But have you seen the 3D View? Yup, how insane is that?

Click for bigger image

How do you activate it?
- Well, firstly you go to maps.google.com
- Search for the street in Cape Town you’re looking for.
- Then Drag the orange “Pegman” onto your street.
- Voila! Streetview (Or click here for an example )
- Then for the 3D, it’s as easy as right clicking on the image in Google Maps and selecting “3D on”. Easy Peasy!
But you’ll need a pair of these:

Will be weird walking in on someone scanning Google Maps wearing a pair of those..
-A-

Then Mike showed me Web Africa’s latest Facebook online Campaign. You have got to check it out here.
Now here’s the BOMBSHELL. They are giving away iPADs. What?! You heard me. And it’s so effing easy to stand a chance. Check this:

Normally, I’d keep this a secret, but this is so awesome you gotta give it a shot.
Holding thumbs!
-A-

Flashback.
The year was 1995 and  the Sony Playstation was just released, this in a time when I was still saving to buy a Famicom TV Game (a Nintendo knockoff that came with those 100 in 1 cartridges). Oh how I lusted at the sight of the Playstation. Our local video store then got some in and started hiring them out, my heart yearned to take one home with me. One afternoon while cruising the magazine section at CNA I saw it, a PCFormat magazine with the Metal Gear Solid Ninja on its cover. I read the entire article right there and then and was convinced that I needed to play that game! My sanity depended on it. So I saved up some coin and hired MGS and a playstation early one saturday morning, then proceeded to play the game for as much of the  24 hours I had it as possible. Well, actually I was kinda forced to, seeing as how they did not hire memory cards making me have to finish the game in one go.

Epic Ninja picture that started it all

So where am I going with this? From that day I was hooked. Let me tell you this, I have never owned a Playstation, but I started religiously buying Playstation magazines. Leaving me with a pile of Game Previews and Ratings but yet no actual Playstation.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Fast forward to 2009 and I was now one year into my  two year Vodacom contract with a despicable HTC S740. Only other owners of S740′s know of the pain I speak of. I choose it because I was unsure, unsure whether I would like a fully touch screen cellphone and would not miss a Qwerty pad. Biggest mistake ever! You might know that the S740 runs with Windows Mobile 6.1, probably the worst phone OS I have ever had the displeasure using. I even dropped the HTC a few times (accidentally) and cracked the screen, didn’t even bother me. Now the outside matched the software inside. My desparation got so bad that I started entering competitions such as WebAddiCTs “Win a Google phone” competition. I started already looking at what my next phone would be. It was around this time that I started noticing people around me having iPhones, and they seemed very happy about their little mini-Mac phone, sometimes even obsessively so. I looked at them and thought “wow, they such Apple Fanboys” but then wondered where this intense patriotism came from. Soon after that I wandered into an iStore and played around with the demo model. It just felt right. I was hooked.

2010
2010 came around and Apple lust started consuming me, I subscribed to RSS Feeds with ipad and iPhone content. I questioned my strange excitement when Gizmodo ran a series for post detailing the iphone 4 that they had “bought”. Then the inevitable, I installed iTunes and started downloading Free iphone Apps from the US Store (Marc Forrest has a nice Tut showing you how). I now have 73 Apps that I have not yet used, all in anticipation to the soon to be released “iPhone 4″. So once again I have media but no actual device. Even scarier is that I am already looking in the mirror and seeing th Apple Fanboy I once mocked. Perhaps only Google with their Android platform can save me from becoming a Steve Jobs slave (but I could wear a black Turtle neck and make it work…).
Below you can see an iTunes Screenshot of the Apps I have downloaded. The iTunes Appstore has a great selection of Games, Social networking and reference Apps but it is an area Google with the Andriod Appstore will start aggresively tackling in months to come. At the moment I still feel that Apple Quality over Andriod Quantity is better, but time will tell as to how this pans out. What makes it hard for me to get a better sense of a Andriod phone is that I cant walk into a Google “iStore” and play with the device. This is an area where Apple is doing well to convert sceptics, like I once was.

Click on the image above to view the larger image

With a week and a half to Steve Job WWDC 2010 announcement where he will show the world the latest incarnation of the iphone I’m looking forward to the following features:
- The new design
- Video Recording at 720p
- Improved display “960×640″?
- Flash for the Camera
-  The Game Centre

The soon to be released iPhone 4th Generation

Oh, I’m sure your noticed the hint in the blog title to a particular Jay-Z song. If you didnt click the link below to watch the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etl9kkIGaHo Jay Z 99
I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post and come back in a few months when I have cleansed myself from the HTC S740 and will be basking in iPhone awesomeness
-A-

I’m actually really excited
-A-

On the 21st of March I got Married! It was EPIC beyond all proportions. I think the only day that could surpass it is when I become a Dad one day (just had a weird thought that my kids might read this one day… ).

