Got a client or company who wants a website? Refer them to us and get 10% referral fee on the invoice total.

You send us the client email or phone details and we do the follow-up. Once the client project is complete and paid, you get a 10% referral fee on that total. 

It's that simple. Send us the client or company details now.

Apple has for years ignored a bursting market with burning credit cards here in South Africa.

A growing number of South Africans have come over to the Apple way of things, seen the light of simplicity and security of a semi-closed Apple system. The growth has been admittedly through a mixed origin. Some have wanted Apple products badly, and since they were not yet released in this country they would import these product at stunningly inflated prices. All for a chance to experience the latest tech from the Newton headache.

And then the headache really starts. As soon as the glimmer and gloss of your new iPod, iPhone and iPad wears off, and you finally get yourself connected to the iTunes store, that's when the flaw in Apple's marketing plan (if they even have one for South Africa) becomes apparent.

No Games. No Music. No Movies. No TV Shows. So basically everything that the iTunes stands for is "not available for purchase in your region".

Oops!

I've seen the posts on Apple's discussion forum, but be careful, try to post anything these about the South African situation, and they will summarily delete either your posts, or simply the entire topic. Wow. They spend all that time on making sure you never find out why these items are not available for the South African market.

Games

So why are games not available. Having been a registered developer and learning to code in Objective C, and wanting to write minigames for the iPad and iPhone, I investigated why there was no Games category in the South African AppStore. I did a little digging.

Obviously, I knew that physical disc-based games in South Africa needed to be rated by the Film and Publications Board (FPB) of South Africa, as I've had a PS3, XBOX360 and PSP gaming consoles. This is a government directive which states that physical media games need a rating for parents to identify the games' content type to make informed decisions and to prevent kids from picking up adult-themed games in stores. This is similar to the PEGI (Pan European Gaming Information) and ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) in America.

I then proceeded to call the Johannesburg head office of the FPB. I spoke to a manager of the division and he explained everything to me. In fact he said that even though a game rating process costs R2000.00 per game once-off, this process is can can be deferred, when a large amount of smaller games are sold as in the Mobile environment as WAP (wireless access protocol) downloadable games. Typically phones like Nokia, Motorola and other WAP phones run Java and this enables games to be downloaded and executed on a variety of phones. Nokia also has their own store to sell web games called the Ovi Store. Both the Ovi Store and WAP online advertisers are in arrangement with the FPB and basically games are not individually rated and the rating cost per game is omitted. In addition, because the online stores and/or phones already have some type of parental restriction in place, this translates to the online store and prevents kids from downloading games with a setting higher than allowed, making the need for the classification unnecessary. 

So Apple can simply follow the route that has already been laid down by other mobile game resellers, but no, they prefer to leave the Games section completely removed from the South African AppStore. So, when you buy your iPod, iPhone and iPad, you cannot run any games on it.

The only alternative you have is to get a US/UK account, where you get your "friend" (aka online store) to gift the credits to you, which you then redeem on your US/UK account and then you can buy games. In fact then you can buy any other media type too: music, videos, movies, TV shows, etc.

Music

Then we move onto music. Well I've heard the rumours and also the hearsay, that the South African market's licensing is just not allowable for Apple to be able to enter, but I spoke to a representative of RPM Music, and he also has an iPod and explained to me that there is nothing standing in Apple's way to license music in South Africa. Actually he cannot see any reason why Apple doesn't yet sell online. Other providers like Musica and Nokia are also selling online music, so it doesn't look like a licensing issues, as someone like Musica is a very small company compared to the size of Apple.

Movies

Hmm... Now I'm very confused. It looks like if it's valid for music, then why not Movies. Actually we only have a distributor model for movies, so Ster-Kinekor and Nu Metro release movies here and I see no reason why Apple cannot become a third alternative channel.

TV Shows

Oh brother, this one is a nail in my coffin, as this one is the one I'd really want to see happening. I hate advertising and TV, so for me, I'd prefer to buy the episode 1 day after it is released, so I can watch the latest shows instead of waiting for DStv or SABC to show them — since I don't even have any TV subscription.

Books [updated]

Also, iBooks has now fallen into the same situation. Here the books are copy-protected with Apple's Fairplay DRM, but there are no commercial books, except for the free Gutenberg ones, available on the iBooks store. This means that there is yet another application and media type that is unused.

