MPieters.com

This blog(ger) has moved....

2011-02-08T14:02:00.000+02:00

As you may have noticed, things have calmed down a lot over here at mpieters.com. I have taken over as editor over at BandwidthBlog - so if you want to stay informed, please head on over. Expect opinion pieces, reviews, and general news tidbits...

Review: Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid Hard Drive

2010-07-28T08:36:00.000+02:00

Just about any techie would tell you that the slowest part in a modern computer is still the harddrive. In fact, 90% of the time you wait for your computer is because that little needle is busy reading sectors from a very fast spinning disk (not counting waiting for Seacom delays…). True, hard drives have become very quick over the years, but the other components in a computer has just progressed at exponentially faster pace.

Its for this very reason why you might have the latest Core i7 machine with large amounts of RAM, but still can go make a cup of coffee in the time it takes to boot up. Luckily solid state storage has come along – this does away with the moving platter inside a hard drive and instead replaces it with chips that do away with access times (the average time the needle takes to find that little bit of data) and also makes the drive silent and uses less electricity. Sounds like a terrific solution, except for price. Whereas a 500GB 7200rpm hard disk drive costs R800 today, a similiar size SSD costs around R15000. No, that is not a typo. So people who wanted the speed of SSD were forced to buy smaller capacities – 64GB currently goes for about R1800 for a decent Corsair SSD.

And this exactly what makes the Seagate Momentus XT so special. Seagate refers to it as a “hybrid hard drive”. The XT has a 500GB traditional HDD merged with a fast 4GB SSD chip. Now 4GB might not sound like much, but you do not have to manually choose which files to drop on this SSD portion. As you use the drive, it keeps track of what files are used often, and stores these files in the SSD. These typically include files that are used by the OS often, your most used apps, etc. The Momentus XT is not only a laptop drive – in fact, it will beat most standard desktop hard drives as well. In many benchmarks it beats the WD 10,000 rpm Velociraptor drives… Its also operating system independent, so you can go ahead and use it with Windows, Mac or even Linux. The adaptive memory just keeps on doing its thing.

Now you might think 4GB SSD is not enough – but here is some of the changes I noticed using this drive. Just for some background – I installed this drive into a late 2009 Apple Macbook Pro 13inch, with a Core 2 Duo 2.53GHz processor and 4GB of RAM. It used to have a Seagate Momentus 7200.3 320GB 7200rpm drive installed, which was pretty quick already. Here is the boot times of a full Mac OS X install. Take note this not a clean fresh install, but instead a install that is made from time machine restore for both the old and new drives. In fact, I havent reinstalled or reformatted my machine in more than 2 years. Time Machine just does such a good job of that, another thing where I really do believe Mac is still better than Windows. This install is full of apps I run often, but also small utility apps that I like to use every now and then. All in all a pretty representitive Mac install. You can expect the same performance improvements on Windows as well.
Both the old and new image is defragmented and then left for about 10 minutes so that the adaptive memory does its thing.

These speeds are carried over to shutdown speeds as well. Again, once the adaptive memory gets used to the shutdown procedure, speed increases as well. Very impressive.

So how does it affect everyday apps? Just everyday apps like Firefox load in half the time (and this does not include timing from cached apps in memory, this is after reboots). Larger apps like Photoshop get even better performance. iTunes gets zippier as well. Here is some timings I did with the drive. iTunes load time for a 60GB library. (Take note this is timed after a reboot every time).

Here is the startup times for Photoshop. This is a standard install without any plugins. Again, this is a startup after a boot every time.

I did not time everything, but here are some things that improve as well:

You know that little wait while you type into the Spotlight search box? Thats gone.
Virtual Machines are faster as well. I know an average VM is much larger than 4GB, but over times these do become faster. I guess that adaptive memory looks for files within the VMs as well.
Everything is snappier. The stuff you do most often on the computer just happens so much faster. Makes me only wish for the day when SSDs will be cheaper.

I did notice that the drive is a little more noisy than the previous drive, but I can only hear it it if I put my ear right against my laptop. Other than that I did not find any other negatives when using the drive on a day to day basis.
Just a tip to Mac users who would like to install one – do not use a tool like SuperDuper, rather do a Time Machine backup, and then restore the image during the install process of Mac OSX. For some reason the drive doesnt cooperate with those image cloning tools. This goes the same to Windows users, do not use DriveImage XML. Do a reinstall, I know its quite a process, but the performance boost is well worth it.
The best part of the Momentus XT is that it costs only slightly more than a standard 7200rpm notebook drive. I payed R1200 for the 500GB model. And the performance in real life use is much faster. While it wont quite reach the speed of a fast SSD, it is a fraction of the price. And that makes it a very good deal. So you might want to know if it makes more sense to rather spend your money on a full on SSD or even more RAM. Suppose you have a machine with a normal 250GB 5400rpm drive and 2GB of RAM. Here is a pretty handy chart to put hybrid hard drives into perspective:

So if you want large capacity plus fast performance, it seems like a hybrid hard drive might be the ideal middle ground before SSDs become affordable. I am willing to bet that Seagate will spread this hybrid technology to its other hard drives as well. I think the sweetspot will be a desktop drive with 8GB or 16GB of SSD memory. Hopefully in a few years we will laugh at this as SSD have finally become comparable in price with hard drives… Bring on the speed.

The Seagate Momentus XT reached South African shores last week, its currently only at suppliers, but should reach stores soon.

Highly recommended.

iPad and Prepaid 3G in SA

2010-07-15T15:26:00.000+02:00

OK, so you have a brand spanking new iPad 3G, or at least on the way. But you want to get it on a SA cellular network. Sounds simple enough right? Not so fast – there are a few things you need to take note of.
First off, the iPad ships with a new type of sim card slot, which is made for a newer standard, called Micro SIM. It is essentially just a smaller version of the sim card we currently use in our phones, called Mini SIM. If you compare the two, you will see that the Micro SIM doesnt actually use any new circuitry to make it smaller – it just gets rid of even more of the plastic around its edges. Here is a small illustration if you want to see what I am on about.

Now the good news is that Vodacom and MTN pledged to have Micro SIMs available – the major reason being that iPhone 4 also uses it, and they need to be ready for that potential cash cow once it reaches our shores. In this piece I will focus on Vodacom, seeing as I am comfortable with them (not always happy though), and I know their product range. First off, you can go to any Vodacom SP shop, and jsut order a Micro SIM. I went to one and they had it ready for me within 3 days, for a cost of R50. Not bad.

Of course there is the DIY approach. You can take a SIM Card and cut the sides so that they fit the new Micro SIM slot. While I can see it not being a very hard job, I cannot say I feel to comfortable doing it, seeing as I dont wont to risk the SIM card getting lost inside the iPad – you cannot simply open it after all. But if you feel confident, good for you, just dont blame me.

Another area where the iPad can create some problems is that it doesnt have any type of dial pad, so you are going to need some way to load up data bundles. I know you can get a 3G data contract, but then you are just being a a sucker. Buying data bundles prepaid work out much cheaper, and you have the added benefit of spreading your data costs over 60 days if you plan well enough. So here is the strategy I am using.

