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Sharing thoughts and ideas on business, security and photographyThe Nespresso experience
Posted on December 29, 2011A month and a half ago I had the privilege of visiting Valencia, Spain. During the time there we drank a lot of coffee, and everywhere we went, including the hotel breakfast area, the places served Nespresso. The coffee had a nice frothy head and was consistently enjoyable. Some places had self-service and the machine was quick and easy to use. I decided I would get one. Conveniently there was a Nespresso shop located just behind the hotel so I popped over and bought some of the required coffee capsules. At this point I discovered that the “home use” capsules were little cup-shaped ones and different from the flat industrial ones. The sales person assured me the taste would be the same as all Nespresso machines used the same high pressure 19-bar pressure pump to produce the required high quality coffee experience. I purchased my first 6 strips (of 10 capsules each) of Nespresso coffee – having now bought into the programme.
When I got back to SA I went to my local shopping centre (Pavilion) and checked out all the options. I found the same pricing across all the stores, and although I could have saved a few hundred rand having it shipped from Amazon (UK )I was too impatient to wait. After trawling the mall between the various stores trying to figure out which was the right one for me, I finally bought the CitiZ (with Milk) from a very helpful sales lady at Boardmans (the only shop with someone who knew their product).
With the machine came a R350 voucher to be used for the purchase of coffee pods. Marvelous, well, except that they had no vouchers, but confirmed a few days later per telephone that I just needed to take my till slip down to Springfield (no address provided) and they would give me the voucher and let me buy some coffee.
Since I had the coffee I bought in Spain and the machine came with a starter pack (one capsule each of the 16 flavours in the range) it wasn’t too much of a problem.
Early last week I was finally in Durban on a “working day” so I decided to try to find the Durban supplier. It wasn’t listed on the www.nespresso.co.za website at all, only addresses for Cape Town (at the Waterfront) and Johannesburg were supplied.
I tried calling them a few times (found the number on Google), only to get a recorded message suggesting I call Jhb. So I took a chance and headed down to what I though was the address (Google again) :
7 Springfield Ind Pk, 7 Willowfield Cres, Springfield Park, Durban (wrong)
I got there, no luck and no sign of the place. The security guard at the gate didn’t have a clue who or what Nespresso was. I sat in the car in the visitors parking and googled again. A few more addresses came up but none turned out to be correct :
Unit 28 Springfield Ind Pk 7 Willowfield Cres Springfield Park Durban (wrong)
13 Springfield Industrial Park, 9 Mahoganyfield , Springfield Park, Durban (wrong)
Taking a chance I put Nespresso into the TomTom. Big thumbs up to TomTom, they got me to the place.
Real Address : Unit 28 Springfield Industrial Park, 9 Mahogany Way, Springfield Park, Durban
When I eventually got there, the staff were friendly and helpful. I filled in two sets of forms, they then produced the magical voucher, took my order, which ended up being 10 strips at a total of R576 (Average of R5.76 per cup), less the R350 voucher for a pay in of R226. I was happy with my haul and we have been enjoying the coffee ever since.
By way of comparison, I bought my first 6 strips of capsules in Valencia, Spain, at 3.55 euros each. At an exchange rate of R11/Euro that works out at R39 a strip (R3.90 a cup), so we are paying a premium of 36% here in South Africa. Could be worse I guess, but makes me wish I had bought more over there.
The machine itself, I bought the CitiZ&Milk (the left one in the pictures above) which according to the detail on the European site seems to be made by DeLonghi (it has the pipe-like spout rather than the tear drop one). It works really well, the milk frother is great, though a bit of a pain to clean.
I am delighted with this coffee machine, the simplicity and consistency is just great, and each time I have a cup I am reminded of my time in Spain.
I know a lot of people have said that Nespresso is over priced, and that I could have bought a machine, which freshly grinds the coffee from the bean for each cup, for only a little more than the price of the Nespresso machine. Such a machine uses coffee beans which work out lass than half the price per cup. I looked (briefly) at that option. The machines had too many settings, buttons, nozzles etc (for me). The R5,70 odd per cup of Nespresso isn’t cheap but is a whole lot less than having coffee out at the local coffee shops, is just as nice, and I get to have it while waking up.
