In the post, I have a link on where to buy your iTunes vouchers, and until recently I had a link to a site called Maximus cards. They used to offer the cards at a pretty reasonable price, and offered payment using PayPal. Until this week :( They announced that from the 7th September, they would no longer be offering PayPal as a payment option.

So, I did some research. Eventually I came across a site called iTunesUSA.co.za. Yip, local guys offering iTunes vouchers at almost the same price as the other guys, AND they offer PayPal as a payment option. The other big thing that appealed to me with them, is that the delivery was instant. As soon as you made the payment using PayPal, you got the code in your email. Straight away !! I put a tweet out yesterday asking who owned the site, and within a couple of hours, I got a phonecall from the guys who run the site. After a 45 min chat, I came away with, this is someone who loves what they do. And such a cool idea.

I sat down last night, and put some figures together of all the iTunes Voucher sellers that I knew of round the net. I then compared all the prices, and slapped it into a Google doc. It turns out, iTunesUSA.co.za works out pretty reasonable.
Here is the comparison I did of all the sellers that I know of.

Lets support the local guys. I know I’m going to :)

Another awesome read by Apple boy Pete, who takes a look at last night’s Apple event with a whole whack of new stuff announced. I know I can’t wait for the AppleTV. Gonna be game changing. Would love to hear your thoughts on the event in the comments below

As one of South Africa’s number one Apple fanboys, I of course watched the live video stream of Apple’s media event on 1 September with baited breath (yes, yes, “reality distortion field” and all that).  I think that yesterday’s announcements were Apple’s second biggest of the year, after the iPad introduction.  Here is my take:

• iOS 4.1 is launching next week (Wednesday, 8 September, apparently, according to Apple’s Spanish site).  While it seems to mostly be bug fixes, it includes game centre and high dynamic range photographs.  In terms of game centre…  We’ll have to see what it means practically for gaming on the iPhone, though as a keen gamer I hope that it means that the fragmentation of iOS social gaming into a dozen or so different third party networks (Openfeint, Plus+, Scoreloop, Crystal, etc.) will come to an end.  More exciting to me right now is HDR.  While the iPhone 4 (yes, I’m one of the lucky ones!) has a vastly improved camera, it is still virtually impossible to get good photos under anything but perfect lighting conditions.  Parts of the image always seem to be either over- or underexposed.  The HDR feature will cause the iPhone to take three photos in rapid succession: one under-exposed, one normal and one over-exposed.  Through some magic, the three images then get combined into a single image with much better contrast.

• Wireless printing is coming to the iPad (and apparently iPhone too!) in November.   Multi-tasking, folders, unified inbox, threaded email and all the other features we’ve come to depend on iPhone are finally coming to iPad as part of the iOS 4.2 update in November.  Printing and multi-tasking would certainly make the iPad an even more useful device than it is today.  It’s also worth pointing out that with the release of iOS 4.2 on both iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, it will mark the first time that all iOS devices are running the same version of the operating system and that hopefully in future the iPad will always be updated simultaneously with its smaller brethren.

• Apple has massively overhauled their iPod line-up.  Seems like the iPod Classic is slowly being phased out; apparently it will remain on sale for now but it was the only model not getting a makeover today.  I suspect Apple wants people to buy an iPod Touch rather than the aging Classic.  The iPod Nano is now touch enabled and the size of two postage stamps, and the iPod Touch is getting feature parity in a lot of areas with the iPhone (retina display, processing power, etc.).  The iPod is Apple’s only product that has seen sales numbers decline over the last year or two.  I think they’re working to stem the tide to ensure that they don’t see further sales decline there.  (The iPhone has been cannibalising iPod sales, it seems.  Not a train smash for Apple, because the iPhone’s profits more than made up the difference.  But after selling a quarter billion iPods over the last decade or so, Apple will surely not want to let a product line  that was pivotal in their turnaround from nearly-insolvent dinosaur to most valuable tech company in the world just slowly die without a fight.)

