Continue reading to find out…

How To Add 4 Hours of Battery Life to Blackberry & Android Phones

The small and light-weight EnergiStick Smartphone Emergency charger was really easy to use. All i did was plug it into my phones micro-usb port and it charged for about 20-30 minutes before it was nearly half way charged again. This allowed me to continue to discuss the pros and cons of biodynamic products while staying touch with my other half on WhatsApp

I’d recommend the EnergiStick charger to anyone who find themselves in situations where your charger or a reliable power source is not close by. Prime examples of when the emergency battery charger will come in handy would be when you’re at a conference or in the great outdoors. With a selling price of R239 this is one gadget that’ll add extra hours to your smartphones battery life in an emergency. You can order the Energistick for Smartphones here.

Nokia Lumia 800 South Africa

Simon Dingle tweeted the pic above but without any indication of where exactly this promotion is happening and he didn’t reply to my query either.

If you want to get your hands on the Lumia 800 and free Xbox this promotion is for you. If case you were wondering… you can download WhatsApp from MarketPlace right from your Nokia Lumia 800. Don’t think we can say the same about the Nokia N9 yet. To demo the new Lumia 800 check out Nokia South Africa’s Facebook page.

Will you be getting the Nokia Lumia 800 with free Xbox?

First two Nokia smartphones based on Windows Phone in South Africa

At an event at Vodacom World, Nokia announced the arrival of the Lumia range of smartphones in South Africa. The stunningly social Nokia Lumia 800 brings content to life with head-turning design, familiar Nokia elements such as leading imaging capabilities, and Nokia’s best social and Internet performance with one-touch social network access, easy grouping of contacts, integrated communication threads and Internet Explorer 9.

“This is the day that something unique, bold and exciting arrived in the South African smartphone market,” says Gerard Brandjes, Vice-President for Nokia in South and East Africa. “I have been amazed with the strong operator partnerships, critical acclaim and consumer excitement the Lumia range has achieved across Europe, Asia and the US, and I expect exactly the same kind of enthusiasm for the devices locally. This is truly a new dawn for us.”

The Nokia Lumia 800 is expected to be available countrywide – together with Vodacom – on the 7th February 2012 on a Vodacom Business Call contract, with 100MB data per month for 24 months, at R279 per month.

“This is an important launch for us because the Nokia Lumia 800 is in line with our strategic focus, to drive data by bringing all the latest options and technologies to our customers, which includes offering devices with all the major operating systems. We’re therefore excited to be the first operator to offer Nokia’s Lumia 800 with Windows Phone to the South African market,”says Romeo Kumalo, Vodacom’s Chief Commercial Officer. “We’re thrilled that Vodacom customers will be the first to get their hands on Nokia’s latest smartphone locally and we are pleased that it will be available at such an attractive price point.”

The second device in the range, the colourful, affordable Nokia Lumia 710, is a no-nonsense smartphone that can be personalized with interchangeable back covers and thousands of apps, and brings the same Nokia Lumia experience to more people around the world. The Nokia Lumia 710 is expected to arrive in South Africa in the second quarter.

Based on the Windows Phone 7.5 Mango release, the Nokia Lumia smartphones are designed to appeal to people with lively social lives, providing instant social and image sharing and new signature Nokia experiences:

• Nokia Drive delivers a full-fledged personal navigation device (PND) with free, turn-by-turn navigation and dedicated in-car-user-interface.
• Nokia Music introduces MixRadio, a free, global, mobile music-streaming application that delivers 100s of channels of locally-relevant music. In an update delivered later this year, Nokia Lumia users will also gain the ability to create personalized channels from a global catalogue of millions of tracks.

Completing the ultimate mobile audio offering, Nokia also introduced the on-ear Nokia Purity HD Stereo Headset by Monster, co-designed and co-developed by Monster Cable, a recognized leader in high performance audio. This is the first output of the exclusive long-term partnership between Nokia and Monster Cable, intended to introduce a range of premium audio accessories to reflect the outstanding quality and bold style of the Lumia range. The estimated retail price for the on-ear Nokia Purity HD Stereo Headset by Monster is approximately R1 799, and should be available in a similar timeframe to the Nokia Lumia 800.

