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iPad assists South African President Zuma with State of the Nation address
South African President Jacob Zuma seems to be a big fan of the iPad. About a year ago, a photo was tweeted just prior to the 2011 State of the Nation address showing Zuma preparing his speech on an iPad. This year, as you can see at right, President Zuma is using his "indispensable" iPad again for the address. He appears to like the two-finger typing method favored by many iPad users. As noted on PhoneRPT.com, the State of the Nation address is part of the opening of the South African Parliament and a "one of the key events in South Africa's political calendar." The speech takes place today, although we won't know until after the event if Zuma uses the iPad as a portable teleprompter or just in the preparation of his address. Zuma is also asking South Africans to share comments on the address via email, Twitter, and Facebook. No word if President Zuma has purchased Tweetbot for iPad yet...
Cubic Telecom's Maxroam data SIM card lets you roam the globe without breaking the bank
It's never easy to travel the globe on a tight budget, but Cubic Telecom is doing its best to ease the financial burden a bit, with its new Maxroam card -- a global data SIM card that allows American travelers to access the web for just 65 cents per MB. The card, available without any subscription or contract, works within a total of 43 countries, including India, Australia, South Africa and Europe. All you have to do is purchase the card, insert it in your unlocked handset and activate it online. From there, you'll be able to use Maxroam until you reach the data limit, without worrying about expiration dates or time constraints. It's available now at the source link below, though as Cubic Telecom points out, final data rates may vary with the euro/dollar exchange rate.
Vodafone brings ARM and Ubuntu together for South African Webbook
If you don't know what Ubuntu is by now, we're not sure what tech blog you're reading -- 'cause it sure isn't this one. Ok, so finding a computer with the world's most popular Linux distro preloaded on it isn't exactly easy (there aren't any lurking in your local Best Buy, that's for sure). But, tracking down a machine running the Ocelot in South Africa will be getting a bit simpler. The country's Vodafone affiliate, Vodacom, launched the Webbook -- a 10-inch laptop running Ubuntu 11.10 on a Cortex A8-based Freescale i.MX51 processor (likely 800MHz). Inside is also 512MB of RAM and 4GB of flash storage, enough for basic browsing. The Webbook is available now, starting at R1,499 (about $190) for just the device, and climbing up to R1,899 (about $245) for the Webbook, modem and 100MB of monthly data for 12 months. There's also an on-contract option, which nets you the pile of hardware, plus 500MB of data for R189 a month and a two year commitment. Check out the pair of press releases after the break, as well as one more photo of the device
Uncharted 3 'Multiplayer Experience' live for PS Plus members in EMEA, AU/NZ this week
It seems that Subway and Naughty Dog's bizarre "Taste for Adventure" campaign doesn't extend past US borders, as Uncharted 3's "Multiplayer Experience" heads to other parts of the world this Wednesday without help from the sandwich chain. The only caveat? You must have a subscription to PlayStation Plus to join in. Sony's EU blog announced as much this morning, detailing the "Multiplayer Experience" as a chance for gamers in "Europe, South Africa, The Middle East, Australia and New Zealand" to check out U3's multiplayer -- post-beta -- for a full month before the game's early November launch. Don't fret, frugal non-PS Plus subscriber, as the announce additionally teases "other ways to gain access" to the multiplayer... thing via the PS blog and community forums. Like the US version, participants will be able to carry over "key aspects" of their multiplayer experience to the retail version, such as XP. Other details are unfortunately scant, but Sony promises more soon.%Gallery-121445%
First PS3 jailbreak raid in South Africa arrests one man, confiscates his kits
Officials in Johannesburg, South Africa conducted the world's first "PS3 circumvention raid" at a residential property in Parktown, confiscating $14,000 (R100,000) worth of computers, PS3s, hard drives, jailbreak software and USB kits, along with "fake" PS2 games and original PS3 games. One man was taken into custody at the Specialized Commercial Crimes Court but made bail, and is expected in court September 29. ... Just to be sure, has anyone seen our own South African friend Luddy in the past few days?
