j-j.co.za
Sharing thoughts and ideas on business, security and photographyNokia music : when things go wrong #fail (updated : Resolved)
Posted on January 01, 2013For a long time in SA we didn’t have any real choice if we wanted to buy music online. iTunes didn’t support us, the other stores wanted to sell DRM’ed music, the methods to download the music were painful and it really wasn’t much cheaper than getting the physical CD’s instore. Then I found Nokia Music (OVI store). They supported South African musicians, have a decent selection of artists and albums, are reasonably priced and provide further discounts for buying credit up front. Albums average between R60 and R100 each (and often it is the newer ones at R60). Songs between R6 and R10 each. Buy R500 of credit and get R600. So you could get between 6 and 10 albums for R500. Thats good value.
To download your music though you have to use the clunky Nokia Music Player. Worse than iTunes and I never use it for anything other than downloading my music. The problem with it is that it queues your songs for download but they regularly fail. Then it is a manual process of logging onto the website and getting the missing tracks individually. With the Lumia 800 things improved a little (or so I thought). You could now download the albums directly to the phone over wi-fi, no PC needed.
In the meantime iTunes started selling music in SA. I bought a Freshly Ground album for R60 but the rest of their music seemed expensive, sometimes as much as twice the price of Nokia Music (Rihanna Unapologetic Delux R60 vs over R120). I thought I would stay with Nokia music and put up with the hassles. iTunes really worked better, faster, simpler. But we all have our price.
Then it all went wrong. (Although @NokiaRSA did fix it in the end : See update at end)
Working with CSV files on the Bold 9900
Posted on October 13, 2012Recently with the implementation of a Security Information and Event Monitoring (SIEM) tool in our organisation I have started receiving a number automated reports on a daily basis. A number of these are useful to me as Key Performance Indicators of security status of the organisation.
When these arrive on my Blackberry I need a way of having a quick look to see if there are any immediate problems to deal with. Unfortunately my Blackberry 9900 running OS 7.1 with the full Documents to Go still can’t open CSV files.
Enter CSV Table Pro.
This is a basic little tool. It let’s you create, view or work with CSV files. While it is a little rough around the edges it is cheaply priced and achieves the desired outcome.
Once installed you can click directly on the CSV from your mail, it will download and then the application will spawn. I found that it then tends to switch immediately back to the mail application and I had to manually switch to CSV Table Pro using Alt Backarrow.
Problem solved. Enjoy
(I had wanted to add a screenshot but my Blackberry security policy prevents screenshots)
Posted from WordPress for BlackBerry.
Hands on with the Blackberry 10 that is coming early next year (Febuary 2013)
Posted on September 22, 2012Last week I was invited to attend a Blackberry function for a “key few” top clients in the country. I accepted reluctantly as others from my employer couldn’t make the event. I guess I had written off Blackberry and on the day of the event our organisation announced that employees for the first time had the choice of getting iPhone’s or Galaxy SIII’s instead of Blackberries.
I have been using a Blackberry for almost as far back as I can remember, for probably the last 10 years at least. The first was a rather clunky device with a physical scroll wheel on the side, a version 7200 or something like that. Since then I have been through many versions, from the diminutive phone-like Pearl through two version of the Bold (9000 and 9900) with an 8520 for a 4 month period in-between the last two.
Blackberry has always served me well when it came to “business” functions like email, contacts and calendar. Over the last 3 years it has also significantly improved in the “social” area as BBM took off like wildfire to replace the increasingly unstable MXIT and as Twitter and Facebook were integrated. Even as I have carried an iPad and various Nokia and Windows phones the Blackberry was still my favourite twitter client as it worked so much better in low signal and erratic signal areas.
In the last 6 months Blackberry has been in a lot of trouble per the global press. The devices were no longer cool, the network had it’s fair share of problems, the Blackberry 10 was delayed. The Playbook tablet was released prematurely with buggy feature deprived software, and looked clunky in comparison to the iPad and Galaxy tablets.
On the way to the event I even tweeted out to my few hundred followers that I was going to this event, using what I though would be my last Blackberry.
The event was at the DaVinci in Sandton. Nice venue. It was in the evening and started a little late. A simple affair, some cocktail tables set up in a room with food and drinks being served. The event started a little late as the key guests were delayed at their previous engagement. The opportunity was taken to catch up with some old acquaintances and make a few more. The mood was a little downbeat with people just wanting to get home.
