We were wondering if Fibre-optic cable company, SEACOM‘s move to hire Safaricom’s former Senior Manager Joseph Muriithi as its Country Manager for Kenya will help save it.
Mr. Muriithi, the firms former Network Operations Manager is now the most senior person in the company and will run the firm’s Nairobi and Mombasa offices. The firm is not hiring a new Network Operations Manager (NOP), as Mr Muriithi will retain his current duties as the firm’s NOP running around to ensure network is on in Africa, Europe and Asia.
The father of two has a Master of Science in Information Systems from the University of Sunderland (UK) and has received extensive professional training in undersea technology, telecommunications systems, fibre optics terminal systems and mobile telephony.
The ‘Engineer of the Year Award’ 2004 has a 20-year experience in the telecommunications industry and has worked for the likes of Safariocm and as a Telecommunications Engineer at the Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Company.
Commenting on his appointment, Mark Simpson, SEACOM’s CEO, said: “SEACOM has changed the African ICT landscape, and it is now time for us to continue this transformation by driving new services and capabilities into Africa’s service provider market. Joseph’s wealth of experience in the telecommunication industry will be very valuable in enabling SEACOM’s continuing investment in the development of the Kenyan, and by extension Africa’s, Internet landscape”.
SEACOM doesn’t need saving, according to Mr. Muriithi, “As an open access cable system, SEACOM is primed as an ICT enabler to governments, education and private sector enterprises. The east and central Africa region can be effectively and adequately served through the Kenyan entry point. We look forward to an exciting time as the region opens up through this ICT transport superhighway”.
South Africa based travel app, Tourism Radio has scooped a slot at the at Africa App Quest 2013, a travel application competition held in conjunction with the 6th Annual E-Tourism Africa Summit.
The competition saw over 70 applications from across Africa and only 6 were ushered as the finalists of the challenge.
Tourims Radio was selected due to their “use innovative thinking and technology to produce creative, dynamic opportunities to increase and improve tourism in Africa”.
Tourism Radio CEO Mark Allewell says, “We’re delighted just to have been given the opportunity to take part in this year’s Africa App Quest and are more than happy to claim the title as one of the top apps on the continent.
“As a Cape Town-based developer, we’re constantly looking for ways to showcase South African apps on a global scale, and we’re sure Wildlife Africa Live will be able to hold the torch high. We look forward to improving our offerings in preparation for next year’s competition.”
Allewell maintains the company looks at apps not only from the mobile phone perspective, “We’ve produced location-aware travel technology for eight years now, and have firmly set our sights on wearable computer platforms like Google Glass. That is the future of travel, and the next evolutionary step for Tourism Radio.”
Judges included representatives from E-Tourism Frontiers, South African Tourism, VISA, the Kenya Tourist Board, and TripAdvisor.
A report by Pyramid Research suggests that the great broadband service and local content is the reason for the increase of over the top video (OTT).
Broadband penetration in the Arab world has seen services such as ICFLIX which has grown its market from MENA region to the US, a huge success.
“OTT video is a revitalizer that will create additional revenue sources while improving customer loyalty and lifetime value,” says Houda Bostanji, Analyst at Pyramid Research. Arab markets are seeing new initiatives from content providers, local aggregators and telcos.
In July 2013, Google announced the launch of a dedicated content hub on YouTube that is tailored to the Middle East and North Africa, bringing together over 500 Arabic TV shows. OSN, the MENA region’s leading pay-TV provider, was the first in the region to introduce video on demand on smartphones in July 2013. A tailored MENA strategy combined to actions differentiating from competitors will drive success for market participants, she notes.
West Africa has seen also different local content services such as Iroking music service and Iroko TV for Nigerian movies.
According to a new report by The Independent the government of Nigeria has orderd 53 gold-plated iPhones going for £3,000(about $5,000) from a Bristol-born businessman based in Dubai.
The businessman who runs Gold and Co, a firm that plates phones with Gold for its luxury clientele from royal families, governments, and rich customers from Russia, China and the Middle East,
The 42-year-old entrepreneur told The Independent:” Basic models in gold or rose gold cost from £3,000. Ali says he is fulfilling an order from the Nigerian government for 53 gold iPhones to mark the country’s 53rd year of independence from Britain next month.
“We will engrave them with the coat of arms, a shield and two horses,” he told the British paper.
The firm strips down the normal pieces then plates them in copper, nickel and then pure gold and has at the moment limited units ordered from different regions. He expects a huge demand with the announcement of two new iPhones. His customers range from the Saudi Royal family, which once ordered a gold iPhone at £50,000.
A new report says Vancouver-based firm is set to install a Bitcoin ATM next month, and by early December install the remaining four ATMs installed across the country.
The firm, Bitcoiniacs, a physical exchange for bitcoin has already shipped the five bitcoin ATMs at $18,500 each from Robocoin, a Las Vegas-based firm. By october, Vancouver’s bitcoin ATM will be operational then followed by Montréal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Calgary.
Founder Mitchell Demeter, who started a physical bitcoin exchange in June said he will install the first bitcoin ATM near Waves, a downtown coffee shop in Vancouver.
He said his offline method will see more people access the bitcoin, He also hopes to charge some 3% commission from the ATM machines and help users exchange bitcoins for dollars or dollars for bitcoins. The ATMs are supported by Calgary-based bitcoin exchange Virtex.
