Shuttleworth is a South African philanthropist and internet entrepreneur who started the company Thawte in 1995 and went on to sell it to Verisign at the turn of the century in a US$575 million deal. He then became the second ever self-funded civilian astronaut traveling to the international space station as a member of the Soyuz TM-34/TM-33 missions. Upon his return to earth Mark formed the Shuttleworth Foundation and Canonical.

Simon Dingle recently authored a chapter on Mark Shuttleworth for the book South Africa’s Greatest Entrepreneurs. The publication will be available in September 2010.

Use the audio player above to stream the interview or click here to download the mp3 file.

Before the launch of the Apple iPad many potential uses were postulated for the device. The most prominent of these was in publishing as people perceived new applications and media delivery to tablet devices that would impact on the world of magazines and newspapers. Movies, textbooks and social networking were all correctly predicted to be the kind of things that the iPad would be good for. But few guessed that the device would mean big things in the world of music.Within two weeks of launch the iPad app store had over 180 music-related applications with many of these being committed to actively using the iPad for making music.

The most obvious of these applications were virtual piano apps like Virtuoso Piano and interesting DJ apps like  iTurntable. But more sophisticated applications have turned up such as AC-7 Pro Control Surface that allows for the iPad to be used as a control interface for professional audio applications and hardware.

There are even guides sprouting up online for more complicated setups, like using the iPad to control Ableton Live. And, as is obvious from the video above, it’s possible to use the iPad as a serious instrument.

Music apps made their way onto the iPhone originally and some pretty impressive things were achieved – like being able to use the iPhone as a virtual flute or as a unique instrument in itself using the Ocarina application.

While rudimentary music production was possible, and even mastered, on the iPhone, the iPad with its larger screen and more powerful processor is taking things to a new level. The device has only been available for two weeks, so I look forward to seeing what musicians and producers manage to pull off with the device in the next year or two.

Nokia says that their Messaging service is easy to set-up and use with push e-mail services that support up to ten personal e-mail accounts on one device.

Nokia Messaging supports all leading consumer e-mail solutions including Gmail, Windows Live, Hotmail and Yahoo! mail as well as local email services from MWEB, MTN Play and Webmail.

Says Sarah Crowe, head of marketing at Nokia South Africa, “The Nokia Messaging Service is the consumer pillar in Nokia’s overall messaging strategy … also includes Ovi Mail for free emerging e-mail services and Mail for Exchange and IBM Lotus Traveler for corporate e-mail mobilisation. This three-pronged approach positions Nokia well to provide quality messaging solutions to all of our consumers”.

Sounds good – but I don’t see how it plans to compete with other mobile platforms that offer much of the same for free, or as part of a service agreement, ala BlackBerry. There also isn’t much incentive to upgrade from the free beta to the paid-for service. And if you’re on another network, say Vodacom or Cell C, then you can continue to use the beta.

As for ease-of-use and partnering with local email providers – setting up email on a BlackBerry, iPhone or Android device is already a simply process of inserting your username and password. It doesn’t get simpler than that, surely?

As part of its agreement with MTN, Nokia will be offering the Messenger service as a bundle on the Nokia E63 combined with a 10MB data plan. The E63 is pretty sweet, although its S60 operating system is getting seriously long in the tooth. And 10MB? In 2010? Seriously?

The Nokia E63 Messaging bundle will be available at participating MTN stores from the end of April 2010 at an approximate retail price of R119 per month on MTN AnyTime 100.

Nokia has shown strong prospects in the smartphone market with the N900 and the move to make Ovi Maps an entirely free service. I also think the agreement with Intel to co-develope the MeeGo platform is a step in the right direction.

But the Nokia Messenger announcement is underwhelming.

For, like, R20 more than the MTN deal you could get the BlackBerry 8520 on contract, with unlimited connectivity (which is quite a bit more than 10MB), including messaging and simple set-up.

Even at the low-end of the market this service and, more so, the contract from MTN makes no sense. Unless I’m missing something?

The UK press are smoking something serious when they publish kak about machete gangs roaming the streets of South Africa. But an epic fight is about to break out all over the country – albeit a virtual representation thereof.

Legends of Echo is a new location-based mobile game developed by the guys at The Grid (a Vodacom subsidiary). It combines massively multiplayer online gaming with location-based services and runs exclusively on mobile phones.

