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  • Shoprite Checkers iPhone App

    Earlier today, I noticed the brand new Checkers iPhone app had been launched. I know a couple of South African retail brands have launched apps, but I think this could be the first grocery store in SA to release an iOS app.

    After a quick play around with the app, it offers cupons with some cool savings and the ability to create shopping lists, as well as seeing the latest specials. All in all, very cool. My app says I can save R1266 :)

    From the app store:

    The Checkers app for iPhone provides instant shopping discounts on your cellphone through digital coupons. It was designed to revitalise the traditional idea of coupons and make them more accessible through the use of new technology – your mobile phone. With this app you can browse, select and use coupons that save you money on purchases at our stores, giving you more everyday savings in your pocket. The app also provides helpful tools that make it easier to shop and save, such as latest deals, how to find your nearest stores, store hours and a shopping list for extra convenience.

    [app url=”https://itunes.apple.com/za/app/checkers-sa/id554151744?mt=8″]

  • Meeting the legendary magician Dynamo

    Last week Thursday I was given an awesome opportunity to attend a meet & greet session with the legendary magician Dynamo. If you haven’t heard of him, where have you been ?

    Over the last couple of years British born Steven Frayne, aka Dynamo, has been making waves in the entertainment world with his street magic that he performs around the world. And South Africa gets a chance as he is here to promote his new series “Dynamo: Magician Impossible Season 2” which starts this week Wednesday on the Discovery channel on DSTV. The night before the meet & greet he also announced he would be extending his stay in SA to film a few episodes for the upcoming season 3.

    We got to ask Dynamo a couple of questions and he even did 1 or 2 spontaneous tricks as well ! Really interesting guy !

    But for me, the biggest take-away from the event was, we were each given a copy of his book, “Nothing is Impossible“, which I finished reading in 1 day. It was seriously THAT good. The book takes you into Dynamo’s life, how he got into magic, and how, suffering with a serious disease called Crohn’s disease, managed to overcome so many obstacles, and just persevere with getting recognised. For a chap who isn’t even 30 yet, and has made such an impact in his life, is utterly amazing. Seriously, if you enjoy reading biographies, I highly suggest reading his book !

     

  • iPhoneographySA in Cape Town a HUGE success !

    On Tuesday night we finished up with the 2012 leg of the iPhoneographySA exhibitions in Cape Town. The event was held at the amazing Roodebloom Studios in Woodstock, which turned out to be the perfect venue.

    We started setting up the venue on Monday morning, and because of the unique nature of the venue, we had specially designed hanging platforms created for the event. Our Curator, Inke, was a superstar in getting all the images hung up, and eventually on Tuesday afternoon, we were ready to roll !

    They event was a HUGE success, and I estimate around 400-500 people came through the doors on the evening. We had 120 photos on display, and I overheard many conversations about how impressed everybody was with the exhibition  The vibe was great with a DJ and a guy playing the trumpet and the food was amazing. All in all, I can honestly say, that I am super proud with the way the whole event panned out.

    The iPhoneography exhibitions this year, have FAR FAR exceeded my expectations with the both events producing amazing images & results.

    It was also a tough job trying to choose all the winners in Cape Town, but eventually we managed to get our winners. In 3rd Place, Robyn Hobson with here image Formal Friday. In 2nd place Lionel Botha with his very cool looking image, Cosmos. And in First place was Kobus Dippenaar with his image called Concrete Jungle.

    Some of the images will also be on display at the V&A Waterfront till Sunday afternoon, so if you in the area make sure you get down there !!

    I really want to thank the iStore team for the support & sponsorship of the events. The whole team went out of their way to make this a great event, and I can’t wait to see what we can come with next year !

    My goal going forward with iPhoneographySA is to try and grow the iPhoneography community in South Africa. We will be using this site & the iPhoneographySA Facebook page to grow the community, and organise events and keep up to date with the latest iPhoneography news in South Africa. Stay tuned !!

    A couple of people have given some feedback about the event here -> Chris, Robyn &  Sean

    Thank you to everyone who supported these events. Thank you !

  • Microsoft Tech Days Durban 2012

    A guest post from Matt over at Rogue Code. Rogue Code are top notch Windows Phone Developers ! Matt attended Microsoft Tech Days in Durban, and gives a very cool insight to what the day was all about. Thanks Matt !

    Friday the 12th of October, I found myself headed to the International Conference Centre in Durban. The sun was shining bright and the temperature was on the rise, much like it always is in Durban. I was headed to this year’s Microsoft Tech Days. Tech Days is a yearly event hosted by Microsoft aimed at reaching out to the community to bring them up to speed with their latest innovations in hardware and software and what they expect from developers and the like.

