The FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa has been featured solidly on Twitter since kickoff on Friday 11 June with trending topics related to the tournament featuring daily. Twitter has a dedicated site for the event and has added icons that appear on the Twitter website in tweets with specific hashtags relating to the event.

These hashtags include #worldcup that generates a little soccer-ball icon and flags for each of the 32 countries at the cup, such as #rsa for South Africa and #bra for Brazil.

Below is a table with all of the country codes for the event that Twitter will pick up and convert into icons.

On the eve of the World Cup 2010 kickoff in South Africa Leo Laporte and I discussed technology at the tournament and how South Africa has been upgraded for the biggest event in human history. We talked about 3D television, stadium bandwidth, Google StreetView, social media and gigapixel image technology, amongst other things. Check out the video above for our full discussion.

I use my own country, South Africa, as an example of Microsoft’s misguided strategy. The South African gaming market is the fastest growing in the world, according to sales recorded during 2007 and 2008. South Africans have flocked to the Xbox 360 and rewarded Microsoft for launching the product in their country at a great price – it is cheaper than the Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii, making the 360 the most affordable console available in SA.

However, Microsoft has not launched Xbox Live here, and avoids journalist enquiries as to when it will be launched, if ever. We are constantly told that South Africa is “on the list” for scheduled launch, but Microsoft can not give any indication of when and will not disclose more details.

Meanwhile, Playstation Network is up and running in South Africa and has been for some time, allowing South Africans to play games with each other online and purchase digital content.

Worst of all, Microsoft unethically sells its Xbox 360 games in South Africa at full price – even though the online components of the games, including simple multiplayer online gaming, can not be accessed without an Xbox Live account.

Take Gears of War 2 for example. This is one of the most popular titles available for the Xbox and has been a huge success. It is an expensive game too. However, in South Africa we can only play the campaign mode of the game, which is a small portion of what is included on disk as GoW2 was designed primarily for multiplayer. We can not play against other players online, or access extended content for the title.

We pay the same price for the game as Xbox 360 owners in other countries do, but get less than one third of the content for the price. This is simply dishonest on the part of Microsoft.

In the past South Africans have found a way around the situation by setting up Xbox Live accounts and lying about their location – telling the service they were based in the United Kingdom, for example. They could then set up Xbox Live Gold Accounts using their South African credit cards and play against each other online, amongst other things.

This solution was far from ideal, mainly because it is against the terms of use for the service. It also no longer works as Microsoft has stopped accepting credit cards from countries other than what was specified during account set-up.

And it is impossible to change your country setting, so if the service ever does launch locally, South Africans will lose their gamer points and purchased content by setting up new accounts – which is the only way to change the location setting.

The country-setting lock is ridiculous. If you live in New Zealand, for example, and then immigrate to Australia, or if someone from one central European country moves to another, they cannot take their Xbox Live account with them.

South African bandwidth is also good enough for multiplayer gaming. I know this because I lied about my location and set up a gold account which I used to play games with friends, both internationally and back home. Bandwidth is definitely not a good reason to keep the service from us and I can’t think of any other reason why Microsoft would ignore the fastest growing gaming market in the world where there are more Xbox 360 owners than in some European countries.

I can only assume that Microsoft has little to no understanding of the local market, which suggests the company has not done its homework, or is ignoring its local staff about realities in South Africa.

The strategy is misguided. Plain and simple.

I can only hope someone from the Microsoft Xbox team reads this. The product is great and we would love to be able to use it in South Africa. Playstation Network has proven that it can be done – and Sony gets a lot of local support for this, even though the Playstation 3 is overpriced.

If Microsoft does not bring the service to SA, then it must stop selling its titles at full price.

Ignoring fans is a big no-no for any company and Microsoft should know this. I hope it changes its tune soon and either gives us official access to Xbox Live or a decent answer as to why it won’t.

Edit: Since writing this post I have received a response from Major Nelson of the Xbox team via Twitter. Great to hear from him and hopefully this will lead to something positive in terms of Xbox Live in SA and other countries.

Check out some other lamps…

The truth is that Vodacom seemingly has no idea when the iPhone will be available locally. Sources within the company have speculated that it may even be as late as October.

You can, however, pre-order the iPhone on the Vodacom website. Vodacom has even embedded an iPhone advertisement into its site’s header that links to the order page.

Vodacom is obviously taking the lead from Vodafone in terms of local availability. Vodafone, in turn, will undoubtedly have trouble keeping up with the demand for the iPhone across multiple regions and will have to juggle stock availability and release dates to ensure that it doesn’t sit with disgruntled customers across the globe.

That said, Vodacom must have some indication, albeit vague, of when the phone will arrive if it has made pre-orders available. If you ask Vodacom, however, they will merely tell you that they can’t say anything at this stage. Which is understandable, since the decision relies on extenuating factors beyond Vodacom’s control.

So unfortunately we have no real indication of local availability or pricing at this stage, except that Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that the eight gigabyte version of the phone will not be available anywhere in the world for more than $199 on contract. The price announcement by Jobs was a clever marketing ploy, but really means very little to potential buyers as your contract instalments could be anything, as could the retail out-of-contract price, should that even become an option in South Africa.

