The Grid is a location-based social network, that Vodacom has developed. It uses location based services based on your proximity to the closest cellular towers and plots those on a map

From The Grid site: The grid is a mobile social network that allows you to chat to friends, see where they are on a map and share photos or videos with them. You also get to view photos and videos relevant to the area you’re in.

The iPhone app allows you to:

• Explore your vicinity on a map
• Chat with friends & bots
• Track your friends location and activity
• Share your photos and thoughts as blips
• Discover blips from other users,
• Join a group with shared interests
• Update your status’s to twitter

Click here to download the app from the app store

*pics coming soon*

Yesterday we went down to the 2nd Annual Scott Kelby Worldwide photowalk at the Durban Harbour. It really was loads of fun, with around 50 photographers, with some even coming as far away as Pietermartizburg. This was our first photowalk, and I will definitely be signing up for next years one, when it comes around again.
We had a rather early 5:30 am start, which meant we needed to be up at 4 to get the show on the road. The walk was led by Durban photographer  Jone Mackay.
The weather was perfect, and the harbour in Durban is a real treat at that time of the morning. We managed to get a couple of cool sunrise shots, as well as a couple of the boats in the harbour. At the end of the day, we all gathered around for some well deserved coffee and muffins. A big big thank you to Jone for organising a fantastic day out.

These are some of the photos I took on the day, for more, check out my Photowalk set on Flickr, and if you would like to see a couple other South African’s shots, be sure to check out the South African Photowalk Flickr Group here

This vid is only 100images, taken at 5 minute intervals. I’m trying to work on getting more… :)

They are currentley running a promotion called “With Vodacom the internet is Maklik” where they are giving up to 2 gigs of data away for free. So I did a couple of calculations around these figures, and found an simple & easy way to save yourself up to 500% on your data costs.

Basically the deal is Vodacom will either give you 25MB or 10% of your data package back to you up until the end of August. Now the easiest way to do this, and score is to activate a 5MB Add-On Data package. Usually this package costs R9.25, and you get 5MB of data. Fair enough, works out to R1.85. BUT, if you do this before the end of August you get another 25MB of data valid for 60 Days. This means you get 30MB of data for only R9.25 which works out to a staggering 31 cents, per Megabyte. THAT is a bargain. I have attached a screen shot of the calcs above (click to enlarge), which show the savings. This is an awesome deal, so if you are a Vodacom subscriber & use data on your phone, this is a MUST.

To activate the packages you can either call 082 111 from your phone, or you can activate it on http://www.vodacom4me.co.za

Disclaimer: I am in NO way affiliated to Vodacom, if you have any questions on this promotion, please call them :)

The app is called the  ZATV guide, and I have had a chance to play with the submitted version for the last 2 weeks.

Overall the app is clean, and simple to use. Once the app opens you are presented with a “My ZATV” screen, where you can chose to keep a list of your “Favorite channels” or “Favorite TV Shows” The next screen is  “All Channels”, which allows you to view all the DSTV channels, and you can click through to see what is on each channel. You can search by either Channel Number or by A-Z of the channel name.

Once you have gone into the channel, you can then add this channel to your “Favorite Channel” screen on the home page. You can also select a specific programme, which will allow you see what is happening in that specific episode.

The 3rd Screen allows you to search for a specific show or Series. This will then show you when the show is showing and on which channels, as well as give you detailed information on the series. You can then also add the show to your  ‘Favorite TV Shows” on the home screen

All in all this is a well rounded app, that is simple to use, and is going to be very useful when deciding what movie to watch on a Sunday night.

The app can be downloaded from the iTunes store for Free from here – > Download

Vodacom uses a specific APN (Access Name Point) for the iPhones, which come pre-configured on the iPhone. The APN they use is “iPhone.Vodacom.ZA“. If you have a standard Vodacom Contract, and recently bought an iPhone, or have recentley had an upgrade, you will need to activate this APN.

There are 2 ways of doing this. You can can call the Vodacom Data Service Helpdesk on 082 155 (Free call from your phone), or log onto Vodacom4me.co.za. On the Vodacom4me website, log in, and go to My Account-> Services -> Modify Services and select the iPhone APN.

To check what APN is currentley set on your iPhone, go to Settings -> General -> Network -> Cellular Data Network, and you should have iphone.vodacom.za set under your Cellular Data APN.

Adding a contact is simple, as the app composes an email for you that you can send to your contact with a pre – defined URL that will authorise you to share your location with them.

One question I know will come up is, What about getting bugged at 3am when my mates pissed at the pub ? Well you can disable Push notifications on an app Level, as well as on an overall full iPhone level. You can also disable notifications from a specific user within the app.

The push notification alerts you even when you not in the app. A sound is made (freaks you out the first couple of times :))

You can then view your contacts location in an embeded Google Map

The app is Free in the iTunes store and can be downloaded Here -> “Hey Where Are You: Location Service”

Feel free to add me if you would like add me, my email address is on my Contact page. Just don’t let me know you in the pub at 3am please :P

A BIG BIG thanks to PJ from Glucode for helping me with this and the files below. He is a LEGEND !!