Transactions move to Robocoin’s servers to check if one has sufficient dollars or bitcoins to exchange, then converts before giving out one’s required currency via the ATM. Demeter says Canada’s financial regulator, FINTRAC, is not after the bitcoin yet,thereofre he expects no tough regulations but he will be limiting transactions to under $3,000 as require by law.
Robocoin, the firm behind the bitcoin ATMs, in Auguts received over 100 pre-orders from countries like Kenya, Zimbabwe, Australia, Sweden, and Argentina.
The RoboCoin ATMs were first on display at the Bitcoin 2013 Conference in San Jose, they are integrated with Mt. Gox or Bitstamp delivers dynamic Bitcoin inventory: trades are placed in real time and have a dashboard for easy administration, accounting, and email/text alert-configuration.
Nigeria Police is set to digitize the country’s motor registration system in a move to curb rampant crime especially in its cities. Set to begin September 16, all vehicles and motorcycles are required to move from the old analogue CMR to new digital BCMR system.
According to Police PR officer Frank Mba, the new system will reposition the police force to effectively combat terrorism, prevent crimes, apprehend and prosecute offenders.
Mba said: “The decision informing the introduction of the BCMR comes against the backdrop of contemporary security challenges bordering on terrorism, high incidence of car theft, carjacking, kidnappings and other acts of crimes and criminalities in our society. Unlike our hitherto analogue based procedures, the BCMR operates on smart-cards and portable hand-held receiver and is a specially developed technological means of attaching automobile owner’s unique traits and personal data to their vehicles for proper identification and protection purposes.”
The shift from the Central Motor Registry (CMR) to the digital Biometric Central Motor Registration (BCMR) system will be done online, at police commands countrywide and at designated banks. It will cost motorists $21 while cyclists will only pay $9.16.
The BCMR system will help the force tighten its grip against terrorism, kidnapping and car jacking among other crimes. The system can capture and match over20 million fingerprints per second which can then be verified against fingerprints stored at registration.
BCMR could also grab still images from CCTV cameras being installed in cities in the country and the footage could be used to apprehend suspected criminals.
Aalto in Africa is an expedition organized by students from Finland’s Alto University with plans to to take 50 students, staff members and other partners from Aalto University through the Zambian wilderness all the way to Cape Town, South Africa to learn from and co-create with local communities in Africa.
With a mission to build bridges between people and continents, Aalto in Africa is a Student-driven innovation project scheduled to take place September 22 to October 16 2013.
Speaking to TechMoran, Asta Länsimies, the Chief Organizer said “We found out that a lot is happening in Africa and especially in Cape Town for the World Design Capital 2014 and decided that since Africa is not very well known by European people, it would certainly open minds and build bridges for the future by bringing the Aalto community to southern Africa”
“There are many interesting start-ups and innovations coming from Africa, and these could be better known in Finland. In our country, the news and discussions often concentrate on poverty and development aid, and people as well as businesses do not realize the great potential of Africa,” she added.
Länsimies says she has already learned a great deal during the last year while organizing this project but she is expecting to learn a lot from the local culture, not only the traditional one but also how business works in Africa.
“It will be interesting to see how innovation and entrepreneurship is approached in comparison to Finland. I would be beyond happy if I learned something from the locals and take it back to Finland,” she added.
The team says it’s expecting to learn about everything it comes across during the journey and embracing new things with open arms. The students want to get to know other students from different disciplines and cultures and work together. Länsimies added that most students will participate in projects that are both multi-disciplinary and, personally it’s a unique chance to challenge oneself to see the world and yourself from a new perspective.
The 55 participants will be led by Lansimies, as the Chief Organizer, and in charge of project management and ensuring that overall things are running smoothly. Mari Terrio and Anna Vavilova are the team’s Program Coordinators. Vesa Luusua is leading the Communications team, and managing their website and different channels. Anthony Jones and Inka Wellman are Fundraising team leads. Iida Myllymäki is taking care of practicalities of our travel and Emilia Rantala is managing the finances.
Lansimies’s inspiration to come to Africa is just a dream. She said that during her studies, she has been active in student associations and been to many inspiring places in the world.
In 2010, she was part of a group of 80 Aalto University students that took a train to Shanghai China. The 80 were representing all disciplines within her university. The trip dubbed Aalto on Tracks, saw participants design their own learning – by organizing workshops, courses and even holding exams on the train. The project united the students and gave them a unique, multidisciplinary learning experience. In 2011, Aalto on Waves took 100 students and staff members to Brazil by ship with the same goal of creating a unique learning experience.
“We gathered a team to find the most interesting destination for 2013. Since southern Africa appeared to be an interesting area, still quite unknown for Finnish people, we decided to arrange the next project there,” Lansimies said.
According to Länsimies, “Part of the travel cost is paid by participants themselves. Most of the budget is covered by company sponsors and partners, as well as foundations. In addition to visibility, we offer our partners workshops, market research and other forms of collaboration that benefits both parties.”
Recently, there have been major innovation tours into Africa consisting of people coming to see what it is Africa is building. Innovation is becoming Africa biggest centre of attraction apart from its wild.
Kenya’s March 4th elections has caused the country a 7.4 percent drop in tourism, that is a total of Ksh 96 billion in just one year, financial year of 2012/2013; opposed to the 103.9 billion which was harvested in the previous financial year.
East African Affairs, Commerce and Tourism secretary Phyllis Kandie said: “Incidents which contributed to the non-resumption of charters, the uncertainty surrounding the March 4 election and the Euro zone crisis led to a drop in growth.”