Buy any Vodacom prepaid SIM card. They go for next to nothing at most supermarkets. Mine cost a princely sum of R1.
Take the SIM card, with your ID and a proof of residence to any Vodacom shop. You have to go through RICA in order to activate the SIM.
Order a MicroSIM – this will take a few days to arrive. I reckon they will become much faster in future, especially after September when the iPhone 4 is here. Alternatively if you are brave, you can cut the SIM card to fit the iPad.If they have theMicroSIM in stock, hold on, dont activate it yet.
Go to Vodacom’s website, and register for their online services. Just click “Register” at the top of the page. Got through the process, they should send you a SMS to confirm, so….
Put your normal SIM card in any cellphone, type the PIN, and wait for the SMS to come through. Using that password, log into the Vodacom site.
Go to Vodacom, and do the SIM switch to Micro SIM. Put the MicroSIM in the iPad. It might take a few hours to activate.
Load credit onto the number. Trick is to get credit where you dont have to phone out or type in any codes. Remember, you cant phone or SMS or type cellular numbers into the iPad. I use ABSA – you can go on Internet Banking and transfer prepaid credit to any number. You can also do it from their ATMs. Many other banks do this as well, as long as they dont give a voucher with PIN code. You want the credit to be automatically loaded.
Go to Vodacom’s site again, login, and click on bundles. From there, you have a selection of data bundles to choose from. Just a tip – these bundles last for 60 days. The bundles are also cheaper per meg if you buy larger bundles at once. Example – it makes more sense to buy a 600meg bundle every 60 days than a 300 meg bundle every month. My tip is to buy on the first of a month, and then recharge the bundle every 60 days.
On the iPad, go to Settings, General, Network, Cellular Data Network, and then change the APN to: “internet” – without the quotation marks.

And after this exhaustive process you ought to be online. If you want to load more data, just go through steps 7 and 8. Of course you can skip this whole process and get a contract, but thats something I think you are smart enough to avoid. I dont buy data contracts in SA, our prices are still going to fall in the future, and you dont want to be stuck in a 24 month contract. But that just my opinion. You might have a good reason to choose otherwise.

Lets hope Vodacom can also integrate the payment method that other networks are doing overseas once the iPad comes to our shores officially…

Latest Distimo Report

2010-07-08T10:08:00.000+02:00

The Distimo report is a monthly report that shows current trends in the mobile application development marketplace. It takes into account all the handset manufacturers’ different stores through which they distribute applications on their devices. Here are some of the interesting developments:

Mobile apps are cheap, or free. More than half of apps are below $2. So developers who charge high prices, remember, the large group of users out there should make you worry less about profit per sale.
The iPad’s current application seems to cost a bit more than the iPhone. This can be attributed to increased development costs, but I have to commend developers who write universal apps. Universal apps you purchase once, and they run on both the iPhone and the iPad. Dont make me pay twice for two devices.
The Android market is made up of more than 57% free apps. Why? Is it because Android users are less likely to buy apps than on other platforms? Or is it because the free apps are good enough?
Games are still by far the most popular apps. Out of the top 10 paid for apps on the iPhone, 8 was games.
Amazon’s Kindle app seems to be under fire. Apple’s iBooks app is the number one app on the Appstore. But its still great that Amazon is making their platform available to other platforms as well. After using the iPad, I have to say my Kindle has become neglected. And with good reason.

What is interesting is seeing how the appstore ecosystem is changing. iPhone still seems to be the one that has the monetary edge, but that might change soon enough. With the number of Android handsets being released, there is plenty of oppurtunities for developers. The number of free apps on Android might sound great, but this does not take into account the quality of these apps. Whereas the iPhone Appstore is verified by Apple on a app for app basis, Google’s marketplace has no such process.

The disadvatange to this is of course that low-quality or poorly designed apps get in there as well. While people criticize Apple’s quality control, there are just as many postive aspects as well.I really reckon Google can do with a similiar process – not to replace the current marketplace, but a “Google Verified” section for apps that Google does approve of. That way you have the best of both worlds.

That way you cater for both developers who want to quickly and easily want to get into the marketplace, but end users who want high quality apps can find them as well. Tools like AppBrain does address this somewhat, but what I am talking about is a official source of apps. Maybe Google should have a chat with AppBrain?

You can download the full Distimo report here.

Xbox Live coming to South Africa

2010-06-15T16:19:00.000+02:00

Oh this will make the gamers happy. For long us South Africans had to use strange methods to be able to use Xbox Live, we had to masquarade as yanks in order to play our games online. What made this doubly insulting is that we pay full price for our Xbox games, and these days the online component of a game is even more important than the actual game. Just ask any Halo or Forza fan.

Microsoft has finally announced that SA will be getting Xbox Live within the next three months. A definate date was not given, but we can be assured it is before the end of September. This was of course hand in hand with the announcement of the “Kinect” peripheral (called “Project Natal” in the past) and the new Xbox 360, which is slimmer, shinier, quiter and better looking than the original Xbox 360.

So will you be getting the Kinect? And will you finally sign up for Xbox Live now that it is officially in SA?

Image from LazyGamer.co.za

iPhone 4 announced: so whats new?

2010-06-09T13:46:00.000+02:00

OK – we might be a little late on this one, but I am pretty sure any reader of this blog would have known about the iPhone 4 already. But to the uninformed/uninterested/android using reader, here are some of the things that stand out:

Hardware:
In typical Apple fashion, the new display is called the “Retina” display. First off it has a much higher resolution, about 4 times more in fact. So if you thought the current iPhone screen was good, I can only imagine what it will look like. Secondly, it uses IPS (In Plain Switching) technology which means that the display can be viewed at a much wider angle. The display is also fused with the glass, which means there is no space between the glass and the actual LCD panel. Apple decided to skip the OLED craze, and it seems the first impressions agree with this choice.

The iPhone is also sporting a new look. Yes, it still has the all-display front, but it now sports a stainless steel edge, very much in the same fashion as the current macbook pros and the iPad. True, in their case its aluminium. But with the iPhone, the casing frame is used as a antenna, so thats why its stainless steel. The rear of the device is glass this time round, getting rid of the cheaper feeling plastic of the iPhone 3G and 3GS. Glass – but a new type of glass, which supposedly the same type used by helicopters. Time will only tell if it is indeed scratch proof and can withstand a bit of torture. It sure looks more solid than the old one. Jobs mentioned at the announcement that it reminds him of old Leica cameras, and that is pretty spot on. It looks very classy.

On the inside things changed a lot as well. Apple is getting rid of the old Cortex processor and going with their own custom designed silicon, the Apple A4 chip. This is the same chip that is in the iPad, and its very brisk in there. This chip also gives better power efficiency, and the new iPhone also gets a slightly bigger battery, so it gets slightly better battery life. 7 hours of talk time on 3G, 10 hour video playback, 6 hours of browsing on 3G, and 300 hours of standby time.

The camera is also improved – it gets a 5MP backside illuminated sensor, and finally also gets a flash, which will improve pictures at night. While 5MP does not sound a lot, any photographer will tell you its not about the number of megapixels, but the size of the sensor – and apparently the pixel density in the sensor is the same as the old 3GS, which means the sensor size has increased, which leads to better low light photography as well. The new camera is also capable of recording 720p HD video at 30 frames per second.

Apple is also pushing their own new method of video conferencing, called Facetime, with the a new front facing camera. While its pretty same old, same old, Apple is opening up the standard for use by other vendors and software designers. Only time will tell whether it will be used at all. Video calling has been available for a long time, and people still dont do it. You know why? Because people dont like to use their double chin. Really.

iOS4:
The iPhone 4 will ship with iOS4, which was previously known as iPhone OS. Now that its running on other devices than a phone, its an apt renaming. iOS4 gains a lot of new features, but the standout ones include multitasking, unified inbox, folders, iBooks, better camera controls, Faces in photos etc. But I want to focus on multitasking. Long the fuel of Android fanboys everywhere, the iPhone finally gets its own implementation of multitasking, where apps can access certain services that are allowed to run in the background, where the app itself is paused for use later.