Goldfish pixel-art music video is swimming with gaming references
How many video-game references can South African electronica group Goldfish fit into roughly 4 minutes of painstakingly, beautifully animated pixel art? All of them, it turns out. All of the references. We stopped counting after a hojillion. [Thanks, Christopher!]
Electric Land Rover makes it way easier to sneak up on cowardly lions
It's likely impossible to go on safari in Africa without having any environmental impact at all -- particularly on the ones where shooting things is involved -- but this is certainly a step in the right direction. Battery manufacturer Axeon has teamed up with Jaguar Land Rover South Africa to offer animal watchers / hunters a greener way to get around, outfitting the Defender 110 High Capacity Pick Up with a battery pack where the diesel engine usually goes. The new power source cuts out the car's emissions and silences the engine, making it easier to sneak up on wildlife. This concept vehicle (not Rover's first attempt to green things up) is debuting at the INDABA trade show this week in South Africa, so now would be the time to alert any antelope in your life.
Kinect used to teach in South African primary school
Microsoft is giving primary school kids in South Africa a chance at a real hands-off education. Classrooms at Lakeside Park Primary, in the Vryheid, KwaZulu-Natal district (yes, it's a Natal project) are being equipped with Kinect cameras and Xbox 360s as part of a Microsoft initiative, in order to encourage English use in the classroom. "Shy learners, who take months to speak up in class in their mother tongue – let alone in English, were already shouting out to classmates to 'jump' and 'duck' with no inhibition," Lakeside Park Primary Deputy Principal Karen Kirsten explained. According to XboxGaming, the Kinect and its English-language games are used to reduce the affective filter involved in learning and speaking English, so it can be better used as the teaching language in the classroom. As a bonus, it teaches valuable mime skills.
TomTom puts its HD Traffic service data in a browser, lets everyone use it for free
We've gotten lost and found our way home again courtesy of many a navigation system over the years, but if ever we're battling not just confusing roadways but also unpredictable traffic patterns it's TomTom we want on our side. The HD Traffic service the company offers is always spot-on, and now you can access that constantly-updated and really quite detailed data from your web browser. However, there's a catch: right now it's only available in Europe and South Africa. Also, the interface is a bit clunky. Oh, and the presentation isn't nearly as nice as on the company's mobile apps. But it is all free, and so you really can't complain too much about any of that. Full details in the PR below.
The Road to Mordor: The Professor
This past week on January 3rd, J.R.R. Tolkien celebrated his 118th birthday -- or rather, we celebrated it for him. Tolkien was born in South Africa in 1892 and lived a rich and full life, from fighting in the first World War to working on the Oxford English Dictionary to taking a position at several universities that would earn him the nickname "The Professor." He is, of course, most well-remembered for his seminal works of fantasy -- The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion -- although his writings didn't end there. Due to Tolkien's love of nature, linguistics, and mythology, his creations were born out of comprehensive backgrounds and rich histories, which he seemed to love making up just as much as the stories themselves. For years now, Tolkien fans around the world have remembered his birthday by raising a glass on his birthday and giving a simple toast, "The Professor," at 9:00 p.m. wherever they lived. Likewise, in Lord of the Rings Online, many players gathered at their tavern of choice to do the same. Today I thought I'd remember the Professor in a slightly different way by exploring the quest chain "Missing the Meeting." While it's not completely overt if you happened to come across it, "Missing the Meeting" is a tribute to J.R.R. Tolkien and his life, and it's worth going through at least once if you want to pay homage and get a nifty token by which to remember him.
