Everybody must have by now seen the advertisements on TV about the great new digital camera from Samsung called the ST550.

The Samsung ST550 is the first digital camera to offer users dual LCD screens. One at the back like conventional cameras and a smaller one in front useful for self portraits.

Now this is all great and with it being advertised on TV you would have thought that it would be easy to get your hands on one, wrong.

The first time my wife saw the advert of the Samsung ST550 she wanted to get one ASAP, so we decided to go out one Saturday morning and scout the local mall for the beauty just to return empty handed.

We visited Game, Makro, Dion Wired, Hifi Corporation, several camera dealers and even Incredible Corruption just to find that they do not stock the ST550 or they have never even heard of it. Upon arrival at home I set out to phone several stores to hear if maybe one of their other branches stock the Samsung ST550, but no, the answer being we don’t stock it and there is no plans to get it in aswell.

After phoning every possible store that sells electronics in the greater Cape Town area I decided to phone Samsung electronics as they are the manufacturer of the ST550 and should at least have an idea who sells their product. But no, the person on the other end could not give me a clear indication of who sells the ST550 digital camera but gave me some names of stores that do sell Samsung cameras. These stores where mainly the ones I mentioned above that either had no clue of the ST550 or just did not have any plans to sell it.

Now my question to Samsung is how can you advertise a product, even with a free 2GB memory card, but nobody has the bloody thing in stock? I would appreciate I someone from Samsung can get into contact with me regarding the ST550 and where I can get one. Even if you are a online supplier and can get your hands on one I would also really appreciate it, as I did search the web and could only find a few overseas sites selling the ST550 but I would rather avoid importing one myself.

Features

Now let me share some features of the Samsung ST550 with you.

• Surefire portraits with Dual LCD – The ST550′s breakthrough 1.5″ Front LCDSelf Portrait of you and your friends without leaving anyone left out to hold the camera. The Front LCD also features Children Mode for fun, engaging, and simple animation that captures those special expressions only kids can make. Ensure your timing is always perfect with the built-in Self Timer, improve your chances for great results with Shutter and Function Information, and you’ll be ready to shoot in any situation.
• A Touch screen with clear feedback – What could be more useful than seeing every detail in brilliant 1,152K High Resolution before you take your first shot? How about the ST550′s vibration and audio feedback technology that reacts to your touch? After all, you don’t want any of life’s special moments to pass you by. And with the ST550′s super clear 800 x 480 display and innovative Haptic sensor technology, your camera will let you know what you’re doing with every click, swish and hum of the controls.
• See deeper, go wider, get closer with the ST550 – Have it all, literally, with the ST550. From its all inclusive 27mm Schneider-KREUZNACH wide angle lens to its up close and personal 4.6X optical zoom, you’ll capture more fun out of every moment and relive each detail with artistic depth and perspective, and with absolute ease. Plus, with a healthy 12.2 mega pixels of superb clarity, the ST550 delivers sharper detail from every birthday cake, natural wonder, or front row seat view than you ever thought possible. Get the most out of life with the ST550.
• Tilt it, gesture it, and you’ll control it – Tilt it to one side, and the ST550′s Smart Gesture UI will start the perfect slide show without a single touch! With the ST550′s built-in Acceleration Sensor, your gestures work as your commands. Manage camera functions, rotate or delete photos, create special slide shows and more…all without lifting a finger.
• Just what you had in mind – You see the image you want in your head. You point the ST550. And Smart Auto sees it too. This scene recognition technology actually chooses from 16 different settings ranging from landscape to portrait automatically. 
  Then adjusts for the perfect shot. Whether it’s catching your friends on a night on the town or a waterfall off a mountain. What you get is exactly what you had in mind. Plus all the credit.
• It knows you, and gets your best side – The ST550 isn’t just smart in design. With its Smart Face recognition technology, the ST550 creates brilliance with every snap. And keeps it that way. By knowing up to 20 of your friends and family, it automatically focuses on them first, making sure the most important subjects are always in crystal clarity. And since the ST550 never forgets a face, you can also browse more efficiently by the people you’ve registered.
• HD quality video – If you prefer still shots to movies but want to leave your options open (and leave your camcorder at home) the ST550 is right for you. You’ll get 720p HD quality video at 30 frames per second. And a recording time that’s 4X longer than MJPEG video. You even can use the 4.6X Zoom to get up close and vividly personal. And when things get dicey, you can even pause your recording. You’ll give up nothing, except carrying around that extra camera.