The elections however was not entirely to blame, she added, part of the reason of the drop was because of the weakening of the Kenyan shilling.
At the time of scrutiny a total of 1.16 million tourist (this being 112,573 less than the previous year) visited the country by air and sea. The Mombasa international airport had a decline on arrivals for up to 13 percent while Jomo Kenyatta international airport had a 8.1 percent decline.
The coast seems to have lost its chartered flights to Zanzibar, Mauritius and Seychelles in the past few months, the reason attached to it is that it is a mass market and that it lacks uniqueness.
Kenya’s main tourism markets include UK, USA, Italy and Germany, but have recorded a decline in growth that was accredited to the financial crisis and travel advisories issued prior to the general election over perceived insecurity.
In the first half of 2013, Kenya received 495,978 tourists by air and sea with the largest drop being witnessed in February and March.
“We have registered upward growth in arrivals from the month of May and we believe this is an indication that the sector is on track. The current high season has also recorded impressive bookings in or accommodation facilities,” Ms Kandie said.
She said the product would be diversified by marketing targeted cultural events along with pitching for high profile conferences.
Founded by Bilikiss Adebiyi, Jonathan Kola and Oluwatobi Aworinde, Nigeria’s Wecyclers wants communities to clean their environment by recycling matter and earning from it. Wecyclers gives incentives to those who recycle waste in their communities.
Wecyclers receive used plastic bags and bottles, aluminum cans and just any waste and give out redeemable points to collectors as an incentive. The startup believes the incentives will encourage the low-income communities in Africa and other developing countries to have a reason to clean up their neighborhoods.
Wecyclers works simply.
When you collect and recycle one kilogram of matter, they give you redeemable points over your mobile phone in return. These points can be redeemed for food items, airtime, appliances and electronics. The team sends updates and reminders to participating recyclers mobile phones and they then send the materials to local recycling processors in the city.
The team uses low-cost cargo bicycles for convenient household recycling services and their SMS-based incentive program. They sell the collected matter to local recycling processors and help ensure a consistent supply recyclable materials.
According to Wecyclers, Lagos faces a waste crisis which is worsening with the continuing increase in the population, now estimated to be over 20 million. Wecyclers say the municipal government only collects 40 percent of the city’s garbage, leaving the rest to pile up and be a health hazard. Just a mere 13 percent of recyclable materials are salvaged from landfills.
This uncollected piles later become breeding grounds for diseases to people living in slums especially after floods. Ironically, recycling plants in the city face a supply constraint and operate at just 50 percent capacity or less. The team therefore believes it might help end this menace.
South Africa’s Network platforms, an IT solutions provider for internal IT managed services, as well as managed connectivity and cloud services is celebrating its 10th year of operation and offering clients in Johannesburg and Cape Town free rack space in Teraco.
The offer is subject to purchasing of bandwidth.
According to Bradley Love, CEO of Network Platforms, the offer is designed to support companies and ISPs wanting to move or test the many benefits of moving into the Teraco environment. Network Platforms provides anything from 1U rack space for the smaller clients and SME market to full racks for the larger clients.
“Hosting with us will enable our customers to start reaping the benefits of being in our racks at Teraco with our breakout bandwidth and peering connections to NAPAfrica/JINX/CINX without having to commit to a full rack.”
Love added: “Network Platforms offers a premium 1:1 uncontended and a contended service depending on the client’s requirement with local and international access. Our international routers have full failover as we utilise, SAT3, WACS, Seacom and EASSy.”
Network platforms also said that together with this offer, it will waive the installation fee on fibre and diginet for last mile connectivity for orders placed in the month of September and October. It is also giving away an opportunity for clients to win rugby tickets to enjoy the trimmings of a hosted box and watch an All Blacks vs Springboks match!
Every ‘like’ on its Facebook page gets one an entry into the draw, here http://lnkd.in/PYWFPB
The government of Tanzania in conjunction the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) as well as other stake holders are in the process of preparing law against cyber-crimes in the country which have never been in existence.
The team is striving to bring forth three bills of legislation which will provide the country with legitimate support for electronic financial transactions which will translate to new cybercrime laws and legislation.
“It is difficult to prosecute cyber-crimes because there is no law for that. We have no statutes to address the problems of criminal activities that take place over the Internet. The envisaged laws would also help to address legal issue in electronic financial transactions in Tanzania as currently there were no cyber-crime laws,” said George Sije from BoT Legal Counsel.
When the manage to come up with the cyber-crime laws, the Data Protection and Piracy Act will become the central piece of legislation, with the Computer and System Act, and Electronic Transaction Act to follow.
“This will be the main piece of legislation to govern personal data protection. Whenever you open a bank account, use ATMs, join a social networking website or book a flight online, you hand over vital personal information. Some crooks get unauthorised access to this kind of data, but we do not have the statutes to deal with them,” said Sije.
With the rise of the creative technologist and the increasing influence of digital on the marketing mix it is important for ad agencies, marketers and other creatives to pick the right digital production partner. TechMoran caught up with Nick Durrant, Managing Director of Bluegrass Digital, discusses the four points agencies need to look for when picking a digital production agency.
Bluegrass Digital was established in 1996 and has offices in London and Cape Town. The firm is a provider of cost-effective web solutions and online marketing services to a wide range of global clients.
