Information Technology in South Africa. ITinSa.Blogspot.com

Blog Change

2012-10-06T19:50:00.001+02:00

Please note that ITinSA.Blogspot.com has moved to a new home at www.satechreview.com.
Please visit the site and subscribe to recieve new posts..

Also join us on Twitter @SATechReview
I trust this is abetter home for the blog and easire to remember.

Kindly pardon the inconvinience.

The Grand Guru

iPhone 5 Review

2012-09-20T11:05:00.000+02:00

The 12th of September marked a very important day in the IT industry. The launch of the much anticipated iPhone 5.

The iPhone has traditionally been the most important phone in the market, I will argue; the best.

An anomaly happened in April of this year, the iPhone, (the 4s at the time) was dethroned as King of Phones by the Samsung Galaxy SIII. Until September the 11th, this was the best phone in the market and everyone agreed.

Including you; yes, you might still prefer the 4s over the S3, however there is no doubt that it is superior to the iPhone 4S in every conceivable way. Speed, screen, apps, etc.

What was to unfold on the 12th was that the iPhone will once again assume its position as the best phone in the world. For this to occur, the iPhone 5 needed to do, just one thing; be better than the best, be better than the Samsung Galaxy S3.

So, in order to review the iPhone 5 I must put these two phones head to head. Understand this, I am not comparing the iPhone 5 to the Samsung Galaxy S3. I am attempting to determine if the iPhone is deserving of its throne.

Below is a comparison of features between the two phones.

I have left out a plethora of other features that I feel do not add value or a difference in the comparison. These are features for the ordinary guy.

#	iPhone 5 Features	Galaxy S3 Features
1	Screen Retina Display, 4 Inch, 16:9 ratio.	Screen Super AMOLED Display, 4.8 Inch, 16:9 Ratio
2	Memory 16GB, 32GB or 64GB (no micro SD) 1GB RAM	Memory 16GB, 32GB or 64GB (micro SD up to 64GB) 1GB RAM
3	Connectivity 4G Speeds, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v4, WiFI hotspot, no USB support	Connectivity 4G Speeds, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v4, WiFI hotspot, USB support
4	Speed A6 Chip (2X faster than 4S chip)	Speed A9 Chip (Quad Core)
5	Camera 8 MP, Face Detection for 10 people, HD Video, 3264 x 2448 Still Photo	Camera 8 MP, Face and Smile Detection, HD Video, 3264 x 2448 Still Photo
6	Battery 225 Hours Standby 10 Hour 3G Call	Battery 590 Hours Standby 11 Hour 3G Call
7	Additional Features FaceTime in HD Noise cancelling 7.6mm thickness 112 grams in weight iOS 6 White or Black Colours No Adobe Flash Support Dropbox 5GB storage	Additional Features Front Facing Camera in HD Noise Cancelling 8.6mm thickness 133grams in weight Android 4.0.4 (Ice cream sandwich) White, Black and Blue (in SA, more eslewhere) Adobe Flash Support Dropbox 50GB Storage

Here are a few other issues I have with both the phones, these issues cannot be expressed in a feature list.

The iPhone 5 now has a solid (unibody) outter shell, getting the battery out will now involve removing the screen. Somthing the Galaxy S3 doesnt have to worry about.

Both the phones are light, although the S3 is heavier.

The iPhone is also thinner than the S3, for me, this is too thin and affects how the phone feels in the hand. So, for me the phone feels less like a phone in the hand and more like a blade (too thin and too light).

I am a tall bloke, so the size of the S3 is not a problem for me, my thumb can easily reach accross the large phone; for smaller people, this might be a problem; for this reason, I think the S3 is a tad, too large.

The feel (what we persive to be an indication quality) of the iPhone is still superior to the Galaxy S3.

I have come to the end of this post.

I know how the South African public and the world at large loves the iPhone, so, conlcuding this post is made even more difficult.

I am sad to say that the iPhone 5, as great as it is; cant go head to head with the best and unfortunately cannot assume the title "King of Phones", this title remains, comfortably with the Samsung Galaxy S3.

