BlackBerry has upgraded the BBM app and users with BlackBerry iOS and Android platforms as well as Android and iPhone will be enjoying free voice calls to BBM contacts over a Wi-Fi or data connection with BBM voice and access BBM channels.

That’s not all, the customers will have more to chat about with fast one-click sharing of photos, documents, voice notes and more. They will also be able to share their live location for a specified amount of time with other BBM contacts by using location sharing, powered by Glympse, and will have 100 new emoticons available to help them say what’s on their mind.

“BBM continues to quickly evolve as a social mobile platform for consumers as well as for business customers through innovative features that give you great new ways to connect and share with each other.” said John Sims, President, and Global Enterprise Solutions at BlackBerry.

BBM Channels lets customers chat with other BBM users about topics that interest them from products, hobbies and sports to entertainment, fashion, cars and more.

With location sharing, customers can now share their real-time location with one or several BBM contacts for a specified amount of time.

Built-in support for Dropbox makes it easy to send large files like presentations and videos. With Dropbox built in to BBM, users can send a file from their personal cloud directly to a BBM contact. On the receiving end, users can save the file directly to their Smartphone or add it to their Dropbox account.

As for the Emoticons, BBM customers have the option of more than 100 new emoticons have been added.

As thousands celebrate Valentine’s day in Africa, LG Electronics has unveiled the Power Cut Evercool refrigerator which for the first time offers seven hours of cooling in the fridge compartment and 10 hours of cooling in the freezer without power.

The new product is in response to erratic power supply and extended power cuts in most parts of the country that often leaves home appliances such as refrigerators ineffective.

However, companies like LG are now putting their thinking caps on to find solutions for these particular pain points. Powered with the Innovative Power Cut Evercool Technology, the new range of LG Frost Free Refrigerators provides the longest cool air retention in the refrigerator section for more than seven hours during long power cuts.

“We manufacture products that fit the needs of our consumers and this launch is another cutting-edge technological innovation based on customers’ insights and the need to provide human-centric technological solutions” said Oktae Kim, the Home Appliances Product Manager LG East Africa.

The patented cutting-edge technology works by incorporating a valve in the fridge that opens when the power fails. The valve circulates refrigerants inside the unit’s extra evaporators to retain cooling. So whenever there is a power cut, it provides cooling at all sections of the refrigerator and retains it for seven hours.

“Evercool is a ‘Triple Cooling System’ with three evaporators. The main evaporator works with power and the two other evaporators work without power. So now you can enjoy your chilled beverages and avoid spoilage of dairy and other food products even if there’s a long power cut,”said Mr Kim.

LG Evercool refrigerators have specially designed ice trays which make ice 20% faster. The new refrigerator features a Convertible Box and Bottle Rack that ensure optimized space utilization. Now, it’s easier to keep vegetables and fruits fresher and crispier as it prevents superfluous moisture from forming while retaining just the right amount of moisture to increase freshness and lifespan.

The grid patterned crisper cover condenses extra humidity and evaporates moisture from the grooved pattern structure, enabling the freshness to last longer. In extremely hot weather, these double door refrigerators would work wonders in saving food from degenerating.

Moreover, its tower LED light is brighter, durable, energy efficient and cooler. Owners of the new refrigerator also need not purchase extra voltage stabilizer as LG refrigerators perform normally even on very low voltages.

“LG’s compressors are durable and therefore we guarantee a 10year warranty on these compressors,” said Mr Kim. LG Electronics, he added, is constantly pushing technological limits to create feature-rich stylish products that meet the global consumer preferences.

Leading manufacturer of memory storage solutions and software, ­SanDisk has unveiled a USB flash drive that features a micro-USB and a USB 2.0 connector, a design that all Android users can use.

You got that right, the SanDisk Ultra Dual USB Drive provides a what to transfer content through all your Android device’s port and a computer’s USB connection.The flash drive has a microUSB port on one end, and a regular sized USB port on the other.

“The SanDisk Ultra Dual USB Drive provides a simple, convenient way to offload and backup files from smartphones and tablets – with the peace of mind that comes with the trusted SanDisk brand,” said Dinesh Bahal, vice president, product marketing, SanDisk. “This new drive integrates with SanDisk’s Memory Zone app to make freeing up space on mobile devices simpler than ever, improving the user experience.”

This is definatley better than traditional way of transferring files form a mobile device to a computer which needs a lot of wires, wirless set-ups as well as apps.

The drive works in connection with the SanDisk Memory Zone app, which one can download on Google Play and is dubbed as being “the easiest way to free up space on your phone or tablet.”

With this device, the SanDisk Ultra Dual USB Drive, you simply need to be connected to a mobile device supporting USB on-the-go (OTG)1 to access up to 64GB2 of ‘plug and play’ storage capacity.

Additionally, the drive’s dual USB ports feature a retractable cover, meaning no caps to lose while still keeping the connectors safe.

Pamoja Africa, the Cloud services business unit of Pan-African ICT enabler SEACOM, has entered into a partnership with Symantec, a recognised leader in the security technology solutions development space, distribute  Symantec’s suite of Cloud services in sub-Sahara Africa to meet growing security, compliance and archiving needs.

The alliance will ensure that Pamoja’s expanding channel and service provider ecosystem has access to these services, thereby enabling transfer of value to customers and add impetus to Pamoja’s objective of solidifying Africa’s Cloud community.

The company, established in 2011 by SEACOM’s founder Brian Herlihy and Stafford Masie, former GM of Google SA, is a provider of wholesale Cloud computing services via telecommunication companies, ISPs and other service providers in Africa.