The game is set in the world of Echo, which you could think of as another dimension. The online world has the same basic geography as South Africa and is loaded with real locations all around the country. Your character in the game travels around Echo either by teleporting to locations or as you travel around with your mobile phone.

You can then fight, exchange items or hang out with other characters, build your own virtual home in Echo, create and sell items, go on quests and other stuff.

Says the official launch release, “Echo is a parallel virtual universe based on the South African map. Instead of cities and skyscrapers, however, players will find rolling green fields, rocky outcrops and valleys to explore and establish their base.”

“The Echo is entirely populated by players of the game, as well as their bases. Real-world place names are still used to navigate, e.g. a player can teleport from Belville in Cape Town to Randburg in Johannesburg to battle another player.”

“The objective of the game is to become a legend of the Echo (i.e. gain enough Legend Points to appear on the high score sheet). To do this, players need to battle other players, obtain advanced weapons and other items by exploration or trade with other players.”

“The game is unique in that it mirrors real-life locations in a multiplayer environment. Interaction is always location-bound i.e. a player is battling a player in close physical proximity to him/herself.”

More details are available on the Legends of Echo website.

Legends of Echo can be played from any cellular network – although you’ll want to be in SA while playing since the game is at it’s best when you combine it with actual location. To play SMS ‘ECHO’ to 33313 (50c/SMS) or visit http://www.legendsofecho.mobi/ on your phone.

In terms of devices, Legends of Echo is currently available to S60 Symbian phones – so no BlackBerry, iPhone or Android. Yet. But it will run on most Nokia, Sony Ericsson and other Java-enabled devices.

Vincent Maher and Nic Haralambous are the clever f**kers behind Legends of Echo and I’ve invited them to (tech)5 on 5FM this Thursday to come and tell us more – so listen out for it just after 14:00.

The problem:

The solution: The SilentRingTone™ that I have created for you. Here’s the deal: download the The SilentRingTone™ (right-click to download), add it to iTunes and sync it to your iPhone. Then make sure that you set specific ringtones for each of the people who you want to always be able to reach you. Now, when you don’t want to be bothered, change your default ringtone to The SilentRingTone™ and everyone except contacts with specific ringtones will get pure, auditory silence from your phone.

I’ve made this ringtone for the iPhone, but if you want to make your own silent ringtone it’s simple – create an audio file with a few seconds of… well… nothing in it. And if there are better ways to achieve this sort of functionality then let me know – this was all I could think of =)

From 1 April, Vodacom’s iPhone customers no longer have to wade through a long list of voicemails messages by calling 121 to get to the really important one that confirms that new job appointment or bond approval or marriage proposal…

Vodacom’s Visual Voicemail is a South African first voicemail management service for iPhone users, which enables customers to view their voicemail messages in a list format, including the number and time a voicemail came through, the same as with SMS or email messages.

From 1 April to 31 May, customers will be able to try out the product free of charge, while a nominal charge of only R9.99 per month will apply from 1 June. Customers who subscribe to Visual Voicemail for the first time from 1 June will get the first 30 days of their subscription free.

Vodacom iPhone users can use Visual Voicemail to read through a list of their voice messages; highlight the voicemail they want to listen to and, by enabling the speakerphone, listen, re-listen, ignore or delete voice messages in any order they please.

New and saved messages will remain in the customer’s 121 voicemail box for up to 7 days, unless the customer chooses to delete the voicemail message on their Visual Voicemail service which will automatically delete the message on 121.

Visual Voicemail will initially be available to all Contract, Prepaid and Top Up iPhone customers with iPhone Software Version 3 and higher. The service will be available on additional cellphone makes/models in the near future.

Shameel Joosub, Managing Director of Vodacom South Africa, said Visual Voicemail provides Vodacom iPhone users with an ability to, at-a-glance, view all their messages via an efficient and user-friendly interface.

“Visual Voicemail from Vodacom is a first for the South African market and will allow customers one-click access to any voicemail message in any chosen order in their mailbox. One of the great features of Visual Voicemail is that it allows customers to access messages, delete messages and compose messages, in any order they please, without dialing 121.”

iPhone customers can subscribe to Visual Voicemail by sending an SMS with ‘VVM On’ to 123 (FREE) to activate the service and ‘VVM Off’ to deactivate the Visual Voicemail service. Alternatively customers can call Vodacom’s customer care on 111, free from a Vodacom cellphone, or 082 111 from any other phone.

