ABOUT FLIPPIN TIME!

Just recieved word that the iphone 3G is finally being launched here in South Africa!

according to LIFE OF A PHONE LOVER the iphone 3G was launched worldwide on the 9th of June... 4 MONTHS later... we... here in S.A... get it!

ABOUT TIME!

thanks to Vodacom for launching it... looks like the other service providers are still not ready to do this... can't understand y? is it because vodaphone has the launch rights here in S.A. are we controlled by only one operator?

well, luckily i'm a vodacom subscriber so... sorry for you MTN users... HAHAHAHA!

According to the Vodacom website, there are an number of options for the I-phone.

250 megabytes per month... oh thanks. I can see that coming in really being useful, that one day a month that I feel like using the I-phone what it was created for, accessing the internet. Sure you could buy more data, that goes with out saying, but when you're spending on average R700 just to hold it in your hand its getting a little ridiculous.

The business offers, prove with out a doubt what I said in the previous blog, that only rich spoiled pounces, criminals and politicians will be able to afford the I-phone. I stick by those words.

I-phone 120s package, with an 8 gig model is going to set you back about R559 a month.

Vodacom will force you to sign a 24 month contract. Bringing the total amount spent on the I-phone after two years to R13416. Remember you're only getting 6gigs of data, 2880 free minutes and 2400 free sms's in those two years. That my friends is what I like to call, a rip off. Do the math for your self and see.

The prepaid offer... that's a lot of cash to pull out even before you've made the first call on it.

Vodacom seems to think that, if they ride the wave of hype and chatter about the I-phone 3G for long enough all those in the Vodacom boardroom can take an extra holiday at the end of the financial year.

Spending those amounts of money on something that, cant access flash video or data, unable to do video calling or even take photos at today's picture quality. Just doesn't seem worth it. But you do get a whopping 8 to 16 gigs of solid space, where you can store MP3's, video and pictures of your bitter tears as you regret buying into the hype.

The tragic thing is, that the I-phone could be awesome. But reality is that the only people we will see with them are stuck up rich poppies and materialist pounces that have access to daddy's credit card, listening to latest offering deemed appropriate by the MTV overlords.

Yes boys and I very much doubt girls, Vodacom will be releasing Apple's I-phone tomorrow. Yes, stores across South Africa will be packed to the brim with geeks and trendy Indy types, sporting the most stylish of brown loafers and daddy's credit card. Hoping to get their little hairy palmed hands onto the I-phone.

I to was interested in seeing what this I-phone could do. I even thought, hey lets be proactive for once and Email vodacom asking them to send me a I-phone when the release date comes closer. Hell, I even ambushed the provincial head of Vodacom for the Eastern Cape, while at the Weekend Post Matric of the year. Begging him to send me one so that I could review it.  I went as far as emailing the head of Vodacom's communications begging to be assigned a I-phone. Well I didn't get one to review.

So who knows what the I-phone will bring?

According to IAFRICA, from the MYADSL Forums, the I-phone will be available on Pre-paid and contract packages ( no surprise there)

What is a surprise, according to IAFRICA, is what the I-phone will sell for.

According to the Apple.com site, the I-phone in America costs approximately $199 for the 8 gig model and $299 for the 16 gig model.

Thus at the current exchange rate, that should sell for about R1,616 for the 8 gig model and R2,425 for the 16 gig model.

However IAfrica states that the prepaid I-phone will be selling for... wait for it...  R 7999.00 for the 8 GB version and R 9799.00 for the 16 GB version.

Contract consumers can expect to pay in anything between R 1500.00 and R 2000.00 for their iPhone when taking lower end contracts.

Thus the only people we will see with I-phones will be spoilt rich ponces, criminals and politicians. Not that these are mutually exclusive.

It goes with out saying that Vodacom is making a pretty penny from the craze that has been whipped up around the world and South Africa.

However this is still open to speculation, and if I am proved wrong I will write a retraction. But if I am proved right, the games have just begun.

