Today First National Bank announced their changes to their business account that aims to bring the rewards that you enjoy on their personal accounts as a business client.

While eBucks for business has been around for a little while, now business cheque accounts will have the ability to earn Fuel Rewards, use all the electonic channels like online banking, cellphone banking and the banking app to do your business banking. Overdraft facility is done in real time and you only pay for it when you use it. There is the Instant Accounting and Payroll facility at no charge and Forex transactions can be done online. Best of all you can switch your account in 3 easy steps and for the 3 months following your switch you will get your bank fees credited to you so that is 3 months free when you switch.

At their launch today their are two fee options, a R52.50p/m Pay As You Use option and R169p/m value bundle.

Be prepared for some radio adverts of small business owners beeping out other banks, the business evolution of the famous “Steve”adverts.

What was interesting from todays press event is that Jacques Celliers – CEO of FNB Business Banking – stated that this move is still aimed at existing businesses and not start ups. Apparently there is still some innovation happening in the new business area that we should be seeing in the new year.

Gateway shopping centre is within walking distance of the hotel providing for all you shopping and entertainment needs.

The rooms are very well appointed and very comfortable, with the standard conveniences expected in a hotel of this calibre. Air conditioning, TV with limited channels and WiFi is availble in the rooms. The WiFi links to most of the popular hotspot providers and you will need an account or a credit card to make use of the WiFi. The speed when connected is good.

Breakfast is included in the room price and there is always a good spread provided. The staff are friendly and helpful and make staying here a pleasure.

I have only 2 complaints: First you have to take 2 elevators to get to the parking garage which in itself is not a major problem just an inconvenience. However this leads to the main complaint I have, which is that to get from the main elevator in the hotel to the lift down to the parking garage you have to walk through the designated smoking area. Hopefully the smoking laws will solve this problem as smoking will not be permitted that close to the hotel.

All in all, the Garden Court in Umhlanga Ridge is a great place to stay and I highly recommend it.

As many will know, Greg and I were early adopters of the original Samsung Galaxy Tab, with its 7-inch display and Android 2.2 (Froyo) operating system. The times change quickly though in the world of mobile devices and Greg moved on to the iPad 2. I upgraded to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and later – after getting the Galaxy Note – dumped tablets completely. Not because I didn’t have a need for it, but I missed the smaller, fit in your back pocket size of a 7-inch tablet.

The Good

I was over the moon then when Samsung delivered the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus to me for a few weeks of hands-on. It seemed almost to be the perfect device (the Galaxy Tab 7.7 is still my favourite, even though I have spent only an hour or so with one). The 7.0 Plus at least does not break the bank; retailing at under R6000.00, but it still feels pricey when compared with the likes of the tablet king: the iPad. This new 7-incher is thinner and lighter than the first generation devices we owned, which was a very welcome thing to see.

This size tablet, in my mind, is the ideal media consumption device. For reading books and catching up on your Google Reader, you could ask for little more in terms of weight and size. Thanks to its being so pocketable, you seldom feel the need to carry a bag to take it with you when you want to just pop out of the office. You could also use the phone functionality on this device to make a quick call, but it looks ridiculous. The battery life is improved over the first Galaxy Tab too.

The Not So Good

If there is one let down for me about the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus (and indeed, the entire Samsung Galaxy Tab range currently), it is the fact that they still run Android 3.2 (Honeycomb). I have always got the feeling from Honeycomb that Google were just launching a mash up OS for tablets till Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich – I am really starting to get hungry now) was ready for its official launch.

Now, as I write this, there is a story on some of the tech sites in the USA that Samsung have confirmed that ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) updates for the current Galaxy Tab range of devices will start rolling out from the end of July, but it does little to change the fact that Samsung have announced the Tab 2 range of devices which will have ICS from the start and ultimately replace some of the existing models.

While I love the screen size of the 7.0 Plus, when you have experienced the Super AMOLED Plus display of the Galaxy Tab 7.7, with its incredibly vibrant colours and the higher resolution of the display, the normal LCD on the 7.0 Plus looks dull and fuzzy. It is not something that you notice until you have played with both devices side by side, but it sometimes gives the feeling of things being a little cramped on the 7.0.

