MarcForrest.com

Category: iPhone

  • iPhone4 in South Africa

    The new iPhone 4 went on pre-order today in the US & UK, and I know I can’t wait for the iPhone4 to hit our shores in South Africa. The question on everybody lips though is when we will see it in sunny South Africa.

    I mailed the guys at Vodacom earlier today, and just got a response from CEO Pieter Uys (again, #brandplus for customer interaction):

    Hi Marc
    All we know at this stage is that we will be getting the first shipment around the end of September / beginning of October.
    We have not been given any idea of pricing at this stage, however the handset will be available on all Vodacom tariffs.

    Awesome. Can.Not wait to get my paws on one of these guys :)

  • Finger 2010 iPhone game

    With all the Soccer World Cup madness going around at the moment, I came across quite a cool little game, called Finger 2010 – $0.99 (iTunes Link), developed by the guys from MarsApp to keep myself entertained during those dull moments in the games, while watching it on TV.

    The game is a pretty simple concept. First you choose your country (Go South Africa :)), and then you simply play a game of 1-touch. You have to keep tapping the soccer ball and keep it in the air for as long as possible, without it touching the ground. It may sound rather simple, but trust me, there is quite a bit of skill involved.

    There is also a fantastic soundtrack to keep you entertained during your game, as well as Open Feint scoring integration, which allows you to compete against a global leaderboard as well as against your friends.

    The Finger 2010 features:

    • Simple Control
    • Over 90 Countries to choose from
    • Integrated with OpenFeint
    • High Scores Leaderboard
    • Total Scores Leaderboard
    • Music Control
    • Auto Submit Score
    • Accumulate Country Score

    Overall the game is brilliant, and well worth the $0.99 price and is  a must have for the next couple of weeks to keep the soccer vibe going :)

  • How to use Google Streetview on the iPhone

    Since Google Streetview launched in South Africa earlier this week, I have had a couple of people ask me how to use it on the iPhone.It isn’t that obvious and even I struggled the first time.So I thought I would quickly share on how to do it.

    1. Open the Maps Application on your iPhone

    2. Search for your location using the GPS button (Blue button in the bottom left) or using the search bar. You can also click the “fold” button on the bottom right, and tap “Drop Pin” which you can move around

    3. Once the pin has been dropped, you will be presented with an information bar. On the left of that bar is an Orange Man. Click the Orange man, and you will be presented with Google Stretview. If it is greyed out, then it means Streetview is not available.


    Remember to check out some of the cool finds on Google Streetview in South Africa on StreetviewSA.co.za

  • Engen African Welcome Travel Diary iPhone app

    With only 3 days left till the kick-off of the South Africa’s biggest showpiece, things are hotting up on the iPhone app store as well. There have been a couple of fantastic apps released the last couple of days, and now Engen have also released a free app called, “Engen African Welcome Travel Diary“(iTunes Link), which is a part of a campaign by Engen called “The African Welcome”

    The app, developed locally, allows visitors to South Africa to upload a diary of their visit to South Africa, which can then be shared with via Facebook and Twitter. The app also includes a couple of cool features such as:

    • South African greetings (audio)
    • SA urban dictionary (audio)
    • SA recipes
    • Airport Info
    • Useful numbers like embassies, local tourism, transportation etc.

    Another really cool feature of the app is the worlds biggest unified welcome with our African Wave Competition. Users can upload pictures of themselves doing a wave, which will then be add to all the others to make a huge African wave.

    Allan Kent, Head of AtPlay (Saatchi & Saatchi), the agency behind the app, gave me a bit of info behind the app:

    The app is just one small part of an 18 month campaign that Engen are running called African Welcome. As part of that we thought that it would great if we had an application that let people document their travels in South Africa and learn a bit about the country at the same time.

    All in all the app is very cool and well rounded and I’m sure will a great hit with some of the visitors to our country over the next 5 weeks.

  • How many iPhones are there in South Africa

    There have been a couple of questions floating around on Twitter about how many iPhone devices there are in South Africa. The numbers have ranged from around 30,000 to a crazy 170,000. So I took the liberty of asking the Vodacom CEO, Pieter Uys, on Twitter, how many Vodacom had sold.Vodacom are the official carriers of iPhones in South Africa, so every single South African iPhone should have been purchased through them, whether it was on contract or once-off purchase. Yes, the are a probably a few other “imported” iPhones as well, but those can’t be that high.

    [blackbirdpie id =”15319205391″]

    Pieter then kindly responded with this.

    [blackbirdpie id =”15326977521″]

    The tweet actually followed up with a DM asking me for my cell number, and Pieter phoned me to chat about this, and tech stuff in general !! What a super #BrandPLUS !!!

    This means that around 90,000 iPhones have “officially” been sold in South Africa.

    Then I had a look at these admob stats that were released earlier this week – http://metrics.admob.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/AdMob-Country-Data-April-2010.xlsx. In the report, the mention that South Africa admob stats for April were as follows: (thanks to Amabacha for the heads up and image below)

    What the above image means is that only 35,674 of the 90,000 devices in South Africa have used or seen Admob stats which are included in the majority of mobile web pages as well as in iPhone apps. This equates to around 40% of all South African iPhones encountered a admob ad in April.

    I also had a chat to the guys who run the News24 iPhone app. According to them, they have about 20,000 “active” users of the app. The News24 iPhone app is probably the most “prolific” iPhone app in South Africa, which most people would have installed, if the understood the app model. (my personal opinion)

    So, what does all of the above mean. Well, what it looks like, is that, in South Africa, people are buying iPhones. Not as much as Blackberry’s, but they are buying them. BUT, they NOT using them to their full capabilities. They not using it for web browsing, and they not downloading apps. They using them for Phone calls & SMS’s and maybe to read email. A large part of this I think is “user education”, with people buying the phone and not understanding the full capabilities, but rather, just to have a “cool” phone. (Yes, it IS cool)

    We need to teach people to “understand” the phone. We need them to be able to not only use it for phone calls & sms’s and make them realise that there is a whole other world out there :) How, you ask ? That part, I’m not to sure about :( But, as per my post yesterday, I have setup a site called iPhone Help, which will allow people to hopefully ask questions and get answers about the iPhone. A place where people can share tips and tricks, and help the people who don’t understand the phones capabilites, understand it better.

    I would love to hear your thoughts on this, so please leave a comment below if you have any ideas on how we can help our fellow iPhone friends :)