Well done Samsung, launching a phone 5 months ahead of your rival, giving your rival enough time to do better, but at the end of the day, they couldnt.

The best phone in the world, the Samsung Galaxy S3.

Blackberry heading for a black hole

2012-06-26T14:26:00.001+02:00

All over the world, the Samsung S III and the iPhone 5 are taking over, no one cares about the dying company that is RIM (Research in Motion), the company who owns Blackberry.

This quarter and the one before that, RIM reported a loss, causing the co-founders and co-CEOs of the company to resign.
The new CEO comes in and decides to cut costs, fires 1500 staff members, including some key strategists of the company; which didn't help. The company continued to report a loss, month after month but had lost some key people, who, perhaps if asked, would have the solution for this dying company.

The company today is worth less than a tenth of what is was worth in November 2011.

The CEO keeps telling shareholders that the company has $2 billion in reserves. So, they mustn't sell just yet, there is hope; as much as I know that the company has been very successful in the past and I have no doubt it would have made 4 times that amount of money. My doubt is rather; why didn't they use these reserves to develop a new OS and upgrade the BIS infrastructure and save the company, because that is all the company needs to survive, really.

I started out by saying that the rest of the world doesn't care and I don't explain why more substantively. South Africa still remains the worlds biggest blackberry market, meaning that we have the most to loose if RIM goes down.

I don't consider this as a tech report this time, just advise. The next time your BIS is not working (which happens a lot these days), it might not be so temporary, as you have come to think.

- Posted by Gift Gwala, IT businessman and IT strategist.
www.finessegraphics.net

Slow uptake of Windows 8

2012-04-17T16:53:00.001+02:00

I have been working very hard on improving my business, I am not rich enough to donate millions to charity so I always feel like this is my contribution to the industry that puts food on my table.

Sadly, being busy gives you less time to be a writer.
In short, apologies for being away for a while; this won't happen again.

Now that we have taken the emotional business out of the way, let's get into the business of the day.
A South African Windows 8 review.

For those who didn't know, it's been 3 months since the launch of Windows 8 for testing. It is still available for free download and testing to this day (www.microsoft.com).

The computer giant has introduced a few new features on windows 8 that are worth mentioning.

The biggest feature that has been added, or taken away, is the start button. You won't find that start button that you have grown accustomed to, instead, Windows 8 has what is known as a Metro Style operating system.

To explain this, it is a style that is optimized for touch, as a result; when you turn on your computer, the desktop is littered with applications just waiting for you to click them. I like this.

What this translates to, is serious savings for Microsoft, the new operating system, will require minimal tweaking (i mean, just "tweaking") for it to be available on touch devices, which by the way are going to be available after Windows 8 has been commercialized.
This will mean, that Microsoft will only need to support one Operating System, which will be available on multiple devices, cutting costs by half.

This is serious money back into the bank account of Microsoft.

No wonder then, another Silicon Valley giant is trying to have one operating system on multiple devices, yes, Apple has been on this for a while. One operating system, multiple device types, minimal support to just one OS.
Don't be fooled by these companies when you hear these rumors, it's not for you, it's for them.

Another key feature is an email account that becomes your username, not a big deal you say; true.
This will allow real time sync, so apps that you download on one device will be available on other devices using the same username.
Personally, I love this, I have 3 laptops and I always wished that I wouldn't have to install my Microsoft Office on all of them and saving me hours; now, problem solved, good for me. Thank you Microsoft.

There are a lot more changes, but let's keep it there, let's review the bad.
On the Windows Store, yes; Microsoft has a store too now, just like Apple, there are only 99 Apps available for download, seriously, 99, just 99.

You might not know this, I am qualified programmer, I have designed several Applications and Websites for businesses, so I get updates and free training on how to develop software for new platforms, HTML5, Blackberry 10, Windows 8 etc.

In September of 2011 Microsoft released a newsletter teaching us how to develop for Windows 8. Even though I am not a hardcore programmer, I can tell you that developing for Windows 8 is not too hard. So, the fact that there are only 99 Apps available on the Windows Store scares me.

Let's decode what this might mean, either there is no market for 8 or at least developers across the planet think so. This is sadly, a feeling I share.

