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What? Apple’s in the news for a change? Surely that can’t be so.
Believe it folks – it has been a whole 3 minutes since Apple last dominated the world’s technology news. Here’s the latest:
3 million iPads sold in less than 3 months
Despite numerous folks asking what exactly the point of Apple’s iPad is, fans have clearly found a need, nay a devotion, to the thing.
According to Mashable:
Apple has announced that it’s sold 3 million iPads -– less than three months since the device hit stores.
…
It would appear that iPad sales aren’t slowing down at all since launch – in fact, they might be accelerating. The company announced it had hit two million devices sold just 22 days ago, whereas it took the company 28 days to sell its first million devices, and another month to sell its second. With the device going on sale in more countries in July, those numbers could jump even faster.
Not too shabby. By the way, I see you still haven’t bought me one yet. What exactly is the delay? Maaitjie FAIL.
First iPhone 4 reviews coming in
According to Wired some tech journos managed to get their hands on the new iPhone 4, and their reviews are starting to come in. Here’s the crux of it:
The reviewers agreed that the iPhone 4’s hardware is state-of-the-art industrial design.
Detailed enough for you? Yes? No? Maybe?
Unfortunately the majority of the snippets deal more with moaning about America’s (apparently) rather rubbish AT&T network – seeing as the phone is locked to them, a la Vodacom here in South Africa, – and less about the phone itself.
Dear iPhone 4 reviewers cited in the article
There are other countries on the planet too. Yes, that is correct – Earth does not consist solely of the good ol’ US of A. Capeish? We want to know about the phone, not your FAIL networks.
The iPhone 4 goes on sale tomorrow (Thursday 24 June) in the US, the UK, France, Germany and Japan. And in South Africa? Who knows…
Just incidentally, I want one. In case you were wondering. So whenever you get around to buying me that iPad you promised, feel free to throw in an iPhone 4 for good measure. Thanks, you’re a legend!
As previously mentioned a few months back, those who purchased (& activated) Microsoft Office 2007 after 5 March 2010 are entitled to upgrade to the equivalent version of Microsoft Office 2010 for free.
Well, the upgrade became available yesterday, and I, ever the nerd, promptly went and got my paws on it. Will let you know if it’s any good within a few days. You do care, right?
What I can tell you right off the bat is that Microsoft has also officially released its own Office Web Apps – an online version of MS Office – in an attempt to thrash Google Docs at its own game. This in turn ties in quite nicely with the stand-alone version of Office, so I’ll be sure to give that a bash too. Time will tell if, for Microsoft, it’s a case of too little too late when it comes to online documents. I wouldn’t count on that though – despite valiant efforts by Google et al, at the end of the day Microsoft still owns your PC, you, your car and your goldfish.
Get your paws on the latest version too (assuming of course that you activated your copy of 2007 after 5 March…): http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/tech-guarantee/
Until now that is.
An enterprising site has released Phoneballs – that’s right, a silicone cover for your iPhone with ummm… balls.
According to the manufacturers site, the features are as follows:
- Provides a little something to tug on. We play with ‘em all the time.
- Protects your data port from dirt and dust, yet easy to tuck back when you need to connect
- Soft, grippy silicone case doesn’t add much bulk (well, other than those bulky balls!)
- If they get dirty, just wash those dirty, sticky little balls with a little soap and water, they will come clean. You had better believe it!
- iPhone NOT included – sigh… always need to spell this one out, don’t they? And all because some dick (oh very clever, given the context) will sue them when he opens the package (and again! Stu you’re brilliant!) and alas there is no iPhone included. What a tool! (okay, enough now.)
- Have fun while doing a good thing. Remember, 10% of what we make here goes to fight testicular cancer!
So as per the final point, it’s all for a good cause. Get your iPhone a set in either BlueBalls or PeachFuzz.
Classic! 10 points.
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Note - and this note applies to many US-based online sales websites: The site states that “Due to popular demand, we are looking into international shipping”. So it might be a bit of an issue to get them at the moment. I really don’t see what there is to ‘look into’. Phone DHL. Say “Hi Mr DHL. I’d like to send this parcel to South Africa. How much? Okay, here’s the money”. Sorted.