In Conclusion

I think that most of my friends agree that I'm pretty much an Apple salesman and I pretty much know most of the product backwards (ps. I even had an Apple Newton Messagepad in 1996), as I'm a bit of a techno-geek. This makes it really difficult for me, because I love the technology, but I absolutely loath the fact that the games, music, movies, TV shows and books are not available here in South Africa.

In fact we're not the only country in this boat. Many African countries, Eastern European and South American countries sit in this same black ocean.

So what to do?

There doesn't seem to be much reasoning for Apple decision of acting like a black hole in developing markets. In fact, we're probably regarded as a backward nation, with no infrastructure, and we'd probably make a bad royalty investment. 

The only real answer for our locals here in South Africa is this:

Just get that UK/US gift card redeem system going and then you can benefit from the latest games, music, movies and TV shows until Apple decides to grace us with their presence.

It's not the best and easiest answer, it's just one that works.

TRON: Legacy is a worthy and digitally up to date successor to the original TRON (1982) movie, we provide a commentary on the design and film-making.

The original TRON pioneered the use of computer graphics in films starting our modern integration of CGI in films. Then they used rotoscoping and other integration effects, and they avoided shots where you could see a live actor together with computer generated images.

Now updated for the modern era, the overall design of black, glass, slate, carbon and luminous textured world, you realise from the first "inside the computer" images, that here is something special, wonderful. This world is not only believable as a computer world, but is rich in design and overall atmosphere.

From the morphing, liquid glass worlds of the games arena and the gorgeous, deadly solidifying liquid trails of the light cycles, to the carbon, krypton-esque slate hideout of Flynn (my best friend and I want a Hotel like that to stay in, please someone?), to the cityscape and the final light flyers, all makes you wonder how many people must have worked on designing every small aspect. 

Everything, not only seems to have a wonderful mechanical purpose, but also seems to have been re-designed hundreds of times, to create this flowing, seamless expanse of digital mimicry of the real world.

The only real let-down of the whole movie was the 3D part. The director must have thought that focus was something that he was still in control of, so in adding that to the film, he basically destroyed it completely. And forced focus isn't just used in a few scenes, it's used in almost every shot. This really makes the movie almost unwatchable in 3D.

For Avatar, James Cameron, realised this mistake, and never used forced focus anywhere, instead, relying on the observer to focus for themselves on the interesting subject matter. This makes the experience lose most of the magic. In some scenes of reprieve, the director forgoes this technique and we have infinite focus, and in these scenes the 3D seems to pop-out. If he had filmed the movie in this way, when we have a close-up of a character, we would be able to focus on the elements in the far background, creating the vast landscape experience, instead, TRON: Legacy 3D seems unusually flat. There were really only a few places where the 3D effect was worth it.

So, directors, please refrain from focussing in on your subject matter. Move the camera close to the subject, never zoom, as that will also collapse the focus.

I was still very impressed with the overall look and feel of the film in terms of design and story, so it still get's a solid yes. Can't wait for the next sequel.

The Zaha Hadid Architects proposal for Cairo Expo City is a remarkable vision of where architecture is heading. It's truly something out of a Star Wars or Star Trek movie. Like some inter-planetary convention space with organic structures, gorgeous open and unsupported volumes. This really is the "Apple" version of design in the Architecture world.

This design style is like nothing you've seen before. You simply have to watch this video (further down on the link-through).

Zaha Hadid Architects’ proposal for Cairo Expo City delivers an iconic architectural vision for a unique facility for Cairo, a city for Exhibitions and Conference between downtown Cairo and the airport. The project comprises a major international exhibition and conference centre with business hotel. This will create a rich ensemble of diverse functions which caters for multiple audiences and activates the site across different times and days of the week.

The Next Generation MacBook Air, new release of iLife 11 with updated iPhoto, iMovie and Garageband, and a preview look at the upcoming Mac OSX Lion, combining the power of OSX with the style of the iPad, including the Mac AppStore.

Apple Introduces MacBook Air: The Next Generation of MacBooks

Apple today unveiled the all-new MacBook Air, the first of the next generation of notebooks that will replace mechanical hard disks and optical drives with Internet services and solid-state flash storage. Available in 11-inch and 13-inch models and weighing as little as 2.3 pounds, the MacBook Air is Apple’s lightest, most mobile notebook ever. MacBook Air uses the same solid-state storage technology as iPad to deliver instant-on responsiveness, up to seven hours of battery life, and up to 30 days of standby time.

