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  • 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 :)

  • iPhone 5 to be released in South Africa on 14 December 2012

    Apple have just put out a press release confirming the availability of the iPhone 5 in South Africa on Friday the 14th of December.

    The iPhone 5 is the thinnest and lightest iPhone ever, completely redesigned to feature a stunning new 4-inch Retina display; an Apple-designed A6 chip for blazing fast performance; and ultrafast wireless—all while delivering even better battery life.

    I’m suspecting the cellular networks will announce pricing in the next day or so, and we start seeing the usual specials. I will update this post with pricing as it is announced

  • My Vodacom iPhone app

    I came across a very cool and handy new app from Vodacom today, called the My Vodacom App. (Thanks for the heads up Mike from AppleNews). Finally ! It’s been a long time coming, and I’m glad Vodacom finally created an app which allows you to monitor & access your account.

    The app allows you full access to view data & sms balances, see unused minutes and the best of the app for me, is purchasing of Data Bundles. Now I don’t have to call in or go online to top up my data bundles, I can just do it on my phone !

     

    This video gives a pretty good overview of what is available in the app and how to use it

    [youtube id=”PY9j_QEVxzI”]

    The app is available from BlackBerry App World, iTunes App Store, Windows Mobile App Store & Android App Store

    [app url=”https://itunes.apple.com/app/my-vodacom/id567085004?mt=8″]

  • ZABooks – South African Textbook iPad app to launch in January 2013

    I was invited to attend the annual Apple in Education awards at Monte Casino where the Core group award various learners & teachers awards for the work they have done using Apple products throughout the year. The event was fantastic, and I was in awe of what some of our youth are up to using these tools. Amazing !

    At the event, it was announced that a new iPad app, called ZABooks, would be launched in Jan 2013. The app is a collection of over 400 South African curriculum textbooks, which learners can use on the iPad. This is great news, as it allows learners to interact in the app, as well as take notes, and of course, not lug around heavy text books in their bags !

    Here is some info about the app, and I’ll pop something up here when it is launched.

    • ZABooks will be a stand alone app, separate from iBooks
    • ZABooks has been developed in partnership with all the key local education textbook publishers
    • At launch, ZABooks will have 400 textbooks pertaining to the South African curriculum, more content will be added post launch
    • ZABooks will have textbooks that range from Grade 1 to Grade 12 for both public and private schools
    • ZABooks will allow for a variety of interactive features including bookmarking, annotation, highlighting of key content as well as “freehand” writing and note taking
    • The ZABooks App will be free and exact textbook pricing will be determined by the individual publishers

    Looking forward to seeing the app when it launches !