MPieters.com

iPhone repair/replacement in South Africa is shocking (Updated 4 November)

2009-11-02T09:24:00.000+02:00

Lets face it - we live in a Beta culture where we are used to things not working, and we have almost become content with it. No matter what advertising tells us, the gadgets we use are designed to have a functional life of only a few years, after which we will inevitably replace it. Sometime however, duds fall into the production line of modern devices, and then we as buyers have to go through the entire process of getting a replacement unit. The fact of the matter is that it should be as much effort as it is.

Recently my iPhone 3GS has started to show some weird symptoms - the phone would suddenly become slow, after which it will become very warm to touch. After becoming unresponsive I had to reboot the phone, only to realise that it only reboots after around ten reboots. Something was clearly wrong. So then I did the recommended full restore of the phone, which made the phone work for another day. However, its music library did not index its files, and again, the phone overheated and froze up.

So Saturday 24 October I took the phone to Vodacare Canal Walk, and they booked the phone in. They checked for marks and damage (there was luckily absolutely none) and gave me my job number. Here is my first problem - I had a Invisible Shield on the phone (which costs around R200 at Vodashops) and obviously I cannot remove the film on the device. They said they will reimburse me for the film - but I have a feeling they wont hold up their end of the deal. Their policy is to return / replace the phone within 7 workdays. They also had no loaner phones.

After a technician looked at the phone, I got an SMS on Monday 26 October to tell me the phone is being sent to Vodacom head office. Since then I have not heard anything. Nothing. I had to phone them to enquire what is going on today, and they had not ETA for when my phone will be back. They could not confirm that the phone is being replaced - in fact they did not know what is going on with my phone, or where it is in their system. If I buy a very expensive phone on which I rely every day, I expect Vodacom to at least communicate to me where the phone is, and know what is happening with the phone.

The reason why I am writing this post is that I believe we deserve better service. In the rest of the world, iPhones get replaced on the spot, no questions asked. No reason to send it away, no possible repair. As someone who spends a lot of money with Vodacom, I believe the way they handle these iPhone repairs are poor. Part of the reason people pay more for Apple products is the improved after sales service. Once again, this is only true outside of South Africa.

Update: I posted this on HelloPeter as well. So far Vodacom has replied with a generic "thanks for your feedback" message. Lets see if they come back to me.

Update 4 Nov: Today I got an SMS from Vodacom telling me the phone has been repaired and is back at Vodacare Canal Walk. I phoned them asking what they repaired - they said they updated the software. Just to clarify - the phone was running the latest software when I sent it in. I also explicitly asked Vodacare to contact me when a technician has the phone - I wanted to explain to him that a firmware restore works, but the phone stops functioning a while later. Needless to say, they did NOT phone me, and simply did a firmware restore (just like I did) and sent it back.

I will now have to pick up the phone again, and if I have the same problem send it again. Then I will have to wait another ten days for another repaired/replacement phone.

Vodacom - you clearly do not have support structures in place for the iPhone. If you have to send a iPhone up to head office, just to do a software update (which I have done already), you might want to look at getting better technicians.

Say goodbye to expensive GPS apps (updated with Garmin and Tomtom's reaction)

2009-10-28T18:40:00.000+02:00

Well this is good news. Today Google showed off their new Google Maps Navigation app for the Android 2.0 release. It looks brilliant, and the interface blows other GPS's out of the water. The features read like a wishlist of a brilliant GPS, but typical of Google, they are making it available for free. Here are some of the new features as described on Google's site:

The most recent map and business data
When you use Google Maps Navigation, your phone automatically gets the most up-to-date maps and business listings from Google Maps — you never need to buy map upgrades or update your device. And this data is continuously improving, thanks to users who report maps issues and businesses who activate their listings with Google Local Business Center.

Search in plain English
Google Maps Navigation brings the speed, power and simplicity of Google search to your car. If you don't know the address you're looking for, don't worry. Simply enter the name of a business, a landmark or just about anything into the search box, and Google will find it for you. Then press "Navigate", and you're on your way.

Search by voice
Typing on a phone can be difficult, especially in the car, so with Google Maps Navigation, you can say your destination instead. Hold down the search button to activate voice search, then tell your phone what you want to do (like "Navigate to Pike Place in Seattle"), and navigation will start automatically.

Traffic view
Google Maps Navigation gets live traffic data over the Internet. A traffic indicator light in the corner of the screen glows green, yellow or red, depending on the current traffic conditions along your route. If there's a jam ahead of you, you'll know. To get more details, tap the light to zoom out to an aerial view showing traffic speeds and incidents ahead. And if the traffic doesn't look good, you can choose an alternate route.

Search along route
For those times when you're already on the road and need to find a business, Google Maps Navigation searches along your route to give you results that won't take you far from your path. You can search for a specific business by name or by type, or you can turn on popular layers, such as gas stations, restaurants or parking.

Satellite view
Google Maps Navigation uses the same satellite imagery as Google Maps on the desktop to help you get to your destination. Turn on the satellite layer for a high-resolution, 3D view of your upcoming route. Besides looking cool, satellite view can help you make sense of complicated maneuvers.

Street View
If you want to know what your next turn looks like, double-tap the map to zoom into Street View, which shows the turn as you'll see it, with your route overlaid. And since locating an address can sometimes be tricky, we'll show you a picture of your destination as you approach the end of your route, so you'll know exactly what to look for.

Needless to say iPhone users are screaming: "what about us?!" Has Google and Apple's rivalry finally stopped decent Google apps from appearing on the iPhone? Luckily not. As reported by iLounge, Google’s Vice President of Engineering, Vic Gundotra, confirmed that the company is currently working with Apple to bring the application to the iPhone. After this week's good news of decent Google Maps routing in SA finally being available, it looks like Google's Maps is becoming more and more powerful.

So far, the only issue I can see with the new Google Navigation app is the apparent data costs - the maps will most probably not be stored on the device, and in countries which do not have uncapped 3G services, this app can cost a lot to run. (Updated: while it does need an internet connection, it does cache the entire route beforehand.) Also, it will only work where there is reception... Please Google, cater for other countries than the US and make maps storable on the device?

Updated: Watch Garmin and Tomtom's stock price drop after the announcement of Google's new navigation features. Well, you guys knew this day was coming. After years of buying map updates from Garmap, I am pretty tired of paying for map updates.... Well Tomtom and Garmin can just drop the prices of their maps and apps to stay relevant.

Once again arrogant, but an element of truth...

2009-10-27T13:28:00.000+02:00

While I want to disagree with Apple on this ad (Windows 7 is absolutely brilliant), their logic is quite flawless. I would like to think that Microsoft might just prove everyone wrong and this might be a relatively bug free release of Windows though. Apple's Snow Leopard's initial reviews were good, but the bugs are starting to appear, especially one major one that actually erases a user's entire account. Now THAT is a showstopper. Might want to first look at yourself Apple...

New mac:about Podcast now live!

2009-10-22T13:08:00.000+02:00

Me, Saul Kropman, Gary Meyer and Marc Forrest decided to start up a Apple orientated podcast catering for South Africa. This week we take a look at locally developed iPhone apps, buying a new Mac, the relevancy of the Mac mini and Apple TV in South Africa as well as a few hints and tips for your Mac. We hope you enjoy it, and look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions.

You can listen to it here,or you can subscribe to it in iTunes here.