I can actually not see where multitasking would make such a big difference, except with GPS apps and audio streaming apps. But thats the wonder of the Appstore – I am pretty sure someone will code an indispensible app that needs to run in the background.
Luckily for current users of iPhone in SA, iOS4 will be a free upgrade in afew weeks. Msot of the new features will be available to all users, but multitasking will not be available to iPhone 3G – apparently it needs a bit of horsepower.
I will be testing the iOS4 Golden Master seed in the next week, so come back later for my opinion on it.

PS: Vodacom has confirmed that iPhone 4 will come to SA, but has not confirmed a time. My bet is late August / September.

Google Streetview goes live in SA:

2010-06-08T09:44:00.000+02:00

Finally, it is here:

And it works great! I tested this on my iPhone – easy enough to do. Go to an area where StreetView has taken pictures – in this example, Greenpoint. Click on one of the pins that drop on the screen, and you will see a small orange icon on the left of the description, and there you go. As you can see here I am looking at Main Road, and there on the right is the stadium.

In similiar fashion to overseas, all cars registrations and people are blurred out.
Thanks to Google!

Review: CoPilot Live 8 for iPhone (South African Maps)

2010-05-31T08:53:00.000+02:00

I recently got contacted by the folks at ALK - they wanted to show off their new CoPilot Live product for South Africa. In case you dont know, CoPilot is available on iPhone, Android and Windows Mobile. I have been using the iPhone version for the past week, and yes, I am very impressed.

Key Features

Full spoken turn-by-turn voice directions
Detailed street maps of UK and Ireland with full UK post codes stored on your iPhone
Clear 3D and 2D driving views with SmartZoom™ speed-variable zoom and street names
Navigate to a house number, street, intersection or address book contact
Automatic portrait and landscape display switching
Comprehensive multi-stop pre-trip planning and preview
Route optimizer works out the best way around multiple stops
Intelligent navigation provides guidance in tunnels and underpasses
Automatic day/night mode
Navigate to thousands of Points of Interest
Lane indicator & CoPilot ClearTurn™ provides a more realistic view of motorway exits and junctions
Real Signpost display matches real-life signs
LiveLink™ location sharing and messaging: keep track of your CoPilot friends, live on-screen!
Live 5 day weather forecast for your location or destination
Huge range of customization features to suit the way you travel
Customized trip status displays, including ETA, distance remaining and more
Safety camera database (with free updates)
In-app purchases for premium Live services
In-app purchase for Text to speech voice instructions

I have used alternative solutions by other vendors on the iPhone, and over time certain things started to irritate me. It has gotten so bad, that in most cases I just fire up Google Maps instead of actual GPS apps. Their database is up to date, and their routing is good as well. But of course, Google Maps does not actually navigate you to the your destination, with a convulatuted next, next, next type of interaction which is downright dangerous to use in a car. (Maybe one day they will grace South Africa (or even the iPhone) with that feature.

So lets get round to CoPilot Live 8. The install is easy enough - it is on iPhone after all. Standard Appstore solution. At 100MB+ you do want to download it through wifi however.

First off, the interface is slick and easy to use. Buttons are large, and easy to interpret, which is necessary when using a GPS in your car. Most things can be understood at just glance, which I appreciate. It's pretty clear when you open it that it is a ported interface (it is almost exactly the same as on the Android and Windows Mobile), which I normally dont like. But after playing around with it, I realized that it works very well, despite not following the typical iPhone app look. Integration with the iPhone keyboard is perfect, which is more than I can say for NDrive. The level of detail on the maps is also great - in fact much better than with my Garmin with the latest mapset. The maps move along at a good pace - and there is a very cool feature where the top of the screen is changed to indicate where the current lanes you are driving down is heading. Orientation switch between landscape and portrait is quick and without bugs.

Voice instructions are clear and loud enough (on the 3GS at least). Routing was very good, and seems to be very similiar to my Garmin dedicated device. Talking about Garmin - they bring out new mapsets, and still havent included my security village's road, which is by no means new. With CoPilot, it is there, with all the streetnames. And here I thought dedicated devices like Garmin have always been the best. Small issues include the strength of the GPS signal, but this is a iPhone issue, not the software. On cloudy days, it did take a while to grab the signal, but just leaving it under the windscreen seemed to do the trick.

The performance on the iPhone 3GS was very good, but it was a lot slower on the 3G, and I did get some warnings on the 3G about memory shortages. But it did not crash once, which is good. Battery life was also better than I expected, and a hell of a lot better than using Google Maps which has to continually download map tiles as you go along. A small thing I also appreciate is the integration with the iPod - and creating quick playlists were a breeze. Also, while playing music, it didnt stutter once while giving directions, and the music were slightly turned down while talking, and than smoothly increased back up to the previous volume. I really appreciate that.

Even if the interface of a GPS app is good, it comes down to routing ability. And this is where CoPilot really shines. It has calulated all my routes perfectly, and never once give me an error, or a situation where I had to second guess it. And just for that I really like CoPilot. I wouldnt hesitate recommending this to people who are still not happy to use GPS's. In fact, I have stopped using my Garmin in the last few weeks.

One criticism I have is that the South African version of CoPilot is expensive - CoPilot makes versions of CoPilot for many parts of the world, and currently the only version that is more expensive than the SA one is a version for the entire Europe. Meanwhile, the entire US mapset costs $19.99 at the moment. What makes this even more unfair is that the SA one doesnt support many of CoPilot's "live" features, such as traffic reports. Now I realize there isnt infrastructure in place for this in SA, but still, the price seems to target international travellers visiting SA for the World Cup. Maybe the map providers in SA ask very high prices, but I think the price should drop a lot. At least we do get weather, and you can easily ask for current location or just about anywhere:

Overall I am very impressed by CoPilot Live - it is clear that they have put more attention to detail in their product - it runs smoothly, and works well around the iPhone's application framework shortcomings. I am actually very interested to see what how they will implement the GPS framework of iPhone OS 4.0 in the future.

Rating: 4 out of 5 (drop the price and I will give it a 5)

Pros:

Works well - nice speed, reliable
Routing works well
Very detailed mapset
Interface is excellent - good example of how porting is not always a bad thing

Cons:
Pricey for the SA version
Performance on the 3G is significantly slower than the 3GS

Not too worry - I have a few licences of CoPilot Live South Africa to give away. What I need you to do is retweet this review to be part of the draw. Example: Review of CoPilot Live for iPhone over at @mpieters 's site: http://www.mpieters.com (or whatever comment you want).

If you are not a twitter kind of person, you can just comment here as well, and tell me why you think you deserve it. You have 5 days in which to do this (with the word @mpieters for the tweets), and I will select the retweeters and commenters with a random generator, by 4 June. Then I will contact the winners with redeem codes...

Update:

OK people, the results are in. Here are the winners, as generated by using random.org. Thanks to everyone who took part! I will be contacting the winners within the next few hours...

Apple takes over from Microsoft as the US’s most valuable tech company.

2010-05-27T10:02:00.000+02:00

This is a big deal folks. In terms of market capitalization, Apple has just shot past Microsoft. For many, many years Microsoft was untouchable, but unfortunately their growth in terms of share price has been dwindling recently. Apple on the other hand, has had a impressive growth spurt in the last few years, starting with the iPod, and now their big money maker, the iPhone.

What makes this even more impressive is that in the mid nineties, Apple were just about ready to close up shop. With a bunch of corporate shake ups and poor leadership on the board, many expected the company to just give up. Luckily Apple somehow go hold of its ousted leader, Steve Jobs, and put him back in charge as interim CEO, or in Apple speak, the iCEO. Before this, Dell CEO, Michael Dell famously pronounced that the right thing to do for Apple is to close shop, and give back the money to the shareholders. Imagine you were one of the shareholders then – things are definitely looking up today. This because Steve Jobs shaked up Apple’s structure and brought back its culture, something that was always Apple’s biggest asset.
What he did is basically scrap unnecessary product lines and refine existing products to just a few choices. It is still very much evident today with the Apple range of products. Despite thinking that people want infinite choice, Apple proves that people do not want to be bombarded with different products.

