The latest Garmap Southern Africa update (2010.1) is now available for download from the Samsung Blog's Downloads page. Thanks to everyone who has contacted us regarding this update and for being patient.

Two things to keep in mind are that 1) this update only applies to certain models (B7330, C6625, I560, I780, I900, I8910HD and I8000), and 2) you need to be a Samsung Blog member to access these files.

Garmap 2010 (1st edition) features include:

• Street level data for more than 1700 cities, towns and villages in South Africa
• POI overall increase of 35%
• Substantial increase in road coverage for Lesotho (up 13,460 km / 357%) and Swaziland
  (up 13,617 km / 310%)

The 15th Annual Global Mobile Awards nominees have been announced. Two Samsung mobile phones have been nominated in the Best Mobile Handset or Device category.

The Samsung Star is an entry-level touchscreen phone that has enjoyed a massive amount of success with over 10 million unit sales worldwide within six months of its release.

The Samsung I8910 HD is a super multimedia phone that boasts the titles of world's first mobile phone to record and playback HD video as well as the world's largest AMOLED display on a mobile device at 3.7".

Other nominated phones in this category include the Blackberry Bold 9700, Nokia N97 Mini, HTC Hero and Huawei U8220. Winners will be announced at GSMA's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month.

See the full GSMA 2010 nominees list at http://www.globalmobileawards.com/awards/nominees.shtml

As stated in my earlier Handset review here's my follow-up review of the i8910HD. After having owned the phone for about a month now and learning all it's features I can now give a more indepth review.

The phones screen is gorgeous especially compared to other new touch screen phones. Colours are deep and rich while blacks are as dark as the Marianas Trench. It must be said though that eligibility in direct sunlight is not that good but if you position the phone a certain way it can be improved. The screen is very responsive requiring only slight gestures to get things done.The screen seems to be quite scratch resistant although I haven't thoroughly tested this one out...

If you have this really cool phone already let us know on this blog! For those of you reading this now its quite a new phone to the SA market. It was not and is not really marketed by Samsung or the mobile operators. Not sure why as this is Samsung's flagship phone and still really (I stand corrected) the only mobile phone with HD playback and video recording available at this time.

Let us know your comments and thoughts even if you don't have this phone (yet).

Tonace

I'm not a big fan of television. I don't like rigid show times and having to endure loud advert breaks during my favourite programs which is why I prefer buying a TV Series box set which I can watch at my own leisure. With the news it's not too different for me. I generally prefer to read news than watch it over a 30-minute segment on TV but I've recently been drawn to a more exciting and convenient way to keep updated with world events and not surprisingly, it's via my mobile.

France 24 Live is an app created by mobile video solutions provider, Mobiclip, which allows one to watch France 24 VoD (video-on-demand) content in English, Arabic and French on a mobile phone. I tried it out on a Samsung I8910HD and I found it to be quite a pleasure to use.

I have recently received my upgrade to the I8910HD! So far I like it.

Please can you let me know when the new firmware will be available for South African consumer phones? It is available in some other countries so far.

Thanks!

I am a Vodacom subscriber. I have just lost my second Omnia i900 and need to replace the phone. I have been very happy with the i900 except for the fact that I cannot use it outdoors. I believe tha the new generation phones come with AMOLED display which makes them usable outdors in sunlight. My question is when will either of these phones be available through Vodacom outlets? Which of these phones should I be looking at? I want at least what I had, feature wise, on my i900.

I've been an Opera Mini fan for many years and the same holds true today. It's simply the most economical browser that runs on just about any Java-enabled handset, not to mention its simplicity of use and general good looks. I like to think of it as an elf: efficient, quick and light on its feet!

Now in its 5th version (beta), Opera Mini remains a favourite with many mobile Internet users. The beta 5 version that I used on the powerful Samsung I8910HD had me very excited as the changes are pretty significant and keep this browser relevant in the midst of powerful browsers such as the company's own Opera Mobile, WebKit (the fantastic default browser on the I8910HD) and the like.