 8 – Marketing: How To Use Social Media To Spread Your Brand
    • Week 9 – Make That Cash: 10 Ways To Monetize Your Site And Increase Profitability
    • Week 10 – Testing & Tracking: How To Optimize Your Site & Make Sense Of The Figures
    • Week 11 – Building Your Team: How To Network With Others And Find Long Term Partners
    • Week 12 – Launch Day: How To Kick Start Your Business And Manage Your Projects

    If you are keen to sign up, you can do so at http://www.shoemoneyx.com/signup.php

    Lemme know if you signed up and what you thought of the course.

  • On The Marc – 21 April

    Here is this weeks copy of my column in The Bugle. I took a look at the success of the “Don’t touch me on my Studio” viral campaign that’s been doing the rounds.

    Again, if you have any comments etc, please feel free to leave a comment or drop me an email.

    Don’t touch me on my…

    I’m pretty sure a coupe of years ago, you may recall an email being sent around of a middle aged guy, dressed rather awkwardly with a pair of rugby shorts, and a blue checked shirt tied up around his waist ? This “character” was randomly snapped by a party-goer at a “rave” held in Gauteng, and soon Veron Koekemoer shot to instant fame.
    You may remember some of the emails with Vern being photo shopped into various pictures, and he soon became a South African Internet legend. Soon, a couple of guys caught onto the viral campaign and built up a website called, CanLikeToHaveRambo.co.za, which showcased all the pictures & videos that fans had made. This was one of South Africa’s first viral Internet campaigns, and took off like a boeing.

    But last week, Vernon Koekemoer was eclipsed from the viral campaign hallows, when an E-TV news presenter, Chris Maroleng, was interviewing political analyst, Lebohang Pheko, alongside Mr Andre Visage, the AWB secretary-general. The trio were discussing race relations in South Africa, after AWB leader, Eugene Terre Blanche, had been murdered the previous weekend, and soon tempers began flaring. Mr Visage ripped his microphone off and stormed off the set. A couple of seconds later, pointing at Pheko, he said “I’m not finished with you, you don’t interrupting me (sic)”

    The host of the show, then came out to defend Pheko, with a phrase, that would launch South Africa’s next Internet viral campaign, “Don’t touch me on my Studio”, getting over 50,000 hits on YouTube in the first 24 hours.

    Overnight video’s and songs were created and placed on YouTube and other internet sharing sites. Radio stations around the country came up with their own parodies, and soon, everyone’s catch phrase was, well, Don’t touch me on my studio. Earlier this week, myself and a mate decided to build a website to showcase all these parodies, which we naturally called, Don’tTouchMeOnMyStudio.co.za. The response was phenomenal, and after receiving mentions an afternoon drive show on a national radio station, the site shot to fame. Within 3 days, we had received well over 10,000 hits, and loads of user submissions, and it’s still growing as I type this.

    It just shows us how something so small, can shoot to fame with the Internet. We can only wonder what South Africa’s next exciting Internet viral campaign will be ?

    Download the PDF

  • On The Marc – My new weekly column

    A couple of weeks ago, the team from a local weekly newspaper in Durban & Ballito, called The Bugle, called me and asked if I would be interested in writing a weekly column for them on various topics, including blogging, tech, fatherhood amongst others.

    I have to admit, it sounded a bit daunting at first, but after some convincing from a couple of people I took the plunge and dived in. I had to come up with a name for the column, and thanks to Twitter, I called it “On the Marc”.

    Last week Wed was my first column, which was really just an introduction to who I am, and what I do. I will be posting my weekly columns up here on a Wednsday, and if you happen to be in KZN, and pick up a copy of The Bugle, be sure to point me out to everyone around you :) (Jus kiddin)

    I would love to hear your thoughts and comments on the column, and if you have any suggestions on what I should be writing about, please feel free to leave a comment below, or drop me an email.

    Here is last week’s column. I will be posting this week’s a bit later today.

    Well, this is a leap. A couple of days ago, I was a blogger, and today I’m writing my first column in The Bugle. A blogger I hear you ask ? Whats a blogger ?
    I’m that geeky guy sitting behind my computer all day, putting my thoughts onto my little home in cyberspace. Not really, it’s really not as bad as it sounds.

    In 2004, I decided to take the plunge, and signed up for my first blog, which was called DurbzBlog. It was a foray into putting my personal thoughts down onto “paper” and sharing information with my readers I had found on the Internet. Initially there was a bit of commitment phobia from my side, but soon enough, I got the hang of it. In 2007, I decided to register my own domain, MarcForrest.com, which has been my blogging home ever since.

    Since then, things have grown in leaps and bounds, and today my blog is ranked in the top 20 blogs in South Africa, and is also the number 1 ranked personal blog in KZN, according to the African blog aggregator, Afrigator. My blog is mainly technology focused with a lot of the focus being on the iPhone and iPhone apps. I also write about KZN lifestyle and try and focus on being Proudly South African.

    I am a proud Ballito resident, and have 3 gorgeous kids, and a gorgeous wife, Lesley. When I am not being Mr Blogger, I enjoy spending time with my friends and family and watching the odd Bulls rugby game.
    Through this column, I am looking forward to sharing my experiences on the Internet, and am going to try and share some of the great things I find out there.

    Download the PDF