South Africa Car Hire

By: Johan Brink

I'M SURE most readers of this column would of have seen the Vodacom advert with the technically-challenged guy that just upgraded his phone to one that has "blue teeth".

But what does this mean? What is this 'blue teeth' thing, or the correct term Bluetooth, and why would you want this technology that only makes you think about your next dentist appointment?

Bluetooth in a nutshell

It took the cellular industry - the same as any other technology - a couple of years to create a clear working standard for Bluetooth, and the new version 2.0 would seem to be a huge step in the right direction.

Bluetooth is an industry standard for electronic devices to communicate with one another no matter what type of electric equipment it is, as long as they are Bluetooth enabled.

In other words your cellphone and your notebook can seamlessly connect with one another and exchange data, even though your notebook and cellphone use totally different operating systems.

In another example, you can use a Bluetooth headset and as long as you are in 10 meter radius from your phone you can receive calls.

Bluetooth is not a new technology when it comes to cellphones and notebook computers - it's been around for a while but only in recent times has it become something that you will actually look at when you buy a new phone or computer.

The most popular application for Bluetooth is to connect your cellphone to a Bluetooth headset or car kit, or to backup your phonebook to your notebook. The one thing I like about using my phone and Bluetooth connection from my notebook is that I don't need a data card to connect to the internet, no cables and I can do it without having my phone sitting right next to me.

The application for Bluetooth is endless and not only limited to computers and phones, this technology can enable you to connect to your freezer and check if there is fresh milk, or to switch off that second floor bedroom light that you always forget to turn off.

Since Bluetooth is a standard for communication between electronic devices the applications are endless, and increasingly more new electronic equipment is becoming Bluetooth enabled.

Bluetooth advertising has become a marketing tool for companies, especially high volume areas for example traffic lights and shopping centers.

Bluetooth broadcasting units send Bluetooth messages to passing Bluetooth-enabled phones. This can be anything from an image to a slide show with specials. But by default they keep this advert small to make sure it will reach the recipient before he or she is out of range.

Best of all for marketing companies is that after setting up the initial infrastructure, this service costs next-to-nothing to operate.

Bluetooth limitation and risks

Despite all the Bluetooth upgrades, the technology still has its limitations. The latest version of Bluetooth transmits data across distances of up to 100m but doing this greatly increases the amount of power consumed - that is why headsets work only within a 10m radius.

We're already at the stage where our mobile phones battery life is not what it used to be, so adding technology to drain it even more rapidly is not a positive attribute. Shorter mobile phone battery life experienced with the latest model cellphones is not due to weaker or lower quality batteries, it is due to the "must-have" built-in camera and MP3 player - and don't forget that today size does matter! Today consumers are expecting so much more from a mobile device than 3 years ago.

The cost of Bluetooth is still very high even though more and more devices are Bluetooth enabled, especially when it comes to built-in units in notebooks (external units are less expensive). Bluetooth data communication is still slow - as those who have tried to print a colour presentation to a Bluetooth enabled printer can testify!

As wonderful as this ability to communicate with all technology might be, the threats are just as real, and this comes in the form of viruses and worm-like software.

Most people that use their Bluetooth headsets have their Bluetooth switched on permanently. Problem with this is, if you are in range of a phone with a virus, the virus will find and try to access you phone, and if it succeeds it could damage your phone permanently. I have to add that in most cases the virus needs you to allow access to your phone, so don't just except any incoming Bluetooth connections from anywhere, make sure of the source.

Keep Bluetooth in mind the next time your upgrade you phone or notebook - "blue teeth" can make things a lot easier - such as if you are the single person travelling by car from Pretoria to Johannesburg in ultra fast left lanes of the Ben Schoeman highway, you can use your blue teeth to connect to the internet without having to struggle to find the connection cables for your mobile phone!

At least you don't have to worry about the metro police, they are too busy kicking people out of the right lane.


News source: www.news24.co.za

Posted by: www.SouthAfrica-CarHire.com
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San Francisco - Google Inc said on Wednesday that it has expanded its mobile internet-advertising tests to cellphone subscribers in eight additional countries, including China and several major European nations.

The ads apparently will appear whenever someone in those countries use a cellphone's internet capability to access a site or to search via Google's engine, the company announced on Wednesday.

It would not detail whether it had made deals with mobile-service providers.

But in expanding its cellphone advertising initiative, Google is attempting to expand the reach of its advertisers and online features beyond websites and personal computers.

It's also going after the $11bn that advertisers are expected to spend on mobile marketing by 2011, according to a recent report by the telecom division of Informa Group.