• The new iPod Touch finally has front- and rear-facing cameras and a microphone.  And guess what?  You can now make FaceTime video calls.  From an iPod Touch.  Which is less than half the price of an iPhone.  With no cellular contract (and no GSM connectivity).  It’s not just Google that’s busy working towards making the telcos obsolete (in their current form) with Google Voice.  Now Apple is making it possible to call people, with very high quality video and audio, through an intuitive interface from a portable media device aimed at teens and 20-somethings, with no call charges.  AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone…  Meet the future.

• Apple made a big deal about the fact that the iPod Touch is now the BIGGEST portable gaming device in the world.  Kinda by accident, through the huge success of the app store, the iPod Touch (even without the iPhone) now has a greater market share than both Sony and Nintendo’s handhelds COMBINED with a 50+% share of both the US and global market.  Part of that success is the ease through which games can be bought and downloaded from the app store.  Part of it is the fact that high quality titles in the app store cost a fraction of what Sony and Nintendo games go for.  Seems like Apple is finally making peace with the fact that they accidentally, and with great hesitance, became the traditional gaming giants’ biggest competitor.  They demoed a game (a version of which is now available in the app store as Epic Citadel) that pretty much kicks the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS’s asses when played on an iPhone 4.  Wow.  Between Unreal Engine based games and John Carmack bringing Rage to iOS, you really don’t have to hide your iPhone gaming addiction from your PSP and DS wielding buddies.  (In fact, they’re ones deserving your pity!)

• iTunes is getting a new logo.  Now I knooooow.  ”Pete, that’s not a big deal.”  Bear with me.  Steve Jobs mentioned that seeing as iTunes will probably sell more tracks by next year than the CD retail industry does, it was time to get rid of the CD in the logo.  Apple’s transformation of the music industry, for better or for worse (depending on who you ask and whether they make a living off selling CD’s), is pretty much complete.

• Right.  So Google is trying to build a Facebook-clone called Google Me.  Guess what?  Apple launched their own social network today.  In iTunes.  A media player used by millions and millions of people.  (iTunes now has 160 million accounts with linked credit cards.)  It seems to be a hybrid of Facebook and Twitter, aimed at music discovery.  Set up your profile.  Follow people.  Follow artists.  Post video clips.  See the Top 10 songs etc. of the folks you follow.  See what they’re listening to at the moment.  See Lady Gaga’s favourite music tracks (you know, the stuff SHE likes to listen to).  Listen to those tracks.  One-click buy them.  Brilliant.  And it’s right there, in an app millions of people use every. single. day.  Unlike Google, Apple is actually playing into their strengths, solving a problem many media-afficionados have, building a social network on top of something that is already hugely popular. This isn’t a ME TOO effort.  This is something I would use (and yes, I am the target market, since I love music and other forms of content).  Oh, and of course Ping will work on iOS devices too.  More than 100 million of them. Effectively, Apple is bootstrapping their social network with more users than Twitter currently has.  (And someone made the point that Ping might just be the final nail in MySpace’s coffin, seeing as MySpace still manages to hang on to life support as a place where many bands promote their music.)

• Apple is relaunching the Apple TV.  The new model (rolling out end of this month in the US and perhaps a few other privileged countries) is a quarter of the size of the original Apple TV.  It’s a little black box, the size of your palm.  It comes with Wifi and ethernet connectivity options, and has an HDMI output for hooking up to your TV.  So essentially, to get it working is pretty much as easy as hooking up power, plugging the HDMI cable into your TV and BAM!

• The focus is all on streaming and renting.  No purchases.  Jobs said that people don’t want to have to manage storage, and I agree.  HD TV shows from Fox and ABC can now be rented for 99c / episode.  (The other studios are not yet keen.  Seems like there are limits to the “Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field.”)  New release HD movies can be rented for $4.99.  You can stream Netflix and Youtube at the push of a button.  The interface is extremely slick and efficient.  You can also stream video and music from any of the computers in your house, and make photo slideshows from your photo library.

• Once the new iOS update arrives in November, you’ll be able to stream content from your iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad to your Apple TV.  So you sit on the couch with your iPad, browse to a movie you half-watched in bed on your iPad last night, open it, tap a button to send it to your Apple TV, and BAM! it continues playing on your TV.  No wires, no fuss.  Seamless interaction between all your (Apple) media devices.