Oh and one small thing also helped: Microsoft actually invested $150 million into Apple in those bad years to bail them out. Who would have thunk?

Now one should not dismiss Microsoft in this – this is after all percepted value of a company based on shares. Apple only has around 10 percent of the US market, while Microsoft is still very profitable, despite these profits primarily coming from its operating systems and productivity software, but then again they sink a lot of money in to other divisions like Xbox and Windows phone, which is yet to turn signaificant profits, if any at all.

What it comes down to is that investors are not always the best (or most accurate) people to value a company – Microsoft is still the dominant player in the corporate market, where scale, not pure profit per sale is what is more important (just go look at the profits in building an iPad). Whatever you might read into this, we still live in a Windows world.

I dont believe Microsoft to take back their place in the next few weeks – Apple has an exciting month lined up. On June 7th they are releasing their next generation iPhone (which has been leaked it seems, and it looks great) and also roll out the next release of it iPhone operating system, which will roll out to eager iPhone 3G and 3GS users. This software update also addresses one of the last major criticisms of the iPhone platform with multitasking, although only for the 3GS model (and of course the upcoming one).
I think the battle is still coming.

PS: If you want some history on Apple, go read iCon: Steve Jobs, The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business, a great book by Jefferey S. Young. Another great book is Inside Steve’s Brain, by Leander Kahney (he is the guy behind the Cult of Mac website).

Review: Microsoft Office 2010

2010-05-18T13:34:00.000+02:00

At first glance, Microsoft needs to make a very convincing argument to make people take note of Office 2010. After all, it's just another release of Office. Just about anyone would agree that Microsoft Office is by far the most feature rich productivity suite out there, but this great advantage also makes it very difficult to sell us a new version of the software.

Over the years Office has become a very mature product which has become the industry standard, but many people still do not go for every new release, especially in enterprise environments. In the case of Office 2007, its biggest downfall was in fact Microsoft Windows Vista, because MS decided to release the two at the same time, which scared off many businesses in droves, which is sad really, because Office 2007 was actually a completely seperate product which had very little to do with Vista. It's for this very reason that Office 2003 still has a 70% foothold in the enterprise market.

Clearly Microsoft has learned a lesson this time round and kept Office 2010's launch completely seperate from Windows, but rather launched it with a range of new enterprise level apps, such as SharePoint 2010, SQL Server 2010, and Exchange Server 2010. This is a very significant release, and Microsoft has to be commended for doing a complete productivity software overhaul, from server to desktop. Impressive. But today I am just focussing on Office 2010 (which of course gains a lot of features when combined with these enterprise updates).

Office 2010 contains the traditional apps we expect, like Word, Excel, Powerpoint, One Note and Outlook. In higher end versions a few more apps are included. Like I mentioned before, these apps have become so mature, it would be silly going through every new feature in every app. What is more interesting is how MS has integrated these apps with one another, and enhanced them to compete in this time where everybody is starting to take note of competitors like Google Docs. I will focus on major improvements instead of every small change.

Working Together

One app that can be singled out is Outlook. You know Outlook? That app that most people in corporate environments stare at day in and day out? In Office 2007, Microsoft debuted the Ribbon interface which improved most of the Office apps, but Outlook was left out. It had to stick to the old school File, Edit, View menus. Now Outlook 2010 gets some Ribbon love, and the app is indeed much more intuitive to use.

Where Outlook shines is in its new social features, which are actually very nice to use in practice. The way it works is with the "Social Connector" which is a platform for third party websites and service to write plugins for Outlook which makes the way we interact with contacts a bit more interesting. For example, when conversing with a colleague over email, Outlook can be made aware of his latest status updates on Facebook or LinkedIn (if you prefer to keep "work" social network seperate, but these types of services can run concurrently). This also gives you a profile pic of the person you are talking to, as well as a timeline of communications. Other services include Windows Live, Myspace and also Exchange 2010 (which gives a few more powerful features). The only third party networks who have actually released these plugins already are Linkedin and Myspace, with more to come. I do feel however that Microsoft was trying to mimic some of Xobni's features, but I have to agree that Microsoft's implementation is somewhat better.

In the past few years the holy grail of Office apps were the supposed "working together" feature that no-one really wanted. Now I am not bashing Microsoft here, but I have not really come across a situation where I need to edit a document with someone else concurrently (maybe you know of a situation where it's needed). But what I can say is that it works beautifully. In a recent Excel demo I saw how well it worked, and then in my own testing it *just worked* through Windows Live's services.

Powerpoint also gains an interesting new feature to broadcast slides to anyone connected to the internet. Again, though the use of Windows Live or Sharepoint, you send an invite to a recipient which contains a URL (which can be public or private) and from there the person can see the slides being presented live. While you can send this to anyone in the world, I think it might be more handy in meeting environments and classrooms for people who want to read slides right on their machines.

Office Anywhere

Where it becomes even more interesting is through the use of Office Web Apps - Microsoft's knockout to the Google Docs offering. Instead of a barebones interface like Google Docs, Office Web Apps looks like a near perfect rendering of the actual native Office app. These Web Apps are accessed through Windows Live and also through Facebook (which is still in Beta). In corporate environments, this will be managed through the latest version of Sharepoint server. Now where might you use this? Imagine you need to edit a word document from a computer without Office. Now, as long as it is connected to the internet, you can go ahead and just use the web app version of Office by using your Windows Live login details. Microsoft also made this functionality available to Facebook users, but it is still in an invite only beta at this stage.

Bring Ideas to Life

Office has also improved the multimedia aspects of Office. Most of these enhancements go into Powerpoint. Sometimes small things, like better looking transitions between slides, but also some very handy tools for image editing. I was astonished by how well certain tools work - like removing the background from an image worked almost perfectly, and just required some cropping. Compare this to the process of using something like Photoshop and then exporting the edited file for use in Powerpoint. Screen clipping can also be done by just clicking a button, and selecting the part you want to add to your document or message. Altering colours or contrast work brilliantly, with small previews of how the image might look on every button.

Practical Productivity Platform

One aspect I do appreciate with Office 2010 is the attention they have given to security. Whenever you open a document in Outlook, it will first open that document in sandboxed environment in which editing is also disabled. When you do try to edit the document, it will first make you aware of the security risks. Outlook is also a bit smarter in the way it checks up on mistakes you might make in messages, called Mail Tips. For example, if you send an email to 5 people in your organization and one person outside, it will just remind you of this, in case you are sending confidential information. It will also warn you that you are about to send that report to the entire organization. While it might irritate some people, I am sure it can save your butt at some point. Just maybe. If you are connected to an Exchange server, Outlook will also inform you before you hit send if someone is out of office. Handy.

Outlook also gains threaded conversation view, which is now set as default. Instead of browsing through hundreds of emails which might contain a lot of replies and re-replies, Outlook groups your messages so that you can keep context of any conversation. Mac has used this in its native Mail app for quite some time, so it's great that this is now in Office as well. Outlook also gains a new feature called "quick steps" which contextually change as you do different things. For example, it connects to Sharepoint and knows who your team members are, and sets up a quick link to forward something to your team. You can also go create your own multiple "quick steps" in which you specify what a button does.

For people responsible for deployment, Office is much more versatile this time round. One new method I have been testing is "Click to Run" which makes Office run in sandboxed, virtualized environment. This is built on App-V, a new method of virtualizing (almost) any app on top of Windows. This makes it much more versatile in complex machine setups - for example, you might have someone who runs very old macros that are reliant on Office 2003, but they also need Office 2010, without any problems occurring.

