Andy Hadfield presents...

Recommended podcasts for the South African digital public...

2009-11-10T16:59:00.000+02:00

This post has been brewing for a while as I've slowly started to embrace the new media content lifestyle.

It's quite frightening when you look at how the digital natives consume content these days. I don't listen to the radio anymore. Full stop. Too many ads, not enough good content and too reliant on middle-of-the-road personalities.

I've put an iPod jack in the Audi and now consume podcasts on a daily basis. There is some damn good content out there. Here are my top picks - as good a starting point as any.

South African Tech Podcasts

ZA Tech Show
Simon Dingle, Brett Haggard, Duncan McLeod and a whack of other IT journo guests host SA's most technically astute podcast. This is some heavy tech stuff - but no BS, straight down the line. Often accused of talking more about their iPhones than the news, you have to realise - the iPhone is the news. And they're cool. From the latest chips to online gaming to Apple vs PC debates - it's all here.

The Digital Edge
A lot more accessible for those just getting into podcast consumption, The Digital Edge has taken a much more mainstream approach. The episodes are shorter than ZA Tech, highly produced and nicely chunky. While the content can be a little shallow (perhaps because of the brevity), it's really easy to absorb and you'll get a good view of the digital direction in South Africa and abroad.

International Tech Podcasts

TWiT
This Week in Technology. The quintessential, pioneering and most loyally supported tech podcast in the world. Hosted by Leo Laporte, this is a well produced (complete with a live streaming video broadcast) tech gem. The content is accessible, humorous and current. A favourite feature for many is the Audible.com sponsorship and resulting book recommendations.

It has been accused of being a bit of a tech "old boys" club, but when you look past that - you get a quality of guest not available in many other productions. Big tech names: Jason Calacanis, Kevin Rose, Patrick Norton et al. **HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

International Current Affairs Podcasts

No Agenda
It's a bit on the coo-coo side, but Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak cook up a media assassination par excellence. Curry, of MTV VJ fame and subsequently a couple of online startups and a couple more PlayBoy models is a superb anchorman, and although many tend to disagree with Dvorak's (hallowed and cranky US tech journalist) take on things - you can get a lot from a +- 60 year old who has grown up and through the digital age. They cover everything from healthcare to politics to entertainment news, all in a heavy veil of sarcasm. A bit US-biased, but I'm always glad to find other people who think the "system" is poked.

International Music Podcasts

All Songs Considered
Although not digital, NPR's All Songs Considered makes the cut due to sheer production value. Everyone knows a good digital guy/gal requires accompaniment from some good tunes - and this podcast has become my de facto music discovery and analysis source. Bob Boilen and co produce this show weekly, featuring a mix between new music reviews and full track listens and interviews with interesting industry people. A couple of highlights included a 40 minute interview with Andrew Bird and an episode where Bjork DJ'ed some Icelandic Electro. Yes, it's that diverse. The podcast even manages to incorporate music from outside the US - admirable.

It's a great start to your podcast listening life stage. Get going. Who needs radio in a world of bits and bytes anyway eh?

Going dark...

2009-10-21T10:46:00.002+02:00

I'll be going dark for a few weeks... Bit of a holiday, and well deserved if I don't say so myself. See you all on the flipside!

Geek Maternity Wear

2009-10-21T10:44:00.000+02:00

From BoingBoing... Excellent stuff - wife beware!

FNB Online Banking Restored... An apology, some sweat and a bit of pride.

2009-10-08T07:29:00.000+02:00

Tough times indeed. I have the utmost respect and empathy for FNB's tech teams over the last couple of days as they battled against the gremlins of infrastructure. And more than that - I have sympathy for the reams of FNB clients that were put out at month end.

I'm a client. I couldn't log in either and I know how disruptive these down-times can be. Especially at the beginning of the month.

While nothing can excuse the ordeal, I'm pretty proud of all the teams that were involved, not only for their commitment to fixing the problem (they had to, didn't they) - but mostly to the transparency with which they handled it.

I was involved on the side when the first messages had to go up over the login fields, and what will stay with me from this experience - is that there wasn't a question of how to spin it. There wasn't a question of how to put some legally disclaimer up. There wasn't a question of how to get around the issue. It was only about telling the truth, offering any alternatives we could and just trying to alleviate the stress of our customers.

It's the best you could hope for in a situation as critical as this. And also, once we're past the pain, an amazing indicator of how critical the channel of the future is.

A note from Michael Jordaan - from all of us.

FNB Online Banking Restored

While I sincerely hope that you have not been affected, you may have been one of our unfortunate customers who experienced slow response on our internet banking platform.

Please accept my sincerest apologies for the poor levels of service on our online banking systems over the last two days.

The cause of the slow system response was a major upgrade over the preceding weekend that resulted in huge increase in volumes. However, I wish to assure you that our systems are now fully restored.

I hope to see you back on our internet banking portal in the next few days and once again offer my apologies for the inconvenience caused.