Only tomorrow will tell. Lets wait and see.

The Director of the Centre for Citizen Media, Dan Gillmor, says that citizen media should be embraced and viewed positively. He says “the media has been democratised, not through voting, but through participation.”
Many media organizations are now working with citizens to generate news stories for the general public.  The reality is that even if the media does not want to work together with citizens who are not media professionals, the citizens will still do citizen journalism as they share news with each other and news organizations.  The best thing that all media organizations should do is to embrace citizen journalism.
Vodacom’s Portfolio Manager for Social Media, Vincent Maher, says that previously the goal of the media was just to make money, but now the goal is to get the attention of the general public. Mayer says,” the traditional media has had limited space and time while the social media has unlimited space and time”.  Conversations on social networks can be tapped by the media to generate stories which the general public want s to hear.

Media Literacy
Professional journalists are being flooded with information from citizens.   The media professionals should not view all the information as garbage or mere conversation.  Instead; they should find out what is newsworthy from the interactions of the citizens and explore those stories further.
The media has a duty to help citizens to be literate in scepticism, judgment, research, free thinking, and techniques of the media.  Dan Gillmor says that all journalists (professionals and citizens) should know basic principles of the media which include thoroughness, accuracy, fairness, independence, and transparency.
However; it has to be noted that citizen journalists will interact with each other without following any rules and regulations or media ethics, and they should be allowed to be free like that.  Nobody should impose rules and ethics on citizen journalists.
The Future
In the future, more citizens will be involved in citizen journalism as they interact with people of the same interests through cell phones, internet, blogging, and social networks.  Citizen journalists with digital equipment will be connected to digital networks and will continue to report events as they occur without waiting for the traditional media to come and report on the issue.  Media entrepreneurs will realize that there is a low cost innovation in this practice.  More citizen journalists will be accepted the media.  Highwayafrica should continue to be held every year for more discussions on new media technologies.

Before I begin, I would like to acknowledge that Zain has not been singled out for the honour of a slap because they are a crappy service provider. In that, they are well matched by their market contemporaries, MTN and Glo. No, Zain has been singled out because they have turned being a crappy Telecom Service Provider into something more than itself. They have turned it into Art.

As their services have gone from really bad to piss take, I have wondered, why? Why do they think they can get away with this? I began, like Nancy Drew, to investigate the matter and everything began to point in a single direction.

Multiple Personality Disorder.

This condition, now professionally referred to as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is defined in almighty Wikipedia as "a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a condition in which a single person displays multiple distinct identities or personalities, each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment.[1] The diagnosis requires that at least two personalities routinely take control of the individual's behaviour with an associated memory loss that goes beyond normal forgetfulness..." If you have been in Nigeria within the last three years, this should sound familiar to you. A single entity? Multiple distinct identities or personalities? VMobile, Celtel and Zain? Forgetting how to provide actual telecommunication services?

Lets not forget that this telecom provider actually started of as Econet Wireless Nigeria after which it manifested its first personality, Vodacom, which apparently lasted only a month. It may have been the shortest lived of Econet's multiple identities but it certainly seemed to open the floodgates and I'm afraid its all been down hill from there. That's right down hill, because with each successively cheesier identity, the Telecom's services have been seeking newer and lower depths of crappy.

Again, I reiterate that Nigeria's telecom services industry in general is an exercise in shame and exploitation but Zain! It's like they've pretty much given up on putting any calls through! Perhaps they want to shift sectors? Maybe go into entertainment and event planning? Lord knows it's the only area in which they seem to be active.

Which brings to mind a sub-mystery in this case; just what are they using all that lovely new Zane cash for? Here are my hypotheses:

1. To alleviate boredom by distracting innocent, Nigerian commuters with their new, garish aquamarine and magenta brand palette and causing random road carnage (because we don't have enough of that).

2. To compete with Etisalat and Silverbird on who can build the biggest phallic symbol on Banana Island.

3. To irritate Nigerian Internet surfers to death with their absolutely gross and spamalicious banner campaign thereby substantially reducing yahoozey occurrences.

