With TopTV about to launch on 1 May 2010 starting from R99 per month, DSTV has responded by introducing DSTV Lite.

Multichoice has announced that it will provide customers with more value and choice by introducing a brand new bouquet called DSTV Lite. There will now be six bouquets available on the DSTV network ranging from R20 per month to the premium package of R529 per month.

DSTV will also be adding additional channels to the lower end bouquets. DStv Select 1 will get 8 additional video channels, to have a total of 34 video channels, 32 radio and 10 DMX music channels. DStv Select 2 will get 6 additional video channels, to have a total of 32 video channels, 32 radio and 10 DMX music channels. DStv Compact will get 4 additional video channels, to have a total of 44 video channels, 32 radio and 10 DMX music channels.

The various options subscribers will now have on DSTV include the following:

• DStv EasyView R20
• DStv Lite R99
• DStv Select 1 R148
• DStv Select 2 R148
• DStv Compact R232
• DStv Premium R529

For a comprehensive channel guide to the various packages check out the DSTV website.

Its clear that Multichoice is feeling the pressure from soon to be launched TopTV, who knows maybe we will soon have affordable premium pay TV in South Africa.

With the arrival of TopTV on 1 May 2010 every South African will now be able to afford premium quality Pay TV.

From as little as R99 per month subscribers will now have access to over 2o channels consisting of local and international programming. TopTV will initially offer four different Pay TV packages namely Variety, Kids and Music, Entertainment and Knowledge and Ultimate Movies.

“The majority of South Africans who can afford to pay between R99 and R249 a month, will have access to world class television entertainment across all genres including News & Knowledge, Movies, Family and Sport, Kids, Music and Cultural programming.” says Vino Govender, CEO of On Digital Media (ODM). Govender adds, “Some of the highlights of these channels include the Top History channel which will bring the history of South Africa to the fore as never before, BBC News, Eurosport News, 6 dedicated 24 hour movie channels, as well as services for the Portuguese and French communities in South Africa.”

TopTV has established partnerships with leading studios around the world, including CBS, Fox, Warner, Discovery and Disney.

TopTV subscribers can look forward to channels such as Zee Cinema, Discovery Travel & Living, Fox Entertainment, Fine Living Network, Current TV, BET, MGM, Showtime, Discovery Science, Silver, Baby TV, Setanta Africa, France24, BBC World, Hi Nolly, Kidsco, Jim Jam, Baby TV, Fuel TV, and Fox FX just to name a few.

TopTV’s set-top boxes and dishes will be available at a introductory price of only R499. The introductory price includes a TopTV decoder (STB), Installation, Smart Card, Power Supply, Male / Female RF Cable, RCA Cable, Remote Control Unit, Batteries and instruction manual. Set-top boxes and dishes will be available through Makro, Pep, Dion, Game, selected Jumbo Cash & Carry stores, CCW, Brown’s, Weirs and House & Home stores.

WebAfrica has finally come to the party by dropping their per-GB ADSL pricing, but is it little to late?

The past couple of months South Africans has seen tremendous reduction in ADSL bandwidth pricing since Afrihost started the per-GB ADSL price war by offering ADSL bandwidth at R29 per GB, a few months after that  MWEB’s followed by introducing ridiculous uncapped pricing in an effort to free the web.

During these price wars WebAfrica made one attempt to reduce their pricing but it still came in at almost double that of the standard that was set by Afrihost. WebAfrica has now finally come to the price war party by dropping their per-GB prices.

WebAfrica has now introduced their Titan DSL Special available to both new and existing WebAfrica customers. With the Titan DSL Specials, you’ll be able to make use of fast, reliable internet and massive amounts of bandwidth at your business or home. The Titan DSL Specials come as monthly accounts with fixed life-time special rates.

The WebAfrica Titan DSL Special comes in 3 packages namely Titan Data 1, Titan Data 2 and Titan Data 3.  For R199 users will get 15GB worth of Data, R299 gives you 25GB of data and for R499 you will get 50GB of data. These new prices undercuts the current industry trend of R29 per GB by giving users data at R13, R12 and R10 per GB respectively. WebAfrica also has Titan Complete packages available for those that need a line included.