For any further assistance, please contact your Relationship Manager or FNB Online our call centre on 086011 22 44.

Yours sincerely
Michael Jordaan
Chief Executive Officer

PS I'm bracing for some anger in the comments. Ol' RB will be around on this blog to answer any questions you may have...

The Sword & Laser - an online book club...

2009-10-07T20:13:00.000+02:00

Just bought my first 2 books recommended by online "book club", The Sword and Laser (Tom Merrit and Veronica Belmont). I highly recommend the first two on their list, and courtesy of some eBucks, I'll be the proud owner of Neuromancer and A Game of Thrones shortly.

Check out The Sword and Laser here.

Their first couple of recommendations look like this:

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke

I'm liking this book club idea. Guys don't have book club - they play poker. This fills the recommendation gap.

Nokia N97 Review. The Pro's and Con's.

2009-09-30T16:34:00.000+02:00

Fleishman South Africa were kind enough to lend me a Nokia N97 for a couple of weeks. This phone was coming into focus for me as an upgrade competitor to the iPhone 3GS. Add to that, a fairly nifty digital marketing campaign and my interest was piqued.

Straight into it then...

The PRO's

* It's a valiant attempt to integrate a full QWERTY keyboard with a touch interface. The best of both worlds argument may not apply when you have devices like the iPhone - but I maintain, if you type a lot, the iPhone will take some getting used to.

* It comes bundled with a lot of software goodies. JoikuSpot, the regime of uber geeks until now comes bundled with the Nokia N97. It's a little app that turns your phone into the equivalent of a WiFi router (allowing you to connect with your laptop and other devices). That's a nifty tool.

* It has a built in iTrip. Or at least the Nokia equivalent - a piece of hardware that sends an FM signal out, allowing you to pick up music playing on your phone through the car radio.

* Sending an SMS is a breeze. It's one of the only functions where the slide out keyboard and the touch screen work together. Type the text, move your thumb up a couple of centimetres and hit send on the screen.

* 32 GB seems to be standard.

The CON's

* There's aren't enough pro's.

* The touch screen just doesn't compare to the iPhone. And perhaps it shouldn't be. But this is a touch device that you really have to ruk 'n pluk (translation for foreign visitors - push the hell out of the screen to get a response). Apparently, my geekier cohorts tell me it's something to do with touch sensitive rather than the iPhone's heat sensitive approach. Whatever it is - it doesn't work well.

* It is buggy, buggy, buggy! I don't know why the popularity and penetration of the Internet in the First World has allowed companies to release sub-standard software - but they are. Push down an update and fix it all - yadda yadda. Just not good enough in my book. Firmware updates terrify the man in the street. I expect a phone to work - and the N97 required reboots every couple of days when it would hang while performing everyday functions.

* It's made for right handers. Har har you say? Believe it. The phone doesn't flip to landscape mode when you lift it to your right ear, but if you're affiliated to the left side of your head as I am, you're often forced to wait for a very slow flip-back-to-portrait when asked to "press 1 to continue".

As you can see, I'm a little more verbose on the N97's failures. I was pretty happy to return to my E71 afterwards. Disappointing really, as since the E71, Nokia seems to have lost the plot a bit.

I hear good things about the N900 (or some other such triple digit model). Pity, because even though losing the "techie crowd" really won't dent their sales figures - I used to be a firm Nokia fan, and I'm steadily slipping to Apple Land.

I do enjoy this quote from Arthur Goldstuck...

"My summation: N97 is the phone equivalent of the supermodel who drinks too much champagne. Gorgeous to look at, has some magnificent moves and features, but make her perform in the real world and she falls off the catwalk."

Audi South Africa. A digital fail of email proportions.

2009-09-25T20:50:00.000+02:00

First off, let me say that I really don't like throwing stones. There's nothing worse than a Blogger bitching in a public forum - unless that bitching just might make a company examine their approach to this channel. Audi haven't listened to me, or even bothered to respond post my incredulous response to this experience. So let's see if they do anything now.

I was looking to outfit my beloved Audi with an iPod jack. So, being a digital native, I went where most would go. Their website. 1 x nice lead form later and I'd submitted my request to the Fourways dealership. One of the options on the lead form was quite nice... How Would You Like To Be Contacted? (I can't get to the phone much - perfect option).

(Click image to enlarge)

Audi then diligently tried to phone me three times. Sigh. That I could forgive. This, I couldn't...

(Click image to enlarge)

The brains trust in the customer service department sent me a SCANNED LETTER, saved to a PDF, inside a... wait for it... EMAIL.

I'm pretty sure I know how this happens. Head office does the site, doesn't tell the dealerships they're putting in this great customer service option (contact by email), dealership has a process where they believe it's better to phone people and hence bash their proverbial heads against my voicemail.

It's the simple things in life. Don't offer something if you can't teach your business to deliver.

My email reply:

Lynn.