Overall I am very happy with Office 2010, and it's a very tough product to fault. Its almost like they thought of everything. Of course there is always the issue of price, and yes there are free alternatives. But we are talking about the standard here, and something not many people can choose not to run. Office 2010 can be bought in a number of SKU's. But for the first time they are also selling key-cards, so that you can save money on the initial price, provided you have an internet connection which you are comfortable downloading a large file through (yay for uncapped). You will be able to buy the key cards at computer stores, and then you just take them home and use the product key inside to activate a new licence, and you download the install files. These keycard prices are specifically made for South Africa, and Microsoft actually checks when you download the install files whether you are indeed in South Africa. There exists a few other versions for enterprises rollouts, but here we focus on the consumer versions.

Home & Student:
It will include Word 2010, Excel 2010, PowerPoint 2010, OneNote 2010 and Office Web Apps. What's significant with this SKU is that the buyer can install it on up to three machines in his home. So you can buy it for Mom, Dad and another machine.
Price: R899 (with install media) R799 (if you download the install files yourself, called the keycard version)

Home & Business:
This version is focussed on people who actually work from home. It includes Word 2010, Excel 2010, PowerPoint 2010, OneNote 2010, Outlook 2010 and Office Web Apps. This is for a single licence.
Price: R1999 (with install media) or R1899 (keycard version)

Professional:
Here things get pricier. It comes with Word 2010, Excel 2010, PowerPoint 2010, OneNote 2010, Outlook 2010, Publisher 2010, Access 2010, Office Web Apps and premium technical support. If you do need Publisher and Access, I really recommend you go for the keycard version.
Price: R5199 (with install media) or R3699 (keycard version)

Bizarrely, you might notice is that Microsoft removed upgrade pricing. However, you do save some money going for the keycard versions.

Conclusion:

So should you upgrade? Well, it depends on your situation - if you are stilling running Office 2003, I would really recommend you move to Office 2010. There are too many improvements to count and the increase in efficiency with just dealing with day to day tasks quickly become apparent. You might have held out on the Ribbon interface, but it clearly is the future of Office. Just go for it.

If you are running Office 2007, things become a bit more complicated. True, they function very similiarly, so unless you need very specific new features that only Office 2010 offers, you need evaluate carefully if it's worth the cost. But if there is one tip I might give you - go take Outlook 2010 for a test drive. Outlook has been improved so much that it might be the very reason you would want to upgrade. Gone are the long loading times and tedious menus. Things happen quickly and the whole application is much easier to use.

Despite the high price, nothing comes close to Office 2010 in terms of ease of use and feature richness.

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars.

Pros:
Outlook 2010 is a huge upgrade
Major performance improvements
Good pricing on Home and Student version

Cons:
Professional SKU is very pricey

PS: Microsoft, get cracking on Office 2011 for Mac please. I want the new Outlook on my Mac as well.

Google Streetview SA launching soon...

2010-05-17T20:17:00.000+02:00

Good news Google Maps fans. As part of Google’s efforts of being ready for the onslaught of soccer fans next month, Google is launching Street View for South Africa on 25 May.

You might have seen the Google Street View cars – normally Toyota Prius’s driving around with large cameras on top of them. The area in which Street View will launch is the following:

Johannesburg
Pretoria
Cape Town
Port Elizabeth
Durban
East London

Google also took the time take photograph some other areas in SA including:

Chapman’s Peak drive
Table Mountain
Soccer City
Moses Mabhida Stadium

So keep your eyes peeled…

Internet Explorer 9 Preview 2 now available

2010-05-06T14:20:00.000+02:00

If you are someone who always wants to try the latest version of software, even if it is a pre release, you might want to take a look at IE9. I downloaded it, and from what I see Microsoft is really trying to step up to the plate by creating a decent standards based browser. While it might not be a Webkit browser like Chrome or Safari, it does support the newer HTML5 standards, including H.264 video codecs right out the box. IE9 is currently not even in Beta yet, but is primarily focussed on web developers who want to be proactive with their work. When you install it, it does not replace your current IE install, so its not too risky. What this version of IE9 does well is some great new design demos:

You can run the demos in other browsers and just see how they perform. So if you are interested, you can get IE9 preview here.

Google buys Bumptop

2010-05-03T14:38:00.000+02:00

Well this is interesting - Google bought the guys responsible for BumpTop, the very slick 3 dimensional desktop application. I have always been a fan of the idea of Bumptop, but I hated running another layer over my background. The few times that I did test it I was always impressed, and it ran well, especially its recent Mac OSX version. It was however limited in its free form, and hopefully Google fixes this. Just like Picasa was little known before Google bought it, maybe they will set Bumptop free for all OS's, with quick links to all Google services. I can imagine that being very handy.

Please Google, dont keep Bumptop only for your upcoming ChromeOS (or Android).

Set it free.

New Vodacom data prices

2010-04-23T11:17:00.002+02:00

Vodacom just announced that their data prices will effectively drop from the 1st of May. While you wont necessarily spend less on your mobile data, you will get more data for your money. First off, here is the “advanced” bundles, which are ideal for people who do not want to spend a lot when they exceed their data bundle.

MyMeg Broadband Advanced Service
	FREE data included (MB)	Bundle includes now:
MyMeg 150 Advanced	25	175
MyMeg 250 Advanced	50	300
MyMeg 500 Advanced	250	750
MyMeg One Advanced	512	1536
MyMeg Two Advanced	512	2560

Out of bundle megabytes are calculated at the same price as in bundle prices. If you are however a less demanding user, the standard broadband prices are as follows:

MyMeg Broadband Standard
	FREE data included (MB)	Bundle includes now:
MyMeg 150	25	175
MyMeg 250	50	300
MyMeg 500	100	600
MyMeg One	205	1229
MyMeg Two	307	2355

Well, any better value for our money is welcome. However, this does not necessarily mean we will spend less on our data costs – the free megs are just little enough that I am pretty sure most people will just stick to the plan they are already on. No Vodacom – does this mean Vodacom iPhone contracts now get 300 megs included? That is still not enough.

The state of Windows 7

2010-04-23T09:22:00.000+02:00

Windows 7 continues to be a growth driver for Microsoft and people continue to be excited about Windows 7. Exactly 6 months after the launch on October 22, 2009, we’ve sold well over 100 million licenses of Windows 7. To put that in context, more than 10% of all PCs worldwide are already running Windows 7 today. That’s amazing!

(Windows blog)

The sooner we get rid of Windows XP, the better...

So what is changing at Facebook?

2010-04-23T09:20:00.000+02:00

The “F8″ conference is an annual conference where Facebook announces platform changes to their product, but its mostly aimed at developers. In the last year Twitter has started to become an ever greater concern for the folks at Facebook, and with good reason. While twitter does not replace the strictly “we are friends” model of Facebook, it does provide users (and content aggregators) with access to an incredible amount of real time information. This information is so valuable that search engines would pay top dollar for the right to publish on the minute updates from twitter as results.

So how will Facebook combat this? – through a more connected, open platform. First off, they are killing Facebook connect. Facebook connect is that irritating little confirmations you have to go through everytime another web app wants to communicate with Facebook. Instead, Facebook is implementing “Open Graph” which looks remarkably similiar when described, but uses a single sign on process which will integrate more tightly into third party apps. For example, saying you “like” a certain song in Pandora (a music streaming service on the web and on your phone) will automatically add that song to your favourite music section in yout profile. Of course, not everyone can go and make these alterations to your profile, so Facebook has elected about 30 partners with which they will work at first. Big news is that Microsoft will offer Office 2010 editable documents in Facebook. So we guess that Microsoft purchase of a portion of Facebook is giving them a few advatantages… Lets see how they will implement this.