Some of the tips and tricks we speak about in this episode is RadioPod, Perian, easy removal of icons in menu bar, a great free virtual machine software package called Virtual Box and the best iPhone Apps of the week.

- mac:about Team.

At last: Google Maps directions in South Africa

2009-10-21T14:50:00.000+02:00

At last Google Maps has gained the ability to provide directions in South Africa! This small but very significant feature was always missing for South African maps. A while back I wrote that hopefully the 2010 World Cup will bring this functionality soon enough, and thankfully here it is now. It is currently available on the Google Maps website, but also on mobile platforms like the iPhone and Android. Here you can see it in action on my iPhone. The interface is simple enough, and the guidelines are clear, turn by turn. No voice navigation though, but its still great. It integrates neatly with your contact's addresses as well.

Of course the website is even more powerful - here is a screenshot:

PS: To my overseas readers, sorry that I get so giddy about something so small. We South Africans are not used to it yet - we had to rely on dedicated GPS devices or expensive add on software to get this functionality.

Review: Doberman Laptop Defender and Briefcase Alarm

2009-10-20T15:21:00.000+02:00

Every now and then I come across one or other gadget that I cannot help but wonder why they are not more popular. Many people living in SA have developed an almost paranoid like sense of their surroundings which is frankly very stressful. Therefore we invest in expensive home security systems, constantly locking up everything around us which has become entrenched in our lives. In fact, it is kind of difficult to believe the stories like "when I was young we left the key in the car..." etc.

I decided to test out Doberman's computer focused alarms which are very handy for paranoid people like me. The Laptop Defender attaches onto your laptop lid by adhesive, and then you activate them to start sensing sudden movements (like someone snatching your computer). You set up your own security code and simply press ARM and then your alarm is armed. Easy enough. A blinking light warns you that it is armed, and also moving the notebook will cause the alarm to quickly warn you with a loud beep. I think the Laptop defender is ideal for people who often use their computers in public places - for example, if you frequent airport lounges often, it now enables you to leave your laptop at your table to go get a snack. If someone snatches your laptop, a piercing alarm goes off which will of course attract attention. It seems like the Laptop Defender works better on a solid surface like a table. I tried to use it while the laptop was on my lap, but I got a warning after a while. While it is sensitive, it would not go off just by someone typing on the machine for example.

The Laptop Defender charges with USB - I have no idea how long the battery lasts, but I have used it quite often in the last few weeks and so far the battery is still fine.

The product that impressed me more was the Briefcase Alarm, which works in a similiar manner, but simply attaches to your briefcase. As someone who really appreciates the looks of my Macbook, I do not necessarily want to stick something to the lid of the machine, I will prefer to attach it to my briefcase. (Your opinion might differ. Cannot think the laptop alarm will spoil the utilitarian looks of a Thinkpad for example.) The Briefcase alarm works in the exact same way by getting armed with a code. Again, if you move the briefcase, it will warn you - loudly. Move it again, and it goes off. Loudly. VERY loudly.

In the manual they warn you that the alarm can create hearing damage - I would say that is a valid concern. In testing I let it go off in my office - my ears sang (is that the right term?) for the next few minutes. It will definitely attract a lot of attention if someone is running with this alarm going off...

Both of these products seem to be built very sturdily, and the Briefcase Alarm actually looks pretty decent as well with a leather finish loop which attaches to your bag. If you are someone who travels a lot or uses their laptop in public often, it is indeed a very good buy, especially at the price.

The Laptop Defender is currently going for around R350 and the Briefcase alarm for about R250.

Take Note Apple: Please do this for next iPhone update

2009-10-15T12:58:00.000+02:00

Even though I think iPhone has the best user interface of any smartphone out there (although Android comes close), it really needs to rethink its home/idle screens. If there is one thing I dont think is great, is that the iPhone does not use a today screen which can easily show relevant up to the minute info on the homescreen. I do not want to unlock, and then check each app just to see what is up. While I am not fond of the Nokia N97 widget interface, I do like the idea that teehan+lax came up with. Apple please take note:

iPhone OS 4.0 maybe?

PS: As @henre has pointed out, this is pretty close to the Windows Mobile today screen. Agreed.

Storage recovery must have: Paragon Rescue Kit

2009-10-09T15:24:00.000+02:00

Recently a Lenovo netbook I use had a sudden hard drive failure, and the drive was not properly backed up. The drive would still spin up, but I could not get it to boot up into Windows. So what to do?

So next I opened up the netbook and removed the SATA hard drive inside. From there I plugged it into a USB to SATA interface (you can use any external SATA enclosure as well). When I connected the hard drive Windows refused to open the filesystem simply telling me that the drive is corrupt. So then I had to somehow get a method of opening the filesystem (the drive was physically damaged after all).

So after looking around for a decent file system recovery application I came to a realisation - most file system repair software on the internet is total and utter crap. All of them basically do the same thing, yet most of them insist on using malware type practices that keep nagging you when you finally install the software.

Luckily I came accross Paragon Rescue Kit Expres s. It is completely free (no strings attached) and the software simply burns itself onto a bootable CD. You will of course need more than one drive to copy all the recovered data on. Once you boot up the disc, a simple interface just requests which files you wish to recover, and then it effortlessly goes about its business. I recovered the entire hard drive with any issues whatsover.

To all the other companies who use unethical methods to get me to buy your software (for example, fooling me by saying the software is free when it is not, and then badgering me once it is installed), shame on you.

After all of this effort I decided it was time to switch the netbook to Windows 7 - good move. Read further about that here.

PS: No, no one payed me to talk about Paragon - their software solution was simply the only proper application I could find, and thus I recommend it wholeheartedly. Also thanks to Craig Nicholson for the tip.

How to easily install Windows 7 on a Netbook: WintoFlash

2009-10-08T09:48:00.000+02:00

Yesterday my Lenovo S10e harddrive became corrupted for some strange reason, which gave me a chance to to finally install Windows 7 on it - I am done with Windows XP. Anybody who helps out friends and family with computer issues will tell you these days the computers that seem to get all the virusses, malware, corrupted disks, etc are all on that little OS we call Windows XP. Say what you want about Windows Vista, XP is where the real problem lies.

While its nothing new to install Windows 7 on a netbook, the process of installing Windows without an optical drive is quite a process up to now. Typically a user had to use the command prompt and go through a long process of making the flash disk bootable as a pseudo DVD.

WintoFlash luckily comes to the rescue - and the process could not be easier. Download the app and run it. From there choose the optical disc you want to transfer to the flash disk (You obviously need something roomy, like a 4GB+ size) and WintoFlash does the rest. It formats and makes the flash disk bootable and transfers all the setup files.

WintoFlash is also handy should you need to install Windows on to a lot of machines - installs go much, much quicker than from a DVD. It also works with a variety of Windows versions, not only 7.

So far I am very, very happy with Windows 7 on the Lenovo netbook. It is a standard s10e model but with 2Gig RAM. Performance is snappy enough, and so far I cannot see how people will stick to Windows XP once 7 is out, even if they run netbooks. Only small issue is that the 1024x600 somehow feels more cramped with the wider new taskbar, so I had to set it to autohide.

Highly recommended. (Download WintoFlash here)

New mobile Apps that caught my attention

2009-10-03T12:06:00.000+02:00

This past two weeks I came across two applications on iPhone which really impressed me in terms of their concept. The first is Waze, which is basically a crowd sourced mapping service that is built on open source software. The basic idea is that instead of using expensive map distributors like Garmin or Navteq, users can build maps themselves just by running the Waze application on their phone. When many Waze users ride a similiar route, naturally it will mean that a road exists in that area. Users can then go onto the Waze site and edit roads that they have driven on.