Please tell me you're kidding?

I send you a web lead, upon which I tick: "please contact me via email". There's usually a reason I'd tick this.

You don't. You try phone me a couple of times. Then you send me an EMAIL (like I originally asked) containing a scanned document telling me you can't help me?

Andy

Twitter Wine Review - August 2009

2009-09-21T15:43:00.000+02:00

Another little social experiment. Jot down every bottle of wine I taste with a short comment and rating. The theory is, search my Twitter archives by wine brand for a quick lookup history of what I like and don't like. Theoretically.

Enjoy!

My Wine Review List:

Raka Quinary 2005. Young, smooth-ish, unremarkable, quite drinkable. 6/10. #wine

Backsberg Sauvignon Blanc 2009. Fruity. Not bad. 5/10. #wine

Swartland Winery Sauvignon Blanc 2008. 6/10. Fruity but a little tart. #wine

IV Louisvale Pinotage 2001. 7/10. Very soft, very smoky, a little smooth. #wine (thanks @gavinmoffat )

Plaisir De Merle Cabernet Sauvignon 1995. 7/10. No distinctive taste but oh so smooth. #wine

Vergelegen 2006 Mill Race Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot. 8/10. Blackberries. Rhubarb. Driftwood. #wine

Meerlust Merlot 1998. 9/10. So woody, you wish you were the wood. #wine

Jacobsdal Pinotage 2004. Fine wine, could be fuller. 7/10. #wine

Porcupine Ridge Sauvignon Blanc 2009. Needs ice. Made better by outdoor environment and sun. 5/10. #wine

Lambrusco Rosso Frizzante Secco. Bubbly red, tantalising, refreshing lunch wine. 8/10. #wine

Iona Sauvignon Blanc 2008. Citrus nose, crisp, excellent. 8/10. #wine

Fleur du Cap Sauvignon Blanc 2008. My favourite everyday white. 7/10. #wine

Morgenhof Estate Merlot 2000. Underwhelmed. 5/10. #wine

Kanonkop Cabernet Sauvignon 2003. Requires sophisticated palate. Smooth for noobs. 6/10. #wine

Radford Dale Shiraz 2005. Interesting. 7/10. #wine

Cathedral Cellar Triptych. 1999. Berries! Kept extremely well. 8/10. #wine

Best of @andyhadfield - August 2009

2009-09-15T21:35:00.000+02:00

Twitter is noisy, but it has its uses. I've found that a lot of interesting links, thoughts and observations I tend to post on Twitter these days, instead of sharing it in the longer format of the game. The other problem with Twitter, is that because of the volume, if you're not watching at the right time, you tend to miss some juicy stuff. In that vain... Only the juiciest from the @andyhadfield account!

In chronological order. August 2009.

--- snip ---

Cool site. Instant nature of what the net brings to brands. Now Network. #opadebate

The Great Schlep (the digital campaign that secured the Florida vote for Obama. Target Jewish Grannies!) http://bit.ly/3uKWj

Nokia E75. Hated it. My technophobe loved it. Review here and thoughts on the culmination of the WOMWorld campaign http://bit.ly/sz5a2

Aw crickey. I rank pg 2 for "african porn" & pg 3 for "south african porn" on Google. Charming. 1 sarcastic post & THIS. http://bit.ly/E6Xj6

Just phoned Telkom Online Bill Support Centre and they asked for my username and password. EPIC #fail #brandminus

All Scrubbed Up: Official Swine Flu South Africa Stats - 12 August 2009 http://bit.ly/adeUd

Google Opt Out Village. Ha Ha! http://bit.ly/OD26W

RT @tmhdubai: The top 10 funniest TV ads of all time...a must watch on a Sunday afternoon. http://bit.ly/3lE7ID

RT @VinnyLingham: Stuff Magazine jumped 70% according to the ABCs - kudos to @shapshak and co http://bit.ly/3CNPOI

Randi Zuckerberg only has 231 fans. If this is Zuck's sister... she's a little short methinks... http://bit.ly/12iaQZ

Aha... Seems you have to create a folder on the USB stick /PS3/UPDATE. Stick the file in there to do #PS3 software update. Lank friendly.

Geek joke... Is Mom Apache or IIS? Har har! http://bit.ly/11k65s

Just been called by Old Mutual on a SATURDAY to sell me some kind of policy. Sies! #fail #unsubscribe #brandminus - makes me mad.

Setting up for the FNB Digital Conference 2009. Great speakers lined up, should be a doozy...

Internet penetration in Africa 5%. Rest of world 21%. Will Seacom really change this? #fnb #conference

RT @ilvapie: "1 out of 8 couples married in the US last year met via social media" - http://bit.ly/18RJgO -- here's the link #fnb #conf ...

Twitter is a triumph of humanity and not a triumph of technology - Biz Stone #fnb #conference

Up now, a digital first methinks. Live recording of The Digital Edge Podcast at FNB.