I do however need to point out a few things, this is a special meaning that the price can change, although if you sign up your price will be locked in. Then there is also the limit of only 1 concurrent connection and the fact that top-ups will be changes at WebAfrica’s normal rates which is R59 per GB.

Although the per GB price looks appealing you have to take note that you are stuck with a minimum of 15GB of data, so a no go if you are only looking for say 5GB per month.

All I have to say is that I am glad WebAfrica has finally joined the local broadband price wars, and lets hope they will soon introduced a uncapped offering to compete with the likes of MWEB.

Nokia announced their latest smartphone the Nokia N8, a smartphone that intuitively connects to the people, places and services that matter most.

With the Nokia N8, people can create compelling content, connect to their favorite social networks and enjoy on-demand Web TV programs and Ovi Store apps.

The Nokia N8 introduces a 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, Xenon flash and a large sensor that rivals those found in compact digital cameras. Additionally, the Nokia N8 offers the ability to make HD-quality videos and edit them with an intuitive built-in editing suite. Doubling as a portable entertainment center, people can enjoy HD-quality video with Dolby Digital Plus surround sound by plugging into their home theatre system. The Nokia N8 enables access to Web TV services that deliver programs, news and entertainment from channels like CNN, E! Entertainment, Paramount and National Geographic. Additional local Web TV content is also available from the Ovi Store.

The Nokia N8 also features impeccable social networking integration, something that is crucial in this day and age. Users can update statuses, share locations and photos and view their live Facebook and Twitter feeds all from the N8′s home screen.

Free OVI Maps walk and drive navigation is also bundled with the Nokia N8 ensuring you will always find your way no matter where you are.

The Nokia N8 is powered by latest version of the world’s most used smartphone software, Symbian ^3.  Symbian ^3 introduces several major advances, including support for gestures such as multi touch, flick scrolling and pinch-zoom. The Nokia N8 also offers multiple, personalizable homescreens which can be loaded with apps and widgets. The new 2D and 3D graphics architecture in the platform takes full advantage of the Nokia N8’s hardware acceleration to deliver a faster and more responsive user interface. Symbian^3 also raises the bar in performance by delivering greater memory management allowing more applications to run in parallel for a faster multi-tasking experience.

What do you think, does the N8 have what it takes to compete with the likes of the new HTC Desire or iPhone HD soon to be released?

I am really into the Afrikaans music scene, specially rock, and when I first heard Winterstasie I was ecstatic. Winterstasie is really the first local rock band I am liking in a long time.

Winterstasie is a South African Alternative / Progressive Afrikaanse Rock band from Potchefstroom. The band consist of Dewald Pieters, Niel Verster, Dewald Buys and Ruhan Wagener. They were recently also nominated for a MK Award.

Winterstasie has catchy melodies and lyrics that gives me the same feeling the first time I heard Fokofpolisiekar, I am absolutely loving these guys at the moment and hope they get far with their music career.

Here is few of Winterstasie’s music videos for you to enjoy.

Winterstasie – Wie is jy?

Winterstasie – Autokrasie van ‘n hart

Winterstasie – Die Beterkant

So what do you guys think? Do you like their sound? I know I am loving them, my favorite tracks include Die Beterkant and Wie is jy?

South Africa’s second Pay TV operator TopTV is set to launch on the 1st of May by ODM (On Digital Media)

TopTV will be the first competition DSTV faces which had the monopoly for Pay TV in South Africa for the past decade. The question remains will TopTV pose a threat to DSTV?

Top TV is set to launch with a range of seven channel bouquets ranging from R99 to R249. The bouquets will consist out of channels made up from several categories namely Variety, Kids & Music, Entertainment & Knowledge and Movies.