Once these roads are built, Waze tracks users of the service in real time, and these users can contribute to the service in the form of reporting cops, speed camera, slow traffic etc. Despite Waze saying that it is a worldwide service, they clearly are US focussed at the moment. Hopefully that will change soon enough. The service is also available on a variety of mobile platforms including Windows Mobile, Symbian and Android as well. The idea is brilliant, lets hope it pays off.

The other new app I came across is Cyclopedia, which is augmented reality app that relies on geotagged Wikipedia posts. The application relies on the iPhone 3GS's GPS and compass, and then impose Wikipedia posts over your current camera image. The concept is once again brilliant, but it relies on the services (read: number of geotagged posts around you) in order to be effective. The user can set the radius of posts around him/her which should be displayed. So far I have found it quite effective, especially when going to new places and trying to find your bearing and find interesting things around you. The app is however very buggy and crashes often, but an update is probably on the way.

So what exactly is Google Wave?

2009-10-02T15:56:00.000+02:00

In the past few days the blogosphere has been going on about Google Wave like its the best thing since sliced bread. Google yesterday made 100 000 invites available for people who signed up early (seems I was not early enough) and now a few people can start playing around with this revolutionary concept. If you are still asking what is Google Wave, here is a nice short video to explain it all: (please excuse the dudespeak)

Google Wave is pretty hard to conceptualize if you have not watched the video. I will try to explain it in Google marketing speak:

A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.

A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.

Basically Google Wave in its most simplest form is a combination of email, instant messaging and wikis. You have an inbox which recieves "waves", and you can reply to them in real time. These waves remain private, but you can easily add users from your contacts on the left. Now these new users can try to follow the conversation (which can contain multimedia elements) by reading through it, or they can replay the conversation in the order it was created.

One can only imagine how this would contribute to collaborative software - no more setting up difficult meetings and messing with network settings. Wave will also have an open API which can enable developers to quickly add more functionality to its rich media features.

Latest Tag Cloud

2009-10-02T15:07:00.001+02:00

mpieters blog shared reviews opinion things tech weekend project building windows home server part posted minnaar sep view comments previous post hardware using ram gig drive nice quick one speed people instead desktop components bit cases side front machine look hard installed two good idea system partition whs uses storage however first setting easy install confirm inform lead used days did drivers network device start installing software updates pretty lot worth time run backups connector anything add needs setup user folders account current way far fact same major started connect set easily users free xbox next read know media social online service aardvark asking questions google tag asked answer iphone push great apple today normal picasa mac gmail sync email name tags based functionality web built application better support integrated additional photos important having available mobileme quite lower cost find between last off afrihost hopefully currently price month rather south africa thanks dollar electronics work ipods feedback high really wrong twitter import taxes charged comparisons stock european vat sales tax video ipod nano getting core old uk sa seeing increase decided recommend processor electricity probably redundancy memory

Weekend Project: Building a Windows Home Server (Part 2)

2009-09-28T14:12:00.000+02:00

In my previous post I described my hardware choices when building my new Windows Home Server, something that I am handling as a weekend project. I am still using the HP ML110 G5 server, with 4Gigs of ECC RAM. I also upgraded the 250Gig HD to a new 500Gig Seagate drive - a nice quick one with 16 meg cache and 7200rpm speed. The 250Gig is now a secondary drive a use for folder duplication - but more on that later.

When doing these upgrades I was once again reminded about why some people insist on buying dedicated hardware for server use instead of using generic desktop components. Upgrading this HP Proliant server is a bit easier than most desktop cases I have come accross. A thumb screw removes the side panel, and thereafter the front bezel of the machine swings open like a door. About 16 screws are neatly lined up on the front of the server for when you want to insert another harddrive - no need to look for extra screws. The hard drives just slide into the front of the machine, and it makes a nice "click" once its installed. Its the small details I like.

When choosing hardware, it is beneficial to use two or more hard drives with Windows Home Server, but also a good idea to use the fastest drive you can for the system partition. WHS uses a proprietary method to distribute storage instead of complicated RAID setups. However, the OS still uses the primary drive for its system installs and also as a first point to write files to when copied to the server, therefore a speedy drive is your friend.

Setting up Windows Home Server cannot be more easy - merely boot the install disc on your machine, and confirm most of the on screen tidbits. It will inform you that all the drives in the machine will be deleted - and you have to confirm this. Once again, it might be a good idea to use as new hardware as possible, which will lead to less chance of failure. The install is not exactly brisk - it takes about an hour, even with nice quick hardware. It reboots many times in the process as well, so be patient. If you are used to the quick installs that Windows 7 or Snow Leopard has these days, you might want to calm down a bit and just be patient.

WHS did not automatically install some of the drivers on my server, including the network card - no biggie, just install the Windows Server 2003 versions of the drivers that came with your hardware. To see which drivers did not install, just check the Device Manager.

Once all you drivers are installed, activate your copy of WHS, so that you can start installing software updates. Unfortunately my copy of WHS is pretty early, so I had a lot of updates - about 200MB's worth. That again takes some time - patience is virtue. Its easy - just run Windows Update and use the express option.

Once WHS is updated and running, it is time to start setting up shares and backups. To do this you start up WHS Connnector software - you ought to get a disc in the box to install this, otherwise get it from the "Software" folder in your WHS install. Installing the connector software will enable you to administrate the server from your workstation, and also run the server "headless", meaning it does not require anything but a powerplug and a network cable attached to your network. Once installed, just enter your server password and then you can start setting up your backups and shares.

Backups are pretty easy - using the connector software, WHS gives you the following tabs:

Computers and Backup - use this to add computers on your network that needs to be backup up.
User Accounts - setup user profiles who are allowed to access your shared folders, including a Guest user account.
Shared Folders - So what folders do you want to share on the network? Add them here.
Server Storage - Give an overview of the current storage on the server.
Network Health - Will be green unless your computers have not been backed up in a while, or any of your machines have outdated windows patches, antivirus definitions, etc. Very handy.

Backups are pretty easy to do from the connector software, but WHS is also smart in the way that it stores it. If a identical file is found on more than one of your workstations, it will only back that file up once, not a separate version for each machine. In other words, backing up 5 machines with 100GB storage each does not translate into 500GB storage needed. Far from it - in fact, if your machines run mostly the same operating systems, you will see that WHS does not use a lot of space at all. Backups are one of the major reasons to get WHS, so get started with your backups - their first run can take a lot of time, especially over wireless networks, so you might want to connect to ethernet with the notebooks for their first backup.

Shared folders are easy to set up - you can easily choose which folders can and cannot be accessed by certain users in your house, but you can also setup a Guest account so that new machines who connect to your network can easily use some of the resources without any complicated login rituals.

So far in this review WHS does not show too many benefits - shared folders can be done with a lot of free solutions like FreeNAS, but the backup part is very well implemented. Where WHS starts to shine however is with addins and how well it integrates with other devices in your home like Xbox 360. But that I will leave for my next post in this series.