Pamoja is focused on a wider market, incorporating the fast-growing Small-to-medium Enterprise (SME) segment, and leverages off SEACOM’s infrastructure, exposure to partnerships and Africa’s growing mobile and Internet market to entrench its services model.

Mark Smissen, Cloud Services Manager at Symantec, says the partnership provides Symantec the opportunity to address an exciting new route to market for its Cloud services. It is delivered by the next generation of specialist partners and service providers that are uniquely positioned to capitalise on the exploding demand for Cloud security services.

“It’s an opportunity for Symantec to address under served and unmet needs of customers and partners in Africa, and to do this quickly,” says Smissen.

“Pamoja exists to drive the adoption of Cloud services in Africa, and have purpose built their strategy to make this a reality. What this means is that the reach and scale required in bringing security and compliance Cloud services to the SMB market is now possible. These enterprise class Cloud services have typically only been accessible by larger organisations… this changes with the Pamoja partnership in that SMB and corporate customers can enjoy the same level of protection and service,” he continues.

Through a new data peering arrangement between SEACOM and Symantec these services are delivered via the shortest and fastest route to the Pamoja cloud datacentres in South Africa and Kenya.

Both companies share the belief that the partnership will strengthen the value of service each offers the market.

For Pamoja, the partnership is a testament to the increasing credibility of its Cloud services model in Africa and a progressive step in demonstrating the value of Cloud to emerging markets – particularly to help businesses effectively safeguard their information and enhance their operations.

Albie Bester, General Manager at Pamoja, describes the alliance as a ‘win-win’ for all stakeholders in the evolving ecosystem. “We are all about adding value and assisting the market with all the dynamics involved in Cloud service and solution uptake. This is another major achievement for the market and our contribution towards it.”

Symantec strategy is to protect, secure and manage customers’ information wherever this resides.

“We know the approach to securing information must change. Security can no longer be about running numerous point products. Customers want unified security – security that’s multi-tier, multi-layer, integrated and automated – all delivered as a service,” Smissen adds.

By Vicky Ojo

An expert has declared that in order for government to promote transparency and accountability they should establish information databases that are easily accessible to the public. This declaration was made by the Executive Director of Centre for Community Informatics Research, Development and Training, Michael Gurstein.

He said this while speaking at a two-day training workshop for public officials on how to disseminate information to the public, organized by Society for Democratic Initiatives (SDI) in Freetown.

According to him, government can promote transparency in the country by informing citizens about their activities, which would promote the rule of law and strengthen citizens’ participation in governance.

By making information available to citizens and to the rest of the world, he said it would allow information sharing on agriculture investment and various economic sectors, to showcase to the world progress and lapses in the country.

He commended the passage of the Access to Information Bill into law, describing it as a step towards development in the country

“In India they found it difficult to pass the Freedom to Information bill into law but when they finally did it helped them greatly and they are now saying that it is the most important bill they had ever passed to law in India because it gives their citizens the power to know about the activities of their country,” he said.

Pamoja Africa has partnered with Symantec in order to dispense Symantec’s suite of cloud services in sub- Saharan Africa.

The alliance will ensure that Pamoja’s expanding channel and service provider ecosystem has access to these services.

Mark Smissen, cloud services manager at Symantec, said that the partnership will provide Symantec with the opportunity to address an exciting new route to market for its cloud services. It is delivered by the next generation of specialist partners and service providers that are positioned to capitalize on the exploding demand for cloud security services.

“It’s an opportunity for Symantec to address under served and unmet needs of customers and partners in Africa, and to do this quickly,” he said.“These enterprise class cloud services have typically only been accessible by larger organisations – these changes with the Pamoja partnership in that SMB and corporate customers can enjoy the same level of protection and service.”

Pamoja Africa is the cloud services business unit of Seacom that was started in 2011 by Brian Herlihy (Seacom’s founder) and Stanfford Masie (former GM of Google South Africa). It is a provider of wholesale cloud computing services via telecommunication companies, ISPs and other service providers in Africa.

Through a new data peering arrangement between Seacom and Symantec these services are delivered via the shortest and fastest route to the Pamoja cloud datacentres in South Africa and Kenya.

 Japanese company, Toshiba has donated 12 AT300 tablets to the University of Zambia Language Centre in Lusaka.

The company made its donation to encourage the expansion of the centre’s capacity to teach foreign languages to its students. The centre’s main focus is to teach Japanese language which will liaise with Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan.

“The Toshiba tablets are the first and single most important use of technology for teaching at the Language Centre,” says Dr Sande Ngalande, acting assistant Dean of the university’s School of Humanities and Natural Sciences, and its Department of Literature and Languages.

He added that they are using the tablets as a teaching and learning tool as well as for identifying online resources.

“This has allowed us to use our time more efficiently and, importantly, to attract more young people to our language programme,” he said.

Apart from the local languages in Zambia, The University of Zambia Language Centre teaches Japanese, English, American Sign Language, Arabic, French, German, Portuguese, Swahili and Spanish to the university’s students, government and foreign ministry officials who engage with foreign nationals in the course of their working day.

“Our donation of the 12 Toshiba AT300 tablets, facilitated by Hokkaido University and the Japanese Embassy in Lusaka, is part of Toshiba Corporation’s commitment to skills development in Africa,” says Chika Yamada, of the Toshiba Corporation in Johannesburg, who coordinated the donation of the tablets. “We were happy to support the University of Zambia’s language programme, as it will surely foster more positive working relationships by bridging communication gaps through the learning of languages.”