Category: iPad

  • Zappy Apps – Zapiro wherever you go

    Zappy Apps – Zapiro wherever you go

    This is the first post by Waldo De Waal, who has offered to share some of his writing with us and is a journalist by trade. Waldo focuses primarily on Cars, Technology & Travel. He also sits on the panel that judges the South African Car of the year awards. So, expect some great content from Waldo in the next couple of months. Great to have you on board mate !

    Here’s something for South Africans with a sense of humour: Well-known cartoonist Zapiro recently introduced two apps for both iOS and Android. The apps feature the artist’s works in two versions: Zapiro-Toons offers a chance to enjoy the Zapiro’s latest cartoons; while Zapiro Annuals feature just that: A collection of 17 Zapiro Annuals. Both apps are universal, though the extra screen real estate of the iPad does make the experience more enjoyable.

    So, what are they like? The apps, we mean – not the cartoons (those are VERY good). Here goes:

    Zapiro-Toons (free)

    Zapiro-Toons – satire in your pocket.

    The app is gratis, which is always cool. It is only 5.2 MB in size, and will be ad supported. We say ‘will be’, because at the moment the app has a banner that invites would-be advertisers to support the app. No problem – we all need money, and app development isn’t always cheap.

    The load-screen features a strangely square cartoon of Zapiro himself, but the quality isn’t great. Certainly doesn’t look like much on the retina screen of the latest iPad. Once open, the app connects to the Internet to download content, which happens very quickly indeed. From there you get a mass of cartoons to swipe through. You can share via Facebook, Twitter and email, and you can also select a film strip view which allows you to scroll quickly through the cartoons.

    Image quality of the cartoons isn’t fantastic, but then again these aren’t pieces of art – they’re pieces of satire, so the line art doesn’t have to be 100% perfect in order for the message to come across. With that said, it does feel just a little low rent. Sure, you want to keep the bandwidth overhead down, but this low? On the iPhone things look much better though.

    Overall Zapiro-Toons is a great little time-waster. And in a country where there is always something to create good cartoons about, you’re sure never to be bored with this app on your phone!

    Zapiro Annuals (free + in-app purchase)

    As with the Toons app, Zapiro’s Annuals is also free to download. But the idea of giving away a bunch of annuals for free, sounded to good to be true to us. And so it was: Upon opening the app, the first thing the user has to do is a buy an annual ($9.99) each. We say ‘each’, but in reality the in-app store only offered Zapiro’s lates annual, But Will it Stand up in Court? More titles may be added later, but as things stand today, the options are limited to just one. As such is also isn’t clear whether the older annuals will be cheaper than this latest version, but then again, $9.99 isn’t THAT bad. A quick visit to Exclusive Books revealed that the same annual in paperback costs R146.00 – significantly more than the R90.00 or so that the iPad version works out to.

    The Annuals app feels more polished than the tools app, and works exceptionally well on the latest version of the iPad.

    In the end it is great to see the list of South African apps grow. And free stuff is always welcome! Unfortunately we’re not entirely convinced that the general populace will fork out $9.99 for each annual – especially since you can’t leave them in the bathroom for the next visitor to enjoy…

    [app url=”https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zapiro-toons/id565894403?mt=8″]

    [app url=”https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zapiro-annuals/id594416321?mt=8″]

     

  • ZABooks iPad App Launches in South Africa

    ZABooks iPad App Launches in South Africa

    Towards the end of last year I atteneded the annual Core Apple in Education Awards, which was held at Montecasino. At that event it was announced that the Core Group would be launching an iPad app in early 2013, which would allow access to a number of Textbooks for Primary & Secondary education.

    Well, today the official launch of the ZABooks iPad app (iTunes link – FREE) was held in Joburg. The app looks fantastic and comes with over 600 textbooks available for purchase at launch. The app is only available in the South African iTunes app store though :(

    You can register on the ZABooks website, and browse the wide variety of textbooks that will be available to purchase. Once you have paid for the textbook it will be available in the iPad app. You can also sketch & take notes in the app once the book has been downloaded.

    This is a fantastic initiative by Core, and it shows the way education is moving. I really think this will be a huge success, and can’t wait to see my kids using this ! There is also huge discounts available to schools who buy bulk licenses for the books !

    I also did a couple of comparisons with some of the books to see the prices compared to the print publishers, and there is sometimes up to a 50% difference ! As an example this book, Study & Master Mathematics Learner’s Book Grade 1,  for Grade 1 maths is R51.95 from the publisher (Cambridge University Press) and is R23.96 from ZABooks !

    From the Info Doc (Download the Full Info Doc)

    ZA Books is a digital book store and iPad app that provides South African schools access to curriculum- relevant textbooks, for use by their learners, straight on an iPad.