My friend Ben Kelly at Finweek has speculated that the local iPhone contract will be similar to the modelling of the Blackberry contracts available from Vodacom, but this is just educated guess-work.

Anyone who claims to know when the iPhone will arrive in South Africa and what it will cost at this stage is either lying or works very high up the ladder at Vodacom or Vodafone. Then again, I doubt that even executives at either company could provide definitive answers at this stage. July seems optimistic, but not impossible. Sometime around September may be more likely.

Today I was surprised to hear the news that online retailer Amazon.com has announced that it will no longer ship to South Africa using ‘standard shipping’ through the postal system. It will only send items to the region using courier services, which cost considerably more than conventional postage, citing theft of parcels as its primary reason. Is the South African postal system really that bad? I don’t believe it is, and I am developing a theory about the real reason Amazon has halted its postal services to SA.

I personally do a lot of online shopping, and have been doing so for at least eight years now. I have never had anything go missing in the post. I also refuse to believe that I am just lucky in this regard. So today I made a point of asking almost everybody I came across if they had ever lost post in South Africa. No one had.

The South African Post Office does have a horrible legacy of unreliable service. But it has since changed. The management of the Post Office over the last few years has effectively turned things around in the spirit of the organisation’s slogan, “We deliver, whatever it takes.” The SAPO is a success story and an example of how a company can be transformed. I have witnessed this first hand with all the packages I send and receive internationally, from vinyl records sent by Ninja Tune in the USA and UK to books and works of art from Canada.

The South African Post Office now boasts a 99 percent success rate of recovering stolen mail, in the unlikely event of it actually being nicked. Of the hundreds of thousands of mail items sent through the SAPO over the last year less than 700 have gone missing. Almost all recovered. Either the post office and its auditors are lying about these stats, or Amazon’s management are smoking something serious – unless there is another reason for the decision.

The SAPO today responded with surprise to the Amazon announcement. It was dumbfounded at the decision, given the organisation’s improved efficiency and reliability. A spokesperson for the Post Office said that they would be approaching Amazon to discuss the matter.

I also refuse to believe that missing packages really cost Amazon that much to begin with. Firstly, post hardly ever goes missing any more according to the SAPO. Secondly, while Amazon’s policy is to reship “lost” orders, I am sure a company of Amazon’s size must be insured against this occurrence. And the reshipping policy effectively creates an impression of good service, not bad – so it’s hard to believe that the advent of stolen packages does the company’s brand any harm either. It’s merely an organisational inconvenience, which I doubt it deals with in shipping to South Africa much more than it does anywhere else in the world.

Recently a company launched in South Africa with a vested interest in Amazon’s local affairs. This company is WantItAll, a local front-end for Amazon that facilitates orders from Amazon and other American providers into South Africa. From WantItAll’s website:

…www.wantitall.co.za was therefore born from the needs of South Africans wanting to purchase items from abroad. We facilitate the process of purchasing items off the internet on behalf of customers and then shipping the requested items to the customer. www.wantitall.co.za therefore handles all the purchasing, shipping, and insurance of the items � therefore reducing the problems previously experienced with internet purchasing.

WantItAll gleefully disseminated a press release today notifying all and sundry of the Amazon announcement – which obviously greatly benefits its business, which has ties to Amazon. I have heard someone accusing WantItAll of playing an instrumental role in the decision by Amazon. However, I am not suggesting this, as I have not seen any evidence that leads me to believe it.

But something is up – and I suspect it has nothing to do with stolen mail. I will be pursuing this story with all relevant parties over the next week in an attempt to sniff out the real reason Amazon made its announcement, whether local pressure or misguided international policy. I don’t expect to come up with much. But I must ask.

On another note, I hope we’ll soon be seeing a full-fledged retail service offering from Amazon.co.za.

EDIT: I was wrong about WantItAll sending out a release. This was something I was told from fellow journalists, which turned out to be bollocks.

Today I am a proud South African, but not proud to be South African.

The current situation has brought focus onto the worst of our society – but has also highlighted the best. Over the last two weeks I have seen my fellow South Africans by and large make personal sacrifices of time, money and material commodities in meeting the humanitarian crises that has developed as a result of displacement. Schools, churches and police stations have become places of refuge, safety and shelter and ordinary South Africans have answered the call for blankets, food, nappies and other requirements. This makes me proud.

Last night I listened to the speech of our South African president, Thabo Mbeki, who rightfully positioned the situation as a disgrace. He also accurately reminded us that the perpetrators of the heinous crimes we have seen committed over the last two weeks are a minority of the population. His speech was succinct and poignant, although sadly a tad late. But it got me to thinking about famous political speeches; those that have molded history, changed entire global climates, stemmed violence and eased tragedy. Speeches that are repeated throughout the annals of history in quotes and art.

One of my favorite speeches was made by American president John F. Kennedy in his inaugural address on 20 January, 1961. Kennedy was speaking to a challenged America facing its own questions of inclusion and diversity and dealing with its own climate of fear and uncertainty. As I read over the words he spoke on that day I find numerous parallels between his message and the current situation in South Africa. Consider the following:

“To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do – for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.

