QR (quick response) codes are like regular barcodes – on steroids. Although widely used in Japan, they have only recently been accepted by the western world as a new marketing media.  In a surprise move, Cell C has announced the first local launch of QR codes in their PhotoCode branded service.

What is a QR code?

A QR code works similar to a bar code but offers more information (up to 4296 characters!).  It is a 2-dimensional image that is printed on most commercially available products and has been used on billboard and brochure advertisements.  The code is read by a “reader” that you install on your phone.  Cell C has developed their own reader and are making it available to all networks in SA.

Here is the description from their web site:

With a little imagination the potential uses of PhotoCodes are endless. Picture these scenarios: 1. You notice an ad for an upcoming gig by a local music star and the PhotoCode printed alongside it allows you to download one of their tracks as a ringtone. 2. You are attending an exclusive new event and a PhotoCode gives you the password to the VIP area, or 3. You are in the Cell C store and by snapping a picture of a PhotoCode you can find out all there is to know about any product on the shelves. These are the kinds of unique experiences Cell C’s PhotoCodes can unlock for you, and already more applications are being devised.

All you have to do is download the PhotoCode reader, and then see it, snap and get more.

Here’s how it works:

Step 1
Get the Cell C PhotoCode reader:

Step 2
Keep a look out for a Cell C PhotoCode in print and participating media

Step 3
When you’ve spotted one, snap a pic of it using your PhotoCode reader

Step 4
Experience the world the Cell C way.

Terms and Conditions

• PhotoCode available to all networks
• Application requires a WAP-enabled phone with a camera
• Sms’s to download application free to Cell C customer. R1 charge to MTN and Vodacom customers
• Data charges apply when using PhotoCodes
• Errors will be billed

The Soccer World Cup 2010 has finally arrived and the streets are abuzz with eager fans from South Africa and abroad.  If you have seen any of the games, you will have noticed the insane noise of the vuvuzela’s.  These innocent trumpet-like gadgets are capable of making an incredible noise and when 60 000 of them are all going at once, its no wonder the players can’t hear their coach!

Well hot on the heels of any trend come mobile applications and this time is no different.  Visit iTunes or any other application store and you will probably find four or five different vuvuzela applications that you can load onto your phone.  Some of them are quite impressive and immitate the irritating noise really well (and fortunately not as loud!)

Here are some iPhone examples:

If you are looking for a GREAT mobile site where you can track the soccer, visit the Sport24 mobile site.  Just type m.footyfans.co.za into your phone’s browser…

As new broadband Internet cables go live (such as the Seacom cable), the price of Internet access keeps dropping and the speeds keep rising.  In the data rate comparison done 22 April, MTN was clearly the most affordable option, but now  their competitors have come back with some rather compelling offers too.  The competition makes pricing more competitive and can only be an advantage to the consumer. This comparison was found on My Broadband and you can read their article here.

Click for larger image

More than 100 million Facebook subscribers access their Facebook account via their mobile phone.  Facebook is the most popular mobile site in nearly every country in the world – especially after they launched their text messaging service (which is similar to MXit) that allows you to chat to your Facebook buddies.

Until recently, when you access Facebook on your MTN phone, you would have been charged standard data rates.  But here is some great news!  MTN is now allowing their subscribers FREE access to Facebook through the mobile site 0.facebook.com (zero.facebook.com).  When you access this site using your MTN phone, you will not be charged for the data as long as you stay on the site.  However, if click on a link that takes you to the official Facebook mobile site (for example, if you would like to look at a friend’s photographs), then you will be charged standard data rates.

You will notice that 0.facebook.com is a very simplified version of Facebook, which means that almost any WAP (Internet) enabled mobile phone will be able to access this site.

In an article on IT Web, MTN’s chief marketing officer Santie Botha made this comment: “In the true spirit of innovation and bringing our customers convenience – including the latest in technology at affordable rates – MTN has collaborated with Facebook on this venture to ensure our customers are among the first to benefit from this social service and communication offering for free.”

“We are always looking to work with innovative companies to provide simple and fast mobile access to Facebook across the world,” says Henri Moissinac, head of Mobile Business, Facebook. “Thanks to our collaboration with MTN, people will now be able to access Facebook for free through 0.facebook.com.”

Kudos to you MTN!

