Tired of shrill electronic ring tones? How about the something a little 'environmentally friendly?'

RareEarthtones.org offers authentic sounds and images of various endangered species. You are free to download sounds made by threatened birds, owls, frogs, toads and marine mammals.

The site is brought to by the Centre for Biological Diversity as US based organisation focussed on preventing further extinction of species around the world.

While the call of the Short-Eared Owl may be ok as a ring tone while sitting in an office, I can't imagine it would be that effective when you are walking outdoors. But it's always fun to have a few more options when selecting a new sound on your phone.

While downloading take some time to read about the state of our planet's ecosystem, it makes for interesting, if not depressing reading.

Labels: animal sounds, cellphone, eish, free airtime, mp3, rareearthtones, ring tone

Posted by roygbiv at 2:12 PM | Permalink | Comments

There's no need to get lost, ever. As long as you have your cellphone on you, you will always be able to find your way home ... even if you want to keep your pride intact and not call for help.

I have found 4 applications you can download to your phone, to use for directions. While most of them can be used in conjunction with GPS systems, most of us do not have this functionality on our phones, so I have decided to check how they work sans GPS in South Africa. I stay in a relatively new area, pretty far south down the Cape Peninsula, in a road that is often not found in maps so as an extra test I have checked to see which ones help me find home. I am no expert when it comes to navigation software or cellphone applications so feel free to read through my quick summaries, then pop over to the vendor's website and make up your own mind which one works for you.

Wayfinder Earth Beta : This application has a nice easy on the eye user interface, with a couple of cool features like local weather at a touch of a button. It was perhaps a little difficult to figure out address searches for my liking though. It had my little cul-de-sac in it's database though.



Nav4All : Now we're talking. This boykie has an extensive database, my address included and gives you directions from point A to B without too much problem. The maps load nice an quickly and being in South Africa does not mean you are counted as a lesser class world citizen. As is the case with my personal favourite ...



AmAze : Firstly the clever name means it sits at the top of my applications menu. The maps are not just easy to read but are actually pretty. My home was easy to find as were directions from home to all over the city, whats more with a click you can get to see an aerial photo/street map hybrid of your route and/or destination (with a little weather/wind indicator flashing in the top right) . Truly awesome.

Just as a point of reference, my tests were done on a Sony Ericsson K800i, using the free versions of the software.

Labels: amaze, eish, free airtime, google maps mobile, mobile maps, nav4all, south africa, wayfinder earth beta

Posted by eishman at 5:33 PM | Permalink | Comments

Seems like telecoms in South Africa is becoming an increasingly competitive sector. Finally, perhaps, the consumer is starting benefit.

Starting from midnight this Friday Cell C are offering a service Woza Weekend. They say it's free calls over the weekend. But before you start chatting here are the catches you need to be aware of.

• It's Cell C to Cell C calls only.
  
• It's 120 minutes free, not 48 hours talk time.
  
• Prepaid customers must recharge at least once a week.
• Contract customers, you need to use up all your free minutes first. Check @ Cell C's website for those contract excluded from this requirement)
• There is no carry over (pretty obvious that one)

Still, as long as don't get caught with point number 4, it's something for nothing.

Add this to Adsl & Dstv being offered by Vodacom, Neotel about to start rolling out services, the imminent introduction of Wimax Telkom dropping ADSL prices in August and Moneyweb reporting that SA's bandwidth is "cheap" then we appear to be moving in the right direction.

Now all we need to do is find the steering wheel and the accelerator!!

Labels: bandwidth, cell c, eish, free airtime

Posted by eishman at 6:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

So, I have never used, or even thought about using the Mxit mobile instant messaging system that has taken off like wildfire and caused such controversy here in South Africa, but ...

They are now giving away 10 000 six month airtime contracts worth R135 every month to their subscribers. Tempting, very tempting!

The catch? Well, you need to be an existing MTN pre-paid subscriber and the R135 is the total NOT per month contract value.
But hey, if you fit into the profile, why not. Go to http://forum.mxit.co.za and click on the 'Tradepost Treasure Competitions' forum for more details.

For the one of you who does not know what Mxit is, it's a cellphone base Instant Messaging system. The attraction being that it allows for test communication using data transfer protocols as opposed to the way more costly sms alternative. A simple download of their program to your cellphone and you are up and ready to chat. But remember it's only with those who have also done the same. I.e. downloaded and activated the chat client on their cellphone.

I use a (in my opinion) much more universal alternative...I must tell you about it some time, he he!

Labels: cellphone, free airtime, mobile, mobile instant messaging, mtn, mxit

Posted by eishman at 8:51 PM | Permalink | Comments