A Canadian company, WeWi Telecommunications, will next week launch a solar-powered laptop that may soon find its way to North America.

WeWi Telecommunications has built an uneven and submersible laptop that’s designed to handle severe environments and quickly charge up on solar power that will cost only USD 350.

“We traveled to Africa and we saw the need,” said Snir, who noted a frustrating inability to get electricity when working in that country.

SOL will also be released in North America by the end of the year and its specs and capabilities may find appeal in the U.S. market.

The solar-powered SOL laptop could come to the U.S. later this year. It weighs about five pounds, and is about 2 inches thick at its highest point. But that’s part of the trade-off for having solar panels.

The four solar panels are little smaller than the 13.3-in. LCD display and open up in butterfly fashion. The panels are protected by the clamshell cover.

In sunlight, the solar panels can charge the replaceable battery in about two hours, however, in cloudy conditions; a full charge might take up to three hours. The battery can be used for eight to 10 hours, said Snir. The solar panels can be detached from the notebook and, connected by wire, placed in a sunny area to charge the unit while a user works at a desk or under a shady tree.

The system has been tested with Ubuntu Linux, which is being installed on it. But other operating systems are possible. In North America, Chromebook is one of the possibilities.

Chromebooks require an Internet connection, which is not a necessity in some regions of the world. For North America, “we are absolutely considering coming out with a version using Chrome,” said Snir.

The computer system is rugged, its shell made of fiber-reinforced polymers, the internal electronics has shock absorbers to help protect the system from falls. For USD 50 more, there’s a version that is submersible.

The system will support 3G and 4G networks, along with Wi-Fi, and it has SIM card support. There is an Intel Atom chip, and a 320GB hard disk drive. The SOL can support 2GB to 4GB of memory.

“We really want to get Africa connected and we really want to help developing countries,” he said. “We’re not out to make a huge amount for money from our laptops.”

YouTube Partner Program, a program for video creators to monetise their content is now live in Nigeria making it possible for video content producers in Nigeria to make money on their works.

According to Juliet Ehimuan, Nigeria’s Google Country Manager:“We are excited about the amazing opportunities the YouTube Partner Program will create for Nigerian content creators to engage and build a global audience for their content.”

Ehimuan added that the program will increase online video content in Nigeria and enrich its diversity.

Video content producers in Nigeria will have to sign into their YouTube accounts to become YouTube Partners, then monetize their video content via advertising. They will also be given tools and resources online to up their skills and grow their online audience in a bid to monetize their video content.

The program is open to individuals and brands to connect their audience based on demographics, interest, topics and keywords.

YouTube is not new in Nigeria as the YouTube Nigeria domain launched way back in 2011.

Nigeria is a ripe market as its local movie industry, Nollywood is the third biggest movie industry in the world after US’s Hollywood and India’s Bollywood with revenue receipts of approximately $300million to $800million annually.

UPDATE: The YouTube Partner program is now live in Nigeria, Uganda, Senegal and Ghana according to YouTube’s official statement.

Intel has pioneered an education-focused tablet situation design, featuring an Intel Atom processor and the Android operating system code-named Ice Cream Sandwich.

The Intel Education tablet is particularly designed for education, featuring student-friendly designs that empower students to create compelling content.

Some of the features include front- and rear-facing cameras, a stylus, integrated speakers and microphones bring interactive, multimedia content into learning.

The Intel Education Software equipped tablet has a comprehensive suite of applications including an e-reader, science exploration and data analysis application and painting tools.  The device also has management software that provides teachers and administrators with tools to protect students and manage technology.

“Intel remains committed to helping teachers and students achieve better results through the development of complete solutions that span the hardware, software and digital content required for a 21st century learning experience,” says John Galvin, VP of Intel’s sales and marketing group and GM of Intel Education, “The tablet we are introducing is one additional step in a 10 year journey.”

The Intel Education tablet with a 10-inch has an Intel Atom processor Z2460, an Android 4.0 operating system, more than 6.5 hours of battery life, and weighs 680g.

Intel also offers an Intel Education tablet with a 7-inch screen, single-core Intel Atom processor Z2420, an Android 4.1 operating system, nearly eight hours of battery life and weighs 350g.

The tablets are both outfitted with McAfee Mobile Security. The screens have even been designed with shock-absorbers, so they are cushioned in case of a fall.

The tablets are designed to enable interactive, collaborative learning to prepare students for success in school and beyond. These reference designs align with the Intel Education platform, which assists teachers and students in technology-enhanced learning.

Misinformed service providers, fly-by-night operators and ‘buck-chasers’ continue to pose a threat to the development of South Africa’s Biometric Identity Management industry by fuelling negative perception of products and undermine the value of legitimate offerings.

Leading experts in this market believe the country faces an uphill battle against ruthless suppliers who vaguely understand biometrics and are driving sales targets without providing adequate after-sales service. There are also many posers who have no genuine track record in the market or sufficient expertise to add any real value.