Did you know 4.0: The new age of media is here

2009-09-27T21:16:00.000+02:00

If anybody still discredits social media, they might want to watch this:

Via Justin Spratt

Online service to try: Aardvark

2009-09-25T10:19:00.000+02:00

While the idea of asking subjective questions on the internet is nothing new, the implementation of these services up to now was not always very good. I recently came across Aardvark which is a remarkably good social search service. The basic premise is that Aardvark answers questions you ask by contacting people who believe they know answers within specific fields. While we are all very used to just asking questions using Google, Aardvark gives a more subjective, timely approach which Google cant match all to easily.

When signing up, Aardvark asks you to choose three areas which you believe you have some knowledge. When other users tag a question category in which you specialize, you will be asked to answer. The service integrates with a variety of online social communication services such as Facebook, Google Talk, Skype, MSN. At first I thought this might lead to unnecessary spam, but in the few days I have used it, I have only been asked to answer a question once.

Aardvark also has a very nicely designed iPhone app that uses push notification to ask questions and also inform you that your questions have been answered. I have asked about a few question already, all in different categories. In most cases the questions were answered within 20 minutes, which is great.

Give it a go: http://www.vark.com

Google drops a bombshell on Apple

2009-09-23T14:37:00.000+02:00

Today Google released enhancements of two of their products which seems pretty normal by the looks of it. However, these two updates were targeted primarily as a move to trounce Apple. These two applications are Picasa (a free photo managing and simple editing suite, for Windows and Mac) and Gmail Sync (Google's free email service).

Picasa:

First up Picasa gains "Name Tags" which automatically searches faces in your photo library, and then you can tag them. Based on these tags, Picasa will then try to look for more similiar faces and tag them as well for you. If Picasa is unsure of a face it will try to guess who it is based on previous name tags. You simply need to confirm it. (Picasa has had this functionality in its Web Albums service, but Name Tags is now built right into the application.)

Picasa also gains much better geo-tagging abilities. Previous Windows versions of Picasa had "experimental" support for Geotagging, but it was not particularly well integrated, and it worked hand in hand with Google Earth. Now however, geotagging is integrated right into the Picasa interface, with an additional frame opening showing where photos were taken. This is a big improvement, and frankly a much better.

So why is these features so important? Because Picasa offers these features absolutely free, whereas Apple's iPhoto is a paid for application. True, it is free with every Mac, but upgrades to the latest '09 costs $79.

Google Sync:

Then we get to Google's other major announcement. Today Google is enabling push services for its GMail services. This enables users to connect to Gmail and having their email "pushed" to their devices as they arrive, as opposed to having to check it at predefined intervals. Not everyone needs push email - in fact, I think you should be very dependent (read: addicted) to email to require push functionality. This service is available to iPhone, Windows Mobile and Symbian S60. Google has offerred these mobile "sync" services for contacts and calendar, but today it completes the sync package with email.
Apple has offered this push email functionality to it's MobileMe members for quite some time already, so this is nothing new. However, once again Google undercuts Apple's $99 MobileMe fee with a much lower cost: $0.

With this new Google announcement the only other reasons to go for MobileMe is the iDisk application on your iPhone and also the Find my iPhone feature, which is great. $99 great? Doubt it. The simple fact of the matter is that MobileMe should be a free service, as it would be a great value addition to the iPhone.

One cannot help but wonder if there is some major competition growing between Google and Apple. In the last few months Google's CEO was kicked off Apple's board of directors, Google Voice was rejected from the Appstore and there has been a lot of finger pointing between the two companies regarding this. Now one can be on whichever side you wish - but if Google keeps on giving away functionality for free which Apple insists on asking money for, it becomes tough to side with Apple.

Keep it up Google. (Your move, Apple...)

Afrihost starts the broadband pricewar (hopefully)

2009-09-23T11:24:00.000+02:00

Ever since the launch of Seacom we have all been waiting for that "disruptive" ISP that will lead the pricewar, and it has been a few months already. Luckily, Afrihost is shaking things up all of a sudden.

Afrihost is currently running a limited time offer of very low cost ADSL bandwidth in SA. Hopefully this leads to more service providers lowering price. At the moment these bundles are available for "power users" - starting at 10 GB and going up to 100 GB per month.

The sad case is of course that in SA you are classified as a "power user" if you use 10 Gig per month. Hopefully this will change soon enough. Now we just need to wait for the other ISPs to make competitive offers, sooner rather than later.

Oh, to Vodacom and MTN - your time is now up. Where is the lower cost 3G? South Africa desperately needs lower cost 3G. Get going.

(thanks Paul Jacobson)

Why a dollar to rand comparison of electronics does not work

2009-09-18T16:15:00.000+02:00

I stand corrected.

In my previous post I spoke about the prices of new iPods in South Africa, and I requested feedback on why these prices can possibly be so high. In fact, I really wanted to be proved wrong in my assumption of price gouging, and wanted to get off my high horse.

Well, thanks to twitter, I got some feedback on what type of import taxes are being charged in SA for electronic goods. Here are some important factors to take into account in these comparisons:

Dollar vs Euro vs Pounds: Most electronics distributors in SA get their stock from european headquarters, therefore dollar comparisons will not be fair. For example, Apple Europe is headquartered in Paris, whereas Dell is headquartered in England and Wales. A Euro currency comparison will lead to a much more comparitive price.

VAT: Anything sold in SA typically is taxed with 14% VAT.

Sales Tax: When purchasing anything in the US, a sales tax is typically added to anything, and not quoted on websites. Some states have higher ones than others. For example, when purchasing something in California, a sales tax of 10.75% is added. Good to know.

Import duty on electronics: When reaching the South African customs a typical charge of around 10% - 20%, depending on the type of device. (There are some people who told me that there is no import taxes on electronics to SA though.)

Video device charge: South African customs have started charging additional taxes for portable video devices of around 20 - 24%. Whether this replaces the traditional import tax or is bundled on top of it, I could not get a clear answer.

Like I said, I am not perfectly sure if some of these taxes cancel each other out, but it does give me some understanding. Adding all these costs together does seem to make the current iPod prices a little more fair. In fact, when taking into account VAT, import duty and a possible video device tax on european prices, the cost of a 16GB Nano is already R2700.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I am getting off my high horse for now.

Unlike Julius Malema, I can, and will admit I was wrong.

Price Gouging for Dummies (Updated...)

2009-09-18T14:59:00.000+02:00

or: Same old, same old.

I have gone on way to much about the prices Core charges for Apple products in SA in this blog. True. But really, they just keep on flaming the fire - I have tried to start looking for positives in their current operations. I have looked for good service (and I did find it once) and I have noticed the slight dropping of prices of macbooks, even if it was old stock they were trying to get rid of. I actually thought this was a recession busting exercise, which I applauded. But then today they announced their pricing of the new iPods that were announced last week by Apple. I just want to inform my readers of these new prices.

Here is some price comparisons:

iPod Touch 64GB:
UK price: £299 (R3638)

US price: $399
SA price: R5499 ($740 or £452)

iPod Nano 16GB:
UK price: £135 (R1643)

US price: $179
SA price: R2499 ($336 or £205)

iPod Shuffle 4GB:
UK price: £59 (R718)

US price: $79
SA price: R1000 ($135 or £82)

I am well aware that you cannot make direct comparisons between countries because of import taxes and such, but these prices straight up ridiculous. Seeing as SA falls under Apple's european region, the prices comparisons might be better by using UK pricing.

