Xbox fans have been jumped at the Kinect peripheral and games, and so Microsoft have been quick to roll out new challenges to keep the hype up. Available for 320 Microsoft Points exclusively on Xbox LIVE, the “Calorie Challenge” game add-on offers 250 new Achievements Points, and two new Avatar Awards. Whether you’re swinging a punch at Mighty Milk in Boxing,  or racing against Steady Celery towards the finish line in Track & Field, bring your A-game for healthy fun with the “Kinect Sports: Calorie Challenge.”

“Kinect Sports: Calorie Challenge” Calorie Rivals

• Blazing Banana (63 calories)
• Chunky Chocolate (177 calories)
• Mighty Milk (91 calories)
• Peppy Pizza (238 calories)
• Steady Celery (26 calories)
• Super Soda (129 calories)

If you do not know about Kinect Sports, check the video below:

So with “Kinect Sports” you’re not only the star player, you are the controller — through the magic of Kinect for Xbox 360. See a ball? Kick it. Spike it. Bump it.  Even give it a little topspin. Simple, intuitive and instantly fun, “Kinect Sports” delivers the ultimate party experience — whether you are trying to outmaneuver the goalie to win the soccer match or cheering on your friends at ringside.

The first full-body, controller-free sports game that lets you physically compete with friends over Xbox LIVE, “Kinect Sports” is so real, you will almost feel the wind in your hair as you fly over hurdles and the sand in your toes as you set, bump and spike your way to volleyball victory.

This Just In: SA to get iPad 2 on 29 April!

Well this is great news – last year South Africa only got the iPad in November, some six months after the rest of the world. Well it seems Core or Apple have been listening to our complaints of getting the iPad late. It looks like SA does not have to be treated like a second class tech citizens, and we will be getting the Apple iPad 2 very soon!

Bandwidth Blog has already reviewed the iPad 2 (twice), finding it to be a great device which refines on all the features which has made the iPad a success worldwide. If you have been holding off on getting iPad 2, now might be the time to take the jump. Only question now is to see what Core’s interpretation of the official pricing is-if it continues the pricing trend until now, I expect it to be a very popular device in SA. Will this drop the pricing of iPad 1 even more? Will there be a blown out sale?

Update: Official pricing has been released by Core, and it looks pretty good! Have to commend Core for keeping the pricing competitive! So lets see: (more…)

Update: Since this review post went live, Core has announced that iPad 2 will reach SA on 29 April. And the pricing is not half bad! Yeah, we are happy as well.

In March we were lucky enough to show you of what it was like to wait in line at the Apple store in Austin, Texas and get hold of the iPad 2. While we focussed on the entire purchasing experience, we wanted to spend some more time with the device before we gave our full opinion. For the past few weeks we have been dealing with the iPad 2 enough to get a much more informed account if it really deserves our hard earned cash, or if it maybe warrants an update from the iPad 1. So lets dive in…

Physical Features

If you have handled the original iPad, and liked it, you will like the iPad 2. Apple did not steer too much away from it, instead only refining elements of the design. A typical example of evolution, not revolution, the iPad 2 is slightly thinner. While you do not necessarily notice the thinner chassis, you definately notice the new flat back, instead of the rounded back of the original iPad. The iPad 2 also now has tapered edges, instead of the corners previously used. This, combined with the flat back really does make the device more comfortable to hold. The rear sports a new speaker design that had me worried if the sound will be muffled if placed flat on a table, but that is luckily not the case. The only other difference on the back of the device is the new camera – but we will get there.

One of the criticisms of the previous iPad was that the device was too heavy. While it was still very light compared to laptops, it was rather uncomfortable to read with for extended periods of time. The iPad 2 is a little bit lighter, and a person can really feel the difference. It is still not as comfortable to read as with the Amazon Kindle though. (more…)

8ta today announced their Blackberry deals, and it really looks good. Compared to other networks their deals are a lot more comprehensive for the average user, and they really have some great value add ons. While Blackberry is a very good deal in SA, most people do not realise that youtube videos are not part of the BIS package. BIS is Blackberry’s data solution which has unlimited internet and email usage (except for streaming).

So 8ta is shaking things up by adding Youtube streaming to their packages, upto a total of 500MB. So if you are big Youtube fan, these contracts might sway you in 8ta’s direction. Also, if you are someone who mostly phones home from your phone, the 8ta Blackberry deal allows you to select one Telkom number which you can call free of charge, something which we believe will be very popular. This is also on top of 8ta’s other small value adds – like giving 50 free SMS’s for every 5 you send.

8ta also somehow managed to decrease the pricing of BIS on their dedicated BB packages – they charge only R49 per month, which is around 20% cheaper than other networks.

At the moment 8ta is first focussing on the lower end of the Blackberry market with only the Blackberry Curve 8520 and 9300, but the Bold 9780 and Torch 9800 will be announced later.

So what do their deals look like?

If you want to use your own Blackberry on the 8ta network, you can get BIS for R59 a month, and Blackberry Enterprise Service for R89, which is pretty much in line with other networks.

