Last year I went on a tour of the Moses Mabhida stadium here in Durbs, before they were finished. One of the pics I managed to take was a Pano of the stadium. It is an awesome picture which shows an almost 360 degree view of the stadium.

I have now been fortunate enough to get a sneak peek of the new software from the guys at Virtual Africa, that allows you to build a Virtual Panoramic tour of any pano picture taken. So you take your normal Pano shot, plug it into their software and then it allows you to have a Virtual tour of the shot. To see what I mean, check out the virtual tour of my Moses Mabhida Pano. You can zoom in to the image & scroll in all directions.

To view the Virtual Tour in full, click here for the direct link.

Very very cool. A big big thanks to Tinus from Virtual Africa for allowing me to try this out. Keep your eyes out for their service which will be launching soon soon :)

The guys from immedia and Multichoice have released their latest iPhone app offering in the form of the SuperSport iPhone App (iTunes Link).

The app, which covers all the news from the Supersport site, also includes a very cool “Live Scores” feature, which allows you to follow all the latest scores from various sport games happening live around the world. This is very cool for cricket or rugby games, where you would like a quick peek at the score while on the go. I used it over the weekend to catch up on the latest soccer scores while I was out at a friends house.

The app also allows you to choice a specific sport category, and lets you see the news related to that sport. This means, if you would like to see news on just Formula 1 racing, you can do so, by choosing the F1 category.

All in all, the app is a must have for sports fanatics, and is Free on the iTunes Store

Now that the Visual Voicemail from Vodacom seems to be up and running (if you still having issues check out PJ’s comments), I set up my phone to divert all calls when busy. This way, when you reject a call it will go straight to voicemail, which will then notify you using Visual Voicemail, when then of course, you can listen to at your own leisure. So now, when that dreaded “Blocked Number” appears on your screen, you send them straight to Voicemail. Bye bye pesky telemarketers.

To do this, I did the following:

1. Set up Visual Voicemail by sending VVM on to 123. If you don’t have an iPhone, or not on Vodacom, you can skip this step. Just means you will need to dial your voicemail to listen to the messages from the Blocked Number caller.
2. Set up the diverts for when your phone is busy. To do this, you can use the settings on your phone(iPhone only has an option for all), or by using the codes below: (Use the “When Cellphone is busy” option)
   

   Unanswered calls	**61*(number diverting to)#	##61#
   When cellphone is off	**62*(number diverting to)#	##62#
   When cellphone is busy	**67*(number diverting to)#	##67#
   Unconditional Divert	**21*(number diverting to)#	##21#
   Cancelling all diverts		##002#

3. To setup so that the call goes straight to your Voicemail, you can use the following
   • Vodacom – +27 82 131 (+ the last 9 digits of your phone number)
   • MTN – +27 83 14 (+ the last 9 digits of your phone number)
   • CellC & Virgin – If you have these please leave a comment below
4. Once this is setup, if you you get a pesky Blocked Number, simply divert the call using the reject button on your phone. Most phones have a red hangup button, which does the trick.
   On the iPhone, there are 2 options. Firstly when your phone is unlocked and you receive a call, you can just press the red decline button. You can also push the power button(at the top on the phone on the right) twice. The first time will mute it, and the second will decline the call
   If your phone is locked, and you only have swipe to answer shown on your screen, you need to push the power button at the top TWICE FAST. If you do not push it FAST, it will simply reject the call with a engaged signal. Make sure you press the power button twice FAST :)

And that’s it. No more silly Telemarketers. No more boring salesman. No more annoying Debt Collectors :) If they choose to leave a message, you can listen to it in your own time.

Another fantastic post by Stephane Reinstein (@divemasterza) looking at the very cool WhatsApp iPhone App
Ever been jealous of BBM, the Blackberry to Blackberry messenger, well I have been.

There are a few solutions available on the Appstore, but in my opinion non that match Whatsapp (0.99$)  (Appstore link)

It can detect other iPhone users in your address book who are running the app, and add them automatically. This auto-discovery is done on every launch of the app.

It obviously uses Push notification to alert you of incoming messages, but the great bonus of this app is that it is also available for BB users, and you can send messages across platform.

I admit it is quite difficult to convince BBM users to download an additional app!

You can send

• Voice Message
• Text Message
• Google map pins
• Pictures, taken from the camera or from the album (pictures are downsized before sending)
• .vcf cards

I have tried it with friends locally and overseas: it is almost instantaneous and you get a delivery and read notification! I think this is one more nail in the MMS coffin.

I came across the video of the very catchy song at the moment by South African Rapper JR called “Make the Circle Beega”.The video is from the guys at Times Live, and is an Ayoba South African production

I came across a very cool Instant Messaging app for the iPhone last night. You may have heard of Meebo before ? Meebo started out as a web-based instant messaging platform, which allowed you access your IM services like MSN, AIM or Google talk, amongst others, from a web-based interface anytime, anywhere.