The Conclusion

The 7.0 Plus offers some great value against other Android tablets in South Africa. The size is fantastic and with the ICS update around the corner, things should hopefully be even better. I personally wouldn’t buy it; not when I already have the Galaxy Note. The difference in screen size does not justify it and the quality or experience of the screens when switching between the two is just not pleasant. Personally, I would go for the Tab 7.7. That said, there is a big price difference and if all you want is a quality 7-inch Android experience, you can’t go wrong with the Tab 7.0 Plus… that is until the Google Nexus 7 tablet hits our shores.

“You look way too energized for one of our 6am business trips,” are the words that greeted me as I stepped off of the Gautrain at OR Tambo International Airport last week; spoken by a colleague with whom I was going to Cape Town. It was the second time in a week that I was actually feeling upbeat and lively despite waking up at 4am and only having had 3-4 hours sleep. The secret? My fathers day gift, in the shape of Radox ManX.

I would end this review right here and I think that Radox and most of you would be happy, but there is something more that I would like to talk about when it comes to this Radox product.

Functional Design

If there is something that works on my nerve more than anything else in a product, it has to be impractical designs. In shower gels, that means things like hanging bottles that don’t allow the gel to run to the cap; thus avoiding the need to shake the bottle each time as it draws to the end.

Or what about a non-hanging gel that has a pointed top, that cannot be left to stand on its lid in order to let the gel run down? Then there are those occasions where – due to the dumb design – the bottle falls and cracks the lid; making it so that the gel can now freely spill.

I have to take my hat off to the Radox team for their ManX range. The bottles look good, but are practical and made to stand on their lid so the gel is always at the ready. On top of that, they put a valve in the opening that only dispenses its gel when squeezed. That means no spilling and a more controlled flow that makes you use less and thus, it lasts longer. It is – in my mind – the perfect example of practical design.

Conclusion

I think that this could be the most refreshing shower gel I have ever used. Refreshing and practical. Give it a try.

It would be really great if it had Bluetooth…

When I was asked to review this 7″ tablet, I was excited because I saw it as a chance to see how it would do as a digital dashboard in my car. I had the required interface for the car, but it required a device with Bluetooth, so my excitement was short lived. The MID has WiFi, but no Bluetooth! It would have scored better if it had Bluetooth ,but it was not the end of the world as we know it.

As a tablet goes, it has pretty much everything that other tablets do.3G is facilitated through a dongle connected via the USB connector. It seems that it will even recognise a USB flash disk as well as a notebook hard drive through the USB port. Noting its ability to support USB devices, I decided to try a Bluetooth stick… which didn’t work.

(See the update at the end of this review) The version of Android it is reported to use is Honeycomb, yet it boots up saying that it is Gingerbread. Either way, it is old enough to not have support for USB devices other than memory sticks and 3G sticks. The OS cannot be upgraded ‘over the air’, so you’ll be stuck with the old OS.

It supports the use of an SD card which is great as it adds significantly to the 2GB storage of the device. I was using a 16GB micro SD card which gives a lot of space.

The front facing camera is obviously there for video self-imaging and Skype. I tried to take photos of other items with it, but that was next to impossible. The best way to do it would be to turn your back on the scene or subject and take the photo ‘over the shoulder’ as it were. No flash means having to rely on good lighting too!

I am by no means a fundi on android devices, but the Colpad II places the control icons at the base of the display for switching between apps, minimizing them and going back in the browser. Media volume controls are also there, as are the time, battery and WiFi controls. On the bottom edge of the unit are the connectivity ports for charger, PC (micro USB), USB and SD cards. I would have been extremely happy to see a Bluetooth symbol there.

Charging took a long time, particularly when doing it using the USB connection to the PC. The A/C adapter worked quicker, but still seemed to take a long time. Standby time when fully charged was pretty good and using the Colpad periodically during the day did not drain the power too much until the 3G dongle was connected. The power drained quite quickly then.

The Colpad has a 1.2GHz processor that is adequate for basic, single process activities. When using two apps that have activity (even if in background mode), usage becomes a little slow and even jerky at times.

Despite its limits, the Colpad 2 has the ability to do most things that are available in the Android marketplace. It is not a slick and flashy device that will be the envy of your friends, but it is low cost and functional. For students or people who don’t need the latest and greatest, the Colpad 2 is an ideal tablet.

UPDATE

The Colpad 2 when we received it was a little deceptive. It was running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) but was running a Launcher or Skin that emulated Android’s 3.0 or Honeycomb OS for tablets.