Good news! Thanks Vodacom.

CNN says the app is part of its ‘My South Africa’ brand campaign that was launched two years ago to raise the profile of South Africa to business and leisure travellers in the lead up to World Cup 2010.

The app allows users to view South African city guides, maps, travel tips and World Cup information and view photographs, send messages to friends, find weather and financial information and a range of other things. It’s clearly geared for tourists but should be useful for local users too.

Rani R Raad, senior vice president for advertising sales at CNN International said that the release of the app signified a change in how CNN engages with advertisers and their audience.

“As an in-house commercial team, it’s great to be able to take on the most creative of agencies and capitalise on harnessing the My South Africa concept into a highly relevant application around the biggest football event in the world. We look forward to seeing this App take the brand engagement potential to new heights,” said Raad.

William Prince, global manager of e-marketing for South African Tourism said, “This new iPhone application allows South African Tourism  to offer rich, engaging content that is very specific to the users and presented in a new and dynamic way. The content is fresh, accurate and appropriate for those traveling to South Africa for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, and allows the users to share all their stories and experiences straight from the iPhone.”

“The City Guide, the FIFA information and all of the additional functionality that the application offers, takes our brand to a whole new level. We’re very pleased and excited about the opportunity to do this with CNN Ad Sales and to extend the campaign into the pockets of our consumers,” he added.

The CNN iPhone app was created in conjunction with Turner Commercial Productions and Creative Spark Interactive in South Africa.

The app is linked to the My South Africa website, where there is a link to the free download.

The Desire is comparable to the Nexus One, which is manufactured by HTC and sold by Google. There are still no plans to launch the Nexus One in SA, but the Desire is a practically identical phone with the same 3.7″ AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 5 megapixel camera and, most importantly, Android 2.1 operating system that you’ll find on the Nexus One.

The only real difference between the two is that the Nexus One is a quad-band device that supports WCDMA and associated American network frequencies, while the Desire is a dual-band GSM (with HSDPA) handset. The Desire also beats the Nexus One for battery life, apparently.

The Legend is a smaller smartphone with a slower processor (600MHz compared to 1GHz on the Desire). It also runs Android 2.1 and HTC’s Sense user interface.

It is uncertain at this stage what the new HTC devices will cost in South Africa or which networks will carry them – but since Vodafone carries both the Desire and Legend in the UK I think it’s safe to say that Vodacom will have both available on contract.

HTC faces legal charges from rival Apple who has accused the former of patent-infringement. Analysts have predicted that HTC will have to place new products on the back-burner until the dispute is settled. The Desire and Legend are firm competitors for Apple’s iPhone, which continues to dominate the touchscreen smartphone market.

Nokia Maps was an early play from the Finnish mobile giant that has put it ahead of the pack when it comes to affordable mapping and navigation on your phone.

The service has been mostly free for some time, offering maps of the world and their updates to Nokia users for gratis. Voice navigation and a few other bits and pieces were levied via subscription, however – but these are now free as part of the re-branded Ovi Maps product announced by Nokia this week.

Lonely Planet and Michelin guides, which are solid gold to travelers, are part of the deal.

It’s an unbeatable proposition, especially for someone who travels perpetually like I do. For one you get the navigation, which includes walking and driving, plus the guides and other features. But, and perhaps more importantly for international travelers, the Nokia map data is actually stored on your mobile, whereas Google Maps streams map data to your device which can be really expensive if you’re roaming.

The zero-rating of the entire service is going to be an expensive step for Nokia, but it won’t be the last drastic move we see from the company as it fights to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive smartphone market.

Nokia knows that battles in the war for mobile domination are fought and won on services; having solid devices is one thing, but it’s services that convert users. Ovi Lifecasting is another project Nokia will soon launch as part of a group of new services that are going to add weight to the company’s proposition.

Ovi Maps is available in the Ovi Store for a number of Nokia models, but isn’t available for all GPS-fitted Nokias yet. The N900, for example, is not yet supported.