Meebo have now launched their latest offering, the Meebo iPhone app (iTunes Link). The app, which is free on the app store, is one of the best IM clients I have used on the iPhone. I have played around with a few of the other offerings including IM+, and the simplicity of Meebo outweighs the other apps.

Meebo also offers Push notifications for when you are out of the app. So if you start chatting with someone, and close the app, if they start chatting with you, it will send you a push notification to let you know they have sent you a message.The app also syncs with the Desktop or web version and keeps a full chat history.

So far, for me, Meebo is the  best chat app I have used on my iPhone, and could soon find its way to being on the home screen on my iPhone.

I got a tip off from one of my blog readers today, in a comment to an earlier post, where he mentioned that Vodacom has launched Visual Voicemail for the iPhone, a much anticipated feature from the network.

What is Visual Voicemail ? (From the Vodafone Website)

With the Visual Voicemail application, you can see exactly who left a message and when they left it. All the info is right there on your screen. With one touch you’ll be able to jump to the most important messages first, or even skip messages completely.

This means you can see who left you the voicemail, without having to dial into your Voicemail service (121). You can also listen to it on the phone.

Vodacom have launched it, and the service cost’s R9.99 a month. To activate the service you need to SMS “VVM ON” to 123. To deactivate the service, you can SMS “VVM OFF” to the same number.

I tried activating mine earlier, but have so far been unsuccessful, and when I called the call centre at Vodacom, after 17 minutes, I finally spoke to someone who sort of knew what I was talking about

If you have managed to successfully activate Visual VoiceMail on Vodacom, let me know what you think ?To see more info about Visual VoiceMail check out the Official Apple iPhone Guide or the Vodafone Australia Visual Voicemail guide

Many of us know Jamie Oliver for his awesome cooling skills, and TV programmes, as well as his great cookbooks, of which I am sure we all have a copy lying around somewhere.

Jamie was invited to speak at the TED 2010 conference in California last week, and the topic he spoke about was “Teach every child about food”

Being a father to 3 gorgeous children, the video is an eye opener about the food we eat and  feed our children. America has a huge problem with obesity, and to be honest, South Africa is not far behind. I’ll be the first to admit, that I’m overweight, and watching the video of his talk, really made me think about what we eat. Watching some of the American kids in that video was quite heart sore to say the least, where they weren’t even able to tell the difference between a tomato or a potato.

Spare yourself 20 minutes, and sit down and watch the video of Jamie Olivers Ted talk. It really is an eye opener, and makes you think about the food we eat, and feed our children.

I came across a really cool app the other day, called Sleep Cycle Alarm clock. How it works is, you place your phone on the corner of youe bed and while you are sleeping it tracks your body movements on the bed, using the accelerometer. You then set an alarm, and the app will wake you when you are in your least deep sleep, using a 30 minute cycle. So, if I set my alarm for 6:00 am, from 5:30 am, the app will continue monitoring my sleeping pattern, and wake me when I am in my lightest sleep, which means I wake up feeling refreshed, cause I was not in a deep sleep.It also displays a graph of your previous night’s sleeping pattern.This is one of mine from last week sometime.

Now the question everyone has asked me is, does it really work. Well, I have been using it for over a week now, and I can confidently say, that it is working 100% for me. Waking up when the alarm starts going off, is so much easier, cause I’m in a light sleep. The alarms built into the app are also very cool, and have very mellow tones built-in. This means you don’t get loud beeping alarm clock noises, but rather gentle ones like “Sunrise” or “Morning mist”

The app only cost’s $0.99, and is well well worth the money spent. Even if you don’t believe it will work, just try it. It is AMAZING :)

A couple of days ago, we interviewed Reuben Goldberg on izimvo. When we first asked him for the interview, he sheepishly said, only if I can interview you. Shaun and I pulled straws, and I got the short one (and it was my turn after his interview with Aki Anistasiou). I am really not a fan of my voice, and cringe when I hear it played back, so I was kinda dreading the interview. I have to admit, it really wasn’t as bad as I expected when Reuben phoned me last week Wednesday to do the interview.

The interview was finally broadcast last week Friday on Reubens show, The Internet Economy, on Classic FM in Jozi. I downloaded the podcast of the interview, and had a listen. I have to admit, although the cringe of the voice was still there, it sounded a lot better than what I expected. Towards the end of last year, I took a Toastmasters course at work, and I really think it helped with the interview, and there were a lot less um’s and aahs, that what I would have had before. So all in all, I’m pretty happy with the outcome.

If you would like to listen to the interview (don’t judge me ;) :) ) you can listen (or even download if you like my voice that much) on Reuben’s Internet Economy page on the Classic FM website, or you can directly download the MP3 from the site. Here’s to the next interview :)