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Posts tagged Leopard
Garmap Africa Series 2009 announced
After a fairly lengthy wait, the latest update to Garmap‘s Africa Series has been announced. Contrary to initial expectations, the new Garmap website is still not up an running and registration for the new 2009 mapset will be handled using the existing website.
Like the latest Mapsource software available from Garmin, the Garmap software will run on both Leopard and Windows. A double-sided DVD will contain Mac content on one side and Windows content on the other. Don’t worry about which side is up – the disk will let you know.
The inclusion of Mac support is quite exciting, but numerous updates and improvements to the all-important mapsets have also been made. The following mapsets are included on the DVD:
- Southern Africa Streetmaps 2009, both standard and DEM (Digital Elevation Mode)
- Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe
- Southern Africa Topographical and Recreational 2009
- topographical detail for South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe
- South African Waterways 2009
- Nigerian Streetmaps 2009
- Indian Ocean Islands Streetmaps 2009
- East African Streetmaps 2009
The South African Streetmaps boast full road coverage for six of our nine provinces, including 193000 points of interest and 300 wireless hotspots (no more driving around with that Pringles can 
).
Digital Elevation Mode is supported by specific GPS units and provides a very attractive 3D view of terrain, incorporating topographical information and street-level detail. Check your GPS‘ capabilities to decide which mapset is more appropriate and supported.
The DVD should be in stores from this week and is said to retail for ZAR 9.95. Note that this price does not include any maps, simply the media. Online activation and variable pricing for the different mapsets on the DVD applies.
For more details, see the official Garmap announcement (this is a PDF link).
Office:mac 2008 – black and white
Where there’s a will, there’s a way. No truer is that statement than in my confounding quest to get hold of a legal copy of Microsoft Office for the Mac. You’ll recall the story: Office for the Mac in the home or student edition costs around about ZAR 2500. A hefty price by any standard, but even more ridiculous is the fact that the Entourage included in that pack is crippled and cannot access Exchange. POP3 support, but little else. Want Exchange support? No problem! But that’ll cost ZAR 5500. It’s a seriously crap, yet effective, way of making money. Own a Mac and want to use Exchange? Simply pay up and the pleasure is yours. It’s a bit like a hostage situation you’ll never get out of…
I did some digging and asking around. If you are in the corporate fold and happen to have access by way of your company’s licensing agreement to the Microsoft Home Use Program, then I suggest you take advantage of it. Depending on what the agreement covers, you may well discover that you have the opportunity to purchase Microsoft Office for a nominal fee. Believe it or not, but I paid ZAR 166 for a fully-fledged copy of Microsoft Office:mac 2008. It includes Exchange support, too. The kicker is that the ZAR 166 includes ZAR 55 for shipping, making the cost of the DVD ZAR 111 (Schnapszahl!)
The black and white cover art is the only way I can explain the saving. It’s spartan, yet functional. After all, it’s what’s inside that matters.
The software is licensed and may be used only for as long as the purchaser is part of the organization that owns the main license. It’s the cheapest way of gaining access to a legal copy of the Office suite until opensource initiatives challenge the ridiculous stranglehold Microsoft has on the messaging infrastructure of corporates.
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