4. To pretend to compete with Facebook with their total joke of a social networking website, Central Station.

5. To release yet another heavily branded and meaningless service (Tru Call) providing yet another excuse for high level Zane employees to party their a**es off at the expense of we the paying customers who are, alas, still yet to receive anything resembling telecommunication services from them since their latest metamorphosis.

Please feel free to append to this list! But back to my original diagnosis. The first step towards healing is identifying and admitting the problem. Zain has obviously been suffering from the Psychopathic problem known as Multiple Personality Disorder (also known within Church circles as "Legion"). I don't know what could have started it. Most studies seem to support childhood abuse. Who abused Zain when they were Econet? Was it the stockholders? Was it her employees? Was it MTN, the evil competition from overseas? We hope one day, Zain will heal enough to get on Moments with Mo' and tell us. Until then we must suggest an immediate prescription.

On Slap! we are pretty old school and I think that the Churches will agree with us in our belief that the best thing for a case of MPD is some cold, hard, head clearing Slaps. Time to take your medicine, Zain.

1. For being so crappy that it's easier to call someone using another service provider than someone also using Zain.
*SLAP*
2. For abuse of branding.
*SLAP*
3. For polluting our internet with your ugly banner ads.
*SLAP*
4. For your stupid new tag line! You know damn well that it is not a beautiful world and not being able to make phone calls is part of the problem.
*SLAP*
5. For the aquamarine and magenta buildings! Why? What did we ever do to you guys?
*SLAP*
6. For Central Station which I have refrained from going into because it will be getting its own post. But it's still f***ing embarrassing.
*SLAP*

I still have a lot of slap left in me for Zain but my co-writers are restraining me and telling me that it's enough. I can only say that I truly hope it is.

Let the healing begin.

Since this announcement many iPhone enthusiasts have been waiting anxiously for the local release of the iPhone through Vodacom. For them the wait is nearly over.

While Vodacom did not want to disclose the exact launch date – due to confidentiality agreements – company spokesperson Dot Field did say that the iPhone will most likely be launched in September.

Vodacom has been accepting pre-release orders through its website, but again Field would not disclose the exact number of orders. She did however indicate that there is a great deal of excitement about the imminent launch of the newApple iPhone 3G.

[via: MyBroadBand]

I was given one of those dummy phones to look at, this awesome Nokia 5610 looked like the shit to me in this red colour...so, Ricc's sold! "I'll take it...just like that one!"

"Well I'm sorry sir, but we cannot offer you that particular colour on the Vodacom network."...a crazy person says what now?

Basically, this women and 3 others from different service providers, proceeded to explain to me how VODACOM only orders blue phones. This means that even though they could order the phone in 2 colours to add some diversity to the range...they only order the colour that matters to them...BLUE!

Now I understand the idea behind trying to align you're brand with a colour instead of just a logo, but seriously...do you have to limit all colour options to one? "mmm...Lets think, should I take the Blue phone, or the Blue phone?...What if i accidentally tripped in a pool of blue water, and now spit-up blood every time I see a pool-noodle? I hate blue...it's not my fault.

I'd like to mention that the "dummy" phone given to me was red, the phone in the display case was red and even the phone on Vodacom's website was red...http://www.vodacom.co.za/getSpecials.do

So, I've moved to MTN...i really didn't see it happening, but here I am, an "083" with a RED phone.

And why should it? As arguably the most successful cellular network in a country that has only 4 service providers, Vodacom's competition is about as stiff as the 100m sprint was for Usain Bolt.