“This impacts on customer experience”, says Marius Coetzee, Managing Director, Ideco, an established leader in the application of biometric technology and Southern Africa’s primary distributor of Morpho fingerprint biometric solutions.

“Manufacturers from around the world are flooding our market with every possible biometric option. With the typical DIY culture in SA, every developer thinks that by ordering a biometrics unit online and downloading the development tools makes him an expert in the field. Every biometric modality (fingerprint, facial, iris, voice, etc) is available in our market and sold on the gimmicks. Some readers talk to you, some read under water and some see it all’,” Coetzee explains.

The truth is that currently only one modal (fingerprint) is regarded as mature and available for large scale commercial deployment, and there are only a selected few brands that are tested, proven and chosen for the South African conditions.

Ideco has established a leadership position in the market and has contributed substantially to South Africa’s long-time dominance in the world market in the adoption of biometrics for access control and time & attendance applications.

However, this dominance has ebbed away as a result of being saturated with offerings and the rapid increase in the number of competitors – many of whom do not have the credentials to live up to their promise or look after the customer.

In a frank discussion about the state of the industry and the challenge faced by legitimate operators, Coetzee says that whilst there are global standards, these don’t guarantee quality, or service. “The reality is that even a sub-standard biometric offering can be made to comply with certain standards,” he explains.

“The best advice is to follow global leaders and make sure what your purchase meets their expectation. FBI approval on biometric readers is not a North American specific approval, but an international benchmark of quality that meets law enforcement and judicial requirements. This means that biometric evidence submitted from the FBI approved reader in a forensic investigation or a HR dispute will be accepted as irrefutable identity proof by judicial and law enforcement departments. If readers are used in environments such as Interpol, FBI, Scotland Yard and our SAPS you can be assured of its quality,” he adds.

The application of biometric solutions in the legal process is one of the primary areas where technology is truly put to the test.

Ideco management says the company has come across numerous case studies from frustrated customers who have been disappointed with the results of biometric evidence that could not be used or did not live up to expectations as an effective security mechanism.

Against this background, Coetzee believes the solution lies in collaboration between all stakeholders.

Suppliers need to realise their responsibility towards the market to only deal with products that comply with FBI standards.

“Customers need to realise that biometrics is regarded as personal information which is subject to many regulatory and judiciary requirements. Consultants need to realise that no biometric solution operates in total isolation. At some point customers may be required to use the transactions as evidence in a court of law, or to link to the Criminal Record Centre of SAPS or to verify Identities against the Department of Home Affairs,” he concludes.

The introduction of Tablet-Based Learning by the United Kingdom based software publisher EuroTalk has sparked the beginning of Tablet-based learning in Malawi.

The project presently being piloted in some schools in the country is the height of partnership between the governments of Scotland and Malawi.

Government of Malawi through the ministry of education, science and technology launched the scheme in 2010 piloting the use of tablet technology in 30 schools with the EuroTalk app ‘Masamu’ (a local word for mathematics) which is intended to teach basic numeracy.

EuroTalk said that The University of Nottingham, one of the leading Universities in the UK will be evaluating the project next month in order to establish if children using EuroTalk’s ‘Masamu’ maths application learn faster than their classmates.

The European company also said that the study will take place at Biwi Primary School, Lilongwe, which was selected for the project by the ministry of education. It also said that up to 300 children aged 5-6 will be involved in the study which will be led by Dr Nicola Pitchford, from the School of Psychology at The University of Nottingham.

Andrew Ashe, EuroTalk’s managing director observes that in a country like Malawi, where class sizes often exceed 100 pupils, many children don’t get the learning opportunities they so desperately need.

“We believe that high quality, local language, educational applications on tablet technology can be life-changing, and we look forward to seeing what the study reveals,” said the Managing director.

The goal, EuroTalk says, is to bring the best possible education to one billion children, and the team sees the forthcoming evaluation as a fundamental step.

The company is using Malawi as a model and depending on how successful it will be, the project will expand to other countries across the world, producing the applications in each child’s local language.

Ghana has launched a support and web tool system in Tamale to help policy makers to identify where ideal water systems should be sited.

The Targeting AGwater Management Intervention (TAGMI) system is expected to help boost food production and address challenges in the Limpopo and the Volta River Basins.

A researcher at the Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI) named Annemarieke de Bruin, launched the tool at a day’s workshop organized for heads of state agencies, civil society groups and development partners from Ghana and Burkina Faso.

She explained that TAGMI was a production from a three-year research as part of the CGIAR-Challenge Programme’s Basin Development Challenges (CGIAR-CPBDC), which researchers’ practitioners and farmers identified to manage rainfall.

The nationally used web tool has defined Bayesian network models to review the likelihood of developing Agriculture Water Management (AWM) in the various Volta River Basins based on a range of social, human, physical, financial and natural factors.

The researcher added that TAGMI included AWM technological interventions including soil and water conservation, conservation agriculture, small-scale irrigation and small reservoirs.

Dr Mathias Fosu, a Principal Research Scientist at the Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI), said the tool when adopted by government would avoid the human element of bias involved in deciding on where to locate a water system.