The Nespresso machine is great because it simply just works. You can’t really get it wrong and you consistently get that great cup of coffee. I am very happy with it and my guests have been too. It is really quick to make a cup of coffee, taking a minute or less to warm up from a cold start, and each cup you make thereafter takes only a few seconds. No mess, no fuss and easy to keep clean.
I am sold on the Nespresso experience and would recommend it to anyone.
Table of comparative pricing information (Europe to SA) below :
Skyrim install, Steam making you Steam?
Posted on December 28, 2011I bought a copy of Skyrim after reading about how great it was, man, what a mission to install it. It wants an internet connection, no problem. Insert the DVD, it wants the unique code, sure. Type it in, steam isn’t available, sorry you can’t install. WTF?
Try again, now, it tells me that this title is already installed against my steam account. WTF? Log into steam, and sure enough, there is Skyrim. Ok, try install again. Now, it won’t install from the DVD, and wants to download all 4+ Gig of the install. That really sucks.
Google it, there is a solution, and here it is
- Log in to Steam and click on Library.
- Right-click on the game, select Delete local content, and confirm.
- Insert the DVD into your computer.
- Close Steam (Steam > Exit).
- Go the command line (Press Windows Key + enter cmd.exe)
- In the command window type: “C:\Program Files\Steam\Steam.exe” -install E:
With that last command, make sure you use the correct path to your steam install, and that you replace E: with whatever your DVD drive letter is. Works a charm and saves a massive download. Enjoy the game.
Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Posted on December 25, 2011Merry Christmas all. Hope you all had a great year and will have an even better one next year.
Thanks for supporting my blog and helping to get it the regular readership we have now.
Life in the traffic (with TomTom)
Posted on December 10, 2011I travel frequently, so drive a lot in the major Metro areas, primarily in and around Durban, Johannesburg/Midrand/Pretoria and Cape Town. The last few months I have spent in Johannesburg, and have had the privilege of using a TomTom with GoLive HD traffic enabled.
The GoLive HD traffic service isn’t perfect. In fact, it has many flaws and I lose count of the number of times that I find myself crawling along while the device shows no traffic on my route. Regularly I would climb into the car, program in my route and find it clear, then be stuck in some kind of snarlup with no warning, making a mockery of the “estimated time of arrival”.
That said, there were a number of times when it did warn me well in advance of traffic problems, sometimes asking to re-route me around the problem, others giving me details of the estimated delay but indicating that alternate routes would be no quicker. At the time of some of the (in)famous Julius march from Johannesburg (halfway) to Pretoria I was in Bryanston needing to travel to the Carlton Centre. The TomTom warned me of road closures and routed me right around them. I was very grateful not to be caught up in all the activities.
Somehow, over the 5 or so months of using this service, the accuracy seemed to improve. Estimated arrival times seemed to get more accurate, and multiple problems en-route were detected.
I am using the TomTom GoLive 1000. This device is slimmer and lighter than the first device I had borrowed (Go Live 650), and the touch screen seemed a bit more sensitive. This isn’t a review of either though, but none the less, just to say the traffic service of both seemed the same and worked well.
The only catch is that you always need to let the device know where you are going so it knows the route. Once you are travelling between common places (work, home, OR Tambo, hotels etc) you can save them all as favourites and then on startup just select your destination. Quick, easy and well designed.
I read recently that TomTom is struggling, laying off a lot of people, and moving out of the personal navigation device market. This is really unfortunate, and I hope it doesn’t stop the development of the Traffic HD service.
The service comes for 1 year free when you buy an enabled device and then costs around R400/year thereafter. For just over R1/day I think once you start using it, it pays for itself in reduced frustration levels and time savings. TomTom have a winner here.
In conclusion, the fact that, despite knowing where I am going and not needing directions, every morning I diligently plug in the device and select a destination just to get the traffic information and route redirections, speaks volumes for how dependent I have become on a somewhat imperfect service, but one that is oh so much better than the alternates. Thinking of getting a GPS, choose one with traffic, you won’t regret it. The Go Live 1000 is around R3000 at Cape Union Mart and R2800 at Kalahari.net. I got mine from Cape Union as I wanted it on the day and they gave great service in store (Canal Walk).