3 months after I downloaded Windows 8, I am sad to tell you that it still confuses me, and that is what it boils down to, Windows 8 is complicated, a little complicated is a good thing, it's intriguing, too complicated is not a good thing.

Windows 8 forces you to forget everything you know about computers and just be a blank canvas when using it. This is bad.

Question for Microsoft: should I really abandon 15 years of computer experience just to use your new Windows 8?

I am sorry, I can't. I am uninstalling this and using Windows 7.

Microsoft has made a good thing and then they ruined it.
I love Windows 8, but I don't think it is as good as Windows 7.

Want to change Operating Systems, go for Apple.

- Posted by Gift Gwala, IT businessman and IT strategist.
www.finessegraphics.net

Location:Up cyberstreet

Social Media Marketing and Advertising

2011-11-07T15:57:00.000+02:00

So why discuss social media marketing of all things? What is the significance of writing to you about this matter? How can it make you rich?

Facebook and Google, combined, receive more hits than all of the world’s websites combined. Interesting isn’t it? Facebook has recently overtaken Google as the most visited website on earth; boasting over 800 million active users and a staggering 200 million visitors daily.

Over; Facebook has more live users than any website on earth; that is at any point in time, Facebook has active users, who stay for longer than on any other website.

So, let me summarise these stats in basic terms. Facebook has more registered users, more active users, more live users, more visitors than any website on earth and the stay for longer.
So, when we speak of web real-estate, Facebook should now have the most expensive plot money can buy.

Based on the above, you should understand how astronomical this matter is, close to biblical really. No wonder Forbes magazine named Mark (Facebook co-founder) the 7^th most influential man on earth. Unsurprisingly, even above Microsoft Billionaire co-founder Bill Gates and even above, Investment Mongol and the world’s richest man, Carlos Slim of Mexico.

I am sure that if there was any worry as to why I am writing about social media marketing, it has been adequately dispensed. With these stats in mind, it benefits any entrepreneur and business alike to advertise online, but now, even more so, to use Social Media Advertising as another platform.

Lastly, the younger generation don’t really care about business, they don’t want to go to your website to read about your services, they are happy adding to the visitor list of Facebook, so, why not bring your business to Facebook and advertise in their comfort zone, in that way, you gain their trust.

Create a Social Media Advertising Campaign now for your business.

I don’t blog to become popular, although I wouldn’t hate it either *laughs*, I blog to offer my insight, to hopefully help at least one person out there to make an informed decision regarding any of the matters I have written about. I trust that this was such. Visit Finesse Graphics if you are looking at Online Marketing and Social Media Marketing for your business.

For the record, I am The Grand Guru.

*statistics complements of research* +laughs hard+

Buying a 3D TV

2011-09-26T18:11:00.000+02:00

I feel very sorry for the older folk, constantly having to learn new terminology and systems that their kids will go crazy over. Such is the case with 3D TVs.

Many of my blog readers are asking for my thoughts on 3D TVs, telling me that their kids are pestering them to buy a set. So, here we go, should you buy a 3D TV? Why? Why not?

If you are noticing, I am not writing long blogs now, I rather you spend time with your kids and family then read a long blog post that "claims" to be smart. I will get straight to the point and here it is. Dont buy a 3D TV. End of blog; well, let me explain. A year and a half ago I bought my first Full HD TV (or Plasma; whatever it is). I regret it now, huge mistake on my part.

I am a DSTV Premium subscriber, meaning that I get over 90 channels of TV (another waste of time and money on my part; but that is a story for another day). Believe it or not; there are only 6 HD channels, a mere 6. Not even 10% and here is the really crappy bit, there isn't a single 3D channel. Expect one in a year or so; so why should you buy a 3D TV if there are no channels to view? Well, you can get 3D movies, those are available, but you will have to buy a Blu-ray player to view them and a few pair of glasses to render the image.

3D TVs are about 3X the normal price of an HD TV, 5 times more for the Blu-ray player and about 5 pairs of glasses for a regular family. Say, about R40 000 for a 40 inch TV and the only thing you can watch on it is movies....what do you think?

