MarcForrest.com

Month: April 2010

  • Hands on with the iPad

    Hands on with the iPad

    The geeks at immedia invited a couple of the Durban twitterati over to their offices this afternoon to have a hands on peek with the new Apple iPad.

    Kishyr & Annice from immedia flew over to New York this past weekend, and camped outside the Apple store, just to pick up their iPads, making them the first South Africans to own the iPad. When I popped around this evening to have a look, I have to admit I was seriously impressed with the device. When the iPad was launched, I was in 2 minds about it, but having played with it for half an hour, there is definitely a glimmer of hope.

    Yours truly :)

    The iPad specific developed apps that run on the iPad work quite well, and the Real Racing HD game ($9.99) is awesome to play. The graphics are insane, and the playability of the steering the pad to the left & right is amazing.

    Another app that looked really cool was the Scrabble App ($9.99) and allows you to use your iPhone or iPod touch to see your tiles, which then you “throw” onto the Scrabble board on the iPad. We also got to see the Weather HD app, which shows you what the weather looks like in your city, with really cool looking clouds or wind etc. There were also a couple of other interesting apps, which we flipped through as well.

    MarcForrest.com in FULL iPad glory

    But, that said, the price of the apps is quite steep. Most games are going for around $9.99, while most of the other apps in the same sort of price range. Yes, you can run your iPhone apps on the iPad, but they definitely don’t look like they belong there. When you upscale to 2x, it looks rather out-of-place, and when it runs in 1x size, it just looks too small for the screen. The other bugbear that I found was the keyboard, and while I suppose it may take some getting used to, it may just take that little bit longer than what it took to get used to the iPhone keyboard.

    My other baby, izimvo.com on the iPad

    Overall, I reckon it will be a winner, and with over 300,000 units sold on opening weekend, it looks like Apple have (another) winner. I just need to wait and see when I can get mine :) I am also looking at getting a review unit in the next couple of days, and then I will post a bit more info.

  • Hemmed in iPhone app

    The boys from Glucode and the Girls from Rubio Communications have done it again. They have successfully created what could be claimed as South Africa’s first addictive iPhone game, called “Hemmed in” which costs $1.99 (iTunes Link). (Be sure to check to the end of the article, I have a couple of promo codes to give away ;0))

    iPhone Screenshot 1

    The game, which is based on a favorite childhood game called “Dots & Boxes”. Remember ? That game you used to play against your sibling where you had to draw a line between the dots to make a square and the person with the most squares wins ? Yip, thats the one. Except, the team that developed the app, have made it look really really cool, and totally addictive. So much so, that my 5 year old and I are jostling for iPhone supremecy on “Hemmed in”. Ever had a 5 year old beat you at a game you used to be a master of when you were 5 ? Eish…. ;)

    To get an idea of what the game is all about, check out the video below:

    The game also has a couple of challenging levels which make it a bit more tough to beat the computer. The awesome thing about the game though, for me, is the ability to play against another hemmed in player, using the built in 2 player mode, using Bluetooth.

    Here is the info on the app from the app store:

    A fun game of strategy, Hemmed In is all about taking turns to join the buttons and beat your opponent by closing a square before they can cotton on!

    ‘Hem in’ a square to win a point, with the winner being the player with the most points once the entire grid has been filled.

    This puzzle game is the perfect time killer while you’re waiting for the train, sitting on a plane or when you just need to zone out. For a low price you’ll have loads of fun stitching up your opponent in Hemmed In.

    Hemmed In is based on a the classical puzzle game most commonly known as Dots and Boxes. This pencil and paper game was first published in 1889 by Édouard Lucas and is also known as:
    – Dots
    – Smart Dots
    – Boxes
    – Squares
    – Carrie’s Dots
    – Dots and Dashes
    – Paddocks
    – Dot Boxing

    All in all, the game is very very cool, and I can see myself and my 5 year old spending many many hours in front of the iPhone fighting this one out :)

    For more info, check out the official Hemmed in app site – http://hemmedinapp.com. If you would like to win a copy of “Hemmed in”, simply retweet this post using the retweet button on the top right hand side of this post, and by 8pm today (Tuesday), I will do a random draw for 4 peeps to win a promo code (US store only !!)

  • Read my article on MemeBurn

    I’m sure by now you must have heard about the new South African website called MemeBurn. The site is the brainchild of Matthew Buckland and the guys from Creative Spark.

    The site focuses on South Africa and the emerging markets and is a mashup between the Techcrunch’s and Mashables of the world. So far I am very very impressed with the site, and have added it to my “Must Read” folder on Google Reader.

    A few weeks ago, I got a mail from the Matt, asking me if I would like to contribute to the site, so I put a couple of words down about my favorite subject, The SA iPhone app Market. The article went live this  morning, and you can read it here -> http://memeburn.com/2010/04/sa-iphone-app-market-poised-to-boom/

    Here is a short extract about what its all about…

    According to AdMob, the world’s largest Mobile Advertising Network, South Africans are slowly catching on to the worldwide iPhone phenomenon. Stats show that the penetration of the iPhone into the South Africa market has slowly increased over the last couple of months, as users of the device start seeing the potential benefits, both from a business as well as a personal perspective.

    South African iPhone developers have been growing quickly over the past couple of months, with corporates now also seeing the benefits of having an iPhone application included in their media portfolio.

    Read more…

    This is one of my first articles I have submitted to another site, and would love feedback, so please feel free to let me know what you think in the comments on the article :)

  • Vodacom officially launch Visual Voicemail

    After my last post about VodacomVisual Voicemail, there was a lot of confusion sorrounding if Visual Voicemail had actually been launched by Vodacom. According to sources the product was still in Beta, but a couple of people of managed to activate the service, albeit at R10 a month.

    According to a comment left on my blog earlier, and a tweet from Pieter Uys, Vodacom CEO, Vodacom has officially launched Visual Voicemail for the iPhone

    Press release from Vodacom:

    Vodacom is pleased to announce the launch of Visual Voicemail, available from 1 April 2010. Visual Voicemail enables Vodacom Contract, Top Up and Prepaid customers who use the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS smartphones to view their Voicemail messages displayed in a ‘list format’, in the same way as they would view their email messages – and it’s FREE for the first 30 days.

    PLUS

    Vodacom is offering a FREE trial to Visual Voicemail from 1 April to 31 May 2010, which means all customers with iPhones can try out the service at no charge during this period.

    Lets hope they can support the product, and hopefully realise that they are the ONLY service provider in the WORLD actually charging for the service.