MarcForrest.com

Category: Tech News

  • Lenmar Meridian BC5 iPhone 5 Battery Case

    Lenmar Meridian BC5 iPhone 5 Battery Case

    I recently got to test the awesome Lenmar Meredian iPhone 5 Battery Case before it launched in South Africa. There aren’t too many iPhone 5 battery pack covers on the market in SA, because Apple has strict policies when licencing to use the lightning connector, so when I got the opportunity to test it, I jumped at the chance.

    The Lenmar Meredian iPhone 5 Battery Case (RRP 799) is a sleek designed, and super lightweight. Unlike other battery pack covers when the case is on your phone, it doesn’t feel bulky or add on too much weight. The crux of this case for me was it offers a 2300mAh battery which means your iPhone gets charged back to 100% in record time from 1% battery, and then still extra battery if it goes flat again. To put this in comparison the standard iPhone 5 battery is only 1400 mAh, and the nearest rival battery pack only offers a 2100 mAh battery pack.

    I can’t tell you how many times this case has been a life saver, and I simply cannot recommend it enough. We all know the iPhone 5 battery sucks, so if you often find yourself with that dreaded 1% battery on your iPhone, then you have to get this. The only downside to this case is that there is no adapter for the headphone jack, but it is not a trainshmash as there is a inlet for the headphones, albeit quite far in, so if you using an L-Shaped headphone connector you may struggle.

    The Lenmar Meridian BC5 iPhone 5 Battery Case retails for R799 and is available on Geekshop.co.za. Click to see the full Lenmar Range

  • MTN Business App Of The Year Awards 2013

    MTN Business App Of The Year Awards 2013

    It’s time for the Annual MTN Business App Of The Year Awards which celebrates South Africa’s technical talent by showcasing locally developed applications that make a positive and lasting impact on consumers.

    Last year the overall winners were the team from FNB for the FNB Mobile Apps

    The award categories are as follows:

    • Best IOS App – Enterprise
    • Best IOS App – Consumer
    • Best BlackBerry App – Enterprise
    • Best BlackBerry App – Consumer
    • Best Android App – Enterprise
    • Best Android App – Consumer
    • Best Windows App
    • Best HTML5 App
    • Most Innovative App
    • Best Garage Developer App

    To submit your app – download the entry form  attach the required screenshots, game shots, pack shots or presentations as well as usernames and passwords that might be required to access your app for judging. Entry forms can be emailed to [email protected]

    You can also visit the official competition website www.appoftheyear.co.za to submit your apps.

    Some points to note: 

    • Only apps that are Live and available to consumers will be considered.
    • The deadline for submissions is the 1st of July and the awards will be taking place in August.

    Good luck, and I’m looking forward to seeing who will take the prize this year, there have been some awesome apps being released this year

  • Introducing Geekshop – Online shopping for Geeks

    More often than not I get asked by people who have seen my reviews on the gadgets & gizmos I get to review, “Where can I get one of those ?”

    Usually I direct them to some brick & mortar store, who doesn’t end up having stock or not knowing what they exactly wanted. So I did some thinking & tinkering and put together, what I think, a pretty cool online store, where you can buy all these gadgets & gizmos. Clever hey !

    So enter Geekshop. Geekshop is simply an online shop where you can get everything from Covers for your iPhone to Cool Remote Controlled Helicopters, to fully installed home security camera systems. You can also even pick up a Entry Level Android Phone or even some Cool Screen Protectors for your phone or iPad. I also managed to get some of the awesome stylish FLD Products Bags on offer

    logo1

    The idea is really to keep it plain and simple and as easy as possible. Payment can be made via PayFast using Credit Cards or Instant EFT and there is free shipping on orders over R350. Else there is a next day (2 days for outlying regions) for R35 delivery.

    So that’s it. I would love some feedback on Geekshop and any ideas or product lines welcome. Really want to try and make the store as accessible and user friendly to everyone :)

     

  • Incipio Atlas Waterproof Case for iPhone 5

    Incipio Atlas Waterproof Case for iPhone 5

    It’s been a couple of months coming, but last week I managed to pick up one of the first Incipio Atlas case available in South Africa, from the good people at Above & Beyond Distributors.

