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Sharing thoughts and ideas on business, security and photographyFinally got my phone back from Vodacom… Thanks Helena and @UysPJ
Posted on August 03, 2011My ongoing saga with Vodacom with respect to my faulty phone is now (mostly) resolved. Thanks to Helena and @uyspj.
Background for those who missed it :
- Got a new HTC desire on contract during late May
- It worked for +- 10 days then died
- Took it back to Vodacare, they confirmed it was dead (at very least the battery was stone dead and couldn’t be “boosted”), I asked for replacement under CPA as I thought was my right, they said go back Vodashop
- Vodashop manager was extremely unhelpful, said CPA doesn’t apply to them, and they don’t represent Vodacom
- I left the phone at the shop (on the counter and walked out) after laying a complaint with Vodacare against the shop
- Same day I laid a complaint on Hello Peter
- Had various interactions with Vodacom people over two months, nothing useful – weeks would go by while they were “waiting for feedback” from someone else
I sent a twitter message to @uyspj (just one) who responded immediately. Thank you Pieter, I really do admire you for interacting with your clients and following through on your actions.
@uyspj had Helena call me the next day, she asked a whole lot of questions, I mailed through what I had and forwarded various SMS’s, Helena then followed up for me.
DStv USB Drifta Unboxed
Posted on July 29, 2011DStvs Public Relations company were kind enough to send me a USB Drifta to review. My love/hate relationship with DStv mobile is well documented on this site. I don’t hold back when they mess up, and try to be fair at other times. I am still “banned” on their DStv mobile forums. So kudos to the PR department for moving past all of that and sending through the device for review. After some delays to the courier (snow, roads closed between Jhb and Dbn) the device finally arrived. Below are the unboxing pictures. The detailed review will follow in due course (detailed review available, click here).
The parcel arrived from the courier double bagged and in a sealed envelope.
Inside the parcel was a personalised letter saying how the DStv mobile team would love me to try out the USB Drifta and providing instructions on whom to call to get it activated.
The box itself was tied up in cute red ribbons.
Kindle, eReaders and eBooks in South Africa – Frequently Asked Questions
Posted on July 21, 2011Many visitors to this site arrive through search queries. People looking for information about which Kindle to buy, where to get the Kindle in SA, features that work (or don’t) and similar. There are also many people looking for answers about eBooks.
Previous posts cover some of these answers. To make it easier to access this information from one place I have started a FAQ to deal with common questions and answers (and links to previous posts). This will grow over time. Enjoy, and feel free to post any further questions, I will answer as best I can.
The direct link to the FAQ is : http://j-j.co.za/ebooks-faq/ otherwise find it on the menu at the top of the page.
As predicted, new DSTV Mobile Decoder released (USB Device)
Posted on July 14, 2011As predicted back on the 4th June (based on firmware contained in the last Windows 1.3 client released), DSTV Mobile have now come out and announced the availability of a brand new decoder, known as the “Dstv Mobile USB Drifta” decoder.
This uses the same DVB-H functionality as the wifi drifta, it just comes in a much smaller an convenient package for those who don’t need to use WiFi connectivity (to iPhones/iPads/Ipod’s) and just want to use it with their PC’s.
The device plugs straight into the USB port, doesn’t need charging, pairing or any of the complications. It is claimed to be available now at a price of R399. Good deal if you are only ever wanting to use it with a laptop. The device is available on Kalahari.net already, with an 8 day delivery time. It may be coincidence or could explain the half price Drifta special that was available yesterday. They are back to full price today 
In addition to the new decoder, DStv mobile also announced the launch of the M-Net Series channel to the DStv mobile lineup. Im not sure which channel is to be dropped (since they claim to be using up all channels allocated to them by ICASA), but we shall see. Hopefully it is the full channel and not a gimped version full of week old repeats as Cartoon Network is.
Sadly there is still no news on the Blackberry or Android client software for the existing Drifta. Just how serious are DSTV about sorting out the problems with the existing product if they are launching new ones? Your guess is as good as mine.
The press release is available here on the www.dstv.com website.
I have updated the Drifta FAQ to include the new USB Drifta. Find it here.