If you’re looking for news-on-the-go, here are some really good mobile sites that I would recommend…

The Times: http://m.thetimes.co.za/

http://m.thetimes.co.za/

News 24: http://m.news24.com/news24/

http://m.news24.com

MWEB: http://mweb.mobi

http://mweb.mobi

CNN: http://cnnmobile.com

http://cnnmobile.com

For business and financial news see:

Moneyweb: http://m.moneyweb.co.za/

http://m.moneyweb.co.za/

Biz Community: http://m.bizcommunity.com/

http://m.bizcommunity.com/

For World Cup soccer news, reviews and interviews…. see Soccer Laduma at http://soccerladuma.mobi/

http://soccerladuma.mobi/

Tip: DO NOT try the new beta site. It is VERY buggy and has a more missing links than the theory of evolution!

If rugby is your game, then see  Player 23′s mobile site at http://www.player23.mobi

http://www.player23.mobi

Mobile gaming has hit an all time high…

As more phones are available with big screens, faster processors and better graphics, mobile gaming has really taken off.  Small game devices such as Gameboy and Nintendo DS have to really get creative if they wish to compete in this space.  On 19 April, Vodacom launched a new role playing game called Legends of Echo.  The ratings and reviews have been so positive that I wanted to let you know about this great game.  Please note that even though it was launched by Vodacom, it is available on any network.  Simply visit http://legendsofecho.mobi on your mobile phone to download the application.

LoE mobile site

For more information, I refer to the article and interview below:

News 24.com carried this story on 19 April 2010:

T0day, Vodacom launch their massively multiplayer online game for mobile (MMOM), called Legends of Echo. Nic Haralambous, cool dude and project leader for LoE, tells you everything you need about the free-to-join RPG in an exciting interview with News24 Games.

Nic Haralambous

Describe how Legends of Echo (LoE) works, as simply as you can.

Legends of Echo uses Vodacom’s location based services to locate users in the real world and place them in a fantasy world. Once in the Echo players can drop their home bases, find allies, locate enemies, build weapons, trade items and build up their legend points through battles and other activities in the Echo.  All of this is done through the users mobile phones.

Tell us a bit more about the story. Why are these okes battling each other?

The battles take place in a fantasy world called Echo. This world is only accessible through your mobile phone and is a world that exists on top of the map of South Africa.  There are five bloodlines in LoE; Water, Fire, Earth, Air and Industry. Players choose one of the bloodlines and out of the remaining four, two are your allies and two are your enemies. Each bloodline has its own currency called Elements and each bloodline requires Elements from other bloodlines to do certain things in the Echo. You then move through the Echo and create relationships with other players to benefit your game.  They are battling, in the end, to become a legend of Echo.

Player vs. Player battles are turn-based. Older gamers may be reminded of the Heroes of Might & Magic combat system

LoE incorporates real-world locations. What does that add to a fantasy gaming experience?

I think this makes the game more tangible. Players can visit real-world locations that they are familiar with and see them as they’ve never seen them before. It also allows players to communicate with one another more effectively using the locations they are in, or their friends are in or near.

Do you have levels and loot, like most other RPGs? And trading?

There are levels in LoE, however these are mostly used to allow other players to see how long and hard you’ve been playing LoE. Everyone enters the game on Level 6. The more you do (trade, battle, chat, build weapons etc) the better you get and move closer towards a level 1 player. There is definitely a focus on loot or items in LoE. The more Elements (currency) that a player has, the easier it is to do various activities in the Echo. Trading and bartering is a big part of LoE. Players can choose to barter and trade their items and weapons with other players in the hope of building up alliances and gaining better weapons or more Elements.

Here’s the big one: what are we paying to play this?

There is no subscription fee required to play or download LoE. Standard data rates do apply when playing the game but other than that as a cost there is no point in the game where you will be forced to pay for anything. There is a currency model built in to the game that allows players to spend airtime in the Echo Marketplace. Here they can buy Elements, weapons and items if they choose to.

Life at the top can be monotonous. How will you keep the game interesting in the long term, for players who stick around and level up all the way?

There is a reward system that we have built in to the game and we will be rewarding players for various achievements throughout the game from day 1 in the Echo. We will also be rewarding players for activity, if they play often but don’t necessarily win very often we’ll still provide them with incentives to keep playing.