Also, if the boys come over for soccer or rugby, you will need to buy 10 other pairs of glasses at R1500 a pop...nice. Studies also reveal that 5% of people can't judge depth by using both their eyes, a condition called "Sterioblindness".

More studies reveal that the 3D rendering will cause serious headaches for 20% of people if they watch more 3 hours of TV.

Also, 3D TVs need dim light to render properly, so, no flipping through magazines while watching TV. Oh...also, you can't watch TV from the kitchen while fixing a snack, you need to sit in front of the TV at a particular angle range to see the images.

Really, let me stop. 3D TVs will get better over time, there will be a few channels added, the technology will get cheaper....wait for that time. Say a year and a half so.

My name is Gift Luyanda Gwala of Finesse Graphics

Windows 8 Out at the end of this year

2011-09-13T21:21:00.001+02:00

If you think I am going to review Windows 8 then you have something else coming.

If you have been reading anything on Windows 8 and now you think you have the idea; think again. In fact remember when we were waiting for Windows Longhorn a few yes ago; did it come? No. The internet was full on "bloogers" claiming to know what and when it will come, what an joke.

If you think you know what Windows 8 will look like think again and again.
All we can do at this time is to tell Microsoft what to add, give some advise and hope that they will listen. They might add those on the release candidate, maybe not. But its worth a try.

All I can tell you is that; for the very first time in History, Microsoft did well with Windows 7, very well in fact. One would hope that they (being Microsoft) will make Windows 8 better; then again, who ever said it will be called Windows 8?

Windows 8 Screenshot

What do you think of Windows 8? What would you like to see?

Be seen more online, Increase your web presence

2011-08-29T17:05:00.004+02:00

Increasing your online presence

How many ways are there to advertise online? What are the differences? Which is best? Advice to get it right…

1. A website or listing on a directory of some sort.

This is the first step to advertising online; this helps in getting your business available online, where your services are listed and people can get in touch with you. An example of such a directory is our Pietermaritzburg Business Directory www.pmbbiz.co.za

- Getting, both, a website and directory listing is the preferred method as it doubles your chances to attract that client. Nowadays websites are just R60pm… its easy

2. Client Targeting

In an effort to get all clients, companies make the mistake of targeting many different niches within their business genre. Whether you are using print media, a website or an advertising campaign on Google; be sure to target just one niche. This helps in your analysis of the effectiveness of your campaign and saves costs because you won’t advertise to irrelevant people.

3. Search Engine Optimisation

Once you are available online as in point number 1 and then you target your clients as in point 2. Start optimising your website so that it ranks very high on Google, Yahoo and Bing search results… this method is not free to implement, but a once off payment as you will need a specialist and it involves re-engineering your website to get preferential point with Google, Yahoo and Bing. It is the most powerful method of advertising.

4. Online Advertising Campaigns

This is a paid for service and one of the best advertising affiliates is Google, AdDynamo and Yahoo. Here you list your keywords, add money; assign a budget to your campaign so that you don’t over spend. And because you have done all the above, your website will attract more customers, but more importantly you will increase the visitor-to-client conversion ratio and make more money…

There are many more ways to do it but we will leave them for another day.

Why are we making such a big fuss over this? We believe that print media will be obsolete in 10 - 15 years and the internet or a variant of it would have taken over; today I read my Natal Witness, Sunday Times and Daily News on my iPad at a fraction of what you paid to by the printed copy… also, because of the carbon emissions and green-house gases fiasco, believe me; people will frown on you for buying a cut down tree (newspaper) in 5 years.

Moreover; statistics reveal that in 90% of all internet users find what they are looking for using Search Engines, and incredibly on 90% find what they are looking for on the first 3 pages of Google search results; more the reason why Search Engine Optimisation is so important….

Lastly, do visit our online our Johannesburg Business Directory at www.jhbbiz.co.za

We wish you all the best; with your advertising.

Finding a good, free, business directory to advertise your company website

2011-08-04T09:54:00.000+02:00

Before we can go any further we need to explain the difference between a business directory and a classified advert. It seems that people just don’t get it. A business classified is where companies can list their business services and every time someone else lists their services, your listing moves down the pages until it is no longer even there. However, a business directory is constant; the addition of another does not mean the removal of another. This good is for your backlinks if the directory lists your website and links back to it. But, that is a story for another day, “backlinks”.