As Kerry-Anne mentioned, Facebook will also be making available the “like” button to any third party user, and its as simple as a few lines of HTML code. This will work similiar to the “Digg This” or “tweet this” buttons we see on sites these days. This is perhaps the best way in which Facebook will try to defend themselves against Twitter’s information rich features.

Perhaps more interesting is that Facebook will start using its own official currency called Facebook Credits, which can be used in all Facebook related sites. If you are a Farmville addict, expect that you will be pestered with offers to buy upgrades soon enough, in the Facebook Credits currency. Now if they can only make an offer so that I cannot get any mention of Farmville, anywhere, ever. Now that is a upgrade I will get.
Facebook is also releasing a “social bar” which is a floating bar that can be integrated into any site – lets say on the bottom of the screen. This bar can then be used as a way to build a community around your site, and naturally, spread its news quickly to your friends on Facebook.

Dissappointingly, Facebook did not mention anything regarding location based services (you can call it “LBS” if you want to be trendy). This is one area where services like Loopt, Twitter and Foursquare still have an advantage. Mark Zuckerberg did however confirm that it is being worked on… So in future you should become more careful of who you friend on Facebook…

iPhone 4 leaked?

2010-04-20T09:27:00.000+02:00

Seems so...

I am pretty sure the entire tech loving internet users have read the posts by Gizmodo at this point. It sounds like a movie: young guy who programs iPhone baseband software uses an unreleased iPhone prototype, and goes for a drink at a bar. Guy forgets the iPhone on a bar stool. Guy #2 picks it up, and tries to find the guy whose phone it is. Guy does not show up. Guy #2 goes home - next morning the phone is remotely killed by Apple. Guy #2 tries to find Guy at Apple, to no avail. Guy #2 contacts Apple to tell them he has what seems like a iPhone prototype. Apple does not take him seriously. Guy #2 sells the prototype to Gizmodo for $5000.

Here she is. Take note the steel sides and lack of typical iPhone silver rim.

And from there it hit the interwebz. If this entire story is true, it is a very sad day for Apple. See, Apple is famously secretive of upcoming products. Steve Jobs's partyline at new product showcases is to just say: It will be available in stores....(insert time here). And the crowd goes wild, and a while later they are all lined up at Apple stores. Which is great - but this has grown a massive industry of people trying to get hold of Apple rumours. And there has been a few leaks yes, but most of the time, Apple keeps leaks at a minimum.

In the past, these leaks have come a few days before a product launch (Apple normally sends out invites to launches). This time however, it is months before the expected date of release. It caught most people off guard - with most of the attention still on the iPad, we werent expecting new iPhone news until at least June, when Apple normally updates the iPhone.

The last two iPhones looked similiar, in fact they were indistinguishable from each other. This new iPhone however, has a fresh design. Gone is the tapered back, and in its place is a glass (or plastic) rear. Around the edges is machined aluminium, similiar to the iPad. On the front, there is a front facing camera, and on the rear an improved camera and flash. The screen resolution is also increased to 960 pixels, which is quadruple what the current iPhone has. The device has a micro-SIM tray - similiar to the upcoming iPad, which only Apple uses at this point. Other noticable changes is a secondary mic (which can be used for noise cancelation probably) and metallic buttons on the sides.

The new flat rear, probably made from hardened glass or plastic.

My opinion however is the following: This casing is not the final version. It just does not look "Apple" enough - there are too many seams. While I am of the opinion that it is an Apple prototype, I think its just a "carry around" version of the next iPhone for testing. It looks like something to test out the insides of the new iPhone. Why do I think so? Apple's silver chrome lining around the iPhone sides have become the definitive iPhone look. Why would Apple move away from it? In its current guise it looks like something from HTC (not that that is a bad thing). In fact just a week ago Apple was granted the trademark for its "ornamental design of the iPhone". This includes the silver rim and rounded edges. While this does not entirely validate my opinion, I do find it strange that Apple would shift away from its design language.

I am a fan of the new flat rear however, I never liked the curved back all that much. And this design does bring the orginal iPhone's look back, which I still think makes the 3G and 3GS look cheap, with its steel casing. Biggest problem with steel casings is that it blocks wireless antennas, so a glass or plastic rear does make sense.

Apple's recent trademark of the iPhone "ornamental design"

But - if this is what the next iPhone does look like, bravo. It does look great. And taking into account that this phone does gain a lot of the features that iPhone was still missing, it does become pretty darn perfect.

Maybe Steve should just announce it today.

What every iPhone needs

2010-04-14T10:14:00.000+02:00

I am paranoid about getting my gadgets dinged up. I am one of those guys who does not use his toys until there is some type of protection over it. The problem with the iPhone is that the entire front display is exposed so it cannot be covered by a case - so you have to get a film.

While there are many films on the market, there is only one film I would seriously consider. The first problem with most films are that they are very difficult to apply. It is next to impossible to fit a film on the iphone without bubbles are some dust speck landing underneath the film, and dont think you can remove the film and refit it... The Invisibleshield works a bit different. The Invisibleshield arrives precision cut for the iPhone face and rear. Inside the box you will find a small sealed container with some liquid and a small spunge inside. To place the Invisibleshield on the iphone you first moisten the film's sticky side and your finger tips. But you should use a lot of liquid. When you think its enough liquid, use more. Really.

Then you apply the wet film over the iPhone and then rub out the bubbles with a small card - and they go away instantly, thanks to the liquid. You can also adjust the film's position once it is on the screen so you put it on perfectly. Once the film is in position and all the bubbles are rubbed out, you will have to wait for a while. At first you will see some tiny bubbles underneath, but low and behold they all disappear after a few hours. In fact once its properly applied to the phone, you cannot even see it. On close inspection the screen has a slight orange peel effect, almost like your iPhone has a bit of cellulite :-).

The feel takes a bit of getting used to, it is a slightly rubbery feel. But perhaps even more important is the level of protection. Ever since I have the invisibleshield on my phone, I dont have treat my phone like its made of porcelain. I can chuck my phone and keys into the same pocket without worrying about scratches. Invisibleshield is seriously tough - just go look around on the web at a few examples. Here is one.

Yeah it is tough.

The Invisibleshield is not cheap however - and I have been critical of its price in the past. At that time I put it on a iPhone 3G, and when I got my 3GS, guess what is the first thing I wanted to get for my phone? It is just such a high quality product that I want to add it to more of my day to day items. Luckily it is available for a variety of devices.

Just a quick tip - if you do look for one for your device, dont believe salesmen that tell their product is similiar. It is not. I am so impressed by Invisibleshield that I will get it for some of my other gadgets as well...

The ZAGG Invisibleshield goes for about R200 - R300 depending on where you get it.

Disclosure: I do not work for ZAGG, I just find it a great product and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

This just in: Telkom makes internet affordable to the masses

2010-04-01T16:56:00.000+02:00

Today Telkom announced new pricing policies on ADSL in South Africa. Media spokesman Rich Maniam also gave a short explanation on why the price cuts have been put in place.

First off Telkom is stopping the necessity of having to have a "voice" line as well as a "ADSL" line. Mr Maniam explained that Telkom was not aware until now on how ADSL works. He explained that a top engineer in Telkom realized that ADSL is simply the seperation of frequencies between voice and data within the a single copper line. He concluded that it was a happy finding, but unfortunately customers might discover this as well, so this was a necessary change to uphold Telkom's good public name.