P.S. I had a Garmin for a while, the traffic options works, but it isn’t as good as the TomTom, particularly in SA. The top end Garmin device seems better specc’ed and all around nicer than the TomTom, but for the traffic alone I went with TomTom. Some bad experiences with Garmin SA support in getting the traffic service activated also turned me off them a bit.
Updates to the “Unofficial DStv Drifta FAQ”
Posted on November 26, 2011There has been quite a bit of Drifta related news over the last while so I have added more questions and updated sections of the FAQ. The main changes have been :
- Blackberry availability
- Mac OS X availability
- Updates to Android compatibility list
- Walka handheld TV
DStv mobile streaming solution for MTN users (better than previous Vodacom one)
Posted on November 16, 2011Yesterday I received a press release from DStv Mobile about a new partnership with MTN to launch a 3G streaming Mobile TV Service. At first I wasn’t very excited about this, they have a similar product with Vodacom, which at first sounded interesting but was hamstrung by a ridiculous acceptable usage agreement which restricts you to 45 minutes per week (180 per month). That doesn’t even get you through a single T20 game, and hardly through two rugby matches. Crazy indeed.
On receiving the press release I immediately fired off a mail to Maiyo checking what the acceptable use of the new solution was. If it was the same (or similar) to the Vodacom one I wasn’t going to bother posting about it as it wouldn’t in my opinion be worth the subscription.
I am very happy to say that the response is a very positive one, no bandwidth / usage restrictions. You will use your own bandwidth to browse to the MTN Play website and get the video stream running, but you won’t pay for or be restricted in usage of the video stream itself. What a different that makes. For those who don’t want to buy a DStv Drifta, or have the hassle of carrying a second device (or don’t have client software available for their device) this is a really viable alternate. Well done to MTN and DStv mobile for improving significantly on the Vodacom offering.
I haven’t tested the service so can’t tell you how well it works, but based on the information provided it does look good. The FAQ on the DStv web site (link here) claims the service will work on most 2.5G or 3G cell phones (however it doesn’t work on the iPhone or a device only using the Opera Mini web browser). Still, that includes more devices than it excludes.
Press release below :
Temporary mobile internet access in Spain (Valencia)
Posted on November 10, 2011Getting access to the Internet when travelling can sometimes be easy ( when the hotels provide free wifi) and other times prove to be tricky and expensive, especially when using roaming access from your cell phone.
Ahead of the current trip to Valencia, Spain I did some research and found a few options for prepaid 3G access. All the cell providers had options, including Vodafone and Yoigo.
In practice life was not so easy, the language barrier and shop assistants who were not into playing charades left me without access after going into numerous shops.
Finally I came across some websites who suggested Carrefour. I headed across to the closest one (near the city of arts and sciences) found a slightly more helpful assistant and picked up a Carrefour Movil prepaid Internet sim for 5 euros. They accepted my South African drivers license as ID since my passport was at the hotel. The SIM has no credit preloaded, so I loaded on another 10 euro. This gives 100 meg of data a day for 1 euro a day, and uncapped 128k speeds after the 100 meg.
At first the SIM didn’t work, but after manually creating an APN with “carrefourinternet” as the APN and all worked great. Mobile hotspot on Android 2.2 meant access could be shared between the iPad Laptop and other mobile devices. 100 meg gets used up quickly but the uncapped 128k works well enough and we are getting through about 250meg a day. For 1 euro that’s a bargain and much better value than the 20 euro a day fee at the hotel (only HTTP browsing is free).
Whenever travelling, try get a local prepaid SIM, you will certainly save yourself a packet.