The entourage arrived. The global executive team. Thorsten Heins (President and CEO), Frank Boulben (Chief Marketing Officer), Carlo Chiarello (Executive Vice President), supported by the South African team, including newly appointed Southern Africa CEO Alexandra Zagury.
Frank came across to our table, introduced himself, pulled a Blackberry 10 all touch device out of his pocket and without much fanfare proceeded to give us a very hands on half hour demo of the device and what it can do. This was so much more effective than any Powerpoint video or presentation and was a masterstroke.
Last gripe against Vodacom (overbilling)
Posted on July 14, 2012I have moaned enough about Vodacom on here, and my last post was around my happy and seamless migration from Vodacom to Cell C. I am delighted with Cell C.
To have more grief from Vodacom was somewhat unexpected. I just received my last bill from Vodacom. For a little bit of background. I had a 24 month contract from my son on Vodacom (amongst three others), had many issues with Vodacom so cancelled and removed various contracts. This was the last of them, it was a discounted monthly fee contract and the cancellation fee was too high to warrant early termination.
DSTV mobile application upgraded from Beta to final.
Posted on June 26, 2012DSTV mobile application upgraded from Beta to final. No real obvious changes in the release notes except for the statement below :
*** If you device is running Android 2.1 (Eclair) or your device has a processor slower than 800Mhz, please use the “DStv Mobile Decoder Eclair” version.
Same list of devices supported.
Link to the final application here : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.valups.tivit.app.finaldstv
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.
More Android love from DSTVmobile. 19 more devices. Well done DSTVmobile!
Posted on June 02, 2012Another update has been made of the Beta android application for the Drifta. You can get it here https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dstvmobile.app.decoder
This application now works on a wide range of Android devices running on Android 2.2, 2.3, 3.x and 4.x (with hardware buttons). So Gingerbread, Honeycomb and IcecreamSandwich are all supported now.
The full list is below. With the extent of changes I have been a bit lazy to pull out only the new devices. On the tweet announcing this @neilinspace indicated that 19 more have been added from the last version of the Beta, I will take his word for it. The list is now quite impressive, most device owners should be happy, including those lucky enough to have picked up the new Galaxy SIII or one of the new HTC One devices.
Well done DSTVmobile!
Now please can we get some Blackberry love? I know the platform is dying but I really would like some support on the Bold 9900.
Click through for the Full list:
Major update of DSTV Android client (30 new devices)
Posted on May 25, 2012Without much fanfare DTSV Mobile have snuck out a “beta” release of their Drifta client software for Android devices. This is a mammoth release (compared to prior ones) and now supports an extra 30 odd devices covering a number of different manufacturers including :
- Sony (XPeria Range – X10, Play, Ray, Active, Pro, S, Arc, Neo, Pro)
- LG (Otimus range, Prada, Tablet)
- Motorola (MB860, Atrix, RAZR)
- Vantium (V1)
- Huawei (Ideos X5, U8800)
- HTC (Flyer and Sensation)
There are also a couple of extras on the Honeycomb and Standard release, nothing major though.
Check out the full supported device listing in the FAQ : j-j.co.za/gofaq on supported devices. Don’t forget that rooted devices can be made to work using OTA Rootkeeper.
Thanks to DSTV Product Development manager @neilinspace for tweeting about the update, even though I did miss it for a week or two 
Bring your own device (BYOD) : workplace mobility presentation
Posted on May 24, 2012I was privileged to speak at this month’s ISACA KZN Chapter meeting held last Monday at KPMG’s offices in Durban. Thanks to Terence (the local chapter leader) for the invite.
My topic was around workplace mobility, focusing on implementation challenges and leanings experienced within the workplace. For this presentation I tried something a little different, using Keynote on the iPad to develop and present the talk. This resulted in a slide deck that looks a bit different from my normal style, with far fewer words, more pictures and I hope a smoother flowing more natural presentation. At the same time, it’s probably a bit more difficult for somebody who wasn’t at the presentation to get a lot of value out of the slide deck. If you download it and have questions, please go ahead and ask. It is presented below as a PDF since so few have Keynote.
Presentation here : BYOD workplace mobility v2 (download the PDF)
Resizer for DSTV Drifta windows client 1.3.15 (and v1.3.40)
Posted on May 12, 2012A lot of people ask for a way to resize the viewing windows of the DSTV Drifta on the PC. One of the early versions was “hacked” to allow this to happen but DSTV quickly released new versions which were encrypted and employed other methods to prevent hacking and re-sizing. Since then we have had to resort to using windows zoomers of various natures, and while this has been useful it isn’t the same as being able to drag the window to the desired size.