Secondly Telkom is wavering the R580 for ADSL line install. Rich says that defiant customers of Telkom have realized that paying R580 for a ADSL line "install" was unnecassary. He says Telkom was hessitant to do this at first seeing as it requires very skilled staff to plug in ADSL filters into telephone ports.

Telkom is also upgrading its lines effective today to compete on international level. First off, it has upgraded all lines to a minimum linespeed of 12Mbps.

When asked when Telkom will release uncapped ADSL like many ISP's in SA, Rich Maniam responded: "We have to first look at what is best for the consumer. This can take some time, so we will have an official response by Q4 2012.".

Must have app: Dropbox

2010-03-16T09:07:00.000+02:00

Like many people these days, I work across many machines in a typical workday. While I might have a Windows machine at the office, I have a Mac at home and I backup all the computers to a Windows Home Server in the cupboard.

I have a few “essential” folders that I always want to have access to (things like finances, insurance info, passport copies, contracts etc.), regardless of which computer I am working on, and yes it can become a hassle having to keep them all in sync, especially if you have to walk around with a flash disk to each computer. I found the best way to do it – DropBox.

Multiplatform

Dropbox installs as a simple app on your Windows, Mac or Linux machine and then keeps track of all the folders you drop into it. Now at first you only get 2GB of space for free, if you want more you have to pay for it. But as a method to keep essentials like word, excel and PDF docs, it works great. I installed Dropbox on my Macbook first, and it just creates a simple Dropbox folder into which you throw your documents. Then as soon as you find an internet connection, it simply uploads those files to the Dropbox server, which can then be accessed from any web browser, you just need to log in. (Imagine being in a foreign country and needing some document – you can just pop into a internet café…)

Keeping it all in sync

But the true beauty of Dropbox is the syncing ability. I installed Dropbox on work machine, a Windows 7 workstation. You install dropbox, give it your login details, and just like that it downloads all your documents to that machine as well. It just lays in the system tray and informs you if any files have changed every now and then. But the syncing is where it gets interesting – any change I make to a document gets uploaded to Dropbox, and then gets changed on all my machines that use Dropbox as well. In your window it just marks the updated folders with a small green tick if everything synced. I turn blue while updating.

I also have a Windows Home Server at home, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that Dropbox installs on it without any problems. While it might not give a WHS add in, you can install it using Remote Desktop. So now my documents are backed up instantly on that server as well, because it has an internet connection.

Sharing files:

Sometimes you need to share files to many people, but email is not the best platform. You can use dropbox to enable a "public" folder. You can then enable which people can access it, and then send them a URL directly to a file. This is particularly handy for larger file sizes - like say recordings of a meeting, which might be too big email.

What about bandwidth?

Now you might wonder about bandwidth usage, especially with SA’s current broadband problems. Dropbox is pretty smart in that first looks for another dropbox machine on your local network, and then gets the file locally, without using the internet. And it always just uploads or downloads files that were altered, not your entire dropbox.

Accessing your dropbox from your iPhone

Then the cherry on the cake is that your dropbox can be accessed on your iPhone as well. Just install it from the appstore, and login again. And just like that you have access to your dropbox. Now this was the initial reason I started using Dropbox – I wanted some way to get access to my essential documents from anywhere using my iPhone. And it works a treat. You do however need a internet connection, but you can select favourite files that gets stored locally on your iPhone. Like I mark my insurance papers, passport documents etc as favourites. That way I can access them even away from a 3G connection.

What would I like to change about Dropbox? Nothing really - but I think they will do even better if they make more mobile apps. What about Android, Blackberry and Symbian?

I am very impressed by Dropbox – it covers in the cloud backup of my documents, keeps my documents in sync on a variety of machines, and gives me access to my files from anywhere, be it from my iPhone or even a internet café.

Give it a go here. Dropbox is free up to 2GB of storage, but they sell 50GB for $10 a month as well.

Disclosure: I was in no way, shape or form given anything for this review. I just find it a great product.

Microsoft in 2010

2010-03-01T14:14:00.000+02:00

Microsoft is one of those companies that always seems to carry the weight of the computing world – and rightly so. If you think of any area within computing, MS somehow has a finger in the pie. In some areas of course, they are the pie.

Credit has to be given to Microsoft’s improvement in the area of operating systems. Operating systems are their core business, but just about every consumer release of Windows has been plagued with problems. And people who are clutching to XP – remember, it too has been full of problems. Think about XP pre-SP2. What a mess. I remember times when my entire campus was taken down in one afternoon by a worm. While this can still happen, Microsoft has clearly made an effort to improve with Windows 7.

Microsoft is not the Microsoft of old – some evil empire that just could not seem to do anything right. There recent products have been absolutely great. Now I am sure just about any tech reporter or blogger out there has sung Windows 7’s praise (even rabid Apple fanboys). I concur completely – even though I do also use Mac OSX, I am very, very impressed by Windows 7. In fact, I think it’s so good that most businesses would not follow the regular “wait for SP1” routine. Its amazing how you install an OS on a five year old laptop with obscure hardware and Windows 7 installs without a single hitch. When has this ever happened before?

Another area where Microsoft has impressed me is in the area of home entertainment and computing. Yes, I am a fan of Xbox. Its powerful, versatile and surprisingly well priced in South Africa (especially versus the Wii). It has had a lot of problems – in fact, I have gone through 3 overheating consoles already, but it seems they have ironed out the problems. You have to respect the company for extending the warranty on Xboxes. Its a great movie player as well - it can play videos from a variety of sources, which brings me to my next point.

My biggest praise however has to go to Windows Home Server – yes, how boring. But really, this is one of the most pleasant surprises I have come across in quite some time. As someone who has a few computers in my home its truly a life saver. No more manual backups to external drives – WHS just backs up all the machines that you tell it too, and as often as you want it to. Its great for pack rats as well – just keep adding hard drives to its pool, and it manages the rest. Yes, many alternatives exist, but none with the elegance of WHS. It streams videos to my Xbox, and with the right add on, even to your iPhone.

Now this piece might sound like songs of praise for Microsoft – true, they have made some great products recently, but I also want to see a few things from them in 2010. Do these few things, and I would be a happy camper:

I have high expectations for the next release of Windows Home Server. I want built in streaming to multiple video formats and better power management controls (electricity is becoming expensive…). Its expected within this year still, and there is quite a few innovations coming.
Windows Phone 7 Series. Windows Mobile has been a disaster for the last few years. True, a few companies stuck pretty skins over it, but it was dead in the water. Luckily Microsoft just announced their latest version which looks brilliant. Competition is a great thing, and currently iPhone and Android needs some competition - Palm clearly could not keep up, so maybe Microsoft can keep this exciting field going. Even if there is no victor, all phones will benefit.
Office 2010 is pretty great – I have been running the Beta for quite a while already. Keep it up – I am looking forward to better social networking integration though. And even though MS could not buy Xobni, they should try again. Its just that good.
Project Natal looks incredible, despite its lag in current demos. Xbox’s biggest weakness is that it does not attract the casual gamer market. Yes, the Wii market. It’s a very lucrative field, so if Microsoft can approach with a revolutionary control scheme such as Natal, the possibilities are endless. Make it affordable, and I expect it might give the Wii as serious run for its money.
Then my final pointer is that Microsoft needs to address the SA market better. Xbox Live is still not available for South Africans. Yes, there are work arounds.But its mighty unfair asking me the same price for a game as someone in the US, yet you do not support the online component in SA (officially). Slowly but surely SA consumers are starting to expect more from their technology. But luckily Microsoft does see SA as an important part of its global strategy - if only more companies could do it as well. I am pretty sure a few companies still see Africa as a country.