Haha! From a friend. The most beautiful page on the Internet! ICC Test and ODI Championships | Cricinfo.com http://bit.ly/11cbOU

SA spammers named and shamed! About time... http://bit.ly/7pBSW

This is interesting: Nokia's mobile payment service, Nokia Money. Compete with PayPal mobile and locally, PocIT... http://bit.ly/EUT2Y

RT @sabreakingnews Eskom posts R9.7bn loss http://bit.ly/uAbVu What are they doing? (via @timbritz)

Good day for gadgets and rugby. Proud owner of a Nikon D5000 and an unbeaten tri nations record...

Quietly, quietly on Friday, Nokia releases COMES WITH MUSIC for SA. Free music downloads for a year... Mmmm. http://bit.ly/1sd6D2

My interview with Jake Larsen and thoughts on Nokia Music Store South Africa... http://bit.ly/BcB4H

Chuck Lorre Productions

2009-09-11T14:57:00.000+02:00

You know that post-series logo that comes up? It says Chuck Lorre Productions with a pile of text that you can't even hope to read in the 2 seconds you have? I've always wondered what it says. Now I don't have to wonder.

The #219 makes me think there are more...

UPDATE. There are. Hundreds.

Telkom's response to Pigeon Race 2009

2009-09-11T12:59:00.000+02:00

For those that haven't been following the viral fun... Pigeon Race 2009 pits Winston the Magnificent against Telkom in a race to transfer 4 GB of data. The pigeon won. By a lot.

The Telkom media response to this has just been posted on MyBroadBand. I like it. How else could they have responded (and don't give me the tired old argument about giving us better service - of course - their everything sucks, but let's fight the little battle eh?)

It's rather amusing for a big, bloated government organisation. The last paragraph (in bold) in particular...

It must be noted that Telkom’s only involvement by way of service provisioning is the actual ADSL access lines. Contrary to speculation, the customer has an up-to 512kbps service at his Howick site from where the “race” commenced – and not Telkom’s up-to 4Mbps ADSL service.

Furthermore, it must be highlighted that Telkom is not the customer’s Internet Service Provider (ISP). Consequently, Telkom is unaware of what services, Service Level Agreements (SLAs), throttling, capping arrangements, etc exist between the customer and his ISP. These are all considerations that will impact the customer’s throughput speeds, especially in view of the fact that their network traffic travels across the public internet via a private ISP.

The ADSL service, in this application, represents a best-effort, unmanaged service which, as was highlighted to the customer during at least five previous meetings, is not the ideal option for inter-connecting Call-Centres. Having understood the nature of the customer’s business, Telkom advised on alternative means of connectivity which the customer has not, to date, accepted. These included a fully managed IP network solution that is more suited to their specific requirement of transporting large amounts of critical data between their sites and their head-office.

Telkom notes with interest that the customer has validated the fact that their choice of technology in the form of ADSL is not suited to the specific business applications that they currently use.

It must be re-iterated that Telkom has endeavoured to convey this view to the customer on several occasions over the past two years and presented alternative solutions which the customer has not embraced. Nevertheless, the Company is still amenable to further present its tailored solutions that will better address the customer’s needs.

One further needs to question the intentions of the customer, as any commercial enterprise is obligated by corporate governance considerations to secure information and data in their possession as well as ensure that the integrity thereof is maintained.

It must also be noted that no faults or complaints were logged by the customer on any of his lines or escalated to his Customer Relationship Manager, while the customer’s fault history over the recent past indicates that an overwhelming majority of these emanated from customer premises equipment and not the Telkom network.

Finally, it has not escaped Telkom’s attention that this entire episode has generated much excitement and interest, but the Company emphatically denies that we are currently considering placing this means of data transfer in our product catalogue and wholesaling it. However, Telkom is glad that, finally, we are able to welcome “real” competition in the telecommunications industry and, as a Company, we are confident that the above-mentioned points of clarification will certainly set the cat among the pigeons.

By the way - my hearty congratulations to the brains behind Winston. Novel approach. Great content leakage in the build up and a genuine sense of humour. I just hope it doesn't fizzle out like most Telkom protests...

PS.

Interesting comment from the technically astute Rudolph Muller on the resulting forum:

While the experiment was entertaining, it says nothing about the speed or price of broadband. A pigeon with a flash disc can easily outperform a 100 Mbps fibre connection, given that the distance is sufficiently small in relation to the flash disk size. - RPM

"FNB Live" with The Digital Edge

2009-09-07T18:09:00.000+02:00

What a cool experience. Spoke to Saul Kropman and Jared Cinman a month or two back about an idea they were trying to float. What if they did a live Digital Edge podcast recording "inside" a corporate. Involve the audience, make it a show. Kind of similar to a TWiT show at MacWorld really...

It just so happened that I was putting together an internal digital marketing conference for all the good people at FNB. Timing couldn't have been better.