Google began testing text-only advertisements sent to cellphones earlier this year in the United States, as well as Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom.

As of Wednesday, Google said that it has added China, the world's largest cellphone market, as well as Australia, France, India, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.

"The tests will enable a wider range of advertisers to reach users with relevant information when they're on the go," Google spokesperson Erin Fors said in an e-mail.

"For example, when users search for ringtones, they may see an ad to purchase or download one of the latest ringtones, directly from their mobile device."

Google joins a growing number of internet heavyweights focusing more intently on cellphone advertising.

The company's chief competitor, Yahoo - which considers itself a leading provider of advertisements that appear on cellphones - recently began testing graphical cellphone ads, claiming to have once again one-upped Google.

News source: www.news24.co.za

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Los Angeles - The new James Bond movie shook up the UK box office during its first day of release on Thursday, earning more than any other film in the spy franchise, distributor Columbia Pictures said.

Casino Royale, which marks the 007 debut of Daniel Craig, sold £1.7m worth of tickets, a 54% increase over comparable sales for the previous Bond film and first-day record-holder, 2002's Die Another Day.

In all, two-thirds of all movie tickets sold in Britain were for Casino Royale, the Sony Corp-owned studio added.

The film opens in the United States and Canada on Friday. Of the 27 international territories where Casino Royale is debuting this weekend, Britain and Russia are the largest.

With a budget of around $100m and marketing costs almost as much, the film, directed by New Zealand-born Martin Campbell, must be a hit to make money.

Die Another Day, the last Bond film starring Pierce Brosnan, earned an impressive $430m at the box office. The 20 official Bond films have amassed nearly $4bn in ticket sales worldwide.

News source: www.news24.co.za

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Johannesburg - Team Shosholoza mastman, Charles Nankin, was back on board yacht Shosholoza RSA 83 - albeit in the non-participant role of 18th man - for the first time on Wednesday since seriously fracturing his back in a freak sailing accident in August.

"I was excited to say the least! It's still too early to return to my position as mastman but now I'm happy and confident that I'm on the right track. I'll be back with the team in January and ready for the challenge," said a beaming Nankin, 28, of Zeekoevlei, Cape Town who was sailing with the team during a practice session in Mediterranean waters off Valencia in Spain.

Nankin, a key-player in the team, has been recuperating in Valencia - host city for the 2007 America's Cup and "home" base in Europe for the past two years for Team Shosholoza and the 11 other teams from around the world entered for the event.

He returns to South Africa early next week with the rest of Team Shosholoza's sailing crew. But while most of the team will be enjoying a short Christmas break he will spend time at Cape Town's Sport Science Institute replicating sailing situations through sport-specific fitness training.

Nankin's sail on Wednesday was exactly 100 days since his freak accident occurred while racing in the German Sailing Grand Prix in Kiel.

At the time he was on foredeck pulling in the spinnaker whilst rounding a leeward mark. He was flung overboard by the foresail which hit him unexpectedly as it came across the bow. He was then sucked under the boat as it turned, hit in the back by the rudder and trapped underwater for 24 seconds.

Diagnosed with a full vertebral fracture, he immediately underwent a three-hour operation at a specialist hospital affiliated to the University of Schleswig-Holstein in Kiel and a titanium plate was inserted to stabilise the thoracolumbar region. Two weeks later he was flown back to Valencia where he spent a few days in a rehabilitation clinic before returning to his Valencia home on August 30.

He lost 14kg but was soon able to start light exercises in a swimming pool to build up muscle tone, strength and flexibility in his back to facilitate the healing process. When he was strong enough to return to the Shosholoza Base in Valencia's Port America's Cup Nankin continued to work with Team Shosholoza physiotherapist Michal Hadala and biokineticist Julian Calefato of Cape Town's Sports Science Institute on a specially devised exercise programme.

Nankin's teammates were pleasantly surprised to see him back on deck so soon.

"We're all convinced that Charles will be back in his regular position very soon," said grinder Shaun Pammenter who has been back-up mastman since Nankin has been off the boat.

Boat captain Tim Kruger also commented: "A speedy return to the boat is good after such a serious accident, we're all happy and relieved."

News source: www.news24.co.za

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Pretoria - Certain roads in the Pretoria Central Business District were clogged up with traffic on Wednesday as the Tshwane Metro Police cracked down on traffic violators with outstanding warrants of arrests.

The Metro Police held several roadblocks, stopping cars and looking at the registration of vehicles and drivers' licences.

By lunchtime the metro police had already searched 600 vehicles and made 50 arrests.

"We settled 95 outstanding warrants of arrests in this way," Mel Vosloo, metro police spokesperson, said.