Finding a business directory that is free is very easy, finding a GOOD business that is free is very difficult, and I would even say it is impossible. This is because every website that is on the internet needs to pay some Internet Service Provider to be there. Either they get these funds from you or around you, they need to get them.
In such cases you have FREE business directories that have a lot of adverts on them (this is them getting the money “around” you and not from you). But there is a lot of problems with these directories, the adverts (because they generate income) get priority within the directory and as such, often get in the way of your potential clients, they stop looking for your services and focus on these adverts.
So what am I saying here, should you not bother yourself with directories with Adverts? No, you must understand that someone needs to pay for the services that YOU will get, so, those adverts are doing YOU a favour, don’t hate, appreciate…
So, we have established that there are no free business directories and those that you don’t pay for are not good enough, so, what do you do?

Here is what the industry suggests, get a business directory that will balance the 2. It has very few adverts, so, in this way it will cost a lot less for you to list your business website to be posted on it. The adverts pay partially for what YOU should pay and you pay the remainder. This way these adverts are fewer and out your listing area and they don’t get in the way of your potential clients.
Here is one such example of a business directory that balances the 2.

So, you have to ask yourself if you can get a good one, where you don’t pay a cent, I don’t know; but I don’t think so. Here is the crux of the matter, if it is too good to be true, then it probably is. If is free and has little or no adverts on it; how does it generate money, how does it pay for its Pay/Per Click? How does it pay to make sure that it ranks high on search results? It might be free, but it can’t be good.

lastly, find a business directory in your area: Johannesburg Business Directory or Pietermaritzburg Business Directory

The social networking wars, Facebook vs. MySpace vs. Twitter (and Mxit)

2011-06-20T21:23:00.018+02:00

It seems like owning a social networking site is the fastest way to becoming a millionaire.
Take it from though, it sure is not easy, unless you have the cash and will pay 10 developers to do it. But that won’t work; they will steal your idea and use their code to design their own social networking giant. Let me use the 3 social networking giants as examples; let’s see what they did right.
Google is the worlds most visited site, roughly 30 million unique hits per day. By unique, I mean; one person. So, if you go to Google 20 times in one day, you only count once. One unique hit.

Number 2 on the list is Facebook with roughly 20 million hits per day. That is so many hits, it boggles the mind, let me attempt to elaborate, that is a staggering 24 hits every second. You must understand that I am talking about new people coming in for the first time on that day, never mind the people that are visiting for the 4th time etc. and the people that have been online for the last 2 hours; as such Facebook’s servers are capable of managing more than 250 million sessions at any given time.
Excuse the pun; but that is phuckin huge.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise then that Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook became the youngest billionaire of all time at the age of 24. He is currently worth an estimated US$14 Billion; do not convert it to South African currency, please. It will kill you. (As a matter of interest, I turn 24 this year, considerably well-off myself; my net worth is not even 0.0001 % of what Mark was worth at my age, never mind what he is now). Tweet That.

Now to the twitter business, the youngest of the 3 is also the smallest. Started by 4 guys I don’t have the time to talk about, for fear of the physical pain it causes me to see young men succeed while I remain average Joe. The most notable of the lads is Jack Dorsey, worth about 49 Million for a company founded in 2008 is not bad. In 3 years he has made more millions than all my fingers and yours combined. Wow.

Let me put that into perspective, Tweeter Inc, since the company is 36 months old, and he is worth 42 million, his net worth grows by more than 1 Million per month. What I am saying here is that he earns 1 Million US dollars per month, roughly 7 Million Rands per month. It is very hard to find a South African CEO who earns that in a year, never mind a month.

Tom Anderson, is the founder social giant, MySpace has a net worth of close to a Billion, he has resigned from the CEO position at MySpace and now spends his days doing nothing. I would too if I made 5 Million dollars doing nothing every month.