So we did the show a week or two ago and it went really well. The combination of "live show" and audience interaction was engaging and exciting. Of course, not all the content makes it through to the final cut - but there are definitely two sides to the idea. Firstly, what the audience can take away from a 90 minute discussion with a bunch of industry experts. And secondly, the final, packaged product which is now out for the world to listen to.

A big thank you to Cambrient and co. for piloting with us.

Download the show here.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

In what is most likely a first in South Africa, the 35th episode of The Digital Edge was recorded live at the FNB Digital Marketing Conference.

In this episode we take a look at social media inside a corporate and are joined by FNB Head of Media, Gisele Wertheim Aymes on the topic. We're also joined by Steven Ambrose of consultancy World Wide Worx to give us some facts and figures on the topic of broadband penetration in the country. Andy Hadfield, the FNB "Internet and Social Media Guy" also joins us to give his thoughts and opinions on the matter.

Come listen as we entertain and enthrall the crowd with a live Podcast, direct from a corporate conference.

New blog header, courtesy Wouter Schreuders . com

2009-09-01T18:47:00.000+02:00

Ta da. Time for a change. Bit of upliftment. Mature the design up a tad. Tequila and tech gave me a headache.

A huge thank you to Wouter Schreuders for the design. Visit Wouter's portfolio here (it's good) or connect with him on Twitter here.

SABC's Survivor nightmare and the soon-to-be power of Twitter...

2009-09-01T11:28:00.000+02:00

So, if you haven't heard. SABC properly messed up the broadcast of Survivor - getting vital elements of the show in the wrong order.

Click on the image to enlarge

Yes, Twitter is most likely pale, male, geeks. Yes, Twitter is small. But consider this...

* FaceBook has almost 2 million South Africans registered (that we know of). And they've got to that number in no time at all.

* The Internet just never forgets.

However small and insignificant Twitter may be - the flaming insults and damage done can NOT be good for any brand...

Chatting to Jake Larsen of the Nokia Music Store South Africa...

2009-08-31T17:44:00.000+02:00

I had the opportunity recently to have a text exchange (read: questions by email - the interview style of the time pressed blogger) with Jake Larsen, head of the Nokia Music Store (Middle East & Africa). I was interested in how the Music Store has been doing post launch as it always takes a while for these things to get going. And, given time, we should get more devices onto the market within reach of more South Africans - enabling a true test of the iTunes equivalent. This interview on the back of the "Comes With Music" release...

If you'd like to see the golden-locked exec in action - there's a nice, albeit slightly clean cut interview on Ovi about the launch and how the Music Store fits into the African mix.

Here's the quick interview...

1. Nokia Music Store. How has the take up been in South Africa?

The Nokia Music Store has been received extremely well in South Africa and we are very happy with the performance so far. The South African public have been asking for a large and easy to use music store like this for a long time, and the trusted Nokia brand has meant that we have been able to satisfy this need whilst providing the reassurance that they are supporting a service that not only provides the best possible user experience, but also contributes to the development and long term interests of artists and the music industry.

2. Do you have any demographics of active users? Or any statistics that are for release?

An interesting trend that we are seeing is that about a third of all downloads are happening over the air, which is very promising as it indicates an increase in mobile usage which is crucial in areas with low levels of fixed line internet penetration. We have also found that offering great South African music is a key success factor. The single; She Always Gets What She Wants by local rockers Prime Circle, for example, has been in the top ten of the singles download chart since the launch of the Nokia Music Store in South Africa, which clearly indicates the popularity of locally produced material.

3. A little bird told me there are no more than 30,000 iPhones in SA. We all know the app store is awful and the music store doesn't exist. Mobile in Africa is a volume game and Apple don't seem to get it, or care. What approach as Nokia Music Store taken to get into this extremely valuable, yet very polarised market?

We have just announced that the Comes With Music service is available in South Africa from September 2009. Comes With Music is perfectly suited to facilitate the mass adoption of digital music in the country as its model provides the means for people to legally download all the music they want from the catalogue of more than 5 million songs on the Nokia Music Store, for 12 months, without having to pay for individual songs. We believe that Comes With Music, on the Nokia Music Store, will fundamentally alter the way that music is explored, discovered and consumed in South Africa.

4. Have you used any social media elements in launching, marketing and maintaining the music store? How are these working for you as opposed to more traditional marketing methods?

We have employed various social media elements across numerous platforms including a well supported Facebook group and Facebook marketing, a Myspace landing page ownership campaign and constant Twitter updates. One of the benefits of using social media alongside more traditional methods is that we are provided with a means for communicating with our customers instantly, and can not only inform our users of store related developments in real-time, but are also able to tailor our approach to changing conditions as they develop, which is fantastic in the fast moving entertainment world.