A colleague recently asked me how to manage Twitter so that it remained useful, but was less of a distraction. “How do I use Twitter productively” is also one of the top questions I am asked when speaking about social networking. I’ll give you the list of recommendations I usually respond with – but note that these are more aimed at personal Twitter users and do not necessarily apply to using Twitter as a business, for example;

• Get real. You’re smart. And perfectly capable of coming up with the best ways of using Twitter so that it becomes your bitch instead of just another waste of time. Some of my suggestions will work for you and others won’t – but they’re all based on treating Twitter like a tool – not just for work, but socially too. Remember that you own the tool, not the other way around. Tool.
• Schedule and automate your tweets, but only when doing so will not be annoying to your followers. Hootsuite will allow you to schedule tweets to send at a later stage and the Twitter Tools plugin for WordPress can be used to automatically tweet when you update your blog. Scheduling is good; sending tons of tweets all at the same time will bug your followers. It makes more sense to spread them out. By batching your tweets at dedicated times you’ll also be less likely to drop by Twitter during the day. That said, don’t irritate your followers – DO NOT narcissistically send a tweet out with every mundane or arbitrary blog post you make and don’t schedule pointless minutiae. Some things will make sense to schedule and automate and others won’t.
• Integrate your Twitter and other social network accounts with a service like FriendFeed that allows you to monitor multiple social networks from the same place. Then instead of wasting time visiting Twitter, Facebook and other services via separate applications and websites you can track it all from one place and save time.
• Ignore. If you use a Twitter client that activates Growl or other notifications whenever there are new tweets in your feed, disable the pings and visual clutter, or set it to only notify you when someone mentions you or sends you a direct message. If you use a Twitter client on your phone only activate push and other notifications for direct messages. Get rid of the sounds and pop-ups so you can stay focused on what you’re doing. It’s probably just John saying “OMG LMFAO – @othermoron  ur 2 awesum. LOLZ” anyway. Of course, if your job is to run a Twitter feed then this doesn’t apply to you. Condolences.
• Weberise. Consider accessing Twitter via the Web, either by using the Twitter site directly, or via a web-based client like Hootsuite, instead of with a non-web application. And, more importantly, close the website down when you aren’t actively using it. When you don’t have a dedicated application running your attention will be directed to Twitter less often. Hootsuite is probably better than anything else you’re using anyway.
• Dedicate time in the day when you will check on Twitter. Set up a schedule, this could be once an hour or twice a day – whatever works best for you, and stick to it. I know this sounds lame. I hate timetables. But it works, if you’re disciplined. And, again, if your job is to watch a Twitter stream for your company then this obviously doesn’t apply to you.
• Mobilise. If you aren’t already using Twitter on your phone then you’re probably reading this as a printout – get with the times, grandpa. There are tons of great Twitter clients available for your phone. If you’re on the iPhone then check out Twitbird Pro, Tweetie or the Hootsuite app that integrates with the website. If you’re on a BlackBerry get OpenBeak (formerly Twitterberry) or ÜberTwitter. If you use a Symbian S60 device, like many Nokia models, then try Gravity. Some of these apps will cost you money, but it’s worth it. Alternatively use the Twitter mobile website .
• Don’t mobilise. It’s bad enough that you use Twitter all day on your computer – now you’re hauling it out while having supper with your family and watching Avatar? Put that thing back in your pocket, freak. And only use Twitter on your mobile when it makes sense and is socially acceptable to do so. If you and all your friends / family are geeks, then whip it out and go crazy. Whatever.
• Unfollow. Only morons follow all their followers. It’s the quickest way to build up follower numbers and also to make sure your feed is polluted with spam about Britney Spears getting naked. Who cares how many people follow you if 80% of them are spam-bots and douchebags? The less people you follow, the less of a distraction Twitter will be. If you must follow tons of people, and I can’t imagine why, then use a Twitter client like Tweetdeck that allows you to group people, and make a group of users whose tweets are actually worth reading. Then ignore the rest. Stop complaining about how people use Twitter and just unfollow them if you don’t like it.
• Variety is good. If you follow all of the above steps you will likely end up accessing and using Twitter from a bunch of different places. This can be irksome to minimalists like me – but get over it. It’s good to integrate Twitter into the rest of your life instead of the rest of your life into Twitter. However, if you want a single Twitter client that will enable most of what I’ve recommended, check out Hootsuite. It rocks. It also integrates with Facebook, allows for scheduling, is web-based, has an iPhone app and has other powerful features. Best of all, the web application is free. And no, I don’t get commission from them. Yet.

These are just some of the ideas I have for using Twitter productively, and will probably post more in the future. I’d love to hear your tips too, so comment away.

See you on Twitter, smarty pants…