• All of this Apple TV fun costing… $99.  I think that’s a brilliant price point for a device that both Steve Jobs and I believe will go from “hobby for hardcore Apple nerds” to mainstream now, and the perfect complement to the rest of Apple’s ecosystem.  Soon, many people will be playing with three Apple devices in the living room.  iPhone in the shirt pocket, iPad on the lap, Apple TV remote in hand.  Steve Jobs really believes there is no such thing as “too much of a good thing.”

• (The caveat in all of this is of course that all this beautiful content is only available in a handful of countries.  Which won’t stop me from getting an Apple TV, naturally, but will require a bit of nerd trickery to operate here in SA, given the complete absence of the iTunes Music / Media Store in our part of the world.)

And that pretty much covers it.  Making high quality mobile calls without a phone, a social network, same content shared everywhere on any (Apple) device, an even greater gaming focus (and keep in mind that the games industry is starting to eclipse Hollywood), an improved and cheaper Apple TV… Folks, don’t sell those AAPL shares just yet!  Apple’s brilliant transformation from also-ran to front-runner in the tech space is far from over.

Now if only Steve would bring the iTunes Media Store to South Africa…

The position is a permanent position and is based in the Randburg area. Salary is highly negotiable.

Role

• Architect and build applications on the Apple iPhone SDK.
• Submit applications to the Apple App Store.

Skills

The following capabilities are critical to the position:

• ObjectiveC, Cocoa Touch, Core Data, File I/O, XCode, SQLlite, HTML and CSS, JavaScript, AJAX and JSON.
• Successfully submitted at least 1 application to the Apple iPhone App Store.
• Navigation-based and Tab-bar application development.
• OpenGL application development an advantage.
• Application architecture.
• Analytical thinking.
• User experience/information architecture.
• Quality oriented.
• Flexibility (including time flexibility).
• Service oriented.
• Performance under pressure.

I thought I would put a few thoughts down on how to ensure that when using a QR Code, be it in a campaign or personal use, making sure you get the full potential out of them.

• Use a decent QR Code generator
  I use Zing which is built on the open source Google chart API. It is fast, and offers a variety of options. Another site I came across this morning is http://www.qrstuff.com/, which also seems pretty cool. You can also use http://imagecharteditor.appspot.com/ to create QR Codes. Quickmark also has a pretty cool SDK which allows you to create your own QR codes in your applications.
• Ensure your landing page is Mobile compatible.
  This is huge. You cannot direct people to a URL using a non-mobile webpage and expect them to browse that using their phone. QR Codes are designed to open on a mobile phone screen, so make sure your site is mobile compatible. If you have a Wordpress site, install the mobilepress or WPTouch plugins which will automagically transform your normal site into a Wordpress site. If you don’t use Wordpress….um…..
• Use short URL’s
  I have written about this before, and when it comes to QR Codes, the shorter the better. Having a shorter URL ensures that your image size is smaller. Use a URL shortener like Bit.ly to make your URL’s smaller. Bit.ly also offers basic tracking stats, so you will be able to see how many times your URL has been opened.
• Use Capital letters
  This one may sound a bit silly, but a QR Code with a url of http://bit.ly/aaaa will be bigger (image size) than a QR Code with the URL of http://bit.ly/AAAA.
• Make your content relevant & valuble.
  Don’t expect people to snap a QR Code displayed in a magazine about gadgets, and then it takes them to a article about fish. Test your code before your publish it. It could lead to a potentially embarrassing situation :)  Rather link to a webpage about your product or campaign, and then on the page have a video, as opposed to linking straight through to a video.
• Tell people what QR Codes are
  Because QR codes are a relitvley new technology (outside of Japan), you need to educate your users on what they are all about. Include a link on your site, or even below the image about what QR Codes are all about and where to download a QR Code reader from. It will still be a while till people know what QR codes are all about and how to use them.
• Download a quality QR Code reader.
  I use Quickmark on the iPhone which seems to work the best and fastest. They also have apps for Nokia & Android. For Blackberry you can use BeeTagg
• Get users to “Like” your Facebook page using QR Codes.
  This isn’t a must do, but more of a useful tip. Create a QR Code that will give people a like button to like your site or URL. You can create a URL that will point straight to the Facebook Like link (http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http://marcforrest.com) or read more about it on this site

There are loads of uses for QR Codes. I can think of a few off the top of my head. Code in a magazine pointing to more info about a specific gadget and video of how it works. Or, a QR Code in a menu in a restaurant that links to a webcam in the kitchen or video of how the food is made. What about a QR Code on the flyer of an event or band that gives your more info about them or the full line up of a festival, and offer calendar events & a free song of the band which you can download. The possibilities are endless. If you wanna chat more about QR Codes, drop me a line on my contact page, and I would love to chat more about it.