--- snip ---

My comments:

1. This one is going to get me into trouble. But. Prime Circle being in the top 10 indicates to me that the Music Store hasn't quite penetrated past white suburbia. It has been a long mourned fact that the market for rock in this country is tiny. As much awesome talent (and full props to Prime Circle) as we can produce, they're just not moving the records they would elsewhere. To be fair though, this could also be a fact of Nokia's sponsorship of one of the Highveld Stereo countdown charts.

2. Nokia Music Store's Twitter account shows around 500 followers and they got back to me "same day". Pretty impressive as I know how bloody hard these things are to run. Facebook Group looks pretty active, just under 1000 members. As with all social media in this country - numbers aren't everything, and take time to grow. What is a good number though? Mmmm. Another question for another post for another time.

3. If this blog was more musically inclined, I'd take Jake up on the royalties issue, and try figure out whether artists are getting a fair share of the income. It isn't, so I won't. The very concept of download-as-much-as-you-can-in-a-year should do wonders for the music industry. Let's give Nokia the credit they deserve.

Thank ya Jake. I'm off to play with the Music Store myself. Saw a great South African band the other day, Evolver, and I'll see if I can pitch in and buy there album.

Nokia Comes With Music. Big moves afoot...

2009-08-31T09:40:00.000+02:00

Quietly, quietly on Friday, Nokia sent out a press release (at the bottom of this post), announcing the "Comes With Music" service. Buy a Nokia device and you'll have open access to download as much as you like from the Nokia Music Store for a year.

That's a big move. And Apple remains uninterested in our high volume continent.

A noteable exception from the press release is Vodacom. One has to wonder if they're planning something with the Vodafone Live Portal. Time will tell...

I had a text chat to Jake Larsen the other day, and he offered some insights into the progress of the Nokia Music Store and its entrenchment in SA mobile society. I'll post that soon.

For your interest:

--- snip ---

Nokia launches 'Comes with Music' in South Africa

Nokia announced yesterday that 'Comes with Music', a pioneering digital entertainment service, is now available in South Africa. The service, which offers consumers a year of unlimited access to the entire Nokia Music Store catalogue, is setting a precedent in terms of value and convenience for consumers around the world and is now available in South Africa.

Comes With Music devices enable the consumer to download an unlimited number of the over 5-million digital tracks available on the South African Nokia Music Store http://music.nokia.co.za for a one year period. In addition, the consumer is able to keep all their downloaded music from the diverse catalogue of international and local artists - even when the service period of one year is over – on both their Comes With Music device and dedicated PC.

Jake Larsen, Nokia’s head of music for Middle East and Africa says that Comes with Music will further transform the way people enjoy digital music. “With unlimited music access for one year, consumers can enjoy their favourite artists or delve into new genres without having to worry about individual track or album purchases. This service will widen the range of music consumed as people aren’t restricted by the cost of an album or track.”

Comes with Music will be available exclusively across a range of Nokia devices through MTN, Cell C, Nashua Mobile and Autopage cellular. Devices include the Nokia 5130 XpressMusic Comes with Music edition – exclusive to MTN, the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic and the Nokia 5630 XpressMusic available across all four channels.

"This is the most compelling digital music offer ever introduced in South Africa and around the world. The freedom and simplicity of this service is unparalleled,” concluded Larsen.

Find out more on http://www.comeswithmusic.com

Follow Nokia Music Store South Africa on Twitter at http://twitter.com/NMS_ZA

A quick word on Snow Leopard (OSX)

2009-08-30T19:01:00.000+02:00

Just installed the latest upgrade to Mac OSX, titled "Snow Leopard". R329.00 from Core, Sandton, Johannesburg. Features withstanding, the one thing I have been reading about on the net is the uncanny ability Snow Leopard has to FREE up space after install.

Well I never. 10 gigs freed up. First time an operating system upgrade has every done that for me.

I know Steve Jobs has an evil empire. I know it's all closed source, wall garden, Chinese this and Chinese that.

I don't care. That's 10 kinds of sexy.

(Image credit: Neurosoftware.Ro)

Google Colour Blind?

2009-08-27T12:47:00.000+02:00

Har har! Or not.

Is Mom Apache or IIS?

2009-08-21T11:41:00.000+02:00

Har Har!

Twitter Wine Record - July 2009

2009-08-19T18:16:00.000+02:00

Another little social experiment. Jot down every bottle of wine I taste with a short comment and rating. The theory is, search my Twitter archives by wine brand for a quick lookup history of what I like and don't like. Theoretically.

Enjoy!

My Wine List: Paul Cluver Sauvignon Blanc 2008. Score 6/10. Quaffable. #wine

Nederburg Baronne Cab Sav Shiraz 2007. Smooth but cheap. 5/10. #wine

Stellenzicht Golden Triangle Shiraz 2005. 7/10. Quite plummy. Good nose. #wine

Porcupine Ridge Savignon Blanc 2009. 2/10. Tart. #wine

Raka Spliced 2007. Smooth and soft spice. 7/10. #wine

Landskroon Shiraz 2007. Kak. 1/10. #wine

Best of @andyhadfield - July 2009

2009-08-19T17:58:00.000+02:00

Twitter is noisy, but it has its uses. I've found that a lot of interesting links, thoughts and observations I tend to post on Twitter these days, instead of sharing it in the longer format of the game. The other problem with Twitter, is that because of the volume, if you're not watching at the right time, you tend to miss some juicy stuff. In that vain... Only the juiciest from the @andyhadfield account!