DStv Mobile Channels adjusted, premium package added
Posted on November 08, 2011I was sent a press release from DStv mobile today around some changes to their channels and packages. They have split the channels into three packages:
- Free : E! Entertainment, Channel O, SuperSport Blitz, The eNews Channel, CNNi
- R36/Month : SuperSport 1,2,3,4, AfricaMagic, M-Net Series, SONYMax, Cartoon Network, Discovery
- Premium : M-Net Mobile (Available only to DStv Premium subscribers at no subscription cost)
So the net effect is that Discovery has been added for all existing (R36/month) subscribers, and if you are a DStv Premium (R600+/month) subscriber you can now also have the new M-Net Mobile on your Drifta for free.
The M-Net mobile should be almost the same as the M-Net channel (except there will be no movies?), and will be available from 2pm to around 10:30pm each day.
There is no indication of whether M-Net Mobile will be available to non-premium subscribers for an extra fee at some stage.
The full press release is included below :
A new addition to the DStv Mobile lineup – the Walka Handheld TV
Posted on November 06, 2011Press release as received from DStv Mobile, I have not seen the device in person nor do I have any details other than what is below. It does however sound like a good product for those who don’t have a supported device. Sports lovers can rejoice with this nifty new device if it provides a decent picture (3.5″ is a bit small, but given the transmission resolution this should be ok) and has reasonable battery life. If anyone gets some hands on time with one, please send through your thoughts. This device could be great for those wanting a hassle free experience.
DStv Mobile unveils the Walka Handheld TV
Another innovative product is about to be released by DStv Mobile. The Walka Handheld TV is a slim, lightweight device with a 3.5” viewing screen providing digital visual and audio quality. Its introduction gives DStv Mobile subscribers even more ways to access mobile TV on the go, anywhere, anytime.
“We are proud to introduce South Africans to the Walka device which is designed to further enrich the mobile TV viewing experience” explains Mark Rayner General Manager DStv Mobile, “It’s a must have, mobile TV viewing can begin the moment you switch it on.”
Previously released devices; the Drifta and the Drifta USB; give access to mobile TV across a wide range of devices such as PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones. This is done through pairing the viewing device with the Drifta or connecting the Drifta USB. The Walka is a portable TV with no other devices required to view.
After activating the Walka through the MultiChoice call centre it connects to the DStv Mobile DVB-H broadcast signal, giving access to 16 great DStv channels in the genres of sport, music, news, cartoons and general entertainment. The content line-up includes the two brand new channels that were recently added; magical channel M-Net Mobile and the informative Discovery channel.
The same great channels are available across all DStv Mobile capable devices for the same subscription of R36 per month. DStv Premium subscribers pay no subscription to access DStv Mobile.
“Our research has shown that there is interest in a dedicated mobile TV viewing device to ease accessibility and improve usability of the mobile TV service. We anticipate that the Walka will be well received by the market and hope our subscribers find it as another useful way to stay in touch with DStv channels.” said Rayner.
The Walka will be the third device (after the Drifta and the Drifta USB) to be released by DStv Mobile since commercial launch in November 2010. The device will be available at MultiChoice centres and select retail outlets from 1 December 2011 at the recommended retail price of R649.
DStv Mobile coverage is available in the 9 major cities of South Africa. For network coverage, and further information visitwww.dstvmobile.com.
Issued by:
Maiyo Simapungula
Public Relations and Communications Manager
DStv Mobile
Maiyo.simapungula@dstvmobile.
Tel: 011 289 4214
Cell: 084 824 7757
Blackberry Bold 9900 – Welcome back old friend
Posted on October 17, 2011In February of this year my trusty old Blackberry 9000 died a sad and final death. The inhouse IT department couldn’t do anything with it, the blinking lights suggested the motherboard was friend and the external repair party wanted R600 to look at it. They also admitted that if it was motherboard it was uneconomical to repair. Eish. With 6 months to go to renewal the device was temporarily replaced by the 8520.
An aside on the 8520, there is very little that the top models can do that the bottom don’t. Sure, the screen isn’t as nice, the keys are smaller, it doesn’t have GPS. It does do twitter, bbm, mail, browsing, Kindle, mxit, whatsapp, and pretty much everything a smart phone should, a little slower yes, but it does work.
