Andy Hadfield

I had the opportunity recently to have a text exchange (read: questions by email - the interview style of the time pressed blogger) with Jake Larsen, head of the Nokia Music Store (Middle East & Africa). I was interested in how the Music Store has been doing post launch as it always takes a while for these things to get going. And, given time, we should get more devices onto the market within reach of more South Africans - enabling a true test of the iTunes equivalent. This interview on the back of the "Comes With Music" release...

If you'd like to see the golden-locked exec in action - there's a nice, albeit slightly clean cut interview on Ovi about the launch and how the Music Store fits into the African mix.

Here's the quick interview...

1. Nokia Music Store. How has the take up been in South Africa?

The Nokia Music Store has been received extremely well in South Africa and we are very happy with the performance so far. The South African public have been askin…

Quietly, quietly on Friday, Nokia sent out a press release (at the bottom of this post), announcing the "Comes With Music" service. Buy a Nokia device and you'll have open access to download as much as you like from the Nokia Music Store for a year.


That's a big move. And Apple remains uninterested in our high volume continent.

A noteable exception from the press release is Vodacom. One has to wonder if they're planning something with the Vodafone Live Portal. Time will tell...

I had a text chat to Jake Larsen the other day, and he offered some insights into the progress of the Nokia Music Store and its entrenchment in SA mobile society. I'll post that soon.

For your interest:

--- snip ---

Nokia launches 'Comes with Music' in South Africa

Nokia announced yesterday that 'Comes with Music', a pioneering digital entertainment service, is now available in South Africa. The service, which offers consumers a year of unlimited access to the entire Nokia M…

Just installed the latest upgrade to Mac OSX, titled "Snow Leopard". R329.00 from Core, Sandton, Johannesburg. Features withstanding, the one thing I have been reading about on the net is the uncanny ability Snow Leopard has to FREE up space after install.

Well I never. 10 gigs freed up. First time an operating system upgrade has every done that for me.

I know Steve Jobs has an evil empire. I know it's all closed source, wall garden, Chinese this and Chinese that.

I don't care. That's 10 kinds of sexy.


(Image credit: Neurosoftware.Ro)

Har har! Or not.

Har Har!

Another little social experiment. Jot down every bottle of wine I taste with a short comment and rating. The theory is, search my Twitter archives by wine brand for a quick lookup history of what I like and don't like. Theoretically.

Enjoy!

My Wine List: Paul Cluver Sauvignon Blanc 2008. Score 6/10. Quaffable. #wine

Nederburg Baronne Cab Sav Shiraz 2007. Smooth but cheap. 5/10. #wine

Stellenzicht Golden Triangle Shiraz 2005. 7/10. Quite plummy. Good nose. #wine

Porcupine Ridge Savignon Blanc 2009. 2/10. Tart. #wine

Raka Spliced 2007. Smooth and soft spice. 7/10. #wine

Landskroon Shiraz 2007. Kak. 1/10. #wine

Twitter is noisy, but it has its uses. I've found that a lot of interesting links, thoughts and observations I tend to post on Twitter these days, instead of sharing it in the longer format of the game. The other problem with Twitter, is that because of the volume, if you're not watching at the right time, you tend to miss some juicy stuff. In that vain... Only the juiciest from the @andyhadfield account!

In chronological order. 1 to 30 July 2009.

--- snip ---

@vincenthofmann My votes for #gadgets - ps3, drobo, mac mini, 26inch LCD monitor, Canon big ass camera... Can't go wrong with 1 of those

Friend of mine just opened interior design studio - Recreate - designer objects out of everyday things. Pretty cool. http://bit.ly/3Rhsr

The Nokia E75 "Teach the Technophobe" International Blogger Challenge http://bit.ly/11JQqv (An intro - pics coming in 10 min)

Interesting - Nokia blogger challenge is an indication of faith in new media to spread a brand. In bloggers we trust? …

Har Har!

So Challenge 2, 3 and 4 of WOMWorld's Teach the Technophobe Nokia campaign are behind us. Us being the highly techie me, and the not so techie wife.

Challenge 2 was to take a picture and email it. Observe Chantal's handywork to the right. Muchos Bueno.

Challenge 3 was to create an electronic postcard and mail it off. No problemo. In fact, the third challenge gave me a chance to test drive the nifty screenshot function that Nokia has on it's GPS software. Overlap map with satellite, wait 5 to 10 min for the connection (yes, the one drawback) and voila. (Unfortunately we weren't about to pay the ridiculous amount Nokia asks for a Nokia Maps license just for a review phone - otherwise we could've done something a tad more exciting).


The location of the big soccer ball in the sky.


Challenge 4 was a little more interesting. Take a video and post it on the blog. Here, if you'll bear with us - is our completely toasted cat, Dexter.



So there we go. It was a very nifty campa…