Which Kindle to buy as a South African (updated May 2012)
Posted on June 30, 2011I have posted a few times in the last little while around my challenges in buying ebooks from Kalahari, then on converting ebooks for use on the Kindle, and more generally on buying ebooks in South Africa.
In response to one of these posts I received a question from Henriet van Rhyn, covering the most obvious question which I hadn’t covered : “Please advise which Kindle to buy, seeing that there are so many versions available on Amazon these days. ”
I answered in the the comments to the post where Henriet posted the question, and after some thought decided it makes more sense to convert this into a full blown post. So below I repeat what I had put into the comments, with a few minor adjustments and ammendments.
Looking at Amazon on 29 June 2011 (Updated 25 May 2012) (as a South African), there are 5 (were 3) different Kindles to choose from. I don’t bother listed local re-sellers as I haven’t found any of them to be competitive and Amazon just make it so easy to order from them.
- Kindle (WiFi) = $109 (6″ screen) (was $139)
- Kindle Touch (WiFi) = $139 (6″ screen) (newly available)
- Kindle Touch 3G = $189 (6″ screen) (newly available)
- Kindle Keyboard (3G+WiFi) = $189 (6″ screen) (unchanged price)
- Kindle DX (3G+WiFi) = $379 (9.7″ screen)
- Kindle Fire is still not available in South Africa
As a USA resident you would also have the option of buying an advert subsidised Kindle for $114. This model is pretty much the same as the WiFi version ($139) but with adverts displayed at various points. Since this is not an international version and can’t be purchased here in SA I don’t cover this any further.
Don’t get your hopes up, your mobile device probably won’t be supported by Drifta anyway
Posted on June 23, 2011A lot of people having been waiting in (vain) hope of being able to watch DSTV on their mobile phones (other than iPhones). Information and updates on progress on getting the promised clients for Nokia, Blackberry and Android has varied between slow and non-existent. The “promises” of 1 April 2011, 30 May 2011, Early 2011 etc have all been broken and no new real information or deadlines provided.
A user by the name of “eel” posted on the 13th June on the mybroadband.co.za forum (link here) : (slightly edited)
- There is an Android client in the works (no timeline yet)
- There is a blackberry client in the works ( no time line yet)
- There is a Nokia S60 version in the works (sooner than the other 2, but will only be ready when the coding is done). This version will utilise the Drifta with wifi support but the CPU needs to be above 700mhz.
I don’t know who “eel” is or how reliable his information is. However, if it is true, then it will come as a shock to many Nokia users, myself included. Very few Nokia’s run at a speed of 700mhz or above. In fact, I am not sure that ANY released before the Drifta itself was released in fact run at that speed.
The Nokia E71 runs at 381Mhz, the N95 at 330Mhz, the E72 runs at 600Mhz, N97 runs at 434Mhz. So speed requirement is true, then only Nokia S60 phones released in late 2010/2011 like the N8 and E7 (only 680Mhz) may well work with the Drifta.
So I don’t hold out much hope then as my E71 is well below the requirement. Wish they had just told me this long ago.
This also makes me worry about which Blackberry Devices will be compatible with the Drifta. The 8520 runs as 512Mhz, as does the 8900. The 9700,9780 and Torch all runs at 624Mhz. Maybe they will just be able to squeeze this to work? Still, most people have the 8520 so this doesn’t look promising.
A lot of the current Android devices run at 1Ghz or more, so it is far more likely that Android users will have a happier experience if the client gets released for them.
I wish DSTV would just come out and say what is planned. The waiting sucks when after the wait you still probably won’t be able to use the device you want when the clients eventually get released. Maybe that is the plan after all? If you wait long enough the devices people have will have caught up with the specifications you actually require but never told them? Too much conspiracy theory in there, but don’t say I never said it.
Converting your ebooks to read on your kindle
Posted on June 18, 2011Those who read my post from yesterday will know I was frustrated with the process for buying books on Kalahari.net and with the frustration of having to use their proprietary “Beta” software reader which would only work on my laptop but not on my Kindle. I wanted to read “Killing Kebble” on the kindle and couldn’t (Update 13 July, it’s now on Amazon). Here is how to do it.