Before we returned the Colpad 2 we were told that there was now an update for it to Android 4.0, the much coveted Ice Cream Sandwich version of the Google OS. So for a week following the above review being done by my dad, I got to play with the Colpad 2 running the update. I have mixed feeling about it. The experience was more “True” if that makes sense. It is not an old OS trying to be something it is not. That said, the experience felt slower and a little more jerky. It is not a bad experience and is still better than some more expensive devices I have tried.

The challenge for the  Colpad 2 is going to come from the move Google have made by releasing the Nexus 7 tablet recently. With a much higher resolution display and quad-core processor at under $200 the competition in the Android tablet space is bound to heat up as the year draws to a close.

By: Chris Cunnington @flipsideza

Most people start by drooling over its screen, its design, and its camera!

Whatever, that’s the boring stuff you can naturally assume will be good… lets talk about the good stuff, the userbility, the functionality and the very sad fact that Vodacom clearly got their hands on it before I did and filled it with their shit!

So I am not new to Touchwiz, my 10.1 Tab also has the older generation of it and I love touchwiz! I am upgrading from an HTC Desire and do however miss some of the functionality that HTC Sense just does better! The best way I can think to do this is to make a bullet list, so here goes!

Con’s

Vodacom

- It would appear that Vodacom and Opera Mini are in bed with each other, as Opera comes pre-installed and is locked to such a point that I cannot uninstall it, best I could do is Disable it which is a pretty handy feature of Android

- The standard phone browser comes riddled with Vodacom Bookmarks, Vlive, Apps, Zoopy, Vodacom, etc! Don’t bother trying to delete them… it doesn’t let you!!

- Annoying Vodacom advertising at Startup and Shutdown

Samsung

- Samsung Kies (which you use for calender Widget) does not sync with Google Calender. It actually warns you when you open it for the first time! Uuuummmm, okay so what the hell is the point!!! Its a Google Phone, of course I am using Google Calenders! *facepalm* It suggests using ‘My Calender’ but a brief hunt around for ‘My Calender’ in the apps page revealed nothing… not even a better Calender Widget!

- The Samsung Keyboard has this weird bug… if you are in an Address Bar (Internet) and are busy trying to delete a whole long addy just to get to the base domain… it will happily delete one character at a time for ages… but just as you near the edge of the .com/ or the .co.za/ it jumps to the beginning deleting the entire address! *facepalm* now I have to type it all back in… basically what I was trying to avoid!

- Compass apps never work! North and South completly the wrong way round! Not even on my tablet… its like what ever Samsung use in their devices is shit!

- Now I am old school… I don’t like the QWERTY keypad on smartphones. I stick to the T9 style keypad, yet it would appear that the Samsung Keypad does not learn the words you use regularly, unless its doing it behind the scenes. I find this hard to believe considering user input through T9 does not allow you to type the exact word you want to use (so how would it store that word?) it needs an option to ‘add word to dictionary’

- The weather widget allows you to set it to show weather based on your ‘Current Location’ yet once set it assumes you are in that location for ever! It is not truly a ‘current location’ as with HTC Sense that constantly updates location & weather for the position!

Pro’s

- The HDR feature in the camera is Amazing and does a really good job at it too!

- S Voice is amazing!! Accessing Wolphram Alpha for data, etc! But come on… who honestly still uses SIRI, so who honestly will continue to use S Voice… its just a gimmick!

- I have the 32gb version… and upgrading from 60mb odd on my HTC to 25gb of usable data space for apps is heaven sent!

Thoughts

Lets talk battery! I am not crazy and turn off mobile data everytime I turn the screen off, I also do not leave things like WIFI and GPS enabled. That said as I write this now my phone tells me its been running for 1d 10h 51m and its now at 7% on a single charge! that has included me tweeting, surfing the web, snapping pics, making 3 phone calls and just general phone dabbling! So far, so good in my opinion!

The Touchwiz addon has some really cool features, putting the phone up to your ear automatically dials the person you are looking at! Double tapping the top of the phone will scroll Mail and Contact lists to the top… its little things like that, that smooth over the userbility of the phone!

I will probably add to this list as I go… its been 4days so far

Follow Chris

Twitter: @flipsideza

Blog: http://blog.cunnington.co.za/

FNB has lauched GeoPayments for cashless banking transactions and we were invited to a launch and demonstration of this new feature in FNB’s evergrowing list of  benefits to clients.