If there is maybe a new tax on iPods that I am not aware of, I would very much like to be informed - in fact, please correct me if I am wrong in comparing SA and UK prices. Criticism? Please. If it is not Core's fault and in fact the SA government asking this much tax, let me know.

How much is an acceptable price increase for it to reach SA in your opinion? My opinion is that Core should not have charged more than R2000 for the 16GB Nano. This is not the way to do business in the current economy.

UPDATE: After some feedback I have gotten some import tax figures for electronic devices in South Africa. Find it here.

Weekend Project: Building a Windows Home Server (Part 1)

2009-09-17T15:53:00.000+02:00

Many homes these days have more than PC and also have amassed quite a lot of media in the form of photos and videos. One of the small duties most people forget about with their home machines is to do regular backups - and yeah it is quite tedious, especially with more than one computer. While many methods exist to automate these backups, many of them are not particularly easy to use and stable. Microsoft has had a product called Windows Home Server available for a couple of years, and yes it is relatively unknown. But for multiple PC households, it is truly a great solution. So over the next few weeks I will document my experiences with this software and also the hardware I will use.

I recently got hold of a new low end tower server machine, a HP ML110 G5 (you can find it here) and decided how best to use it. Seeing as it is a server machine, it has a terrible integrated graphics card and some strange proprietary PCI Express slots, so using it as a desktop machine was out of the question. In fact I tried installing Windows 7, but the machine refused to even play a h264 SD video. You can order the machine with Windows Server 2003, but I decided to rather go for Windows Home Server (which is also built on Windows Server 2003). WHS runs as a "headless" server, so you only need a screen and desktop set for the initial setup. Thereafter, you log into the server with other machines in your home.

Windows Home Server can run on quite old hardware, in fact using it on some retired old desktop machine would work fine. Microsoft says a minimum of a 1GHz Pentium 3 and 512MB RAM would work - but I would recommend a bit more. The machine I am using is a Pentium Dual Core 1.8GHz, with 4 Gig of error correcting RAM with a smallish 250gig SATA drive. Having some quad core Xeon processor Xeon processor will be an absolute waste - unless you plan on doing things like real time transcoding and streaming, and even then such a high end processor might be excessive.

I would recommend more than one drive, bigger the better. Also, since it is a server that is on 24/7, you might want to take note of the number of components in the machine which will save electricity in the long run. So if you using an old overclocked gaming machine you might want to first remove some of the excessive fans and components. The more bare bones, the better.

Microsoft however recommends using new components, seeing as they will probably last longer than some tired old component. Seeing as it is a server which will probably house some valuable data such as your old photos, it might be smart to take note of their advice.

When looking at storage, enterprise grade hard drives will probably last longer, but "green" hard drives that consume less electricity might be an even better idea seeing as redundancy can be catered for by the operating system. So far I only have the one drive in the machine, but I will soon start adding some additional drives I have laying around. Every time you add a new drive, the OS will simply remind you that its contents will be erased and then adds it to the storage pool. A system partition holds the OS, while all the storage is pooled into a D: partition, which caters for redundancy as well.

In terms of memory, MS says 512MB would be fine, but memory is so cheap these days it might be a good idea to get more memory. In fact pre-built HP Home servers these days ship with 2GB RAM, so I decided to get 4GB memory. The server machine I am using can use error correcting RAM, so I decided to stick with that, which cant hurt. I was quite surprised to see that ECC RAM does not go for much more than normal RAM.

So far I think I have hardware covered, but I need to create some more storage - my WHS will primarily serve as a backup device for all my machin,e but also as storage for all the media I play on my Xbox 360. WHS can stream movies, videos and photos to the Xbox, so having enough storage will be very important. So I will probably increase the storage with two additional 1TB drives, keeping in mind that the more hard drives you add, the more electricity the box will use, but using additional drives will also increase data redundancy.

What I will look into in the next few days is the actual setup, the backup functionality, media streaming and also mac compatibility. Seeing as I use Mac OSX on my main machine these days, I really want to see how I can do Time Machine backups to my server. Also, support for Windows 7's connector software is currently still in Beta, so I look forward to see how well Windows 7 plays with it.

Wish me luck...

You can find part 2 here: details on setup of WHS and getting started.

Windows Home Server is $99, so you can find it in SA for around a R1000. Most places dont seem to carry stock of it, so you have to order it in most cases.

Look at these - some cool sites

2009-09-11T09:02:00.000+02:00

In the past week I havent quite gotten around to my blog - I was off on a quick getaway to Pretoria... Good to have a change of pace, even if it is only for a few days. In the mean time instead of my normal reviews and such, I did find a few very interesting services online, which I reckon is worth a visit:

Personas: This tool analyzes your online presence and tries to graph your personality traits based on traces you leave behind on the web - all in a very graphically rich and animated manner. Results do vary however, and I find that if you have a rather unique name (like me) the tool works brilliantly. However, if your name is John Smith, it might not be all that useful. Worth checking out.

TweetMeUp.net: Anybody who is on twitter would know about the new phenomena of "tweetups" - which basically means meet-ups organized on twitter. A typical scenario is at a conference, all the social media enthusiasts would organize a meet-up through the use of twitter. TweetMeUp uses a clean interface to quickly and easily set up a tweetup. They are currently working on the next release, so support South African developers and take a look at it!

Testfreaks: Almost like metacritic for gadgets, this is pretty good aggregator of reviews for all things tech. They use a weighted score system depending on how influential the site is that reviews it, and its catalogue is quite big already. Also, if a particular product is getting older, it drops the score as well. A South African version is also available, but the catalogue is still limited.

To be honest, these days I post interesting sites to Twitter, and I also share them in Google Reader. So go take a look!

Long Overdue Full Review: iPhone 3GS

2009-09-05T09:49:00.001+02:00

Vodacom launched the iPhone 3GS about a month ago on 28 July, but unfortunately stock was very limited – in fact, there is still a major shortage of the 3GS in South Africa. (you can read my about my mission to get one here, and a bit of well deserved praise for iStore here).

To the untrained eye, the iPhone 3GS looks eerily similar to its older brother – in fact its pretty undistinguishable. (Tip: only difference is the chrome lettering on the bottom half of the back). Clearly Apple is using a similar strategy it has in its computer business for years – they continually refine a form factor, with only radical changes every few years. Apple has also fortunately made the iPhone 3.0 OS updates available to the older iPhones – this review wont focus on the changes in iPhone 3.0.

The unboxing experience is also very similar to the 3G, only difference being a slightly smaller box and the lack of a polishing cloth. Not a big deal on my opinion. Still would love a dock like the first gen iPhone though. The headphones also got a slight revision – they now have volume control as well. These controls in the wire is however a bit more useful with the 3GS’s voice control, but we will get to that later.

The device still has its minimalistic design with only a few buttons – a timeless design that I reckon Apple will stick with for years to come. It still has the glossy plastic back which attracts fingerprints just like the front, but the white models tend to not attract as many fingerprints. Overall I like the form factor a lot, and it does feel very good in your hand. Even though it might feel on the large size, it clearly is a sweet spot once you start using the screen interface. It is also quite thin and sleek - especially compared to other smartphones on the market.

The iPhone 3GS on top of the Nokia N86 8MP, Nokia E75 and HTC G1.

