MarcForrest.com

Category: Tech News

  • Google Streetview LIVE in South Africa

    Google Streetview LIVE in South Africa

    Just got a tweet from @GaryMeyerza to say Streetview is working in South Africa, but so far only on the iPhone.

    [blackbirdpie id="14635140326"]

    Google streetview was supposed to launch to the press tommorrow, but the event has been cancelled. If you use Google Maps on your iPhone, you will see it is working:

    Here are 2 local streetview images I found:

    Gateway Shopping Centre in Durbs
    INSIDE Moses Mabhida Stadium !!! Taken with the Google Trike

    If you want to test on your iPhone, do the following:

    1. Open Maps on the iPhone
    2. Switch to Hybrid view
    3. Drop a pin
    4. On the Left hand side of the pin info bar, is an orange icon, if this icon “lights up” you can click on it, and it will show you the streetview in that area.

    This means it shouldn’t be too long before Google officially launch the full product on http://maps.google.com

    Update: hmm, seems like someone at Google saw this, and turned it off :( Hopefully should be up soon

  • Introducing Themergency.com

    Over the last couple of weeks, I have been working alongside my mate, Brad, on a new project called Themergency.

    The site is still in it’s infancy stages, but the idea behind themergency is to showcase the cream of the crop of WordPress themes & plugins. We also will take a look at whats new on the wordpress scene, and Brad will work his magic and conjour up some cool plugins.

    So far we have released 2 plugins. The first is called Twitter @Anywhere plugin, which allows you to use shortcodes in your WordPress site, and use the full functionality the Twitter @Anywhere API. This means, all twitter usernames in your posts will be able to use hovercards, as well as being able to tweet from your site.

    The 2nd plugin is called “Twitter Blackbird Pie” and allows you to insert tweets into your posts, also using shortcodes. No need for those horrible screenshots when you want to show a tweet in your post.

    By Posting the following shortcode in my post [[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/MarcForrest/status/14286781807″]], you can see the result below:

    [blackbirdpie id=”14286781807″]

    There also a couple of other cool tips & tricks on the site, with loads more coming soon. We are also on Twitter – @Themergency, so if you are a WordPress fan, like us, then head on over to themergency.com

  • CoPilot Live South Africa iPhone App review

    The guys from CoPilot have recently launched their latest iPhone app offering in the form of “CoPilot Live South Africa” (iTunes Link). The app, which costs $54.99 on the app store, is full of features, and has a distinct  World Cup feel to it, including POI’s for the gates at each World Cup Venue. Very cool !

    Here is a bit of info from the CoPilot team:

    Today we are releasing our South Africa apps and maps, just in time for the build-up to the tournament. Available for iPhone, Android smartphones and Windows Phones, CoPilot Live South Africa can help fans find their way with confidence wherever they need to go, whether to the hotel, airport or the game. Thousands of useful points of interest are also pre-installed, including the locations of ATMs, hotels, restaurants, bars, car hire offices and airports. It can even provide directions to specific gates at tournament stadiums.
    On the road, CoPilot Live’s advanced guidance features make it easy to see where to go, with 2D and 3D map views, lane assistance display and speed limit indicator.


    I have been playing with the app over the last couple of days, and I am mighty impressed. The user interface of the app is simple to use, the colours of the maps are easy to see, and the voice navigation is also brilliant. Overall, the app is smooth and slick. For me the biggest thing with an iPhone app is the interface, as it has to be easy enough to use when driving. The CoPilot app definitely does this hands down. I’m looking forward to using this app more and more.

    Check out this video from the guys at CoPilot demoing the app.

    Here is the feature list about the app:

    FULL-FEATURED SAT NAV NAVIGATION ON YOUR iPHONE:

    • Turn-by-turn voice directions door to door
    • Clear 3D and 2D driving views with speed-variable zoom and street names
    • Navigate to a house number, street, address book contact or one of thousands of points of interest
    • Lane indicator display and CoPilot ClearTurn™ provide easy-to-follow directions at complex junctions
    • Adjustable speed limit warnings
    • Multiple-stop trips, waypoints and pre-trip planning
    • Guidance in tunnels and underpasses
    • Huge range of customization options

    DETAILED STREET MAPS

    • Street maps of South Africa stored on your iPhone.
    • Thousands of pre-loaded points of interest, including hotels, restaurants, car hire locations, ATMs and football stadiums

    iPHONE INTEGRATION

    • SmartCall remembers your destination after a phone call
    • Dial or navigate to any POI (Point of Interest) displayed on the map by tapping on-screen
    • Portrait/landscape display auto-switching and pinch to zoom the map
    • Access iPod music controls from in-app

    LIVE SERVICES (requires a mobile Internet connection)