But lets look at their Blackberry Contract Deals:

BlackBerry Curve 8520 with BIS – R90 per month

BlackBerry 9300 & BIS plus LG C105 – R500 per month

These deals look really good, especially the 8520 deal. It will only further cement Blackberry’s lead in the SA smartphone space…

Source: MyBroadband

Earlier this month Google announced a new Incubator in South Africa called Umbono. You come to them with your world altering idea and in turn they give you office space, money, bandwidth and servers. It literally is the ultimate opportunity for any South African with the technical skills and a cool idea, but unfortunately Google got it completely wrong.

One day two University students named Adam and Steve made their way to Y Combinator to pitch an idea that they thought had potential, but Paul Graham who heads up Y Combinator thought the idea sucked and turned them down. A little bit later they received a phone call from Paul saying: “…listen guys we didn’t like your idea but we liked you, come back and lets come up with a new idea you guys can work on”. Adam and Steve are the founders of Reddit.

Google aims to change the start up landscape in South Africa with Umbono, but as long as they have a “good idea” as an entrance requirement they never will.  First of all – who are the creators of Google Buzz and Google Wave to judge whether or not someone’s idea is good or bad? Picking people based on whether or not they have a good idea is a terrible way to filter people.

I know endless amounts of friends and family members that have awesome ideas everyday on how to make a better burger than McDonalds, or how to make a better car than Toyota, but none of them will ever create a McDonalds or Toyota. The reason they will never create it is because they don’t have the “right stuff”, and even with funding they will still lack the right stuff. This is why Paul Graham says they invest in people and not in ideas. So how should Google do it? (more…)

Daniel Tzvetkoff: Smug

Eleven people, including founders of the three largest online poker companies have been charged in the latest crack down on Internet gambling. Some of Poker’s biggest names are involved – namely PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.

Daniel Tzvetkoff might be the twenty something man behind their fall.

He was described by those who knew him as a “boy wonder” and “genius” who started his first company at 13 and knew all the intricacies of e-commerce.

He made Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars millions of dollars — and made as much as $150,000 a day for himself with his payment processing company, Intabill. Daniel had a long list of clients including travel firms, online stores and pharmaceutical companies.

Tzvetkoff was on a roll – he went from obscurity to front page news back in April 2008 when he snapped up a $28 million mega-mansion on Australia’s gold coast. He then bought a Lamborghini with the number plate “BALLER”, a mega 30m boat called Maximus and a Fortitude Valley nightclub, to entertain his friends.

Daniel Tzvetkoff's $28 Mil mansion

Company records show Tzvetkoff drew an annual income of $500,000 and at the height of the company, drew an annual income of $2 million.

Tzvetkoff made The Sunday Mail’s 2008 Rich List, with a personal wealth of $82 million and really appeared to have it all… mid twenties. (more…)

The Oatmeal once again perfectly sums up our frustrations with computers. Have to say – there is element of truth in this (you can click the image to be taken to his site):

If you have not yet visited The Oatmeal yet, do yourself a favour and head over to his site right now. Matthew Inman really has some awesome comics – and he recently released a book as well.

Source: The Oatmeal

Apple’s iOS smartphone operating system is no longer the innovative operating system it used to be – in fact recent shipments of Android-based phones have overtaken iOS device shipments. While this is not necessarily due to Android being a better OS, there is a few things that stand out in recent releases of the software which does make iOS look ancient. And its not only Android -look at HP’s latest iteration of WebOS which is about to be put into their phone and tablet devices. The multitasking system is brilliant,  and small tricks like the between-device sharing is awesome. And one unlikely candidate is also showing up – even though Windows Phone 7′s sales have not been great, you only need to spend a few minutes with it to see that it really is a great interface, despite its shortcomings.

So what can Apple do to improve on iOS? In my opinion Apple does not have to improve too much on the hardware – in fact almost 10 months after being released, the iPhone 4 is still the best looking smartphone on the market (and queue the antenna-hysteria…), and the iPad (and iPad 2) is best of breed hardware. My criticism instead lies with the operating system – iOS. So here is what I would like to see in iOS5:

1) First and foremost: a Better Notification System

This is by far the most requested feature right now for iOS. While I like the concept of push notifications instead of constantly running apps in the backround, I really do not like the way the actual notifications are handled on the device. Currently only one single notification can be shown on the screen at a time, and once a new message comes in, you cannot go back and check previous incoming notifications. This is simply pathetic. Yes, it dumbs down the device so that non-power users do not have to thing to much about what is going on. But what about users who have multiple instant messengers running, a lot of SMS interaction and rely on push notifications for certain tasks? Also, the current iOS implementation darkens the entire screen, requiring the user to stop what he/she is doing and first take note of the message. While this is fine for the occasional message, it is terrible if you get bombarded with multiple IM’s every day. And this is especially a shame on the big screen of the iPad. Seriously, you have this big beautiful screen, and I must take note of the message right now?

In my opinion Android still has the best implementation of notifications – the top bar on the phone can be filled with icons to inform you of incoming messages, and the user simply pulls down that bar to see all the notifications at once, and clear the ones that is not relevant anymore. Sure, it can become messy if not kept in check, but it works. Also, look at the way Android’s tablet version (Honeycomb) uses notifications, which does not take over the entire screen. Messages just pop up non-intrusively on the bottom of the screen, much like your desktop operating systems. Take a look here:

If you want to see a great example of how Apple can improve on its notifcation system without spoiling its current look and feel – take a look at Mobilenotifier. While only in beta and available only to jailbroken devices, Apple really needs to take a look at this. Great artists steal, remember?

(more…)