As the creative marketing world ebbs and flows around the new impetus brought about by the increasing influence of digital on the marketing mix, creative technologists are emerging to service client requirements Durrant takes a look at how advertising agencies, marketers and other creatives should go about choosing their digital production partner.
What is a digital production agency?
Think of a digital production agency as the equivalent of the video production agency you would call on to implement TV advertisements as part of an above-the-line campaign. They have a range of specialist technical skills encompassing all things digital, including web, social media, mobile and underlying management technologies.
As with video production agencies, there are many ways to skin a cat. You might have some, or all of these skills in-house, and need to bring in extra capacity or specialist experience now and again. Or, you might prefer to outsource digital production to a specialist agency lock, stock and barrel.
As the digital star rises and clients become more confident about the role digital can play in their promotions we’re seeing an increasing shift from pure tactical implementation to increased strategic involvement from the outset.
Introducing the creative technologist
This brings the creative technologist into the spotlight. The industry at large and creative technologists themselves might still be debating the exact definition of this role, which is not surprising in such a nascent field. Creative technologists are playing a crucial role in digital production, irrespective of whether they are a techie that understands and can participate in the creative strategic process, or a creative strategist that can actually code.
The creative technologist is vital in matching the correct digital technologies with expected creative outcomes, and then making sure the implementation actually achieves that.
Choosing a digital production agency
It could be easy to think that all digital production agencies are on the same footing skills and experience wise. After all, it’s a relatively new field, especially in South Africa. But when choosing a digital production agency, marketers and creative agencies shouldn’t overlook experience, in order to ensure they team up with the best partner for their, and their clients’, needs.
1. Experience
There is no amount of resource, qualification, talk, mumbo jumbo that can replace the, late nights, difficult situations, client demands, changing briefs than experience. International experience is particular advantageous, especially if you’re pitching for a cross-border account. Suddenly you have the resources and international experience from a production point of view.
2. Project Management
Servicing a client abroad requires a strong focus not only on customer service, but also project management. It is important to ensure digital projects are delivered on time and to brief.
3. Technical skills
Accreditation across a range of technologies, and experience in working on the gamut of platforms, from iPhones, to Facebook, to the regular desktop web is essential when looking for a partner. Web content management expertise should include key web platforms such as Umbraco, EPiServer and SharePoint. Mobile development experience is also key.
4. Knowledge
Finally, seeking out an experienced digital production agency gives you access to a bit of magic that only comes with spending time in the trenches. With tight deadlines and even tighter budgets, rabbits need to be pulled out of hats more often than not, and this is where a partner that has been around the block once or twice has access to a depth of knowledge to draw on.
As the digital sun rises, choosing a digital production partner is going to be as important as choosing a video production company has been for ad agencies over the past few decades. The good news is, despite the relative newness of the field, pockets of experience do exist.
Scientists have used a new satellite imaging technology that has enabled them to discover fresh underground water in the Northern part of Kenya that could sustain the country’s water needs for over 70 years.
According to ITV News, the scientists used a system that combined Satellite, Radar and Geological imaging technologies to discover a massive aquifer, an underground water-bearing material that can produce enough water 10 times more than all of Kenya’s water sources.
The aquifer was discovered 300 meters below the surface in Lokitipi area, in Turkana, in a Japan-funded project run by both UNESCO and the Kenyan government.
“We now have a tool that could not only help Kenya, but it could help other countries facing the issues of water scarcity,” Abou Amani of UNESCO told ITV News.
“I’m not saying this could solve all of the problems because from finding water to providing water to the population is another step because we need to have investment, we need to put in place infrastructure and so on,” Amani added, “But we have seen the system and the fact water is there, and that is extremely important and it could be a game changer within the country.”
It is reported that the aquifer is approximately 100 km by 66 km, covering over 4,164 squared kilometers of surface area, holding an estimated 200 billion cubic meters of fresh water.
The Kenyan government is expected to officially announce this new discovery and embark on ensuring that the water benefits the local people and the Nation as a whole, possibly bringing to an end the water scarcity problem that the East African country has been grappling with for many decades.
Zimbabwe now has an alternative route for internt traffic as internet service provider, Liquid Telecom has finished connecting the country’s first direct fibre to the West African Cable System (WACS).
“The link has been commissioned to the WACS landing station near Cape Town providing Zimbabwe with an alternative route for international traffic. In Zimbabwe no other IAP has managed to achieve what Liquid Telecom has achieved in such a short space of time. Most operators have opted to wait for us to construct the network and then use it for their back-haul purposes. Liquid Telecom now has a blueprint to deploy urban fibre in other countries,” said Liquid managing director Wellington Makamure.
WACS is a submarine telecommunications cable,which provides high-speed internet to the continent; it that extends from South Africa to London along Africa’s west coast.The cable is only one of four submarine systems along the coast of Africa, with the others being EASSy, SEACOM and SAT3.
Liquid Telecommunications also said that they have extensive expansion plans: “Liquid Telecom will be investing heavily in expanding into new countries to ensure that for the first time all countries and operators in Central and Southern Africa are directly connected,” say Liquid.
A report title ‘SA Social Media Landscape 2014’ from World Wide Worx and Fuseware said that Facebook in now the in thing in South Africa.
Previously Mxit was the leading with 9.5million active users in South Africa, it now has 7.4million users, says the researchers of the report. Facebook has now taken the lead and is the in thing in the country, as it currently has 9.4 million active users, up from 6.8million users last year.