Good Cell C data deals (for ipad, laptop etc) at Makro (until 31 March 2012)
Posted on March 17, 2012I have been using the Cell C 3G network for various devices (iPad, Laptop and a Phone) for the last year and a bit, and recommended it to many friends and colleagues. When the pushed the price up (double!) earlier this year that became a much harder decision, especially with the 8ta option of 10 gig a month for R199.
This afternoon I was browsing the Makro website and what did I see? Some great deals on the Cell C data sticks.
Makro Cell C deals : (link here)
- R749 = 3 Gig with 7.2Mbps USB speedstick, valid for 12 months
- R1399 = 24 Gig (2 Gig x 12 Months) with 7.2Mbps USB speedstick
- R2799 = 60 Gig (5 Gig x 12 Months) with 21.6Mbs USB speedstick
Cell C : (link here)
- R599 = 3 Gig with 7.2Mbps USB speedstick, valid for 12 months
- R1999 = 12 Gig (1 Gig x 12 Months) with 7.2Mbps USB speedstick
- R2999 = 24 Gig (2 Gig x 12 Months) with 21.6 Mbps USB speedstick
The Makro brochure shows the deal being valid until 31 March 2012. Get it while you can 
Don’t forget though, if you are in an 8ta coverage area, you can get their 60 Gig prepaid deal for R1800, and have an extra midnight surfer 60 gig thrown in for free (use between midnight and 5am).
P.S. It seems you may be able to get the same price as Makro at Cell C outlets, received the following tweet from @mandywilson_sa : @jjza we’ve got that deal u get it at cell c also, works well
Using your Windows 7 Laptop as a mobile hotspot #in
Posted on February 07, 2012Summary : This provides a way to share a connection (wired or 3G) from your laptop via wireless to other devices such as iPads, tablets or mobile phones.
Since I bought my iPad i don’t use my laptop (running Windows 7 Professional) as frequently, especially while travelling. I take the laptop with because there are some things that just don’t work as well on the iPad, but most nights the iPad allows me to check mail, read websites and just do enough of what needs being done. Both my laptop and iPad have a Cell C 2Gig / month prepaid card in them. As a result of the above usage patterns I am finding that in the last 2 months I have used up my allocation on the iPad by the end of the month while having unused bandwidth “lost” on the laptop.
I started looking around for a way to be able to share the bandwidth between the two more dynamically. There are hardware options to get a mobile hotspot, and these are available for as little as R700, however, this is yet another device to carry around and I already have too many, so for now that wasn’t the best option.
Google pointed me to a few software hotspots, I downloaded a few, but they all had limitations (such as only the “Pro” version being able to share a 3G connection) or wanted payment, which for software I hadn’t heard of and couldn’t test I wasn’t keen on.
After a little more searching I found the good news that Windows 7 has the functionality built-in. The only downside is that there is no GUI for this functionality. It requires a couple of DOS commands to be entered at the command prompt. No worries though, they can be scripted into a batch file which you can keep on your desktop and then just run as required (though it must be run as administrator).
The specific commands required are :
netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=AAA key=BBB netsh wlan start hostednetwork pause netsh wlan stop hostednetwork pause
Note that the specific name of the connection you are creating must be inserted in the first line where I have AAA and your chosen key replaces the BBB.
Create a batch file (wifihotspot.bat) on your desktop, cut and paste in the above lines, edit the batch file, replacing the names with your choice. That is it. You should now be able to run the batch file (as administrator) and share your connection. To do so, just right-click on the batch file, select Run as administrator and away you go. Simple and effective.
The pause statements are to show you the status after the network is set up, and then to allow you to leave the batch window open until you want to shut down the network, press a key and it’s off. If you prefer you could split this into two separate batch files for an “on” and “off”.
On my machine I get the following responses when running the batch file:
C:\Windows\system32>netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=AAA key=BBB The hosted network mode has been set to allow. The SSID of the hosted network has been successfully changed. The user key passphrase of the hosted network has been successfully changed.
C:\Windows\system32>netsh wlan start hostednetwork The hosted network started.
C:\Windows\system32>pause Press any key to continue . . .
C:\Windows\system32>netsh wlan stop hostednetwork The hosted network stopped.
C:\Windows\system32>pause Press any key to continue . . .
Enjoy, and please share any enhancements, improvements or problems being experienced.
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 :
What people say
Close block