The R99 package will only include channels from the Variety category where as on the R159 package users will get the Variety channels and have the choice of either Kids & Music or Entertainment & Knowledge channels. The R189 package from TopTV includes Varienty channels, Kids & Music channels as well as Entertainment & Knowledge channels. For R220 users will get the same benefits of the R159 package with Movie channels added, and for R249 users will get all the channels available on TopTV.

People interested in TopTV can either their existing DSTV dish and turn it or can obtain a full installation voucher for R699 which includes a decoder, dish and installation. There are rumors floating around that TopTV is set to have a launch price of R499 for the whole package.

It would be interesting to see how many people will make the move to TopTV. I foresee the die hard sport fanatics will stay with DSTV and people more interested in entertainment and movies will probably make the move over to TopTV as their pricing is much more attractive.

What is your opinion? Is it worth moving over to TopTV or are you staying with DSTV? Also if you have never been a DSTV subscriber are you considering taking up one of the TopTV packages?

Earlier Posterous announced a deal with OBox a local South African Web Design and Development company to provide them with themes for their micro blogging service.

Posterous has now announced on their official blog that three of the five themes OBox is set to design for them has been enabled on their micro blogging service.

The three themes from OBox currently available for use on Posterous include Mad Men, Post Press and My List.

To enable the themes in your Posterous account go to “Theme and customize my site” on the Management tab.

South African Web Design and Development company OBox has signed a deal with well known international blogging platform Posterous to provide them with custom designed themes.

Posterous is a micro blogging platform that makes it easy for users to integrate and automatic post to other social networking site like Twitter, Facebook and Flickr and even boasts integrated Google Analytics and custom themes.

OBox a South African Web Design company well known for their WordPress themes has signed the deal with Posterous to provide the micro blogging service with custom built themes.

OBox is to provide Posterous with five themes which will be made available to Posterous users for use. The themes will be available to all Posterous users under the Customise section of the Administration area and will be free of charge.

This is the second deal local Web Design company OBox has done. Earlier this year they also did a deal to provide another micro blogging platform Tumblr with premium themes.

Its good to see local companies getting in on the Silicon Valley action, well done boys you make me proud to be a South African geek.

Director: Tom Vaughan Screenplay: Robert Nelson Jacobs, based on the book by Geeta Anand Cast: Brendan Fraser, Harrison Ford, Keri Russel Time: 103min Age Restriction: 10LM

Genre:
Drama

Summary Review:
Extraordinary Measures is a moving film about the love of parents and a fight against scepticism and a fatal disease.

Synopsis:
Brendan Fraser plays John Crowley, the father of two girls suffering from the fatal Pompe disease, or acid maltase deficiency, which damages nerve and muscle cells throughout one’s body.

He cannot accept that daughters are going to die and tracks down Robert Stonehill, a research scientist (played with fierce authority by Harrison Ford) who is convinced he has found a way to manage the disease.

Together they fearlessly defy all obstacles to put Stonehill’s theories to the test.

Extraordinary Measures is based on a true story and although it is very American in its tone and styling, its universal message of a parent’s desperate love will move any viewer.

Its heartfelt performances and taut atmosphere makes Extraordinary Measures a powerful movie.

In less than 47 days the 19th FIFA World Cup will be taking place here in South Africa. Preparing and keeping updated on this great event can be cumbersome but great news is that Android users have an application to make things a bit easier.

The FIFA World Cup is scheduled to take place between the 11th June 2010 and the 11th of July 2010, the 2010 FIFA World Cup marks the first time that the tournament will be hosted on the African continent where defending champions Italy will defend their title.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup application for Android provides users with the following functions:

• Countdown clock
• Game Schedule
• Group and Team statistics
• Head-to-head statistics
• Match reminders
• FIFA 2010 World Cup News
• View/Add match comments
• Real time match scores when the World Cup is underway.

The developer also has a score prediction game on the decks for when the FIFA World Cup is underway. Go to the Android market and Search for 2010 World Cup by Luke Shuan or simply scan the QR Code below that will take you to the application.