Mxit has been lagging behind and even more since the emergence of instant texting services such as whatsApp and 2Go.
The communications president at Mxit, Sarah Rice, has said that Mxit’s decision to change its reporting procedure for measuring users has led to the significant dip indicated by World Wide Worx and Fuseware.
“The numbers are correct but I will tell you the reason for that,” she said. “At the beginning of the year Mxit changed its methodology to measure users over a 90 day period to 30 days, this resulted in the drop in our numbers,” she explained.
She added that if they ration their numbers over 90 days they would have more than 90 million users and that would be stable enough for them.
Other findings that are to be released suggested that Twitter saw the highest percentage growth among social networks in South Africa, as it has grown from 2.4 million users to 5.5 million from 2012, representing a growth of 129%.
Other networks like, Google+ is still yet to move from its position in the country, it currently has only 466 000 active users stated the researchers.
“The most significant finding, aside from the growth itself, was the extent to which social networks are being used on phones in South Africa,” said Arthur Goldstuck, managing director of World Wide Worx. “No less than 87 percent of Facebook users and 85 percent of Twitter users are accessing these tools on their phones,” he said.
Developers from across the world have officially been invited to take part in the first ever Google Cloud Developer Challenge for a chance to win up to $20,000 by building locally relevant web applications that solve real world problems.
This competition will give a chance to the developers to create innovative solutions built on the Google App Engine using Google API’s like Google+, Youtube and Maps API’s.
Applicants are invited to create an application in one of the following categories:
Enterprise/Small Business Solutions , Education, Not for Profit
Social / Personal Productivity/Games / Fun
A winner will be selected for each category per region, with each standing a chance to win a prize of $20,000.
“We are devoted to raising the next generation of information technology experts as well as encouraging diversity among software developers,” Google said in a blog post, “In line with this, we have special prizes for all-female teams — $2,000 and $1,000 dollars for ‘all-student teams’ that make the second round.”
The first round of submissions starts on October 22, 2013 and close in November 21, 2013. The Semi-Finalists will be announced on December 5th, before updated Semi-Final Apps are submitted in January 5th and consequently the announcement of the winners come January 28, 2014.
For more details on how to apply, follow this link.
IBM, International Business Machine plans to launch an innovation hub in Nigeria in Q1 2014 in a move to build Nigeria’s ICT capacity and serve the West African region.
The centre will also serve as IBM’s hub for the region.
The announcement was made by IBM’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Virginaa Rometty, during her visit to Abuja Monday where she met Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson.
According to Rometty: “The hub will make for smatter transportation, smatter health and smarter education inside government. When it comes down to banking, we will have smatter banking solutions there; where people can learn what it means to have smarter banking.”
Rometty added that firms will use products and data from the hub to develop their businesses. The software incubation centre will also help telcos to use the data for performance and determination of rates.
IBM was established in Nigeria since 1960 and is now shifting its focus on building smart cities and technologies in Africa, Nigeria being a priority.
Johnson said: “ What this innovation centre will do for us is to help us to begin to think about innovative and creative ways we can make ICT to bear in many of the challenges that we face today.”
Johnson added that the Nigerian government is cooperating with local entrepreneurs, IBM and other organizations to up ICT and governance and positively drive the economy.
Africa Live is officially the leading tourism App, this was announced in the Africa App Quest competition.
More than 70 entries were seen from all over Africa and out of the four finalists Africa Live bagged the $10,000 in prize money and the Africa Quest trophy. The competition was sponsored by Visa and South African Tourism.
The e-marketing manager, William Price, said that the decision of the finalist was a tough one to make.
“Originally there were only three slots but we had a tie for the third place, so it was ideal to see four very strong, dynamic apps showcased to our audience at the E-Tourism Africa Summit for the final judging. The audience made their decision and we congratulate the Africa Live team from South Africa for their app,” he said.
The award winning, Africa Live, is a live game sighting map; while the other three finalists included Activity Bridge, a Web-based platform to sell tourism activities; Tourism Radio, a device that combines GPS and location based information for self-drive holidays; Pixshare Africa, photo sharing social media platform for travel businesses.
Rob Maclean, MD of Satpack Travel, the company behind Africa Live, says he is proud to have won the Africa App Quest.
“We created Africa Live as we saw a strong need in the market place for a platform for people to share their wildlife sightings instantly. With over 70 apps being entered into the competition, we are thrilled to have received the title and this will certainly encourage us to continue seeking opportunities that can assist the growing travel population,’ he said.
Martin Muckle, the founder of Kenya’s Stonehouse, a Nairobi basedcompany with exclusive distributorship for the UK designed and built Aleutia computer is set to launch the EBOKS, an ‘all-in-one’ solar-powered education computer lab in a container.
The EBOKS is to be morphed into a GOBOKS for remote government offices, a COPBOKS for police posts, a POBOKS for post offices and a +BOKS for health centres.
The firm also plans to move towards local assembly of the solar-powered computers which are designed to be easy to assemble and disassemble so make ideal candidates for Kenya’s first commercial computer assembly project.
Speaking to TechMoran, Muckle said “Stonehouse Ltd believes that the answer to environmental problems is not to simply stop doing the things that are neccessary for modern life but to use technology to find ways of doing those things in such a way as to reduce, neutralise, or even reverse the environmental impact.”
The firm is therefore concentrating on the provision of a computer that is specifically designed for Africa in that it is dust and heat proof, reliable, low and easy maintenance but, most importantly, use only 20% of the energy required by ‘normal’ desktops.