The world itself is also quite dynamic. We have created an in-game newspaper, The Echo Enquirer. The newspaper will allow us to provide players with updates about the Echo, which bloodlines are taking over which areas in the Echo and who is at the top of the rankings throughout the game.

There is also an interesting cross-section between a player’s individual need to succeed and the bloodline that a player has chose. The domination map illustrates to players which bloodlines dominate which provinces in South Africa.

LoE has several built-in social networking features, including chat and personal message boards.

We have to ask: why is Vodacom doing a mobile MMO?

With The Grid going from strength to strength right now we looked at the available technology and wanted to create a commercially viable and extremely innovative product off the back of that technology. The key for us is innovation and pushing the boundaries of the mobile medium, social networking and gaming and coming up with the most innovative product we could. The product we emerged with is Legends of Echo.

Any tips for new adventurers? And who should our readers look for if they want to battle you?

It might be a mistake for me to give away my LoE nickname, I’d never get any sleep! In the way of tips I’d say exploration is imperative, scan near you and see what you can find. Be sure to read the Echo Enquirer everyday and be sure to build relationships with other players in the game, you’ll need them down the line.

The game is going live today (Monday, 19 April, 2010). Are you nervous? What kind of reception would you consider a success?

No, I wouldn’t say that I am nervous. There is a nervous excitement present and an anticipation after so many months of work, but no nerves and very little fear. It’s difficult to predict the success of a product but our goal is to have users download the game, get in to their roles and play as often as they can. I’d consider that a success.

If you haven’t already used twitter, you’re probably wondering what the fuss is all about.  However, if you have used twitter, you’re probably wondering how you lived without this simple, yet fun social media service.  You can find it at www.twitter.com .  Signing up is FREE and simple.

Twitter is what is known as a micro-blogging service. It allows you to send out short messages of 140 characters (similar to a text message on your mobile phone) called “tweets”.

There are different permission settings but the default is that you can choose who you would like to follow.  If you are following someone, you will see all their “tweets”.  If someone is following you, they will see all your tweets. At any time you can view your followers and who is following you.

Twitter started a status update service where you told your followers “What you are doing now” and could see what they were doing too.  The airwaves were filled with tweets such as “I’m off to work” or “I’m about to watch Aviator!” etc. Today twitter has evolved into a dynamic service where you can get breaking news as it happens, stay in touch with friends or read arbitrary tweets from all over the world.  You can search on specific topics or send private messages to friends and much more.

Your experience on twitter all depends on the people you follow and how much you interact and engage with your followers.  I follow comedians, journalists, friends and interesting people from all over the world. When I open twitter I know I’m in for some great entertainment.

I use twitter on the Internet (see http://twitter.com/cellfhelp), on my mobile phone and I also use software to send my tweets.  Please feel free to visit my twitter page and follow me!

To help you on your way, here is the blonde’s understanding of twitter jargon:

@ = All twitter “handles” (your name on twitter) start with @. So mine is @Cellfhelp.  If you want to send a message to someone (for example Cellfhelp), and you don’t mind other people seeing it, you would start the message with @Cellfhelp.

DM = Direct Message. You can send and receive direct messages to anyone who is following you.  These messages are not shown on the public Internet and are kept private between you and the recipient.

RT = Re-Tweet. If you see a tweet from a friend and you would like to share it with your followers, you can re-tweet it.  This is a wonderful way to give credit to your friends for their humour, intelligence or stupidity…

#= hash tag. This hash is put in front of subjects.  If you want to find tweets on mobile you can search on #mobile and find out what people are saying about mobile at that moment.  For this reason you should include hash tags in your tweets so that people can find your comments and opinions on the subject.  You can search twitter at http://search.twitter.com

How to get started:

Simply go to http://twitter.com and sign up for a new account.  The service is entirely FREE and all you need is access to the Internet.

Other ways to use twitter:

There are some GREAT twitter applications that give you more functionality.  If you’re interested, check out www.digsby.com; www.feedalizr.com or www.tweetdeck.com.  For twitter on your mobile phone, visit the application store or go to m.twitter.com on your mobile.

Twitter for business

Many companies are using twitter to engage with customers. They can see what people are saying about their brand and respond immediately.

Twitter is so much more than just a texting alternative.  Why not give it a try so that you can see what the fuss is all about?  Don’t you want to also be a twit?