Coming in last, (small) giant Mxit, formerly Mxit Lifestyle, gets 40 thousand subscribers as day and currently has 30 million subscribers, making it the biggest social messaging space in the African continent; and here I was thinking that Mxit was dead. Little is known about Mxit’s worth even when media companies, including media 24 take a stake of the pie, no amounts are disclosed. It is a player in the game though, a big one.

What us bloggers tend to do is compare even when it is not important anymore, this is not a comparison of these 4. All 4 are giants in their own right. This is me telling you that everyone wants to be a socialite, you can now be richer helping people socialise then you can ever be helping them live.

My friend, who is a business advisor and financial planner, always tells me, “Gift, if you ever want to make money sell water, graves, land, booze or air. Things people can never survive without.” There is no record of any person selling any of these that is richer than Facebook’s Mark. Clearly; you should add social networking in the mix.

Let me end; Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Mxit are all social networking sites and they are all good, I have accounts on all of them; and the reason is that they are all the same, but they are all different. This is the key to success, be the same as everyone else; but differently.

The New Galaxy Tab10.1 vs iPad2

2011-06-07T22:59:00.002+02:00

The new Galaxy Tab 10.1 and iPad2 hit South African stores last week.

And because I always compare them, I have to once more.

I have a big mouth, I am a blogger, I need a big mouth so that my readers get a proper experience. But I don’t use my big mouth where there is no need and I feel that there is no need today.

So, I will tell you a few things about these Tablets, to me the Tab looks better and is faster that the iPad, the screen looks more crisp than the iPad and with front and back facing cameras the Tab wins the price.

The downside to the Tab is that it still has no USB charging, HDMI port or microUSB port. The iPad seems to win here.

I have the Galaxy Tab 7inch and I love it, there is no doubt that the new Tab, running OS Honeycombe should be even better. But the iPad seems to be the more practical option for business and the Tab is more the practical option for fun.

The price difference is too minor to comment on, however the iPad2 is not a phone and the Tab is, so the Tab is much cheaper with that in mind (2in1).

I am changing my Tab7 for the Tab10.1 maybe I will give you a review that you deserve then.

RIM’s (Blackberry) direction for 2011/2012

2011-05-05T10:40:00.001+02:00

I have been a Blackberry user since 2007 and I love the little buggers, most of the time.
Just to note, the first blackberry I had, the 7920, broke in its infancy, the trackball fell of, the Curve 8310 had the same thing happen to it, the Bold 9000; the same thing happened, what was great about this one though is that it never returned from fixing; RIM returned brand new one, it is like having a 2 year old phone that is 5 days old.
Last week; I sent in my Torch, guess what broke; the trackball.
This is the only reason I said, most of the time.
May 3 saw the 10th Annual Blackberry World summit in Orlando.
The main reason for this was to announce its (RIM) direction.
They gave us the bad news that the launch of the PlayBook will be postponed, we suspect that the Blackberry OS 7 doesn’t have enough Apps from App World yet and that once that is done the playbook will launch.
Thy then buttered us up again with a lot of great new strategies that should see them comfortably rule the cell phone industry (maybe not). They have revealed that they will partner with Microsoft, Adobe and Facebook.
The room was gripped in silence when RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis introduced Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, the reason for this is very simple, Microsoft has just partnered with Nokia to release upcoming Nokias running Windows Phone 7. We expected to hear that Blackberry had succumbed to the same idiocy.
I guess Steve sensed this and very early said “We are going to invest very uniquely to the Blackberry platform….” As soon as he said this everybody started breathing, this effectively meant that we would not see the “Blackberry platform” vanish, he went on to explain that upcoming Blackberries will now run Bing Search engine and Bing Maps on all devices. One is left to wonder how Google feels about this, since Blackberry currently partners with them in search engines.