This is just a few nice features the Samsung ST550 posseses, for a more detailed look at all the ST550′s features head on over to the official Samsung Page.

I’m an active CTWUG member now for the past 3 years and since the beginning we relied mostly on Mikrotik routers to run our network, not excluding routers like WRT and Ubiquiti.

The good news is that Mikrotik has now stared penetrating the fixed line arena with their brand new RB750 router. The RB750 is a small five port ethernet router in a nice plastic case for a very special price, and yet – with all the power of RouterOS.

Even more it’s probably the most afordable MPLS capable router in South Africa at the moment. With it’s compact design and clean looks, it will fit perfectly into any SOHO environment. All this for only a mere R350 excl vat from Scoop Distribution.

With the indroduction of the cheap RB750 into the South African market Scoop Distribution has launched a competition where you can win one of 3 RB750′s aswell as subscriptions to SACM the South African Computer Magazine.

All you have to do to stand a chance to win one of tese prizes is to simply create a unique Router OS script that can be used with the RB750, scripts that are unique to the South African internet space will be favoured, this include scripts to split local and international traffic.

Get scripting.

If you are interested in buying the RB750 feel free to buy it from Scoop Distribution and just use the CTWUG account when buying to get it at the nice price of R350 excl vat.

A few month back I decided it’s time to go more global with domain names and started looking for a suitable .com domain name.

I went on search without knowing what I wanted to do with the domain name, but as soon as I discovered the domain CapeTownVibe.com I just knew I had to register it. I registered through WebAfrica my ISP of choice and was lucky enough to discover they are running a special for only R90 for a dot com domain. Registration was quick and painless, five minutes after requesting the registration, the domain was registered and active.

I’m still contemplating what I want to do with the domain, I was thinking something along the lines of a guide to Cape Town with whats happening in and around the city aswell as maybe some accommodation info. What do you guys think?

Just a friendly reminder for you guys that missed the G-Connect Giveaway post. You have until end of day Friday to enter to stand a chance to win one of 2 G-Connect vouchers to the value of R50 each.

Each voucher can be used to buy 1GB worth of Internation ADSL bandwidth, this is a great way to test out G-Connect’s great offerings if you always wanted to. G-Connect not only offers ADSL connectivity but the voucher can also be used to access 3G aswell as G-Connect WiFi hotspots with your phone.

To enter simply follow the instructions on the G-Connect Giveaway post, good luck to all.

Great news for local The Killers fans, they will be doing two shows right here in South Africa this December.

Capetonians and Johannesburgers will have the privilege to go see The Killers live on tour right here in South Africa this December brought to us by Heineken and 94.7 Highveld Stereo.

Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter had been filling with news that The Killers will be comming to South Africa, and now it is comfirmed that they are set to perform in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

The Killers has released three albums and has numerous hits such as Mr. Brightside and Human, aswell as a number of awards behind them.

Fans of The Killer can catch them in Johannesburg at the Coca Cola Dome on the 4th of December and Cape Town fans can check them out at Val De Vie Polo Estate in Franschhoek on the 6th of December. Tickets go on sale at Computicket from tomorrow, 28 August, or if you are a KFM club VIP member you can already get a prime spot by purchasing a ticket through the Club VIP website.

Its that time of the year again where Makro is going insane with birthday specials.

Makro is running its birtday special from Sunday 23rd August to Monday the 31st of August. Some of the items on sale worth looking at is the Fujitsu 20″ LCD Computer screen for a mere R999 aswell as the Sinotech 47″ LCD TV for only R9799.

For more information on all the great specials go check out Makro’s nice E-Catelogue here