Product Specifications:

Nokia Lumia 800 Tech Specs

• Head-turning unibody design with vivid colors: cyan, magenta, black
• Best social networking experience provided by Windows Phone release 7.5
• Best Internet browsing experience with Internet Explorer 9 the browser of your choice.
• Vivid 3.7″ AMOLED, ClearBlack display with WVGA 800×480 pixels, 16 million colours and 2.5D curved glass
• Leading imaging capabilities with Carl Zeiss optics, above the lock capture, 8MP camera with autofocus and touch focus capability, dual LED flash, high definition 720p video recording with 30FPS and one touch image sharing
• Nokia signature hubs: Nokia Drive, Nokia Music
• 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 512MB program memory, 16GB internal user memory, and up to 9 hours of 3G talktime

Nokia Lumia 710: Designed to be affordable

• Can be personalized with white or black body design, five vibrant exchangeable back covers (black, white, cyan, fuchsia and yellow) and thousands of apps
• Best social networking experience provided by Windows Phone release 7.5
• Best Internet browsing experience with Internet Explorer 9<
• 3.7″ WVGA TFT, ClearBlack capacitive touch screen with pinch zoom, 800 x 480 pixels and 16 million colours
• 5 MP camera with auto focus, LED flash, high definition 720p video recording with 30FPS and one-touch image sharing
• Nokia signature hubs: Nokia Drive, Nokia Music
• 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 512MB program memory, 8GB internal user memory, and up to 7.6 hours of 3G talktime

The Nokia Purity HD Stereo Headset by Monster – The ultimate mobile audio experience

• Iconic on-ear headset from two trusted brands
• Sleek, lightweight, bold design
• Advanced Monster driver technologies deliver accurate reproduction of low bass without distortion, clear mids and crisp highs for a pure listening experience
• Ultra-soft ear cushions for hours of comfortable audio listening
• Tangle-free cables and Integrated volume and call handling controls
• Includes premium carrying pouch and two colour-matched audio cables for maximum compatibility with various mobile devices
• Available initially in black and white

Fans of Android devices in South Africa will have to wait until “early 2012” to get this latest smartphone. The recent rumour has been that the new Galaxy phone by Samsung will hit South Africa on Feb. 14 with a price point of R 6,999 – R 7,299.

The Galaxy Nexus is an improvement over the Galaxy S II in a few significant ways.

First, the Nexus features a superb AMOLED screen with 720×1280 resolution. AMOLED screens have contrast rates that are much better than LCD screens. They are also much more power efficient so you won’t have to constantly recharge your phone because the screen is so luminescent.

The most important difference though, is in the software. Besides being a more feature-packed software set, Ice Cream Sandwich trumps the S II because of its “pure” Android experience. With the Galaxy Nexus, users can expect regular updates that are speedy and useful. The biggest beef Android users have had has to do with infrequent or non-existent updates for their devices. Those problems will be a thing of the past for Galaxy Nexus users.

These two phones are top of the line devices, but when the Galaxy Nexus comes to South Africa in February, expect it to be the new king of Android devices.

Where can you pre-order the Samsung Galaxy Nexus in South Africa? Can you upgrade to the Galaxy Nexus on MTN, Vodacom or Cell C? Continue reading for a video review and more details of the benchmark Ice-Cream Sandwich phone coming to South Africa soon..

Melissa is a guest blogger who loves to be up on the latest in tech news, movies and getting deals on her favorite gadgets using an HP coupon.

UPDATE: Virgin Mobile has been informed by Samsung that they can expect stock of the Galaxy Nexus to arrive in the South Africa at the end of January 2012.

Did that headline catch your attention? It could have called used ‘monitor your child’s safety with Mobiflock’ but you probably wouldn’t have been reading this. Mobiflock allows parents to play Big Brother (not the reality show) or should we call Mobiflock Big Mother? If the safety of your child is at stake and you live in fear of what they get up to on their mobile phones and who they contact this will be the tool for you.