Read more about GeoPayments in the press release below

7 May 2012, Johannesburg – Today marks another first for FNB and digital banking with the Bank’s announcement of a new cashless payment option. GeoPayments is a new person-to-person (P2P) payment mechanism on the FNB Banking App.

This new functionality uses location based services to allow customers of the latest version of the FNB Banking App to locate other users, within close range, to make safe and secure cashless payments without the need of their bank account details.

“Since the launch of the FNB App, we have seen a remarkable uptake in this digital channel. One of the benefits of smartphone and tablet applications is the potential for effective use of location based technology. This latest innovation brings together location based technology and person-to-person payments. We believe that it will not only offer clients additional convenience, but also unlock strategic potential for cashless payments going forward,” says Michael Jordaan, CEO of FNB.

GeoPayments is available to both FNB and non FNB customers. FNB customers will have the benefit of being able to pay as well as receive payments. Non FNB customers will be able to download the App and receive GeoPayments into an eWallet, which can be created via the App.

“GeoPayments offers a quick, safe, easy and quick solution for making cashless payments and creates ease of use for customers who are now able to geo locate, and pay other App users, without having to add a recipient or withdraw cash,” says Farren Roper, Head of Products and Markets at FNB Connect, the area which built the Banking App and the new GeoPayments functionality.

FNB App users who use the GeoPayments functionality to pay other FNB App users will be identified to each other, with the payer and recipient ‘pairing’ their devices before a payment is made.

GeoPayments is available on the new version of the FNB Banking App for Apple, Android and BlackBerry devices.

Roper adds, “Location based Apps have proven to be very popular globally and are used largely for check-ins and rewards. The FNB App was initially launched with location based services for finding branches and ATM’s, but applying it to payments compliments the Bank’s digital strategy.”

The launch of GeoPayments is another bold move towards creating a new ecosystem for our customers to use our self-service and digital channels, whilst reducing the dependency on cash,” concludes Jordaan.

Further details:

• Apps with location based functionality include the likes of Facebook and Foursquare. No other South African bank has an app driven location based person-to-person payment solution. A global comparator would be the PayPal bump app.
• In order to make a GeoPayment, users need to be within a 500m radius of each other.
• A payer and recipient who select Geo Payment on the App will be required to select “Pay Someone” and “Receive a payment” simultaneously before the FNB App technology will identify the users to each other. The payer will not be required to enter the recipient’s name or bank account details.
• The Payer is required to enter a password in order to complete the payment.
• GeoPayments can be made pre or post login
• Transfers of cash are immediately available
• Non FNB customers who wish to receive a GeoPayment can download the FNB Banking App for free from the App stores. Upon download and selecting Geo Payments, once entering their cellphone number, an eWallet (electronic store of funds) will be automatically created for them into which they can receive a GeoPayment. Payments made to the eWallet can be withdrawn as cash.
• FNB Connect is the division of the bank responsible for the creation of the FNB App and is FNB’s own Internet Service Provider.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Samsung Africa Forum 2012. It was, for me, a rather enlightening experience. In my not so distant past is a brief one year history, working at one of the big electronic companies that compete with Samsung in the space of televisions, imaging, laptops, etc. Perhaps because of my time there, my perception of Samsung was tainted for the worse. I had been fed stories that perhaps served one purpose: to discourage my leaving to join the competition.

With this background, I was unsure of what to expect as I entered the press conference hall at the Cape Town International Convention Center. Decked out in lots of blue, the event was not simply a showcase of the products announced by Samsung at the massive CES (Consumer Electronic Show) event held in Vegas near the start of the year. Instead, Samsung Africa Forum also served to showcase the initiative Samsung have implemented to develop Africa and the innovations in products that are “Built For Africa”.

Now I love tech toys and I honestly would have thought that the areas of most interest for me at Samsung Africa Forum would have been the touch and play area with the new Galaxy Tab 2 range, or the latest Smart TV. Oddly, while it was great to get hands on with this, it was the information and demonstration of what Samsung is ‘doing’ in Africa that had me spellbound.

Perhaps in this article I can focus on this aspect before we talk about the toys.

10,000 Electrical Engineers in 4 Years

In his opening remarks, CEO and President of Samsung Africa, Mr KK Park said the following:

“At our very first Africa Forum, in 2010, I announced the plan to grow our business in Africa to $10 billion by 2015, as measured by the sales of our partners – and today, I am pleased to announce that we are well on track to meet this objective. This year; not only will we continue to maintain growth in key regions, but so too are focused on targeting growth of 100% in West, East and Southern Africa.”