Exclusive: a look around ESPN's 3D Master Control room
Not sure if you knew, but today marks the launch of ESPN's first dedicated 3D channel, predictably titled ESPN 3D. For now, the channel will only be active whenever 3D sporting events are being aired, starting with a full 25 FIFA World Cup matches from the Republic of South Africa. It's a pretty monumental launch for the world leader in broadcast sports, and it's obviously taking a pretty big leap with only a smattering of 3D sets available and an obviously limited amount of content at its disposal. That said, there's hardly a better way to enjoy 3D content than to see sports in the third dimension, which makes the appeal of this new station that much stronger. We're here live at the company's kickoff event in Bristol, Connecticut, and we'll be bringing you lots of coverage from behind the scenes. One important piece that has yet to be revealed to the public is exactly how this material is getting from the field to the consumer, with Comcast, DirecTV and AT&T (U-verse) signed on from day one. During our shooting for The Engadget Show (don't worry -- we'll be cutting it up and getting it live as soon as possible!) we were able to stop by ESPN's 3D Master Control room, a box no larger than the average American kitchen but infinitely important in the grand scheme of things. Amazingly enough, the room pictured in the gallery below didn't exist six weeks ago, and in an insanely short period of time ESPN has managed to create a control room that sucks feeds in from all over the world, adds graphics (along with a specialized ESPN 3D "bug"), ensures that everything is aligned properly and then pipes it out to the aforesaid carriers. %Gallery-94971%
Vodafone puts BlackBerry Storm2 up for 26 October preorder
And it's out. The BlackBerry Storm2 just made its first official carrier appearance with Vodafone. The promising followup to the much maligned BlackBerry Storm will be free on pay-monthly contracts from £35 on up. Specs include a 3.25-inch 360 x 480 pixel capacitive SurePress (new and improved) touchscreen display, 802.11b/g WiFi and 2100MHz UMTS/HSPA data, 256MB of flash memory (double that of the original Storm), 2GB of onboard memory with microSDHC expansion, 3.5-mm standard headset jack, 3.2 megapixel camera with video recording, built-in GPS, Bluetooth 2.1, and 1400mAh battery giving about 6 hours of 3G talk. BlackBerry OS 5 too, of course, when it lands on October 15th in the UK, Ireland, Germany, The Netherlands, and Spain -- France, Italy, and South Africa in time for Christmas. Update: Now on official RIM page too with a detailed comparison against the original Storm. %Gallery-75629% [Thanks, James] Read -- Press Release Read -- Pre-order
250GB Forza Motorsport 3 bundle announced for UK, South Africa
Are you seeing a pattern yet? After an early reveal, Microsoft has officially announced a 250GB Xbox 360 bundle in the UK and South Africa – including Forza Motorsport 3 (standard edition), two wireless controllers, and a headset – all for price of £249.99 or R4,999 (that's $413 and $680 earth bucks, respectively). The bundle will be available on October 23, alongside the game. Like the recently announced Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 bundle, this Forza 3 "Super Elite" bundle includes the not-available-separately 250GB hard drive, lending credence to the theory that Microsoft will only be including the beefier drive in bundle form. Unlike the Modern Warfare 2 bundle, we don't expect the Forza Xbox to be Forza-themed. Interestingly, not all bundles will include this 250GB option: take the similarly European 120GB Halo 3: ODST bundle which swaps the 250GB upgrade for a copy of Halo 3. What's still not clear is if any of these foreign bundles will make their way to North America or if the Modern Warfare 2 bundle gets the 250GB drive all to itself.
Pigeon transmits data faster than leading South African internet provider
Here's a sure-fire way to get noticed: take an overly trite expression and apply it literally to your complaint. Case in point: Unlimited IT, so exasperated by South Africa's leading supplier of slow internet connectivity that it pitted a Telkom ADSL line against a real-live homing pigeon in a 60-mile data transmission race. The pigeon arrived with the 4GB memory stick in just over an hour with another hour required to load the data onto the computer. As for Telkom? Well, after 2 hours it had barely reached 4%. Point made. [Thanks, Ugotamesij]
An official server for South Africa
Here's an interesting post from what looks like a site in Zaire wondering if Blizzard will ever bring World of Warcraft to South Africa. It's true -- we all take it for granted that here in North America and Europe, the game is available, but in many parts of the world, it's not. And apparently there's a market in a place like South Africa -- Blizzard says they have about five to seven thousand players down there already (we'd assume they're playing on EU or US servers), and that probably doesn't count any of the players on private servers, which could be as many as 20,000. iGame is a division of an ISP called iBurst down there, and they say they're prepared to run an official server (within 24 hours' notice!) if Blizzard gives the OK, but Blizzard has told them that they need at least 40,000 players in the area to make it worth running an official server.There's another option called a "peering" server, which apparently does hook up to Blizzard's servers, but uses local connections and networks to make things a little faster. But again, Blizzard needs to assent to that, and it seems like they're hesitant at the moment.Oceanic realms have had issues for a long time, but at least the players there do have a chunk of servers dedicated to them. Are there any other major places in the world that don't have official WoW support yet? South America? India?
