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Sharing thoughts and ideas on business, security and photographyWhat are the differences between the iPad 2 and new iPad (for a South African)?
Posted on June 23, 2012A previous post of mine comparing the iPad and iPad 2 proved to be one of the most visited on the site with over 3500 people reading it. Since the new iPad (aka iPad 3) has been out for a little while now it made sense to do a follow-up.
When it was announced a big deal was made about the screen, and what an amazing screen it is. However that is not the only difference between the devices. As a very happy iPad 2 wi-fi+3G user I wasn’t going to upgrade, and kept telling myself I didn’t need to as there weren’t really any real differences. The chance came along to get a new iPad at a great price and I took it. Looking back, I didn’t realise all the difference between the two.
Below I explore many of those differences – component by component. Take a look at the bottom of the post for a line by line factual comparison to support the opinions presented. The information (in the table) is sourced from a number of websites. Source list with links below the table.
Migrating to Cell C from Vodacom, simple and painless
Posted on June 23, 2012
After 16 long years with Vodacom the time had come. After a number of battles (see here, here and here) trying to get them to respect me as their customer and comply with the Consumer Protection Act, the decision was made. Instead of righting their wrongs, Vodacom chose to let me cancel my contracts early (some 6 months after my CPA compliant against them). I jumped at the chance, done deal. Bye bye Vodacom.
The timing was good. Cell C had announced their 99cents prepaid option with a promise of decent contract rates to come , which have now been announced and are indeed good – for each rand you spend you get an anytime minute, a meg of data and an SMS.. I looked into how to make all this happen and found that it was not as difficult as one may imagine.
To avoid having to deal with call centres I chose to go into the Vodacom walk in customer centre in Gateway shopping centre. I explained what I wanted to the consultant and he suggested the best approach.
First thing needed was to convert my postpaid account into a prepaid account. He wanted a copy of my ID and proof of residence and within a few minutes it was done. All free minutes etc were lost in this process, but since I was leaving Vodacom I didn’t really mind.
Next stop, the Cell C shop. Again no major challenges this side. I purchased a starter pack (for 99c) and an airtime voucher (R70).
The agent then RICA’d my SIM after being supplied with the now standard ID and proof of residence. He then showed me the instructions on how to do the number port (printed on the back of the SIM pack).
Simple.
All I needed to do was to send an SMS from my old number and then the process would be started, and within 24hrs I would receive some confirmation SMSs and at that point insert my new Cell C SIM card, load my airtime and Bob’s your uncle.
First snag. I tried to send the SMS but it failed. No airtime on the Vodacom prepaid SIM. Damn, I should have seen that one coming. No problem, a few hours later bought R5 airtime at the local Spar and send the SMS.
Within a few minutes I had the reply telling me all was underway, and by the next morning there were more confirmation SMSs to tell me to go ahead and insert the new SIM. With the old SIM the phone was showing NO Service, so clearly had been deprovisioned.
I popped in the next SIM and it worked a treat. Cell C SMS’d me all the new settings needed for SMS, MMS etc, applied them and all was great.
After that it was just a matter of getting used to the new voice mail services, balance enquiry and the like. Everything is running just great now. Very happy to have moved.
Summary of Drifta compatibility : Which Drifta to get
Posted on June 23, 2012Now that there are 4 Drifta devices on the market it can be a little confusing as to which one to buy. The assumption often can be that each new one is better than the last, and this is definitely no the case. In truth, though each is slightly different in size and shape, they all provide the same functionality (mostly), same picture quality, and where they have a battery, similar battery life. The choice really comes down to which devices you want to use the Drifta with. The table below summarises this. Click on the device name for link to a full review.
| Walka | Drifta (WiFi) | USB Drifta | iDrifta | |
| Standalone | Yes | No | No | No |
| iPad/Phone/Touch*3 | No | Yes | No | Yes*3 |
| Windows PC | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Mac | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Blackberry | No | Partial*1 | No | No |
| Android | No | Yes*2 | No | No |
*1 There are limited devices which are supported by Blackberry and this support is Beta only. Be careful, newer Blackberry devices are not supported. (Link here to supported devices)
*2 Android support is also not universal, it is device specific. Many devices are supported but check before you buy. (Link here to supported devices)
*3 If your iDevice is jailbroken you will play Cat and Mouse with DSTV as by default the application won’t work. With a little help from a friend it will work on current versions (and some past versions) but going forward there are no guarantees it will work. (Link to jailbreak information here)
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