After 6 months of the 8520 the upgrade finally happened. Choice 9780 with no pay in, or the 9900 with a R1000 paying. Newer OS, touch screen, bigger keyboard, sold on the 9900.
The most immediate feeling on unboxing and typing in a few setup details, welcome back old friend. My I have missed the keyboard. Blackberry bold 9000 had the best keyboard on a mobile device, ever. The 9900 is the true successor to the 9000. The others were just pretenders.
The new OS is pretty. Still not up to iOS or Android, but is still Blackberry and is an improvement
The new browser is much quicker, renders better, and nicer to use. Big plus here.
The keyboard is great (as above).
The touchscreen. Its there. I use it from time to time. It works well and is unobtrusive. Sometimes navigating is a whole lot quicker touching a few icons, othertimes scroll pad and keys are the thing. You definitely get the best of both worlds, I like.
The trackpad replaces the old track ball. The only thing I disliked about the Bold 9000. It used to get dirty quickly, then get stick and partially work. Ugh. Replaced it after a year, that worked better for 6 months. The trackpad avoids all of that. No moving parts, nothing to get dirty inside. The 8520 had the same and it worked well. Only problem, with my big thumbs from time to time I catch the bottom of the touch screen when scrolling and the cursor jumps. Long term problem or more care needed I’m not sure. Maybe a software fix that disables touch screen while you are scrolling.
I loaded my normal set of applications. Twitter BBM facebook all preloaded just needed updates. Blackberry Travel, Google Sync, Word Press all work great.
Amazon Kindle. Does not work, won’t load as it isn’t compatible. Damn. There has been much talk of the Blackberry platform dying. Amazon doesn’t support the flagship device with the new OS. That is sad, and perhaps an indication of developers abandoning the platform. I hope not, and that Amazon prove me wrong, but in the meantime no catching up with those few pages of my latest novel while standing in the queue at the airport, shopping centre or other stolen moments.
Lastly, Google Sync. As the owner of any smart phone do yourself a favour, install this product. It backs up your contacts and calender to the cloud and synchronises it between devices. My Blackberry, Nokia E71 and Android HTC Desire all share a common address book which is also available in Gmail. Perfect. Get a new device, plug in the credentials your address book is there waiting for you. Perfect use of the cloud, just love it.
Battery life is adequate, seems better than the HTC Desire and the 8520, not up to the levels of the E71 (which I hardly use for online access anymore) but for a fully featured smartphone the 9900 seems to have more than decent battery life.
The device is thin and sleek, wide to allow for the screen and the bigger keyboard, not bulky to worry me in my pocket. The build quality seems solid and has a nice sturdy weight and build to it. Not heavy.
In conclusion, yes, iPhone and Galaxy S II are better, but if you want BBM and mail and uncapped internet and a device which just works, or your organisation says Blackberry is your only choice then this device is a really good choice. Loving it.
(Pictures to be added)
** review typed while waiting in the boarding queue, this keyboard really works well 
iPad apps I have bought – October 2011
Posted on October 15, 2011There are thousands of iPad applications. Having had my iPad 2 for only a few weeks and not wanting to spend a whole lot of cash on apps I may not use or really need I have been a bit circumspect when coming around to shelling out for them. Below is a list of apps I have paid for and very brief note on what each does :
- Numbers (Spreadsheet), V1.4, Developer:Apple $9.99
- Apple’s spreadsheet program, easy to use, clean interface, so far seems pretty and useful
- Keynote (Presentations), V1.4, Developer:Apple $9.99
- Apple’s presentations program, easy to use, clean interface, so far seems pretty and useful. Haven’t used it a whole lot yet but plan to once I have the video out cable.
- Pages (Word Processor), V1.4, Developer:Apple $9.99
- Apple’s spreadsheet program, easy to use, clean interface, so far seems pretty and useful. The clean interface and crisp look to it reminds me a lot of Impression from the Acorn RiscOS days.
- iThoughtsHD (mindmapping), Developer: Craig Scottv2.4 $9.99
- Mind maps are an essential part of my daily activities, need them to organise my ADHD thoughts. This one is compatible with FreeMind v0.9 which is free software I use a lot on my PC.