C’mon – it’s not that complicated people!
This site is ‘made’ using Google Chrome (or Mozilla Firefox when Chrome annoys me). Thus, it looks fine on Chrome (really? You sure about that?)
Occasionally I’m forced to check out how it looks on other browsers. Enter… Internet Explorer. What a piece of canine excrement that is! I intentionally left out which version of IE I’m referring to as the problem seems to apply at all of ‘em.
Widgets take on a life of their own – some are centred, some are left-aligned, whilst others can’t really seem to make up their minds on any given day.
HTML tags (and here I’m treading stomping on I-don’t-really-know-what-the-hell-I’m-doing territory) seem to do completely different things in IE vs all the others. Okay, so I may be over-exaggerating just a teensy bit here – spacing does completely different stuff. The rest, well that seems fine.
“And just what is your point, dear whiny blogger dude?” I hear you ask. Actually, I don’t hear anything – you don’t care, but I figured I’d put this out there anyway to excuse the sorry state of this site’s appearance in IE. And that, dear bored-of-crappy-posts-about-site-layout reader, is my point right there.
Clearly I am making all sorts of schoolboy errors, and I can practically hear all the seasoned programmers out there sigh into their coffee, but it’s far easier to occasionally post something like this than actually try to figure out what it is that I’m stuffing up in such a newbie fashion.
Fascinating?
Thought so.
So here it is, the official song of the 2010 FIFA World Cup – Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) by Shakira and featuring Freshlyground.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st2LAVY0aD4
This music video premiered in full 3D mere hours ago at the “3D World created by Sony” media event at Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton, at which yours truly was present.
Shakira. In 3D. On a big screen. Words cannot describe it…
And yes, it gets better – Shakira was there. In person. She’s kinda attractive, not so?
At the event we got to experience exactly what soccer in 3D is like, and let me tell you this: it truly is the future of television. This time the marketing folks are telling the truth – it really is as though you are literally ON the field. Sport was made to be viewed in 3D, trust me. Cheerleaders will undoubtedly look rather nice too…
I eagerly await the day I get to have my very own 3D Sony Bravia and get to watch 3D all day, every day. You’ll never see me out in public ever again!
So old Stevie announced yesterday that the new Apple iPhone 4 is on its way.
This is the point where I’m supposed to write paragraph after paragraph about its new/updated/awesome features, battery life, etc. Well guess what – every other site out there has already done so (and I’m feeling lazy), so ummm… here are some links where you can read all about the cool new gadget (be sure to come back here when you’re done though, aight? Aight.):
Right, so who’s buying me one? Yes?
Don’t all shout at once…
As reported here last week, Google Street View South Africa launched today. Naturally it took me all of 4 seconds to type in my address, and lo and behold, there was my house! How cool is that?
And of course there’s my brother’s car parked in the driveway. He’s clearly there to raid MY fridge and watch MY satellite television. Get a job!
Let’s all just try to ignore the Psychiatric Hospital marked on the little map in the corner though, okay? Running this site has not driven me completely batty. Yet. Of course it’s nice to know that if I ever do feel the need to skip up and down the road while wearing a tutu and hurling insults at random pot plants for their plot to enslave buttercups help is not too far away…
For those of you who have never used Street View before you can simply change the orientation by clicking the compass and literally follow the road along to see exactly where you need to be going, a la:
No more crappy cartoonish maps for me, no Sir!
Go try it out for yourself: http://maps.google.com/. Not all the major intersections and places you’d expect to be available appear to be so, but I assume it’ll get there eventually. I imaging that a feature like this is constantly being updated.
As reported here back in September last year, Google Street View is coming to SA. This was made startlingly apparent by the Street View Prius parked outside my house last year, clearly trying to snap pics of my Adonis physique in the buff to sell for millions to my legions of adoring female fans.
Well, Google has now announced that it will be officially available to the public on Tuesday next week – 8 June. Just in time for the World Cup. Included will be Street View images of Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban.
Further details will be available from then, so watch this space.