The Mobiflock service allows parents to:

• Receive alerts about inappropriate content; cyber-bullying; sexting; predatory activity; spending too much time or money online.
• Find out who their children are contacting and who is contacting them. And what they are saying to each other.
• Control who their child contacts, who contacts them, time and money spent, information sent and received, and applications used.
• Locate where the child or a missing or stolen phone is.
• Set VIP contacts that their child can always contact in an emergency.
• Parents can also safeguard their own phone, especially if their child has access to it.

Mobiflock has been carefully designed to be as easy to use as possible, even for the most non-tech savvy people. The product consists of a small client that is downloaded onto the child’s handset, with monitoring, filtering and alerting happening server-side. Parents access security settings and reports via an easy to use online dashboard. Mobiflock encourages parents to discuss the use of the service with their children, and a small icon appears on the handset when Mobiflock is active so the child knows they are protected.

The app is in beta for Symbian and Android so free to download from either app store, or from the site. Need more Mobiflock info? Click the mobile phone child protection and monitoring service. Here’s to the safety of your kids when using their mobile phones.

This blog has just been upgraded to a new server so this post serves as a test, to see if WordPress is fully functional. Once this post is published successfully I’ll give you more of why I think you should get the Samsung Galaxy SII as soon as you can.

This post is brought to you by Clickatell. Leaders in Personalized Priority Messaging and Mobile CRM software.

CRM or Customer Relationship Management is becoming more prevalent in businesses, from large corporations representing well-known brands, to independent small business owners and start-up entrepreneurs. CRM uses proven methodologies and e-business technologies to help companies identify, select, acquire, develop, and retain profitable customers – building the lasting relationships that are key to long-term financial success.

So, if CRM is key to long-term financial success, let’s look at various ways in which it can be implemented with the help of technology. As this site mainly covers web and mobile technology, let’s review some CRM Software tools.

There are an array of cloud-based CRM software tools and they’re available via open-source or SaaS. Some of the better known CRM Software providers are SugarCRM, Salesforce and Zoho. Unless you have someone with the ability to setup an open source CRM tool on your web server, the SaaS option might be the best tool for you. When you look at Internet penetration in South Africa, you will find that only 25% of people have access to the web via computer or mobile. What about the other 75%? This is where CRM software (that includes SMS software) comes into play. Why? Because, in South Africa, there are as many SIM cards as there are human beings, if not more.

Like the iPad – which fills the gap between using your Laptop and your mobile phone – SMS achieves a similar goal when it comes to CRM. How exactly does SMS work in relation to CRM? To demonstrate this relationship, let’s draw a few examples from big and small South African companies:

Your Bank’s SMS alerts: Many South Africans earning a monthly salary are all too familiar with a specific financial service provider’s SMS alerts, informing them of an account deposit or payment received. Sometimes it happens late at night, sometimes in the early hours of the morning – but being notified that a payment’s been made to your account should put a smile on your face – no matter what time it is

Your ISP and capped ADSL: Most ADSL and mobile users in South Africa are on capped internet connections. Yes, we get emailed before our data runs out, but there are times when you just can’t get around to buying more data before you are unable to access the internet again. This would be the perfect opportunity to utilize 2-way SMS software. The way I see this working is: your ISP SMS’s you once you’ve run out of ‘Gigs’ and by simply replying, you auto-top-up your ADSL account, enabling you to continue surfing.

When you work offline but new business comes from an online source: Smart phones and the push notifications are nifty but your mobile data bill could skyrocket because of them. Most phones are not equipped with this functionality yet though and having to constantly check mail on your mobile without push notifications can prove to be time consuming. This is where integrating an SMS alert with web contact form comes in handy. I’ve been doing this since 2005: whenever someone completes an online contact form on www.idrive.co.za, the person responsible for responding to that new contact immediately gets alerted via SMS. The nature and reality of this specific business, is that most of the SMS recipients are instructing driving classes for most of the day and are away from computers. An SMS alert enables them to respond sooner to any query.