Have you got any QR Code tips & tricks to get the most of these awesome codes ? Share them in the comments below.

For more info check out the full analysis on the Geosience site

Techcentral reported earlier today that MTN would also be offering the iPhone 4 on contracts, when it (finally) launches in South Africa towards the end of September. We all know the iPhone 4 is going to be big in South Africa, I have already had over 3500 views on my iPhone 4 in South Africa post I did a while back. But I still have a pertinent question, which is really bothering me about the iPhone in South Africa.

Which operator, be it MTN, Vodacom or Cell C, will be able to provide the best support for the phone ?

Support, not just being hardware support, but also software and iPhone support. My biggest “gripe” with the iPhone in South Africa, is that people are spending up to 10K on a phone,  without knowing their full capabilities.
The fact that it is so much more than just a phone, and you can install applications and use it for push email, amongst a whole whack of other things, makes me believe that the network operators have to play some part in promoting the phone, instead of just “selling it”.

Vodacom have been selling the iPhone for just short on 2 years, and have already sold around 110k iPhones in South Africa. They have the upper hand I think, with the knowledge and expertise gained, as well as offering services such as Visual Voicemail & dedicated iPhone packages. But yet daily, I get emails from people who need assistance with their iPhones, that’s why I setup SA iPhone Help to try and help people with posing questions about the iPhone.

At the end of the day, for me, it isn’t about the price, or about the best data bundle, which ever cellular network wants to be want to be the market leaders in the iPhone 4 race, they are going to have offer better support & education on the iPhone which will educate the users about the phone and it’s capabilities.

Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below :)

The Arrive Alive site also has a really good illustration and animation showing you how to navigate a circle

The diagram above illustrates your everyday traffic circle, or roundabout as some may know it.

Contrary to popular belief, you may not drive wherever the hell you like on whatever side of the road you have chosen i.e. left or right. This diagram shows clearly which direction you may go, depending on which side of the road you are driving.

1. The yellow arrow indicators show you that there are only TWO (2) possible directions to take when on the left hand side of the road, or, outside lane.

2. The blue arrow indicators show that there are also TWO (2) possible directions to take when on the right hand side of the road, or, inside lane.

3. The red indicator arrows show when some idiot decides to take the road-law into his own hands, ending up in an accident, often resulting in an angry argument and possibly a restraining order for use of bad language and throwing punches.

You may be wondering where the blue indicator arrows go to from there? Well, my dears, the rules start all over again. They may go straight, or right again. It’s that simple.

Here is a screen shot of the opening picture, with the Baa-Baa’s doing the Haka. To see the gigapixel in full check out the Vodacom 23 player Fan Cam.(Full screen version here)

Click image to see the GigaPixel

To get an idea of the quality of the hi res image, this is a screenshot of some of the spectators right at the top of the stadium. Crystal clear. Be warned though. You will spend loads and loads of time browsing through the picture, it’s incredible !!

Here is a snapshot of the dudes trying to break the world record for the most Elvis’s in 1 place.

• I finally got my new iPhone 3Gs. Yay ! Big up to Santam who came to the party after I jumped up and down. I feel like my 3rd arm has been restored. Also a big thanks to the T4A organisers who sent out a tweet offering a reward for my lost phone. No such luck though. *sigh*

• I often get asked why there aren’t any Games on the South African iTunes store. The reason is pretty simple. It is called the Film & Publications act. The act requires that every single DVD & computer games need to be reviwed and classified to ensure they are not harmful to children. This amendment to the law was passed in 1996 and published in the goverment gazette. Even more of a reason to get yourself a US iTunes Account

• Check out this cool site I came across. It is called OneDayOnly, and offers you 1 product a day at a hugely reduced price. So yesterday they had a pair of Glider Sunglasses which were R430 and you could get them for a measly R149. Check it out and add it to your favorites.