Wednesday's action was part of "Operation Adherence" which the metro police launched at the beginning of the month to go after traffic offenders with up to 77 000 warrants of arrests outstanding in the city.

"This is not a money making scheme, we want people to take the traffic laws seriously," said Vosloo.

The roadblocks were set to continue late into the afternoon.

News source: www.news24.co.za

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Paris - France's highest court has overturned a ruling by a Paris court banning a fashion poster showing women imitating Jesus Christ and his apostles in the Leonardo da Vinci painting The Last Supper.

The Court of Appeals said the posters, for fashion house Marithe and Francois Girbaud, should be allowed under the right to freedom of speech.

The court found the campaign did not aim to offend the faithful and "does not constitute an injury and personal and direct attack against a group of people".

The company was forced to take down the posters last March after the Paris court said they offended Roman Catholics.

The Italian city of Milan also banned the same poster last year as a parody of a key event in Christian history. The Last Supper depicts Christ's farewell to his disciples.

The poster showed women in chic casual clothes seated at a table in postures mimicking da Vinci's famous painting, which he finished in 1497 in a Milan convent. To the right of Christ in the poster, a woman embraces a shirtless man in jeans.

The French complaint against the poster was brought by an association called Beliefs and Freedoms, which was created by the French bishops' conference in 1996.

The association's lawyer said the poster did "great injury to Catholics because it represents the Last Supper in denigrating conditions".

News source: www.news24.co.za

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The Cape Town Partnership has just released its annual report in which it says it has broadened its strategies - in a property sense - to promote residential densification and more affordable housing.

In his review, outgoing chairman of the CTP, Shaun Johnson, says this would be done through 'focused co-operation between property developers, municipal planning authorities, and social housing companies'.

The Partnership says it supports the goal of at least doubling the Central City residential population over the next 10 years, to also include the provision of affordable, well located, housing.

Cape Town's inner city regeneration project has been hailed around the world as a model for sustainable urban revitalisation, but there has long been criticism that the residential aspect of the project only caters to a wealthy minority.

Chief executive officer Andrew Boraine writes in his report that in the past year, 'the Partnership has provided assistance to a number of potential developers with the identification of vacant public land and buildings within the Central City for social housing. Partnerships have also been forged with social housing companies for the construction of affordable housing in the Central City'.

Boraine says the Partnership and its partners have a 'vision of creating a diverse Central City where a cross-section of activities and income groups can be located'.

'The year ahead will see the re-doubling of efforts to realise this objective, and to diversify the range of housing options in the Central City to make the area more accessible,' he writes.

A further 3 000 flats will come on line by the end of 2006, mainly through the conversion of under-utilised B- and C-grade commercial properties to residential/mixed-use, increasing the inner city's residential population.

Developments planned for the year ahead include: No. 4 Church Square, No. 11 Adderley Street, Temple House, The Australasian Building, Creative House, the Grand Parade, the Cape Town Station, and the Adderley/Strand Intersection, including the Woolworths and old Edgars buildings.

Of course, charting the way forward for District Six is going to be vitally important. Over 60 000 people were forcibly removed from the area in the Central City in the '60s and 70s. Boraine says up to 4 000 houses will be developed in District Six as part of a land restitution process.

But earlier this month, national government announced that it was taking over the redevelopment of the area, saying that housing minister Lindiwe Sisulu and deputy agriculture and land affairs Minister Dirk du Toit would take over leadership of the project from executive mayor Helen Zille.

But claimants are concerned that Sisulu had earlier stated that people who are waiting for houses, particularly those who form part of the N2 Gateway project, would be accommodated in District Six, as part of the N2 Gateway project.

This would fly in the face of land redistribution to people who had claim to land in the area.

In the meantime, Mayor Zille has said that she does not care 'who delivers, as long as delivery happens, and that the interests of the legitimate claimants are protected and addressed'. - Glenda Nevill

News source: www.news24.co.za

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Durban - Police and members of the National Sea Rescue Institute were baffled by an unusual incident involving seven people seen running out of the sea soon after their boat capsized in a military zone south of Durban.

NSRI spokesperson Craig Lambinon said that when his team and the 911 helicopter arrived, they were told by witnesses that occupants of the boat that had run aground had run away.

"They ran away for unknown reasons and all we know is that the area is a restricted military zone."

Superintendent Daniela Veldhuizen said five adults and two children were seen running towards their car after "a big wave" capsized their boat.

"They apparently were fishing at the time. No one was injured and the matter has been handed over to the military police."

News source: www.news24.co.za

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