    • LiveLink™ location sharing: let others see where you are at all times, Live on an internet map. You can also keep track of your CoPilot friends, live on-screen in CoPilot!
    • Live weather info for your location/destination
    • Facebook status updates: share your location, destination and what you are listening to

    Right, so now for the cool part :) I have 3 copies of the CoPilot South Africa app worth $54.99 to give away. To enter the competition, you need to do one of the following:

    a) Retweet this post using the retweet button on the top right of this post.
    b) Comment on the post using the comments below.
    c) Write a blog post about the launch of CoPilot, and by linking back to this post you will be entered.This will gain you an extra 5 entries to the competition :)

    The competition closes on Monday the 24th May 2010 at 12pm. The draw will be a random draw using Random.org. Good luck :)

  • YouTube launches in South Africa

    Some great news for South Africa, from the guys at Youtube, is that today, on their 5 year anniversary, Youtube is officially launched in South Africa. What this means is that so far we have a YouTube.co.za domain, faster and more localised searches, and pretty soon we should have local servers with Youtube content

    Here is the official press release from Google & Youtube:

    YouTube Plants Roots in South Africa

    Online video platform debuts its first localized site on the African continent

    – Freshlyground, vlogger KhayaV, Rhodes Journalism, and SABC among key channels
    Johannesburg, May 17 – YouTube, the place where anyone with a video camera and an Internet connection can share their life, art and voice with the world, today announces the launch of a South African domain (http://www.youtube.co.za). YouTube South Africa offers South Africans the best video content from around the world through a local interface that promotes the content most relevant to them.

    YouTube South Africa makes it even faster and easier for local users to find and view the videos most relevant to them, by tuning search and discovery algorithms such as featured videos and homepage and category spotlights. Content uploaded by users in South Africa will show up as “browse pages” on the YouTube South Africa site, creating a new space for the national community and giving South African users the opportunity to increase their exposure.

    “There’s something on YouTube for everyone, from amateur to professional content, the unexpected to the emotionally affecting, the educational to the entertaining,” said Chad Hurley, YouTube Co-Founder. “We’re very excited to bring a local version of YouTube to South Africa and we look forward to continuing to improve the YouTube experience for our South African users.”

    “YouTube is a fascinating platform where people from different cultures and countries all over the world are active participants in a global conversation,” said KhayaV, a South African video blogger who has been using YouTube since July 2006. “By giving people the power to broadcast themselves, YouTube helps increase our understanding of each other, one clip at a time.”

    “Our students are covering South African issues that are often under-reported in today’s media landscape,” said Alette Schoon, television lecturer, Rhodes University Journalism and Media Studies. “We see YouTube as one of the most powerful mediums for telling dynamic stories and reaching a broad audience. Through RhodesTV, the Rhodes Journalism School’s new YouTube channel, we will raise awareness about serious issues that cannot be ignored.”

    In advance of this launch YouTube signed partnership agreements with a number of South African media companies including the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and e.tv.  These broadcasters, like other YouTube partners, have established a presence on the site to easily distribute their content and grow their audience.   Over the years the public broadcaster SABC has built up an extensive archive of TV shows. Its current broadcasting schedule also contains gems that are well suited for this new platform. The SABC will be piloting a variety of older and current content on the channel. If the pilot proves successful the content offering may be extended to include a variety of its news, sport, soaps, dramas and comedies.
    One of YouTube’s key priorities, in addition to the making the platform a comprehensive destination, is ensuring that videos load and play quickly — even in places where bandwidth is at a premium. In addition to the standard YouTube experience, users have the option to watch videos with YouTube Feather. This beta offering is a stripped-down version of the page on which any video plays; it only includes the site’s most basic features to help ensure that those with low-speed Internet connections are able to play videos play faster. YouTube Feather can be found in TestTube (http://www.youtube.com/testtube), the area on the site where new products are tested.

  • Google Building Maker comes to South Africa

    After Google launched 3D buildings in South Africa a couple of weeks ago, they have just rolled out their very innovative and cool product, Google Building Maker, to 11 cities in South Africa.
    The cities include:

    • Bloemfontein
    • Cape Town
    • Durban
    • Johannesburg
    • Nelspruit
    • Phokeng
    • Polokwane
    • Port Elizabeth
    • Pretoria

    Google Building Maker allows the community to contirubue and build 3D buildings for Google Maps, using Googles model maker, Sketchup to build these buildings.
    The user interface is really simple to use, and with a couple of clicks and drags, and working off images of the buildings taken at different angles, you have a complete building.

    Here is one of the buildings I just did in Durbs:

    To read more about it, check this post on the Google Lat Long Blog – http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/05/five-continents-and-counting-new-cities.html

    This also means that Google Streetview is JUST around the corner.

    To check out Google Building Maker, go to http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/buildingmaker