Enjoy your peace while it lasts – I’m sooooo gonna be checking up what you lot were doing when that car drove past your place last year. All together now: BUSTED!
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Go to the Google Street View site – here.
 Image Source: iGeek MultiChoice today announced a new HD-PVR, and it’s far cheaper than previous models!
Mere months after the launch of the long-awaited UEC HD-PVR a few months back, MultiChoice has finally offered the public the chance to get access to High Definition programming at a rather more affordable price, whilst maintaining the current 500GB Hard Disk Drive – 150 hours of regular programming, or 50 hours of HD programming viewers are used to.
Coming in at R1999 there is of course a price to pay for this discount on the HD-PVR 2P (who names these things anyway?): as opposed to the previous PVR’s abilities to watch 1 & record 2 channels simultaneously, the latest offering only allows one to watch 1, record 1. That’s fine by me – do you really need to record 2 channels at once? Really? Didn’t think so.
Besides, if you need to record Girls of the Playboy Mansion the cricket whilst watching/recording Midnight Hot on Fashion TV powerboat racing while the missus watches her kak quality emotional stories about grumpy women in sensible shoes all at the same time you can always link it up to other new-model decoders with DSTV’s Xtra-View system.
The other (temporary) loss is the newly-available (although only new to the HD-PVRs – old news for the SD-PVRs) Video On Demand service, however MultiChoice claims that this functionality will be added later this year via an over-the-air software update.
When can you get your hands on one? Right now. I phoned the DSTV call-centre and was told that they are already available in stores, but not at MultiChoice branches themselves. And they’re right about the stores – a phone call to Hi-Fi Corporation in Pretoria (Atterbury Value Mart) verified this – they had stock at the time of phoning.
UPDATE: Monday 31 May
Well wouldn’t you just know it? My old DSTV decoder died a gruesome technological death on Saturday afternoon – a mere 2 hours before the Super 14 Final kicked off. As you can imagine I was rather displeased! Anyway, long story short, I figured this was a sign – I’d been contemplating getting a PVR for quite a while, AND I’d recently written the above post… so off I scooted to Hi-Fi Corp to pick one up. Success. Works like a treat – none of the annoying issues that folks had been moaning about with the previous HD-PVRs, e.g. delays on menus and changing channels, etc.
UPDATE: Tuesday 13 July
Right, having used this PVR for just over seven weeks I figured I’d list the few faults I have come across. Head here to read about them.
Y’all may have noticed that I’m getting all techie-like these days – I kinda figured out how to add the much-discussed (really? Discussed by whom?) newly-released Facebook Like buttons. And by released I mean website owners can now freely obtain the code to implement it into their sites.
Do you care? You should: you’re about to start seeing lots more lines of “Frik von Knobknuckle likes Kosie’s ode to brandewyn” in the news feed of your Facebook page. So be warned.
And be warned about what YOU choose to click “like” on too: do you really want your nearest and dearest to know about your frankly rather worrying obsession with Dutch clogs and waffle irons, Freak-Boy?
The process was actually far simpler than I had originally expected (the Facebook code implementation, not the waffle iron) – as when it comes to the LAN-gamer-esque coding and programming side of things I tend to have a habit of breaking stuff. The old saying “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” springs to mind and should be rewritten in my honour: “if it ain’t broke invite Stu around. He’ll have it begging for mercy and wrapped around the neighbour’s tree within seconds while scientists the world over shake their heads in disbelief trying to figure how something so very very simple could be cocked-up so extravagantly and in such an original manner”.
“Hi Stu. Check out this new tech gadget I bought”
SMASH! CRASH! BAM! Tinkle.
“Well that’s proper f@cked now, isn’t it? Well done. Doos.”
But I digress – soooo anyway, each and every post now gives you the chance to add it to your Facebook news feed as something you like. And like it you do. You “can like to like it” if you will. In fact you smaak it stukkend. Even your girlfriend was making ogies at it. I should know. It was sooooo obvious. Slapper.
So click it. Go on: click click. Clickety clickety click click. Click.
Click.
Hi.
Click.
Psssst… click.
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