More

Apple Introduces iLife ’11 with New iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand

Apple introduced iLife ’11, a major upgrade that gives Mac users even more great ways to create and share photos, movies, and music. iPhoto ’11 has a whole new look, with stunning full-screen modes for Faces, Places, and Events. iMovie ’11 makes it easier than ever to edit videos and quickly transform them into fun theatrical trailers for easy posting online. GarageBand ’11 introduces new ways to improve your playing and create great sounding songs with Flex Time and Groove Matching.

More

Apple Gives Sneak Peek of Mac OS X Lion

Apple today gave a sneak peek of Mac OS X Lion, the eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system. Shipping next summer, Lion is inspired by many of iPad’s software innovations. Features include the Mac App Store, a new way to discover, install, and automatically update desktop apps; Launchpad, a new home for all of your Mac apps; system-wide support for full-screen apps; and Mission Control, which unifies Exposé, Dashboard, Spaces, and full-screen apps into an innovative new view of everything running on your Mac, allowing you to instantly navigate anywhere.

More

New Apple TV

Even though no offical iTunes Store is in South Africa, many South Africans use international Gift Cards to gain access to this services. The new Apple TV offers the simplest way to watch your favorite HD movies and TV shows on your HD TV for the breakthrough price of just $99 (around R800). With Apple TV, you can choose from the largest online selection of HD movies to rent, including first-run movies for just $4.99, and the largest online selection of HD TV show episodes to rent — from ABC, ABC Family, Fox, Disney Channel, and BBC America — for just 99 cents.

More

Apple Brings FaceTime to the Mac

Apple announced the public beta of FaceTime for Mac, an entirely new application that allows Mac users to video call iPhone 4 and iPod touch users as well as other Mac users. Featuring an intuitive interface, FaceTime for Mac automatically uses your Address Book contacts so there’s no need to create special buddy lists, and it works seamlessly with the built-in camera and mic on Mac notebooks, iMac, and Apple LED Cinema Displays. The public beta is available immediately as a free download.

More

Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) follows up their previous androids with this impressive latest effort, the HRP-4 humanoid.

Created in partnership with Kawada Industries, this 151-centimeter (5-feet) tall, 39-kilo (86-pound) walking followup to the HRP-4C, HRP-3 and HRP-2 robots (pictured in the background) was developed to help take over manufacturing duties from a rapidly aging Japanese work force.

The highly mobile HRP-4 features 34-degrees of movement with AIST proprietary control software running on a Linux core.

The video on the link is quite slow in pace — typical Japan style — so just relax and watch this amazing android go through its paces, like walking up and facing centre, balancing and other moves, as well as head and ball tracking.

The new smaller iPod Shuffle with buttons, iPod Nano with multi-touch, iPod Touch with Retina display, FaceTime, AppleTV with TV streaming and the new iTunes with Ping Social Networking.

New iPod touch

Apple today announced the new iPod touch, packed with incredible new features including Apple’s stunning Retina display, FaceTime video calling, HD video recording, Apple’s A4 chip, 3-axis gyro, iOS 4.1, and Game Center — all combined in the thinnest and lightest iPod touch ever. The new iPod touch features up to 40 hours of music playback and seven hours of video playback on a single battery charge.

More

New iPod Nano + Multi-touch

iPod nano has been completely redesigned with Multi-Touch, which lets you navigate your music collection by simply tapping or swiping a finger on the display. Nearly half the size and weight of the previous generation, the new iPod nano features a polished aluminum and glass enclosure with a built-in clip, making it instantly wearable.

More

New iPod shuffle

The redesigned iPod shuffle features both clickable buttons and Apple’s innovative VoiceOver technology, enabling you to easily navigate your music and playlists without ever looking at your iPod shuffle. The wearable iPod shuffle has an all-aluminum enclosure with a built-in clip and comes in five brilliant colors — silver, blue, green, orange, and pink.

More

New Apple TV

Even though no offical iTunes Store is in South Africa, many South Africans use international Gift Cards to gain access to this services. The new Apple TV offers the simplest way to watch your favorite HD movies and TV shows on your HD TV for the breakthrough price of just $99 (around R800). With Apple TV, you can choose from the largest online selection of HD movies to rent, including first-run movies for just $4.99, and the largest online selection of HD TV show episodes to rent — from ABC, ABC Family, Fox, Disney Channel, and BBC America — for just 99 cents.

