So Foursquare is not your thing? Maybe you will like its almost identical counterpart Gowalla. Good news is that Gowalla is now available as a beta for Android devices.

What is Gowalla you ask? It’s a location aware social networking platform that lets you share where you currently are and the activities you are currently doing with your friends. Almost exactly like Foursquare, Gowalla lets you check into places and earn stamps on your virtual passport as you go along.

Gowalla is currently gaining more and more popularity to its counterpart Foursquare due to the manner in how it lets users check in to places, share locations, experiences, and pick up stamps for their virtual passport.

If you would like to help test out Gowalla’s beta Android App head on over to http://static.gowalla.com/gowalla-android-20100212.apk from your Android phone or alternatively if you have a barcode reader installed just scan the barcode below.

Buying and selling online from South Africa has become sort of a risk in this day and age, specially if you want to buy from places like e-bay. This will hopefully not be the case for long anymore as PayPal is currently in talks with FNB and the South African Reserve Bank.

What is PayPal you ask? PayPal is the safer, easier way to pay and get paid online. The service allows anyone to pay in any way they prefer, including through credit cards, bank accounts, buyer credit or account balances, without sharing financial information. Gone are the days of entering your credit card details to buy something online, you will just buy with your PayPal account and PayPal will ensure that the transaction goes smooth.

About two weeks back news has gone viral on social networking site Twitter where it was divulged that FNB is currently in talks with PayPal to allow transactions from South Africa. Later on head of corporate communications at FNB released an official statement that First National Bank is indeed in discussions with PayPal and the South African Reserve Bank.

Upon entering the FNB website users are now also greeted with a pop-up window with the statement that it is confirmed that FNB is in talks with PayPal and that further information will be released in due course.

This is a really exciting announcement by PayPal and FNB as the introduction of PayPal in South Africa will open up so many new potential opportunities and bring a huge influx of cash into South Africa through online purchases.

What do you think? Will you be using PayPal when it is confirmed that it will be available in South Africa?

Google Alerts is a newish addition to the Google family. Imagine getting mail about posts made about you or your company as it happens on the internet, well with Google Alerts you can.

Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.

Some other handy uses of Google Alerts include:

• monitoring a developing news story
• keeping current on a competitor or industry
• getting the latest on a celebrity or event
• keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams

Go check out Google Alerts and set up some alerts.

Local rapper JR is making the circle bigger and bigger with his new hit song Show Dem from his album Colourfull. The song Show Dem with its catchy tune and easy to remember  lyrics “Make the circle bigger” has hit local radio stations and club dance floors by storm.

JR’s “Show Dem” has been bringing fun and a unique South African flavor to dance floors all around the country and now JR has released the music video to Show Dem.

Make da circle beeger, now show dem! Good luck trying to get this song out of your head.

Also check out some other local artists like Straatligkinders, Jesse Clegg, Parlotone and Van Coke Kartel.

With the launch of Google Buzz came new ways of sharing information on the web. Just in the first view days of Google Buzz’s launch it already served millions of Buzz messages. And what better way to get your blog posts out there than to add a Buzz This button to your posts or display your Google Buzz timeline.

Here is three Google Buzz WordPress plugins you can use on your blog.

Google Buzz This button

Add a Buzz This button to your posts.

Google Buzz Feed

The Google Buzz plugin (widget ready) allows you to retrive latest feeds from your Google Buzz service. It has some advanced options like caching.

WP Google-Buzz

Another Buzz This plugin, this time you have some more options than with the Google Buzz This Button.

Here is this years Stormers Vodababes that will entertain all the Newlands supporters during the 2010 rugby season.

I do not know what to say about this, what do you think?

I just wrote an article about the HTC Desire, HTC’s latest phone to take on the Google Nexus One, but HTC has also introduced another phone called the HTC Legend.

The HTC Legend is the successor to the popular HTC Hero, or its bigger brother. The HTC Legend has a similar 3.2″ screen and that protruding lip at the bottom of the handset as the HTC Hero has.

The HTC Legend is hewn from a single block of aluminium and will ship with Google’s latest Android OS, Android 2.1. It features a 5 megapixel camera just like the Hero but this time there is a single LED flash for taking those pictures in the dark. The Legend unlike its little brother now also boasts a OLED screen which will ensure for more vibrant colours, and will still have the 3.5mm audio jack like in the HTC Hero.

The trackball has once again been scraped like in the HTC Desire in favour of a new optical device. This apparently means a sleeker design and less hardware failures.

The release date for UK has been set for end of March just like the HTC Desire, but if or when South Africa will get this phone only time will tell. I will keep you guys posted on South African dates for the HTC Legend and HTC Desire.

It’s currently the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona and as expected HTC has unleashed a whole bunch of Android smartphones, with one of them being the HTC Desire.

The HTC Desire is HTC’s answer to the Google Nexus one, although the HTC Desire with Google Android operating system is not very ground breaking it is here to compete with the Google Nexus One.

The HTC Desire is a combination of the HTC Hero and Google Nexus one when it comes to looks, and has similiar specs as the Nexus One.

A overview of the HTC Desire specs: the HTC Desire is a Google Android phone and will run Google Android 2.1 with a 1GHz snapdragon processor, same as the Nexus One. It will have 512MB of ROM and 576 MB of RAM memory, a 5 megapixel camera (with flash and autofocus), GPS, and the usual connectivity options: WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G. It will also feature a beautiful AMOLED 3.7 inch multitouch screen capable of 400 x 800 resolution.

What makes the HTC Desire so different from the Google Nexus one? Well it is basicly the same phone except for a small difference in looks and the lack of a trackball that the Nexus One has, and HTC Sense UI that allows for multitouch on the HTC Desire.

Now this is a phone I would trade my HTC Hero in on, although whether South Africa will get this anytime soon we must see.

Ever since I started using Google Buzz the first thing that annoyed me was the fact that I got all my Google Buzz message via email also, that is when I wrote a article about how to disable mail notifications for Google Buzz messages.

Now a few people have mailed me asking if there is a way to disable Google Buzz completely, good news is you can do it and its real easy.

To disable or turn off you Google Buzz account follow the steps below:

1. Log into your Gmail account
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the page.
3. There should be a small link that says “Turn off buzz“
4. Click “Turn off buzz” and your Google Buzz account should be turned off.