Vodacom Big Knob and Vodacom Lesser Knobs - I have a few suggestions:

1. The Great Wait - I don't care if your systems are down, you have more trainees than a government hospital, and it's month end. If I wanted to go to Home Affairs, I would have wasted my evening there...
2. Repeat Visits - great when you're running a whorehouse, not so great when it requires 5 visits to sign a contract.
3. Plush Interiors - thanks for the reminder that you are clearly the most profitable cellular network in the country. It's all about creating a comfortable environment for your salespeople customers.
4. Infrastructure Circa 1995 - when your systems are down, your scanners don't work, and your customers have to go to a neighbouring store to receive a fax, try not to look up at the neon "3G" sign outside your store. It's embarrassing.
5. Customer Blame - when you mysteriously "lose" documents and then find them 3 hours later, don't blame the customer for your incompetence.
6. Salesmen Blinded by Their Own Knob - I would love it if my boyfriend was bankrolling me, but try and at least pretend to think that women can afford mobile phone contracts.
7. Extortion with a Smile - generally when customers ask, "What are the penalties for canceling my contract?", try to not use phrases such as "it depends", and "we'll see how much you spend and how we can recuperate our losses".

It took me 20 minutes to upgrade from firmware 1.0.2, I even maganed to fix the EDGE problem so that I cane use my phone on both Vodacom and MTN I'm South Africa.

If you wouldblike details on how to do it please go to my regular blog at http://www.spirituality.org.za/blogger.html

Simply search for iPhone or go to 29 July 2008.

Here's a test photo taken with my iPhone. Isn't she lovely? This is my darling wife Megan Forster at lunch today. Love you sweetie!

Wayne Rooney and Anderson

In South Africa cellular phone companies invented Please Call Me's, free sms's to trigger somebody else to make the call. In the past I've received well over a 1000 of these sms's, but I stopped reacting long ago, at a certain stage I even blocked them, fed up. In SA the majority hasn't the cash to make calls, but they do have a phone. A smart invention of Vodacom and the lot, to make money over the heads of people that don't have money. I can't remember when I received the last pcm from Geraldine, a miracle...

DON'T PANIC! It's really easy to do (I once showed a 70 year old lady how to do it, and then she showed her husband)

The following Cellular service Providers in SA provide automatic setup of your 3G/ GPRS settings:

• Virgin Mobile (SA)
• Cell C
• Vodacom
• MTN

The guys from imod.co.za have summed it up at:

CONNECTIVITY

Setting up GPRS/3G
Get connected via your service provider’s service menu; just follow the simple instructions below:
(It helps to know your mobile’s manufacturer and model. Oh and remember, you only have 2 minutes to complete these steps, don’t ask us why!)

Vodacom:

1. On your mobile, dial *111#
2. Select option 5 (phone settings) from the menu that follows. (Answer -> 5 -> send)
3. Select option 1 to choose your mobile make and model from a list, or options 2 to have Vodacom identify the phone for you.
4. In both cases, simply follow the steps provided to get the WAP settings sent to your phone.
5. Connection settings will be sent to your phone; save these settings.
6. If any of the above mentioned steps fail, simply retry.
7. Still having trouble? Call Vodacom’s call centre on 111 from your Vodacom cellphone or 082 111 from another phone. Alternatively visit a Vodacom outlet near you.

(GPRS/3G can only be activated by the person in whose name the contract was taken out, so some of you might have to get mom or dad’s help on this one. Good luck!)

Cell C

1. On your mobile, dial *147#
2. Connection settings will be sent to your phone; save these settings. If a password is requested enter 0000
3. If any of the above mentioned steps fail, simply retry.

Still having trouble? Call Cell C’s call centre on 140 or visit a Cell C outlet near you. (GPRS/3G can only be activated by the person in whose name the contract was taken out, so some of you might have to get mom or dad’s help on this one. Good luck!)

MTN

1. On your mobile, dial *123#
2. Select option 1 (phone setup) from the menu that follows. (Answer -> 1 -> send)
3. Select option 3 (WAP).
4. Connection settings will be sent to your phone; save these settings.
5. If any of the above mentioned steps fail, simply retry.

Still having trouble? Call MTN’s call centre; dial 808 (contract) or 173 (pay as you go) from your mobile phone. Alternatively, visit an MTN outlet near you. (GPRS/3G can only be activated by the person in whose name the contract was taken out, so some of you might have to get mom or dad’s help on this one. Good luck!)