International HD news roundup
Here at Engadget HD, we'd prefer not to just focus on high-def happenings in the US of A. Thus, we round up the best of the best from the international front each week and present it here, bundled together in a single, easy to digest list. If something went down in your corner of the globe over the past seven days, let the rest of the world know it in comments. 'Til next week, Sanga'ay hanto!Read - AETN signs carriage agreement with Taiwan Broadband CommunicationsRead - AAAN enters TaiwanRead - Multichoice HD PVR update positively received (South Africa)Read - Central European Expansion for HISTORY & HISTORY HDRead - History HD confirmed for SkylinkRead - Microsoft Mediaroom Comes to RussiaRead - High Definition a key driver for UK Projector marketRead - ITV, C4 worry over Freeview HD fundingRead - El Salvador adopts ATSC digital TV standard
South Africans to see 2010 World Cup in HD after all?
We were completely and utterly dismayed after hearing that South Africa -- the host nation of the 2010 World Cup -- would not be able to catch the action in high-def in its own backyard. Thankfully, it seems that someone with some clout was able to change all that, or at least that's what we've gleaned from a recent writeup praising the country's sole HD channel (DSTv). Put simply, the writer states that "all [2010] World Cup games will be televised in high-definition," and he also states that locals can catch said HD action "on big screens at one of the many fan parks that will be dotted about the country." We're sincerely hoping these fan parks come to fruition -- can you imagine the excitement of a people experiencing HD for the first time as they watch the beautiful game?
MultiChoice sees 26% increase in South African subscribers, eyes more HD for next year
Things may not be all peaches and cream for every programming provider out there, but we'd say the cards are playing out just fine for Africa's MultiChoice. The carrier has just recently reported a 26% increase in subscribers over the past year, bringing its total installed base to 830,000 in South Africa. Of course, bigwigs are already looking for ways to get that figure up even higher, and expanding high-def is obviously on the brain. Eben Greyling, CEO of MultiChoice Africa has noted that more HD should be seen around September of next year once the outfit has "migrated to a new satellite which supports the HD format," and it'll also be bringing video-on-demand with it in 2009. Atta way to show 'em how it's done, MultiChoice.
Sony shows off curved multi-panel HDTV display at FIFA event
There's not really a practical in-home use for the display array you see pictured on the right, but it sure demands attention at trade shows and special events. Demonstrated at the FIFA Confederations Cup Final Draw at the Sandton Convention Centre in South Africa, the highly unique display consists of nine individual HDTVs mounted on a curve aluminum structure. The whole lot was coordinated to form a single image via Sony's Ziris Canvas HD technology with split visual HDTV renders running on a "proprietary PlayStation 3 hardware solution." According to the report, this is just the fourth time ever that this tech has been used, and it's the first time in South Africa. Man, would 3D material be trippy on this or what?
iPhone in 29 new countries; unlocked in Hong Kong
Our sister site Engadget reports that Apple is now offering unlocked iPhones in Hong Kong via its online store. HK$5,500 (≈ US$700) will buy you an 8GB model, HK$6,200 (≈ US$800) gets you 16GB. The Apple Store's terms and conditions limit sales to individuals in Hong Kong only, but who knows what the gray market will bring. Three Russian carriers will also begin selling unlocked iPhones on October 3, with the 8GB model selling for over US$900. In related news, 29 new countries will begin selling the iPhone, some today: Botswana, Brazil, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Madagascar, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Niger, Panama, Qatar, Senegal, South Africa, Turkey and Venezuela. [Via IGM.]