Please note: (Please read these points before attempting the steps below)

• These settings only work for VODACOM & MTN. I will attempt to get CellC & Virgin up shortly.
• Do this at your own risk. This is merely a guide on how to get it working, and no responsibility can be taken if it does not work. Unfortunately I cannot provide “after sales service” :)
• Please read through the post before attempting this. You need to have some sort of understanding as to how the iPhone works. This guide is not for beginners and I suggest that if you do feel uneasy, to rather leave it until Vodacom brings out the correct settings

VODACOM – If you are using a Mac download & extract this zip file -> Vodacom Carrier Settings Mac

VODACOM – If you use Windows download & extract this zip file -> Vodacom Carrier Settings – Windows

MTN – If you are using a Windows download & extract this zip file -> MTN Carrier Settings – Windows

MTN – If you are using a Mac download & extract this zip file -> MTN Carrier Settings – Mac

Step 1 – Uninstall any previous profile settings used

Uninstall any previous Profile settings used to set up MMS or tethering,by going to Settings -> General -> Profile and remove any other existing profiles you may have installed

Step 2 – Enabling iTunes to allow you to run the carrier file:

• If you using a Mac, run the enable-carrier-testing.command file, in the above zip file, to set iTunes to allow updating the Carrier settings on the phone.

• If you are using a Windows PC, run the enable-carrier-testing.cmd file in the zip file, to set iTunes to allow updating the Carrier settings on the phone.

Step 3 – Enabling the carrier (ipcc file) using iTunes

• Plug-in you iPhone into your computer and open iTunes.
• Select your iPhone in iTunes
• If you are using Mac, Option(alt) & click on the Check For Update button
• If you are using Windows, shift & click on the Check for Update button
• Browse to where you extracted the zip files from above.
• In the Files of Type drop down, chose iPhone Carrier Configuration files (*.ipcc) and then in the /Custom folder
• Select the Vodafone_za.ipcc file, and press OK for VODACOM
• Select the MTN_za.ipcc file, and press OK for MTN
• This will load the Carrier file with all the correct settings for MMS & Internet tethering

Step 4 – Finish Up

• Restart your iPhone
• Once the phone has restarted check your settings in General -> Network -> Cellular Data Network. There should be settings for Cellular Data and MMS
• You should now be able to set up Tethering and send & receive MMS’s
• If you wish to revert back to the original settings follow step 3 above and use the ipcc file in the “Original” folder of the extracted zip file
• Ensure you can make and receive calls after completing the above steps
• You may find that you can’t send MMS’s for a short while after setting this up. We are working on the issue

Changelog:

23/6: Added MTN zip files
24/6: Replaced Vodacom Original .ipcc file with updated .ipcc file
26/6: Updated Custom Vodacom .ipcc file to new one provided by PJ. Should fix MMS problems while in 3g
26/6: Unlinked to Vodacom files, as reports of Calls dropping & no connectivity
29/6: Linked Vodacom files back to original version. These .ipcc files seems a lot more stable

Rather use the settings from the above post than the ones below

By default MMS has not been setup on the iPhone OS 3.0 for Vodacom. To do this follow these steps:

• Go to Settings -> General -> Network -> Cellular Data Network -> MMS
• Fill in the following details:
  APN : mms.vodacom.net
  MMSC : mmsc.vodacom4me.co.za
  MMS Proxy : 196.006.128.013:8080
  
• You may need to reset your Cellular Data APN to iphone.vodacom.za
• Once this has been done, reboot your phone
• Then go to Messages -> New Message. You will now see a camera icon on the left had side of the message box. Click this, and choose your MMS object. You can also use MMS for voice recordings
• This post on MyBroadband has some more info on setting this up -> http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=100952

UPDATE: It seems that Vodacom have blocked MMS from iPhones. I called them earlier, and they said it would only be available in the next software release :( The guys said it might work sometimes.
Call Vodacom and harass them to get this working 082 155

To set up internet tethering check this post ->http://www.marcforrest.com/2009/06/17/setting-up-internet-tethering-on-iphone/

Posted via email from Marc’s posterous

Rather use the settings from the above post than the ones below

It seems that on Vodacom Internet Tethering is not set up by default in the new iPhone OS 3.0 software that was released today

To set it up follow these steps:

• Visit http://wan.to/iphone from the Safari Browser on your iPhone (Big thanks to @eel for this )
  Click on Download Config under enable tethering on iPhone 3.0
  
• On your iPhone Go to Settings -> Network -> Enable Tethering
• Make sure your phone is plugged into your PC/Mac with the USB cable
  On a Mac, a pop-up window appears the first time you connect, saying “A new network interface has been detected.” Click Network Preferences, configure the network settings for iPhone, then click Apply. On a PC, use the Network Control Panel to select and configure the iPhone connection.(For more info visit http://www.apple.com/iphone/how-to/#basics.using-iphone-as-a-modem)
• Click the Internet Tethering Slider to ON. A blue band will appear at the top of your screen to indicate your are connected with internet tethering
• I disconnected my wireless, and had my 3G running on my phone, and was able to browse the net from my Mac
  
• You may need to reset your Cellular Data APN to iphone.vodacom.za
• Good luck & Enjoy :)

UPDATE: It seems that Vodacom have blocked MMS & Internet Tethering from iPhones. I called them earlier, and they said it would only be available in the next software release :( The guys said it might work sometimes.
Call Vodacom and harass them to get this working 082 155

To set up MMS check this post -> http://www.marcforrest.com/2009/06/17/setting-up-mms-on-vodacom-iphone-os-30/

Posted via email from Marc’s posterous