To those new States whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom – and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.

To those peoples in the huts and villages across the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required – not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

To our sister republics south of our border, we offer a special pledge – to convert our good words into good deeds – in a new alliance for progress – to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty. But this peaceful revolution of hope cannot become the prey of hostile powers. Let all our neighbours know that we shall join with them to oppose aggression or subversion anywhere in the Americas. And let every other power know that this Hemisphere intends to remain the master of its own house.”

This powerful section of the speech from a new president was preceded with an acknowledgment of universal rights:

“The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe – the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.”

And let us not forget what has become the most repeated piece of this particular address, in greater context:

“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”

Basic integrities and freedoms are universal and have stayed the ages since we found our civlisation. I am proud of my fellow South Africans who have answered the humanitarian call of the displaced multitudes we host in our country. They have come here because South Africa, like the United States of America, is seen as a beacon of hope and democracy with celebrated diversity. It is a country in Africa where human rights are respected and upheld and where basic freedoms are cast in a progressive constitution. Sadly this image has been tarnished by a group of hooligans.

As eloquent as Mr. Thabo Mbeki is and as good as I personally believe his speech was last night, I call on him and our other leaders to tear a page from John F. Kennedy’s book; address universal rights and freedoms, remind us of the fragility of our liberties and the duties we have to our fellow man. End the madness that has gripped our society by speaking to people on the ground.

I for one stay committed to our beautiful country as I walk hand-in-hand with it into a new future. We have current problems and challenges to face. The future is uncertain. But I will meet it with my country. Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika. Ons vir jou, Suid Afrika.

The entire speech by John F. Kennedy can be found by clicking here.

This morning Vodafone confirmed that it had signed an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to ten territories, including South Africa.

The other countries where the iPhone will be made available by Vodafone are Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand and Turkey.

Vodafone is not able to confirm release dates yet, but it seems likely that this date will be around quarter four of 2008, which means our first iPhone shipment will be of the 3G-enabled model.

Rumours circulating on the web now suggest that Vodafone is on the verge of confirming a deal with Apple that will see the iPhone being released in India later this year; around September. Vodafone’s CEO Arun Sarin has also repeatedly said that Vodafone would be trying to make the iPhone available to its subscribers. Unfortunately for Vodafone the battle in Europe was lost. But in other Vodafone territories there is still hope and the fact that India shares a lot with South Africa in terms of Apple, such as the lack of an iTunes Music Store and other services, means that we could well see the successful roll-out of iPhone in that country preceding a South African release. Vodafone is the majority shareholder in Vodacom, who would be the local carrier, unless MTN pulls something out of the hat.

In fact, I would imagine that we would see a simultaneous release to India, should the latter really be set to receive the device.

My only concern is that Vodafone as a network is not the kind of partner Apple necessarily wants; roaming between Vodafone in other territories is simply too easy and will compound the regional locking problems that Apple suffers at the moment. Hopefully Apple will come to its senses and realise that there is no real way to control the device’s proliferation. There will always be a way to hack the iPhone and the obvious solution to me would be to look at releasing the device worldwide in quarter three of this year, putting it in retail alongside the iPod. This wouldn’t prevent standard network agreements from taking place either. Apple’s problem is that they are raking in revenue from partner-networks and also have a proprietary voice mail system that must be integrated into host networks. Not that you need it…

Another stumbling block is Google Maps which has very poor support of South African roads. Apple do not believe in rolling out product with limited functionality and would undoubtedly see the lack of maps, which the iPhone uses for navigation, triangulation and location functionality, as a problem. Fortunately a little bird has told me that Google in South Africa are working on their local Maps representation.

So hold fingers with me and lets hope that by the time the 3G iPhone is announced later this year we will have some indication of plans to make the Jesus phone legitimately available in South Africa.

The more sane among us, however, will recall that it was never proven in court that Zuma was guilty of any wrong-doing, although judge Hilary Squires did comment that there was “overwhelming” evidence to suggest that Zuma and Shaik were in a corrupt relationship. Be that as it may, this evidence must still be brought before a court of law in a case against Zuma specifically.

And then there are those who believe that Zuma is victim of a conspiracy being led by the Mbeki government. Such claims are hard to take seriously though and not even worth commenting on.

Will Zuma be found guilty of the charges that have been brought against him? And what will the ramifications be if he is? Many are quick to predict that he will be the next president of South Africa – but how can he be if he is convicted of fraud?

While the current situation is interesting, it is also scary for those of us living and trying to build a future for our children in South Africa. The looming legal battle and tension within the ANC, combined with Zuma’s moral and leadership questionability are breading great uncertainty as to the country’s future and stability. This, in turn, will have a negative impact on the economy.

There is still cause for optimism, however, and South Africa has survived far worse than this. But 2008 will be, without question, a make-or-break year for South Africa in terms of solving the crime problem, preparing for the FIFA World Cup in 2010, dealing with economic and energy challenges and convincing the world that we are still worth investing in and betting on.