    Upon entering the main hall of the event I was met by a barrage of various sponsors and Microsoft orientated displays. The hall was packed with event goers who found themselves caught in the customary act of networking, as one would expect from an event such as this. Overall the event had a rather excited vibe in the air, and received a rather good response from the relatively small techy community in Durban.

    Once it was apparent that all registration had been completed, we all shuffled into one of the secondary halls, this is where the Keynote session took place. The keynote session was focused on giving a general overview of the topics of the day, to help attendees decide on which sessions they might want to attend. The event hall also had bowls of mints strewn across the tables, which was a major plus – I love mints. The keynotes session had come to a close and I found myself shuffling back into the main hall where we were served a rather tasty breakfast of waffles with syrup and cream. After breakfast we all decided which track we should attend. The topics were:

     

    Session 1

    • Track 1 Windows 8 Part 1: Introduction

    • Track 2 Migrating an existing LOB application to Windows Azure

    • Track 3 Managing your Core Infrastructure

    • Track 4 The New Office: The Insider’s Guide to What’s Coming for IT Pros and Developers

     

    Session 2

    • Track 1 Win 8 Part 2 – Application Development with HTML / JS

    • Track 2 Using Windows Azure Service Bus to integrate LOB applications and Office 365

    • Track 3 Server Virtualization • Track 4 Call Me If You Can: Lync 2013 Voice Architecture and Management

     

    Session 3

    • Track 1 Windows 8 – End to End Application with C# & Xaml

    • Track 2 End to End Application Lifecycle Management with Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server 2012 – Part

    • Track 3 VDI and Access

    • Track 4 Exchange Online in Office 365: Administration Deep Dive

     

    Session 4

    • Track 1 UI Design

    • Track 2 End to End Application Lifecycle Management with Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server 2012 – Part 2

    • Track 3 Introduction to the Windows Azure Platform – using Azure Cloud Services • Track 4 SharePoint 2013: Return of the Technical Jedi!

    • Track 4 SharePoint 2013: Return of the Technical Jedi!

    With Windows 8 being released to the public on the 26th of this month (October), there was quite a substantial amount of focus paid to the Windows 8 tracks. A large part of the event goers were quite enthralled by the Windows 8 topics, and rightfully so. Windows 8 is bringing a whole new style to the Operating System, they now focus on “content before chrome”, meaning that apps should use all the space they can without wasting it on chrome. Another saying that was tossed around repeatedly in context to Windows 8 apps was “fast and fluid”. All in all it seems that the release of Windows 8 opens up a lot of opportunities to a lot of people, the ability for developers to monetize apps has never been easier than in Windows 8, and the potential market share is absolutely massive.

    There was also quite a bit of chatter about the new Office 2013, which looks to be the next major update after the “ribbon” interface. There are a lot of nifty changes in Office making it more user friendly, but what stuck out to me was the new animations and the fluidity of it all. The incorporation with SkyDrive (Microsoft’s cloud storage platform) also means that the users’ files now travel with them across any computer, phone, or web browser.

    Throughout the day I found myself attending all the Windows 8 tracks, however I managed to speak to some people that had attended the other ones, and they all seem to have been as equally as enlightening. Overall the sessions for the day were rather effective and I believe they not only helped me quite a lot, but a large portion of the Durban techy community. Durban really needs more events like this to, you know…get us all out in the sun for a bit.

  • iPhoneographySA JHB 2012 a HUGE success

    WOW. That’s pretty much all I can say about Thursday evenings opening of the iPhoneographySA event at the iStore in Sandton. I was blown away at how awesome the setup looked, and how many people arrived at the venue. I am estimating we around 600 people on the night, but could def well be more. All in all for the Johannesburg competition we around 211 entries from people, with around 850 images uploaded. On the night there were 211 images up on display. This year we decided to do all the printing through Printwild, and they all looked awesome

    We setup the event on Wed & Thur, and finally got down to choosing the winner for the event. After loads of back & forth debate, we eventually came up with the 3 winners.

    In first place (top left) was Zeno Peterson with his image called Reflect, winning himself an iPad. In 2nd Place we chose Tristan Winslow’s image called “A Lomo Camera with a Lomo app” and finally Liezel Els’s image called “Her Feet tell a story” who both won iStore hampers.

    The exhibition is up for the next 2 weeks at The iStore in Sandton Drive, get there if you can :) If you live in Cape Town be sure to join us on the 23rd Oct at Roodebloem Studios in Woodstock for the opening event, RSVP on the Facebook Event here !