So what has changed? It is all under the hood – first up, the processor is bumped from 412 to 600 MHz, with a larger cache to boot. This has a very clear improvement in the general speed of the device – applications load much quicker, some cases even double the speed. The interface reacts quicker as well – but this might have something to do with improved video chipset as well. The new chipset improves 3D games tremendously – playing a graphically rich game like Hero of Sparta or Assassins Creed shows much smoother frame rates which also add to playability of the games. Clearly Apple is making a major push into handheld gaming.

The framerate also carries over to general use on the devices – flipping pages in apps (for example clicking the “i” button in Weather) have a much smoother visual transition.
Hopefully game publishers will not focus too quickly on the new video chipset seeing as games will become very bad on older hardware, but there is of course still a much larger user base with the older hardware, so that wont happen too soon. Here is a video to show the speed increases (excuse the lack of proper focus, but you get the idea):

Memory has also been doubled to 256 MB – this leads to less page refreshes in multiple tabs in Safari, big applications never give a low memory error, and it yes, it also contributes to the speed. The 3G chipset is also now 7.2 Mbps cabable (up from 3.6) which does increase browsing and download speed. Unfortunately in South Africa this will go to waste – we have the ability on Vodacom Broadband Advanced now, but the fact that you have to pay extra irritates me.

Apple has also added a compass – which does not really sound like a big deal. And yes, in its current guise it does not add a lot to the user experience. You get a compass app, which, you guessed it, shows a compass pointing North. Google Maps also now uses the compass to show you which way you are looking at. But the real change is with apps that are coming – Yelp recently showcased its new “monocle feature” that enables you to look through the camera with restaurant reviews pointing at the restaurants you are looking out. Rumour has it that Google’s streetview will also get this soon. (You might have also heard that Google’s streetview cars are finally surveying South Africa).

The iPhone also gets Nike+ functionality like the 2nd gen iPod Touch has had. I used Nike+ on my Nano a while back, and the interface has been nicely ported to the iPhone OS. However, the lack of hard buttons to control while jogging is not great, guess you have to run with your iPhone supplied earphones to use the in cable controls.

Multimedia:

The iPhone also gains a few other enhancements – first up the camera. The sensor has been boosted from 2 to 3.2 Megapixels, but perhaps more significantly, has gained a autofocus lens. While this is old news on just about all other smartphones, Apple has made a few very useful additions to the way you use the camera. Instead of merely framing a shot and taking the picture, the iPhone allows you to select where you want to focus in the image. This works very well – in fact, I really hope to see this functionality in stand alone cameras soon. Photos do look much better than the 3G, with richer colour and and slightly better performance in low light. Could still use a flash though.

Big news however is the addition of video recording – again, a feature that just about every camera phone had for the last few years. But the iPhone’s video recording looks stunning – the framerate is decent, and the resolution is fine as well for casual use. The 3GS also enables a user to trim the video right on the device to take out unnecessary parts, and then the user can email the video or upload it directly to YouTube. Again, this is something that other phones have had for a while, but the iPhone’s implementation is just so simple, it begs to be used. (The new Facebook for iPhone app also supports video uploading, and this is something I have used a few times already).

The iPod’s functionality is pretty much unchanged, but storage has doubled. The 3GS is now available in 16 and 32 GB sizes. This is great news for people like me who still carried around their iPod classics on long trips – although it is not 120 Gig, 32 Gig is still a big jump from the previous capacity.

Other changes:

The other major change is again something other phones have had for a long time – Voice Control. But once again, the Apple implementation is worlds ahead of other manufacturers. As expected you can call people by saying: “Call John”. You can also tell the 3GS what number to call: “Dial 082 555 5555” and it will phone the number. However, for the number dialing I found it had a touch time with my South African accent (and no, I don’t speak like Wikus vd Merwe). Hopefully Apple will improve this in a software update.

But the 3GS allows you to control you iPod as well in this function, for example: “Play songs by Radiohead”, or “Play album OK Computer”. Then the creepy lady just confirms: “Playing songs by Radiohead”. This worked flawlessly with all the music I threw at it – and remember, the 3GS now supports up to 32Gig storage, which is a lot of music and movies.Here is a video (once again sorry for the lack of proper focus):

Apple also claims slightly better battery life for the iPhone 3GS – which is an outright lie. After using the device for a month, I have not found any improvements in the battery whatsoever. In fact, I will go as far as saying that the battery might be worse than the iPhone 3G, but not much. This is still the achiles heal of the iPhone, and seriously needs attention in the next revision (or even software update if its possible). Hopefully the next gen iPhone will get an OLED screen. The battery life is still better than almost all of its touch screen rivals however.

The other problem I have with the 3GS is with its Bluetooth – for some reason it does not upload names and numbers to my Supertooth handsfree kit. The previous iPhone 3G did this with no problems. While the 3GS connects, the device cannot read out names aloud anymore, merely telling the number which is just irritating. But I am confident Apple will fix this in a software update.

The screen also now has a oleophobic coating that supposedly repels oil from you fingers – I did not test this, seeing as I covered my iPhone in a Invisible Shield – which I highly recommend, if you can get it at a good price.

Conclusion

The iPhone 3GS and iPhone OS 3.0 addresses almost all the issues people have had with iPhones since day one – it finally has a decent camera, and many small additions like MMS and tethering is now available.

If there is one theme I have noticed with iPhone development is that Apple truly does not care if the iPhone does not do certain things. Instead of trying to pack every conceivable function into a device (like the Nokia N97), the iPhone only implements new features if these features can truly add to the experience of the phone. The camera, video recording and voice control all exemplifies this. This is features that are old news, but the implementation on the iPhone is just brilliant. I find myself using these features much more than on any of my other phones – why? Because its easy, and not merely a bolted on little feature – it integrates brilliantly with rest of the device.

My overall opinion of the 3GS is a mixed bag – there are real credible improvements, but I would not yet recommend it to current 3G owners. In South Africa there is currently a major price premium for the 3GS. The price in its current form is tailored for Apple fanboys (might be guilty) and gadget freaks (guilty as charged). If you already have a 3G, I would hold out for the prices to drop. But if you have upgrade coming up, go for the 3GS, it is worth the extra money.

Pros:

Speed. Glorious Speed.
Much improved camera and addition of video recording
Voice Control is actually useful
Graphically intensive apps look even better.

Cons:

Current cost in South Africa is way to high. Give it a month or two.
Battery life is NOT improved.

Rating:
9 out of 10. (Would have been 10 if the price was equivalent to 3G before 3GS launch, or the battery was better)

Review: Apple Mac OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard

2009-08-31T14:11:00.000+02:00

On the 28th of August Apple finally released its latest version of its Mac OSX – called Snow Leopard. While it is a new version, the changes are very subtle, but those little things add up to highly revamped experience of using your Mac. While the traditional Apple fanboy/journalism bigshots like Walt Mossberg and David Pogue got hold of it a while ago, we regular little people had to wait.

First thing you notice it is quite cheap - at $30, it is much cheaper than any release of OS X up to now (except 10.1, which was free...). While this “new” price for an OS seems great, the honest fact of the matter is that Apple could not actually ask more for this OS upgrade. The typical user will not necessarily notice any of the changes, except for the big speed increase...

Installation:

The typical user will simply insert the Snow Leopard and click on install. Thereafter it asks you your password and thats it. On my machine the entire install took about 39 minutes, which is pretty brisk for a machine which has a lot of software and customizations running. No mess no fuss. Seriously, I cannot think how this can be easier. Even though the licence permits only a upgrade from Leopard, supposedly the upgrader updates Tiger without issue as well. (Microsoft might want to take note of this, their new Windows 7 install process does not allow a straight upgrade from Windows XP).

