There’s a new cult in town. You might’ve heard about it already. You may even be a member. If you haven’t, and you’d like to preserve the precious little time you have, stay away from PopCap’s new insanely addictive game – Plants vs. Zombies.

I started playing this tower-defence-type title on my Macbook and now it’s spread onto my iPhone. I can’t get enough. I may need help. (more…)

On Wednesday Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced his company’s latest creation to the world – the iPad. With a 9.7″ capacitive touchscreen and an operating system similar to the iPhone, the iPad has been designed to fill the gap between smartphones and laptops. On a technological level the device is amazing. Equally amazing is the deal Apple has struck with AT&T in the USA to offer 3G data at $14.99 per month for 250MB and $29.99 for unlimited bandwidth. But I’m not convinced that the gap the iPad fills exists for all but a small niche of computer users at this stage. (more…)

Steve Jobs can’t even sigh without the rumour mill that has assembled itself around his brand speculating at what it could mean. This time the pseudo-media has decided that Fortune’s CEO of the decade and his company are about to launch a tablet device – and before the rumour was even confirmed there were articles decisively claiming what the product could and couldn’t do, specifying price – and one website even running a competition giving one away. Oh, and ridiculous Photoshop mockups are all over the place.

And all this for a device we know nothing about.

Well, that’s not entirely true. But we know very little at time of writing. Apple has booked a venue for an event in January at which they are expected to announce something. We have heard that the company has been working with 10.1″ capacitive touch-screens and at the last big Apple event Jobs said that they were working on “some amazing new products.” But those are the only hard facts we have to go on. The rest amounts to hearsay.

Some of it is compelling, however. It seems likely that Apple has been in negotiations with major publishing companies, suggesting that it intends to add the likes of books, magazines and newspapers to the iTunes store that already offers movies, TV shows, music and applications.
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TomTom has launched its navigation app for iTunes with South African maps.

The app runs on iPhone 3G and 3GS devices and includes a map of Southern Africa from Tele Atlas. It can be downloaded from http://www.tomtom.com/tomtom-app for $79.99 (about R600).

The app also comes with an extensive safety camera database including verified safety camera information. I’m hoping that they’ll be bringing in that wicked cradle too…

European GPS company Navigon has announced the availability of a South African version of its on-board navigation software that is now available in the iPhone App Store.

According to Navigon, the MobileNavigator software transforms the iPhone into a complete navigation device with turn-by-turn voice directions and features such as adjustable audio-visual speed warnings, branded point of interest icons along the route, direct navigation to contacts saved in the address book and full integration of iPod controls. (more…)