In chronological order. 1 to 30 July 2009.

--- snip ---

@vincenthofmann My votes for #gadgets - ps3, drobo, mac mini, 26inch LCD monitor, Canon big ass camera... Can't go wrong with 1 of those

Friend of mine just opened interior design studio - Recreate - designer objects out of everyday things. Pretty cool. http://bit.ly/3Rhsr

The Nokia E75 "Teach the Technophobe" International Blogger Challenge http://bit.ly/11JQqv (An intro - pics coming in 10 min)

Interesting - Nokia blogger challenge is an indication of faith in new media to spread a brand. In bloggers we trust? http://bit.ly/11JQqv

SA's Top 20 Tweeters = Full of Crap http://bit.ly/qGc14

@aslamkhn That's because it's small. Twitter was great when I followed 100 people. The bigger it is, the more noise. Success breeds noise.

Sony Picture South Africa - MASSIVE Twitter #fail ... or just a brand crying out for help? http://bit.ly/5OQf

I've decided to start tweeting every bottle of wine I drink. Good reference source. #wine

Oooh. CricInfo Mobicast has updated their app. Very cool. Pics, commentry, news. Slick design. #cricket

A Twitter exclusive - another step in our digital journey. The brand spanking new FNB - http://bit.ly/11uFwG Feedback welcome!

Some thoughts and behind-the-scenes insights into the new FNB.co.za project http://bit.ly/2jwax

Holy crap. Not more than 3 months ago, gave a presso saying 1.2 million South African's on FaceBook. Now it's 1.7 million. Crazy growth.

How many South African's on FaceBook. Pics of the stats and links... http://bit.ly/14GAwq

Bought lunch at BP garage. Spend R40 and get free soccer ball. Score. #brandplus for nice warm fuzzy feeling...

At Mobile Monday (www.mobilemonday.co.za), Primi Forum, Melrose Arch. Looks good - you should pop round. 4:30pm to 6:30pm. Very informal.

Holy crap. +- 25,000 iPhones in South Africa. Our little tech community is so very, very insular.

Twitter Cartoon

2009-08-13T22:22:00.000+02:00

Har Har!

Nokia E75 review and culmination of "Teach the Technophobe" campaign...

2009-08-03T19:13:00.000+02:00

So Challenge 2, 3 and 4 of WOMWorld's Teach the Technophobe Nokia campaign are behind us. Us being the highly techie me, and the not so techie wife.

Challenge 2 was to take a picture and email it. Observe Chantal's handywork to the right. Muchos Bueno.

Challenge 3 was to create an electronic postcard and mail it off. No problemo. In fact, the third challenge gave me a chance to test drive the nifty screenshot function that Nokia has on it's GPS software. Overlap map with satellite, wait 5 to 10 min for the connection (yes, the one drawback) and voila. (Unfortunately we weren't about to pay the ridiculous amount Nokia asks for a Nokia Maps license just for a review phone - otherwise we could've done something a tad more exciting).

The location of the big soccer ball in the sky.

Challenge 4 was a little more interesting. Take a video and post it on the blog. Here, if you'll bear with us - is our completely toasted cat, Dexter.

So there we go. It was a very nifty campaign. Guaranteed a lot of posts from 8 targeted blogs. What it might not have achieved in traffic, it certainly will in SEO. Impressive. Best of all... It was engaging. As simple as the tasks were, it had me playing around, talking to people and really giving the device a good run.

I've got some stats ferreted away somewhere and I'll take a look in the near future to see if we can spot the upturn in WOMWorld's traffic / rankings.

As you can see, I'm a little more interested in the campaign than the phone.

More on that...

I really didn't like the Nokia E75. At all. It has one redeeming feature - the processor has been given a bump (I think) or something has been optimised because it's considerably faster than my favourite E71. Once you're over the speed it has many flaws...

* Landscape tilt mode doesn't work in Opera, causing me to browse upside down. Comical. Irritating.

* The front keypad is sticky with very little of the good tactile stuff that the E71 sported.

* The slide out QWERTY keyboard is OK... But I feel it's a sacrifice in typing speed over the E71. Perhaps I have oddly spaced thumbs.

* There are many software glitches with the software version that shipped. Keys froze, functions on the phone died, odd reboots...

* There is very little screen real estate in comparison to the size of the device.