Apple tells us that we can expect up to 6 gigs extra back after the install of Snow Leopard, and reviews everywhere seem to concur with it. I got back 10 Gigs, which is always great. Apple gets this right by not storing all printer drivers on disk anymore, and also not installing Rosetta, which is now a optional install on the install DVD. (Rosetta is the translation software which enables you to run older PowerPC based applications that has not been coded in Universal code).

Speed, Glorious Speed:

After the first boot up you will notice that the interface is much quicker. Objects and buttons just seem to react quicker in all day to day activities. Opening up large files such as videos open instantly, thumbnails get generated much quicker and you don’t really ever feel that their is a lack of power in the machine. I am running Snow Leopard on a stock standard Macbook unibody with 2.0GHz processor and 2 Gig RAM. I only upgraded the hard drive to a 7200 rpm model. Things that used to crunch the little guy in the past like Time Machine is much, much quicker now.

Talking of Time Machine, not only is it quicker, but it clearly uses less processing power in Snow Leopard. (Apple says 80% faster, but that sounds a little optimistic. I would say 50%) In fact, I noticed many apps use less processing power than before, and the machine does run a little cooler because of it. However, I did notice that apps that are dependent on pure processing power like Handbrake run about the same, and CPU use might have even gone up, because there are more idle CPU power available. Whether it indeed results in faster encoding, I am not sure.

Apple has also rewritten all (or most) of its core applications in 64 bit now, which does make them faster in environments where machines have large memories (more than 4GB). I could not however test this, seeing as I did my testing on a Late 2008 Macbook. However, all the built in Apps do launch much quiker than before.

The other reason why things happen a bit quicker in Snow Leopard is down to a few things, most importantly Grand Central Dispatch and OpenCL. Here is Apple’s official statement on GCD:

“With GCD, threads are handled by the operating system, not by individual applications. GCD-enabled programs can automatically distribute their work across all available cores, resulting in the best possible performance whether they’re running on a dual-core Mac mini, an 8-core Mac Pro, or anything in between. Once developers start using GCD for their applications, you’ll start noticing significant improvements in performance.” Well that beats the technical explanation.

OpenCL is a new way of employing graphics processors in modern Macs to assist with everyday processing jobs. Considering the amount of processing power in new GPU’s, it is really a great thing – instead having a graphics card that sits idle waiting for the next game, it can now continually contribute to all apps that have OpenCL code. This however only works on newer Macs with relatively modern GPU’s.

Ever since I started using a Mac, I was always dumbfounded at how well sleep works with a Macbook. I have not had any Windows machine that have worked so flawlessly for travelling – Snow Leopard makes that even quicker. Not that I have ever considered Leopard slow for sleeping and waking.

New Features:

Not counting the major changes in the background, Snow Leopard does not have a lot of new features – in fact, you have to look pretty hard to spot them. Most of the changes are small enough that you will only run into them m
Apart from the speed increase, the only major interface change you will notice is that the “stacks” in the dock is suddenly a whole lot more useful. Clicking on a icon within a stack reopens the stack with new icons, instead of opening up a Finder window as in Leopard. Also, you can scroll around in the stack if you use the Grid view. I find this much quicker than in Leopard.

One of Mac OS X’s standout features – Expose, has been changed slightly as well. Doing the traditional four finger swipe now works the same as before, but holding onto a icon in the dock now gives a quick preview of what it’s window looks like. Very similiar to Aero Peek in Windows 7, yes, but it does not feel as well implemented. Using traditional Expose is still way better than anything in Windows though.

The application with the biggest changes however is Quicktime Player. When I first read about the changes coming I could not care less – after all, who cares about Quicktime? In my mind, Quicktime has never been something more than a useless app that comes with iTunes. However, Quicktime X is completely different beast. Seeing as the preview function (which opens movies, documents and pictures quickly) is built on Quicktime, I find myself using preview a lot more. Where in the past I would fire up VLC for any video file, preview is now much, much quicker. In fact, opening up a multiple gigabyte HD file takes a matter of seconds. H264 files also seem to play very smooth thanks to Quicktime now using the GPU for decoding.
Snow Leopard has now also got support for Microsoft Exchange built in – but it requires that you run Exchange Server 2008 in your organization. I tested it and did not find a single problem – Addressbook and Calendar synced easily enough and it was easy enough to set up as well. I have never been a fan of Entourage for Mac, and this change is most welcome. (Luckily MS is going to switch to Outlook now for Mac as well in its next release). Funny bit of irony: Apple’s operating system comes with support for Microsoft Exchange out of the box, Microsoft’s own OS does not. Office for Mac is suddenly becoming a much tougher sell for the average user.

Issues:

To be honest, Snow Leopard has not given me any headaches so far. Some users have been complaining of incompatible apps, but I have not found any. My productivity software like Microsoft Office 2008 is functioning without issue, and Adobe CS4 is also problem free. However, I did find that these apps did not get the great speed boost I so wanted from Snow Leopard. I reckon the next version of Office for Mac will have better use of technologies like GCD and OpenCL. (Office for Mac is not exactly quick to launch).

I only had a small issue with a Wifi network using VPN for authentication at work, but I sorted it out within 5 minutes. Other than that, it has been problem free.

Wrapup:

Overall, I am very impressed by Snow Leopard. The entire upgrade process was hassle free, and the changes are apparent almost immediately. I commend Apple for keeping the upgrade prices low at $30 (not so much Core, who charges R329, I guess the tiny double CD sized boxes are very expensive to ship here.), but after reviewing it, it becomes apparent that the question is rather whether they should charge for it at all.

The fact of the matter is that yes, Snow Leopard is a service pack when you are looking at features. On the other hand, the speed increases are so welcome that I would easily pay the money. I am trying not to sound like a fanboy, but if you use Leopard, you are pretty silly not to make the upgrade.

Rating:

9 out of 10 (10 if it was free, but again, would it even warrant a review then?)

PS:

Then of course there is the constant comparison with Windows. Windows 7 is arriving end of October in stores and is already complete in RTM guise. We all want the next Windows to cost $30 as well, but Windows has to cater for such a broad range of hardware, that it obviously takes a much larger effort to refine its operating system than Apple. (Face it, Windows 7 is as much a service pack to Windows Vista as Snow Leopard is to Leopard.). While Microsoft will not bring it to market at $30, it will release a Family Pack for multi PC households. I am actually very excited by these two very mature new operating systems now available. (See my review of Windows 7 here.)

Nokia N97 Review - So Close, Yet So Far

2009-08-27T15:07:00.000+02:00

Every now and then I come across a new gadget or piece of hardware that should impress me, but somehow, after spending time with it, there is something missing. You cannot quite put your finger on it – its just a lot of small things that all contribute.

Recently Nokia delivered the Nokia N97 to me – and it really is a beauty. Its hardware is sleek, and solid. Similiar to a lot of phones these days, it has chrome surrounds, and a seemingly buttonless front dominated by the screen. Small inconspicuous buttons for the phone and menu are on the front as well as a front facing camera for video calls. It flips open to reveal a full qwerty keyboard – and the action of the slider is just about the most impressive feeling mechanical slide in any phone I have felt. When opened, the rear of the hinge looks like a bragging list of features: 32GB, 5MP camera, 3.5” screen, A-GPS, Bluetooth 2.0, WLAN, HSDPA, etc.