Web AddiCT(s); CRM Software powered by SMS: You, the person reading this blog, could be considered a customer and I wish to engage with you beyond the usual RSS, Facebook and Twitter updates – particularly during times that a competition is being run. At a time like this, the Bulk SMS WordPress plugin comes into play (going to nearly 5000 users). This can also be considered to be Customer Relationship Management.

If you are in search of SMS Software that can also be utilized as CRM software, have a look at the web-based, Bulk SMS app by Clickatell: Clickatell’s Communicator 2 is a SMS tool that allows you to send personalized, bulk SMS text messages and receive replies to your Communicator 2 Inbox.

With the help of Red Bull Mobile and Cell C support we’ve found 3 solutions to the Red Bull Mobile HD and Microsoft Exchange 2010 email problems: These 3 solutions aren’t ideal but until the RBM HD Android version is updated there is no other alternative unless you wipe the RBM HD version clean and install the default version of Android for the device.

1. Touchdown with eXchange ActiveSync

TouchDown™ works with the following types of email servers and is available to download via the Android Market in a 30 day trial :

• Exchange Server 2003 SP2 and above
• Office 365
• Zimbra
• Kerio
• Novell GroupWise
• Sun Java Communication Suite
• Oracle OCS & Beehive Suites
• Mirapoint Messaging Server
• Alt-N MDaemon
• People Cube’s Meeting Maker
• OpenText First Class
• Google Premier Apps
• Mirapoint

maildroid

2. MailDroid

MailDroid is another app available via the Market that supports Microsoft eXchange 2010.

3. K-9 Mail

K-9 Mail

K-9 is an opensource email client based on the Email application shipped with the initial release of Android. K-9 is focused on making it easy to chew through large volumes of email. It’s our hope that K9 leads to improvements in the core Android mail client.

There you have 3 alternatives to the RBM HD email client that supports Microsoft Exchange 2010.

About 3 weeks ago I got my hands on the Red Bull Mobile HD smart phone powered by Android & Cell C. We already know how awesome the Cell C network is but how exactly does the phone compare to other Android phones I’ve used in the past? I decided to switch to Red Bull Mobile HD as my primary mobile device today but might be experiencing some technical problems. i’ve emailed the Cell C representative I got the device from and await feedback. This could possible be a great device on a great network but the support is what really counts IMHO.

Stay tuned as Your Web AddiCT ventures into the wwworld of Red Bull Mobile. Here are some of cool REd Bull Mobile apps that come preloaded on the device which I’ve found useful.

RBMA Radio

With the Red Bull Music Academy Radio you get tons of exclusive songs, live-performan ces, interviews, mixes and music-shows directly on your phone. Since the start of the Music Academy Workshops 2005 the pool of captivating music, out of more than 50 countries, has been steadily growing and waiting to finally be discovered by you.

Some of the RBMA Radio features include:

• Stream thousands of shows live and on-demand
• Get all the background info to your show
• Browse the archive by artist, music genre, or show category while listening
• Bookmark and manage your personal favourites
• Recommend shows to your friends

There are a few more Red Bull Mobile apps available with new ones being added or the ones you currently have installed updated via the App Store.

BlackBerry: South Africa's most desired mobile phone?

There are some interesting comments on the post by Aslam Levy and Christopher Mills. I think this demonstrates that the mobile web is not what you think in South Africa. Yes most of the survey respondents are between the ages of 18 and 24 but they are the future of this country. Makes you think twice before hiring a entire team to build iOS (Iphone and iPad) apps when the future for South Africa appears to be dominated by BlackBerry and Nokia.

On another note… apparently BlackBerry is testing Android apps on their phones. Could this indicate that soon the Android Market will come pre-installed on BlackBerry Devices?

In this keynote by Google chairman of the board, Eric Schmidt, he indicates that mobile continues to grow beyond all expectations.

There are 2 new Android smart phones coming to South Africa thanks to Red Bull Mobile. The unboxing video will follow as soon as I’ve received mine. Stay tuned.