More

iTunes 10 with Ping

iTunes 10 features Ping, a new social network for music that lets you follow your favorite artists and friends to discover what music they’re talking about, listening to, and downloading. With Ping you can post your thoughts and opinions, your favorite albums and songs, and the music you’ve downloaded from iTunes — plus view concert listings and tell your friends which concerts you plan to attend.

More

We have completely redesigned our new website. Inspired by the paper folding technique of origami, we created a concept where the content parts look like folded paper.

Of course we always use Contao CMS, which is our CMS of choice, because it's not only easy to use, with complete template control, but it's also 100% programmable and extensible through its web framework. 

We have used quite a few developer extensions in addition to the ones we've written ourselves:

• News System — used for Blog and Portfolio
• News Gallery — adds a gallery to any news item
• Tags Cloud — to create multi-categories in News
• Newsletter System - to create, edit, preview, view online and send newsletters
• Image Headline — for rendering headings as graphics
• Unzip — backend zip management
• HTML5 video support (iPhone/iPad)
• MooTools animations for many pages
• CSS3 fade, hover and rotate animations
• Multiple manual customizations

Take a browse and let us know.

Avatar, the 3D blockbuster movie that everyone talked about for months (ok, they're still talking about it) will be re-released in a special edition version containing 6 minutes 8 minutes of additional footage on August 27, 2010.

You have to consider that Avatar has garnered 9 Academy nominations that include Best Director and Best Picture, of which it won 3 Academy Awards: Cinematography, Visual Effects, and Art Direction.

Avatar's success in financial terms is unprecedented. Currently, the grossing total for the movie is an unheard of $2.740 billion.

Apple's international roll-out plan for the iPhone 4 never included a single mention of South Africa. Local Vodacom provided refused to comment about whether the device would ever be released here in South Africa. 

The roll-out plan of 18 countries in July and 24 in August didn't include South Africa, but Vodacom confirmed that they would be bringing the iPhone 4 to South Africa.

A tweet posted for today, Pieter Uys, CEO of Vodacom, confirmed that the cellular operator plans on launching the device at the end of September.

Finally!

At long last we got Google Street View here in South Africa. It's very kewl. I drove this morning to several addresses here in the TableView area, which I thought wouldn't be mapped yet, but I found every address' street view.

This was really helpful, as you can see the house or premises before you arrive and easily spot the house color, and/or entrance way to know which is the right one to go knock on , particularly useful in Cape Town where many houses and complexes, don't even have their street numbers visible.

On an iPhone, I just tap the little orange "man" icon next to the dropped pin.

RealD Cinema is a digital 3D stereoscopic projection technology which does not require two projectors, unlike some older 3D stereoscopic projection technology. A high-resolution digital projector using Texas Instruments' DLP Cinema technology is used. It can be projected with a single Christie, Barco or NEC DLP Cinema projector (other digital projection technologies would work as well if fitted with the proper equipment) at 144 frames per second, six times as fast as a normal movie.

On March 12, 2007, DreamWorks Animation announced that beginning with the spring 2009 release of Monsters vs. Aliens, all of their features will be released in theatres in 3D. On April 8, 2008, Disney Feature Animation followed suit, announcing that from the November 11, 2008 release of Bolt, all Disney/Pixar animation features will be released in 3D.

Other upcoming 3D releases in 2009 and beyond include Focus Features' Coraline, from the book by Neil Gaiman and directed by Henry Selick of Nightmare Before Christmas; 3D conversions of all Pixar's Toy Story films; Robert Zemeckis's A Christmas Carol; and Tim Burton-helmed versions of Alice in Wonderland and his original short Frankenweenie.

One of the most eagerly awaited releases is James Cameron's Avatar, currently scheduled for December 18, 2009. Horrorween 2009 will also be filmed in RealD 3D. 3D legend Chris Condon, and Director Ed Meyer are set to remake The Stewardesses, the most successful 3D film in history, in RealD in 2009. Also, Dante's Inferno is expected to be released as an animation feature in 3D as well as a live action feature in 3D in 2009.

Today we have reached the point where games have entered a new era, a new next-generation beginning, starting in the last few years. Games have grown up from their 80's pixels bouncing around the screen, to a full blown development process that rivals many movies in its complexity.

