South African online Apple retailer DigiCape has reduces the prices of their first generation iPads by as much as R600 for the WiFi+3G version.

DigiCape has just announced on Twitter that they have slashed the prices of all their first generation iPad’s by R500 for the WiFi only version and R600 for the WiFi+3G version of the iPad 1.

The price reduction comes just days after Apple announced the iPad 2, the latest generation iPad with a dual core CPU, 9 times faster graphics and front and rear facing cameras.

Here are the latest DigiCape iPad Prices:

The prices are still a bit on the expensive side, but it does make it more affordable for someone to own a tablet, could this sudden drop in price mean the iPad 2 is on its way to South Africa?

Apple has some of the hottest gadgets available at the moment like the iPhone 4, iPad, iPod Touch and Macbook.

For those local consumers that are fortunate enough to own an Apple product, does not have access to all the nice things the US iTunes store provide to its users, but luckily there are workarounds like opening a US iTunes account.

The only problem with using a US iTunes account outside of the US is that you cannot charge content to your credit card, that is where iTunes Gift Cards come into play.

iTunes Gift Cards allows you to buy iTunes prepaid credits that you can use to buy Apps, Music, Movies and Series, the only down side of iTunes Gift Cards is that they are normally a bit more expensive then the actual money value.

I have done some investigation and here are a complete list of iTunes Gift Card providers and how much they charge.

[UPDATED TABLE]

So there you have it, seems like the cheapest place to buy iTunes Gift Cards is either WildTwig or iEverything or Maximus Cards with the exception of the $50 card that is a bit cheaper at WildTwig.
I have used both WildTwig and Maximus Cards before before and delivery is almost instant as soon as the transaction was successful. iEverything also has some great deals and I will test them out next time I need to buy a voucher.

Where do you buy your iTunes Gift Cards?

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.

Last night in a hanger at Lanseria airport, Telkom launched South Africa’s fourth mobile network operator 8ta. The past couple of months we saw numerous advertisements about Heita!, although rumor had it that Telkom was behind it no one was certain until now.

Telkom certainly means business with its new 8ta mobile network by offering prices that undercuts competitors by a large margin, and making it really affordable to phone to landlines from mobile phones.

8ta already has 800 base station constructed across the country and plans to add another 3200 over time to improve its network coverage. And although 8ta only has 800 base station it already has full national coverage thanks to its roaming agreement with MTN.

When it comes to broadband the Telkom 8ta network supports HSPA and is capable of download speeds of up to 7.2Mbps and can be upgraded to support 21Mbps in future.

Now for the pricing everybody has been waiting for. 8ta will initially only launch a prepaid offering to the market with a post paid offering to follow withing the next few months with low-end, feature phones and smartphones from all the major manufacturers.

Calls from 8ta to Telkom and Neotel landline phones will cost the consumer 65c per minute while calls to cellular phones on any other local cellphone networks will cost R1.50 per minute. In addition to the lower rates, 8ta will offer consumers 1 second free airtime for every 3 seconds they talk. Also calls from 8ta to over 100 international destinations will cost consumers a flat rate of R2.50 per minute.

Good news for SMS fanatics is that SMS messages from the 8ta network will cost 50c per message but for the first 5 SMS messages you send on a day you will receive 50 free additional SMS messages to use for that day.

Internet on the 8ta network will cost R1 per megabyte for out of bundle data with prepaid data bundles available from as low as 25c per megabyte. Prepaid data bundles available at launch are as follows:

1. 100MB for R50
2. 250MB for R100
3. 500MB for R150
4. 1GB for R250

Things are looking good for Telkom with their 8ta mobile offering, but if consumers will switch over only time will tell. Telkom does not have a great reputation when it comes to customer service and this may be held against them.

What do you think? Will you be giving 8ta a try?

MTN and Vodacom are set to launch the iPhone 4 tonight at midnight but up until now the big question on the lips of consumers was at what price will the iPhone 4 be available.

A photo was leaked earlier of MTN contract pricing for the iPhone 4, the prices are as follows:

Please note these prices have not been confirmed by MTN.

Official Pricing for Vodacom and MTN has been released.

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.