We held the Nikkah in Grassy Park and then went for the obligatory photo sessions at Rhodes Memorial, Camps Bay and Claremont Gardens.
The Reception was held in the Bo-Kaap Kombuis restaurant in Bo-kaap (obviously) just before sunset. As the sun set and the city lights sparkled we lit the table candles as we did the speeches.
I could go on and on but the pictures below say it all!

All dressed and ready to leave mums house

My Bride and her Bridesmaids

Camps Bay

On the beach in a Suit, wont happen anytime soon...

The EPIC Beach Photo

Someone asked me to explain what it felt like to be Married. I was speechless for a bit and then said “We were driving in our car the day after the wedding and thought how we were the same two people in the same car but yet something had changed, something unexplainable. My best attempt to put it into words would be to say that it feels like a heightened sense of commitment to the person you love”
Till my next post,
A Happily Married, Aslam

On Tuesday I joined a group of bloggers on a tour of Fire ID and Mxit, who are both based in the Stellenbosch Techno Park. The Tour was arranged byDave Duarte, known for amongst other  things the hugely popular 27 Dinners

FireID are a hugely successful and proudly South African Startup mentored by Justin Stanford of Silicon Cape Fame.

Second on the list of Startups we visited was the  now infamous Mxit.

Some interesting points about the Mxit Service I picked up:
- Currently has a 19Million User Base
- Approx. 20 000 registrations per day
- Has a vested interest in education, the launch of “Tixi” shows that Mxit is serious about this.
- Mxit Xchange, the new classified section has 1.7 Million subscribers
- Mxit Evo is the first PC Client that CEO Herman Heunis deems  ”Decent”

Mxit Offices with Herman Neunis

Mxit Future

2010/2011 Outlook

Mxit monitoring screens

Below are some images that I took on the day:

The Hot Water Band providing pre-match festivities

CTT Team, Living it LOUDER!

Cape Town flags flying at Cape Town Stadium

Helen Zille enters Cape Town Stadium

The Stormers warming up

The Ball Boy looking on, aspiration in his eyes...

40 000 Fans!

Go Stormers!!!

Rafiq Phillips your Cape Town Web AddiCT has also been delivering great posts on Andriod Mobile advancement and it’s adoption by Cellphone Manufacturers.
His recent post to win a Android phone comes as a godsend as I’ve been considering Andriod as a replacement to my disfigured HTC S740.

Shoulda gotten a case... I know

I mean really, how is a self-confessed Geek supposed to enjoy my mobile online fix with such a device. Even had the screen not have been cracked the Windows Mobile 6.1 experience alone makes this a undesirable device (Dont know why I thought WinMo was a good idea)

For More on the OpenMoko FreeRunner check Rafiq’s post here.
-A-

The FIFA World Cup 2010 Final Draw will happen at the CTICC at 7pm on December 4th and stream video from the Long Street party at the Final draw. The Long Street Party will be pumping all day long.
For more info on the Free Party in long street that will have huge screens streaming the draw live from CTICC, check the Facebook page here.

Below are a few snaps I took with my Camera phone. The image quality is not the best but it gives a sense of the magnitude of the event.

Powerpoint slide at the Media Briefing

The Main Stage where the draw will take place

The Stage has a Baobab Tree Theme

The SABC Outside Broadcasting Unit worth Approx. $10 million

The Sony HD Production Suite

Note the HD television Feeds

Some More info on Final Draw:
- 135 Million people will watch the broadcast
- It will be live in 200 Countries and territories
- Brazil have been in every FIFA World Cup Draw

See YOU there,
-A-

See the article here: http://www.travelwires.com/wp/2009/11/interview-with-aslam-levy-emarketing-co-ordinator-at-cape-town-tourism/

Snippet from the about Travelwires page:

“My name is Muzi Mohale, your host on this blog through the love of travelling and the internet. Through Travelwires.com I aim to highlight the latest trends available to effectively running a profitable small tourism business.

Though only started blogging full-time in March 2009, this blog has been in operation since 11 October 2006.

I aim to grow Travelwires.com and be able to delegate most of the work that comes with managing a growing blog to also venture into other sectors of tourism.”