- Penultimate (Note pad software), v3.2, Developer: Cocoa Box Design LLC $1.99
- Recommended by a number of colleagues, played with it briefly, seems good to take notes, make little sketches. Export in many formats.
- Data Usage (Data usage monitor), v4.1, Developer: Kartik Patel $0.99
- Keep track of how much of my monthly 2 gig I have used. Don’t want to run out half way through the month.
- TuneIn Radio Pro (Streaming radio player/recorder), V2.1, Developer: Synsion Radio Technologies, $0.99
- Great to listen to, timeshift and record streaming radio stations. Includes 5fm, ECR and Radio 2000 (and 6 other local stations) as well as thousands of international ones.
Must have iPad applications : radio : TuneIn Radio
Posted on October 15, 2011TuneIn Radio (by Synsion Radio Technologies) is great internet radio streaming application, has many stations, including nine local stations, with 5fm ECR and Radio 2000 amongst them.
The app does what it needs to, and well. It has the schedules so you can see what’s on and what programming is coming up next. When music is playing it displays the details of the song and artist when available.
A key feature is the time shift recording, the applications keeps recording as you are listening so you can pause and rewind if you miss something and fast forward to get back live. This feature works well. If you pay for the pro version you get to save recordings instead of just doing time shift.
I have mostly used the application to listen to sport. Once your channel is selected and you are listening can switch to another application and keep listening. The multi tasking is a real boon, unlike the DStv drifta application which doesn’t multi task and dies as soon as you switch away. A real pain if you are wanting to check something on the net while listening to the game.
The professional version is just $0.99 and allows you to save the recordings. A worthwhile addition.
Download it here (iTunes SA) or here (iTunes USA).
Last chance to get your Cell C 3G prepaid bundle at a good price
Posted on October 12, 2011When Cell C launched their 3G network last year they had some awesome “launch specials” the best 2 of which I considered to be the 2 gig and 5 gig specials. As a reminder, you pay either R1000 or R2000 upfront and then get either 2 gig a month or 5 gig a month, every month for the next year.
I purchased a 2 gig sim for my laptop last year, it expires this month. I have also put one into an Android phone, and into my iPad. Do the maths, that’s 6 gig of mobile data across 3 devices for about R250 per month. No other service provider comes close (yes 8ta does have their contract option R199 a month for 10 gig a month, also a great deal, just can’t split that easily over my devices). I have recommended this Cell C deal to friends, family and the like over the last year and all have been delighted.
Those introductory special offers now come to and end in the next few days, the price goes up significantly as at the 1 November, but the current deals won’t be available after the weekend. So look air it carefully, if your current sim expires in the next month or 3, it will be worth getting another now, or if you are in the market for a new data hungry device (tablet, iPhone, android device) do yourself a favor and get one now.
Once you have made the decision don’t forget your Rica documents and then be prepared to have a little patience, these babies are hard to find. Phone a few Cell C shops and track them down.
Yesterday I spent an hour in the Cell C shop in Carlton, they were so helpful. They had one left in stock, did the sim swap to microsim for the iPad for free, and hunted down a second one. They phoned about five or six other shops to find it, and then did a sim swap from that shop to theirnso I wouldn’t have to go anywhere else, this was customer service above and beyond, they delighted me and deserve much credit for doing good for their brand.
Good luck in hunting down your deals, it is worth it and you won’t be sorry. If you get some spotty cell c coverage, just remember what you would be paying for that same data on Vodacom or MTN, and remember they have their fair share of problems.
Your favourite iPad applications, please share
Posted on October 06, 2011I have finally succumbed to the temptation and acquired a new iPad 2, 32 gig 3G version. There are so many applications for the device, although the SA app store is really lame. Within all of 3 hours I was ready to jailbreak my device, until I had a USA iTunes account set up and the world opened up. I hear that the Kenya app store (yes Kenya) has benefits. All of the apps (though not the music) is available and you can use your South African credit card. Another post on that soon.
In the meantime, please share details of your favourite applications. I am looking to put a post together so look forward to hearing from you to make that a more interesting post.
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