* But most of all... The Coup de Fail. This is marketed, shipped and touted as an email device. And it's email functionality is GREAT. If you're using simple email. Gmail setup was literally 30 seconds and done. Streaming onto the phone, no problems. Exchange? Never got it working. I've done some research as well, and apparently it's not just me that's battling. Perhaps it's some funny exchange settings - but there's a lot of chatter out there and I have a feeling that a bug fix is in order.

Constructively, I think it has something to do with Exchange servers that are behind a domain. Call me crazy, but I didn't find an option to enter a domain on this version of Mail for Exchange.

The Technophobe's thoughts are slightly different (and have been published in appropriately requested purple... That's the last time I co-blog. Purple is so 2006.

ON FORM: Love it. Think it's compact but has lots of extra shiny stuff. Really like the QWERTY keyboard and the size of the buttons. Not so found of the silver directional pad - it doesn't work very well and has seemed to get worse with use. I don't like slide phones. I do like this.

ON FUNCTION: Love every little thing. After a month of trying to get my Outlook mail working, I did it! Stoke! There doesn't seem to be a lot different to the standard E series, but it's done really well. Oh... and the landscape tilt thingy is really cool.

ON USE: Couple of freezes and glitches. The backlight gave up at one point but has come back to me. Why? Oh why. Otherwise fantastic.

IN GENERAL: Love it! Think it's a sleek, modern update to the Nokia Communicator range.

That's a lotta love. A tale of two users then... You make your pick in the comments. I'm glad to return to my E71. The wife is tearing up a little.

***

A shout out to the fellow international bloggers that took part in the campaign. Well done guys and gals...

Sandeep Sarma
Devin Balentina @ The Nokia Guide
Aditya Singhvi
Lester Chan
Jonathan Choo
Chris Kuzma
Christian Haslam

How many South Africans are there on FaceBook?

2009-07-22T10:52:00.000+02:00

Interesting stats from CheckFaceBook.

This graph, looking suspiciously like Google Analytics, says there are 1.7 million South Africans on FaceBook. That's pretty damn impressive, considering the latest estimates of our broadband population that I've seen is only in the low 2 millions.

FaceBooks advertising segmentation tool reports similar. Also notice that they've changed the NETWORK demographic to LOCATION. Previously, I think they only counted you if you joined the SA network. Now, perhaps geo-targetting IP's is the way forward...

I remember giving a presentation no more than 3 months ago, and looking at stats showing 1.2 million South African's on the social networking site. That's some crazy growth in a country that is so bereft of bandwidth.

Could this be mobile numbers starting to count? FaceBook is pretty accessible on a WAP-enabled phone.

Exciting stuff for the digital industry.

The New FNB.co.za

2009-07-19T12:25:00.000+02:00

Today, we're really proud to announce the next step in our digital journey at FNB - the launch of the brand spanking new website.

The website relaunch has been a project of mammoth proportions, with amazing collaboration between teams from all over the bank. As I blog this, the guys from the Online team are still baby-sitting the launch - big kudos on the effort.

The old site

The new site

From the very beginning, we started out with a couple of lofty strategic ideals centered around the customer experience.

It had to be:

* An Experience (a bank website just isn't the must-visit destination other sites can claim to be - our visitors are purpose driven and we have to work hard to provide an environment that promotes exploration and feels like an experience).

* Friendly (it's something I've been talking about for ages, the big lesson that Web 2.0 has taught us is to talk WITH people, not talk AT them - something I think we've really achieved)

* Intuitive (banking products can be complicated - we had to find a way to logically group them according to a flow that customers would relate to - the I Want to BANK approach is that)

* A bit 2.0ey (you can't be obsessed with the open-everything Web 2.0 approach, remember we're a financial institution and trust is paramount - but there are some 2.0 lessons that you can see coming through: the personalisation mentioned below, the rounded edges, soft design, AJAX elements on the Wizards and navigation structure)

* Personal (there's much more to come in this space, but you can see elements of personalisation in the My Menu option - it's amazing what just pulling your name into search results does for the experience as a whole)

More visual more often

When I was doing research in the beginning stages of the product, it blew me away how few bank websites (even international examples) bothered to show a picture of the product. A platinum credit card is a sexy product, it's a status symbol and something you use almost daily. Yet no pictures?

A strong focus in the project was to find a way of visualising products and their associated features and benefits. This follows a big international trend towards a more retail style of financial services sites. Amazon has set a benchmark, and there's no shame in trying to match it.

If you look at a product page (Platinum Credit Card is my personal favourite) you can see how the simple use of images to illustrate benefits really turns this into a sexy experience...

It's all about conversions.

And, at the end of the day, what is a website around for? It's your digital front door, your virtual sales consultant... If people can't get your products or get in touch with you, you're failing from the start. The lead form on page (Click CALL ME BACK on any of the content pages) and the new Product Shop are moves in the right direction.

Make it easy for customers. Full stop.

The new site was a massive team effort - thank you and congratulations to everyone involved. We hope you, the public, see where this dream is going and enjoy the new experience. This is just the first step... Finance on the web. Now with added friendliness.