j-j.co.za
Sharing thoughts and ideas on business, security and photographyFinally tried Uber (X), great service!
Posted on August 23, 2014I finally got around to trying out Uber last night. I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the experience. Everything was just slick, pleasant and worked. I ordered the ride off my phone (using the App I had installed the week before), it gave me the estimated time of arrival of the driver, his name and the car registration and details of the vehicle. He arrived right on time and Mthokozisi was very pleasant. He had been working for Uber for 6 months and seemed quite happy with them as an employer.
I was delivered home 12 minutes later, right to the address I had entered when I ordered the car. In-between ordering my ride and arriving home my phone battery had gone flat, so I was concerned it may have been an issue but not to be. My credit card details were preloaded into the app so no issue with payment, and its all cashless. The trip cost is calculated based on a combination of time and distance. R7/km and 70 cents (or so) per minute. So my 12 minute 7.5km trip came to R65.59.
My trip was however free as there is an UberX launch campaign going on in Durban this weekend (See details below).
After the trip the driver “rated” me as a passenger and provided feedback on his Uber App. He asked me to do the same on mine (which I did a few minutes later). A short while after I also received a follow-up email from Uber summarising the journey, the costs, time, and showing the exact route. All super slick.
If you are interested, then download the app and sign up. It’s free. If you use promo code Uberjjza you can get R90 credited to your account (and I get R90 too). Furthermore, if you enter the second promo code UBERXDBN you can get six uberX rides in Durban, up to R250 in value each, until Sun 24 Aug 2014 at 11pm.
It is no wonder that Uber is changing the face of personalised public transport across the Globe. I don’t see myself using conventional Taxi services again. Install the App and give them a try, you will be pleasantly surprised. Whats really cool is you can use the App to get quotes of how much it would be for various trips, so you can already price the trip to and from the rugby / motor cycle event etc.
Share you experiences, good (or bad) once you have given it a go.
Below is a screenshot of the summary mail that arrived post trip (with address and credit card digits removed)
Summary mail
Caffe Luxe’s new and improved Nespresso Compatible coffee pods (mostly just pics)
Posted on February 16, 2013After one of our readers complained about the Caffelux capsules, the good folk over at luxurycoffee.co.za stepped in and offered to send her some capsules. At the same time they noticed my previous blog post on their coffee still showed the old branding and product. Since the product had been updated with new branding, capsules design improvements and coffee they very kindly offered to send me some of the new coffee to try, which I gladly accepted.
Below you can see the new whiter, lighter branded boxes of the five flavours.
The 5 flavours
Cheap (Legal) copies of Microsoft 2013 applications (for some)
Posted on February 16, 2013Microsoft has a home use programme that allows employees of many organisations from around the world to get copies of their key products:
- Office 2013 Professional
- Project 2013 Professional
- Visio 2013 Professional
- Office 2011 for Mac OS X
for the really awesome price of R81 each. This is for the download copy, for R120 extra you can order a physical media copy of each (postage not included).
This is applicable for a lot of people working in large corporates or at educational institutions. You will need the Home Use code, which you can get from your IT department. If you can’t find the code, then try the link below anyway, click the “don’t have code” option, just pop in your email address, and you may get lucky and be able to download it anyway.
Be aware the 2013 version of office is a download version running in some kind of virtualised environment which will ensure that it keeps up to date. When you download the installer it downloads a “download app” and then downloads and installs all in one, so you don’t get an ISO or installer per say, so you can install on just the one PC. Not really a big problem. On a site I was reading this morning (sorry, forget the name so no details) they did mention that the license key you get with the R81 version works with physical media, so once you have the key, if you can get the media elsewhere you can still use it.
As much as people bemoan the Microsoft Office suite, these are really great apps and at this price, nobody who is entitled to use the programme can complain they are too expensive.
http://www.microsofthup.com/hupemea2/home.aspx?culture=en-GB&country_id=ZA
Nokia 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)
What 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.
I updated my previous blogpost on Which Kindle to buy
Posted on May 25, 2012I updated my previous blogpost on which Kindle to buy as a South African.
- New pricing
- New devices (Touch)
Find it here : http://j-j.co.za/2011/06/which-kindle-to-buy-as-a-south-african/
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)
The 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 thought 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
Update : They have moved again. Current address : 254 Lilian Ngoyi Road (Formerly Windermere Road). Phone : 031 303 3374 (link here)
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 :
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.
What people say
Close block