Virgin Mobile

When you first insert your Virgin Mobile SIM into your mobile you’ll receive an SMS asking you if you would like to accept Virgin Settings.
If you reply YES, your settings for MMS and WAP can be automatically downloaded and installed on your mobile.
Do the following to manually request MMS and WAP settings:
Go to the ‘Virgin Mobile’ menu which you will find on either the main menu or applications menu of your mobile.
Select ‘Virgin Settings’ and reply YES when asked if you’d like to download them.

Still having trouble? Call Virgin Mobile’s call centre on 123 or visit a Virgin Mobile outlet near you. (GPRS/3G can only be activated by the person in whose name the contract was taken out, so some of you might have to get mom or dad’s help on this one. Good luck!)

Zwar ist die Stromversorgung in Tansania nicht überall wirklich verlässlich und es mangelnd auch an anderen Versorgungsgrundlagen, aber Freiwillige/Praktikanten, die nicht auf den täglichen Kontakt zur Außenwelt verzichten können werden sich darüber freuen, dass man sich in Tansania nahezu flächendeckend über das Mobilfunknetzwerk ins Internet einwählen kann!

Dazu braucht man ein GPRS-fähiges Mobiltelefon oder einen Laptop mit GPRS-Karte. Die Geschwindigkeit ist nicht berauschend, aber ausreichend zum Emails empfangen und versenden sowie Standard-Webseite zu lesen.  Abgerechnet wird nach Datenvolumen. Die beiden Anbieter sind Celtel und Vodacom. Hier gibt's mehr darüber:

http://www.tz.celtel.com/en/phone-services/internet-access/index.html
http://www.vodacom.co.tz/docs/docredir.asp?docid=3435

Internetcafés gibt's übrigens auch in fast jeder Kleinstadt.

The following Wednesday we still hadn’t received the phone call to say that the phone was ready; instead, my wife had received a statement stating that an amount of R 144.50 would be deducted from her account come the end of the month.

Alarm bell number one.

Eventually my wife received the phone call that her phone was ready for collection that Thursday, and we duly went in on Saturday, concerned about the statement, but nevertheless excited at the prospect that we were going to get a spanky Nokia 5310 Music Xpress with mini-speaker and Bluetooth earphones. When we arrived, there was a lady already shouting at the teller.

Alarm bell number two.

My wife remarked that the lady should shout less and control her child instead, this, it would seem, would be the wrong thing to say, as we were about to find out, first hand, why the woman before us was having such a miserable time. Our turn in the queue came and we stepped forward. Disappointment, anger, and sheer stunned disbelief were about to welcome us with a large wiffle bat.

First, we asked for the phone, the teller didn’t want to know what my wife’s name was, she just wanted the telephone number. She went off, couldn’t find what she was looking for, came back, took the number and name and went back again. Eventually, she returned with the phone in hand. Eagerly we looked at the phone (okay, so maybe I was the one drooling, what can I say, I’m a geek), and I asked the question: where are the Bluetooth earphones and the speaker?

The answer we got back stunned me: Nokia no longer supplies the earphones with the phone, so you don’t get them.

Despite the fact that the contract we are getting explicitly states that the phone comes with Bluetooth earphones and a mini-speaker, because Nokia is no longer supplying the phone with the Bluetooth earphones, the customer doesn’t get them. Somewhat stunned, I asked how much the Bluetooth earphones were. They’re R899.

So my wife is losing out on R900 worth of equipment, despite the fact that she’s still paying for it, even though she isn’t getting the earphones? We received a Shox mini-speaker, which I am almost sure is the incorrect one, because I believe that the contract states that it is a Tevo brand speaker, but that I will need to lookup as I may be mistaken.

We then point out the issue with the statement. The price is right for the weekender. So we point out that we requested an SMS bundle. The teller confirms that it was never added. We then query the name change, which hasn’t gone through. The teller states that they cannot change names, that they just fax it through to their regional office. My wife also points out that the contract is still invoiced out to the incorrect person despite her requesting ti to be changed some three years ago!