I am a long time fan of Calibre as an “iTunes for Kindle” application that will manage your library of books and covert them into the required format for most devices you can think of. It also handles downloading of web sites and making them into “mini magazines” for you to read any place any time. Really great software.
How does this help?
Well when buying books from non-Amazon stores they could be delivered in a number of different formats. epub is a common format for online publishers. Just be careful though. Not all epubs (or ebooks) are created equal and many that you buy will have embedded DRM that stops you using them when where and as you please.
A case in point, ebooks from Kalahari.net and Exclusive books online make use of an Adobe DRM solution.
There is however a solution. Read the rest of this entry »
Pure Speculation : New DSTV Drifta decoder to be launched? #in
Posted on June 04, 2011Updates :
- The new version is released : As predicted, new DSTV Mobile Decoder released (USB Device)
- Unboxing of the new USB drifta
- Review to follow
A new version of the DSTV Drifta software was released recently (1.2.11). Doing some simple sleuthing around in the install reveals some potentially very interesting news. Is a Drifta2 about to be launched?
The following were the only files updated / added in the new installer:
1.2.11 vs 1.1.0
Existing files:
- Decoder.exe 2011/05/10 06:57 1 512KB
- infcopy.exe 2010/12/06 02:34 79KB
- tvnb.bin 2011/04/20 08:39 8 288KB
New files:
- IPSetup.exe 2011/03/18 06:21 58KB
- tvnb_usb.bin 2011/05/03 02:09 5 840KB
The really interesting bit is in the new tvnb_usb.bin file.
The tvnb_usb.bin has an interesting identification string “Drifta2(DVB-H) 2.1.277 2011/05/03-14:09:23 ” vs the older style tvnb.bin identification string “Tivit(DVB-H) 2.1.266 2011/04/20-17:03:51″.
Is this a hint at a new Drifta decoder to come?
Share your thoughts, on or off the record.
Struggles in getting Garmin Live traffic activated
Posted on April 14, 2011Update (16 May):
Today I received another email from Garmin. The online activation is working, no really, this time it really is. And low and behold, a visit to the site shows that indeed the under construction banner is gone and you can do an on-line something. I can’t test it since mine was manually activated a while back. Glad it’s finally working, really poor show Garmin in taking so long to get it sorted, but glad its finally done.
Update (26 April) :
I received a mail today from Peter Smith at Garmin today in reply to my very first website request to them for activation. In the mail he suggests that the online activation is (finally) working. I went back to garmap.co.za/traffic and found the same link to the same in under construction page. I mailed him back, he mailed back and suggested I shouldn’t go to that link. “Please go to www.garmap.co.za since that link you have does not work anymore . The webpage was redesigned . Go to products , Live Traffic and follow the pages”. I tried this and end up with the same page, tried refreshing, different browser etc. Not sure where the problem is or why Garmin thinks their new site is live when it isn’t. Anyhow, seems it is perhaps a bit closer to being live, though why they would mail customers to say its live when it isn’t is beyond me. Did let Peter know, as well as suggest that if they are replacing the garmap.co.za/traffic page the least they can do is put an automatic redirect in place as this is the page referenced on the hard copy product documentation in the retail channel. We await further progress.
Original post :
I had a break-in back in November and after lots of disputes with ABSA they finally paid out. I used some of that payout to replace my GPS and with my dislike of traffic and being stuck in it opted to get a Garmin with Traffic adapter. After some further delays the company nominated by the insurance assessor delivered the goods to me. This was around 6 weeks ago.
I unboxed all the goodies and tried plugging it in. The traffic adaptor was recognised by the Garmin and it said it had a USA subscription that would be activated when it picked up the signal. I scanned a few times, no luck, time to read the instructions. Eventually found them and saw that South Africa has it’s own unique activation method. Ok.
Off to the website as instructed (http://www.garmap.co.za/traffic/), clicked on the traffic activation link, only to find this wonderfully helpful (not) graphic :
Garmap - Under Construction
Read up some more, nothing of use, other than having a minor wobbly when reading on the site that the service is only available in Johannesburg, despite it being sold to me in Durban. Google then showed up press releases saying it was now active in Durban, clearly it was just the official website that was out of date.