Modern game development studios are a combination various multi-disciplinary studios to cover all areas of the game creation process: concept art, character design, architecture, interior design, vehicle design, hand-animation, motion capture animation and various other art and animation areas.

Add to that the free-form ability to control a character in a game, which requires advanced 3D realtime engine programming, multi-shader and vertex rendering, computer AI programming, weapons/explosion special effects with real-time physics handling, body mechanics simulations and finally it all gets meshed together with the usual movie-type roles of art director, game director, strategy and marketing functions. Today, in most cases, this makes the set-up more complex than many movie development processes, simply because of the real-time and interactive nature inherent in games.

Game art is produces on a staggering scale, which is making games take longer and longer to come to market. Games like Shadow of the Colossus on Playstation 2 and its sibling game Ico each took 4 years to conceive, create and deliver. Most modern Next-Gen games for the Playstation 3 and XBOX 360 consoles (and PC of course), take 3-4 years in general, some even longer as these next-gen hardware is so new that developers are struggling to program for them due to their complexity. A sequel then usually takes a little less time, as most of the game engine has already been developed.

Game art can range from concept sketches to full blown design of characters, architectural, land/sea/air/space vehicles, interior design, prop design, animation design, physics simulation algorithms, motion-capture and hand-tweaked animation.

Below follows some in-game realtime screenshots of some games that have proven to stand as unique examples of modern art in games.

Gone are those days - not too long ago, mind you - where technology was just that. All tech and no love - it was purely functional with little if any aesthetic appeal. Those wonderful gadgets of yesteryear, made of cream and grey plastic wrapped around bulky large component technology interiors.

We've certainly come a long way with our partner Technology, which has become such a part of our everyday lives, that a slow bleeding of design has stained every aspect of its being. Yes, even those living in poverty stricken areas, are untouched by its grasp.

In today's modern world, our partner has swapped out its suit and tie for a more relaxed and trendy t-shirt and jeans. Technology has become enrobed with visual beauty, artistic flair and organic designs of nature, all filtering their way into our daily lives.

The iPod and iGloo

Ever since Steve Jobs from Apple explained to us in a rather visual way using the iPod, how technology can be our style partner, our music partner and so much more. He made sure we understand this concept, because the Apple brand of design-infused technology has been copied many, many times by just as many companies. Its all because of the coolness factor, yes, you can call it the iGloo or the iGlue, as its glued many of Apple's products into their users hands and they don't want to part with it, and neither want anyone else to replace their spot.

So what has Apple been doing lately? Let's look at the latest offerings from Apple and you can agree that convergence of design, technology and style is finally here.

Visit Apple's website: www.apple.com

HP in the Stands

Recently HP have also made some strides in design with their notebook range called Pavillion. These multi-media workhorses, have been a good second in design choice after Apple. Their latest range is a MTV competition inspired offering with matching bag. Art Expression!

Visit HP's website: www.hp.com

Leatherman

This leather-bound notebooks from Tulip will surely feel great and turn heads. Check out the website for more options.

Visit Tulip computers website: www.tulip.com

Images in the Gallery below (left to right):

The HP Pavilion dv2800t Artist Edition Notebook, Apple MacBook Air, Apple iPhone, Apple iPod Touch, Tulip Leather Notebook.

What?

Why?

How?

Where?

When?

Taschen's ICONS half-size book range is a lighthouse shining through the misty oceans of design. Shedding their light on the visual elements of design, these little gems contain extensive research, wide range of topics and inspiration from the best graphic and web artists around the globe.

The range contains many books, each covering a topic well-known to the design profession: Graphic Design, Web Design, Flash Sites, E-Commerce Sites.

CMS - what's that?

CMS or Content Management System provides a way to easily edit and organise your website, perhaps analagous to a photo scrap book. It allows you to focus on the information, rather than the design, which we will take care of.

The client simply adds content pieces - even Flash elements - to the site using a web browser and voila, it appears wrapped in the visual design, without writing a single line of HTML code. Thyon Design uses a simple yet poweful CMS system, called Contao CMS that is both easy to understand, flexible to implement and will produces completely valid and accessible XHTML.

We are experienced in both creating the visual design of the site and managing the Contao CMS system - which includes installation, configuration and assisting with your site layout, ways to organise and finally training on the system.

Contact us today to take control of your website's content.