At this point we have surpassed the annoyed stage, moved passed disbelief and are now angry. Our voices are raised. I can safely state that the Vincent Park Vodashop should be grateful that my wife had a splitting headache (I took her from Vincent Park to the doctor for an injection) otherwise they would have gotten a far greater tongue lashing than I gave them.

What truly stunned me was the complete disinterest from the teller and the other Vodashop employees, including, who I think may have been the manageress, but she never introduced herself so I am unsure. Even when we threatened to take the contract to MTN, they simply just shrugged. They didn’t care.

So tonight I get all the details together, lodge a complaint with their head office at the completely shocking service that we received. The worst part for my wife is that she at first tried to get her phone in early April, but there were no phones that she liked available. It was only after she had settled on the Nokia E65 and was told that she would have to wait a week for stock, and then that I did my upgrade at MTN at Retail Park (who’s service was utterly SUPERB!), in thirty minutes (from documentation, new phone, extra memory card, cell phone holster to walking out the door with a smile on my face) that she saw the 5310 and decided that she wanted it.

We went to the Vodashop in Retail Park, were told that they did not have the phone, and that the Nokia 5310 was a “crappy phone with endless problems”. After researching it and getting second opinions we stuck with it. My only regret is that my wife is now stuck with the Vodacom contract for another two years. The phone wasn’t even in the colour that she wanted – it’s blue, she wanted the red, but Vodacom can only get it in blue (because it’s their corporate colours?).

It was, therefore, with great interest that I read the following article on ITWeb: The Big Cellular Rip Off. I can only hope that when I contact Vodacom customer service tomorrow that they are better able to resolve this, and make up for the shyte service we have received so far.

I can only hope that the cellular providers get to the point where they realise that the customer is what makes them money. Eventually people will grow tired of being treated like crap and they will lose them. I can only hope that the theory presented in the ITWeb article above is tested in court and proves that the cellular providers are not legally entitled to charge subscription charges as a penalty. If that becomes the case, I think a lot more people will flex their customer muscle and move to another provider.

Speaking of which, Virgin Mobile is looking progressively more promising, much like their credit card offering. Free SMS's? Forever? That makes one question how the other service providers quantify the R 0.75 that they charge for an SMS.

J out.

In this post I want to describe my experiences with MMS.

If you have MMS set up on your phone you should be able to send an email to any address in the world. It works. Sorta. I succeeded in sending an MMS from my Vodacom and mCel phones to my Yahoo account. The Vodacom message arrived almost immediately. The mCel message took close to half an hour to arrive in my inbox. I replied to both messages with a short text message and sent them off. Nothing ever happened. It's possible that the messages are stuck in some queue somewhere.

But think about this with me. You send a message. The person receives it and replies. Then you never get their response. How useful is that? Not very. Especially if neither of you are aware of the problem.

The Vodacom and mCel systems create email addresses for you based on your phone number:

Vodacom:  +25884[your number]@mms.vm.co.mz

mCel: 25882[your number]@mms.mcel.co.mz

This should work just fine but there seems to be a kink in the system.

Update 1: I spoke with mCel customer service and they asked me to send an email to my phone's email address. I tried from another email account with the same results.

Update 2: I spoke with Vodacom customer service and was told that you can send MMS to email but not the other way around. They have a service called "vodamail" but it is only available for Vodacom users with a contract.

Here's the information about MMS to email (in Portuguese): mCel and Vodacom.

It doesn't say anything about receiving messages from the outside.

Take a look at the analysis of Telkom (TKG) below. The conservative bunch at Std Bank rate this as a share that is heavily undervalued and looks to almost double in the next 18 months. The share is sitting at around R108 now with the target price being set by Std Bank at around R200.

Before you read what I'm about to tell you, read this article on Moneyweb where Telkom buys a stake in Multi-Links for $280m.

