Vodacom’s The Grid yesterday launched Legends of Echo, South Africa’s first multi-player, location-based social game for mobile phones.

The Echo is a parallel virtual universe based on the South African map, but instead of cities and skyscrapers, players will find that there are rolling green hills, rocky outcrops and valleys to explore.

Legends of Echo makes use of Vodacom’s Location-Based Services (LBS) to determine a player’s physical location; from their location, players can then explore their surroundings or move – virtually, of course – to anywhere else in South Africa to interact with other players in real time.

Real-world place names are used to navigate; so, for instance, a player could teleport from Bellville in Cape Town to Randburg in Johannesburg to battle another player.

In the game, five bloodlines (Air, Earth, Water, Fire and Industry), incorporating twenty characters, battle each other for domination. Each bloodline has specific abilities and traits with regard to weapon use and creation.

Apart from engaging in one-on-one battle, players can trade with each other or communicate via an in-game instant messaging system.

The object of the game is to become a legend of the Echo. To achieve this, players need to gain enough Legend Points to appear on the high score sheet, by battling other players, and obtaining advanced weapons and other items by exploration or trade with other players.

Vincent Maher, Portfolio Manager Social Media, Vodacom South Africa, says, “Legends of Echo combines the best in real-time Location-Based Services and mobile multiplayer gaming, in that it allows players across South Africa to interact in a virtual world that is linked to their real-life location – all via their cellphones. As such, it’s an exciting and entertaining extension of The Grid as the leading location-based social network in South Africa.”

The game is available for free as a Java download to cellphones. To play Legends of Echo, SMS ‘ECHO’ to 33313 (50c/SMS) or visit http://www.legendsofecho.mobi.

The Grid, Vodacom’s location-based mobile social network, has partnered with e.tv to create a daily Mood Map of the country based on Grid user data.

The Grid allows users to set their mood to happy or sad; this data is then combined with each user’s geographical location, and a map is produced, much like a weather map – except that the Mood Map shows “happy” and “sad” percentages in each province, rather than cold fronts and approaching thunderstorms.

e.tv will feature the Mood Map every morning after the weather report on Sunrise (weekdays from 6AM to 8AM). The partnership is reportedly the first to see a news channel using data from a social networking platform for statistical purposes. It’s not the only recent partnership for The Grid, though – last December we reported on how the mobile social network had partnered with the HIV-911 programme to map out around 11,000 HIV-related support services across South Africa.

Vincent Maher, Portfolio Manager Social Media, Vodacom South Africa, says, “The partnership with e.tv is a great interactive way for users of a social network like the Grid to see how their actions influence the general mood of the country. We are using the data from a social network in an innovative way by showing users how their mood updates contribute to the overall mood of the country or province.”

To access the Grid, SMS ‘MOOD’ to 33313 (50c/SMS) or visit onthegrid.mobi.

Bandwidth blog’s series of office photos posts takes you inside the hottest internet startups locally and abroad. This week we visit Zoopy.com, an online and mobile social media community. Zoopy made headlines last year when they were acquired by cellular giant Vodacom. Since the acquisition Zoopy has gone from strength to strength – launching a redesign, announcing various media partnerships and producing high quality webisodes shows (some in HD) labeled as Zoopy TV.

Their offices are decorated in true startup style, funky walls, iMacs everywhere and chill areas for employees to relax in – we take you inside:

Props goes out to Zoopy’s CEO, Jason Elk, for sending us the photos.

Just announced a few days ago at the WWDC 2009 keynote, Vodacom have announced that the new Apple iPhone 3G S is going to be available in South Africa starting from July (following a US launch on June 19th).

Hailed as the “the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet”, the new iPhone 3G S (“S” for speed) just got copy & paste functionality, three megapixel autofoucs camera with video recording functionality, hands free voice control and a new tethering feature that allows you to use the iPhone’s internet connection on your computer (not yet confirmed to be available on Vodacom).

But all these are available thanks to the new iPhone OS 3.0 operating system, which is actually the most significant update the iPhone 3G S just got. It allows for MMSs, instant navigation thanks to the new built-in digital compass, and the ability for iPhone applications to directly address external hardware.

It looks like we’ll have to wait for it till July … right guys?

Vodacom has exclusively launched the new HTC Magic in South Africa. The handset runs on Google’s Android OS and allows users to customize every facet of the phone as per their wishes. It is an open source format where a user can create personal applications, themes and even games.

And since HTC Magic is such an amazing phone that allows a crafty developer to access its core functionalities, Vodacom decided to also create South Africa’s first open market where people not only create what they want but, even sell their creativity to other Android based users across the country. The open market is supposed to feature exciting content, containing wallpapers, ringtones, videos and applications.

With a one touch access to services like Google Maps, Google Talk, Gmail and YouTube, and allowing speedy navigation on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and even Flickr, the new HTC Magic has been crafted for a uniquely powerful search experience.

Tailor-made by you and for you, HTC Magic features a 3.2-inch display with 320 x 480 resolutions and a full touch screen interface with an onscreen keyboard. Just a fraction smaller than the iPhone, could it be the long “rumored” iPhone killer we’ve heard of so many times?

Time will tell …

There’s been a lot of rumors and speculation surrounding the 3G iPhone coming to the shores of Africa. As many naysayers have annouced, “Even South Africa has no iTunes Music Store and the Apple presence in South Africa is meager”. All this deliberation has been proven inaccurate as Vodacom announced they’ll be offering the 3G iphone to their customers by the 20th of July 2008, this is part of the ten-country deal that Vodafone has signed with Apple to supply the iPhone to the continent.

It is expected that the new iPhone will come in a variety of colours and with 3G connectivity, integrated GPS and other new exciting features. South Africa will undoubtedly receive this version of the device.

Update – Vodacom has pushed back the release of the iPhone to late August because of huge international demand which resulted in low iPhone 3G stock levels.

So many people, expected Steve Jobs to come on the stage and make the new 3G iPhone official so that the media could crown it once again as king of cellphones. It happened!

Though the most interesting /expected feature was 3G the new iPhone has thinner edges, a full plastic back, a flush headphone jack and the iPhone 2.0 firmware. Also the 3G connection should be 2x faster than the old iPhones and will definitely trounce the competition, with pageloads 36% faster than the N95 and Treo 750.

But have I told you the price? The 8GB should sell for $199 while the 16GB version should be $299. Isn’t it great?The 3G iPhone is expected on the market on July 11th in 22 countries around the world while the rest, up to 70 demanding nations, will get in a month or so.

One last thing that really impressed me with Apple’s strategy is the fact that those customers who purchased a 2.5G iPhone on or after May 27 and want to swap it out for a new (3G) iPhone will be able to do so without incurring an additional handset charge.

Vodacom is to announce in July when they plan to release iPhone 2 in SA.