App of the Week: Air Video

2010-02-27T07:22:00.000+02:00

I came across a great new tool for anyone who has a iPhone and a wireless network at home - Air Video. You download the Air Video app on your iPhone (any version works), and then from there install Air Video server on your Windows or Mac machine.

Air Video converts videos on the fly on your machine of choice, and then plays it back on your iPhone. You tell Air Video server which folders to monitor on your computer, and then it will make the videos available to play on your iPhone. So far I found the file compatibility brilliant, it even transcoded a massive mkv file quickly enough for my iPhone.

I tested it on my relatively new Macbook Pro and it worked very well, and was very brisk. An episode of Modern Family started playing within 5 seconds on my iPhone. I also tested it on my other machines. I tried it out on a relatively weak Atom powered Windows 7 netbook, and it started playing videos within 15 seconds and then from there it played without a hiccup. The only place where processing power gives an advantage is seeking within a transcoded video, like when you want to skip the opening sequence of a show. It was super stable on all the machines I installed it on.

But the place where I appreciated Air Video the most, is on Windows Home Server. It might not have a Home Server plugin, but it works very well. I just pointed it to my videos folders, and just like that I had access to my entire video library... brilliant. It is pretty much what I wish for in the next release of Windows Home Server. HP makes a similiar solution for their own home servers, but it is nowhere near as functional and simple as Air Video.

Now you might argue - why would I want to watch a video on my iPhone instead of on a computer (or whatever streaming device you might have)? True, you do get a better experience on your big screen TV, but it is pretty great to quickly watch the latest The Office right there on your iPhone just before going to bed.

Currently Air Video is $3 in the appstore, and then you download the free Air Video server on the machines you wish to use.

Review: Powertime for iPhone

2010-02-09T10:39:00.000+02:00

Many South Africans have been in that sucky situation where your power goes out late at night, and you have to somehow find a way to buy prepaid electricity. This usually necessitates a trip to the nearest shop or garage which requires you to pay cash…. Blah, blah blah, you know the drill.

I have recently been shown a new app called Powertime which installs on your iPhone and enables you to buy electricity at any time of day, and for any electricity meter you have registered with them. When you go to the Powertime website, you register your electricity meter (you can register more than one as well), with some of your details. You also register your credit card, and then you fax them a copy of your credit card and your ID book. And that is the only “work” from your end (this is still less work than the numerous trips to the shop and back…).

Once registered, you install the Powertime app on your phone. The Powertime app will ask your username and password everytime, for security reasons. From there, select the credit card you would like to use, and which meter you would like to pay for. The registered meters have a neat dropdown list, with their actual addresses, so its easy enough to use. Then you enter the amount, and that’s it. Within a few seconds it pops up the token code that you can enter into your meter. Great.

While these types of solutions have existed on the web for quite some time in SA, this is the first mobile implementation that I have come across that is so polished and easy to use. Where every other site is exercise in frustration, Powertime is quick and easy to use. Proof that there are some great iPhone developers in South Africa… I came across a few small bugs, and the developers (4i Software) let me know that the new version is on its way within the next month with new features (for example SMS a token to someone etc).

Highly recommended.

PS: Powertime is only available in the SA Appstore, so you have to make sure you have a SA Appstore account. If you using a US account, it is easy enough to switch between the two, even right on your iPhone. From the Appstore app, select “Featured” and scroll down to the bottom of the page. From there you can sign in and out into different iTunes accounts. When in the SA Appstore, simply search for Powertime.

So is the iPad a computer for Mom? Not really.

2010-02-05T15:23:00.000+02:00

So what is my opinion on the iPad? Well first off, I do like it. Despite all its shortcomings, I think it might be a game changing device.

I read somewhere that iPhone should be renamed the iPad Nano. And that might be a very apt description, seeing as the iPad is actually very similar to the iPhone. Unless Apple pulls something out of the hat (more on that later), there is not much more that a iPad can do that the iPhone cannot. And the iPhone is smaller and more portable. So why would anyone want a iPad?

I tried to think where an iPad might fit into my lifestyle. I have a smartphone and a small laptop. I take my iPhone everywhere, and I take my macbook to work and back home home again. I honestly cannot see where I would use the “third device” Apple is talking about. I really think a netbook sized macbook would have suited me better.

The iPad does not have multitasking, it doesn’t have USB ports, it only runs apps in the closed appstore and the device cannot transfer files (like documents and photos) to and fro like every other computer on the planet (unless you email them or use a tool like dropbox). It runs the iPhone OS, instead of a full fledged operating system like Mac OSX. With a list like this you start wondering what it really does?
And here we come to that magic (frustrating) Apple formula – it might leave out some functionality, but the things that it does do, it does beautifully.

The iPad makes using a computer dead easy to use. After watching all the interface videos (I recommend iLounge's) it is pretty clear that many apps we use every day has been made simpler and more easy to use than before. Even something as boring as email is a graphically rich app on the iPad. Looking at photos using the pinch gestures are brilliantly simple. The calendar app makes outlook look archaic. If you take into account what the average user does on a computer these days, it is pretty clear what the iPad is aiming to do. It is rethinking the way we use computers.

Take for example the average computer user – the person who reads emails, browses the web and types the occasional document. He might also watch movies, listen to music and want something to organize his life. All of these are functions that are perfectly controlled by the stable and mature apps we use on computers today. Then why on earth must the average user need to know about disk formatting, corrupt files, incompatible codecs, incompatible apps, defragmenting, hibernate, sleep, email server protocols, file formats, PST’s, drivers etc? Clearly what Apple is trying to do is make the computing experience as simple and elemental as possible. Perhaps the best analogy regarding the iPad’s simplicity is its similarity to modern cars. Twenty years ago, anyone with the know how could open up a car bonnet and service a car. These days, hardly anyone “tinkers” on their cars – every car is highly specialized that needs very specific proprietary equipment. True, there are always people who want to tinker, but they are quickly becoming the minority. Same with computers. People do not want to maintain their computers anymore; they just want to use their computer.

While you might not agree with this (lets face it, the average reader of this article probably has a big interest in technology and love to play around with their computer), Apple is trying to alter people’s mind-sets about computing. Everything is simpler – and the biggest change to the average consumer will be the appstore. Think about it – instead of searching for an app online, and then downloading it, and then installing it (with a possible hiccup somewhere) the user will fire up the appstore and just choose the app they want. That’s it.

So, if the iPad becomes popular, users of computers might eventually be dumbed down right? Probably not.
One must not forget that the iPad is a secondary device. If you do not have a main computer somewhere, the iPad becomes pretty boring. You cannot put your movies, music and photo libraries on the device without a computer. True, you can buy your movies and music from iTunes, but that’s only new music you want.
This might be my biggest criticism of the iPad – it is not really a device you use on its own. It still needs a host to sync to, a mothership to use properly. It currently seems like the iPad will sync with a folder on its host machine, and this will be the primary method in which you will transfer files. No flash disks, no Bluetooth, etc. Why Apple made the iPad without a USB port is beyond me.

And therein lies the rub – you will never quite rid people from the more technical aspects of using a computer. Think about it - to use the device effectively you need to have some knowledge about things like video codecs, syncing of email servers, caldav for syncing of calendars etc. If Apple wanted to truly make computing simple, it needs to address this.

However, my biggest criticism has to go to the lack of multitasking. I want to be able to do two things at once on a computer. Lack of multitasking on my phone I can live with. But multitasking is something we have been used to for a very long time. I really hope that Apple enables multitasking on the next version of iPhone OS. Without multitasking I really cannot see how people will take this seriously as a computing device.

But what I must keep reminding myself is that this a device that will only show its true colours once developers start making great apps for it. Just like the iPhone at first, it is currently a blank canvas of potential, and knowing Apple they will probably make us all rethink the way we use computers.