Std Bank reckon there is another R29 per share in additional value based on the Multi-Links deal. They also forecast 5 million subscribers by 2010 for the Nigerian operation with a US$22 average revenue per user (ARPU).

They value Vodacom at R110bn (R106 per share for Telkom's 50%). The general consensus view is to value vodacom at R125bn - R150bn, therefore Std Bank, as usual, have taken a conservative view.

Inerestingly, they mention Telkom Wireline, valued at R29bn (R55 per share). They say it suffers cost challenges but the changes in outsourcing and interconnect offers big potential.

The catalyst for this surge would be market acceptance of the value in Multi-Links and the completion of the Vodacom transaction.

As I am sure all of you know that the iphone is a touch screen mobile, with all the bells and whistles one could want and enough DRM that blends  magically together giving you a beautiful marriage of S&M and IBS.

Now you are able to buy a cover for your iphone, but I unfortunately don’t have one. Thus the iphone's screen quickly becomes a greasy mess of finger prints... much like my first girlfriend. Sorry, sorry I’ll stop with the cheap jokes.

So buying a cover is a must, protecting your ridiculously expensive investment should be of major concern to you.

As one reader pointed out,

 “You are wrong about us not having the itunes store.
apple has opened the itunes store for south Africa.
the only trick is that in the itunes store the only thing we can buy is applications.
so they have opened it, but no music, tv shows or movies.
still, its cool that we can buy apps”
Thank you for commenting on the blog Matthew. I always enjoy getting feed back from loyal readers. However as you stated in your comment, that we do in fact have an itunes store, I would disagree. Heres why.

In order for it to be a store, it would have to be somewhere a transaction would take place. According to Google a store is ‘a mercantile establishment for the retail sale of goods or services’

 Our itunes store does none of that. All we are able to do is download free applications. We aren’t able to purchase music, videos, ring tones or even applications. Its more that we have idownload than a itunes store. I thank you again Matthew, I always enjoy hearing other opinions on topics, even when they are wrong, so wrong in fact that I am sending someone to take your keyboard away from you.

Vodacom, are you listening? We need a itunes store for South Africa. You brought us the most wanted phone in the world, but now we need what made it so wanted. The applications, music and other stuff.
You see, we want to get the most out of our iphones. Where is the support? Where are the ringtones, music, videos, applications? We don’t have it, and doesn’t look like we will for a long time.
Vodacom or anyone, please somehow open an itunes store for South Africa. According to Wikipedia, Apple has opened an itunes store in New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta. And these aren’t even important countries and they get an itunes store. South African’s  have more than enough disposable income than people living in Malta. Where the bloody hell is Malta anyway?
See Vodacom, I take my hat off to you from bringing the iphone to South Africa. Let me keep the phone and I’ll take my pants off for you. Bring  an itunes store, and Apple product owners around SA will throw money, children, the elderly and vital internal organs at you to get hold of itune’s content. Consumers are waiting, wallets open, cash in hand, so what are you going to do about it?

One the reasons we need an itunes store for South Africa is that, it is only with songs purchased from itunes are you able to make ring tones for your self. Don’t like the stupid ring tones that come with your R7000 phone, well sorry you’re stuck with it.

Want to be able to watch a TV series or movie on your iphone? To bad, because you have to rent it through itunes. Which as you know, we don't have
I guess its time to jailbreak this baby then?

At idownload (note: not itunes store, as we established it is not in fact a store), you are able to download a number of free applications. It will take a while going through all of the crap trying to find the diamond. But if you look hard enough and long enough. You should be able to find one or two free applications that rock.

 Stanza is a great free app, allowing you to download ebooks that you are then able to read on your iphone. Another that I enjoy is Twittelator, enabling you to twitter from your phone. You are also able to take a snap shot of your current GPS location and send that through to Twitter. Your friends and family will be able to then use Google Maps to see were you are. Some times it gets it right, other times your in the middle of the ocean. Its a hit or miss affair.