An overlooked difference between iPad 1 and 2 (for us in SA anyway) #in
Posted on March 26, 2011After Cell C launched their really awesome speedstick/whoosh deal (R1000 for 2 gig of data for 12 months – 24 gig in total) way back when, I wondered why they didn’t bundle it up with the iPad and get some publicity for their really good data deals. It was only in the middle of Feb when Gus Silber (@gussilber) pointed out to me on Twitter that the iPad 1 isn’t compatible with the 900MHz UMTS 3G that the penny dropped.
Up to that point I had been eyeing out the iPad thinking I really would like to get one – and planning to pop one of those juicy Cell C data cards into it. Plan foiled. Drat. Suddenly the Samsung Galaxy Tablet looked a bit more appealing, and yes, perhaps I’ve been drinking some of that Apple coolaid, but I wasn’t much taken with that option.
Roll on the iPad 2.
With its improvements :
- Thinner (down from 13.4mm to 8.8mm)
- Lighter (WiFi + 3G version is down from 730g to 613g)
- Faster Processor (1GHz single-core A4 chip vs dual-core 1GHz A5 chip)
- Faster Graphics (Imagination Technologies’ PowerVR SGX 543MP – up to 9 times faster) (See www.anandtech.com)
Shiny new benefits :
- Front-facing VGA camera
- Rear-facing 720p camera
- Gyroscope
- Optional new case attached by magnets
- Optional HDMI output dongle
So far it all sounds dandy. Yeah, its smaller, faster, better makes coffee and puts hair on your chest. Lots to look at and smile about but nothing to make me reach into my wallet. To have such a toy and not be able to consume media with it just undermines the whole purpose. And yes, I could use WiFi in the house over the ADSL connection, but that isn’t the point.
Then while reading one of the reviews (Thanks ZDNet) came the shocker. While WiFi and Bluetooth remain the same (802.11 a/b/g/n and 2.1 + EDR respectively), the 3G radio has been upgraded.
Oh?
The original iPad featured EDGE plus triband HSPA while the iPad 2 features EDGE plus quadband UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz) and GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz) for the AT&T versions.
There is the magic number. 900 UMTS. We are in the game baby. This thing will work with Cell C’s 4gs (3.5G) service. Suddenly my key sticking point for not getting one of these is gone. And I want it. Now 
I am surprised this has been so under-reported here in SA. This really is a key change for us, and a game-changer for me. I wonder if the discounted prices currently available on the iPads will be carried over to the new iPads when they arrive on our shores? ? (They were touted as being the permanent new price rather than discounted price?) Wishful thinking I know, but one can dream. R5000 for the 3G 16 gig would be the sweet spot. Come on Digicape (http://www.digicape.co.za/ipad/ipad.html) make us smile.
Link to MyBroadband post on the same topic : link
Update : Thanks Dimitri for clearing up any confusion on this and confirming that the Cell C 3G service does indeed run at 3G (rather just Edge as some have reported) speeds on the iPad 2. Just beware of coverage in outlying areas. Still, at R86/month for 2gig of data per month for a year (paid as R1000 upfront), that is a really awesome data deal. A whole lot better (still) than any of the competition are offering. And since it is prepaid, no nasty bill shock as you can’t go over the monthly limit.
Update 2 : 8ta vs Cell C and my winner is ….
8ta have also launched their super-duper data deal. R199 a month (on 24 month contract – yuck) gives you 10 Gig of data goodness to use and abuse with your iPad. That’s a lot of data for not a huge payment. Personally, I’m sticking to Cell C for now. At R86/month (on the R1000 prepaid option) for 2 Gig, I pay around a third of the 8ta price and get 20% of the data. Yes R43/Gig is quite a bit more than R20/Gig. Compared to where we were a year ago, this is a buyers market. Try to take advantage of that without getting tied in too long.
Update 3 : The “new’ iPad is here, thoughts and comparisons with iPad 2 here.
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