“Over the next 3 – 4 years, this growth will be underpinned by a focus on 3 key premises; Built for Africa research and development, B2B and B2G partnerships supported by key CSR initiatives and of course, growing and strengthening our partner network across Africa to reach our core mission – to inspire the future of Africa!”

One of the initiatives that will be driving this forward is ‘The Samsung Engineering Academies for African students’. These academies are currently operating in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria. It was mentioned in the press event that Samsung aim to train 10,000 electrical engineers over the next 4 years as they develop more products that are “Built for Africa” with the vision that they are “Built in Africa by Africa”.

Let me put an interesting perspective on this for you. One that may illustrate just how big this is for Africa in not only building Samsung’s business in Africa, but developing the African economy and skills that will build a greater African continent. A continent that will have more people able to buy the currently “luxury” items that are made by Samsung.

In the biography “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson, one learns of a conversation that Steve Jobs had with American President, Barrack Obama. Jobs mentioned to President Obama that the reason Apple manufacture their products in China was due to the fact that Apple need some 30,000 electrical engineers to produce their products in a volume needed to even just meet the demand for their products globally. Now with that information, look at that Samsung figure again: 10,000 engineers in 4 years for Africa!

Solar Powered Internet Schools

Another way that Samsung aims to “Inspire Africa” is through their new Solar Powered Internet Schools. These schools are created using shipping containers. The container is equipped with solar panels and battery backup that can keep it going for 48 hours. In the front of the class is a 50-inch LCD panel that serves as a digital chalk board if you wish. The class is equipped with Tablets and/or netbooks, including the Classbook 100N.

Classbook 100N

This little Netbook is just one of the products that illustrate the “Built For Africa” concept on which Samsung is working. This 10-inch, sky blue machine has a built in carry handle and has been made to cater for the tougher environment, not only of Africa itself, but of being a school learner’s device. It weighs in at 1.3kg and can withstand a drop from up to 70cm. It has a 10 hour battery life and is also sealed against liquid spills of up to 200cc. The little machine will boot up in 30 seconds and can wake from hibernation in 2 secs.

Conclusion

All of these kinds of innovations and many more are what have me wondering if there are any other companies playing in the same space as Samsung that really see the potential that lies within Africa. The greatest way to make a sustainable business in this great continent is to invest in its people. Samsung seem to have caught, if not created, the greater vision.

We are here at the launch of the Samsung Africa Forum 2012. We will be updating you later with all the products being launched here and other news.

We only just became aware of the new online, Personal Finance Management service that is in Beta in South Africa called 22Seven and in minutes the warning (even attacks) by South African banks are flying. 22Seven is a service that would request permission to access your bank accounts (requiring you hand over your banking particulars) so as to show you where your money is going and how you might want to manage your finances better. Already you are likely very anxious about your account security aren’t you?

The matter of security of those details was just addressed by technology editor for FinWeek Simon Dingle (read it here). Within moments of reading his article we got a press release from FNB reminding people of the risk of handing over your account login details to a third party service provider. ABSA in a statement on their Facebook Page went so far as to call out 22Seven by name (check it here). ABSA further promised that they would be launching a similar service this year for their clients.

Now let me ask you, how does that benefit people with multiple accounts from different banks or with store cards from say Edgars or Woolworths? At the same time, in a country where banks have made headlines at least once a year for clients accounts being compromised 22Seven must surely have known that asking clients for the exact information that banks warn clients not to hand over (indeed spend a fair amount of money trying to educate consumers about) was going to cause a stir. It is an attack on the very culture the banks have been trying to cultivate of not handing over that sensitive information.

I must tend to agree with Simon though. Surely instead of trying to reinvent the wheel (creating your own similar service), banks in South African could sit down and work with 22Seven to create a way for their systems to be better integrated. Surely that is a better solutions than threatening clients with no recourse in the event of their account being compromised (even when it is not through use of the 22Seven service) because they handed over the information to 22Seven? Likewise 22Seven could only stand to gain by the better integration, of more users. Then again if I was a bank working with a service like this and my clients had an account with another bank whose fees where lower than mine and a service like 22Seven was comparing the costs in a single place for the client I might be a little worried of loosing some business. I am not sure that that is in their reasoning, but it is a thought. We will have to wait it out and see what happens in the coming weeks.