    The ZA Books store has partnered with top South African publishers to offer an online platform for a wide range of curriculum-approved, quality textbooks as well as popular books for learners’ reading pleasure. The ZA Books makes it possible to carry all your books on a single device. This app and an iPad is all a learner needs for the journey through their school career.

    ZA Books is brought to to you by Core Group. Core Group is the Value Added Distributor (VAD) for Apple in Sub-Saharan Africa and provides a full range of value added services to ensure support for the Apple product experience.

    Have you managed to download the app and purchase any books ? What do you think ? Leave a comment below !

  • Londolozi Launches 4 stunning iBooks

    Londolozi Launches 4 stunning iBooks

    A while back the guys from Londolozi Game Reserve got in touch with me asking about creating & launching their own iBooks for the Apple iBook Store. I pointed them in the right direction, and they came back to me last week letting me know they had finally completed the project and the books had been approved for sale.

    Today they are officially launching these 4 books, and I have to admit, they are awesome. They have captured the beauty of an amazing and world renowned Tsalala Lion Pride in the Lions of Londolozi. For me the highlight was the story behind the Londolozi Leopards, which Londolozi co-founder John Varty developed a relationship with the Mother Leopard in 1979 and has some amazing stories since. A MUST read !

    South Africa has some of the best game parks in the world, and just browsing through the Londolozi site, looks absolutely amazing ! One day :)

    The 4 books they have launched are:

    The Londolozi Journey – $9.99 – A story about how Londolozi became what it is today and some of the behind the scenes stuff we never hear about

    The Leopards of Londolozi – $9.99 – The story of the amazing Leopards and the history of this amazing “love affair” since 1979

    The Lions of Londolozi – $19.99 – How the world renowned Tsala Pride has captured the hearts (and cameras) of Londolozi visitors

    The Londolozi Cookbook – $16.99 – Londolozi is not only famous for the wildlife, but also some of their amazing food.  Executive Chef, Anna Ridgewell, and Londolozi Sous Chefs, Eric and Connie take you into their kitchen in this behind the scenes look of how the food is prepared and how to do it all yourself.

    I have had a peek through some of these books, and I can tell you they are stunning. The team from Londolozi have also offered a couple of promo codes for each book, which we will be giving away right here !

    All you need to do to enter is leave a comment or tweet about this post using the RaffleCopter form below and you will be entered into the draw. Competition ends Monday 17 December 2012 @ 5pm. A US iTunes account is needed to redeem the code

    a Rafflecopter giveaway

  • New iPad Retina & iPad Mini pricing annouced for South Africa

    New iPad Retina & iPad Mini pricing annouced for South Africa

    The New iPad (iPad 4) with Retina Display will go on sale this weekend in South Africa. The new iPad sports a full retina display, 5MP Camera & the new Apple A6X CPU Chip. The brand new iPad Mini Pricing was also announced, although there is no clear indication of availability yet, with Core only saying it will be available “Soon”

    The pricing for the new iPads as follows:

    iPad 16GB WiFi – R5199 | iPad 16GB –  WiFi & 3G – R6499

    iPad 32GB WiFi – R6399 | iPad 32GB – WiFi & 3G – R7499

    iPad 64GB WiFi – R7399 | iPad 64GB – WiFi & 3G – R8599

     

     

     

    The iPad Mini Pricing as follows:

    iPad Mini 16GB WiFi – R3399 | iPad Mini 16GB –  WiFi & 3G – R4799

    iPad Mini 32GB WiFi – R4499 | iPad Mini 32GB – WiFi & 3G – R5899

    iPad Mini 64GB WiFi – R5499 | iPad Mini 64GB – WiFi & 3G – R6999

     

  • iTunes Music Store Now available in South Africa

    It was bound to happen, and finally the iTunes Music store has launched in South Africa. With the announcement yesterday that the iPhone 5 will be released in South Africa on the 14th Of Dec, the timing couldn’t be more apt !

    At a quick first glance, individual songs will cost around R8.99 and full albums around R89.99. It looks like the store will just be offering Music to start with and no movie category.

    South African Idols winner starts off at the top of the album charts with his album “For You” at the number 1 spot, and the popular Gangnam Style as the number 1 song (obviously) . Other than that, the music collection doesn’t look that comprehensive, with only some of the categories being represented, and doesn’t seem as may artists as the US store, but I’m sure with time that will change.

    Another exciting addition is the popular service iTunes Match which stores your entire music library in the cloud allowing you to access it from any device anywhere. The service costs a fairly priced R199.99 in South Africa.

    Finally. It’s about time :)