The next CEO to come was Adobe’s Shantanu Narayen; he was very quick to point out that the PlayBook will have the most advanced Flash capabilities in the market (at least; until they partner with someone else). It is expected to deliver “true” flash websites to the phone. The rest of his talk explained how the PlayBook will use Adobe AIR applications and that Creative Suite 5.5 will give the user the ability to create Apps for the Tablet. Also hinted, was; that there might be a Photoshop App for PlayBook. The rest was gibberish that we don’t particularly concern ourselves with.
Finally, Facebook’s (no, it wasn’t Mark) Vice President of Global Marketing, Carolyn Everson (former Microsoft Executive), told the crowd that Facebook engineers have worked very closely with RIM to develop the first Facebook App for a Tablet, she went on to explain however that Facebook’s direction is using HTLM5, meaning that they are developing a Facebook App that will eventually be usable by all cell phone makers.
The mood of the house was lifted after the bad news that the PlayBook is postponed.
Greater was the fact that their smartphone range will also postpone so that they wait for OS 7 and be launched with it.
Altogether great moves by RIM, it will seem that I will still be fixing trackballs in the future.

Are Cellphones Becoming the new "Computers"?

2011-04-28T23:01:00.003+02:00

10 years ago, when I told my older brother I wanted to study IT he suggested that I go on the software side of things because hardware (bulky computers) will be gone in 20 years because cell phones are going to take over.

Well, in South Africa, then we had our first peak of a Colour Screen cell phone and it was radical. I followed his advice and studied Programming and Information Systems.

This is a bit out of topping but I want to make something very clear here, it was just a colour screen phone, it had no e-mail features, no GPS, no HSDPA, no Wi-Fi and yet you knew it was coming, computers were going to disappear.

Sure; it hasn’t happened yet but we both know its close. Here is why.
There is a huge influx of Tablets (super phones) that have reached our shores and a whole lot more coming.
I am using a Galaxy Tab myself, despite the fact that I have 2 laptops and 1 desktop; there is still that room for a Tablet. You have a feeling that in time; that room will grow to completely do away with the computer.

RIM BlackbBerry has just launched its PlayBook Tablet, Google is launching the HoneyComb; Dell, the streak; Apple, the iPad 3; Microsoft is working on a secret tablet as well that they have not named.

Here is the real shocker that you perhaps haven’t noticed; Microsoft is the world’s largest computer maker, Apple is the second largest; between them, they hold 95% of the computer market.

Do they need to waste their time on cell phones (Tablets)?
The answer is very simple; they know something you don’t; and that is, computers are history.

Microsoft Office Packages, Which one to buy?

2010-08-27T15:16:00.006+02:00

So, you are in a tough spot, which Office Suite to use?

Well, here in South Africa we have very few choices. The Macintosh computers are starting to do very well locally, but (unfortunately), we still have to use Microsoft Windows (not that it is the best) because in that way, you remain compatible to everyone else.

So, you have to have a Microsoft Office Suite to function in this digital age.

Here is a question you need to ask yourself before buying a computer or an Office Suite.

What do you want to do with it?

• If it’s just to write letters and presentations, then; get OpenOffice from the internet and use it; it’s free.
• If you are a Manager (like myself) and you need to do more detailed reports and pie charts and so forth, then get Office Student (it’s the cheapest one).
• If you want to create small websites and business cards, then; Office Professional.

Most people (especially those more knowledgeable) tend to make the mistake of buying the “best” package out there.

This is a very expensive (literally) mistake, why buy 2010 Office Professional Plus and then only use features that are found on the free version? Think About it!

This theory must be applied when buying computers as well.

If you want to make documents and surf the net, there is the LinkBook, it is just R99 per month including 250Megs of data.

If you are looking for more, there is a Samsung Notebook (not laptop; note the difference), Game Stores is currently selling them at R2500, I have one; it is brilliant.

In conclusion:

• If you are using Office XP or 2000, you really need to kick yourself in the butt...move up to 2010 or OpenOffice.

• If you are on 2003, I have to ask. Why are you still there? If your computer can handle 2003, it will handle any other Suite with ease.

• If you are on 2007, don’t stress yourself, 2010 has very subtle functionality differences to 2007. If you have to pay for 2010; don’t move up. (If you don’t have to pay for it; you will get yourself in jail).
• If you are on 2010, congrats you are keeping up. We have word (no pun intended), that Office 2012 is coming out in 2011.
• This is because if the competition Microsoft is getting from Amazon, Google and Oracle...this is another subject though.

I wish you the best of luck with your endeavours to purchase any technology (Computer, Software or Phone).