So far, good start.

On the slightly rubberized rear is a 5 MP camera covered up with a slider, which automatically activates the camera once opened. It also includes a powerful flash, so I guess photography is covered then? It uses a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, and it charges using the new charging standard – micro USB. So far I am still impressed.

But then you fire it up – and here things start going a bit pear shaped. While I have always loved Symbian, I cannot help that somehow the N97 is underpowered. Clicking things on screen take a while to react, prompting me in many cases to try and click it again. Connected to the fact that it does not have a capacitative screen, the interface can sometimes be infuriating. OK, so if the screen takes a little used to, at least it has a keyboard right? Yes, but the keyboard has almost no tactile feedback. In fact, many times I find myself rather using the onscreen keyboard whenever possible. People’s biggest complaint with touchscreens are that there is a lack of tactile feedback – well this is the perfect example of how a poor keyboard is not better than a touch screen. On the N97, at least there is some haptic feedback when clicking on screen. This is still something that I think all touchscreen phones should get. Also, I cannot see how Nokia can make the stylus not slide into the device like the 5800 Tube. Instead the N97 has a little stylus that hangs of a little string.

The screen automatically rotates to landscape when needed, but it is hard not to notice that Symbian is not really designed for changing orientations – suddenly the soft buttons take up two thirds of the screen estate, which does not really add to usability. While in idle mode, with the screen on, the widgets are pretty cool to use and keep you informed. I stuck to the standard widgets including Facebook and AP News, but also used the new News24 widget, which is slick, but nowhere near as cool as the iPhone app. However, the widget system is really great to use and see info at a glance. I love that its apps download news and info in the background – other phones should take notice.

One major problem with Symbian in its current guise is still the use of “access points”. This feature has been part of Symbian for a very long time, and it is still a overcomplicated mess to organize your connections. While you can setup access point groups with priority lists, the phone will still in many cases first want to ask you to confirm what connection to use. All other smartphones these days understand the principle that if I walk into my wifi zone, I don’t want to use 3G. And no, I don’t want to confirm it every time. While I am sure there is some convoluted way to set this up on the device, it is definitely not simple. Please fix this Nokia.

OK, but say you get used to these oddities, and face it, the owner probably will. How is the features, and how do they stack up when actually used? Being a N-Series device, let’s start with the multimedia features. The screen is bright and has a nice high resolution – nothing wrong there. But I cannot help but feel a little cheated. Nokia’s recent N86 8MP has a OLED screen which has perfect pitch black darks and great battery life - For Nokia’s top of the range device, I think they should have looked at OLED.

The camera specs look fine – autofocus, 5 megapixel, flash. While photos looked great during the day, the photos were washed out when using the flash. Needless to say, the Nokia N86 8MP has much better camera and flash. So if photography is important, I wont say this is the handset to go for.

Storage wise, there is 32GB built in, and another 16GB can be added via SD card, which is quite amazing. While I realize this will probably all be used for multimedia, it is quite amazing to think how far we have come with mobile storage. Videos stored on the device looked okay, but I was not really blown away. It is no way close to video playback on a iPhone or HTC Magic, even if the resolution is higher. Again, I think a OLED screen could have helped the colours “pop” a little.

One thing the N97 does pull off is GPS navigation. Nokia Maps is included on the device, and it works a treat. However, like most GPS navigator phones, it sucks the battery dry very quickly. Good thing that Nokia includes a car charger in the box for South African buyers – I don’t think all countries are this lucky. Another plus is that unlike Google Maps, Nokia Maps can have entire country maps downloaded on the device, so you are not reliant on network data like on Apple and Android devices.

While Nokia might call it a N-series device, there is definitely a hint of series in there – it does include a full qwerty keyboard after all. As a messaging device it is hard to fault – setup of email accounts is even easier than on the E75, and I never had a single problem with messaging. Clearly Nokia has some experience in this field.

As a phone the N97 is not bad at all – everything works as it should. The sound quality is brilliant, and I did not have any issues. I am aware of other reviewers of the device complaining that the device would often lock up in the middle of a call, I had no such issues. The battery life was OK, but I did expect more. It has a large battery, but it does not last more than about 30 hours, not more than a day when actually used. While it sounds bad, it is not worse than most other phones that has this level of features.

As a whole I am still impressed by the N97. Its only once you start weighing up its competitors that you start seeing the issues. And this is truly a sad (but also exciting) state of affairs – a few new phones have spoiled it for the rest of the old legend manufacturers. But still, there are some truly revolutionary things appearing – be it in software, or in hardware. When looking at N97, it is hard to fault the hardware – it is truly stunning. When looking at the software, I think Nokia should look long and hard at Symbian. Currently Nokia owns Symbian, and it is being made opensource, which is great. I really believe Symbian is modular enough to be more suited to touch screens (hopefully capacitative) over time. But Nokia is now shifting to Meamo for its new N900 device, so we might see some strange things happen with Nokia and Symbian.

My honest opinion? I would still rather go for a Nokia E71 or E72.

Pros:

Solid Build
Nice big 32GB storage
Sliding Action is without peer

Cons:

Keyboard is almost useless
Camera could be better for a top of the range device
Symbian feels dated
Device feels underpowered

Rating:

6 out of 10 (I want to give it 8, but it is not a cheap handset)

Mac OS X Snow Leopard in SA...

2009-08-27T09:47:00.000+02:00

It seems South Africans wont have to wait for Snow Leopard after all, it will be released on Friday 28 August at premier resellers. The good news is that the price is not too bad - R329. Compare that to $29 in the US and 29 pounds in the UK, and I guess we are OK.

The official reviews by the typical Apple bigshots have started to trickle in, and the opinions are universally positive. The major plus for Snow Leopard is the performance boost - many built apps launch much quicker, and there is big potential for speed improvements once third party apps start taking advantage of Grand Central Dispatch - Apple typically fancy name for its service that enables better handling of applications in multiple core environments.

The other major advantage is that the built in apps have been rewritten in 64 bit which gives great performance boosts in environments where the machine has large amounts of RAM. OpenCL will enable Macs to use their graphics card (anything from a Nvidia 8600 and up) to contribute processing power to everyday applications. While many of these new technologies are not necessarily going to be used immediately, it does show that performance in the future on Snow Leopard might improve more once third party developers harness these tools.

Only minus is that support for PowerPC macs has been pulled - it is Intel only, which is just about any Mac after 2006. However, you can still run older PowerPC apps as with Leopard, but Rosetta is now an optional component. The install is much smaller because of this - you will have about 7Gig more space than with Leopard. (This is also because the giant printer driver database has been removed, it will by default rather download the driver)

Personally I cannot wait to load up Snow Leopard on my mac - not that I have noticed it was slow. Its almost like the iPhone 3G - I did not notice it was slow until I used a 3GS. Guess thats what technology companies should do - convince you to get something new, when you did not realize you needed it. Evil.

At R329 it is a must have upgrade though.

Now if Microsoft could have only followed suit with this pricing - but luckily they are bringing out a "family pack" of Windows 7, which is great for multiple PC households.

Review Round Up:
Engadget
Gizmodo
CNET
Walt Mossberg (you can even upgrade from Tiger for $29 - whoops!)
PC World
Slashgear

One more thing:
If you want to see if all your apps can run on Snow Leopard, go to http://snowleopard.wikidot.com/ - thanks @neio