The Vodacom Apps Store has reached 100 000 downloads in its first month, and the company is now launching a program to support local talent in applications development. This Vodacom Developer Program aims to create an environment of collaboration and innovation amongst the local developer community.

The program will launch in Johannesburg on 7 October 2011 at the Protea Fire and Ice Hotel in Melrose Arch from 6-9pm, and in Cape Town on 10 October 2011 at Vodacom’s main auditorium in Century City from 6-9pm. This is free for those wishing to attend.

Prins Mhlanga, Managing Executive of Digital Media at Vodacom commented: “We see the Apps store as the embryo of an ecosystem. We’re looking forward to building a network of successful local developers, so they can help develop apps that help South Africans.

“With our apps initiative, we hope to complement and enhance this already vibrant community.”

The program promises to be a valuable knowledge sharing and learning exercise for the industry as a whole. Those attending will be provided with the opportunity to:

-       engage with the most renowned industry specialists in the mobile apps marketplace;

-       discuss tools to monetize apps

-       identify training opportunities in the mobile apps environment; and

-       gain insight into Vodacom’s innovation incentives and available technical and commercial support.

The Vodacom Apps Store was launched on 1 September 2011, and features a catalogue of over 140 000 applications powered by Appia, one of the world’s largest open application marketplaces. All Vodacom customers who wish to access Vodacom apps can do so by visiting http://vodacom.mobi/apps on their cellphones or from the apps feature on Vodafone live.

“The opportunities for further development in the Vodacom Apps Store are significant considering it also supports all major platforms including Android, Blackberry, Java, Symbian and Windows Mobile,” Mhlanga concluded.

Developers and interested parties are invited to register for the Vodacom Developer Programme at www.vodacom.co.za/developer

Owning an Android device means that you’ll try out a large number of applications over time. Sometimes there are so many that writing a single post for each and every one of them doesn’t really make sense – so we’re introducing a new series of posts that will showcase a few applications at once. This first iteration looks at a few South African centred applications, either developed locally, or targeting the local market.

BatteryFu (Free)
Probably one of the first applications to come out of South Africa, BatteryFu by local developer Toby Kurien helps you get more out of your device’s battery by periodically toggling mobile data (or Wi-Fi) – so your device is only connected and checking your accounts for a short period of time. A novel idea, and one that apparently works very well.

BatteryFu features:

• Lean and fast (see download size!)
• APNdroid support (use if data is not switching off)
• Widget: tap icon to toggle, tap text to config
• Data while screen is on, with screen off delay
• Data while charger is plugged in
• 3rd party app support (using intents)
• Travel mode (wifi off)

Computicket (Free) (more…)

The iPhone is not exactly a niche product anymore, and especially not in SA. While not close to the popularity of Blackberry, SA developers are not ignoring iPhone. There is clearly a market to develop for South African iPhone users, and there has been a lot of apps released in recent times. We thought it might be time to list our favourite “Made in South Africa / for South Africans” apps. It should be pointed out that many of these apps are available on other smartphone platforms as well.

News 24: Yeah, we are not starting off with the little guy. News24′s app has been out almost ever since the first iPhones appeared on our shores, and the app has had quite a few updates. While sometimes buggy, it is still one of the first apps to recommend to someone fresh to iPhone. It is versatile as well – you do not have to only read news – it can be customized to have your favorite sections of the 24.com empire right within one touch. For example – I like having Fin24 and Wheels24 links on the bottom of my News24 install. (more…)

Vodacom’s new mobile applications store will go live in September 2011. Vodacom Apps will feature a catalogue of over 140,000 applications powered by Appia, one of the world’s largest open application marketplaces.  This event marks the launch of what Vodacom believes will be an entirely new local South African mobile application ecosystem, complete with the development of homegrown talent and revenue opportunities. (Ed: Though Vodacom – you know the idea is not new… right?)

Vodacom Apps will support major mobile platforms including Android, Blackberry, Java, Symbian and Windows Mobile, making it relevant for the vast majority of data capable cellphones and smartphones.  The store will feature a wide variety of apps in various categories such as games, travel and entertainment, business and professional, work and school, and phone tools.

Pieter Uys, Vodacom Chief Executive Officer said:

“The launch of this app store is just the beginning. We’re building an entire community that will supply home-grown apps relevant to the South African environment. With all the talent available in this country there’s no reason we can’t create our own application industry. The great part about this store is that it caters for so many users – in fact, more than 10 million cellphones on our network can run at least Java apps.”

Vodacom Apps users will be able to download free apps, for which standard data charges will apply. In the near future, Vodacom will introduce paid-for apps which customers can pay for using their airtime account.  This means that all Vodacom customers can use the store without the need for a credit or debit card.

All Vodacom customers who wish to access Vodacom Apps can do so from 1 September by simply visiting http://vodacom.mobi/apps on their cellphones or from the Apps feature on Vodafone live! – take note this will not replace existing app stores on devices.

“Vodacom’s commitment to supporting and further developing the South African apps market is being taken a step further today through an extensive Vodacom Developer Programme, launched in conjunction with the Vodacom Apps store,” Uys added.

The Vodacom Developer Programme will provide the developer community with technical and commercial support, including training, workshops and innovation incentives over the coming months. This will further stimulate the local development of apps by allowing developers to upload their own developed applications and generate revenue from this.

Many of you probably know and use Opera Mini, which allows the user to browse quickly, but also saves money by compressing data before it arrives on your phone. The result is that some images might look slightly more pixelated, but at the end of the day it is well worth the cost savings and improved speed.