• The #FailWhale has finally been removed from Ballito beach. Yay. No more smell. But get this. The only way it could be done was for a dredging machine (pic) that came onto the beach and then “broke” the whale into pieces and dumped it on the beach. Then a TLB (pic) came along, and picked up the blubber, and dumped it into big skips, which were then taken away and presumably going to be burnt or buried. A mate of mine from Germany, who was here on holiday, took a video. Will def get it and upload it. On Monday when I went down there, there were guys cutting pieces of meat off the whale, which apparently is being used by the sangomas. I really hope they didn’t go home for a toasted Whale & cheese. Somebody would have been very very sick. :)Check out the gallery of pictures on News24.
  
  

• Another question I often get asked by iPhone fans is how to get the pics from your iPhone onto your Computer. If you use a Mac, follow this very simple step by step guide. If you use Windows, sorry for you, you should get a prompt that allows you to explore the pictures in file explorer and copy them from the iPhone, when you plug the iPhone into your computer.

• During Tech4Africa, one of the talks I attended was one by Joe Stump, who is the CTO of SimpleGeo. One of the iPhone apps he mentioned in his talk was called MyTown (iTunes Link). MyTown apparently gets more checkins per day than Foursquare, and is hugely popular overseas. The app is a geo location game, and is a cross between Foursquare/Gowalla & Monopoly. Basically once you “checkin” to a place, you can put it, and earn income and rent from it. I downloaded it ysterday, and it is loads of fun. Def adds a fun factor to checking in.

• Check out this very kiff new site from some of the Geeky Girls up in Jozi – http://www.girlguides.co.za. Need to send my wifee the link :) The site is a whole bunch of the geeky girls who review all the latest and greatest gadgets. Nice one ladies (and @za5)

• This strike thing is pissing me off. Yesterday we got an SMS from our daughters school to say we need to fetch them immediately. The school is a private school and the striking workers, from other public schools in the area,  were protesting and intimidating the private school teachers. WTF !!! I honestly do not understand the mentality of some people.

• Oh ja, if you haven’t already. Do yourself a favour and tune into 2Oceansvibe Radio. It is awesome. I listen on my iPhone at work, and its crystal clear. The music they play is also really cool. Do it !

And that’s a wrap. Have a lakka weekend. I know mine is going to be resting and maybe a beer or 2 at Luyt Brewery in Ballito

• Tech4Africa – Loads of great talks, and some really cool & inspiring talks. Highlights for me the Leila Chirayath Janah keynote. Her talk was really inspiring and I love hearing inspiring stories like this. The social media panel included Andy Hadfield, Mike Stopforth & Walter Pike (who I would class as my online mentors in SA)  amongst others was also superb. The crowd interaction was fantastic. Andy posted a twitpic of some of the crowdsourced best practices about social media in South Africa.The panel of the team that “redesigned” the Payfine.co.za site was also really cool. Check out Rian from Yola’s take on it. The one panel I was most disappointed with was Jonathon Snook’s iPhone and Android talk. I expected a lot more given all the possibilities with these 2 OS’s, but all we got to see was how to design a web app. Not really what most of the people had in mind though. I also really enjoyed the tech Q&A panel with the international speakers.Here are see some of the notes I took in a few of the panels. They are very very rough, and haven’t been edited at all.
  • “Ignoring User experience at your peril” with Andy Budd
  • Social media – there is an elephant in the room
  • Rocking iPhone and android development
  • Joe stump – every cloud has a silver lining
  • Steve song – 3 pieces of kit for a Neighbourhood network
• If you follow me on FaceTweet, you would have seen that I had a bittersweet ending to the conference. Just after the Clay Shirky keynote, I must have misplaced/dropped my iPhone. I only realised as I walked into the next session, and when I went back to look for it, it was gone. I searched high and low, and the conference MC also announced it with no luck. I was totally bummed :( Luckily I have insurance on the Phone, so it is not the END of the world. Yes, yes, I know. I should have MobileMe, but I didn’t. To be totally honest, I am really not sure how that would have helped. Anyways. I honestly felt like my arm had been sawn off, but to be honest, it’s not THAT bad :) I am coping. (barely). Hopefully I should have a replacement this week. I had to go with the 3GS again, as the iPhone 4 hasn’t been launched yet, and I doubt the insurance will pay me in $$ :)

• Came across this really cool little hack on how to Get 5FM on your DSTV. Very neat little trick.

• The dudes from VirtualAfrica that created the Gigapixel of the Bulls/Stormers Super 14 Final are creating another Super Gigapixel this Saturday for the Boks vs All Blacks Tri Nations Game. I can’t wait to see this one !!! Stay tuned to this blog for a sneaky peak early sometime next week.
  

  Stoked to announce that we'll be creating a GigaPixel Image (#vodacomfancam) of the 3Nations game at FNB Stadium on Saturday!August 17, 2010 14:29 via HootSuitetinusleroux
  Tinus le Roux

• If you haven’t already, I suggest you check out my china Shaun Trennery’s new site called locl. It is a really clever site that shows you the news you WANT to see. See, another clever Durban startup.

• Thanks to the very clever SheBeeGee, my brother & I got to go to the A-Team premiere at Montecasino in Jozi last Thursday eve. The event was super cool, and the cinema is HUGE MASSIVE. The movie itself is pretty cool, and def bought back a couple of childhood memories. After the movie there was a quick opportunity to take a pic with the 2 actors who were out here to promote the movie. Sharlto Copley was a firm crowd favoritie and even put on his Wikus voice. He is a legend. The other dude, Rampage Jackson is a UFC fighter. When I took my pic with him he shrugged my arm off his shoulder, and said “No man” (in his BA voice) to which I later found out he has a bit of a phobia with guys touching him. Makes a lot of sense for a UFC fighter hey ? :P
  
  

• Pieter Uys, the Vodacom CEO, gave us a little heads up that we should see the iPhone 4 coming at the end of September with a tweet earlier today. I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these.

  @Tag11Mac @deanoelsch date for iPhone4 in SA from Apple is end of September. Will keep you posted. Samsung Galaxy S has just arrived.August 17, 2010 11:07 via Twittelatoruyspj
  Pieter Uys

• If you have a couple of minutes to spare, check out http://www.dripbook.com/. AMAZING !!

• If you have the Camera+ iPhone app, you may have noticed that it has been pulled from the App store. This is becuase the developers were sneaky sneaky and added in a cool little hack, which allows you to use your volume button to take the picture, which is of course totally against LeApple’s T&C’s. To enable the hack just type the following into your Safari browser on the phone camplus://enablevolumesnap
  

• Yesterday my Streetview site traffic went through THE roof. No idea why, I suspect it was spoken about on a Gauteng radio station

• Talking about Gauteng, I took the Gautrain last week when I was up in Jozi. WOW WOW WOW. That is 1 seriously cool little loco. It is really cool to see SA catching up to the world in terms of public transport, and I can’t wait to see how it will change lives when the whole route is open. Amazing !!

• Remember that CellC rant I did the other day ? The response to it was amazing. I got loads of pingbacks to the post which I was pretty stoked about ;) But my clever friend & funnyman @DonPackett has now set up TellDon.co.za, which just rips poor Trevor to shreds. Shame. Check it out !

• SARS are a bunch of tossers. That is all. I have been fighting for 2 years for the same frikkin thing, and they are just not getting the issue. *sigh* Even after a sit down appointment with them yesterday, no such luck.

• Hooters Fourways. Don’t. It is a balls up of note. We went there on Friday eve, and it was packed to the brim with (18-23 year olds), so much so, they honestly couldn’t cope. They ran out of glasses for beer, and apparently had no fries. Until asked the manager. Useless, useless place. I would recommend giving it a skip. Really

• The #FailWhale I wrote about earlier in the week is still stinking Ballito out, and from what I hear will be dragged onto the beach this week and will be chopped up. I went down again the day before yesterday and that thing is MASSIVE

• Santam is taking their sweet time to payout for the iPhone. Really making me mental. I’m gonna be “that irritating client” over the next couple of days and just keep phoning to get my payout.

Holy Moly. That’s a lot of thinking. But I enjoyed that format, so maybe expect a few more of those in the future.