Also recommend downloading a application called Fring, its skype on your Iphone. No need to try to sell this to you. I think we all know how awesome thats going to be.

Vodacom's data blundes, packaged with its contracts is strangely enough, large enough for the average user out there. Checking your email and chatting online doesn't eat up bandwidth to quickly. However, with the iphone in my hands I was able to eat through 64.9MB in five days. I think that maybe Vodacom needs to up the bandwidth, for its iphone packages. But lets wait and see how this thing rides out. Maybe Vodacom's bandwidth packages is enough, but only time will tell.

I hate going back on my word, even more so when I've spent two blog posts slagging off the i-phone. I hate to admit it, but Apples i-phone is good... nay, great... awesome even.

For what it does, its with out par in todays cellphone market. Nothing I've seen comes close to it. That doesn't mean it wont happen. But at this current juncture its an awesome piece of hardware that brings the mobility a cellphone with the versatility and functionality of a PDA. Blending it together in something that has set the benchmark for all other cellphone manufactures.

So lets begin a week long look at what the i-phone is, isn't and where it misses the mark.

The i-phone 3G, out of the box and plugged into either a wall socket or a USB port takes about an hour and a half to be fully charge. I am unsure if Apple intended to make the battery quick charging, but none the less it is. So its only a short amount of time before your are ready to start playing with your i-phone. A single charge can last up to one whole day, depending on how much you use it and weather you have updated the firmware to 2.1. Updating to 2.1 is something I recommend doing as soon as you have your i-phone fully charged. It not only increases the battery life of the phone but also fixes a number of issues that people have been having with the phone.

During my firmware update, the phone thought my desire to upgrade it foolish and decided to bomb out on me. Apples tag line of, It just works, seems to be more of a marketing slogan than a reality.

After much screaming and gnashing of teeth, I got it working again. Only to find that all my contacts that I had so lovingly put in were now gone...its just working on my nerves. I sync up the Ii-phone with i-tunes, which to my luck had backed up my contacts. This was a double edged sword, I got all my contacts back, however there were now two of everyone...its just working my my blood pressure.

The i-phone as I am sure you know, is a totally touch screen cellphone. The touch screen is simple to use, and doesn't take to much to master. If you've used an I-pod touch you should be right at home with the i-phone. However with all touch screen items, the screen quickly has more finger prints on it than the girl I took the my Matric Dance.  Tomorrows look at the i-phone i will explain the various figure commands for the i-phone.

I-tunes, as with all Apple products is a must. Enabling you to upload music, pictures and video onto your i-phone. You are also able to download a couple of free applications from the “App store”.

The App store is a clever little shop where you can purchase third party applications that can run on your phone. From games to navigation to even budgeting software. Seeing as we do not have an i-tunes store for South Africa, most of us will have to be content with the free applications.

You are able to access the App store from you i-phone, but it is a waste of valuable bandwidth. So rather do it on your computer. Talking about a massive waste of bandwidth, getting the i-phone up and running and working at its finest requires a massive 300meg download. I-tunes and the 2.1 firmware upgrade take a massive bite out of your monthly cap. You've been warned, its something you're gonna have to just grim and bear through.

One nice little feature with the i-phone is that I was able to import all my gmail contacts, right onto the phone. All it asked for was a username and password, and I have total access to my gmail account. If you are not using gmail and prefer outlook, that to is supported, but no Thunderbird support. So even the technologically illiterate are able to have their email on the go.

I also, much to my surprise, able to access google maps and with the I-phones GPRS I am able to have an accurate to the metre of where I am standing. You are able to purchase navigation software from the app store, but seeing as we dont have an i-tunes store for South Africa... we are bum out of luck with that. None the less, you are still have access to google maps navigation, but this only has major roads in South Africa. So no finding your way around Durban once you get there.

After Day 1 with the I-phone, I can already see that Vodacom is going to have to pry this phone from my cold dead hands... I don't want to give it back. Get it in your hands, and you will quickly see that its just want you want.

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