According to Muckle, “This massive reduction in energy consumption makes the systems ideal for solar-powered environments as so much less investment is needed for the solar systems. They run equally well on generator or mains where the power saving feature lead directly to lower running costs.”
Stonehouse Ltd was launched in Oct 2011 and have spent their time settling in to the local market, experimenting and fine-tuning. They now have an educational package based on a thin client network loaded with open source software from English, Maths, Science to typing and computer coding.
Their systems are ideal for rural schools, community and training centres.
Muckle, a teacher by training has taught IT and Science to middle school, GCSE and A level for long. His experience helps him understand the requirements of IT in schools from a teaching and learning perspective.
He added that his 40+ years of life in West, North and East Africa on the trail of his UN-employed agricultural engineer Father have given him an understanding of what kinds of technology work in the African environment and why. Martin is keen to promote the increased use of IT in Kenyan schools and approaches the difficulties in a very practical, problem-solving manner.
He was inspired by the need to help locals create local solutions.
“At the highest ideal the idea that somewhere out there is a Kenyan kid who can find a cure for cancer but is held back for want of access to information,” he said, adding that,” At the other end the idea that simply learning to write an email may break the poverty cycle that many children are stuck in.”
Muckle’s biggest challenge is introducing new technology into a conservative and well protected technology environment. He says he is yet to see a computer tenderwhere energy consumption is mentioned in the required specifications. However, progress is being made by no longer trying to convert ‘stick in the muds’ but finding those people who have already bought into the energy vision and recognise the value of the Aleutia technology.
His vision did not start yesterday. In 1976, Muckle arrived in Kenya as a ten year old boy. “It would be easy to say circumstance but fate has probably had more to do with it, he says. On arrival he recognised Kenya as the most beautiful country in the whole wide world. And as fate would have it, Kenya is also rapidly becoming the African tech hub so all the pieces are falling into place.
Armed with a 12 months of angel investment, Muckle wants to put solar-powered computers in our offices and homes.
Apple is not sleeping as all, the electronics manufacturer has unveiled two new iPhone models with their hungered operating system iOS7m that will be launching soon as they have even given a date for that.
The iPhone 5s introduced a flagship iPhone 5 model, according to the company’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller, is the most forward-thinking phone they have ever created and will be availed in three colours: black, silver and gold.
Apple also made it known that the device will make use of a 64-bit A7 processor that has twice the amount of transistors as its iPhone 5 predecessor, while the CPU and GPU will be twice as fast.
“iPhone 5s sets a new standard for smartphones, packed into its beautiful and refined design are breakthrough features that really matter to people, like Touch ID, a simple and secure way to unlock your phone with just a touch of your finger,” Schiller added.
Apple also said that the device includes the new M7 motion processor that gathers data from the accelerometer, gyroscope and compass to offload work from the A7 for improved power efficiency.
The phone’s security has also been pimped up as it makes use of Touch ID which uses a laser cut sapphire crystal, together with the capacitive touch sensor, to take a high-resolution image of a fingerprint and intelligently analyse it to provide accurate readings from any angle; all this in order to unlock the phone.
The 5s being the high-end phone, the company also unleashed the iPhone 5c which is much cheaper than the ‘sister’ iPhone 5s which will be availed in blue, yellow and white.
“iPhone 5c is built on a foundation of features people know and love like the beautiful 4-inch Retina display, blazing fast performance of the A6 chip, and the 8 megapixel iSight camera – all while delivering great battery life,” Apple explained,
Schiller had this to say: “iPhone 5c is everything iPhone 5 was and more, in an all-new design packed with great features. iPhone 5c is designed with a beautiful polycarbonate enclosure that looks and feels so solid in your hand.”
Apple also announced that iOS 7 will be made available on 20 September, and features a host of new additions.
“iOS 7 features a stunning new user interface, completely redesigned with an elegant colour palette, distinct, functional layers and subtle motion that make it feel more alive. iOS 7 has hundreds of great new features, including Control Centre, Notification Centre, improved Multitasking, AirDrop, enhanced Photos, Safari, Siri and introduces iTunes Radio, a free Internet radio service based on the music you listen to on iTunes,” Apple concluded.
SatADSL, a Belgium-based satellite service provider has launched new solutions for supporting deployment of nation-wide ATM networks in East Africa.
The new solution will allow Automated Teller Machines (ATM) operators and banks to deploy cash machines in small urban areas in East Africa where terrestrial communication services are either not available, unreliable or too expensive. SatADSL offers specialized products and services that are aimed at boosting the operations of financial institutions in Africa independently from any terrestrial infrastructure.
According to SatADS Chief Operations Officer Caroline De Vos, “Financial institutions often offer excellent service in the main cities where adequate telecommunications means are available: fiber connections, WiMax, etc. However, in remote locations where the population is less dense, telecommunication links may not be as reliable and are much less adapted to the requirements of financial institutions. That is where SatADSL comes in with specialised services to support the financial institutions’ remote offices as well as cash machines in performing according to their customers’ expectations.”
De Vos was speaking at the ongoing AITEC Conference in Nairobi and added that the new solutions are specifically tailor-made for the African banking and financial community. SatADS is also in the process of recruiting partners distribute its products and services in the region.
Though traditional VSAT services, De Vos noted that the firm is in a position to offer similar technical solutions at much cheaper rates and higher reliability than fiber connections and WiMax which are typically much more expensive and obviously secure enough for ATM networks.
The new service has been successfully demonstrated and is now commercially in use in three West African countries by several African banks that are planning large scale ATM deployments over the continent. The company is currently leading three new pilot projects for ATM deployment with banks in Ghana, Cameroon and Zambia.
The service allows for financial transactions to be carried out over satellite link in a reliable, secured and cost-effective way. SatADSL service connects the client applications in remote offices to the servers located in the company headquarters and other servers located in Europe and the US. SatADSL corporate service offering is built around SES Broadband service platform which provides high-speed broadband internet via satellite.
SatADSL is already offering reliable and low-cost satellite networking solutions to more than hundred money transfer offices of Express Union and EMI Transfer that are located in remote areas, bringing those financial services closers to African citizens.
According to Caroline De Vos, the company prioritizes the business-critical transactions with the guarantee that these transactions will always go through, with a reliable and financially affordable solution in both investment (CAPEX) and operational (OPEX) costs. Finally, SatADSL offers the most optimized solutions for reliable and cost- effective connection for off-site ATM terminals.
Kenya’s ICT Cabinet Secretary, Fred Matiang’i, has urged telecom companies to lower cross-border call and data rates, saying that the current high charges are hampering the East Africa integration and business opportunities.
Kenya has one of the highest roaming charges, something that forces many people travelling outside the country to either switch off their phones or acquire temporary local SIM cards.
“It is a critical area that needs market-based solutions and not policy or regulatory intervention. If we impose a fee, it may affect the market by making it unpredictable for investors,” said Matiang’i while speaking at a forum on mobile roaming charges.
The ICT secretary however admitted that lowering of the roaming charges is not an easy task, saying that the rates are affected by external factors including tariffs and regulations in different countries. It is for this reason that telecom companies from different countries were encouraged to adopt a uniform policy and regulatory framework to allow for lower rates.
The Kenyan government will also be looking on how to offer incentives to ensure that mobile roaming charges are lowered, subject to African Telecommunications Union’s review of the proposal presented before them.
“The guidelines will help national regulators and operators determine the most appropriate way to apply the guidelines in their own markets,” said AUC secretary general Abdoulkarim Soumaila.
In the meantime, the government is in the process of investigating the excessive cross-border call rates before they take action.
Kenya’s MyHeraldMagazine is promising to inspire, inform and entertain students, entrepreneurs, executives and young policy makers in the country.
Founded January this year by Kenyan Evalyn Oloo, while a student at UK’s Anglia Ruskin University,My Herald Magazine is run by her UK-based firm Chances Media Ltd and has both print and online versions. The print copy is published every month while the online version has daily news on Youthful Entrepreneurship, Lifestyle, Health, Entertainment and business.
Speaking to TechMoran during her courtesy call to the Kenya Bloggers Association (BAKE), Oloo said,”While in high school many Kenyan youth are introduced to a variety of magazines which they enjoy, they are however torn apart immediately they leave school.”
“There is no in-between magazines for school leavers and aspiring entrepreneurs,” and added, “We launched My Herald Mgazine to bridge this gap. We focus on this young achievers between 19 and 35 years for their personal and professional development.”
As a transitional magazine, My Herald therefore has a little of teenage content to adult content. Its vision to inspire, inform and entertain the young achiever who may be a student on campus, an entrepreneurs running her or his own startup, a young executive and young policy maker.
Oloo told TechMoran she raised initial seed funding while on campus to start her Chances Media company which publishes the magazine both online and in print. She has also signed up a number of partners as advertisers to offset the operational costs of the two platforms.
With a beautiful feminine-like magazine selling at $2.3 (Ksh 200) monthly and a free for all responsive website, she believes the future is bright for her company and her readers as well.
Livefyre and Storify have become one item after storyify was acquired by Livfyre. This they say will enhance the quality of their service as they are working to be the worlds leading social curation company.
Having been created three year ago, Storify have kept their promise of amplifying the voices that matter as well as finding meaning in the noise and making the web tell a story.
“We still firmly believe that social media is changing not only the news but fundamentally how media works everywhere, and we’ve seen this reflected in the stories that more than 850,000 Storify users have created so far,” says Storify.
Livefyre on the other hand started by building a commenting system for websites, and are now powering real-time conversation and social curation for more than 400 major publishers, media companies and brands online. Their network sees more than 1 billion page views per month.
“By joining Livefyre, we’ll become part of a larger company with more resources, a strong technical infrastructure and experienced enterprise sales team. Storify will be able to give journalists, bloggers, publishers, brands and agencies even more of the features they’ve been asking for,” says Storify
In the future, we plan to integrate Storify’s VIP product into Livefyre’s enterprise offerings, giving publishers and brands an easy way to blend social media into everything they do.
LivelyHoods, a non-profit organization that gives youth n slums the chance to earn an honest living, has launched a campaign to help the thousands of jobless youth in Kenya. They want to open a second shop that will create over 50 jobs for talented Kenyan youth to sell things like solar lamps in their community.
“The majority of youth in Kenya is jobless and struggles to earn a livelihood. Instead of handouts or “band-aid” solutions, we believe in creating access to opportunity. What if we provided creative youth with jobs? What if talented youth could actualize their potential? That’s what we do at LivelyHoods!” says LivelyHoods.
In 2011, the organization opened the first retail shop in Nairobi slum that served as a center fro more than 65 youth sales representatives. This shop has managed to help many of the slum youth when they sold quite a number of the solar lamps, sanitary towels as well as cooking stoves.
Currently LivelyHoods wants to raise $25000 to open a second shop. They will buy inventory and store fittings as well as recruit 50 sales representatives in the next year. The co-founder of LivelyHoods, Maria Springer said that in order to raise the money she will wear 25 bands on her face each band representing $1000.
“I’ve pledged to wear 25 band-aids on my face in public. Yes. You read that right. It’s time we go beyond ‘band-aid solutions’ and create jobs for youth in slums. For each $1,000 dollars we raise, I will lose a band-aid. Want one?” she said.
She will apply new band-aids every day and take off for each $1,000 that is contributed. She’ll even publish a video of herself doing that.
Springer also added that in case they do not manage to raise the money the amount of money they will have collected will by put towards employing youth the store that is in existence.
This organization was formed by students from UCLA and Stanford universities, technology start-ups and banks in Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Chile and is now in Kenya. They launched LivelyHoods in 2011 with a team of youth from Nairobi. Follow their adventure on @LivelyHoodsORG
Twitter has bought MoPub, a mobile-focused advertising exchange to upgraded its mobile advertising capacities
MoPub’s technology lets mobile application publishers manage their inventory and optimize multiple sources of advertising in a single product.
The social networking company said that it will continue to invest in and improve MoPub’s core business and added that there is a key opportunity to extend many types of native advertising across the mobile ecosystem through the MoPub exchange.
The microblogging platform also plans to use MoPub’s technology to build real-time bidding into the ads platform so advertisers can more easily automate and scale their buys.
Vehicle manufacturer Nissan Motor Company Limited has created a smartwatch that will enable drivers to monitor vehicle performance, as well as their own concentration levels, heart rate, temperature and other biometrics.
Dubbed the Nissan Nismo, the smartwatch connects to the vehicle on-board computer using a smartphone app as a Bluetooth Smart device, allowing it to access the vehicle’s performance data including average speeds and fuel consumption.
For now, the smartwatch can only be used by drivers of the Nissan Nismo cars, Nissan’s motorsport and performance division involved in supercars and race cars.
Nissan is however looking to create an ultimate smartwatch that can spot driver’s fatigue, monitor concentration levels, emotions and record hydration levels, in a bid to ensure that both the car and the driver are in the best possible state to be on the road.
Experts believe that if the auto maker decides to roll out the smartwatch to the mass market, road accidents could be reduced significantly due to the increased connectivity and communication between the driver and the vehicle.
Research shows that most road accidents-especially in Africa-are as a result of poor vehicle conditions and mistakes on the drivers’ part including overspeeding, driving while under alcohol influence and long hours behind the wheels something that reduces concentration levels.
This new gadget could be part of the solution in ensuring road safety is increased across the globe and help reduce the millions of lives lost in traffic related accidents, with World Health Organization putting the average figure at 1.2 million deaths every year.
Nation Media Group’s NTV Uganda and Outbox, Uganda’s top incubation, collaboration and co-creation space for techies have partnered to launch The ideas lab, an initiative they say seeks disruptive innovative digital ideas to improve the way news is collected and disseminated, media engages with audiences and push for new production and revenue models in media.
“We seek to engage with individuals and organisations that have ideas that improve delivery platforms, amplify the relevance or usefulness, deepens media’s understanding of audiences, boosts the media’s resource base by diversifying business models and enhances the impact and shelf life of news,” the firms said.
The winning teams will take home a cash prize of UGX 10 Million ($3,875.14) plus an incubation fellowship at Outbox and a deployment fellowship at NTV Uganda to realise the idea to the market.
Samsung refuses to lag behind in technology as it recently introduced it SmartWatch which was overly anticipated, the Samsung galaxy gear.
This fancy watch, however, does not work by itself; it requires a Samsung Smartphone for full functionality.
So this watch notifies users of incoming messages such as calls, texts, emails and alerts, delivers a preview of those messages and creates the opportunity for users to accept or discreetly ignore those messages.
If the messages require more attention the user will have to use their Samsung Smartphone instead and the Smart Relay feature will reveal the full content on that device’s screen.
The best thing about the Samsung gear is that for voice calls, the users can conduct hands-free calls directly from the watch using its hands-free activation service.
It has a feature called the Memographer, it connects a built-in 1.9 camera and lets users record both photos and video to create quick, visual records of important information or events.
The SmartWatch has a proximity tracker which also automatically locks the linked Samsung Smartphone when it is more than 1.5 meters from the SmartWatch.
The watch comes with a 4GB memory and 512 MD RA, and is running on an 8000Mhz processor.
Samsung Galaxy Gear will be launched in more than 140 countries around the world starting from September 25.
In search of improves ICT business partnerships, a delegation from India’s ZASSCOM is set to visit Kenay and Uganda in the course of this month.
This will be the fourth time for the delegation to visit Kenya; they are expected to come from 17th – 18th of this month. Their main aim is to provide the Indian companies an experience to the Kenya ICT environment and provide networking opportunities with the local companies and agencies and explore business opportunities.
NASSCOM says India mature ecosystem will be a great area from which Kenya can learn and be a part of. India has a vibrant private ICT sector which primarily drives the IT sector, well supported by the Government.
Kenya’s solid Government support for ICT development and adoption, NASSCOM says, are very good factor that present numerous business opportunities to both sides.