Now what if you can have these kind of savings on almost all the apps you use on your iPhone? Charl Norman pointed me in the direction of Onavo (available on iPhone and iPad) – somewhat strangely named, and yes I was skeptical. But anyway, I installed the free app to try it out. Onavo acts as a proxy server that first compresses all data before it arrives on your phone.They are currently focussing the app on world travellers who have to giant data costs, but nothing prevents you from using it all the time. Take a look at the video below for a better idea…

The part that intrigued me was how Onavo would do such a thing on even a traditionally very locked down device like the iPhone. Well -its pretty straightforward it seems. Onavo installs an XML configuration profile on your device, similiar to what you might use in enterprise setups (if you ever used iPhone Configuration Utility, you will know it). The phone first asks you your passcode if necessary, and explains to you how the profile works. Inside the Onavo app a reporting dashboard exists to let you know how much compression is going on with the data before it reaches your phone. So how well does it work? (more…)

So you just bought a new iPhone and you want to know – where is the GPS app??!! After all, most of the Blackberrys come standard with GPS right? Well-bad news. iPhone does not come with free navigation software, only the cut down Google Maps software which does not give you actual voice directions.

Luckily you do have choices – you do not have to buy the expensive versions of software that mimics the traditional big brand GPS’s. Recently I got the opportunity to review the recently released Navv GPS software which is a quite remarkable product at the price. At $25 it is at least half the price of equivalent GPS apps.

For the past week I have used Navv GPS in my normal driving routine, but also for actual navigation duties to areas I do not know. The software points of interest were bang up to date, and frankly included a few waypoints that my Garmin GPS did not have (which has the latest mapset). Route calculation is quick, and without problems. Things like turn offs with instant lane switching was without hiccups at all. Text and route info is easy to read with clear contrast – the icons and info can easily be switched between things like speed, ETA etc just by touching the relevant info.

So this app is considerably cheaper than other offerings – so what do you lose? Well, not much. First off you fire this up and notice the lack of Retina graphics – icons, text and graphics have a slight pixelation to them, which might bother some people. But the way I think about it – a GPS app is anyway placed a bit further away from your face, so you probably wont need Retina graphics. One other missing feature is multitasking support – clicking the home button while running the app actually closes it, which can be a bit disconcerting, especially if you are navigating some complicated turnoffs. But there is hope – on the iPhone 4 it starts up in about 2.5 seconds – so its pretty quick. Other part I do not really like is the lack of a iPhone keyboard – instead NAVV uses large alphabetic letters.

Small things to appreciate is the South African language support – it also supports Afrikaans (called “Annetjie”) and Zulu (called “Bongani”). Here is a rundown of the features you can expect from NAVV:

NAVIGATION Mode

• Turn-by-turn navigation for driving

• Voice instructions for accuracy

• Speeding alerts for safety

• 3D landmarks for making maps more realistic

POIs

• Cafes, gas stations, etc. – built-in

• Favorites with categories – customizable

• Google for more POIs – embedded

MAPS AND LANGUAGES

• You can NAVV in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, and Danish, Zulu and Afrikaans

• You can NAVV accurate and up-to-date maps of selected countries

• Compass

• Geo coordinates

• Multiple waypoints

All in all I reckon this is a pretty great app for $25. While it does not have the sophistication of the high priced apps, it is a great deal if you only want an app for the occasional navigation duties.

If you ever needed convincing that the future of the internet is mobile, you HAVE to look at this excellent video by the guys at MobileFuture. We are shifting very quickly towards a ubiquitous internet society…

Some mindblowing statistics: (dont just read these, do yourself a favour and watch the video)

• FIVE BILLION apps downloaded — up from 300 million in 2009

Whopping expansion of location-based services

• FIVE MILLION Foursquare users — up from 200,000 users in 2009

Surge in mobile social media platforms

• 347 PERCENT growth in Twitter mobile usage
• 200 MILLION mobile Facebook Users
• 100 MILLION YouTube videos played on mobile devices everyday

Ongoing explosion in data traffic

• 3,000 PERCENT growth in one carrier’s data traffic since 2008
• 3,339: average number of texts sent per month by US teens.

Unprecedented competition and choice

• 96 PERCENT of mobile users can choose from 3 or more providers
• 92 PERCENT of mobile users are satisfied with their provider
• 4 CENTS: average voice rate per minute in the US
• 77 MILLION: number of smartphones shipped in the fall of 2010.

My favourite part: “The Digital Camera died in 2010: Your Mobile Phone is looking very guilty…”

TweetDeck has just released a new version of its popular desktop client, complete with Google Buzz and Foursquare integration, simpler video uploading, scheduled updates and global filters.

Here’s a closer look at the new features:

1. Google Buzz integration: TweetDeck is one of the first desktop clients to offer this functionality, which allows you to post to Buzz with no character limits, to comment on and like friends’ posts, and to mute the conversations you don’t want to follow.

2. Foursquare integration: TweetDeck is now location-aware. You can check in using your Foursquare account, find your friends, and see tips and current visitors on venue profile pages. If you don’t have a Foursquare account, you’ll be able to find your location on a popup map and add location information to your normal tweets.

3. Scheduled updates: Twitter updates, wall posts and Foursquare check-ins can all be scheduled to be sent at a later date and time. A dedicated Scheduled Updates column allows you to view, edit, reschedule or cancel the updates you’ve already queued.

4. Simpler video uploading: You can now upload a video file in the same way as you’d upload an image file. Videos can also be recorded through your webcam, and posted directly to any of your accounts.

5. Global filters: TweetDeck v0.34 allows you to hide updates based on sender, source or keyword, using multiple global filters.

Watch this video to see the new features in action: