Vodacom has been planning a price reduction of their mobile broadband offerings for a while now, and they have finally announced it with savings of up to 43%.

Vodacom recently also launched a 2GB + 2GB for R149 per month special that competes head on with the Cell C special of 2GB for R149, but this is only a promotion and does not offer any value to current Vodacom Standard broadband subscribers.

The company has now taken the wraps of their new mobile broadband data offering prices with lower in-bundle and out-of-bundle pricing, and they have also removed the 600MB, 1.2GB and 2.3GB packages, replacing them with 1GB, 1.5GB, 2GB, 2.5GB and 3GB packages. Out-of-bundle pricing has also been reduced from R2 per MB to R1 per MB.

From 1 August 2011 all Vodacom Standard data packages will be replaced by the packages bellow, all contract customers now also qualify for the Vodacom Nigh Owl service which offers customers extra bandwidth to the same amount as their bundle size during the hours of 00:00 to 05:00.

New Vodacom Mobile Broadband Pricing

8ta, South Africa’s newest cellular operator has just dropped the bomb on rival cellphone network operators by introducing the cheapest mobile broadband package available in South Africa.

The new 8ta deal called Internet 5 will give subscribers access to 10GB of bandwidth at only R199 per month, and for an additional R100 users can get another 10GB that can be used between 12AM and 5AM.

This new deal from 8ta undercuts the current deals by Cell C, MTN and Vodacom that offers customers a mere 2GB of bandwidth per month for R149, by a large margin.

The 10GB package from 8ta for R199 per month will be available at all 8ta flagship stores from 26 June 2011, users will need to sign a 24 month contract and the deal is only applicable on 8ta base stations and not where 8ta uses MTN coverage to serve its customers.

To see if you are covered for the 8ta 10GB package see the Internet 5 coverage map.

Last week MyBroadband leaked information about a broadband promotion that Vodacom was set to launch in May 2011, shortly after that Vodacom put details up on their site about the promotion.

The Red is mofoya promotion initially promised users 2GB of mobile broadband data, a 7.2Mbps USB modem and an additional 2GB of night owl data that users could use between 12AM and 5AM in the morning, on a 12 month contract for R149pm.

The promotion that was set to compete head on with the Cell C’s SpeedStick offering has since seen a turn for the worst. Yesterday I and many other users noticed that Vodacom have amended the Terms and Conditions of the promotion and now the deal has been removed from the Vodacom website.

Vodacom has not made any official statement regarding the matter but the removal either suggests that Vodacom has decided not to offer the Red is mofoya broadband promotion anymore, or they have taken it down to finalise the Terms and Conditions.

DStv Mobile has announced that they will be adding three new channels to their mobile TV offering bringing the total number of channels available on the mobile TV platform to twelve.

With the free introductory phase coming to an end at the end of March 2011, DStv Mobile subscribers will enjoy the three extra channel starting from 1 April 2011. The channels that will join the existing DStv Mobile bouquet are CNNi, E!Entertainment and Sony Max.

Not only will DStv Mobile introduce the three new channels they have also promised applications for Nokia and Android smartphones to enable people with those phones to watch DStv Mobile with the Drifta decoder.

From 1 April 2011, you can expect to pay R36 per month to watch DStv Mobile through the Drifta decoder or alternatively if you have a DVB-H phone you can also opt for the R9 per week option.

Good news for DStv Premium subscribers is that they will have access to DStv Mobile through the Drifta decoder or a DVB-H phone at no extra cost per month. If you are a DStv Compact subscriber and subscribe to DStv Mobile before 31 March 2011 you will get access to the service for free until the end of March 2012.

Energy drink maker, Red Bull, is set to launch a mobile network in South Africa soon, but it won’t be a Virtual Mobile Network Operator like Virgin Mobile.

Red Bull already has a strong presence in South Africa with its Energy Drink and extreme sports events and now through a deal with Cell C, the energy drink giant will be offering their Red Bull MOBILE product to South Africans.

Red Bull MOBILE will not launch as a Virtual Mobile Network Operator, nor will they be building their very own network but instead through a venture with Cell C they will be offering Red Bull branded packages to customers.

According to Cell C CEO, Lars Reichelt, they will be running the show and that Red Bull MOBILE customers will be Cell C customers.

It is still unclear as to what packages will be available under the Red Bull MOBILE brand, but there are rumors that Red Bull MOBILE customers will get special access to Red Bull events in South Africa.

Google has officially announced the latest version of the Android, Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

Android 2.3 Gingerbread brings an array of new features to the Android platform, with a core focus on gaming. Apart from the main focus on gaming, Android 2.3 also has support for rich multimedia such as the new open video standards VP8 and WebM video, it also has new audio effects capabilities like reverb and headphone realization.

Gingerbread is the fastest version of Android yet and includes a number of improvements such as user interface refinements, NFC support and a new keyboard and text selection tool.

Another great feature that is build into Android 2.3 is the SIP stack. The SIP stack allows users to make SIP/VoIP Internet calling meaning if you and your friend both have supported devices you can easily phone each other over the Internet without incurring any voice charges.

Check out the video bellow for more information on Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

Multichoice South Africa has launched the long awaited DSTV Mobile after years of fighting over a licence and testing.

DSTV Mobile is a mobile broadcasting service that allows you to watch TV on handheld devices capable of receiving Digital Video Broadcast Handheld (DVB-H) signals.

Current available DVB-H capable handsets in South Africa include the Nokia 5330, Nokia N96 and ZTE F900, however the company are in discussion with various cellphone manufactures and are confident that more DVB-H capable handsets will be in South Africa soon.

For those that do not have access the a DVB-H capable handset, do not despair. Multichoice has also launched a mobile decoder called the Drifta that will enable you to view DSTV Mobile on you iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and PC through wireless. The Drifta decoder receives the DSTV Mobile signal and then relays it to the devices through WiFi by acting as an access point. Blackberry OS, Symbian 3 and Android applications are in development that will enable more smartphone to work with the Drifta mobile decoder.

The channel line-up on the DSTV Mobile bouquet will initially include a selection of SuperSport channels (1, 2, 3 and Blitz), Africa Magic, Cartoon Network, Trace and a DSTV Events Channel. The e.Mobile bouquet contains The eNews Channel and Channel O. More channels on both services will be announced soon.

Now for the pricing, the DSTV Mobile subscription will cost you R39 per month but only from the 1st of April 2011, that means if you are an early adopter you can make use of the DSTV Mobile service for free.

The Drifta decoder will be available for R599 from major retailers from 1 December 2010 and the service can be activated via the MultiChoice call centre or the DSTV Mobile website. DVB-H cellphones will be made available through mobile network operators, Vodacom, MTN and Cell C and the subscription is activated directly off the handset.

The first set of Windows Phone 7 mobile phones are set to hit the South African market in early December 2010, but is this too little to late from Microsoft? With Android, iPhone and Blackberry smartphones currently dominating the smartphone market, is there room for another mobile OS? Microsoft seem to think so with the release of Windows Phone 7.

Microsoft is promising a fresh and new user experience with Windows Phone 7 guaranteed to shake up the marketplace, delivering a phone that integrates the things people really want to do and puts those things right in front of them.

Two Windows Phone 7 devices will be available to the public in early December 2010 on all major networks. The two Windows Phone 7 models are manufactured by HTC, now know more for their Android devices like the HTC Desire. The two initial models are the HTC 7 Mozart and HTC 7 Trophy, the latter being exclusive to Vodacom, they will be joined by models from Samsung and LG early in 2011.

According to Nkosi Kumalo, mobility business group lead in South Africa, users can expect to pay from R150 per month on contract for the Windows Phone 7 devices. MTN already have the HTC 7 Mozart on their price list starting at R 289.00 on MTN 100 including 75MB of free data.

Since WordPress launched its first mobile application for the iPhone in 2008, the popular blogging platform has also released apps for Blackberry and the Android platforms. Now two years in WordPress has officially reached 1 Million users making use of their mobile applications.

With cellphones becoming the new personal computer this is not just for huge landmark for WordPress but for blogging also. The WordPress mobile apps allows you to express yourself no matter where you are, saw something worth sharing with the world just snap a picture with your phone and blog it right there and then.

To celebrate this huge milestone WordPress has released an app for one of two new platforms in its scope, WordPress for Nokia is the latest platform to get the WordPress mobile app.

You can, of course, write and edit posts and pages, manage your comments queue and keep an eye on your blog’s statistics while on the move. If a seagull just snatched your hot dog and is making a run for it, you can snap a picture of the commotion or even record a video describing how it felt and how much you’re suing for. All from within the app.

There are two version available for WordPress for Nokia, one for new Symbian^3 devices like the Nokia N8 and then another version for older phones like the X6-00, C6-00, N97, and 5800 XpressMusic.

You can grab your copy of WordPress for Nokia here or from the Nokia OVI Store.

WordPress is the most popular blogging platform on the planet, in fact it is not just popular for blogging but many developers use it for so much more than a blogging platform.

One nice thing about WordPress is the fact that there are mobile applications available for it, but up until now it was limited to Android, iPhone and Blackberry users.

A while ago I helped the guys over at RLabs set up a WordPress blog to enable the authors to blog from their mobile phones, unfortunately I had to go the email route and later on the MXit to WordPress application was born due to the fact that the authors was not holders of smartphones but mostly low end Nokia phones.

WordPress has now released the beta version of WordPress for Nokia. WordPress for Nokia allows you to post new posts and pages, edit existing content on your blog, manage comments, check stats and more on the go for your WordPress.com or self hosted WordPress 2.7 or higher blogs.

WordPress for Nokia is currently supported by S60 or Maemo powered Nokia devices and is Open Source allowing developers to be able to modify the application.

For more information or to download WordPress for Nokia head over to the OVI Store or visit the WordPress for Nokia page.