    I have been so keen for this cover since it was launched at the annual CES show earlier this year, and finally it is available in South Africa, for what I think is a pretty reasonable R1,199, and is now available on my new little side venture, the online shop Geekshop (more info coming soon :) )

    The case is built to withstand pretty much everything, from dust to water, and in testing it over the last couple of days, I can safely concur that it stands up to pretty much everything.

    The case is made from an Ultra impact-resistant, shock-absorbent Flex material which provides advanced protection in any environments. The front glass is made from crystal-clear tempered glass which provides optical clarity and protection, although I did find that fingerprints were also fairly noticeable on the case. That said, the screen is super-responsive with the case on, and works 100%. In fact someone asked me if I just had a screen protector on.
    Also included in the packaging is a headphone cable extender which allows you to plug in your earphones with the case on.

    testeThe case has also been tested and met a number of number of international standards including the US Military 810 Standard (Loads of detail about this test here) which puts the devices through a number of tests, including submersion at 2 meters for 60 minutes, drop tests from 3 meters and Vibration & Dust tests. There are a couple of other seriously in-depth tests that have been conducted with this awesome case.

    There are a number of these types of  cases available out there including the Lifeproof, Otterbox and the Griffin Survivor. I have previously tested all of these and specifically the LIfeproof, and can honestly say the Atlas is way better than the Lifeproof. The case just feels that much stronger and sturdy.

    One of the things people have been noticed about with the Atlas case is the sound quality on the earpiece making a sort of strange rattling sound when used with the case. I tried to hear that, but didn’t notice any difference on mine, and call quality seemed great !

    Overall I think the price of this case is well well, worth the quality and functionality of this case. If you an outdoors person or often find yourself dropping your iPhone, I can highly recommend this case. I think you might have a tough time trying to break this case :)

  • Interview with Fred Baumhardt – Microsoft SA CTO

    Interview with Fred Baumhardt – Microsoft SA CTO

    It’s Microsoft TechEd Africa 2013 time again, and I have been fortunate to be invited to attend this awesome event once again. This year the event is bigger in terms of the number of exhibitors, sponsors & sessions on offer. Things kicked off yesterday afternoon with the Keynote & Opening party, but today was when all the in depth sessions started. I managed to catch a couple of sessions earlier today and am well impressed with whats been on offer so far.

    I also got the opportunity to sit down and chat with Fred Baumhardt, who is the Chief Technical officer of Microsoft South Africa. We chatted about a number of things and where Microsoft South Africa is going.

    One of the major talking points in yesterdays keynote was the increased demand and usability of cloud based services such as Microsoft Azure. Azure allows you to host your application & service in the cloud, making it easily accessible to all your users. With a shift towards the ability to rapidly deploy these applications, it’s only a matter of time before everything is cloud based. I also found out earlier today that iCloud is in fact hosted on the Azure Platform !

    Chatting about if Microsoft would look at hosting locally based cloud servers, Fred leaned towards that not happening anytime soon. Currently Microsoft has a number of data centres around the world, and South Africa uses the Ireland & Netherlands centres for cloud based services. Given that bandwidth costs in South Africa have decreased dramatically over the last couple of years, and the number of international bandwidth services offered, it doesn’t make economic sense for Microsoft to launch a data centre in South Africa (yet).

    That said, there is a huge shift in enterprise & consumers moving towards cloud based services like Office 365. Cost wise it works out a lot cheaper that having to pay an up front cost for the traditional CD media.

    I also popped in a sneaky question about when we might see the Microsoft Surface in South Africa after Microsoft SA CEO, Mteto Nyati, hinted at it earlier today. No official dates have been announced but we could possibly see it in the latter part of the year. On the other hand, there are a number of different devices on display here at TechEd, which offer similar functionality.

    All in all, Africa & South Africa are in for an interesting couple of years ahead in the Tech Space. As Fred mentioned, we are probably only 18 months behind Europe & the US in terms of Tech developments, and that gap is narrowing rapidly.

    TechEd runs till Friday, and I will probably pop up another post or 2 with some of the highlights of the event. So far it has been a rather interesting & fulfilling 2 days!